Key takeaways
- It was fantastic to experience a little novelty of the GWR train departing from London Euston and travel on a track connecting the West Coast Main Line with the Great Western Mainline.
- While the start had a little bump, it resolved quickly without causing the usual carnage.
- Travelling from London Euston is a very stressful experience.
- Swindon has an excellent railway history worth exploring, but the city is rough in many places.
- I recorded departure of GWR train from London Euston to Reading that use track that connect track connecting the West Coast Main Line with the Great Western Mainline, so if you facny watch it, click here: https://youtu.be/5aiZGKGDFxE
Introduction
The construction of the Old Oak Common station, which will take a few years (and other projects like improvements in the Thames Valley), requires the closing of the Great Western Mainline for various work from time to time. It means GWR will be unable to use their terminus at London Paddington.
“Great Western Railway (GWR) said it was to allow for works on the new HS2 station at Old Oak Common in London, as well as Network Rail improvements to track, signals and overhead wires between Reading and Paddington.” GWR News
To reduce the severity of disruptions to GWR operations to just typical total chaos levels, they tried to find a way to use an alternative terminus in London. They selected a London Euston as other options have a clearance issue that disallows the use of diesel trains.
How do they manage to divert trains from London Paddington to London Euston? They used a track that is generally used by freight trains connecting the Great Western Main Line and West Coast Main Line between Acton Main Line and Willesden Junction. GWR with National Rail ran a few test runs a few weeks back to ensure it was safe to run it, and they decided to “test” with passenger traffic on 17 November before they decided to go ahead over Xmas and another occasion when the route to London Paddington will be closed.
The plan was to run “1 train per hour”, as we can read on the official website:
“Those travelling from South Wales and Devon and Cornwall will have one service an hour into London Euston instead. These trains will not stop at Reading. “
It sounds like an excellent excuse for Dom Quests’s day out to Swindon. Why Swindon? Because that was the first/last stop for the train between London Euston and Swansea. The first train was at 9.03, so I chose this one and then found a great deal for first class on the way back as I wanted to try. I was hoping it would increase the chance of sitting in case of overcrowding as, despite mandatory reservations, you can expect some issues on GWR typically, so it was even more likely during the extraordinary diversion.
My plan was to take the second train from London Euston and go to the first stop (As it was announced that the train would not stop in Reading), which turned out to be Swindon. Explore Swindon for a few hours. Come back in First class so that I can experience GWR’s first class on Hitachi Train.
I needed to wake up at 6.15 to catch a train at 9.03. I want to be there early to avoid dealing with Euston’s carnage.
When I arrived, it was alright, and I wondered what this fuss about overcrowding at Euston was (This statement will bite me later).
I knew GWR trains would depart from Platform 1 (It planned to use 2 or even 3 if needed ), so when I looked at the departure board that said the GWR train was on Platform 1 to the board, I went to Platform 1.
When I arrived at platform 1, I was surprised to see this train going to Penzance.
Penzance? It is supposed to be one train per hour to Wales … and after re-read “Those travelling from South Wales, and from Devon and Cornwall “. It turns out there are two trains per hour going to/from London Euston. One towards Wales and one towards Cornwall. I guess reading with understanding is helpful.
At least, I could see the departure of the first passenger service from London Euston by GWR, except, it turns out, it wasn’t as the train was delayed and eventually partly cancelled. The reason was a broken rail around Acton Main Line. While I was chatting with some friendly staff, I noticed that there were a few passengers who went to Paddington before discovering they needed to be at Euston, and it was mainly late-middle-aged and elderly people. If you look at communication like the email from Jason Ness, Head of Customer Relations, there is a big focus on “don’t travel”, “will be extremely busy”, “reservation only”, but you don’t get simple decision making information on how to get to the right place, how much time you need if you need help, this where you go and so on. That said, thank the GWR staff at Euston, who were very friendly and tried their best to assist.
The first train that actually departed with a passenger was mine. The original train was still at the platform when we were leaving.
We departed 15 minutes late; the Train manager did an excellent job of keeping up with the situation.
I am curious what happened to the original first train as it was there when we left (or I didn’t notice when I left ?). I was surprised to see that that train was somehow before us later on. As it turns out, the train started from Reading, and they just partially cancelled between London Euston and Reading (Where this train doesn’t stop). I wonder how this train teleports… I guess it will remain a mystery to me.
