Dorchester West-Yeovil Pen mill-Castle cary line

[grh]

Hi all,

was on the Dorchester-Bristol line last week and noticed the poor state oftrack an maintenace between Dorchester junction, yeovil pen mill, castle cary on the single track line.

is this line ever going to get maintenance to improve its condition.

oR

are the rummers true for its closure?????

how could that ever be possible, its highly used, trains on a summer saturday people are hanging out of the windows as trains run so short.

what abouts its good connections with the north. and the future olympics


hope closure is no where TRUE!!

has a speed restrictionbeen applied to it due to track condition????


thanks
grh

 

[Dennis]

The 40MPH limit only applies to loco hauled (as does people hanging out the window!), those heavyweight BOBOs certainly aren't as kind to the track as units.

OOI, where did you notice the track was in a poor state?

 

[grh]

It was bad a Maiden Newton, and near Dorchester.

its a lovely line!

 

[Ivo]

The line will not be closed any time soon.

However, away from the summer its patronage levels are very poor. You could almost say that the provision of two coaches every two hours is generous.

 

[Greenback]

Unfortunately, the line runs through sparsely populated countryside for the most part. It was originally built to compete with the Southern route to Weymouth ,and the lack of connectivity at Dorchester and Weymouth has always been a problem in attracting extra use.

Since the downgrading and singling of the line under BR, the secondary nature of the route has also contributed to poor patronage out of season. It used to be notorious for late running trains, caused in no small part bu the long single track sections! With all these factors against t, it;s difficult to see how off season usage can improve!

 

[72C]

Populations are a relative, both Frome and Yeovil are major towns in Somerset and the line provides a link to Bath and Bristol with onward connections at Westbury. Unfortunately for rail it is quicker to drive to both Bath and Bristol although many people use it to get to Bath because the station is very central and parking in Bath is not cheap. However the Park and Ride is!

Summer journeys to Weymouth are quicker by rail but the long gaps in the timetable and full and standing services are not attractive to families looking for a day out. I've often wondered why Weymouth - Yeovil and return services are not slotted into the timetable to fill the gaps and manage the peak summer demand which is often on the Yeovil /Weymouth leg. Certainly the number of people using Pen Mill have increased over the years and I cannot believe closure is being considered.

 

[grh]

yep, your right. they should run a yeovil-weymouth service in between the full line ones to help the demand in the summer.

May bank holiday, there were 150 people left on Yeovil pen mill station as the 2 carriage train to Weymouth was standing room only, but in the up direction a 5 carrage 158+150 was nearly emply. You would think that on the way down the night before they would decouple them at yeovil, rather than bring them all back the following morning.

I think that although its a little slower than the car, both Bath and Bristol are a nightmare to park and expensive.

the saturday 67s sould run twice, like the 37 sand and cycle explorers used to, so you can travel in the UP direction in luxury. Wessex trains ran the line the best i reckon,


Your right, the service NEVER seems to run on time. IThey seem to loose time at MAiden Newton exchanging tokens, and the length of the journey is stupid, WEYMOUTH to GREAT MALVERN. Who would ever run the whole route, Cardiff was a far better route they used to do.

Graham

 

[Greenback]

I agree that the timetable isn;t ideal, but the original comments that led to my post were about the very poor loadings outside of the Summer and holiday periods.

Frome and Yeovil may well be imprtant towns for the county, but neither is really a sprawling metopolis. In any case, Yeovil also has the SWT services, and Frome residents can also use other stations.

The question really is whther it is worth investing money to increase line speeds, improve ride quality and rune xtra trains if there is no real market to attract to the line for more than half the year? I think that there could be, if the trains called at Yeovil junction and Pen Mill, allowing good interchange between the routes there.

 

[72C]

My some what limited experience is of reasonable loadings. However it is a chicken and egg situation. If the timetable is not that good people will use their cars. Yeovil is not a rail orientated town. The Junction suffered after singling in the 60's but has had a hourly service to Waterloo for some time. The first service is 4 in the morning which must put Yeovil on the extreme edge of the London commuter belt. Certainly loadings appear good from Sherborne and Gillingham even on Sundays!

The Go co-operative is proposing a through service from Yeovil Junc via Pen Mill to Oxford and on to Birmingham. Time will tell if they can get it of the ground. A share issue has gone ahead with a proposed start date of 2011 .

There have also been proposals to complete the east cord to enable services from Weymouth to call at the Junction before using the existing line back to Pen Mill. To be honest, in the current financial climate, I cannot see the money ever being available and would question the need.

 

[Greenback]

My some what limited experience is of reasonable loadings. However it is a chicken and egg situation. If the timetable is not that good people will use their cars. Yeovil is not a rail orientated town. The Junction suffered after singling in the 60's but has had a hourly service to Waterloo for some time. The first service is 4 in the morning which must put Yeovil on the extreme edge of the London commuter belt. Certainly loadings appear good from Sherborne and Gillingham even on Sundays!

The Go co-operative is proposing a through service from Yeovil Junc via Pen Mill to Oxford and on to Birmingham. Time will tell if they can get it of the ground. A share issue has gone ahead with a proposed start date of 2011 .

There have also been proposals to complete the east cord to enable services from Weymouth to call at the Junction before using the existing line back to Pen Mill. To be honest, in the current financial climate, I cannot see the money ever being available and would question the need.

Neither can I, although it will be interesting to see if the OA service gets off the ground (I can't see it starting next year in any case).

We have to accept that the run down of the route has taken place, and that even an improved timetable may not be sufficient to generate enough extra journeys to justify the cost, even if we weren't in the middle of enormous spending cuts!

 

[Drsatan]

Your right, the service NEVER seems to run on time. IThey seem to loose time at MAiden Newton exchanging tokens, and the length of the journey is stupid, WEYMOUTH to GREAT MALVERN. Who would ever run the whole route, Cardiff was a far better route they used to do.

Graham

I'll admit the passing loops at Yeovil PM and Maiden Newton constrain capacity and cause delays. I went on the 13:10 from Weymouth to Gloucester which arrived at Bristol TM 20 minutes late due to waiting for a late oncoming train at Maiden Newton. Doubling the line between between Maiden Newton and Yeovil PM (with a turnback siding to allow trains to terminate there) would increase capacity and (depending on rolling stock availability) allow for an hourly Weymouth - Yeovil service. But that probably won't happen.

I accept that very few passengers will go all the way from Weymouth to Great Malvern (looking at the timetable only the Saturdays-only 1608 from Weymouth goes to Great Malvern). However, the majority of passengers will travel to and from intermediate stations, for example Weymouth - Bath and Bristol - Gloucester, and the service terminates at Great Malvern for operational convenience I assume.