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If SWR trains were to be extended to Okehampton then three coaches would have to be uncoupled and left in New Yard costing time and money.
I know SWR and it's predecessors loved an uncouple. I often travelled Saturday on a nine coach 159 from Waterloo dropping 3 cars at Salisbury, then splitting at St David's with three coaches going to Plymouth and three to Paignton.
Also Okehampton is part of the Devon Metro scheme which none of the local services are yet marketed as. Maybe because hourly services are hardly "metro" and even half hourly is a stretch.
If SWR trains were to be extended to Okehampton then three coaches would have to be uncoupled and left in New Yard costing time and money.
I know SWR and it's predecessors loved an uncouple. I often travelled Saturday on a nine coach 159 from Waterloo dropping 3 cars at Salisbury, then splitting at St David's with three coaches going to Plymouth and three to Paignton.
Also Okehampton is part of the Devon Metro scheme which none of the local services are yet marketed as. Maybe because hourly services are hardly "metro" and even half hourly is a stretch.
I would expect it to use platform 2 at St David's. Could go to Exmouth Junction. I am sure I read somewhere they were reinstating the second siding.
With new track and few stops the line speed should be higher.
Ideally if they moved the trailing crossover at Crediton to Coleford Junction there would be a nice stretch of double track. Yeoford has a lot of newish houses and the potential for more and would need it's second platform reinstated.
I would expect the line to have closed again in a year or two if it terminates at St Davids.
WR terminating Ilfracombe and Okehampton trains at St Davids, leaving pax with a mile walk up the hill, did a lot to help both lines close in the first place.
Yes, we know. It was also posted in the main Okehampton thread this morning but the mods deleted it, I suppose it was considered off topic. Posts 29/30 here were moved from that thread, but are only part of the conversation...
I sincerely hope that any Okehampton service is not a Waterloo train. Punctually on that section of line is already poor and service recovery extended, without potentially adding any more single line running and splitting and attaching, the convenience of passengers at Okehampton wanting a service to Central should not be at the detriment of everyone else on the line.
a 166 shuttling between Oke and Pinhoe will be suitable
WR terminating Ilfracombe and Okehampton trains at St Davids, leaving pax with a mile walk up the hill, did a lot to help both lines close in the first place.
difficult. Pending money being spent on infrastructure for the Devon Metro, a one-unit shuttle using the bay at St Davids is better than a les frequent service to Pinhoe.
I suspect the key to this is stock utilisation. It is known that stock is tight for GWR.
However they will have stock free most of the day but not all day (high peak hour workings).
Another considerstion is that an 8 train a day service can't be done entirely with one train, as the service interval in the peak necessitates two trains for a couple of workings if the service is to run at times when it is to be used.
So GWR have a headache.
SWR however have a train parked at Exeter overnight and a six car train parked at Honiton which splits in the very early morning into a London train and one to Exeter that then goes to london.
SWR also have a morning and evening extra working from Exeter to Honiton/Axminster.
Then someone realises that if those trains parked at Exeter and Honiton start earlier then the can go west to Okehampton then back to Waterloo.
Morning peak service to Okehampton sorted without needing a GWR unit and bonus, trains go through to London.
so GWR takes over after morning peak for three daytime and one evening peak retun
Evening peak needs two trains. Headache. Solved by sending the peak hour Exeter to Honiton shuttle to Okehampton first for the Okehsmpton "early peak return
Last Okehampton train of the day has left Waterloo in the evening peak and goes onto Ohehampton, giviing a through service from London before returning to Exeter and being parked up for the night.
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The difference being that there are now 4tph up and down said hill, and no easy way to slot in the extra train, which makes
difficult. Pending money being spent on infrastructure for the Devon Metro, a one-unit shuttle using the bay at St Davids is better than a les frequent service to Pinhoe.
Or a through service from Waterloo that dosent need any extra trains to head up the hill in the peaks when 5 an hour already head up the hill.
If it dosent go to Exeter Central its pointless reopening the line as people wont migrate from car or bus. Would you if you had the choice of walking a mile to St Davids or getting a connecting train at Central which if late means you miss your train to Okehampton with no more trains for two hours if at all?
I don't buy London trains from Okehampton as it's against the metro aspiration. Also Wellington, Cullompton, and Axminster will come into service patterns eventually.
If 8 trains is the first service; to me in the morning 4 trains from Okehampton, 3 in the peak for premium fares and 1 off peak for shoppers to Exeter. A three hour gap in the middle of the day before return workings in the afternoon/evening. They should be space at Exmouth Junction siding to reverse two trains an hour.
I could see a service pattern of Barnstaple-Exmouth Junction-Okehampton- Exmouth Junction-Barnstaple. A bit like the old Paignton Exmouth Barnstaple pattern.
