Could Snow Hill lines be converted to Midland Metro?

[philosopher]

Moderator note: Split from

Snow Hill Lines Likely To Stay at 4tph Long Term

West Midlands Railway have posted quite detailed and insightful responses to frequently asked questions in their latest Snow Hill Line updates. However in response to "Why can’t we timetable more services and longer trains?", we learn the intention is not to return to the pre-covid 6 trains per...

www.railforums.co.uk

This is deeply disappointing as it means the Whitlocks and Dorridge branches will retain a disappointing 2tph frequency, although balanced out to more even gaps in the service.
To me, pre-covid, every 20 minutes was just about frequent enough to use it as a "turn up and go" service, but half hourly thoroughly exceeds this threshold.

I imagine with the other operators involved, it would be very hard to revert these changes in the future back to 6tph through the core.

This is a very backwards step compared to the 2018 30-year rail strategy vision which proposed increasing the branch frequency to 6tph.



To me, living on one of the branches, it feels like a vote of no confidence in the recovery of the lines, thus I will most likely mitigate the inconvenience this poor frequency locks-in brings by learning to drive.

This could be a crazy suggestion, but how feasible would it be to convert the Moor Street to Dorridge section of the Snow Hill Lines to Midland Metro operation. This section used to have four tracks and most of the trackbed is still there, so those disused lines could be converted to Midland Metro use with trams stopping at all stations on that section. The existing lines could then be for Chiltern services and West Midlands Trains to Stratford with trains only stopping at Moor Street, Solihull and Dorridge.

That would allow for an uplift in frequency without impacting reliability.

 

[The Planner]

This could be a crazy suggestion, but how feasible would it be to convert the Moor Street to Dorridge section of the Snow Hill Lines to Midland Metro operation. This section used to have four tracks and most of the trackbed is still there, so those disused lines could be converted to Midland Metro use with trams stopping at all stations on that section. The existing lines could then be for Chiltern services and West Midlands Trains to Stratford with trains only stopping at Moor Street, Solihull and Dorridge.

That would allow for an uplift in frequency without impacting reliability.

Not very, you would lose and need to replace a lot of car parks. How would you deal with Tyseley and the Small Heath freight yards, flyovers?

 

[30907]

Not very, you would lose and need to replace a lot of car parks. How would you deal with Tyseley and the Small Heath freight yards, flyovers?

You also need to deal with the trains off the Stourbridge route.

 

[tomuk]

No we don't want a copy of Manchester where trams are pretending to be a S-Bahn or Heavy Rail.

 

[The Planner]

You also need to deal with the trains off the Stourbridge route.

Depends where the tram is going, keep it on the down side and theres no interaction with anything from Snow Hill

 

[Purple Orange]

No we don't want a copy of Manchester where trams are pretending to be a S-Bahn or Heavy Rail.

That seems an odd reason against. Where Metrolink has been converted from heavy rail (as the line from Snow Hill to Wolverhampton was), it has resulted a far greater volume of passengers and frequency on the routes. Nobody would suggest converting it back to heavy rail. The same success could be had with the Midland Metro.

 

[philosopher]

You also need to deal with the trains off the Stourbridge route.

They could either continue to Whitlocks End, Stratford or terminate at sidings at Moor Street.

 

[LLivery]

Surely it'd be better to just 4 track and electrify it as a rail service? I'd say the next big modernisation project to be planned should be the Chiltern, Snow Hill & EWR network. 4 tracking in the West Mids, electrification, Old Oak Common access, etc.

Not very, you would lose and need to replace a lot of car parks. How would you deal with Tyseley and the Small Heath freight yards, flyovers?

Do they **need** to be replaced? I understand not wanting them gone, but suburban stations cope without car parks all over the place.

 

[The Planner]

Do they **need** to be replaced? I understand not wanting them gone, but suburban stations cope without car parks all over the place.

Because they don't have them, this proposal would remove something they already have. Makes a big difference.

 

[LLivery]

Because they don't have them, this proposal would remove something they already have. Makes a big difference.

True. But I guess the question is then, (ignoring the BCR of 4 tracking) are we really not going to 4 track a railway because of 2 car parks? That seems a bit mad to me, especially as they're on former trackbed. And any potential loss of car users would probably be offset too.

 

[The Planner]

True. But I guess the question is then, (ignoring the BCR of 4 tracking) are we really not going to 4 track a railway because of 2 car parks? That seems a bit mad to me, especially as they're on former trackbed. And any potential loss of car users would probably be offset too.

The current plans only have 4 tracking at the south end of the patch, nothing north of Widney/Solihull I believe.

 

[LLivery]

The current plans only have 4 tracking at the south end of the patch, nothing north of Widney/Solihull I believe.

Interesting. I didn't realise there are actual plans. That's better than nothing.

 

[SynthD]

WMT only use Moor Street platforms 1&2, east side. The junction for Solihull is on the west side. The car park at Acocks Green/Widney Manor are on the west side (so in a four track station the stoppers would be on the east). It looks operationally difficult to mix WMT and Chiltern over four tracks.

 

[LLivery]

WMT only use Moor Street platforms 1&2, east side. The junction for Solihull is on the west side. The car park at Acocks Green/Widney Manor are on the west side (so in a four track station the stoppers would be on the east). It looks operationally difficult to mix WMT and Chiltern over four tracks.

Ideally, build a flyover/under around Small Heath Bridge?