Hayes And Harlington Station – 28th February 2016
Work on the new platform and the station building, seems to be going on at Hayes and Harlington station.
They certainly seem to be building the new bay platform 5 to take the heaviest of passengers and their cases and buggies.
West Drayton Station – 28th February 2016
This pictures show progress at West Drayton station.
It does appear that there has been significant progress in changing the tracks to the East of the station.
The track work will bring the disused Platform 5 into use. This is the most northerly platform.
Welcome To Huddersfield
In my trip to Huddersfield yesterday, I took the TransPennine Express from Manchester Piccadilly.
These pictures show the supremely inadequate three-car Class 185 train at Huddersfield and passengers tying to board to get to Leeds and York.
On return, I asked a Team Leader what was going on. He said trains had been cancelled because of driver shortages and that three-car trains were inadequate anyway and should be five-car. They certainly have overcowding issues and bad passenger feedback.
In some ways these trains are their own worst enemy. After Huddersfield, it was standing room only and the stop at Stalybridge took a lot longer than it should, as passengers fought to get on and off with suitcases and bicycles. So by the time we got to Manchester Piccadilly, where we called at the inadequate and very crowded Platform 14, we were nearly fifteen minutes late. There were several passengers who missed their booked seats on the 1815 to London.
I never book return seats on a journey back from football, especially if TransPennine or Manchester Piccadilly is involved.
The Team Leader at Huddersfield didn’t seem pleased, but he did indicate something would be happening soon.
It certainly needs to.
I think TransPennine’s only problem of their own making is the driver shortage. Nearly everything else can be put down to inadequate investment by various Governments over the last fifty years.
I suppose you could blame passengers for creating the increased demand across the Pennines, but as the Class 185 trains seem to have been ordered without an ability to lengthen, the trains have been unable to grow with the demand.
Compare this situation with that of the Class 390 trains on the West Coast Main Line and the Class 378 trains on the London Overground. Both these trains have been lengthened, by the simpler expedient of adding new carriages in the middle.
We should make sure that all the Ministers and the Civil Servants, who conspired to give the North some of the most crowded trains in Europe, should ride these trains at least once a week, so they can at least understand their crap legacy to the travelling public.
But then no self-respecting Government Minister or Civil Servant, would be seen taking a train between Manchester and Huddersfield, when a perfectly serviceable chauffeur-driven limousine is available.
Improving The Hastings Line
In The Lewes Horeseshoe, I discussed how an idea from Railfuture might be used to improve services between London and the South Coast.
I came to the conclusion, that if various improvements were carried out, including the running of trains with Class 395 performance from Ashford to Brighton along the East Coastway Line, that this would present an opportunity to close and rebuild the Hastings Line.
The Hastings Line is only thirty-two miles long from the South Eastern Main Line to Hastings, but there are deficiencies in the tunnels, which led to four of the eight tunnels being made single-track, when the line was electrified in 1986.
Surely, the fact that the line is constantly switching from double to single track, is one of the reasons, that the line only has a pathetic one semi-fast and one stopping train per hour between London and Hastings.
But things have moved on since 1986!
Network Rail must have learned a lot of tricks with tunnels. In particular, all the lessons learned in the re-boring of Farnworth Tunnel will be invaluable.
The length of the line is also such, that services could be run using IPEMU trains, charging the on-board storage on the South Eastern Main Line and between Battle and Hastings stations.
Would running some parts of the Hastings Line without power, mean that it could be simplified by the partial removal of electrification?
I estimate that around twenty-five miles would be without electrification, which would be an easy gap to bridge for an IPEMU.
Would this simplification in the various single-track tunnels, coupled with modern tunnelling techniques, allow Network Rail to create a fully double-tracked route from the South Eastern Main Line along the full length of the Hastings Line to Hastings?
If four trains per hour could be run between London and Hastings, that would be a tremendous improvement. At the London end of the route, the Thameslink Programme should create extra capacity for trains into Charing Cross station.
In addition, it would appear that the line is already capable of handling ten-car trains. Could this be stretched to twelve?
