Devon and Cornwall, Day 8 (Part 1)

Saturday 8th June, morning

Having done the Cornish mainline and the St Ives and Falmouth branches on Friday, on Saturday we sampled the other three Cornish branches, to Looe, Gunnislake and Newquay, each with a very different charm about them. First, to Looe, on one of the weirdest railway lines in the country...

0924 Plymouth to Liskeard, arr 0949 (actual 0954)
Headcode: 1C72, operated by First Great Western using HST rake LA62 with 43172+43012
Distance: 17.75 miles; walk-up return: £3.55

We started much as we had the previous day by heading west over the magnificent Royal Albert Bridge. Unlike the previous day's train at almost exactly the same time, this was not a two-car train that started from Bristol Parkway; it was instead an HST that started at Plymouth, and thus was already sat in the station when we got there.

On arriving at Saltash, the guard announced that there were some bikes blocking the guard's van which needed to be moved; after a seven-minute stand they had evidently been moved and we went on our way. This turned our nice nine-minute connection at Liskeard to a slightly more risky four minutes; we were fairly sure they'd hold the train but not certain.

Fortunately when we arrived in Liskeard we ended up pretty much dead in front of the steps up to the footbridge to cross over to the branch platform, and we alighted smartly and were the first people over the bridge and onto the waiting branch line train to Looe.

However, we weren't the only ones. The world and his wife seemed to want to go to Looe on this fine Saturday morning, and all that waited to shuttle people back and forth was a one-carriage Sprinter (a "dogbox" class 153).

Worse, it was already half-full by the time we got there thanks to - among many others - a bunch of young girl guides off on a trip to Looe. We made it on the train, but many were not so lucky, and we left nearly a whole trainload of people behind on the platform! Eventually, having crammed as many people on as possible, and decided that cancelling the train would have made a bad situation even worse, the train left seven minutes late.

0958 (actual 1005) Liskeard to Looe, arr 1029
and
1032 Looe to Liskeard, arr 1103
Headcode: 2L77 and 2L78 resp., operated by First Great Western using Sprinter 153325
Distance: 8.75 miles; walk-up return: £2.65

The Looe branch is, without doubt, the most insane railway line in Britain. Period.

The trouble all starts in Liskeard itself. Now, the mainline runs east-west, and Looe is south of Liskeard. So you'd expect the bay platform to be on the south side. Wrong! It's on the north side. Furthermore, the bay platform for the branch is at right angles to the mainline. Literally at a right angle.

So, we started off from Liskeard heading north-east. After all of about 500 metres, we start screeching to the right in what turns out to be a tiny horseshoe curve. Before we know it, we've done a 180 degree turn and we're heading south-west, and we go under the great big viaduct carrying the mainline.

We then turn right a bit more to point north-west, and then another line joins from our left at Coombe Junction ground frame (a ground frame is a set of levers for controlling points placed at ground level, like a miniature old-fashioned signalbox without the good view). After another 200 metres we arrive at Coombe Junction Halt, the fifth least-used passenger station in Britain with just 60 people using it in 2011/12.

When we leave Coombe Junction Halt, we find ourselves going backwards! And then we stop again at the ground frame, and the guard swings the points, and we head down the other mysterious line, which turns out to be the Looe branch, and we are finally heading south.

Here's a diagram to help you figure out where on earth we've been:

(Map based on OpenStreetMap; © OpenStreetMap contributors)

So why all this shenanigans? Well, the line to Looe originally continued north to Moorswater, and the connection between Coombe Junction and Liskeard was added much later. Why? Because of the vast difference in height; between leaving Liskeard and arriving at Coombe Junction we have dropped nearly 200 feet. In order to make the gradient manageable, they had to make do with this ridiculous arrangement.

Most trains, in fact, don't bother to go all the way to Coombe Junction Halt station, reversing instead at the ground frame. We deliberately chose one of the two trains a day - both early in the morning - which go via the halt itself, to ensure we'd been on the whole line.

Once we were actually on the branch itself, we could stop worrying about where the train was going and instead focus on the wonderful scenery. The Looe branch is one of the prettiest, most beautiful lines in all of Britain; it skirts the valley of the East Looe River all the way down to the small town of Looe on the coast, where the river becomes quite wide. The river was remarkably still, even where it joined the West Looe River for the last kilometre or so out to Looe Bay.

Being a few minutes late, we barely had time to even set foot on the platform - I didn't bother in the end - before the train back. I would have liked to have some time in Looe, but we didn't have time to look round the end of every branch line. Fortunately the train back was rather less crowded, and we got good seats from which to admire the beautiful view.

Of course, on the way back we had to do the whole rigmarole of reversing and heading round the ridiculous curve all over again. Once we eventually arrived back in Liskeard, the people who were waiting for the train back to Looe - many of whom had been on our train from Plymouth and hadn't made it on the first time - had swelled in number even more, such that I doubt they'd have all fitted in two carriages.

The train left full once more, leaving more people (hopefully not the same people) to wait an hour or so for the next train. We crossed over the road - yes, there's a road between the mainline and the bay platform! - to wait for our train back to Plymouth.

1131 Liskeard to Plymouth, arr 1156
Headcode: 1A83, operated by First Great Western using HST rake LA12 with 43037+43129
Distance: 17.75 miles; walk-up price included above

This train to Paddington was fairly busy, and we couldn't find a table, so the five of us strung out to various bits of the carriage. In order to cram as many commuters from Reading into one train as possible, there are generally just two tables per carriage, with the rest of the seats being airline seats; so it didn't have to be that busy to make it difficult to find a table. At least in this instance it was just a short half-hour run back to Plymouth.

After lunch, we were headed for Gunnislake and then Newquay... but that will have to wait for part two!

Devon and Cornwall, Day 7

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.

Devon and Cornwall, Day 6

Thursday 6th June

On Thursday morning I said goodbye to my parents and headed by train up to Plymouth, where over the course of the day the five of us would descend to spend a long weekend track-bashing all the branches. My day was to largely consist of a trip to Torbay and back, including a ride on a steam train.

1056 Bodmin Parkway to Plymouth, arr 1139
Headcode: 1M49, operated by CrossCountry using Voyager 220002
Distance: 26.75 miles; walk-up price: £5.30

Unfortunately the most conveniently-timed train was a CrossCountry Voyager, which I swore I'd avoid while down in the south west, but for only 45 minutes it wasn't a huge deal. After a brief delay at Saltash to wait for a train to come off the single-track Royal Albert Bridge, we arrived in Plymouth and I headed to the Travelodge, about 15 minutes away, to check in and dump my bags. Once I'd had some lunch, I headed back to the station to head east to Paignton to meet up with James and Ben.

