Leicester Station remodelling

[londonmidland]

Hi all.

I have heard that the Beal Street head-shunt (the short siding under the north end bridge) is to be ripped up and replaced with a new line, allowing freight trains from platform 1 to access Humberstone Road sidings without having to cross on to the mainline and back off again. This is to happen within the next few weeks.

Another thing I've heard, which may just be a rumour, is that the carriage sidings (where XC stable their 170's at the weekends) is to be ripped out and replaced with two new extra platforms?

Now I now the first one is happening, however can any one shine any light on the latter, if it is true or just a rumour. As well as if there are any dates for these works?

Thanks.

 

[Domh245]

Is this headshunt the one adjacent to platform 1 (also know as fox street sidings in the sectional appendix) - based on your description I would guess so but the only Beal street I can find in Leicester is on the other side of the railway (by the siding always full of wagons blocking the view of the LIP)

As for replacing the carriage sidings - what extra services would they be serving? Leicester doesn't seem to be somewhere that is particularly congested in terms of units clogging up platforms, and any platforms put in where the carriage sidings are would be pretty short

 

[londonmidland]

Is this headshunt the one adjacent to platform 1 (also know as fox street sidings in the sectional appendix)

Yes. That's the one.

 

[Senex]

Ah — Does that mean the connection from the Platform 1 line back into the down main can be moved northwards to provide a proper overlap for the down main signal and so finally allow the design 40 into and through Platform 2?

 

[edwin_m]

Another thing I've heard, which may just be a rumour, is that the carriage sidings (where XC stable their 170's at the weekends) is to be ripped out and replaced with two new extra platforms?

Now I now the first one is happening, however can any one shine any light on the latter, if it is true or just a rumour. As well as if there are any dates for these works?

Is this headshunt the one adjacent to platform 1 (also know as fox street sidings in the sectional appendix) - based on your description I would guess so but the only Beal street I can find in Leicester is on the other side of the railway (by the siding always full of wagons blocking the view of the LIP)

As for replacing the carriage sidings - what extra services would they be serving? Leicester doesn't seem to be somewhere that is particularly congested in terms of units clogging up platforms, and any platforms put in where the carriage sidings are would be pretty short

There is a long-term plan to reinstate continuous four-track through Leicester with grade separation at Wigston, mainly so that east-west freight can use these tracks and avoid conflict with the Midland Main Line. XC would use the same tracks and part of the plan is to provide platforms in the area you mention, as crossing them back to the existing platforms would remove much of the capacity benefit.

However I don't think this has any funding or commitment at present, and I can't see the platform bit going ahead on its own. The MML service isn't going to increase and although there are ideas for more local trains there's nothing concrete, so I don't see any reason not to continue with what happens now. As far as I can see there's no benefit from the extra platforms unless and until the whole scheme is done.

 

[Camden]

Correcting the issues introduced when Kettering in particular lost its half hourly northbound services would I trust be the outcome for any extra capacity?

Rail Services: Kettering - Hansard - UK Parliament

Hansard record of the item : ' Rail Services: Kettering' on Tuesday 20 February 2018.

hansard.parliament.uk

Very much overdue. The comments about rail fares suggest the tail is wagging the dog on this so far. Enabling the labour markets of Northamptonshire and Leicestershire to connect with each other should be a strategic economic aim, but instead the transport priority seems to be about collecting high London-bound fares at the direct expense of this.

 

[Ianno87]

Correcting the issues introduced when Kettering in particular lost its half hourly northbound services would I trust be the outcome for any extra capacity?

Rail Services: Kettering - Hansard - UK Parliament

Hansard record of the item : ' Rail Services: Kettering' on Tuesday 20 February 2018.

hansard.parliament.uk

Very much overdue. The comments about rail fares suggest the tail is wagging the dog on this so far. Enabling the labour markets of Northamptonshire and Leicestershire to connect with each other should be a strategic economic aim, but instead the transport priority seems to be about collecting high London-bound fares at the direct expense of this.

My guess is that it would build on EMR's 2020 timetable proposal; i.e. giving Kettering 4tph; 2tph to Corby and 2tph via Market Harborough/Leicester; with the 2tph via Leicester non-stop south of Kettering.

 

[edwin_m]

Correcting the issues introduced when Kettering in particular lost its half hourly northbound services would I trust be the outcome for any extra capacity?

Rail Services: Kettering - Hansard - UK Parliament

Hansard record of the item : ' Rail Services: Kettering' on Tuesday 20 February 2018.

hansard.parliament.uk

Very much overdue. The comments about rail fares suggest the tail is wagging the dog on this so far. Enabling the labour markets of Northamptonshire and Leicestershire to connect with each other should be a strategic economic aim, but instead the transport priority seems to be about collecting high London-bound fares at the direct expense of this.

