Will Chiltern Connect Oxford To London On December The 12th 2016?
This article on the Eailway Gazette web site is entitled Tracklaying completed for Chiltern to Oxford.
|So that’s another hurdle jumped and there are probably others like a platform at Oxford station.
But everybody seems hopeful!
I shall be there on the twelfth.
If it all works out fine, I think that Chiltern opening to Oxford on time and on budget, it could set a very worthwhile precedent.
So where will be the next smaller project to be set in motion?
- Camp Hill Line in Birmingham
- Coventry-Leamington Line
- Hall Farm Curve in Walthamstow
Who knows? But if the Chiltern extension gets loaded with passengers, there could be a lot of bandwagon jumping.
I
Extending Crossrail To Gravesend
When I started to write Along The North Kent Line, I didn’t think that my conclusions would involve Crossrail.
I was wrong, so I’ve decided to write about extending Crossrail to Gravesend as a separate post.
Crossrail to Gravesend
Under Future in the Wikipedia entry for Gravesend station, this is said.
In December 2008, the local authority for Gravesend (Gravesham Council), was formally requested by Crossrail and the Department for Transport, to sanction the revised Crossrail Safeguarding. This safeguarding provides for a potential service extension, from the current south of Thames terminus at Abbey Wood, to continue via the North Kent Line to Gravesend station. The Crossrail route extension from Abbey Wood to Gravesend and Hoo Junction, remains on statute. With current services from Gravesend to London Bridge, Waterloo East and London Charing Cross being supplemented by highspeed trains from the end of 2009 to St Pancras, the potential in having Crossrail services from central London, London Heathrow, Maidenhead and/or Reading, terminating at Gravesend, would not only raise the station to hub status but greatly contribute towards the town’s regeneration.
So it would appear that the route is safeguarded to Gravesend and Hoo Junction and it remains on statute.
Current Services At Gravesend
At present, Gravesend station has the following typical Off Peak service.
- 2 trains per hour (tph) Highspeed services in each direction between London St. Pancras, Ebbsfleet International and Faversham and the East.
- 2 tph Southeastern services between London Charing Cross and Gillingham.
- 4 tph Southeastern services between London Charing Cross and Gravesend.
From 2019, Thameslink are saying that they will be running two tph between Rainham and Luton via Dartford and Greenwich.
This will mean that eight tph in each direction will go between Gravesend and Dartford, with another two tph going between Gravesend and Ebbsfleet International.
Because of the new Thameslink service, the train frequency between Gravesend and Gillingham will increase from the current four tph to six tph.
Gravesend As A Crossrail Terminal
I think that although Gravesend will be the nominated terninal for Crossrail, the trains will actually reverse direction at Hoo Junction, so there will be no need to use any platform space at Gravesend to prepare the train for its return journey.
Gravesend and Hoo Junction, will work very much like London Bridge and Cannon Street, where trains call at the first station and are reversed at the latter. Hoo Junction would just be a depot and a set of sidings.
I also think that the facilities at Hoo Junction could be built with minimal electrification, as the Crossrail Class 345 trains may have enough onboard energy storage to handle movement in depots and remote wake-up, which I discussed in Do Bombardier Aventras Have Remote Wake-Up?.
Class 345 trains have an auto-reverse ability which I talked about in Crossrail Trains Will Have Auto-Reverse. Will this be used to turn the trains at Hoo?
Crossrail’s Service To Abbey Wood
At present, Wikipedia is saying this will be the Morning Peak Crossrail service from Abbey Wood station.
- 4 tph to Heathrow Terminal 4
- 6 tph to Paddington
- 2 tph to West Drayton
With this Off Peak service.
- 4 tph to Heathrow Terminal 4
- 4 tph to Paddington
This gives totals of 12 tph in the Peak and 8 tph in the Off Peak.
Crossrail Frequency To Gravesend
What the current North Kent Line can handle would probably determine how many Crossrail trains travel to Gravesend and Hoo Junction.
But Crossrail won’t be short of seats to really provide a superb service to and from the Gravesend.
I think that 4 tph could probably be fitted into the timetables between Abbey Wood and Gravesend. This would give.
- 10 tph between Abbey Wood and Dartford
- 12 tph between Dartford and Gravesend.
Six of the trains between Abbey Wood and Gravesend would be the two hundred metro long trains of Crossrail and Thameslink.
As the signalling is all new, I suspect that the line could cope.
The service level does generate some questions.
- Would Thameslink need to run a twelve-car train on the Rainham to Luton service?
- Dartford is a big winner, so will the other services from Dartford be re-routed?
- How many services would stop at Greenhithe for Bluewater?
