Weymouth - station, facilities, improvements, events and incidents - merged posts

[whole diary]

[paul7575]

I've heard no report or suggestion of the lifted rails being perhaps donated to a heritage railway somewhere.  It might sugar the pill a little for some of those most upset by what has happened.

In my limited experience of removing tram old lines from under roads removing them intact may well have been more expensive than removing them in small chunks.

They are double rails with only a specific use within a roadway, presumably carried in special chairs.  Is it likely anywhere in the heritage world would need this particular type of rail rather than ?normal? rail?

Paul

[TonyK]

The best way to reuse any rail recovered from a roadway is via a blast furnace. Blackpool had to get rid of the original lines, buried for 80 years, to build the extension to North Station. Manchester had similar issues in places.

[grahame]

From the Dorset Echo

Revamp plans for Weymouth rail station have been officially submitted to Dorset Council and are now open for public comments.

The £600,000 Weymouth Station Gateway plan would see the station forecourt reconfigured, changes to car parking and flow of traffic, as well as the creation of a ‘pocket park’ linking King Street and the Jubilee Retail Park.

The project also includes new sustainable transport links for bus passengers and cyclists, and improvements to pedestrianisation.

Comments on the proposal - submitted by Dorset Coast Forum - remain open until the end of April.

The plans have been submitted following a public consultation which revealed overwhelming support for the work.

The comments on the article indicate a lack of faith in any notice being taken of consultation inputs, suggests it's an awful lot of money achieving little, and suggest that the station should be move out of town with buses and / or trams for the final stretch into and around the town - perhaps down to the harbour, anyone? 

[RichardB]

From the Dorset Echo

Revamp plans for Weymouth rail station have been officially submitted to Dorset Council and are now open for public comments.

The £600,000 Weymouth Station Gateway plan would see the station forecourt reconfigured, changes to car parking and flow of traffic, as well as the creation of a ‘pocket park’ linking King Street and the Jubilee Retail Park.

The project also includes new sustainable transport links for bus passengers and cyclists, and improvements to pedestrianisation.

Comments on the proposal - submitted by Dorset Coast Forum - remain open until the end of April.

The plans have been submitted following a public consultation which revealed overwhelming support for the work.

The comments on the article indicate a lack of faith in any notice being taken of consultation inputs, suggests it's an awful lot of money achieving little, and suggest that the station should be move out of town with buses and / or trams for the final stretch into and around the town - perhaps down to the harbour, anyone? 

Good old local newspaper "below the line" comments!   

[DaveHarries]

On my road (which, fortunately, is a private one that the council have no jurisdiction over in some ways such as surfacing) if the residents didn't park on the pavement then other vehicles such as delivery vehicles, fire engines, ambulances and refuse collection vehicles would not be able to access the road due to insufficient room. If this is a serious idea then care needs to be taken as to where it is imposed.

Dave

[MVR S&T]

Guessing you live very near Weymouth station then? yes agree the local roads are very narow, so pavement parking might be justified. perhaps narower cars...

[infoman]

approx 18:40pm on Tuesday night

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Local news available for 24 hours only on i player catch up thingy

[infoman]

Been featured on BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) spolight news for the south west of England on Friday evening.

Available for 24 hours only on the play again facilty.

[bobm]

While compiling that report Paul Clifton posted this picture on Twitter.



Clearly glowing red despite the vegetation.  Be a worry if it was showing any other aspect.  It is the exit signal from the line to the harbour which, as we know, has been largely lifted!

[Timmer]

Also available on BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) South Today.

A must for all Weymouth transport fans.

[paul7575]

Joining the lifting of that disused track to current issues with passenger numbers on the railway?  I’d say it’s two completely unrelated stories.

If he wants to know why the signal is still working?  It’s a significant cost to fully alter the signalling system, so as in probably hundreds of other examples, you have a red signal leading from or to nowhere.  I suspect that as that line is still usable up until just beyond that point, there’s been no urgency to remove it, I believe it would still need a small fixed red pointing the other way on a set of buffers?

[MVR S&T]

I heard somewhere the quay branch stub is being retained as a storage area, so the signal has to remain lit as it is lamp proved, if no lamp, then stub cannot be signalled into.

[paul7575]

The sectional appendix still showed 21 ch (say 400m) available, which I think is about the length between the junction with the single track section of the main line, and the gates on the north side of Jubilee Cl near that signal.   Possibly a bit longer than needed for any reasonably expected use?

Paul

[Ralph Ayres]

Title should probably be Weymouth station front; the seafront is unaffected, and was glorious when I visited a couple of weeks back.

This does look as though it should be a big improvement, and on a related note although much of the old tramway through the streets has been removed there is still a section through a car park which I suspect will survive for some time as it seems unlikely to bother anyone or need any maintenance.  I remember watching the boat trains creeping through the town in the early 70s.  A fascinating but distinctly cumbersome and archaic operation, and quite a spectator sport with the almost inevitable wait for a badly-parked car to be moved out of the way.  I could see why it stopped running before the boats did.

I was pleased to see that the local bus fleet still lives in a proper garage opposite the station rather than being stored exposed to the elements on a patch of wasteland as is more typical nowadays; particularly beneficial given the sea air.

[bradshaw]

   Two sections of track have been kept in place to preserve some historic element of the Weymouth Branch Line – with a 30m section at the start of the line in Commercial Road and another section in ‘The Loop’ near Cosens Quay Car Park left in place.

From
https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/roads-highways-maintenance/highway-improvements/weymouth-branch-line-track-removal