1341 Plymouth to Newton Abbot, arr 1424
Headcode: 2A63, operated by First Great Western using Sprinter 150247
Distance: 32 miles; walk-up return: £4.15

The line between Plymouth and Newton Abbot is one of the hillest mainlines in the country, over the "Devon Banks". First comes Hemerdon Bank, a two-mile climb at 1 in 42 followed by a seven-mile slog at about 1 in 150, after which we descended Rattery Bank, with a solid three miles at an average of about 1 in 50. By Totnes we were nearly back to sea level, but between there and Newton Abbot there was Dainton Bank, necessitating a couple of miles of 1 in 37 up and a couple of miles at 1 in 36 back down again.

The majority of trains on this line are either HSTs or Voyagers, both long-distance trains with more than enough power to cope with such hills. But this was a local stopping service from Penzance extended through to Newton Abbot, formed of just a two-carriage 150, which felt rather underpowered as it struggled up the banks. To be honest, though, this gave a much more interesting ride: modern trains make it seem too easy.

I arrived at Newton Abbot about five minutes ahead of James and Ben, who were on a train down from London Paddington. They hadn't had lunch, and we had plenty of time, so we headed into Newton Abbot for some food, before coming back to get the train down the branch to Paignton:

1531 Newton Abbot to Paignton, arr 1551
Headcode: 2T20, operated by First Great Western using Pacer 143621+143617*
Distance: 8.25 miles; walk-up return: £2.65

Although I'd been to Paignton before just a few months previously (more in another blogpost), we were headed to Paignton to go on the Dartmouth Steam Railway. Our four-car Pacer down the branch was a few minutes late, having been held up somewhere on the Exmouth branch; we made it into Paignton just four-and-a-half minutes late, under the magic five-minute threshold for our train to be counted as late.

Once at Paignton, we crossed over the road by the level crossing to get to the adjacent Queen's Park station for the Dartmouth Steam Railway (DSR), which in spite of its name only goes to Kingswear: if you want to get to Dartmouth you have to get a ferry across the river Dart from Kingswear.

1615 Paignton Queen's Park to Kingswear for Dartmouth, arr 1645
and
1700 Kingswear for Dartmouth to Paignton Queen's Park, arr 1730
Operated by Paignton & Dartmouth Steam Railway, seven coaches hauled by 5239 'Goliath'
Distance: 6.75 miles each way; walk-up return: £11.00

The DSR is unusual in being a heritage railway line that doesn't rely on volunteers: it is popular enough and has been around long enough to successfully run on a commercial basis. A return costs £11, in a similar ballpark to most heritage lines. The half-hour journey starts on the eastern coast, but then heads over a hill to meet the mouth of the River Dart to the west; both sides give good views out over the water.

The train was hauled by a GWR tank engine, 'Goliath', dating from 1923 and originally designed for short-haul trips to and from the coalfields of South Wales. The seven coaches it hauled were a motley crew: on the way to Kingswear we travelled in Mark 1 compartment stock. On the way back, we chose to forgo the Mark 1 open coaches with 2+2 seating and tables, and instead we found our way into one of the GWR suburban coaches with 2+3 seating, dating from before the war and thus even older than the BR Mark 1s.

It wasn't quite as long and exciting a run as some of the other heritage lines I've been on, but the views more than made up for that, and the warm sunshine made the whole thing feel like a real day out. When you spend a lot of your leisure time on trains, you can become a bit blasé about them; when you're on a steam train by the Torbay coast, it's a whole different kettle of fish.

To be honest I wish we'd had time to head to Dartmouth and back on the ferry, but we were only able to get there in time for the last train of the day to Kingswear, and thus had to come straight back to avoid being stranded. Once we got back to Paignton we had time to look round the shop before heading back to the mainline station:

1753 Paignton to Newton Abbot, arr 1809
Headcode: 2F51, operated by First Great Western using Sprinter 150104
Distance: 8.25 miles; walk-up price included above

A short 15-minute run back up the branch to Newton Abbot ensued, with the train reasonably busy but not packed. The branch to Paignton is quite nice, though not in the same league as some of the Cornish branches we would see later in the weekend. It's rare, though, in being double-track throughout, such is the service frequency required - the branch usually sees a half-hourly stopping service to Exeter, with a handful of long-distance trains to London and Manchester each day.

At Newton Abbot, we had an optimistic three-minute connection onto a southbound CrossCountry service. We needn't have worried: the train we were connecting into was the 0900 Glasgow Central to Penzance, and had ample opportunity to be delayed en route; on this occasion it got stuck behind a stopping train from Bristol to Weston-super-Mare, and left Taunton 17 minutes late. By the time we got it at Newton Abbot, though, it was just seven minutes late:

1812 (actual 1819) Newton Abbot to Plymouth, arr 1850 (actual 1856)
Headcode: 1V58, operated by CrossCountry using Voyager 221132
Distance: 32 miles; walk-up price included above

On board our last train of the day, we met up with the other James, who had come down from Liverpool. Unlike my Sprinter earlier in the day, the Voyager made mincemeat of the Devon banks and we were back in Plymouth in no time. (Incidentally, the train had a booked 12-minute stand at Plymouth, and was thus on time once it left Plymouth.)

Once we got to Plymouth, the others checked into the hotel before we went for dinner in Pizza Express. After dinner we headed back to the station to meet our final companion, Ian, off an evening peak train from London Paddington, before heading back to the hotel ready for the Cornish branch lines on Friday.

Devon and Cornwall, Days 2-5

Sunday 2nd June

Over the next four days in Cornwall, we packed in a lot of sightseeing, together with various family occasions. Sunday revolved around a barbecue at my aunt and uncle's house, involving probably the biggest reunion of my mum's side of the family in at least a decade. I hadn't seen two of my cousins since about 1995; in some sense it was almost like we'd never met, but equally there was an instant family tie, with none of the awkwardness that sometimes comes with meeting new friends.

My aunt and uncle's house is set on the edge of a village in beautiful countryside. We'd picked the right week to come to Cornwall: not two days before I left, it was cold and miserable, but by Sunday afternoon it was hot and sunny, feeling genuinely like summer for the first time. We sat outside in the sun enjoying our hot dogs and our steaks (to say nothing of the wide variety of salads and side dishes laid on), soaking up the sun.

