If the train had hit and killed him, I expect his dog would have sued FGW !

 
this was covered in the cornishman last week complete with the BTP's photo of the offender. it was on page 2 of the paper as well so hope the bloke seen himself and handed himself in!

 
Greetings Brethren

I was on this train and I can tell you that I overheard the driver tell the guard that the trespasser was abusive when spoken to and stuck two fingers in the air.  What is the world coming to?

 
Hopefully he will hand himself in, doubt it though

 
to be honest im guessing he would be easy to catch if hes local dog walkers tend to stick to a set route hes probly been going this way for years and this time may have been 5 mins later or something like that... if btp waited here i bet he would come back

 
The suspect, from that BTP press release:



Edit note: Images now removed due to expiry of copyright permission. CfN

 
Thanks, Rick, for making that perfectly allowable connection! 

I've now merged these topics, for continuity.

C. 

 
I believe this is related to this topic!

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=6557.msg65143#msg65143

 
From the BTP press release:

 
There should be a railway bye-law permitting train crew to carry firearms. A bit of tourist target practice wouldn't go amiss....

 
yes it was a near miss but what made it worse was it was the drivers second one of his shift.

 
problem with the St Ives line is that some of the locals regard the line as a public footpath! Network rail are forever replacing the fence near Hawks point due to ramblers breaking it, they have now put up huge green metal fencing down one side of the line!

 
This was a very near miss, according to an inside source.

Could of been much worse than just trespassing.  Hope the driver is Ok. 

 
From FGW Live Updates:

 
The reason that the winter sunday service has been reduced at Lelant is due to the sunday service being increased to half hourly, it only used to be hourly on winter sundays.

One improvement that needs to be done is to have a later train on summer sundays, the last few years it's been around 1930, whereas it's around 2200 mon-sat!

 


Cheers to one and all.

Your info and advice is much appreciated.  I look forward to a hopefully improved service at Lelant in the next few years, as it's a quality little station, especially in the summer when refreshments can be purchased in the garden there.  It's good preparation for the killer Station Hill!

Thanks again folks 

 

Lee, I'd see a minimal service at Lelant Saltings, hourly at Lelant and Carbis Bay served by all trains. 

It's still all being discussed.  Carbis Bay is a definite for all trains though.

 

What would you and your partnership consider to be the optimum Lelant/Lelant Saltings service level once the Park and Ride moves to St Erth?

 
Thanks, RichardB. I hadn't thought of it but now you come to mention it, I see what you mean!

 
Andy, I think the issue is more the branch platform at St Erth.

 
Is 5 coaches the maximum that St. Ives platform can hold nowadays?

 
Slippy is absolutely right - it is all about the tightness of the timetable and, yes, the position will improve once the Park and Ride moves to St Erth.   That's either for Summer 2011 or, more likely, Summer 2012.   The plan then is also to move to five coach trains in peak Summer.

 
Welcome to the forum, dooby13

 
You could always try writing to the local 'Customer Panel' member,- Ian Dunn for Penzance to Redruth. These people are based in the local area and can be a voice at meetings for these type of things.

 
Fairly sure its all to do with the tight timings over the branch in order to keep the 'clock face' timetable. Maybe OK this time of year but in peak summer it is a struggle to keep time so ommiting Lelant Village seems to be the sacrifice to keep the timetable more robust.

Agree that when park and ride moves to St.Erth the Village should get a much better service with far less need for the Saltings.

 
New to the forum so apologies if this topic has been covered before.

Just wondering why so few trains now stop at Lelant station.  They all used to stop on Sundays, now only a couple do, meaning when I leave St Ives on a Sunday late afternoon, I have to get off at the Saltings.  The platform is lit up, but then you have to walk through 2 pitch black car parks trying to avoid the puddles.  Surely it would make sense to axe the Saltings stop on Sundays in the winter and just use Lelant station, it's not like there is a car park attendant at the former anyway.

Personally I think all trains should stop at Lelant, does anyone think this could be a possibility when they eventually build the St Erth P&R, and hopefully do away with the Saltings stop?

Thanks in advance

 
Was a 150 all last week, the feast day in ST Ives doesn't make the train busy, infact, previously it was no busier than any other day, it's busy in town because it's a baker day for the local schools so all the kids go into town!

 
The issue of Class 150's on the St Ives line is also discussed in the topic below.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=4120.msg32955#msg32955

 
Found out the reason today - it's now diagrammed as a 150 even though it's really a 153 so live updates will be full of nonsense for a while yet.

 

Sorry but you forget, you are talking FGW Swindon here, there great mightyness would look at St Ives passenger numbers and supply a single 153 EVEN if the whole population of Cornwall was going to St Ives on Feb 2nd.

