Exeter St David's - station, facilities, improvements, events and incidents - merged posts

[whole diary]

[Branch Line Connor]

Why should FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have to deal with XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise))'s overcrowding? FGW have done a good enough job in my opinion and XC haven't.

[devon_metro]

Though remember the original Operation Princess service had a standard half hourly service as far south as Plymouth. It's no wonder trains are overcrowded south of Bristol when you consider that an hourly HST^▸ (High Speed Train) has been replaced by a 4/5 coach set with relatively few seats per train.

Talking of HST's, wonder how many XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) had running today, on what was always going to be a very busy day given the start of half term. An astute operator would have had all 5 running and soaked up the advance tickets on the HSTs, leaving the 220/221s free for non-advance pax. Bet they only had 2 though.   

3 sets, and possible one on hire to East Coast.

On Fridays the 1944 Bristol - Plymouth is an HST.

[readytostart]

Though remember the original Operation Princess service had a standard half hourly service as far south as Plymouth.  

Not strictly true, normally 3 trains every two hours for Plymouth, the alternate 42 past the hour went to Cardiff according to my Operation Princess guide, but I submit to my mistake!
Unfortunately loading figures have led to some HST^▸ (High Speed Train) diagrams being stood down and the West Country has several route restrictions ruling out double Voyager set operation west of Plymouth. (No more than 7 car west of Plymouth, no more than 8 car south of Exeter).
Stock issues are always frustrating and there is generally no short term solution, FGW^▸ (First Great Western) and my alma mater (operationally wise) FSR^▸ (First Scot Rail) have in my opinion done well in using otherwise redundant loco hauled stock to be able to redeploy DMUs^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) elsewhere.
My personal bright idea would be to trade XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise))'s HSTs for East Coast's Adelantes and then keep them pretty much on self-contained diagrams such as Manchester - Bristols (Alstom at Longsight would hopefully be able to maintain their own built trains) and Birmingham crews would be able to staff them if they went off route to Bournemouth or Newcastle.
I'll leave it at that for now, need to calm myself with some more wine and not think about my 4 car trip to Birmingham and back tomorrow!

[smithy]

Urghh the discontent from spending just 45 minutes at Exeter St Davids!
After getting off the service from Barnstaple, I had to wait for 45 minutes to get my train home. There was a late XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) train available but it was overcrowded. And XC didn't care about the safety of passangers and FGW^▸ (First Great Western) didn't care about the punctality. So the doors were closing and some old geezer decides to get off the train and gets trapped in the door. (Bearing in mind the train was 5 minutes late and had been at EXD^» (Exeter St Davids - next trains) for a long time) So then attempt 2. But some poor woman stops attempt 2, her boyfreind was still inside the carriage. Surely they could have gone with him on board? Then 'Full and Standing' Royal Duchy service. People from what I could see from platform 4 crammed into the aisles and gangways. Not Safe! And just to top things off, FGW blind to the fact somebody was smoking on the platform.
What has gone wrong?!

just a typical friday at end of school term,you have got to expect crowded trains.

as for the smoking the platform staff have got more to deal with than someone smoking i.e dispatching trains and dealing with passengers who keep interupting door closing.






in my opinion the whole smoking on platform rule is nonsense as most platforms are technically outside,it is the same if you are under canopy or at far end of platfrom at places like westbury,i for one would not challenge youths about smoking unless it was offending others these days they could turn round and punch you

[Branch Line Connor]

SWT^▸ (South West Trains) did things without fuss  but I think that last day of term for most and it being a friday, probably made things Hectic. Though the trip to Barnstaple and back was a great ride and great service.

[vacman]

Well, it looked like survival of the fittest. The XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) (1729? to Leeds) Got some backlog of passangers from that. Poor little kid having his face against the door, thats how busy it was. But that is XC. Overcrowding.

Whilst most of your rant is getting on my tit's as you obviously need to grasp reality, the overcrowding on that service is made even more painful by the fact that it was an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) until last December but is now one of those inadequate heaps of plastic sh1t called a voyager!

[Bob_Blakey]

A couple of questions for the numerous rail operations experts who contribute to the coffeeshop:

1) This evening the incoming stock to form the 2030 EXD^» (Exeter St Davids - next trains)-EXM (1932 ex-PGN I believe) was a 4-car 142/143 combination. Is there a reason why FGW^▸ (First Great Western) would run the same 4-car consist all the way to Exmouth? There would I think have been enough time to uncouple the two sets and the next service into P1 was not due for 45 minutes. Seems like an awful waste of diesel if it is a regular occurrence.

2) Because of the signalling problems near Newbury the 1736 ex-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) (2010/2019 at EXD as it normally waits for the Penzance service to pass) did not arrive until 2033. FGW decided not to hold the aforementioned 2030 EXM service. On the face of it this appears to be cr*p customer service (given the minimal potential delay I don't think FGW would have been financially penalised). I fail to understand why they would pull a stunt like this, unless of course the TM^‡(resolve) of the Paignton train had confirmed that there were no Exmouth branch passengers on board (unlikely). 

[Super Guard]

If the TM^‡(resolve) of the delayed PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-PGN did not bother alerting Exeter that there were connecting passengers, then Exeter won't hold onto the train.  In all probability there probably were passengers, but if Exeter ring up and request a hold from Control, they will ask, "are there any connecting passengers?"  If the answer is anything other than "yes", then generally the answer from control is "no".

