A Good Information Board
I saw this information board at Kings Cross station.
I think the seat on the right, should be by the Tube Map.
But it’s a good attempt!
Leicester Via Oakham And Melton Mowbray
I went to Leicester by taking a train to Peterborough and then took the Cross Country route via Oakham and Melton Mowbray stations.
Note the hot chocolate, which was one of the best I’d had in some time, except for another one on a train a couple of weeks ago.
I went by this route for three reasons.
- I wanted to have a look at the two stations of Oakham and Melton Mowbray, and although nothing special, they both look to be well-maintained provincial stations.
- I wanted to see whether the things I said in The Kettering To Oakham Line were valid.
- I also wondered if you could get a peek of the Welland Viaduct, before the two routes join South of Oakham. I didn’t!
I think that East Midlands Trains will have fun in this area, as electrification of the Midland Main Line starts to be finished.
The St. Pancras Problem
St. Pancras station must be a very inefficient station for East Midlands Trains.
- It has only four platforms, whereas they probably need a couple more.
- These platforms can take ten car trains, like 2+8 HSTs or two five-car Class 222 trains.
- Passenger access to the platforms is chronically bad and usually involves a lot more walking than say at Liverpool Street, Kings Cross or Paddington, where you exit from one end of the train onto a wide concourse.
- Double use of platforms must also be a nightmare for the company and its staff.
- New electric trains will increase the number of passengers wanting to travel.
I wonder how many passengers take trains that stop at Bedford and use Thameslink to go to London. Or perhaps drive to places like Grantham, Newark or Nuneaton and use alternative services.
One way to increase the efficiency of St. Pancras would be to run only full-length trains into the station.
But this would increase the problems of passenger flow, in one of my least favourite stations.
Two bullets will have to be bitten.
- The two escalators linking down from the East Midlands Trains station at St. Pancras, will have to be augmented to at least three and possibly four.
- Lifts must be provided so that passengers with heavy bags can descend to the main concourse and Thameslink, without walking fifty metres in the wrong direction.
To be fair, the station was designed before the trtemendous increase in passengers seen in the last few years.
But the architects knew that Thameslink was getting seventy percent larger and made no provision for proper links between the four sets of rail lines serving the station.
The Ten-Car Train Effects
If East Midlands Trains was only running full length, which will probably be ten-car trains into St. Pancras, it would mean they would have to be acceptable all over their network.
The trains could be two five-cars running as a pair and these could join and divide appropriately to open up new services.
For instance, a train to Nottingham could divide with one section going to Mansfield and the other to Lincoln.
Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield wouldn’t be a problem, but would Corby be able to fill a ten-car train, when as I found on A Trip To Corby, during the day they have difficulties filling a five-car one.
Onward From Corby
The solution is that trains from Corby should go on to Oakham and Melton Mowbray.
The area is seeing a lot of new housebuilding and would probably welcome a direct service to London.
The trains could either go North at Syston Junction to East Midlands Parkway and Sheffield or loop back South to Leicester.
I suspect that East Midlands Trains have their plan to expand their market and that the expansion of Corby station into a full two-platform through station is part of that plan.
Conclusion
Everything is seeing improvement in the East Midlands.
Leicester City Centre
This Google Map shows the relationship between Leicester station and the City Centre.
Leicester Station And The City Centre
The station is in the South-East corner and the big High Cross Shopping Centre and the cathedral are in the North-West corner.
Leicester City’s stadium is off the map to the South-West.
I could just about walk it to the Shopping Centre from the station, but it was at the limit of my range with the faciitis in my right foot.
I took these pictures as I walked between the station and the centre.
If there was a city, that needs a people mover of some sort between the two locations, it is Leicester.
All European cities would run a tram and with the latest technological developments, the tram would now be battery powered as in Seville and soon to be seen in Birmingham. On such a short distance, it doesn’t even have to have rails, but could be a rubber-tyred, double-ended articulated bus. I once saw a concept like this is in a Wrightbus presentation.
I made one big mistake on my visit to Leicester.
