Suggestions for new short-ish lines

[quantinghome]

There are lots of campaigns focussed on reopening closed railway lines. But what short-ish lengths of new line (up to about 15 miles long, as per the Selby diversion) could be built to give major improvements to the rail network? A couple of suggestions to kick off:

1. Morpeth bypass - not a particularly original idea, but fairly obvious in terms of journey time improvement and freeing up the existing line for local services.

2. Newark cut-off - connect the Nottingham-Newark and Newark-Retford lines, outside Newark itself to avoid new major river crossings and the flat crossing. XC services to Nottingham take up capacity at Birmingham and terminating them at Nottingham is a big waste. A cut-off at Newark (plus upgrading Nottingham-Newark) would turn Nottingham into a XC through station. Nottingham would get a proper connection North (sorely lacking at present) and the North would also get regular direct services to South Wales. As this extension would serve Doncaster, the existing XC services through Sheffield could all run via Leeds, providing much-needed capacity increase on the Leeds-Birmingham service.

Any other ideas? Please add them below!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Denbigh Hall Chord (north to east), allowing direct MKC-Bedford-Cambridge services without reversal, and potentially allowing all East West Rail services to run via Milton Keynes Central once HS2 Phase 1 frees a couple of paths up.

 

[Palmerston]

The Bordesley Chords! Not a very original suggestion but the sooner they get built the better.

 

[quantinghome]

Denbigh Hall Chord (north to east), allowing direct MKC-Bedford-Cambridge services without reversal, and potentially allowing all East West Rail services to run via Milton Keynes Central once HS2 Phase 1 frees a couple of paths up.

You're just saying that because you hate IKEA...

 

[Bletchleyite]

You're just saying that because you hate IKEA...

Almost all my furniture comes from IKEA, and I've been to that Full Serve place that it'd obliterate several times. But moving warehouses is cheap and easy compared to moving housing to which people have emotional attachment. No business will care if their warehouse is compulsory purchased as long as what they're paid covers the cost of a new one in a suitable new location.

 

[HS2isgood]

Daventry to WCML (Weedon), post-HS2 those fasts won't see much traffic.

 

[SpeedyWombat88]

A curve connecting Maidstone West and Maidstone East wouldn’t go amiss. Would make things easier with direct London trains for commuters in villages like Aylesford, Snodland, Wateringbury. Would also make freight operations easier in some cases.

 

[bib]

To link Leicester-Coventry at an average speed faster than the current 21mph.
My idea - Branch off the Leicester-Hinkley-Nuneaton line either before or after Hinckley, follow the M69 and A46 round the east side of Coventry, join up with the WCML . Have a parkway station near the M69/M6 Ansty interchange. 10-15miles of new line.
Midland Connect's cheaper more realistic idea - a diveunder at Nuneaton - https://www.midlandsconnect.uk/news/insights-a-tale-of-two-well-three-cities/
My other even more speculative and expensive idea - build a ~125mph line from Wigston South Jn across the countryside to join the WCML between Covnetry and Rugby (~18miles), to achieve a journey time of <20mins. Then you can run the Midland Intercity Express - Birmingham NS - Birmingham International - Coventry - Leicester - Nottingham in about an hour end-to-end.

 

[Snow1964]

An Abingdon high speed chord so that trains from South West can reach Oxford from Swindon (and then ideally join HS2 near Bicester), complete with flyover junctions end end and quadruple track continuing to Swindon and Oxford (some of which was previously widened in 1930s and WW2 but subsequently rationalised)

 

[The Planner]

Daventry to WCML (Weedon), post-HS2 those fasts won't see much traffic.

They will have freight on them.

 

[Magdalia]

There are lots of campaigns focussed on reopening closed railway lines. But what short-ish lengths of new line (up to about 15 miles long, as per the Selby diversion) could be built to give major improvements to the rail network?

Shelford on the old Haverhill line trackbed to a park and ride station next to the A11/A505 junction. Crossing the A11/A505 gets a lot more expensive. This would be the southern end of a Cambridge Metro running through to Waterbeach or Ely.

Denbigh Hall Chord (north to east), allowing direct MKC-Bedford-Cambridge services without reversal,

Definitely, especially now I know that it obliterates an IKEA. That's what I call a win win!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Definitely, especially now I know that it obliterates an IKEA. That's what I call a win win!

Just the Full Serve warehouse for big stuff like kitchens, not the actual store.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Watchet to Barry Island is only 15 miles as the crow flies and there's no development in the way. No-brainer really.

 

[steamybrian]

Uckfield to Lewes reopening.
Gives another diversionary route London to Sussex Coast.
Crowborough and Uckfield are rapidly expanding towns.

 

[quantinghome]

Uckfield to Lewes reopening.
Gives another diversionary route London to Sussex Coast.
Crowborough and Uckfield are rapidly expanding towns.