- How would Crossrail’s Western destinations be allocated between Abbey Wood and Gravesend?
Connecting To Ebbsfleet International
I think it is essential that Crossrail connects to Continental train services and as the cross-London line goes nowhere near to St. Pancras, the connection must be made at either the draughty Stratford International or the truly dreadful Ebbsfleet International.
Talk about choosing the lesser of two evils, one of which; Stratford, should but doesn’t have Continental services!
So the connection between the Crossrail, Thameslink and the North Kent Line and Ebbsfleet International must be improved.
Possible connections could be.
- A shuttle bus from Northfleet station.
- A decent people mover or travellator from Northfleet station
- A shuttle bus from Gravesend.
- More train services from Gravesend.
There is of course the option of creating a proper rail link. But that would be expensive.
I think that as the number of trains stopping at Northfleet station will be somewhere around ten tph in each direction, a frequent shuttle bus might be a good option to start with.
The problem with the trains, is that there is only two tph between Gravesend and Ebbsfleet International.
Building The Crossrail Extension
I have a feeling that once Crossrail is running successfully, the traffic will define, if, when and how any extension to Gravesend is built.
But the creation of the extension to Gravesend and Hoo Junction will not be a massive undertaking.
- The depot and other facilities at Hoo Junction will have to be built.
- Could the depot at Hoo Junction be without electrification? If the Class 345 trains have sufficient onboard energy storage, which I believe could be the case and I wrote about in Bombardier’s Plug-and-Play Train, then this is a serious possibility, which would save money and time in building the depot.
- All platforms are probably long enough for the Class 345 trains.
- The Crossrail train specification says that trains must have the potential to be converted for third rail operation. The similar Class 710 trains will have this capability.
- Judging by my observations in Between Abbey Wood And Belvedere Stations, I feel that Abbey Wood station is probably capable of handling the same number of trains as it is planned on opening, even if some go further down the line.
- The signalling would have to be adjusted for the new service pattern. But thre signalling has been upgraded!
But there would be no tunnelling and no major electrification on the North Kent Line.
Perhaps, the only major expenses would be.
- Building the depot/reversing sidings and facilities at Hoo Junction.
- Any extra trains needed.
- The cost of any rail link into Ebbsfleet International station.
So I doubt, we’ll be talking large numbers of billions.
Related Posts
A Design Crime – Ebbsfleet International Station
Between Abbey Wood And Belvedere Stations
Connecting North Kent And The Medway Towns To Ebbsfleet International Station
GTR’s 2018 Timetable Consultation
These are the various documents detailed on this page of their web site.
- Timetable Consultation Document
- Great Northern Metro
- Great Northern Mainline
- Central London to Bedford
- Southern Metro, Wimbledon Loop and West London Line
- Brighton Mainline, Arun Valley, West and East Coastway
- Redhill and Oxted
- Kent Thameslink
By the way, don’t try and fill in the survey, it’s a total waste of time.
My Links To Thameslink
Thameslink is a railway, I don’t use much these days, as getting to stations is not that easy, since London Bridge was taken off the route, by the rebuilding.
St. Pancras is an absolute pain of a station to use, as the station was designed by a sadist with long tunnels from the deep-level Underground lines.
Farringdon is a better interchange going South, as it is step-free from the Westbound Metropolitan Line, which I take from Whitechapel after using the East London Line from Dalston Junction. But going North coming home from Farringdon is not easy.
City Thameslink is a bit of a walk from the 56 bus, which stops by my house.
Blackfriars is not the easiest station to get to from my area.
These are my thoughts about using Thameslink after about 2018, when the Great Northern Metro is open with its new Class 717 trains.
My Link To Thameslink Going North
Living where I do approximately midway between Highbury and Islington, Dalston Junction and Essex Road stations, getting to some major rail termini can be difficult and if I was taking a case with me, I would have to use a bus or taxi.
I tend to avoid Highbury and Islington station going out, as the station and its environs is in desperate need of a rebuild and to get say to the Victoria Line for Kings Cross is a long and difficult walk from the bus stop and through the maze of roads and tunnels to the platform.
But with Essex Road station having a frequent bus service from the stop nearest my house and a 10 tph connection to Finsbury Park, that will be my route to get to Thameslink going North to Cambridge or Peterborough.
I don’t think I’ll be alone, in using the Great Northern Metro to get access to Thameslink to go North.
My Link To Thameslink Going South
I have a choice of routes to go South on Thameslink.
- I could take the same route as for going North, but the interchange at Finsbury Park is a dreaded down and upper.
