23 Jan - Trip to Reading, Damm, Missed that One, They Edited My Comment

hello

Just when I tought it was all going to get boring, when we get so much excitement on just one day.

0642 turned up on time and was going to stop at Didcot on time - and at this point I was a bit disappointed that we weren't going to be late into Didcot as we had a 25 min wait ahead of us - when the train slowed down, after the train manager annoucing that those for Oxford should change at Didcot, and the platform kept coming, and coming, and then it went. So we were then on our way to Reading. oh well, it was sunny, it's lovely countryside...

So we arrive at Reading, found the train manager and asked what went wrong. Apparently, train driver aren't given timetables, they are given schedules, and ours had an old schedule. (If this worked in reverse we could have the old timeatable back.) So she (the lady train driver) did not stop at Didcot. Funny how she slowed down though - as if there was something going through her mind, but she couldn't quite think what it was.

We were lucky, we only had to wait a few mins (after questioning the train manager, who was quite a way from the train at this point - do you think he could have been disassociating himself from it?). We boarded a Reading-Oxford train and arrived into Oxford only 5 mins later than when we should have done. Poor people who had to travel back to Didcot, it took them 1 hour!

Journey how so of uneventful, apart from a lovely young chappy from the Didcot dispatch team giving us a top tip on how to get home to Bath 30 mins early, but it was late and I wasn't convinced and DT didn't quite hear me. Nevermind. We consoled ourselves with beer and pringles.

Got home on time, but was disappointed to see that the comment I left on the Times website had been edited down to:

Great comment, Tim. I am a FGW annual ticket holder (Bath-Oxford route, every day) and all that you say is far too familiar. I'd like to know who requested the trolley service - we cannot see it working as with all the people standing in the aisles and verstibule areas, how is it going to move? My favourite alternative name for FGW is Worst Great Festering. And if FGW do not revert back to the old timetable, it looks like the name will be appropriate!

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Journey to work/meeting punctuality: 84%, 21/25
Journey home punctuality: 88%, 22/25

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FGW alerts:
0545 BTM to Fareham terminate Westbury. 0622Pad to Oxf canx. No infrastructure problems reported.
Full advertised service. No major problems reported. 20 mph limit west of Reading. Minro delays to some services from Pad.
1836 Pad-Oxf canx. Due to shortage of serviceable trains. Apologies.