Yeovil Junction and active travel - non existant.

[yorksrob]

There's a lot said about active travel in this country, but a lot of this seems to be waffle.

Take Yeovil Junction. The main station serving a large country town, yet the only way to get between the two is along a dangerous, heavily trafficked, winding country lane without any pavement.

There are rumours of some sort of a footpath avoiding at least some of this, but no one seems to know exactly where it starts and it doesn't appear on any maps or signs.

Kirkby Stephen used to have a similar situation, however in recent years a marvellous paved footpath has been provided away from the road between the station and the edge of town, making it much easier and safer to get between the two.

Yeovil strikes me as being a much bigger town, with Junction Station getting much greater foot fall. Isn't it about time a quality path was provided between the two ?

 

[The exile]

There presumably isn’t enough demand for it to become a local election issue. Don’t think Somerset Council is exactly flush with money….

 

[21C101]

There's a lot said about active travel in this country, but a lot of this seems to be waffle.

Take Yeovil Junction. The main station serving a large country town, yet the only way to get between the two is along a dangerous, heavily trafficked, winding country lane without any pavement.

There are rumours of some sort of a footpath avoiding at least some of this, but no one seems to know exactly where it starts and it doesn't appear on any maps or signs.

Kirkby Stephen used to have a similar situation, however in recent years a marvellous paved footpath has been provided away from the road between the station and the edge of town, making it much easier and safer to get between the two.

Yeovil strikes me as being a much bigger town, with Junction Station getting much greater foot fall. Isn't it about time a quality path was provided between the two ?

To be fair there is a reasonable Peak flow early/late service to Yeovil Pen Mill plus an hourly daytime bus.

The whole service though needs rethinking post crossrail now that Paddington is a useful destination.

Personally, I think the answer would be to increase the Paddington to Exeter/Paignton semifasts to hourly and divert them west of Castie Cary via Yeovil. Then terminate the Waterloo services at Pen Mill via Junction. Then everything would serve Pen Mill and a much faster and Intercity standard service would be provided to Crewkerne, Axminster, Honiton and Cranbrook as well as providing direct intercity services from Paddington to Exeter Central.

 

[Oldgaloot]

"Active travel" is pretty much a meaningless slogan that people say when there's a gap in some (usually anti-car) rant. It has about as much meaning as "sustainability" which is currently a must-use word almost as popular as "robust" used to be. Maybe "obvious" should be a buzz-word as is the case here in the need for a shuttle bus.

I used to travel by train into and out of Bournemouth which has bus and coach stops just across the road from the station. Active, sustainable travel as a fact before it was even thought of as a robust idea.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Whenever I hear the term "active travel", it sets off the alarm bells. Even if this country had a Dutch style cycling culture, outside of a few cities it isn't flat enough to ever reach Dutch levels of participation. When a local council says "we're investing in Active Travel!" it basically translates as "We can't afford to subsidise a bus, so we're slapping some red asphalt down. Disabled? Tough!".

 

[yorksrob]

"Active travel" is pretty much a meaningless slogan that people say when there's a gap in some (usually anti-car) rant. It has about as much meaning as "sustainability" which is currently a must-use word almost as popular as "robust" used to be. Maybe "obvious" should be a buzz-word as is the case here in the need for a shuttle bus.

I used to travel by train into and out of Bournemouth which has bus and coach stops just across the road from the station. Active, sustainable travel as a fact before it was even thought of as a robust idea.

A shuttle bus is well and good (there appears to be a bus service some of the time) but what is so outlandish about providing people with the means to get between town and station under their own steam ?

I often like to walk to the train for my own wellbeing - I'd just rather not be mown down in the process.

Whenever I hear the term "active travel", it sets off the alarm bells. Even if this country had a Dutch style cycling culture, outside of a few cities it isn't flat enough to ever reach Dutch levels of participation. When a local council says "we're investing in Active Travel!" it basically translates as "We can't afford to subsidise a bus, so we're slapping some red asphalt down. Disabled? Tough!".

In this case even building a pavement alongside the existing road would be a start.

To be fair there is a reasonable Peak flow early/late service to Yeovil Pen Mill plus an hourly daytime bus.

The whole service though needs rethinking post crossrail now that Paddington is a useful destination.

Personally, I think the answer would be to increase the Paddington to Exeter/Paignton semifasts to hourly and divert them west of Castie Cary via Yeovil. Then terminate the Waterloo services at Pen Mill via Junction. Then everything would serve Pen Mill and a much faster and Intercity standard service would be provided to Crewkerne, Axminster, Honiton and Cranbrook as well as providing direct intercity services from Paddington to Exeter Central.

That's an interesting suggestion, however from my observations there seem to be plenty of people travelling from the likes of Salisbury and Basingstoke to points west.

