Full journey from Slough to Windsor & Eton Central on board a 2 carriage GWR (Great Western Railway) class 165 Networker Turbo train. This journey was filmed on Thursday 2nd September 2021 on the 0856 service. Although not the shortest branch line in the country (that being the Stourbridge Town branch) it is still one of the shortest with no intermediate stations on the line and the whole journey being completed in 6 minutes.
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Slough (depart) 00:58
Windsor & Eton Central 06:40
The Slough to Windsor & Eton Central branch line is the shortest of the Thames Valley branches of the Great Western Main Line, the others being West Ealing to Greenford, Maidenhead to Marlow and Twyford to Henley-on-Thames. Although not the shortest branch line in the country it is still one of the shortest with an overall journey time of just 6 minutes and the line being single track throughout. The branch is connected to the rest of the network via a set of points just to the west of Slough but no through passengers services operate beyond Slough, due to this line being south of the GWML (fast lines) even before the GWML was electrified and through services operated to the other 3 Thames branches from London Paddington non existed to Windsor as the other branches are on the relief line side of the GWML.
Services on this route operate every 20 minutes in each direction in the normal timetable, but when this was filmed there were 2 out of the 3 trains each hour operating at uneven approximately 20/40 minute intervals. This is the maximum service frequency that can be reliably operated on the branch due to there being nowhere where a second service could pass even if a more frequent service ever needed to be operated.
As this line is mostly unelectrified all services are diesel operated with class 165 Networker Turbo trains operating all services at the time of filming, these usually being either 2 or 3 carriage trains although on days where services have been extra busy 4 carriage services have operated. Although some services around the Thames Valley area are planned to convert to class 769 tri mode operating soon this route is not currently planned to be operated by these units.
Even though a change of train is required at Slough to reach London from Windsor & Eton Central this is still the faster route from Windsor to and from London as the direct services from Windsor & Eton Riverside in to London Waterloo via Richmond take around an hour to complete the journey to London where as fast services from Slough to Paddington only take around 15 minutes and operate every half hour for most of the day, there are also stopping GWR and TfL rail services that are generally still quicker than the South Western Railway alternative and once the central Crossrail tunnels are fully open services from Slough will run through to Abbey Wood and Shenfield.
Journey sections:
Slough to Windsor & Eton Central 00:00
#GreatWesternRailway
#NetworkerTurbo
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