Great Western Coffee Shop

Following the withdrawal of those trains currently worked by Stagecoach South Western west of Exeter, the following weekday package of changes will be made to FGW services to cover the traffic:
^ 0800 SX Cardiff Central -Taunton is extended to Paignton;
^ 1407 SX Taunton-Cardiff Central starts back from Paignton at 1247 calling additionally at Tiverton Parkway;
^ 0900 SX Cardiff Central -Taunton is extended to Plymouth calling Tiverton Parkway, Exeter St Davids, Newton Abbot, thence all stations to Plymouth;
^ An additional 1748 SX Plymouth-Exeter St Davids service runs;
^ A 1710 SX Exeter St Davids-St James Park service will operate. This then forms a 1739 St James Park - Paignton calling all stations;
^ A 1912 SX Paignton - Exeter St Davids train operates;
^ 1508 SX Plymouth-Newton Abbot (all stations) and 1600 SX Newton Abbot - Plymouth (all stations) trains will operate In conjunction with a 1610 SX Exeter-Plymouth this will provide an enhanced level of Ivybridge calls in the early evening to service student flowsfrom the college; and
^ The 1008 SX Taunton-Cardiff is to start back from Exeter St Davids at 0933 and the 1300 SX Cardiff-Taunton is extended to Exeter St Davids, both calling at Tiverton Parkway.
A similar coverage is provided at weekends;

why??? this is the same as the summer sunday okehampton service why does it start at st james park... its not making up for swt services they dont stop there and central is bidirectional so its not to turn around

The SWT service will still be running between Waterloo and Exeter (one assumes) - currently it leaves Central at 1735, arriving at St Davids at 1738. So the bi-directional line to Central is occupied at that time, and the new service can't leave St Davids to reverse at Central until after 1738 - assuming there's space for it to wait until then. Which would make the turn-around at Central much tighter. Turning it at Exmouth Junction makes things more robust and flexible.

I guess the other potential difficulty this plan overcomes is that for pax from Central towards Paignton (who might have expected to have to change from SWT to FGW at St Davids) can still have a through service.  'Overlapping' the two services between Central and St Davids shares out the changes, which is also good for pax from SWT origins going through to FGW destinations towards Torbay.

This also presumably avoids everyone on the platform at Central piling onto the terminating SWT for one stop, as pax only going to St Davids for other changes towards the north also have a choice of trains.

Paul

The old SWT 17.35 ex Central is the major travel home train for commuters for stations to Paignton and is usually wedged.

It's no suprise at all that the  FGW replacement starts at Central.

All 24 Barton Hill drivers are being trained for passenger workings. (Currently 12 trained) so it's likely to be 67s.

Little snippet I found on the SWRG Group this morning - I can't vouch for its acuracy though......

"From the new timetable the 1900 CDF TAU will run ECS to Bishops Lydeard rather than hdg back to Barton Hill it will then run from BL back to TAU the following morning to start the day"

Please note that isn't the whole timetable for the line, just the personalised output for an end to end service. So it doesn't include the early morning and late evening part services that run eg Yeovil - Exeter, or Exeter to Salisbury etc, so in particular it misses out all the morning peak local services towards Exeter...

All the missing services can be found in the normal journey planners, which have been online for a few weeks now...

Joking aside about local journeys from Feniton to Pinhoe, they are available in the peaks. But when I checked the timings of those services when all 3 stops occur they lose all the flexibility margins between the Axminster and Pinhoe dual track sections.  I guess they have gone for alternate hours normally because it improves overall reliability.

Paul

Please note that isn't the whole timetable for the line, just the personalised output for an end to end service. So it doesn't include the early morning and late evening part services that run eg Yeovil - Exeter, or Exeter to Salisbury etc, so in particular it misses out all the morning peak local services towards Exeter...