www.sloughobserver.co.uk
It certainly seems adequate. More inadequate to me is the 2-coach Windsor to Slough shuttle (especially when it's full of college kids) but that's not an easy problem to solve without either a prohibitively expensive extension of the Reading 165s or robbing Peter to pay Paul. One would have thought that that might have been the Windsor MP's particular transport ideal!
They were transferred from GWR to Elizabeth Line. The same quantum of services run to and from Slough in the peaks as before. Latterly the GWR trains at Slough in the peak had run 'non-stop' but in practice just went all the way down the relief line held up by stoppers with lots of pathing time. Stops were put in at Ealing Broadway and West Drayton with no change in the journey time.
Do those trains have capacity for Slough to Paddington passengers?
I don’t know, however given GWR had to introduce an extra peak service from Reading to Paddington (1P78) calling at Maidenhead only would suggest the existing services are already full from Maidenhaed.
Ah, thanks. Can't the platform at Central only take a 3-car though? (Though I'd hope that, if a pot of money is found to electrify it, the disused end of the platform at Central would be redone at the same time...) Do I infer correctly from your post that the restriction is unlikely to be lifted any time soon?
Some of the maidenhead departures to Paddington between 7.30- 8.30 have people standing. The rest of the morning peaks to Paddington i usually get a seat to myself.
3 car is the max that can fit due to the DOO monitors
Would it not need some form of monitor anyway, given the platform is rather narrow and on quite a severe left-hand curve (facing towards Slough)?
I'm sure it was because through trains to central London was what the majority of passengers wanted, rather than 'political reasons'. Would 'practical reasons' be a better view to take?
They didn't stop in the peaks though, at least not in the last ten years.
Mirrors and leaning out of the window are very much non-preferred now, for perhaps understandable reasons. Frustratingly, horrendously bad image quality cameras is also common... go figure.
I think it's fair to say that Cotswold passengers are quite happy the Slough stops have been dropped!
Not only them. Those services used to clog up the mainline out of Paddington, often causing knock on delays to following Bristol and Plymouth trains. Current setup works far better.
If they extend Windsor platforms maybe they can convert the shuttle at peak times into a fast train to Paddington only stopping at Slough. They would just have to time the paths correctly.
They wouldn't want diesels into Paddington (exception of the handful of current services) and where would it path? On the mains?
If you make the platforms long enough you could do a stupid IET allocation. But yes most likely it would see the return of diesels into Paddington. And it would obviously path on the mains.
Not going to happen. Crossing the down main on the flat is not going to work.
Surely it wouldn’t take much effort to electrify the Windsor Branch, or procure battery trains for use on the branch?
Battery trains on the branch would seem more likely than electrification. Both would seem more likely than any attempt to run direct services to Paddington, which is a total non starter.
Half of platform 1 was sold off for retail use in the 1990s, it originally extended all the way to the tourist information office. Look at old pictures on Flickr, there was plenty of capacity for long trains. Now whenever there's a major event dozens of coaches have to be hired to shuttle from Slough to Windsor.
A battery train can't get a better gap to cross to the up line than a diesel one.
Really? Wasn't that just an issue for the wedding? The rest of the time the SWR services and the four car Turbo are mostly adequate. Also plenty of people will use the frequent 8/103/702/703 and other local routes.
