Devizes 52-year wait for train station could end

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

Reading the Wiltshire Times article I had to smile at the statement "within five years", if the progress on Portway Parkway is anything to go by you might want to add a zero to the five but then being Wiltshire it could happen because it's not Bristol !!!!

It's within the election cycle, with a conservative council, a conservative MP^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post - a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London, depending on context) who's part of the inner circle, at a time of a conservative government, on a line with a service that could stop there, a strong local sentiment, ticks climate change and integrated transport boxes, and has what looks to me like a good business case.  The ducks might be in a line. Mind - it would be the first (re)opening in Wiltshire since 1985.

All sounds very hopeful. Remind us, grahame: Which Wiltshire station re-opened in 1985?

[grahame]

All sounds very hopeful. Remind us, grahame: Which Wiltshire station re-opened in 1985?

Me?  ...
Errr ...
Lets
Kid
Someone I know.
How does
Anyone
Manage to remember from so long ago?

[Phil]

Presumably the train which narrowly avoided hitting a person in Devizes earlier today was being transported by road at the time? Note the phrase IN Devizes.

http://www.terrascope.co.uk/images/Devizes_train.png

[bobm]

Well it is in the Devizes parliamentary constituency. 

[GBM]

Yup, on the rails!
https://www.wiltshire999s.co.uk/man-taken-to-hospital-after-narrowly-avoiding-being-hit-by-train-in-devizes/
The man was reportedly walking in the middle of the track, only jumping out of the way of the oncoming Great Western Railway (GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)) train with just seconds to spare. Continues..

[grahame]

Yup, on the rails!
https://www.wiltshire999s.co.uk/man-taken-to-hospital-after-narrowly-avoiding-being-hit-by-train-in-devizes/
The man was reportedly walking in the middle of the track, only jumping out of the way of the oncoming Great Western Railway (GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)) train with just seconds to spare. Continues..

A man was nearly hit by a train whilst walking on the railway line near Devizes this morning.

Emergency services were sent to the scene at around 7.40am following a call from a railway control room reporting that a train had narrowly missed colliding with a person in Urchfont.

A spokesperson for the British Transport Police said: “We were called at 7.40am to reports of a person on the tracks in Lydeway.

A couple of miles from Devizes ... about a mile from Urchfont.  Lydeway is half a mile away.

///responded.kickers.professed is more accurate I suspect - the location from which the picture illustrating the article was taken, and where the A342 crossed the railway line.

[Marlburian]

Presumably the train which narrowly avoided hitting a person in Devizes earlier today was being transported by road at the time? Note the phrase IN Devizes.

http://www.terrascope.co.uk/images/Devizes_train.png

A frequent type of error on local news websites staffed by deskbound junior reporters with no knowledge of their patch. I recall an incident at Hampstead Norreys being attributed to Newbury, eight miles away.

Another annoyance is league tables of "Reading's most expensive streets", where the top entries are in Wargrave, Shiplake and other "desirable" villages.

[grahame]

From the Gazette and Herald

It?s full steam ahead for ambitious plans for a new station to serve the Devizes community.

The Department for Transport is funding a study into the potential for a new rail station called Devizes Gateway, about 3.4 miles from Devizes Market Place, close to Lydeway, to serve the Devizes area.

A new survey has been launched to garner people's opinions.

No?l Woolrych, Devizes Development Partnership Director, said: ?It is expected that there would be an hourly service: east to Pewsey, Newbury, Reading and London and west to Westbury, for connections to the South West, Bath, Bristol and Salisbury etc.

"This work is being led by the Devizes Development Partnership (DDP) and Wiltshire Council, in conjunction with Danny Kruger MP^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post - a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London, depending on context), who are keen to hear the views of local people. Please complete the survey below - noting that Devizes Gateway is unlikely to be open before 2025 so please answer on the basis of how you would travel if COVID-19 did not exist."

There are links in the article ... however, following one of them I got the following sign-up request and I'll leave to individual members to follow the links and decide if they're happy with this, which appears to be the newspaper building up a mailing list??