No reopenings. They've been done to death. Especially that one!

 

[Nottingham59]

But what short-ish lengths of new line (up to about 15 miles long, as per the Selby diversion) could be built to give major improvements to the rail network?

My votes are:

• 1km South-East chord at Manton Junction to allow services between Oxford and Peterborough without reversing, connecting the South Midlands and the Eastern side of the country. It would support maybe one tenth of the benefit of East-West Rail from Bedford to Cambridge, at around one fiftieth of the cost. So better value for money.
• Ely freight bypass. Single track freight viaduct from around Soham directly connected to line towards Peterborough. Simplest way to increase Felixstowe to Nuneaton freight flows (when combined with other interventions).
• Carstairs eastern bypass. When HS2 phase 1 opens, the West Coast will become the fastest route from London to Edingburgh. This is just one of several cheap interventions to speed up that flow, by cutting out the sharp curve at Carstairs towards Edinburgh.
• Rugeley-Hixon. If HS2 phase 2a is too expensive, a short chord connecting the slow lines west of Rugeley to the line to Stoke on Trent at Hixon be cheaper. This would grade-separate Colwich, and by eliminating crossing moves also increase the capacity through Shugborough tunnel. HS2 trains arriving at Handsacre could stay on the slows through Rugeley before heading off towards Stoke and Manchester.
• East to South chord at Newton-le-Willows junction. Allowing trains from Manchester via Chat Moss to access the southbound WCML without crossing moves. HS2 phase 2a will enable many more trains from London to Crewe, but routes onwards to Manchester are all full, except for Chat Moss, as Lumo is intending to exploit with it Open Access application.
• Four-track Crewe-Weaver. Not strictly a new line, but a four track railway has more than twice the capacity of a two-track line, so this give more capacity uplift for your money and most of the bridge around Winsford are already built for four tracks.

EDIT:

• Upgrade the freight tunnels under Crewe station for passenger services, or add grade-separation flyovers to the south of the station. Either would allow London-Manchester traffic to cross over the four track London-Weaver WCML mainline without conflicts

 

[Bald Rick]

Morpeth bypass - not a particularly original idea, but fairly obvious in terms of journey time improvement and freeing up the existing line for local services.

See this thread:

Morpeth Curve

Just sat on the train at the moment pondering why they have never bypassed the Morpeth curve? Surely it costs a lot of time slowing down from 100+ and back up again. I understand trains still need to stop at Morpeth, but for the trains that don’t why not have a bypass? I’m guessing as ever...

www.railforums.co.uk

2. Newark cut-off - connect the Nottingham-Newark and Newark-Retford lines, outside Newark itself to avoid new major river crossings and the flat crossing. XC services to Nottingham take up capacity at Birmingham and terminating them at Nottingham is a big waste. A cut-off at Newark (plus upgrading Nottingham-Newark) would turn Nottingham into a XC through station. Nottingham would get a proper connection North (sorely lacking at present) and the North would also get regular direct services to South Wales. As this extension would serve Doncaster, the existing XC services through Sheffield could all run via Leeds, providing much-needed capacity increase on the Leeds-Birmingham service.

The trouble there is ECML capacity.

 

[yorksrob]

No reopenings. They've been done to death. Especially that one!

I bristle at the exclusion of reopenings !

However, I don't think my suggestion counts as one - a South to West curve at Yeovil Junction to enable North - South trains to reverse in for connections.

Clifton Maybank was only for freight, so doesn't really count as a reopening.

 

[brad465]

A curve connecting Maidstone West and Maidstone East wouldn’t go amiss. Would make things easier with direct London trains for commuters in villages like Aylesford, Snodland, Wateringbury. Would also make freight operations easier in some cases.

The height difference, proximity to the River Medway and built-up nature of the area make this practically impossible. A more feasible option would be having high level platforms at Maidstone Barracks to shorten the connection, but that has other problems unrelated to this thread.

I wonder if doing the Lower Thames Crossing as a rail tunnel, or at least having one next to the road tunnel proposed, would have merit: freight between Grain, Hoo Junction and the north/west could avoid the busy south-east London core (though lines north of the Thames could need upgrading in this situation), while passenger links could be provided for local connections between Kent, Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, depending on provisions north of the Thames. If this was done instead of the road crossing it could still relieve QE2 bridge traffic, or in addition could ease the LTC road crossing pressure, as projects like this always seem to end up handling more than the projected demand.

 

[quantinghome]

The trouble there [Newark cut-off] is ECML capacity.

How congested is the ECML between north of Newark (i.e. with the flat crossing out of the picture) and Doncaster? Bearing in mind the proposal would exchange a XC train crossing at Doncaster on the flat with two XC trains per hour on a new flyover north of Newark. To avoid congestion on the northern ECML, the hourly service north of Doncaster could comprise one train to York and beyond (as per the pre-Covid XC service) and one via Hambleton to Leeds, then forming the next XC service to Birmingham via Sheffield.

