St Ives Bay Line
St Ives Bay Line | |||
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standard gauge | |||
Old gauge | 7 ft (2,134 mm) until 20 May 1892 | ||
Operating speed | 30 mph (48 km/h) | ||
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The St Ives Bay Line is a 4.25 miles (6.84 km) railway line from
History
The St Ives Junction Railway applied for an
Although there was heavy traffic in fish in the early years, this declined during the first half of the twentieth century.[3] Goods traffic was withdrawn from the intermediate stations at Lelant and Carbis Bay in May 1956 but continued at St Ives itself until September 1963.[1]
All the sidings were taken out of use at St Ives by 1966, by which time trains on the branch were operated by
Route
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- The communities served by the route are: St Erth – Lelant – Carbis Bay – St Ives
The branch line is single track for its whole length with no passing places.[6] It runs alongside the Hayle estuary and then the sea coast and is promoted as a good place to see birds from the train. It has also been listed as one of the most picturesque railways in England.
The line diverges from the
Services
The line initially saw just five trains a day, but by 1909 this had grown to nine and in 1965 it was 17 with up to 24 on summer Saturdays. Some trains included through carriages from London Paddington station and in the 1950s the Cornish Riviera Express ran from St Ives through to Paddington on summer Saturdays.[1] The number of services continued to increase following the opening of Lelant Saltings and the summer of 2006 saw 26 daily services operated by Wessex Trains. Great Western Railway (train operating company) took over the operation later in the year and the winter timetable was reduced to 16 trains which caused some concern[9] but the summer of 2007 saw a return to the previous service level.[10]
As of August 2016, trains run at approximately 30-minute intervals in each direction for most of the day, including Sundays.[11]
In the summer months when traffic levels are high, most services are now operated by 2 x two-car Class 150 sets, but in the winter a two-car Class 150 set is used. On particularly busy days additional sets are added; St Ives can handle six carriages but the bay platform at St Erth is long enough for just five.[6] Two or three trains are extended to and from Penzance on most days to facilitate crew changes and to get the stock to and from Penzance Traction Maintenance Depot (TMD).[12]
As of May 2019, there continues to be trains running every 30 minutes. All these services call at Carbis Bay with trains serving Lelant mostly every two hours with some hourly gaps between services. Lelant Saltings is now served by just one train per day in each direction due to the relocation of the Park and Ride facility to St Erth.[13]
Since the line has no passing loops and before May 2019, the average journey time along the full length of the line was just under 15 minutes, services on the line used to suffer from very short turnaround times (about 1 minute) at both St Erth and St Ives stations.[11] As of May 2019, the journey time has decreased due to the majority of trains no longer stopping at Lelant Saltings. As a result, the turnaround time has been increased to roughly 4 minutes.
Signalling
The line is controlled from the
Community rail
The St Ives Bay Line is one of the railway lines supported by the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership, an organisation formed in 1991 to promote railway services in the area. The line is promoted by many means such as regular timetable and scenic line guides, as well as leaflets highlighting leisure opportunities such as walking, birdwatching, and visiting country pubs.
A St Ives Bay Line rail ale trail was launched in 2005 to encourage rail travellers to use the railway and visit 14 participating pubs near the line.[citation needed]
During the period that Wessex Trains operated the service (2001-05), one of their Class 153 trains carried the name St Ives Bay Line and a blue livery with large coloured pictures promoting the line.[citation needed]
The branch was designated as a
Passenger volume
From 2001 to 2011 journeys on the St Ives Bay Line increased by 68%.[15]
Station usage | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Station name | 2002–03 | 2004–05 | 2005–06 | 2006–07 | 2007–08 | 2008–09 | 2009–10 | 2010–11 | 2011–12 | 2012–13 | 2013–14 | 2014–15 | 2015–16 | 2016–17 | 2017–18 | 2018–19 | 2019–20 | 2020–21 | 2021–22 | 2022–23 |
Lelant Saltings | 17,001 | 18,281 | 23,774 | 653 | 251 | 554 | 622 | 17,224 | 101,284 | 107,780 | 114,932 | 116,798 | 125,064 | 121,258 | 145,110 | 138,012 | 84,522 | 392 | 568 | 652 |
Lelant | 6,913 | 8,697 | 1,653 | 250 | 240 | 592 | 324 | 1,842 | 2,910 | 2,322 | 2,494 | 2,874 | 8,104 | 8,322 | 9,618 | 10,632 | 21,608 | 16,600 | 29,788 | 25,160 |
Carbis Bay | 60,620 | 66,298 | 23,737 | 6,347 | 8,208 | 9,476 | 7,980 | 55,334 | 206,736 | 198,734 | 203,782 | 231,800 | 191,408 | 195,124 | 234,668 | 227,854 | 212,354 | 111,158 | 230,256 | 226,768 |
St Ives | 213,397 | 220,300 | 171,281 | 117,131 | 139,455 | 173,722 | 154,502 | 258,530 | 578,214 | 585,308 | 595,326 | 638,754 | 657,750 | 659,066 | 752,654 | 750,478 | 706,826 | 293,880 | 733,970 | 720,062 |
The annual passenger usage is based on sales of tickets in stated financial years from Office of Rail and Road estimates of station usage. The statistics are for passengers arriving and departing from each station and cover twelve-month periods that start in April. Methodology may vary year on year. Usage from the periods 2019-20 and especially 2020-21 onwards have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic |
The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.
References
- ^ a b c d Jenkins, Stanley C (1992). "the St Ives Branch". Great Western Railway Journal (Cornish Special Issue). Wild Swan Publications Ltd: 2–34.
- ISBN 0-7110-0411-0.
- ISBN 1-870754-12-3.
- ^ "Flanders & Swann Online". Slow Train. Archived from the original on 13 April 2013. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
- ^ Cooke, R A (1977). Track Layout Diagrams of the GWR and BR WR: Section 10, West Cornwall. Harwell: R A Cooke.
- ^ ISBN 0-9549866-1-X.
- ^ a b c Ordnance Survey (1996), Land’s End, Explorer map (1:25,000 scale) 102, Ordnance Survey, Southampton
- ^ ISBN 1-873443-06-4.
- ^ BBC news report 9 March 2006
- ^ "National Rail Timetable 144 (Summer 2007)" (PDF). Network Rail.
- ^ a b Train times and train timetables - Great Western Railway (Timetable W9, pdf)
- ^ "National Rail Timetable 144 (Summer 2009)" (PDF). Network Rail. Retrieved 11 May 2009.
- ^ "St Erth - St Ives" (PDF). Great Western Railway.
- ^ Department for Transport, Rail Group (2005), Route prospectus for the … St Ives Bay Line
- ^ "Station Usage". Rail Statistics. Office of Rail Regulation. Archived from the original on 2 May 2012. Retrieved 16 April 2012.
Further reading
- Hesp, Martin (2008). "My magnificent rail journey". Western Morning News. Western Morning News. Archived from the original on 25 November 2010. Retrieved 14 July 2008.