Only In Frinton
A common target of East Anglian humour is Frinton, as over the years the town has acquired a dubious reputation about being anti-fun.
In The First Off Licence In Frinton, I told the story of how C got the town its first Off Licence. Her version of the tale, always ended with Frinton were not amused.
Rumour has it, for years, the sign on Manningtree station, which said something like Harwich For The Continent had been annotated with And Frinton For The Incontinent.
Tonight I found this under Recent Developments in the Wikipedia entry for The Sunshine Coast Line, which is the branch line that serves Clacton and Frinton.
A £104 million engineering project known as the Colchester to Clacton Resignalling Project took place on the line between December 2006 and July 2009. Life-expired signalling equipment was replaced and a new control system was installed; 170 modern LED signals were installed and eight manual level crossings were upgraded to full barrier crossings with security cameras. The line was closed every weekend and on public holidays, with bus replacement services provided.
There was opposition from the town of Frinton to keep the manual gates, which were reportedly removed “under cover of darkness”. Folklore has it that townspeople used to lock the gates to keep out coach-loads of tourists.
It is a typical Frinton story. I have no idea, if it’s true!
A Stray Class 68 Locomotive At Stratford Station
I took these pictures of a Class 68 locomotive.
You don’t see them very often at Stratford station.
But when you see them in a station, as I did here, you realise how much less noisy and smelly they are than the ubiquitous Class 66 locomotive.
This blog post from Reading University entitled EU Emission limits bite for new freight locomotives, gives a few details.
- The Class 66 meets the Stage 3A emission regulations, but the author does not know of any plans to meet Stage 3B.
- The Class 68 meets the Stage 3A regulations, and can be easily modified to meet Stage 3B.
- The Class 70 meets the Stage 3A regulations, but not Stage 3B, although that could be a future option.
You certainly don’t see anything other than a Class 68 pulling a passenger train.
Marks Tey Station And The Sudbury Branch
The Sudbury Branch or the Gainsborough Line, is one of those lines that abound all over the UK, to serve a major town stranded from the main line.
These pictures show my visit.
Note.
- The line is certainly rural.
- The Chappel Viaduct is large and gives good views.
- Bures station is rather quaint.
- Sudbury station is an easy walk to the Town Centre
- Chappel and Wakes Colne station has a railway museum.
- Marks Tey station seems to be being upgraded.
Incidentally, I was able to get to Sudbury from London for just £11.70, using my Freedom Pass to Shenfield and a ticket from there to Sudbury with my Senior Railcard.
The Future Of The Sudbury Branch
With the new franchise being awarded within a few weeks, I wonder what the plans are for Marks Tey station and the Sudbury Branch.
- I can’t find anything about the building works at Marks Tey station.
- The station certainly needs a proper bridge with lifts.
- Marks Tey only has two trains per hour in each direction. Is that enough?
- Trains are hourly between Marks Tey and Sudbury and for a weekday were fairly busy.
- In an ideal world, trains would be twice an hour on the Sudbury Branch and would synchronise with trains on the Great Eastern Main Line.
- The journey takes nineteen minutes between Sudbury and Marks Tey, which probably means that two trains are needed for a doubled frequency.
There is certainly a lot of potential for an improved service.
Two Trains Per Hour To Sudbury
The obvious way to achieve a two trains per hour service on the Sudbury Branch would be to use two trains. Although, this could be expensive as the line probably works currently under rules called One Train Working.
It would also need a passing loop on the single-track branch, two trains and two crews, so I think it could be discounted.
The line has a speed limit of 50 mph and it is not electrified. If the line was upgraded to increase this speed limit, it might be possible for a single train to shuttle twice between Marks Tey and Sudbury in an hour. Time could be saved, by using two drivers and changing them at Marks Tey. But the current time of nineteen minutes for the journey makes four trips in an hour impossible. It probably needs a time in the order of ten to thirteen minutes, which might be possible with a faster train after the track was upgraded to say 75 mph.
Electric trains accelerate faster and generally have shorter station dwell times, than the current Class 156 diesel trains.
So perhaps to electrify the line is an option, that would allow the desired service. But electrification of the line will be expensive and there will be a lot of opposition to having overhead gantries marching through the Suffolk countryside and on top of the Grade II Listed Chappel Viaduct.
