I’ve amended my post to remove most of the quote. I was attempting to agree with the one specific point left. I’m aware of the alterations to the balance of fast to slow trains post Crossrail 2 which has been well discussed in past threads, especially those trains that presently cross slow to fast around Surbiton, which would remain on the slows into Waterloo. But this is drifting away from the Woking flyover.
Agree. I doubt the LSWR 100 years ago paid the (then equivalent) of this sort of price, or duration, for all the other grade-separated junctions they built along this line, at a time when suburban rail fares were pennies.
I agree. The total cost of the rebuild at Reading was some £850 million. For that money the station received a flyover long enough to pass the Main lines over both sides of the triangle forming the connections to the Berks and Hants towards Reading West, a grade separated connection (the Festival Line) to enable XC trains to reverse without crossing the Mains on the flat, five new through platforms, a new station building, a relocated train maintenance depot and a reinstated diveunder to the east of the station and various other alterations.
Thanks for that hint, I just got a copy of the 1979 edition of G. T. Moody’s above book. Only a fiver from Amazon...
Excellent! It's a good book - full of facts! I hadn't realised that there had been a second edition - mine still has (just) its original dust cover!
When the DfT announced its funding of Network Rail in CP6, enhancements, other than those already underway, were not included. In future, Network Rail will have to ‘bid’ for those and the DfT and Treasury will decide which ones to fund. Earlier this month the DfT published a list of rail enhancement projects in its updated Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline (RNEP).
The year 2197?
I was going to suggest Heathrow Southern Railway but that has gone very quiet recently despite the need for a way to get to Heathrow from the south.
Isn't the north to west curve at Addlestone already grade separated? In any case I'm not sure how a flyover West of Woking would provide extra capacity for services to terminate there from the London direction... but maybe I'm being a bit thick!
The “flyover work”, as described in the route study, also includes a terminating siding alongside or possibly between the Portsmouth lines, so trains could run through from P5 or new through P6 before returning over the flyover into P1 or P2.
The whole block of buildings south of the Victoria Arch Bridge is due for demolition, I assume the road under the bridge is to be widened as part of the plan.
I don’t know, maybe it’s redundant normally but allows for extra flexibility during maintenance. Perhaps the final layout will be different though, I suspect the main purpose of the drawing is to show the general location of the flyover line and how it routes the up trains between the existing main slow and main fast.
