Devolution For Cornwall
This report on the BBC is entitled Cornwall devolution: First county with new powers.
It is not full devolution, but various powers have been given to the Council.
- Give Cornwall Council powers for franchising and improving local bus services
- Help Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly councils create a plan to bring health and social care services together
- Enable the council to choose what projects will see millions of pounds of investment
- Give the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) more input on boosting local skills
- Make it easier for the LEP to integrate national and local services to help local firms grow
I suspect we’ll see a lot more powers devolved to the Council.
There is no mention of rail services, which are detailed here in Wikipedia, although I suspect these are covered by the Council choosing where to invest.
I suspect though that a lot of improvement in rail services has already been covered. I detailed the improvements for both Devon and Cornwall in The Japanese Are Going To Invade Devon And Cornwall.
I also suspect that as the economy improves in the Far West, whoever is operating the express and sleeper services to London, will upgrade the services to match the demand. The new AT300 trains, that First Great Western have ordered could even be used between Cornwall and Birmingham.
Just as Crossrail is going to give London and the South East a massive kick up the ladder, the electrification and modernisation of the Great Western Main Line is going to do the same for England west of Reading, And of course South Wales!
I see a sunny future for Cornwall!
Which English county is going to be next in the queue for devolution?
History Repeats Itself
The BBC is today showing a clip on Breakfast Time, where their Transport Correspondent, gets a ride on the new Class 800 train from Hitachi, as it runs round the test track.
But it is already suffering from the same problems that dogged the British Rail trains of the 1970s and 1980s. According to this document on a web site about the Advanced Passenger Train, the drivers blacked the train for twelve months because it was single-crewed. The writer claims this was a factor in the abandoning of the project.
So what was last week’s strike on First Great Western about?
Crew levels on the new trains, as is reported in this article on the BBC.
We may be in the twenty-first century, but some people and their attitudes are still in the nineteenth.
The Ladbroke Grove Rail Crash Memorial
I didn’t know there was a memorial to the Ladbroke Grove rail crash.
It’s tucked away in a quiet corner just outside the large Sainsburys at Ladbroke Grove.
Should We Link HS2 And HS1?
According to this article on the Global Rail News web site, there has been speculation over the weekend in the Press that there will be a direct link between HS1 and HS2.
There are two main reasons why the HS1 and HS2 should be directly linked.
Obviously, in a decade or so, it would be very nice to get on a train in Birmingham and then be in Paris or Brussels without changing trains in under three hours.
Within a decade, the amount of freight going between the Midlands, North and Scotland, and the Channel Tunnel and the ports in the Thames Estuary is going to have grown substantially! So if HS1 was connected to HS2 and the West Coast Main Line by a full-size tunnel, the freight trains could be diverted deep under London. This would free-up the North London and the Gospel Oak to Barking Lines for much-needed passenger services.
A few years ago, digging a full size tunnel between HS1 under Islington to say Old Oak Common would have been an immensely difficult project, but Crossrail and other tunnelling projects around the world have changed all that.
My insight into the minds of those who create these big projects, makes me think, that if HS1 and HS2 are linked directly, it will be used for other purposes.
But above all we must boldly go!
Those Canny Yorkshire Folk Seem To be Thinking About More Stations
Different parts of the country seem to have there own preferred ways of expanding their transport network.
Only London can probably afford large projects like Crossrail or Crossrail 2, but several cities like Manchester, Cardiff and Nottingham can make good cases for sensible projects that cost from say a hundred million pounds up to a billion. Projects in this category would include.
Croxley Rail Link to Watford – £230 million – Click for details
Midland Metro extension to New Street – £127 million – Click for details
North West Electrification – £422 million – Click for details
Nottingham Express Transit – Phase 2 – £570 million – Click for details
Valley Lines Electrification – £400 million – Click for details
The costs I have quoted are probably only indicative, as Network Rail have had their problems lately. But I just wanted to show that trains and trams don’t come cheap.
Underneath these large and medium sized projects, there are a large assortment that generally get chosen to suit the problems of an area. For example.
1. East Anglia got the Bacon Factory Curve at Ipswich to sort out delays to all traffic caused by the large number of freight trains going into and out of the Port of Felixstowe.
2. Lancashire got the Todmorden Curve to allow direct trains from Blackburn and Burnley to Manchester Victoria.
3.Warwickshire received funds to develop new stations at Coventry Arena, Bermuda Park and Kenilworth.
So as I said at the start of this post different areas of the country see their own priorities and attempt to get schemes funded.
Sheffield and Manchester for example might promote schemes based on their tram networks, and Leeds and Liverpool might want to expand their successful rail networks.
It is interesting to look at this page, which is a list of current projects on the West Yorkshire Metro.
Three new stations; Apperley Bridge, Kirkstall Forge and Low Moor are either under construction or could be so in the next year or so.
Improvements at major stations in the area are listed and there is even a project to identify places for new stations.
So as I said in the title of this post, it looks like West Yorkshire is hoping new and improved stations will be a successful, practical and affordable way of bringing more traffic to the network.
They do have a project on the possible introduction of tram-trains in the City. The web site just says this.
Development of a tram-train network for the Leeds city region would be through conversion of existing heavy rail routes and construction of some on-street alignments.
Further consideration will be given following the outcome of a trial in South Yorkshire.
How sensible!
Like many other cities and areas are probably doing, to wait for the trial between Sheffield and Rotherham to show if tram-trains are viable in the UK, is a very good idea.
If what I have seen in Germany is any indication of how the Vossloh tram-trains are introduced and perform, I suspect we’ll be seeing quite a few of their UK variant, the Class 399 tram-train.