An Aventra IPEMU To Sudbury
One solution that would work is to use something like a four-car Class 710 train, that are being built for the London Overground.
It would need to be an IPEMU, fitted with energy storage and there would probably need to be a short length of electrification in Platform 3 at Marks Tey station to charge the train after each trip to Sudbury.
A Suffolk Metro From Sudbury To Felixstowe
An alternative strategy may also be possible, which would require no new track, platforms or electrification.
The Felixstowe branch also needs new trains and could be run using a similar Aventra IPEMU from Ipswich.
So why not link the two services back-to-back to create a half-hourly service from Sudbury to Felixstowe, which called at the following stations?
- Bures
- Chappel and Wakes Colne
- Marks Tey
- Colchester
- Manningtree
- Ipswich
- Westerfield
- Derby Road
- Trimley
The trains would charge their energy storage on the main line and the Felixstowe branch would not need a bay platform at Ipswich station.
The Sudbury and Felixstowe Branches are eleven and twelve miles long respectively, which means that if the trains charged their energy storage on the main line between Ipswich and Marks Tey, they would need to be able to do about twenty-five miles on their on-board energy storage, which is well within all estimates of the train’s range.
Currently, using three trains that would take 72 minutes of train time, but I suspect that time saved on the branches by an Aventra could make the trip in around an hour.
In Could Class 387 Trains Do Norwich In Ninety And Ipswich In Sixty?, I postulated that to achieve the Norwich in Ninety and Ipswich in Sixty targets, all trains North of Colchester, must be capable of running at 110 mph, so they don’t slow the crack East Anglian Expresses down.
This rule would probably have to apply to the Felixstowe to Sudbury trains.
This would be one of those train services where most are winners.
- Passengers on the two branch lines get a two trains per hour direct service to Ipswich, Manningtree and Colchester, run using modern four-car electric trains.
- Passengers using stations between Marks Tey and Ipswich would have extra trains to Ipswich and Colchester.
- The train operator replaces two ageing diesel multiple units, with two brand-new electric multiple units with an IPEMU-capability.
- Network Rail would have no electrification to install and only minimal changes to make to infrastructure, such as some general track improvement and platform lengthening.
- It would probably help time-keeping, if the long-promised dualling of part of the Felixstowe Branch were to be done.
- There might even be a case for reopening disused stations at Bentley, Ardleigh and Orwell and perhaps creating a couple of new ones.
What I have proposed is pure speculation, but it could be the first line of the Suffolk Metro.
Incidentally, I wouldn’t be surprised to see four-car Aventra IPEMUs working the following routes for the new East Anglian Franchise.
- Cambridge to Norwich.
- Ipswich to Bury St. Edmunds, Cambridge, Ely and Peterborough
- March to Wisbech
- Norwich to Cromer, Lowestoft, Sheringham and Yarmouth.
The only line, which would be outside their capability would be Ipswich to Lowestoft, which is just a bit long. But the Aventras would release Class 170 trains to provide a high quality service on this line.
There are several reasons, why I think that IPEMUs might be used in East Anglia.
- The tests of the IPEMU technology were carried out by Abellio Greater Anglia on the Harwich branch. The drivers must know how good the IPEMU technology really is.
- East Anglia has several branch lines for which using IPEMU technology, is an affordable way of introducing electric trains.
- Network Rail have an appalling record, when it comes to electrification.
- What is the state of the electrification on the Braintree, Southminster and Harwich branches? It might be more affordable instead of replacing dodgy wiring to use a train with IPEMU technology.
- Quite a few of these branches have capacity problems, which a four-car electric train would solve.
- The invitation to tender for the franchise included the following – “extra points will be awarded to bidders who include plans to trial new technologies in rolling stock”
- Providing free wi-fi across the franchise is mandated. Does anybody fancy doing this in a Class 153 or Class 156 train?
The new franchise is supposed to be awarded before the 21st of July, this year.
It will be interesting to hear the winner’s plans.
Onward To Cambridge
It is just a pity, that the Stour Valley Railway from Sudbury to Cambridge via Haverhill was closed in the 1960s.
