Over here in France in my part of Brittany, stations on the main lines tend to fall into the following categories on Mondays-Fridays:
1 - Large or strategic towns or cities where all virtually all trains call, express and local.
2 - Smaller towns where most local services call giving a good spread in each direction throughout the day, but few if any expresses do.
3 - Suburbs, towns or villages within the catchment area of a large town or city, where bursts of train services call during the peaks to facilitate commuting or school/student traffic to and from that large town or city, but little else calling outside of this.
4 - Villages beyond the catchment areas mentioned in 3. , where one train in each direction calls per day to facilitate commuting or school/student traffic to and from the nearest large town or city.
On Saturdays and Sundays there is a very clear cut off point - Stations in categories 3 and 4 get pretty close to nowt.
However, on the branch lines in my part of the world - Guingamp-Carhaix and Guingamp-Paimpol - we have 5-6 trains per weekday and 3-4 trains on Saturdays and Sundays in each direction, calling at all stations from the bigger towns down to the smallest hamlets, spread pretty well throughout the day.
Ok - just for a bit of sport, lets imagine what train services in Devon & Cornwall might be like if they had been developed and run in a similar way to those in Brittany over the last few decades. NOTE - I am very much in "crayon" mode here, a serious proposal this aint
1 - Electric
TGV▸ services from London to Exeter, Newton Abbot and Plymouth (
140 minute journey time according to First Great Western in 2002 ), via dedicated line including Dawlish Avoiding Line, continuing from Plymouth via the "classic" route and calling at Liskeard, Bodmin Parkway, Par, St Austell, Truro, Redruth, St Erth and Penzance.
2 - Electric Local services from Plymouth to Penzance, calling at Category 1 stations plus Saltash, Lostwithiel, Camborne and Hayle.
3 - "Splurge" peak additional calls on Category 2 services at Devonport, Dockyard, Keyham and St Budeaux Ferry Road.
4 - One Category 2 service in each direction per day to call at St Germans and Menheniot.
On Saturdays and Sundays there is a very clear cut off point - Stations in categories 3 and 4 get pretty close to nowt.
Elsewhere:
Regular local electric train services shuttle between Paignton-Torquay-Newton Abbot to provide TGV connections, with some seasonal direct TGV services being provided as well.
Exeter-Okehampton-Tavistock-Bere Alston-Plymouth survives as a perpetually crumbling and closure-threatened, non-electrified secondary line, rather than actually having been closed in the late 60's/early 70's, with a handful of trains in each direction per day, with perhaps a few buses as well due to the state of the infrastructure (think
Dol-Dinan-Lamballe-St Brieuc. ) The branch off towards Calstock and Gunnislake has closed some years previously.
Ivybridge does not reopen.
Non-electric all-year round branch line train services are provided on Truro-Falmouth, Par-Newquay and Exeter-Barnstaple-Ilfracombe, the continuation of which to the latter survives rather than having been closed in the early 70's. The service pattern on each of these lines is roughly 5-6 trains per weekday and 3-4 trains on Saturdays and Sundays in each direction, calling at all stations from the bigger towns down to the smallest hamlets, spread pretty well throughout the day (think
Guingamp-Carhaix or
Guingamp-Paimpol. )
Non-electric summer-only branch line train services are provided on St Erth-St Ives and Liskeard-Looe (think
Auray-Quiberon. )
Both Plymouth and Exeter have some form of light rail/tram/metro, the latter incorporating the Exmouth branch and some of the original Dawlish and Teignmouth route (think
Rennes Metro or
Brest Trams. )
Now, some will love the idea of this way of doing things, and some will quite obviously loathe it. For me, that's the beauty of being able to study both the
UK▸ and French networks at close hand - There is no perfect system, only different ones to learn from and take those lessons on board going forward.