Great Western Coffee Shop

From the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-21238691):

Is that one of the crossings where the train has to 'stop and hoot'? If so, is it possible for a train to be going fast enough over the crossing to cause much damage if something gets in the way?

You're more of a 'local' than me, Rhydgaled: I was hoping you'd tell me!  ;D

It's shown in my track atlas as an "open crossing". I'm not absolutely au fait with the nomenclature, but I *think* that it may be an open crossing with signs but without lights. In that case there will be an exceedingly low linespeed (probably of the order of 10 mph) and may well also be a requirement for a train to stop and sounds its horn before proceeding.

I was more interested in a rush hour train with 8 pax.  It could be of course that a decade ago there were only 4.

I think the rush hour flow in that part of the world is more of a dribble. 

Yes trains have to stop  and sound the horn before proceeding over this crossing. I saw some people waiting at this crossing back last summer who it seemed were not expecting to see a hst on a branchline.

This crossing is one of the reasons why the journey time is so long between Tenby & Pembroke Dock. The journey can be done easily in 23 minutes if the crossing were sorted out and the linespeed increased.

If you're going to produce a regular(ish?) timetable on a route with unbalanced flows - e.g. commutes from West Wales into Carmarthen, or into Paddington from Bedwyn, then your opposite trains will be quiet.  For all the talk of overcrowding, I expect you would be shocked to see the percentage of the time that a train seat's actually occupied. And just because it was carrying fresh air at Manorbier doesn't mean it's quite to empty from Tenby or from Whiltand.

There are, though, some truly wasted trains at times.

In GW land, I can tell you of a train that finishes an afternoon run at 16:33.   It sits unused until 17:11, when it runs a local service taking no more than 12 minutes (and following another train that's gone 10 minutes ahead of it), and has very few passengers - or at least did when I took a look.   It then comes back (about 20 minutes after another train) and it's an interesting question as to whether this is the best use of a train in the peak time ... for over an hour, it's just run for 20 minutes, more empty than full, and doubling up something else.

How much of the commuting market share does the Pembroke & Tenby railway get anyway? West of Tenby (which Manorbier is), the line is quite indirect to Whitland, going via Tenby, and therefore probably much slower than the road to Carmarthen. In the summer holidays however they lengthen the trains from 153s to Pacers, and then they are full or overflowing (at least east of Tenby), that's why they run two IC125 services on the branch on Summer Saturdays.

If the same crosing last time i saw it 20 years ago it was train crew operated gates. Made the journey even slower! Especialy with an HST.

Network Rail have developed a new type of crossing in Scotland that is being rolled out on currently open crossings there. I believe they cost a fraction of the usual cost, at around 100k per installation, and as well as the safety benefit, have the added benefit of eliminating the severe linespeed restrictions at such crossings.

I would have thought that there was a good case to invest a few million south of the border installing similar crossings, which could improve the attractiveness of rural branches by the reduction in journey times.

No.  Those are conversions of existing AOCL crossings (already fitted with road lights) to ABCL (fitted with barriers).  The crossing we are talking about is purely open with fixed road signs.

My parents' nearest railway station is Whitland, so I have a bi of experience of using the railway in that part of the world. From my experience it's surprisingly well used: the Pembroke Dock branch is generally operated by 153s, and it's not unusual to have trouble finding a seat if you board an up service at Whitland. Equally the two- and three-car units on the Milford Haven via Haverfordwest run tend to load very well. The most significant passenger flows appear to be to/from Carmarthen and Swansea, both of which have big shopping areas within a short distance of the station: bear in mind that in west Carmarthenshire/south Pembrokeshire there's very little in the way of public transport apart from the railway, so it tends to be well patronized by those who don't have cars.

Since I live in the area, I've used Whitland, Fishguard and Clunderwen stations a fair few times, and Haverfordwest once or twice, but I've only been to Milford Haven and Pembroke Dock once, both on the same day and returning on the same train I arrived on. I've done more bus travel around Pembs than train travel though. I've seen a wide range of loadings on the Milford/Fishguard services, but my lack of experience of the Pembroke Dock line means I have no idea on whether the much longer journey times to Carmarthen and Swansea (which are reached from Milford/Fishguard by train almost as quick as by car) have much effect on loadings.

If I remember rightly, most of the mainline bus services around Pembrokeshire are hourly (eg. Newport - Fishguard - Haverfordwest, St. Davids - Haverfordwest and Haverfordwest - Tenby) on weekdays but non-existant on Sundays, and (presumably because of the railway) there isn't much in the way of buses heading out of the county to Carmarthen any day of the week.