St Ives branch line - timetables, engineering work, closures, incidents (merged topics)

[whole diary]

[StuartStIves]

The currently hourly Penzance to St Ives Sunday bus service is actually pretty well used!

The Council's Cabinet agreed today to the budget cuts for subsidised evening and Sunday services. They say it will affect 27 routes, but don't say which.  There are around 40 sunday bus routes in Cornwall at present so not all may be affected.

[StuartStIves]

I have received a response from FGW^▸ (First Great Western) re: this timetable change.   FGW want to withdraw the current first train from St Ives - the 0700 - as little used (it no longer connects with any mainline services at St Erth following XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) withdrawal). However, their Franchise agreement with Dept for Transport   requires the first train to arrive at St Erth at or before 0730, hence the retiming of the 0728 to depart 0718. The change to an earlier departure also provides for a Train Crew personal needs break.

FGW say they could run this train later, but would need to get agreement with DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) first.  This would not be possible in time for the 13 December timetable change.

So in summary, DfT micro-management fails to meet passenger needs in Cornwall once again. 

For those who don't want to get up 10 minutes earlier in the morning, First Devon and Cornwall buses run a service 17 from St Ives bus station at 0725 arriving St Erth station at 0737.  However it will cost more as there are no inter-available or PlusBus tickets in the St Ives/Hayle area.

Also Cornwall Council has backtracked on cutting evening and Sunday services, for the timebeing, but at the expense of Senior Citizens not being able to use their free bus pass before 0930 Mondays to Fridays. 
 

[JayMac]

From FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Live Updates:

Line problem between St Erth and St Ives.

Train services are being disrupted due to an earlier broken down train between St Erth and St Ives.Engineers are working as fast as possible to restore services to normal. Short notice cancellations can be expected.

Services between St Erth and St Ives are currently suspended. Replacement is in operation.

Last Updated: 03/12/2010 07:17

Replacement what, I wonder!?

[LiskeardRich]

yesterday (20th) noticed the st ives to st erth line was cancelled due to poor weather conditions, anyone know what these poor weather conditions were, as i was in St Ives, carbis bay area all day, and no snow, rain or anything, we just had a dry clear sky all day?

[RichardB]

I went to St Ives on Friday and took some photos from the train - if you've never been on this line, I think you might want to give it a go after having a look at these

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63812699@N08/sets/72157626898790928/

Beautiful day, busy trains (2 x 150) and a very full Lelant Saltings Car Park.  All good stuff.

[Andy]

Super photos, Richard, thank you (and thank you Barbara Castle for saving the line back in the 1960s). Glad to read that the line is being well used at the start of the summer season.

[vacman]

(and thank you Barbara Castle for saving the line back in the 1960s

Yeah, but no thanks Barbera for the other thousands of miles closed by her!

[JayMac]

Barbara Castle - 70mph speed limit, seat belts, breathalysers and the continuation of 'Beeching' cuts.

That last one a U-turn on a 1964 pre-election Labour Party commitment to halt the railway closures. All told, she oversaw some 2000 miles of passenger line closures.

Whilst Dr Beeching was commissioned by the Conservatives to write the report, it was Labour Transport Ministers who signed off on most of the closures from 1964-1970.

[Timmer]

It was Barbara Castle who signed the death warrant for the S&D^▸ (Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway). Sure it was blatantly run down by BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) but it's her signature that finished it.

[Andy]

Ooops - didn't mean to start a political row or even make a political point. Shame on every government - blue and red - in the period up to 74 (let's not forget the early 70s closures of Ilfracombe, Kingswear, Okehampton and Minehead, amongst others) for their short-sighted and systematic destruction of the railways. I am nevertheless grateful that St Ives was reprieved and that's all I wanted to express.

[RichardB]

I'd say it's not a particularly red/blue thing as implementing Beeching was something the Civil Service had bought into and both they and BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) HQ^▸ (Headquarters) worked hard to keep politicians of both main parties on board.  Back then, the Beeching plan was seen as necessary by many, as incredible as that seems today.  On publication, it was largely welcomed in the press!

Re Barbara Castle, as well as saving the St Ives, Looe and several other lines (and, yes, closing others), she was behind the 1968 Transport Act which introduced subsidies for unremunerative rail services.  If this hadn't happened, it is doubtful that we would have any branch lines in Cornwall today, especially as Western Region policy through the mid 60s and to at least the mid 70s was to focus on being a long distance main line railway.

People should not underestimate how much of a push there was to implement the Beeching Plan in full and add in lines never mentioned in Beeching's list, such as the Falmouth and Newquay lines.  The push came particularly from BR HQ. 

"I tried to run a railway" by Gerard Fiennes, once GM of the Western Region, gives a good flavour of this.  (Among many other gems, it also includes a comment from a member of staff to Fiennes about never blowing whistles at people from Newbury!).  Easy to pick up on eBay and well worth getting hold of.

Pleased you like the photos, Andy.

[Phil]

Gerard Francis Gisborne Twistleton-Wykeham Fiennes' book may well be easy to pick up but I have to question it being "well worth" it - the cheapest copy on Amazon at the moment is ^85! Shame, as it sounds like something I'd enjoy. Thanks for the heads up, Richard.

[inspector_blakey]

Fiennes (one of the genuine greats in the history of railway operators IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion)) was fired by Barbara Castle for publishing that book, incidentally!

Another one well worth reading is "Fiennes on Rails". It's in a different format from "I tried to run a railway" (which is eessentially auotbiographical), being more of a collection of short stories and anecdotes. He has a real knack for telling a story. Sadly I think this is also out of print, although you may be able to find old copies on eBay - I picked up both books there (admittedly several years ago) and certainly didn't pay anything like GBP 85.00

Edited to add...

Ecky thump! Just had a quick look on Ebay and there's one copy at $155 and another at $82. Looks like demand may have shot up... Another place to try might be Robert Humm, a big second-hand bookshop specializing in railway items, but I guess it wouldn't be cheap from them either. Glad i got hold of a copy when I did.

[RichardB]

Thanks Phil.  No, it's not worth ^85!  I picked up the Ministry of Transport's library copy (complete with highlighting!) for ^6 on eBay a few years ago.

It's the sort of book you should be able to pick up at a good secondhand bookshop or at a heritage railway, if they sell secondhand books/mags.  It's not rare (well, it didn't used to be, anyway!).  

[Lee]

Ecky thump! Just had a quick look on Ebay and there's one copy at $155 and another at $82. Looks like demand may have shot up...

Are we sure it's not Coffeeshop members trying to outbid eachother?