Mid Cornwall Metro

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Starting a separate thread on this ...

"Mid Cornwall Metro" is about linking Newquay, St Austell, Truro and Falmouth.  Cornwall Council also want to look at what's next for the Falmouth line.  It doesn't include Burngullow - it's just too expensive for now.

The Newquay proposals are about the capacity improvements needed to increase frequency on the existing line with an hourly service being the ultimate objective - reinstating a second platform at Newquay in the mix. 

Mid Cornwall Metro - preliminary works tender awarded (land investigation, reports, etc)

From https://www.railnews.co.uk/news/2020/10/28-upgrade-scheme-unveiled-for-cornish.html

NETWORK RAIL has been awarded a tender by Cornwall Council for a scheme to upgrade the railway network in central Cornwall, which would mean improving the infrastructure on the Newquay branch and introducing through services between Newquay, St Austell, Truro and Falmouth under the title of Mid-Cornwall Metro.

The two bodies are now set to enter into a Development Services Agreement to work on the proposed scheme. It would be carried out during Control Period 6, which starts in 2024, and could be achieved alongside signalling upgrades. The Bid Notice says: ?The greater Newquay area is seeing a growth in demand for new homes and a number of major developments, with the railway having the potential to be part of the transport solution. It can connect four of the major centres in Cornwall ? Falmouth, Truro, St Austell and Newquay, and provide access to sustainable transport.?

The work will include design, survey and ground investigations, along with feasibility reports and cost estimates. Network Rail will appoint the subcontractors.

[Andy]

Good news. They always forget Penryn (aka "Shagtown*") in their reports.As the railhead for Tremough Campus it already contributes significant traffic to the branch and would most likely provide a decent traffic flow to/from Newquay.

* I don't know whether the name originates from the seabirds or activities between sailors at the port and local businesswomen.

[smokey]

Best option really would be to rebuild the Newquay to Chasewater line which ran through Perranporth, and run through services from Newquay to Falmouth reversing at Truro.
It was said back in the 1960's that BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) shut the wrong Newquay line.

[Andy]

Best option really would be to rebuild the Newquay to Chasewater line which ran through Perranporth, and run through services from Newquay to Falmouth reversing at Truro.
It was said back in the 1960's that BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) shut the wrong Newquay line.

Quite a lot of the trackbed of that line (from Perranporth towards Newquay) is earmarked to become part of a cycle trail network.

[grahame]

It was said back in the 1960's that BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) shut the wrong Newquay line.

Not the only case of a surprise as to which line remained open.     Whitby ...

[Oxonhutch]

Not the only case of a surprise as to which line remained open.     Whitby ...

Blackpool North

[RailCornwall]

I'd dread to calculate the cost of rebuilding Chacewater - Newquay to 2020 standards. The CPOs would cost a bomb for the trackbed rights alone.

[chopper1944]

St. Austell to Newquay via St. Dennis?

[RailCornwall]

The whole trackbed, from Burngullow to the A30 would need relaying to carry passenger trains on that line too.

[AMLAG]

Where do you get that from ?
There are stretches of modern CWR^▸ (Continuously Welded Rail) on this branch.

One of the significant costs when this scheme was mooted 40 yrs or so ago was the cost
of signalling alterations etc. because of the many Ground Frames / hand points serving clay dries etc off the single line between Burngullow and Parkandillack.

Today there is just Treviscoe and Parkandillack and for how much longer is anybody's guess.

[Mark A]

The Mid Cornwall Metro proposal has received further funding...

https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/20219652.funding-mid-cornwall-metro-falmouth-newquay/

Mark

[Jamsdad]

Good news. Newquay needs a more regular and faster service. The success of the increased capacity on the Falmouth branch shows what could be achieved.

[REVUpminster]

I've always thought GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are frightened to increase services on the branches because they could not cope with the demand. Okehampton, maybe forced their hand.

Metro needs a minimum half hour service as Exmouth, Paignton, Falmouth, and St Ives prove. The Honiton line should have been half hour years ago.

Apparently 15 minutes is the golden time for growth. Exmouth have wanted that for along time but need another passing loop.

[grahame]

I've always thought GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are frightened to increase services on the branches because they could not cope with the demand. Okehampton, maybe forced their hand.

Metro needs a minimum half hour service as Exmouth, Paignton, Falmouth, and St Ives prove. The Honiton line should have been half hour years ago.

Apparently 15 minutes is the golden time for growth. Exmouth have wanted that for along time but need another passing loop.

As I understand it, the extra traffic would be there in many places but it would have been unprofitable traffic in the franchise, made the more so by long lead time and expensive infrastructure improvements - so was very much down to government or LTAs^▸ (Local Transport Authority) rather than GWR and the franchise system.

Compared to Intercity cash cows, metro services in the region are shorter trains (more paths and staff needed), slower (so fewer miles done per seat, looking at cost per journey), lower market charge per mile possible (need to compete with buses), and train stopped for a far higher proportion of the time (so revenue earning with the wheels turning much less).  Journeys are shorter, so fares lower and cost of collecting fares proportionately much higher.  Nah - if I were running a franchise and had a mixture of intercity and local, from a commercial viewpoint I would be saying "get those local trains out of the way of my expresses". Come to think of it, didn't someone at First get quoted as saying that a decade or two back?

[Sulis John]

"Good news. Newquay needs a more regular and faster service. The success of the increased capacity on the Falmouth branch shows what could be achieved."

Indeed - some Falmouth services yesterday were reminiscent of urban rush-hour services. However, the tale of woe that greeted anyone trying to use branch line services to Gunnislake or Looe yesterday suggests that the first goal needs to be ensuring that resources are there to ensure / guarantee that the existing advertised service actually runs (and by "advertised service" I mean the service advertised as available when people are making plans several weeks in advance not "the service advertised online at 22.00 the previous evening"!)

Don't know why the first bit doesn't show as the quote it actually is!