Unfortunately all services to/from Okehampton have been cancelled for this Sunday (4 June 2017).

There is a problem with certification of the Dartmoor Railway section of line between Colbrook Junction and Okehampton which severely limits the line speed along this section. The expectation is that services will be up and running again the week after.

 
With very grateful thanks for your alerting us to this sad situation, Rob T, I have also taken the opportunity of adding it to our Coffee Shop forum's calendar, to further heighten the profile of this breaking news.

Hope this helps - and best wishes for future Okehampton excursions! 

 
The service resumes this Sunday 11 June 2017 to a revised timetable: http://www.dartmoor-railway-sa.org/sundayrover

Mods: Topic Title probably needs amending

 

Sometimes, I wonder whether certain members of the Coffee Shop forum are just trying to wind me up ...

Now done. 

 
Thanks CfN.  At least you got to it early enough so only three posts had to be altered......

 

I wouldn't dare! (except when it comes to mixers in alcoholic drinks) 

 

And "revised" this morning.   Here's one of three similar reports on the service


Seems to be a systemic issue ... we had a nine hour gap on TransWilts on spring bank holiday Sunday due to GWR staff shortages ... six trains lost, which meant that in a day we exceeded our threshold of reasonableness for the month.

 
For a similar reason the first westbound service from Plymouth into Cornwall started from Liskeard this morning.

While Sunday working remains voluntary I don't see a solution to this problem in the summer.

 

There's a worrying trend of staff shortages becoming an issue & causing cancellations during the working week too - at least in LTV.

 

Could that be partly due to staff learning new traction?

 
Yes it is partly that.  Drivers are spread more thinly over the ground.  I think I said a year or so back that it's a good job in some way that electrification was delayed, and therefore the new trains, were entering service later and at a slower rate than planned.  I don't think GWR had any chance of being organised enough to take on all the training that would have been required in time.  As it is, we're struggling a little with just 387s, let alone the IET's and 365s that should also have been in use by now.

 
The 'All The Stations' team visited today
https://youtu.be/NgdHdiDs53w

 
Who drove it to Liskeard? Presumably towed by the Looe train, but then again I can't imagine a driver starting a shift at Liskeard.

 

I believe it came from Par, with the Looe unit attached. (Stored at Par chapel siding on Saturday nights).

 

Probably Par crew who should have worked the first Newquay which was cancelled.

 
Problem now solved - train service to run normally from this Sunday (9th)

https://www.devonnewscentre.info/normal-service-to-resume-on-okehampton-sunday-dartmoor-rail-service/

 
Is the fix linked to the network rail rail grinder visiting last week for trials?

 

Never knew Network Rail ran dodgy "dating" websites? (Or that there was such demand for them in Okehampton?)

 

No, it was the need for the five year Safety Certificate to be renewed to allow running at more than 25 MPH.  The rail grinder visiting can only be a good thing though!   

 
Last Sunday's first train out of OKE had 104 passengers on board, the previous week was 114 - the highest loading so far.

 

They must be fed up of telling people that there's no call for a regular service...

 

A bank holiday (27th May 2018) ... a day that lots of people just might like to use the service ...


Upthread, reports of (very) good numbers using the service last year.    Those numbers will be hard to sustain in the face of cancellations to the already-infrequent service, even if those cancellations get re-instated later in the day.

 

It seems to be the South West's turn generally today to cop the majority of cancellations/alterations due to GWR not providing sufficient staffing resource.

 

As per last week, so this. However it’s working from Exeter shows cancelled in RTT!

09:55 Okehampton to St James' Park due 10:41 will be reinstated.
It will be started from Exeter St Davids.
It will no longer call at Okehampton, Sampford Courtenay and Crediton.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.
Would I be correct in thinking that crew are pulled from this service to run another and then GWR have time to find crew for the Okehampton trip?

 
The new diagramming means that 3 separate drivers with the relevant route knowledge are needed every Sunday to run the service; there aren't enough trained drivers working to fulfil this.
The first trip of the day has been canned two weeks running because the diagram is uncovered, until they can pull a driver who books on shortly before it leaves St David's to run it (assuming they sign Okehampton) and are willing to change duties.

