Was discussing with one of my colleagues today about whether the company should try and put on a half hourly service from Clacton. One going all the way to London and the other going just to Colchester to connect with mainline services due to lack of paths south of Shenfield. I think the demand at Clacton would justify a half hourly service instead of the current hourly.
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Half hourly service from Clacton?
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SprinterMan
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Agreed. Clacton-on-Sea is a large-ish town, with a large station, I have always thought that the service it receives isn't great. Personally, I would have the new service call Clacton - Thorpe-le-Soken - Great Bentley - Arlesford - Wivenhoe - Hythe - Colchester - Marks Tey - Kelvedon - Witham, where it would couple to a Braintree to London service.
This way, Clacton/Thorpe/Wivenhoe get 2tph to London; Hythe, Arlesford & Great Bentley get an off-peak through service to London, something that currently only happens on a Sunday (when Hythe is closed) and Kelvedon and Marks Tey get a through service to Clacton, which there is demand for in the summer. Colchester then gets 6tph to London like it used to in FGE days without using any extra path south of Witham.
Southend Victoria gets 3tph to London, despite Southend Central being near to it and being quicker to get tot London, so Clacton deserves better in my book :P
Adam
dk1
Veteran Member
How would it couple to a Braintree without going bi-di to/from Kelvedon & hogging many other paths?
Yeah I can see no real issue in it at all. I would say a 4 car semi-fast from Clacton to Colchester. No need to call at Colchester Town as this is already served well enough. Probably could leave out Weeley as well. But with a train to London every 10 minutes or so from Colchester I see it as a win win. Might put it as a bright idea to the company!
MidnightFlyer
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I personally would run it as an extension to the Colchester-Colchester Town shuttle, with the calling points as per the SprinterMan proposed, and hopefully rejig it to go some way to removing the bizarre and somewhat unique arrangements at Thorpe-le-Soken.
However Southend is somewhat closer to London, and also serves places like Southend Airport, Wickford and Billericay en-route. My only experience of the branch line to SOV was in August, heading west into London in the late morning: the 12-car set was full and standing by Billericay. I don't think really you can compare to two if I'm honest.
The only thing I think standing in the way of it coupling to the Braintree service southbound into London is the need to cross the northbound mainline (I forget its designation) to access the back platform (4 I think) at Witham, which is the only one with access to / from the branch to Braintree.
Southend Victoria gets 3tph to London, despite Southend Central being near to it and being quicker to get tot London, so Clacton deserves better in my book :P
Adam
However Southend is somewhat closer to London, and also serves places like Southend Airport, Wickford and Billericay en-route. My only experience of the branch line to SOV was in August, heading west into London in the late morning: the 12-car set was full and standing by Billericay. I don't think really you can compare to two if I'm honest.
The only thing I think standing in the way of it coupling to the Braintree service southbound into London is the need to cross the northbound mainline (I forget its designation) to access the back platform (4 I think) at Witham, which is the only one with access to / from the branch to Braintree.
dk1
Veteran Member
Clacton line has healthy loadings at peak times with London bound commuters. Off peak local/London traffic is ok but not sure about half hourly. I dont think 3 trains in each direction between Colchester & Thorpe-Le-Soken is justified to be honest especially as trains are 4-car minimum.
SprinterMan
Established Member
Oh yeah, forgot about the unusual arrangement at Witham. Have them couple at Chelmsford, or Hatfield Peverel if they call additionally there in that case
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What is bizarre about the arrangements at Thorpe-le-Soken? To me they make perfect sense as passengers to Walton-on-the-Naze can take a later service from Colchester/London and connect onto their train at Thorpe-le-Soken rather than stopping at all stations from Colchester.
There is only one downside I can see which is a 30 minute wait if travelling between Clacton and Walton-on-the-Naze, but there is a bus every 20 minutes.
SprinterMan
Established Member
I imagine holiday traffic in the summer would be sufficient to warrant a half-hourly service, but it may be very quiet in winter.
Adam
dk1
Veteran Member
Oh yeah, forgot about the unusual arrangement at Witham. Have them couple at Chelmsford, or Hatfield Peverel if they call additionally there in that case
Nice idea but as usual with the GEML there is normally a good reason its not done already.
MidnightFlyer
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Aye, didn't really word that the best I could, I meant more getting an even spread of services westwards from TLS (as opposed to the 56 min gap as at present), and also improving connectivity from the east into Colchester Town. It could potentially avoid the need for the Walton shuttle to wait if the new service runs semi-fast via CET, which could also lead to more convenient retiming of the shuttle, i.e. no wait at TLS and give more spread out times for the local services (should the new Clacton shuttle serve Great Bentley et al).
