Crewe to Shrewsbury re-signaling

[Class 92]

Somebody who is the area manager for network rail told me that they were re-signaling the Crewe to Shrewsbury line

 

[The Planner]

They are, all going over to the new "modular" signalling and will be controlled from Cardiff.

 

[OxtedL]

Cardiff? Blimey!

I can only think of comparing that to Oxted being controlled out of the future NR centre in Milton Keynes...

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Cardiff? Blimey!

I can only think of comparing that to Oxted being controlled out of the future NR centre in Milton Keynes...

.....or even Scunthorpe

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Union Pacific controls 36000 miles of track from one site in Omaha, Nebraska.

 

[Zoe]

The McNulty report talked about consolidation into 15 or so signalling centres in Great Britain so it's not surprising that some areas will be controlled from locations a considerable distance away.

 

[OxtedL]

Union Pacific controls 36000 miles of track from one site in Omaha, Nebraska.

Woah! But then, track sections in America are typically longer than 20 miles end to end (if I recall), and a lot of that will be single line/section working?

Anyway, staggering and hopefully not attempt-able by Network Rail on the UK network ...

 

[The Planner]

If they could do it from one centre, they would.

 

[tbtc]

If they could do it from one centre, they would.

Out of interest, in practical terms (ignoring the politics/ redundancies/ Unions), what is the biggest block not to do so?

 

[The Planner]

Probably cost, I can't see why it couldn't be done. The possibility of knocking out the entire country if something went wrong probably puts people off the idea.

 

[tbtc]

Probably cost, I can't see why it couldn't be done. The possibility of knocking out the entire country if something went wrong probably puts people off the idea.

Cheers.

There have been threads on here recently about Lincolnshire/ Cumbria (where they can't have many Sunday services because there's only one "shift" in the signal box on a Sunday), which got me wondering how things could be centralised...

 

[33056]

Bedford to Bletchley was always closed on Sundays due to the amount of signalmen and crossing keepers required to run a service. Even though the route is now controlled from Marston Vale, which is open 24/7 there is still no Sunday service and I suspect many other lines would be in the same boat even if re-signalled.