First Great Western has announced further changes to its new timetable following a review of the performance of train services and seating capacity. These changes take effect from March 26 2007.

The changes are targeted at the Thames Valley, Kennet Valley, Oxford, and Cotswold services.

Having made some service alterations in January, a further review has been carried out in response to customer and stakeholder feedback received following the introduction of the new timetable on 10 December 2006. First Great Western has worked closely with Martin Salter MP and Richard Benyon MP and continues to be in regular contact with them.

More than 750 seats will be added to morning services running through Reading. A key morning service from Newbury will now have over 500 seats available. Changes to train times and train types will benefit Henley, Oxford, Pangbourne, Maidenhead, Twyford, and Worcester services.

Glenda Lamont, First Great Western?s Customer Service Director, says: 'We recognised that some elements of the timetable had not met all our customers needs and we made changes earlier this year.

I am today (22 March) announcing further improvements including additional peak time services, extra seating capacity, and modifications to some timings to alleviate the problems experienced by some of our customers.'

These changes demonstrate First Great Western?s commitment to listening to its customers, and the following changes to services will be introduced on 26 March:

0555 Oxford to London Paddington. This train calls additionally at Pangbourne and capacity doubles to 10 carriages. This service is retimed to depart 0551, calling at Radley, departing from Didcot at 0607 and departing Pangbourne at 0618.

0733 Oxford to London Paddington. This train has been changed to a High Speed Train increasing seating capacity by more than 200 seats.

0603 London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street This train will depart 11 minutes earlier from Paddington. This will ensure better reliability for the service to Worcester Foregate Street, avoiding previous timetable conflicts. It will now depart Paddington at 0552, calling at Slough 0606, Reading 0620, Didcot 0640 and arriving Oxford at 0653.

0629 Frome to London Paddington calling at Newbury 0725 This train will be doubled in capacity to 10 carriages and will call additionally at Reading West at 0747. The extra seats will be available from Newbury.

0620 Henley on Thames to Twyford. This train runs earlier from Henley to improve connections at Twyford and, departs Henley at 0618 and arrives Twyford at 0630.

0554 Reading to Henley on Thames. A faster journey time will improve the train?s turnaround at Henley. The Shiplake and Wargrave stops have been removed on this service, to achieve this.

1833 London Paddington to Exeter and 1836 London Paddington to Oxford These trains have swapped departure times to improve their timekeeping. The Exeter service will depart at 1836 and the Oxford service at 1833, at Reading both trains revert to the original timings.

A timetable review traditionally takes place every May and this year we will take the opportunity to make some further changes where necessary and possible. More extensive changes will be made for the December 2007 timetable.