Plymouth Metro - Ivybridge to Bere Alston via Plympton and Laira, then Tavistock

[whole diary]

[Noggin]

Apologies if covered elsewhere.

Plymouth MP^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post (a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London), depending on context) Luke Pollard touting a "Plymouth Metro" starting with half-hourly services between Ivybridge and Bere Alston, new stations at Plympton and Laira, followed ultimately by Tavistock reopening.

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/london-overground-style-plymouth-metro-10999026

Not my neck of the woods, but I suspect that it needs a bit more than just rolling stock, at the very least a turnback siding at Ivybridge.

That said, it's a "playbook" that worked fairly well in Bristol - upping the Gloucester service to half-hourly made the rail service from places like Yate much more usable, bolstering the business case for new stations like Charfield and reopening the Portishead line.   

[RailCornwall]

My concern would be the availabilty of paths without degrading other services to make a CLOCKFACE service feasible, a metro service would need this as an essential. I'd also be concerned if I lived in Calstock or Gunnislake about reduced service to those destinations. A passing loop somewhere on the route would seemingly be necessary too.

[trainbuff]

My concern would be the availabilty of paths without degrading other services to make a CLOCKFACE service feasible, a metro service would need this as an essential. I'd also be concerned if I lived in Calstock or Gunnislake about reduced service to those destinations. A passing loop somewhere on the route would seemingly be necessary too.

As would a crossover at Ivybridge

[grahame]

Looking from "afar" - it strikes me that Tavistock could really do with a metro rail re-opening and as it's so close to Plymouth and part of the same economic area ... but once you get to St Budeaux, the line is paralleled by a good road all the way to North Road, from where the road usefully branches away to serve the city centre.   There are, similarly, good bus service from much closer to the centre out past Laira to Marsh Mills.   That does not necessarily rule it out, but there are challenges in providing something that will overlap for so much of the way with other provision already made.

[TaplowGreen]

Looking from "afar" - it strikes me that Tavistock could really do with a metro rail re-opening and as it's so close to Plymouth and part of the same economic area ... but once you get to St Budeaux, the line is paralleled by a good road all the way to North Road, from where the road usefully branches away to serve the city centre.   There are, similarly, good bus service from much closer to the centre out past Laira to Marsh Mills.   That does not necessarily rule it out, but there are challenges in providing something that will overlap for so much of the way with other provision already made.

Absolutely right.

Areas like Plympton, Plymstock and Laira have excellent bus services into and out of the City Centre.

Tavistock does stand out however as being "out on a limb"

To an extent this is a local MP^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post (a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London), depending on context) posturing and he would be wise not to raise expectations.

[IndustryInsider]

To an extent this is a local MP^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post (a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London), depending on context) posturing and he would be wise not to raise expectations.

Yes, to a very large extent I would suggest.

[Mark A]

Yup, posturing should be reserved for Tavistock (and regarding Tavistock shouldn't be posturing, there should be progress).

Mark

[Noggin]

Looking from "afar" - it strikes me that Tavistock could really do with a metro rail re-opening and as it's so close to Plymouth and part of the same economic area ... but once you get to St Budeaux, the line is paralleled by a good road all the way to North Road, from where the road usefully branches away to serve the city centre.   There are, similarly, good bus service from much closer to the centre out past Laira to Marsh Mills.   That does not necessarily rule it out, but there are challenges in providing something that will overlap for so much of the way with other provision already made.

You can say the same thing about the Severn Beach Line in Bristol though.

It goes a long way round, Temple Meads is in an awkward location for many and almost all of the stations are well served by frequent bus services.

But history proves that almost every time the service frequency has been increased, the number of users has increased. It's still 2 tph^▸ (trains per hour) for much of the day with slow diesel units but the ridership is 8x in the last 30 years. The reality is that for a significant part of the city's population it is more useful than bus alone, not to mention that it feeds into the wider regional/national rail network.

[Andy]

Yup, posturing should be reserved for Tavistock (and regarding Tavistock shouldn't be posturing, there should be progress).

Mark

Totally agree. One single focus on reinstating the 5 miles from Bere Alston to Tavistock, with increased frequency Bere Alston-Plymouth North Road as an added benefit, assuming alternate hourly services from Tavistock and Gunnislake to Plymouth. Incidentally, the former LSWR^▸ (London South Western Railway) station in Tavistock is up for sale....(maybe it doesn't include any trackbed, though).


 


 

[Mark A]

Ah, here it is. This could be land-banked for the Dartmoor northern route, but in the short term earn its keep for the industry - and keep itself tidy and secure - as rented housing.

Mark

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/173859041#/

[Mark A]

... though, given that this is just part of the station building, and that extensive station buildings aren't something that are so useful to the railway now, its future may be that it's retained as a set of trackside dwellings.

Mark

[Chris from Nailsea]

Apologies if covered elsewhere.

Plymouth MP^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post (a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London), depending on context) Luke Pollard touting a "Plymouth Metro" starting with half-hourly services between Ivybridge and Bere Alston, new stations at Plympton and Laira, followed ultimately by Tavistock reopening.

This proposal wasn't covered elsewhere, Noggin, so thank you for posting here about it. 

As it has encouraged some discussion, I have expanded the heading of your topic, to hopefully attract even more attention from readers searching for key words, for example.

CfN^▸ (Chris from Nailsea, an administrator on this forum).