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  1. LNW-GW Joint

    HS2 captive trains (and special gauge trains generally): diversionary routes & emergency measures?

    HS1 OHL is the same as the French LGV system, so you'd expect the same pantograph setting to be used. WCML OHL has had 60 years of evolution, the last for WCRM. The fast lines, at least those over 110mph, are I believe fixed height, and optimised for 125mph tilting Pendolinos. But there's a lot...
  2. LNW-GW Joint

    HS2 captive trains (and special gauge trains generally): diversionary routes & emergency measures?

    The Channel Tunnel has very high catenary for the double-deck shuttle stock, so Eurostars have extra long pantographs for that section. I believe they swap pantographs at each end of he tunnel. In other respects the tunnel systems are the same as on SNCF's high speed lines. I imagine the...
  3. LNW-GW Joint

    HS2 captive trains (and special gauge trains generally): diversionary routes & emergency measures?

    Not voltage changeovers (all 25kV AC), but they will have to change signalling/train control systems and maybe pantograph type at Handsacre to/from the WCML system. HS2 will be ETCS cab signalling, WCML is lineside signals and TPWS (with maybe some ETCS further north by then). There will have...
  4. LNW-GW Joint

    Merseyrail to introduce Oyster-style ticketing from the Autumn

    Merseyrail and LCR are two different things (locally-run TOC vs multiple DfT TOCs). I'd be surprised if the initial rollout is more than just on Merseyrail. Confirmed on the Merseyrail web site to be Northern and Wirral lines only initially: https://www.merseyrail.org/tickets-passes/tap-and-go/
  5. LNW-GW Joint

    HS2 Old Oak Common

    Which doesn't give you an electric route to Euston or the WLL.
  6. LNW-GW Joint

    DfT appoints Alex Hynes as Director General, Rail Services

    I should think DfT Rail is being prepared for reorganisation: exit left to GBR or exit right to a much-reduced DfT department worrying about policy and targets rather than running trains.
  7. LNW-GW Joint

    DfT appoints Alex Hynes as Director General, Rail Services

    I should think it's the nearest thing to appointing a future Chief Executive of GBR without actually using those names. The parallel reorganisation of DfT Rail is also significant, bringing infrastructure and passenger services closer together. We will also know who to blame when the next round...
  8. LNW-GW Joint

    Liverpool-Chester-Crewe ticket query

    I'd consider using a Liverpool-Crewe off peak day return "Not via Manchester" at £9.60 with railcard. I'd expect that to be valid via Chester (either route, and therefore via Runcorn/Frodsham), as well as via Hartford. It looks to me as though the fares system hasn't fully adapted to the options...
  9. LNW-GW Joint

    GWR Waterloo and Euston

    There was talk of wiring the short OHLE gaps at Acton Bank and through SW Sidings to the WCML - do we know if this is still on the cards?
  10. LNW-GW Joint

    HS2 captive trains (and special gauge trains generally): diversionary routes & emergency measures?

    It will be SNCF high speed (V360 OCS licensed by HS2 Ltd). https://www.railwaygazette.com/uk/sncf-catenary-design-adopted-as-hs2-begins-electrification-procurement/56874.article
  11. LNW-GW Joint

    HS2 Old Oak Common

    I was under the impression that the North Pole depot access to the WLL, and the Sheepcote Lane curve on to the SWML, were out of use since the Eurostar move to St Pancras/Temple Mills. Evidently not... So GWR IET services can still reach Waterloo via Acton Wells and the WLL (on diesel). Do GWR's...
  12. LNW-GW Joint

    Major timetable improvements on the Berlin-Dresden-Prague route

    Presumably the RJ services are extensions of the existing Graz-Wien-Praha trains? Are there any infrastructure improvements between Dresden and Berlin?
  13. LNW-GW Joint

    Great Northern Fleet Tender

    Plus huge differences in clientele and travel purpose, not to mention travel trends (drop in business/commuter travel, with more leisure travel). Periodic franchise bids were a decent way of addressing these changes over time. Currently there is no way to evolve rolling stock fleets, other than...
  14. LNW-GW Joint

    Wrexham, Shropshire & Midlands Railway

    The best route from Shropshire to Euston after HS2 opens is likely to be via Birmingham International (on TfW's hourly service) with its people-mover to Interchange on HS2. Shrewsbury also has the route via Crewe onto HS2 trains. I imagine the WSMR schedules are just proposals and will have to...
  15. LNW-GW Joint

    HS2 Old Oak Common

    Well, that's called HS2 (from Handsacre)! It will have the same operator, after all. There's less and less reason to treat HS2 as an independent railway now, it's just another leg of the WCML network. ;)
  16. LNW-GW Joint

    HS2 Old Oak Common

    When there is a private-sector-funded plan to build the new Euston with loads of housing/offices in the mix. HS2 will want to know in about a year's time if it can bore the tunnels from OOC to the Euston throat. The OOC station was designed when the HS2 network was supposed to reach the East...
  17. LNW-GW Joint

    HS2 Old Oak Common

    8 GWML platforms altogether (both sides of 4 island platforms). 6 low-level HS2 platforms. 14 in total. Broadly, the relief line platforms will be built to the north of the current 4-track layout, and the mains will expand to fill the vacated relief line space.
  18. LNW-GW Joint

    HS2 Old Oak Common

    I don't think any existing WCML passengers wanted new stops at Birmingham International or Milton Keynes added to their schedule before the stations were built in 1976/1982 respectively, but it's obvious now that they were key developments on the route and for the wider regional economies. The...
  19. LNW-GW Joint

    HS2 Old Oak Common

    There will be a couple of periods of major disruption when the layout of the GW route at OOC is altered to enable the new station to be built. Once this is done, the actual station construction period should not involve significant disruption, until the time comes to integrate the new layout...
  20. LNW-GW Joint

    HS2 captive trains (and special gauge trains generally): diversionary routes & emergency measures?

    The HS2 fleet was ordered and will be built to classic-compatible gauge. The assumption was that with subsequent orders for Phase 2, with captive trains to Manchester and Leeds as well as Birmingham, some GC-gauge stock would be acquired for those routes. But Phase 2 is now fantasy, and HS2 will...

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