Okehampton

[whole diary]

[PhilWakely]

It looks to have all gone to plan this morning, so far.

Even managing to sensibly plan in a visit from the Rail Head Treatment Train first thing.

Brilliant news to see it up and running.  I'll be visiting as soon as I get chance.  Let's hope for two things: 1) The service is reliable.  Few crew shortages or capacity/infrastructure problems.  2) The service is well used.  Nothing will send a clearer message of positivity towards others with reopening ambitions.

The real test will be in a couple of months. The opening popularity, followed by potential Christmas shoppers will have worn off and the tourist season will not have started.

[stuving]

Glad to see the usual mess applies to the fares to Okehampton.

I looked up fares from Pershore on brfares.com and found that there is a via Worcester fare. Off peak return £44.90 with Senior railcard. Its not clear if this means Via Worcestershire parkway as well.

However even when the National rail enquiries journey planner gives me a journey via Worcester Shrub hill the fare given is the not London fare. £64.60.

"Via Worcester" will be via the Worcester group: both town stations (plus Droitwich Spa in theory; I don't think you can use it in practice). WOP has not been added to the group, which is one of the routeing points for WOP, the others being Cheltenham Spa, Oxford, and Bromsgrove.

The issue is why that via Worcester fare is not found, even for a journey via Worcester. At first sight it looks as if it might a lack of adjustments to allow for OKE, or WOP, or both, as new stations. But the failure to route with a change at WOP is more likely to be just a matter of connection times, and  the same missing fare happens if you are only going to Exeter. From Worcester, you do get offered the change at WOP, as well as going to Cheltenham to change (onto the same train). That looks odd, but is simply due to the nearly 1 hour wait from the former being enough to offset the extra change. I suspect that XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) have not defined that fare correctly in some way.

Leaving aside the overall level of fares set by XC, there are other oddities that suggest they don't look very closely at what they are doing. One I spotted is for Worcester-Exeter, where XC set the only two fares. One is routed "via Bristol", and an anytime single is £120.10 - high even by XC's standards. The other is routed "not via Birmingham", and that SOS is £64.80, and that is the only fare found by the OJP^▸ (Online Journey Planner). Is there any practical route avoiding Bristol for the other fare to apply to? Common sense says no, and the Routeing guide (for once) agrees. Mind you for Cheltenham-Bristol GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) set the only fare, and it's very much cheaper, so splitting undercuts both of these.

[grahame]

From Hitchens Blog in the Mail on Sunday

Putting right a terrible wrong

I see the Transport Minister and e-scooter fan Grant Shapps has been dressing up as a character from Thomas The Tank Engine, waving a green flag and blowing a whistle.

He was reopening a railway line in Devon, a line running across the top of Dartmoor, where a kindly driver once let me, aged 12, have a go at the controls of his train.

This tiny restoration of a small part of a lost line fills me with rage. It should never have been closed. It is not nearly enough. It was so beautiful I still sometimes dream of travelling on it again, 50 years after it was ripped up. It was a full-sized express main line between London and Plymouth, still badly needed every summer and every time the other route, along the sea, is washed away by storms at Dawlish.

The reinstatement of such lines, and there are so many of them, would do far more good to far more people than silly high-speed vanity projects such as HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)). We have let the car and the lorry rule this country far too long, spreading noise, ugliness and filth over town and country alike. The closure of railways in the 1960s was a terrible mistake and there has never been a better time to put it right.

[TonyN]

I had a look at the ticket machine at Pershore today and the via Worcester fares are available.

I note that the Journey planner gives a weekday journey leaving Pershore at 07:58 via Worcester foregate street. (Always prefered by journey planners because Platform interchange by lift is available even though in this case both trains are likley to use the same platform at both Shrub Hill and foregate street). The fare given is the not London super off peak £64.60 price It is very unlikley that the machine will sell this ticket before 08:20 on a weekday.

I have been caught by this snag before with off peak tickets on the 07:58. There are a number of journeys that can be made by taking this train to Parkway or Worcester stations, that have valid off peak tickets. However GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) insist you need an anytime ticket to get to Worcester on this train

[Mark A]

On the travel to work timed train from Okehampton this morning, seven passengers.

https://twitter.com/BusAndTrainUser/status/1462682492058710017

[TaplowGreen]

On the travel to work timed train from Okehampton this morning, seven passengers.

https://twitter.com/BusAndTrainUser/status/1462682492058710017

Obviously a lot of people working from home in that area!

[RichardB]

Here's today's 09 24 ex Okehampton. 

https://twitter.com/DCRailPart/status/1463078465364713474

[Red Squirrel]

That's more like it!

[TaplowGreen]

Indeed - and I can actually spot a friend in that picture! 

That's the 0924 though - anyone know how the numbers were looking on the 0724 travel to work "commuter" service which only carried 7 passengers yesterday?

[The Tall Controller]

Today's 1032 EXC-OKE was recorded as having just over 100 people on board.

[Mark A]

Indeed - and I can actually spot a friend in that picture! 

That's the 0924 though - anyone know how the numbers were looking on the 0724 travel to work "commuter" service which only carried 7 passengers yesterday?

The service level isn't where it needs to be to support travel to work - return services are a smidge after 5pm and then the following one is well after 7pm so they'll do better when they're ramped up.

[Lee]

Here is Roger French's take on the Okehampton service - https://busandtrainuser.com/2021/11/24/okehamptons-back-on-track/

[bobm]

Took a trip to Okehampton on Monday.

The mid morning train from Exeter Central was well loaded and it was noticeable once we branched off from the parallel line to Barnstaple north of Yeoford how smooth the new continuous rail was compared to my last journey to Okehampton.  Also no more scraping of trains by passing trees.  Some have been felled and others cut back to cut down the number of scratches inflicted on passing rolling stock.

For the first few days of the service two class 150s have been providing a four car service on the line and have been given appropriate logos





The station is much as I remember it - although now with a mix of new and period signage.  At present there are no refreshment facilities but work is in hand to re-open the cafe which existed there previously.







The big plus for me is the new bus service which links the station with both the town of Okehampton and Tavistock.   If you have been there you will know the hike back to the station is a good 10 minutes uphill!

I took the bus into Okehampton and was dropped off by the Museum of Dartmoor life which is well worth a visit and currently has an exhibition dedicated to the history of the railway in the town.  Like a lot of stations Okehampton was a large employer going back with up to 70 people working there at one stage.

Also conveniently placed next to the museum is Wetherspoons, this one not only a pub but also one of their hotels.

The bus is timed to connect with the trains arriving and departing and around a dozen made use of it.

One thing you won't get on the journey are views of Dartmoor.  Almost all the route is surrounded by trees with only the briefest of glimpses of the landscape.

[Red Squirrel]

Typeface nerds will have spotted that while the new signage has GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) branding, it uses what appears to be Rail Alphabet font for the station name and other information. GWR have previously used the Glypha font on running-in boards, at Filton Abbey Wood for example.

I see this as an improvement!

[RichardB]

Typeface nerds will have spotted that while the new signage has GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) branding, it uses what appears to be Rail Alphabet font for the station name and other information. GWR have previously used the Glypha font on running-in boards, at Filton Abbey Wood for example.

I see this as an improvement!

Well spotted.  It is indeed Rail Alphabet 2.  It was a late change.