Are all the Thames Valley Branch lines monitered by Swindon Control or just TVSC» ?
There is a differential there, I think.
The
Swindon Control Centre is run by the train operating company "Great Western Railway" - still a marketing name for First Great Western Ltd, and it looks after all the trains the company operates, but not all the trains on the lines. In places, they're the only operator or just about so - just the occasional works train. The lines they use include most of the branches in the Thames Valley.
The
Thames Valley Signalling Centre is run by Network Rail. It looks after all trains within its signalling area. It includes lines in the area which have no GWR services - I suspect they go up to Bicester from Oxford, for example, and also freight lines.
Another arm of Network Rail - based around its regions - looks after maintenance and enhancement. The Western Area looks after the main lines out from Paddington and the Wessex Area looks after the main lines from Waterloo. Each includes offshoots and branches, and in places they interface. I know that Western and Wessex meet just south of Warminster on the Westbury to Salisbury line, but definitive detailed maps seem absent from the resources I know about. Evidence would lead me to guess that the boundary on the Reading to Basignstoke line is just south of Southcote Junction.
Let's add another complication ... "Route Utilisation Strategies" are a look at what's needed right along a route, and on lines such as Reading to Basingstoke decisions have to be made as to who studies the whole line. And in this case, Western has been chosen.
