Good news for Cornish services, but cringey PR

[Brissle Girl]

Three new sidings to be built at Penzance to stable 9 car IETs. Good news, but am I the only one to cringe at the way NR's media team try to explain things in a way that you might at an infants school. I would have thought the general public would have a good idea what a railway siding is without the explanation. It's not even remotely correct - a layby is somewhere where you have a pause on a journey for some reason - not somewhere where you go when you get to journey's end.

£6.5m railway investment set to begin in Penzance

A £6.55m investment by Network Rail and GWR in the railway in Cornwall will see the construction of three new sidings in Penzance, helping longer trains to run and be maintained in Cornwall.

www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk

"The new, longer sidings – which are effectively laybys for trains"

 

[swt_passenger]

They do go a bit “Janet and John” at times don’t they. Just like they explain what “points” are for every time they’re mentioned.

I suppose one day they’ll tell us that the trains run on the tracks…

It should please @irish_rail though, I reckon he’s been hoping for this for quite a while…

 

[Horizon22]

They do go a bit “Janet and John” at times don’t they. Just like they explain what “points” are for every time they’re mentioned.

I suppose one day they’ll tell us that the trains run on the tracks…

To be fair, most of the travelling public don't really know what they are other than they fail occasionally!

 

[Gloster]

Never underestimate human stupidity.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Good.

That means the Pullmans can be provided by 9-car trains, the kitchens removed from the 5-cars, and some luggage/bike space installed instead.

(insert flying-pig emoji here)

 

[py_megapixel]

I suppose one day they’ll tell us that the trains run on the tracks…

Probably with some stupid analogy like "tracks are like runways for trains"

 

[Horizon22]

It does seem odd this was never considered previously, given how the splitting at Plymouth was often highlighted as a potential concern even before the Dec 2019 timetable. Evidently the land and opportunity to do it exists and should strengthen the through running of 9-car Penzance trains.

 

[irish_rail]

They do go a bit “Janet and John” at times don’t they. Just like they explain what “points” are for every time they’re mentioned.

I suppose one day they’ll tell us that the trains run on the tracks…

It should please @irish_rail though, I reckon he’s been hoping for this for quite a while…

Indeed its a good bit of long term investment in the south west. I've been banging on for ages that the 5car trains down this way where never a good idea. Indeed today, the 1015 off Penzance to London was a 5 car and was full and standing by Exeter. Have to feel for those passengers, but hopefully in the future, almost everything doing the long London to Penzance trains can be 9 car sets although I imagine that isn't likely outside of high summer.

It does seem odd this was never considered previously, given how the splitting at Plymouth was often highlighted as a potential concern even before the Dec 2019 timetable. Evidently the land and opportunity to do it exists and should strengthen the through running of 9-car Penzance trains.

The splitting and joining outside of depots does seem to have been scaled back quite a bit throughout the network, and this has noticeably improved performance, particularly where a train is late and is able to make up time at Plymouth when it does not have to couple up or split off. It has also meant available traincrew can be used more effectively rather than shuttling 5 car sets to and from depots and around stations. Some trains do continue to split and join, but it is more manageable and realistic levels now, let's hope it stays that way.

 

[pdeaves]

They do go a bit “Janet and John” at times don’t they. Just like they explain what “points” are for every time they’re mentioned.

and ballast seems to have a standard 'auto correct' ('the stones that support the tracks'). There's plain English and there's patronising nonsense. I think the terms that they want to explain should go in notes at the end; the definitions are there if you want them but don't break the flow of reading the article.

 

[WelshBluebird]

The average reading age in the UK is a hell of a lot lower than most people think it is. As an example the content for the gov.uk site is supposed to be written with a reading age of 9 in mind. So once you add in industry jargon, I'd say it is perfectly acceptable to include a definition the layperson could understand.

 

[Gloster]

It is quite possible that those who are writing the press releases don’t understand what the terms mean either, even if (or particularly if) they have a media studies degree. Does Network Rail (or whatever they are called today) do the work in-house with regular staff or have they farmed it out to some PR company who just hand it to whichever junior is free?

 

[fgwrich]

Very pleasing to see Ponsandane sidings finally return back to use (admittedly I've known about this for a little while but progress is now finally happening with boots on the ground and has been cleared at last) and as mentioned above, it will help to rectify the mistake of using 5 cars on a number of the Cornish Mainline services. What I wasn't aware of though is the new car park and cycle hire facilities to be built there - I wonder, if this is in addition to the Long Rock car park or ultimately a replacement for it and a closure of thee level crossing there?

Now if only there wasn't a Morrisons store in the way!...

Also, pointless bit of trivia. If you look at the Long Rock level crossing, it takes you back to the heady days of FGW blue (2009).

 

[HamworthyGoods]

Good.

That means the Pullmans can be provided by 9-car trains, the kitchens removed from the 5-cars, and some luggage/bike space installed instead.

(insert flying-pig emoji here)

How does that work, the Evening Carmarthen is a dining train and you can’t sit 9 cars behind the starting signal/point work at Carmarthen so trains have to divide at Swansea.

 

[Dunnideer]

They do go a bit “Janet and John” at times don’t they. Just like they explain what “points” are for every time they’re mentioned.

They do that on internal stuff on the staff intranet too believe it or not.

