Interesting, yesterday, according to the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) website, through services from Newquay to Paddington for Monday 12th August were thus:

Newquay 07.28 13.22 Pad (Additonal service)
Newquay 10.53 16.21 Pad (Additonal service)
Newquay 12.40 18.38 Pad (Additonal service)
Newquay 15.07 20.37 Pad (Normal scheduled service (Atlantic Coast Express))
Newquay 17.12 23.12 Pad (Additional service)

The same search today results in only the 15.07 showing as a through train for Monday 12th (and no trains at all until the 10.13am to Par).


KM

  Ha ha! - or 'Five travel light' or 'Five prepare for a long journey by taking their own food with them'

I saw a big poster at Tottenham Court Road Tube station last week of the Famous Five watching surfers at, what appears to be, Dawlish, with an IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) in the background, hmm.

I tried to paste a photo of it on here but couldn't work out how to do it! 

TGS ... Trailer Guard Standard (Mark 3 coach type) - Basically the coach with the Guard's van at one end
Load 9 - A train with 9 coaches

Best KM

Well I know that the down Riviera (10.06 Pad to Pz) on the 21st December 2017 was load 9 because I was on it. Staff at Paddington were advising passengers for Plymouth with large luggage to put it in the additional TGS (which was being used for luggage only, not for travelling in). As for the last time the Summer Saturdays Paddington - Newquay was load 9, I'm not sure, a thread on RailUK Forums entitled 'HST 8 or 9 coach' mentions it being load 9 in 2015 with the extra TGS being labelled 'Coach X' and being used for surfboards, suitcases etc.

As far as 2018 is concerned I'm not sure but I don't expect anything was load 9 in 2018 as GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) would of probably wanted to 'manage expectations' for when the IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) arrive.

As far as passenger numbers go for the Newquay branch, I'm not sure but I thought that they were pretty healthy, in fact I think I read somewhere that Cornwall County Council want to introduce another passing loop on the branch in order to increase the number of local services on the branch. A pretty good idea really for all travellers, local and long-distance, and especially when you consider that on a Summer Saturday there is only two trains each way that you can (officially) take a surfboard on. And also at the moment there is no reasonable connection off the down sleeper (the 'surfboard train') on any day, although running an early morning service wouldn't require a passing loop, just the will and finance to do so, but it would also be useful to commuters and early morning surf and non-surfboard travellers. 

I note that in recent years the 10.03 Paddington to Penzance HST^▸ (High Speed Train) (Cornish Riviera) has, at busy times around Christmas and on some Summer Saturdays, been formed of 9 coaches with the addition of an extra TGS for extra luggage. I believe that the Summer Saturday 11.35 Paddington to Newquay HST (Atlantic Coast Express) has also been load 9 on occasions with the addition of an extra TGS. It will be interesting to see how these services cope this Summer.

And Saturdays are even worse. The sad irony of the Newquay branch is that on Saturdays it's the least surfboard friendly of all of the Cornish Branchlines, on Saturdays it has seven services each way and three of those are Voyagers and two are IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train), leaving you with just two surfboard-friendly services, Thus:

Par - Newquay   Newquay - Par
8.19 -  9.09          9.40  -  10.27   Voyager     
9.54  - 10.47        11.28 - 12.22    IET
11.45 - 12.39       13.22 - 14.11    Castle Class HST^▸ (High Speed Train)
13.36 - 14.29       15.35  - 16.22   Voyager
15.48 - 16.47       17.28 - 18.20    IET
17.45 - 18.39       19.00 - 19.48    Voyager
20.23 - 21.15       21.18 - 22.06    Class 150


The first one up the branch that you can do with a surfboard is the Castle class HST at 11.45 - a whopping 5 hours and 10 minutes wait at Par off the down sleeper!









