Earlier Plymouth Arrival From London Consultation

[whole diary]

[Lee]

Plymouth Herald article on the forthcoming timetable change, which also features some interesting comments from the Transport Secretary on the first/standard accommodation conversions - http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Boost-Plymouth-s-beleaguered-rail-link-London/story-20810594-detail/story.html

[JayMac]

I wonder what the residents of Torbay will think of that? What will they get instead? I suspect a tweaking of unit diagrams to offer a connecting service from either Exeter or Newton Abbot.

Can't imagine they'll be happy if they get nothing. Losing out because Plymouth has shouted louder.

[bobm]

Nice vintage picture to illustrate the story.

I wonder what the Torbay Rail Users Group will have to say after losing their train which was launched in 2010.

Report from the time from This is Cornwall.

Primary school pupils helped launch a new train service linking South Devon with London yesterday.
 
Torbay Mayor Nick Bye joined the Class Four children from All Saints School, Babbacombe, to see the new service off from Paignton station.

The train is the new 7.06am service from Paddington introduced in this winter's First Great Western timetable.
 
This train gets into Paignton 40 minutes earlier than the existing service. That train forms the new 11.06am direct return to Paddington which it is hoped will boost business and tourism to the area.
 
The children were there because they won a competition to come up with a name for the new train, the Devon Express.
 
Mayor Bye and local councillors worked with members of the Torbay Rail Users Group and First Great Western to secure the service.

[Lee]

Further investigation has revealed that my title is somewhat misleading - A timetable change consultation is being launched, but a change is NOT imminent and WON^▸ (Weekly Operating Notice )'T be introduced from May 2014.

Sorry about that - perils of trying to get loads of articles up in a short space of time!

[ChrisB]

Think you might have been right all along....from an email from Mark Hopwood in general circulation to User Groups....

As well as the exciting news about the extra seats, we have just been given permission by the Department for Transport to implement some timetable changes in May and start a formal consultation on some important prospective changes for December.

[John R]

Do you have any idea what the important prospective changes for December might refer to?

[John R]

I've just seen this on Railnews which has some interesting snippets:-

From May a High Speed Train will be used on the Bristol-Weymouth route on summer Saturdays, there will be more capacity on the Devon and Cornwall branches and a locomotive-hauled train will run between Par and Exeter on summer Saturdays. Weston-super-Mare will gain an additional London service on summer Sundays.

Further ahead, FGW^▸ (First Great Western) will consult on a proposal to reroute the current 07.06 Paddington to Paignton service to Cornwall, which would provide earlier arrivals of around 40 minutes at Totnes, Plymouth and stations to Penzance.

To balance this change, the 07.30 service from Paddington to Penzance would run to Paignton via Bristol instead, providing better connections with South Wales. The company said there would be a journey time improvement to Exeter St David's, Torquay and Paignton of 19 minutes.

Other changes would mean that London-Cornwall services would be more evenly spread through the day, and there would be a new 11.33 Paddington to Exeter service with a return at 14.53. To complete these revisions, timetables on the Devon and Cornwall branches would be adjusted to maintain connections, and there would be some additional timetable changes for trains routed via Westbury.

[bobm]

I've just seen this on Railnews which has some interesting snippets:-


snip...

Further ahead, FGW^▸ (First Great Western) will consult on a proposal to reroute the current 07.06 Paddington to Paignton service to Cornwall, which would provide earlier arrivals of around 40 minutes at Totnes, Plymouth and stations to Penzance.

To balance this change, the 07.30 service from Paddington to Penzance would run to Paignton via Bristol instead, providing better connections with South Wales. The company said there would be a journey time improvement to Exeter St David's, Torquay and Paignton of 19 minutes.

I assume this may mean negotiating changes to the franchise service level agreement.

