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St Ives Bay Line - Incredible Growth

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charlee

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The St Ives Bay Line has grown incrideably over the past year;

St Erth jumps from 75,248 to 120,770 (+ 60%)
Lelant Saltings rose from 622 to 17,224 (+ 2669%)
Lelant jumps from 324 to 1,842 (+ 469%)
Carbis Bay rises 7,980 to 55,334 (+ 593%)
St Ives grows aswell from 154,502 to 258,530 (+ 67%)


That is considerable growth for a small line Lelant Saltings having an increas of nearlly 3000%. What has contributed to such growth, its truely fnatastic!
 
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devon_metro

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It's something to do with changes in ticketing, passenger growth isn't quite that good!!
 

swt_passenger

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Concur.

It is fully explained in the associated report on the ORR site, as are a number of sudden changes elsewhere.
 

ACE1888

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Railways are booming down this way, shame North Cornwall can hardly be reached by rail anymore (bar Newquay I suppose) :roll: Full credit to all involved with the 'promotion' of our local lines too
Just need FGW to get a few more units to cope with the demand...;)
 

wintonian

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Removal of a rail rover for the line IIRC

That will be it, makes it a tad difficult to calculate figures for a specific station when there is no destination on the ticket.

Why have they removed the ranger? - I thought it was a pretty good idea for lines like this.
 

MidnightFlyer

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As far as I can see it and all the other Cornish branchlines have individual day ranger tickets this year.
 

richw

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Also they set up a temporary gateline at St ives last summer. wonder how much this had to do with it
 

swt_passenger

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As far as I can see it and all the other Cornish branchlines have individual day ranger tickets this year.

Turns out they haven't removed the rangers, but in previous years they ONLY had the day rangers - so some of the minor stations had no local journeys allocated to them. The rise reflects the re-introduction of local point to point fares - and this is explained in the report:

Delta Rail said:
3498 Lelant Saltings 17,224 622 >1000% Switch to point-to-points from St Ives Bay Line Ranger
3542 Carbis Bay 55,334 7,980 593% Switch to point-to-points from St Ives Bay Line Ranger
 

wintonian

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Turns out they haven't removed the rangers, but in previous years they ONLY had the day rangers - so some of the minor stations had no local journeys allocated to them. The rise reflects the re-introduction of local point to point fares - and this is explained in the report:

So will pepole just buy a point to point anytime return as they understand the term 'return' but don't understand what 'ranger' means even if it suits their needs better?
 

brillopad

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Passenger growth isn't quite that good!!

No - but the line is run sensibly with flexible capacity.
Winter is 153 (enhanced for Christmas/New Year)
Easter is 153 + 150
High season is 2 x 150

When the new park 'n ride open I hear it will be 2 x 150 + 153.

At 2 tph that's a lot of bodies.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
So will pepole just buy a point to point anytime return as they understand the term 'return' but don't understand what 'ranger' means even if it suits their needs better?

For most typical folk coming in for a day at the beach groupsave is the best ticket.
 

Requeststop

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The St Ives Bay Line has grown incrideably over the past year;

St Erth jumps from 75,248 to 120,770 (+ 60%)
Lelant Saltings rose from 622 to 17,224 (+ 2669%)
Lelant jumps from 324 to 1,842 (+ 469%)
Carbis Bay rises 7,980 to 55,334 (+ 593%)
St Ives grows aswell from 154,502 to 258,530 (+ 67%)


That is considerable growth for a small line Lelant Saltings having an increas of nearlly 3000%. What has contributed to such growth, its truely fnatastic!

The terrific growth is due to the half hourly service recently introduced. Just like the Falmouth branch, the introduction of more trains means more passengers use the trains.

When St Erth redevelopment is complete (It's to be a larger Park and Ride), Lelant Saltings will be closed down and the land used for re-development. It's always been a sort of temporary concrete affair of a station and serves only a small part of the village and never popular with the villagers. It's not an easy entrance into the parking area as you have to do a sharp right turn off the A3074 with traffic coming down against you down Abbey Hill. The overwhelming number of passengers are using the station for Park and Ride into St. Ives. Lelant Station serves the larger catchment of the village, hopefully it's request stop status will be removed once the Saltings has been closed down.
 

Oliver

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Ticketing on the line is odd too, due to council deal for P&R. If you want a single from Lelant P&R to St Ives, it's cheaper to buy a ticket from Hayle to St Ives. The conductor will sell you this, but you must ask him. He isn't allowed to volunteer that alternative.
 

Class172

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No - but the line is run sensibly with flexible capacity.
Winter is 153 (enhanced for Christmas/New Year)
Easter is 153 + 150
High season is 2 x 150

When the new park 'n ride open I hear it will be 2 x 150 + 153.

At 2 tph that's a lot of bodies.
It'll need the extra capacity. When I went on never had I been on a train so overcrowded (2 150s)! :shock:

Will the platforms be long enough for 5 coaches?
 