 

[Davester50]

"Active travel" is pretty much a meaningless slogan that people say when there's a gap in some (usually anti-car) rant. It has about as much meaning as "sustainability" which is currently a must-use word almost as popular as "robust" used to be. Maybe "obvious" should be a buzz-word as is the case here in the need for a shuttle bus.

+1

I used to travel by train into and out of Bournemouth which has bus and coach stops just across the road from the station. Active, sustainable travel as a fact before it was even thought of as a robust idea.

Used to be called integrated transport.

Whenever I hear the term "active travel", it sets off the alarm bells. Even if this country had a Dutch style cycling culture, outside of a few cities it isn't flat enough to ever reach Dutch levels of participation. When a local council says "we're investing in Active Travel!" it basically translates as "We can't afford to subsidise a bus, so we're slapping some red asphalt down. Disabled? Tough!".

Don't have to be disabled for Active Travel to be a nonsense idea.
Plenty don't qualify for blue badges, but would find walking and cycling not an option.

 

[randyrippley]

There's a lot said about active travel in this country, but a lot of this seems to be waffle.

Take Yeovil Junction. The main station serving a large country town, yet the only way to get between the two is along a dangerous, heavily trafficked, winding country lane without any pavement.

There are rumours of some sort of a footpath avoiding at least some of this, but no one seems to know exactly where it starts and it doesn't appear on any maps or signs.

Kirkby Stephen used to have a similar situation, however in recent years a marvellous paved footpath has been provided away from the road between the station and the edge of town, making it much easier and safer to get between the two.

Yeovil strikes me as being a much bigger town, with Junction Station getting much greater foot fall. Isn't it about time a quality path was provided between the two ?

If you widen the road to provide room for a path you'll have a devil of a job keeping the banks stable on either side. That lane is an ancient hollow-way through soft sandstone that turns into mud in the rain, with a bit of tarmac on top. That part of Somerset is riddled with them - it's known as the "Yeovil Sands". Cut the bank back, expose new "rock", next storm the road will be blocked.

As for an existing footpath, only route I can think of is up the A30 (Hendford Hill), along the A37, then across the fields of Barwick Park. Long and muddy.
As for buses, there's a weight restriction on Newton rd bridge which seems to be ignored - increase the bus service and someone might get upset

There is room to put a cycle path along the track between Junction and Pen Mill, taking in the old Town station site en route

 

[Meerkat]

Playing with routes on OS maps it’s nearly two miles into town from Junction and involves a 200ft plus ascent. Can’t imagine many wanting to walk that.
The obvious route for a bike/foot route would be alongside the railway - bit longer but flatter and faster.
But don’t know whether the rail connection has space - was it double track? - and the golf course won’t like it.

 

[stuu]

There's a lot said about active travel in this country, but a lot of this seems to be waffle.

Take Yeovil Junction. The main station serving a large country town, yet the only way to get between the two is along a dangerous, heavily trafficked, winding country lane without any pavement.

I'm all for active travel options, but let's be serious, someone leaving their home in Yeovil is going to be at least two miles on average away from the station. There's going to be an extremely small number of people who want to walk that. And it's up and down some steep hills which also limit it's appeal for cyclists. How many of the ~500 daily users of the station would walk or cycle even if it had the best possible path?

 

[yorksrob]

I'm all for active travel options, but let's be serious, someone leaving their home in Yeovil is going to be at least two miles on average away from the station. There's going to be an extremely small number of people who want to walk that. And it's up and down some steep hills which also limit it's appeal for cyclists. How many of the ~500 daily users of the station would walk or cycle even if it had the best possible path?

I don't know, but probably as many, if not more than use the path between Kirkby Stephen and station. That is also quite a long way and up and down hills.

If you widen the road to provide room for a path you'll have a devil of a job keeping the banks stable on either side. That lane is an ancient hollow-way through soft sandstone that turns into mud in the rain, with a bit of tarmac on top. That part of Somerset is riddled with them - it's known as the "Yeovil Sands". Cut the bank back, expose new "rock", next storm the road will be blocked.

As for an existing footpath, only route I can think of is up the A30 (Hendford Hill), along the A37, then across the fields of Barwick Park. Long and muddy.
As for buses, there's a weight restriction on Newton rd bridge which seems to be ignored - increase the bus service and someone might get upset

There is room to put a cycle path along the track between Junction and Pen Mill, taking in the old Town station site en route

A path away from the road would probably be better anyway !

 

[HamworthyGoods]

To be fair there is a reasonable Peak flow early/late service to Yeovil Pen Mill plus an hourly daytime bus.

The whole service though needs rethinking post crossrail now that Paddington is a useful destination.

