Sidmouth

[piccadilly]

It was rumoured in the local press that consideration may be given to re establishing Sidmouth station - apparently the route is still there - it would of course mean re laying new tracks.

Any opinions on the likelihood of this happening.

Or is it “pie in the sky!”?

 

[yorksrob]

Well, it is definitely a route that shouldn't have closed. Whether one could make the case for it now (The old terminus was a bit of a way out, as I understand it)!

 

[piccadilly]

Yes, the Terminus is about a mile from the town centre.

A pleasant walk into town downhill - not so easy coming back!

 

[John Webb]

There's quite a bit about Sidmouth station and the connecting lines at http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/sidmouth/index.shtml including the usual photos of it while open and after closure (passengers March 1967, coal May 1967).
Other photos of the surviving station buildings can be found at http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/SY1288?centi=SY121885.
However, where the former line passes through villages and towns on its way to the still existing line to Exeter, it has been significantly built on. This would substantially increase the cost of any reinstatement, either in forming deviations or clearing the trackbed with appropriate compensation. Unlikely to happen, I would have thought!

 

[yorksrob]

Yes, the Terminus is about a mile from the town centre.

A pleasant walk into town downhill - not so easy coming back!

I think I walk about a mile to my local station anyway !

 

[yorksrob]

There's quite a bit about Sidmouth station and the connecting lines at http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/sidmouth/index.shtml including the usual photos of it while open and after closure (passengers March 1967, coal May 1967).
Other photos of the surviving station buildings can be found at http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/SY1288?centi=SY121885.
However, where the former line passes through villages and towns on its way to the still existing line to Exeter, it has been significantly built on. This would substantially increase the cost of any reinstatement, either in forming deviations or clearing the trackbed with appropriate compensation. Unlikely to happen, I would have thought!

A short deviation to the west of the new housing at Tipton looks very achievable.

The development at Ottery looks to be all light industrial, so would be much easier to relocate.

 

[Basher]

I agree with yorksrob, this line should have never have been closed, or at the very least the track route should have been ring fenced. This line along with many others ie. the Lakes would today be a big asset to society and the environment.

 

[John Webb]

A short deviation to the west of the new housing at Tipton looks very achievable.

The development at Ottery looks to be all light industrial, so would be much easier to relocate.

Still be pricey! And looking further north near to Feniton, formerly the junction for Sidmouth, the dual-carriageway A30 would appear to be a further obstacle:
Footbridge over A30 near Fenny Bridges

© Copyright John Firth and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
The photo above is taken from close to where the line used to run. The old A30 bridge does remain, however:
Former railway bridge under the old A30

© Copyright Anthony Vosper and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Not impossible, but I think unlikely; I suspect the potential traffic would be insufficient to make restoration worth doing. Sorry for being rather pragmatic!

 

[piccadilly]

Don’t apologise for being pragmatic!

I suspected this would not be practical - even driving from Sidmouth to Feniton is complicated enough!

 

[piccadilly]

There's quite a bit about Sidmouth station and the connecting lines at http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/sidmouth/index.shtml including the usual photos of it while open and after closure (passengers March 1967, coal May 1967).
Other photos of the surviving station buildings can be found at http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/SY1288?centi=SY121885.
However, where the former line passes through villages and towns on its way to the still existing line to Exeter, it has been significantly built on. This would substantially increase the cost of any reinstatement, either in forming deviations or clearing the trackbed with appropriate compensation. Unlikely to happen, I would have thought!

I enjoyed looking at the interesting photographs even if the creation of a Sidmouth line is very unlikely.Thank You.

 

[Taunton]

Sidmouth previously commented on here, from the days of (empty) trains and inconvenient times.

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/if-lyme-regis-branch-had-survived.158516/page-2#post-3263200

 

[piccadilly]

Yes thank you.I suspected this.The bus service,I am told, to Honiton is very good anyway.

I am sure there is a website with the bus timetables and fares - although I suspect the fare structures can be complicated!