- I can take a 141 or 21 bus to London Bridge station. I regularly use this route coming home, but going South is dreadfully slow through Bank.
- I can take a 38/56 bus to the Angel and get the Northern Line to London Bridge.
- I can take a 56 bus to St. Bartholomews Hospital and walk downhill to Farringdon station.
- I can take a train from Dalston Junction to Canada Water and then use the Jubilee Line.
- Don’t suggest the Victoria Line to St. Pancras as the walk in the depressing tunnel at Kings Cross is to be avoided at all costs.
- Don’t suggest a 30 bus to St. Pancras, as it requires a long walk through the busy Shopping Centre at St. Pancras because Thameslink doesn’t have a much needed Southern entrance.
- I could always go via Essex Road and Finsbury Park.
I actually would like to take a train from Dalston Junction to say New Cross Gate for East Croydon and get Thameslink or the myriad Southbound services from there.
But the new proposed timetable for 2018, would seem to make that an more difficult dream, unless I wanted to wait for a long time on say Norwood Junction station.
Conclusion
Going North is easy, but as they don’t serve the \greater East London, GTR treat us with contempt and make it difficult for us to use Thameslink easily, if we’re going South.
A Trip To Sheppey
Yesterday, I went to Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey.
These are pictures from the trip.
It was a change to go to the island for a walk by the sea, as normally in the past, I’d gone for a funeral of some of my late wife’s relatives.
Related Posts
A Design Crime – Ebbsfleet International Station
Between Abbey Wood And Belvedere Stations
Connecting North Kent And The Medway Towns To Ebbsfleet International Station
Sittingbourne Station
Sittingbourne station is the next major station after Rainham station, as you go East on the Chatham Main line.
It doesn’t want for much more, as it has three long platforms, a step-free footbridge and most of the things a good station needs.
It is the station that connects the Sheerness Line to the Chatham Main Line.
So would it be a better idea to run the Thameslink service to Sittingbourne instead of Rainham?
The trains could even co-ordinate with the shuttle train to Sheerness.
It is a possibility, but Sittingbourne has five trains per hour (tph) going into London and they all pass over the bottleneck of the the level crossing at Rainham station.
I discuss this more in What Do You Do With A Problem Like Sheppey?
What Do You Do With A Problem Like Sheppey?
I enjoyed my trip yesterday to Sheerness, that I wrote about in A Trip To Sheppey.
It was a change to go to the island for a walk by the sea, as normally in the past, I’d gone for a funeral of some of my late wife’s relatives.
As someone, who partly grew up in Felixstowe, a lot of what I saw was all too familiar.
Sheerness station has some good points.
- It is a short walk from the sea front.
- It has two platforms, that can take eight-car trains.
- The service of two trains per hour (tph) to Sittingbourne station is adequate in terms of frequency, but possibly not capacity.
- The junction with the Chatham Main Line allows trains to go to Sittingbourne or the Medway Towns and London.
- There are a few direct trains to and from London in the Peak.
- The staff I met, were welcoming and competent.
But the station is pitifully short of facilities and if ever there was a station that needed an imaginative makeover it is Sheerness station.
Felixstowe station was a similar basket case and they converted it into a mini-shopping centre. At least Sheerness has a decent train service, which is twice the frequency and four times the capacity of the rail service between Ipswich and Felixstowe.
Sheerness itself has the air of a town that has seen better days, which I’ve seen in places like Blackpool, Felixstowe, Hastings, Redcar and Yasrmouth in the past and also in the last few years.
As a coeliac, I didn’t find anywhere that could sell me a gluten-free meal, so lunch was just a banana and the worst cup of tea, I’ve ever been served in the UK.
But is help at hand?
This article in Rail Magazine is entitled Maynard cites importance of rail links to coastal towns talks about how the new Rail Minister thinks good rail links to coastal towns are important.
When I was staying with my parents in Felixstowe in the early 1960s, because there were only a few trains a day, I felt trapped and usually stayed at our other house in London.
So I know how it feels to have poor rail links to coastal towns, which often lack the facilities people need.
Good rail links also attract visitors and visitors these days, often come with those two space-eaters on trains; buggies and bicycles.
But it’s not just coastal towns that have this problem, it’s also branch lines that go into scenic countryside too.
Improving The Train Service To The Coast And The Hills
Coastal and hill towns like Sheerness and others like Blackpool, Clitheroe, Colne, Cromer, Felixstowe, Harwich, Walton-on-the-Naze and Yarmouth, often have rail services with a variety of needs.
- Leisure traffic with lots of buggies and bicycles.
- Commuter traffic in the peaks.
- Daytime shoppers.
