Great Western Coffee Shop

Evening all,

Was browsing a magazine yesterday in a branch of WHS and a rail magazione (Modern Railways, IIRC?) gave an idea on what changes we should see at the start of 2019 when electrification is scheduled to be completed to Cardiff. Changes listed for Devon were:

For GWR:
- Hourly service between London Paddington and Plymouth. These will all run non-stop between Taunton and Reading. The stations at Castle Cary and Westbury, along with the intermediate stations between Westbury and Reading, will be served every 2 hours by Class 802s.

- Class 158s will work on the main line between Exeter and Plymouth, supplemented by mini-HSTs. There will be a 30-minute frequency when combined with London trains and XC services on the Cornish main line.

- Services between Exmouth and Exeter St. Davids (which continue, alternately, to Paignton or Barnstaple) will be revised to run every 30 minutes between Exmouth, Exeter St. Davids and Paignton for most of the day but with a 60-minute frequency in the evenings. These services will be operated by 4-car Class 150s.

- Class 158s will take over the Barnstaple services. Most of the Barnstaple services will operate between Barnstaple, Exeter St. Davids and St. James Park. The article I read states that, in the medium term, it is hoped to extend this to Pinhoe or Cranbrook and, longer term, to Honiton or Axminster: the latter extension would aim to provide a 30-minute frequency between Honiton, Cranbrook and Exeter "when a new loop is achieved west of Honiton on the single line". (I wasn't aware of any plans for such a loop: anyone else know of this?)

The article also says that SWR are proposing an extra weekday service between Yeovil Junction and Exeter St. Davids in the morning but without a relief service in the opposite direction during the evening peak. Other than that "the big shake-up of the timetable in December 2018 will see few changes in East Devon".

HTIOI,
Dave

The description of the proposed half hourly Devon Metro Axminster service is in the last Western Route Study, Page 196, even though in the Wessex area, presumably as it is intended to be run by GWR, as part of Exeter area capacity improvements. It explains that  a service to Axminster requires an additional loop in the Whimple area and gives costs.

I think an earlier consultation, posssible the superseded Western franchise of about 2014 explained that some extensions to Honiton only were possible, but not every hour, with only existing infrastructure.

Sounds about right, I believe the plan is for the 5 car 802s to form 10 coach trains on the Pad to Plym direct services, and 9 car 802s to run Pad to Exeter via Westbury, with extensions to Plymouth or Paignton depending on the time of day.

Just a thought but if all the Paddington to Plymouth trains run direct then would that include 1C04 (0730 PAD-PNZ via. BRI)? If so could be a nuisance for some: it seems to take quite a few passengers from Bristol Temple Meads.

Dave

Im not sure if the 07:30 is staying as is.

Most trains via Bristol are/were planned to no longer serve there.

Some have already been changed.   The 10:00 which used to run to Paignton via Bristol now terminates at Temple Meads.  A Paignton service leaves Paddington half an hour later and runs via the Berks & Hants, arriving at stations from Taunton westwards at roughly the same time as the previous train via Bristol.

This could change again once the new franchise happens, as I believe the DFT ordered this when it was on about splitting the franchise, of course it backfired when the DFT got a load of abuse about those plans.