In Sudbury To Cambridge – D-Train, IPEMU Or Tram-Train?, I looked at the various options for reopening the whole line to create a new route from Ipswich and Colchester to Cambridge via Marks Tey, Sudbury and Haverhill.
As trains from Sudbury to Felixstowe will probably be Aventra IPEMUs with a main line capability, these trains would be used through to Cambridge, which is about fifty miles from Marks Tey.
I think this line will eventually be rebuilt.
- This is the sort of project a devolved East Anglian Authority would back.
- It creates alternative routes to London and Cambridge.
- It joins up well with the East West Rail Link and the prtoposed station at Addenbrookes Hospital.
- It provides another commuting route for Cambridge.
- It puts Haverhill back on the rail map.
- It would complete rail links from Suffolk’s County Town of Ipswich to all parts of the county
Who knows what routes will be unlocked by the reopening of the Stour Valley Railway?
Whitechapel’s Overground Platform Extensions Are Taking Shape
Whitechapel station has short Overground platforms and it was always said they’d be extended after Crossrail opens.
Judging by these pictures, it would appear that there isn’t much work to do.
Would High-Speed Trains With Onboard Energy Storage Enable Environmentally-Friendly High-Speed Lines?
If you stand on the platform at Stratford International station, when a Eurostar Class 373 train comes through, it is a very noisy experience.
For this and other reasons high-speed trains usually have their own fenced-off tracks, well away from centres of population.
High-speed trains like Eurostar tend to have a journey profile, where they accelerate to line speed and then run at this speed, until they stop at the next station.
High speed lines are also designed, so that trains don’t lose energy on gradients and curves for energy efficiency.
I’d love to see an energy use profile for a modern high-speed train like a Class 374 train, as it goes from London to Paris.
Onboard energy storage is rather primitive today, but who’s to know how far the next generation of battery technology will take a train in say ten years time.
Say a high speed train has to go through an area that is highly-sensitive with respect to visual and/or audio intrusion!
If the section was not electrified, which would cut the visual intrusion to just the trains passing through and reduce the pantograph noise to zero, how far would a mix of battery power and the kinetic energy of the train power it until it could get electric power on the other side of the electrification gap?
We could be closer than anybody thinks to the use of batteries on high-speed trains.
The Midland Main Line is being electrified and Ian Walmsley in Modern Railways has speculated that 125 mph Aventras could be used between London and Sheffield. I wrote about this in A High-Speed Train With An IPEMU-Capability.
Could we see sections of the fast lines deliberately built without wires, so that noise is reduced?
Leicester station is a serious bottleneck, so could track be arranged there with two quiet fast lines without wires, through the centre of the city and the station?
It’s an interesting possibility to both reduce the effects on the environment and cut the cost of electrification.
I also think there are other reasons why trains will increasingly have on-board energy storage or in the case of electric locomotives, a small diesel engine.
- A get-to-the-next-station capability for when electric power to the line fails.
- Depots could be without electrification.
- Complicated stations could be electrically-dead.
It is a technology, that will have a large number of positive effects in the coming years.
I Get Struck By The DOO Lurgy
The DOO (Driver Only Operation) Lurgy has generally been limited to Southern, Gatwick Express and ScotRail trains.
But today, when coming back from IKEA, I was unable to get a train on the Great Northern Route at Highbury and Islington to Essex Road, as the train was cancelled.
The station-man upstairs said it the DOO Lurgy and I walked off to catch a bus.
This row over DOO has gone on long enough and from what I wrote about in Design For Safety In A New Station, I would suspect that the solution I saw at Lea Bridge station, is as good as its going to get!
Design For Safety In A New Station
I took these pictures at the new Lea Bridge station
Note.
- There is a series of cameras, that display images of the complete train on the screens for the driver.
- Speakers and CCTV cameras are everywhere along the platforms.
- Very little seems to have been left to chance.
I doubt, even a driver, who was in the midst of some unfortunate personal emergency would miss anything untoward happening on the platform.
But even if they collapsed, it would be hoped that other safety systems on the train, would cut the power.
As a passenger and engineer, the setup of the platform, certainly reassured me.