 

An interesting concept just like trams. Presumably drivers would have to drive on sight. Might slow them down a bit!

 

Ugh?  I thought that they approached with power off (coasting) if they wanted to go the way the points were already set, or with power on if they wanted the point to change just ahead of them. New economy measure that's been introduced to save the need to have signallers.

 

Now if you're going to be pedantic, you ought to get it right yourself.

 
But in these modern times, signaller is what Network Rail calls them.

Seriously though, I'm sure the local management are sensible enough to do a little judicious diagram swapping to provide some extra capacity for the branch that day, or perhaps borrow one of the Falmouth 153s.

 

Who is this signaller at St Earth, I thought signallers stood on the back of the bridge of warship in war films saying "Aye Aye Sir"  and being first to be killed when the shell lands and aren't they usually Cockneys?

Do you mean the the signalman on duty in St. Earth signal box?

When my grandmother was Mayor of Southampton in 1951 she was "Mr. Mayor" and woe betide anyone who forgot to address her in that way.

 

Feast Monday so it's the 2nd.

I don't think the Signaller at St Erth would be very amused if a sunday morning 8+2 came up from Penzance with it's left turn indicator blinking - no diagrams till after midday.

 

 

Surely ... with the St Ives Festival on 1st February to celebrate the founding of the town by St Ia, it will be seriously busy.  Between the parade and the hurling, the use of a "153" would be seriously stretched, and London - Penzance trains will be extended to serve Carbis Bay and St Ives stations - something which would not have been possible under the old multiple franchise arrangements and before the introduction of selective door opening 

 
The people in Swindon wouldn't have a clue whether or not the St Ives branch is busy in winter 

 
Live updates has started listing the current shortforming (1 coach).
This is silly as it's 4/3/2/1 according to seasonal demand and has been 1 unit for a while.

Doing this all day/every day makes live updates a bit hard to read.

Also having 1 unit isn't going to inconvenience anyone.

 
From Monday 24 until approximately 1600 on Friday 28 November 2008 buses will be replacing trains between St Erth and St Ives (link below.)
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=3326

 
If it had been Norway, the dog might not have made it to the vet...

Trains operating out in the wilds there used to carry rifles in the driver's cab in case they struck an elk (moose to our North American cousins) or reindeer in the north of the country. The idea was that they could finish the animal off if it was injured and unable to move, since there was no way to get a vet out to do the job in the back of beyond.

The guns were removed on security grounds a couple of years ago, because of a switch to DMU and EMU operation of almost all pasenger trains (in case a passenger somehow got into the cab and grabbed a gun), but the train drivers' union protested about the decision and there was a nasty incident last year when a herd of reindeer was hit by a freight train, which prompted a rethink.

On the Nordlandsbanen (Trondheim-Bodo) and Rorosbanen (secondary route between Trondheim and Oslo), both particularly prone to animal strikes, rifles have now been put back in the cabs, but the driver has to pick up a rifle bolt when signing on for duty and is only allowed to fit it to the gun when needed to deal with an injured animal.

Having lived in Norway for a while in the 1990s, I almost saw a demonstration of the system in action on the Rorosbanen, in the east of the country, when the DMU I was travelling on had a near-miss with an elk. The first I knew was when the emergency brake went on. When we had pulled up, the driver reversed back, just in time for us to see a rather dazed elk picking itself up from the snow and stumbling off into the trees.

 

Well done to the traincrew for picking up the dog from me.

 

Was trying to work out what could have been hit as cattle are not common on that route - paragliders get in the way sometimes but dogs commonly race the train up and down the incline past West Cornwall Golf course at Lelant.
 

 
Well done to the traincrew involved from me.

 
Train hit a dog and injured it's leg, the traincrew picked up the dog and took it to Penzance where a vet was called, last I heard the dog had it's leg amputated but was recovering as well as could be expected!

 
Reminds me of something Victoria Wood joked once about trains on the Thurso line having to stop for deer, every so often there'd be the crush of antler on sleeper and 10 minutes later a range of venison sarnies would appear on the buffet trolley.

 
From the FGW website :

09:22 St Ives to St Erth due 09:35

This train has been cancelled.This is due to animals on the line earlier.

09:41 St Erth to St Ives due 09:55

This train has been cancelled.This is due to animals on the line earlier.

 
word of warning to anyone traveling on the st ives on saturday the new postcard type timetable is wrong they have just copied the mon to fri times which are different to saturdays.

 
the half hourly timetable was the best thing that happened to the branch perfect for moving large passenger numbers all thats needed to make it right is to sought out the fares

 
Thanks for that useful background information, vacman.

