Diverted freight trains, which would usually travel via Oxford

[ThickMike]

Where has all the freight that used to come this way gone - rerouted/cancelled/other?

If there is no successful reroute option how likely is it that the traffic will be lost to rail once the reroute reopens?

Will Network Rail be liable for consequential damages from operators if they lose traffic permanently because of this closure (as happened in previous times, perhaps more due to national strikes than anything else but not trying to make a political point)

 

[Freightmaster]

Apologies if this is the wrong place to ask this. Where has all the freight that used to come this way gone - rerouted/cancelled/other?

It's all still running via other routes; specifically:

Intermodal traffic from Southampton to the Midlands/North West - via Reading, Acton, Willesden, WCML to Rugby
Intermodal traffic from Southampton to Leeds/Doncaster - via Reading, Acton, Gospel Oak, ECML

car traffic from Halewood to Southampton - WCML and Reading
car traffic from Cowley(Oxford) to Southampton - via the Chilterns

stone traffic to Banbury Road(Oxford) - via the Chilterns

flyash from Drax to Appleford - via Bromsgrove, Cheltenham and Stroud.
rails from Scunthorpe to Eastleigh - via Bromsgrove, Cheltenham and Stroud.

ballast from Stud Farm to Westbury - via Bromsgrove, Cheltenham and Bristol
departmental traffic from Westbury - via Bristol, Cheltenham and Bromsgrove



The WCML between Rugby and London is buzzing with freight on a weekday at present,
as is the GWML between London and Reading!





MARK

 

[snowball]

Is there enough capacity on those routes for

It's all still running via other routes; specifically:

Intermodal traffic from Southampton to the Midlands/North West - via Reading, Acton, Willesden, WCML to Rugby
Intermodal traffic from Southampton to Leeds/Doncaster - via Reading, Acton, Gospel Oak, ECML

car traffic from Halewood to Southampton - WCML and Reading
car traffic from Cowley(Oxford) to Southampton - via the Chilterns

stone traffic to Banbury Road(Oxford) - via the Chilterns

flyash from Drax to Appleford - via Bromsgrove, Cheltenham and Stroud.
rails from Scunthorpe to Eastleigh - via Bromsgrove, Cheltenham and Stroud.

ballast from Stud Farm to Westbury - via Bromsgrove, Cheltenham and Bristol
departmental traffic from Westbury - via Bristol, Cheltenham and Bromsgrove

The WCML between Rugby and London is buzzing with freight on a weekday at present,
as is the GWML between London and Reading!

Is there enough capacity on those routes for all the displaced freight or has some been diverted to road?

 

[JN114]

Is there enough capacity on those routes for
Is there enough capacity on those routes for all the displaced freight or has some been diverted to road?

Short answer - yes there is enough capacity.

 

[The Planner]

Short answer - yes there is enough capacity.

Not without causing delays, if you planned it without cutting margins or headways you wouldnt fit it all in.

 

[JN114]

Not without causing delays, if you planned it without cutting margins or headways you wouldnt fit it all in.

Quite possibly, but the substance of the question asked was is there capacity or has traffic been lost to road. The short answer to that, as @Freightmaster as expanded on, is yes there is capacity; and no traffic has had to be diverted to road.

 

[mr_jrt]

Guess all those normally unused freight paths have come in handy, then?

 

[swt_passenger]

Guess all those normally unused freight paths have come in handy, then?

The ones people regularly suggest should be given over to passenger services because they don’t ever run?

 

[Dunfanaghy Rd]

Guess all those normally unused freight paths have come in handy, then?

Those pathways illustrate the difference between the passenger operators (to whom a customer is an anonymous number on a spreadsheet), and the freight companies (whose customers are known to staff at all levels) whose requirements do not always mean more of the same, day on day.
Pat

 

[ThickMike]

Thank you for those replies re freight traffic and a big well done to all the staff who have to do a bit extra because of this.

Mike

 

[SynthD]

The ones people regularly suggest should be given over to passenger services because they don’t ever run?

The passenger timetable was rewritten for the event, why not the freight too?

 

[Horizon22]

Quite possibly, but the substance of the question asked was is there capacity or has traffic been lost to road. The short answer to that, as @Freightmaster as expanded on, is yes there is capacity; and no traffic has had to be diverted to road.

It has definitely caused additional attributable delays between Reading and Paddington.

 

[Western Sunset]

Re-freight flows. It was interesting to see (at the southern end of the WCML) last Saturday (29th) how the freight was being accommodated, as the fast lines were closed for engineering work, so the WCML was basically a two-track railway. Seemed to be flowing quite well. Fortunately, the signalling power failure (that stopped the show for about an hour) was in the late afternoon, after freight traffic had finished for the weekend.