Should we make sure, that the safety systems at all stations are as comprehensive as this?
Are You Annoyed By Noisy Trains At The Bottom Of Your Garden?
I have just found this document on the European Parliament web site, which is entitled Reducing Railway Noise Pollution.
It is a fascinating document and this is the abstract.
12 million EU inhabitants are affected by railway noise during the day and 9 million during the night. This study lists measures, funding and regulations to reduce it. The introduction of modern rolling stock will lower noise most significantly. In the short run, the replacement of cast iron by composite brake blocks on rail freight cars is most important. Developing a regulation scheme for a staged process towards low-noise rolling stock is the heart of a rail noise abatement strategy.
Many of us in the UK, would think that we suffer badly from the noise of trains, but it would appear that Germany and other Central European countries suffer badly from all freight trains passing through. The Rhine Valley which has over 400 freighs trains a day, suffers badly from noise.
So how can we reduce noise?
- As the abstract says new rolling stock is the best way to reduce noise and many of our trains have been replaced with new or refurbished ones in the last few years.
- The report says that most (approximately 75%) of UK freight wagons have disc brakes or composite brake blocks. So that is good.
- In my view one of things that gets most complaints is noisy and smelly diesel locomotives, like the dreaded Class 66 locomotives. They may be liked by the freight companies, but they are not favourites of drivers and those living by the railway. More friendly types of diesel locomotives like the Class 68 are starting to appear and it can’t be too soon.
- Surprisingly, with electric trains, pantograph noise is a problem. I’d hand that and any other aerodynamic problems over to the engineers in Formula One and aircraft design. I have read that Bombardier’s new Aventra will be very clean aeodynamically, which must make for a reduction in noise.
Let’s hope that these small improvements continue to reduce the noise by trains.
The report also says this about physical noise barriers.
Noise barriers are a visual intrusion, particularly since they are a target for graffiti; they have a high cost, and cause problems for track access. Their effectiveness depends on their absorption properties, their height, and the proximity of the barrier to the noise source and/or to the receiver.
I am not a fan, as they ruin my taking of photographs.
After The Northern Hub, Is Network Rail Planning A Midland Rail Hub?
The study on Network Rail’s web site is entitled West Midlands and Chilterns Route Study, proposes a concept of a Midland Rail Hub.
By adding the following infrastructure.
- Bordesley Chords and new platforms at Moor Street
- More tracks through Water Orton
- Kings Norton upgrade
- Snow Hill Platform 4
- Begin rollout of Digital Railway
Network Rail feel, it will bring the following benefits.
- Up to 10 extra trains every hour
- More freight trains
- New journey opportunities between East and West Midlands
- Unlocking new jobs
- Maximising benefits of HS2.
It doesn’t appear to be as radical as the Northern Hub.
These are my notes and thoughts on the various proposals.
Bordesley Chords
This Google Map shows the Bordesley area of Birmingham.
Bordesley Chords
In the top-right or north-eastern corner of the map is Birmingham City Football Ground.
In the middle of the map is Bordesley Circus, which is a roundabout, that is one of the most dangerous for pedestrians in the country. When I was last there, it was being improved and I wrote My Least Favourite Roundabout Gets Pedestrian Lights. I hope they’re working on Tuesday, 13th December, when I’ll be going to see Ipswich play.
Bordesley station, which is one of the worst stations in the UK, lies to the South-West of this roundabout and is on the Chiltern Main Line into Birmingham Moor Street station, although services don’t stop.
Running almost North-South across the map is the Camp Hill Line, which incidentally passes behind the stands at the football ground.
Where it crosses the Chiltern Main Line, there is a chord allowing limited connection between North and East.
I would assume that as the report says Bordesley Chords, that there will be some extra connectivity between these two lines.
Under the future of the Camp Hill Line on Wikipedia, this is said.
The reinstatement of local rail services to the former Camp Hill Line has been a long term aspiration of the City, and during 2007, Birmingham City Council announced that they were looking into the possibility of reopening the line between Kings Norton and Birmingham Moor Street via the construction of a railway viaduct from Sparkbrook to Bordesley, where trains would be taken into the “old” Birmingham Moor Street station. In October 2007, a 1500-name petition was handed in to the council asking for the line to be re-opened. In 2013 the proposal was shelved indefinitely.
