Last night's BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Spotlight started with a long piece on the Tavistock reopening proposals which included a visit to Okehampton to hear about the effect of the Dartmoor Line on the town.  If you're quick, you can still catch it here  https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b006pfr1/spotlight

There's an accompanying piece on the BBC News website  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cewd820k1pzo

Fingers crossed for tomorrow's Spending Review announcement......

On my Interrail trip last year, it was really only German long distance services I had any problem with (and even then, as described above, it was nothing disastrous).  I took a few German local services and they were all fine.

Switzerland - as excellent as you'd expect.  Holland and Belgium all fine.  The Italian Frecciarossa trains were brilliant - fast, frequent and just lovely trains.  A vast change from my first experience of FS in the early 80s!

There's a really good model railway shop in the centre of Aachen too - close to the Town Hall.

I had just the same issues with DB^» (Deutsche Bahn - German State Railway - about) on my Interrail pass trip last February/March.  ICE Amsterdam - Koln cancelled - put on local trains (at least it kept us on the move). Working down through Germany, I had a 15 min connection at Mannheim from an Inter City train into an ICE for Basel.  My train into Mannheim was 15 mins late and the "connection" wasn't held.  An hour and a half to the next one.

Coming back, all fine from Basel to Mannheim but chaos there - I was heading for Brussels via Koln and had set off straight after breakfast to ensure I had plenty of time.  In the end, went to Koln via Frankfurt (after another hour at Mannheim).  Couldn't get on the ICE at Koln so took a local to Aachen and managed to get on the next ICE from there.

All good fun!  One day they will get it sorted. 

Mannheim is a nice station but I wouldn't mind if I never saw it (except from a train) again!

The fares issue is partly down to the Ashington line only having Single tickets and no returns (Single leg pricing).  The £2.60 is actually Off Peak, the Anytime Single being £3.00 (www.brfares.com) - your point about the fares being cheap still holds but, taking that Didcot - Oxford example, the Off Peak Day Return for that is £8.70, just 10p more than the Off Peak Day Single.

Okehampton was opened in 2021 with fares of £4.00 Single, £8.00 Return (both Anytime, no Off Peak fares) Exeter - Okehampton and that's 30 miles.   Now £4.60 and £9.20 respectively.  In both cases, the railway is being introduced in areas where generations have grown up without it so attractive fares clearly have an important role.  I know the great care that was taken with Okehampton.



     

I've checked the situation with GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s timetable planners and they tell me there is no reduction in the Coombe Jn service and it is simply a coding error which has led to some of the calls not appearing on journey planners or the pocket timetable pdf.

It's being put right and the correct information will appear soon.

This is the map from the Rangers and Rovers page on GWR's website https://www.gwr.com/your-tickets/choosing-your-ticket/rangers-and-rovers

Just looking at the map, Graham, and it does seem very strange the the FOSW^▸ (Freedom of (the) South West Rover) is apparently not valid Romsey - Eastleigh via Chandlers Ford or on the Lymington branch.  Both look very deliberate exclusions from the map.

In practical terms, I can't imagine there would be any problem actually travelling on either line with a FOSW rover.  I have done this but a long time ago now.

It still is power supply problems.  National Grid have a very long lead time and I know Cornwall Council have been trying to get things speeded up.  The last update I had was a little while ago so I'll ask the question about the current situation and when it is likely to be resolved and the lifts fully operational. 

Richard Burningham
Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership

There will be buses linking Axminster, Seaton and Beer on Sundays and Bank Holidays starting 20 April thanks to funding from South Western Railway.

Route 379 operated by Stagecoach South West will run three round trips between Axminster Trinity Square, Axminster Station, Colyton, Seaton and Beer on Sundays and Bank Holidays until 26 October.

Buses will connect with trains at Axminster station. There will be a special fare of £1 Single for those holding valid rail tickets. Otherwise, normal fares apply with a maximum single fare of £3 thanks to the Government fare cap.

More information here https://dcrp.org.uk/new-sunday-and-bank-holiday-buses-between-axminster-station-seaton-and-beer-start-on-20-april/

Pleased to see that the service restarted with the 10 28 Plymouth - Gunnislake.

This obviously is a very different kettle of fish.  The new first train will simply be one hour later.  Hopefully anyone inconvenienced by this (and I'm sorry if they are) will be able to negotiate a later start time with their employers if necessary.  Despite what "Plymothian" says, I don't believe there is a very regular passenger. 

The hard truth is that running a train for just one person is simply untenable and since the new time is just an hour later, it's also untenable thinking about a taxi or anything else.   As we all know, the Looe line is heavily subsidised and we have to get a bit real about transport economics here. 

The changes will generally be an improvement and I believe will attract more passengers to the line.  The Looe line's main traffic is daytrippers and tourists.  Looe itself is a small place - just 5,000 or so population, about half of whom are of retirement age - and the main line at Liskeard is just 8 or so miles away.  Anything we can do to get more locals on the train year-round is clearly a good thing, year-round daytrippers and tourists too.  We at the Partnership do a lot of promotion of the line, particularly online e.g. via targeted paid adverts on Facebook - you can see examples on our page here  https://www.facebook.com/greatscenicrailways  We're planning significant promotion of the May timetable which will, as well as all the online stuff, include leaflets delivered to households in Looe and the surrounding area by the Royal Mail.

One more thing to consider - in the next few years, some quite serious investment in the Looe line will be needed.  As things look now, battery trains will need either a West Ealing style charging set up or even overhead being installed in Platform 3 at Liskeard.  The more the railway, we at the Partnership and others can do to help increase year-round usage of the line, the easier that funding decision becomes.  I don't think for a moment we might be looking at closure of the line but making sure trains, particularly at either ends of the day when they are most expensive to run, are decently used will be key, I'm sure.

https://midcornwallmetro.com/2025/02/stage-three-of-mid-cornwall-metro-work-underway/

Here's the latest on the scheme.  Looking at that Rail piece, it says the commissioning work for the signals will be in September and the service introduction will be after that.  Slightly different to saying the service will start in Sept.  Too early to say and we'll see soon enough.

Each to their own but it really isn't a good use of resources to run a train that is used by just one person.  It's not same person every day and the few people who ever take that train may well be using it because the next one currently gets them to their destination just too late e.g Plymouth at 09 08 and will find the 07 33 will work fine for them.

There will be changes to the Looe timetable from May to provide much better connections at Liskeard to/from Plymouth throughout the day, a good pre-09 00 arrival in Plymouth for commuters and a better spread of request stops at Sandplace, Causeland and St Keyne.  This follows local requests and liaison between ourselves (Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership) and GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).

The aim is to provide 6 (or near to) minute connections out of Looe and the same for inward except out of London services where the aim is to provide 10-13 minute connections. The exception is the last connection of the day from London where 20 minutes has been deliberately allowed for robustness.  Currently day trippers from Plymouth to Looe on the key services have more than 20 minutes at Liskeard in both directions. 

To enable these changes, the number of trains a day will reduce from 15 to 13.   The first train will leave Looe at 07 33 instead of 06 30 now.  The 07 33 will give a Plymouth arrival of 08 44 with a 6 minute connection at Liskeard.  We and GWR have counted passengers on the line’s service and the existing 06 30 is little used (indeed the September Tuesday we did our counts, there was just one passenger).  Currently you can either arrive in Plymouth at 07 43 or 09 08.   The new 08 44 arrival should be attractive. 

A further bonus of the new timetable is that the last train will leave Looe at 21 55 on weekdays, 18 minutes later than now.   This will make a 7 minute connection at Liskeard for Saltash and Plymouth.