(Like me, you're probably too young to remember the 1960's  )

Seriously, though: what would Wadebridge, Padstow and Tavistock be like now, with the benefit of rail links that hadn't been ripped up??  As we've seen, it's far easier to close a branch line than it is to reopen it. 

Talking of Cornwall branch lines closed in the Beeching era, I see that the restoration of the branch line to Helston is doing well: see http://thisiscornwall.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=144143&command=displayContent&sourceNode=144131&contentPK=20734573&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

 
St Ives was due to close in 1966 or 67 (after the initial Beeching wave), I'm led to believe it was meant to close at the same time as Wadebridge, Padstow, Tavvy and Looe but St Ives and Looe were reprieved at the last minute, i.e. only a couple of weeks before scheduled closure, Barbera Castle reprived the line. The line was shut partly in 73 I believe whilst a new pipeline was built under the line near St Ives, although, I cannot be sure of any of the above but i've heard about it from many people.

 
So even before the mothballing/axing of the railways, St Ives did not have the service it has today!

 
In Summer 1957, there were 17 trains to St Ives, 16 to St Erth; on Saturdays that increased to 21 & 17.

 
Summer of 69 it had 13 trains on a weekday including a 2hr+ gap in the middle of the day. 8 trains on summer sundays.

 

Thanks, v interesting.

 
Wessex Trains Press Release on the introduction of a half-hourly train service on the St Ives Bay Line (21/03/2005, link below.)
http://www.atoc-comms.org/dynamic/toc-press-story/124454/Trains-every-half-hour-to-st-ives

SRA archive link (20 January 2005, last updated 26 July 2005)
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/strategyfinance/strategy/community/pilot/stivestosterth

 
I can understand the track rationalisation. I think it was the right thing to do, to keep costs down and preserve the branch's future.

But to cut the station back further away from the town, and to take the building down was bad.

The car park is not even "for BR passengers only," it is public.

Any car parking created by track rationalisation should have been for the exclusive use for BR passengers, thereby attracting more.

But I suppose BR made a bomb from what they did! And arguably, the branch is as busy as ever now.

Does anyone have a timetable for St Ives in the past (perhaps the 30s, or 50s)? How long has it had 2tph? i think the Cornish Riviera had a few coaches coming to St Ives.

 
There was a temporary closure for 3 months in early 73 between St Ives and Carbis Bay, which may have been whilst they vandalised the station at St Ives as shown in the pictures below. No complete closure though.

 

I believe that St Ives survived without a "closure break" (correct me if I am wrong) but I am reminded of your neck of woods and Falmouth Docks station, which was closed on 7 December 1970 when Falmouth Town station was opened.

Falmouth Docks station was reopened on 5 May 1975.

 
Many thanks for finding the picture of St Ives station as it was Karl. Wow it was quite a station once upon a time to what it is now.

 
Found a pic of the old station, bay I mentioned as
per 'Hostead Keynes', isn't quite as long as I intially
thought.  Its adjacent to the coaches in the bacground.

Link:

http://www.urban75.org/photos/stives/st-ives-station.html

Regards

Karl. 

 
Morning

According to some info I've got, the buildings at
St. Ives were made history circa 23rd May 1971.

The station composed of a single line with double
platform's (as per PLT 1 at Horstead Keynes "Bluebell
Railway"), with the middle platform having another
line, making that one assesable both sides.  The
station also had a goods shed with sidings (behind the
platforms), plus a single road engine shed beyond the
low viaduct at the St. Erth end; all these obviously on
the land side of the bay.

Also this line was intially part of Beechings Axe,
but lets not forget Barbara Castle as well.  I
think it did acually close for a couple/few years
but 100% sure?

Also I believe there is a 'heritge scheme' involving
St. Erth station, as per whats happened recently at
Penmere.

Regards

karl.

 

I don't think anyone in this thread so far has thought that.

But you are right, I have seen the huge queues at St Ives as well. That is why the P&R is so well used. Some people whp never use the railway, use it then!

It is a shame they knocked down the station and cut it back to make way for a car park...

 
If you think most people drive from St Ives then you really know nothing about the town and the branch! the reason why the St Ives branch is so busy in the summer is because people physicly can't drive into the town after about 1000! it would be better to run more trains to Penzance in winter, but not summer as any less than half hourly on the branch would not cope, and before anyone says about half hourly St Ives to Penzance, then yes, great idea, but we'll need another 2x150's to do it as any less than 4 car won't cope in summer.

 

I suppose....

 
How would it speed up services! The slack present in all the schedules will still be included so at max there would be a gain of maybe 1 minute??