As Kings Norton is to the South, this would need a West to South connection at Bordesley.
These pictures show the area from a Chiltern Train going into Moor Street.
Salubrious it is not! There is certainly a lot of space on the North side, but there might be less on the South. This Google Map shows the area between the station and where the two lines cross.
Bordesley Station And Chords
Note the double-track chord between the Camp Hill Line to the North and the Chiltern Main Line to the East. This chord gives services from the Chiltern Main Line to access Birmingham New Street station. If you take a train from Oxford to Birmingham New Street, it will take this chord, if it doesn’t go via Coventry.
From what I have seen in Manchester and some parts of London, the area could surely be put to a better purpose, perhaps driven by a rebuilt Bordesley station, with regular services to Moor Street, Kings Noton and Solihull. The area does have the added factor of water in the shape of one of Birmingham’s numerous canals.
Hopefully, the first piece of development in a very run-down area, the sorting of a decent walking route between Bordesley station and Birmingham City Football Ground has been completed.
New Platforms At Birmingham Moor Street Station
This Google Map shows Birmingham Moor Street station.
Birmingham Moor Street Station
The most northerly pair of platforms in the station are numbered 1 and 2 and are for the through lines to Birmingham Snow Hill station.
Over the last few years, work has opened the next pair of bay platforms 3 and 4. On my last trip to Birmingham in June, I arrived in Platform 4.
A Chiltern Main Line Train In Platform 4 At Birmingham Moor Street Station
Platform 5 on the other side of Platform 4 may have been reinstated, but there doesn’t seem to be any trains using it, as yet!
The map shows that there would appear to be space to open Platforms 3, 4 and 5, but could a clever architect squeeze in a Platform 6?
These pictures show the space for a possible Platform 5 and 6.
There would certainly appear to be space to shoe-horn two tracks and a new Platform 6 between the current Platform 5 and the retaining wall.
As the pictures show, Platform 5 is a platform that is long enough for any train currently envisaged that might call at Moor Street station.
Looking at the map of the station, it might even be possible to make Platform 6 even longer, if this were thought to be needed.
More Tracks Through Water Orton
This Google Map shows Water Orton station and the lines through it.
Lines Through Water Orton Station
If you look up services from Water Orton and Coleshill Parkway stations, they are certainly of the turn-up-and-wait-forever variety.
Water Orton has one train every two hours to Birmingham, but at least Coleshill Parkway has a train every half-hour.
Perhaps more lines through Water Orton will enable more trains through the area.
Looking at the rail map of Birmingham, it would be possible to go from Water Orton via the Camp Hill Line to Kings Norton and if the North to West chord was built at Bordesley to Moor Street.
It would certainly be the view of many, including myself, that a Parkway station needs a train or tram every fifteen minutes.
Kings Norton Upgrade
If the Camp Hill Line is reopened to passenger trains, then Kings North station will be the terminus.
This Google Map shows the station.
Kings Norton Station
It is a large station with an unused island platform in the middle.
These pictures show Kings Norton station.
There is certainly work to be done.
But the station also has a lot of potential and space that can be utilised. It might even be possible to fit in a bay platform to turn trains back to Moor Street and New Street.
Birmingham Snow Hill Platform 4
Wikipedia says this about platforms at Birmingham Snow Hill station,
The present Snow Hill station has three platforms for National Rail trains. When it was originally reopened in 1987 it had four, but one was later converted in 1999 for use as a terminus by Midland Metro trams. The original tram terminus closed in November 2015, in order for the extension of the Midland Metro through Birmingham city centre to be connected. This includes a dedicated embankment for trams alongside the station, and will also include a new through stop serving Snow Hill. This will eventually allow the fourth platform to be returned to main-line use.
As the Midland Metro now has its own new platform outside the station, the fourth platform can soon be converted back to heavy rail use.
These pictures show the current state of the closed tram platform.
I don’t think that converting it back to heavy rail will be the most difficult of jobs.
Birmingham Station Connectivity
Although, not on the Network Rail infrastructure list, I feel that to gain the full benefits of HS2, then the line must be properly connected to Moor Street and New Street stations.
