1 hr 40 is unfavorable vs 2 hr 30??
I'd even have at least one service missing out Exeter and just running London Reading Plymouth for a really good headline time figure. Crewed with a Plymouth driver would be no requirement to have to stop at Exeter. Obviously this would probably only be one train a day, but may help attract industry and money to the far south west....
Indeed. More to the point, how many passengers would it carry that otherwise wouldn't have travelled by train? And does the additional revenue from them exceed the loss of revenue from passengers for Taunton, Exeter etc. who lose one of their services from Paddington? Or, if you put on a relief for those stations, does it exceed the cost of running that relief?
Same applies to the coach, you still have to get to/from Victoria and Bristol, waiting time etc. Most of the journeys I have found on National Express are 2 hr 50 from Bristol to Victoria so the gap is even bigger.
Paddington is perfectly central - Central London is huge and one terminus cannot cover - plus people go in every direction. Paddington is great for my London base.
I'd say driving has got a lot slower over the last 20-30 years. Variable speed limits on motorways, long stretches at 50/60mph during "improvements" plus the increase in traffic levels. I used to regularly do London - Leeds in 3-3.5hrs by car but now it's always 4+ hours except late in the evening. So train journey times need to be put in context. I don't think an extra 5 mins on a London-Plymouth train journey would even register with most people when the alternative by road is probably 5+ hours.
Good news, let's hope so
Sadly not much use to most people at that time of day
Trouble is its more like 3h 15. So a 15 to 20 minute time saving would most definitely be noticeable. Anecdotally, being on the trains that don't stop at Totnes or Tiverton feel much quicker than trains that do stop there and you are only saving 5 or 6 mins by losing those two.
I should have pointed out the train would continue to Cornwall. The west country trains are very popular, amongst the busiest in the country these days, and there would be people lining up to get to Plymouth and Cornwall 20 minutes or so quicker. It would if anything likely be a victim of its own success and be horribly overcrowded, and I guess that's one reason GwR don't want to do it.
Not from memory but I have a 1998 timetable and the 07.05 Great Western service from Hereford to Paddington via Worcester completed the journey in 2hrs 45 (Paddington 09.50 arrival). Most other services on this route took around three hours in 1998.
All the more reason to make the Exeter semi-fast hourly. It could always extend to Plymouth or Paignton two hourly also.
I don't see how Bristol is an outer suburb of London. It is so far away that it is basically another economic centre on its own right, the biggest city in the South West. The trains are proper intercity trains as they only call at major towns and cities en route far away, with the first stop outside London Reading already.
There are no stoppers from Paddington to Bristol. The minor stations west of Didcot Parkway have all been axed, so it has now become a pure intercity line.
There is no way Paddington can be described as Central London. It is so far away from the City, in fact it is the only London Terminus located at a substantial distance from where the political, business and financial centre is. It is not even in the West End.
Yes it's much slower now. Once did Elland Rd (Leeds football ground) to Brent Cross in 2 hrs down the M1 after an evening match. I reckon now it would be 2:45 minimum
Haha good one.
Hate to rain on your parade, but from experience, the Plymouth train will likely depart a couple of minutes behind a Bristol stopperand as happens everytime we get diverted, there will be no high speed running due to the Bristol getting in the way everywhere! I hope for your sake the planners have timetabled it well away from the Bristol, but as I said, we generally depart 2 minutes behind Bristol stuff (including on a saturday).
It is true that Exeter is very well used and has lots of interchanges, but in terms of importance, politically and socially you'd miss it out over Plymouth if one of the two had to go.
Just looked on realtime trains and the 1842 follows the 1832. So the Bristol has a ten minute headstart, so you may avoid it until Swindon , my guess is that's where you'll catch it, but in my relatively limited experience of driving on the GWML (as opposed to the B and H) usually tend to find i get checked by Didcot due to slow station work and the train infront also catching up the one infront of it.
