From
Ian VisitsSetback for railway upgrade between Watford and St Albans
Plans to increase the number of trains that can use the Abbey Line between Watford Junction and St Albans have been setback after the Department for Transport (DfT» ) decided not to fund the project.
The difficulty with the line’s popularity is that although the journey takes just 16 minutes, the trains run just once every 45 minutes because of the constraints of the single track.
A bid for funding to build a passing loop at Bricket Wood station had been submitted to the DfT’s “restoring your railway” fund and had received some interim money to investigate the plans further. A report submitted for the funding suggests that the restoration of the passing loop and the necessary signalling upgrades could come in at under £9 million, and while it found the benefits of the upgrade covered the capital costs, they were not quite enough to cover the increased costs of running additional trains on the line.
Why am I quoting this on "TransWilts"? ... Because of the same situation on the Swindon to Westbury service - though a longer line and a much worse current frequency. At present, there's a train going up and down about every 2 hours and that's a service that useable to a proportion of people, but below par for most. Put in a (dynamic) loop just north of Melksham Station, double the train frequency, and each train will be busier than each of the current trains - yes, more than a doubling of traffic. Like the St Albans to Watford Junction rejection by the DfT, the Swindon to Westbury request for increased capacity has been rejected.
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