Upgrade to 125mph XC....

[Zoe]

Would be interesting to know how many people travel between Castle Cary and Taunton. If it's only a handful then maybe you could completely remove Castle Cary calls from London trains and people could change at Westbury. Not sure about stations between Newbury and Westbury though.

 

[TheWalrus]

You didnt forget them, but didnt propose to serve them very well!
Put those three calls on the semi fast.
Loads go from castle cary west towards taunton! I think combined with westbury they deserve an hourly service!
The semi fast exeter padd should call at reading newbury kintbury hungerford bedwyn pewsey westbury cary taunton with most calling at tiverton. Just to put to rest all the speculation on how stations should be served!

 

[Zoe]

Loads go from castle cary west towards taunton! I think combined with westbury they deserve an hourly service!

I have never seen Castle Cary station packed with people wanting to go west and I have used quite a few trains on that route over the years. If it was really that busy then I'd expect to see a crowded down platform when most HSTs arrive now.

 

[TEW]

I'd say demand from Castle Cary to the West is small, mainly people connecting off the Weymouth line. Castle Cary is well used towards London though.

 

[TheWalrus]

Loads go from castle cary west towards taunton! I think combined with westbury they deserve an hourly service!

I have never seen Castle Cary station packed with people wanting to go west and I have used quite a few trains on that route over the years. If it was really that busy then I'd expect to see a crowded down platform when most HSTs arrive now.

Have you tried the 1506 off pad there?

 

[TEW]

The 1506 PAD-PNZ has a connection with at Castle Cary with the 1508 ex Weymouth, which is well used. The 1506 PAD-PNZ is well used in general of course, as it also has good connections at Westbury.

IMO, London-Plymouth/Penzance trains should retain Westbury and Castle Cary stops in the long-run provided they are well timed with connecting services. The services which have good connections at Westbury for the South Coast are always well used.

 

[RichW1]

Might as well do what The Walrus said and serve them all.to be honest the train will be so intentionally slow with all the stops that adding one or two more really won't be of consequence as any time penalty would be meaningless on such a service. That way all rural villages get their service to London and Exeter et al. It also means fast services can bypass these stations and reach Exeter, Plymouth and Cornish destinations quicker (as I feel they so rightly deserve). Over all it seems the West Country needs some real money spent on track and capacity. Also this would help my original thought of 125mph Exeter to Birmingham. It's easy to forget a lot of traffic goes towards the core cities and you have to admit that just at the moment, if you live in Plymouth or anywhere else on the peninsula the car is a lot more attractive. It can't be right that it takes 5 or 6 hours to reach Leeds or Newcastle and in pure economic terms for regeneration it's crazy. So I thought the 125 thing would be a pragmatic compromise that was achievable in reducing the pain just a bit, as anything more I realise is decades away in reality. Wouldn't be opposed to a 125 increase Reading to Taunton either!

 

[Zoe]

The 1506 PAD-PNZ has a connection with at Castle Cary with the 1508 ex Weymouth, which is well used.
IMO, London-Plymouth/Penzance trains should retain Westbury and Castle Cary stops in the long-run provided they are well timed with connecting services. The services which have good connections at Westbury for the South Coast are always well used.

If you could easily change at Yeovil then you wouldn't need to go as far as Castle Cary for a Weymouth to Exeter journey but this isn't very practical as there is no rail service between the two Yeovil stations and it's almost 2 miles by road.

 

[TheWalrus]

Thank you! couldnt agree more! But i think we should do something about line speeds west of exeter also.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Inland route?

 

[Pen Mill]

If you could easily change at Yeovil then you wouldn't need to go as far as Castle Cary for a Weymouth to Exeter journey but this isn't very practical as there is no rail service between the two Yeovil stations and it's almost 2 miles by road.

The line is still operational though.
However , there's not much logic in going from Weymouth to Exeter by rail however you do it.
Rail mileage Wey-YVP-YVJ-EXD = 79 against 61 by road and a whopping 97 via Castle Cary

 

[mumrar]

However, an example of this is the WCML, where the line speed has been increased to 125mph but the local services remain only capable of 100mph

Not quite the whole story, whilst the local services remain 100mph stock the reality is that when they utilised the slow lines they were often limited to 75mph. The slow lines in most areas of the WCML have now been upgraded to 100mph so the services have seen an arguably bigger speed increase than the headline figure for the expresses.

 

[TheWalrus]

How about weymouth-taunton?

 

[WelshBluebird]

However , there's not much logic in going from Weymouth to Exeter by rail however you do it

Why not? Many people do not drive, so they have to rely on public transport. Yes going by rail may be much longer than driving, but if someone doesn't drive, then they do not have the choice.

In regards to Castle Cary, I would hope this station does not get any cuts in its services. Since much of rural somerset is without a railway station (and has been for the last half a century) Castle Cary is pretty important in my view (I lived in Shepton Mallet for the last 12 months). Especially considering the recent bus cuts meaning getting from Bristol to many parts of somerset is now a lot more difficult.

 

[jopsuk]

How much easier would the upgrade be if the 220s (all of them) were retro-converted to be tilting 221s? Obviously there's increased track wear from the heavier units to be considered.

 

[ChrisCooper]

How much easier would the upgrade be if the 220s (all of them) were retro-converted to be tilting 221s? Obviously there's increased track wear from the heavier units to be considered.

It would be very expensive, not only would the tilting equipment need fitting but also new bogies as the FlexEcos on the 220s wouldn't work with tilt. As well as that the line would also need TASS fitting and clearance for tilted trains would need checking, so adding further to the cost. Running costs would go up too, as you say they would be heavier (an extra 10t per coach) so that's higher track access charges, and of cource more fuel use (although that could be offset by less need to accelerate and brake). Performance increase from higher cornering speed could be lost by reduced acceleration due to the extra weight depending on stopping pattern and gradients, particularly on sections which were not cleared for tilt or where tilt provided little benefit where the weight penalty would have no benefit. The tilt system would also increase maintenace costs. Cross Country have actually disabled tilt on their Super Voyagers as it provides no benefit, but puts up costs.

 

[RichW1]

Harsh reality struck when I read just now about France's high-speed extensions. They're going to tinier places now and extending out to Rennes before going on to Brest as well as several other projects UC. TGV going west to Brest has no places bigger than Exeter or Plymouth (and they're pretty small anyway!). I know this is a bit of a moany post but when you see the map, now they're moving beyond connecting city pairs and taking the actual high speed line with TGV (not on the classic lines) to rural towns! We're building from the ground up and I think that's the right way to go as their classic network is about 100mph with some faster stretches to 125 so I know it's not comparing like with like looking at TGV's. But hang on....hurry up and build HS2 already!!! While we sit here dithering over it with a cup of tea and flowery tea-pots, the rest of Western Europe (apart from portugal who's about to shut lines because of austerity) is covering more and more of the country. The argument that TGV style services don't serve the like of places the size of Plymouth or Exeter is starting to look thin and with it my pride that classic lines at least did something here TGV's didn't do. But now it really is time to start building.

Put this into perspective...the journey time to tiny Brest was 4 1/2 hours from Paris to our 5 hours to Penzance from London. Now it'll be cut to 3 with TGV. Ours to the west country keeps creeping up by a minute here and there. I wish the funding was going to come on stream earlier.

 

[TheWalrus]

Exactly my point rich!