Marsh Barton Station

[whole diary]

[PhilWakely]

The article also mentions Okehampton, Edginswell, Monkerton, and Cullompton.

The choice of 'Monkerton' is an odd one. I am assuming the siting will be at Hill Barton, on the Exmouth branch between Polsloe Bridge and Digby and Sowton. The location of the main Monkerton development is closer to Pinhoe station on the Exeter to Salisbury line than it is to the Exmouth branch.

[REVUpminster]

Monkerton  Station is proposed at Hill Barton Road. It is near housing being built and the Met Office. There are housing sites all over eastern Exeter. In the next 10 years Exeter's population will overtake Torbay.

[PhilWakely]

Monkerton  Station is proposed at Hill Barton Road. It is near housing being built and the Met Office. There are housing sites all over eastern Exeter. In the next 10 years Exeter's population will overtake Torbay.

I appreciate that (I live in Pinhoe, with developments ongoing all around me), but the choice of name - 'Monkerton' - is not appropriate. The developments to the west of the Met Office, close to Hill Barton are all marketed as 'Hill Barton', so why not call the station 'Hill Barton'. The nearest 'Monkerton' development is nearly a mile away. Mind you, the developments will probably all end up merging. 

[johnneyw]

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/marsh-barton-new-train-station-4782036

Plans approved with a view to open in December 2021.

The article also mentions Okehampton, Edginswell, Monkerton, and Cullompton.

12 months from now?  That seems wildly optimistic, especially for a two platform station.

[REVUpminster]

Marsh Barton Station site Clappergate Lane by Robert, on Flickr

Site is reasonably flat, probably be prefabricated off site. Get in quick before Network rail inflate the price again.

The image should be Clapperbook lane.

[johnneyw]

Devon Live report a February date for construction to commence:

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/marsh-barton-railway-station-construction-4883936?fbclid=IwAR1MTMM_8lDn2SRnd1w8-jvGgSqEgIEM9Ef-CXDDNeJenAfsRbeb65iVIOY

[Bob_Blakey]

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/marsh-barton-railway-station-work-5304324

Confirmation that construction of the new station has started. I cycled past the site yesterday and a significant degree of vegetation clearance was evident.

[REVUpminster]

Hurrah!! At last. Edginswell still hasn't gone to planning.

[Bob_Blakey]

Another 'cycle by' on Friday (23/04); the area between the railway and (to the SSE^‡(resolve) of) Clapperbrook Lane East has had the topsoil stripped, been levelled and a layer of stone applied. I guess we should see the makings of an active worksite very soon.

[PhilWakely]

Another 'cycle by' on Friday (23/04); the area between the railway and (to the SSE^‡(resolve) of) Clapperbrook Lane East has had the topsoil stripped, been levelled and a layer of stone applied. I guess we should see the makings of an active worksite very soon.

It will be interesting if works traffic will be constantly crossing the bridge which has a restricted weight limit on it (and is quite narrow).

[stuving]

Another 'cycle by' on Friday (23/04); the area between the railway and (to the SSE^‡(resolve) of) Clapperbrook Lane East has had the topsoil stripped, been levelled and a layer of stone applied. I guess we should see the makings of an active worksite very soon.

It will be interesting if works traffic will be constantly crossing the bridge which has a restricted weight limit on it (and is quite narrow).

The planning documents show an access road entered from Water Lane in the north, between the canal and a compound full of diesel generators, running south to cross Clapperbrook Lane. That compound is Water Lane STOR^▸ (Short-Term Operational Reserve) - for Short-Term Operational Reserve, meaning it does this:

STOR Units must have the capability to:

•     offer a minimum of 3 MW of generation or steady demand reduction. This can be aggregated from more than one site
      respond to an instruction within a maximum of 20 minutes
•     sustain the response for a minimum of two hours
•     respond again with a recovery period of not more than 1200 minutes

The generators are road-transportable, i.e. shipping container size; here there are 19 providing 20 MW. That seems a bit low, as there is another STOR site in Marsh Barton in the Makro car park off Yeoford Road, and that's rated at 20 MW but has 10 similar generators. I can't find out who built and who runs the Water Lane one; the other is Peak Gen Power's.

And there's more - just across the railway line, at the end of Marsh Green Road (Kenton Place), there is a 65 MW OCGT^▸ (Open Cycle Gas Turbine) power station, built by Rolls-Royce Power Development Limited but now run by Whitetower Energy Limited. Note that some of this info comes from applications, and may be misleading (the Rolls-Royce application was for 3 GW^▸ (Great Western)!). There are many more applications than things that happen - think of railway stations!

The site north of Clapperbrook Lane, up to the STOR site, has approval for a solar array farm, and building was reported as starting earlier this year. Any sign of that? Presumably that would also need the access road behind it.

I know there's a 132 kV line running past there, which is convenient, but even so ... I guess putting all these things (especially the fuel-burning ones) in an industrial estate avoids the kind of objections there have been recently in Bristol about putting STOR sites in residential areas.

[Bob_Blakey]

The planning documents show an access road entered from Water Lane in the north, .....

This final section of Water Lane, SE of the STOR^▸ (Short-Term Operational Reserve) compound, is currently blocked to all motor vehicles, with metal bollards, at both ends and is a VERY popular route for walkers, dog walkers & cyclists. One hopes that common sense will prevail and all foot/bicycle users will be instructed to use the alternative route to the east of the Exeter Ship Canal.

[lympstone_commuter]

Inspired by BB's reports I diverted my morning cycle to work past the site today. There is indeed a temporary haul road extending south from Water Lane to meet Clapperbrook Lane. It liesa few metres to the west of the cycle/footpath which runs along the west bank of the canal (and which remains open).

I assume the haul road must have been the access for the articulated lorry that I saw unloading concrete blocks in the embryonic station car park. (They looked a bit like the blocks that are used to support modern station platforms).

[Bob_Blakey]

Cycled past the site yesterday (29/04); workmen (is this term still permitted?  ) were busy clearing ground vegetation & cutting back trees on the 'Up' side of the railway (adjacent to the Viridor Energy-From-Waste plant) and along the south side of Clapperbrook Lane.  In addition to the previously mentioned precast concrete blocks there were a large number of what looked like preformed steelwork sections on the eastern side of the 'yard'.

[Lee]

Cycled past the site yesterday (29/04); workmen (is this term still permitted?  )

It depends. Were all those present "men" and were they "working" ? More importantly, had a Diversity Equality Inclusivity Impact Assessment been carried out to deternine whether those Global Citizens present were the most appropriate given the need to ensure that the Intersectionality of the Impact Output (formerly "Work") complies with the latest thinking on how to acheive Cradle to Cradle Circular Economy Corporate Social Responsibility?

Furthermore, did the Diversity Equality Inclusivity Impact Assessment fully consider the Human Rights of those Global Citizens who have, after having fully participated in Brave Space Truth & Reconciliation, made the decision as Slacktivists not to participate in said Impact Output?

Finally, it is extremely important that we fully utiise Impact Consulting to ensure that we refer to outdated concepts such as "yards" by their more appropriate forms such as Material Footprint Zones if we want our Impact Storytelling to fully reflect our Two Spirit Value Chain.

Hope that clarifies things.