East West Rail & HS2 - freight opportunities

[concerned1]

It strikes me that over the next 10 years as various bits of East West rail go live alongside HS2 a number of routes from Southampton and Felixstowe to the ECML, MML and WCML will potentially open up for freight operators.

What is the loading gauge of East West Rail? And are there any plans for re-routing the traditional routes North from Suffolk and the Solent away from the North London line?

 

[The Planner]

It strikes me that over the next 10 years as various bits of East West rail go live alongside HS2 a number of routes from Southampton and Felixstowe to the ECML, MML and WCML will potentially open up for freight operators.

What is the loading gauge of East West Rail? And are there any plans for re-routing the traditional routes North from Suffolk and the Solent away from the North London line?

It will be W12, not that anything that big can use it as it is W10 either side. Southampton to the North West will use it for sure initially.

 

[Sonik]

Southampton to the North West will use it for sure initially.

What happened to 'electric spine'?

Seems to have been quietly abandoned which is strange, since electrification of freight seems to be a priority to maximise capacity on WMCL, particularly to Scotland once HS2 comes online.

 

[The Planner]

What happened to 'electric spine'?

Seems to have been quietly abandoned which is strange, since electrification of freight seems to be a priority to maximise capacity on WMCL, particularly to Scotland once HS2 comes online.

Been dead for a few years now.

 

[swt_passenger]

Didn’t we have a long discussion about this a few months ago? I thought with the junctions facing as they do, the only major opportunities for freight would be Southampton to/from the north. There’d be no benefits for flows from Felixstowe at all, it doesn’t go where that freight needs to go.

Took some finding but here’s the earlier thread, although it starts off about interchanges with the mainlines, it includes dozens of points about practicalities of use as a through freight route:

East West Mainline interchanges

I would be very interested to gain other people’s opinions on the proposed East West Rail Mainline’s interchanges with other mainlines it crosses. From east to west, it is proposed to interchange with the West Anglia Mainline at Cambridge; the East Coast Mainline at St Neots South; the Midland...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[zwk500]

Didn’t we have a long discussion about this a few months ago? I thought with the junctions facing as they do, the only major opportunities for freight would be Southampton to/from the north. There’d be no benefits for flows from Felixstowe at all, it doesn’t go where that freight needs to go.

Correct, Felixstowe freight would end up facing the wrong way. Southampton to the WCML is still a reasonable amount of opportunities (Southampton to Daventry, Lawley Street, Hams Hall, Trafford Park, Liverpool Docks, Crewe Basford Hall, and Mossend all able to divert away from Leamington if required, and that's just intermodals)

 

[Bald Rick]

What happened to 'electric spine'?

Been dead for a few years now.

It was never really ‘alive’ !

 

[The Planner]

It was never really ‘alive’ !

Being pragmatic Sir!

 

[a good off]

An east to north chord would also open up opportunities for freight, especially for Northampton Gateway and DIRFT traffic.

 

[D365]

It was never really ‘alive’ !

Certainly it wasn’t live!

 

[Nottingham59]

It strikes me that over the next 10 years as various bits of East West rail go live alongside HS2 a number of routes from Southampton and Felixstowe to the ECML, MML and WCML will potentially open up for freight operators.

What is the loading gauge of East West Rail? And are there any plans for re-routing the traditional routes North from Suffolk and the Solent away from the North London line?

According to Network Rail in 2020, they see very little scope for running freight over EWR, even by 2043, with most of the Southamption traffic going via Leamington. Map taken from: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Routeing-of-rail-freight-forecasts.pdf

 

[The Planner]

According to Network Rail in 2020, they see very little scope for running freight over EWR, even by 2043, with most of the Southamption traffic going via Leamington. Map taken from: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Routeing-of-rail-freight-forecasts.pdf

These things often make me chuckle, as at the end of the day if a FOC decides it wants to go via E-W when it opens and the path is available, its going to bid into it. Just because a NR study says they don't think they will doesn't make it true.