The Problems Of Upgrading Railways
The East Coast Main Line from Kings Cross to Newcastle and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster and York may be a High Speed Line that allows trains to run at 200 kph. The trouble with the line is that it doesn’t have enough capacity for all the passenger and freight trains that want to use the line.
The French or Spanish would have probably built a new line, but we don’t have the space they do, and it is questionable in this country, if high speed trains are popular with the general public.
But on the East Coast Main Line, there was already a decrepit bypass called the Great Northern Great Eastern Joint Line from Peterborough to Doncaster. I’ve talked about this line before in Project Managers Have Fun In The East.
This article in the Rail Engineer is the story of upgrading that line, so that in particular freight trains can be diverted to free up space on the East Coast Main Line.
The line has been virtually rebuilt, resignalled, level crossing have been removed and stations have been improved, at a cost of around three hundred million pounds.
There is still work to do and in a few years time, the following could have happened.
1. A better connection at the Northern end at Doncaster.
2. A diveunder or flyover at Werrington Junction near Peterborough, to remove a bottleneck.
3. There might even be a direct link across the Fens from Spalding to March. This would allow freight trains between Felixstowe and the North to join or cross the East Coast Main Line at Doncaster.
4. The line might even be electrified, in part to cut the noise of the dreaded Class 66 diesel locomotives.
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