North Devon Rail Users Group AGM^▸ (Annual General Meeting) next Friday. We're expecting an announcement

Actually, those 'codes' have been written to the PDF using the Symbol font when they normally use a font called BRFACE3. I suspect they can't embed the proper font either for copyright reasons or (because this is FGW^▸ (First Great Western)) they don't know what they're doing.

Rough set of translations:

• ] is the diamond 'Reservations available' symbol
• E (backwards) is 'Reservations Compulsory'
• + is the cup of tea in a saucer
• ( is a knife and fork
• | is a trolley
• Three dots is a knife and fork with a box around it

Savers don't exists for most short journeys, though.

Rumour has it that Network Rail are running a sweepstake on the signalman that has to deal with the first Pacer derailment...

Don't forget that every train calls at Copplestone now - twice as many as Morchard Road - and this means only one passenger uses Copplestone for every three trains (and a fair proportion using Copplestone would rather use Morchard Road anyway). A 300% increase in a very small number still isn't very big - it needs to grow by as much again to get to Morchard Road's current figure:

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The fares cut helped! Tarka^▸ (Line from Barnstaple to Exeter) Line Sample Fares


Seems to be so: again the price is a factor (particularly at Crediton: a Carnet Single to Exeter is ^1.25, compared to ^3 CDR^▸ (Off Peak Day Return [ticket type] (formerly 'Cheap Day')). I think the bus is about ^4!) Tarka Line Carnet Fares

This probably ought to be a separate thread...


I don't think there's any immediate threat to the overall stopping pattern: there's no advantage in missing Umberleigh (because of the adjacent level crossing), and Yeoford is devoid of any other public transport (and may become a good deal busier if Dartmoor Railway start running between Yeoford and Okehampton). The extra stops at Copplestone haven't been a success, however, and it would make far more sense to have more trains at Morchard Road.

It's fair to say that the Jacobs Report has caused more than a little disquiet amongst the group. My personal opinion is that there is more than one station which serves no useful purpose and could probably be closed without causing significant hardship.

However, I certainly don't think it's the role of a User Group to propose station closures: if FGW^▸ (First Great Western), Network Rail or the DfT came along with a couple of closures in mind we'll look at the proposals and give a considered opinion. We couldn't agree to any closures without a guarantee of compensating improvements in the service, though.

We don't want them, obviously. Up to now we've been protected by a local Network Rail instruction that Pacers could only operate to Barnstaple once a week, but we suspect that's now been overruled (although no-one has yet admitted to doing so). The ride on jointed track is terrible (and especially bad just south of Umberleigh LC^▸ (Level Crossing)).

On the flip side we have raised the possibility of running extra services on the line - perhaps even getting an hourly service out of it - as compensation of our soon-to-be disgruntled users, which has not been rejected out of hand.

Perfect, ta!

http://ndrailusers.wikispaces.com/FGW+Coffeeshop

No, I mean the RSS^▸ (Regional Spatial Strategy) feed for this forum: http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?type=rss;action=.xml

Done. And since you made me do it (that 'Edit this page' isn't just for show, y'know ), any chance you could increase the number of items in your RSS^▸ (Regional Spatial Strategy) feed?

This Friday, Barnstaple is holding an "In Town Without My Car Day", with several streets in the centre of Barnstaple being closed to traffic and replaced by a range of activities for everyone to enjoy throughout the day.

In partnership with this event, First Great Western are offering a return ticket from any station on the route to Barnstaple for just ^1.

Full details on the ND Rail Users website here </shameless_plug >