Your link leads to a screenful of politician's flannel that I'm disinclined to read. It would help if you identified and quoted the point he is trying to make. And does it have anything to do with the thread topic?

 

[Camden]

Yes, it's regarding the thread topic, which is the reason for posting in the thread. There are multiple people involved in the Hansard recorded conversation, if you choose to read it. It's entirely optional for anyone who has the interest. Asking for effort to be made by others to paraphrase the contents for you because you're "disinclined" to read it for yourself... No.

My guess is that it would build on EMR's 2020 timetable proposal; i.e. giving Kettering 4tph; 2tph to Corby and 2tph via Market Harborough/Leicester; with the 2tph via Leicester non-stop south of Kettering.

I hope so, as the current situation is just ridiculous and has been allowed to go on for far too long. An ideal means of commuting has gone to waste for years for the sake of basic frequencies and connections.

 

[yorkie]

Yes, it's regarding the thread topic, which is the reason for posting in the thread. There are multiple people involved in the Hansard recorded conversation, if you choose to read it. It's entirely optional for anyone who has the interest. Asking for effort to be made by others to paraphrase the contents for you because you're "disinclined" to read it for yourself... No.

Just a couple of relevant paragraphs will be fine and compliant with forum rules, thanks.

 

[Mollman]

Just a couple of relevant paragraphs will be fine and compliant with forum rules, thanks.

This seems to be the gist of it to me:

I firmly believe, as does the Kettering rail users group, that we have an opportunity for strong rail growth by restoring Kettering’s half-hourly off-peak service to Leicester. Before we lost that frequency 10 years ago, travel to both Derby and Nottingham was possible via an easy cross-platform connection at Leicester—effectively a half-hourly link to both, with equivalent connections to Birmingham. But train journeys from Kettering to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds have become car journeys today, due to the reduced frequency to Leicester and beyond. Any delay to a connecting southbound service now leads to an hour’s wait. The risk of that is too high for too many passengers. Corby passengers also suffer an hour’s wait heading north, due to poor connections. When the Corby shuttle comes into Kettering, it is not timed to meet the hourly service going north from Kettering.



A mix of connections and through-services, as suggested by the Kettering rail users group in their submission to the Minister, from Leicester to Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough, Bedford and Luton, is needed to avoid future rail growth from Leicestershire, Nottingham and beyond being replaced by car journeys. It would be a tragedy if the new franchise on the midland main line ended up seeing an increase in car journeys in the east midlands, when we want to see the opposite.

 

[edwin_m]

This seems to be the gist of it to me:

Doesn't the half-hourly service between Kettering and Leicester come back in the 2020 EMR timetable anyway?

 

[Senex]

This was the Leicester station area at the 1986 resignalling:


Is what the OP refers to as the work about to go ahead in effect the sluing of the line out of Platform 1 into what's left of the Fox Street sidings line (now the headshunt) and the abolition of signal 413, so that signal 423 becomes the exit signal from the platform with the three main-aspect routes it can already shew: straight ahead into the up & down goods or diverging right to the down fast or the up & down slow? That seems to be a relatively small job, whereas the restoration of the fourth line on the up side and a new island platform would be a very much larger undertaking.

 

[wallan]

Would a direct connection from the northern end of pl 4 to the UP / DN Slow be possible

 

[londonmidland]

Would a direct connection from the northern end of pl 4 to the UP / DN Slow be possible

From my understanding, it seems the track will need to be realigned as there is a bridge pillar in the way?

 

[edwin_m]

This was the Leicester station area at the 1986 resignalling:
View attachment 79655

Is what the OP refers to as the work about to go ahead in effect the sluing of the line out of Platform 1 into what's left of the Fox Street sidings line (now the headshunt) and the abolition of signal 413, so that signal 423 becomes the exit signal from the platform with the three main-aspect routes it can already shew: straight ahead into the up & down goods or diverging right to the down fast or the up & down slow? That seems to be a relatively small job, whereas the restoration of the fourth line on the up side and a new island platform would be a very much larger undertaking.

More likely 423 would go and 413 would stay, as that is the platform starter and is alongside the equivalent starter on the other track. The existing northern exit from P1 would also have to stay, becoming a crossover or an adaptation of the one north of 423. Otherwise the northern exit from P1 would be unavailable to passenger trains whenever any freight was messing around on the Down Slow (as they often do).

Would a direct connection from the northern end of pl 4 to the UP / DN Slow be possible

That would be useful to keep the Ivanhoe clear of the Fasts, but probably more difficult because of the connection from the Up Fast to the Up and Down Slow near signal 421, which allows Down freights on the U&D Slow to cross to the Down Slow. If the U&D Slow is replaced by separate Slows for each direction, which is part of the plan that also provides the new platforms where we came into this thread, then trains on the Slows would most likely use the new platforms instead of P4.