 

[jimm]

I agree with yorksrob, this line should have never have been closed, or at the very least the track route should have been ring fenced. This line along with many others ie. the Lakes would today be a big asset to society and the environment.

Hardly - Sidmouth station wasn't even that convenient for The Knowle, along Station Road, currently the HQ of East Devon District Council (though they are moving out) and previously a British Transport Hotel, never mind the town centre or seafront, ie the places people want to go.

No one used the line most of the year, especially in its later days, which is why it closed.

Yes thank you.I suspected this.The bus service,I am told, to Honiton is very good anyway.

Good Stagecoach bus services to both Exeter and Honiton. Also hourly (though slow due to round-the-houses route) to Exmouth.

 

[MatthewRead]

Hardly - Sidmouth station wasn't even that convenient for The Knowle, along Station Road, currently the HQ of East Devon District Council (though they are moving out) and previously a British Transport Hotel, never mind the town centre or seafront, ie the places people want to go.

No one used the line most of the year, especially in its later days, which is why it closed.



Good Stagecoach bus services to both Exeter and Honiton. Also hourly (though slow due to round-the-houses route) to Exmouth.

Not really I had a nightmare getting one to Honiton nearly 2 years ago!

 

[piccadilly]

I am surprised that you say the station wasn’t convenient for The Knowle.

I couldn't have been more than 5 minutes walk away?

Interesting to note it was formerly a British Transport Hotel.

 

[yorksrob]

I have to say, the site of Sidmouth station doesn't appear to be any further from the sea front than Ramsgate, so I'm not sure what the fuss is about.

 

[Ash Bridge]

I have to say, the site of Sidmouth station doesn't appear to be any further from the sea front than Ramsgate, so I'm not sure what the fuss is about.

Indeed! It also actually appears slightly less than the distance from Looe station (or main car park) to the beach/sea front at that location, which I would add is no real problem for the 80 year old members in our family. I do accept though that it is a level walk at Looe, not certain of the terrain at Sidmouth?

 

[edwin_m]

Indeed! It also actually appears slightly less than the distance from Looe station (or main car park) to the beach/sea front at that location, which I would add is no real problem for the 80 year old members in our family.

Can't speak for Ramsgate but Looe station is only a few feet above sea level, Sidmouth was a steep climb.

 

[Ash Bridge]

Can't speak for Ramsgate but Looe station is only a few feet above sea level, Sidmouth was a steep climb.

Thanks Edwin, I was just editing my posting as you posted!

 

[yorksrob]

Indeed! It also actually appears slightly less than the distance from Looe station (or main car park) to the beach/sea front at that location, which I would add is no real problem for the 80 year old members in our family. I do accept though that it is a level walk at Looe, not certain of the terrain at Sidmouth?

Indeed, my parents in their 70's do that walk every year as well.

Regarding an incline, yes that is a pain, but when we visited Lyme Regis a few years back, the car park was quite a way up the hill as well anyway.

 

[Ash Bridge]

Indeed, my parents in their 70's do that walk every year as well.

Regarding an incline, yes that is a pain, but when we visited Lyme Regis a few years back, the car park was quite a way up the hill as well anyway.

Yes, plenty of car parks at resorts in Devon & Cornwall (especially on the North Coast) that require a stiff walk down to seafront or harbour, I don't see why a stiff walk from a railway station is any different personally.

 

[jimm]

Well if it's convenient as you all seem to think it is, then why did next to no one use the train to get to and from Sidmouth most of the year then?

This is the opening line of the description about Sidmouth on the Disused Stations website:

Sidmouth station was poorly sited for tourists, high above the town and 3/4 of a mile from the sea front.

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/sidmouth/

One thing Sidmouth does have at sea level close to the promenade is car parking - more than 800 spaces.

 

[Ash Bridge]

Well if it's convenient as you all seem to think it is, then why did next to no one use the train to get to and from Sidmouth most of the year then?