After a lovely afternoon spent reminiscing and swapping stories, rounded off with a walk down to the river just down from their house, we headed back to the hotel, stuffed full of food. Rather than go out for dinner, we eventually headed out for a picnic, making our own sandwiches and eating them in the car on the beautiful beach at Polzeath, just north of Padstow, on the north coast, before taking a walk out to the edge of the Atlantic.

Monday 3rd June

The next day my parents and I left my aunt and uncle and headed west, to the very edges of England. While Land's End is the more popular, it is only the westernmost point in England, not Britain (Ardnamurchan, in Scotland, is further west). On the other hand, the Lizard Point is the southernmost point in Britain, but is much less of a tourist trap.

We headed first to the Lizard, over an hour's drive west even from Bodmin. (Even Cornwall itself is big!) The Lizard is a beautiful peninsula: the land is covered in beautiful fields, while the coastline is rugged but well-worn, with easy access to the coastal paths. After a nice walk over to the next headland, we headed back into the village of Lizard for some lunch.

After a brief stop at Kynance Cove - a beautiful bay just north of the Lizard - we headed to Marazion, just east of Penzance and home of St Michael's Mount, a natural island just a few hundred metres off the coast which has acted as a natural fortification for nearly a millennium.

While we made it to the island, unfortunately by the time we got to the castle it was too late in the afternoon and we couldn't take a look around the inside. At low tide, one can walk across the causeway to the island; but when we got there the tide was well in, and so a little motorboat shuttled us to and from the island.

With the afternoon gone, but plenty of time before dinner, we headed to Land's End. While much more touristy, and geographically less relevant, it's easy to see why Land's End is so much more popular than the Lizard: the whole country seems to narrow about you as you drive west on the A30, until at last you arrive at the end of England, surrounded by nearly 270 degrees of sea.

Surrounding the point itself is a sprawling tourist complex, with multiple cafes and gift shops. But arriving as we did at 6pm it was mercifully quiet, with just a few visitors and none of the tourist hubbub. The one disadvantage was that the toilets were locked, but otherwise we got to look into the Atlantic on all sides in peace.

We had dinner in St Ives, about half an hour's drive from Land's End, in a lovely fish restaurant with a view over the old harbour. Our meal was delayed by a hold-up in the kitchen, but this meant that we exited the restaurant just as the sun was crossing the horizon in a fabulous orange sunset. The fading sunlight persisted, with a few faint rays staving off darkness for the whole hour-long drive home.

Tuesday 4th June

On Tuesday, blessed with even better weather than the previous couple of days, we headed to the north coast, to Tintagel Castle. Located on a rocky peninsula jutting into the sea, and making a perfect natural fortification, Tintagel Castle may have been used as early as the third century AD; but the first definite evidence points to a fortress in early medieval times. Legend has it that King Arthur himself was conceived here.

The castle itself is a nearly impregnable fortress perched right on the coast, with just one wooden bridge linking it to the mainland. After climbing up a staircase carved out of the stone, you find yourself on top of the main rock of the island, and wandering around you get superb views out to the sea and to the cliffs on the coastline.

The ruined buildings of the castle make for an interesting sight (and site!), with remnants of a great hall, a well, a chapel, and a tunnel possibly used for storing food. The island is surrounded by cliffs, in one of which lies Merlin's Cave. The whole thing takes the better part of two hours to fully explore, and is remarkably interesting, made all the nicer by the lovely sunny day.

After a very nice lunch in the visitors centre at the Castle, we headed back up the steep hill (which hadn't seemed half as bad on the way down!) to the village of Tintagel itself. We then paid a visit to the Old Post Office, a beautifully-preserved fourteenth-century stone house now in the hands of the National Trust, before relaxing in the sun with a nice scone.

In the evening, after a brief rest in the hotel, we headed to Padstow for dinner. Padstow, a pretty fishing port on the north coast of Cornwall, is sometimes referred to as Padstein - a tongue-in-cheek reference to the number of eating establishments in the town run by Rick Stein. We managed to avoid them all, however, and had a very nice Italian meal in a restaurant overlooking the harbour.

Wednesday 5th June

Wednesday was the last full day of family - my parents and my aunt and uncle were headed home on Thursday. We were thus headed for one last family lunch in Fowey. Beforehand, though, we paid a flying visit to Wave 7 Gallery, run by my cousin in rural Cornwall just a few miles north of where we were staying. The gallery is filled with paintings, pottery, prints and assorted knick-knacks, and my mum couldn't resist the urge to buy a couple of things.

A quick drive over to the south coast brought us to Fowey Hall, a lavish country house hotel where my Cornish aunt and uncle treated the rest of us to a fabulous three-course meal, all the while swapping stories aplenty. After a long, lingering lunch, we left my Cornish aunt and uncle, and the five of us headed for a drive around the coast to Mevagissey, where we stopped to look round the little fishing village.

After that we headed for the nearby Dormer Point, or more accurately to the car park where you can walk to the point. Navigating there proved to be a challenge: we dispensed with the satnav and I used a proper old-fashioned Landranger to guide us to the car park, which was down a seemingly interminable series of lanes. Once there, we went for a short walk; while we didn't bother going all the way to the point we still got some lovely views round the coast; my dad, ever eager, continued on to the point proper at his usual brisk pace, and by the time the rest of us had dandered back to the car he had practically caught us up.

Having had such a big lunch we decided a picnic tea would suffice, so we grabbed some sandwiches and, once back at our hotel, sat outside in the fading sunlight to enjoy one last picnic as a family.

Devon and Cornwall, Day 1

It's too easy to think that Britain is a long, thin country, with plenty of north and south but not much east and west, a view that's particularly easy to slip into living in Coventry, pretty much bang in the middle of England. In reality, though, the eastern and western extremities of England are in fact quite far away. In particular, it's pretty much impossible to make a day trip out of going to Devon and Cornwall. So I didn't: I went for a week in June.

A nine-day holiday to Cornwall was divided into two parts. I travelled down on Saturday 1st June, to spend five nights in a quiet country hotel near Bodmin with my parents and my aunt and uncle. They had travelled over from Northern Ireland to visit my other aunt and uncle, who live near Bodmin. For all I've seen of my aunt and uncle in Cornwall, it's as if they're on another island; I really should get down more often.

But from Thursday 6th June, the focus shifted; I headed back over the Tamar to Plymouth, to meet up with the guys and go track-bashing. Once you get west of Exeter, there is but a single main line to Penzance, with no fewer than nine branches, all but one reaching to the coast. Over the course of four days, we went over all but one of those branches; it's not quick, given that you have to go down each branch and come back up again, but the scenery and the locations made for an unforgettable week in the south west.

