Tarka Line Travails

[VT 390]

How busy is the earlier 06:25 service from Barnstaple usually?
If there is some spare capacity on the earlier service GWR could advise people who really do not want to use the coach alternative to use this service instead to spread the passenger load out. Its only about an hour earlier so would be likely feasible for most people to use this service instead. I know its not ideal having to leave an hour earlier, but it could be an option to avoid the replacement coach given that until the class 175 are fully introduced it does not look possible to improve the rolling stock situation.

 

[bramling]

It’s just the reality of living in a very large rural county that you will need to travel to reach educational opportunities that offer the range of courses and quality of teaching that students and parents want. Exeter College is located in the most accessible location within the county in terms of public transport.

Having spent time travelling in the Exeter area this month, it’s clear that the rail service provided to this booming city is operated on a shoestring. Lack of rolling stock, single line working, low frequencies, lack of turnaround time, an outpost of SWR with trains replaced by buses. This wouldn’t be tolerated in London and the South East. If the Government is serious about enabling economic growth and boosting the regions then it needs to invest.

You say it wouldn’t be tolerated in London and the South East, however Cambridge is also booming, and there’s a whole thread on here about how awful the service there has been for some while. Different issues to Exeter in that Cambridge’s issues revolve more around reliability than planned provision, however the end result is essentially the same.

Likewise, the London area has overcrowding too. In the case of Barnstaple presumably there is some scope for people to catch an earlier service in order to avoid the one heavily overloaded service. This is only what has been routinely going on in the London area for many years, ditto the way you will see motorways around London flooded with vans at 0500 in the morning, attempting to beat the high peak.

I agree that Exeter does clearly need more capacity though.

 

[Kite159]

Are we saying that families are choosing Exeter over Bideford because it is better regarded? To be fair that is a very good reason to make such a choice and it’s absolutely their right to do so.

However from my perspective I still find it bordering on insane to be travelling that sort of distance. Thinking back to when I was at sixth-form (St Albans) my journey was about 20 miles, and that was absolutely at the higher end of the spectrum. Generally the catchment ended in a circle bordered by Enfield, Whetstone, Watford, Luton, Knebworth, Hertford. Thinking back I can’t readily think of more than a couple beyond that radius, there was one from St John’s Wood but he packed it in because, ironically, the travelling was too much.

I do appreciate this isn’t rural Devon though. This does seem like a very specific localised issue for which a solution isn’t really available, in the absence of running a long SDO-equipped train. If this did exist, could it fit in the loops?

Exeter college has kids travelling from Sherborne/Yeovil which is a long day

 

[evergreenadam]

Exeter college has kids travelling from Sherborne/Yeovil which is a long day

Even longer given current problems on SWR.

 

[brad465]

Sounds like part of the solution is to open more state of the art colleges, and/or campuses of Exeter college, in areas that would lower demand along the cramped routes to the college.

 

[evergreenadam]

Sounds like part of the solution is to open more state of the art colleges, and/or campuses of Exeter college, in areas that would lower demand along the cramped routes to the college.

Probably not financially viable or attractive enough in areas of such low population density. There would be a much wider public benefit from investing in and improving the public transport system and letting the students travel to the educational offer they want to access. The Exeter rail network needs to be upgraded anyway.

 

[TastyMaltesers]

Sounds like Exeter College has most of Devon for it's catchment area? Bit of a ridiculous situation all around, even if you ignore what it means for the railways.

 

[cactustwirly]

It’s just the reality of living in a very large rural county that you will need to travel to reach educational opportunities that offer the range of courses and quality of teaching that students and parents want. Exeter College is located in the most accessible location within the county in terms of public transport.

Having spent time travelling in the Exeter area this month, it’s clear that the rail service provided to this booming city is operated on a shoestring. Lack of rolling stock, single line working, low frequencies, lack of turnaround time, an outpost of SWR with trains replaced by buses. This wouldn’t be tolerated in London and the South East. If the Government is serious about enabling economic growth and boosting the regions then it needs to invest.

I disagree completely, the Rail service is good for the size of the city.

Half hourly service to most destinations, operated by mostly 4 car trains on the Devon Metro or 5 car 802s to Plymouth.

Go to Leicester or Nottingham if you want to see a shoestring service

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Having spent time travelling in the Exeter area this month, it’s clear that the rail service provided to this booming city is operated on a shoestring.

I disagree completely, the Rail service is good for the size of the city.

Half hourly service to most destinations, operated by mostly 4 car trains on the Devon Metro or 5 car 802s to Plymouth.

Go to Leicester or Nottingham if you want to see a shoestring service

Exeter has a good service, it's just not very consistent. Although you have half hourly services to Paignton and Exmouth, only some serve the rather well-used Polsloe Bridge, some stop at St Thomas and Starcross, others don't, some skip at St James despite others terminating there, and on the hourly Barnstaple line the stopping pattern is completely random.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Yesterday at 14:00 ==

This wouldn’t be tolerated in London and the South East.

HAHA. When Exeter St David's has the same levels of usage as London Victoria, perhaps then that will be a fair comparison.

 

[bramling]

I disagree completely, the Rail service is good for the size of the city.

Half hourly service to most destinations, operated by mostly 4 car trains on the Devon Metro or 5 car 802s to Plymouth.

Go to Leicester or Nottingham if you want to see a shoestring service

The other point to make is that Barnstaple isn’t really Exeter in the sense of some kind of metro service for either a city or build-up area. Indeed it’s quite fortunate to be considered part of the “Devon Metro”. It is effectively a rural branch line to a medium-sized town, that happens to also have a catchment area. Same with Okehampton. Virtually everything in between is rural villages.

I’m not knocking it and it’s good that Barnstaple benefits in this way, but 17 DMUs a day between the two isn’t a mass flow, even if a couple of services per day are heavily oversubscribed. Barnstaple’s total capacity for a day doesn’t even equate to an hour’s off-peak service at a Thameslink station like St Albans, and the numbers are several orders of magnitude different.

That said, it ought to be possible to find an affordable way of running a couple of longer formations to Barnstaple at times of demand. Equally, the local authorities should be looking at whether mass flows to/from Exeter is the best way of providing education to 17/18 year olds. It’s a long journey, and the students could more productively be doing other things like studying or playing sports then sitting for over an hour on a crowded train twice a day.

 

[TastyMaltesers]

some skip at St James despite others terminating there, and on the hourly Barnstaple line the stopping pattern is completely random.

St James' Park terminations are not normally in the WTT, and tend to happen when there's a sporting fixture on.

 

[cactustwirly]

Exeter has a good service, it's just not very consistent. Although you have half hourly services to Paignton and Exmouth, only some serve the rather well-used Polsloe Bridge, some stop at St Thomas and Starcross, others don't, some skip at St James despite others terminating there, and on the hourly Barnstaple line the stopping pattern is completely random.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Yesterday at 14:00 ==


HAHA. When Exeter St David's has the same levels of usage as London Victoria, perhaps then that will be a fair comparison.

You get that in Nottingham, a lot of places get hourly services or less like Netherfield or Carlton get hourly services.

Barnstaple branch serves very remote places which don't justify hourly services, the stopping pattern on Nottingham to Grantham/Skegness is the same.

Rolleston, Fiskerton, Burton Joyce on the Newark Castle line get a sporadic 2 hourly service

In Leicester South Wigston is every 2 hours, Syston gets no service on Sundays

Both Nottingham and Leicester are bigger cities than Exeter and get a comparatively worse service.

Exeter gets a better metro service than Bristol arguably