10 years on - what improvements has a privatised railway brought to the west?

[whole diary]

[moonrakerz]

.... I now have 6 timetables covering my journey to work instead of 1, I wonder what new passengers are going to think of that. 

and those six added together don't give all the info that the old booklet E used to !

Also, have the times between Warminster and Salisbury been altered ?  Most trains take 20 minutes (some only 19) from Salisbury to Warminster, in the opposite direction they are scheduled at 22-25 minutes. I'm sure at one time they were the same !

[IndustryInsider]

Also, have the times between Warminster and Salisbury been altered ?  Most trains take 20 minutes (some only 19) from Salisbury to Warminster, in the opposite direction they are scheduled at 22-25 minutes. I'm sure at one time they were the same !

Hi, moonrakerz. Those timings were pretty much the same back in 1999 - southbound trains 20 minutes, northbound mostly 23 minutes.

[moonrakerz]

Also, have the times between Warminster and Salisbury been altered ?  Most trains take 20 minutes (some only 19) from Salisbury to Warminster, in the opposite direction they are scheduled at 22-25 minutes. I'm sure at one time they were the same !

Hi, moonrakerz. Those timings were pretty much the same back in 1999 - southbound trains 20 minutes, northbound mostly 23 minutes.

Are you sure you don't mean the other way round ?   

[IndustryInsider]

Routes 37 & 38: Liskeard to Looe, and Par to Newquay.

Liskeard to Looe
There's a total of 12 weekday trains in each direction between Liskeard and Looe. This is two more than existed in 1999, although there was a Monday only additional service bringing the total to 11 back then. All except two stop on request at St. Keyne, Causeland and Sandplace. Two trains a day stop at the isolated Coombe Junction. These calling patterns are very similar to ten years ago. The extra trains mean the service frequency of a train roughly every 60-90 minutes can be maintained, but allows for an earlier start and later finish.  

High summer services on a Saturday have increased from 10 to 13 round trips, and Sundays remain at 8 trains each way. Saturday's evening service has been particularly improved with last trains at 20:40 and 21:12 which is over two hours later than they were in 1999.

Connections to/from London Paddington services are important to the success of the branch. You can reach Paddington by 11:23 off of the first train from Looe (this used to be 11:56). The last connection of the day also leaves slightly later at at 18:34 arriving at 23:40. There are 8 other Looe to London possibilities throughout each weekday. A connection into the overnight sleeper is also available, that wasn't an option back in 1999, though you have a three hour wait at Liskeard to suffer!

Coming the other way, things have worsened slightly. It was possible to reach Looe by 11:25 with a couple of changes, but now 12:43 is the earliest arrival unless you catch the sleeper in which case you'll be there for 07:41. That's 40 minutes later than in 1999 as you have nearly an hour at Liskeard having missed the first train of the day by 10 minutes. Later in the day things have improved significantly though as there's a connection off of the 15:05ex Paddington - ten years ago you had to leave London as early as 13:05 to make the last trains of the day.

Par to Newquay
High summers sees seven return trips a day on the lengthy branch to Newquay. That's the same number as ten years ago, although services are now spread out further to give earlier and later journey possibilities. What could even loosely be described as a commuter service is now available leaving Newquay at 06:57 with a change of train at Par you can be in Plymouth, Truro or St. Austell for 9am and return options from all three stations between 17:24 and 17:41. You'd have to be a pretty hardened commuter to put up with those journey times though! All bar one train stop at all the intermediate stops on request.

The Saturday service is split into high and low peak periods. The low peak service is similar to the weekday timetable, with the high summer timetable catering for the longer distance holiday traffic with all trains bar one coming through from Plymouth and two of them direct from Paddington. Sundays see a total of 6 trains (one direct from London) until the end of the summer when the service stops totally. Cross Country get in on the act at the weekend with three of the Saturday trains and one Sunday train serving places such as Birmingham, Newcastle and Manchester. Similar services operated in 1999, but there were slightly less options to choose from.

There's a total of six possibilities through from Newquay to London Paddington on weekdays, including the overnight sleeper. Things have improved since 1999 with a 12:25 arrival at London possible now. In 1999 the earliest arrival was 14:47. During July and August the Atlantic Coast Express runs through from Newquay to London at 15:00 arriving 20:39. This train did not operate during the week in 1999. Latest connection (sleeper train excluded) through to London leaves Newquay at 17:22 arriving at 23:40; again much later than back in 1999.

Coming the other way you can reach Newquay by 13:00 outside of July and August but not until 14:31 when the Atlantic Coast Express is running, although that is a direct train. Ten years ago a 12:16 or 12:40 arrival was possible depending on what month you were travelling. The latest you can leave London for Newquay is 16:06 - ten years ago it was much earlier at 13:05.

