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Through trains to Bristol for holidaymakers and local residents will run from Minehead from Friday 20 July. For the first time since the branch line between Taunton and Minehead was closed as part of the "Beeching Cuts" in January 1971 regular public service trains will be running from Minehead to Taunton and Bristol on selected dates through the peak summer weeks. The trains are the outcome of several months of planning between the West Somerset Railway, Butlins, Mainline Rail and Victa Westlink Rail, the last named will provide the train services, and it all required complex negotiations with Network Rail and the Office of the Rail Regulator. The outcome is that services will run on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays between Friday 20 July and Monday 27 August. The trains will leave Minehead at 11.10 calling at all West Somerset Railway stations and then Taunton at 12.55pm and then non-stop to Bristol Temple Meads, arriving at 1.46pm. The return will depart from Temple Meads at 2.06pm and will stop at Taunton at 2.42pm and then all WSR stations to Minehead, where arrival is at 4.25pm.

Taken from http://www.wsr.org.uk

Just goes to show what can be done. I wish them the very best of luck with this.

Here is a further related article (link below.)
http://www.rmtbristol.org.uk/2007/06/regular_bristolminehead_passen.html#more

Paul Conibeare , general manager of the West Somerset Railway , said: "The service can only work if the trains are used by enough people to pay for their costs, which are considerable."

"No subsidy is being paid by Central or local government, so the trains have to stand on their own financially."

Mr Conibeare added: "Ever since the railway re-opened in 1976 it has been asserted that there is a strong local demand for trains to and from Taunton."

"This is an opportunity to assess the potential market and also to persuade visitors to the area the journey can be made by public transport."

This certainly is very good news. I would love to take a day trip there- however, this doesn't seem possible as unusually the trains return from Minehead and not Bristol Temple Meads. What I feel would have been a better idea would be a morning departure from Bristol TM to Minehead, then occasional services back and forth from Minehead to Taunton, followed by a late afternoon departure back to Bristol TM. As it is not possible to day-trip I do feel they're missing out on an oppertunity, but I would still love to take a trip there- and perhaps stay overnight, returning the next day.

I wish them the best of luck and would love to see this line do well.

More on this in the link below.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/6909143.stm

Yes that was my thoughts on this service that its a shame it doesnt start from Bristol in the morning say around 9ish so you could travel down to Minehead for the day returning in the afternoon. I would have definately used the service had it been done this way. Hopefully that will be something that they could look at for next summer.

Does anyone know if through trains between Minehead and the national network are to return?

They seemed successful in the summer of 2007, but AFAIK did not run in summer 2008. Although the trains in 2007 were open to anyone purchasing a ticket, I believe that were primarily intended for customers of the Butlins holiday camp, hence the timings.

The main road between Minehead and Taunton suffers from awful traffic jams at busy times, and the motoring lobby frequently call for road widening.
A modest subsidy for through trains might alleviate congestion better than road widening.

Hi

While it would be good to go BTM-Minehead returning in the evening, there has obviously been some thought/input from the Butlins side.

Purely that guest's wanting to use the service need to depart, before the next incumbants arrive for their stay.  Although the over-night option is still open to travel down on the Friday, return on Saturday

Re through services from Network rail I'm on a through train from Slough to Minehead on 28th March run by Railtrail (ex Hertfordshire).

Unlike previously when I've visted the Beer Festival by through train and the 67 has worked through this tour is booked steam from Bishops Lydyard.

Keep an eye out for any specials for the beer Festival usually mid September, straight off the train and into the festival. You don't have to leave the station and when you do you are very happy!
 

This is good news that an agreement between a heritage railway and NR can be reached, this will instill confidence in a number of others that are working toward the samething Great Central in Loughborough being one that is trying to do something similar.

Hang on guys, this thread is from 2007. It was dragged back up by broadgage asking if they were to return after running in 2007 only.

From my understanding, the Minehead to Bristol service was planned to run last year as well. That was until Victa Westlink Rail were bought up by Stobart Rail in late 2007/early 2008 and the new owners decided that they did not want to run the service in future. I believe that the WSR tried to find a new operator but without any success so until someone comes along who wants to take on the risk of running these services, we won't see them running.  :(

I imagine it was very useful for Butlins?

