2014 timetable

As you may recall, I asked volunteers a while ago for their comments and suggestions for the 2014 timetable. I received almost 100 e mails, all of which were very helpful and gave lots of useful information. Many thanks for everyone's input.
 As with any exercise like this, some people argued against some of the recommendations put forward by others, and a number of the proposals just aren't possible to implement because of time restrictions, the single line or pure cost considerations. I also have to bear in mind visitor requirements and our own budgetary demands. Taking all of these into consideration, we are now almost ready to go to print with the new timetable. Broadly speaking, the timetable will be similar to this year, but I thought I would set out the major changes.

1. No public trains will run in January, February, the beginning of March, or for most of November
2. We will use the same colour coding for the timetable as this year
3. We will run a public service on 171 days as against 184 in 2013
4. The blue timetable will be revised such that the first train departs at 10:00 and there is a lunch break built in. There will be more "blue" days and slightly less "green" days.
5. The red/green timetable will be retimed at the end of the day to ensure the final DMU meets the Cheltenham bound train.
6. The printed timetable will be more "user friendly".
7. The steam gala - named the Cotswold Festival of Steam - will run for 3 days at the end of May as against 4 this year. The diesel gala will run for 3 days at the end of July.
8. The Friday Scenic rail cruises by DMU will run on most Fridays in July as well as all of August.
9. After Christmas there will be a mixed traffic gala on 29th and 30th December.
10. The autumn real ale weekend is to be retimed to mid August.

Colin Fewell