Upgrade needed for newquay station

[Drsatan]

According to FGW's all line timetable the ticket office at Newquay is only open between May and September.

 

[tom1649]

I read somewhere that the ticket office closed in 1987!

 

[TEW]

It's definitely open in the summer, no idea what's happening at the moment then. Perhaps there is a man with an Avantix somewhere.

 

[Slinky]

There is a ticket office open during the summer with barriers set up and the guard checs tickets before you board the train.
Yes the station is being developed
The council are trying to fund a coast to coast service, Newquay to Falmouth but talks are still ongoing.

 

[Cliveblackpool]

In the 70/80's BR used to run through trains to Plymouth, St Austell.
Summer Friday evenings there was a through train from 'up country'
There were also SAGA specials to Newquay, usually Thurs/Fridays.
An early train to Plymouth could be popular.
Probably better to run a better service Par - Newquay!
No summer service to intermediate stations atm either.
NOT a great service atm!
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/... and train times/May 2012 Large TT/GWTT38.pdf

 

[Nat the Ned]

Newquay station should have a ticket office during the summer, its yet to open though as work on the new canopy is still not complete. The entire platform has been resurfaced and its beginning to look quite nice (unlike the rest of the town). Linespeeds have been increased on the line a couple weeks back, but this has yet to be reflected in the timetables. In fact an additional HST on Jubilee Bank Holiday Tuesday was 15 mins early at Par because of this, and had to sit and wait time. The Sat only HSTs seem to be VERY quiet now compared to what they were.....

 

[TEW]

That's been the trend for a couple of years now, fewer and fewer passengers on the Summer Saturday Newquay trains. Still early in the season now though.

 

[Nat the Ned]

That's been the trend for a couple of years now, fewer and fewer passengers on the Summer Saturday Newquay trains. Still early in the season now though.

The thing with Newquay is its a ****ehole and doesnt attract family holidays, it attracts drunkards who've just finished college/uni for the summer etc, they come down for the weekend to be in Newquay Friday and Saturday night, so the Saturday HSTs run with passenger numbers that could fit in a unit. Then, Monday morning when they are all going home hungover the diagrammed unit can't cope. Its been like this for several years now, can't see the through SO runs lasting much longer?

 

[Woody]

Standing on Exeter St davids station I have often wondered if it is a wise use of scarce HST resources when yo you see a Paddington /Newquay HST depart virtually empty while Paddington/Penzance HSTs arrive/depart rammed to the gunnels.This is an area the winner of the new Great Western franchise/Dft desperately needs to address.At the moment all FGW can do is to join XC and crank up the off-peak fares to try to price people off the railways.

 

[CC 72100]

The thing with Newquay is its a ****ehole and doesnt attract family holidays, it attracts drunkards who've just finished college/uni for the summer etc, they come down for the weekend to be in Newquay Friday and Saturday night, so the Saturday HSTs run with passenger numbers that could fit in a unit. Then, Monday morning when they are all going home hungover the diagrammed unit can't cope. Its been like this for several years now, can't see the through SO runs lasting much longer?

That was my experience of the Newquay service a couple of weeks back. The brief 20 minutes that I spent in the town didn't really make me feel as if I wanted to catch a later train back, so I went straight back on the 11:21 Newquay - Pad, this time in first class as it was cheaper

 

[Cliveblackpool]

The thing with Newquay is its a ****ehole and doesnt attract family holidays, it attracts drunkards who've just finished college/uni for the summer etc, they come down for the weekend to be in Newquay Friday and Saturday night, so the Saturday HSTs run with passenger numbers that could fit in a unit. Then, Monday morning when they are all going home hungover the diagrammed unit can't cope. Its been like this for several years now, can't see the through SO runs lasting much longer?

That was my experience of the Newquay service a couple of weeks back. The brief 20 minutes that I spent in the town didn't really make me feel as if I wanted to catch a later train back, so I went straight back on the 11:21 Newquay - Pad, this time in first class as it was cheaper

This element can spoil many resorts including Blackpool.

20 minutes is too short to experience Newquay. Town centre is dissapointing! Walk along the old tramway to the harbour. Beaches are the finest in the World. Probably Winter is the best time to visit!!! No visitors, spectacular storms, and great coastal walks.

In the 60's up to 20 Saturday trains went from Par to Newquay, and 10 trains Truro - Perranporth - Newquay.
The most damaging thing in recent years was the removal of St Dennis Junction, and 2 of the platforms at Newquay, resulting now in a very restricted timetable.

 

[tbtc]

Talking of the gaps in service (which can be quite great), does the Newquay unit interwork with anything else? There are some large gaps at Par (over an hour)

 

[David10]

Talking of the gaps in service (which can be quite great), does the Newquay unit interwork with anything else? There are some large gaps at Par (over an hour)

No, the one unit shuttles back and forth all day. Is timed to connect with services to/from London hence the gaps.

 

[tbtc]

No, the one unit shuttles back and forth all day. Is timed to connect with services to/from London hence the gaps.

Ah, thanks.

Liskeard - Looe is roughly hourly (though not all intermediate stations get stopped at)...

Falmouth and St Ives both have half hourly shuttles...