I noticed that our train announcement said that our train would stop at Ealing Broadway and Reading, but we were told to ignore this announcement. I wonder if there is a plan for this train to stop there during future diversions.
The rest of the trip was uneventful and allowed me to enjoy autumn views.
I arrived to Swindon. My first impression of Swindon was that the place looked rough, and after just a few minutes, I had an interesting encounter with a few homeless people. I thought 4 hours of exploring Swindon would become 4 hours of surviving Swindon.
My plan was simple. Eat breakfast, explore the Railway Village, walk around the STEAM Museum, walk the Old Town Railway Path, and come back via the city centre to eat lunch, then return to the train station.
For breakfast, I chose Kitchen on the Corner. It looks like a boring, cheap modern cafe: white paint, wooden decoration, uncomfortable chairs and supremely … no toilet tiles. It turns out the breakfast I wanted, called Saturday Breakfast, is not available on Sundays. *sigh* I really need to pay attention to reading with understanding.
I opted for the latte with a beacon roll bun. It was really good. The coffee was decent. The staff was fantastic. Finally, some friendly faces. It’s a good place to pop in, even if the surroundings look rough.
I explored part of Swindon that looks like being the heart of the Great Western Railway, and honestly, it was great. Something I need to do correctly next time I visit with family ( I want to go to the Museum of Computing and STEAM – Museum of the Great Western Railway ). From there, I walked the Old Town Railway Path, which was worth doing. It is short, has lovely views and a few bits of old railway architecture.
I returned to the city centre and noticed that Swindon had a great past, but it had a rough present …
For lunch, I went to Street Cafe P&D. With the help of very friendly staff, I went for breakfast baguette, which was fantastic for the price I paid.
I arrived back at the station to take some pictures of the trains. Except the first train to stop was mine train :D.
My train to London Euston was consist of 2 trains with 5 carriages and deepens where you look coach E should be in the front of the train, on the back of the train and realtimetrains shows in the middle. I assumed that realtimetrains were wrong in this instance. I asked two staff members, and I got that Coach E would be at the end of the train and at the beginning of the train. One of them even said I bet it will be in front.
The platform was swarmed with passengers, but I went to the front of the platform, so when the train arrived, I was surprised to see COACH L as the first one … It resulted in me running from the front of the train, ramming through passengers who are trying to get into the overcrowded train. Accidentally, I tried to access the second train via the crew door, which resulted in staff shouting at me, which caused me to forget to check which coach it was, so I ran to the end of the train to discover it was f… coach A, so run back to coach E where I managed to squeeze to first-class coach. The train was overcrowded, which is strange for the trains with mandatory seat reservations.
The root cause of my problem was that I needed a video of the arriving train, which resulted in wrong decision-making. I will generally stay in the middle.
By the way. To a staff member who made a bet with me about Coach E. You lost 🙂
The first 15 minutes I spent trying to get back control of my breathing and then back to enjoying travel, and then I started enjoying sitting in quite a comfortable seat. Sadly there was no trolley service or any freebies for first class. The rest of the trip was relaxing.
We arrived in London Euston, which was an easy part for the train, but leaving London Euston was a challenge for humans due to overcrowding preventing any movement. Remember, when I wrote before “When I arrived it was alright and I was wonder what’s this all fuss about overcrowding at Euston.” It bites me back.
To be honest. London Euston is not designed to handle this traffic and should utilize a multi-floor design for arriving/departing passengers. However, we are living in times of social media and clickbaiting news and politicians are experts in complaining and are very short-term gains (limited to today), but they lack problem-solving skills and long-term sustainability solutions.
Conclusions
Overall, it was a great day out. It was great to see GWR trains on London Euston. I was happy to have a chance to travel on part of the route that is typically used by freight trains only. I enjoy the usual twists in my trip as I never accuse GWR of an uneventful trip. I saw Swindon and found that despite its rough appearance, it has a few amazing things to offer, so it gave me the idea for a family trip.
I must praise all frontline staff and those who make it possible to run GWR trains from London Euston. I think it was successful despite some issues, but I believe it gave GWR time to learn and adapt.
On my YouTube channel , I posted some videos from that trip like this one: https://youtu.be/5aiZGKGDFxE
Thank you for taking time to read and until next time!
Dominik Symonowicz 