Great Western Railway and CrossCountry Trains at Goring & Streatley on September 3rd 2022

2nd Visit to Goring & Streatley on the Great Western Main Line first since October 2019
Featuring services from Great Western Railway and CrossCountry Trains and also some freight
The only intermediate station between Reading and Didcot Parkway to have step free access is here at Goring & Streatley
When it opened in 1840 it was known as Goring which at the time of opening was located between the stops of Pangbourne and a former station called Moulsford with the latter closing in 1892 which was replaced by Cholsey.
The station was renamed to Goring & Streatley in 1895 to avoid confusion with another station calling Goring in West Sussex which nowadays is known as Goring-by-Sea which is station on the West Coastway Line
Today's Footbridge replaced the former in June 2016 mainly due to required height clearances for the overhead electrification however due to a campaign by a Mobility Group MIGGS (Mobility Issues Group for Goring & Streatley) it would also include provision of Lifts to all Platforms
The present footbridge links up with the back of the rarely used Platform 1 which in fact is 5 minutes away from the Goring & Streatley Bridge which serves the two villages of Goring-on-Thames and Streatley which the bridge actually crosses over the River Thames itself which links to the Village centre can be accessed by one of two pathways.
The Entrance from Platform 4 is where the station building is located on the east side as well as being opposite to the Village Centre and a Large car park is situated slightly to the South of the station building.
Also bus connections are provided here to nearby towns such as Cleeve, South & North Stoke and Wallingford however only run Monday to Saturdays.
Today services are provided by half hourly Monday to Saturday Class 387s to and from Didcot Parkway with hourly services on Sundays which took over the semi stopping services from London Paddington in January 2018 which also not only provide services to Newbury but also can be used for fast electric services which since May 2021 have been cleared to run beyond to Swindon, Bristol Parkway, Newport and Cardiff Central.
CrossCountry services provided by Class 220 and 221 Voyagers to and from Manchester Piccadilly were running hourly to Reading although at the time of filming only 1 train every 2 hours being extended beyond to Bournemouth via Basingstoke and Winchester
Great Western Railway Intercity services are nowadays provided by Class 800 and 802 IETs which at the time of filming were undergoing modifications to it's yaw damper and jack plate area of it's trains after cracks were found in April 2021 which eventually led to the withdrawal of all Hitachi Trains on the UK Rail Network on May 8th however it wasn't until a few weeks later when most normal services were resumed after new inspection procedures were Brought in
In April 2022 the ORR report concluded that the cracks were caused by excessive stress in the yaw damper area which was something the designers didn't forsee when designing the train to begin with and also found the Series type 7000 aluminium that All Hitachi Trains were using instead of the normal Type 6000 was found to be more prone to corrosion especially in changing climates especially for example Sea Salt.
However according to the report the train was deemed after the new inspection procedures safe enough to still operate as the issue wasn't considered a must dangerous issue to safety.
According to Hitachi the modifications take an average of 3 - 4 weeks at a time with the work being carried out near Eastleigh however it's a programme that is due to take until 2028 to complete the modifications on all Hitachi Trains including the recent Class 803 on Lumo and Class 805 and 807s due to operate from 2023 and 2024 on Avanti West Coast however will be the last to be modified.
The only other Hitachi Train being built is the new Class 810 Aurora for East Midlands Railway however the new modifications do not apply to them due to their construction design being different with them using a type 6000 aluminium and the carriage lengths being 21 metres long each instead of 24 on the Hitachi Intercity Class 800, 801, 802 and 803 Trains.
Music used:
JJD - Adventure
Music provided by NCS
Video link:
NoCopyrightSounds
• JJD - Adventure | Glit...
Filmed on Saturday September 3rd 2022 on iPhone 12 Pro and edited on iMovie
#greatwesternrailway #hitachi #class387