Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 19:55 28 Mar 2024
* Easter getaways hit by travel disruption
- Where Baltimore bridge investigation goes now
- How do I renew my UK passport and what is the 10-year rule?
- Passengers pleaded with knifeman during attack
- Family anger at sentence on fatal crash driver, 19
- Easter travel warning as millions set to hit roads
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 02/06/24 - Summer Timetable starts
17/08/24 - Bus to Imber
27/09/25 - 200 years of passenger trains

On this day
28th Mar (1917)
Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore closed (link)

Train RunningCancelled
17:57 London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street
18:36 London Paddington to Plymouth
19:23 Reading to Gatwick Airport
19:33 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill
19:35 Exeter St Davids to London Paddington
19:55 Bedwyn to Newbury
20:13 Swindon to Westbury
20:16 Frome to Westbury
20:20 Reading to Shalford
20:49 Newbury to Bedwyn
20:56 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington
21:16 Bedwyn to Newbury
21:30 Shalford to Reading
21:53 Newbury to Bedwyn
22:25 Bedwyn to Newbury
22:47 Newbury to Bedwyn
Short Run
15:03 London Paddington to Penzance
16:03 London Paddington to Penzance
16:19 Carmarthen to London Paddington
16:35 London Paddington to Plymouth
16:50 Plymouth to London Paddington
17:03 London Paddington to Penzance
17:30 London Paddington to Taunton
17:36 London Paddington to Plymouth
17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury
18:03 London Paddington to Penzance
18:54 Reading to Gatwick Airport
18:59 Gatwick Airport to Reading
19:04 Paignton to London Paddington
19:06 London Paddington to Bedwyn
19:13 Salisbury to Bristol Temple Meads
19:29 Gatwick Airport to Reading
20:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
20:11 Salisbury to Bristol Temple Meads
20:42 Bedwyn to London Paddington
21:04 London Paddington to Plymouth
Delayed
16:15 Penzance to London Paddington
Additional 17:17 Exeter St Davids to Penzance
Additional 17:26 Castle Cary to Penzance
19:04 London Paddington to Plymouth
An additional train service has been planned to operate as shown 19:40 Redhill to Reading
19:54 Reading to Gatwick Airport
19:59 Gatwick Airport to Reading
23:04 Reading to Bedwyn
PollsOpen and recent polls
Closed 2024-03-25 Easter Escape - to where?
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
March 28, 2024, 20:13:13 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[118] West Wiltshire Bus Changes April 2024
[116] would you like your own LIVE train station departure board?
[89] Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption el...
[46] Return of the BRUTE?
[38] If not HS2 to Manchester, how will traffic be carried?
[28] Reversing Beeching - bring heritage and freight lines into the...
 
News: the Great Western Coffee Shop ... keeping you up to date with travel around the South West
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Pages: 1 ... 40 41 [42]
  Print  
Author Topic: Okehampton-Tavistock. Discussion on reopening and potential use as a diversionary route  (Read 268809 times)
Andy
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 544



View Profile
« Reply #615 on: December 13, 2020, 22:00:10 »

Looking at the proposal, it seems as if there is one new station proposed: at Tavistock. A stop at Lydford (for Lydford Gorge) with a passing loop would cut the single track section in half.

Yes, you're right.  Just one extra station - Tavistock.  It is such a rural area between Tavistock and Okehampton that personally I don't think you could justify a station at Lydford or anywhere else between the two.  Lydford Gorge would attract some custom but I can't see it being huge.  As for another loop, depends what you want the line to do and what the Government would be prepared to pay for.   

I think Okehampton Parkway, a mile or so east of Okehampton station, has a really good chance of success and suspect that will be something to factor in to these proposals.

If the expected full reopening of Exeter - Okehampton next year is a huge success (as we all hope - and yes, those involved, including me, know the issues and limitations), that will lay the groundwork for this and, if not this, then Bere Alston - Tavistock. 

Exciting times.

I share your hopes for Okehampton-Exeter, especially as any further reinstatement between Bere Alston and Tavistock, or beyond, is, to a certain extent, contingent on its success.
« Last Edit: December 24, 2020, 11:10:45 by Andy » Logged
Pb_devon
Transport Scholar
Sr. Member
******
Posts: 287


View Profile
« Reply #616 on: June 18, 2021, 08:08:15 »

Devon County Council have submitted a bid for funding a business case, see this news story:
https://www.devonnewscentre.info/funding-bid-submitted-for-rail-reinstatement-business-case/

Is this new news?
Logged
Jamsdad
Sr. Member
****
Posts: 201


View Profile Email
« Reply #617 on: June 18, 2021, 14:37:28 »

Pity the photo is of the Calstock viaduct which is not on the Tavi-Okehampton route!
Logged
AMLAG
Sr. Member
****
Posts: 227


View Profile
« Reply #618 on: June 18, 2021, 22:51:11 »


The viaduct correctly pictured is Shillamill between Bere Alston and Tavistock.
Logged
TonyK
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 6435


The artist formerly known as Four Track, Now!


View Profile
« Reply #619 on: June 18, 2021, 23:41:57 »

Devon County Council have submitted a bid for funding a business case, see this news story:
https://www.devonnewscentre.info/funding-bid-submitted-for-rail-reinstatement-business-case/

Is this new news?

It was once.
Logged

Now, please!
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #620 on: June 20, 2021, 11:35:38 »

Devon County Council have submitted a bid for funding a business case, see this news story:
https://www.devonnewscentre.info/funding-bid-submitted-for-rail-reinstatement-business-case/

Is this new news?

It was once.


From RailFuture Campaigners on Facebook - sharing a comment on that story which has more than an echo of truth in it.