I am certain, that in the light of developments in the last few years, that Network Rail are looking at ways of increasing the capacity on the Hastings Line.
They’re also probably looking to do other engineering work, as there was a major landslip on the line a couple of years ago.
But in truth nothing can be done, until alternative routes are provided via Ashford and/or Brighton, as the tunnel work would probably mean that the Hastings Line would need to be closed, whilst some of the work is performed.
Unless a sensible alternative is provided, I’m sure Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells will be penning another letter to the Telegraph.
The Lewes Horeshoe
A friend pointed me at the Lewes Horeshoe, which is described on this page of the Railfuture web site. They say this.
Events last year at Dawlish have shown the need for alternative routes to provide network resilience. A simple loop at Lewes, following the A27 Lewes bypass and the Cockshut, could be completed in Control Period 6 (or sooner) to provide an alternative route between Brighton and Haywards Heath without reversing, which would have enabled a service to be maintained when Patcham Tunnel was flooded recently, and would enable direct services between Falmer and London. It would also avoid reversing of the Lewes – Brighton shuttle service at Lewes, which might improve stock utilisation, and would facilitate services via a reopened Uckfield – Lewes line to Brighton. The radius of curvature is similar to that of the new curve on the East London Line Extension at Shoreditch, which operates without disturbing local residents.
They also show this map of the horseshoe.
Railfuture’s Lewes Horeshoe
This is a Google Map of the area.
Lewes Horseshoe
And for completeness, this is a Google Map of the East London Line at Shoreditch.
Shoreditch Curve
Knowing the East London Line well, I don’t think that the curve at Shoreditch is particularly tight and certainly thousands of up to five car trains have gone round the curve in safety without annoying too many of the residents. But are there that many residents?
So what do I think of the idea of the Lewes Horeshoe?
I believe that smaller rail projects like the Hitchin Flyover, Ipswich Chord, Ordsall Chord and Todmorden Curve, may not seem to offer high value before they are proposed, but once they are created, rail companies and politicians find innovative ways to use them.
I don’t know Lewes station well, but I always seem to spend some time there waiting for trains, when I visit.And would thus say that the area needs a bit of sorting out.
Now that the Uckfield Branch of the Oxted Line has been improved, as I wrote about in Future-Proofing The Uckfield Branch, I think that there could be moves to reinstate the Wealden Line and improve Seaford Branch services to Newhaven and Seaford.
Obviously, if there is any work at Lewes to sort out the services, all proposals should be examined.
There is also all of the proposals for a Second Brighton Main Line. I think that this project is so large, that I don’t think those using the trains between London and Sussex could put up with another project the size of Thameslink in the near future.
I also think, that several smaller projects along the current routes between London and Sussex should be sorted first.
- Improved longer and more frequent electric services from London to Uckfield.
- Improved longer and more frequent electric services along the West Coastway and East Coastway Lines.
- Improved links between Southeastern Highspeed services and Crossrail at Stratford International.
- The development of East Sussex services, so passengers can use Southeastern Highspeed services into Stratford and St. Pancras.
- The completion of the new interchange station at Gatwick Airport to improve connectivity.
- The sorting of the interchange between Thameslink and the East London Line.
- Improved services on the Hastings Line.
- A New one million pound car park has been built at Uckfield. Expect to see more!
- Improved layouts and extra tracks on the current Brighton Main Line.
I think that we’ll see some truly radical ideas and services implemented between London and Sussex, taking advantage of some of the new technology that is currently being developed.
For instance, if the East Coastway Line and the related Marshlink Line were to be improved, I feel that a limited stop Class 395 train could run from Stratford International to Brighton in under two hours.
I also believe that if the order of the projects is organised in an optimal order after Thameslink is completed through Gatwick to Brighton, that the important capacity between London and the South Coast can be maintained. This could be one possible order.
- Finish Thameslink, Gatwick Airport station and some Brighton Main Line improvements.
- Run twelve-car services between London and Uckfield.
