What projects do people think will be in the next Scottish HLOS not including work carried over from CP5? Let's assume there'll be around £1 billion for new projects. What are the strategic/political priorities likely to be?
I'm assuming that they will include work on removing the single line section at Usan, as announced in January 2016 as part of the Aberdeen City Deal?
https://www.transport.gov.scot/news-item/58cba92424ae440f0058d57bNorth East gets new dedicated team to address rail issues.
The Aberdeen to Central Belt Team will review options for capacity improvements between Aberdeen and Dundee, as well as options for double tracking Usan Junction and the South Esk viaduct at Montrose.
Drawing together regional and railway interests, members will include representatives from Transport Scotland, Nestrans and Tactrans; as well as the ScotRail Alliance, Freight and passenger rail service operators.
Mr Yousaf said:
The Scottish Government is determined to improve journey times, capacity and performance for passengers, for sustainable freight transport and for businesses on this key corridor.
Our aim is to ensure the rail service between Aberdeen and the Central belt improves transport connectivity and provides enhanced performance when travelling between cities.
That is why I believe this new team, led by Transport Scotland, with substantial regional input and expertise will make a positive contribution to shaping the future of rail in the north east.
Nestrans Director, Derick Murray said:
Nestrans have been working hard, alongside colleagues from Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire councils, to present the case for investment in north east rail travel and connectivity to the central belt, and following our productive discussions with the Minister, we welcomed his commitment to regularly monitor progress on this project.
Nestrans are very pleased to now form part of the new review team and look forward to working alongside our rail partners to improve the north easts links with the central belt.
The creation of the group comes at a key time for rail travel in the north east where we have seen incredible growth over the last decade in passenger figures combined with predictions of increased demand for rail travel for the decade ahead.
We know that ease of connectivity plays a vital role in the success of the north easts economy and Nestrans will continue to work to improve accessibility on both a local and a national level.
The Aberdeen to Central Belt Team is expected to commence its work next month and this will be undertaken in relation to the Scottish Governments additional £200 million investment, announced alongside the Aberdeen City Region Deal, with the intention to deliver improvements within the ten year city deal period.
The complete re-doubling of the Westerton-Milngavie branch (more specifically, the Westerton-Bearsden & Hillfoot-Milngaive sections) seems to be a no-brainer. Can't fathom why it was partially singled in the late 1980s in the first place, apart from the most obvious one (cutting back on track/infrastructure maintenance costs), but the negative effects of this have long since outweighed the positive.
As it currently stands, it is a operational bottleneck with the smallest of delays having chronic knock-on effects. It's beginning to show in the passenger numbers, with usage of Bearsden, Hillfoot & Milngavie all taking a hit in the 2015/16 financial year, after a sustained period of growth from the 2011/2012 period in the case of Milngavie (the other two having last experienced a drop in 2013/14). To arrest any further decline in passenger numbers, it would make sense to redouble this line, as it would undoubtedly help spur on further growth and practically eliminate the chronic late-running. Here's hoping that it is on the table...
I think that the Finnieston to Hyndland section is close to being totally full capacity-wise, if it isn't already. Besides, I was thinking less of adding extra services to Milngavie and more of improving the time-keeping of the existing ones by upgrading the line to double-track from Westerton to Bearsden & Hillfoot to Milngavie, thus eliminating one of the Glasgow suburban network's most notorious operational bottlenecks.Is there capacity at Hyndland/Partick for extra services to Milngavie? That said, avoiding late-running given the effects on the aforementioned congested section shared with so many routes may make it worth it anyway.
When the Milngavie branch was singled there was, I think just a halfhourly service. It was doubled when Airdrie to Bathgate opened. The RDG submission to the consultation points out that the linking of EDI into the Glasgow network means that any disruption anywhere spreads throughout the network, and this is exacerbated by the singled sections, of Milngavie is the worst.
What are the chances of sections of the Carlisle-Dumfries-Kilmarnock - GC getting reinstated to double line?
Sections of it were, to accommodate coal trains from Hunterston and from the opencast mines. However, with the collapse of that business, I can't see any business case for further enhancement.
Electrification to East Kilbride surely has to be a priority!
When the Milngavie branch was singled there was, I think just a halfhourly service. It was doubled when Airdrie to Bathgate opened. The RDG submission to the consultation points out that the linking of EDI into the Glasgow network means that any disruption anywhere spreads throughout the network, and this is exacerbated by the singled sections, of Milngavie is the worst.
