Reports from the North Devon Line Promotion Group tell me that the 07:23 from Barnstaple to Exeter has so many passengers wanting to use it that there isn't room for them all, and coaches are being laid on direct from Barnstaple to Exeter Central to carry many of the student passengers who have planned to use the train.

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I have restrained myself from adding armchair comment from afar onto their social media - but I can't help seeing an irony in a "promotion group" having helped promote a service to the extent it is broken.

 
Unless someone else is paying GWR don't invest in the southwest.

 

But in the dying days (months, years) of a franchise / management contract, would not any company with shareholders take the same view of investment?

 

Of course they would.

 
If, as seems obviously to be the case, this overcrowding is associated with one particular service how difficult would it be to provide an adequate number of coaches to deal with the passenger demand?

A brief look at RTT indicates that the service, 0612 from EXD, is generally run with 2 x 150's or one of a 3-car 158, 165/1 or 166/2. Each of which provides, according to t'interweb, 294, 207, 276 or 288 seats respectively. I have no idea by how much the passenger count could be increased by adopting the Japanese approach to standing passengers!

Possible solutions  & Questions:
Recast early morning rolling stock allocations, cancelling a lightly used local service if such a thing exists, so that the 'out & back' service is run with 6 cars and seating capacity is increased to 441, 414, 552 or 576. Does the infrastructure permit 6 car trains? Does GWR have enough early morning on-train staff to allow paired 165/166 services.

Run the service using an IET! Are IET's even cleared over the Tarka Line? - the web computer says 'No'. A 5-Car 802/0 would be pointless as it only provides 326 seats (if 1st is binned); a 9-Car 802/1 - 647 seats - would do the business. But could it keep to the timetable?

Run an additional service roughly 30 minutes earlier or later, or possibly even both, which I guess should be doable with passes at Crediton and Eggesford, to spread the demand. Survey potential passengers to establish which train they would definitely have to use to get to Exeter at their required time and , if necessary, implement queueing at BNP to stop overcrowding - GWR must know the absolute number of pax each type of stock can safely carry.