Junction for the West Somerset Railway

[whole diary]

[Timmer]

Its quite a long day driving from Bath to Minehead/Bishops Lydeard or taking the train to Taunton then having to get a bus to either Minehead/BL. If there was a train service between Taunton-BL/Minehead I'd visit a lot more often as Minehead and the WSR is a great place for a day trip.

[Chris from Nailsea]

For some background on the 'missing link' between Taunton and Bishops Lydeard, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Somerset_Railway#Bishops_Lydeard_to_Taunton

[broadgage]

I dont consider the bus to be especially expensive, though it is very slow and at busy times unreliable.
Although the bus is timetabled at just over an hour, some journeys take much longer.

The bus service is totally inadeqaute when special events in Minhead result in extra potential passengers.

I have seen well over a hundred customers alight from an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) at Taunton, all expecting to get on the Minehead bus, which seats a few dozen.
Often intending bus passengers have to let 2 or 3 buses go before they can get on one, with a service every 30 minutes, that can mean  a wait of an hour and a half or even two hours, giving a total journey time of over three hours.
Sometimes another train arrives before the limited bus service has cleared the passengers from the previous train.
Taxis are not allways available, and are certainly not affordable for all, at a cost of about ^45/50.


A train from Taunton to minehead would be far preferable, and a through train better still.

The West Somerset railway is more punctuall than the bus service, and can of course carry many more passengers.

[devon_metro]

Got a feeling the Voyager only made it as far as Bishops Lydeard.

[bemmy]

To be fair, the West Somerset Railway is not a 'summer only heritage line': they actually operate throughout the year - see their timetable, at http://www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk/Times_fares.html

True it's not "summer only", but I wouldn't exactly call it "throughout the year" either: the Feb 09 to Jan 10 timetable shows that they only operate on 7 days in Feb, 4 in November, and there's no service at all in January after the 3rd. So it's no use for anyone wishing to travel outside weekends and school holidays/half terms. (I'm not having a go at WSR - I'm sure they would if they could.)

Reading other posters' comments about the bus connection has made me even less likely to ever use the line.

I imagine the biggest obstacle to there ever being a regular train service from Taunton to Minehead would be the potential loss of business to the bus route -- because bus fares are higher than train fares -- the same reason First would never want to run a decent service between Penzance and St Ives.

[Phil]

The forthcoming sold-out festivals in Minehead are on 4th - 7th December and 11th - 14th December (both Friday to Monday).

The WSR are running no trains at all on either the 7th or the 11th.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Got a feeling the Voyager only made it as far as Bishops Lydeard.

Excuse me?  See http://trainsferriesbuses.co.uk/xc.htm 

[inspector_blakey]

Reading other posters' comments about the bus connection has made me even less likely to ever use the line.

I wouldn't let those comments put you off, because they don't reflect my experience.

I've visited the line twice in the last year by train to Taunton then bus to BL and had a good experience both times; the bus picks up from a dedicated waiting room on the east side of Taunton station and takes 20-30 mins each way, setting down right outside the station at BL. One of those occasions was the Mixed Traffic/Tornado Gala, one of the big special events, and the bus was pretty busy but had no trouble fitting everyone on. The WSR also often provides its own free bus service to and from Taunton station for the bigger events.

[Nottage_Halt]

The original primary aim of the WSR was to run a year-round public transport link between Minehead and Taunton.  Local people, feeling very aggrieved by the 1971 closure, subscribed heavily to the share issue that launched the public company in 1976, as the restoration of services began.

For historic reasons, the local Western National bus crews were members of the National Union of Railwaymen, and in an attempt to safeguard these members' interests, the NUR announced a blacking of traffic to/from the WSR in the Taunton area.  The WSR couldn't open quickly enough to Taunton (Minehead to Blue Anchor opened in March, 1976 and the present limit of regular operations, Bishops Lydeard, was reached in June, 1979) and Somerset County Council, which had offered loan facilities to support the project, changed its mind and asked for the money back, just when the WSR could not afford repayment.  The Taunton goal became more and more of a distant prospect, particularly as the Bristol Division of the then BR^▸ (British Rail(ways))(WR) came up with what appeared to be huge costs for refurbishing the signalling and for a running powers agreement over the former "Up Relief" line between Norton Fitzwarren and a bay platform at the country end of the Up side of Taunton Station.  The WSR quietly dropped all ambitions to run the regular public transport service to Taunton in the early 1980s and this has remained official policy ever since.

