Devolution For Cornwall
This report on the BBC is entitled Cornwall devolution: First county with new powers.
It is not full devolution, but various powers have been given to the Council.
- Give Cornwall Council powers for franchising and improving local bus services
- Help Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly councils create a plan to bring health and social care services together
- Enable the council to choose what projects will see millions of pounds of investment
- Give the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) more input on boosting local skills
- Make it easier for the LEP to integrate national and local services to help local firms grow
I suspect we’ll see a lot more powers devolved to the Council.
There is no mention of rail services, which are detailed here in Wikipedia, although I suspect these are covered by the Council choosing where to invest.
I suspect though that a lot of improvement in rail services has already been covered. I detailed the improvements for both Devon and Cornwall in The Japanese Are Going To Invade Devon And Cornwall.
I also suspect that as the economy improves in the Far West, whoever is operating the express and sleeper services to London, will upgrade the services to match the demand. The new AT300 trains, that First Great Western have ordered could even be used between Cornwall and Birmingham.
Just as Crossrail is going to give London and the South East a massive kick up the ladder, the electrification and modernisation of the Great Western Main Line is going to do the same for England west of Reading, And of course South Wales!
I see a sunny future for Cornwall!
Which English county is going to be next in the queue for devolution?
History Repeats Itself
The BBC is today showing a clip on Breakfast Time, where their Transport Correspondent, gets a ride on the new Class 800 train from Hitachi, as it runs round the test track.
But it is already suffering from the same problems that dogged the British Rail trains of the 1970s and 1980s. According to this document on a web site about the Advanced Passenger Train, the drivers blacked the train for twelve months because it was single-crewed. The writer claims this was a factor in the abandoning of the project.
So what was last week’s strike on First Great Western about?
Crew levels on the new trains, as is reported in this article on the BBC.
We may be in the twenty-first century, but some people and their attitudes are still in the nineteenth.
The Ladbroke Grove Rail Crash Memorial
I didn’t know there was a memorial to the Ladbroke Grove rail crash.
It’s tucked away in a quiet corner just outside the large Sainsburys at Ladbroke Grove.
Death On The Line
This story on the BBC about a badly-handled death on the railway between Slough and Reading is tragic. These are the first few lines of the story.
A rail company has apologised after a staff member told passengers the train was delayed because someone “couldn’t be bothered to live any more”.
Passengers aboard a train to Plymouth were delayed after a fatality on the line.
But the staff on First Great Western could have handled it better.
On the other hand I sympathise very much with staff and passengers on this stretch of line out of Paddington, as this death was not a once in a decade happening.
Just after a previous incident, I was travelling back on an almost empty train to London from Oxford and I said something like “You must get a bit fed up with all these incidents.” to the conductor. He replied something like “More than just a bit!”
It is getting to the point, where something drastic needs to be done to stop people getting on the line. I think we really won’t see any improvement until all of the stations between Paddington and Reading become part of Crossrail and there is barrier access and more staff about on the platforms, if they follow a typical Transport for London policy.
Oxford Station
Oxford station shares a lot of similarities and problems with the station at Cambridge.
Both were badly designed when they were built and although Cambridge now has new platforms and a lot of rebuilding, Oxford is still in need of expansion.
These pictures show the current station at Oxford.
Oxford though has one problem that is nowhere near as bad at Cambridge; freight trains.
All of the issues at Oxford are set out in this document on the City of Oxford web site. It pays particular attention to the following.
1. East West Rail Link
2. Noise and Vibration in the area.
3. Freight Lengthening Project that will allow longer freight trains to go through the station, which has been completed.
4. Electrification
It doesn’t deal with new platforms at Oxford station for both Chiltern Railways and First Great Western.
The work for Chiltern Railways is shown in this post, whereas that for FGW is probabably more extensive and is described in this section in Wikipedia.
Oxford station will be a very different and busier station in the next few years.
3.
A Welcome For First Great Western’s Franchise Extension
First Great Western’s franchise extension with all its new trains has been welcomed in the heart of Wiltshire according to this report in the Wiltshire Times, which is entitled TransWilts rail campaigners welcome First Great Western franchise extension.
The TransWilts is a community rail line, that I rode last year in a very clean Class 153 single-carriage train. This is a key paragraph in the Wiltshire Times report.
Following the franchise extension announcement, First Great Western confirmed that the TransWilts service will continue to run beyond the end of the three-year trial in 2016, with single carriage trains expected to be doubled to two carriages from May 2017.
In a few years time, it looks like this vital rail link will be getting near to a adequate service acoss Wiltshire.
The Japanese Are Going To Invade Devon And Cornwall
This is not a troubling story, but First Great Western have been given an extension to their franchise between London and the West Country that now runs until 2019.
As part of the franchise agreement they are going to purchase 29 new bi-mode AT300 trains from Hitachi. These will be similar to the Class 800 trains, that will be introduced from 2017 on the Great Western Main Line, but with bigger fuel tanks and engines to better cope with the demands of the route. This article in the West Briton explains it all in detail. This is said about the overall service to Devon and Cornwall in a similar article in Modern Railways.
