Great Western Coffee Shop > Journey by Journey > Shorter journeys in Devon > Okehampton
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Author Topic: Okehampton (Read 43367 times)
Re: Okehampton
Quote from: Andy on November 19, 2021, 09:43:57 am
Btw, isn't it time to add Okehampton to the list of services in the title 'Shorter Journeys in Devon' along with Barnstaple, Exmouth etc? :-)
Your wish is my command...
Quote from: Red Squirrel on November 19, 2021, 12:20:28 pm
Hope it felt as good to add it as it does to see it there!!
TonyN
Glad to see the usual mess applies to the fares to Okehampton.
I looked up fares from Pershore on brfares.com and found that there is a via Worcester fare. Off peak return £44.90 with Senior railcard. Its not clear if this means Via Worcestershire parkway as well.
However even when the National rail enquiries journey planner gives me a journey via Worcester Shrub hill the fare given is the not London fare. £64.60.
« Last Edit: November 19, 2021, 10:55:16 pm by TonyN » Logged
REVUpminster
Train every hour Saturday. Wonder what stock and if short forms occur elsewhere. Soon find out.
Quote from: REVUpminster on November 19, 2021, 11:20:34 pm
I have seen pictures of a 150 being specially spruced up ... and understand it's one of two getting that treatment.
Quote from: grahame on November 20, 2021, 06:07:57 am
150233 looked like it went through the train wash Wednesday and had a sign stuck on the front of which Grant Shapps took a replica back to London. Need more than one unit today. There are fou turbos down here, Two have already started the Paignton- Exmouth run on the first two trains. Thursday and Friday the other two were operating Barnstaple - Exeter and one of the 158s did the Paignton Exmouth.
added at 0650 150233/221 has taken the first train to Okehampton this morning.
It looks to have all gone to plan this morning, so far.
Quote from: TonyK on November 20, 2021, 10:51:17 am
Even managing to sensibly plan in a visit from the Rail Head Treatment Train first thing.
Brilliant news to see it up and running. I'll be visiting as soon as I get chance. Let's hope for two things: 1) The service is reliable. Few crew shortages or capacity/infrastructure problems. 2) The service is well used. Nothing will send a clearer message of positivity towards others with reopening ambitions.
PhilWakely
Quote from: IndustryInsider on November 20, 2021, 11:07:36 am
The real test will be in a couple of months. The opening popularity, followed by potential Christmas shoppers will have worn off and the tourist season will not have started.
stuving
Quote from: TonyN on November 19, 2021, 10:38:59 pm
"Via Worcester" will be via the Worcester group: both town stations (plus Droitwich Spa in theory; I don't think you can use it in practice). WOP has not been added to the group, which is one of the routeing points for WOP, the others being Cheltenham Spa, Oxford, and Bromsgrove.
The issue is why that via Worcester fare is not found, even for a journey via Worcester. At first sight it looks as if it might a lack of adjustments to allow for OKE, or WOP, or both, as new stations. But the failure to route with a change at WOP is more likely to be just a matter of connection times, and the same missing fare happens if you are only going to Exeter. From Worcester, you do get offered the change at WOP, as well as going to Cheltenham to change (onto the same train). That looks odd, but is simply due to the nearly 1 hour wait from the former being enough to offset the extra change. I suspect that XC▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) have not defined that fare correctly in some way.
Leaving aside the overall level of fares set by XC, there are other oddities that suggest they don't look very closely at what they are doing. One I spotted is for Worcester-Exeter, where XC set the only two fares. One is routed "via Bristol", and an anytime single is £120.10 - high even by XC's standards. The other is routed "not via Birmingham", and that SOS is £64.80, and that is the only fare found by the OJP▸ (Online Journey Planner). Is there any practical route avoiding Bristol for the other fare to apply to? Common sense says no, and the Routeing guide (for once) agrees. Mind you for Cheltenham-Bristol GWR▸ (Great Western Railway) set the only fare, and it's very much cheaper, so splitting undercuts both of these.
« Last Edit: November 21, 2021, 11:37:10 pm by stuving » Logged
From Hitchens Blog in the Mail on Sunday
Putting right a terrible wrong
I see the Transport Minister and e-scooter fan Grant Shapps has been dressing up as a character from Thomas The Tank Engine, waving a green flag and blowing a whistle.
He was reopening a railway line in Devon, a line running across the top of Dartmoor, where a kindly driver once let me, aged 12, have a go at the controls of his train.
This tiny restoration of a small part of a lost line fills me with rage. It should never have been closed. It is not nearly enough. It was so beautiful I still sometimes dream of travelling on it again, 50 years after it was ripped up. It was a full-sized express main line between London and Plymouth, still badly needed every summer and every time the other route, along the sea, is washed away by storms at Dawlish.
The reinstatement of such lines, and there are so many of them, would do far more good to far more people than silly high-speed vanity projects such as HS2▸ (The next High Speed line(s)). We have let the car and the lorry rule this country far too long, spreading noise, ugliness and filth over town and country alike. The closure of railways in the 1960s was a terrible mistake and there has never been a better time to put it right.
I had a look at the ticket machine at Pershore today and the via Worcester fares are available.
I note that the Journey planner gives a weekday journey leaving Pershore at 07:58 via Worcester foregate street. (Always prefered by journey planners because Platform interchange by lift is available even though in this case both trains are likley to use the same platform at both Shrub Hill and foregate street). The fare given is the not London super off peak £64.60 price It is very unlikley that the machine will sell this ticket before 08:20 on a weekday.
I have been caught by this snag before with off peak tickets on the 07:58. There are a number of journeys that can be made by taking this train to Parkway or Worcester stations, that have valid off peak tickets. However GWR▸ (Great Western Railway) insist you need an anytime ticket to get to Worcester on this train
On the travel to work timed train from Okehampton this morning, seven passengers.
https://twitter.com/BusAndTrainUser/status/1462682492058710017
TaplowGreen
Quote from: Mark A on November 22, 2021, 11:42:36 am
Obviously a lot of people working from home in that area!
RichardB
Here's today's 09 24 ex Okehampton.
https://twitter.com/DCRailPart/status/1463078465364713474