Whatever SWR might say about going to Okehampton might be a ploy for subsidy. Operationally I don't think they want to go past St David's.
2tph Paignton to Exmouth
1tph Barnstaple to Axminster
1tph Okehampton to Cranbrook
Might need a small amount of extra track and a few new stations here and there.
What would change in the off peak? I would’ve thought that it’s best to just maintain the hourly Okehampton rather than having a 3 hour gap or something.
2tph Paignton to Exmouth
1tph Barnstaple to Axminster
1tph Okehampton to Cranbrook
Might need a small amount of extra track and a few new stations here and there.
What would change in the off peak? I would’ve thought that it’s best to just maintain the hourly Okehampton rather than having a 3 hour gap or something.
I don't buy London trains from Okehampton as it's against the metro aspiration. Also Wellington, Cullompton, and Axminster will come into service patterns eventually.
I don't really understand your apparent fixation with it being a metro service so being unable to go far beyond Exeter and having to have suburban stock.
By your logic Thameslink would terminate at St Albans with stations between St Albans and Bedford served by a shuttle between those places because Thameslink is a Metro.
In any case it is not a metro service as it runs 25 miles through open countryside serving two market towns and two villages, exactly the sort of places that the Waterloo to Exeter line serves east of Exeter.
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I got the impression it was to be made into a parkway station at some point (or a second station built for this purpose). I don’t think a 2 hourly parkway service is so attractive.
I got the impression it was to be made into a parkway station at some point (or a second station built for this purpose). I don’t think a 2 hourly parkway service is so attractive.
At some point, yes: Devon wants the extra service through Cranbrook and Okehampton is a natural partner. But that requires infrastructure work - for now it's a one-train service.
And why would nobody want to go FROM Exeter TO Okehampton even if to catch a bus onwards?
I am sure having an empty train out in the morning and back at night would not be good for viability. What would stop me buying a ticket TO Okehampton. Do you not want ANY visitors there?
Nothing at all. I am just pointing out the primary reason for these services are for the Okehampton to Exeter flow rather than for tourists being able to access a dying town (From a tourism point of view)
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Nothing at all. I am just pointing out the primary reason for these services are for the Okehampton to Exeter flow rather than for tourists being able to access a dying town (From a tourism point of view)
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Some people might, but they are not what the service is primarily catering for as they will be very few in the grand scheme of things.
Maybe if you are local in Devon, getting Visit Devon to improve their page on Okehampton from a hole you need to escape from to something you may like to visit would be a start.
It's not only those pictures. Good places to eat / visit etc are all over 10 miles away too!! I am sure the place cannot be as bad as shown on Visit Devon, or in this case 'visit another part of Devon'!
The page is visit South Devon. Okehampton isn't in South Devon geographically (it's probably closer to the North Cornwall coast than it is to the South Devon coast or by any other metric, so not sure why it is being 'promoted' on this website in any case. Then again, it also seems to be promoting East and Mid Devon. The clue's in the names.
There have been (or were) Sunday trains to Okehampton designed for ramblers. High Willhays and Yes Tor, the highest points on Dartmoor, are about 4 miles away and there's plenty of other interesting hikes for keen walkers. Realistically however there will always be far more people travelling into Exeter and back all year round than vice versa. The Barnstaple line is a good indication of that, and it serves a much larger town. Whenever I use the line (usually Saturdays between April and October), passenger flows to and from Barnstaple aren't bad at all, but trains in the other direction are much busier.
The hike up to the station from town can be pleasant through the park but you still have to climb up through the woodland to the station. OK for fit folk like me. A walk out to the Meldon area is also OK but the A30 noise spoils that, but one can walk down from there to the river in the west of the town and stop at the pub on the way back. Pleasant enough for a Sunday afternoon trip from Exeter, but I think the town would have to do more to make it a 'tourist destination'. A tourist small bus out to the moor would be a good National Park initiative, as is done at the NYM NP.
The hike up to the station from town can be pleasant through the park but you still have to climb up through the woodland to the station. OK for fit folk like me. A walk out to the Meldon area is also OK but the A30 noise spoils that, but one can walk down from there to the river in the west of the town and stop at the pub on the way back. Pleasant enough for a Sunday afternoon trip from Exeter, but I think the town would have to do more to make it a 'tourist destination'. A tourist small bus out to the moor would be a good National Park initiative, as is done at the NYM NP.
£40m only announced yesterday but they must have known it was coming and this money is also for provision for an hourly service next year. Network rail seem to want to get the line ready as soon as possible and not a December opening when the traffic might not be so good.. Maybe for an end of lockdown opening so the MP can be trotted out with the local dignatries at socially distanced space. They have probably all been jabbed.
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