The Anonymous Widower

An Automated Shuttle Train On The Slough-Windsor & Eton Line

The Slough-Windsor & Eton Line has the following features.

• It is 2.5 miles long.
• It is single-track.
• It is not electrified
• Trains on the route are two- or three-car diesel trains.
• There is a single platform station at either end with no intermediate stations.
• The service frequency is three tph.
• Trains take six minutes to go between the two terminals.

The service on this line, can get exceedingly full and needs greater capacity.

To run the ideal four tph, trains would need do a round trip between Slough and Windsor & Eton Central in fifteen minutes.

If we assume that the two end stops take a total of three minutes, then that leaves just twelve minutes to cover the five miles of the round trip.

This is an average speed of 25 mph.

As with the Greenford Branch, I think that an appropriate train would be able to run an automated shuttle, with a frequency of four tph.

The train (or tram-train) would have the following features.

• It would be battery-powered
• It would have an operating speed of perhaps fifty mph.
• It would have fast acceleration and deceleration.
• It would have three- or four-cars.

The only infrastructure works that would be needed, would be to provide a fast charging station at Slough station.

February 19, 2019 - Posted by AnonW | Energy Storage, Transport/Travel | Automated Shuttle Train, Slough Station, Slough-Windsor & Eton Line, Windsor And Eton Central Station