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Altrincham - Chester line speed improvements

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Tim33160

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Ding ding we have a winner.

There has been a 30mph TSR on for some time with it being reduced to 20moh more recently. This was caused by a previous track lower to give the route the published gauge clearance to allow container traffic to divert through here. The drainage was never lowered and a sump was left around the underbridge. This lead to increasingly poor track quality to the point where it had to be renewed (the work mentioned here). I'm not sure where the 1km comes from, the renewal was about 500 yards.

Seems NR can spin an lack of maintenance over the years into "£800k investment"
The Mid Cheshire Line gets upto 20 biomass trains daily from Liverpool to Drax - the weight causes problems to the track
The franchise agreement of two trains an hour from December 2017 is still being held up by "risk at level/user crossings"
Recent service is going downhill due to driver shortages now Saturdays as well as Sundays
Severe overcrowding on school time / peak trains in both directions is made worse by sudden cancellations to an hourly service
Northern is getting worse on this line!
 
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Jonny

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Seems NR can spin an lack of maintenance over the years into "£800k investment"
The Mid Cheshire Line gets upto 20 biomass trains daily from Liverpool to Drax - the weight causes problems to the track
The franchise agreement of two trains an hour from December 2017 is still being held up by "risk at level/user crossings"
Recent service is going downhill due to driver shortages now Saturdays as well as Sundays
Severe overcrowding on school time / peak trains in both directions is made worse by sudden cancellations to an hourly service
Northern is getting worse on this line!

I'm not sure weight is always the issue - although obviously it does not help. Is that 20 in both directions or just one?
 

jamesst

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Seems NR can spin an lack of maintenance over the years into "£800k investment"
The Mid Cheshire Line gets upto 20 biomass trains daily from Liverpool to Drax - the weight causes problems to the track
The franchise agreement of two trains an hour from December 2017 is still being held up by "risk at level/user crossings"
Recent service is going downhill due to driver shortages now Saturdays as well as Sundays
Severe overcrowding on school time / peak trains in both directions is made worse by sudden cancellations to an hourly service
Northern is getting worse on this line!

Northern is getting worse again on every west side line, dont take it personally!!
 

Tim33160

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I'm not sure weight is always the issue - although obviously it does not help. Is that 20 in both directions or just one?
20 paths each way - but some empties return to Liverpool via Victoria - the full ones are too heavy to climb the bank out of Victoria for Yorkshire
 

Ships

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Seems NR can spin an lack of maintenance over the years into "£800k investment"
The Mid Cheshire Line gets upto 20 biomass trains daily from Liverpool to Drax - the weight causes problems to the track
The franchise agreement of two trains an hour from December 2017 is still being held up by "risk at level/user crossings"
Recent service is going downhill due to driver shortages now Saturdays as well as Sundays
Severe overcrowding on school time / peak trains in both directions is made worse by sudden cancellations to an hourly service
Northern is getting worse on this line!

Not a lack of maintainance, but a failed track lower which caused the track to become unmaintainable.

There are 6-8 biomass services daily afaik.
 

Ships

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20 paths each way - but some empties return to Liverpool via Victoria - the full ones are too heavy to climb the bank out of Victoria for Yorkshire

There was a recent test to try a single 66 headed biomass weight train out of Victoria which was largely successful. With a 60 or 59 would have been better though!
 

LNW-GW Joint

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I know, instead of increasing the line speed around Hale, reinstate the double track between Edgely & Skelton junctions to allow the 2tph we've been promised for almost 3 years to operate.

That section of line was never double track throughout, I think.
There's at least one single track bridge near the Edgeley end.
You could redouble some track from the Northenden end I think, but it would only reduce the single line section a bit, not eliminate it.
 

Rail Ranger

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I hate to correct you but Northenden Junction to Edgeley Junction was double track throughout until motorway construction in the early 1970s led to the partial singling of the line to reduce the cost of two new bridges.
 

Chester1

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The block to 2tph is not the line but a lack of paths between Piccadilly and Stockport. A second Mid Cheshire Line service and 4th Hazel Grove service are with hindsight too much for a reliable timetable.

The Cheadle single section could easily be cut by 2/3rds. The Navigation Road section could be halved if NR purchased a small block of flats and a social club. I would build a platform 5 at Stockport on the sidings next to platform 4 and terminate more trains there. The line could support 2tph semi fast from Chester/Greenbank and 2tph Hale-Stockport with stations built between Navigation Road and Stockport.
 

edwin_m

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The Cheadle single section could easily be cut by 2/3rds. The Navigation Road section could be halved if NR purchased a small block of flats and a social club. I would build a platform 5 at Stockport on the sidings next to platform 4 and terminate more trains there. The line could support 2tph semi fast from Chester/Greenbank and 2tph Hale-Stockport with stations built between Navigation Road and Stockport.
That would probably need bi-di on the Down Slow for the short distance to Edgeley Jn, which in turn would probably trigger re-signalling of the whole area to get rid of the Absolute Block.
 

EE Andy b1

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That would probably need bi-di on the Down Slow for the short distance to Edgeley Jn, which in turn would probably trigger re-signalling of the whole area to get rid of the Absolute Block.

I think the second try at remodelling/re-signalling the Stockport area and closure of all 5 AB boxes is set for 2026 onward.
It's these old boxes that are restricting capacity and speed through this area, so until renewed i can't see many more paths being available.
 

cle

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Use of Stockport for short, more frequent local trains definitely makes sense. It boosts that place as a hub in itself, but also keeps capacity into Piccadilly on longer trains.
 

EE Andy b1

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Modernise Stockport station and area, signalling and trackwork, get rid of the old signal boxes like Stockport 1 and build a South end bay platform between Platforms 3 and 4 and Bi-di upto Edgeley Jct 1 on the Northenden line, that might work but still years away.
 

Llandudno

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25 Dec 2014
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Used the mid Cheshire line on Bank Holiday Monday, some observations:

1209 Ex Chester, standing load from Knutsford but approx 50% got off at Altrincham

1718 Ex Stockport (starts from Stockport, approx 40 pax)

The Bank Holiday Monday service has all the normal peak hour extras giving an approx 30 minute headway during the peaks. The Sunday service by comparison has a pity full two hourly frequency!

There were plans to increase the Monday to Friday service to 2 trains per hour all day and to increase the Sunday service to hourly but neither of these have materialised, I gather to lack of paths between Stockport and Manchester midweek and shortage of train crew on Sundays.

Would it not be better to run the second train per hour midweek between Greenbank (or Chester) to Altrincham with through ticketing availability on Metrolink.

Also on Sundays until when/if staffing levels are sorted run an hourly Chester to Altrincham train rather than the current pathetic two hourly attempt at a service.
 
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