READERS may remember the recent euphoria over the doubling of the track between Swindon and Kemble.

A more-frequent service was optimistically anticipated by some, who did not realise that Great Western has no spare trains!

Now I see that in the new timetable (December 2015 to May 2016) there is not a single through train on Saturdays from Stonehouse/Stroud to/from London Paddington.

So we may expect to be squashed into a two-coach unit on the Cheltenham to Swindon shuttle, having to change trains at Swindon on every occasion?

Is this unprecedented? Why?

One would have thought that there was less demand for high-speed trains, used for commuters during the week, at weekends.

Anyway, it certainly does not indicate progress!

It is always comforting to have free reserved seats on a through train from Stonehouse/Stroud to London and back.

By the way, every train on GWRreat Western Railway is powered by diesel. The company has presumably made vast savings through the drop in the price of oil.

Ticket prices?!

Malcolm Keppie

Toadsmoor

Great Western Railway provided the following response to Mr Keppie’s concerns.

THE £45 million Swindon/Kemble redoubling work by Network Rail did not suggest improved services on completion of the redoubled section of track alone.

We were at the time very careful not to suggest this at the time.

The redoubling was conducted as part of the process towards electrification.

It will allow for more trains and more services in the future, but those improvements are dependent on Network Rail’s electrification programme.

The summer 2017 date has been published for quite some time now.

With the completion of electrification, and the delivery of all of the fleet of new trains, electrification will allow more trains and quicker journeys.

The through journey service frequency from London to Cheltenham will be doubled off-peak, with hourly intercity services replacing almost all the local services.

Journey times from London to Cheltenham will be cut by around 12 minutes, with a typical journey time of 2two hours and the fastest journey being 1 hour and 55 minutes.

In the present timetable (December 15, 2015 to May 16, 2016 ), Network Rail’s programme of weekend engineering work, to complete the Crossrail project as well as ongoing Great Western electrification work, is reducing the amount of track available to us, and therefore the number of services we are able to run.

The upgrade work is vitally important to improve our customers’ travel experiences for the future (as above) – and we thank them for their patience while this work has been undertaken.

The point about ticket prices is interesting, buthowever fares and fare rises are subject to government policy.

Since 2004, the government has sought to sustain investment in the railways by reducing the amount that taxpayers contribute and requiring passengers to pay a greater share.

This year, we took the decision to hold all fare changes to the level set by the chancellor.

We believe our fares offer good value for money, and this is borne out by the increase in passenger numbers.