Saturday 1st June

1125 (actual 1129) Coventry to Reading, arr 1239 (actual 1246)
Headcode: 1O12, operated by CrossCountry using Voyager 221127*+221122
Distance: 79.75 miles

The first step was to get to Cornwall. This would take five and a half hours. I'd forgotten just how much west there is to this country.

I had two options: I could go via Birmingham, necessitating another change at Plymouth, and condemning me to make more or less the whole journey on CrossCountry; or I could go via Reading, changing just the once, and using First Great Western (FGW) the whole way from Reading to Bodmin. I opted for the latter, mainly because I'm fed up using CrossCountry, not least because their trains are too short; by comparison I don't use FGW very much and looked forward to something a bit different.

So I started with the familiar hour-and-a-half run to Reading. It being CrossCountry it wasn't even a surprise that it was a few minutes late. It was, however, a surprise to have a 10-car train turn up, two 5-car Voyagers having been coupled together. This turned what would otherwise have been quite a busy train into a pleasantly quiet one, with plenty of space for everyone to spread out. I found a seat in the quiet coach on the unreserved half of the train and settled down.

During the journey, though, it became apparent that the longer train was a definite advantage: it ended up being quite busy, and just by having to stop a bit longer at each station we crept later and later. We arrived at the newly-rebuilt Reading station seven minutes late, giving me 45 minutes until my train to Cornwall. I picked up a couple of things in the shops before heading over to platform 8:

1332 Reading to Bodmin Parkway, arr 1703
Headcode: 1C84, operated by First Great Western using HST rake LA16 with 43069+43041
Distance: 216.5 miles

With a three-and-a-half hour journey to Bodmin ahead of me, I took advantage of one of the best features of an FGW HST: first class. While on weekdays the first class carriages may be filled with rich commuters, on weekends they'd just cart about fresh air. So FGW, in common with most long-distance operators, offer cheap upgrades to first class at weekends, which also serves to ease the shortage of capacity in standard class.

With such a long journey ahead, I decided £20 for a Weekend First was worth it for the wide, comfortable seat, with an individual table, an unobstructed window view, and a few snacks thrown in for free. Once the conductor had upgraded my ticket, about half an hour into the journey, I reclined my seat, ate my lunch, and relaxed as the countryside streaked past.

Exeter marked the half-way point by journey time, though we'd covered nearly two thirds of the distance from Reading to Bodmin. East of Exeter, the train was very much an express service, calling at just Taunton and Tiverton, and cruising at 110mph for much of the journey. By contrast, west of Exeter, the train weaved its way through the countryside, first along the sea wall at Dawlish, before climbing over central Devon (south of Dartmoor) to Plymouth, and then weaving its way sinuously through Cornwall.

While the journey west of Exeter thus seemed slower, it was all the more worth it for the views. The countryside of Berkshire, Wiltshire and Somerset is all well and good. But it can't compare to the Dawlish Sea Wall, where the railway between Exeter and Newton Abbot is the sea wall, built on land reclaimed from the sea; nor to the pretty Devon hills, climbed with gradients of 1 in 40, looking towards Dartmoor; nor to the second-to-none Royal Albert Bridge over the River Tamar, where we cross from Devon into Cornwall; nor to the innumerable viaducts and bridges carrying us through the ups and downs of Cornwall itself.

After three-and-a-half hours I arrived in Bodmin Parkway station, greeted by my dad, who drove me to the hotel. In spite of the first class seat, my back was aching a little from the long journey; no doubt it would have been worse, though, if I'd been forced to endure the same journey in standard class.

A relaxing evening ensued, with dinner in a nearby pub, followed by an early night, ready for a big family reunion on Sunday.

Easter Engineering Works at Wolverhampton (or, How Not to Run a Railway on Maundy Thursday)

The evening of Maundy Thursday is the single busiest evening peak on the railways all year. While Christmas sees a much larger volume of traffic, it's spread out much more - some people travel nearly a week before Christmas, some as late as Christmas Eve. But at Easter, everyone gets a four-day weekend off work, and everyone wants to take full advantage by heading away on Thursday evening.

However, from the railway's point of view, the Easter weekend affords a rare opportunity to shut lines for four days to do larger pieces of engineering works that simply can't be done overnight or in a normal weekend, be they large-scale remodelling works or simply renewal works in awkward locations.

Yes, it causes disruption to people travelling home or on holiday at Easter. But the railways don't make money from leisure traffic; they make money from commuters paying thousands of pounds for an annual season ticket. Not pissing off the people paying £5000 for a ticket is rather more important than not pissing off those paying £50, so you do the work when most commuters aren't at work.

Unfortunately, this Easter I think the railways - in collusion with Network West Midlands - managed to piss off absolutely everyone trying to travel between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, including me...

The points at Crane Street Junction, where the lines to Walsall and Birmingham split right outside Wolverhampton, were to be renewed, but it couldn't quite be accomplished in four days. So the lines were closed at 3pm on Maundy Thursday, until 5am on Tuesday morning.

Yes, that's right. They closed probably the most congested railway in the West Midlands - probably the busiest line in England outside London - before the evening peak on Maundy Thursday.

So what can you do when you shut Birmingham-Wolverhampton?

For some of the long-distance traffic, there wasn't really a problem. CrossCountry services between Birmingham and Manchester, and Virgin Trains services between Birmingham, Preston, Glasgow and Edinburgh, were diverted via Wednesfield Heath - a line I managed to use on New Year's Day when there were works between Nuneaton and Stafford. Obviously such diverted trains couldn't call at Wolverhampton, but it did mean that those services ran more or less as normal.

However, Wolverhampton was only shut from the south end: the north end was still open. London Midland's services between Liverpool and Birmingham simply terminated short at Wolverhampton, providing a link between Wolverhampton, Stafford and Crewe. All trains to and from Shrewsbury also terminated at Wolverhampton. At Wolverhampton, to give a safe area for the worksite - which was right off the end of the platform - platforms 1, 2 and 5 were shut, with just platforms 3, 4 and 6 open.

None of that, however, provides a service between Birmingham and Wolverhampton.

Those trains I've already mentioned account for eight of the ten trains per hour that usually run between Birmingham and Wolverhampton: the two remaining services are the stopping trains, which provide a half-hourly service to all six intermediate stations. These ran between Birmingham and Sandwell and Dudley, with buses between there and Wolverhampton.

