Go-Op Cooperative - proposals for additional rail services (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[Western Pathfinder]

Ah The Norwegian Blue beautiful plumage.

[rogerpatenall]

Interesting to see that 'some Taunton to Yeovil direct' services are planned. Where would the reversal take place? Is the signalling infrastructure in place to cross back east of Castle Cary? My knowledge of the current layout is insufficient to visualise this.

[IndustryInsider]

I hope I’m wrong but it seems the announcement is nothing but the usual vague and probably unworkable plan and totally unrealistic timescale for implementation given the many hoops they’ll have to jump through before a train can turn a wheel.

[paul7575]

I hope I’m wrong but it seems the announcement is nothing but the usual vague and probably unworkable plan and totally unrealistic timescale for implementation given the many hoops they’ll have to jump through before a train can turn a wheel.

Spare bedroom fantasist takes in naive and gullible local journos...

Paul

[TonyK]

I hope I’m wrong but it seems the announcement is nothing but the usual vague and probably unworkable plan and totally unrealistic timescale for implementation given the many hoops they’ll have to jump through before a train can turn a wheel.

I worry that if it drags out too long, there will be problems not just with bats, but re-evolved dinosaurs.

Spare bedroom fantasist takes in naive and gullible local journos...

Paul

A bit harsh, maybe, but time will tell.

See you all again next year.

[paul7575]

Possibly harsh, but how many massive and random route variations have there been since first proposed?  Nuneaton, Moor St, Taunton, Yeovil, Weymouth? 

Seems like sticking pins in a map...

Paul

[grahame]

Possibly harsh, but how many massive and random route variations have there been since first proposed?  Nuneaton, Moor St, Taunton, Yeovil, Weymouth? 

Seems like sticking pins in a map...

Paul

The core of Yeovil - Castle Cary - Frome - Westbury - Swindon - Oxford - Banbury - Leamington Spa has been pretty much there from the start, and covers a number of excellent flows that are distinctly poorly provided for at present. I share concerns but would see route changes more as a flapping of the limbs at the end and not "massive and random".

[grahame]

Oxford Mail published 6 hours ago

TRAIN passengers could speed between Swindon and Oxford in under an hour, if a new railway co-operative has its way.

Go-Op, a company founded a decade ago by frustrated rail passengers from Somerset, hopes to run regular services between Somerset and Nuneaton.

The firm hopes to launch the project next summer, with the service up and running by 2031. It needs to raise £3.5m over the next three to six months.

Alex Lawrie, operations director and a founder member of the co-operative, said: “The technical difficulties are hard to overstate. The UK^▸ (United Kingdom) railways are for good reason carefully regulated and we must prove in great detail that our ideas stack up.

Continues with familiar text (from press release  )

As ever, so much interesting to see where comments lead people ...

Why do they hate Oxford so much? Next, they will be proposing dialling the 420. No one wants Swindon to be any closer - in travel times, or any other respect. No one wants that.

Err ... there's an awful lot of people on the Swindon to Oxford journey already - by car, bus, and train changing at Didcot.  I wonder where the poster's evidence is that none of these would like a faster travel time.

I wish them all the best and hope the schedules are workable for commuters.
I also hope they'll consider a late train in both directions too.

Ditto - if we clarify that "late train" is a train scheduled at the very end of the evening, and not one that has a schedule but runs far behind it!.   A late Oxford to Swindon (and on via Westbury) is very much in the plans as I understand them and fills a very real gap which no-one else (GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) / DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) / Wiltshire council) has plugged.

[IndustryInsider]

If it ever comes to pass I would hope Swindon to Oxford would be in well under an hour!

[didcotdean]

Although I can guess at the reasons why they have omitted a stop at Didcot on their suggested route they can't expect to garner support from the local councils in Oxfordshire as a result, as it won't assist in their objective in getting Didcot-Oxford(-Bicester) up to a 4 per hour frequency.

[IndustryInsider]

With such a limited service they wouldn’t do much to help any 4tph service aspirations even if they did stop at Didcot.  Best to avoid it if you ask me as I’m sure it would make a higher hurdle to jump if they tried to argue that it wouldn’t be primarily abstractive.

That’s before the try and shoe-horn in a path at Didcot station!

[Richard Fairhurst]

As ever, so much interesting to see where comments lead people ...

Why do they hate Oxford so much? Next, they will be proposing dialling the 420. No one wants Swindon to be any closer - in travel times, or any other respect. No one wants that.

Err ... there's an awful lot of people on the Swindon to Oxford journey already - by car, bus, and train changing at Didcot.  I wonder where the poster's evidence is that none of these would like a faster travel time.

I think that's just the traditional Oxford-Swindon rivalry. Oxford United and Swindon Town are sworn enemies in a Spurs/Arsenal or Man City/Man United fashion. Just a few divisions lower down...

[grahame]

Although I can guess at the reasons why they have omitted a stop at Didcot on their suggested route they can't expect to garner support from the local councils in Oxfordshire as a result, as it won't assist in their objective in getting Didcot-Oxford(-Bicester) up to a 4 per hour frequency.

Open Access operators are between something of a rock and a hard place when it comes to selecting where to stop - or to propose to stop.   Trawling back through things that half-sunk-in with various open access startups a few years back, I can recall instances where they had to miss out what seemed like blindingly obvious calls because (with such calls) they would be dupicating franchised journeys to the extent of signficant abstraction of passengers.

[Above was on my screen / written when I got called away ... see the IndustryInsider has the same thought]

Also to note - the relative infrequency of the service would be nothing like as big a hurdle to building traffic as it would be if there was no practical alternative ...  put in the 06:30 from Frome into Oxford at 08:05, a return at 17:45 from Oxford that calls at Frome at 19:20 and you're providing key peak services - 07:30 Swindon to Oxford and 17:45 back to Swindon at 18:20.  But that return service ain't the end of the story if someone gets delayed ... there are other options (currently 18:10, into Swindon at 19:00, change Didcot is the next one).  People have the convenience and speed of a direct train at their normal time, but a fallback that's not too shabby for occasional use.

[didcotdean]

With such a limited service they wouldn’t do much to help any 4tph service aspirations even if they did stop at Didcot.  Best to avoid it if you ask me as I’m sure it would make a higher hurdle to jump if they tried to argue that it wouldn’t be primarily abstractive.

That’s before the try and shoe-horn in a path at Didcot station!

Maybe they could bring forward the long term aspiration of a building platform on the west curve. After all there is already an undercover route now half way from the main station through the multi-storey carpark

(Didcot-Oxford paths are precious in themselves too of course. The councils probably think their aspirations could be solved in part by the XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) franchise being forced to stop there, even if that means building yet another new platform, this time on the avoiding curve - or even the fantasy new station further east.)

[rogerw]

A short news item on this in the latest "Railway Magazine" out on Wednesday (3 April).