- Improve the East Coastway and Marshlink Lines, so that trains with Class 395 performance can run between Brighton and Ashford.
- Add some more parking.
Finally, the bullet must be bitten and the Hastings Line can be closed and rebuilt, so that four trains per hour can be run between London and Hastings.
I discuss this in Improving The Hastings Line.
Combined Food And Power
I suppose it sounds too good to be true to produce both food and power from the same industrial process.
But look at this page entitled Combined Food And Power on the Orthios Group web site.
The company might have something.
What Are We Going To Do For The Lower Thames Crossing?
This report in the Thurrock Gazette is entitled Over a thousand residents make anger known at Lower Thames Crossing meeting tonight and it describes the anger in the area over the proposed new Lower Thames Crossing. This map from this BBC report, shows the proposed route.
The Proposed Lower Thames Crossing
I don’t drive, but I do appreciate that there is extra capacity across the Lower Thames is needed to relieve the Dartford Crossing.
So what should be done?
I think that whether or not a new Lower Thames Crossing is built, we should give people alternative routes to cross the river.
Crossrail may help in that some cross river journeys like say from Kent to Essex, may be quicker by the following route.
- Train or car to Abbey Wood station.
- Crossrail train to Whitechapel station.
- Walk across the platform at Whitechapel and take another Crossrail train to Essex, changing at Stratford or Shenfield as required.
Obviously, it won’t suit everybody, but the design of Whitechapel station has been designed to facilitate journeys like this.
I think that the Abbey Wood branch should be extended to Ebbsfleet International and Gravesend, as soon as possible. This extension is safeguarded but not planned.
It would probably help too, if the interchange between SouthEastern’s HighSpeed services and Crossrail at Stratford wasn’t a long hike round the Eastfield Shopping Centre.
Surely, the real problem is freight.
This will only be eased by putting more of it on rail between Europe and the UK.
In the end another Thames Crossing will be built and this should also solve the problem of a bigger Thames Barrier.
Things Seem To Be Moving On Crossrail’s Western Section
Returning from Windsor, I took the route via Slough and took these pictures.
Note.
- Slough station has a new fully accessible footbridge and a new bay platform seems to be being created at the London end of Platform 6.
- The overhead gantries certainly seem massive. They appear to be from Furrer + Frey.
- There is a loop line to the North side of Iver station.
- Hayes and Harlington station is getting a new platform.
- The bay platform at West Ealing station appears to be being readied for electrification and the Greenford Branch Line.
I shall have to go back in the next few days and check on progress.
But it does seem that things are moving along apace.
Connecting The Windsor Link Railway To The Slough To Windsor And Eton Line
I went to Windsor today, to see how the proposed Windsor Link Railway could connect to the Slough To Windsor And Eton Line.
This Google Map shows the area.
The Slough To Windsor And Eton Line
The single-track line from Slough to the north crosses the Thames on the Grade II* Listed, Windsor Railway Bridge, before curving to the east to go to Windsor and Eton Central station. South of the river, the line is on an elegant brick viaduct.
Note how it actually starts at quite a low level at the river and then rises towards the station, which sits above the town.
Look at More Pictures Of The Bermondsey Dive-Under and the post shows how at Bermondsey, a similar Victorian viaduct to that at Windsor has been modified to create a new track layout.
As the Bermondsey Dive-Under incorporated multiple tracks and the Windsor problem will be that of connecting the single-track to Slough to the tunnel under Windsor, I can’t see that architects and engineers will have much trouble creating a superior solution.
I suspect too, that the final design will leave a large proportion of the viaduct without track, if the connection to Windsor and Eton Central station is closed.
The Hoardings Are Down At Royal Oak Station
I came past Royal Oak station and as the Crossrail hoardings had been removed, when I got to Paddington, I went back and took these pictures from the train and the platform at Royal Oak station.
It would appear that Crossrail are starting to clear the site and landscape it. This Google Map shows the area.
Westway, Crossrail And Royal Oak Station
I think that it is going to be some form of public space.
The Anonymous Widower 