The last day of InterCity 125 High Speed Train (HST) operations on GWR services will be marked with three runs on the Cotswold Line.
Regular daily operation of HSTs on the line ended in February, with just a handful of appearances on weekend trains since then. The curtain will finally come down on Saturday, May 18, almost 43 years after they entered service with British Rail between London, Bristol and South Wales in October 1976.
To mark the occasion. GWR will send out four HST sets on a series of trains to give passengers a last chance to ride on one in normal service on major GWR routes, with two sets visiting the Cotswold Line during the day.
The first is scheduled to operate the 11.22 from Paddington to Great Malvern and the 14.35 return service, with the other set working the 18.22 from Paddington to Hereford – which will be the last HST on a timetabled service along the Cotswold Line, just over 35 years since the first ran on May 14, 1984, from London to Great Malvern and back.
The Hereford service will be one of four HSTs leaving London Paddington between 18.03 and 18.30 on May 18, bound for Plymouth, Cheltenham, Hereford and Bristol. They will be lined up in platforms 1 to 4 at Paddington for 25 minutes before the departure of the 18.03 to Plymouth.
- There will be a final chance to see or ride on an HST on the Cotswold Line on Saturday, June 1, when GWR is operating a special HST farewell tour around its network. The train will run along the line westbound on its way from London to Carmarthen, as part of an all-day itinerary that starts in Bristol and ends in Plymouth. Provisional timings see it leaving Oxford at 08.44, reaching Worcester Shrub Hill at 09.53 and Hereford at 10.44. A limited number of tickets to travel on the train are still available. Click here for more details.