Weekday 07:05 DID to CHO

[TRIAR]

Just curious why the weekday 07:05 departure from Didcot to London is timetabled to take 15mins to reach its first stop at Cholsey, which is a journey that only takes 5mins at any other point in the day.

It's not like it's building up a buffer to allow for future delay, as it sits at CHO for 10mins most days.

Why not just depart DID 10mins later?

 

[30907]

If it left 5 minutes later (2 mins instead of 7 mins at Cholsey, it's an HST so long station stops) it would conflict with the 0450 Hereford at East Junction.

Apologies, didn't spot that the Hereford also stops at Didcot, so jimm's reply explains it better.

 

[TRIAR]

Thanks - although TBH that's confused me further given that the Hereford train departs P4 and goes down the main, whereas the Cholsey train departs P5 and goes down the relief.

More to the point, why is it timetabled to sit at the platform at CHO for 7 minutes? I thought after DID that the next junction was just outside RDG, so presumably it isn't waiting for another train to pathed ahead of it at CHO?

 

[jimm]

Thanks - although TBH that's confused me further given that the Hereford train departs P4 and goes down the main, whereas the Cholsey train departs P5 and goes down the relief.

More to the point, why is it timetabled to sit at the platform at CHO for 7 minutes? I thought after DID that the next junction was just outside RDG, so presumably it isn't waiting for another train to pathed ahead of it at CHO?

Trains departing from platforms 4 and 5 share the relief line track as far as Didcot East Junction, where trains that are booked to use the main line to Reading then cross over.

The long wait at Cholsey is presumably also pathing-related, so that it sets off from its Maidenhead stop at the just right time to switch from the relief line to the main line at Maidenhead East Junction without conflicting with other services.

 

[JonathanH]

Thanks - although TBH that's confused me further given that the Hereford train departs P4 and goes down the main, whereas the Cholsey train departs P5 and goes down the relief.

More to the point, why is it timetabled to sit at the platform at CHO for 7 minutes? I thought after DID that the next junction was just outside RDG, so presumably it isn't waiting for another train to pathed ahead of it at CHO?

If it waited further towards Reading, it would be unattractive to people living in Cholsey so it waits there and then runs at linespeed. There probably aren't too many passengers aboard from Didcot. There is no point going immediately from Cholsey to Goring, Pangbourne and Tilehurst then waiting at Tilehurst for seven minutes. It already has two minute stops at the Thames Valley stations and three at Maidenhead to make sure it hits its path when it crosses to the main line.