Newsquest.co.uk requires you to enroll this device to access message links

Your IT department has enabled Targeted Threat Protection for all users. This is a service that protects you from email attacks and provides live security training.

Enter your email address and we'll send you an authentication code to verify your identity.

[TaplowGreen]

The railway will no longer be leaving the town to its own Devizes.

(.....I'll get my coat)

[grahame]

From the Gazette and Herald

From Adelaide to Devizes: Town's railway rediscovered in Australia

A new station on the outskirts of Devizes will soon offer people the chance to revisit what was once an integral part of the market town.

Devizes railway station ? on the branch line between Holt Junction to Patney & Chirton Junction - operated between 1857 and 1966.

The Reading-Hungerford line was quickly extended in 1862 westward via Pewsey to Devizes, reaching the station through a tunnel under Devizes Castle, in what proved to be the busiest period for the Devizes station.

The line was entirely closed in 1966, and now there is little trace of what once was a bustling rail community.
Tracks were pulled up, station buildings demolished and the line's tunnel beneath Devizes Castle bricked up at one end.

But now, the chance to experience the railway of Devizes in its heyday is possible thanks to Caleb Jenkins over in Adelaide, Australia.

The modeller has painstakingly pieced together a detailed layout of what used to be a bustling and lively set of rails in the market town.

[grahame]

The last weeks ... new year, no-one going out, best shows on TV^▸ (Thames Valley) worn out over Christmas ... there has been a lot of online activity, with people reading social media and papers online and based on what they have (skim)read been making comments and asking questions.   Although there are background information sites for some of these projects, they tend not to be "FAQ^▸ (Frequently Asked Questions) formatted" for the new reader, even if the project newcomer goes to the site.   So there are some daft ideas that come up, but spiced in there are some which merit addressing - either because they could actually make sense or because they've not been addressed elsewhere

"A station three miles out of the town wouldn't be near enough for anyone to use of it and it would be a waste of money - why not run the train into the town where it used to go then loop back to the main line?".

Hmmm ...



As a corollary, why (when the line through Urchfont and Lavington was built) didn't it branch off to the west of Devizes anyway along the proposed new route?   Answer - heavy gradients just outside Devizes not suitable for long distance expresses.  Twisty bits in Devizes an issue too.    In modern day, Gradients not an issue (but 120 years ago they would have been) and if the train is string and restarting, the sharp corner not a problem.

Big problem ... cost.  Around 10 times the cost of even a quite substantial station as proposed ... also the trackbed though Devizes has been reclaimed from the railway in part. 

[Lee]

Also not sexy enough politically, in an area where a hatstand with a blue rosette on could get elected - Certainly not an East-West Rail or Ashington in terms of Central Wales Line "Look at the marginals on that" territory.

[infoman]

ITV west did a feature on Devizies Parkway on friday evening local news,maybe at the expense of Corsham re-opening.

[grahame]

... maybe at the expense of ...

Different line, different catchment areas, different constituency, different services, different case ... there probably will be trade-offs in terms of unitary council officer's time and perhaps some budget elements, but the headline should not be a tradeoff between the two.

Last new station in Wiltshire 84 years ago, only one station re-opened since then and that was 36 years ago.  Either would be a miracle in this county ... though there are effective players involved and a miracle could happen.

[Robin Summerhill]

"A station three miles out of the town wouldn't be near enough for anyone to use of it and it would be a waste of money - why not run the train into the town where it used to go then loop back to the main line?".

Hmmm ...

It could have been worse – they could have suggested taking the line back downhill again by repurposing Caen Hill flight 

These sorts of comments are frequent amongst the ill-informed or non-informed on general comment boards, and indeed in person too.

I used to have an arguing partner in South Africa who actually came from Bognor and went over there for the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) winter like me. One day we were having a discussion about some SPAD^▸ (Signal Passed At Danger - very bad!) or other that had happened in the UK and got into the national press. He came up with what he thought was the perfect solution – “Simple innit? What they need is something that puts the brakes on if a driver passes a red signal.”

This was the same geezer who one day was complaining about the squeal of the wheels of trains entering Fish Hoek from Simonstown on a tight radius cure. Said he “they should put a bit of oil on that...”