Study into new Plympton Station and Ivybridge improvements

[whole diary]

[Pb_devon]

A joint study by Plymouth City, South Hams, and West Devon Councils to see if there is a demand announced today.

http://plymouthnewsroom.co.uk/study-look-future-demand-railway-station-plympton-area/

[johnneyw]

I do hope the "professional consultants" being used to assess the "potential demand" mentioned in the article are not the same ones that wheeled out the tired, outdated facts and figures used to downplay the potential for the Henbury Loop part of Metrowest. Maybe there are fewer opposed vested interests to influence decisions too.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Not so long ago, a firm of apparently 'professional consultants' proposed that the Severn Beach Branch railway line should be concreted over and turned into a bus lane. 

[Henry]

  I'm surprised GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have not exploited the  potential of Ivybridge.
 
 Once advertised as a park and ride for Plymouth, has a generous sized car park which is 90% empty.
 I regularly use Totnes, which is a busy station with a large catchment area.
 But a station built at the bottom of a hill with two of the steepest gradients in the country either side, causing
 well documented problems this time of the year.

 I'm sure the cost of developing Ivybridge into a main-line station, at the the expense of down grading Totnes,
 would I'm sure benefit the railway companies financially, as well as speed-up journey times Plymouth-Exeter.
 Sounds radical, but really does make common sense !

[grahame]

I'm surprised GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have not exploited the  potential of Ivybridge.

With the Cornish main line stepping up to  a train every 30 minutes, there will be knock on extension and changes up to Newton Abbott and Exeter.  What's the plan for Ivybridge and Totnes stops?

[Henry]

 I'm not sure of the plans for Ivybridge/Totnes.
 I'm aware of plans to extend the platforms at Totnes,  noticed the following ;-

 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-devon-41636629?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_spotlight&ns_linkname=english_regions&ns_fee=0#post_59ef5fa8e4b0cff5230ce9a8

 Not sure ''30 million'' makes much impact in today's money.

[Chris from Nailsea]

No, it doesn't. 

We're looking at a cost of about £1,000,000 just to build a disabled ramp at Nailsea & Backwell (another existing main line station):

DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) have announced today the construction of a ramp at the station, cost £1m.

£1 million for a ramp it does seem a bit excessive to me, but I am sure others may disagree.

Hmm. 

Confession time: my own figure, suggested in this topic earlier this year, was a complete and utter stab in the dark - deliberately pitched at just under £1 million.

... that would cost about £925,000 by my reckoning ...

On that basis, I ought to have a job as a building surveyor with Network Rail!

Chris. 

 

[Andy]

If the idea of the Plympton & Ivybridge schemes ("scheme" is perhaps too concrete a term) is to better exploit the railway as a carrier of commuter traffic into and out of Plymouth, are they thinking in terms of a regular Totnes (Newton Abbot? Exeter?) -Plymouth (Bere Alston?Tavistock?) local service or adding stops to already existing longer distance services?

Surely adding more stops for trains coming up through or heading on to Cornwall isn't being considered...
 
Making Newton Abbot the terminus for local services east from Plymouth would provide a connection feeding into the Exeter metro services, so I can see a logic there.

[Lee]

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/campaign-reopen-plympton-station-gathers-4916488

An online campaign has been launched to get Network Rail to reopen a train station which served travellers for more than 100 years before it was shut down.

Just two years ago, there were suggestions that a Plymouth Metro could see commuters benefit from a tram system, with new stations in and around the city. In response residents have taken to petition site Change.org to urge the authorities to consider reopening Plympton's rail station

Petition at https://www.change.org/p/network-rail-re-open-a-train-station-at-plympton