[IndustryInsider]

Routes 39 & 40: Truro to Falmouth Docks and St Erth to St Ives

Truro to Falmouth Docks
Good news, to all but the most desperate local newspaper it seems, is that a long closed passing loop at Penryn has been re-instated to allow a more frequent service along the branch. There is now a half-hourly service in operation from 6am-7pm, usually operated by two single Class 153 units. After 7pm the trains run hourly (coupled together?) until the last service at 22:06 from Truro and 22:33 from Falmouth Docks. All trains stop at all stations en-route, except Perranwell which is now a request stop on an hourly basis (half hourly at peak times). This gives a total service on the route of 29 trains per weekday each way.

On Saturdays the service is virtually identical, and on Sundays trains start up with the 10:45ex Truro with a service at least every 1h 30m running through until 10pm which gives a total of 10 trains each way.

Back in 1999 a much less frequent service was offered by Wales & West. Gaps of 1h 45m existed at certain times of the day, and there was a total of only 12 trains a day on weekdays. There were only two possible commuting services to Truro from Falmouth at 06:45 and 07:57. Now there's twice as many. The last service from Truro was at 20:42 which is nearly an hour-and-a-half earlier than now. The Saturday service was the same. The only day that hasn't had an improved service, frequency wise at least, is Sunday's which also saw 10 trains each way per day.

Connections onto the main line don't always work quite as smoothly as you might like, that's unavoidable when you have a clockface timetable connecting into one which is far from clockface on the main line, but there are a total of 12 daily journey possibilities from Falmouth to London with either one change at Truro, or an extra one at Plymouth. The quickest you can do the through journey is 4h 54m off of the 08:50 service. Through trips typically take around the 5h15m-5h30m mark. The additional trains now operating mean that there are also many more possibilities for travel to other Cornish towns too.

St Erth to St Ives
A similar half-hourly frequency now operates on the St Ives branch, giving a total of 28 trains a day between 06:45 and 22:00. There are two trains a day that continue through to/from Penzance, one of which is the 08:19 from St Ives which forms a commuter service to Penzance and has the effect of opening up the gap to hourly for that hour. There is no return direct service though, and other through trains are basically stock positioning moves early morning and late evening.

Saturday sees a total of 25 trains a day. The same frequency as weekdays, except the service reverts to hourly earlier in the evening. Hi season Sundays see no less than 19 trains a day each way from 9am to 7:30pm, but this drops down to 13 in September as services don't start until nearly midday.

Back in 1999 there were only 21 services operating each weekday at a mix of half-hourly and hourly frequencies. This did however enable a total of 6 trains per day to travel through to/from Penzance. A practically identical morning commuter service operated from St Ives reaching Penzance for around 08:40, but the return trip had options of a 17:30 with a change at St Erth and a through train at 18:38. Both trains took between 20-25 minutes to get there. Now regular hours commuters only really have the option of the 17:37ex Penzance with a poor connection at St Erth leaving you with a journey time of nearly 50 minutes. I'd be interested to know if there was much of a commuter market into Penzance and if these changes has affected it?

There's been a similar increase in weekend services since 1999 too, though one interesting change is that there used to be a couple of trains that started/terminated at Lelant Saltings which is the park and ride station for St Ives. Now all services run through to St Erth.

Connections to/from London are varied. The first train at 13:40 into Paddington is actually the worst of all the Cornish and Devon branch lines, but then again it is the furthest away. I can't help but think starting the service 30 minutes earlier would be beneficial though as it would make a 12:25 arrival in London possible, which is the same as the other Cornish branch lines.

Commuting opportunities to/from Redruth and Truro also exist, though they're rather spoilt by the fact that the ideal return train from Truro and Redruth just before 6pm only runs from 29th June until 4th September!

[cereal_basher]

The Falmouth service isn't coupled in the evening although it would make sense.
And for most the year the 1557 service from Plymouth to Penzance is the commuter service from Truro. Connection from St Ives are generally poor with trains often missing by one or two minutes.

[IndustryInsider]

Summary:
Well, it's taken nearly two months and getting on for 15000 words, but that's all the routes covered. I could have delved a lot deeper, but hopefully you have been given a good flavour of what's gone on and enjoyed reading? I have added a poll which I'd like as many of you to vote on as possible, so that we get a reasonably accurate impression of what the customers and staff think of things.

Obviously I've only covered the train times and not the many other things which make up a good/bad journey like fares, availability of seats, etc. In terms of the timetable, there have been two underlying trends. There are definitely more trains running on most routes now, and those that do operate nearly always take a little longer - either as a result of making extra stops or just being given more recovery time. There are exceptions to these trends of course; the reduction of trains between Oxford and Didcot and journey time improvements between Bedwyn and London are two that spring to mind.

The next ten years...
One obvious disappointment of the service development since 1999 is the lack of improvements to the infrastructure. There have been no really major projects, a few extra signals here and there, some minor linespeed increases, and the odd extra platform like at Swindon, but the only project of any size that I can think of is the Probus-Burngullow redoubling on the Cornish Main Line in 2004. The Penryn loop has of course just been finished and work has started on the Cotswold Line redoubling but that's a pretty poor list.

In 2019, as well as the Cotswold Line improvements, we will hopefully have a Crossrail network, IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) trains running over a hopefully expanding electrification area, a much improved layout at Reading, Swindon to Kemble double track, and reinstated services to Tavistock and Portishead. There are potentially many more. Perhaps I'll be sat at my keyboard commenting on them in ten years!

