Connection for Looe

In my review of the National Rail Timetable ( RAIL 844), regarding Table 140 I said that there were changes on the Looe branch to match the revisions on the main line, and that one outcome was that “the first daytime arrival from Paddington is now 1040, the earliest in history”.

I’m afraid I was wrong, and didn’t check the connection carefully enough. The 0633 from Paddington arrives Liskeard at 1010 and the Looe train leaves at 1012, but it isn’t a connection as six minutes is required at Liskeard - quite understandably, given the walk over the bridge and down to the bay platform.

I asked my Great Western Railway contact if the Looe timetable could be tweaked a little - perhaps with request stops moved to another service to save a few minutes - but it seems this is unlikely and the only way is to get the Paddington service into Liskeard by 1006.

Oddly it waits, at Plymouth from 0933 until 0945, so merely reducing the wait here to eight minutes would solve the problem, and it seems to have no clash on the single line over the Saltash Bridge. But until it’s sorted, I’m afraid the connection at Liskeard involves a wait from 1010 until 1115, with an 1144 arrival. Most disappointing.

Finally, I failed to point out that trains over the Ordsall Chord appear in Table 41, but only as footnotes saying “from or to Manchester Oxford Road”. It’s hardly a good way to advertise such an important new link.