Personally, I think the answer would be to increase the Paddington to Exeter/Paignton semifasts to hourly and divert them west of Castie Cary via Yeovil. Then terminate the Waterloo services at Pen Mill via Junction. Then everything would serve Pen Mill and a much faster and Intercity standard service would be provided to Crewkerne, Axminster, Honiton and Cranbrook as well as providing direct intercity services from Paddington to Exeter Central.

Which would make these trains uselessly slow for Paignton!

 

[stuu]

I don't know, but probably as many, if not more than use the path between Kirkby Stephen and station. That is also quite a long way and up and down hills.

I would suggest that the propensity of passengers using Kirkby Stephen to like a walk is quite a bit higher than at Yeovil, given it's location within the dales

 

[fizzwheel]

I use the Junction frequently, and live in Yeovil, there isn't room to create a pavement, as said above, the banks either side of the road arent stable and one side is heavily forested and there are frequent treefalls in the winter which then block the road.

I had heard / read that the plan was to create a footpath / cycle way between the town and the Junction station, but it would involve routing through or around the golf club if it was to follow the path of the old trackbed between Yeovil Junction and Yeovil town route.

I suspect the OP i in the minority of 1 or 2 people who would want to walk between the town and the station and Somerset Council have no money to create a trailway / cycle way.

Of course if the Town Station Station was still there, you could get on the shuttle service between the two and it not require a walk anyway !

The bus service between the two I think from memory is hourly and it did used to tie up with the train services, otherwise its a short taxi ride, if you really wanted a walk, then I would advise to walk along the old trackbed from the Cinema Carpark to Yeovil Pen Mill, and then get onto one of the SWR services that start from there OR use one of the SWR services that go via Castle Cary, Westbury, Warminster to Salisbury if Waterloo is the intended destination.

If you are heading to Paddington, then its easier / quicker to just drive to Castle Cary and get on a GWR Service there, which is what I do. You can catch a train from Pen Mill though to Castle Cary and change there, but I'm going off topic now as thats a fair old walk !

 

[yorksrob]

I would suggest that the propensity of passengers using Kirkby Stephen to like a walk is quite a bit higher than at Yeovil, given it's location within the dales

I'd say that's a bit of an assumption there !

I had heard / read that the plan was to create a footpath / cycle way between the town and the Junction station, but it would involve routing through or around the golf club if it was to follow the path of the old trackbed between Yeovil Junction and Yeovil town route.

That sort of thing would be a good idea. It might even become a local leisure amenity !

 

[stuu]

I'd say that's a bit of an assumption there !

It is, but Yeovil is hardly on the tourist trail, while Kirkby Stephen sits in a national park which is well known for walking, on a railway line which primarily serves leisure travellers

 

[yorksrob]

It is, but Yeovil is hardly on the tourist trail, while Kirkby Stephen sits in a national park which is well known for walking, on a railway line which primarily serves leisure travellers

All lines primarily serve leisure travellers now don't they ?

 

[lachlan]

I'm all for active travel options, but let's be serious, someone leaving their home in Yeovil is going to be at least two miles on average away from the station. There's going to be an extremely small number of people who want to walk that. And it's up and down some steep hills which also limit it's appeal for cyclists. How many of the ~500 daily users of the station would walk or cycle even if it had the best possible path?

I cycle over 2 miles when commuting and it takes me around 15 minutes. There's a steep hill on the way that I always walked the bike up until one time I tried cycling instead in a low gear. I was surprised how easily I got up. What may seem like a steep hill to an observer is actually not that hard to cycle up in a low gear.

 

[leananger]

There used to be a bus, has it been cut？

 

[py_megapixel]

Don't have to be disabled for Active Travel to be a nonsense idea.
Plenty don't qualify for blue badges, but would find walking and cycling not an option.

I'm not sure you understand what is actually meant by active travel. Nobody is saying that we should throw away all motorised transport and never go more than a few miles beyond where we were born. That would indeed be a nonsense idea.

The point is that a lot of people have journeys of a distance that could be a simple walk or cycle, but the infrastructure isn't there to make the experience of doing that pleasant. This restricts peoples' mobility and creates traffic congestion as people use cars unnecessarily for short journeys. The idea is to put that infrastructure in place and encourage people to use if they can - clearly not everyone will be able to, but you still get benefits.

Walking and cycling are good for health and wellbeing and don't contribute to local air and noise pollution. Children can walk or cycle on their own rather than having to be driven everywhere by their parents. Studies have shown that active travel schemes can often increase footfall in local businesses as people now want to walk to their local shops rather than drive to a supermarket or retail park miles away. Active travel infrastructure is cheap to install and maintain and the cost to an individual per journey is almost nothing.
Are you suggesting that we should just throw away all of these advantages because there are some journeys it can't cater for? If so, clearly we should be closing all railway stations, motorways and airports as well...

