New Station for Shepton Mallet?

[whole diary]

[jamestheredengine]

* The potential travel hotspots to Bath / Bristol that I mentioned do not fall into a neat line

Maybe we need two lines then. Complement what you propose with Taunton - Bridgwater - Cossington - Glastonbury - Wells - (epic bit of new construction parallel to the Old Frome Road to get onto the S&D^▸ (Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway)) - Chilcompton - Midsomer Norton - Radstock - Wellow - Oldfield Park High Level - Bath Green Park

* There isn't a single commuter service from Westbury / Frome / Bruton / Castle Cary into Taunton which may be indicative of the lack of traffic in that direction (but, yes, I don't know what the latent demand is)

With a few reopened stations, a Swindon-Westbury-Taunton local service looks a good idea... Would get rid of messy reversals at Westbury too.

Throwing a stone in the pond I have described ...  Exisiting track Bristol Temple Meads, Bedminster, Parson Street, Long Ashton, Flax Bourton, New cut / tunnel Lulsgate, Blagdon, Cheddar Reopened Wookey, Wells, Shepton Mallet New curve to other line to reopen Cole Junction, Wincanton, Templecombe, Blandford, Broadstone, Poole. ... Stands back and expects alternative suggestions via the Radstock area, and around the north of Bournemouth.

I'd hope a regional train like that would not stop at all those Bristol local stations.

[grahame]

* There isn't a single commuter service from Westbury / Frome / Bruton / Castle Cary into Taunton which may be indicative of the lack of traffic in that direction (but, yes, I don't know what the latent demand is)

With a few reopened stations, a Swindon-Westbury-Taunton local service looks a good idea... Would get rid of messy reversals at Westbury too.

I don't think it needs even that ... elsewhere the idea of extending the "Bedwyns" west every hour has been mooted.  First train perhaps 06:10 off Paddington, calling at Reading, Newbury, Bedwyn, Pewsey, Westbury, Castle Cary and Taunton at 08:16, picking up the 08:18 path westwards.  Add in any two from Kintbury, Hungerford, Frome and Bruton and should still fit 06:10, and it's also an enabler for a potential Somerton / Langport station.

Every hour (from then on) and every hour back .. you have your service.

[ChrisB]

Extending trhe Bedwyns will need additional stock. And I doubt there's the traffic (where is it now? It isn't driving)

[Red Squirrel]

Well I don't know about you lot, but all this talk has really put me in the mood for a Babycham!

[grahame]

Extending trhe Bedwyns will need additional stock. And I doubt there's the traffic (where is it now? It isn't driving)

See http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=21153.0 for the maths, which suggests otherwise, though the potential complex diagram switching at Paddington makes it hard to work out down to the final unit.  If you change the terminus average from Paignton to Exeter St David's you certainly don't need the extra train, and if you carry on to Paignton and maintain that at two trains an hour, you'll release a train there - though of course it wouldn't be an IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train).   Happy to look at traffic generation, but let's be clear first that we're looking at a neutral stock change proposal, so "more passenger carried" put us in the black on balance - we don't need a situation with people quieting and having to wait for the next train at Castle Cary to make it worthwhile!

[Bmblbzzz]

Swindon-Westbury-Taunton strikes me as a pretty good idea, partly as said for Somerton. Does nothing for Shepton Mallet or Bristol-Bournemouth though.

[WSW Frome]

Babycham was invented by the Showering Family in Shepton Mallet during the ?1950's. However, it is very long time since it was produced there. A variety of other owners have run the "Somerset Cider Mill" there leading to complete closure about 2 years ago.

More recently the Mill has been (re-)acquired and re-opened by members of the Showering Family to produce ciders with production and employment apparently rising.

My earlier post referred to (direct) bus services from Shepton to Bristol. I was surprised to find they do not exist (apart from some National Express services) and any such journey is lengthy, typically via Bath or Wells, and barely suitable for commuting. Whilst the service to Bath is much better than in previous years, Bristol does need to be included.
The SW Coaches service (1) to Castle Cary and Yeovil is also quite basic being essentially 2 hourly in the mornings with a single late afternoon option. It is in these areas of public transport that Mendip DC^▸ (Direct Current) might apply the proverbial rocket with the maximum early cost-benefit improvements.
 