I can easily walk between Moor Street and New Street stations, but I do feel that Birmingham’s solution of using the Midland Metro as a link and to the Curzon Street HS2 station, is not the way to do it.
It needs some form of people mover. Perhaps a travelator would be better.
City Centre Ticketing
In Liverpool, a ticket to Liverpool stations, allows you to use the Underground to any of the other stations in the City Centre.
In London, many visitors by rail, add a Travelcard to their rail ticket.
Perhaps, in Birmingham, a ticket to Birmingham stations, should include the Midland Metro in the City Centre? Or a simple add-on for the Metro between Jewellery Quarter and Five Ways could be added for a few pounds.
At present, you have to buy a separate ticket. How visitor-friendly is that? At least a short journey is only a pound
If Birmingham is to make the most out of the opportunity of HS2, then they must use easy and understandable ticketing.
Chiltern’s Superb Trains
My trip down to Birmingham was in a Class 168 train, which although was a good experience for a diesel multiple unit, was spoilt as one engine went AWOL and we were late in to Moor Street.
But going home to London, I rode in what I think are one of the best long distance trains anywhere in Europe; Chiltern’s rakes of Mark 3 coaches pulled and pushed by a modern Class 68 locomotive.
- Nearly every seat gets a table and a window aligned to it.
- The seats are spcious and comfortable.
- The ride is the superb one, you always get from a Mark 3 coach.
- Trolley-service of drinks and a buffet on most services.
- Free wi-fi.
- London to Birmingham return for £19.20 with a Railcard.
- I’ve never travelled on Chiltern’s Mark 3 coaches and been unable to read my paper flat in front of me on the table.
The experience may be slower than Virgin’s, but give me Standard Class on Chiltern against First on Virgin every time between London and Birmingham.
The only problem, is that Marylebone station, isn’t as accessible as Euston from where I live. However, when Crossrail opens, times will be within a few minutes.
I can’t help feeling that Transpennine’s decision to use Class 68 locomotives and rakes of new CAF Mark 5 coaches across the Pennines, was influenced by the success of Chiltern’s flagship service and its superb rolling stock.
I’m looking forward to riding the CAF coaches in a few years, to see how they stand up to an almost forty year old British Rail coach.
I wonder how many Spanish engineers have ridden Chiltern’s trains?
I also feel that the Class 68 locomotive is an asset to a passenger service, in that so many diesel locomotives look dirty and smelly, but Class 68s seemed to have been designed to keep clean and also look how a locomotive should; powerful, purposeful and sleek.
For those, who don’t like that the trains are still diesel-hauled, there is even a Spanish solution for that, if the lines ever get electrified, in the shape of the new Class 88 electro-diesel locomotive, which is a sister of the Class 68 locomotive.
And of course, if Chiltern need some more trains and can’t find the Mark 3 coaches, they can always buy some new coaches from CAF.
Conclusions
It’s a very sensible plan and it will open up all sorts of possibilities for Birmingham.
The chords at Bordesley and the extra tracks through Water Orton would seem to open up a new route for trains across the city from Moor Street band Kings Norton to Water Orton and Nuneaton.
- New subsurban services could link Nuneaton and Kings Norton to Moor Street.
- Cross-country services might use Moor Street with a reverse, rather than New Street.
- Extra services from Moor Street to Nuneaton might take pressure off the heavily-loaded New Street to Birmingham route.
- How would the new station at Kenilworth station fit in?
But there are railways all over this area and I’m sure that the Bordesley and Water Orton improvements, will not be the last.
Already there is talk of reopening, the Sutton Park Line and the Stonebridge Railway.
I asked about Kenilworth station. I don’t know, but after Bordesley and Water vOrton are upgraded, there would be the possibility of a Warwickshire Circle, starting and finishing at Moor Street.
- Moor Street
- Solihull
- Warwick Parkway
- Warwick
- Leamington Spa with a reverse.
- Kenilworth
- Coventry
- Coventry Arena
- Bedworth
- Bermuda Park
- Nuneaton
- Coleshill Parkway
- Water Orton
- Moor Street
It would be a route, where several stations could be reopened or built from scratch. Leamington Spar incidentally already has a bay platform for the reverse.
