Plymouth "Ghost train"

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

Thought this may be of interest.....

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/history/gallery/abandoned-train-track-5566096?fbclid=IwAR1AT8MbqIgtICXTMBBo9jtLBXfDT7EKd-Pi_MJ8Qmq5xXRtfTgmiA7poh4

[Pb_devon]

Thanks TG…I would have missed this as I don’t read my local ‘paper’

[Pb_devon]

I wrote some more to the above, but obviously I’m on a short platform and not all of my words could be accommodated!! (With apologies to another member for borrowing his words!).

Anyway, related to this….

From 26 June 2021, the line beyond MP245m 18ch has been permanently closed.  This location is beyond the Laira Depot servicing platform, and means the whole Friary and Cattewater lines are OOU^▸ (out of use).  As EUropean Metal Recycling scrap yard no longer ship by rail there's no use for the line.
Plymouth City Council want to remove the low bridge over Embankment Road, and this will facilitate this.  I didn't realise but this bridge is too low for any tall HGV hence the big Royal Mail vehicles for the Sorting Office (for example) all have to go round through Manadon/Mutley/City Centre.
No doubt NR^» (Network Rail - home page) will be quick to sell off the remaining Friary site (not more student flats??!!).

Doesn’t affect any passenger services, but thought of general interest.

[grahame]

Plymouth City Council want to remove the low bridge over Embankment Road, and this will facilitate this.

[snip]

No doubt NR^» (Network Rail - home page) will be quick to sell off the remaining Friary site (not more student flats??!!).

[snip]

Doesn’t affect any passenger services, but thought of general interest.

Perhaps more than general interest?  No passenger services nor freight now - but is there any - even remote - possibility of the line being of any use for either people or goods in the future?   This is one of those cases where the removal of a low bridge could be very convenient in the short term, but then very much regretted and very expensive / impossible to reverse in the future.   In other places, we are saying "if only that had not been built there" and I believe there's such a case as close as Tavistock.

Map-reading job ... tell me it's a silly idea if you know Plymouth better than I do, but could you envisage a frequent service of tram trains from Sutton Harbour, North Quay, Friary, Lanhydrock Road, Laira, Lisson Grove, North Road, Devonport, Dockyard, Keyham, and St Budeaux, alternate services onward to Saltash and to Ernesettle, Bere Ferrers and Bere Alston, alternate again to Calstock and Gunnislake and to Tavistock.

[Pb_devon]

The subject of trams being introduced in Plymouth comes up now & again, but never gets beyond words. Your suggested route from Sutton Harbour to Plymouth Station is circuitous and quicker to walk. Plymouth Station is detached from the City Centre by a steep slope, whereas the bus runs direct to the Centre. 
But a worthy suggestion!

[LiskeardRich]

I wrote some more to the above, but obviously I’m on a short platform and not all of my words could be accommodated!! (With apologies to another member for borrowing his words!).

Anyway, related to this….

From 26 June 2021, the line beyond MP245m 18ch has been permanently closed.  This location is beyond the Laira Depot servicing platform, and means the whole Friary and Cattewater lines are OOU^▸ (out of use).  As EUropean Metal Recycling scrap yard no longer ship by rail there's no use for the line.
Plymouth City Council want to remove the low bridge over Embankment Road, and this will facilitate this.  I didn't realise but this bridge is too low for any tall HGV hence the big Royal Mail vehicles for the Sorting Office (for example) all have to go round through Manadon/Mutley/City Centre.
No doubt NR^» (Network Rail - home page) will be quick to sell off the remaining Friary site (not more student flats??!!).

Doesn’t affect any passenger services, but thought of general interest.

If I’m not mistaken the Royal Mail double deck lorries can’t get under the Plymouth station bridge since the road was resurfaced. Caught a few drivers out who’d gone that way for years!

[RichardB]

I wrote some more to the above, but obviously I’m on a short platform and not all of my words could be accommodated!! (With apologies to another member for borrowing his words!).

Anyway, related to this….

From 26 June 2021, the line beyond MP245m 18ch has been permanently closed.  This location is beyond the Laira Depot servicing platform, and means the whole Friary and Cattewater lines are OOU^▸ (out of use).  As EUropean Metal Recycling scrap yard no longer ship by rail there's no use for the line.
Plymouth City Council want to remove the low bridge over Embankment Road, and this will facilitate this.  I didn't realise but this bridge is too low for any tall HGV hence the big Royal Mail vehicles for the Sorting Office (for example) all have to go round through Manadon/Mutley/City Centre.
No doubt NR^» (Network Rail - home page) will be quick to sell off the remaining Friary site (not more student flats??!!).

Doesn’t affect any passenger services, but thought of general interest.

Thanks for this.  As you'll know, there have been several attempts to get planning permission for what is currently the vacant land next to the sidings close to Friary but they haven't got anywhere so far.   With those sidings lifted and the whole site available, you can see quite a big development being not far off.  Could get a lot of houses and flats on the site and it's very well situated - City Centre only ten mins walk away, for example.

Here's the latest proposal - https://futurestreet.co.uk/friaryvillage/#development - I thought I read that it had been knocked back, but I might be wrong.

I only live round the corner from this site and where Friary station was.  The old Stationmaster's house at Friary, considerably enlarged, is my doctor's surgery.