A new station for Exeter. Just don’t try buying a ticket to travel there.

Thursday 6th July 2023

Marsh Barton is not the most exciting new station to open on the network in recent years.

Located just under two-and-a-half miles due south of central Exeter, not far from Exeter St Thomas station on the main line west towards Plymouth, the station was officially opened on Monday by Secretary of State for Transport Mark Harper with trains calling there from Tuesday.

It’s one of those very basic unstaffed modular affairs with no station buildings. Each of its two platforms is capable of taking a five coach train and comes with just one shelter…

…. with a mixture of aluminium style seats and one of those perch type things. I love the fact the official description says the seats come “with arm rests” proving the writer has obviously never sat on one.

Four sets of four seats are spread along the rest of the platform …

… while each shelter houses a ticket vending machine.

There are cycle racks at the entrance to each platform ….

… with ten docking ‘hoops’ in each….

… as well as noticeboards on which it’s good to see a full timetable displayed for the line.

Each platform also has a next train departure sign …

… and a summary display by the entrance.

A help point and smartcard reader completes the limited facilities.

And that’s it.

Not much for £16 million but the main cost was almost certainly the new pedestrian and cycle over-bridge with ramps to make each platform accessible and negating the need for lifts.

This has been constructed at the northern end of the platforms alongside Clapperbrook Lane East …

… which links the station to the large Marsh Barton industrial and warehouse type retail area – the main reason the station’s been built.

Vehicle access to the station is via a new access road from Clapperbrook Lane East but there’s no car park as it’s not envisaged people will drive to the station, being some distance from a residential area and an inappropriate location for a ‘parkway’ station. There are just a few blue badge ‘disabled’ bays.

As you can see the station is overshadowed by a giant refuse and incinerator plant – or to give it it’s official name – “Exeter Energy Recovery Facility” with dustcarts its regular visitors.

It certainly provides for an interesting aroma in the area.

Funding for the station has come from the DfT’s New Stations Fund (£3m), Devon County Council (£3m), Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership’s Growth Deal Fund (£4.4m), Exeter City Council (£1.3m), Teignbridge District Council (£1.3m), Network Rail and GWR.

It was built by a construction company called GRAHAM on behalf of Network Rail.

The new station receives hourly GWR trains (with a couple of peak hour extras) on the ‘Riviera Line’ between Exmouth, Exeter and Paignton and as well as access to nearby industry and retail, planners have said it’ll “boost active travel via the nearby Riverside Valley Park and Exe Estuary Trail”.

New bus stops have been installed in nearby Grace Road which are served by the 20 minute ‘Green’ Park & Ride bus route …

…. but I can’t imagine much interchange taking place and neither it seems does Network Rail as the Onward Travel Information poster …

… fails to identify them and instead points to the original nearest bus stops which are now further away. Would you know which stop to wait at for a rail replacement bus?

Not surprisingly local politicians behind the project are relieved the long wait for the station to open is finally over. It should have originally been up and running in December 2016 but difficulties and spiralling costs leading to protracted discussions between local councils and Network Rail led to considerable delays.

Back in May 2014 the expected cost was quoted at £4.3 million, increasing to £10.4 million in 2016 and rising to £13m in 2018. As highlighted above the eventual cost became almost four times that original expectation at £16 million. (Just a reminder…. that’s for two platforms, two shelters, two bike racks, two TVMs, four times four seats, four departure signs and two smartcard readers – and a new pedestrian over-bridge and access ramps, oh, and station signs I suppose too).

The County Council blames changes to Network Rail’s design standards for the increases maintaining that “at the time of the tender preparation and scheme design, the station met Network Rail’s design standards as agreed by the steering group (which includes Network Rail). However, following the award of the contract to design and build the station, Network Rail’s design standards changed, and thIs has led to rising costs.”

Looking at the design standards of what’s been installed I came away distantly underwhelmed.

Construction work finally got underway in April 2021 after planning permission was granted in January that year, and now, just over two years on, it was smiles all round for the cameras and a love-in of stakeholder mutual congratulations with recriminations about increased costs seemingly all forgotten when the ribbon was cut at the official opening for the media and stakeholders on Monday.

With trains now calling at the opened station, aspirations for a much coveted ‘metro style’ rail service in Devon have taken another step forward.

It’s just a shame with all the build up to the opening over the last nine years no one thought to make sure passengers could actually buy a ticket to travel to and from it on the Great Western mainline either by using (an endangered) ticket office, a ticket vending machine (TVM), an app or going online which after all, the latter, are the ways we’re being told we must use.

The only tickets available from the south east of England were via Honiton, Clapham Junction, Southampton and Salisbury with nothing available to/from Paddington on the main line via Taunton.

I tried the TVM at my local station, Hassocks on Tuesday morning. No joy.

I tried Hassocks ticket office and Craig had the same problem forcing me to buy a separate ticket to Victoria.

I tried the TVM at Paddington. No joy. It didn’t even recognise Marsh Barton existed.

The queue in Paddington’s ticket office was far too long and I’d have missed my train (so much for ticket offices being underused), so I tried the GWR app. No joy.

I tried the GWR website. No joy.

In the end I resorted to buying a ticket from the TVM as far as Exeter St Davids which is the same fare as Marsh Barton.

On arrival at Exeter St Davids I tried the TVM there to buy a ticket to Marsh Barton (two stations away) but, as with Paddington, it didn’t even recognise the station name.

I asked at the ticket office what the problem was but the member of staff didn’t know of one and issued me with a supplement “Overdistance” ticket from Exeter St Davids to Marsh Barton at no charge.

On arrival at Marsh Barton I tried to buy a ticket back to Hassocks but it wouldn’t offer me one via Taunton, only the aforementioned options via Salisbury etc but at least it defaulted to off-peak tickets this time.

I bet Secretary of State Mark Harper didn’t have these problems on Monday.

I understand the same issues arose when Okehampton reopened. You’d have thought with that experience, at one of the project management meetings overseeing Marsh Barton’s construction and opening someone at GWR would have said…

“Hey everyone remember we messed up by not getting tickets available in the system ready for the opening of Okehampton – let’s make sure we don’t make the same mistake again at Marsh Barton. Especially having spent £16 million on the pretty limited facilities there. Let’s at least make sure we don’t appear total incompetents by passengers not being able to buy tickets on day one”.

It seems not.

There’s a trio of new stations about to open – Headbolt Lane on Merseyside on 24th July** and Thanet Parkway in Kent on 31st July while GWR’s next opening is Portway Parkway near Bristol in a few weeks. Maybe, just maybe, passengers will be able to buy a ticket to it.

**Update: it turns out Headbolt Lane is not opening on 24th July – more likely in October.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS