Newquay Line - services, incidents and improvements (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

Not specific to the railways, but it does show how bad the weather conditions can be, down in Newquay, and their effect on the structure of the coast - from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Walker escaped cliff collapse 'by seconds'

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A man has told how he and four others escaped a cliff collapse on the Newquay coast after a huge section of cliff crashed down in front of them without warning.

Kieron English, 20, had been exploring the area with his friend Rian Walker on Saturday afternoon when the path suddenly vanished.

The pair, three other walkers and two dogs were stuck "with no way of getting out" and were rescued by a lifeboat crew. "A couple of seconds before and we could have all lost our lives," said English.

English, who has lived in the seaside town for only three months, said he had asked his brother, who used to live there, for ideas on places with good sea views and his brother suggested trying a spot near the Fly Cellars. English said they heard a noise "like a high pitched squeal".

"Next thing we know, the whole cliff collapsed in front of us," he said.

Three separate groups ended up stranded together on a concrete pad with no safe way out. The tide was too high to attempt swimming and the cliff was too unstable to climb. English said: "A couple of seconds before and we could have lost all our lives."

Coastguards said the section of coastpath was impassable and "the public are requested to avoid the area for the time being".

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It comes as recent yellow weather warnings and two named storms battered the South West earlier this week and caused disruption.

A yellow rain warning is also in place from 12:00 on Monday to 09:00 on Tuesday.

[Witham Bobby]

DISRUPTION TUESDAY 24 FEB 2026

Due to congestion between Par and Newquay the line is blocked.
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled. Disruption is expected until 15:00 24/02.
Customer Advice
-
What has happened?
-
Due to congestion on the line between Par and Newquay the return service at 12:16 from Par will not operate as well as the return at 13:24.
-

A check on RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) shows nothing at either Par, St Blazey or Newquay that would cause "congestion"

[GBM]

DISRUPTION TUESDAY 24 FEB 2026

Due to congestion between Par and Newquay the line is blocked.
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled. Disruption is expected until 15:00 24/02.
Customer Advice
-
What has happened?
-
Due to congestion on the line between Par and Newquay the return service at 12:16 from Par will not operate as well as the return at 13:24.
-

5Z21 0622 Plymouth to Newquay
175002 seems to have sat down at Goonbarrow Junction since 1200 - then showing a 43 minute late running
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:V89020/2026-02-24/detailed#allox_id=2


A check on RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) shows nothing at either Par, St Blazey or Newquay that would cause "congestion"

[grahame]

One of the problems you have as a train operator is that when you raise the level of s service and then something goes wrong, you have further to fall.

07:07 Par to Newquay due 07:58
08:22 Newquay to Par due 09:10
09:16 Par to Newquay due 09:59
10:28 Newquay to Par due 11:11
11:21 Par to Newquay due 12:09
12:17 Newquay to Par due 13:00
13:16 Par to Newquay due 14:03
14:27 Newquay to Par due 15:11
15:15 Par to Newquay due 16:13
16:18 Newquay to Par due 17:01
17:17 Par to Newquay due 18:05
18:22 Newquay to Par due 19:10
19:16 Par to Newquay due 19:59
20:28 Newquay to Par due 21:17
 
20:28 Newquay to Par due 21:17 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

How many class 175 units running in passenger service at the moment?  A data feed / report from Cornwall the other day says "175003 was the only member of the class in service on Sat 15th." and that's out of - what - over 20 units?

[REVUpminster]

One of the problems you have as a train operator is that when you raise the level of s service and then something goes wrong, you have further to fall.

07:07 Par to Newquay due 07:58
08:22 Newquay to Par due 09:10
09:16 Par to Newquay due 09:59
10:28 Newquay to Par due 11:11
11:21 Par to Newquay due 12:09
12:17 Newquay to Par due 13:00
13:16 Par to Newquay due 14:03
14:27 Newquay to Par due 15:11
15:15 Par to Newquay due 16:13
16:18 Newquay to Par due 17:01
17:17 Par to Newquay due 18:05
18:22 Newquay to Par due 19:10
19:16 Par to Newquay due 19:59
20:28 Newquay to Par due 21:17
 
20:28 Newquay to Par due 21:17 will be cancelled.
This is due to more trains than usual needing repairs at the same time.

How many class 175 units running in passenger service at the moment?  A data feed / report from Cornwall the other day says "175003 was the only member of the class in service on Sat 15th." and that's out of - what - over 20 units?

175003 was the only one out at the weekend doing Newquay but seemed to fail yesterday with a train crew issue. Air conditioning? something else?

003 has been one of the more successful units.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) has 16 units, some for nearly two years and I don't know to what degree the 16 trains have been cannibalised to get the four or five trains currently running.

Something must come out of Wolverton this week; it would be the fourth attempt since 23 June! Mark Hopgood said in the Radio Cornwall interview, the next trains from Wolverton will be ready to roll. There are nine at Wolverton. If they are ready to roll it would make a big dent in availability. His credibility is on the line.

[TaplowGreen]

It's a pity a few more of his trains aren't on the line.

[REVUpminster]

175003 is doing 2C05 and 006 the training run and that seems to be it.

2 Paignton trains and 1 Barnstaple (busy train) short-formed and 3 150s released doing 175 diagrams.

[TaplowGreen]

Cancellations to services between Par and Newquay

Due to a fault on this train between Par and Newquay fewer train
s are able to run on the line.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Customer Advice
A general shortage of trains in Cornwall has resulted in a reduced service on the Par to Newquay line today.

As a result the service is running roughly every two hours, as opposed to the planned hourly operation.

On the hours where there is no train service, a limited taxi service is running, which GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) customers can use at no extra cost. These will depart Par at the time the train would have done.

We apologise for the inconvenience today.

[Chris from Nailsea]

A general shortage of trains in Cornwall ...

Richard Trevithick would have sorted that one out.     

[grahame]

A general shortage of trains in Cornwall ...

Richard Trevithick would have sorted that one out.     

Jesting apart (and, yes, I laughed) I'm noting that Hastings Diesels have 2 out of 2 units in operation at present, including one on the Sheffield Park to East Grinstead line which is standing in for the local operator of that line who's unable to run his normal motive power at the moment. And I also noted a couple of years ago that a heritage train was used on the Oxenholme branch.

Are there any way-out ideas that could help GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - "More trains than normal requiring repair at the same time" is becoming a sick joke.  "Normal" IS that lots of trains require repair; perhaps "More trains than we expected requiring repair at the same time" would be more accurate and one wonders if there's the odd TC^▸ (Train Crew, or Travelling Chef, depending on context) set, Hastings Diesel or Inter7City units available for hire for a few ... weeks?  Months?

[GBM]

Are there any way-out ideas that could help GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - "More trains than normal requiring repair at the same time" is becoming a sick joke.  "Normal" IS that lots of trains require repair; perhaps "More trains than we expected requiring repair at the same time" would be more accurate and one wonders if there's the odd TC^▸ (Train Crew, or Travelling Chef, depending on context) set, Hastings Diesel or Inter7City units available for hire for a few ... weeks?  Months?

Yes. But.
Oozzz gonna pay for them?

[IndustryInsider]

Yes. But.
Oozzz gonna pay for them?

The taxpayer.  But at least it might reduce those pesky 'Delay Repay' payouts the taxpayer forks out for.

[REVUpminster]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have already used 142003 for a jolly to Portishead in May. A project that GWR isn't paying for. Maybe they could use it at Newquay.

Seriously the 769/9s are still out there and might have been already in service if Alliance Rail had been given permission.

[RailCornwall]

We are nine months away from full Mid Cornwall Metro working, allegedly, without reliable rolling stock the new service will not gain the usage it is intended to encourage. I suspect in the mire of GBR^▸ (Great British Railways) that the MCM start will be postponed. There also has to be a possibility that through Falmouth - Newquay services will be indefinately.

[IndustryInsider]

Seriously the 769/9s are still out there and might have been already in service if Alliance Rail had been given permission.

Do I sense that's a bit tongue-in-cheek given they're probably the one unit that would have been even less reliable than the 175s as they'd be forced to run on diesel 100% of the time?!