The agreement promises more direct trains into Devon and Cornwall, including two trains per hour to the south west, a doubling of the number of services into and out of Cornwall, an earlier arrival into Plymouth and journey time reductions between Paddington and Penzance of up to 14 minutes.
My only worry about the express service, is will First Great Western still be offering Pullman Dining? I certainly hope so.
The At-300 will have that advantage that as electrification creeps further towards the West, they will be able to run more and more from an electric supply, which should speed up the service.
In tandem with the improvements on the express services, Class 365 and Class 387 electric multiple units will take-over the services between Paddington and the Thames Valley, which will mean that some Class 165, Class 166 and Class 168 diesel multiple units will be available to run local services in the Far West.
Things are looking up for trains in Devon and Cornwall.
But as there are respectively 36, 21 and 15 in each of the Classes 165, 166 and 168, I suspect that there will be a at least a few of these 1990s-built Networker trains to consign a several Pacers to the scrapyard.
So in my view although this is a deal for the West, it will have positive effects all over the UK.
On The 10:45 From Paddington
I went to Cardiff taking the 10:45 out of Paddington. I chose this train as it features First Great Western’s Pullman Dining.
I had a simple brunch consisting of the most exquisite kedgeree, washed down with juice and a lot of genuine English tea. By the latter, I really do mean tea grown in Cornwall.
This is certainly the way to go to South Wales. First Great Western say this about booking on most trains except the ones that leave around 18:00.
Pullman Dining services are open to all ticket holders although, on busy services, priority is given to First Class ticket holders. Please contact the Pullman Service Leader when you board to request a table in the restaurant. Pullman Dining services do not operate on weekends or public holidays.
When did booking a meal in a high class restaurant be so easy?
The train I was on, also called at Reading at 11:10, gets to Cardiff at 12:46 and then goes on to Swansea, reaching there at 13.44, so it is very convenient for a lot of journeys.
The only problem was that the actual train I was on, didn’t have the wi-fi fully installed. I read that this should be running and free in the New Year.
I do hope that this concept succeeds, as travellers like me, who aren’t strapped for cash, will certainly use this type of service as a treat.
My First Class ticket, which I bought on-line the day before, cost me £31.55 and I paid £18.00 for the lunch, with its excellent food and service.
As I have been known to take the occasional day out in Bristol, I do wish a similar service was offered to there. And what about services to Torquay and Cheltenham?
Obviously, First Great Western know the economics and they certainly have a whole fleet of InterCity125s, with which they can run the service.
So will we still see these magnificent trains reborn as high-class leisure trains serving the West Country for upwards of twenty years in the future? I suspect we will, as these trains seem to have more survival genes, than a whole pack of London mongrels.
Did Terry Miller and his team in Derby realise what they were creating?
To Cardiff In A Factory Fresh Thirty Year Old Train
All of the InterCity 125 trains, that fly to the West, are over thirty years now. But on my trip to Cardiff in First Class for the princely sum of £24.25, I got one fresh out of the factory, with technology and style, that wouldn’t be out of place in a five-star hotel.
The wi-fi system was supposed not to be in operation, but I’m pretty certain I freely linked to it all the way to Wales, except for the Severn Tunnel.
As an experiment, I’ve just tried to book a train to Cardiff and back on the 29th. Return with my Senior Railcard, leaving afer 09:00 and returning after 18:00 would cost me £63. Incidentally, t would be around £90 without the Railcard.
The driving distance is 151 miles both ways, so surely you’ll be slower by road.
And you won’t get free glasses of wine to help the journey go by!
The Best Meal I’ve Ever Had On A Scheduled Train
I’ve eaten on many trains and used to regularly enjoy breakfast on Ipswich to London in the past, when they had a dining car. In some ways the most memorable was a return from Teeside to London behind a Class 55, where the driver showed what a Deltic could do.
I’ve also travelled with C on the Eastern and Oriental Express.
But no meal on a train could compare with the one I ate going from Paddington to St. Ives in one of First Great Western’s InterCity 125s. They call it Pullman Fine Dining.
I had found out that they were serving lunch on the 11:30 from Paddington, so I booked myself on that train. There was a bit of a mix-up between the train times and the web site, but as you can see, I got my high-class lunch.
As a coeliac, what really impressed me was the professional way they dealt with allergies. In fact, if anybody wants to open a restaurant, they could do no better than copy the openness.
The two courses I ate were excellent, as was the service.
I do hope that this form of catering leads to similar offerings on other lines.
There was only two things wrong with the meal.
I had to eat it by myself and it would have been so much better with a travelling companion.
The other was that First Great Western don’t have a card, which says when this service is offered. I’m off to Cardiff on Tuesday, so could I get lunch on the way down?
The Anonymous Widower 