Olympic Preperations on the Rails-CrossCountry have led the pack!

[VTPreston_Tez]

It seems CrossCountry have already booked in Manchester/Birmingham-Weymouth trains, and Bournemouth-Weymouth shuttles calling at Poole and Wareham (shockingly not Dorchester South or Upwey!)
Are there any other extensions to Olympic sites booked by TOCs or anything of the sort, and should they remain at the Olympics, like XC's really should?

 

[Eagle]

(shockingly not Dorchester South or Upwey!)

XC call at Upwey?

It's a flippin' village halt! Even SWT skip it more than half the time.

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

True true, it has potentional though and especially for the Olympics, I get the gist though, Weymouth's the best bet. (I go to Weymouth a lot and have never skipped Upwey, infact I came back from there today DDDD)

 

[swt_passenger]

Are there any other extensions to Olympic sites booked by TOCs or anything of the sort, and should they remain at the Olympics, like XC's really should?

Did you really mean remain after the Olympics?

Therefore which particular XC services do you believe should be cancelled to provide the stock to run this extension all year round?

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

Did you really mean remain after the Olympics?

Therefore which particular XC services do you believe should be cancelled to provide the stock to run this extension all year round?

Whoops, missed that factor. Looks like no extensions for the Edinburgh-Brum trains any time soon...
Here are the topics then:
What are TOCs doing for the Olympics, extensions and the what?
What will need to be done to provide these extensions?
How will they survive after the Olympics, and what can be done to keep it going?

 

[londonmidland]

On another note, is it true no freight will go through Stratford and the ELL during the Olympics and will be diverted via the Midland Mainline?

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

^Seems about right, where does the freight normally run?

 

[Pumbaa]

^Seems about right, where does the freight normally run?

Code for: I have actually no idea if it's right or not, and is about as accurate or meaningful as everything else I have posted?

In other news, sniffing around on the following OLYMPIC RAIL TRAVEL website will reveal what various TOCs have all planned and will be offering.

http://www.nationalrailgamestravel.co.uk/

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

Where can one find what they're actually doing for the Olympics?

 

[andchafri]

Have a look at what South Eastern are doing.

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

Link please?

 

[andchafri]

http://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

Nice...anyone else?

 

[Eagle]

Nice...anyone else?

Have you actually looked at the link in post #8? That's got everything.

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

I'll find it Eagle...

 

[starlightEXPRESS]

Extra SWT and Southern services to Leatherhead, Box Hill & Westhumble and Dorking for the Olympic cycling road race on the weekend of 28th and 29th July.

http://www.southernrailway.com/destinations/destinations/trains-to-boxhill-and-westhumble/

(I don't think these are in the link in post 8.)

 

[Pumbaa]

Have you actually looked at the link in post #8? That's got everything.

Don't be daft - of course he didn't.

Veg veg veg wibble froth ... until brain cells engage there's no hope.

 

[swt_passenger]

What will need to be done to provide these extensions?
How will they survive after the Olympics, and what can be done to keep it going?

1. More intensive fleet utilisation for just two weeks, which can be done if enough notice is given to defer or bring forward the maintenance cycles. We don't really know yet how many units XC will be using for their Weymouth extension, but it might only need one or two, and they could get them just by running 5 HSTs 7/7 that fortnight, for example.

2. No extra services will survive. If they were justifiable they would already be running - but whatever the TOC they'd need additional stock to run the services long term. So, as I said in reply #2, which existing services would you recommending cancelling permanently?

 

[Schnellzug]

XC call at Upwey?

It's a flippin' village halt! Even SWT skip it more than half the time.

s
hardly a village, its main purpose is to serve Littlemoor, which may be full of chavs but is a pretty large housing estate. Before the timetable change every SWT train stooped there. But I do
wonder if they have not slightly over-estimated demand for watching a lot of people whizz about in little Plastic dinghies. Anyway, I suppose it's the kind of token gesture that satisifies Lord Coe and the rest of the Importnat People at the London organising Committee for the Olympic games.

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

1. More intensive fleet utilisation for just two weeks, which can be done if enough notice is given to defer or bring forward the maintenance cycles. We don't really know yet how many units XC will be using for their Weymouth extension, but it might only need one or two, and they could get them just by running 5 HSTs 7/7 that fortnight, for example.

That seems really good that. It's a half an hour journey with all stops so the journey may take 15 minutes at 125mph! I presume we will have a 100mph max journey, so 20-25mins.

2. No extra services will survive. If they were justifiable they would already be running - but whatever the TOC they'd need additional stock to run the services long term. So, as I said in reply #2, which existing services would you recommending cancelling permanently?

As said above, it's a 15 minute journey if the trains run non-stop at top speed. They would need like 1/2 extra sets, which will hopefully be done one day. But otherwise I understand completely. Guess I'll have to do the 2 Ws/Wolves and Southampton/Bournemouth or London route for now. Or one of the many...

 

[MidnightFlyer]

They would need like 1/2 extra sets, which will hopefully be done one day.

I would hope that the 1/2 extra Voyagers that may turn up out of nowhere would go on strengthening the XC core, not running extensions to (almost) seasonal seaside resorts.

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

I would hope that the 1/2 extra Voyagers that may turn up out of nowhere would go on strengthening the XC core, not running extensions to (almost) seasonal seaside resorts.

