Sea Shanty weekend 2025 - steered well clear. Huge queue at Truro for the Branchline, clearly going to take over an hour, possibly 90minutes, to get on a service for Falmouth at 1100 this morning. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)/GBR^▸ (Great British Railways) can and must do better getting resilience support buses at hand. The event itself needs to be supported adequately by public services. I suspect once again those on the network were forced out of the station to join the queue again.

The spectacular Landwasser Viaduct now has a tourist service (Viaduktshuttle) between Filisur and Alvaneu a journey of around 15 minutes taking passengers through the tunnel and across the viaduct. What's significant is that the Rhaetian Railway have now built a platform around 250m west of the Viaduct where pax^▸ (passengers) can disembark and walk to a viewpoint overlooking the viaduct and return to catch a subsequent service. Services are half-hourly in each direction seemingly served by rolling stock branded for the service.

A video has been posted on YT.

https://youtu.be/23i5SdqDEfw?si=jnV4e5ogLFsGKAJL

Was at St Erth today, lifts still not in service but seemingly complete minus fascia boards. The steps on the new bridge are very steep so I suspect the lifts will get heavy footfall when they finally open.

Let me try and explain the eccentricities of Cornwall's buses.

First are the commercial service all week but also provide some limited community paid coverage on Sat and Sun.

The GoAhead operation (branded Transport for Cornwall which is also confusingly used by First but less prominently) is the subsidy paid for rural and town service provider.

First also provide most of the long distance education contract buses (Tintagel to Truro College for example)

There are therefore two distinct options on most routes including Newquay - Truro (Falmouth). First have provided a through service between NQY^▸ (Newquay (Station)) and FAL BUT in the past four years construction of the A30 Dual Carriageway has made this impossible and the decision was made two split the service in Truro in the Summer Months. Indeed with the road now open First have decided for this summer to run two services again instead of the through service that was run over the winter.

So your options between NQY and FAL are offered by both companies, the GoAhead and the First Versions. 

Work has recommenced on the lifts, was pax^▸ (passengers) through the station today, lift on down platform open with two orange jackets working therein. In lift lighting on. Same platform on the return lights and workers still active. Good to see action. The South Carpark was pretty busy albeit Wednesday of Easter Week.

Deep winter months the south St Erth P&R^▸ (Park and Ride) site is more or less moribund with very few users M-F, most weekdays customers can be accomodated on the northern side of the station (on the right side for St Ives) although desirable a bus service wouldn't see much use at all. Rail passengers from east of St Erth can of course use the longstanding easement detailed below and travel to St Ives via Penzance at no additional cost. 

700221 Customers travelling from, to or via Truro to St Ives, Carbis Bay, Lelant and Lelant Saltings may double back between St Erth and Penzance. This easement applies in both directions.

Really is time for some stirring on this, major embarassment for someone, surely some resolution could bave been sorted by now. Last I heard it was power supply issues but .....

A confession, have not been west of Truro since Feb, can someone update the status of the lifts at St Erth? The season is approaching it'll be maddening if they aren't in service when peak loads appear.

Sadly the geography of Cornwall means there's little opportunity for neighbourly assistance and the charity operating the Cornwall service has just had to run a campaign for it's own second helicopter. It really is shameful that there's not even token NHS funding for these services now.

Alias Smith and Jones.

Invitiation just received, application simple and completed. Membership also confirmed more or less instantly.

First use of Ponsandane recorded on Facebook today ....

https://www.facebook.com/groups/384010423010289/posts/1420870669324254/

Some stunning photos in this Facebook Group of the loop and associated works, including one, taken from a drone, showing two trains side-by-side within the loop. (Not direct linking due copyright claims on some)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/384010423010289/?hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen&multi_permalinks=1403705101040811

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) offering a 10percent discount on all PAYG^▸ (Pay as you go) Smartcard transactions in the Bristol and West Cornwall areas throughout March 2025.

26 Feb 2025

https://www.creditoncourier.co.uk/news/work-begins-to-build-okehampton-interchange-station-769366?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawIsTOdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHQBmQkYbRFpaznNZTsok4-kJWCEmd3bibPD9i1FB2S5FBmFRcqK8sQXttg_aem_-fgfXseD5vNsvThY-BaMZg#Echobox=1740586609

It was a special day in Okehampton this morning (Wednesday) as the turf was cut for work to start on building the Okehampton Interchange station.

The £15 million station is the newest addition to the Dartmoor Line and will connect West Devon, Torridge and North Cornwall with Exeter and beyond. The scheme is being funded by the Department for Transport (DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)) with contributions from Devon County Council and West Devon Borough Council.