Improvements To The East Coast Main Line Through West Yorkshire
This article in Rail Technology Magazine is entitled West Yorkshire to agree £3bn ‘whole route ethos’ investment in ECML.
The article doesn’t go into much detail, but it does explain how a lot of work is needed not only to improve London to Newcastle and |Edinburgh times, but to accommodate high speed services across the North of England.
Looking at the East Coast Main Line on Wikipedia, throws up these improvements.
- Creation of a platform 0 at Doncaster station, which was completed in December 2016.
- Improvements through York station.
- South of Newcastle to Northallerton (which is also predominately double track), leading to proposals to reopen the Leamside line to passenger and freight traffic.
- Electrification of Northallerton to Middlesbrough.
- Electrification the line between Leeds and York (Neville Hill Depot to Colton Junction) as a diversionary route and a route for Liverpool to Newcastle services via Manchester and Leeds.
- Upgrade the line for 140 mph running under ERMTS.
I also think that the Treasury-specified economy electrification should be upgraded to a modern standard. They didn’t make much of a saving as upgrading the line to a modern standard will cost £1.3billion.
Hopefully, these improvements will allow London to Edinburgh in four hours.
Also helping with this goal is the project announced in this article on the Rail Magazine web site, which is entitled NR seeks fourth track north of Huntingdon. The article indicates that this work together with improvements at Werrington Junction, which I wrote about in To Dive Or Fly At Werrington, would improve capacity on the East Coast Main Line.
Driver Only Train Operation In Yorkshire
One of my readers has just sent me this story from the Yorkshire Post, which is entitled Commuter chaos in Yorkshire after train driver leaves conductor behind.
No-one seems to have been hurt in this demonstration of Driver Only Operation, so perhaps as a matter of honour, the RMT should look at more efficient ways of train operation.
Trump Shoots The Messenger
This article on the BBC is entitled Trump sacks defiant acting attorney general.
This is said.
Donald Trump has fired the acting US attorney general, after she questioned the legality of his immigration ban.
I think that the only winners on this spat will be American lawyers.
Should Brexit Mean A Return To £sd?
Why not?
I wouldn’t have a problem, as I honed my £sd skills in a pub, where a bottle of Guinness was one shilling and eight pence or three for five shillings.
Those were the days!
The Anonymous Widower 