Suggestion: Barnstaple/Okehampton - Axminster local taktplan

[adrock1976]

I have had a go at creating a Barnstaple and Okehampton - Axminster local service that would feature as part of a Devon Metro scheme. I have a frequency of every 30 minutes on the common section between Crediton and Axminster, with trains every 60 minutes to and from each of Barnstaple and Okehampton.

The obvious infrastructure intervention would be converting Crediton - former site of Coleford Junction back to proper double track (maybe extending a short distance south of Crediton as there was once a goods yard at the Exeter end for timetable robustness, or maybe towards Newton St Cyres as it used to be double track), and also redoubling Pinhoe - Axminster with maybe a third platform at Axminster so as to help keep the line clear for London Waterloo and any GWR InterCity diversions.

Also, I have considered the two station reopening between Taunton and Exeter St Davids, and have for illustrative purposes included a possible (or hypothetical) Taunton - Axminster running every 60 minutes, which would run between St Davids and Axminster in the opposite half hour to the London Waterloo trains.

Now for the calling pattern, which between Exeter St Davids and Axminster would be all stations every 30 minutes. Newton St Cyres and Sampford Courtenay would alternate on request with the Okehampton trains i.e. stop at Newton SC on request, omit Sampford C and vice versa. Yeoford is upgraded to a normal stop from the present request stop as that is the first and last station before or after Coleford Junction. The Barnstaple trains in one hour would call at Newton St Cyres every 2 hours on request as well as Lapford, plus Copplestone, Morchard Road (both request), Eggesford (passing point), and Umberleigh on request. The opposite hour would have trains calling Crediton, Yeoford, Copplestone (request), Morchard Road (request), Eggesford (passing point), Kings Nympton (request), Portsmouth Arms (request), Umberleigh (request), Chapelton (request), and Barnstaple. The frequency at Newton SC over a 2 hour period would be 30/90 minutes. Furthermore, the request stops of Lapford, Portsmouth Arms, and Chapelton would have an improved frequency of every 2 hours calling upon request.

Furthermore, I did think about route segregation between Exeter SD and Cowley Bridge Junction with a hypothetical flyover, so as not to get in the way of London Paddington and Cross-country InterCity services to/from the Taunton direction. Having had a quick eyeball on Google Maps, there does not appear to be space beyond the yard for an additional pair of tracks as it seems to be hemmed in, so am unsure if a diagonal route from the vicinity of the yard to Newton SC would work or not (@Cowley knows far more about the geography of that area than me, so would be able to tell if route segregation would be possible). I have also shown how this would work in the tabs labelled CB flyover).

I have attached the file below in .xlsx format. If anyone has problems opening the file, I can convert to .pdf

 

[Irascible]

I believe the road bridge at Cowley is rather protected, so there'll always be a bottleneck there - is the up line bidirectional? that might help a little although without remodelling Exeter ( which is not a bad thought but I'm lead to believe is impractical without resignalling ) you'd still have to cross to get to the right platforms anyway. Axminster's Lyme branch platform was on the side away from the town ( wierdly, given it had to cross the main line to get to Lyme! ) so that is probably possible without major earthworks, but I'm not sure you really need it.

 

[nw1]

Could one effect of an Axminster local service be to speed up the Waterloo services, so that they run fast Honiton to Exeter Central, improving things for long-distance passengers?

 

[RPI]

Could one effect of an Axminster local service be to speed up the Waterloo services, so that they run fast Honiton to Exeter Central, improving things for long-distance passengers?

Yes I've often thought this, if this was done with a 2 hourly Waterloo to Exeter and a 2 hourly Waterloo to Axminster, an hourly shuttle to Axminster calling all stations could run on the current infrastructure, it wouldn't have a lot of resilience but could be brought in on the current track layout, which in turn could lead to pressure for the infrastructure improvements.

 

[adrock1976]

Could one effect of an Axminster local service be to speed up the Waterloo services, so that they run fast Honiton to Exeter Central, improving things for long-distance passengers?

Yes I've often thought this, if this was done with a 2 hourly Waterloo to Exeter and a 2 hourly Waterloo to Axminster, an hourly shuttle to Axminster calling all stations could run on the current infrastructure, it wouldn't have a lot of resilience but could be brought in on the current track layout, which in turn could lead to pressure for the infrastructure improvements.

Although I did not mention this in the opening post, the intention I had was for the London Waterloo trains to omit Pinhoe (I don't think it had always had a London train first time round before reopening in 1983, going by a quick eyeball on the Wikipedia page), Whimple, and Feniton (the latter two presently has the London train calling every second hour on an alternating pattern).

