Penzance to Plymouth-branch line or main line?

[whole diary]

[woody]

Dropped off my son at Plymouth station this afternoon to catch the 1615 Plymouth to Penzance back to Redruth.What are we greeted with,2x153s full and standing with the next Penzance train not until 1800 and this on a Saturday as well when hoardes of Cornish day trippers to Plymouth regularly start returning home.West of Exeter FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are in danger of becoming an absolute joke.
 Once again I say "Penzance to Plymouth-branch line or main line?"

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

could be worse could be a single 153  , watch this and tell me if things have got better in the last 20 years
... im not sure
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CCCKoo42pM

[devon_metro]

Dropped off my son at Plymouth station this afternoon to catch the 1615 Plymouth to Penzance back to Redruth.What are we greeted with,2x153s full and standing with the next Penzance train not until 1800 and this on a Saturday as well when hoardes of Cornish day trippers to Plymouth regularly start returning home.West of Exeter FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are in danger of becoming an absolute joke in the eyes of 'woody'
 Once again I say "Penzance to Plymouth-branch line or main line?"

[bobm]

They did invest in doubling part of the line in Cornwall recently but there certainly is a bit of a branch line feel sometimes west of the Royal Albert Bridge. Although I usually only get that far on a long distance train I've noticed the catering can be a bit patchy after Plymouth which is frustrating with two hours still to go to Penzance.

[Brucey]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CCCKoo42pM

Ah, the days of being able to open the door before coming to a halt!

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

i noticed that they were even doing that on mk 2's

[woody]

Dropped off my son at Plymouth station this afternoon to catch the 1615 Plymouth to Penzance back to Redruth.What are we greeted with,2x153s full and standing with the next Penzance train not until 1800 and this on a Saturday as well when hoardes of Cornish day trippers to Plymouth regularly start returning home.West of Exeter FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are in danger of becoming an absolute joke in the eyes of 'woody'
 Once again I say "Penzance to Plymouth-branch line or main line?"

Not just "in the eyes of Woody" mate I can assure you.Neither First nor Great was an expression Andrew Lloyd Webber once used to describe FGW.My remarks though are not aimed at FGW who in general have to make the best of a bad job,but rather the Dft which effectively runs our psuodo-privatised railway to the detriment of both taxpayer and passenger.

[inspector_blakey]

i noticed that they were even doing that on mk 2's

Prior to secondary door locking being installed on the mark 2 fleet! It was a retro-fit in the early 1990s on both mark 2 and 3 stock.

Neither First nor Great was an expression Andrew Lloyd Webber once used to describe FGW^▸ (First Great Western).

Gosh, it must have taken him a while to come up with a sound bite that witty and original.

[eightf48544]

Woody says:

Once again I say "Penzance to Plymouth-branch line or main line?"

I thinkl that's the problem DaFT^» (Department for Transport - critical sounding abbreviation I discourage - about) have got they don't know either.

As he also says: My remarks though are not aimed at FGW^▸ (First Great Western) who in general have to make the best of a bad job,but rather the Dft which effectively runs our psuodo-privatised railway to the detriment of both taxpayer and passenger.

On the one hand they want mainline services (from London) so they can get to their holiday cottages and their teenage children get to Newquay without being driven, but vaguely recognise that quite a lot of Cornish people seem to "like" travelling by train locally or at least no further than Plymouth.

Hence their dilemma ideally you would have an hourly fast and an hourly all (most) stations following it. Not sure how the timings work but i asumme that the stopper if it left 5 minutes after the fast (connection from London) could get to Penzance before the next fast. I any hour where there is isn't a London XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) then perhaps a semifast serving more stations than the fast. Thus major stations would get 2 tph except the odd hour when they got 1 minor staions would get 1 tph unless they were very minor when ther might be 2 gap if semi doesn't stop.

However my plan would require too much stock and be considered a gross over provision. Better to underprovide and make money.

[vacman]

Penzance-Plymouth really does need to be half hourly, it is a very busy line, even Truro-Plymouth would be a start!

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

i don't believe frequency was the issue but capacity making every other hst none stop between penzance and plymouth and putting in a two hourly loco hauled plym to penzance stopping service would add faster london services from penzance and more capacity and better links for local shacks, it would also free up units for elsewhere

then again how much more could that line take capacity wise

[Chris from Nailsea]

I've only travelled that way once, but when Ollie and I did our 'Cornwall branch line bash' to Falmouth, we were impressed with the loadings on the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) into and out of Cornwall beyond Plymouth.

I don't have an answer: I merely offer this observation. 

[Ollie]

I've only travelled that way once, but when Ollie and I did our 'Cornwall branch line bash' to Falmouth, we were impressed with the loadings on the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) into and out of Cornwall beyond Plymouth.

I don't have an answer: I merely offer this observation. 

Branch line bash in the sense that we only did one

But yeah I would agree with Chris, the HST (both ways) had enough space to accomodate people.

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

its a well used service but lets be honest its a very long journey and should at the very least have a trolly for coffee, i realise that when i did it that i did it out of choice and not because i had to travel down there but exeter to penzance on a 150 is not fun and even on a hst it seems to take forever  

[vacman]

i don't believe frequency was the issue but capacity making every other hst none stop between penzance and plymouth and putting in a two hourly loco hauled plym to penzance stopping service would add faster london services from penzance and more capacity and better links for local shacks, it would also free up units for elsewhere

then again how much more could that line take capacity wise

Non stop Ply-Pnz? pointless, would at least need a Truro stop as Truro's footfall is over double that of Pnz!