Damn iPhone keyboard.....

 

I disagree

 

I'm not saying it would be popular - but that is what they would do!

It all depends on whether St Erth has enough usage.

 
There is no chance I would go to Penzance only to return to St Erth to go to St Ives!

 
If you ran more trains to Penzance, the InterCity trains would no longer need to call at St Erth.

"Change at Penzance for: Marizon, St Erth, Lelant Saltings, Lelant, Carbis Bay and St Ives."

That's also because most people on the line drive.

It would speed up the Cornish services.

 
The spec timetable proposed cuts in the winter timetable, but in favour of running more through services to Penzance, which would actually be better during the winter, but the summer service was always to be near half hourly, as it is now, I still think that after 1800 every serivce should run direct between St  Ives and Penzance, the service is only houly in the evenings anyway so there'd be no reduction in service..... over to you richard  Oh, there should be a later service to Falmouth aswell, I know Richard was involved in the introduction of the FO late train that used to run to Falmouth, could it happen again?

 
Let's just say FGW realised very quickly that the Wessex approach to the St Ives Bay Line is the right one.

The feedback this week proves that.  Keep it coming.

 
I just remember viewing the planned cuts from the FGW website after the FGW/Wessex merger. Having seen how busy St Ives was a year or so before, I looked at the proposed timetable and it said at the top:

"a reduction in trains from X to Y in accordance with the department for tarmac's specification" etc

I was surprised, I also remember reading news articles/ other sites slamming the cuts.

From what I remember, all branch lines in Cornwall were to receive cuts.

Therefore, I assume that the cuts were reversed in the timetable re-think. Thank goodness for that!

Well done all those campaigners who fought. St Ives traffic would be a nightmare....

 
The 06 timetable was identical to the 05 timetable, half hourly at xx25 and xx56 from St Ives also exactly the same as it is now, the half hourly service was never dropped, I think you may be mistaken btline.

 
Any more news about 5 car trains.

When I was at St Ives a few years back (Wessex), trains were packed all the time.

Then came the 06 timetable....

 
Yeah it was just great! train was full on the return at 8p.m believe it or not!

 
2x150 sat sun mon 150x1 today half term all week.

 
Care to explain?

 
FGW gets it wrong again every train full and passengers left behind anybody else down there today.

 
I believe St Ives was booked to be a 150 from easter sunday onwards, hence the cock ups on friday/saturday.

 
Makes sense as that is even more stupid as a 153 on that would prevent people getting connections at Plymouth as that is the main use of that service which gets quite busy.
A typical FGW thing to do then.

 
Eggsactly!   

Welcome to the forum, cornishman!

 
well on that note vacman it must be time for bed and dream of the 151 back on the st. ives easter monday.

 
I think the 142's came out of a Kinder egg!!

 
could have been the taken off the 14.44 plymouth service, or control found one inside an easter egg!

 
Assumed St.Ives was 150 Saturday, didn't see it but did see 150 on Falmouth, how did they magically materailse a 150?

 
It wasn't on friday! St Ives was 153 saturday morning, then control realised that it gets slightly busy at Easter so they swapped it for a 150 mid afternoon!

 
I saw it between Torre and Torquay on the 12:20 Exmouth-Paignton while on a 142 bash.

 
The 150/1 was working on the Devon Metro today. Sighted at NTA working the 2024 NTA-EXD

 
Nah! Falmouth was 150 today aswell.

 
It certainly did a great job, plenty of space for luggage, prams etc.,and made excellent time connection wise.

 
Mind you, whilst the St Ives is a 150, the Falmouth is a 153! they swapped em around for the busy easter weekend!

 
Most of the locals know about that little loophole, the train crew tell them about it, good on em.

 
I guess you mean that they only sell an all line rover which is quite expensive.
Best way to do it is to go from Hayle, only ^2.50 instead of ^4.00 as long as the trains connect that is a brilliant money saver.

 
Hello again, hymek!

Please don't worry about getting one of your posts wrong!  You can always edit them yourself - or ask one of the moderators for help, if you get into difficulty!

Good to see that a 150/1 is down in Cornwall for the Easter, though. 

 
sorry did the last post wrong will start again. 150/1 should be there all over easter. i see they still not got the fares sorted yet!

 

 
hi vacman been down st. ives today overheard train crew saying how good and easy it was to work, also seen seasonal guy back there already.

 
And I was lucky enough to get on it.
That is something I can say, it worked really well IMHO, hoovered up all the tourists and they were pretty comfortable and pleased with 2+3 seating.
Where does it mean it will go tommorow?

 
I'm a great fan of 150/1s!  http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=1753.msg12093#msg12093