- Evening travellers going to and from the cinema, theatre and nightlife of the bigger towns.
As many coastal towns are in flat country, many travellers might be easily tempted to ride to the station.
I’ve not seen any figures, but I suspect that passenger numbers are strongly driven by the weather and events.
This leads me to the belief that coastal towns need a turn-up-and-go service to the local major town or city, using a train designed for the job.
The Leisure/Commuter Train
We need a properly-designed train, that caters for the needs of leisure and commuter traffic.
- Probably four-cars with the usual facilities.
- Lots of space for bicycles and buggies.
- Preferably with the capacity to travel perhaps fifty kilometres without electrification.
Something like most later Electrostars and the new Aventras could be suitably configured.
The current configuration of say a Class 375/377/379/397 Electrostar does not satisfy the need of the difficult mixed market, as it is geared to taking lots of commuters to and from work.
In the case of the Sheerness Line, which is electrified, a couple of Class 377 trains would be ideal for modification for the market. I suspect, that they may even be in Southeastern’s plans to run these trains on the line, when they receive a few more from GTR.
Designed properly, it would also be good for commuting to the nearer major towns.
Improving The Service To Sheerness
Although current figures probably show that two-car trains running with a frequency of 2 tph is sufficient and that if they were four-car trains, they certainly would be, I would think that if there were four tph serving Sheerness, that this would be a traffic magnet par excellence.
One of the problems is that I suspect many of the travellers from the Sheerness Line want to go to to Sittingbourne for work, leisure or family reasons.
As trains going direct to London or the Medway Towns from Sheerness can’t easily call at Sittingbourne, a train going from Sheerness to Rochester would have to reverse at Sittingbourne. This would not be ideal.
So perhaps the solution would be to keep the shuttle at 2 tph and add a second service from Sheerness that goes west on the Chatham Main Line.
The problem of going West is where do you turn the train.
The line from Sittingbourne to Gravesend carries about 8 tph and as none of the stations have an Eastward facing bay platform,, no-one is going to want a shuttle from Sheerness interrupting the long distance traffic.
In my view, there are two possibilities.
- Dartford serves as a terminus for trains from London and could probably accommodate some from the other direction.
- Ebbsfleet International could probably turn the required number of trains, in its current platforms 5 and 6.
Both have their advantages.
I would plump for Ebbsfleet International, as this would give 4 tph between the Medway Towns and Continental services.
I do wonder if direct services to London Victoria would continue if Sheerness had a connection to the Medway Towns.
Rochester will have the following connections to London.
- 3 tph to London Victoria.
- 2 tph to London Charing Cross and London Bridge, which will be 3 tph from 2018.
- 2 tph to London St. Pancras.
I think that someone with all the data and knowledge could create a very passenger-friendly service to Sheerness from all over London.
Related Posts
A Design Crime – Ebbsfleet International Station
Between Abbey Wood And Belvedere Stations
Connecting North Kent And The Medway Towns To Ebbsfleet International Station
Extending Crossrail To Gravesend
The Sheppey Crossing
The Sheppey Crossing is the bridge onto the island for road traffic.
Note the towers of the older Kingsferry Bridge, which carries the railway across. It is a rare vertical-lift bridge that carries both road and railway.
One of the others of this type in the UK is the Newport Bridge on Teesside.
The Newport Lifting Bridge
I wrote about it in The Tees Bridges and Barrage in 2010.
Connecting North Kent And The Medway Towns To Ebbsfleet International Station
The only connection between Crossrail or Thameslink and Continental services is at St. Pancras, where Thameslink has a better connection to these services, than it does to any other of the several lines at that station.
- Ebbsfleet International station almost looks to me, that it was designed so that everybody catching a train there would have to drive to the station.
- The only stations connected to Ebbsfleet International by domestic services are those stations served by the Highspeed services into St. Pancras.
- So you might as well go into St. Pancras first! But then you’re faced with a very bad connection to Continental services.
- I have to assume, that the architect of St. Psncras station was not a serious user of trains with a heavy bag.
- At present all stations between Gravesend and Faversham have a two trains per hour (tph) service into Ebbsfleet International.
- I feel that in the future Ebbsfleet International may become more important for Continental services, as there must be a time when St. Pancras runs out of platform space.
This may be adequate if you live in the Medway Towns within walking distance of a station, but as a design for a passenger-friendly railway, it’s total crap.
As an example, I met someone a few weeks ago, whose daughter lives in Swanley and as she doesn’t drive, she has to take a mini-cab to Ebbsfleet.
I suspect that some of Network Rail’s finest have a solution using existing infrastructure that improves the link.
