General Information - Plymouth to Penzance (refreshing, March 2020)

[whole diary]

[SandTEngineer]

A couple of points:

Aspirations

A return of passenger services to the Fowey branch (from Lostwithiel) and regular (for general use of the area) services from Bodmin Parkway to Bodmin General over heritage railway tracks are sought, as is a link to (re)connect the line from St Austell to the Newquay branch at Goonbarrow; the junction at Par (not a big place) means that the Newquay line really doesn't take people from Newquay directly where they want to go.

(i) Not sure if this is significant but a second platform is in the process of being built at Bodmin general station on the Bodmin & Wenford heritage railway to facilitate this, as far as I know.
(ii) The missing link in question runs from Parkandillack to the former St Dennis Junction, on the outskirts of the village of Indian Queens and not Goonbarrow.

Andy, the new Platform (No.2) at Bodmin General is being built to allow a 'preserved' two train service to run without sharing of the current single platform.  This will allow a more frequent service to be run on both lines to Bodmin Parkway and Boscarne Junction.  In the future it will also allow a proposed Community Rail service to be run in parallel with the existing preserved services.  The new platform was scheluled to be completed at the end of March 2020, but current events have obviously prevented that from happening.  I have a photograph of the almost completed platform and will post it here later.

[Andy]

Thanks, SandTEngineer. Rereading my comment, I realise that it could be interpreted as implying that the second platform is being built primarily to allow for a reintroduction of a scheduled service between General and Parkway, although it does give the B&W more capacity to accommodate such a service at some point down the line. Sorry.
Looking forward to seeing your photo of the station!
 
   

[Kernowman]

Provisional data - please, experts on Cornwall, post follow ups which I will write in to a final thread.  It's when I try and write something like this I realise how much there is to say and how little I know!

In due course, this thread and another / others for the branches will replace http://www.passenger.chat/1740 as the board's pinned post - an excellent piece of work by Phil, but now 10 years old.


Name

Cornish Main Line

Description

From Plymouth (in Devon) entering Cornwall at Saltash, via Liskeard, Bodmin Parkway, St Austell, Truro, Redruth and Camborne to Penzance.  Double track most of the way, with single line stretches between St Budeaux and Saltash, Liskeard and Bodmin Parkway (Largin), and St Erth and Penzance.

Rolling stock used

London trains are now in the hands of class 802 IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) (Intercity Express Trains) which most commonly run through Cornwall as 5 carriages, leaving / joining up to a further 5 carriage set at Plymouth for the London run.  

History


Western and Warship diesel hydraulics replaced the Kings and Castles from the late 1950s, and those in turn gave way to other locomotives (hydraulics being phased out as none-standard) and then to High Speed Trains which were the standard train for around 40 years.

A couple of points, the single line between St Erth and Penzance is between Marazion and Penzance. About two thirds of London trains are 9 car IETs, it tends to be only some up in the morning and some down in the evening (which stop at Saltash and St Germans) that are 5 car IETs in Cornwall.  'Other locomotives' would be classes 45/46/47/50.

Best, KM

[plymothian]

Ticket and fare data

Part time season tickets - no longer exist due to nationwide introduction of Flexi Seasons

Devon and Cornwall rail cards - one card, 2 counties

Ride Cornwall & Cornwall Ranger - Ride Cornwall encompasses rail & bus, Cornwall Ranger is rail only

Fares generally good value (in terms of pence per mile)

Strong Advanced ticket market

Fal Mussel Card - unlimited hop-on hop-off travel for a fixed period includes travel by ferry, train or bus in the Fal River area, comes in Uni and Visitor forms (local form is for ferries only)

Freedom of Devon & Cornwall and Freedom of South West Rover tickets

St Ives Bay Lines [Group] Ranger - unlimited day travel or between St Erth and St Ives.