Drsatan
Established Member
According to FGW's all line timetable the ticket office at Newquay is only open between May and September.
That's been the trend for a couple of years now, fewer and fewer passengers on the Summer Saturday Newquay trains. Still early in the season now though.
The thing with Newquay is its a ****ehole and doesnt attract family holidays, it attracts drunkards who've just finished college/uni for the summer etc, they come down for the weekend to be in Newquay Friday and Saturday night, so the Saturday HSTs run with passenger numbers that could fit in a unit. Then, Monday morning when they are all going home hungover the diagrammed unit can't cope. Its been like this for several years now, can't see the through SO runs lasting much longer?
The thing with Newquay is its a ****ehole and doesnt attract family holidays, it attracts drunkards who've just finished college/uni for the summer etc, they come down for the weekend to be in Newquay Friday and Saturday night, so the Saturday HSTs run with passenger numbers that could fit in a unit. Then, Monday morning when they are all going home hungover the diagrammed unit can't cope. Its been like this for several years now, can't see the through SO runs lasting much longer?
This element can spoil many resorts including Blackpool.That was my experience of the Newquay service a couple of weeks back. The brief 20 minutes that I spent in the town didn't really make me feel as if I wanted to catch a later train back, so I went straight back on the 11:21 Newquay - Pad, this time in first class as it was cheaper![]()
No, the one unit shuttles back and forth all day. Is timed to connect with services to/from London hence the gaps.Talking of the gaps in service (which can be quite great), does the Newquay unit interwork with anything else? There are some large gaps at Par (over an hour)
No, the one unit shuttles back and forth all day. Is timed to connect with services to/from London hence the gaps.
Liskeard - Looe is roughly hourly (though not all intermediate stations get stopped at)...
sorry, just going back to the subject of Newquay station. will the ticket office be open this saturday at about 1240? me and a friend are going there for a day and will need to purchase our tickets back.
sorry, just going back to the subject of Newquay station. will the ticket office be open this saturday at about 1240? me and a friend are going there for a day and will need to purchase our tickets back.
Standing on Exeter St davids station I have often wondered if it is a wise use of scarce HST resources when yo you see a Paddington /Newquay HST depart virtually empty while Paddington/Penzance HSTs arrive/depart rammed to the gunnels.This is an area the winner of the new Great Western franchise/Dft desperately needs to address.At the moment all FGW can do is to join XC and crank up the off-peak fares to try to price people off the railways.
sorry, just going back to the subject of Newquay station. will the ticket office be open this saturday at about 1240? me and a friend are going there for a day and will need to purchase our tickets back. Also I know what you mean about the HST's to and from Newquay, took one there and back last year to and from bodmin parkway and pretty much had a carriage to myself. Maybe if FGW got 158's certified to Newquay a 4 car 158 could run between Newquay and Exeter St Davids on weekdays and weekends.
It isn't open at the moment though because of the building works, you'll be able to buy your ticket from the guard on the train, or before you board the train if they have a barrier set up.
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One thing that could potentially help what be swapping around the calling patterns. If the Newquay trains which generally have lots of space available picked up calls at the more minor stations Par-London the Penzance trains which don't have so much capacity available could then run faster when a Newquay train is running around 30 mins before or after. Running them fast calling only after Par at Plymouth, Exeter, Reading and London should free up some room on the trains and it has the benefit of improving journey times as well.
All they need is a car park type kiosk and a man with an Avantix machine.I'm surprised they have not got some sor tof temporary facility there during the bulding works. Still, I suppose we are not in peak season quite yet.
I don't think it would be too much of a problem. There are only three Newquay-London trains on Saturdays, so I'd only suggest speeding up three Penzance-London trains running at similar times. Penzance-Bodmin Parkway and Liskeard is roughly an hourly service at the moment, so speeding up three trains would only leave a couple of two hourly gaps, with connections available at Par.That wouldn't be fun for those wishing to alight at Bodmin Rd and Liskeard.
Suppose at Par they could have both the Newquay train on platform 3 and the Penzance train on Platform 2 and passengers can change to their correct train!! Lol
That wouldn't be fun for those wishing to alight at Bodmin Rd and Liskeard.
Suppose at Par they could have both the Newquay train on platform 3 and the Penzance train on Platform 2 and passengers can change to their correct train!! Lol
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errrr this happens just after 14:00