Friday 7th June
For our first full day of track-bashing in Cornwall, we headed west. As west as you can go in England. While there's no train to Land's End, there's a bus from Penzance. But first, we had to get to Penzance:
0921 Plymouth to Penzance, arr 1123
Headcode: 2C43, operated by First Great Western using Sprinter 150101
Distance: 79.5 miles; walk-up price: £6.20
Oh goody, two hours on a 150 with 2+3 airline seating. In other words, the carriage had five seats per row, all facing the same direction; to get to one of the window seats, you had to clamber over two other seats to get there. To be fair, the train wasn't quite full, and two carriages was about right for the number of people. (Nonetheless, I pity anyone who got on the train earlier: it started from Bristol Parkway at 0624. It's hard to imagine a worse train journey than *five* hours on one of these things.)
Train aside, the journey was lovely. The ride on the mainline through Cornwall serves to emphasise how hilly a county it manages to be; there are at least 37 viaducts between Plymouth and Penzance, averaging one every two miles or so. The line always seems to be going up or down a hill, with gradients frequently as high as 1 in 60 - except for the final couple of miles along the coast into Penzance.
Once in Penzance, we just had to cross the road to get to the bus station, to wait for the number 1A bus to Land's End. It runs every two hours or so, with a three-hour gap in the afternoon; as Ian said, "it's not quite the frequency of the Victoria line"!
1140 Penzance bus station to Land's End, arr 1234 (actual 1244)
and
1435 (actual 1447) Land's End to Penzance bus station, arr 1532 (actual 1548)
Bus number #1A, operated by First
The bus to Land's End was by far the best bus ride I've been on since at least the X99 journey to John O'Groats. Unlike that journey, which was mostly on main roads, the bus to Land's End winds through more back roads than I thought possible. Imagine narrow country lanes with barely enough room for two cars to pass; and then put double-decker buses down them...
The roads led us through rolling countryside, with various hairpin bends and 1 in 5 gradients that would have been tricky enough in a car. The bus drivers, fortunately, were experienced enough to deal with the roads; though on one occasion we did have to pass another double-decker bus at a snail's pace, carefully inching forward trying not to hit the other bus. We arrived in Land's End about ten minutes late, the timings proving a bit optimistic.
To be honest, the bus ride was more fun than Land's End itself. Unlike my earlier visit to Land's End on Monday we actually spent a couple of hours in the complex, with time for lunch and an ice cream, but once you've seen the views once there's not much else to be done. The same bus took us back on the same torturous route to Penzance; the bus was again late, and we arrived in Penzance about fifteen minutes late, giving us just enough time to get the train to St Erth:
1600 Penzance to St Erth, arr 1609
Headcode: 1A94, operated by First Great Western using HST rake OC30 (reverse formation) with 43031+43145
Distance: 5.75 miles; walk-up price: £1.65
A slightly surreal experience, this one: we boarded a train that would have, had we stayed on it for more than five hours, taken us all the way back to London Paddington; but we got off after just eight minutes after going the one stop to St Erth, junction for the St Ives branch.
1618 St Erth to St Ives, arr 1631
and
1633 St Ives to St Erth, arr 1647
Headcode: 2A35 and 2A36 resp., operated by First Great Western using Sprinter 150249+150234*
Distance: 4.25 miles each way; walk-up return: £2.65
Our first Cornish branch line was that to St Ives. The line is rather busy, not least because getting to St Ives by car is quite tricky (as we discovered on Monday): it is the only branch line to run with four-car trains for most of the day. The line gets a half-hourly service, but only just: there is just one train shuttling back and forth, with two drivers, one at each end, so that they don't have to waste time changing ends!
The journey takes just under 15 minutes each way, but it packs some beautiful scenery in in that time: out of St Erth the line heads north, along the west side of the estuary across from Hayle, before turning west to follow the coast. To follow the coast the line has to hug the cliffside above the sea, with glimpses down to beautiful beaches below. After just half an hour there and back on this beautiful branch, we were back in St Erth, waiting for the next train back towards Plymouth, as far as Truro:
1653 St Erth to Truro, arr 1722
Headcode: 2M88, operated by First Great Western using Sprinter 150216
Distance: 20 miles; walk-up price: £4.10
This was a pretty busy train, ideally timed for commuters heading home from Penzance and St Ives. The five of us spent most of the half-hour journey playing games, mainly trying to name the next station on a given line. We felt slightly sorry for the guy who happened to end up stuck in the middle of us...
1727 Truro to Falmouth Docks, arr 1751
Headcode: 2F87, operated by First Great Western using Sprinter 150126
Distance: 12.25 miles; walk-up return: £2.65
A quick five-minute connection at Truro put us on the single-track branch to Falmouth. The line isn't nearly as busy as the St Ives branch, with two trains shuttling back and forth every hour, crossing at Penryn to provide a half-hourly service.
The loop at Penryn was reinstated in 2008 thanks to some EU funding, and gave rise to a unique track arrangement. To avoid the cost of a footbridge, the loop only extends half-way down the platform: northbound trains pull into one track of the loop, with southbound trains then going around them onto the single line and stopping further down the same platform.
We arrived at the end of the line, Falmouth Docks, which is a bit less convenient for the town centre as Falmouth Town station: the town itself is located about 20 minutes walk from Docks, or about 10 minutes walk from Town. With an hourly service even late into the evening, we were in no hurry home, and looked round the very pretty town of Falmouth.
I made a point of finding the memorial to Operation Chariot (probably worth a blog on its own!). After looking round the pier, which offered great views over the harbour with its Royal Navy vessels, we headed back through and ate in a fish-and-chip restaurant. Somehow fish and chips always tastes better right at the coast; something about the salt air, perhaps... Once we'd had dinner and grabbed a few supplies in Tesco, we headed back to Falmouth Town station.
2026 Falmouth Town to Falmouth Docks, arr 2028
and
2031 Falmouth Docks to Truro, arr 2057
Headcode: 2F91 and 2T91 resp., operated by First Great Western using Sprinter 153368
Distance: 0.5 miles and 12.25 miles, resp.; walk-up return included above
We were there with time to spare, time enough to catch the train as it was on its way to Falmouth Docks rather than the way back. With flexible rover tickets, we decided to head to Docks and back if only to get good seats; this was the smaller one-carriage train on the branch. Even though we only had half an hour we managed to play some Fluxx, a mildly ridiculous card game with ever-changing rules.
2102 Truro to Plymouth, arr 2225
Headcode: 2P96, operated by First Great Western using HST rake OC38 with 43182+43151
Distance: 53.75 miles; walk-up price: £6.20
Another swift change at Truro put us on a very quiet HST back to Plymouth; for whatever reason they need to get an HST back to Plymouth for the evening, and so it runs in service (at least on Fridays). We continued playing Fluxx, with the sun by now more or less below the horizon. Once back in Plymouth, we headed back to our hotel to do it all again on Saturday.
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