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Journey by Journey / Cross Country services / Re: CrossCountry upgrade will see 25% more rail seats
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on: March 26, 2024, 21:06:07
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60 new carriages after the withdrawal of 40 Mk3 carriages. Is that really a 25% increase in capacity?
Doesn't it depend on a 25% increase from when? I guess it’s 25% from now, as the HSTs▸ are long gone. But how often did they ever use more than 2 of them per day? Does before and after diagrammed capacity give a different % figure to before and after fleet size? Should the PR▸ figures only consider the Voyagers, and seats on the north/south main network? Is the lack of any reported increase in the 170 fleet just a minor point that can be ignored?
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Journey by Journey / Cross Country services / Re: CrossCountry upgrade will see 25% more rail seats
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on: March 26, 2024, 15:36:21
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Think these acquisitions is more about increasing capacity on existing services than the introduction of additional services.
I believe they are wanting to introduce the daily Cardiff<>Edinburgh service, refill the gaps in the Stansted service, and, from May 2025, restore the hourly Reading<>Newcastle’s only a few of which run now. The latest track access application (TAA) did read that trains on the “Reading Newcastle service group” would be ‘mostly hourly’ from May/June 2025, but it’s suggested elsewhere that only alternate trains will be able to run north of York, because of the ongoing ECML▸ capacity issues giving priority to London to Newcastle and Edinburgh trains. They also refer to the “Reading Newcastle corridor” which is a somewhat loose term that possibly allows for shortening at either end. I think it’s pretty clear another extension that’s never coming back is the 2 hourly Reading to Southampton Central, again they’re not mentioned in their TAA. Paul
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Journey by Journey / South Western services / Re: Network Rail plan to close Tan Hill crossing and replace it with a footbridge
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on: February 24, 2024, 17:13:47
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Then yesterday (Thursday) NR» gave me (this time hand delivered) another contribution to my ever-growing collection of "dear neighbour" letters. This says that they are closing the level crossing and the roads up to it again all this weekend, to bring in the bridge span. It will come through the town centre at about midnight Saturday, but when and how it will get to its final position is not clear. Would it need to go that last short move along the railway? We'll see - or maybe not, if it happens in the middle of the night, as usual. That was not 100% true. According to a man who knows (labelled Network rail, and he said "this is my bridge to deliver"), arrival in Wokingham was scheduled for Saturday night, but brought forward two weeks ago, when the possession was retimed, to Friday night. So that letter was partly out of date. But I looked out of the window before midday, towards the crossing, and saw a bridge trundling past (it had been lurking along the road). Since then it's been all go, with a BIG crane's minders setting out the load spreading under its stabilisers. That's just for a lift off the lorries and onto a little train; there are two more cranes hanging about for the lifts onto the piers. Do you know if they're doing the entire length of the bridge span this weekend? I’m assuming from Google satellite view it is far too long overall to be delivered down one track in a pre-assembled length, ie there’ll presumably be two half bridges that will take the two separate routes at the junction? IYSWIM. Paul
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Journey by Journey / South Western services / Re: Wokingham resignalling
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on: February 19, 2024, 10:51:06
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Here’s the NR» press release. Can anyone explain the relevance of the first photo to a resignalling project? From Saturday 10 to Sunday 18 February, Network Rail completed the final phase of the resignalling work in the Wokingham area as part of the five-year £375m programme of work to bring the 1970s signalling equipment up to modern standards.
During the most recent nine-day closure, engineers worked around the clock to install 43 new signals (traffic lights for the railway), as well as upgrade two level crossings at Wokingham station and Easthampstead Road (Star Lane) and renew a double railway junction at Wokingham.
Now complete, customers will benefit from a modern digitalised signalling system that will help improve train performance, increase future capacity, result in fewer delays, and enhance the safety of level crossings.
As part of the five-year programme, Network Rail moved control of the signalling equipment between Feltham and Wokingham and transferred it to Basingstoke, into the Rail Operating Centre (ROC▸ ), as well as upgraded 16 level crossings and installed 500 pieces of signalling equipment, which covers 80 miles of railway across Feltham, Hounslow, Shepperton, Twickenham, Windsor & Eton Riverside and Wokingham.
https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/network-rail-completes-final-phase-of-gbp-375m-investment-to-install-state-of-the-art-signalling-system-which-will-improve-the-reliability-of-the-line-between-feltham-and-wokinghamPaul
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Vivarail chosen for fast charging trial on the Greenford branch
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on: February 16, 2024, 21:50:26
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Remind my why the West Ealing to Greenford service is not overground?
It was looked at a few years ago in a route study, (I forget which one), with a view to LO or even Chiltern taking it over. Neither option made much sense, especially since with the GOB line being recently wired LO were not interested in reintroducing a couple of DMUs▸ to their fleet. In Chiltern’s case it was apparently a possibility, but would still have meant awkward empty stock running with no real advantage over GWR▸ operationally. Paul
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