East Coast Main Line line speed improvements: document help

[tbtc]

To make any significant time savings between London and Edinburgh, you basically need to new alignments. The first from Northallerton to Birtley (avoiding Darlington and Durham), and the second from Cramlington to West Chevington (avoiding Morpeth, Pegswood and Widdrington)

This would also allow for a revival of "local" services on the ECML. At the moment there are a few stations that don't have a decent service because of the need to path "fast" trains.

For example, if you are in Alnwick and wanting to visit the next town down the line, if you miss the 07:59 from Alnmouth to Morpeth the next train is 17:01. Going northbound, if you miss the 06:40 from Morpeth, the next train to Alnmouth isn't till 17:36. Berwick lacks decent service to Alnmouth and Morpeth too (since trains tend to "skip stop", so only serve one of the places in Northumberland). Fair enough if you only want to travel from these Northumberland towns to Newcastle (or Edinburgh), but local demand has to be met by driving along the single carriageway A1 instead.

Even if you don't re-open branches to Blyth etc, I could imagine Newcastle - Cramlington - Morpeth could justify a few local trains an hour (maybe an hourly extension to Alnmouth too?).

Diverting fast trains away from Durham would allow Chester le Street to get a good level of service for the first time I can remember (a decent catchment area, though only one train an hour will never realise this), plus there'd be space on the ECML for some Middlesbrough - Durham - Newcastle services (faster than the Sunderland route, though there's no space for them at the moment).

Same goes with Dunbar/ Mussleburgh etc having relatively poor services to Edinburgh, because fast trains are more of a priority (and there's little space for local ones).

 

[The Ham]

If savings are to be made, the place to make them is at the southern end of the line where more trains (and therefore passengers) benefit.

Quadrupling the line all the way to Newcastle, and introducing TASS on the southern section (i.e. south of Doncaster) would allow the fastest trains (i.e. Leeds/Newcastle/Edinburgh/Aberdeen expresses) to run fast on parts of the lines where top cruising speed is reduced, i.e. the curves between Doncaster & Peterborough, and indeed the curves through peterborough station itself.

What about a new High Speed line from London to Leeds capable of shaving an hour off the current journey time, also as it would be separate to the existing line there would be no more conflicts at the existing junctions. This then frees up the ECML to allow more trains.....

.... Oh hang on that's HS2.

 

[Stats]

There still has too be capacity enhancements on the ECML north of York with HS2 because I do not see how you fit in 3tph from HS2 while still maintaining a through service to north of Newcastle and south of York/Leeds on the ECML and XC line, unless they expect everybody to change at Newcastle and York.
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This would also allow for a revival of "local" services on the ECML. At the moment there are a few stations that don't have a decent service because of the need to path "fast" trains.

For example, if you are in Alnwick and wanting to visit the next town down the line, if you miss the 07:59 from Alnmouth to Morpeth the next train is 17:01. Going northbound, if you miss the 06:40 from Morpeth, the next train to Alnmouth isn't till 17:36. Berwick lacks decent service to Alnmouth and Morpeth too (since trains tend to "skip stop", so only serve one of the places in Northumberland). Fair enough if you only want to travel from these Northumberland towns to Newcastle (or Edinburgh), but local demand has to be met by driving along the single carriageway A1 instead.

Even if you don't re-open branches to Blyth etc, I could imagine Newcastle - Cramlington - Morpeth could justify a few local trains an hour (maybe an hourly extension to Alnmouth too?).

Diverting fast trains away from Durham would allow Chester le Street to get a good level of service for the first time I can remember (a decent catchment area, though only one train an hour will never realise this), plus there'd be space on the ECML for some Middlesbrough - Durham - Newcastle services (faster than the Sunderland route, though there's no space for them at the moment).

Wholly agree. There is definitely a case for more local and regional services throughout the whole of the North East. Not just with existing suppressed demand, but also creating new demand by opening up employment opportunities to a much wider catchment area which in turn may encourage more private sector investment in the region.

 

[The Ham]

There still has too be capacity enhancements on the ECML north of York with HS2 because I do not see how you fit in 3tph from HS2 while still maintaining a through service to north of Newcastle and south of York/Leeds on the ECML and XC line, unless they expect everybody to change at Newcastle and York.

I don't doubt that north of HS2 would require extra work, I was just pointing out that the suggestion to quad from London to Newcastle was unlikely to happen south of where HS2 joins/relieves the ECML.

 

[Waverley125]

just to be clear, I completely and unreservedly endorse HS2, and indeed a proper HS network for the UK that goes beyond it (i.e. a line out to Swansea via Heathrow, Reading, Bristol & Cardiff, lines connecting Bristol-Birmingham and Manchester to Leeds, as well as extension of HS2 up both the East & West coasts, and from Aberdeen to Dundee and then branches to Glasgow & Edinburgh.

Oh, and a line to Fishguard, then under the Irish sea to Rosslare, then Dublin/Cork, from Birmingham & Liverpool to Holyhead then Dublin, and from Carlisle to Galloway and then Belfast.

And as the UK governs Northern Ireland, from Belfast to Dublin and Cork.

And we should probably help finance both the LGV Picardie and an HSL from Calais to Antwerp via Ghent.