Illogical timetabling of the down 'Night Riviera'

[12CSVT]

The 23:45 Paddington to Penzance service is booked to arrive Exeter St. Davids 03:06, depart 04:00 (ie 52 minutes at Exeter)
It then arrives Plymouth at 05:18.
The first Gunnislake service departs Plymouth at 05:06, so the 'Night Riviera' misses it by 12 minutes.

Even more bizarrely, the Riviera sits at Plymouth for 25 minutes, departing 05:43 and arrives at Liskeard at 06:07.
The first Looe service departs Liskeard at 06:05, so the Riviera misses it by 2 minutes.

Is this just a case of 'left hand and right hand not knowing what each other are doing' at FGW timetable planning, or is there a reason why the 'Night Riviera' is timed to miss the first trains of the day on two of the Devon / Cornwall branches by a few minutes ?

 

[louis97]

The 23:45 Paddington to Penzance service is booked to arrive Exeter St. Davids 03:06, depart 04:00 (ie 52 minutes at Exeter)
It then arrives Plymouth at 05:18.
The first Gunnislake service departs Plymouth at 05:06, so the 'Night Riviera' misses it by 12 minutes.

Even more bizarrely, the Riviera sits at Plymouth for 25 minutes, departing 05:43 and arrives at Liskeard at 06:07.
The first Looe service departs Liskeard at 06:05, so the Riviera misses it by 2 minutes.

Is this just a case of 'left hand and right hand not knowing what each other are doing' at FGW timetable planning, or is there a reason why the 'Night Riviera' is timed to miss the first trains of the day on two of the Devon / Cornwall branches by a few minutes ?

As i'm sure you are aware the sleeper gets affected by various engineering works, these for the next few weeks are on the section between Exeter and Plymouth, so therefore the sleeper needs more time - generally the sleeper does fit in for connections. Have looked next month, and it does seem to arrive Plymouth at 0419, so within plenty of time for the 0506.

On a monday it sits at Liskeard from 0652-0709 to connect with the train arriving from Looe, however during the rest of the week it just misses the first train as it runs earlier from Plymouth (0543), so this isnt possible without making the sleeper earlier or the Looe service later.

 

[tsr]

How hard would it be to alter the timings of the Looe services, out of interest? I imagine there aren't too many major engineering works taking place down there...?

 

[dk1]

But then the return working at 06.37 would miss the connection with the 07.11 Paddington. There is nearly always a knock on effect.

 

[Sleepy]

How many tourists really want to arrive in Looe at 0630 ? Annoying for a few granted but expect reasoning something like paths over Tamar bridge ?