In the London to Bristol & Weston-super-Mare section is this

3.13 Penzance
(a) On Mondays to Fridays and Saturdays, one service from London Paddington, arriving in Penzance before 1330, shall call.
(b) On Mondays to Fridays and Saturdays, two services (one on Saturday) to London Paddington shall call, one of which shall depart Penzance after 1715.
(c) On Sundays, one service from London Paddington arriving in Penzance before 1415 shall call.

Bristol currently has a very early service which meets that criteria in paragraph a, however Swindon, Chippenham and Bath Spa will not unless there are some suitable connections at Exeter St David's or Newton Abbot from the 07:30 which currently (Dawlish sea-wall permitting) arrives in Penzance at 13:17.  So you would need some pretty tight connections to maintain a pre-13:30 arrival and tight connections are not always robust ones...

[Chris from Nailsea]

From my e-mail:

Hi Chris,
I have been told of a couple of comments on the coffee shop about the potential improvements for Devon and Cornwall, however I can't seem to log in.
Would you mind reiterating to members that this is a consultation for any changes to be implemented in the December timetable change, and not the forthcoming May timetable change, aside from those mentioned in the final para.
Many thanks,
...

West of England ^ potential improvements to services

First Great Western has announced that it will begin a formal timetable consultation on proposed changes to its West of England services in response to customer and stakeholder demand.

First Great Western Managing Director Mark Hopwood said: ^After the tough times the West of England has faced in recent weeks, First Great Western has been considering how it can improve the train service between London and key destinations in Devon and Cornwall. Working with Network Rail and the Department for Transport we have developed proposals that could deliver improvements from December 2014 onwards.^

The current 0706 Paddington to Paignton service would run to Plymouth and key stations in Cornwall; achieving around a 40 minute earlier arrival than today^s first London train at Totnes (1007), Plymouth (1035) and through to Penzance (1237).

The present 0730 service from London Paddington to Penzance would run to Paignton via Bristol, retaining London connectivity, but with the added advantage of improved connectivity from South Wales and Bristol to Torbay. Torbay and Exeter would gain a 19 minute journey time improvement, with the present 1106 Paignton-London train leaving later and still arriving in London Paddington at 1454.

From Cornwall high speed services to London would be more evenly spread through the day.  New journey opportunities would be created by the introduction of a 1133 Paddington to Exeter service and a 1453 Exeter to London service.

There would be a number of consequential changes to local services in Devon and Cornwall and along the Berks and Hants route.

In advance of this consultation FGW^▸ (First Great Western) is pleased to announce that it has reached agreement with DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) on a number of timetable changes that it will be introducing in May. These changes will provide for additional strengthening of services across the West of England in the summer. Features include the use of a High Speed Train on the Bristol-Weymouth route on summer Saturdays to provide more capacity to and from the coast; more capacity on the Cornish and Devon branches; use of a loco-hauled train between Par and Exeter on summer Saturdays and the extension of a high speed London service to/from Weston-super-Mare on summer Sundays.

I'm sorting out why the First Great Western press office are apparently unable to log in to the Coffee Shop forum, but in the meantime, I hope the above clarifies the matter. 

[bobm]

Perhaps they need to reset their password after the "great server crash of June 2013"?

[Lee]

To be fair, I had already issued what I thought was a pretty clear correction regarding the title of this topic.

[bobm]

Indeed you did Lee.  Topic now renamed throughout to avoid any further confusion/misunderstanding.

[Lee]

Thanks bobm.

[LiskeardRich]

I've heard through the grapevine as such that the Par to Exeter lock hauled Saturday service will be the sleeper seated carriages and loco that would otherwise be at Long Rock depot from early Saturday morning to Sunday night.
There are I believe 3 seated carriages on the Summer Friday down sleeper.
What capacity would such a service add, and the benefit of starting from Par as surely there will be all the Newquay summer services providing this journey already?

[bobm]

Be a good use of stock but I thought it was only the number of sleeper coaches which changed at weekends rather than seated coaches?