Great Western Coffee Shop

Depressingly quiet ... strike day.   We are getting so used to these days that we don't comment very much - "here we go again".    Our disruption map says "no reported service changes at present" - and that's because around 95% of trains were withdrawn from the timetable before they even made the starting plan line.

Had trains been running, we would have been doing a leisure trip to Oxford today.  As it is, trip not happening and it's something we can do without.  Post-pandemic, far more optional leisure trips and the railway no longer has the "need" element for us.   So if it wants to survive, it really needs to have everyone who has a part in running trains looking out  for the customer in a way that perhaps (!!) they have not always done in the past.

Also, if we had a network more aligned to travel needs, Bristol - Oxford's through trains would have been retained and developed (and possibly further via East West Rail). Oh, and Oxford would have through trains to Leicester and Nottingham via Coventry, tho I can't work out what would have had to be done to Nuneaton to enable those.

Mark

Or maybe Oxford - Banbury - Rugby Central - Lutterworth - (new curve from the GCR to the MR near Countesthorpe) - Leicester London Road

Reversing and crossing the West Coast Main Line on the flat at Nuneaton would be problematic which is why there's a scheme been raised to reinstate the avoid curve which goes underneath.   That gives rise to an issue as to whether the trains actually call at and connect at a Nuneaton station.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/nunoldmap.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/nunnowmap.jpg)

If you had (say) 2 trains an hour running from Coventry into the Nuneaton area would you look to (somehow) have them all call and connect in Nuneaton, or dilute the frequency down to one-an-hour Coventry to Nuneaton and one-an-hour Coventry to Leicester?   And your choice would also affect Nuneaton - Leicester flows.

Looking wider - Templecombe (historic), Newark, Yeovil (current need for better interchange), Old Oak (future) and Limeric Junction (reductio ad absurdum) give us lessons to consider.

Fascinating. That spur out of use as a through route by 1900 - and finally closed with the engine shed there in 1966. The WCML bridge, a quad track steel overbridge which has gone.

There's three photos of it on this page (finding them would involve mammoth scrolling, hence the direct links)


http://www.nuneatonhistory.com/on-london--north-western-railway-lines.html (http://www.nuneatonhistory.com/on-london--north-western-railway-lines.html)

http://www.nuneatonhistory.com/uploads/1/8/6/8/18680466/6772156_orig.jpg (http://www.nuneatonhistory.com/uploads/1/8/6/8/18680466/6772156_orig.jpg)
http://www.nuneatonhistory.com/uploads/1/8/6/8/18680466/4917599_orig.jpg (http://www.nuneatonhistory.com/uploads/1/8/6/8/18680466/4917599_orig.jpg)
http://www.nuneatonhistory.com/uploads/1/8/6/8/18680466/9305469_orig.jpg (http://www.nuneatonhistory.com/uploads/1/8/6/8/18680466/9305469_orig.jpg)

And yes, Oxford to Leicester and Nottingham services to not call at Nuneaton.

Mark

I assume "spur" means the LNWR Loop Line, the southern chord, which was a goods line like the LM Avoiding Line to the north. Both went our of use ages ago, with the Loop Line being just a siding by 1900. The avoiding Line was reopened and re-routed in 2004 via the two new platforms so that XC can call there. If the bridge over the Loop Line was in need of much work, I can't see how anyone could have justified spending money - after all the Coventry line was closed for a time.

But what's being promoted now is a "dive-under". I can't see anything saying where it is to go, only that burrowing under the main line is going to cost lots. Presumably it would take trains that reverse in platform 1 under the main line and towards Leicester. I suspect better value (and thus probability of funding) would come from doing something different, using what's there already. For example, building (or re-building) a link between other lines to allow a route from Coventry to enter Nuneaton as if from Birmingham.

Or, given a new station was built on the Coventry Line (Bermuda Park), why not build another one one the way to Birmingham? Trains from Coventry could reverse there, which granted would take longer (and might involve two calls at Nuneaton), but you'd be offering the residents of Whittleford a station again.

Note the difference between old and new avoiding lines. The old ones were for goods, and linked lines that would otherwise call for a reversal and/or crossing the main line. Grade separation was secondary. The new ones are all about grade separation, and allowing station calls with a reversal is not a significant penalty. The lines linked may already be linked across a flat junction - which used to be adequate, but now is not operationally acceptable.