Covid is receding in the public mind and restrictions on travel have been removed. But as the railway continues on a path to recovery from its pandemic trauma, operators are treading carefully in the changes coming up in the May timetable, seeking to encourage traffic while at the same time containing costs.
Exemplifying the trend is Great Western Railway, which had only introduced its post-electrification improvements shortly before the virus hit. ‘Overall service levels remain largely the same as 2019, but some improvements will need to wait longer’ GWR Managing Director Mark Hopwood told the Modern Railways Fourth Friday Club Rail in Wales and the West conference in Cardiff on 25 March.
Thus this May’s timetable change will see no changes to high-speed service to Paddington, but gone is the aspiration for ‘Super Fast’ expresses on the Bristol line in the off-peak. Taking just over the hour to reach Bristol Parkway from Paddington, these were due to come in with the May 2020 timetable but were put on ice when Covid came. Instead, a more traditional stopping pattern is to be maintained, giving more opportunity for intermediate traffic. ‘Bristol to London is one of the slower routes as regards traffi…
