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Trivia: Most heavily used single track line

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Intercity 225

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Hi,

Fairly straightforward trivia piece, what is the most heavily used single track line on the network? For clarification, I'm referring to the piece of single track that has the most trains use it. The trains can be any type of stock.

Thanks
 
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12CSVT

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Some possibilities

Crewe - Alsager (at least 2 tph in each direction)
Coventry - Leamington (although it does have a passing loop)

Some short branches have up to 4 tph such as Cogan Jct - Penarth, Westerton - Milngavie (Bearsden to Hillfoot is double track)

Lines where the same train shuttles up and down all day include Cardiff Queen Street to Cardiff Bay (5 tph) and Stourbridge Junction to Stourbridge Town (6 tph)
 

The Planner

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Depends on how you measure it, a short piece could have 8 tph over it and may be considered busy but a long piece with 2tph may actually be busier because of the utilisation of it. I would look at the minutes occupation per hour between two points rather than the tph.
 

ac6000cw

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The Felixstowe branch (the Westerfield to Trimley sections) must be high up the list if tonnage is considered - 2tph passenger and pretty much as many long freights as can be timetabled along it (over 30 each way during a weekday 24 hour period). That's maybe very roughly 100,000 tonnes per day for the freights, depending on how well loaded they are.

Ely - Soham is also busy with freights and 1tph (average) passenger.

Trowse swing bridge in Norwich has 8 tph counting both directions (off-peak).
 
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pemma

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Perhaps I should have highlighted that it has a standard pattern of 14tph (all in the same direction), given most of the posts underneath give a less frequent service.

However, if it's the number of trains from 00:01 to 23:59 which the OP is interested in knowing then it's also worth noting that there's 5.5 hours overnight when nothing using that section (which is why I gave the RTT link to all services.)
 
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Mag_seven

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If the DLR is allowed then the single line section between Pudding Mill Lane and Bow Church must be up there.
 

JamesRowden

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The single track tunnel between Tonbridge and High Brooms has 6tph in each direction during the high peak and 4tph in each direction off-peak. If all peak Tonbridge Mainline services become 12-car (as has been recommended by studies) it would lead to there being up to 144 carriages per hour on a bidirectional single track line.
 

70014IronDuke

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I'd imagine, if we are talkng about trains per hour on a dual direction line, it would be over a very short section. What about the swing bridge at Norwich? (It it Trowse?)

Or the bit of the ECML near the place with the lagoon - is it Montrose? (it's decades since I was there.)
 

30907

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In terms of intensity of use as The Planner suggests:

Topsham-Exmouth, St Ives and Falmouth all operate very close to capacity during the day, and in the case of St Ives IIRC 7 days a week in summer.
The same applies to Stourbridge Town.
The layout at Queen St would in theory allow Cardiff Bay to operate with 2 trains, so that is technically not at capacity (not that a change is likely).
Even the Barnstaple branch is at capacity for a considerable part of the day, and Porth-Treherbert is another case.
 

tsr

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The single line through Eridge has (just about) 3tph heading Down in the morning peak, including ECS, and 2tph Up. This can increase by about 1tph with short-term planned workings of the autumn/winter adhesion trains, which puts the line absolutely at capacity, with no margin for error, and some considerable delays possible.

(Naturally, the Gibb report said that re-doubling would be unnecessary, but that most of the problems could be sorted by electrification and some ECS moves over what is now a mostly non-existent layout at Crowborough.)
 
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Ianno87

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I'd imagine, if we are talkng about trains per hour on a dual direction line, it would be over a very short section. What about the swing bridge at Norwich? (It it Trowse?)

Or the bit of the ECML near the place with the lagoon - is it Montrose? (it's decades since I was there.)

Trowse is 4tph each eay off-peak (2tph Liverpool St, 1tph Cambridge, 1tph Liverpool Lime St).
 

DanTrain

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The single line through Dore is a contender - 2.5 tph in each direction plus several freight movements. Also, I think Dore wins for most TOCs - 3 of them use both the station and the single line :)
 
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ChiefPlanner

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Discussed before - 4 tph (2 each way) - Porth to Treherbert comes fairly high on the CUI -with tokens having to be manually withdrawn and replaced at Ystrad Rhondda.
 

snowball

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I don't know what the OP had in mind but if I was asking this question I would want to exclude one-way lines.
 

Shimbleshanks

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The single lead junction on the Thameslink route south of London Bridge before it disappeared during the Thameslink uopgrade work?
 

Clansman

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Usan, which has already been said (Montrose) has a good few trains an hour passing through it.

The single sections on the Highland Mainline will no doubt make the route another contender.
 

Cherry_Picker

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I don't know what the OP had in mind but if I was asking this question I would want to exclude one-way lines.

If that's the case then it's probably the Stourbridge Town branch. 12tph (six in each direction) from 05:45 until practically midnight. Something like 214 trains a day.
 

LAX54

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The Felixstowe branch (the Westerfield to Trimley sections) must be high up the list if tonnage is considered - 2tph passenger and pretty much as many long freights as can be timetabled along it (over 30 each way during a weekday 24 hour period). That's maybe very roughly 100,000 tonnes per day for the freights, depending on how well loaded they are.

Ely - Soham is also busy with freights and 1tph (average) passenger.

Trowse swing bridge in Norwich has 8 tph counting both directions (off-peak).

I also nominate Westerfield to Felixstowe, overnight from midnight to 0600 32 paths over the line, and up to 10 an hour off peak.
(Signaller also dealing with Main Line Bentley (Suffolk) to Stowmarket, Ipswich Yard and Chord, Lowestoft line and of course no ARS :) )
 
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Mag_seven

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I don't know what the OP had in mind but if I was asking this question I would want to exclude one-way lines.

I agree - some "loops" have been mentioned and although they might be single lines on paper they aren't really "pure" single lines where trains can run in opposite directions.
 
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