 

Interestingly the issue with luggage space etc has happened before - with the HST^▸ (High Speed Train).
AFAIK^▸ (as far as I know) The first HSTs introduced on the Paddington to Swansea route in 1976 did not have a TGS in the formation. It was only later that some standard (second) class coaches were converted to TGS's and other TGS's were built from new, giving all Western region HSTs a TGS from 1980.
KM

The good news is that I am going to be getting £17.05 from the Delay repay scheme! The bad news is that there is a delay to the Delay repay scheme and I am still waiting to be paid the money. I have been advised to phone again next week after the Bank holiday.. Maybe there should be a Delay repay delay repay scheme! 

KM

Indeed that just about sums it up! Some groups / sections of society are seen as 'passengers' by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and other groups / sections are not!

But this situation isn't just about surfers, the way this new 'rule' has been seemingly secretly rolled out without planning or consultation, despite the fact that there is a clear demand for surfboard accommodation, should be a warning to us all.

It may be surfers affected today but tomorrow will it be, for example:

Cyclists

those wishing to purchase food/drink

those requiring an accessible toilet

the list could go on.

Once you say the railway is for this type of passenger but not that type of passenger it can be a slippery slope..

In his post on this thread Mark Hopwood mentions the increased seating capacity of the IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train), and of course this is very welcome, but in their current format, I'm not sure that IETs are suitable, particularly for the longer-distance InterCity routes. What is also important, for any company, is to listen to customers and their concerns, or suffer the fallout/bad press etc from not doing so. In this case will GWR listen and act, only time will tell I guess?

KM

Thank goodness this is getting some publicity.
I notice that GWR have kept this policy change quiet until the new trains have been designed, delivered and nearly in full squadron service. Maybe GWR did another ‘survey’ of passengers and that resulted in no demand for surfboard storage provision! Another example of the railway doing what it wants rather than what its passengers want. The whole thing is a dirty trick, quite disgusting really. For a while now we’ve been promised extra capacity with the arrival of the new fleet (with apparently no need to keep any 8 coach HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train)) and now we realise that they’ll be extra seats (and presumably extra revenue) but with less space for the stuff that people want to take with them! Furthermore, the policy of surfboards being permitted on units (such as 150s), Castle class HSTs, and the Night Riviera (or a rail replacement coach?) but not IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) will probably just be confusing to most people.
There is some space on IETS for surfboards, I was on an IET in Cornwall quite recently and someone had a large mountain bike (which is bigger than most surfboards) in the cycle/storage area with no problem at all. I don’t see why you can’t open reservations up for surfboards and double basses etc as well as bikes. Any confusion over sizes permitted can be resolved with a maximum size guide in the Conditions of carriage. If, it turns out that, you keep getting the storage areas fully reserved, then you know that there’s a need to create some more storage areas.
The cycling lobby seems comparatively (commendably) quite strong and this is probably the only reason that you can still take bikes on trains. It’s about time the surfing lobby and the Musicians union etc were also heard.
Remember all this is at a time when we’re being told, on a daily basis, by the media on how the future of the planet is in the balance due to the nature of our energy consumption and travel behaviour.
The line from Paddington to Penzance is not a 30-minute commuter line in Central London where you may be able to get away with things such as no catering or toilets etc
It’s a 5hr plus Inter-City route and should have things such as:
Reservable seats,
Proper food provision – including hot food
Toilets and accessible toilets
Places to put luggage, wheelchairs, push chairs, bikes, surfboards etc
Seats suitable for a long-distance journey
Seats which give you a reasonable view of outside (not like on a Pendolino!)
A quiet coach
I would further add that stations should have platforms that are (wherever possible) extended to be long enough for the trains that serve them, so you don’t have to get on and carry your luggage through several carriages to get to your seat, and also avoiding the ‘for station x disembark through coaches x, y, and z, for station y disembark through coaches a, b and c’ scenarios.
I’m not sure if Ladybird do a book on ‘How to run a railway’ but if they do some TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) might find it useful!
Note to Administrators: This post possibly relates to wider than just Plymouth and Cornwall!?
KM

I had a similar experience in reverse on Easter Monday. Did the 14.44 Penzance - Paddington 8 coach HST^▸ (High Speed Train) (a relief (remember them) of sorts, actually the 16.57 Plymouth to Paddington extended to start from Penzance). I enjoyed going to the buffet just after Plymouth - just as well I didn't try and go any later as you couldn't move after Exeter - the train was full and standing with, Tiverton Pwy, Taunton, Castle Cary, Westbury, Pewsey, Newbury, Reading and Paddington still to go. Due to the conditions we lost about half an hour, arriving in Paddington at about 9pm. According to the Train Manager on the PA^▸ (Public Address) (who had declassified first class to absorb some of the passengers) most services from the West Country had been like this on Easter Monday. Still it was nice to have an HST (even though the timings, at over six hours, were slower than their loco-hauled predecessors of thirty plus years ago).

