The change times at New Street are also terrible northbound for South West to North West passengers. I mean, who wants to travel from Cornwall, Devon, Somerset or Bristol to Manchester anyway?
My job necessitates me travelling between Plymouth and Bristol TM on a fairly regular basis and the current XC timetable of roughly one every 2hrs in the off-peak on Mondays to Fridays is a pain in the **** so I was glad when GWR increased their frequency between Penzance, Plymouth and Bristol Temple Meads.
Transport for Wales is now showing. The Manchester to North Wales services are back.
Likewise, on Mondays to Fridays, the morning 0447 Carmarthen - Llandovery and 0644 Llandovery - Swansea.
Subject to the usual caveats: everything is subject to change, not all TOCs are yet included, some trains are missing and there are some noticeable errors that will inevitably be ironed out before the timetables go live, May 2022 timetables for most of the UK (some South East areas still to be covered) are now available at
www.railwaydata.co.uk/timetables/May22. These will be updated 3 times a month in the run up to May 15th.
Thanks for that resource: it is good to see, among other things, that the draft timetable for Exeter Central to Okehampton gives an hourly 7 days per week! This new timetable is also on RTT. There is a track blockade for the Crediton - Okehampton line for 25th April to 09th May to allow for track upgrades in connection with this.
On another note a change shown for trains on the Exeter to Barnstaple route is that the 1639 Barnstaple to Exeter Central is retimed to depart from Barnstaple at 1631 and will extend beyond Exeter Central to Axminster. Betwen Exeter Central and Axminster it will call at Pinhoe, Cranbrook, Feniton and Honiton en-route before arriving Axminster at 1828. This change is Mondays to Fridays only. The downside on this extension is that the train works ECS back to Exeter TMD which involves running empty all the way from Axminster to Castle Cary, pausing 28 minutes at Chard Junction en-route. The train remains at Castle Cary for 44 minutes (due to "staffing reasons, meaning the driver gets a break) before returning to Exeter TMD with a 6 minute pause at Chard Junction, a 28 minute pause at Honiton and a 4 minute pause at Exeter St. Davids so having departed Axminster at 1847 the train gets back to Exeter TMD at 2225. Makes a good route refresher I suppose but that is a rather long ECS.
Dave