 

[JKF]

Ham Green - Sea Mills. Just take a left in the tunnel and head downwards.

 

[The Planner]

.
EDIT:

• Upgrade the freight tunnels under Crewe station for passenger services, or add grade-separation flyovers to the south of the station. Either would allow London-Manchester traffic to cross over the four track London-Weaver WCML mainline without conflicts

They are now passenger rated but you are never going to get them high speed. All Manchester trains stop at Crewe unless you are suggesting they don't, so the conflicts will always happen.

 

[WAO]

Ascot - Frimley line connecting to North Downs line, across the Blackwater river (and relief road!) and also North Downs Line to Aldershot North Jn.

WAO

 

[A S Leib]

Given that the Bakerloo, Victoria, Circle and Hammersmith and City lines are each around fifteen miles, I'm sure there's suburban rail lines in Leeds, Bristol etc. you could design within those limits which would have large benefits. I'm not sure if Washington had a direct service to Sunderland in the past, but I'm fairly sure that a Washington to South Hylton line wouldn't be a reopening.

For very short lines, such as curves or more services similar to the Stourbridge shuttle, I'd like to see Hemel Hempstead to Boxmoor / Hemel station (because I'd personally find it useful more than because I think it's the most useful that could be built), and a link south of Bristol Temple Meads to enable Cardiff to Bath services without reversing at Temple Meads.

 

[duffield]

A new line from Boston to Wainfleet via Wrangle, with the existing line via Frisby to shut. Shortens the route to Skegness considerably (not just by length but by the removal of the very low speed squeaky curve at Frisby) and would serve a considerable built-up area with a new station at Wrangle. Mostly flat farmland and I can see routes involving near zero building demolition.
It might be possible to get the journey time (from Nottingham) down to under 2 hours via Grantham and so save on units and crew, and a number of manual signal boxes plus a huge load of level crossings would go (although of course there's a question of how many might be needed on the new route). Could maybe be done instead of re-signalling when that finally becomes essential.

 

[A S Leib]

Watchet to Barry Island is only 15 miles as the crow flies and there's no development in the way. No-brainer really.

I think Barrow to Fleetwood falls slightly over 15 miles, but to Morecambe would be a bit shorter.

 

[MrPosh]

Cambridge to Huntingdon - at least, the ECML North.

 

[Bald Rick]

How congested is the ECML between north of Newark (i.e. with the flat crossing out of the picture) and Doncaster? Bearing in mind the proposal would exchange a XC train crossing at Doncaster on the flat with two XC trains per hour on a new flyover north of Newark. To avoid congestion on the northern ECML, the hourly service north of Doncaster could comprise one train to York and beyond (as per the pre-Covid XC service) and one via Hambleton to Leeds, then forming the next XC service to Birmingham via Sheffield.

Fairly congested. From December it will have 7.5 trains an hour each way on varying stopping patterns, plus freight. I’n no saying there’s not capacity, but it won’t be straightforward to link uo the paths through Nottingham and onto the ECML and through Doncaster and into York. There’s unlikely to be caapcity north of York.

A new line from Boston to Wainfleet via Wrangle, with the existing line via Frisby to shut. Shortens the route to Skegness considerably (not just by length but by the removal of the very low speed squeaky curve at Frisby) and would serve a considerable built-up area with a new station at Wrangle. Mostly flat farmland and I can see routes involving near zero building demolition.
It might be possible to get the journey time down to under 2 hours via Grantham and so save on units and crew, and a number of manual signal boxes plus a huge load of level crossings would go (although of course there's a question of how many might be needed on the new route). Could maybe be done instead of re-signalling when that finally becomes essential.

oooh i was going to say that.

 

[Magdalia]

1km South-East chord at Manton Junction to allow services between Oxford and Peterborough without reversing, connecting the South Midlands and the Eastern side of the country. It would support maybe one tenth of the benefit of East-West Rail from Bedford to Cambridge, at around one fiftieth of the cost. So better value for money.

Manton curve would not even deliver one hundredth of the benefit of East West Rail because it delivers absolutely nothing for Cambridge. So it is worse value for money.

Ely freight bypass. Single track freight viaduct from around Soham directly connected to line towards Peterborough.

Absolutely no prospect of building a viaduct in the Fens. There is no solid ground to support the structure.

 

[Nottingham59]

Manton curve would not even deliver one hundredth of the benefit of East West Rail because it delivers absolutely nothing for Cambridge. So it is worse value for money.

Cambridge isn't the only destination in the East of England

Absolutely no prospect of building a viaduct in the Fens. There is no solid ground to support the structure.

The peat in the Fens is mostly no more then 4 metres deep. It just needs piles. How do you think they support the bridges over the river?