GB RailRover – Day 4

Funfair Barry Island
Funfair Barry Island

Plan for the day

The plan for Friday is to mop up some branch lines and to head back in a northerly direction:

Plan DepTrain NoJourneyPlan ArrNRT Miles
06:582A03Penzance to St Ives07:1810
07:322A04St Ives to St Erth07:444.25
07:472U14St Erth to Truro08:1820
08:452F70Truro to Falmouth Docks09:0912.25
09:152T70Falmouth Docks to Truro09:4212.25
09:531A82Truro to Exeter12:12105.75
12:271S49Exeter St Davids to Bristol Temple Meads13:2776.25
13:462K34BTM to Severn Beach14:2313.5
15:012K37Severn Beach to BTM15:4313.5
15:571F20BTM to Cardiff Central16:4538.25
16:561V44Cardiff Central to Swansea18:1147.5
18:192M12Swansea to Llandrinod20:4869.75

Notes:
As before my thanks to Real Time Trains for the material in the links.

Operations on the Day

The day starts well – breakfast on the Penzance Quay at Sullivans – and even though it is 6:30 in the morning the sun is shining and they have outdoor seats and it is a great way to start the day!  A couple of weeks later even Rishi Sunak is using it after using the sleeper!

First up is the little line to St Ives – the first service of the day uses the through connection and then the unit gets locked into the branch for the rest of the day until the final working in the evening with the token being collected from the signal box briefly after serving St Erth station.  Whilst the beach at Carbis Bay is unoccupied this early the train is seeing a number of users besides myself.

Carbis Bay
Carbis Bay

The timetables work fairly well at this point and re-joining main line after the branch perambulation means that I can take first class to Truro where I disembark for the second new branch line of the day to Falmouth Docks.

Picking up the main line service again at Truro is straightforward and there are then announcements that there are possible problems in the Weston-Super-Mare area and I am conscious that the service to Severn Beach sometimes interworks to and from Weston and therefore that my timings may be disrupted.  In addition I remain aware of the possibility that the Cross Country planned to Bristol Temple Meads would be heavily loaded after the experience yesterday.

So a further replan of the next part of the journey is undertaken.

Plan DepHeadcodeRoutePlan ArrNRT miles
09:531A82Truro to Tiverton Parkway12:29122.25
12:401S49Tiverton Parkway - Bristol Parkway13:4365.75
14:051B15Bristol Parkway - Cardiff Central14:3733.5
14:502Y55Cardiff Central - Barry Island15:249.25
15:262M42Barry Island - Barry15:300.75
16:052E40Barry - Bridgend16:3819.0
16:581B19Bridgend - Swansea17:3027.25
18:192M12Swansea - Llandrinod20:4869.75

NRT only provides distances via Weston-super-Mare (presumably because there are no stations on the avoiding line).  The loop line is about four miles and the avoiding line is less so the above mileage is slightly overstated, subsequent digging in the Sectional Appendices identify that the direct route is physically a mile shorter than the loop via the town so not overly significant.

So I lose the mileage to Severn Beach and add the rather modest distance to Barry Island from Barry having passed over this route before it was added back into the passenger network in June 2005.  It also eases a slightly tight connection at Swansea which might have been problematic.  I did not subsequently check the trips I would have taken – but better safe than sorry.

I therefore stay on the GWR service to Tiverton Parkway and then pick up a Cross Country service to Bristol Parkway (which I had planned to catch at Exeter but decided to stay put to minimise time on Cross Country).  The Cross Country service is well laden again and we are held for a few minutes before coming to a rest at Bristol Parkway.

My train westwards is delayed by a slow freight which has been pathed in front of the service and we lose a few more minutes on the journey through the Severn tunnel and into Cardiff Central.  The various perturbations seem to have hit GWR again today.

TfW class 150 for the journey down to Barry Docks where the adjacent fun fair is undergoing pre-season maintenance.  There is a large multi-generational family traveling together from Cardiff on this service and they disembark en masse and seek to exit the station – except that they don’t and they rejoin the service (as do I watching closely).  Once we get back to Barry they all disembark again and this time the leave the station.  Looks like they went a stop too far.

I have time to walk to the far end of the platform and observe the new trains currently stabled in the new stabling point at Barry having recovered the site from the former preservation railway.  The trains are due to enter service in the near future as the local valley lines are upgraded.

