Cirencester Community Railway

[Mulderspants]

Cirencester Community Railway

[rob D2]

Blimey , good luck with that .

Can't ever see it happening as Kemble is too close

[Kris]

Blimey , good luck with that .

Can't ever see it happening as Kemble is too close

 

Not only is Kemble close, the roads between there and Cirencester are not that bad either. 

[class"66"]

Very interesting read

[ForestPines]

The opening line "how many university towns don't have a railway?" sounds more like a quiz challenge than a rhetorical question to me. Lampeter?

[Joseph_Pestell]

I am sure there must be more than that. Universities springing up all over the place. Cirencester has only been a university town for a few years.

 

St Andrew's is another one without a station (since 1960?).

 

I don't agree that the road from Kemble to Cirencester is good. Involves coming out at a very dangerous junction.

[pete_mcfarlane]

The sections on costs seem incredibly vague. Whilst I appreciate that they won't have detailed costings at this stage, you need a rough figure to work out if the scheme is worth progressing with. 

[Joseph_Pestell]

The sections on costs seem incredibly vague. Whilst I appreciate that they won't have detailed costings at this stage, you need a rough figure to work out if the scheme is worth progressing with. 

Often the way with such schemes.

 

I can't see it happening unless the line was extended further into the town which, as a tram-train type vehicle, it could. Since there is no intention to run trains through onto the main line, it would make sense to built it to a narrow gauge to save on costs. What's become of all that 60cm MOD track at Carlisle?

[pointstaken]

Another "pie in the sky" scheme ?

 

Dennis

[The Stationmaster]

The sections on costs seem incredibly vague. Whilst I appreciate that they won't have detailed costings at this stage, you need a rough figure to work out if the scheme is worth progressing with. 

 

The problem with getting to even rough estimates is that you either need to recruit or engage someone who understands what they are doing or you follow a 'rule of thumb' type approach.  However you still need to know what you are doing with the latter as while it's easy enough to say reopening to Tweedbank cost £X million per mile and reopening from Okehampton to Tavistock or wherever is estimated at £Y million per mile it helps to have an understanding of exactly what they money is buying.

 

But of course putting in a  number can have the effect of killing an idea before it has even started and I think that would be unavoidable with this one - slightly less than 4 miles would cost (rule of thumb!) roughly £4 million for new standard gauge track plus at least another £1-2 million for bridgeworks (low estimate) and that's without formation and fencing work or station facilities.  That's before any sort of ridership estimates are made but a 'station' on the town's outskirts is hardly likely to appeal to visitors and most locals would probably prefer to change mode only once so would drive to Kemble.

 

Then comes another very relevant question - Cirencester is effectively a Swindon (and maybe even further?) commuter town nowadays so one important question is how many existing commuters drive to Kemble station rather than driving into Swindon?  the answer to that question might be a good starting point for any business case and i suspect it might not support such a case.

 

Sorry but the idea is unlikely to work because it goes from an industrial estate on the edge of Cirencester to what is in reality no more than a railway junction set in a not very big village.  if it is to have any chance of commercial impact and success the the trains would have to go somewhere - and that means Swindon and that means heavy rail.

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I grew up near Cirencester...  University Town, my ar$e

 

As we used to sing 'bout the Agi college.... ' I can't read, I can't write, but I can drive a tractor'...

[HillsideDepot]

I saw this in the local paper when the idea surfaced last week, and like The Stationmaster I feel it is very unlikely to work, not least the need to change twice, heavy rail to light rail and then to car/bus.  

 

Any costings are sadly lacking from the proposal, but The Stationmaster usefully provides something above. As a comparison, my employer currently has contract with a local operator in this area for a 27 seat bus, running for 11 hours a day, six days a week at a price of £95,160 per annum. Now, its not the most luxurious bus in the world, it is after all providing a village "lifeline" service to a number of remote communities, and a rail link bus may need to provide fancy seating, mood lighting, free WiFi etc which is fashionable nowadays, would probably have to work for a longer day, and probably run seven days a week, but that shows the sort of price a bus link would be - either between the "field with the pylons" light rail terminus and Cirencester town centre or between the town and Kemble station.
 

The Stationmaster raises the question of current usage from Cirencester to Swindon. Well it supports a twice hourly Stagecoach bus service throughout the day, six days a week, one bus an hour running direct centre to centre in 55 minutes, the other taking and hour and five minutes, but circling the estates of Cirencester before arriving at the centre. The "fast" journeys are run with very comfortable, coach seated, WiFi fitted, double deck Scanias which offer a very smooth and quiet ride. As a comparison the heavy rail journey from Kemble to Swindon takes 15 minutes and runs hourly. Google suggests that the car journey from Cirencester centre to Kemble takes 11 minutes, so 30 minutes overall with connection time at the station? Google suggests 8 minutes from the centre of Cirencester to the light rail terminus, say 4 minutes interchange, 10 minutes on the light rail, 4 minutes connection, 15 minutes on the heavy rail = 41 minutes. Or the direct bus which takes 55 minutes and is arguably 5 minutes walk closer to the centre of Swindon than station platform.

 

As others have said, I can't see this happening.

 

[Richard E]

Can't see that happening at all.

[Zomboid]

Nice idea, but more of a romantic pipe dream than anything that might actually happen.

Be more realistic if they were proposing a narrow gauge tourist attraction.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Given a better road junction (roundabout), long overdue, where the A429 meets the Tetbury road, the service that they are proposing could be far better provided by a bus which would not only get further into town but would also pass the RAU which the railway does not.