 
What a ridiculous situation.

 
If they don’t have the crew to run them then they should remove the service from the timetable to save people turning up to find the service not running. But we could say that about a lot of GWR services these days. Problem is you don’t know which services are going to be canned until the day you are travelling.

 

Would you expect anything else from GWR?

 
A more reliable service?

 
What should happen and what we have come to expect are sadly two very different things

 

What might seem ridiculous in isolation might be the most sensible solution when looked at in the round


If you were to say "Would you expect anything else from DfT/NR/GWR" then I could go along with that. Remember the problems at the moment are not just down to GWR.

 
In general, yes all the above are to blame, but who's decision is it for the Okehampton service? Are GWR being forced to run it, or is it there own decision?

 
They have financial support from Devon County Council, who started running them in 1997.

 

I wonder what happens between Devon County Council and Great Western Railway when a supported service is cancelled, and how that compares to what happens between the Department for Transport and Great Western Railway when a service in the franchise / management contract is cancelled. 

 

They are being paid to run it. Also DfT have made statements asking GWR to look into providing more services.

However the point I was making is that a shortage of drivers and stock generally is not just down to GWR but for reasons explained elsewhere the actions or non actions of NR and DfT have also contributed. The extent to which this affects Exeter crew I do not know. 

 
The make up of the diagram using 3 drivers instead of 2 or 1 as in previous years is entirely down to GWR.

 
Its going to get a whole lot worse very soon 

 
Modern railways reporting Network Rail have taken over the Okehampton Line from it's border at 183M 73CH. This is where the track separates to Barnstaple and Okehampton. It does not say if it goes beyond Okehampton to Meldon.

 

I'm sure (but don't know for certain) that it will be the whole line to Meldon.

 
Okehampton is the target but Crediton the prize with a half hour service the station with greatest growth potential being only 15-20 mins from Exeter Central.

I have always felt GWR have feared the latent demand and an hourly service could not cope. 158s might have to go in favour of the 165/166.









.

 

I agree with you about Crediton having a lot of potential and I know GWR have it firmly in mind.   A lot of houses either built or being built within walking distance of the station.  We'll have to see how things go when we've been able to put Covid largely behind us (through vaccination etc) and what travel patterns emerge when there are no (or minimal) restrictions on travel.   

 
My daughter lives in Crediton, her husband having grown up there, so I am familiar with the layout. The station is on the edge of town, and a bit of a schlep from the majority of houses, schools, and places of work. However, quite a few houses were built practically outside the station a few years ago, between it and the Tesco supermarket. There's a fair number of new houses under construction very close by, which will give it a decent catchment. There is a bus from the further reaches of the town to the station, the number 5, but as that takes only 26 minutes to get to Exeter bus station, it wouldn't really be worth changing to train for Exeter Central. The train certainly seems popular in Crediton, though, and a half-hourly service will make it more so, I am sure.

 
Would gladly see the 158s back on the Cardiff-Portsmouth line running on a line they were built for.

_{Removed stray markup - RS}

 


Yes please, but 4/5 cars this time !

 
I have read in another place that work on the line to Okehampton has stepped up markedly in the past few days, and will henceforth be full-on. The work so far has been to allow free rein to engineering trains. 14,000 new sleepers are on order, along with enough new rail for the whole line to Coleford Junction.

 
That is very good news

 
Here are a couple of photos of the first sleepers  being unloaded at Okehampton station.





These are reproduced with the kind permission of the owner and copyright holder, Mark Fabiano, who is a Colas Rail driver. The pictures were first shared on the North Devon Railways Facebook page, and all credit to the organisers of that too. It is well worth a look through.

 
Looks like two trips between Exeter and Okehampton, then away to Derby.

 
Whilst New Rails are a very good thing, why would NR want to renew the Mile off NEW track that was placed down by the New High output train within the last 10 years?

 
I'm seeing a suggestion (would be in"rumour mill" if we didn't have an Okehampton thread!) that the track in platform 2 is to be taken up, as the separation between national network trains running into platform 1 from the heritage trains / stock stored in platform 2 does not meet modern H&S Standards.    Can anyone confirm?  How seriously will this effect any heritage operations?

