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Embarrassing all round to be honest.

Great to see the report published and in the hands of the DfT and the Commons debate regarding its content. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown does indeed make some rather error strewn comments, including saying that "the faster trains have to slow down through the single-line sections", when in fact...

Indeed. The original bid was for it to depart immediately at 17:06 to reach Weston at 17:35, but that was changed and could have been for any or all of the above reasons. All of the down Weston services were the same with minimal layovers at Bristol, except one which had 7 minutes. Now the...

Without wishing to pat myself on the back too hard, that's exactly what I predicted would happen, despite opinions to the contrary - see post #757. Mind you, at that time I was rather hoping the 17:45 would be allocated a 9-car unit. Perhaps things can be juggled around if it gets too bad?

I've no doubt the running of 2E14 will improve slightly over time as crews that have never stopped, or not for several years at least, at Combe, Finstock and Ascott in that direction hone their braking points and the precise stopping required at Combe and Finstock. Though probably not enough to...

Yes, it's very tight at that time of day. Even if the 'Halts' train is on time, the 16:58 will likely get slowed or stopped at Ascott given its 2 minute pathing allowance due to following it. Although as it is, it seems the 16:58 more often than not gets checked by a couple of minutes to allow...

GWR Public Performance Measure punctuality currently at 94% for the day so far (98% over the last two hours), against a UK wide average for the day of 87%. Yesterday wasn't so good mind, down in the mid-80s.

By and large, yes I think that's fair to say. There are some issues, and some areas are performing worse than others, but in the main the timetable works. Some of the Superfasts could clearly be even quicker than they are, but they catch up with other services in front, and for the most part...

You can have the engines off for a certain amount of time without failure of the lights (though they will soon go into lower levels of 'emergency' lighting, especially the 166s). Depends on what state the batteries are in. Without the compressor running the air will slowly leak out and...

A very good morning peak on the day of the 'great return to work'. GWR PPM currently at 92%.

Yes. There's a drop-off, but not enough for it to be much of an issue unless you lose more than one, even two GU's out on a 9-car doesn't affect it too much. Timings are still pretty generous as some impressive runs under the tighter schedules have proved.

Yes, I remember that GWR press statement, though IIRC plans subsequently changed. Perhaps they've changed again since, or will in the future mind you. Clarence Yard may be able to update as to the current situation? I'll be surprised if more than a handful are in service from May, though...

Well, I beg to differ as I know quite a few drivers who do use it. It can be quite useful for slightly unusual situations, such as not exceeding 90mph when put over on the relief lines. I know some drivers who set it for a low speed when they are stopped at a red signal to act as mitigation...

Hopefully these things can be fine tuned a little over progressive timetables, though fighting for space on the relief lines east (or for that matter, west) of Reading won't be easy - it was a case of 'cut and run' for a few aspects of this newly introduced timetable that NR couldn't/wouldn't...

I think I saw flooding issues at Bournemouth yesterday which may well have been the cause for any of them that came up from that direction? Also I’m not sure what kind of an effect the SWR strike might be having?

The irony is, up to a point, the more significantly a XC gets delayed, the more likely the GWR train will arrive on time. I agree the connections from Reading are much worse, but was merely giving my views on some of the wider reasons why the Superfast trains are struggling to arrive at Oxford...

Ironically they made it on time largely due to the XC services being late enough to not get in their way, whereas over previous days they've often just been late enough to get in the way. The Oxford superfasts do often seem to manage to make it to Didcot on time, before either a XC gets in the...

So am I. Yes, quite possibly - and I do share your views that some Cornish services should be longer. By no means all though. However this thread, and my comments, were based on the timetable as a whole, not any specific routes.

I did say there were plenty of hiccups still, it would be nice if NR’s infrastructure held up for example, but not the complete collapse with no drivers, mass shortforms and schedules not working that some predicted. Tuesday’s 90.2% performance score demonstrates that. I’m admit I’m on a...

They've dangled the double time carrot again, so it must be marginal as to whether there will be enough crew. At a guess I would say it won't be quite as bad as last Sunday, but I doubt the entire service will remain unscathed. On a brighter front it's positive that, so far this week at least...