Yes, that's right: instead of ten trains an hour between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, there were two trains an hour to Sandwell, and buses onwards to Wolverhampton. And to add injury to insult, for whatever reason the trains running the shuttle between Birmingham and Wolverhampton were just two carriages long.

It doesn't take a genius to realise that that probably isn't enough.

To be honest, on Easter Sunday it might well have been fine. But this wasn't Sunday, this was the evening of Maundy Thursday. After sampling the diversions and looking at the work at Wolverhampton, I arrived in New Street just before 6pm and headed over the Victoria Street footbridge to platform 4C for the 18:08 shuttle to Sandwell, if only to see just how bad it would be.

I got half-way down the stairs to see the train pulling in, and the platform next to it absolutely heaving with passengers, about nine minutes before departure. It's difficult to describe just how insanely busy it was, but let me try. Firstly, I'm pretty sure that the passengers, standing on the platform, took up more space than the train did.

After a sizable number of people got off the train - which took a good minute or two - we all piled on. I have been on the Northern Line between London Bridge and Bank in the morning rush hour: frankly, I had more room on the Northern Line. And at least with the Northern Line there was another train just three minutes behind; but the stoppers to Sandwell were every half an hour.

I ended up standing in the vestibule of the two-car class 170 - hardly the best choice of train, but I'll come back to that - and even with five minutes to go to departure there was literally no more room on the train. A shout came down from the middle of the carriage to stop letting people on; I was wedged in next to the door controls and, after general nods of agreement from people around me, I shut the doors.

Just as I pushed the button I had to push back another passenger who insisted on trying to get on the train, saying perhaps more forcefully than I needed to, "no, I'm sorry, this carriage is full!" The doors shut, and the man was left clearly slightly angry, but it would simply have been unsafe to let anyone else on the train.

One person did try opening the doors again - but once he saw how busy it was moved down the platform to try another door, and I shut the door again. "Crush-loaded" doesn't quite do it justice. Unlike buses or taxis or planes, there are no maximum occupancy rules for trains: a train can take as many passengers as it can hold.

Eventually, though, there was simply nowhere for the people to go, and we left people behind on the platform. After letting a train to Manchester go a few minutes late, we finally left Birmingham at 18:10.

There was little need to hold on, as we were so wedged in that there was almost nowhere for anyone to go - except that we called at Smethwick Rolfe Street and Smethwick Galton Bridge, at which people wanted off. Somehow, the passengers for Smethwick struggled off the train, and a few even managed to join the train.

Eventually we arrived at Sandwell and Dudley at 18:25 - seven minutes late, simply because the train was so full it couldn't keep up - and proceeded to spend a full two and a half minutes disgorging its passengers. Definitely a new record for busiest train, and by far the least pleasant train journey I have ever undertaken.

From there, passengers for Wolverhampton were directed to the buses outside, of which there were most definitely not enough; I reckon our two-carriage train had well in excess of 200 people, and I only saw two buses to take them on towards Wolverhampton.

I decided not to join the assembled hordes of people on the buses, and instead crossed to the other platform to head back on the shuttle to Birmingham. The train used a crossover at the far end of Sandwell and Dudley to reverse. The train back into Birmingham was busy - there were still people standing, but I got a seat - but nothing like as busy as the way out of Birmingham had been.

When we got back to Birmingham, the platform wasn't as busy as it had been when I left an hour earlier, but the train wasn't departing again for twenty minutes. I'm told that every single shuttle train between 5pm and 8pm left people behind at New Street.

---

So, what could have been done better, and what lessons can be learned for next time?

The first thing to do would be to run longer trains. The shuttles were run with diesel class 170 Turbostars, making me suspect that the overhead wires had been turned off in connection with the works. Fair enough, but at least London Midland could have got a three-car unit from somewhere, rather than the two-car units that actually ran. I saw a three-car unit, mostly empty, on the Wolverhampton-Shrewsbury stopper; just swapping those over would have been a major improvement.

Of course, it's also nice to say there should have been more buses, but that's trickier. Hiring in buses is quite a challenge, especially when buses have to be used for school runs and so on - the level of buses will have been planned months in advance, and there's not much that can be done upon suddenly realising that double that level would have still been busy.

So were buses necessary in the first place? Wolverhampton was still open, and accessible to trains from the north, so could trains have been diverted and still run between Birmingham and Wolverhampton? I think the answer is probably yes. Initial plans had Arriva Trains Wales running trains between Birmingham and Shrewsbury via reversal at Bushbury Junction (on a goods line), avoiding Wolverhampton; in the end those plans were abandoned.

Nonetheless, the same reversal could have been used to get trains between Birmingham and Wolverhampton. Even two trains an hour on that route would probably have given more capacity than the buses that were running, and journey times would almost certainly have been quicker. It would have been risky, and it would still have required buses for the local stations, but it would almost certainly have been better.

The other question that has to be asked is why the timing of the work was as it was. Firstly, why such a long closure? Well, renewing the points is a big job that has to be undertaken in one go, and the points are on a viaduct, making access particularly difficult. Rather than bringing everything to the site in advance and simply blocking the lines to install the points, I think that here the lines had to be blocked just to bring the stuff in.

After that, I think the logic was as follows: we need a little more than four days, so it's a choice between shutting the line on Thursday evening or on Tuesday morning. By closing the line on Thursday evening, you only disrupt journeys home from work; if the line had been closed on Tuesday morning, people's journeys to work would have been disrupted. At least by closing it on Thursday evening no-one is late for work.

I can understand that logic, but I'm not sure I agree that shutting the railway on the busiest evening of the year was the most sensible policy. Keeping the line shut for Tuesday morning - perhaps even all of Tuesday - may well have inconvenienced fewer people, given that by then the Easter holidays were underway throughout the country.

The other thing that didn't help was that Network West Midlands decided to shut the Midland Metro - a tram linking Birmingham Snow Hill to Wolverhampton - for two weeks from Easter Saturday. So while it was available to carry passengers on Thursday and Friday, by Saturday you had no alternative to getting a bus.

At the end of the day, this showed the fragmented, privatised railway at its worst. Network Rail were in charge of the work. Four separate train companies were running trains; all of them made different decisions on diversions and bus substitution. Network West Midlands seemed to be talking to no-one but themselves in deciding to close the Midland Metro at the same time.

That kind of overcrowding and lack of service simply wouldn't have happened in British Rail days, not least because they had enough men to throw at the job and get it done in a shorter time: BR functioned as one unit, not a network fragmented into a million tiny pieces.