 
If NR have taken back ownership of the track then any use by a Heritage railway will need the locomotives and stock to be mainline certificated.
If the Dartmoor stock is not so certificated then they either have to obtain certification at a significant cost or remain physically separated.
Can anyone confirm what their status is?

 

I think you're right but generally it's still way too early for any of this, I'm afraid.  As I understand it, Network Rail are still in negotiation with Aggregate Industries about buying the line. 

 
My comment was promoted by the Trackwatch (p106) in the January Modern Railways says that the Okehapton line from th former boundary at 183m 79ch has been  brought back into Network Rail control.

 

Yes, I know.  Still not owned by Network Rail though, that's the key. 

 
I heard on a Facebook group that platform 1 stub is to be reconnected (by the old goods shed) to allow Heritage services towards Meldon and platform 2 track to be taken up. Platform 3 is the side with the main buildings, not Platform 1. See:-

((link))

As an aside, the track in Platform 2 was extended a few years ago and maybe it is just this extension that does not meet standards. Just a thought

---

Edit - I have replaced a very long URL which was causing display issues for this post with the word "link" which will click you through to the same place anyway - GrahamE .  It points to a picture in a Railfuture article ((here)) - and I have mirrored the picture ((here))

 
Network rail are spending an awful lot of money on renewing track if they don't own it.

Will Meldon Quarry reopen? I thought that was only a rumour. Has the heritage line gone bust? I know heritage companies rise like Phoenix from the ashes. As an aside I did not see the Dartmouth Steam Railway on the list of heritage lines to get a grant or loan. South Devon Railway did; probably to put a floor in the toilet.

 

Network Rail haven't actually done that much work on the line yet - an awful lot of study work to establish what needs to be done to bring it up to scratch and some track work to allow test trains to run.  The test trains have been followed by delivery trains and, as we are seeing, a lot of materials have been and are being delivered.  Clearly Network Rail are confident of doing the deal with Aggregate Industries and that the Government will fund most if not all of the infrastructure work identified.  Absolute worse case, all the materials could be taken away again.

No-one knows yet re Meldon Quarry and yes, the heritage line did go bust (or rather its American parent did and took the Dartmoor Railway with it).

 
With the track laid at St Ives and tamping taking place, maybe some of the workforce will move to Okehampton? Three months to do the work before the timetable change.

 

Have to say, I'm not expecting a Summer Sunday service this year or an early introduction of the full daily service.  It's ten years since the last stone trains and the line needs a good bit of work before any year round regular daily service can be introduced.

It'll be worth the wait.

 
A mile and a half of track at St Ives is taking 5 weeks. Okehampton will take longer - is it 14,000 sleepers at Okehampton against 3,600 at St Ives?

But there is a will to do it at last.

 
Another trainload of sleepers to Okehampton from Westbury on Realtime trains 6G72 last night disappears after Crediton. 1200 tons.

66723 + 66039 to Fairwater Yard. Anybody know where that is?

 

Close to Taunton station, I believe.

 

Between Taunton and Norton Fitzwarren.

 
Whilst the St Ives branch has been closed for 5 weeks, there has been more than track renewal work taking place.

There was a lot of manual work on the St Ives relaying as site access was a problem, and I believe the track work was all but done about 2 weeks ago.

A little historic note about the St Ives branch, opened 1st June 1877 it was Dual gauge from St Erth (called St Ives Road until branch opened) to Lelant Wharf and Broad gauge only beyond Lelant to St Ives.
The last line to be built to Brunel's Broad Gauge!

Approaching Carbis bay from St Erth there is a steep cutting that opens out at the St Ives end.
This was due to the line being built by many Cornish Miners who followed a rich Tin stream and went off course.
Gold (well Tin) in them there Hills. 

 
I don't suppose they will but if they could lay the new track beside the old using the old track as the work platform for the heavy lifting which would make track replacement quicker and left the old track insitu then double tracking in future would be easier.