 

[Trog]

They often totally miss the point about what is good/important about something that has been done as well. I was reading something a year or so ago where they were crowing over how one of the high output relaying teams had done a track renewal and reopened the line afterwards at line speed. Which is something BR could and did do thirty years ago.

That the impressive thing about the modern job was that this had been achieved using super wizzo computer controlled machinery in a block of about eight hours, had seemingly gone right over the heads of the article writers. Old time BR staff needing a 48hr block to relay and virtually hand craft a reasonable length (~600yrds) of track to a similar standard.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

How does that work, the Evening Carmarthen is a dining train and you can’t sit 9 cars behind the starting signal/point work at Carmarthen so trains have to divide at Swansea.

So the 58-strong five-car fleet is carrying around an unused third of a carriage purely for five Carmarthen passengers who might want something to eat? Sure, that makes a lot of sense.

Three new sidings to be built at Penzance to stable 9 car IETs. Good news, but am I the only one to cringe at the way NR's media team try to explain things in a way that you might at an infants school. I would have thought the general public would have a good idea what a railway siding is without the explanation.

The audience for these press releases is the local papers. Whether or not the general public knows what a siding is, the local paper journalists - who are pretty much 21 or thereabouts and fresh out of university - almost certainly don't.

50 years ago the Nether Throgmorton Post was written by people who knew their stuff, but times have changed and now it's Newsquest/Reach employing young kids on minimum wage because they want to get into journalism.

I encountered the same thing when I was editing Waterways World. Every year, around autumn, British Waterways/Canal & River Trust would issue a stream of press releases talking about how they were going to "give a makeover" to some lock or bridge. I don't think the word "makeover" made it into WW once: we'd call them winter works, or stoppages, or whatever. But "makeover" was a more accessible word for the local press and I can't blame BW/CRT for using it.

 

[Xavi]

Good to see this happening and good value at £6.5m given the benefits it will bring. Rather DafT this wasn't done five years ago to give flexibility.

 

[jj1314]

I wonder, if this is in addition to the Long Rock car park or ultimately a replacement for it and a closure of thee level crossing there?

The car park (and the cycle path from Penzance) has has a major reconstruction including tonnes of tarmac, freshly-painted parking bays and almost two miles of concrete (the path) within the past year or so. Can't imagine that'd be ripped up anytime soon!

 

[nw12398]

r.e. the term 'siding' and the general population:

Average Familiarity

xkcd.com

In all seriousness, I've no idea how many people in the general public are familiar with the term, but I can guarantee there's a very large proportion who aren't. Especially as they are much less common/frequently used than in the past.

 

[Backroom_boy]

Probably with some stupid analogy like "tracks are like runways for trains"

I'm sure I've seen something like "HS2 is like a motorway for trains"

 

[pdeaves]

I'm sure I've seen something like "HS2 is like a motorway for trains"

The trouble with dumbing down/explaining terms (call it what you want) is where to stop. In this example 'a motorway is...'; 'a train is...'? In my example earlier, ballast is routinely given with the qualifier 'the stones that support the tracks'; should this lead to 'tracks are...'? Rails? At some point we have to draw a line! But then, it ought to depend on the release's target audience. A technical journal should not need the terms to be spelt out but even they sometimes resort to simple copy/paste from the original press release.

 

[OuterDistant]

I recently bought a Hornby set for our son's birthday, and was a bit taken aback when I explained to the wife that I'd picked one with some freight wagons and a siding, and she replied "what's a siding?"

In mitigation, she does know what "flange squeal" is!

 

[Master29]

The title of the thread is slightly ambiguous too, indicating longer trains rather than more long trains.

 

[Horizon22]

The title of the thread is slightly ambiguous too, indicating longer trains rather than more long trains.

I suppose there will be "more, longer trains" so both are correct by a higher percentage of trains Plymouth-Penzance being 9-cars versus 5-cars.

There are still occasional issues at Laira which means that trains are coming off 5v10 or 5v9 or some form of disruption meaning that a 5-car ends at Penzance / comes off in the morning which can cause a bit of discomfort, although normally rectified by the time its up in London.

 

[Dai Corner]

Hopefully the 'laybys' will be long enough to accommodate 2 5 car trains so that formation can be substituted for a 9 car without causing chaos.

 

[Horizon22]

Hopefully the 'laybys' will be long enough to accommodate 2 5 car trains so that formation can be substituted for a 9 car without causing chaos.

Only need about 26-30m (small gap for coupled or not) more to make that work, so I would hope so.

 

[urbophile]

Never underestimate human stupidity.

Never underestimate human ignorance about matters they rarely have to confront. I was quite gobsmacked the other day by an intelligent, educated relative of mine who appeared never to have heard of Eurostar, let alone the existence of a tunnel by which people could travel to mainland Europe without using a boat or flying.

 

[REVUpminster]

More 9 cars stored at Penzance means 5 car 800s will probably replace the HSTs and run electric from Patchway to Cardiff.

 

[urbophile]

I'm sure I've seen something like "HS2 is like a motorway for trains"

That's not daft really. Motorways,though clearly similar to conventional roads, were also a new concept when they came in, designed for high speed travel. HS1 and 2 are obviously analogous to that.

 

[Ploughman]

Historically, How would train lengths compare between the 40's or 50's and now?