Hyndland Junction. Grade separation was looked at as part of the works ahead of the Commonwealth Games but obviously never went ahead - it really could do with making its way back into the CP6 or CP7 plans. The section between Partick and Hyndland is supposedly the busiest section of double track railway outside the south east of England (trains on 2 minute headways in each direction during the peak, 4 minutes off peak) and if it were outside Scotland it would have been four-tracked years ago. Scotland's rail infrastructure has been pared down to the bare bones over the years and there is very little slack in the system given the number of trains operated, particularly on the north and south electrics. Too many single lead and flat junctions, not enough four tracked sections and passenger loops. Services crossing from one side of the country to the other with ridiculously tight turnaround times at either end don't help.I was right that when it was singled there were only 2 tph, but wrong when it went to 4! The main bottleneck is, surely, Jordanhill junction (is that it's correct name?). 28 movements each hour through a flat junction is going some. I haven't used it for a few years, but in my experience there is of necessity a lot of recovery time in the TT, so that they can ensure that trains are presented to the junction on time. Helensburgh trains routine regularly make an unscheduled stop at Jordanhill. I have always thought that Hyndland (should be called Gartnavel) station should be moved just far enough East to make space for a grade separated junction, even though the gradient needed to drop trains from Yoker under trains to Anniesland would be rather steep.
Hyndland Junction.
Hyndland Junction. Grade separation was looked at as part of the works ahead of the Commonwealth Games but obviously never went ahead - it really could do with making its way back into the CP6 or CP7 plans. The section between Partick and Hyndland is supposedly the busiest section of double track railway outside the south east of England (trains on 2 minute headways in each direction during the peak, 4 minutes off peak) and if it were outside Scotland it would have been four-tracked years ago. Scotland's rail infrastructure has been pared down to the bare bones over the years and there is very little slack in the system given the number of trains operated, particularly on the north and south electrics. Too many single lead and flat junctions, not enough four tracked sections and passenger loops. Services crossing from one side of the country to the other with ridiculously tight turnaround times at either end don't help.
I haven't used it for a few years, but in my experience there is of necessity a lot of recovery time in the TT, so that they can ensure that trains are presented to the junction on time.
To be fair, four-tracking the section from roughly the old Partickhill Station to Finnieston Junction would be difficult with the viaduct (and adjacent buildings and roads) and Partick Station to contend with (okay, the platforms of Partickhill Station too, but I imagine they could easily be demolished in such a plan!).
Partick to Hyndland Enhancement
Summary Partick Signalling Upgrade/4-track Hyndland East Junction to Partickhill. Partick to Hyndland would operate more like a metro-style network, with some potential limitation on linespeeds to ensure that trains can routinely meet defined arrival / departure timeslots.
Benefits
Capability to handle up to 20 trains per hour in each direction through Partick and Hyndland
At least at Partick, trains seem to be perpetually a minute or two late, and they're typically late at Hyndland too.
Which is why the proposed intervention in the Scotland Route study is to 4 track through Hyndland and as far as Partickhill but leave the section through Partick station as 2 track.
The problem is that once a train is 60 seconds or more late on this section with the next one running only 120 seconds behind there is absolutely no chance for recovery and the whole thing just snowballs. They're trying to run a high intensity underground style service pattern on infrastructure that is just not up to handling it. The typical 5-7 minute turnarounds at Balloch, Milngavie and Larkhall just compound the whole thing, so if something is late terminating in one of these stations then you can guarantee that the back working will be a late start too. When you add in the fact that many of the services are continuing to or coming from Edinburgh it is no wonder that even minor disruption spreads from west to east and vice versa so easily and lasts for hours at a time. That's why there was so much furore in the media recently about stop skipping, because just about the only weapon available in the armoury is to run services express to try and make up time. It still happens every day of the week and I've seen north electric services run Express because they've been four minutes late over the busiest sections. There are only two ways we can get out of this crazy situation now and that's to either build more robust infrastructure or run less trains.
That would be 6tph more through Partick than at present wouldn't it? That would enable an additional 2tph from Edinburgh and you could also divert the Shotts and Lanark services onto the Argyle Line giving 10tph through both low level lines. I'm not sure where the additional 6tph would terminate after passing through Partick/Hyndland though.