It's often good to tackle questions asked to check your own sanity. I thought this was a particularly useful set asked by a thoughtful correspondent who, however may not be fully informed on rail. I would be interested in your thought on my answers
Why put these huge expensive trains to crawl through Cornwall instead of using Plymouth as the high speed hub with smaller, speedier more frequent feeder services within Cornwall?
Some reasons:
1. You loose between 40% and 46% of your through customers if you make them change trains along the way, so this would result in significant traffic loss from the Cornish main line, perhaps endangering plans to increase the service to 2 an hour (one fast and one slow). Making people change twice on a journey such as London to Falmouth (Plymouth and Truro) would really put them off, possibly loosing traffic and then train frequency to your local station
2. Adding a change on long distance journeys also increases the overall journey time
3. Servicing facilities at Long Rock are there for the long distance trains and indeed are financially supported by government to be there. You may (or may not) agree with the politics of this, but
GWR▸ as the train operator needs to work within government direction on many matters, and I suspect you are happy to see the employment for servicing in Penzance rather than having it all sucked up to the home counties
Penryn (on Truro/Falmouth branch line) has ended up with a platform probably longer than Paddington - for a two carriage local train. What ever are they proposing to do to all the stations which will have to be changed to take the new mainline trains - and at what cost? What a waste of money!
Penryn Station has two platforms in one - allowing two trains to call there at the same time, passing each other on the single line. Without a passing loop, the Falmouth branch would only support one train each way per hour, rather than two. The conventional way to pass two trains is to have a separate platform on each side of the track. However, it was going to be very difficult to add a second platform back at Penryn, so money was spent making the platform longer. That also saves on the cost of a footbridge; new footbridges must be wheelchair accessible by law these days, and that involves either a long slope or lifts. Th long platform is a neat solution at lower initial cost, and lower ongoing cost.
A similar system is used on a number of lines in Germany, and is also being looked at for my own home town station of Melksham.
Some platforms are indeed being lengthened to help accommodate longer trains, but all the new trains will have selective door opening, which means that trains will routinely be able to call at stations with platforms shorter than the train. There is a balance to be struck here - we are unlikely to see every station lengthened to take every train that calls there in full, but with increased passenger numbers the “dwell time” at some stations has become so long as people get on and off through a very few doors. I know that one particular concern in Cornwall is Saltash, for example.
Anyone who has actually used trains in Cornwall will know that you lose the will to live as they are SO SLOW! Why not take this opportunity to restructure and improve the whole service? (It could be much cheaper and more environmentally friendly.)
My understanding is that the Cornish mainline goes up to 2 trains per hour, and advantage will be taken of the extra trains to ensure that alternate trains (?) are faster by leaving out some of the less used stations. This will, of course, lead to strong arguments about what should shop where; TravelWatch SouthWest and the Department for Transport are canvassing for inputs for upcoming franchises and/or management contracts. I would be very interested to have your input and ideas as to how the service could be much cheaper and environmentally friendly - there are lots of ideas and suggestions about and in many ways “the more, the merrier”. The Cornish main line has to contend with single line sections, and with delays to trains coming from London and Scotland - so a delay at Dunbar can lead to a train calling late at Lostwithiel.
Why put mainline trains through Dawlish etc when they don't even stop there? And at what £m cost to maintain it! (It should be on a branch line.)
Trains to Cornwall run through Dawlish because there’s no other line. A number of other routes are looked at in the Network Rail studies, and whilst some of us believe that the options explored are overpriced / gold plated, it would still cost £££ to maintain the sea wall even if the line though Dawlish was demoted to being a secondary service only. I note you live in Cornwall, so are likely to be more concerned with through journeys, but the consideration needs to be for all - including the people of Torbay who need to get “up country”.
Why go the scenic coastal route at all? HS2▸ is spending billions to knock off 20 mins and GWR go all round the houses. We want speed and connectivity to the rest of the UK▸ .
Why is the SW sleeper still supported with £2m of public money each year? (When our local hospitals are under threat of closure.)
The sleeper is a very effective use of time and connectivity. But really these are questions for your politicians GWR are a train operator, though, with a franchise for just a few years, and they’re limited by what they can do based on the needs of their company finances and what they’re instructed to do as part of their train operating contract.
Where do I go to discuss these questions and to express my opinions please?
Your local rail user group? Our forum as discussed above? TravelWatch SouthWest’s meetings? For the branch lines, the Devon and Cornwall Community Rail Partnership are very active and welcome new volunteers; there is a case for Community Rail on secondary main lines (such as the Cornish main line) too. Perhaps a model after the Cotswold Line Promotion Group?
Customer and potential customer input is so important as the lifeblood of feedback on current and future provision. But that provision is so complex that few of us have even a chance of understanding it, its costs, and its ramifications. People have different objectives too.
I notice that you live close to Penmere Station. The “Friends of Penmere Station” group are multiple award winners for their work in improving and promoting the station - see
https://acorp.uk.com/friends-of-penmere-station-are-showing-off/ - and they have good contacts onwards too. Every years, such groups come together in regional and national meetings to share best practise …
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