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1960s cuts and loss of local services - very trivial indeed

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Falcon1200

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I presume that the question of which trains would stop there is part of the reason for this.

I do agree with this, perhaps the Cheltenham services would stop (although these are only hourly), otherwise additional trains might be required to avoid delaying and overcrowding Bristol or South Wales services; Which of course seriously affects the TOC's desire to to support Wantage Road station !
 
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Pinza-C55

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This explanation seems unlikely to be right, as the X18 predecessor (418) together with other routes (429-32) provided much the same or better service then as now.


Chathill Station was the focal point in the surrounding area for GPO traffic. After closure of the other local stations, it was served by two loco hauled Newcastle-Berwick-Edinburgh intermediate trains, the am northbound and pm southbound conveying through parcels cars (possibly also passenger cars) to and from King's Cross. In 1978 I holidayed in the district and one day took the morning train from Chathill to Edinburgh, returning on the pm, hauled by class 40s. Chathill Station was manned and a number of PO vans were waiting for the train to arrive. I also recall large numbers of parcels around the station too.

All that traffic has now gone and continued existence is a misnomer.

I visited Chathill station in 1978 to walk the North Sunderland Railway and many times over the next 3 years in the dying days of the deltics when they were regularly allocated to the stopping trains on the ECML. The most popular train was at teatime from Newcastle which got to Chathill about 19.00 for another train back to Newcastle about 7 minutes later. As you say it was quite a busy place and there was usually a taxi waiting to take people to Seahouses but all this has been thrown away over the years.
 

Bevan Price

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I suspect that closure of so many local stations along the arterial main lines was partly a result of the Beeching-era philosophy to focus on a future railway based on Inter-City trains speeding between main centres, together with fast Freightliners, block freight trains and the like. There would be no room on the futuristic main lines for local trains ambling between local stations (at least away from the London commuter belt).

So, as was the case on the Midland Main Line, ECML and GWML, on the WCML many smaller, but not insignificant settlements like Coppull, Garstang and Carnforth lost their (main line) services. Stations serving similarly-sized settlements on secondary routes like, say, the Barrow-in-Furness, or Newcastle - Carlisle lines tended to survive long enough for BR's / Government's thinking on rationalisation to change.
Even Newcastle - Carlisle lost many of its smaller stations west of Hexham.
Other similarly afflicted main lines not (I think) already mentioned include :
Princes Risborough - Leamington Spa; Oxford - Banbury; Wellington - Shrewsbury - Chester; much of Chester - Holyhead.
Shrewsbury - Aberystwyth; Cardiff - Swansea (now some since reopened); Newton Le Willows - Manchester;

They almost all suffered the same problems:
They served anything like very small towns, villages, or tiny hamlets, or like Garstang on the WCML, they were a long way from the places they were supposed to serve (about 2 miles in the case of Garstang.).

In addition, timetables were often sparse, and sometimes more or less useless to attract more than a handful of passengers, often making it impossible to commute, or make sensible leisure trips for shopping, etc.
 

Grecian 1998

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A few miles to the south (and it is not far away) the old LSWR Exeter line was treated differently. Although in old days its expresses also ran nonstop from Salisbury to Exeter, or only served middle-of-nowhere Yeovil Junction, when the expresses were withdrawn, along with the lesser basket case intermediate halts, a useful intermediate service on the line, serving the nowadays 12 intermediate points, sprang up.

Indeed. Due to the previous emphasis on express services, the most important intermediate stops had been the junctions e.g. Templecombe and Sidmouth Junction (now Feniton). Honiton and Gillingham were largely ignored. Once the branch lines were closed along with many of the junctions (although Feniton reopened in 1971 and Templecombe in 1983), the pecking order of the intermediate stations rapidly changed. Gillingham and Honiton are two of the three busiest between Exeter - Salisbury along with Axminster.

Gerry Fiennes's book 'I Tried to Run a Railway' indicates the aspiration had been to only leave Honiton, Axminster, Crewkerne, Sherborne (railhead for Yeovil, as Yeovil Junction isn't in Yeovil anyway) and Gillingham open so that the intermediate service was pretty fast in its own right. He wasn't happy that so many other intermediate stations remained.

Exeter - Taunton was also heavily rationalised, with Cullompton and Wellington losing their services. The ongoing saga of whether they are to reopen highlights the basic problem - you either need to slow down intercity services to call there, or you need to run local services which don't get in the way of expresses. It's worth pointing out that this is a 30 mile two track 100mph railway with fewer than 3 passenger tph and very little freight most of the day in 2019 - there are plenty of 125mph sections of the GWML or ECML which would seemingly be trickier to timetable.