On the district line a few years ago they used the adjacent BR tracks to replace the Westbound underground track at Elm Park,
 Dagenham Heathway, and at West Ham were the tracks are the minimum distance apart.

 
That sounds remarkably sensible!

 

Fascinating bit of history there, if  slightly off-thread, many thanks! I like the idea of killing two birds with one stone. A small point - we former tin miners refer to it as a "lode". Whatever you called it, tin deposits could be very rich. Most commercial mining starts with a concentration of cassiterite of 1%, but there were some much more concentrated sources in Cornwall. It made perfect sense to follow them wherever they occured.

 
6C97 Westbury to Okehampton delivering rail Sunday night 21 February. Returned Monday morning. Designated 800 tons.

Another load Thursday 25 February although not allocated a code. Designated 1400 tons.

 
616Q was it's designation

Comes back today at 1700hrs at Crediton to Westbury.

Also Modern Railways March issue still reporting a passenger service start up during the May timetable even if late summer with eight trains Mon-Sat and six on Sunday. It's a start.

 

It's all good to see.  Just a reminder of course that the Government still hasn't announced what it will fund re Okehampton i.e. level of service and how much engineering work.  Everyone's very confident but until we get the announcement, we won't know for sure what is happening.

What Modern Railways have seen is that the service has been included in the working timetable which begins in May.  This is simply so it is in the system.  From what I am picking up, I wouldn't expect the service to begin in anything we might think of as "Summer" but hopefully the announcement is not far away now, it'll be positive and we'll then know much more.

 
Taken this morning by a friend of mine

 
Those trains look only a cigarette paper apart.

The station looks well kept by the volunteers. Lets hope they keep responsibilty and the buffet is used well when we can use it.

 

They are, as you say, adequately separated.

 
Engineering work to upgrade track closes the whole line between St David's and Barnstaple 10 April and 18 April with trains to Crediton operating from 14 April.

it does say they are extending the platform at Eggesford as well.

It has to be something to do with Okehampton. Maybe using the existing track to renew the old.

 
Possibly would have been better explained as:
Between Sat 10th and Sunday 18th April.
Engineering work taking place from Saturday to Tuesday between Exeter St Davids and Barnstaple and from Saturday to Friday between Crediton and Barnstable, closing all lines.
From Saturday to Tuesday, buses will replace trains between Exeter St Davids and Barnstaple.
From Wednesday to Sunday, buses will replace trains between Crediton and Barnstaple.

 
I'm not sure whether this is the correct thread for this snippet, but I notice that Okehampton services from May 17th have appeared in RTT

See here


[Mods, please move this if it more appropriate elsewhere]

 
Interesting Unadvertised Ordinary Passenger
Crew training perhaps

 

Class 2, so should be revenue earning services.

 
See my post from 26 Feb above.  The services are in the timetable in readiness for introduction at a future date subject to the Government announcement, resulting engineering work etc.

The Budget today has some positive news.  I've been looking at the Budget document online and there's this -

"2.132 Investments in local railways and stations – The government will invest £59 million towards the construction of five new stations in the West Midlands, cutting journey times from Willenhall, Darlaston and south-west Birmingham into the city centre. This Budget will also unlock more than £40 million of funding to reinstate passenger services on the OkehamptonExeter line, subject to final approval of costs and contracts. These investments will provide good quality transport links between communities, and improve employment opportunities across these areas."
 
Page 61   https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/966161/Budget_2021_Web_accessible.pdf

All good news.

 

These are what Train Planners call 'Q paths'. They may not be required but they're there in system and can be used at short-notice.

For example, there is an unadvertised Q path for the Night Riviera to go via the Southern route on Sundays. It is hardly ever needed but its there for when it is. The same principle applies for these Okehampton trains in that they're there and ready for when services can start.

 
BBC Spotlight local news said 40 million pounds had been awarded to get train services re-instated at Okehampton.

 

There are some buying opportunities also:

https://rmslocotec.com/for-sale

I fancy the 4BIG buffet but would Mrs OTC?

OTC

 

All four pages of rolling stock in one URL ... and archived for posterity ...

 

These train paths seemed to have dropped to 2 trains in the morning and 2 in the evening. This could be a good sign for a May start with a covid service and the 8 trains following lockdown.