A further 150 takes me onto Bridgend along the line re-instated to passengers in 2005 and using terminal platform 1A at Bridgend (avoiding the hated platform 0 designation used elsewhere).  The next service is running late and loses time all the way from Swindon as it heads to Bridgend.  I had hoped to use the time in Swansea to find something hot to eat as a takeaway on the next journey as I fear that dinner at my destination will be limited.  Quickly poking my nose outside the station shows no obvious take aways and with time now limited I return to the station – but cannot join the waiting train as the crew are not there.

A celebrity is spotted on the service into Swansea – the actress Sian Phillips is identified leaving the train and heading off along the platform – she comes from South Wales originally.

It is a long time since I last traversed the Heart of Wales line but I do recall some stunning scenery – it is still there but much of the line now runs through an effective tree-lined route and the scenery is therefore hard to see – the trees have been allowed to grow here (and elsewhere) so the views are simply impossible to see.

153382 at Swansea before heading to Llanrtrwyd Wells
153382 at Swansea before heading to Llanrtrwyd Wells

The service on this line is thin and is to be reduced in December – and yet the trains are well loaded and one wonders if running a more frequent service might raise more revenue than the marginal costs.  Unfortunately these days such approaches are rare.

All is going well until we get towards Llanwrtyd Wells where these days the two crews swap over with the Shrewsbury crew returning home and the Swansea crew doing likewise.  Except that tonight each crew has decided that they want to take their own train home and all the passengers on the two trains have to walk along the train, over the foot crossing and join the other unit.

The unit on which I arrived heads off happily back to Swansea.  However we remain stationary.  And now the potential impact on my ability to get anything to eat is starting to worry me.  The northern set of points had been reset to allow the other unit to depart north after our arrival and apparently nothing would now change them to enable us to move off to the north.  If the decision to swap units had been conveyed to the signalling team the points need not have been changed after our arrival (although possibly they had to to permit the other unit to enter the loop).  So until permission is obtained to hand crank the points and that has been done we cannot leave.  Over 30 minutes late.  In the December timetable change the crossing point will move to Llandrinod Wells because there is a larger population and it is not so remote – so one wonders just how often this happens.

Going downhill we recover some time but the only place to get food has already stopped cooking fish and there are a couple of fishcakes.  Why do the Welsh give up so early?

At least I am able to book into my hotel, eat the fishcakes (not particularly palatable either), and catch up on the score as Southampton are playing the second leg of the play offs which they win.

Rolling Stock

A real mixture today with modern inter city stock and class 150 units at the other extreme.  Services generally well loaded – even the Heart of Wales line unit is well loaded on the departure from Swansea and Llanelli as it takes passengers home up the line having had a day out.

Ticket Checks

Very mixed – obviously checked on the branch lines but little evidence on the main line trains.

Summary

Not a good day for time keeping.  Obviously the initial cancellation of the planned Cross Country service which was the planned highpoint of the entire trip.  Then GWR seemed to have a problem in the Swindon area delaying trains and then the problem with TfW / Network Rail at Llanwtryd Wells which is presumably down to equipment failure – but it took the edge of the good running enjoyed over the other days and indeed on the decent times on other trains today.

 

GB RailRover – Day 3

I7C at Inverness for Aberdeen - 43021
I7C at Inverness for Aberdeen – 43021

Plan for the day

The plan for today is to take the longest single working on the railway from Aberdeen to Penzance:

Plan DepTrain NoJourneyPlan ArrNRT Miles
08:201V60Aberdeen to Penzance21:36785

Notes:
As before my thanks to Real Time Trains for the material in the links.

Operations on the Day

I finish having breakfast in the hotel and then check my train – it has been cancelled (it is later re-instated from Edinburgh south) but I have already missed a train to Edinburgh which would connect into the service – so a new plan was rapidly constructed – Cross Country themselves suggest an Edinburgh – London service and a Cross Country to Plymouth and local service to Penzance.

I work up a new plan:

Plan DepTrain NoJourneyPlan ArrNRT Miles
09:041B74Aberdeen - Edinburgh11:22130.5
11:301E13Edinburgh - York13:54204.5
14:441V62York - Plymouth20:49372.50
21:171C92Plymouth - Penzance22:5979.5

The through train is unique in the UK – the longest single train working and was always the centrepiece of the holiday – to join in Aberdeen and walk off in Penzance – a long day but staying on the move all day.  So that has been ruined.  And for no obvious reason I note that whilst Cross Country tout their service as covering 785 miles the NRT mileages for the spit I am following is 787.  NRT mileages are adjusted to a quarter mile and I assume that explains the difference (NRT does not have a mileage table for Cross Country – that has to come from the individual routes and RealTime Trains do not seem to have mileage on all detailed train plans although their website does say they are on the majority).

