Exeter St Thomas - station, facilities, improvements, events and incidents - merged posts

[whole diary]

[Lee]

Quick question for those local or "in the know" :

I was wondering how long a significant chunk of platform 2 at Exeter St Thomas has been fenced off? It definately has been since before May 2006, which was when Owen Dunn took the following photo:



I have always been interested in this station and its history, so any other info would be welcome as well.

[vacman]

I did hear, but have never seen any pics, that the formation was 3 track and where the front of the current useable platform is situated is where the loop line was.

[LiskeardRich]

a bit of research, in the past myself drew loads of blanks, although all i could find was the viaduct was widened in 1861 from single track to double track, when a second platform was constructed, i never found anything regarding a loop in my research though, as i wondered what the fencing off was for!

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

i suspect it is to prevent things ending up on the pavement below or in the path of road traffic

[smokey]

Exeter St Thomas was (I always thought) built as a Two Platform Broad gauge station with an OVERALL Roof, (often quoted as being a Burnel roof) so I would (best guess) say that any Widening in 1861 would be that of Extending the length of the Platforms.
St Thomas does (or did) have long platforms, but recent work (in the 1990's?) saw the platform(s) shortened possibly the REMOVAL of the 1861 works.

On my last visit to St Thomas the back of the UP platform 2 was lower than the rest of Platform 2, and is made of large Slate slabs, the original platform surface?
I reckon work to raise the height of the up Platform was done on the cheap with only the Minimum widith raised.

As Slate is very slippery in the Wet I'm sure it was taken out of use as a safety issue rather than taper the new platform surface down to the old

[vacman]

St Thomas still had an overall roof at least until the mid 1960's, theres a pic somewhere of a class 22 (D63xx) going through there.

[ellendune]

A brief history can be found at http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/_buildings/stthomasstation.php which answers a number of the questions raised.

According to this article the widening was provision of a second track (it shows photographic evidence) in 1861 and platform lengthening came much later in 1929. It reports that the overall roof was demolished in 1970.

[JayMac]

From the Exeter Express & Echo:

DEVON County Council has now provided more details about the proposed improvements to St Thomas railway station.

As The Echo revealed last week a planning application which would see better shelters, lighting and CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) at the station has been lodged with the city council.

A spokesman for the county council has now told Community News: ^The station improvements are being proposed by First Great Western as part of the INTERREG Citizens Rail project, http://www.citizensrail.org/devon/

^The project covers the Riviera Line between Paignton and Exeter and includes train service frequency improvements between Paignton and Newton Abbot, with some continuing to/from Exeter, along with improvements to some stations along the line.

^The county council has put in just short of ^270,000 of funding and is using ^175,000 of Local Sustainable Transport Funding to help provide the additional train services, but it is not funding the station improvements.

^First Great Western is leading on the station improvements, which include Exeter St Thomas.

^Devon County Council may separately fund a mural and some planting but there are no details as yet.^

[Umberleigh]

Interesting. And good news for this service

However, interested to know how they are providing the extra services when apparently there are NO extra units anywhere to ease overcrowding on the Tarka^▸ (Line from Barnstaple to Exeter) line, for example..?

[RichardB]

It's a very long story, Umberleigh, and only the significant extra funding brought in from the EU^» (European Union - about) together with funding from Devon and Torbay has made it possible.  That funding wasn't available for any other line, I'm afraid.

Having said this, watch this space as there should be some good news soon about the Tarka^▸ (Line from Barnstaple to Exeter) Line.  Can't say more just now as it isn't all signed, sealed and delivered.

Richard Burningham,
Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership.

[DavidBrown]

You definitely know how to tease us, Richard! Still, any good news is always welcome - it shows that there are people of significance that are looking to improve the line/service, even if whatever this news is falls through for whatever reason.

[Rapidash]

Certainly good news. Don't suppose the same could be done for SJP/Polsloe Bridge? Winter is coming, and I don't fancy freezing me nadgers off in the rain anymore

[TonyK]

Certainly good news. Don't suppose the same could be done for SJP/Polsloe Bridge? Winter is coming, and I don't fancy freezing me nadgers off in the rain anymore

You'd have to sew mine back on first.

[Rapidash]

There is now a proper CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) on both platforms at St Thomas now! No more staring at a broken help point \o/ (I also saw them installed at Topsham as well!)

[TonyK]

Always good to have information at remote stations - not that Topsham or EXT should seem remote, but they are not a major terminus. Nice to be able to see that a train will appear sometime close to what it says on the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System).