When Crossrail Opens To Reading, Will Great Western Railway Have Too Many Class 387 Trains?
Currently, Great Western Railway has a fleet of 45 Class 387 trains
Twelve trains are currently being converted to Heathrow Express duties.
But if Crossrail takes over services between London and Reading, then their main use wuill have disappeared.
As Reading to Oxford is not fully-electrified, they can’t be used on this route, but both Class 802 and Class 769 trains can.
There may be used for trains on routes like.
- Reading and Didcot Parkway
- Reading and Newbury
But there won’t be opportunities to use thirty-three trains.
The Anonymous Widower 
[…] the other hand, as I wrote in When Crossrail Opens To Reading, Will Great Western Railway Have Too Many Class 387 Trains?, Great Western Railway may have a few trains going […]
Pingback by Abellio East Midlands Railway’s Plans For London And Corby « The Anonymous Widower | April 23, 2019 |
They would be running as 12 car sets (in peak) that would mean 11 sets, then there is electrification from Didcot to Bristol/Cardiff, and the IEP’s will not be stopping services so the 387s would do those.
Comment by Daniel Altmann | April 25, 2019 |
Plus they won’t be just running from just Reading but as semi-fast from Paddington to Reading…
Comment by Daniel Altmann | April 25, 2019 |
Paddington-Reading semi-fasts at two tph will be run by Crossrail.
Comment by AnonW | April 25, 2019
What I meant is that any stopper services west of Reading will / should run non-stop to Paddington, there’s no point of a service from Newbury/Didcot to Reading and then get people to change to Crossrail.
Comment by Daniel Altmann | April 26, 2019
To maximise capacity on the Great Western Main Line, the following will be done.
1. 125 mph running between Airport Junction and the end of the electrification.
2. All 802s will use the fast lines between Paddington and Reading.
3. 387s would be banned on the fast lines West of Airport Junction, as it would be like a 2CV in the fast lane of the M1.
4. Oxford 802s would use the slow lines between Reading and Didcot.
It should be noted that intermediate stops in the 802s are much faster than HSTs.
Comment by AnonW | April 25, 2019 |
That’s more or less what i think will happen.
5-car Class 802 Bedwyn services will go all stations to Reading and then non-stop to Paddington.
9-car Class 802 Oxford services will go all stations to Didcot and/or reading and then non-stop to Paddington
Any trains on the fast lines must be 125 mph units.
If a station like Didcot needs more calls, it gets longer trains or more trains
Comment by AnonW | April 26, 2019 |