 

[wallan]

Thank You , i was thinking of " The Ivanhoe Services "

 

[Senex]

It seems that work at the north end of the down island platform is to take place this weekend. 423 signal (see the diagram I posted in #13) is apparently to be recovered along with Fox Street Siding and the points which I assume must be those adjacent to that signal. A new set of points are due to go in, but not be commissioned yet, 70 yards to the north. It looks as though this can be only the first stage of the work, with more to come, along, of course, with commissioning.

 

[londonmidland]

Do we know what the crossover speed on to the new section of track, as well as the permitted speed through platform 1 will be, heading in the down direction?

It's currently 25 mph through the platform, after being raised from 15 mph a few years ago. The same applies for platform 4. Platform 2 & 3 is 40 mph through for passenger and 25 mph for freight.

 

[John Hunt]

A visit to the station at 1800 today confirms that work is going ahead tonight.

No Network Rail guys on site yet, but a LOT of BTP due to the lockdown and fears of pub outings going out of town.

BTP were very happy that I reported to them first, then I went into the car park to take a couple of 'before' fots for my own reference.

Will visit again to see progress tomorrow morning.

 

[londonmidland]

A visit to the station at 1800 today confirms that work is going ahead tonight.

No Network Rail guys on site yet, but a LOT of BTP due to the lockdown and fears of pub outings going out of town.

BTP were very happy that I reported to them first, then I went into the car park to take a couple of 'before' fots for my own reference.

Will visit again to see progress tomorrow morning.

Much appreciated John.

I look forward to hearing back from you and the updates regarding the progress going on at Leicester.

 

[midland1]

Will the top end of platform 1 need realigning as the curve there is very sharp, it will be very strange going out of platform 1 north that way after using that station now for over 50 years!

 

[wallan]

Much appreciated John.

I look forward to hearing back from you and the updates regarding the progress going on at Leicester.

Engineering Train Due 2201

 

[Senex]

Much appreciated John.

I look forward to hearing back from you and the updates regarding the progress going on at Leicester.

Much appreciated by me too. It'll be really good to have a first-hand obersver's account.

At the moment it's a really nasty reverse curve out at the north end of 1. Using the platform in the up direction the present speed is 15 round that reverse and then 30 along the platform and over the connections at London Road Jn. It's going to be interesting to see if the present work brings any changes to speeds.

 

[londonmidland]

How many possessions will take place and how long are the works expected to take to complete this job, may I ask?

I notice Sundays of the 5th and 12th of this month both have rail replacement buses, which I assume that is when the works will take place. I don't know what happening between and beyond those dates, however.

 

[John Hunt]

6G38 engineers arrived at platform 2 OK.
FOUR other 66s(?) on the way from Toton to join the fun.
(see Traksy & RTT for details)

 

[wallan]

Final Commissioning due 2200 Sat 25th - 0500 Mon 27th

 

[John Hunt]

Sorry, but little to report. If you know the area surrounding Leicester Station you will understand why. This is the situation at 09:00.

Arriving at the station, back end of a train just visible on the low bridge leading to fire station. Where New Walk crosses the railway cutting I could hear a 66 idling.

Into the station car park. The old Fox St stabling line - which was NOT connected to any other line - is still there and looking sorry for itself.
Parked in Plat 1 is 66706 from Bescot and some wagons.
Parked in Plat 2 - wagons.
Parked at north end of Plat 3 is 66542.

On to Swain St Bridge. Looking north, the left hand side running line has a big chunk missing opposite the depot. That is where most work is concentrated now. It seems the idea is to ease the curve coming out of Plat 1.

Difficult to see how the layout is changed where plat 1 line merges with plat 2 line because there is a Covid testing site at that end of the car park and access obviously not possible.

I will head out there again later today (hopefully) and see if anything else is apparent. Hope the attached fots help.

 

[wallan]

Sorry, but little to report. If you know the area surrounding Leicester Station you will understand why. This is the situation at 09:00.

Arriving at the station, back end of a train just visible on the low bridge leading to fire station. Where New Walk crosses the railway cutting I could hear a 66 idling.

Into the station car park. The old Fox St stabling line - which was NOT connected to any other line - is still there and looking sorry for itself.
Parked in Plat 1 is 66706 from Bescot and some wagons.
Parked in Plat 2 - wagons.
Parked at north end of Plat 3 is 66542.

On to Swain St Bridge. Looking north, the left hand side running line has a big chunk missing opposite the depot. That is where most work is concentrated now. It seems the idea is to ease the curve coming out of Plat 1.

Difficult to see how the layout is changed where plat 1 line merges with plat 2 line because there is a Covid testing site at that end of the car park and access obviously not possible.

I will head out there again later today (hopefully) and see if anything else is apparent. Hope the attached fots help.View attachment 80403View attachment 80403View attachment 80404View attachment 80405

Thank You

 

[londonmidland]

Great updates and pictures. Thanks John.