Falmouth Branch Line - stations, facilities, services and improvements - ongoing discussion, merged posts

[whole diary]

[swlines]

Their are still problems.

People will still use the key peak trains, so overcrowding will get worse. Virgin XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) found this out when they did Operation Princess - spreading did not occur.

SWT^▸ (South West Trains) on the other hand with their massive timetable rebuild put the spreading of passengers over services key into the timetable - which did extremely well. It depends how well you advertise it and also, on ticketing! Add benefits for travelling later and earlier (Early Bird come to mind, TPE^▸ (Trans Pennine Express) offer this) then there will be more of an uptake of shoulder peak services.

[vacman]

Well lets put some things straight, the current service is actually 2 hourly near enough during the day and uses 2x153's coupled, there are currently 12 trains per day, the new timetable has I believe 27 trains per day, the 0755 from Fal usually loads around 100 passengers on arrival at Truro, if there were another service 30 mins later then it would spread the load. As it is now, after the 0755 trip you can usually just about manage when there is a 153 on the branch, with double the trains then there will be more empty seats to fill.

[Btline]

Well lets put some things straight, the current service is actually 2 hourly near enough during the day and uses 2x153's coupled, there are currently 12 trains per day, the new timetable has I believe 27 trains per day, the 0755 from Fal usually loads around 100 passengers on arrival at Truro, if there were another service 30 mins later then it would spread the load. As it is now, after the 0755 trip you can usually just about manage when there is a 153 on the branch, with double the trains then there will be more empty seats to fill.

"Load spreading" may not happen - it didn't with Virgin.

[swlines]

Well lets put some things straight, the current service is actually 2 hourly near enough during the day and uses 2x153's coupled, there are currently 12 trains per day, the new timetable has I believe 27 trains per day, the 0755 from Fal usually loads around 100 passengers on arrival at Truro, if there were another service 30 mins later then it would spread the load. As it is now, after the 0755 trip you can usually just about manage when there is a 153 on the branch, with double the trains then there will be more empty seats to fill.

"Load spreading" may not happen - it didn't with Virgin.

It's happened more towards Bristol and Birmingham on Virgin - than down south...

[Karl]

Evening

The idea of the half an hour service on the Falmouth
to Truro branchline, is to provide a better more
frequent service/s.  With Tremough Campus (which
is still expanding and was given Planning Permission
again this week for more), the idea was to link this
with city of Truro and Falmouth with its port.  With
more people expected to arrive at Tremough, plus the
development of Falmouth Docks into a marina and
terminal for roll-on roll-off, the hope is to attract
more people onto the train and off Cornwalls roads a
lot of which cannot cope with more.  With this the
gaps which oooooo and others has said will arouse,
they would be hopefully be filled with more people eventually.

There are already links in place with Tremough, it
was discussed at a partnership meeting that the
information pack all students recieve should contain
information about the branchline with leaflets on
student railcards e.t.c to entise them in.  This
information pack is in different languages, although
it is possible for a student to buy a wreck in a pub
for ^350, I think there has been an improvement
in students using the train.  There usually is a rep
from the campus at our partnership meeting as well.

Regards

Karl.

[John R]

Well lets put some things straight, the current service is actually 2 hourly near enough during the day and uses 2x153's coupled, there are currently 12 trains per day, the new timetable has I believe 27 trains per day, the 0755 from Fal usually loads around 100 passengers on arrival at Truro, if there were another service 30 mins later then it would spread the load. As it is now, after the 0755 trip you can usually just about manage when there is a 153 on the branch, with double the trains then there will be more empty seats to fill.

This concurs with my comment on 5/7.  Given there will be 75ish seats on each train, this is going to be a massive improvement, even in the peak. So I hope it is regarded as the major step forward that it is, which with no increase in rolling stock is a very imaginative way of providing an increased service with minimal increase in running costs.

[devon_metro]

Well lets put some things straight, the current service is actually 2 hourly near enough during the day and uses 2x153's coupled, there are currently 12 trains per day, the new timetable has I believe 27 trains per day, the 0755 from Fal usually loads around 100 passengers on arrival at Truro, if there were another service 30 mins later then it would spread the load. As it is now, after the 0755 trip you can usually just about manage when there is a 153 on the branch, with double the trains then there will be more empty seats to fill.

"Load spreading" may not happen - it didn't with Virgin.

Have you ever even travelled on the Fal to make a justified comment?

[Karl]

Afternoon

Well the hope is that there will be a lot more
people travelling.  The problem with the timetable
at the moment is there are too many big gaps and
timings that are not always ideally suited for some.
Once the timetable is in place I would expect to
see double the amount we already have, with hiking
fuel prices and a return bus fare (falmouth to Truro),
being around ^4.50, it is hoped that a half an hour
or 45min timetable will entise a lot more people.

As regards to motive power it will be a 2x single
c153's, but once the service is up and running, if
funding a vailabilty are there it could be 2x c150's,
but only if its vaible.

There 'maybe' a chance of an additional train after
the last arrive at Truro (which currently is
MON - FRI 21:54pm, SAT 22:08pm) which will be 22:xxm
off Truro (probably 22:30pm for Falmouth).  I would
guess that Sundays (22:00pm) will stay the same
don't know why FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have done this on the present
timetable; it should be either FRI or SAT?

Regards

Karl. 

[Btline]

Well lets put some things straight, the current service is actually 2 hourly near enough during the day and uses 2x153's coupled, there are currently 12 trains per day, the new timetable has I believe 27 trains per day, the 0755 from Fal usually loads around 100 passengers on arrival at Truro, if there were another service 30 mins later then it would spread the load. As it is now, after the 0755 trip you can usually just about manage when there is a 153 on the branch, with double the trains then there will be more empty seats to fill.

"Load spreading" may not happen - it didn't with Virgin.

Have you ever even travelled on the Fal to make a justified comment?

No, I got the ferry service when I was in the area. But I said might.

[Lee]

From the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website :

06:27 Truro to Falmouth Docks due 06:50

This train has been cancelled.This is due to a delay on a previous journey.

06:55 Falmouth Docks to Truro due 07:19

This train has been cancelled.This is due to a delay on a previous journey.

This is the first round trip of the day, so does anyone know why there was a delay on a previous journey?

[devon_metro]

Late from depot...

[vacman]

For some unknown reason the unit's were at Longrock last night rather than in the station and I'm led to believe that there was no driver to bring in the set.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks, vacman 

You don't mean someone forgot there was a train to run, do you??

Chris 

[jester]

They go to the depot for cleaning and fuel but last night there was an engineering possesion between Pz and the depot. Should have finished in time for them to come back but.......

[Chris from Nailsea]

Ah, yes ... "but ..." !

Well, these things happen: thanks for your helpful local comment, jester!