Windermere station improvement funds should be diverted to pay for a clockface timetable instead

[Russel]

Moderator note: Split from

Windermere Station Rebuilding Plans

Consultation on railway station upgrade plans People are being invited to have their say on plans to "transform" the way rail passengers arrive into a national park. Westmorland and Furness Council is setting out three options to rebuild and change the layout of Windermere Station in Cumbria...

www.railforums.co.uk

The current station is no award winner, but it's functional.

The money would be better spend on infrastructure improvements to allow a clockface timetable.

 

[John S2]

The current station is no award winner, but it's functional.

The money would be better spend on infrastructure improvements to allow a clockface timetable.

Agree. In addition, the DfT or local authority needs to be granted powers to insist that [for example] the 555 service from Grasmere & Ambleside connects into trains at Windermere in the evenings - ie when bus frequency is low. At present a 555 bus arrives at 20:43 precisely 2 minutes after a train departs at 20:41.

 

[The Planner]

Moderator note: Split from

Windermere Station Rebuilding Plans

Consultation on railway station upgrade plans People are being invited to have their say on plans to "transform" the way rail passengers arrive into a national park. Westmorland and Furness Council is setting out three options to rebuild and change the layout of Windermere Station in Cumbria...

www.railforums.co.uk

The current station is no award winner, but it's functional.

The money would be better spend on infrastructure improvements to allow a clockface timetable.

They probably wouldn't come close to paying for that.

 

[Russel]

They probably wouldn't come close to paying for that.

Maybe not, but it would help.

A clockface timetable is a much better prospect than a new platform canopy.

 

[stevieinselby]

The money would be better spend on infrastructure improvements to allow a clockface timetable.

What infrastructure improvements are needed? Windermere to Oxenholme takes 19 minutes each way. In and of itself, the branch could comfortably support an hourly service with plenty of slack to spare – I suspect the problem comes with the combination of pathing through services to Manchester on a few hours and hitting a good connection window on the other hours, and because the rest of the West Coast Mainline doesn't run a clockface timetable that means that it's better to run a slightly odd pattern on the branch.
eg, TransPennine trains leave Manchester every hour from 07:21 to 18:21, but by the time they arrive at Oxenholme they are at 08:30, 09:32, 10:35, 11:28, 12:32, 13:29, 14:34, 15:32, 16:33, 17:35, 18:33 and 19:34.
Similarly with Avanti services, there is no regularity or consistency to them, with a different pattern pretty much every hour of the day.
So I don't know what the "spend on infrastructure improvements" would be that would allow a clockface pattern to/from Windermere if it has to be tied in with other services through Oxenholme, but I suspect it would be considerably more than the cost of rebuilding the whole of the town of Windermere, let alone the station...

(Of course, the cheapest and easiest way to get a clockface service would be to run it as a self-contained service shuttling backwards and forwards between Windermere and Oxenholme on a simple hourly schedule, and put two fingers up to passengers wanting to make onward connections ... but that's definitely not in the best interests of the railways or the travelling public!)

 

[Northerngirl]

Dare I suggest electrification of the line...

 

[HamworthyGoods]

The money would be better spend on infrastructure improvements to allow a clockface timetable.

Why do you want a clock face timetable rather than one designed around connections? Oxenholme is not a tragic destination as such.

 

[Russel]

Why do you want a clock face timetable rather than one designed around connections? Oxenholme is not a tragic destination as such.

In an ideal world, a half hourly clockface timetable would give much better connection options onwards from Oxenholme, given the sporadic nature of the WCML timetable.