That said, the door is open for TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) to enter discussions about the running of services off the national network to and from the line.  A couple of years back there was a timetabled Saturday service from Bristol to Minehead and back, for example.  Ideas sometimes circulate about the Cardiff/Worcester/Bristol originating services that presently terminate at Taunton being extended on to Bishops Lydeard during the time currently used for layover at Taunton.  This may or may not be practical; I could not comment.

The junction between the WSR and Network Rail at Norton Fitzwarren is in fairly regular (daily or close to it) use, as the NR^» (Network Rail - home page) High Output Ballast Cleaner traverses this route to reach the WSRA site at Norton Fitzwarren where the spent ballast is discharged.

Nick
Operating Superintendent of the WSR 1976-79 and WSR supporter ever since.

[broadgage]

Not wishing to put people off visiting the excellent WSR, I feel that I should clarify my remarks regarding the inadequate bus service.

My remarks refer primarily to dates when special events are on and large number wish to travell by bus between Taunton and Minehead
Conditions then can be appaling, with waits of up to 2 hours in order to stand on a bus for over an hour.

At off peak times the 28 bus route provides quite a good service.

As regards the bus link between Taunton and Bishops Lydeard (for the WSR) This works fairly well, and any  overcrowding is less unpleasent due to the very short journey.
Taxis are readily available and much more affordable for this much shorter journey.


The main problem is not getting a bus to Bishops Lydeard in order to enjoy the WSR.


The problems are travelling by bus from Taunton to Minehead at busy times such as on Butlins arrival/departure days or when well atended festivals and meetings are on in Minhead.

[bemmy]

Thanks Nick for your historical perspective. I vaguely remember local news reports from the time and knew it was something to do with unions.

There wouldn't be space in the current timetable to extend Cardiff-Taunton trains to Bishops Lydeard. If the WSR trains could only operate to their own platform Taunton as was once planned... 

[dog box]

There will be a huge cost to the WSR to regularly run a service , for what will probably be only a small gain, all steam locos will need to be rebuilt and examined to mainline spec ,whilst all crews will need to be network rail certificated with regards to competancy. Personal track safety, and health requirements , while i am aware that wsr has its own internal scheme with regards to this, would it be acccepted by NR^» (Network Rail - home page) most possibly not,
Also all stock would need to be again up to mainline spec, a dedicated dmu service operated by a small number of suitable staff would be feasable...but for a handful of passengers ,i really dont think the figures would ever add up with out some sort of revenue support

[Phil]

Trust me, if they laid on a diesel hauled special on any date that the ATP^▸ (Automatic Train Protection) festivals are beginning or ending at Butlins in Minehead, there would emphatically be more than a "handful" of passengers.

The revenue earned would probably pay for a month's normal running at least.

[John R]

Thanks Nick for your historical perspective. I vaguely remember local news reports from the time and knew it was something to do with unions.

There wouldn't be space in the current timetable to extend Cardiff-Taunton trains to Bishops Lydeard. If the WSR trains could only operate to their own platform Taunton as was once planned... 

As reported elsewhere, the current loco-hauled diagram is going to stable at Bishops Lydeard overnight from the timetable change. I'm curious to know who will be cleaning, fuelling and preparing the set, since there isn't an obvious rotation with another diagram. Maybe it'll work down from Barton Hill on a Monday morning and back on a Friday night. But that's still a long time without any looking after?

   

[broadgage]

I believe that the loco hauled stock to be stabled on the West Somerset Railway at Bishops Lydeard will be serviced by the WSR under contract to First Group.

Details herehttp://www.wsr.org.uk/news.htm