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Author Topic: Place holder - timetable 2020 / effect on South Wales local journeys  (Read 12075 times)
eightf48544
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« Reply #15 on: August 23, 2019, 11:15:19 »

On stopping (more) Cardiff - Portsmouth trains at Severn Tunnel Junction - yes, that came up.  Just as discussed elsewhere (Heart of Wessex board) recently, we have a single service looking to perform multiple tasks and various compromises, with a suggestion that flow size and capacity of lines both mitigate against running each task as a separate train.

A point I've been making for a while particularly on the Heart of Wessex and possibly Transwilts.

It is interesting to compare attitudes of the Southern Railway and Great Western to clock face services, poor serving of intermediate stations and poor connections at junctions.

Having electrified much of the network by the 1930s SR(resolve) had mostly a mostly clock face timetable  imposed (even on some steam lines). with a relatively fixed stopping pattern. Thus as commuting developed certain towns, because of their good service became heavy commuter towns like Woking. This pattern has been followed with Kent Coast and Weymouth electrification, but the minor stations such as Micheldever, which seems to becoming a Parkway, are still mostly served by the stoppers. One of the few major changes to the Southern services is the introduction of the Javelin High speed Services into Kent from St. Pancras. The effect tha has had on the old lines is probabably a topic in it's own right and could be relevant in HS2 (The next High Speed line(s)) v WCML (West Coast Main Line).

Contrast this the GWR (Great Western Railway) who had very limited commuter services into Paddington some from the Valley lines into Cardiff /Newprt and from Solihull and Shirley into Birmingham. Mostly non clock-face until the introduction of DMUs (Diesel Multiple Unit). Many intermediate  and branch line stations were poorly served. Thus it could take hours to get from Calne to Malmesbury  by train with changes at least at Chippenham and Swindon. Whereas it's 15 miles 32 minutes  by Road the bus wins. Thus until recently places like these stayed much the same size, but now we have the growth of house building in these areas with the potential for more rail passengers but still the same poor services.

 Problem, which emphasises  Grahame's point.

 That "we have a single service looking to perform multiple tasks and various compromises, with a suggestion that flow size and capacity of lines both mitigate against running each task as a separate train."

Unfortunately  I don't have a solution. Unless it's to provide more capacity at Junction stations to allow stoppers to be overtaken by fasts and give easy  interchange. Platform 4 at Westbury? Otherwise we'll have to build any new stations with platform loops, as the GWR did at stations between Taunton and Newton Abbot.

From  Rhydgaled list of services in post above

Caerphilly - Machen - Newport

Did you mean Machen? If so are they going to open those favourite quiz question stations Fountain Inn Halt and Waterloo Halt?
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« Reply #16 on: August 23, 2019, 12:18:28 »

we'll have to build any new stations with platform loops
There's a new station, Miskin, planned between Cardiff and Bridgend. I've no details on it, but I really hope they make it four tracks with platforms on the relief/loop lines to allow fast trains to overtake stoppers.

Caerphilly - Machen - Newport

Did you mean Machen?
I think I do mean Machen. On at least one version of the early Metro proposal maps, there is a route shown from Newport to Treharris via Caerphilly. With the Royal Gwent, Pye Corner and Bedwas stops it may well have been envisaged as a bus route but remove those and using the freight lines to Machen and Dowlais would get you most of the way from Newport to Treharris by rail, with just the Machen-Caerphilly gap to fill. Unlike Miskin station, there is nothing on the Newport-Caerphilly link in the new franchise announcements so far sadly.
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