...Gunnislake is only every couple hours but is roughly clockface...

...but Newquay has a fairly random timetable (with "seasonal" times too).

Plus, unlike the other places, it serves a pretty small place on the main line (St Austell being much larger than Par, but it has no direct service to Newquay)

 

[David10]

It is the wish of the locals to have the St Austell - St Dennis line reopened to allow a loop service to open. http://www.focal.org.uk/loop.htm

 

[ainsworth74]

Liskeard - Looe is roughly hourly (though not all intermediate stations get stopped at)...

It didn't call at any of them when I did it a few days ago

 

[tango602]

sorry, just going back to the subject of Newquay station. will the ticket office be open this saturday at about 1240? me and a friend are going there for a day and will need to purchase our tickets back. Also I know what you mean about the HST's to and from Newquay, took one there and back last year to and from bodmin parkway and pretty much had a carriage to myself. Maybe if FGW got 158's certified to Newquay a 4 car 158 could run between Newquay and Exeter St Davids on weekdays and weekends.

 

[CC 72100]

sorry, just going back to the subject of Newquay station. will the ticket office be open this saturday at about 1240? me and a friend are going there for a day and will need to purchase our tickets back.

How it was working last time I went there about a month ago was that everyone queued up for the train back, and the TM either checked their ticket and then let them through for boarding or sold them one there and then from his machine

 

[Greenback]

sorry, just going back to the subject of Newquay station. will the ticket office be open this saturday at about 1240? me and a friend are going there for a day and will need to purchase our tickets back.

NRE states that the ticket office is open as follows:

Monday-Friday 09:00-15:30
Saturday 08:00-17:00
Sunday 09:30-16:30

The ticket office is only open from 02 May to 10 September 2011

There are no TVM's, and Newquay is not a Penalty Fare station.

 

[TEW]

It isn't open at the moment though because of the building works, you'll be able to buy your ticket from the guard on the train, or before you board the train if they have a barrier set up.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Standing on Exeter St davids station I have often wondered if it is a wise use of scarce HST resources when yo you see a Paddington /Newquay HST depart virtually empty while Paddington/Penzance HSTs arrive/depart rammed to the gunnels.This is an area the winner of the new Great Western franchise/Dft desperately needs to address.At the moment all FGW can do is to join XC and crank up the off-peak fares to try to price people off the railways.

One thing that could potentially help what be swapping around the calling patterns. If the Newquay trains which generally have lots of space available picked up calls at the more minor stations Par-London the Penzance trains which don't have so much capacity available could then run faster when a Newquay train is running around 30 mins before or after. Running them fast calling only after Par at Plymouth, Exeter, Reading and London should free up some room on the trains and it has the benefit of improving journey times as well.

 

[Nat the Ned]

sorry, just going back to the subject of Newquay station. will the ticket office be open this saturday at about 1240? me and a friend are going there for a day and will need to purchase our tickets back. Also I know what you mean about the HST's to and from Newquay, took one there and back last year to and from bodmin parkway and pretty much had a carriage to myself. Maybe if FGW got 158's certified to Newquay a 4 car 158 could run between Newquay and Exeter St Davids on weekdays and weekends.

No, Newquay Booking Office is still a couple weeks off opening due to building work....

 

[Greenback]

I'm surprised they have not got some sor tof temporary facility there during the bulding works. Still, I suppose we are not in peak season quite yet.

 

[Cliveblackpool]

It isn't open at the moment though because of the building works, you'll be able to buy your ticket from the guard on the train, or before you board the train if they have a barrier set up.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


One thing that could potentially help what be swapping around the calling patterns. If the Newquay trains which generally have lots of space available picked up calls at the more minor stations Par-London the Penzance trains which don't have so much capacity available could then run faster when a Newquay train is running around 30 mins before or after. Running them fast calling only after Par at Plymouth, Exeter, Reading and London should free up some room on the trains and it has the benefit of improving journey times as well.

That wouldn't be fun for those wishing to alight at Bodmin Rd and Liskeard.
Suppose at Par they could have both the Newquay train on platform 3 and the Penzance train on Platform 2 and passengers can change to their correct train!! Lol

I'm surprised they have not got some sor tof temporary facility there during the bulding works. Still, I suppose we are not in peak season quite yet.

All they need is a car park type kiosk and a man with an Avantix machine.

 

[TEW]

That wouldn't be fun for those wishing to alight at Bodmin Rd and Liskeard.
Suppose at Par they could have both the Newquay train on platform 3 and the Penzance train on Platform 2 and passengers can change to their correct train!! Lol

I don't think it would be too much of a problem. There are only three Newquay-London trains on Saturdays, so I'd only suggest speeding up three Penzance-London trains running at similar times. Penzance-Bodmin Parkway and Liskeard is roughly an hourly service at the moment, so speeding up three trains would only leave a couple of two hourly gaps, with connections available at Par.

 

[Nat the Ned]

That wouldn't be fun for those wishing to alight at Bodmin Rd and Liskeard.
Suppose at Par they could have both the Newquay train on platform 3 and the Penzance train on Platform 2 and passengers can change to their correct train!! Lol
QUOTE]

errrr this happens just after 14:00