2018 cancellation and amendment log

[whole diary]

[phile]

18:32 Westbury to Swindon due 19:22
18:32 Westbury to Swindon due 19:22 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[snip]

No further advice for intending travellers on these trains again.....

Better not say "wait for next train" ... 4th January 2019 at 07:04!

Seem to have been re-instated

[Dispatch Box]

Far more useful, and much more simple, would be to relay the fourth track along the existing platform face at Westbury which becomes even more of a bottleneck if / when the hourly extra MetroWest services from Severn Beach or Avonmouth start running to there.  Platform already there ... no need for new platform or access subway / footbridge / slopes / lift as the Swindon suggestion would have.

It has been quoted as £10M to restore the old Platform 1 at Westbury to passenger use !! The idiots who did this should pay out of their pensions to do it ...................

How would it cost that much?. I remember in 1984 when a parcel platform in Gloucester was brought back into use, the only cost was, Platform 4 signs, Footbridge, new wooden T.R.T.S. cupboard, then was opened.


I have just realised after posting on the Westbury track thread, That it looks like the cost is to include resignalling.

[grahame]

How would it cost that much?. I remember in 1984 when a parcel platform in Gloucester was brought back into use, the only cost was, Platform 4 signs, Footbridge, new wooden T.R.T.S. cupboard, then was opened.

I think that re-opening Melksham Station in 1985 was done on the cheap - a cost of a few thousand.  The cost of slewing the track over at Staverton to the platform that's there and re-opening that station - broadly equivalent today - and you would be lucky to get change from a couple of million.

I have been shocked by how prices have risen in the rail industry from 2005 to 2018 - the (unconfirmed) cost quoted to me for adding a Swindon to Westbury daytime service as an option in the 2005 franchise versus what it cost for the 2013 trial ... with intermediate year's costings confirming the rapid rise over that period.

With Westbury, the question is "cost for what".  I could describe two very, very different schemes with very, very different price tags for a fourth platform face.   But without them being parts of official plans, none of these schemes appears to have reached the dizzy, dizzy heights where anyone at Network Rail would notice them and my understanding is that there is no passive provision being made during the current works with, already, the hint as a fourth platform is asked for of a response "but you wouldn't want a long stoppage to do it, would you" even though the relaying and enhancement were described as "entirely separate projects with no implications on each other" when the plan to relay to current layout popped up a few months ago.

[Dispatch Box]

How would it cost that much?. I remember in 1984 when a parcel platform in Gloucester was brought back into use, the only cost was, Platform 4 signs, Footbridge, new wooden T.R.T.S. cupboard, then was opened.

I think that re-opening Melksham Station in 1985 was done on the cheap - a cost of a few thousand.  The cost of slewing the track over at Staverton to the platform that's there and re-opening that station - broadly equivalent today - and you would be lucky to get change from a couple of million.

I have been shocked by how prices have risen in the rail industry from 2005 to 2018 - the (unconfirmed) cost quoted to me for adding a Swindon to Westbury daytime service as an option in the 2005 franchise versus what it cost for the 2013 trial ... with intermediate year's costings confirming the rapid rise over that period.

With Westbury, the question is "cost for what".  I could describe two very, very different schemes with very, very different price tags for a fourth platform face.   But without them being parts of official plans, none of these schemes appears to have reached the dizzy, dizzy heights where anyone at Network Rail would notice them and my understanding is that there is no passive provision being made during the current works with, already, the hint as a fourth platform is asked for of a response "but you wouldn't want a long stoppage to do it, would you" even though the relaying and enhancement were described as "entirely separate projects with no implications on each other" when the plan to relay to current layout popped up a few months ago.

So your thinking then, that this work in Westbury is a waste of money and would of probably been better spent on two tracks for the Melksham line.

I suppose a part of the estimated cost may be including new signals, track works, removing that fence, putting in a platform edge and tactiles, T.R.T.S cupboards, cis screens and off and cd/ra indicators, lastly new signs.

[ellendune]

So your thinking then, that this work in Westbury is a waste of money and would of probably been better spent on two tracks for the Melksham line.

Renewals done at the appropriate time can never be a waste of money. If they are not done then reliability suffers even more than it has.

A lost opportunity to make passive provision for a future without incurring significant additional cost - perhaps

I suppose a part of the estimated cost may be including new signals, track works, removing that fence, putting in a platform edge and tactiles, T.R.T.S cupboards, cis screens and off and cd/ra indicators, lastly new signs.

If the reports of a major signal cable run under the proposed new line is correct then relocating that could be a significant cost.

Assuming that the existing line is well used (as some have suggested) then slewing it over or building the platform out is not an option. 

In which case a new line would be required - or rather the platform line would need to be reinstated. New switches and crossings are really expensive and I presume that at least two would be required for such a project in addition to all the signalling changes. 

[grahame]

So your thinking then, that this work in Westbury is a waste of money and would of probably been better spent on two tracks for the Melksham line.

The current work at Westbury needs doing. No question.  There have been speed restrictions in place there for a while as the track has gone beyond the end of its economic life, there have been failures, etc.

What I question is the apparent separation of maintenance and upgrade.  £x million now on relaying the track followed by another £x million on upgrade in a couple of years strikes me as poor value compared to a single spend of, say £1.5x now on doing both at the same time.

[SandTEngineer]

Diverting cables is not a technically difficult job.  You can stage it and spread the work over a reasonable period.  Its been done before in more complex places than Westbury.

The Reception line is currently used to hold freight trains during loco and crew changes, and is very well used, so not a good idea to use it as the Platform line.  As I stated in a few posts before, there is space for a new track adjacent to the platform face and it could initially be made into a single ended bay platform to overcome capacity constraints.

We of course don't know the reasons for not including the proposals in the current works, but I suspect that the S&C^▸ (Settle and Carlisle ) renewal is being funded from the OPEX budget whereas the bay platform work would be funded from the CAPEX budget and the source of funding for the latter would have to be provided by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) for that purpose.

[Dispatch Box]

Diverting cables is not a technically difficult job.  You can stage it and spread the work over a reasonable period.  Its been done before in more complex places than Westbury.

Yes it had to be done, when the Kemble line was redoubled in 2014. They had to move cable runs and some metal cabinets, lastly signals, which were replaced at the same time.

[Dispatch Box]

Graham have you started one of these for 2019, can't seem to find it yet?.

[grahame]

Graham have you started one of these for 2019, can't seem to find it yet?.

It's at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=20898.0

Also experimenting at http://www.mrug.org.uk/record.html ... but need to be patient on that to see how things percolate through the system.