I had the pleasure of riding on the 11:45 service out of Paddington to Reading. Herein follows a pictorial report of that trip on the first day of public service for the new Intercity Express Trains.
The departure from Paddington was swift, smooth and quiet. The train had racked up 125mph before Southall. In diesel mode however, the train is restricted to 110mph only. The train ran in electric mode as far as Taplow, and then diesel onwards. This is due to the wires beyond Maidenhead not being signed off for use. This is supposed to be done by the December timetable change to allow electric trains to run as far as Didcot, and to allow Crossrail 345s to begin testing up to Reading.
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| GWR 800 008 arriving into Paddington have travelled in service from Bristol © Tommy Cooling |
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| First Class designation from outside including electronic display of the destination, carriage letter and what looks like the next stopping point and time, though why it says 09:30 Bath Spa upon arrival at Paddington is not known! © Tommy Cooling |
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| First interior view of Standard Class accommodation © Tommy Cooling |
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| The dreaded windowless seats in Standard Class © Tommy Cooling |
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| Standard Class 2+2 seating with table © Tommy Cooling |
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| Interior view of First Class accommodation © Tommy Cooling |
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| Red First Class headrests Note on the top of the seat the slot provision for the current GWR reservation "tags". It was noted that 800 008 arrived with reservation tags in place, but none in 800 009. © Tommy Cooling |
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| Socket and USB charging point between seats in First Class accommodation © Tommy Cooling |
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| Promotional GWR poster depicting IEPs, in one of the new IEPs © Tommy Cooling |
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| Seat reservation screens - free seats in green © Tommy Cooling |
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| Seat reservation screens - partially available seats in yellow, telling you where it's free from/to and when it is reserved © Tommy Cooling |
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| Seat reservation screens - seats reserved for the entire journey in red © Tommy Cooling |
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| Interior view with seat reservations shown on the carriage side walls above the windows (Hint, look for the "green seats" for a free seat) © Tommy Cooling |
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| View of the new on-board receptive accessible toilets © Tommy Cooling |
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| GWR 800 009, just fitting on the end of the platform at Paddington © Tommy Cooling |
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| Side-on view of the IEP showing the location of the numbered seats in the carriage © Tommy Cooling |
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| "Welcome to London Paddington" Still will take getting used to seeing IEPs here. © Tommy Cooling |
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| GWR 800 009 at Reading, the end of my journey for today with an HST (43152) lurking in the background © Tommy Cooling |
There are now supposed to be two daily IEP workings, running from Paddington to either Bristol, Cardiff or Swansea, with some Sunday services to/from Weston-Super-Mare. This will be joined by a further two booked workings in November. The plan is to bring one or two new trains into service each week until May 2018.
Post by Tommy Cooling
All these images and more can be found on my Flickr page:
All these images and more can be found on my Flickr page:
Please do not reproduce any of my images without permission
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