Trains idling at termini

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

Mike Calvert, who lives near Severn Beach Station, has been complaining for some time about the noise and fumes from trains idling at the terminus. He's been promised that this will be kept to a minimum, but it seems like intentions and reality differ. Here's his latest email on the topic:

"The trains remain idling (including revving of engines) at the Severn Beach station, following countless complaints.

It is alarming that all trains on Monday 29th idled at the station, with no drivers opting to turn off the trains, as stipulated in GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) policy.

Actual idling times for Monday 29th.

05:53 – 6 minutes
06:31 – 9 minutes
07:01 – 11 minutes
07:33 – 9 minutes
08:01 – 11 minutes
09:01 – 36 minutes
10:01 – 32 minutes
11:01 – 32 minutes
12:01 – 28 minutes
13:01 – 29 minutes
14:01 – 31 minutes
15:01 – 34 minutes
16:01 – 32 minutes
17:01 – 36 minutes
18:01 – 28 minutes
19:01 – 27 minutes
20:01 – 29 minutes
20:31 – 9 minutes
21:31 – 11 minutes
22:10 – 14 minutes
22:40 – 10 minutes
23:08 – 9 minutes

As above, this is over 8 hours of idling trains in a single day. How many cars does that put back on the road, like-for-like?

I resent, as a taxpayer, that this subsidised service results in a train operator polluting the village of Severn Beach with little to no regulation.

Mike"

Is this a problem elsewhere?

[IndustryInsider]

‘Revving’ of engines would only usually occur when the compressor speed up in enabled to quickly build up air…when it’s been lost due to the engines being shut down!

[grahame]

Is this a problem elsewhere?

It's unusual to that degree, I suspect. The turn around at Severn Beach is unusually long - looking at St Ives, Falmouth Dock, Newquay, Looe, Gunnislake, Exmouth, Okehampton, Barnstaple, Henley, Marlow, Windsor, Greenford the are all just a few minutes to keep that valuable train set running. Swindon used to have a long layover on the Cheltenham Spa services when they were alternate Sprinter and HST^▸ (High Speed Train) services, but they typically were shut down there.   Not a terminus as such, but there is an issue at times with trains terminating at Westbury.

[REVUpminster]

Paignton used to have this problem as you were slowly being gassed on the platform but nowadays they usually turn the engine off. Perhaps they are more confident the engine will restart.
I've seem the driver go to the toilets to get water to fill a water cap that was platform side of a 143.

[plymothian]

Noting that shutting down the engine means the heating turns off, which is not ideal at this time of year.

[infoman]

I think what might happen is GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) will reduce the amount of services going to the beach with a bus replacement  service.

If that happens,blame the complainer.

[TonyK]

It's unusual to that degree, I suspect. The turn around at Severn Beach is unusually long - looking at St Ives, Falmouth Dock, Newquay, Looe, Gunnislake, Exmouth, Okehampton, Barnstaple, Henley, Marlow, Windsor, Greenford the are all just a few minutes to keep that valuable train set running. Swindon used to have a long layover on the Cheltenham Spa services when they were alternate Sprinter and HST^▸ (High Speed Train) services, but they typically were shut down there.   Not a terminus as such, but there is an issue at times with trains terminating at Westbury.

The long layover seems to be a by-product of a regular service on a line with a long stretch of single track at the end, meshing with other trains terminating at an earlier station. An example is the train from Weston arriving at SVB at 1223. From Avonmouth, it has a 10-minute stretch to Severn Beach, giving something like a 25 minute minimum time before getting back to where it can cross with other trains. Meanwhile, Avonmouth enjoys another service arriving 1239, departing 1246. The 1223 arrival at SVB waits until 1301 before setting off again, passing the next inbound train from WSM at Avonmouth.

The obvious easy solution would be to terminate that service at Avonmouth. The next best would be to get the driver to shut down the engine, but as pointed out above, this involves a cold train and a nervous start-up. Option 3 is redouble the track so a 20-minute clockface service can operate and option 4 would be electrification, neither of which will happen quickly.

So - diesel fumes and noise, or a cut in a hard-won frequency of a MetroWest route.

[Red Squirrel]

So, signalling chums: would it be possible to tweak the signals or rules so that trains could pull about 500m out of the station after dropping off passengers, and then reverse back in for the next service?

[infoman]

Its a good thought,but I can see passengers making a long walk up to the train at the "far end"

and when the passenger gets to the train it moves off to the stop blocks end.

[FarWestJohn]

At Penryn when the locals complained about the noise from trains waiting to pass on the single line they built a huge great wooden fence/wall to protect the houses.

[Witham Bobby]

So, signalling chums: would it be possible to tweak the signals or rules so that trains could pull about 500m out of the station after dropping off passengers, and then reverse back in for the next service?

That would very much depend on local circumstances.  At the end of a dead-end single-line branch, like Looe or Barnstaple, then yes, probably.  Where there are fixed signals and complications of "wrong" direction moves, far less easy

[grahame]

So, signalling chums: would it be possible to tweak the signals or rules so that trains could pull about 500m out of the station after dropping off passengers, and then reverse back in for the next service?

That would very much depend on local circumstances.  At the end of a dead-end single-line branch, like Looe or Barnstaple, then yes, probably.  Where there are fixed signals and complications of "wrong" direction moves, far less easy

Not sure how Severn Beach fits in to that with "The bins" coming up the single track and shunting into the power plant; they can just about be seen from the platform at Severn Beach.

[Witham Bobby]

Not sure how Severn Beach fits in to that with "The bins" coming up the single track and shunting into the power plant; they can just about be seen from the platform at Severn Beach.

It's been a long time since I was there, but I don't think Severn Beach is a dead-end is it?  I need to refresh my knowledge.  I'll look at some track plans

[johnneyw]

It's been a long time since I was there, but I don't think Severn Beach is a dead-end is it?  I need to refresh my knowledge.  I'll look at some track plans

The curve/chord linking Severn Beach Station to the main line at Pilning was ripped up and built over, in part at least, a fair few years ago.

[a-driver]

‘Revving’ of engines would only usually occur when the compressor speed up in enabled to quickly build up air…when it’s been lost due to the engines being shut down!

And restarting the engines and hitting the compressor speed up probably doesn’t do the engines much good either.
During the hours of darkness shutting the engines down could result in the saloon lighting going out.

Whatever you do though, don’t tell Mike we keep an engine on a HST^▸ (High Speed Train) running all night!