Minister highlights importance of rail to coastal towns.

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From Rail Magazine

Labour mobility will be the biggest challenge to rail over the next decade, according to new Rail Minister Paul Maynard.

Speaking at an East Anglian Rail Summit at Westminster on September 7, and then at an All-Party Parliamentary reception for Rail North the same day (also at Westminster), Maynard highlighted the plights of coastal towns.

The Conservative MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) for Blackpool North and Cleveleys cited Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft as examples at the East Anglian summit, and then Blackpool at the APPG event. He said: “The importance of links to coastal towns is vital. It is always said these links bring people to the towns, and they do, but they are to help people get out of the towns for work.”

Although he's not cited Weymouth, Exmouth, Looe, Falmouth, Penzance, St Ives, Newquay or Severn Beach, perhaps our new minister has an eye for the special issues of towns like these?

[ChrisB]

And he's wrong in any case - they were built to bring people *into* those towns....

Now most are run down, they do serve to take people that stiil live there out for work, but I reckon more still travel in....

[grahame]

Now most are run down, they do serve to take people that stiil live there out for work, but I reckon more still travel in....

I would be most interested to know ... I would suspect that there's a significant flow of visitors in summer and that visitors are scarse in winter, whereas residents out to work is a year-round traffic and a moderate level.   I would reckon that Exmouth is probably more out than in, but Newquay's more in than out ... and that RichardB could tell us where we are guessing 

[LiskeardRich]

falmouth branch is very busy towards Truro in the morning and vice versa in the evening. Looe I'm not sure but at a guess the main early am flow is looe to liskeard- the first liskeard departure is 3 minutes prior to the sleeper arrival at Liskeard, so at a guess it needs to get to looe to get passengers back from looe to liskeard for a main line connection.
Plymouth Citybus reinstated their 7ish am looe to Plymouth departure within days of pulling it because of demand. I gather many people commute looe to Plymouth.