Okehampton Line: reopening weekend (20-21 November 2021)

[RPI]

Re RPI’s comment about Crediton growing, which it certainly has:
One of my long gone Crediton relatives, a retired farmer, used
to say with pride,

“Crediton was a market town when Exeter was a furzy down.”
Furzy meant covered in gorse.

I hope the mid winter passenger figures don’t plummet.
Hopefully the excellent nationwide TV & press publicity may have encouraged many people to pencil in a rail trip when the weather warms.

Parkway, if built, will boost locals use of the line.
Not much parking at the town station & it is a challenging slog up hill to the railway.

Parkway would be on the same contour as the Main Street.
But will Parkway add too much time to the round trip & thwart an hourly service?

The current timings I believe have enough slack for the Parkway stop

 

[Brush 4]

The local publicity may alert those in nearby towns that trains are now much nearer than they were. Exeter is a traffic nightmare, as the red lines on the live traffic maps illustrate, especially from the A30 at Alphington. Launceston is now only 18 miles down a rural dual carriageway from a train service. Parkway will be closer to the bypass, making access even easier. Coach and bus links are already partly in place for towns in the area. Winter is always the quiet time but, summer should bring them in. All such lines have to deal with the off season.

 

[RPI]

The local publicity may alert those in nearby towns that trains are now much nearer than they were. Exeter is a traffic nightmare, as the red lines on the live traffic maps illustrate, especially from the A30 at Alphington. Launceston is now only 18 miles down a rural dual carriageway from a train service. Parkway will be closer to the bypass, making access even easier. Coach and bus links are already partly in place for towns in the area. Winter is always the quiet time but, summer should bring them in. All such lines have to deal with the off season.

Most definitely, the only reservation i have is that on the current timetable the "commuter" trains are poorly timed I feel, arrival into Exeter Central at 08:04 and departure at 17:05, no use if you work 9 to 5.

 

[uglymonkey]

I had a trip up and back on Sunday. Departed from the bay at St Davids, busy but not packed. Was amazed the amount of people piling of the train when we arrived, from Okehampton and return later laden down with shopping! The new track was smooth and very fast. A member of staff at Okehampton said it had been cleared for 75mph running the day before ! ( certainly faster than the Exmouth line, but it did used to be a main line! Coffee and bacon rolls available by GWR on the main platform at Okehampton . DSA doing teas of light snacks on Platform 2.

Some observations;

The car park was completely full - no spare spaces anywhere
No bus down the hill ( or more importantly up again)
Ticket machine seems to be powered by a thick black cable snaking all over the place.
The toilets are open - (but how long this last when the station is full "unmanned) is anyone's guess
The new light standards on the platform are "lovely"

What I was amazed by however was Okehampton itself, having banged on for years about wanting the railway to return, you would have thought they would have made an effort on the first Sunday it was almost deserted and derelict looking in places. 2 pubs, The heart foundation charity shop, McColls and that was about it.

It clearly had the sense of not giving a damn about the railway - or it will be an inconvenience.

I was heartened in walking back up the hill to see a taxi wizzing past me to drop someone in the station forecourt. wonder how many years its been since that happened !!! It will be good for taxi firms I suspect - especially if there is no bus

The trip back was about as loaded as going - again very fast. Tons of shoppers laden down with shopping awaiting to get on at St Davids

The one thing I would say is that the Staff on duty were absolutely bloody brilliant and seemed to be enjoying themselves!!!

The clincher for loading and success I feel will be anyone using it M-F for work in Exeter

 

[davetheguard]

No bus down the hill ( or more importantly up again)

Fortunately, there is a bus, and it leaves from the bus stop just outside the station building at Okehampton. It even manages to connect well with the trains, and production of a rail ticket gives a reduction on bus ticket prices. Joined up public transport; well done Devon County Council. The 118 bus is currently running Monday to Saturday, but on Sundays too from the middle of December. The bus route is: Okehampton Railway Station; Okehampton town centre; Lydford; Tavistock (from where frequent buses run to Plymouth). The route is a scenic ride and well worth doing.....

Rail Link bus for Okehampton station

118 Rail Link bus (Tavistock-Okehampton) - get bus times and more info.

dartmoorline.com

 

[HowardGWR]

Most definitely, the only reservation i have is that on the current timetable the "commuter" trains are poorly timed I feel, arrival into Exeter Central at 08:04 and departure at 17:05, no use if you work 9 to 5.

OK if you work 0830 to 1700 though. Most people work flexi nowadays and don't forget students and WFH patterns of travel. I assume GWR did some actual market research.

 

[21C101]

Journey time onto Launceston is about 20 minutes down the A30.

The Parkway station adjacent to the A30 will help that. Also the Parkway Station is on the bus routes to Launceston and Bude which don't serve the current station. As they go through to Exeter I doubt Stagecoach will be keen to divert them up the hill to the Town station.

As to the utilitarian lamp posts, as an art deco 1930s station they are more appropriate than olde worlde faux heritage lights and the head mounted directly on the pole without a bracket was Southern practice for decades (the western used brackets).

 

[RPI]

Ok if you work till 17:00? You'd be hard pushed to get to the station and through the barriers onto the platform from the City centre in 5 minutes

 

[Railway World]

A rather modest loading for the first weekday train from Okehampton but considerably more passengers on later services: https://railwayworld.net/2021/11/22/weekday-trains-return-to-okehampton/#more-6712