Extension of Bedwyn stoppers to Westbury

[MarkyT]

Bedwyn to Westbury is nearly 30 miles of sparse population, with only one intermediate station now. Perhaps extending hourly Bedwyn stoppers only as far as Pewsey might be a more sensible idea at under a third of that distance. A new reversing/layover facility would be required at Pewsey clearly, although that might be a replacement for the one at Bedwyn today, at a similar cost to the renewal of Bedwyn's sidings and turnouts. If the two-hourly Exeter 'semi' also continued to call at Pewsey, then connections would be available there between destinations in the west and Hungerford without doubling back.

 

[JonathanH]

Perhaps extending hourly Bedwyn stoppers only as far as Pewsey might be a more sensible idea at under a third of that distance. A new reversing/layover facility would be required at Pewsey clearly, although that might be a replacement for the one at Bedwyn today, at a similar cost to the renewal of Bedwyn's sidings and turnouts. If the two-hourly Exeter 'semi' also continued to call at Pewsey, then connections would be available there between destinations in the west and Hungerford without doubling back.

Woodborough would appear to make more sense as existing infrastructure could be used. Is this where a future 'Devizes Parkway' might be built?

 

[MarkyT]

Woodborough would appear to make more sense as existing infrastructure could be used. Is this where a future 'Devizes Parkway' might be built?

I'd guess most likely around the A342 bridge near Stert, only around 2 miles out of Devizes. Better as a call on the Exeter semis though IMHO.

 

[30907]

The more stops you put into the Exeters, the less useful they become for the main stations (and they have to be re-pathed at the London end).
If traffic grows then you might go for a 2-hourly Exeter, fast Newbury-Westbury as in days of old, and a 2-hourly Westbury/Frome/even Taunton (if Langport/Somerton reopen).
Not sure that solves the problem of Kintbury and Bedwyn though ....

By that time you (ok they) will have worked out what units are needed.

 

[Horizon22]

Can't be bothered to argue about potential fine details of an idea that we do not have the power to implement.

Then perhaps don’t call him “wrong”. As for ‘power to implement’ welcome to the Speculative Ideas forum!

Ultimately these plans are a lot of additional effort for some really marginal gain. You would be juggling around both the 387 and IET fleet and with extra requirements to extend (a not inconsequential distance) the service to Pewsey let alone Westbury.

Yes Pewsey is a station that is awkwardly served as part or a service it doesn’t quite justify, but many different ways have been tried over the years.

Ultimately though, the easiest solution to all this would just be electrifying to Bedwyn and then 387s could be run…

 

[MarkyT]

The more stops you put into the Exeters, the less useful they become for the main stations (and they have to be re-pathed at the London end).
If traffic grows then you might go for a 2-hourly Exeter, fast Newbury-Westbury as in days of old, and a 2-hourly Westbury/Frome/even Taunton (if Langport/Somerton reopen).
Not sure that solves the problem of Kintbury and Bedwyn though ....

By that time you (ok they) will have worked out what units are needed.

A little more electrification beyond Newbury might help improve the acceleration of 80x units to compensate for the extra stop, to Pewsey perhaps so the extended stoppers could be formed of 387s.

 

[JamesRowden]

Then perhaps don’t call him “wrong”. As for ‘power to implement’ welcome to the Speculative Ideas forum!

Ultimately these plans are a lot of additional effort for some really marginal gain. You would be juggling around both the 387 and IET fleet and with extra requirements to extend (a not inconsequential distance) the service to Pewsey let alone Westbury.

Yes Pewsey is a station that is awkwardly served as part or a service it doesn’t matter quite justify, but many different ways have been tried over the years.

Ultimately though, the easiest solution to all this would just be electrifying to Bedwyn and then 387s could be run…

If they don't want me to call them wrong then they should read my posts properly before wrongly criticising so I don't have to state the same parts of my original post multiple times before they take in the detail that was clearly stated in the post that they were critising. All I was doing was responding by rudeness with such.

If people asked politely for more detail for a part of my post where they think there might be a problem, rather than using incorrrct assumptions to criticise, there would not be a problem.

 

[JohnRegular]

Ultimately these plans are a lot of additional effort for some really marginal gain. You would be juggling around both the 387 and IET fleet and with extra requirements to extend (a not inconsequential distance) the service to Pewsey let alone Westbury.

Yes Pewsey is a station that is awkwardly served as part or a service it doesn’t quite justify, but many different ways have been tried over the years.

Ultimately though, the easiest solution to all this would just be electrifying to Bedwyn and then 387s could be run…

Heck, might as well bring the wires out to Westbury whilst you're at it and run 387s Reading-Westbury. Perfect jumping off point for electrification Bristol-Salisbury as well...

Returning a bit closer to reality, I think the suggestion of extending to Frome is a good one, as the town is quite badly underserved. Anecdotally I think a lot of Frome residents will drive to Westbury to catch a train because the service is so much better. I suspect a 2 hourly 'semifast' from Frome to Paddington, picking up the local stops to Newbury, would be fairly well patronised, and indeed probably would make the local connectivity seem a bit of an afterthought.

 

[Horizon22]

Heck, might as well bring the wires out to Westbury whilst you're at it and run 387s Reading-Westbury. Perfect jumping off point for electrification Bristol-Salisbury as well...

Returning a bit closer to reality, I think the suggestion of extending to Frome is a good one, as the town is quite badly underserved. Anecdotally I think a lot of Frome residents will drive to Westbury to catch a train because the service is so much better. I suspect a 2 hourly 'semifast' from Frome to Paddington, picking up the local stops to Newbury, would be fairly well patronised, and indeed probably would make the local connectivity seem a bit of an afterthought.

Not quite sure how you'd fit that in with everything else, unless its extending the electrification as far as there, which is a bit of a stretch.

As for those suggesting just bunging in extra stops on the Exeter semi-fasts, don't forget that a number of them actually terminate at Plymouth or Paington, so there's a lot more to consider.

 

[TheWalrus]

Is three small stations really worth an hourly path into Paddington?

London - Bedwyn/Hungerford/Kintbury 1tph, London - Pewsey to Penzance 1.5tph. Seems rather unbalanced to me.

And 0.5tph of service between Newbury and anywhere of any distance west seems too low to me.

Hungerford and Pewsey yes, Bedwyn and Kintbury no IMO. Should be hourly to Westbury at least with two hourly extensions to Exeter, the Westbury could do two hourly calls at Kintbury and Bedwyn (hourly peak), the Exeter just do Newbury, Hungerford, Pewsey etc. Off peak.