More than 14,000 extra seats every weekend as Great Western Railway responds to changes in customer behaviour

The new services, to come in from Sunday 10 December, are designed to respond to changes in customer behaviour, with more and more people choosing to travel over the weekend by train. 

To meet the demand for travel over the weekends, GWR will offer eight extra trains on Saturdays and 16 on Sundays between Swindon and London Paddington; as well as an additional Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington and London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads service at the busiest time on Saturday mornings. 

These extra trains, predominantly 8-carriage class 387s to Swindon, are timed in the late morning, afternoons and early evenings, when demand is at its greatest, and will alleviate pressure on Bristol and South Wales services. 

GWR Managing Director Mark Hopwood said: 

“In May we conducted an extensive review and made significant changes, delivering a 5% increase in services every day across the GWR network.  

“Following this shake-up, I am excited to say that this new December timetable continues to build on those changes – providing more trains where they are needed most and offering greater value for money.” 

In addition, GWR will also increase the number of carriages between London Paddington and Great Malvern from five to nine on seven Sunday services. 

GWR is also adding in more extra trains, and extending the calling pattern of far more, between Exeter and Paignton on Saturday evenings, in support of the night-time economy. 

Customers to and from Didcot are, however, reminded to check the time of their trains as there are significant changes to those train times, to help create a more clockface timetable and address the slightly uneven distribution of calls. 

While still protecting accelerated Bristol services, the new plan creates a four trains-per-hour calling pattern in both directions.