I also think, that one of the biggest beneficiaries of all this will be Chiltern Railways.
Consider.
- Their two Birmingham termini of Show Hill and Moor Street are getting extra capacity.
- Moor Street will become a big terminal with two through and four bay platforms, all of which will be able to handle the longest Chiltern trains.
- Birmingham New Street station lacks capacity.
- The Birmingham New Street to Coventry route is seriously crowded.
- In Will Chiltern Railways Get A Second London Terminal At Old Oak Common?, I talked about Network Rail’s ideas to link the Chiltern route to the new station.
- Banbury station has been upgraded for more traffic.
- Chiltern will be running to Oxford station by the end of this year.
- Chiltern have plans in hand to run to Milton Keynes station.
We’ll certainly see extra services from London to Birmingham and possibly beyond, but will we see a triangular route going between London – Oxford – Birmingham – London?
It will depend on whether the passengers want it, but from Chiltern’s point of view, it might mean that their platforms in London, Oxford and Birmingham, and their trains, saw higher utilisation.
I suspect too, that the Oxford -Birmingham leg has more paths available and that Chiltern’s capacity problems are mainly at the London end of the Chiltern Main Line, especially now, that Banbury has been remodelled.
Chiltern Railways are an ambitious company and if they get a second terminal in London at Old Oak Common, they will certainly use it profitably.
I think that the Network Rail report shows that a few simple improvements, when thought through and executed with care can produce improvements not suspected in the original plans.
But all rail planning has to discount the London Overground Syndrome, where new stations, routes and trains, attract more passengers than originally expected.
Does Sheffield Need A Super High Speed Line To London?
I ask this question because HS2 was put forward in the days, when brute force and high speed was the only way to get fast journey times.
In this article on the BBC, which is entitled HS2 South Yorkshire route change threatens new estate, the following is stated.
- 120 mins – Fastest existing Sheffield to London service
- 79 mins – Fastest Sheffield to London service via HS2
I have not seen any details as to how fast conventional trains could do Sheffield to London, but we do have some useful figures from the Great Eastern Main Line, which I wrote about in Could Class 387 Trains Do Norwich In Ninety And Ipswich In Sixty? I came to the conclusion that a 200 kph Aventra with modest track improvements could reduce the current 120 minutes to ninety.
Compare the Great Eastern Main Line (GEML) with the Midland Main Line (MML)
The GEML is about 180 km long and fully electrified, with only two tracks except South of Shenfield and a 160 kph line speed.
The MML is about 250 km long and not electrified past Bedford, with generally more than two tracks and quite a bit of 200 kph running.
The MML has a lot of potential for improvement.
- In several places there is space to add extra tracks and improve junctions.
- A fully-developed Erewash Valley Line, could possibly be used as a higher-speed diversion, avoiding the line through the Derwent Valley, which is a World Heritage Site.
- The MML is currently being electrified.
- Modern electric trains with regenerative braking would speed stops on the MML.
- Some of the stations on the MML, could be rebuilt to speed trains through.
- This is just the sort of line for which the Digital Railway could have a large positive affect.
I feel that after the line is fully electrified and upgraded between London and Sheffield, that there could be a big improvement in journey times.
I do wonder if the revised plan for HS2 to serve Sheffield, , has come about because engineers have been able to devise a plan to improve the MML, that has created enough capacity from Clay Cross to Sheffield, to allow HS2 to share.
In HS2 Does The Right Thing In Sheffield, I postulated that if the MML from Clay Cross, where it bis joined by HS2 to Sheffield, were to be built to HS2 standards, when it was electrified, then this would have benefits for both lines.
- HS2 trains could approach Sheffield, using the sort of speed profile, they’d use into other stations.
- 200+ kph trains on the MML would knock a few minutes off schedules.
- Any extra tracks would probably fit on railway land.
- Chesterfield station could be rebuilt to accept HS2 trains.
There would be a large saving in costs, as only two tracks would be built. They would also be built when the MML is electrified.
We might not see trains on the classic route between London and Sheffield do the trip in the 79 minutes of HS2, but they would certainly be some minutes quicker than the two hours of today.
The Anonymous Widower 