Barrow Hill, Ivanhoe and Fawley (I had to look up ‘Waterside’) all suffer from the issue of capacity at their nearby main destinations. Sheffield is already at capacity with committed service proposals. Leicester isn’t far off, and there is the not insignificant issue of how you get trains off the branch to get to Leicester in the first place (a 10mph curve costing scores of millions is the best hope). Fawley is probably the easiest of the three, but there are capacity issues at Southampton, and extending existing services probably means third rail.
Is the line to Fleetwood dead then?
Barrow Hill, Ivanhoe and Fawley (I had to look up ‘Waterside’) all suffer from the issue of capacity at their nearby main destinations. Sheffield is already at capacity with committed service proposals. Leicester isn’t far off, and there is the not insignificant issue of how you get trains off the branch to get to Leicester in the first place (a 10mph curve costing scores of millions is the best hope). Fawley is probably the easiest of the three, but there are capacity issues at Southampton, and extending existing services probably means third rail.
You can tell I was distracted when writing this.It really isn’t. To get to a decent SOBC for this sort of project would cost not less than £3m. Notwithstanding what might be being said.
No, it is always going to need another diagram - the Sunday train takes 23 minutes to get from Clitheroe to Hellifield. Clitheroe is a pretty comfortable 3 hour cycle from Manchester Victoria.
Quick question for those who may know. Has the infrastructure to the south of Hellifield got the flexibility to terminate trains in both platforma?
I'm surprised Leicester is near capacity. Two island platforms seems quite uncramped for the of IC services and cross country routes that cross there.
Trying to look a bit more creatively at this, would there be a better case for Clitheroe-Hellifield if you terminated at Settle rather than Hellifield. Much bigger population, and - so far as I can tell from Google maps - a station located at a less awkward location for people living nearby than Hellifield. Too long to commute to Manchester, but may attract some commuters to Blackburn (still pretty iffy in numbers I know).
I still think Clitheroe – Hellifield is an economic absurdity which will presumably get binned before it gets much further, although still better than the Skipton - Colne nonsense.
Just provide a summer weekend service, already happens on Sundays.
ELR well maybe something can be worked out after all NYMR manage to share the same track, maybe ELR don't operate to Heywood on weekdays, at weekends a reduced regular service operates with the ELR service.
I was looking on Google Earth in conjunction with an old railway clearing house map and found that with the aid of the aerial view it is quite easy to follow the Ventnor line. The first part from Shanklin goes west and then arcs round to enter Wroxhall alongside the B3327. This part is shown as "The Sunshine Trail". On Street View you can see get onto the trackbed under the bridge where Castle Road crossed over the railway. The line would have then crossed St Martins Road on the level, by its junction with Station Road (but I doubt that St Martins Road would have existed prior to the railway closing, so Station Road would then have been a cul-de-sac with the station at the end. From there follow the line of trees, firstly crossing Brookside Crescent and then passing alongside the far end of Brookside Crescent, Follow the line of trees further and you come to the bridge where Manor Road crossed over the railway, You can also see the bridge, but not much of the overgrown trackbed, from this point.
Shortly after this the trackbed largely disappears but there are two small oval overgrown patches in two fields which I would think were remains. There is no evidence on Google Earth of where the line would have entered Boniface Down Tunnel but it would be somewhere in the large wooded area. However, if you draw a line from manor Road bridge through the two overgrown patches you will see the old station site at Ventnor which was hollowed out at the far end of the tunnel.
If you think of it as just linking those two towns, then yes. But in reality the service would be Manchester-Hellifield (or even on to Settle). Linking Manchester with the Yorkshire Dales will surely provide some patronage. Plus it does provide Lancashire-Yorkshire connections that aren't currently well-served.
Trying to look a bit more creatively at this, would there be a better case for Clitheroe-Hellifield if you terminated at Settle rather than Hellifield. Much bigger population, and - so far as I can tell from Google maps - a station located at a less awkward location for people living nearby than Hellifield. Too long to commute to Manchester, but may attract some commuters to Blackburn (still pretty iffy in numbers I know).