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Oh yeah, forgot about the unusual arrangement at Witham. Have them couple at Chelmsford, or Hatfield Peverel if they call additionally there in that case
Wouldn't that eat away at paths though? Also, I would have thought that you'd be rather brave planning a split / join at a station with 6tph plus freight passing through on only double track. It's fine at somewhere with a loop (Witham or Colchester), but I'd have thought planners are rather keen to avoid it in places that leave zero margin for error.
I can't really see a third train an hour on the branch really happening at the moment. Due to the short franchise the current operator isn't incentivised to incur additional cost without a cast iron guarantee that the income generated would make it worthwhile.
As others have commented one option might be to combine the Liverpool St to Colchester Town service with the Colchester (N) to Walton service, but diverted to Clacton. The Walton branch could then be operated by a self contained shuttle. This would have the advantage of providing two trains an hour from London on to the branch, though the second would be quite slow but would provide an hourly direct Clacton to Colchester Town service. The downside would be the loss of direct trains from the Walton branch. This could be achieved by a small increase in train miles as the the extra train an hour between Thorpe and clacton would be offset by the reduction of one train an hour between Colchester (N) and Town.
Pathing appears to be the biggest problem however, it seems to work reasonable well in the down direction but not in the up, so would require something of recast which overall might not make it viable.
As others have commented one option might be to combine the Liverpool St to Colchester Town service with the Colchester (N) to Walton service, but diverted to Clacton. The Walton branch could then be operated by a self contained shuttle. This would have the advantage of providing two trains an hour from London on to the branch, though the second would be quite slow but would provide an hourly direct Clacton to Colchester Town service. The downside would be the loss of direct trains from the Walton branch. This could be achieved by a small increase in train miles as the the extra train an hour between Thorpe and clacton would be offset by the reduction of one train an hour between Colchester (N) and Town.
Pathing appears to be the biggest problem however, it seems to work reasonable well in the down direction but not in the up, so would require something of recast which overall might not make it viable.
Ivo
Established Member
I suggested on here it before and got shot down for it! 
Realistically Clacton doesn't need more than two units per hour. The town isn't nearly as big as some people seem to think - at 53,000 it's only 25% bigger than Braintree, for instance - and isn't exactly first choice among the local seaside resorts. If this means a second service per hour, extend the Colchester Town terminator and make it call at all stations east of there. The Walton train could then become a shuttle as per Sundays, possibly with an improved frequency if the timings work well (very marginal). Otherwise however, one 8-car 360 should suffice.
As for the Southend comparison, this is completely unfair. Clacton is on a branch that sees 2tph; Southend Victoria is on a branch that sees 3tph. Even before Southend itself is considered, the latter is far busier: Billericay, Wickford, Rayleigh, Hockley and Rochford combined have a population of somewhere in the region of 125,000; throw in an airport, the need to facilitate links to another branch line, the local station for both Southend Hospital and Southend United F.C. (as well as a fair proportion of the north of Southend), and of course Victoria itself, and you have a line that if anything needs 4tph.
On the other hand, the entire Tendring district - which covers all stations in Essex beyond the Colchester urban area except for Wivenhoe - has a population of only 140,000. With this in mind, this area does very well in railway terms; it has three branch line termini, three direct services to London per hour (two of which can be considered InterCity), electrification throughout and even the odd service which in years long gone would have run through to Liverpool!
Realistically Clacton doesn't need more than two units per hour. The town isn't nearly as big as some people seem to think - at 53,000 it's only 25% bigger than Braintree, for instance - and isn't exactly first choice among the local seaside resorts. If this means a second service per hour, extend the Colchester Town terminator and make it call at all stations east of there. The Walton train could then become a shuttle as per Sundays, possibly with an improved frequency if the timings work well (very marginal). Otherwise however, one 8-car 360 should suffice.
As for the Southend comparison, this is completely unfair. Clacton is on a branch that sees 2tph; Southend Victoria is on a branch that sees 3tph. Even before Southend itself is considered, the latter is far busier: Billericay, Wickford, Rayleigh, Hockley and Rochford combined have a population of somewhere in the region of 125,000; throw in an airport, the need to facilitate links to another branch line, the local station for both Southend Hospital and Southend United F.C. (as well as a fair proportion of the north of Southend), and of course Victoria itself, and you have a line that if anything needs 4tph.
On the other hand, the entire Tendring district - which covers all stations in Essex beyond the Colchester urban area except for Wivenhoe - has a population of only 140,000. With this in mind, this area does very well in railway terms; it has three branch line termini, three direct services to London per hour (two of which can be considered InterCity), electrification throughout and even the odd service which in years long gone would have run through to Liverpool!
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