Recent content by fat_boy_pete

So first (albeit unplanned) passenger use of the new station! I thought platform 1 was still fenced off from the up main running line, but presumably there must be a gap.

Just the one Up and one Down daily timetabled 'Rusty rail' calls at the loop platform 2. As we've debated above, it won't be regularly used by freight so let's hope that all that expensive operationally flexible infrastructure gets more use at some point in the future!

And I assume this won't change until FOC's are incentivised financially to use electric traction on electrified routes

Thank you for clarifying. Unless someone makes it change (e.g. with track access financial incentives) we will keep timetable planning around the slowest, least efficient ( from a timetabling perspective) traction.

Do you think, as per the article in this month's Modern Railways, that the introduction of class 93's and/or 99's would allow a timetable recast for freight on the GEML? This in the light of the possible recast once Beaulieu Park is open and actual Sectional Running times of both passenger...

Ah, the perils of retiring as a daily Commuter during Lockdown and missing the reality of a post pandemic Rush Hour!

Yes, I think that was the informed conclusion of the previous discussion. The loop would only be used for the Chelmsford starters and any freight use wouldn't be regularly timetabled and only used in times of disruption.

Found the details from November 23 https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/beaulieu-park-station-construction.189267/post-6480649

There's a a detailed discussion with informed contributors upthread, describing the issues and reasons, mainly the geometry. I recall that the middle loop is approximately the same size as the Witham loops. The detail is all there.

Ah, thanks. The road certainly felt very secure through the TSR.

Likewise, today it was interesting to pass through the station on the new up line, albeit still at TSR speed of 50mph. As the Down line has been allowed to work at line speed for a few months now, it will be interesting to see when the TSR is removed from the up. Presumably after a month or so...

I think the wider point that the HS2 Chairman was making, is that all of the conflicting legislation and authorities and consultation drives disproportionate cost. The £100m bat shed is a direct outcome of a flawed process for major infrastructure projects. It's that wider point that I think...

I think you are making the same point. It's the government procedures and conflicting requirements that require the expensive lawyers and consultants to navigate them. He pointing at the root cause. It's the same reason the Lower Dartford Crossing has cost £0.5bn already without one sod of...

And I am sure that he wouldn't have said it so publicly if he couldn't prove it. He's making a deliberate point.

This article in the Guardian reports that the HS2 Chairman at the Rail Industry Association conference has today used this example as why HS2 phase 1 is so costly. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/nov/07/cost-of-shed-to-protect-bat-colony-near-hs2-has-topped-100m-chair-says I am sure...