I asked whether the line from Gloucester to Birmingham was capable of 125mph,which is a major intercity trunk route served by a Virgin every 30 minutes in each direction. The majority of it is seems very straight from the train up until Longbridge. It currently is 95mph Gloucester to Cheltenham, 40mph through Cheltenham station (but 20mph TSRs have been in place there for ages now), 100mph until Bromsgrove, 80mph up the lickey, 90mph from Barnt Green to Kings Norton then 60 and less from there into New Street. I found that it would be very expensive to upgrade it to 125mph as there are quite a few automatic half barrier crossings on it which would have to be upgraded to full barrier to enable 125mph. I think this is also the case for Taunton- Exeter. Sorry to go off topic, but does anyone happen to know whether Gloucester to Birmingham was upgraded to 100mph during the crosscountry route upgrade a few years back, or has it always been that speed?
Nathan