I was intending to go to the cathedral and have some lunch, which I did in Carluccio’s in the High Cross Shopping Centre.
As I was hungry, I had the lunch first and found that the shopping centre has been designed, so you have to go back through it to get anywhere.
As I didn’t want to buy anything except lunch, that would have been a pointless exercise.
So after wasting twenty minutes walking in the wrong way, I was running too late to visit the cathedral.
So on your visit to Leicester visit the cathedral first and if you’re in a hurry and want something to eat afterwards, don’t go in the shopping centre.
A properly-designed people mover going from the station to the pedestriansed central are and on to the cathedral would not only solve my problem, but it would surely attract a lot more visitors to the city to visit the cathedral and Kind Richard.
The one thing that a people-mover in Leicester, doesn’t have to be, is a fully-fledged tram with overhead wires. That is so nineteenth century for short routes in city centres.
Get it right in Leicester and I can think of several other towns and cities, that could use such a system.
Great Western Railway’s New Train
Great Western Railway have a new train.
Certainly, as they always do, this InterCity 125 has scrubbed up well!
West Ealing Station – 4th May 2016
I took these pictures today, as I went past the bay platform at West Ealing station.
The details of what will happen here have not emerged yet.
I think it is pretty certain that the following will or could happen.
- Responsibility for the Greenford Branch will pass to TfL and/or London Overground
- The Greenford Branch will be served by a shuttle from the bay platform at West Ealing station.
- The Greenford Branch will lose its direct service to Paddington.
- The frequency on the branch will increase from two to four trains per house.
- It is unlikely, that the branch will be electrified.
- Although electrifying the bay platform would seem to be easy, if you look at the pictures.
The line will need to be run by either diesel multiple units or some form of IPEMU, that could be charged in the bay platform at West Ealing station.
As the journey between Greenford and West Ealing takes ten minutes, so two trains would be needed for a four trains per hour service.
Network Rail’s Mobile Maintenance Train
I wrote about this train in How To Work Outdoors.
It was parked outside the Plasser depot in West Ealing.
Eurostar Is Testing To Amsterdam
This article in Global Rail News is entitled Velaro Under Test In The Netherlands. This is the first two paragraphs.
NS and Siemens have completed the first tests of Eurostar’s new e320 train on the Dutch rail network.
Eurostar plans to launch direct services between Amsterdam Central and London St Pancras in 2017 and has now begun testing its new fleet on the Dutch HSL-Zuid.
It would appear that St. Pancras to Amsterdam will take about four hours.
I suspect they still got a few details to sort out.
- Immigration control, as the UK is not in Schengen.
- The Dutch signalling system.
- The unusual Dutch train voltage of 1,500 VDC, as opposed to the British, French and HSL-Zuid of 25 KVAC.
- To complicate matters the Germans use 15 KVAC and drive on the right.
It’s a pity for many, that HSL-Zuid was built deliberately to avoid calling at Den Haag.
Demolition Has Started For The New Platforms At Oxford Station
Demolition has finally started of the old parcels office at Oxford station to create the two platforms for the Chiltern service to the station.
I can’t see this being a large project, as hopefully, it will just be creating the platforms and making sure there are shelters and the other platform details.
Wikipedia says this about the two new platforms.
The scheme also includes two new platforms at Oxford station, to be built on the site of the disused parcels depot. The new platforms will initially be five carriages in length, but provision will be made for them to be extended southwards to eight carriages.
Will they be in Chiltern’s or Great Western Railway’s house style?
As Chiltern Railways coaches are in sets of six, will these platforms be built initially to handle eight coaches? It would seem to be prudent!
Also according to this section in Wikipedia, services will start in December 2016.
Slow Progress On Electrification To Oxford
A few piles have started to appear on the line between Didcot and Oxford.
But a guy on the station, said Oxford won’t be electrified soon.
Main Line Electrification Between Reading And Didcot
I took these pictures of the electrification on the main lines between Reading and Didcot.
All the masts seem to be erected, but there is stil quite a lot of wires to add.
The Anonymous Widower 