Newquay and Plymouth Airports - their rise and fall - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[devon_metro]

Most trains could be marginally faster, they have copious amounts of slack approaching Reading, and often arrive late due to rubbish regulation.

[Btline]

I agree with Vacman. We need to start removing stops on these really long routes. (like VT^▸ (Virgin Trains - former franchises) have done)

Obviously, run stoppers as well to connect.

[vacman]

From the May timetable there is another Pnz-Pad that takes less than 5 hours depart pnz 0844 arrive Pad 1342! Could be better if they took out the Camborne, Redruth, St Austell, Par and Liskeard stops though! oh, and St Erth

[Zoe]

Redruth

Redruth serves the largest urban area in Cornwall and is the railhead for the Lizard peninsula though so I think trains should stop there or are you suggesting that everyone should drive to Truro?

[Btline]

The problem with removing St Erth, Par and Liskard is loosing the branch line feeders.

Now, if they extended a St Ives train to Penzance, and a Newquay train to Plymouth - you could cut the stops and keep the trade.

[devon_metro]

Good to see some of slack is being removed. Today the said service sat at Reading for 5 minutes, Exeter 3 and arrived into London 3 early.

This is the Cornish Riv as far as I am aware, so isnt the purpose for it to serve as much as Cornwall as possible, nobody wants to change 

[bemmy]

I travel to Penzance several times a year and seeing the numbers who join a long distance up train at St Erth, Camborne, Redruth, Truro, St Austell, Bodmin Parkway and Liskeard, I see no justification for removing stops. All these stations serve considerable population beyond their immediate area. The problem for Cornish passengers with the London trains is that many of them stop too many times east of Plymouth, with resulting overcrowding and long journey times.

The 1737 from Penzance is very convenient for me travelling to Bristol, but if I was going from Cornwall to London I'd be annoyed by the detour, likewise the 0730 from Paddington -- I've probably caught that train more than any other as it's been the only morning intercity service from Bristol to Cornwall for donkey's years, but it's bloody slow for passengers from London.

[vacman]

If you look at an average Pad train through Cornwall then you'll see that most long distance customers join at Penzance, Truro and Bodmin Parkway, yes you get others but it would be for the greater good to run a decent fast service, a load who join at Redruth are just going to Plymouth, if you keep in stops like Redruth then you lose the whole point of running a fast service!

[devon_metro]

AS mentioned elsewhere then, run a 0606 Paddington - Penzance and run the return fairly fast.

[Andy]

Traditionally, the Cornish Riviera made very few stops in Cornwall. In 1957 (summer), for instance, the up Cornish Riviera (weekdays) stopped only at St Erth, Gwinear Road, Truro and Par before Plymouth, with the run taking two hours twenty minutes.

[Super Guard]

From the May timetable there is another Pnz-Pad that takes less than 5 hours depart pnz 0844 arrive Pad 1342! Could be better if they took out the Camborne, Redruth, St Austell, Par and Liskeard stops though! oh, and St Erth

Is that not just 1A81 timed differently?

[stebbo]

This debate raises the interesting general issue of FGW^▸ (First Great Western) having abandoned the traditional practice of long distance trains stopping at a number of stations in their "hinterland" then running fast to London, viz the old Riviera running fast to/from Exeter (or Plymouth on summer Saturdays), the Golden Hind fast, as I recall, to/from Taunton, the Cathedrals Express (see separate post) fast to/from Oxford, the Red Dragon fast to/from Bristol Parkway and in the old days the Birkenhead expresses fast to/from Leamington Spa.

The inhabitants of Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, South Wales, Herefordshire deserve at least one fast express in each direction.

Nostalgia - my late father used to recall that, in the late 1940s, if you needed to get from Brum to London quickly you went to Snow Hill, not New Street.

[Btline]

The problem is, there is now a standard service pattern, so axing stops nearer London is hard. eg. the 2tph Oxford to London service calls at Reading and Slough. If you remove these stops on a service, you are removing those stations' fast trains for that hour.

This is because there are no spare paths for extra fast trains.

Now, if there were extra tracks between Reading and London, there would be paths to have trains skipping Reading and others - the "standard" service pattern could also run to compensate.

The WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line) now does this. The main afternoon departure to Glasgow calls at Preston only. An extra service follows this train as far as Preston and makes all of the calls that the express misses.

[devon_metro]

From the May timetable there is another Pnz-Pad that takes less than 5 hours depart pnz 0844 arrive Pad 1342! Could be better if they took out the Camborne, Redruth, St Austell, Par and Liskeard stops though! oh, and St Erth

Is that not just 1A81 timed differently?

Looks like it. The other of course being the up Golden Hind.

[woody]

Given the vast sums of public money that have been pumped into the rail industry since privatisation it is a sad reflection just how relatively little has been achieved since BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) days on FGW^▸ (First Great Western),particularly in the south west and that we are having to have these debates.