Spaceflower
Established Member
Oh right. EMU'S, I missed that detail, oops.
The Tyne Valley will never be electrified, I can't imagine anyone ever being able to make the business case for it. As for a third platform at MetroCentre, the station would have to be rebuilt from scratch as there isn't enough room due to the existing buildings on the coach park side of the station. Again, I can't see the business case being made for it, especially as the MetroCentre shuttles never have anybody on them anyway.
The Tyne Valley will never be electrified, I can't imagine anyone ever being able to make the business case for it. As for a third platform at MetroCentre, the station would have to be rebuilt from scratch as there isn't enough room due to the existing buildings on the coach park side of the station. Again, I can't see the business case being made for it, especially as the MetroCentre shuttles never have anybody on them anyway.
I think it will be CP8 but it will be done.
Much more likely would be a turnback siding somewhere to the west so trains can wait their for their departure time without blocking other trains. There must surely be a suitable bit of land nearby.
By that time (2030ish) HS2 will just be opening. The railways will be a different place by then.
I think some people said that about some of the Valleys network. Don't make predictions like that the world changes! I think it will be CP8 but it will be done.
Jonny said:That would do the job better than the arrangement of reversing on the main line to the west of the station as at present. A quick scan of Google Earth suggests that there's plenty of space to the side of the tracks, some of which has vehicle tracks on it (presumably for railway maintenance), suggesting that it's relatively flat and flush to the line.
It also made me think are there any other lightly served stations where if more services called there there would be a large amount more passengers using the station.
Of the one-train-a-day, each way, halts on the North Cotswolds line, I'd expect Finstock (despite its proximity to Charlbury - although it would really need a car park, and probably better promotion of the reasonably decent bus service it has) and Ascott-under-Wychwood to have quite some scope for growth if the train service became more usable. (That Ascott is on one of the re-duelled stretch of the line may help: the new platforms there are possibly lengthier than at the other halts, too). Combe probably doesn't offer such hope, though: the station is both remote (in terms of its micro-location: on a country lane some way outside the village from which it takes its name) and rather close (for drivers) to Hanborough.
Since the redoubling of Charlbury - Ascott, I'm at a loss to see why the short workings to Moreton-in-Marsh haven't had stops at Ascott and Shipton added in to see if there is any off-peak demand at these stations. There seems to be sufficient lay-over time in Moreton to allow for the extra stops in both directions.
Ascott is a different matter, right next to the village and with both platforms able to accommodate three-car Turbos - which is an issue at Shipton, as the up (Oxford-bound) platform only just squeezes a two-car Turbo set on, so the Moreton turnbacks, which are operated by three-cars, cannot call in that direction and there aren't enough 180s with FGW to replace the turbos on those services as well as the trains to Worcestershire to provide selective doors and solve the short platform issue.
On that basis, regardless of the Shipton issue southbound, I still don't quite understand why Ascott hasn't seen an improvement in it's service as there have been a few new houses built there and it could be a railhead for Burford (or is that the role Shipton has?) as it seems more direct to get there rather than Kingham.
While not a station I have often heard people mention that more trains should be running between Clitheroe and Hellifield, somehow I don't think more trains would increase passengers that much.
I've had another look. You'd get soaked, walking across there and how dispiriting the whole layout looks. Perhaps I'm being unfair to the planners but it really looks inhuman to me.