If Cullompton and Wellington (Somerset) are reopened, how could they be served?

[61653 HTAFC]

The possible reopening of Wellington (Somerset) is a promising move, but there are a few issues:
The railway is right at the edge of town, not particularly accessible to a large section of the population.
Wellington is quite insular, with only the younger generations feeling the need to visit the metropolis of Taunton with any regularity.
Taunton Station itself isn't particularly well-sited either, so the reopening will only be of limited use for shorter journeys. For trips to Exeter and further afield it will probably have decent usage.

 

[Dr Day]

Still unclear what is actually proposed to stop at Cullompton and Wellington without undoing all the benefits of speeding up done for the Dec 19 timetable and without incurring additional subsidy running extra services/extending.

It feels from other threads like it will be a battle to get the pre COVID Cross Country service levels restored to the South West.

Straying into speculation on a subset of announced schemes but could more be done to improve bus links from these towns to Tiverton Parkway instead?

 

[Bald Rick]

Still unclear what is actually proposed to stop at Cullompton and Wellington without undoing all the benefits of speeding up done for the Dec 19 timetable and without incurring additional subsidy running extra services/extending.

Presumably extending the Taunton terminators. The extra cost will be marginal, and should be covered by the extra revenue.

 

[RPI]

Still unclear what is actually proposed to stop at Cullompton and Wellington without undoing all the benefits of speeding up done for the Dec 19 timetable and without incurring additional subsidy running extra services/extending.

It feels from other threads like it will be a battle to get the pre COVID Cross Country service levels restored to the South West.

Straying into speculation on a subset of announced schemes but could more be done to improve bus links from these towns to Tiverton Parkway instead?

Has been posted before on another thread, the current Cardiff-Taunton services will all be extended to at least Exeter, with several continuing through to Plymouth and Penzance.

 

[stuu]

IIRC there are some significant housing proposals around there. Might change the balance of the town geographically and socio-economically.

There is a lot of new housing going in but it's mostly not near the railway...

Wellington Statiom would have attractive journey times for Exeter but heading north/east I'm not convinced. A stopping service taking an hour and a half to Bristol doesn't sound too attractive, and changes to faster services at Taunton will be poor as the stopper will need to be timed well away from those. Virtually no one will use it just to Taunton as the buses are every 15 minutes and serve the college, hospital and town centre directly. Still they must have shown some business case must exist to get to this stage.

Do GWR have enough trains to extend all the stoppers though? It will add 1.5 hours to the diagram, which must be at least 1 extra unit

 

[RPI]

There is a lot of new housing going in but it's mostly not near the railway...

Wellington Statiom would have attractive journey times for Exeter but heading north/east I'm not convinced. A stopping service taking an hour and a half to Bristol doesn't sound too attractive, and changes to faster services at Taunton will be poor as the stopper will need to be timed well away from those. Virtually no one will use it just to Taunton as the buses are every 15 minutes and serve the college, hospital and town centre directly. Still they must have shown some business case must exist to get to this stage.

Do GWR have enough trains to extend all the stoppers though? It will add 1.5 hours to the diagram, which must be at least 1 extra unit

Any cascades for additional units will come from the 769's releasing Turbo's west.

For fear of being told off for speculating, one or two of the semi-fast Exeter to Paddington services could stop there though not sure there would really be a market.

Dead right regarding the buses but from what I gather (and I'm happy to be corrected) but the buses seem to stop around 1900.

As for the new housing, its mostly around where the railway line is and can be clearly seen from the train when going past.

Cullompton will serve a more useful purpose as the railway line runs pretty close to the town centre and there is a huge housing development planned too.

 

[Gloster]

Will the Wellington and Cullompton services terminate at St Davids or run through to Central? I will admit that it is forty years since I lived in Exeter, but then the centre was around Central, while St Davids was out of town at the bottom of a long hill. If the trains only go to St Davids, then the need to change to get to the centre is an immediate disincentive to taking the train.

I also wonder if there will be fairly low loadings on the centre part of the route: Wellington will tend to look towards Taunton and Cullompton towards Exeter. Despite its parkway status, I can’t see Tiverton getting massive amounts of local traffic.

 

[RPI]

Tivvy parkway does produce a lot of students travelling into Exeter in the mornings, the college is nearer St Davids than Central, going off on a bit of a tangent I'm surprised that a developer hasn't eyed up all the fields around Tivvy Parkway for new homes to be honest!

There are very few spare paths "up the bank" to Exeter Central especially once the Okehampton services start.

 

[stuu]

As for the new housing, its mostly around where the railway line is and can be clearly seen from the train when going past.

A fairly large new development has been built near the railway, but that is mostly finished. The major new developments are south of the A38, essentially filling in the area out to the bypass. Much handier for the motorway than the railway unfortunately

 

[BayPaul]

Will the Wellington and Cullompton services terminate at St Davids or run through to Central? I will admit that it is forty years since I lived in Exeter, but then the centre was around Central, while St Davids was out of town at the bottom of a long hill. If the trains only go to St Davids, then the need to change to get to the centre is an immediate disincentive to taking the train.

I also wonder if there will be fairly low loadings on the centre part of the route: Wellington will tend to look towards Taunton and Cullompton towards Exeter. Despite its parkway status, I can’t see Tiverton getting massive amounts of local traffic.

Pretty unlikely to run through to central - as I understand it the slow services will all link up to make a Cardiff-Penzance service, which would be the obvious place to put these 2 stops. With 5tph planned between St Davids and Central (2x Paignton, Barnstaple, Okehampton, Waterloo) it isn't a very painful change.

I could see Wellington - Exeter being pretty popular - Taunton isn't the most attractive of places, and Exeter will be less than 30 mins away - much faster than the road. I would imagine both stations would do well for long-distance travel as well, with a simple change at Taunton for Paddington and XC services.

 

[stuu]

I could see Wellington - Exeter being pretty popular - Taunton isn't the most attractive of places, and Exeter will be less than 30 mins away - much faster than the road. I would imagine both stations would do well for long-distance travel as well, with a simple change at Taunton for Paddington and XC services.

Timetabling will be interesting, the stopper will need to leave Exeter just behind a fast train, therefore getting to Taunton about 45 minutes before the next fast train to the same location. As the trains are going to head to Bristol anyway it would be more sensible to time a change towards London, but it's unlikely to be able to provide an attractive connection to both London and Bristol