This is a Google Map that shows both Northfleet station and platforms 5 an 6 at Ebbsfleet International station.
Lines Between Ebbsfleet International And Northfleet Stations
Consider these points about the map.
- Northfleet station is at the top, with the North Kent Line running through it.
- Gravesend station is the next station in a South-East direction on the North Kent Line.
- There are a couple of freight lines or sidings running parallel and to the West of the North Kent Line.
- Freight lines curve away to the East and the river.
- Crossrail tunnel spoil was taken away from Northfleet.
- Platforms 5 and 6 at Ebbsfleet International station, are on the diagonal rail line going across to the North of the lake and the main station..
Consider these general points.
- Gravesend to Ebbsfleet International is scheduled to take four minutes.
- The East Kent Resignalling Project has recently been completed.
- Crossrail’s spoil trains probably don’t go to Northfleet any more.
Consider these about Gravesend station.
- There is a twelve-car bay platform facing towards London and Ebbsfleet International.
- The London-bound platform 1 at Gravesend has bi-directional signalling. Why?
- The station has a new step-free bridge.
- Crossrail may be extended to the station with a sophisticated, spacious reversing facility/depot at Hoo Junction, perhaps five minutes to the East.
And consider these about platforms 5 and 6 at Ebbsfleet Internal station, which are the platforms that serve Gravesend.
- There are very comprehensive crossovers at the Eastern end of the platforms, which can be seen on the map.
- The platforms appear to have both overhead and third-rail electrification.
- The platforms would probably be long enough to reverse a six-car train.
So are all the pieces of a jigsaw in place for an innovative solution?
There could possibly be shuttle train between Ebbsfleet International and Gravsend or the Medway Towns.
- The shuttle train would run in the thirty minute gaps between the current services between Gravesend and Ebbsfleet international.
- A shuttle train would probably take about 12-15 to do the round trip.
- Instead of Gravesend, it could run from Hoo Junction if Crossrail is extended or any station to the East, if it’s not.
- Any four-car Electrostar with the correct signalling could probably run the shuttle.
- No new infrastructure would be required.
The 2 tph Charing Cross to Gravesend service could also be extended to Ebbsfleet International.
- It would need a reverse at Gravesend.
- Platform 0 could obviously be used for the reverse, but as platform 1 has bi-directional signalling, I suspect this platform could be used as well.
- As there would be two reverses in about a dozen minutes, this might explain why platform 1 was made bi-directional.
- No new infrastructure would be required.
Both solutions would give at least four tph service between Gravesend and Ebbsfleet International.
If the shuttle were to run between Rainham and Ebbsfleet International it would add two extra trains to the service through the Medway Towns, raising that level to more than six tph.
Conclusion
I don’t know if either solution is possible, but I suspect there’s a man or woman who does know and they have their mind on a better solution!
I’ll admit, that I do like the shuttle or a 4 tph link between Gravesend and Ebbsfleet International.
When all the services like Thameslink and Crossrail are serving North Kent from all over London and the South East, it would mean that if there was a four tph service between Gravesend and Ebbsfleet International, getting to the isolated station would be a lot easier.
But the great thing about going up Ebbsfleet’s backside from Gravesend, is that no new infrastructure would be required.
Related Posts
A Design Crime – Ebbsfleet International Station
Between Abbey Wood And Belvedere Stations
Extending Crossrail To Gravesend
What Do You Do With A Problem Like Sheppey?
Through The Medway Towns
If you look at the services through the Medway Towns, you will have the following services in 2018.
- 2 trains per hour (tph) Highspeed services between St. Pancras and Faversham.
- 2 tph Thameslink services between Luton and Rainham.
- 3 tph services between Victoria and the Kent Coast.
- 2 tph services between Charing Cross and Gillingham
Note.
- It is a service with frequencies of between five and seven tph in both directions.
- The smallest trains serving the route are six-car Class 395 trains, with most at least eight-cars.
- The service reaches from Abbey Wood, Dartford, Greenhithe and Swanley in the West. to Sittingbourne, Faversham and the Kent Coast in the East.
- The fare supplement for Highspeed services is only paid West of Gravesend, so from that station to the East, normal fares are paid and the trains just contribute seats to the service.
Conclusion
It is a turn-up-and-go metro par excellence run with quality trains.
The possibilities for improvement are good too!
Related Posts
A Design Crime – Ebbsfleet International Station
Between Abbey Wood And Belvedere Stations
Connecting North Kent And The Medway Towns To Ebbsfleet International Station
Extending Crossrail To Gravesend
What Do You Do With A Problem Like Sheppey?
The Anonymous Widower 