One interesting proposal which never happened was the retention of the Heart of Wessex, but with closure of all intermediate stations between Frome and Weymouth (possibly not Yeovil Pen Mill, but definitely Dorchester West). Apparently the line was seen as an important Channel Island link at the time which could prosper despite the decimation of local traffic. As it is many stations closed, but Chetnole and Thornford survived despite being concrete platforms in the middle of fields.


It always surprised me that none of the Tarka line stations were closed despite the fact it was earmarked for retention. It's hard to see there being much outcry if Portsmouth Arms or Chapelton had closed.
 

RT4038

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Exeter - Taunton was also heavily rationalised, with Cullompton and Wellington losing their services. The ongoing saga of whether they are to reopen highlights the basic problem - you either need to slow down intercity services to call there, or you need to run local services which don't get in the way of expresses. It's worth pointing out that this is a 30 mile two track 100mph railway with fewer than 3 passenger tph and very little freight most of the day in 2019 - there are plenty of 125mph sections of the GWML or ECML which would seemingly be trickier to timetable.
And of course these local trains would be hopeless loss makers, as Dr Beeching noted.
 

nw1

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I do agree with this, perhaps the Cheltenham services would stop (although these are only hourly), otherwise additional trains might be required to avoid delaying and overcrowding Bristol or South Wales services; Which of course seriously affects the TOC's desire to to support Wantage Road station !

I was thinking the Cheltenham would make sense, as, unlike Bristol or Cardiff, it is not a major city, so it's more acceptable for its services to be semi-fast once a certain distance from London. They're already all stations beyond Swindon, so adding in one extra stop would presumably not be a big deal.

And hourly would probably be adequate for Wantage Road. It would add, what, a 3 min time penalty? So quite easy to fit in I would guess, in theory.

Indeed. Due to the previous emphasis on express services, the most important intermediate stops had been the junctions e.g. Templecombe and Sidmouth Junction (now Feniton). Honiton and Gillingham were largely ignored. Once the branch lines were closed along with many of the junctions (although Feniton reopened in 1971 and Templecombe in 1983), the pecking order of the intermediate stations rapidly changed. Gillingham and Honiton are two of the three busiest between Exeter - Salisbury along with Axminster.

Gerry Fiennes's book 'I Tried to Run a Railway' indicates the aspiration had been to only leave Honiton, Axminster, Crewkerne, Sherborne (railhead for Yeovil, as Yeovil Junction isn't in Yeovil anyway) and Gillingham open so that the intermediate service was pretty fast in its own right. He wasn't happy that so many other intermediate stations remained.

Exeter - Taunton was also heavily rationalised, with Cullompton and Wellington losing their services. The ongoing saga of whether they are to reopen highlights the basic problem - you either need to slow down intercity services to call there, or you need to run local services which don't get in the way of expresses. It's worth pointing out that this is a 30 mile two track 100mph railway with fewer than 3 passenger tph and very little freight most of the day in 2019 - there are plenty of 125mph sections of the GWML or ECML which would seemingly be trickier to timetable.
Would the hourly Bristol to Exeter semi-fasts not be the obvious services to call at a reopened Cullompton and Wellington? If so there would be no need for any additional services (Exeter-Taunton shuttle?) to try and slot in. And if you want a fast Bristol-Exeter service unencumbered by such stops, you have the XC.

That would be little different to the Waterloo-Exeter stopping at many similarly sized settlements on that line.
 
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Irascible

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There are Taunton terminators that might be able to run through to Exeter, I guess. It depends how much you want people out of cars & whether you're just looking at Exeter commuters, or people going further afield - Tiverton PW is basically next door to Cullompton in car travel terms & Wellington isn't all that far from Taunton ( although Taunton station lacks the convenience of being on a M5 junction... ).

Tiverton itself has been in decline since the 60s, it's a little hard not to link that to both the motorway & the railway being awkwardly distant for regional travel.
 

Western Lord

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There are Taunton terminators that might be able to run through to Exeter, I guess. It depends how much you want people out of cars & whether you're just looking at Exeter commuters, or people going further afield - Tiverton PW is basically next door to Cullompton in car travel terms & Wellington isn't all that far from Taunton ( although Taunton station lacks the convenience of being on a M5 junction... ).

Tiverton itself has been in decline since the 60s, it's a little hard not to link that to both the motorway & the railway being awkwardly distant for regional travel.
The population of Tiverton in the mid sixties was around 13,500. Today it is around 20,500. Decline?
 

Irascible

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The population of Tiverton in the mid sixties was around 13,500. Today it is around 20,500. Decline?
I grew up there watching all the local industry disappear ( and yes I know there were a few new arrivals ), so yes. The link road gave a little boost although mostly it took people past & it's still in dormitary range of Exeter if you don't mind having to plough through traffic, so of course there's going to be housing going up. Compare any growth to Cullompton over the hill though.
 
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