London Midland spent half the evening apologising on Twitter: who they were apologising for, though, isn't clear, because no-one was in charge. Seemingly no-one had the authority to sit down and say "no, this isn't going to work, we need more trains".

Worse: I'm not sure if anyone has the ability to stop it happening again. Suggestions on a postcard, please.

We're Not In Cardiff Any More: A Weekend on the Welsh Valley Lines

Last month, Ian and I headed to explore the the complex network of railways in South Wales. I'd once changed trains in Cardiff, and I'd been through to Swansea on my All-Line Rover a few years ago, but Ian had never been past Newport. Certainly, neither of us had ever explored the suburban rail network around Cardiff, which turned out to be one of the nicest networks in the country, combining suburban commuter trains with spectacular Welsh scenery.

Half a dozen lines emanate northwards from Cardiff up each of the major valleys, with lines to Merthyr Tydfil, Aberdare, Treherbert, Rhymney, Ebbw Vale, and Maesteg. They are joined by the line heading south out of Cardiff along the Vale of Glamorgan, with branches to Penarth, Barry Island and Bridgend. Together, they form the Valley Lines, one of the densest suburban railway networks outside London, as seen in the map below.

(Map based on OpenStreetMap; © OpenStreetMap contributors)

The original plan had been to cover the whole network in one weekend. Unfortunately, on the weekend we picked - 9th/10th March - there were engineering works between Barry and Bridgend, which prevented us from completing the whole network in one weekend. In a way, though, that was no bad thing; even without doing the Vale of Glamorgan we had a long weekend on our hands, because the nature of the network – a series of branch lines emanating from Cardiff – meant we had to go up and down each line, there being, in most cases, no links between the 'tops' of each line.

As is so often the case, however, there used to be links between the lines; many fell victim to the infamous Beeching axe. In some cases, there are bus links between towns in neighbouring valleys, but some of them are so slow that it is quicker to go down one valley and up the other! We did use one bus in the end - but we're getting ahead of ourselves...

Saturday 9th March

0750 Coventry to Birmingham New St, arr 0816 (actual 0823)
Headcode: 2Y59, operated by London Midland using Desiro 350126
Distance: 19 miles

I joined Ian on a London Midland service to Birmingham New Street, and wolfed down some much-needed breakfast. The train was a few minutes late into Birmingham, but a quick change ensured that we made our connection to our next train:

0830 Birmingham New St to Cardiff Central, arr 1021
Headcode: 1V04, operated by CrossCountry using Turbostar 170636
Distance: 112 miles

The train from Birmingham to Cardiff took us through all-too-familiar territory down the Cross-Country Main Line towards Bristol. At Gloucester, however, we branched off to head down the western bank of the Severn, through the Forest of Dean, under the Severn Bridge, and into South Wales; the line afforded us good, if somewhat hazy, views across the Severn to Bristol.

Once we arrived in Cardiff, Ian grabbed his Valley Lines Day Explorer ticket (I had already bought mine in Coventry), before we jumped on our first valleys train to Penarth:

1031 Cardiff Central to Penarth, arr 1046
and
1047 Penarth to Cardiff Central, arr 1059
Headcodes: 2P31 and 2D26 resp., operated by Arriva Trains Wales using Sprinter 150256
Distance: 2.75 miles each way

Penarth, once a major seaside resort frequented by many residents of south Wales, is now a dormitory town for Cardiff, with pensioners making up a significant proportion of the population. The railway line to Penarth once extended on round the coast, and rejoined what is now the Vale of Glamorgan mainline at Cadoxton, but closures under the Beeching axe curtailed the service, and Penarth station is now a dead end.

This somewhat explains our confusion on board the train: we thought, as a seaside branch line, it should be going downhill. Instead, however, the line rose approaching the terminus; legacy of the days when continued round the coast. The line was otherwise unremarkable, taking just 15 minutes from Cardiff Central to Penarth; we had many more lines to go on, so we didn't linger and headed straight back to Cardiff.

1121 Cardiff Central to Maesteg, arr 1215
and
1217 Maesteg to Cardiff Central, arr 1309
Headcodes: 2L51 and 2G60 resp., operated by Arriva Trains Wales using Sprinter 158831
Distance: 28.5 miles each way

The line to Maesteg is unusual in many respects: for one, it is one of the only valley lines which does not go directly north from Cardiff; instead trains travel through open countryside, along the South Wales Main Line to Bridgend, before turning onto the branch to Maesteg. Thus, it does not end up as the north end of a north-south line through Cardiff, but rather the west end of a east-west line: many trains from Maesteg continue through Cardiff and terminate at Cheltenham Spa.

On this occasion, it was also unusual in being served by class 158: almost every other train we got on the valleys were either Pacers or class 150s, with class 158s usually reserved for longer distance services. However, class 158s do offer greater capacity, and while the train to Maesteg was rather quiet, the train back became ever more packed as we got into Cardiff; though of course by this time it was Saturday lunchtime, with shoppers heading to Cardiff in their droves.

Lunchtime for us consisted of buying some sandwiches in M&S, and eating them while waiting on the platform during the 40-minute gap to our next train. While we were waiting on platform 6, however, we noticed that a person had somehow fallen off platform 4 onto the tracks!

Fortunately the First Great Western service which was just coming into platform 4 at the time saw the person and managed to stop in time, and the staff on platform 6 (there being no platform 5) stopped the Bargoed service well short of the danger. There ensued ten or so minutes of trying (and eventually succeeding) to rouse the apparently rather sozzled passenger, culminating in various drivers, guards, platform staff and BTP officers lifting the guy back onto the platform.

The passenger seemed no worse for his excursion onto the tracks - he'd probably just had too much to drink - but having blocked the tracks for ten minutes there was then a backlog of trains to unclog. The 13:41 to Aberdare eventually departed over ten minutes late, running non-stop to Pontypridd to make up time. The 13:46 to Bargoed, behind it, was similarly sent non-stop to Caerphilly to make up time. Eventually our train to Coryton came in:

1351 (actual 1401) Cardiff Central to Coryton, arr 1413 (actual 1414)
and
1415 Coryton to Radyr, arr 1454
Headcode: 2V31 and 2C29 resp., operated by Arriva Trains Wales using Pacer 143616
Distance: 4.75 miles and 9.5 miles resp.

