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Cotswold Line platform extension work autumn 2018

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jimm

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No detail so far on the impact on services, but GWR has posted dates on its website for weekend - and October half-term - work to extend platforms at the main stations between Oxford and Worcester to accommodate seven IET coaches.

At Kingham only they will be for six coaches, so only one platform will be extended there as the other one is already long enough.

Dates are:

Autumn 2018
Work to lengthen platforms will take place at some stations on the North Cotswold route:

  • Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 September
  • Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 September
  • Saturday 27 October until Sunday 4 November – including weekdays
  • Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 November
  • Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 December
  • Saturday 22 December until Thursday 27 December

https://www.gwr.com/travel-updates/planned-engineering/cotswolds2018
 
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jimm

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Er, no...

Extensions are for Hanborough, Charlbury, Kingham, Moreton-in-Marsh, Honeybourne, Evesham and Pershore.

Would be nice if they would do something about the short and well below standard height platforms at Shipton while they are at it but the DfT won't foot the bill for that work.
 
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Clayton

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Yes joking, Combe gets about one train a day. Pointless really, either use it or close it
 

TheNewNo2

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Why is Kingham not being extended quite as far?
Also, why on earth are they extending to 7 car when trains will be 5, 9 or 10 car?
 

jimm

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At Kingham they can't extend to the south as there is a road bridge there and I think there are issues over putting in foundations at the north end if they wanted to go any longer than six coaches - probably drains or something like that.

Most Cotswold Line services outside the weekday peaks and the busiest weekend trains will only be five-car, so making all those platforms able to take a 260m long train would be overkill, quite frankly - and cost a great deal more money. Most of the existing platforms can already take five IET coaches, so don't need too much work to extend.

With a seven-coach length platform, only people in two or three coaches will have to move to get to a door that will open at their station.
At present, depending on where door panels are located, passengers for Hanborough and on the westbound side at Honeybourne can find themselves having to walk through five or six coaches on HSTs if they are at the wrong end of the train.
 

jimm

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Work programme has now been revised, with a blockade between Moreton-in-Marsh and Worcester from November 17 to 25 for work at the stations in Worcestershire, with work at the eastern end of the line being done over the Christmas and New Year period,

Details of train services, replacement buses and ticket validity during the blockade at the GWR website

https://www.gwr.com/travel-updates/planned-engineering/cotswolds2018

Contact for the work has gone to Dyer & Butler,

https://www.railbusinessdaily.com/d...platform-extension-programme-by-network-rail/
 

Kite159

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I do hope they are not going to waste money on extending the platforms at Shipton/Ascott/Finstock/Combe due to the limited service of those stations...

...Although knowing Network Rail, those will be done first :lol::lol:
 

30907

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I do hope they are not going to waste money on extending the platforms at Shipton/Ascott/Finstock/Combe due to the limited service of those stations...

...Although knowing Network Rail, those will be done first :lol::lol:
No. See post #3.
 

jimm

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I do hope they are not going to waste money on extending the platforms at Shipton/Ascott/Finstock/Combe due to the limited service of those stations...

...Although knowing Network Rail, those will be done first :lol::lol:

Is it so hard to read earlier posts on the same page of a thread?

If more trains were to stop at Ascott (the station is right next to the village, unlike Combe and Finstock) or Shipton, where there are rather more people living within a mile-and-a-half of the station than at Honeybourne, the footfall in both cases would probably increase at a rate of knots. Instead, most rail travel by local residents involves driving to Charlbury.
 

cb00

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Why the 9 day total block between Worcester and Moreton-in-Marsh? Couldn't they do one side of a station platform at a time, thus freeing the other line for at least a limited service?
 

jimm

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Why the 9 day total block between Worcester and Moreton-in-Marsh? Couldn't they do one side of a station platform at a time, thus freeing the other line for at least a limited service?

Some of the platform extensions aren't going to be a five-minute job - at Pershore, in the middle of the single-line section, the platform will be going from 4x23m to 7x26m, while at Honeybourne the Worcester-bound platform currently only takes 3x23m coaches and will be extended to take 7x26m. A rather different matter from the short extensions currently being added at Thames Valley stations to allow for 8-car Class 387s.

Assuming similar methods are adopted to those used to extend the platforms at Stonehouse last Christmas, the engineers will need the running lines available to deliver much of the material required on trains.

The initial work plan for the Cotswold Line that I put in the first post called for work over several weekends from today until December, plus the October half-term holiday, and December 22-27, which is presumably when the bulk of the work will now be done at the eastern end, with that closure perhaps extended right through to Sunday December 30, as Hanborough, also on a single-line section, is another case where 3x23m length needs to go up to 7x26m.
 

jimm

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Work on creating the foundations for the extension of the north end of platform 2 (Oxford-bound side) at Kingham is now under way.

