British Summer Time ^ so why are all the lights still on?

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

Something I^ve noticed over the past couple of weeks particularly ^ now we^re in BST and enjoying some quite sunny weather ^ is that the electric floodlights on all of the platforms at (for example) Bristol Temple Meads and Nailsea & Backwell are on throughout the day!

Surely they could be fitted with timers, to switch off at an appropriate time in the morning - saving vastly expensive amounts of electricity, until they switch on again at an appropriate time in the evening?  Even if they were not 'timed', surely they could be linked to light sensors, only switching on when it^s cloudy, night-time or a solar eclipse - like street lamps?

Just as a matter of interest, across the whole FGW^▸ (First Great Western) area, how many other stations are similarly wasting electricity in this way?  And why??

 

[Graz]

A good question! - though I can't say I've noticed any lights on at the stations I travel to in the early evening. I'll keep a look out tomorrow!

[smokey]

Exeter St Davids and Exeter Central keep the Home fires sorry lights Burning all day.

As do Taunton and Totnes on many days.

Reading is also Guilty, Newton Abbot is another, Bere Ferrers on my local branch is still lit at 08.20 each morning.

Paignton is also an offender.

Bugle (Newquay branch) is another.

I'll keep my eyes open for others!

If I had a scanner I'd post Page 27 of the September 2006 Railnews that states that this waste costs the Railway industry ^60million a year.

But then the more the Lights burn the more Repairs the Maintenance Contractor Makes!!!!!!

[devon_metro]

Paignton & Newton Abbot are fairly dark station though smokey 

[Tim]

Hasn't First Group set themselves a C02 reduction target?  i though they amounced something like an "up to" 20% cut

[Lee]

Quote from the Jacobs Consultancy Greater Western Franchise Replacement Reports :

Input data are entered into an operating cost model, which calculates incremental costs for a range of broad cost categories. The unit cost data is derived from benchmark values.

Jacobs Consultancy has access to from previous studies and from information supplied by SRA^» (Strategic Rail Authority - about) for this project. The following assumptions are made in calculating these values, based on our experience and knowledge of the businesses concerned.

Marginal station running costs - ^20k per station closure (based on escaping the lighting and routine maintenance costs of a small unstaffed halt)

[smokey]

Paignton & Newton Abbot are fairly dark station though smokey 

At Paignton the full length of the Station platform is about 600 ft long, the Canopy is about 150ft so thats 75% of  the Electric being wasted.

I wouldn't say Newton Abbot was a Dark Station at all, no Darker than Plymouth where the Lights do seem to turn off correctly when Sun light levels rise.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Rather interestingly, the platform floodlights are no longer left on throughout the day at Nailsea & Backwell - nor at Bristol Temple Meads, so far as I have been able to observe.

And even more interestingly, this seems to have happened within a day or two of my original post, raising this issue?

How about the other stations that have been mentioned here?  Are they still wasting electricity, or has this also been corrected elsewhere?

[John R]

Surely they could be fitted with timers, to switch off at an appropriate time in the morning - saving vastly expensive amounts of electricity, until they switch on again at an appropriate time in the evening?  Even if they were not 'timed', surely they could be linked to light sensors, only switching on when it^s cloudy, night-time or a solar eclipse - like street lamps?

 And why??

 

I've seen two (solar eclipses that is). They're the most astonishing sight to behold.