NRT: generally a welcome improvement

Table 117

The Thames Valley route underwent major changes with the introduction of the half-hourly electric service between Paddington and Hayes & Harlington from January 2.

Ignoring all fast services and Heathrow Express the number of off-peak suburban departures each hour from Paddington remains two ‘Heathrow Connect’ plus four local services to Reading, but the two to Greenford are now two to Hayes & Harlington instead, with the Greenford service now a shuttle from West Ealing’s new bay platform.

The Hayes services took over Acton Main Line from the Greenford services and omit Hanwell, but they do call at Southall, which means Southall increased its off-peak frequency from four to six per hour and Hayes itself from six to eight. However, a number of peak trains have ceased calling at Southall. 

Tables 120 & 121

Despite it having been said that the through Paddington trains to/from Bourne End and Henley-on-Thames would be withdrawn, this has not been the case – though the NRT is silent about all of them. They only run Mon-Fri.

The 0828 from Bourne End to Maidenhead extends to Paddington (arr 0920) and the 1712 from Maidenhead to Bourne End commences Paddington 1642 (table 120).

On table 121 the 0708 and 0742 from Henley run to Paddington (arr 0755 and 0827) while the 1758, 1859 and 1938 from Twyford to Henley commence Paddington 1712, 1812 and 1905 respectively.

One minor change is that the 0549, 0631 and 0709 from Maidenhead to Bourne End now call at Cookham.

Tables 123, 123A, 132 & 134

Two new weekend late services now run from Cardiff Central to Bristol Temple Meads at 2247 on Saturdays and 2307 on Sundays. I confess I do understand why these appear only in table 132 and not table 134 as well.

The 0912 Westbury-Weymouth (Sundays only) now starts back at Bristol Temple Meads at 0823 (table 123). Table 123A is the only remaining bus table in the NRT, though it also shows (correctly) the trains between Yeovil Pen Mill and Yeovil Junction. It doesn’t get the buses quite right – but then even GWR’s own timetable has errors for this service: only SWT’s timetable book has them correct!

The first bus from the Bus Station to Yeovil Junction is 0700 (omitted) and there is also a 1730 (omitted). The 1733 from Yeovil Pen Mill to the Bus Station does not run, but there is a 1902 which is omitted.

Table 126

It can’t be seen from the table, of course, but it is worth noting that the 1120 Paddington-Great Malvern and 1425 return are now operated by an HST instead of a Class 180 ‘Adelante’.

Table 135

Unfortunately, the Pullman dining facilities offered on the 0553 Plymouth-Paddington and 1006 return to Penzance (‘Cornish Riviera’) have been withdrawn. I am told they did not develop in either direction, although the other Pullman restaurant trains are all doing well.

These remain the 0655, 1201, 1256 and 1803 Plymouth-Paddington and 1205, 1305, 1803 and 1903 return, plus the 0558 Swansea-Paddington and 1045 return.

A footnote for the 1006 in the NRT still says ‘Restaurant for customers joining to Reading’, but these things slip through.

The 1106 Paddington-Plymouth now calls at Pewsey and, in a very surprising move on a very busy West Country service, the 1803 Paddington-Penzance ‘Golden Hind’ now calls at Newbury at 1848.

The 2207 Exmouth-Paignton arrives Newton Abbot 2321 but is then held there until 2334 to await the arrival of the 2035 Paddington-Plymouth (at 2328) to offer a better last connection for Torquay and Paignton.

It has to be said that connections for Paignton from Paddington are terrible in the evenings and must lead anyone who has a car to drive to Newton Abbot instead.

For example, the wait at Newton Abbot is 34 minutes out of the 1606 from Paddington, 31 minutes out of the 1703, the 1733 is a through train, then it’s 23 minutes out of the 1803 and 19 minutes out of the 1903.

At least the new connection out of the 2035 is only six minutes, as well as being later than before.

Table 158

The 0707 Poole-Waterloo on Saturdays now starts back from Weymouth at 0620. This isn’t the first train from Weymouth on a Saturday (that’s 0542 to Waterloo) but it does fill a gap.

Also on Saturdays are two new services mainly to benefit those travelling to Southampton Airport – probably the best-sited airport in the country for its train connections, as it is only around a five-minute walk from the train to the check-in desks. These are an 0540 Portsmouth Harbour-Southampton Central (0627 at the airport) and an 0510 Basingstoke to Southampton Central (airport arrival 0539). The first, of course, has to take the unusual route of going via, and reversing at, Eastleigh, to reach the airport. Sadly, the NRT only shows it as Portsmouth to Eastleigh, with no note to say it goes on to Southampton Central, and neither does the service have a note in the reverse pages to say it has come from Portsmouth.

Worse still is the lack of ‘associations’ in this table on Sundays, where the XX54 Waterloo to Poole and Portsmouth Harbour departures divide at Eastleigh. A few are correctly shown but most appear to require a change.

It’s worse in the ‘Up’ direction as it appears to show the Poole service terminating Eastleigh and in the column after the Portsmouth-Waterloo portion. It takes a careful examination to note they connect, let alone know they attach.