Timeline for restoring various services withdrawn due to Covid

[Goldfish62]

I agree. This is an important service that loads pretty well in normal times, west of Guildford at least.

If restored to Guildford only, it could run back in the 2243 slot (which, until recently, was a normal timetabled NDL slot for many years) - this would restore good connections with the 2200 ex Waterloo via Woking and the 2119 ex Portsmouth Harbour.

The lack of the 2234 also means on Fridays and Saturdays the connection at Wokingham is thoroughly broken (the last NDL train of the night doesn't stop at Wokingham due to historic problems between kids from Wokingham and Crowthorne). Currently the last connection from Bracknell, Ascot and Staines to Crowthorne, Sandhurst, Blackwater and Farnborough North is the 2020 ex Waterloo, which arrives in Wokingham at 2126.


How long have these issues been known about and what is the plan to resolve them?

The whole Reading - Wokingham corridor is now a complete mess in the late evenings. There's nothing at all towards Wokingham on SWR or GWR between 2209 and 2302, due to what's been mentioned above and also SWR removing the 2050 from Waterloo.

 

[Siemens Staines]

The whole Reading - Wokingham corridor is now a complete mess in the late evenings. There's nothing at all towards Wokingham on SWR or GWR between 2209 and 2302, due to what's been mentioned above and also SWR removing the 2050 from Waterloo.

which is extended to 2209 to 2315 on Fridays

 

[david1212]

I wonder when XC will call at the stations they decided to cut out during COVID.

To be honest, I find it pretty ridiculous when leisure travel is currently driving the market and they haven’t stopped at places like Par, Hayle, Brockenhurst and Leuchars (for St Andrews) all summer! Only limited services to Paignton and none to Newquay too!

Any plans for XC to increase the frequency on the Bournemouth route? SWR trains have been noticeable busy

December's timetable doesn't contain any uplift in XC services. So it's unlikely that anything will change in this regard before May next year - at the earliest.

In all honesty, I'd wager that the current timetable will persist until Avanti release their 221s to XC...

Just 2 hourly south of Reading is very poor. The GWR Reading - Basingstoke service then SWR is hardly quicker than waiting for the next XC service.