Tarbock Island Or Halewood South Station?
This document on the Merseytravel web site is their plan of what they would like to do in the future and when it talks about new stations on the Lines between Liverpool and Manchester, it always talks about a station at Tarbock Island or Halewood South.
I suspect the main purpose is to create a Parkway station, soi that cars and their passengewrs can come into the City using the rail system rather than their vehicles.
Tarbock Island Station
This Google Map shows the are around Tarbock Island, where the M62 Motorway from the East meets the Liverpool Orbital Motorway; the M57.
The Liverpool to Mainchester Railway is across the top of the map, with stations from West to East aqs follows.
There used to be a fourth station in the area. Huyton Quarry station which was possibly on a loop from the main line.
Looking at the map, it will be a difficult exercise to find space for a station to connect to the centre of Liverpool.
Halewood South Station
This Google Map shows the area around the bottom of the Knowsley Expressway.
There are two East-West rail lines and the A 562 from the Silver Jubilee Bridge over the Mersey.
Bridges Across The Mersey
This area is going to get very busy with road traffic, when the Mersey Gateway opens in late 2017.
But that bridge is going to have a toll, as will the existing crossing.
The issues surrounding the tolls are discussed in this article on the BBC, which was written before the 2015 General Election.
Conclusions
So would a Halewood South station be a good idea?
There are just so many issues.
And which of the two stations will be built?
Merseyrail has an interesting problem!
A Station At Hadley
Hadley is a possible station in Telford.
This Google Map shows the area around Hadley.
There are two railway lines in the area, both of which had Hadley stations in the past.
- The Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury Line goes across the map from Wellington station in the West to Oakengates station in the East. New Hadley Halt station was on this line.
- There is also a short single-track line on the route of the Stafford to Shrewsbury Line, that leads in a North-Easterly direction to the Telford International Railfreight Park. Hadley station was on this line.
As the single-track line doesn’t go past the Railfreight Park, it would appear that the new station will be built on the Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury Line.
Ironically, New Hadley Halt shation closed the day after Telford Central station opened.
British Rail didn’t seem to have the word future-proofing in their vocabulary.
Stations Between Mossley Hill And Edge Hill In Liverpool
Greenbank Park and Wavertree have been named as possible station on this route.
I can’t find any reference to a new station at Greenbank Park on the Internet.
This document on the Merseytravel web site is their plan of what they would like to do and it has no mention.
Wavertree station did exist until the 1950s.
At University, I visited the area a lot and even lived in a Hall of Residence by Greenbank Park. I also proposed to C, close to the Park.
This Google Map shows the area.
Note the four-track railway passing to the East of the area, which is actually crossed by the iconic Penny Lane.
- Two fast lines take expresses to and from Liverpool Lime Street.
- Two slow lines handle the slower trains.
- Trains generally stop on the fast lines at Mossley Hill and West Allerton stations.
- There are no stations between Mossley Hill and Edge Hill.
It looks to me, that it is not an efficient way to run a railway and Merseyrail’s preferred four trains an hour (tph) frequency would be impossible.
This diagram from Wikipedia, shows the lines in the area.
Note how between Mossley Hill and Edge Hill stations, there used to be Sefton Park and Wavertree stations.
- As Greenbank Park and Wavertree stations have been named as possible stations, it would only be recreating the same philosophy as when the line was built.
- I suspect that no station would be created at Penny Lane, as it would attract too many tourists. But Greenmbank Park would be a short walk.
- Surely, the local trains would run on the slow lines, to avoid delaying the expresses.
- Services on the fast lines would only stop at Edge Hill and Liverpool South Parkway.
- Four tph would certainly be possible with Merseyrail’s new trains between Lime Street and Liverpool South Parkway.
- Services might even be able to access Liverpool Airport running as trams, as I believe they can.
Edge Hill station has never been fully developed for passenger services.
- There are tunnels from the station to stations at Liverpool Riverside and Crown Street.
- Crown Street station might be reopened to serve the flagship development at Paddington Village.
- Proposals exist for a station at Kings Dock linked to Edge Hill via the Wapping Tunnel.
- Trains can access the Canada Dock Branch from the station.
- The station has connections to Manchester, Preston, Warrington and Wigan.
Could Edge Hill be developed as a satellite station for Lime Street, just as Stratford is for Liverpool Street in London?
