Railway Herald
Since the May timetable changes Hungerford has been granted a stop on a Paddington-Exeter IET service, making it a practical proposition to travel westbound from the town to reach the western areas of the GWR network. When overlaid on the hourly shuttle service between Newbury and Bedwyn, replacing the off-peak direct services to the capital, we have the peculiar situation that the 11:32 DMU out of Newbury is following the stopping IC77 IET and therefore operates non-stop. Strangely this is shown in the timetable as a passenger service rather than an ECS movement, probably not attracting much custom. Class 165 No. 165106 is rushing through Hungerford at close to line speed of 75mph with the working to Bedwyn on 11th July 2022, with the temperature already at 30 degrees on the hottest day of the year so far.
Tonybee