Its a shame that the Butlins trains never really took off - partly I think due to timetabling and expensive fares.

I'm pretty sure there is a market for through trains to Minehead, but at the moment the WSR have quite a good heritage operation which more through trains may threaten and dilute. One of the main issue is the lack of capacity at the moment - the long section between Williton and Blue Anchor limits the line to only one train an hour each way. Steam trains will take preference for these paths as they are always going to be more profitable during July and August than a through diesel train to Taunton and beyond. Perhaps if they were to reinstall the loop between Watchet and Washford it would free more capacity for through trains. It would be great to have a daily HST from London and maybe three or four Minehead - Taunton DMU round trips in the summer.

Just musing here ... isn't there an HST or two from Paddington that turns around at Taunton?  Is there enough time to extend it to Bishop's Lydeard and let people transfer to / from the preserved train - what a marvellous way to start / end a holiday, and extra traffic onto the HST with precious few extra miles run ...

There are indeed, grahame. And in a few weeks time the biennial (December and May) rock festival will be happening at Butlins, Minehead, with 30,000 people descending on the place. I've been several times, and despite the festival running special coaches to and from Taunton station, the scheduled bus services between Taunton - Minehead and back are still so full they have people clutching rucksacks hanging off the roof and sides of them like a Bangladeshi charabanc.

I'd say the majority of people attending travel by public transport. Where the infrastructure exists to provide trains, as it patently does between Taunton and Minehead, not laying on special services for those two weekends in particular is nothing short of stupid - there's tens of thousands of pounds to be made, money which is simply going begging.

Whilst talking to my inside sources quite a while ago I was told that because of the signalling not quite meeting NR's standards they could only run 6 trains a week or something along those lines onto the main line :(

But as people have said there is potential for huge demand. Imagine this, Running a morning LHCS service from Minehead to Bridgwater Calling at all stops. You would pick up passengers for work in Taunton or onward connections.

And, all the college students attending Bridgwater, Richard Huish & SCAT Colleges. Would be alot faster than the existing, irritatingly slow and not to mention expensive bus services in place

But with the risk of taking such an expensive project on, It is highly unlikely that it will ever take off :(

It is a great pity to hear that the signalling interface between West Somerset and NR is still so restrictive.

I thought that subsequent to the Cider Company closing down and no longer using the riunning line as a siding that NR had upgraded the signally so that through trains can run, without special provision to signal them. Usually someone on the ground.

I believe before the changes it was 6 trains a year, 6 trains a week seems a very arbitary figure if special provision still  has to be made.

AFAIK the signaling between the Minehead branch and the main line has now been improved, and would permit of a regular through service to Bishops lydeard or beyond.

I very much hope that we will see through trains again, either for special events, or even a regular timetabled service.

The 28 bus provides an acceptable service at off peak times, but is very poor at busy times due to overcrowding of the bus and delays caused by road congestion.

Unfortunatly, providing a regular rail service between Minehead and Taunton, might not produce any saving on the subsidy paid to the bus company.
When BR closed the Minehead branch, a bus service was provided instead, this was originaly a true rail replacement bus, calling only at railway stations.
However as the years went by, the bus service was altered to better serve not just ex rail customers, but also the community in general.
As a result the present bus service has many additional stops, not at rail stations, the better to serve numerous communities en-route.
Any replacement of the bus by a re-instated rail service would probably be strongly opposed by such communities.

Turnaround is half an hour. It arrives at Taunton (1218 PAD-TAU) at 1444. Extending it further would occupy the platform for the 1350 Taunton - Plymouth, which is would have to wait to Pass at Norton Fit(no idea how to spell)

It then departs at 1519 with a fast HST 11 minutes behind, so turn arounds would be hopelessly tight. Nice idea anyway!

Perhaps running a loco hauled service as before, but allowing passengers to use both legs of the journeys for a more reasonable price:

(http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l50/liamy_2006/fs12s.jpg)

I know there are limitations with regard routing from Taunton to the Minehead branch (I think services have to use the 15mph restricted up/down relief) but this is the first I have heard of the 6 trains per week restriction which sounds a bit ridiculous - either it is safe or it isn't!

