A journey in the faaar west - Penzance to St Ives - 28th Jan 2025

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Once a train or bus service gets to a certain frequency, it becomes "turn up and go - don't worry about the timetable".  And so it was on Tuesday on the middle-of-the-day trip from Penzance to St Ives, changing at St Erth along the way.  Trains leave Penznce every half hour ... and I'm not exactly sure which we got on.  And connections at St Erth run every 30 minutes to St Ives.  The rail industry acknowledges this at St Erth by telling you that the "connection" really isn't - that the branch train won't wait, and explains there'll be another along in half an hour.

[broadgage]

RE^▸ (Religious Education) the first picture of saint Michaels mount, it is not widely known that a private railway, or at least a cable hauled tramway exists on the island. Not open to the public and not intended to carry passengers. It runs from the harbour to the kitchen door of the castle. Still in regular use for groceries, building materials, and refuse.
The winding machine that hauls the cable was originally worked by a gas engine, but now an electric motor is used.

The rolling stock resembles a steamer trunk, and a special articulated vehicle was built to carry scaffold poles, ladders and similar long items to facilitate building works.

[froome]

If you do find yourself having to wait at St Erth for up to 30 minutes, what facilities does the station have? Waiting room, toilets, any refreshments?

We will be heading to St Ives in March so would be good to know.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Try this, from National Rail.

Good luck!  CfN 

[grahame]

If you do find yourself having to wait at St Erth for up to 30 minutes, what facilities does the station have? Waiting room, toilets, any refreshments?

We will be heading to St Ives in March so would be good to know.

Try this, from National Rail.

Good luck!  CfN 

The ticket office, toilets and waiting rooms will have the following changes to planned opening hours
Monday 3rd - Thursday 6th February - 07:45 - 15:00
Tickets can be bought from the ticket machine or digitally.

That's an intersting metric ... noted at St Erth

Ticket sales are typically going to be earlier in the day - day returns, and from St Erth tickets for long distance journeys to the Far East (i.e. beyond Exeter) where people set off earlier in the day.

Toilets and waiting room are going to be needed at any time people are changing, including when they are changing onto and off the branch in the evening.  I noted when we got back from St Ives that a number of passengers walked up to the station building, but staff (train crew) directed them up the ramp onto the main platform and around the outside of the shut building.

People want toilets and warm waiting rooms whenever they are changing or catching a train.  But the rail industry is only providing them at the times of day that they are collecting money ....

[ChrisB]

One word - vandalism/drugs. We can't be trusted.

[Chris from Nailsea]

That's two words - but I don't disagree with your reasoning.

CfN. 

[ChrisB]

Either would do.

[grahame]

Gentlemen, your reasoning is correct but I take issue with the use of "we".  ChrisB - I would not have seen you as either a vandal or a (none-medicine) drug user, but please do not include me in the "we".   Yes, we have an issue and I'm sure your reasoning is right - but is it right for the antisocial behaviour of a few to impact on the travel comfort of the many, making that comfort only available when it's operationally convenient to the train / railway operator?

[ChrisB]

It's more than a few Graham, and unfortunately, it affects everyone.

[grahame]

It's more than a few Graham, and unfortunately, it affects everyone.

I live in a town of 25,000 ... and I would suspect that fewer than 100 vandalise - that's 0.4%.  Rather more are drug users if you include alcohol, but even those who overdo it are in the main not agressive or damaging (beyond urinating where they shouldn't - a problem reduced if the loos are open!)

[ChrisB]

You are on the town council - I suggest you leave your public toilets open overnight & see how long they last before being vandalised.....

[Chris from Nailsea]

I live in a town with a population of 20,000 (I have included the Wraxall estate, simply because it is within our circumference).

At our local railway station, we have two ticket machines, but no toilets, no waiting rooms nor disabled access up to platform 1.

None of that is due to vandalism. Other than Dr Richard Beeching, obviously. 

CfN.

[grahame]

You are on the town council - I suggest you leave your public toilets open overnight & see how long they last before being vandalised.....

Not my decision - it's drummed into us councillors that we cannot act or speak for the council without a motion and a vote ... but that's an aside to your suggestion.  This business of loo opening hours and availability for people who are around and in the course of their regular life around has been considered. 

I was taught that provision is for benefits - to meet needs and desires - and not features - how it s done.

The benefit needed is that people need to be able to access a toilet as they go about their lives, with relatively short and pre-known gaps.    In our town we have loos and the ones in the Market Place and there and available for the daytime economy.  In the evening there ate venues around and open and people are there for those - run by the Town Council, Wiltshire Council at The Campus, at the Rachel Fowler Centre for events there, in the Kings Arms and in the Market Tavern.  People can wee here.  The benefit is provided in Melksham. I do not see how that benefit is provided at St Erth.

Taking none-connectional stations, people are typically there for a very short periods - Nailsea and Backwell has been quoted as an example.  Not for up to half an hour as at St Erth with its non-connecting connections ... which strikes me as an extreme case.   People are there for an enforced up-to-30-minutes in the middle of a much longer jiourney with no enclosed shelter, no access to loos - which do exist there, but have been taken out of use for that part of the day ... and not because no-one will use them, but because ...

[Mark A]

**snip**
Toilets and waiting room are going to be needed at any time people are changing, including when they are changing onto and off the branch in the evening.  I noted when we got back from St Ives that a number of passengers walked up to the station building, but staff (train crew) directed them up the ramp onto the main platform and around the outside of the shut building.
**snip**

St Erth Station: identity crisis, right there.

(OK, it has a couple of other crises as well, including a 'Suspended-on-hinges station name signs in need of oil' crisis.)
 
It's now a park-and-ride site, with a railway station attached, and the two haven't quite been brought under the same roof. Away from railway stations, and ignoring that one near Oxford that was built and then had no bus services for years, it's not unheard of for park-and-ride sites to provide loos, accessible loos, babychanging facilities, but this being a railway station, the parking is managed by APCOA^▸ (Car parking company used at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - controlled stations in the area) who don't involve themselves in toilet provision.

While rail travellers might find the station loos closed, they have the option of on-train loos on the main line. In contast, for people using the site for park and ride, transferring from the train, provision of toilets in cars is notoriously poor - and if they're on the train back from St Ives, the number of loos on the train won't match the number of people needing them - and if they arrive at the site on the bus, buses do not have loos in the first place.

It would be good to hear an account of the visitor experience for people using St Erth as a park and ride for St Ives versus the historic experience at Lelant Saltings. The latter's weaknesses were 200 spaces vs 500 and a platform that was very exposed to the weather - but it did offer relatively straightforward transfer from car to train, and didn't charge for parking. Wikipedia has the history of the park and ride there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lelant_Saltings_railway_station

Mark