New 07.14 train to Oxford, Reading and Paddington..

Fri 28 Oct 2011, 20:58

A train every 20 minutes would be terrific - a bit like the frequency of services that towns south of London enjoy

Fri 28 Oct 2011, 14:02 (last edited on Fri 28 Oct 2011, 17:39)

This was a trial for the 0715 departure which is in the timetable from Monday 12th December 2011.

The stock runs empty from Oxford, arriving at about 0700 at Charlbury's platform 2. It then will return at 0715, calling at Hanborough at 0723 before forming the existing 0731 HST from Oxford to London (0831).

We will have to wait to see how reliable this train will be. Timing is very tight and, in the event of any significant delays to Charlbury's 0630 to London or 0713 to Worcester, a decision would have to be made whether or not to just start it at Oxford at 0731, as now.

To be fair to FGW, it is trying to provide more choice of trains for Charlbury and Hanborough by utilising a train which would otherwise be sitting in the sidings at Oxford.

Fri 28 Oct 2011, 13:00

This train was only being trialled this week, and may be run in future so that commuters will be able to get to London by 8.30am. In fact, the train only ran on Monday and Thursday; Tuesday it was cancelled because of the cable theft - not sure what happened on Wednesday, and it didn't run today (Friday).

Fri 28 Oct 2011, 10:52

You'd think that FGW would concentrate on getting existing trains to run on time before introducing new ones. How is it that a train can pull in to Charlbury at 06:06 then 06:38 then the new one at 07:14 and then another train at 07:29? It's almost a train every 20 minutes! What about Kingham and Hanborough? What does Charlbury have that other stations do not? I fear that the introduction of this new service will only add another spanner to the already knackered system. What will be the knock on effect if this new train is late from the depot? I hope it's a turbo!

Mon 24 Oct 2011, 20:10

...looks like being trialled Tuesday 25th October as seen on the National Rail website - might it run on other days this week I wonder?

See ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/CBY/PAD/tomorrow/0700/dep