Reading to Oxford is only about another 25miles. They could add in the Class 220/221 or even the Class 180 Adelante. And they could add in some branch lines to make it up to 50ish miles. Slough-Windsor= 2.75 miles West Ealing-Greenford= 2.5 miles Maidenhead-Marlow= 7 miles Twyford-Henley on Thames= 4.5 miles Reading-Basingstoke= 15 miles Reading- Newbury = 17 miles Obviously not all of the above if doing Reading to Oxford but some of them. Or don’t do Reading to Oxford and just do all of the above which amounts to just under 50 miles. Could still get Class 220/221 between Reading and Basingstoke. Could add in some more freight including Class 70s used by Freightliner. You’ve also got the North Downs line which is 53 miles from Reading to Gatwick Airport which goes through Guildford and Redhill. It is an important line because it links the Great Western Mainline with the South Western Mainline and the Southern Mainline. I.e. London Waterloo to Portsmouth line and London Victoria to Brighton line respectively. Class 769s, which are converted 319s, are due to be running on the route shortly from Reading to Gatwick Airport. It’s interesting to note that I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone request the Class 180 even though they were used by GWR until 2017 for the London to Oxford/Cotsworld services. In 2017, they moved to Grand Central who then displaced their HST fleet comprising of 6 power cars/3 sets to East Midlands Trains. They’re not too dis-similar from the 220/221s with the exact same enginesbut 180 being hydraulic transmission hence a DMU and 220/221 being an electric transmission hence a DEMU. They left GWR in 2017 so it fits the GWE era which I think is set in 2015. I don’t mind them adding the Class 800s (even though it’s the wrong time period) as long as they don’t add any more wires so it could run in electric mode to Hayes and diesel for the rest. If they add wires/387s, etc... it should be on a brand new route. I’m not suggesting all the above routes to be done but just a combination to make it up to the 50 mile mark. I’ve highlighted all the routes I’ve mentioned in yellow. Here is a picture of a Class 180 Adelante at London Paddington. They left GWR in 2017. Thanks for reading. I’ll make a different thread for GWR Intercity/high speed extensions. I know there’s quite a few GWR threads recently but would like to throw this one into the mix.