Quote
The backstory here is a corker. The previous plan made it all the way to the Planning Inspectorate's procedure for major projects and was quietly withdrawn while being considered, a very unusual step. The Devon County part of the intended funding was switched to roadbuilding. The plan seems to have been nixed by a combination of escalating costs (gold plating from Network Rail) and tarmac-sniffing from Devon County Council. Like Lazarus, the plan is back which is good. It has fallen down the snakes and now has to start again at the bottom of the ladders.


Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
infoman
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1286


View Profile
« Reply #621 on: July 05, 2021, 07:20:27 »

BBC» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) spotlight local news for the south west of England on Monday 5th july,
 have a report that network rail have purchased okehampton station and surrounding area from the aggregate company.
Passenger services expected  to start in december 2021
Logged
paul7575
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 5316


View Profile
« Reply #622 on: July 05, 2021, 15:16:45 »

BBC» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) spotlight local news for the south west of England on Monday 5th july,
 have a report that network rail have purchased okehampton station and surrounding area from the aggregate company.
Passenger services expected  to start in december 2021
The Okehampton station and branch reopening progress has its own more current thread here:
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=24409.msg308191#msg308191
A recent post links to the Network Rail press release.
Logged
Andyroden
Newbie
*
Posts: 3


View Profile
« Reply #623 on: September 10, 2021, 14:12:16 »

Hi folks,

It's been a while since I posted on here, but having set up the Northern Route Working Group with Mat Taylor of Cornwall-based CNNCT Consultancy, I thought I'd say hello and try when I have time to answer any questions on the full reopening.

If you've read the public bid (https://northernrouteworkinggroup.wordpress.com/), a lot of questions will be answered. When we started this work, I think the expert team (which includes former Thameslink MD and Plymouth and Cornwall Railways manager Jim Collins, Jim Steer of Greengauge 21, Professor Jon Shaw of Plymouth Uni, and others offering informal input such as Richard Burningham) all believed diversions would be the main benefit.

What we're confident we can demonstrate with funding for a Strategic Outline Business Case is that there may very well be a wide-ranging (in number as well as geographically) set of social, economic and environmental benefits which make a worthwhile case in its own right, and of course, providing there's enough speed and capacity, that enables our friends at Network Rail to entertain blockades on the main line to undertake resilience work and bring completion forward from the 2070s as well as saving very significant sums.

We have the full support of ALL of Devon and Cornwall's MPs (Member of Parliament) (which we never quite had with the Save Our Sleeper campaign), and when we briefed the Rail Minister a while ago, he acknowledged the RYR (Restoring Your Railway) bid was much improved.

Crucially, Devon County Council is calling Bere Alston to Tavistock Phase 2 of full reopening.

With everyone's efforts in the NRWG team and the wider community supporting it, we must have a good chance of establishing the case for full reopening as a secondary (but damn quick over quite a lot of it) main line to radically improved transport connectivity in Mid, West and North Devon and Cornwall, open our region to more railfreight by virtue of the easier gradients compared to the main line, and keep the region connected to the wider network during disruption, whether planned or otherwise.

We're expecting an announcement later this year - please, please continue to bang the drum folks. If the vast railway operating, management, engineering and consultancy expertise in the team thought this work was misty-eyed wishful thinking they wouldn't have given their expensive time freely and for so long. The case looks good: we now need funding to put some numbers on the potential benefits and costs.

I'll do my best to answer any questions you have when I log in.

Andy Roden
Northern Route Working Group
Logged
DaveHarries
Sr. Member
****
Posts: 259



View Profile
« Reply #624 on: May 22, 2022, 22:05:18 »

I was glad to see this in a magazine I purchased today:

"Tavistock: It was standing room only at a public meeting during which prospects for the reinstated five-mile link from Bere Alston to the Monksmead area of the town were outlined by the campaigning Peninsula Rail Group. Devon County Council says more than 80% of the old trackbed has been secured."
RAIL Magazine 957, 18th-31st May 2022

Whilst it is good that things seem to be making tracks (pun intended) in the right direction I can't help thinking the following:

1. It is a pity that the line can't get any closer to the Town Centre. It begs the question as to whether, in the interests of convenience, people in Tavistock will want to use a train service of whatever frequency when the scheduled bus service between Tavistock and Plymouth on a Monday to Saturday is 4 services per hour which drops you closer to the Town Centre.

2. I also think that if the service is to have a reasonable chance of success then the service will have to be at least 1 train per hour throughout the day but if this was done at the expense of a reduced service to / from Gunnislake then users of the current services in places such as Calstock may not be too happy about that. Perhaps the answer would be to run with, for example, 2x Class 165. Services carrying passengers for both Gunnislake and Tavistock could divide / join at Bere Alston.

Anyway if this goes ahead I will be interested to see how the scheduling is done.

Cheers,
Dave
Logged
GBM
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 1468


View Profile Email
« Reply #625 on: May 23, 2022, 06:57:55 »

Perhaps a single deck bus to meet every train arrival which takes travellers to the town centre perhaps, but, of course, "ooos gonna pay for it" (due apologies)
Logged

Personal opinion only.  Writings not representative of any union, collective, management or employer. (Think that absolves me...........)
Jamsdad
Sr. Member
****
Posts: 201


View Profile Email
« Reply #626 on: May 24, 2022, 19:10:45 »

The proposed new Tavistock station isn't that far from the town centre.  The Plymouth busses may be frequent but they are slow and not very comfortable, very slow indeed in rush hour, as the Tavistock- Plymouth road is a nightmare!
Some work was done a few years ago on a draft timetable for Plymouth-Bere Alston/Tavistock, as I recall it looked very sensible, a variant off the current Gunnislake timetable.
Logged
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: 1 ... 40 41 [42]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page