Cornish or Thames Valley branches could be converted to light rail?

[Bletchleyite]

It depends on what you mean by light rail, modern lightweight railcars (Such as Stadler FLIRT, Siemens Desiro, and Stadler GTW.) are often referred to as light rail/hybrid rail in the US such vehicles or remanufactured alternatives such as class 230 would be ideally suited for those branch lines, especially considering that peak demand on some of these lines can justify three two-car class 150 sets being coupled together yet normal demand can barely justify a single two-car class 150 set.

I don't doubt that FirstGroup's purchase of the remaining 230 fleet and spare units etc was with the potential to use these on branches, particularly the Thames Valley, if the work is successful. In particular the Tube style interior in a three-car unit would be very well suited to services with very high peak loadings but quiet at other times.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Would a VLR cope with the gradient though

Aren't lighter vehicles better at ascending steep gradients? Guess we'd have to trial it to find out in practise.

It’s also very slippery between Okeltor and Sandways crossings. At least they don’t have to routinely stop at them anymore.

Well, surely the level crossing regs would be different as well if it was operated by a VLR unit?

 

[anthony263]

What about stadler RS Zero railcars ?
Especially if stadler can design it to fit the uk loading guage

 

[Meerkat]

I don't doubt that FirstGroup's purchase of the remaining 230 fleet and spare units etc was with the potential to use these on branches, particularly the Thames Valley, if the work is successful. In particular the Tube style interior in a three-car unit would be very well suited to services with very high peak loadings but quiet at other times.

I assumed that, but hasn't a senior GWR bod now said that they are testing the technology and aren't particularly interested in the trains?
Not sure how that flies unless they can prove to the Treasury that using the D trains is more expensive than a brand new BMU/BEMU unit

 

[Bartsimho]

The mention of the Cornish branch lines really doesn't show too much of an understanding of the traffic loads. They mostly run as 1 or 2 cars in off-season but can swell to 6 in high season. Them being heavy rail mean the units can be elsewhere during winter and thus being used where they are needed most but then in high season they can go onto the branch lines when they'll be full and standing still. This is gonna have lower maintenance costs for units as the economy of scale for the units exist.

Also the branch the Newquay sees London trains in the high season which if converted wouldn't be possible

 

[AlastairFraser]

The mention of the Cornish branch lines really doesn't show too much of an understanding of the traffic loads. They mostly run as 1 or 2 cars in off-season but can swell to 6 in high season. Them being heavy rail mean the units can be elsewhere during winter and thus being used where they are needed most but then in high season they can go onto the branch lines when they'll be full and standing still. This is gonna have lower maintenance costs for units as the economy of scale for the units exist.

Also the branch the Newquay sees London trains in the high season which if converted wouldn't be possible

I don't think that the intention was to prompt discussion on the conversion of the Newquay branch in particular, the system would likely be suited to branches like Gunnislake/Looe/Fowey/St Ives (the high summer traffic on the latter could be compensated for by a more frequent service.)

 

[Bartsimho]

I don't think that the intention was to prompt discussion on the conversion of the Newquay branch in particular, the system would likely be suited to branches like Gunnislake/Looe/Fowey/St Ives (the high summer traffic on the latter could be compensated for by a more frequent service.)

Could it have increased frequency? It's currently a very single track alignment and looking along the route there is very little chance of much where one could pass another

 

[AlastairFraser]

Could it have increased frequency? It's currently a very single track alignment and looking along the route there is very little chance of much where one could pass another

Depends if you can increase line speed I guess. A unit with better acceleration and a higher top speed on the branch may be able to cut journey times to less than 10 mins.