A Station At Great Cornard
I can’t find anything about a possible station at the village of Great Cornard.
This is a Google Map of the area.
Note Sudbury station at the top of the map from where the Gainsborough Line turns South along the course of the River Stour towards Bures and Marks Tey.
A single-platform station at Great Cornard would seem to be a feasible proposition from an engineering point of view.
It could provide a valuable commuter and leisure route to Colchester and London, especially, if as I suspect Greater Anglia will run trains between Sudbury and Colchester Town via Marks Tey and Colchester.
The train company are probably analysing various scenarios concerning a new station at Great Cornard.
A Station At Doncaster Sheffield Airport
This article on the Doncaster Free Press is entitled Plans for £150m train station for Doncaster Sheffield Airport.
To say the plans put forward by the Peel Group, who are the owners of Doncaster Sheffield Airport are ambitious would be an understatement, but they do seem sound.
The plan would see the East Coast Main Line diverted closer to the Airport, where a station would be provide. Kings Cross would be within 90 minutes.
This Google Map shows Doncaster Sheffield Airport.
Note that the East Coast Main Line crosses the map starting in the North-West corner and then going through the village of Rossington and past the Northern Racing College.
I suspect that the Airport have done their homework and that the plan is well-thought out and feasible.
- It would create a well-connected Airport for everybody between Stevenage and Newcastle.
- The East Coast Main Line between Doncaster and Retford has a lot of double-track. A loop must give scope for separating freight and slow traffic from high speed trains.
- With modern trains like the Class 801 trains, a stop at the Airport will not slow services like a stop of an InterCity 125 would.
- As in the future, we’re looking at up to four trains per hour between London and Newcastle, surely, a high speed line through Doncaster without any other traffic would be an advantage.
In some ways, the fact that all this is possible, is down to the foresight of the Victorian engineers of the Great Northern Railway, who designed a route for high speed.
It should also be stated that Doncaster Sheffield Airport has air cargo ambitions.
Consider.
- It has a massive runway, that was able to accept the Space Shuttle in an emergency.
- The airport has lots of space for cargo terminals.
- The largest cargo planes, that exist only in the minds of Airbus and Boeing engineers would be welcome.
- The Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway, which is a major freight route between the South East and the North passes the airport.
- Plans exist to create a network of high speed package carrying trains. I’d use Doncaster Shjeffield Airport as a hub.
- Amazon already fly freight to and from the Airport. Deliveries could leave the United States in the evening and be in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Manchester for a morning delivery.
It looks like the Peel Group have a plan to create a transport interchange for both passengers and freight for a cost of millions, not billions. But it were to be worth spending billions, I’m certain that they can obtain it.
Borders Railway Tourist Impact Revealed
The title of this post is the same as this article on the BBC web site.
This is said.
New data has shown a “significant improvement” in tourism levels after the opening of the Borders Railway.
The Scottish Tourism Economic Assessment Monitor (STEAM) statistics compared the first half of 2016 to the same period the year before.
It is the first time in 10 years that every category saw improvement.
The company which produces STEAM data said the most likely source for the rise in tourism activity in the Borders and Midlothian was the railway.
Perhaps now the Department of Transport and the Treasury will believe that funding well-designed schemes is very much worthwhile.
Eduardo Paolozzi At Tottenham Court Road Tube Station
Eduardo Paolozzi‘s mosaics are now back in Tottenham Court Road tube station.
This article on Global Rail News describes how they were installed.
It’s a pity, that there are not more to cover the new white walls, which are there because the station has been expanded for Crossrail.
Vivarail Lays Out Action Plan As Faulty Repair Work To Blame For Train Fire
The title of this post is the title of an article on the Rail Technology Magazine web site.
This is the first paragraph.
Vivarail has released its full report on the Class 230 test train fire that took place over the festive period, concluding that the cause of the fire was due to a fuel leak in one of the train’s gensets, likely caused during recent repair work.
I have no experience of diesel engine design, except what I picked up, when Cummins were a customer., where they used my software to analyse production and testing statistics.
But fuel leaks do happen and normally, they don’t cause fires.
I can remember Cummins being very strict about any leaks of sll sorts on their engines.
Vivarail Reveals Hybrid Train
This is the title of this article on the Rail Magazine web site.
Vivarail have said that battery-powered and diesel hybrid versions have entered development.
This is probably sensible given the way that train design seems to be going.
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.
The Anonymous Widower 