 

[yorksrob]

There used to be a bus, has it been cut？

It's still there - although it involves a magical mystery tour of the Yeovil suburbs if you're going station to station.

 

[21C101]

Which would make these trains uselessly slow for Paignton!

They were popular enough when they ran to Waterloo before they got canned due to lack of stock when Waterloo to Exeter went hourly.

In any case they are not that fast now, typically two and a half hours from Paddington to Exeter with calls at Hungerford etc.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

They were popular enough when they ran to Waterloo before they got canned due to lack of stock when Waterloo to Exeter went hourly.

In any case they are not that fast now, typically two and a half hours from Paddington to Exeter with calls at Hungerford etc.

Yes but this would make them even slower than today, today they don’t get overtaken.

Those services in SWR days ran alongside the Paddington services.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

If only there was a more reliable, say hourly, train between Yeovil Pen Mill and Yeovil Junction, it might solve a few things here.

 

[Davester50]

Spoken like a true doesn't affect me.

Are you suggesting that we should just throw away all of these advantages because there are some journeys it can't cater for? If so, clearly we should be closing all railway stations, motorways and airports as well...

Where am I suggesting that?

I'm not sure you understand what is actually meant by active travel. Nobody is saying that we should throw away all motorised transport and never go more than a few miles beyond where we were born. That would indeed be a nonsense idea.

Oh, I do. I've had dealings with the neighbouring local council's push for active travel, which if you aren't eligible for a blue badge, but are still of reduced mobility. And don't say that you are eligible for for one if you are, because the family has explored these options and you're not.
It's very much a discriminatory movement that ignores the predominantly older, and those more restricted citizens.

The idea is to put that infrastructure in place and encourage people to use if they can - clearly not everyone will be able to, but you still get benefits

Lol. Tell that to the councils who see the blue badge as the only classification for if you can or can't

 

[willgreen]

All lines primarily serve leisure travellers now don't they ?

No

 

[fizzwheel]

If only there was a more reliable, say hourly, train between Yeovil Pen Mill and Yeovil Junction, it might solve a few things here.

I'm not so sure, its still a reasonable walk from Pen Mill to the Town Centre / Bus Station from there, the real problem is neither Pen Mill or the Junction are ideally suited for the town they serve, coupled with the fact the service interval on the Pen Mill line isnt that frequent and if you want onward travel to Paddington from Pen Mill you have to change at Castle Cary or Westbury anyway.

As I said up thread, if Beeching hadn't closed Yeovil Town Station itself, then Yeovil would have been a lot better served, coupled with if the line to Taunton from Yeovil hadnt been shut either, then again the town would have been alot better served we'd have more options.

If anybody is interested, this gives a history of the stations that served Yeovil and where they were, how they came to be etc

Link

 

[yorksrob]

Spoken like a true doesn't affect me.


Where am I suggesting that?


Oh, I do. I've had dealings with the neighbouring local council's push for active travel, which if you aren't eligible for a blue badge, but are still of reduced mobility. And don't say that you are eligible for for one if you are, because the family has explored these options and you're not.
It's very much a discriminatory movement that ignores the predominantly older, and those more restricted citizens.



Lol. Tell that to the councils who see the blue badge as the only classification for if you can or can't

That sounds like more of an argument for reforming the blue badge system, rather than not having safe walking/cycling routes.

 

[py_megapixel]

Where am I suggesting that?

You dismiss active travel - which just means walking and cycling - infrastructure as a "nonsense idea" because not everyone can walk or cycle. It's like dismissing cars as a nonsense idea because not everyone can drive, or stairs as a nonsense idea because some people need to use lifts instead.

Oh, I do. I've had dealings with the neighbouring local council's push for active travel, which if you aren't eligible for a blue badge, but are still of reduced mobility. And don't say that you are eligible for for one if you are, because the family has explored these options and you're not.
It's very much a discriminatory movement that ignores the predominantly older, and those more restricted citizens.

Lol. Tell that to the councils who see the blue badge as the only classification for if you can or can't

These are entirely reasonable concerns - I can see more clearly now why you take issue with this - and it was not my intention to be dismissive. I do feel, though, that the blame should be directed at the council and probably at the whole UK government, and not at the concept itself. This sort of thing is a problem with individual schemes being handled poorly - it's not a fundamental flaw with the idea of improving active travel infrastructure provision.

 

[dgl]

I suppose the only even somewhat workable solution would be if the SWR Yeovil terminators went all the way to Pen Mill after Junction, assuming there is the time to get to Pen Mill and back and it doesn't interfere with the GWR service.

Of course the big issue is that Yeovil Junction is not in Yeovil at all but a small village on the outskirts with the roads to match, it's not like it's two stations in the same town like Dorchester, for example, where the distance is relatively short between stations and there are good roads/pavements between the two.