Then potentially shortsighted & might not last long given the dft’s current campaign of managed decline. Which again is political.
Depends if you are looking at a bigger picture? If the Midlands Rail Hub kicks off, which puts in the bay, would you need 8tph from New St to Northfield and Longbridge? Kings Norton is a lucky beneficiary as it would get them by default. You would struggle to turn them around if you are back to 3tph Redditch and 3tph Bromsgrove using the turnback siding as well as XC and the extras that MRH is proposing, unless you turn them at Barnt Green as the proposal is to extend the Down Gloucester Goods. Even that wouldn't be easy. Is there a demand from Kings Heath etc to go south? You are always going to have to make trade offs, especially as its a diesel railway service.
Was never going to happen.
Our Local Mp (Which serves Longbridge and Kings Norton) put something through the letterbox a couple months back that he was campaigning to get the service up towards Longbridge, However I haven't heard anything since and I believe the leaflet was binned sadly so I can't look back over it.
Hi i read about that to, the service going to longbridge, i think it was on the local tv news but it was a while back not !00% what was said at the time, anyway its sounds like a good idea it they do it, i think the idea was to make longbridge an interchange station.
Using the turnback siding at Longbridge? It doesn’t seem particularly plausible to me as I imagine that would eat the two paths available that allow the Cross-City to return to 6tph in future, plus adding in an additional conflicting move from the up slow to Camp Hill at the west end of Kings Norton (also requiring the reinstatement of the currently out-of-use island platform). That’s just my hunch however based on my limited knowledge of the pathing in that area; someone like The Planner would be better qualified to comment.
HI, i havnt heard of anything yet regarding timing , apart from the service will be 2 trains per hour each way i guess maybe every 30 mins monday to saturday, but nothing as to yet regarding sundays. my guess is it will probably be hourly sundays.
Donkeys years ago, before the Rover plant closed.
You have explained it well enough. You would need a gap between 4tph Cross City plus the XC and the Herefords. I doubt you would find a reliable gap. As for timings, it will sit in the bigger gaps in the cross city schedules.
Its a real shame they don’t electrify the camp hill lines, especially before they reopen stations on there.
Moseley tunnel says hello.
The trackwork at the west end of the station already allows movements from what would be platform 2 (on the island) onto the down slow towards Northfield, however it's not electrified.
Still a shame, even if there's good reasons for it.
Its only cleared for W7 freight and is also wonky like Old Hill where its worse in the up direction I believe.
It would be as part of this, as will all the fast lines down to Barnt Green.
Good reasons, but it's still a shame for a suburban line operating at 2tph or higher not to be electrified. How much container traffic is there coming up from the Severn through Birmingham that could go onto trains if Camp Hill was clear through to the Derby lines?
Probably not a lot, you have the Daventry Wentloog traffic. You could possibly divert Felixstowe traffic that way if there is a block on.
It’s nothing a tbm couldn’t sort out.
Where do you put the compound?
As part of the Camp Hill improvements? Certainly a positive development regardless.
Of course they could always drop the track & do some modifications to the tunnel as they have done on other lines.
I have the same reservations on how profitable this service will be.
No, as part of Midlands Rail hub. The Camp Hill stations are clearly an Andy Street thing.
What is going to use it? diversions don't count.
How often are the buses? Travel West Midlands seems to show a shed load to and from Kings Heath etc?
2tph suburban stopper, if you extend the electrification to Nuneaton you'd also have potential for Birmingham/South Wales freight to put electrics on at Bromsgrove for runs up the Lickey and onto Daventry. not really a case on it's own but at the same time we really need to be building something otherwise we end up in the present stagnant mess.
It would start to stack up more if Bromsgrove to Westerleigh was a serious proposition, but as it is I don't see it. There isn't enough freight that would use it. You would still have Herefords on diesel.
I thought as much, hence why I asked.
And that's part of the issue. A-B, B-C, and C-D don't stack up on their own, and A-D is unaffordable as a single project even. Although passing up the opportunity to get WMT bi-modes is maddening, as that would make piecemeal electrification a far more worthwhile project. As it is I agree with you, it will need something like Swindon-Gloucester/Cheltenham to come first to make Bromsgrove-Westerleigh worthwhile, and as you'll need 88s, 93s or 99s anyway in the meantime there's no rush to get Camp hill done.