Monkey Hadley Common
Monkey Hadley Common or Hadley Wood as we called it, was one of the places I used to go regularly as a child with my friend Richard Plumb.
Today, I walked through it with a friend before having some lunch at Cockfosters.
Surprisingly, despite being probably fifty-five years since I’ve been there, some parts had changed little and I could remember everything well.
There was always fishing in Jack’s Lake and that was probably a lot cleaner.
Ofen we would go through the woods to the East Coast Main Line, where we would do the things that boys did in those days, like putting coins on the track, so the trains would flatten them.
Do kids still do that?
The railway incidentally is much changed with electrification and whereas in the 1950s, you saw perhaps one express to and from the North every half-an-hour or so, the trains are much more frequent now.
Lea Bridge Station – 8th July 2015
I took these pictures from a train going past the site of Lea Bridge station.
They’ve certainly put up a load of fences, but not much else.
Crossrail Station Index
My post on Custom House station got me asking the question – In how many Crossrail stations, will there be a central island platform with two platform faces or a shared area possibly with platform edge doors serving both lines, rather than two separate platforms with the tracks together in the middle?
Crossrail is effectively a two-track railway and only a few stations have more than two platforms that will be used by Crossrail trains.
This is an index of all Crossrail stations, with links to their page on the Crossrail web site and Wikipedia.
Note that at present not all stations, have their own page on the Crossrail web site.
Abbey Wood Station – An existing station with two new Crossrail platforms. – Crossrail Wikipedia
Acton Main Line – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer. Wikipedia
Bond Street – A new two-platform station with possibly a shared area between them. – Crossrail Wikipedia
Brentwood – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer. Wikipedia
Burnham – An existing two-platform station with an island platform. Crossrail Wikipedia
Canary Wharf – A new two-platform station with a shared area between them. – Crossrail Wikipedia
Chadwell Heath – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer. Wikipedia
Custom House – A new two-platform station with a shared area between them. – Crossrail Wikipedia
Ealing Broadway Station – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer, that will be rebuilt. Crossrail Wikipedia
Farringdon – A new two-platform station with a shared area between them. – Crossrail Wikipedia
Forest Gate – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer. Wikipedia
Gidea Park – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer. Wikipedia
Goodmayes – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer. Wikipedia
Hanwell – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and subway transfer. Wikipedia
Harold Wood – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer. Wikipedia
Hayes and Harlington – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer, that will be rebuilt. Crossrail Wikipedia
Ilford – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer. Wikipedia
Iver – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer. Wikipedia
Langley – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer. Crossrail Wikipedia
Liverpool Street – A new two-platform station with a shared area between them. – Crossrail Wikipedia
Maidenhead – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and subway transfer. Wikipedia
Manor Park – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer. Wikipedia
Maryland – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer. Wikipedia
Old Oak Common – A new station to be designed and built after Crossrail is completed. Wikipedia
Paddington – A new two-platform station with a shared area between them. – Crossrail Wikipedia
Reading – A large existing station, which has been future-proofed to act as a terminal for Crossrail. Wikipedia
Romford – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer. Wikipedia
Seven Kings – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer. Wikipedia
Shenfield – An existing station with three separate Crossrail platforms and subway transfer. Wikipedia
Slough – A large existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer. Wikipedia
Southall – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer, that will be rebuilt. Wikipedia
Stratford – A large existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and subway transfer. Wikipedia
Taplow – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer. Crossrail Wikipedia
Tottenham Court Road – A new two-platform station with possibly a shared area between them. Crossrail Wikipedia
Twyford – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer. Wikipedia
West Drayton – An existing station with two/three separate Crossrail platforms and bridge/subway transfer. Crossrail Wikipedia
West Ealing – An existing station with two separate Crossrail platforms and bridge transfer, that will be rebuilt. Wikipedia
Whitechapel – A new two-platform station with a shared area between them. – Crossrail Wikipedia
Woolwich – A new two-platform station with a shared area between them. – Crossrail Wikipedia
Crossrail’s Royal Oak Portal
Unlike the Crossrail tunnel portals at Abbey Wood and Stratford, the portal at Royal Oak is rather hidden away under the Westway, with no suitable vantage point to see the site. This Google Map shows the tunnel portal from Royal Oak station to the footbridge at Westbourne Park, where I took these pictures.
Royal Oak Tunnel Portal
It shows the cramped nature of the site, which is just 21m. wide. This is an enlarged image of the ramp leading down to the start of the tunnel under London.
An Enlarged View
The only pictures I can find on the web with a proper explanation are in this article on the London Reconnections web site. In that article a picture is labelled as the remains of the arches and they are shown under the Westway and facing South. They are probably the arches in these pictures I took from the train.
I am not sure, but it looks like the arches support the access ramp that lead up to the Westway. But they are not shown in this architectural drawing from Acanthus, which shows the area around the Ventilation shaft they have designed for Crossrail.
Crossrail Ventilation Shaft By Acanthus
This Google Map shows the current access with relation to the two bridges and Royal Oak station.
Access To The Westway
Note the long pipes, which I assume are either covering conveyors that remove the spoil for the tunnels or are to there to pump fresh air into the tunnels.
The station has recently been renovated, but once Crossrail is complete to the North of the station, are we going to see a comprehensive redevelopment of the area.
All will be revealed in time.
White Rails On The Great Western Main Line
On my trip today to see take pictures at West Ealing and Southall stations, I was also looking for the white rails,I spoke about in this article.
These pictures are just a few of many.
The Anonymous Widower 