It does seem stupid that they don't run trains for the Minehead music festivals - but unfortunately quite a few heritage lines are often slow to pick up on the use of there lines for anything other than the core leisure train rides. I think there was a story on the excellent wsr.org.uk a few months back saying that they were investigating getting a heritage DMU mainline registered for use between Taunton and Bishops Lydeard. Perhaps when the ATW or Chiltern Bubble get retired in a few years the WSR could aquire them?

Isn't there a preserved thumper about? Good old reliable English Electric technology.

Trouble is any heritage unit will be slam door so probably not allowed to run on the main line.

Now a pensioned off Pacer might be just the thing!

Im sure FGW could catch onto something here though, and offer a special couple of trains a day to Butlins/ Mineead.  Even though it would be in direct cometion to its own bus service from taunton station, I personnaly think it wouldnt have much of an impact, as more people could choose the rail service of Butlins worked to promote it.

Remember the FGW HST to BUtlins mid last year?  Was that a sucess?

Yes, a fabulous day was had by all.

No, Butlins was closed to day visitors so we couldn't go in.

The 15mph has just been raised to 40mph, as NR proudly announced earlier this month.

The shuttles that FGW and Virgin did a couple of years back for Gala weekends ran around 5 or 6 per day for both Sat and Sunday. I'm wondering whether the source quoting this 6 per week limit was confusing it with the previous 6 per year that used to exist before NR upgraded the signalling. After all, Network Rail have been running almost daily services onto the WSR at times for the last 18 months or so.

As I've posted elsewhere (somewhere - can't find it!) the new platform that the WSR is building at Norton Fitzwarren could be the opportunity to run a much shorter shuttle service which, together with the upgrade of the relief line, would be much more viable in terms of being a relatively quick return hop from Taunton.

And yes, the FGW special was great fun, especially when they starting selling the beer at 50p a pint to clear it (hic)! Hope they do it again soon.

Here, http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=3710.msg32553#msg32553, possibly, John? ;D

Thanks Chris!

SO Virgin actually ran a few services to Minehead station??  Anyone else remember this?  Or are you refering to a different destination?


As for Butlins being closed to day visitors..... the trip was advertised as giving you money off anentry into Butlns Minehead, so surely Butlins wasnt actually closed?? 

It ran a Voyager shuttle to Bishops Lydiard.

Yes, Butlins was indeed closed, but it didn't detract from the day.

How on earth did FGW get it so wrong then?  promoting the service offering discounted entry into Butlins, then butlins actually being closed?!?!

Let me clarify that. Butlins was closed to day visitors - there was an special weekend of some sort going on there (as I understand it) to which additional people were not being admitted for the day. We heard about this ahead of time (at this point, I don't remember if it was on th train or even earlier) so everyone knew; my own little group hadn't been going to Butlins anyway, so it wasn't a huge deal to us, and I still have some - undated - 50% off Butlins day vouchers that we were handed to make up for the disappointment another time.

The day was organised by a charity - "The Railway Children" - and as the purpose was also to raise money for their cause, I don't think that anyone got dreadfully upset - everyone I spoke with certainly had a great day.  And it's probably far too long after the even to be useful discussing how and where messages got crossed in terms of why the Butlins deal ended up being advertised when it wasn't available.  But a good lesson for next time such a trip is run ... and I'll be on it if I can connect into it practically from my local station.

Anyone reading this forum would have been well aware before they travelled that they wouldn't be able to get into Butlins that day - I remember remarking on it myself at the time

Just for completeness, the previous topic, relating to the excursion on 10 May 2008, is at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=2468.0

And although FGW facilitated the day in many ways (such as donating the train, fuel, advertising, booking facilities), which made it look like a FGW event, it was down to a great deal of hard work by FGW (and others) individuals in their spare time, both on the day and before, that the event ran. Let's please remember that, and those of us who supported it had a great day, and raised a lot of money. 

Over ^10,000, apparently: see http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=2686.0 for further details.

6 a Year, That sounds right, I knew it was 6 something :P Sorry to have caused any confusion ;) My inside source comes from the WSR ;)