[Btline]

In 2019, as well as the Cotswold Line improvements, we will hopefully have a Crossrail network, IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) trains running over a hopefully expanding electrification area, a much improved layout at Reading, Swindon to Kemble double track, and reinstated services to Tavistock and Portishead.

In ten years, that is very optimistic!

IEP will be diesel. I doubt either of the new lines will be re-opened; but don't worry, they'll have wasted a few million doing surveys and reports! Kemble may be re-doubled (most likely out of the above). Reading and Xrail should be completed (assuming the projects aren't scaled down or cut by a Conservative Government). The only one I would put money on being complete is the Cotswold re-doubling.

[Timmer]

A HUGE thank you for taking the time to write up your review IndustryInsider...very much appreciated.

[Btline]

A HUGE thank you for taking the time to write up your review IndustryInsider...very much appreciated.

I agree - it has been v interesting reading. Do you have the 1999 timetables, or did you have to do research?

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

reguarding the poll, now ok i dont use the london half of fgw (past swindon) but i think people should back up there votes in the poll as currently there is a 50/50 split in got worse and better, i voted there has been an inprovement as in my area trains are more frequent (if not sometimes full) the whole fleet has recived a refurb the only issue is the pacers but this really isnt fgw's fault  i would be interested to know if the people who voted that things have got worse actually traveled in 1999 on the fgw network (i moved down in 1997) so i have

[vacman]

One thing that isn't picked up regarding Looe and Newquay is that you are comparing summer for summer, yes there were 7 trains per day in HIGH summer in 1999 but only 4 the rest of the year, now days there are 7 per day ALL year, likewise for sunday services on the St Ives and Falmouth, in 1999 the sunday service only ran in high summer on the Falmouth and all summer on St Ives with no winter sunday trains!

[IndustryInsider]

A HUGE thank you for taking the time to write up your review IndustryInsider...very much appreciated.

I agree - it has been v interesting reading. Do you have the 1999 timetables, or did you have to do research?

Thanks gents - hard work, but fun! I borrowed a copy of the timetable from a friend.

One thing that isn't picked up regarding Looe and Newquay is that you are comparing summer for summer, yes there were 7 trains per day in HIGH summer in 1999 but only 4 the rest of the year, now days there are 7 per day ALL year, likewise for sunday services on the St Ives and Falmouth, in 1999 the sunday service only ran in high summer on the Falmouth and all summer on St Ives with no winter sunday trains!

Yes, that's a very valid point. I didn't get into too much detail with the seasonal variations to avoid getting bogged down, but the ones you mention are indeed significant for the routes concerned. Come on people, get voting!

[Tim]

reguarding the poll, now ok i dont use the london half of fgw (past swindon) but i think people should back up there votes in the poll as currently there is a 50/50 split in got worse and better, i voted there has been an inprovement as in my area trains are more frequent (if not sometimes full) the whole fleet has recived a refurb the only issue is the pacers but this really isnt fgw's fault  i would be interested to know if the people who voted that things have got worse actually traveled in 1999 on the fgw network (i moved down in 1997) so i have

I voted for a slight inprovement based on trips mainly from Bath to London, Bristol and Cardiff.

On the good side - service is now more reliable and marginally more frequent.  Stations and stocks have been cleaned up and refurbished.  Buying a ticket is easier with TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) and more staff

On the neutral side - ticket barriers are installed but not always used properly buy to insufficient staff.  They bring benefits but also inconvenince.

On the negative side -  jounrney times are up and open fares are extortionate into London. 

Thats just my view.  I know not all of my comments relate to things that First has control over and some of them would have happened if the franchise was with someone else, but overall I think that First has made a fairly good fist of things (after a dreadful start to the franchsie - well done to everyone involved in turning things arround) and not been afriad to spend money where needed.  I do think thatthey have managed to salvage their reputation and I no longer wear my "I hate FGW^▸ (First Great Western)" badge.

[grahame]

What a fabulous piece of work you've done in this thread, "Industry Insider".  Words fail me ... a 'useful review' would only be scratching the surface, thank you.

I have had a look at your poll, and I want(ed) to vote, and I am just about to do so personally.   But I have a bit of a quandry.   In 1999,  we had a useable service - meagre but usable - where I live.  Under Wessex trains, that improved to a useful service, and passenger usage rocketed - double figure percentage growth rates, compound, on all measures. So First took over a growing service.  We are now back to a service that is much less useable that it was in 1999 (even if the 06:15 from Swindon and 19:35 from Westbury are new compared to '99), due to timings that defy logic with regard to the journeys people want to make on the line.

If I compare back to '99 ... then it will be somewhat negative.   But if I compare what has happened since First took over - replacing arrivals  (from Swindon and Chippenham) at 06:56, 09:12, 14:49, 18:09 and 22:37 with just two arrivals - 06:40 and 19:11 ... and this for a growing town of over 20,000 ... then my vote will be as negative as it possibly could be.