The Bristol Railway Archive

This is out of the area, but I thought that it would be worth including just to show Wessex's solution to an over popular service - guess what, it involves buses, not longer trains!

Ref.: Wessex Trains website

http://www.wessextrains.co.uk/news/news ... ubnavID=95

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Coach Service to Ease Pressure on Busy Train

Wessex Trains working in partnership with Cornwall County Council is pleased to announce that a relief coach service will operate to help ease the pressure on a very busy commuter train into Truro.

Since the start of the Autumn term the 0710 Plymouth to Penzance Wessex Trains service has been so popular with people working and going to school in Truro that it cannot cope with the surge in demand. A relief bus has been laid on to take people from St Austell to Truro station, but as nothing extra can be done on the rail side before next JuneÆs timetable change, a better solution has been found.

Research has found that the extra demand is largely due to young people at three education establishments in Truro. As such, an 0800 St Austell to Truro special coach service will serve these places directly from St Austell station, starting from Monday 28 November. This is a joint venture between Wessex Trains and Cornwall County Council, the Council has become involved on the route so that the coach can go to more places than just the train station.

The coach, operated by Truronian runs at the times shown below, Mondays to Fridays:
ò St Austell Rail Station Depart 0800
ò Truro Trafalgar Roundabout (for Truro School) Arrive 0835
ò Truro High School (also for City Centre) Arrive 0840
ò Truro Rail Station Arrive 0845
ò Truro College Arrive 0855

Passengers should note that the coach calls only to drop off passengers - the only place it can be boarded is St Austell Station. Train tickets will be valid through to Truro College on this service.

Passengers wanting to use the coach service will need to have a valid rail ticket for travel before boarding. It is recognised that the road journey does take considerably longer than by rail, and so a special offer applies whereby passengers can use this 0800 coach service from St Austell if they have a valid rail Single from Truro to St Austell. In other words, people who want to return to St Austell later in the day only need to show the coach driver that they have a valid ticket for the return part of the trip.

The coach will operate in school term time only, until 09 June 2006. If sufficient space on the 0820 train departure from St Austell does become available on a regular basis, then the coach will be suspended with at least one weekÆs notice. After 12 June 2006 a new rail timetable will be in place which sees an additional train service and extra capacity for passengers travelling to Truro in the morning peak.

The station poster for this coach service is below as a related document.


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Published: 22 November 2005

This is the result of a totally inflexible system for rolling stock, and shows how privatisation has turned this country's railways into a mickey mouse outfit. In the almost good old days of BR, the railway could adapt to these situations and find extra coaches. Nowadays, we have a clearly identified problem and the operator is helpless to do anything about it till next June.

Pathetic is the word that springs to mind.

John

If they'd fix some of the knackered units that are cluttering up their depot they'd be able to use those! I bet they never replaced the Pacer which burnt out either.

Let me guess, this Plymouth-PZ train is a 153? A 150 at the most?

To be fair, this train has usually been a 158 when I've caught it. This has been absolutely packed with schoolkids by the time it hits Truro; would not be out of place in the Mumbai rush hour. You have to wait about 5 minutes for them all to get out, before you can get on for a pleasant uncrowded journey to the far west.

This brings out another downside for the Sprinters - not enough doors. The old Modernisation Plan dmus were getting tatty but did load/unload much more quickly.

John Ball wrote:To be fair, this train has usually been a 158 when I've caught it.

Why "to be fair"? To be fair Wessex should use the extra revenue they get from all these standing passengers crammed onto a 2-car unit to hire another 153, to give them somewhere to sit! It's called supply and demand! They could always dump the unit when it's not needed if they don't want to waste fuel taking 3 coaches where 2 will do. Or maybe they could if there were carriage sidings somewhere.

When I said 'to be fair', I meant that at least it was a decent Sprinter (if there is such a thing), which at least is better than a single coach 153 or a grotty 150. I just don't want to overstate a case.

I still condemn the policy of squeezing too many people into a train, just to maximise profit. Sadly that is what happens when you have privatisation.

The root of the problem is that in the 80s when BR had to replace a lot of stock that had asbestos insulation the government would only allow them 2 new coaches for every 5 withdrawn. The result is there aren't enough to cope with demand, which has increased due to growth in the economy, plus much of the stock is coming up to 20 years old having been used very intensively and is startinng to show it

I thought that there was a lot of usable coaching stock being stored at MoD Kineton because the TOCs couldn't afford the hire charges. The hiring companies presumably won't reduce the charges because that would drag the market down. That would be a good thing for the travelling public, but not for company profits and director's Christmas bonuses. No prizes for guessing whiuch takes priority in modern Britain!

Because Network Rail's track access charges are so much higher for loco hauled trains than units the SRA are very reluctant to let TOCs use this spare stock.