This is the opening line of the description about Sidmouth on the Disused Stations website:



http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/sidmouth/

One thing Sidmouth does have at sea level close to the promenade is car parking - more than 800 spaces.

I think attitudes to train travel in the 1960s were somewhat different back then tbh, railways were considered by some to be an old fashioned and dying mode of travel and certainly not helped by the pro-road governments of the day. Though over the last couple of decades or so, people seemingly appear to consider the train in a much more favourable light again, so perhaps it would be a different story nowadays in the admittedly most unlikely event that the branch line be reinstated?

 

[30907]

I have to say, the site of Sidmouth station doesn't appear to be any further from the sea front than Ramsgate, so I'm not sure what the fuss is about.

I suspect Ramsgate loses out on visitors to its neighbours at least partly because of the station's location - but then Ramsgate is a very much bigger town - if more deprived - than Sidmouth. I cant find visitor stats to confirm my suspicion though.

 

[yorksrob]

I suspect Ramsgate loses out on visitors to its neighbours at least partly because of the station's location - but then Ramsgate is a very much bigger town - if more deprived - than Sidmouth. I cant find visitor stats to confirm my suspicion though.

Well, Ramsgate is bigger, but I don't think anyone was suggesting that Sidmouth should have the same level of service as Ramsgate.

 

[Gareth Marston]

I think we're focussing too much on tourists, given the size of Sidmouth and Ottery St Mary and their proximity to Exeter. Today there would be a healthy trade into the nearest regional centre.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

The basic problem with the Sidmouth branch, quite apart from the inconvenient terminus, was that it ran to a remote country junction on the main-line (in the traditional manner!) with connections orientated toward Waterloo. It was pretty hopeless for local traffic, offering a very roundabout route and poor connections onward to Exeter the regional centre. Devon General had pretty much mopped up this traffic by the late 1920s with a direct bus on the A35 (now A3052). It also operated direct buses to Honiton and Exmouth, which by train could only be reached indirectly with changes at Sidmouth Jcn and Tipton St Johns respectively. Even today, Stagecoach, DG's successor operate a very respectable service on these routes. Ottery St. Mary, the principal intermediate station (which wasn't particulary convenient either), also had a direct bus to Exeter via the A30 from the '20s. Sadly I think Sidmouth Town Council has been taken in by Grayling's schtick on 'Reversing Beeching' as have many other places deprived of their rail services.

 

[Gareth Marston]

The basic problem with the Sidmouth branch, quite apart from the inconvenient terminus, was that it ran to a remote country junction on the main-line (in the traditional manner!) with connections orientated toward Waterloo. It was pretty hopeless for local traffic, offering a very roundabout route and poor connections onward to Exeter the regional centre. Devon General had pretty much mopped up this traffic by the late 1920s with a direct bus on the A35 (now A3052). It also operated direct buses to Honiton and Exmouth, which by train could only be reached indirectly with changes at Sidmouth Jcn and Tipton St Johns respectively. Even today, Stagecoach, DG's successor operate a very respectable service on these routes. Ottery St. Mary, the principal intermediate station (which wasn't particulary convenient either), also had a direct bus to Exeter via the A30 from the '20s. Sadly I think Sidmouth Town Council has been taken in by Grayling's schtick on 'Reversing Beeching' as have many other places deprived of their rail services.

40 minute bus ride to central Exeter, 13 to 14 miles on a 150 the junction faced the right way. 4/5 stops 30 minutes.

 

[30907]

Well, Ramsgate is bigger, but I don't think anyone was suggesting that Sidmouth should have the same level of service as Ramsgate.

Nor was I, my point being that having a station a mile inland is a disadvantage.

 

[30907]

40 minute bus ride to central Exeter, 13 to 14 miles on a 150 the junction faced the right way. 4/5 stops 30 minutes.

20 miles by rail, so 35 minutes would be more like it - it's unfortunate that the bus route is much more direct. But the idea of running the Devon Metro to Sidmouth rather than Axminster is an attractive pipedream.