When using the online planners even if you leave Aberdeen on the original through train you are told to change at Haymarket and catch a train down the West Coast and you get to the destination sooner than staying on it!  And if I had stayed on the LNER service from Edinburgh to Kings Cross and then travelled west from Paddington I would have been earlier than my actual arrival.  So Cross Country the service is slow and so no-one is actually recommended to use it from end to end!

Turning to my actual journey the trip down the East Coast of Scotland and across the Tay and Forth Bridges was one I had not previously taken so entirely new and the sun is shining so the countryside can be seen as we head south.  I benefit from the luxury once again of I7C (HST) first class which is in good order although these sets appear not to have hugely reliable wifi – on a couple there is simply no signal and inevitably in the wilds of Scotland often no transmitter with which to connect even if it is working on the train.  Never mind it is very pleasant to watch the world passing by and of course the crossings of the Tay and Firth of Forth are excellent.

Checking on the LNER train from Inverness I can see it was running late so hopefully giving me additional connection time – but we come to a stand having passed Haymarket and I watch the London train go past on the other line and we trail it into Edinburgh station only slightly late on platform 17 – but it is a long walk and I need to negotiate the gateline (which the rover ticket no longer works) followed by a mad rush to platform 2 before boarding – and I then have a long walk through to the first class.

Crossing Royal Border Bridge
Crossing Royal Border Bridge

LNER first class team are welcoming and I settle in a seat which is reserved from Newcastle onwards so know I will have to move – but at least I can see the coastline as we head south.  I spend some time rechecking my options – and decide that I will leave at York and take the Cross Country service so sticking to the original route – but at the cost of at least an hour on arrival time.  At Newcastle I move seats to one reserved from Edinburgh to London but has been empty all of the way and so it seems reasonable to sit there.

Lunch is taken and this solves the meal problem for the day – I had always been worried that finding anything to eat in Penzance tonight would be impossible.

Far too soon we are in York and at this point I am only about 15 minutes behind the train I originally planned to catch – but it is just passing Church Fenton as it powers to Penzance.  It eventually arrives in Penzance about three minutes late.

Announcements and the number of passengers waiting at York imply the train will be well loaded – I find a seat but I can see people are standing and later in the journey first class is declassified – even though there are only three seats available and the catering facility is at the rear of the unit (first is at the front) and has no way of getting through the the train.  Whilst reference is made to a previous service cancellation there cannot be many from north of Edinburgh who are now on this train to cause this level of overloading.  I think it is Tiverton Parkway before the first class is reclassified.

The scenery on this section is dominated by the run along Dawlish – the third time recently and it remains magnificent and on the original plan I would have had the equally magnificent Northumberland coast on the same train.

The 1803 from Paddington leaves Plymouth on time but we are delayed at Bodmin Parkway and roll into Penzance a minute late – but nearly 90 minutes later than the original plan.  The hotel is an uphill 10 minute walk and much to my surprise they have waited for me.  I just want to have a bath and get to bed!

Rolling Stock

By a long way the best was of course Scotrail’s I7C in terms of comfort.  Catering and comfort was not bad on the LNER service to York.  Loading on the Cross Country is way beyond acceptable – and the Cross Country practice of allowing seat reservations to commence during the journey (which led to people, including me, constantly having to change seats as they were initially available) remains an unwanted “improvement” for most travellers.  Cross Country definitively needs longer trains urgently.  Adding a coach with a pantograph and a transformer which can feed the power to the tracks whilst under the wires (and on the third rail too) would be a huge expense but a good solution.

I did not use the first class into Cornwall – it was at the rear of the train and I could not face adding the inevitable walk back and then forwards at Penzance to the exit.

Ticket Checks

Oddly I am not entirely sure that LNER undertook a ticket check and Cross Country did before the train became overloaded.  If GWR did it was pretty cursory.

Summary

Obviously a massive disappointment not to sit on a Cross Country Voyager for the entire day – in some senses!  The route was traversed, a decent meal supplied by LNER and the obvious scenic sections remained.  Having failed to use the train once it will not feature high in my priority list for the future – there remains much more of the National network to cover.