Glorious NSE Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Just caught on local radio that approval has been given for two new stations in the Exeter area, with detailed planning to start shortly. Newcourt (between Digby and Sowton and Topsham on the Exmouth branch) Somewhere around here - serving a new housing development (it's there, just not on those overheads!!) http://binged.it/Ujm0Aq Marsh Barton (on the main line South of St Thomas) Apparently to be near Clapperbrook Lane bridge: http://binged.it/VVZT8Y Will be interesting to hear how they can serve Newcourt with the present timetable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted December 12, 2012 Author Share Posted December 12, 2012 http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/New-stations-planned-boost-Metro-links/story-17079192-detail/story.html (I presume Wessex purple 150s won't be making a comeback though...) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivercider Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Thats good news. On the irregular occasions I use the Exmouth Branch the trains sometimes seem to stand waiting time for a minute or so at Topsham or Digby and Sowton, so maybe there is a little slack. Though I know when there are delays some trains get turned back at Topsham to keep the service working. Would the new Marsh Barton station be of use to get to the Exeter Model Railway Exhibition? cheers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted December 12, 2012 Author Share Posted December 12, 2012 Would the new Marsh Barton station be of use to get to the Exeter Model Railway Exhibition? I would guess around a 10 minute walk for a fit-ish person, so not bad. Certainly a good bet for Sundays when there's no bus! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
10800 Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 "Both new stations will have similar facilities to those at Digby and Sowton" Really pushing the boat out then! (unless D&S has changed recently). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted December 12, 2012 Author Share Posted December 12, 2012 Yep 'platform, with bus shelter' Marsh Barton will need two! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivercider Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Yep 'platform, with bus shelter' And information screen cheers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted December 12, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 12, 2012 All good news for the Exeter metropolis as long as it doesn't stretch the time tabling so as to start cussing excessive delays especially with onward connections. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Captain Kernow Posted December 12, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 12, 2012 Yes, I managed to get in on some of the planning meetings for these stations. One feature of both of them is that they will have no significant parking to speak of, the idea being that they are for locals (Newcourt) or people working in Marsh Barton (or visiting the model railway show - certainly 10 - 15 mins walk, and a lot closer than St Davids or St Thomas!). There was also talk that Newcourt might get used by people going to match fixtures at the Exeter Chief's stadium at Sandy Park, it being as close to the stadium as Digby & Sowton... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Siberian Snooper Posted December 12, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 12, 2012 The Marsh Barton station will make visits to the Double Locks a reasonable proposition, it's been a long time since I visited that establishment. SS Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gwiwer Posted December 12, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 12, 2012 I sincerely hope these welcome initiatves are better supported than others in that area. Pinhoe station reopened amid some fanfare about a "Devon metro" or local service for Exeter. After an initial flurry of use it has settled down to being almost as sleepy as it ever was seeing rather little use and the train service has been trimmed back to match. Ivybridge has suffered the same fate having been campaigned for over many years yet lies almost unused and with an empty car park. I was involved with some of the initial connecting bus services and while the cross-country route from Bigbury was perhaps a little ambitious the town route linking housing, light industry, station and Ivybridge centre was also used by fewer than one passenger per trip and was duly withdrawn. Feniton (the former Sidmouth Junction) does no better following another trumpeted re-opening in response to housing growth and local demands. St. Thomas and St James' Park are well within what might be called "metro" distance and are on the whole lightly used but perhaps due more to being in the wrong places. It is far easier to hop on a bus or walk into Exeter city centre from thiose locations than to travel by train via St Davids to Central, itself a modest step away from the actual city centre. Here's hoping the new stations do better. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Evil Bus Driver Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 "Both new stations will have similar facilities to those at Digby and Sowton" Really pushing the boat out then! (unless D&S has changed recently). I've seen bus stops with more facilities than that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted December 12, 2012 Author Share Posted December 12, 2012 St Thomas is actually reasonably used, and has easily more than doubled it's patronage in the last decade - but I suspect is never used for journeys between there and Central - an hourly train that takes 15-20 minutes versus a bus every couple of minutes, journey time about 3 minutes is a good reason! St James to the city centre is easily walking distance, so again not much use for folk commuting into Exeter, by far the 'weakest' station in the Exeter urban area... (Neither could really be termed 'new initiatives' either if I was being picky - St Thomas has been there since 1846 and St James Park (albeit under other names) since 1906!) DIgby and Sowton shows the opposite result is easily possible though - brand new station in 1995 and huge growth since, I suspect not far off tripling in the last decade. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xerces Fobe2 Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Now the District Lines D stock is not going to the Leeds area they could be utilised in Devon as push-pull units with Class 66's,as in theory some these should be replaced by electric traction in the not to distant future XF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gwiwer Posted December 13, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 13, 2012 I've seen bus stops with more facilities than that. Polsloe Bridge isn't that flash when it comes to station facilities either. It's an interesting scenario - investment going into new stations in an area where bus services are relatively good (thought not cheap) and trains relatively infrequent by comparison. Also with the history of other stations opened or re-opened not all of which have been an outstanding success. I don't expect to see D-stock in Devon on Metrol workings however, and certainly not powered by sheds! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted December 13, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 13, 2012 Some years ago I recall being on a 2 car DMU from Exeter to Plymouth on a Saturday which was already packed. When it stopped at Ivybridge there were a large number of people trying to get on. I have seen the same thing when travelling on a Saturday morning on the South Western route to Exeter when calling at stations nearer Exeter. If I lived at Ivybridge I doubt I would continue using such overcrowded services. As to whether this is the reason I do not know though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Kris Posted December 13, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 13, 2012 Some years ago I recall being on a 2 car DMU from Exeter to Plymouth on a Saturday which was already packed. When it stopped at Ivybridge there were a large number of people trying to get on. I have seen the same thing when travelling on a Saturday morning on the South Western route to Exeter when calling at stations nearer Exeter. If I lived at Ivybridge I doubt I would continue using such overcrowded services. As to whether this is the reason I do not know though. Ivybridge services always seemed well used first thing in the morning when I was using them but pick a train later in the day and there would only be 4 or 5 people waiting to get on. The biggest issue I had with using this service were the long gaps between trains in the middle of the day - Getting towards 3 hours if I remember rightly. I always felt that if there were a regular service then it would have been far better used. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
10800 Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 Provision of stations (access) and sufficient capacity trains (mobility) are not entirely the same thing. There are numerous examples of one or two-coach trains arriving at crowded platforms when already packed to capacity. Sometimes (try Torre in the morning peak) the guard won't even open the doors for safety reasons. But I take the point about giving stations, old and new, the best chance to generate passengers by giving them the trains to travel on. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted December 13, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 13, 2012 Ivybridge services always seemed well used first thing in the morning when I was using them but pick a train later in the day and there would only be 4 or 5 people waiting to get on. The biggest issue I had with using this service were the long gaps between trains in the middle of the day - Getting towards 3 hours if I remember rightly. I always felt that if there were a regular service then it would have been far better used. I also suspect that Ivybridge isnt a destination for many apart from those that live there. Its a long walk downhill into the centre and a hell of a climb back to the station afterwards. I was unaware there was a local bus service when it opened, so had no desire to get off there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted December 13, 2012 Author Share Posted December 13, 2012 It's an interesting scenario - investment going into new stations in an area where bus services are relatively good (thought not cheap) and trains relatively infrequent by comparison. Journey time, traffic issues and connectivity are all elements in this though. Newcourt to the city by train will be every 30 minutes, and about 10 minutes travel. There's no current bus route (wierdly DCC says there is a route J - but Stagecoach denies it, and I live on the supposed route and have never seen one!) If that route does start running then I suspect it will be every 30 minutes (as it needs to dovetail with the K and the T) - so no different to the trains, and journey time will be twice the rail one even off-peak - in the peak I suspect 3 times it. Marsh Barton has serious traffic issues, and is served primarily by the Green P&R bus from the city centre - that's convenient in terms of providing both a good P&R service and hanging local public transport off the back of it, but for 90% of the city means that using it for commuting to work (as I do) means you have to take a bus from where you live into the city centre and then change to take another bus back out of it again to where you work - it might be environmentally