You know, it looks like I've been a twit this whole time. In summer this would be viable, but I would also hope the 1/2 extra classes (they could be 170s y'know) would go onto some strengthening, while on this subject are there any viable XC extensions, maybe extending at the other end of Manchester-Bournemouth to call at Salford Crescent, Wigan North Western, Preston, Kirkham & Wesham, Poulton-Le-Fylde, and Blackpool North? That's the closest thing I can think up of...

 

[Eagle]

That seems really good that. It's a half an hour journey with all stops so the journey may take 15 minutes at 125mph! I presume we will have a 100mph max journey, so 20-25mins.

No chance at all. Line speeds from Bournemouth to Weymouth are as follows:

Bournemouth to Poole: mixed, between 50 and 70
Through Poole: 20-30
To Hamworthy: 40-70
To Moreton: 85 (60 through Wool, 70 through Moreton)
Single track section (which is almost five miles long, and has one-train working): 60-80
Through Dorchester: 20
To Weymouth: 60-85, 25 on single track approach to Weymouth

By my reckoning you'd be lucky to do that in under 45 minutes (the XC Olympic services are booked to take an hour nonstop). Stopping trains take one hour, not 30 minutes.

And if you really think that they're going to raise linespeeds for the sake of a couple of extra services a day for three weeks...

Weymouth doesn't need these services outside the Olympics. It doesn't even need the 2tph to London it normally gets (5-car units are rarely anywhere near full west of Poole). Stop deluding yourself.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I would hope that the 1/2 extra Voyagers that may turn up out of nowhere would go on strengthening the XC core, not running extensions to (almost) seasonal seaside resorts.

Weymouth is barely even a resort any more. Much of the traffic there in the summer is actually heading for the Channel Islands.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

You know, it looks like I've been a twit this whole time. In summer this would be viable, but I would also hope the 1/2 extra classes (they could be 170s y'know) would go onto some strengthening, while on this subject are there any viable XC extensions, maybe extending at the other end of Manchester-Bournemouth to call at Salford Crescent, Wigan North Western, Preston, Kirkham & Wesham, Poulton-Le-Fylde, and Blackpool North? That's the closest thing I can think up of...

So what services would the 170s use? I am fairly confident they aren't coupleable (is that a word?) to Voyagers. As for the Blackpool extensions - why miss out Oxford Road and Bolton? Further, you'd need some serious stock re-diagramming, plus make it attractive when Wigan can be reached ex-Birmingham in 1h20 via Warrington, and Blackpool in roughly 2 hours. Then there's ORCATS...

 

[OxtedL]

(they could be 170s y'know)

That's very, very unlikely.

Also, that post doesn't really make much sense.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Weymouth is barely even a resort any more. Much of the traffic there in the summer is actually heading for the Channel Islands.

That's what my head told me, I just didn't want to insult locals if it wasn't

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

So what services would the 170s use? I am fairly confident they aren't coupleable (is that a word?) to Voyagers. As for the Blackpool extensions - why miss out Oxford Road and Bolton? Further, you'd need some serious stock re-diagramming, plus make it attractive when Wigan can be reached ex-Birmingham in 1h20 via Warrington, and Blackpool in roughly 2 hours. Then there's ORCATS...

True, sorry I'm not thinking. I forgot Oxford Road, but the service would not serve Bolton, it would turn much before that. I think there's the Newton Parkway that could be served instead...
I'm not sure what the 170s run at the moment, and what they'd run with the extensions.
And @Eagle, I thought the single track section was on the HoW, I used to live near Weymouth and I used SWT at least 12 times a year around there...
Anything happening for Cardiff, Newcastle, and the Manchester (they're what I remember) for the football? Any wacky Glasgow-Cardiff or Hazel Grove-Newcastle? :P

 

[MidnightFlyer]

True, sorry I'm not thinking. I forgot Oxford Road, but the service would not serve Bolton, it would turn much before that. ..

And @Eagle, I thought the single track section was on the HoW, I used to live near Weymouth and I used SWT at least 12 times a year around there...

Via Atherton then? I'm not sure you'd progress with speed, certainly not as much as via Westhoughton I'd have thought, though they have been doing trackwork on the Atherton line recently...

Dorchester South-Moreton has been single track since third rail arrived in the 1980s...

 

[Eagle]

And @Eagle, I thought the single track section was on the HoW, I used to live near Weymouth and I used SWT at least 12 times a year around there...

It's single pretty much all the way from Moreton to Dorchester. And the Weymouth throat too.

Anything happening for Cardiff, Newcastle, and the Manchester (they're what I remember) for the football? Any wacky Glasgow-Cardiff or Hazel Grove-Newcastle? :P

Nothing's happening for Coventry, so I doubt it.

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

Via Atherton then? I'm not sure you'd progress with speed, certainly not as much as via Westhoughton I'd have thought, though they have been doing trackwork on the Atherton line recently...

Well with hope that will mean something, probably for the new Manchester-Preston extension that TPX are using for the North Transpennine route, if I was to guess.

Dorchester South-Moreton has been single track since third rail arrived in the 1980s...

Oh right, thanks. Thankfully it's not far, but now I see that it'd need a lot of work to work as a proper extension!
By the way, HSTs have done the HoW line so there will be possibilities there for the future, at least if whoever takes over FGW can pull it off. Just a thought, however.