Will three car 158 units do the job on the Barnstaple line or are there some services which will get max'd out? It's years since I did that service and it wasn't a pacer then, thankfully!
I'm not a regular user, but I'd say that a 3-car 158 would do the job capacity-wise on the route, though I'll also admit to not knowing the intricies of capacities, I know that the last couple of times I've been on a 2-car 150 on the route it's been fairly full (the experience I posted above is probably the fullest I've seen it, and there were a couple of standees in the coach I was in from Crediton to Exeter). The last time I went from Umberleigh to Exeter, it was on a 2-car 143 and it was fairly full when I got on, but for most of the journey not essentially packed though it was late morning; the late afternoon 4-car 143s northbound haven't seemed especially full, at least in the half of the train I was in. Of course, this is personal experience, and I haven't really been paying too much attention to what's not directly affected me!
This was an interesting read from a regular Tarka line user, against my notes. I made two journeys on a Friday, recently (one to Barnstaple, and one from Barnstaple an hour later - both single 143s too, lucky me
) and both portions were scheduled to call at the same stations. I noted that neither train stopped at Copplestone (0/2), one stopped at Morchard Road (1/2) and two at Yeoford (2/2) and Umberleigh (2/2). It doesn't surprise me that Copplestone would usually have people alighting/joining with the new housing estate alongside, and I did only make two journeys, quite close together, which I can't generalise too much from so thanks for this.
I wouldn't consider myself a regular user of the line, but I have used it a lot more frequently recently as I've been jobhunting into a specific career which has taken me to London a fair bit! (Incidentally, my next trip up to London is later this week, but I'm going from Tiverton instead as I need to be back late on the same day rather than the next day as I can usually get away with!)
I wouldn't say that all the trains I've used have stopped at these stations, but a fair number of the services I've used have. I would say that the early(ish) morning and late afternoon services are used a lot by students at either Exeter College or Exeter University; I've seen a lot of studenty-types getting on with season tickets. And as I said in my post above, on one particularly busy service that was standing from Crediton, the guard did say that he was on the same service the day before and it was almost empty. As far as I know it wasn't a special day or anything, unless there's some amazing event that happens in Exeter on a Thursday.
Capacity on the line does need improving though, whether passenger capacity (longer trains - I don't mind Pacers, apart from the really pathetic legroom, and I'm not exactly tall!) or train capacity - I was quite surprised to see when I started using the line again when coming back down here that the loop at Lapford has been taken up, I know it hasn't been used in donkey's years, but I always thought that it could be a useful little passing loop if they were to rebuild the old down(?) (Barnstaple-bound) platform and use that as an island platform instead of the current one - except, of course - that it's not that far away from Eggesford.
Either Morchard or Copplestone could be used as a passing loop as well, the former platform at one of them (can't remember which off-hand, I think it's Morchard) is fairly clear of the overgrowth and seems more open for a second platform. And of course, there's the possibility of using the Okehampton line more, instead of having the lines diverge at Crediton, have them split at Yeoford so you'd have a longer loop for trains to pass. Or you could go the whole hog and redouble the whole route (I know that even in the heyday of the line it wasn't fully doubled by the way, it's just easier to say 'redouble'!).
Of course, this is just an enthusiasts dream, and there will be plenty of flaws in my argument, not least to do with timing between loops which could cause trains to have to wait. And actually, I think that by-and-large, a capacity increase would be better by improving the capacity of the trains themselves rather than how many trains are served, mostly because it's more realistic.
Oh, and later trains would be nice so one can get back from London later in the day! (As I said, I'm going via Tiverton later this week because I need to get back on Thursday night rather than Friday morning, but if I were to go from Umberleigh as usual, I could get to Waterloo earlier on the Super Off-peak ticket than I can get into Paddington from Tiverton!)
(Apologies, much longer and much more pointless post than I intended to write...!)