The train manager also told us about the Delay Repay scheme, anyone tried this? I'm looking at it now, however it seems that I have to create a new login for Delay Repay even though I've already got a login for the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) app? And I have to provide the Delay Repay site with proof of my E-ticket when it's there anyway on the GWR app?

KM

Did the 07.30 Pad - Pz throughout yesterday (Sat 13th April), the trolley didn't turn up until Swindon due to a stock take? Regarding the 'stock', it had no sandwiches only crisps and biscuits and tea/coffee. Fortunately another trolley turned up just after Plymouth (by which time I was about to eat the table) and did have sandwiches (and tea and coffee until the boiler packed up) however I'd been on the service for nearly four hours by then and would have liked to have witnessed this (sandwiches etc) much earlier.
Perhaps of just as much importance, the carriage I was in (Carriage H, the fourth carriage of the first five car set) became full of a very overpowering sewage swell which stayed for the rest of the journey. The train manager (or whatever we call them these days) said that the smell has happened before and always in the same coach. Has anyone else come across this smell that seems to affect certain IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) units and coaches?

KM

Ok, so I has my first IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train), well two of them, on the 18.03 PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) - PZ on the 20th Dec which I did throughout. I aimed to go with an open mind and here are my experiences/thoughts:
Reservations; many people travelling to Cornwall (myself included) were booked in the rear five coaches, a bit of a shame as apparently the rear set was coming off at Plymouth! This resulted in many people running between the two trains at stations such as Newbury and Taunton to get into the front set. This resulted in a very busy front unit and a quiet(ish) rear unit, a fairly predictable problem when you have two shorter trains coupled together (with no gangway connection) instead of one long train.  I myself didn't bother to go to the front unit until Plymouth was reached, there was plenty of time at Plymouth to do this as it seemed to take an age to uncouple the two units, in fact station dwell times generally were quiet long.
I'd heard about problems with reservations on IETs (surely automated reservations and coach numbers should be easy to do?) Anyway I hope that it is sorted out before any more IET's are introduced.
Catering: There was a trolley service, which didn't have much of a selection and in my opinion doesn't compare with the standard or range that a buffet provides. I've also noticed that even on a quiet(ish) train passengers, who are going to the toilet/going to their seat/trying to get off, tend to 'bunch up' behind the trolley as they are waiting to get past. Once in Cornwall there was no trolley service at all! - As an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) this service had a buffet open to around Redruth.
The acceleration was very good, although station dwell times tended to cancel this out and the train was generally about 5 minutes late.
I thought the leg room was pretty good.
I thought that the toilets were generally pretty good, but a word of advice, check that the water tap works before you use the soap, otherwise you could end up with a hand full of soap with no water or paper napkins to wash it off!
One final point about 5 car IETs in Cornwall is that, whilst they are adequate in West Cornwall, they get very full in East Cornwall.
That's all for now.
Merry Christmas,
KM

It appears that most of the new signals are in position now (thought the new ones west of Truro have yet to be commissioned). I have noticed however that some of the new home signals seem quite poorly sited particularly on the down line. Home signals at Menheniot, Redruth and Hayle all appear to be sited a short distance before the stations themselves. Surely it makes more sense to position the home signals just after the stations (like what's been done at Bodmin Parkway)? This rules out the need for a train for having to stop twice, waiting at a signal can be done whilst passengers are getting on and off at a station. It can also be quite frustrating for a passenger waiting to get off to be held at a signal just short of your destination.

KM