I felt overwhelmingly underwhelmed by the Government’s announcement of the first round schemes announced as part of the “Reversing Beeching” Programme. The short-term opportunistic schemes announced seem to be part of a “spiffing wheeze du jour” strategy chosen because of the limited expenditure that they would entail and their perceived ease of implementation. What I was looking for was more than just a selection of local electoral prospect lollipops but a number of competing projects that would have a real regional/sub-regional impact. I saw the East West Railway and/or the Borders Railway as exemplars of what needs to be done. I recognise that there would be fewer projects falling into this category and there would be significant winners and losers. For example, I would have expected, for example, the Withered Arm route to Plymouth via Tavistock; the Ivanhoe line; the Peak line from Great Rocks to Ambergate, and the route from Liverpool via Ormskirk to Leeds via the Skipton Colne line to have been contenders for a rigorous comparative exercise – including the benefits generated by relieving other more crowded routes. There is a place for smaller projects to backfill-in both project management and finance terms and there is still an investment void in catering for the elderly and disabled passengers which should be separately assessed.
Thank you.In case anyone else is, like me, geographically challenged (plus a few comments):
- reopening Meir Railway Station between Longton and Blythe Bridge on the Stoke-Derby line
- reinstatement of the Barrow Hill line between Sheffield and Chesterfield
- reinstatement of the Ivanhoe line Leicester-Burton
- reinstatement of branch lines on the Isle of Wight (only Cowes and Ventnor are post-Beeching!)
- reinstatement of the Abbey line between St Albans Abbey and Watford Junction
- reopening of Wellington and Cullompton stations (new local service, or stops on Paddington-Exeter semi-fast?)
- reinstatement of the Bury-Heywood-Rochdale lines
- reinstatement of weekday passenger services on the Clitheroe to Hellifield railway line
- reinstatement of rail access to Devizes via a new station on the B&H main line where it is crossed by the A342 at Lydeway
- reintroduction of passenger rail services on the Waterside Totton-Fawley line
If you're going to do that level of work, it needs to be an arrangement that supports the eventual 4 tracking. You don't want to spend money changing a layout like that, only to spend more changing it again a few years later.
If you're going to to something involving Settle you'd be better of spending the money on buying some more 769s for Northern and extending one train per hour from Leeds to Skipton on to Settle instead. I bet you'd find the business case on giving Settle an hourly service to Leeds is much better htan trying to faff with Clitheroe and Hellifield/Settle...
When will the rebuilding of these lines start or do they have to go through a couple more rounds first?
Be ideal if the fleetwood line the Buxton to matlock and the reopening of woodhead route be in the next, but that would be a long shot
I'm surprised that Barrow Hill is on the list but not Stocksbridge: the two make more sense to me combined than Barrow Hill does on its own. I wouldn't have thought that trains from Barrow Hill are going to be allowed into Sheffield Midland station, given the capacity constraints and in particular that any eastbound train from Midland to Darnall has to cross the southbound line from Meadowhall, so they might as well continue towards Stocksbridge.
Is there any more detail about the Barrow Hill proposal available anywhere? Presumably Eckington and Killamarsh are the main communities they're thinking of.
1) The Abbey line - Surely there is a case for reopening back to Hatfield, avoiding the need to travel into London and back out again to get to Hatfield?
I could either see an extension of the Devon Metro out to Taunton (Perhaps Plymouth or Paignton to Taunton?) or anything from Taunton extended to Exeter? What about the local services which stop at Taunton / Tiverton Parkway / Exeter?
Mostly Parkway is served by Paddington or the NE-SW trains - I think there's a Bristol stopper from Exeter very early or late but I've rarely needed to be there then & iirc usually they terminate at Taunton. Paignton-Taunton all stops sounds a good idea on the surface ( I'm not qualified to go below the surface, I'm afraid ), or Taunton-Ex Central, or ... well, lots of things you could do I guess if there's the resources to actually lay on more services.
According to wiki there was a failed proposal over ten years ago to reinstate a passing loop, thus enabling a more frequent service. Perhaps it's that or something similar.
I understand the cynicism that it is a political diversion away from the Cummings breaking rules fiasco etc but...... I still see a lot of positivity regarding railways from HS2 , decarbonization, and reversing Beeching that overall I am encouraged as opposed to the failing Grayling days.
Whosoever would think that a Conservative Government would ever cause such aspirations as these to appear in print.
Before people get to carried away these schemes have only moved on to the next stage in the process, that is, developing a business case. The likelihood of any of them happening this decade, if at all is small.