How can southern run between redhill and gatwIck but fgw cannot

Mookiemoo

Hero Member

Posts: 3117

How can southern run between redhill and gatwIck but fgw cannot

« on: December 04, 2010, 11:49:34 »


	Logged

Ditched former sig - now I need to think of something amusing - brain hurts -I'll steal from the master himself - Einstein:

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."

"Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love"

matt473

Hero Member

Posts: 374

Re: How can southern run between redhill and gatwIck but fgw cannot

« Reply #1 on: December 04, 2010, 12:48:50 »

Only guessing but it may have something to do with infrastructure capacity. May not be possible to have all services operating so only operate certain services and I suppose its easier to have just 1 TOC^▸ opeating a more frequent service as opposed to 2 on a verymuch reduced service. Again though I am only guessing


	Logged

super tm

Hero Member

Posts: 599

Re: How can southern run between redhill and gatwIck but fgw cannot

« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2010, 13:17:01 »

Quote from: matt473 on December 04, 2010, 12:48:50

With snow part of the problem is that points can get blocked with snow. When there is a lot of snow around there is a contingency plan to keep certain points in one position only. Then only some services will run. I should imagine the points at Redhill are set to allow trains to run from London through to Gatwick so FGW^▸ have to terminate at Redhill.

You can imagine the problems if the points froze after being set to allow the one FGW service an hour to go to Gatwick. Then all trains from Victoria to Gatwick brighton etc would be stuck.

The same thing happens on the Marlow to Maidenhead run. When things are particularly bad through trains to London do not run.


	Logged

fatcontroller

Sr. Member

Posts: 117

Re: How can southern run between redhill and gatwIck but fgw cannot

« Reply #3 on: December 04, 2010, 13:59:08 »

It's called the "Key Route Stategy" and all companies / NR^» routes have them.


	Logged

former FGW^▸ Staff now working for the People's republic of ScotRail
Anything I post is my own personal view and not that of FGW, FirstGroup, ScotRail or Transport Scotland.
Anything official from these sources will be marked as such.

Jonathan H

Full Member

Posts: 55

Re: How can southern run between redhill and gatwIck but fgw cannot

« Reply #4 on: December 04, 2010, 16:02:32 »

Yesterday, I travelled on the North Downs line and then on to Croydon and back to Reading via Staines.

The snow in East Surrey was and is pretty deep and, at Redhill, a route had been cleared through the platform lines - the through lines were not visible and presumably the Quarry line was shut - all trains (including those not stopping at Redhill) were passing through platforms 2 and 3 with Reading trains terminating in platform 1.

Therefore, no points were being operated on the through lines at Redhill (with only the point operational being that to let Reading trains in and out of platform 1).

Having Reading trains operate to Gatwick would require quite a number of extra sets of points to be operational at Redhill and Gatwick.


	Logged

Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

Pages: [1]

« previous next »