friendly but it's much slower than an equivalent car journey - which is why the vast majority of workers on Marsh Barton drive there. This may not improve speed, but it will at least allow a direct (well, a change free anyhow) route between lots of residential area's and the outlying business area's. (Edit - it also allows direct access to Marsh Barton jobs from towns such as Starcross and Dawlish, without the slow and troublesome road journey) I think Newcourt will be a great success - i'm a little more sceptical that Marsh Barton will make an impact as it's already well established as a car-orientated place - but we shall see. For me the big issue is going to be cost effective and flexible ticketing - can Exeter CC/Devon CC come up with something that lets us use the best of both? Currently I have a monthly 'smart card' ticket on Stagecoach's city buses - I could change to a rail season ticket but do like the flexibility the bus one allows when I visit other parts of town...smart card ticketing outside London at present means lots of independant cards for different operators (despite being designed to work together!) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gwiwer Posted December 13, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 13, 2012 The Stagecoach website has holes in it. I have found this across the country. Located via DevonBus and Traveline websites is the service J timetable here http://www.travelinesw.com/swe/XSLT_TTB_REQUEST?language=en&command=direct&net=swe&line=3300J&sup=%20&project=y10&outputFormat=0&itdLPxx_displayHeader=false&itdLPxx_sessionID=EFA013548581231&lineVer=1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium phil-b259 Posted December 13, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 13, 2012 I also suspect that Ivybridge isnt a destination for many apart from those that live there. Its a long walk downhill into the centre and a hell of a climb back to the station afterwards. I was unaware there was a local bus service when it opened, so had no desire to get off there. IIRC when the re-opening was being discussed there was some criticism of the site chosen for the new station and its position in relation to the original one and the town. I think the promoters were worried about the impact of extra cars parking in the town and thus promoted a new site on the edge of town where large amounts of car parking could be provided as well as giving easier access from the A38. This was felt to be important as the station was also intended to try and relieve congestion in Plymouth by encouraging people to drive to Ivybridge instead. The initial bus services were also part of the same approach but given the size of the surrounding settlements its not surprising that usage was very low hence their withdrawal. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gwiwer Posted December 13, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 13, 2012 given the size of the surrounding settlements its not surprising that usage was very low hence their withdrawal. True for the immediate surrounding villages but we tried a bus from Bigbury-on-Sea which is some distance away and has always had very poor public transport links to Plymouth. Before the Ivybridge link there was one round trip on Fridays. We started three trips daily except Sundays but had no control over connectivity with trains (and of course little co-operation in terms of being told what would stop and when) meaning we were flying blind. We also only had a bus and driver available away from school hours meaning the trips offered were not at ideal times either. In the end they suited no-one, made poor rail connections and a trip to Plymouth remained much quicker and more direct by car. Bigbury is now back to having its weekly "shopping" bus ti Plymouth after the initiative failed dismally to attract even one regular passenger. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted December 13, 2012 Author Share Posted December 13, 2012 The Stagecoach website has holes in it. I have found this across the country. It is indeed a spectacularly appalling website for a major organisation. Located via DevonBus and Traveline websites is the service J timetable here http://www.traveline...81231&lineVer=1 Ta - although the wierd thing still remains that four of these supposedly go past my front window every hour, and i've never ever seen one, despite using the buses on a daily basis...a work colleage lives in Pinhoe right opposite the stop they turn at, and doesn't ever recall seeing a J either - neither have I seen a J listed on any stop or on the bus-stop timetables! Very curious! Is there such a thing as a vaporware bus? Maybe something new that hasn't been launched yet? My curiousity is well and truly piqued, i'm going to message a friend who works for them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ramblin Rich Posted December 13, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 13, 2012 I do hope these stations come into use and that the "Devon Metro" scheme gets off the ground, including increased train frequency on the Newton Abbot line. Exeter seems to be becoming more gridlocked by the day - whether the dark & poor weather has driven the cyclists back into their cars, it's taken an extra 20 minutes or so to do the trip to work for the last couple of weeks. Topsham Rd and Heavitree seem badly affected. Maddeningly, the rail fare from Starcross to Exeter is less than the bus fare, with a quicker journey -but much less frequent. Sadly, there isn't a viable rail service for my commute, but I use the bus as it's practically door-to-door. I like someone else having to deal with the queues - but it's now getting stressful as my arrival time gets later than I like.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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