I have everything calling at Cranbrook, Honiton, and Axminster.

Also, has Feniton always had trains to London? Going by a quick eyeball at the Wiki page, the locals campaigned immediately to reopen the station after it closed in 1967, which it did four years later in 1971.

 

[Grecian 1998]

Portsmouth Arms serves a pub and Chapelton serves a hamlet. Stopping trains there every 2 hours seems utterly pointless - you might as well just ask the driver to test the brakes somewhere in the North Devon countryside to achieve the same purpose.

I'm surprised that none of the local stations on the Tarka Line were closed in the 1960s given there were never any formal closure proposals. There are very good reasons why GWR focus on serving the intermediate stations which serve villages (plus Eggesford for operational reasons) over those in the middle of nowhere.

Could one effect of an Axminster local service be to speed up the Waterloo services, so that they run fast Honiton to Exeter Central, improving things for long-distance passengers?

My understanding of NR's long-term aim for the Waterloo - Exeter route as per the 2020 line study is to install enough long loops to make the current timetable far more resilient, one of which will be around Whimple. This will allow an hourly stopping service west of Axminster, allowing Waterloo services to call only at Cranbrook between Honiton and Exeter Central and speed up journey times.

I suspect it may be more than a few years before there's any funding for this, although it's possible the government may want to win back Tiverton and Honiton (which bizarrely extends east of the East Devon constituency).

No chance of full doubling though, apart from the cost I believe Honiton Tunnel has drainage problems.

Also, has Feniton always had trains to London? Going by a quick eyeball at the Wiki page, the locals campaigned immediately to reopen the station after it closed in 1967, which it did four years later in 1971.

When Feniton was Sidmouth Junction, it was one of the primary stops between Salisbury and Exeter due to its status as a junction, so had plenty of London services. By 1971 when it reopened there were very few stopping services left- pretty much the entire service was provided by the 2 hourly Waterloo - Exeter trains. I believe Feniton and Whimple were served by a few trains in peak hours aligned towards Exeter i.e. mainly westbound in the morning and eastbound in the evening. So I'd have thought there would be a handful of trains to London, but not at particularly useful times.

As of 1991-92 Feniton had 6 daily services to Waterloo and Whimple had 5 each way. This might have increased around 1980 when services were sped up due to class 50s taking over from class 33s.

 

[nw1]

Also, has Feniton always had trains to London? Going by a quick eyeball at the Wiki page, the locals campaigned immediately to reopen the station after it closed in 1967, which it did four years later in 1971.

I remember Feniton, Whimple and Pinhoe all had occasional calls only in the 80s, around peak times, with most Waterloo services not calling. If I remember right the mid-afternoon departure from Woking called at one or more of them (1510 or thereabouts off Waterloo).

 

[30907]

An interesting proposal. Some thoughts:

1. Newton St Cyres, if it warrants an hourly service, should get one in preference to a 90/30min split. The choice of service would be operational convenience as I doubt there is any significant market beyond Credition.
2. Doubling Coleford Jn-Crediton isn't justified for the service level (though you might do it when resignalling, to replace the crossovers at Crediton) as the trains don't need to pass there; you would gain some benefit (at least for the North Devon line) by doubling from Crediton towards Newton though.
3. I am really not convinced by a 4tph service to Axminster. I suppose you might justify 4tph to Cranbrook, with a turnback siding (or second platform?); to maintain a London service at Whimple/Feniton you would add a 2-hourly stop.
Alternatively, cutting the Exeter-Axminster shuttle would reduce resources the same amount, but I can see the logic in running a Taunton service beyond Central.

 

[The Ham]

3. I am really not convinced by a 4tph service to Axminster. I suppose you might justify 4tph to Cranbrook, with a turnback siding (or second platform?); to maintain a London service at Whimple/Feniton you would add a 2-hourly stop.
Alternatively, cutting the Exeter-Axminster shuttle would reduce resources the same amount, but I can see the logic in running a Taunton service beyond Central.

4tph (up from 1tph currently) does appear a big uplift, there could be ways to reduce this.

Run Taunton/Axminster on a 1 train every 2 hours with any additional services on that route running Taunton/Central or Taunton/Exmouth.

Run Taunton/Yeovil Penn Mill and cut the Waterloo services back to Yeovil Junction, with a cross platform interchange for through passengers. Although if the Taunton services are hourly have (say) 6 trains a day which run through to Exeter so there's still a direct through service some of the time. With the Taunton services cut short to Central in those hours.

