'Exeter's Digby & Sowton rail station wins revamp cash' (20/08/09)

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Express & Echo:

A revamp is on the way to improve conditions for the 275,000 passengers a year who use one of the city^s busiest unstaffed rail stations.

Exeter^s Digby and Sowton, on the Exeter to Exmouth line, is facing increasing pressure with new homes being built in and around the city.

Now rail bosses have announced a two-year scheme, starting next month, which will double shelter space for waiting passengers, give paths a makeover with better surfacing and lighting, and add a new footpath to serve the Exeter Chiefs^ rugby ground at Sandy Park. The cycle network to stations will be improved and storage facilities added.

Exeter City Council is hoping to resite the footpath from the station to the park and ride bus terminal for the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital to make it safer.

Melanie Harvey, line manager for First Great Western, said a replacement bus service would operate for four weekends in November while an upgrade to the track was completed further down the line. Trains would still run to Digby.

The Exeter to Exmouth line carries 1.5m passengers a year. Digby and Sowton station already receives  275,000 passengers a year, and the area is due to receive more than 4,000 more houses in the next few  years ^ the first already being built at Newcourt.

Longer trains will need expensive longer platforms down the line, and extra stops at new stations cannot be worked into present schedules without track improvements.

[Whippo]

Any investment in the railways is welcome, however there are other well used stations in the area which have seen a rise in custom and a reduction in station services.

St Thomas station is well used by commuters as it is just as close to most parts of the city as Central station and provides a good link with local bus services, however, the facilities are pretty rubbish for what it is with no decent sheltered waiting area or seating and a lack of passenger information especially reguarding cancellations or late running. Same can be said for Polsloe Bridge, Starcross and the Warren. I know vandalism etc is a problem at unmanned stations but if SWT^▸ (South West Trains) can do it at Pinhoe then sure FGW^▸ (First Great Western) could sort something out on it's increasingly more well used routes.

Does anyone know if there is any planned investment for other stations in the area- especially the unmanned ones? Lets hope so 

Digby has a new station, sort out the others first!

[Zoe]

Last time I used the station, the bus left about 10 seconds after the train arrived.  Luckily I wasn't using the bus but it doesn't seem very integrated transport.

[signalandtelegraph]

Last time I used the station, the bus left about 10 seconds after the train arrived.  Luckily I wasn't using the bus but it doesn't seem very intergated transport.

Train - First Group,  Bus - Stagecoach, or is that too cynical?

[grahame]

Last time I used the station, the bus left about 10 seconds after the train arrived.  Luckily I wasn't using the bus but it doesn't seem very intergated transport.

Train - First Group,  Bus - Stagecoach, or is that too cynical?

Too Cynical.   Chippenham - evening bus to Melksham leaves 20:44, train from London arrives 20:45. As you leave the station on the bus (having hung around since the previous train), you see the next one arriving.  Train - First Group. Bus - First Group (and in the evening, the majority of passengers on the bus are from the station at Chippenham, not Chippenham town centre / bus station.

Perhaps we should have a "best and worst connections" thread?

[Chris from Nailsea]

Too cynical, maybe - but surely it is perverse for any bus to leave a railway station just as a train arrives?

The bus is running anyway - so why not have a departure time set to enable the bus to pick up all those extra passengers who have just got off the train?  It shouldn't matter whether the bus company is part of the train company group or not: it would simply mean more fare-paying passengers travel on that bus.

As it is, while some of those train passengers will hang around for the next bus, others will make alternative arrangements - a loss of revenue to the bus company.

At Nailsea & Backwell station, we have an excellent bus service, provided by a bus company unconnected with FGW^▸ (First Great Western), where the bus timetable is linked to the train timetable - and the bus waits (within reason) if a train is running late!

[Tim]

Government said lots about integrated transport and joined up journeys, but what this translated to was combined train and bus tickets which are nice but somewaht of an optional extra if the timetables haven't been integrated. 

[grahame]

Too cynical, maybe - but surely it is perverse for any bus to leave a railway station just as a train arrives?

Hmm ... not sure how you would manage that at Reading with a train arriving every 5 minutes, but certainly at stations with much longer intervals ...

As it is, while some of those train passengers will hang around for the next bus, others will make alternative arrangements - a loss of revenue to the bus company.

I can't speak for Digby and Sowerton, but the service from Chippenham is Council subsidised in the evening, with the main income provided by the council not the passengers; it runs every 80 minutes because it's one bus on a 35 minute single journey route, and the example that I quoted is the one at the most popular time so peversely the busiest bus. It's probably better for First's finances to run the "4 round trips in the evening" as quickly as possible and reduce staff costs rather than giving the services longer turn arounds to increase the farebox revenue.

[FlyingDutchman]

After using Digby & Sowton for some time  wish they would be proper shelter  than just small huts

[Super Guard]

Nothing connects very well at Tiverton Parkway with the 1 bus an hour (if you're lucky), again Bus = Stagecoach.

[FlyingDutchman]

I haven't seen any changes yet at th station.