[rogerpatenall]

"The SW Coaches service (1) to Castle Cary and Yeovil is also quite basic. .  ."

Although some buses stop on the station forecourt at Castle Cary, others (including,I think, the Shepton -Yeovil) stop on the main road. It would be far more user friendly if all buses used the forecourt.

Nostalgia corner. The attached photo(well, I hope its attached! it rarely works for me) shows Wakes' Yeovil - Shepton Mallet bus in the 1963 winter snows at Castle Cary/

[johnneyw]

This looks to me like the ultimate crayonista's dream.

Grahame's 'solution' of a line from Flax Bourton to Cheddar requires extensive tunnelling, a funicular or taking over the Cheddar Gorge.  Last Wednesday I ascended the S face of the Mendips there and it is STEEP.  There is lost trackbed through to Shepton.  I do not know how much trackbed has been lost from the S&D^▸ (Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway) to Poole.

Red Squirrel's suggestion will need to tunnel out of Bristol to Whitchurch due to all the developments on the trackbed.  It would also be necessary to include reversing time at Radstock when switching from the North Somerset to the S&D.

Do not forget the time it is taking to reopen the Portishead line which has an existing trackbed, much of which is used for freight.

I have to concur will all you have said, although even HS1^▸ (High Speed line 1 - St Pancras to Channel Tunnel)&2 started with a bit of Crayonistaism*.


* Not sure that word has made the OED^▸ (Oxford English Dictionary) yet!

[Bmblbzzz]

Looking at the Adlestrop map of lines past and present, it occurs to me that some Victorian railway lines were built on a similar principle to the nineteenth-century colonisation of far-flung continents: There might not be anything we really want to get, but if we don't get it, the other lot will! Whether the other lot were competing companies or rival empires.

What this suggests to me about reconnecting places that have lost their railways, is that the routes of old lines might not make sense nowadays. They might of course be easier to build on from an engineering and rights-of-way perspective.

Also, thinking of the Bristol/Bath to Bournemouth/Poole missing connection, I would disentangle it from the Shepton Mallet/Mendips question. Looking vaguely at a map (emphasis on vaguely), one way to make that connection might be to build south from Warminster through Gillingham or thereabouts. (Repeating vaguely and adding small-scale map, not looking at other settlements or engineering challenges, etc; repeating also separate links.)

[bradshaw]

The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth line below Frome to Weymouth was put forward as a blocking line, to claim the territory.

[Red Squirrel]

The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth line below Frome to Weymouth was put forward as a blocking line, to claim the territory.

...and some lines, like the North Somerset, were more about extracting minerals than carrying passengers. However when looking for a route to build a new line, it may well be the case that old alignments (sometimes connected together in new ways) provide the cheapest and easiest solution; it may even be possible to recycle some of the civils.

[Bmblbzzz]

The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth line below Frome to Weymouth was put forward as a blocking line, to claim the territory.

The line that's there now, from Castle Cary through Yeovil?

[rogerpatenall]

I bet that the OP^▸ (Original Poster / topic starter) didn't expect this one to run for over 70 responses. We are all dreamers, at heart.

[grahame]

The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth line below Frome to Weymouth was put forward as a blocking line, to claim the territory.

The line that's there now, from Castle Cary through Yeovil?

Wilts, Somerset and Dorset - an early line from the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) London to Bristol line, turning off at Thingley Junction and running via Trowbridge and Westbury (first line there) then on to Frome, Yeovil, Dorchester and Weymouth.  Branches added later.

The London and South Western Railway reached Dorchester (South) too and the original platform was layed out there to let the line carry on straight ahead.  However, that never happen - it's said to be because the other line was in the way blocking it, and it turned sharp left to join that line to Weymouth.   Within my memory, trains from Weymouth to London ran round the curve at the station and reversed into the straight platform.