Our train eventually rolled in and left ten minutes late. To make up time on this very short journey, we called as normal at Queen Street, before proceeding non-stop to Coryton, missing out all five intermediate stations. That allowed us to make up almost all our delay, and we arrived in Coryton just one minute late. Coming back, we left just a minute late and ran more or less on time throughout the rest of the journey.

The Coryton line is a rather odd single-track branch, just two-and-a-half miles from Heath Junction to the end of the line, but with five intermediate stations. This makes the station rather close: Ty Glas and Birchgrove are just 17 chains (about 340m) apart - the closest two stations in the country. Better yet, the fixed distant board (indicating to the driver to brake) for the end of the line at Coryton is before the penultimate station at Whitchurch!

We returned back through Queen Street and Central before heading on the so-called City Line to Radyr via Ninian Park. The route snakes round the back of Canton depot, affording a good view of all the rusting old locomotives and rolling stock, together with several trains not running that day due to maintenance.

Although the City Line opened in 1859, and is often used as a diversionary route when the "mainline" to Radyr via Llandaff is blocked, the intermediate stations only opened in 1987, since when a stopping service has been provided. We changed at Radyr onto a train to Merthyr Tydfil that had come via Llandaff:

1510 Radyr to Merthyr Tydfil, arr 1601
Headcode: 2M38, operated by Arriva Trains Wales using Pacer 142082*+143605
Distance: 18 miles

Until now, all the lines (except Maesteg) had been suburban, never getting out of the built-up sprawl of Cardiff. But as we headed north on the Merthyr line, the line climbed more and more into the hills, and gradually the suburbs faded into sinewy settlements along the valley floor, with the hills getting larger and barer. This wasn't Cardiff any more: this was the foothills of the Brecon Beacons, and it made for pretty impressive views.

The line itself is double-track up to Abercynon, where the branches to Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare split, each being a single-track line with passing loops to allow a half-hourly service (combining to form an every 15 minutes service from Abercynon south), having been upgraded in 2008 with EU funding (prior to which each branch was just hourly).

The valleys of South Wales were not just powerhouses of industry, but also one of the birthplaces of the Labour movement. The Taff Vale Railway - builders of this line - were the losers in one of the formative labour law cases of the early 20th century, which held that unions could be liable for loss of profits due to strike action. The case lead directly to the formation of the modern Labour Party, and overturning said case was one of the Labour movement's first big achievements.

Merthyr Tydfil itself, in comparison to its beautiful surroundings, is now rather run-down, one of the many victims of the coal mine closures in the 1980s. Where once major industries dominated, derelict factories and run-down towns stand as a legacy of Britain's now-vanquished industrial past. Even the bus station - with 16 stands for a town of 30,000 people! - feels too big for the present day. We didn't have too long to wait for our bus to Rhymney:

1620 Merthyr Tydfil bus station to Rhymney Royal, arr 1653
Bus #3 operated by Stagecoach South Wales
Distance: approx 9 miles

Rather than go all the way back to Cardiff and back up another valley, we got a bus from Merthyr Tydfil to Rhymney, saving ourselves a good hour. Our ticket was (supposedly) valid on the bus, and the driver did accept it - though he seemed a bit bemused by the ticket! The bus ride, partly along the soon-to-be-dualled Heads of the Valleys road, was marked by steep hills and tempting glances northwards into the Brecon Beacons.

After half an hour, we got off by the Royal in Rhymney and wandered down from the town - perched on the valley hillside - to the railway line at the bottom of the valley. We had most of half an hour to wait; with the wind starting to pick up and not much shelter on the platform, we were glad when the train finally arrived, about ten minutes late:

1729 Rhymney to Cardiff Queen St, arr 1824
Headcode: 2P87, operated by Arriva Trains Wales using Pacer 142073+143614*
Distance: 22.75 miles

The reason for the train's late arrival became apparent once we got on: it was running on three out of four engines. On the steep valleys - many of which have long stretches of 1 in 50 - that makes quite a difference. Fortunately, our trip back to Cardiff was downhill!

The line to Rhymney, unlike the line to Merthyr, seemed closer to the valley floor; with the sun now below the tops of the hills, the views were more subdued, but nonetheless very nice. Rhymney itself is a small village, and not until you get to Bargoed do the settlements have any size to them. Slowly but surely, though, as we headed down through Ystrad Mynach and Caerphilly, the Cardiff suburbs - and the darkness - encroached, and we alighted at Queen Street in the dark, with one last train to catch:

1836 Cardiff Queen St to Cardiff Bay, arr 1840
Headcode: 2B20, operated by Arriva Trains Wales using Sprinter 153353
Distance: 1 mile

The Cardiff Bay branch is an odd little line, just a mile long. One train shuttles back and forth between Queen Street and Cardiff Bay, with a round trip every 12 minutes. It wasn't always like this, though: even until 2005, there were some through trains from the valleys into Cardiff Bay.

While the shuttle should be run by the Bubble Car, Arriva's bubble car is out of action for the next few months with a transmission problem. Usually this would see the service replaced by a Pacer, but instead we had a one-car Sprinter making an unusual appearance on the Bay shuttle.

Cardiff Bay, once one of the biggest docks in the world, is by some measures one of the most successful urban regeneration projects in the UK: the docks, largely derelict after the Second World War, have been transformed by the Cardiff Barrage into a large commercial area, with a concert hall, a leisure centre, the Welsh Assembly, and a wide variety of shops and restaurants. Indeed, we had a lovely dinner in Café Rouge, before walking over to our hotel just outside the city centre for the night.

---

Sunday 10th March

After a good night's sleep and a suitably large breakfast in the restaurant adjoining the hotel, we walked leisurely back to Cardiff Central, grabbed some lunch to eat on the train, and headed for our first train. Sunday morning engineering works meant most of the valley lines were shut, with just one remaining open all day:

1130 Cardiff Central to Ebbw Vale Parkway, arr 1229
and
1229 Ebbw Vale Parkway to Cardiff Central, arr 1331
Headcodes: 2N13 and 2F34 resp., operated by Arriva Trains Wales using Sprinter 150279
Distance: 28.75 miles each way

The line to Ebbw Vale reopened in 2008, after 46 years without trains. While once the trains ran to Newport, today's services run to and from Cardiff Central, running along the South Wales Main Line for ten miles, turning off towards Ebbw Vale just a mile short of Newport. Indeed, the trains are explicitly shown on the departure board as not calling at Newport; it's a rather odd situation, but one that's hoped will be improved in the future.