And taking of platform extensions for IET operations, at the other side of the Cotswolds, the extended platforms at Stonehouse have been in use for a couple of weeks now - Network Rail tweet with couple of pictures

https://twitter.com/networkrailwest/status/1039135084878749702
 
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CMRail

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Work on creating the foundations for the extension of the north end of platform 2 (Oxford-bound side) at Kingham is now under way.

And taking of platform extensions for IET operations, at the other side of the Cotswolds, the extended platforms at Stonehouse have been in use for a couple of weeks now - Network Rail tweet with couple of pictures

https://twitter.com/networkrailwest/status/1039135084878749702

IET SDO is still only unlocking front 2 on the system. The driver delays to open front 6.
 

II

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Good to see works commencing, and progressing at a fair rate of knots, unlike at Thames Valley stations where works to add a few metres have so far taken over a year!

A shame the lifts at Kingham aren't in place yet. It's the only station on the line between Oxford and Worcester without full disabled access.
 

cb00

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Good to see works commencing, and progressing at a fair rate of knots, unlike at Thames Valley stations where works to add a few metres have so far taken over a year!

A shame the lifts at Kingham aren't in place yet. It's the only station on the line between Oxford and Worcester without full disabled access.
Does Worcester Shrub Hill have disabled access to platform 2 yet?
 

II

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Does Worcester Shrub Hill have disabled access to platform 2 yet?

Yes, though only with assistance of staff using the crossing at the end of the platforms. I was under the impression the old goods lifts were planned to be brought back into use as customer lifts, but nothing’s happened yet.
 

jimm

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Work on platform 1 at Moreton-in-Marsh is now under way, with the polystyrene block supports set out alongside the track at the south end and a few of the surface sections already in place.
 

HowardGWR

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aren't IETs either 5 or 10 coaches?
I must say that, the way the article is written, it does come over very strangely.

These two paras:
Once complete, the platform will be able to accommodate seven coaches of GWR's new Class 800 and Class 802 Intercity Express Trains, which can operate as single five-coach and nine-coach trains, or as 10-coach trains formed by coupling two of the five-coach units.

In future, most services on the Cotswold Line will be formed of five-coach or nine-coach single IET sets, but the platform extensions will allow 10-coach trains – formed by coupling two five-coach sets together – to be operated in peak periods if required.

Eh?
 

FGW_DID

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No, there are 9 car formations as well (the 800/3 and 802/1).
 

jimm

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I must say that, the way the article is written, it does come over very strangely.

These two paras:
Once complete, the platform will be able to accommodate seven coaches of GWR's new Class 800 and Class 802 Intercity Express Trains, which can operate as single five-coach and nine-coach trains, or as 10-coach trains formed by coupling two of the five-coach units.

In future, most services on the Cotswold Line will be formed of five-coach or nine-coach single IET sets, but the platform extensions will allow 10-coach trains – formed by coupling two five-coach sets together – to be operated in peak periods if required.

Eh?

Apart from one platform at Kingham, that can take six IET coaches and is not being extended, none of the existing platforms at the intermediate stations is long enough to take more than a five-coach set at the moment, or, of course, a nine-car, with people walking through the train to reach a door where they can get off - same as with HSTs for many years.

Signal locations at platform ends at both Moreton-in-Marsh and Evesham mean that it is not possible to stop a 2x5 formation with some coaches of both portions on the platform, unless extended. And the platform at Hanborough and one at Honeybourne are only three coaches long.

The extensions will mean that a 2x5 formation can operate on the line with both sets in use by passengers, if required, making life easier for rediagramming rolling stock if, for example, there is disruption like last week's and a 2x5 ends up being what's available to send to Worcester.
 
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jimm

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Contractors have been at work at Hanborough in the past week, clearing space at the Oxford end of the platform heading to wards the bus museum at the east end of the station yard for the extension to be installed.
 

jimm

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Preparations are now under way at Charlbury, with a signal cable duct on the west side of the line being moved to make room for the extension of the Worcester-bound platform and some ground levelled.

A giant Lego kit of polystyrene blocks and platform surface sections has been unloaded at Hanborough on the far side of the trackbed from the station, with a couple of the blocks already in place to the east of the existing platform.

At Moreton-in-Marsh the extension to platform 1 (Worcester-bound) is complete, with a fence installed along the back but lights have yet to appear and a gap needs filling in where it meets the existing platform. The area where the extension for platform 2 will go is now fenced off, with most of the ramp removed and ground levelled.

Have anyone seen any signs of work at the stations further west towards Worcester, ahead of the blockade there from the 17th to 25th?
 

jimm

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As part of efforts to keep the redoubling project budget under control, the new platforms at Charlbury and Honeybourne were trimmed back to take five coaches and the plan to move signalling control to Didcot was shelved, with the three signal boxes retained.
 
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