On the assumption that Avanti services towards Stafford use the Down Fast along the Trent Valley, where do they now cross to the Down Slow before passing through Colwich? Surely not the 65mph turnout at the junction. Is there a higher speed option at Armitage/Rugeley?
They use the 65mph crossing at Colwich. For sure. The ability to run
almost uninterrupted at 125mph from the curves at Atherstone makes this a relatively small price to pay. Plus there's a need to slow down after Colwich Junction anyway, albeit not to 65mph (to 90mph initially, then to 85mph at Whitehouse Junction, around 3 miles further down the route).
There's also too much traffic using the slow lines to warrant switching to them earlier, even if a higher speed turnout were to be constructed.
The present Down TV Fast (second left) was previously the Down Manchester, with no link to the Down Stafford, and was/is 45mph through the junction towards Stoke.
Unless it was removed later, there's a 50mph crossover at Colwich Junction between the Down Slow to the Down Stafford in my ~1980 diagram attached earlier. I don't recall this being removed at any time, but that's not to say that it wasn't. In any case, it's now been replaced by a 65mph crossover from the Down Trent Valley Fast.
EDIT Such a link existed at the time of the crash, and is shown in the accident report plan attached.
Related: In the first iteration of the Virgin timetable with 3 trains/hour London-Birmingham/Manchester, and given that I live in Wilmslow, it's no surprise that I generally use the xx.40 departures from Euston which call at Crewe only before Wilmslow. In the first timetable we were booked to follow the Euston-Crewe EMU from Colwich to Stafford, where it stopped and we didn't.
The problem was that the EMU often ran late. We would then pass it somewhere around its Rugely TV stop, but then someone or something (probably ARS) decided to stick to the booked plan, and we therefore ground to a halt at Colwich Junction to wait for it to whirr past us, then followed it to Stafford. Even a slowdown to 65mph was better than this.
This particular clash was solved when the Euston-Crewe EMUs were retimed at 110mph and missed out Northampton - they're no longer there at Rugeley to hold us up! Unfortunately instead the previous hour's xx.43 from Euston to Glasgow/Edinburgh (via Birmingham) achieves the same thing at Stafford when it's a few minutes late, although immediately pre-covid it seemed to be better at running to time and not holding us up.