Barnstaple route - cutting costs

[Lucan]

look post Covid. Are travel levels really going to be so high for another 5 years?

Things will probably look different post-Covid. But it is very rash to make economic decisions right now about the post Covid era. Let's see what it looks like first, no one knows yet.

 

[cactustwirly]

I don't understand this thread, why would you spend millions of pounds for a worse service??

 

[Grecian 1998]

As others have said, the line is a (relative) rural success - the hourly services from Barnstaple to Exeter Central meet passenger needs and are well-used. It isn't clear why anything needs to change.

IIRC the linespeed is 60mph Exeter - Crediton, 70mph Crediton - Coleford Jct, 55mph Coleford Jct - Umberleigh and 60mph Umberleigh - Barnstaple. Given the frequent stops / slowing for halts between Exeter and Eggesford, I can't see that raising the linespeed is going to save much time.

The features which always strike me as adding time to the journey are the 25mph limit over Salmonpool crossing west of Crediton, and the arrangements at the level crossing and loop at Eggesford. It always seems to take an eon to leave Eggesford, particularly on Barnstaple bound services. If these could be improved, you could probably shave a few minutes off the journey without raising standard line speeds.

There's also a 30mph limit at Umberleigh, which seems to fluctuate between being a halt and a compulsory stop, but as I can't remember a train ever failing to stop there, that isn't really a problem.

 

[21C101]

Are we really wanting to encourage (car) park and ride over walk and ride where the latter is the current position?

When the alternative is people walking miles along unlit country lanes from Torrington and South Molton to Umberleigh and from Chulmleigh to Eggesford then yes, of course we are. Umberleigh and Eggesford are both desperately in need of a proper car park and name changes to Torrington and South Molton Parkway and Eggesford and Chulmleigh Parkway respectively.

Most Barnstaple Line trains only call at Umberleigh, Eggesford, Copplestone, Yeoford and Crediton with the others getting little more than a parliamentary service.

Any positioning of any extra loops will inevitably defer to the fact that double track already exists from Crediton to Coleford Jct and only needs some points and signals at Coleford to be used as double track. Upgrade of the Eggesford loop to a dynamic loop with a lidar full barrier level crossing, and reinstatement of the second plaform at Barnstaple is all that is really needed on top of that other than some line speed increases for any remotely conceivable future level of service. Even half hourly operation would only need redoubling of Umberleigh to Barnstaple on top of the above to comfortably achieve..

 

[Neptune]

I don't understand this thread, why would you spend millions of pounds for a worse service??

I think it’s a case of spend millions of pounds for a worse service to use 2 units instead of 3! I’d love to see the economic case for this.

 

[30907]

A dynamic loop is probably best, somewhere around Lapford.

Undoubtedly desirable, but unfortunately the line was always single track from Morchard Rd to Umberleigh so you've got some serious digging to do, to save about 2min. Better re-double East of Crediton, which would save waiting at Crexiton and benefit both routes.

 

[leytongabriel]

Oh dear this is an old one. Timetable crayonistas wanting to see a faster Exeter - Barnstaple time. There are significent numbers of people using the rural intermediate stations as stated above, and if you want a shopping trip to Exeter, Central is a must. Politically sensitive too now - Devon North was a Liberal / LibDem seat for a long time before the Brexit issue handed it to the Conservatives.

 

[Cowley]

Oh dear this is an old one. Timetable crayonistas wanting to see a faster Exeter - Barnstaple time. There are significent numbers of people using the rural intermediate stations as stated above, and if you want a shopping trip to Exeter, Central is a must. Politically sensitive too now - Devon North was a Liberal / LibDem seat for a long time before the Brexit issue handed it to the Conservatives.

I was going to mention that. The countryside is very blue as you head towards Barnstaple these days...

 

[4-SUB 4732]

I can safely say that what this line needs, short of maybe a couple of the very quiet stops being cut out for most of the day and the WTT reflecting this, is a solid, 4-car hourly service. This can only reliably be accommodated with some reasonable turnarounds at Barnstaple by crossing at Crediton and Eggesford, which enables the extensions to Central. This is where the action is.

I sincerely hope that SWR don’t get the service. Whilst I massively appreciate the rationale, what would be woeful is a signal failure at New Malden at 1300 causing peak services to Barnstaple to collapse entirely.

I recall the plan at the moment is to ‘split’ the single line between Honiton and Pinhoe with a loop at Cranbrook. If this enables, therefore, an hourly service between Exeter and Waterloo as well as an hourly service between Barnstaple and Honiton / Axminster for Devon Metro then excellent.

 

[Irascible]

I can safely say that what this line needs, short of maybe a couple of the very quiet stops being cut out for most of the day and the WTT reflecting this, is a solid, 4-car hourly service. This can only reliably be accommodated with some reasonable turnarounds at Barnstaple by crossing at Crediton and Eggesford, which enables the extensions to Central. This is where the action is.

I sincerely hope that SWR don’t get the service. Whilst I massively appreciate the rationale, what would be woeful is a signal failure at New Malden at 1300 causing peak services to Barnstaple to collapse entirely.

I recall the plan at the moment is to ‘split’ the single line between Honiton and Pinhoe with a loop at Cranbrook. If this enables, therefore, an hourly service between Exeter and Waterloo as well as an hourly service between Barnstaple and Honiton / Axminster for Devon Metro then excellent.

Hear hear. Any more "rationalising" and it'll have rationalised away the service for the whole of North Devon & parts of Somerset. Someone already pointed out the bottlenecks which would seem to be where to really spend money - can we agree that spending a bit on half a county and part of another when it's connecting to the only urban area anywhere near is actually worthwhile?

I don't really mind who runs the cross-county service as long - as you say - it's self-contained. Given Exeter depot is in the middle then it does make sense to go with whoever operates that, but who knows maybe we can have a Devon PTE & have organised bus-rail routes or something equally unlikely.

There's that empty bridge under the roundabout up at Barnstaple too...