I have banged on before about TM's/Guards/Whatever we're called alerting stations to connecting passengers, but some are too lazy, and as you rightly points out it is cr*p customer service! 

[inspector_blakey]

Had a similar bad experience once heading back to see the folks in west Wales - train to Cardiff from Bristol delayed, I ask the conductor about the west Wales connection in Swansea, he tells me to speak to the station staff in Cardiff. Staff in Cardiff tell me to speak to the train manager on the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Swansea HST^▸ (High Speed Train). TM^‡(resolve) on HST is having a jolly time in coach F drinking tea and shooting the breeze with a phalanx of other uniformed FGW staff and therefore much too busy to call control or make any attempt to help me out, but tells me to speak to the staff in Swansea. Guess what...? Duty manager in Swansea tells me to get the next train to Carmarthen and speak to the chargeman there. I end up in Carmarthen at about 2300 at night and have the pleasure of speaking to the grumpiest member of staff I've ever encountered who flatly refuses to help and tells me to wait for the Fishguard boat train (due through at about 0030). When I dare to ask him whether he can provide a taxi to Whitland he tells me that if I challenge anything else he's said he'll shut the door in my face and forget about me.

I ended up forking out for a taxi in despair but there was a happy ending, as when I told customer services the whole sorry tale I was eventually reimbursed the taxi fare

So yes, it certainly does happen sometimes and is very annoying when it does. It's a real shame because there are so many staff who will routinely go out of their way to help!

[grahame]

1) This evening the incoming stock to form the 2030 EXD^» (Exeter St Davids - next trains)-EXM (1932 ex-PGN I believe) was a 4-car 142/143 combination. Is there a reason why FGW^▸ (First Great Western) would run the same 4-car consist all the way to Exmouth? There would I think have been enough time to uncouple the two sets and the next service into P1 was not due for 45 minutes. Seems like an awful waste of diesel if it is a regular occurrence.

No driver available to take the unit left behind at EXD to the depot?  Problem with the coupling?  Large crowds at Exmouth at the end of a pop concert who would be catching the return train?  No-one thought about it?

[thetrout]

I've had a similar experience at Exeter with connecting trains. My parents where on holiday near Axminster and I was due to join them after work, so I caught a service from Castle Cary > Exeter after work, which ended up being 25 late, which doesn't sound like alot, but I had only 15 minutes to make my connection at EXD^» (Exeter St Davids - next trains).

So I made myself known to the TM^‡(resolve) onboard who was helpful but thetrout did not like the answer he was given, which was this "That is a SWT^▸ (South West Trains) service and they won't wait for us" Which I thought was bluddy outragous considering that the next service wasn't for another 2 hours!

No brownie points for guessing what happened when I arrived at EXD...! Thank goodness for free WiFi at Wetherspoons!

But just to open a tin of worms, despite the fact that they are 2 different operators, I think they should have held the train! But to be fair I did get 100% compensation in rail vouchers

[Nibat]

That's SWT^▸ (South West Trains) for you!!

We used to have problems down at DWL and TGM with them when they were still coming this way.  Usually if the one to PLY^» (Plymouth - next trains) was over 20 min late into Exeter, 9 out of 10 times would terminate at EXD^» (Exeter St Davids - next trains) with the back-working starting also there.  They wouldn't hold the train for the stopper to arrive with connecting passengers or provide alternative transport unless it was their own fault, I was told by the duty manager that they didn't consider fatalities as their fault so passenger were told to wait 2 hours for the following train...

Glad I don't deal with them anymore!!!!

[paul7575]

I've had a similar experience at Exeter with connecting trains. My parents where on holiday near Axminster and I was due to join them after work, so I caught a service from Castle Cary > Exeter after work, which ended up being 25 late, which doesn't sound like alot, but I had only 15 minutes to make my connection at EXD^» (Exeter St Davids - next trains).

Problem is, and this is still the case even since the Axminster redoubling, you cannot really delay an up service without wrecking the whole service because of all the single track sections.  No easy answer I'm afraid, and although it's easy to criticise SWT^▸ (South West Trains), I doubt FGW^▸ (First Great Western) would hold for 10 mins either on their similarly restricted Cotswold line with its long singled sections...

Paul

[Super Guard]

Sticking up for SWT^▸ (South West Trains), their control will generally allow a hold up to about 5 minutes - yesterday the 1826 to Waterloo left about 5 late to allow a connection with the delayed XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) Paignton that was running 15 late.

thetrout - Surely if the next service is 2hours then they are required to provide alternative transport ?  Even XC open their wallet and provide a taxi if the next service is 2+ hours (eventually) 

Most of this comes down to preparation and monitoring delays, connections and putting the ball in Controls decision, rather than "oh bugger, we've just let the Exmouth go, and a late Pad-Pnz is just rolling in".  Unfortunately Duty Station Managers are very inconsistent at monitoring these situations IMO^▸ (in my opinion) 

[RailCornwall]

After today's 10 hours of constant rain (in Cornwall anyway), the usual news would be of flooding, causing disruption, on the track north of Exeter SD, can't remember news of any significant work being done to alleviate this flooding, has there been or are FGW^▸ (First Great Western) etc. just getting lucky nowadays?