Ivybridge railway station explained

Ivybridge
Symbol Location:gb
Symbol:rail
Borough:Ivybridge, South Hams
Country:England
Coordinates:50.394°N -3.905°W
Grid Name:Grid reference
Manager:Great Western Railway
Platforms:2
Code:IVY
Classification:DfT category F2
Original:British Rail
Years:First station opened
Events:15 June 1848
Years1:First station closed
Events1:29 November 1965
Years2:Current station opened
Events2:15 July 1994
Footnotes:Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Ivybridge railway station is situated on the Exeter to Plymouth line[1] and serves the town of Ivybridge in Devon, England. It is 234miles down the line from the zero point at, measured via .[2]

History

First station

See main article: Disused railway stations (Exeter to Plymouth Line).

Ivybridge's first station was located at . It was not complete when the South Devon Railway was opened,[3] but was brought into use just six weeks later on 15 June 1848. The building was situated on the north side of the track, immediately to the west of Ivybridge Viaduct.[4] Passenger trains were withdrawn on 2 March 1959 but goods traffic continued until 29 November 1965.[5] [6]

Current station

A new station costing £380,000 was opened east of the viaduct on 15 July 1994 by British Rail under the Regional Railways sector. To fit in the narrow site, the platforms are staggered, with the eastbound platform nearer to Plymouth than the westbound. It was marketed as a Park and Ride station with a large 100-space car park to entice car drivers off the A38 road into Plymouth, but the level of train service has never offered the convenient and frequent service that is normally associated with such facilities.[5]

Services

Current services

Great Western Railway provides a frequent but irregular service pattern on two inter-city routes:[7]

There are also occasional services to and .

Travel times to Plymouth are typically 15 minutes and around 50 minutes to reach Exeter.

Former services

An early timetable[8] shows just two of the ten trains to Plymouth arriving there before 09:00 and the last return train leaving at 21:11. The afternoon service was gradually reduced until by September 1999[9] only 7 trains ran to Plymouth and 9 return. From 20 May 2001,[10] a through service from London Waterloo station was introduced by South West Trains, which resulted in 11 trains each way.

When First Great Western proposed their new Winter 2006 service, there were many complaints as it would have seen a drastic reduction in trains calling at Ivybridge. After considering the position, a total of 9 trains were scheduled by the two companies but with just one train arriving in Plymouth before 09:00.[11]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: National Rail Timetable 135 (Winter 2007). Network Rail. 12 May 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20080227012644/http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse%20documents/eNRT/Dec07/timetables/Table135.pdf. 27 February 2008. dead.
  2. Book: Padgett, David . Munsey . Myles . Railway Track Diagrams 3: Western & Wales . 6th . June 2018 . 1989 . Trackmaps . Frome . 978-1-9996271-0-2 . map 8C .
  3. Book: MacDermot, E T. History of the Great Western Railway, volume II 1863-1921. Great Western Railway. 1931. London.
  4. Book: Cooke, RA. Track Layout Diagrams of the GWR and BR WR, Section 14: South Devon. RA Cooke. 1984. Harwell.
  5. Book: Oakley, Mike. Devon Railway Stations. The Dovecote Press. 2007. Wimbourne. 978-1-904349-55-6 .
  6. Web site: The South Devon Railway. Ivybridge Heritage.
  7. Web site: Great Western Railway . Train Times . 2 June 2024 . 19 August 2024 .
  8. Train Times: Exeter, Torquay, Paignton, Plymouth, 28 May to 23 September 1995, Regional Railways South Wales & West (1995)
  9. Timetable B: Exeter to Torbay & Plymouth, 26 Sept '99 – 27 May '00, Wales and West Passenger Trains Ltd (1999)
  10. Summer Train Times: Exeter to Torbay and Plymouth, 20 May 2001 to 29 September 2001, Wales & West Passenger Trains Ltd (2001)
  11. Train Times: Book B, 10 December 2006 to 19 May 2007, First Great Western (2006)