In fact, that those improvements were not part of the line's original opening is now looking questionable. The line is one of rail's great success stories: from nothing they have generated 570,000 journeys per annum on the line, well in excess of the forecast 400,000. Another seven miles of double track would be required to double services to half-hourly, which is looking more and more necessary. That said, that extra track will require something like £17 million - nearly as much as the £28 million it cost to reopen the line in the first place.

The line itself is one of the prettiest in South Wales: the Ebbw Valley is a bit more steep-sided than the others, and the line climbs steeply at 1 in 65 for most of its length, curving sinuously to follow the valley sides. The line ends at Ebbw Vale Parkway, some way outside the town centre, though an extension into the town has also been proposed. The line was pretty quiet on this overcast Sunday morning, but nonetheless busy enough to help explain the line's popularity.

1341 Cardiff Central to Aberdare, arr 1442
and
1454 Aberdare to Pontypridd, arr 1522
Headcode: 2A12 and 2F30 resp., operated by Arriva Trains Wales using Sprinter 150252
Distance: 23.25 miles and 11 miles resp.

Our next train - up the line to Aberdare - involved a touch of déjà vu, on more than one count. For one, we were partially retracing our steps: this time we took the "main line" to Radyr, via Llandaff rather than Ninian Park, but from there we followed the Merthyr line once more, peeling off at Abercynon to turn left and head up the adjacent Cynon valley to Aberdare.

Secondly, the guard on this service was the same guard as on our service to Coryton the previous day - and she recognised us! In fairness, we had had a brief conversation on the train to Coryton, explaining that we didn't care that it was non-stopping everywhere, we just wanted to go to the end of the line and come back. We did exactly the same here, but at least we were changing at Pontypridd...

By now the relative warmth of Saturday had been replaced with a biting easterly wind, bringing a colder, greyer feel to the place: it felt more barren, even if it was just less sunny. Parts of the line to Aberdare felt a little more exposed, being in a slightly more open valley. Aberdare station itself was surrounded by a huge carpark, nearly empty but no doubt well-used by commuters on weekdays driving to the station, which is on the edge of town.

We headed back down the line as far as Pontypridd, one station south of Abercynon. At Pontypridd, a third line peels off to Treherbert. We disembarked and looked in vain for a toilet: the very friendly guard was able to advise us to head to the pub, but with just under fifteen minutes we decided not to risk it.

In a somewhat odd arrangement, we duly went through the ticket barriers, before crossing the footbridge over to the northbound platform, somewhat staggered from the other, and waited in the not-quite-windproof shelter for our final valleys train:

1536 Pontypridd to Treherbert, arr 1610
and
1617 Treherbert to Cardiff Queen St, arr 1714
Headcode: 2T12 and 2Y64 resp., operated by Arriva Trains Wales using Sprinter 150257
Distance: 10.75 miles and 22.5 miles resp.

The line to Treherbert heads west from Pontypridd rather than north, through the more built-up Rhondda valley; while the Aberdare and Merthyr lines had long stretches of open countryside, the line to Treherbert featured just a few glimpses.

In a remarkable symmetry with the Merthyr and Aberdare lines, the line is single track beyond Porth, with a passing loop at Ystrad Rhondda, the alphabetically last station in Britain. On weekdays this permits a half-hourly service. Sundays, however, see a much more limited service on the valleys, with services to each of the extremities of Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr running just once every two hours.

Treherbert is one of only two valleys to have sidings to store trains at the "top", the other being Rhymney: four sidings at Treherbert, and five at Rhymney, mean trains don't have to run up from Cardiff first thing in the morning and back down in the evening. With a commuter network like this, getting people into Cardiff in the morning and back out in the evening is key, making the arrangement somewhat surprising. I guess the capital cost of building sidings in often cramped station areas outweighs the cost of a few empty stock movements.

The train was reasonably well-loaded in both directions, the Sunday afternoon "rush" gradually picking up with people heading home after the weekend. At the end of our weekend in and around Cardiff, we disembarked at Queen Street - more central to the town than Cardiff Central - and wandered into town.

After the remarkably nice and recently redeveloped area of Cardiff Bay, we half-expected the city centre itself to be somewhat run-down, but we were gladly proved wrong, a variety of modern shopping developments making for a modern, clean city centre. We ate a very swift (yet no less enjoyable) meal in Wagamama, being in and out in less than an hour, before walking back to Central to head home.

1845 Cardiff Central to Birmingham New St, arr 2044
Headcode: 1M83, operated by CrossCountry using Turbostar 170115+170114*
Distance: 112 miles

Our train back to Birmingham once again followed the Severn estuary up through Chepstow and Lydney; rather than a hazy daytime view, we instead had a crisp, clear night-time view across the Severn to the northern suburbs of Bristol. Aside from a brief wait outside Newport, the journey was uneventful. By the time we got to Birmingham, our final train had already arrived:

2114 Birmingham New St to Coventry, arr 2144
Headcode: 2Y49, operated by London Midland using Desiro 350130
Distance: 19 miles

Our final train, taking me home to Coventry and Ian to Northampton, put us back on more familiar territory, and brought back a much-missed feature: electric traction. After an entire weekend of noisy diesel units struggling up the steep gradients in the Valleys, I suddenly realised just how much nicer electric trains were when we pulled out of New Street with not much more than a whirr. Not having to raise your voice to make yourself heard is definitely an advantage.

But electric trains have many more advantages, so many that in fact the Valley Lines are set for electrification. By 2020, the whole of the Valley Lines will be electrified, as part of a £9 billion programme of electrification and upgrades to the railway network. Every train we took (except the Birmingham-Cardiff trains) would be electric if we did this again in about seven years' time.

The Cardiff Valleys are perfect for electrification. For one, the hills enable a significant speed and acceleration benefit to be gained by using electric traction, simply because the train doesn't have to haul its own engine up the hill - diesel engines are heavy!

More than that, though, the density of the network means that the ratio between the number of services to be converted to electric traction to the length of wires to be erected is remarkably high, ensuring value for money. The lines are also short enough to not require lots of expensive feeder stations from the National Grid, with probably just one major feed in Cardiff being sufficient.

We had a lovely weekend up and down the valleys, missing out only the Vale of Glamorgan Line, linking Cardiff to Bridgend via Barry. While the line to Barry - with a short spur from there to Barry Island - has always had a frequent passenger service, the last section between Barry and Bridgend was reopened in 2005, with stations at Rhoose (for Cardiff Airport) and Llantwit Major. While not as brilliantly successful as the Ebbw Vale line, the line has nonetheless proved popular.

Ah well, there's always next time...