TEW

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The SDR fares on the line are valid as Rangers, but having them as returns makes the passenger numbers better and makes them quicker to issue. All the Cornish branches have return fares that are valid as Rangers.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
The terrific growth is due to the half hourly service recently introduced. Just like the Falmouth branch, the introduction of more trains means more passengers use the trains.
The half hourly service has been run on the St Ives branch for as long as I can remember. Certainly its been half hourly since the FGW franchise started in 2006.
 

142094

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Not sure why there is still uncertainty over the reason for the growth - as the increase is plus or minus 20% above the mean, they've looked at it specifically and have said it is due to a "Switch to point-to-points from St Ives Bay Line Ranger".
 

4SRKT

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There must have been more than 622 passengers at Lelant Saltings last year. I was on the branch in July and judging by the numbers I saw boarding at that station you'd get that number in a morning.
 

aylesbury

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Went on the branch end of March and the trains were busy plenty of daytrippers and locals.Iused a Devon and Cornwall rover and noticed several other passengers with them.Later in the day when I was heading back to Penzance in the afternoon a large body of passengers left for the branch train.Good to see all the branches doing well even Newquay seemed to be busy on my trip and Falmouth positivley heaving.
 

richw

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Went on the branch end of March and the trains were busy plenty of daytrippers and locals.Iused a Devon and Cornwall rover and noticed several other passengers with them.Later in the day when I was heading back to Penzance in the afternoon a large body of passengers left for the branch train.Good to see all the branches doing well even Newquay seemed to be busy on my trip and Falmouth positivley heaving.

FGW have put a lot of effort into marketing the branch lines, with plenty of positive features in the media, flyers, advertisements in local publications where they've compared the price of using their branch lines, to parking in the town centres. Most branch line car parks are free.
 

Greenback

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Went on the branch end of March and the trains were busy plenty of daytrippers and locals.Iused a Devon and Cornwall rover and noticed several other passengers with them.Later in the day when I was heading back to Penzance in the afternoon a large body of passengers left for the branch train.Good to see all the branches doing well even Newquay seemed to be busy on my trip and Falmouth positivley heaving.

I know it was Easter Monday, but the first train from Newquay to Par on April 9th was very well loaded in both 153 units.

The Falmouth line did not seem so busy on 7th April though.
 

Requeststop

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The half hourly service has been run on the St Ives branch for as long as I can remember. Certainly its been half hourly since the FGW franchise started in 2006.

As a resident along the line since birth until 10 years back, my memory of the services goes back to when we had steam on the line and before St. Ives station was re-sited to build the present car park, and there was the reversing loop. I can say though that the service offered now is the best I have ever known. Looking forward to boosting the numbers by one when I'm back in Cornwall in June.:D
 

TEW

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The Newquay line seemed to have a good Easter to me, the Looe branch as well, this was the first year that I can remember a 150 being used on the Looe branch at Easter, usually it's a 153 all year apart from the High Summer. The Falmouth branch loadings vary quite a bit through the day, in the middle of the day with a half hourly some of the trains are quite lightly loaded, especially the ones without connection to/from the mainline.
 

stut

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I know it was Easter Monday, but the first train from Newquay to Par on April 9th was very well loaded in both 153 units.

The Falmouth line did not seem so busy on 7th April though.

Well, just as a data point, the Maritime Line was plenty busy when I was down there the previous week, but, as mentioned, that was on a service connecting with an extremely busy mainline service from London.

Last August, I had the pleasure of the St Ives bay line (practicalities aside, the views of the coast are stunning). As we were headed to Penzance later, we opted to park at St Erth instead of Lelant Saltings, and am I ever glad we did - it was a healthy load leaving St Erth (2 x 150 IIRC) but full and standing from Lelant Saltings.

A particularly lovely way to reach the town. And the Porthminster cafe is so handy for the station, too...
 

swt_passenger

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Not sure why there is still uncertainty over the reason for the growth - as the increase is plus or minus 20% above the mean, they've looked at it specifically and have said it is due to a "Switch to point-to-points from St Ives Bay Line Ranger".

This is an unfortunate side effect of people joining in to threads and not reading the previous pages. Either that or they do read the reported quote and assume it must be fiction... :roll:
 

Greenback

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Well, just as a data point, the Maritime Line was plenty busy when I was down there the previous week, but, as mentioned, that was on a service connecting with an extremely busy mainline service from London.

I'm sure it was. I just expected mor epeople to go down to Falmout in the morning as we did. Perhaps we were a little early though, we got the 0950 train from Truro, and although the train we changed fromw as pretty full, it was only a two car 150, and very few passengers changed for Falmouth.

We were impressed with Falmouth itself. Interesting pubs and shops!
 

aylesbury

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The Falmouth line is an interesting one to ride on ,viaducts ,tunnels and agree Falmouth is a good place to go.I did not patronise Rick Steins fish and chips but did buy an excellent pasty(no vat)The station at the town stop is very well looked after and has good bus links.Agree about the views on the St Ives branch they are spectaclur and the walk into the town throws up good views of the town.These branches deserve to grow in passenger numbers and I hope that FGW keep the franchise as they seem to be well placed to promote their usage.
 
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