This could allow the use of battery trains for most of the Waterloo services with some extra electrification (even if that was to Andover that would help). That could also allow the Basingstoke stoppers to be extended to Salisbury/Yeovil (probably at the expense of the current shuttle service to Basingstoke, at peak time you'd need an extra service from Salisbury as a few of the Basingstoke stoppers start from Southampton during the morning peaks) to increase the frequency at that end - so Salisbury and Andover gets 3tph whilst all other stops are 3tph and regain their through trains to London (although most would change at Basingstoke for a faster service anyway).

 

[Xavi]

Great ideas here and we may get some!

The planned (when funding is available!) east of Exeter enhancements are a Whimple to Cranbrook loop and western extension of the Honiton loop. Barnstaple to Axminster services will cross at the new loop serving both Whimple and Feniton. Waterloo services will generally not serve those stations. All services would continue to serve Pinhoe where passenger growth is ongoing.

If the do minimum Project Speed option is pursued (loop will not extend to new platforms at Cranbrook or Whimple) then this is one of the best value enhancements on the whole network.

Moving the Crediton crossovers and some additional double track towards Newton St Cyres will almost certainly be considered when renewals become due.

 

[RPI]

Great ideas here and we may get some!

The planned (when funding is available!) east of Exeter enhancements are a Whimple to Cranbrook loop and western extension of the Honiton loop. Barnstaple to Axminster services will cross at the new loop serving both Whimple and Feniton. Waterloo services will generally not serve those stations. All services would continue to serve Pinhoe where passenger growth is ongoing.

If the do minimum Project Speed option is pursued (loop will not extend to new platforms at Cranbrook or Whimple) then this is one of the best value enhancements on the whole network.

Moving the Crediton crossovers and some additional double track towards Newton St Cyres will almost certainly be considered when renewals become due.

I'd suggest that the only reason Pinhoe numbers are so high are the amount of short offer tickets being bought! But thats another story!

 

[Xavi]

I'd suggest that the only reason Pinhoe numbers are so high are the amount of short offer tickets being bought! But thats another story!

I’m sure there is some of that, however, passenger numbers have visibly grown due to nearby housing developments.

 

[Xavi]

Mark Hopwood has stated on LinkedIn that he wants the Crediton crossovers moved to Colebrooke creating a double-track section, proper signalling and a CCTV-controlled level crossing installed at Eggesford, and a second platform at Barnstaple when funding allows. He also supports Bideford to Barnstaple reopening.

 

[D6130]

Axminster's Lyme branch platform was on the side away from the town ( wierdly, given it had to cross the main line to get to Lyme! ) so that is probably possible without major earthworks, but I'm not sure you really need it.

The Lyme Regis branch left Axminster on the North side of the main line and then climbed to cross it on a flyover. Last time I was down there the embankments and bridge abutments were still clearly visible, but they may have been partially or completely bulldozed for the dynamic loop project,

 

[Grecian 1998]

A CCTV worked crossing at Eggesford would hopefully speed the service up significantly - it always seems to take about 5-10 minutes between the first train arriving and both trains being on the move again every time I've used the line.

An entirely sensible move - it would be useful if something could be done about Salmonpool crossing between Crediton and Yeoford as well - but as always, the money is the issue.

 

[Dave Beeching]

Mark Hopwood has stated on LinkedIn that he wants the Crediton crossovers moved to Colebrooke creating a double-track section, proper signalling and a CCTV-controlled level crossing installed at Eggesford, and a second platform at Barnstaple when funding allows. He also supports Bideford to Barnstaple reopening.

Do you have a link to the post?

Nice to make those statements but isn't Mark Hopwood the Managing Director for a train operating company and not a fund holder?

 

[Xavi]

Do you have a link to the post?

Nice to make those statements but isn't Mark Hopwood the Managing Director for a train operating company and not a fund holder?

So after a gap in videos you find two come along at once! After a Thursday update here is a Friday update in a slightly different format … | Mark Hopwood CBE | 17 comments

So after a gap in videos you find two come along at once! After a Thursday update here is a Friday update in a slightly different format … | 17 comments on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

You are correct about Mark’s role, however NR, TOCs and other sources of funding do collaborate on projects believe it or not!

The link is a video posted by Mark and he follows up with comments on the Barnstaple line infrastructure. Mark is a railway professional and will almost certainly have had dialogue with other parties.

 

[Irascible]

The Lyme Regis branch left Axminster on the North side of the main line and then climbed to cross it on a flyover. Last time I was down there the embankments and bridge abutments were still clearly visible, but they may have been partially or completely bulldozed for the dynamic loop project,

Haven't had need to go there rscently, stil plenty if evidence around though. I guess it was somehow cheaper than shuffling the goods yard around!

Given how many crossings there were on the line to Bideford I'd like to see an actual plan for any reinstatement...