Railperf
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Wasn't there a plan for Elizabeth line to run from Shenfield right through to Reading and Maidenhead? Seems to be only Paddington and Heathrow at the moment.
No, that was never planned. For a long time the plan was for all Shenfields to terminate at PaddingtonWasn't there a plan for Elizabeth line to run from Shenfield right through to Reading and Maidenhead? Seems to be only Paddington and Heathrow at the moment.
Many thanks iphone76 - much appreciatedPaddington Low Level itself? You can see both Eastbound and Westbound platforms at the same time, plus the trains usually sit there for slightly longer than the other stations either being terminated or entering service.
(Not this weekend though as there is no service between Abbey Wood and Paddington Low Level).
A somewhat worse problem is the opposite direction in the evening peak. The pattern goes (as an illustration):It’s a shame the EL trains from Twyford in the peaks are not more evenly spaced. At the moment they depart 10 mins apart with a 20 min gap, but the second train is 5 mins faster so they arrive in the central section 5 mins apart. Coupled with the fact the GWR service departs in the middle of the 10 mins, and effectively catches up with the first EL train, it leaves two 20 min gaps every hour (in the peak) toward Paddington, and an equally uneven spread of arrival times into London.
It seems like the problem is really where to slot the 2tph peak extras into the timetable. With the Readings and Maidenheads alternating every 15 minutes during the off-peak, and the seeming desire to keep close to those intervals during the peak, along with the requirement to have the Readings and Maidenheads coming from an Abbey Wood starter means that you have to have either a 5 or 10 minute gap between the trains heading out of the core.
The alternating skipped stations also need to be considered - I haven't dug into their stopping patterns though.
Running trains from Reading and Maidenhead to Shenfield runs the risk of transmitting delays between the Western and Eastern side of London.Why do all Readings and Maidenheads have to come from Abbey Wood? Is there any reason that the peak extras could not be Shenfield starters (which would off-peak terminate at Paddington) if it leads to a better-spaced service?
Running trains from Reading and Maidenhead to Shenfield runs the risk of transmitting delays between the Western and Eastern side of London.
If all trains from Abbey Wood run through Paddington, then it endures broadly even headways out to Ealing, which then allow freight to run.
I'm not sure you get a better spaced service by running Shenfield trains through to Reading and Maidenhead, because it means there are bigger gaps between Heathrow and Reading / Maidenhead services (assuming they aren't immediately behind).
Sorry, I'm not trying to shut this down, although it isn't a speculative thread.Ah ok, fair enough.