 

Go back to sleep and wake up when the trains appear in Journey Planning Systems and not what is in Real Time Trains (RTT) where editing is taking place   




Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronyms 08:35

 

Presumably, this includes all the money so far spent and/or earmarked for restoration of services.


This is really going to annoy certain people in Another Place, who took to social media to complain bitterly that the original listing was woefully inadequate. I did point out that it is traditional to wait until services actually begin before fulminating, but to little avail.

 
A heads up for anyone keen to hear Network Rail's presentation of what should happen in the run-up to opening.

The website for https://www.okehampton.gov.uk/?fbclid=IwAR3P_iHi2ncfgSXWY-DDQxuZcFeaJ7dVVBxJGCOpJiOiCVMLtm_CfowL7FE]Okehampton Town Council[/url] lists the forthcoming Annual Town Assembly, to be held virtually on Monday 22 March 2021 at 7pm. The notice says:


If any Okehampton Town resident reading this would like to watch and report back to us, I am sure we will all be very interested. You never know - they may even allow guests.

 

There is no chance whatsoever of a May start.  As I said in a previous post, I don't see services starting in anything we would call "Summer" but I certainly see them starting in 2021.  Ignore anything that might appear in Real Time Trains until we have a definite start date.

 

It's a public meeting so I see no problem with anyone, anywhere attending though, of course, only Okehampton residents will be allowed to ask questions.   Here's the agenda with Zoom link https://www.okehampton.gov.uk/data/uploads/2032_74043058.pdf

 

No, money was allocated in Great Western Railway´s (GWR) Direct Award (started last April) to take forward the Okehampton plan and there has been more money provided for the work necessary to allow test and delivery trains.  Deliveries of materials have been strictly on the basis that they would be taken away again if approval was not forthcoming.  Don't think it will be too much longer (touch wood) until things become much clearer.


Edit: VickiS - Clarifying acronyms - 08:45

 
Don't know many builders that supply the materials before they know if they are getting paid.

 

It's not a case of that.  Network Rail have clearly bought the materials - if it came to it (and let's face it, right now this really doesn't look like it is going to happen), they would be moved for use elsewhere.

 
Delivered another trainload of ballast Tuesday night, returned Wednesday morning.

Sale or return!!!  picture from facebook.

Empty Ballast train coming from Okehampton. 10 March 2021 by Robert, on Flickr

 
I think it’s also relevant that Network Rail (NR) continually buy ballast in vast quantities and maintain their own stockpiles at various locations around the country known as “virtual quarries”, so I suspect the delivery of ballast for a specific job just becomes an internal paper transfer.  It might just be a consumable item, depending on the amount needed for particular job.



Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronyms - 08:46

 
Two engineering trains, one last night, one tonight taking more sleepers up to Okehampton or a site between.

 
And it's now official.  The Dartmoor Line between Exeter and Okehampton will reopen to regular, year round trains before the end of the year.

Initially it will be a two hourly service but sometime in 2022, a full hourly service will be introduced.

We at the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership were asked to put together the project website on behalf of all the partners.  It has just now gone live and there is much more information there   https://dartmoorline.com/

You can expect much media coverage throughout Friday and beyond and a lot of social media too from Network Rail, GWR, ourselves (@dcrailpart) and many others.

A fabulous day!

 
There's a good video about the reopening here on this Devon Live piece

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/dartmoor-rail-line-return-year-5194035

 
What fantastic news to wake up to this morning. Congratulations to all involved in this long-standing campaign. I hope that it will prove a resounding success and give more impetus to further developments in the region, notably reopening to Tavistock.

 
BBC spotlight local news are reporting the latest news,should be on again on the lunch time and evening news.

BBC breakfast news on friday(thats today) is reporting LIVE LIVE LIVE from Okehampton.

 
GWR release
https://gwr-newsroom.prgloo.com/news/devon-communities-to-be-better-connected-as-railway-line-set-to-reopen-for-first-time-in-50-years
NR Twitter feed
https://twitter.com/networkrailwest/status/1372827518122782721?s=21