Airdrie-Bathgate service

[rail-britain]

I didn't think the Alloa line meant any additional services on the Glasgow - Croy - Larbert - Stirling route?

Correct, not many extra services, but the timetable was realigned in preparation for it, which meant extending the Motherwell - Cumbernauld service to Stirling was no longer practical
However with resignalling as part of EGIP it will be possible

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Bathgate station opens October 18th, two platformed and staffed

 

[rail-britain]

Bathgate station opens October 18th

Strange, that is the same day that Class 380 units commence passenger services
Equally, the Project Manager has not yet confirmed the opening of Bathgate Station to me, yet

The only confirmed date was commencement of driving training with Class 334 units, also on 18 October

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Strange, that is the same day that Class 380 units commence passenger services
Equally, the Project Manager has not yet confirmed the opening of Bathgate Station to me, yet

The only confirmed date was commencement of driving training with Class 334 units, also on 18 October

It was in that First Insight thing

 

[route101]

This reminds me
To do the Bathgate line and before it switches to EMUS.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

This reminds me
To do the Bathgate line and before it switches to DMUS.

EMUs surely?

 

[Bittern]

This reminds me
To do the Bathgate line and before it switches to DMUS.

This. I'm not much of a "basher", but this I have to do.

 

[rail-britain]

What really gets me is the Press Releases claim "Track laying is complete"
Are Network Rail having a laugh?
Some of it does look completed and impressive
However, there are numerous sections that are not only out of alignment but also not level!
It's no wonder the NR survey train was only doing 5mph today

 

[Skimble19]

Ahhh, as long as they're on the ground Network Rail will class that as "laid"

 

[rail-britain]

As the opening draws nearer, this is the service pattern (according to TRUK):
2tph Helensburgh C-Edinburgh
2tph Milngavie-Edinburgh
2 of these services per hour will call at stations west of Airdrie, as well as the new stations en-route, and two will be fast calling only Coatbridge S, Airdrie, Drumgelloch, Bathgate, Livingston N, Uphall, Edinburgh Park and Haymarktet.
The current 2tph Milngavie-High St service will be extended to Airdrie, giving all stations Bellgrove-Airdrie 4tph, and Coatbridge S and Airdrie 6tph.

I received my copy of the timetable today

Mon - Fri Eastbound
Helensburgh has an hourly service until 08:00, half-hourly until 23:00
Milngavie has an hourly service until 09:00, half-hourly until 20:00
Coatdyke has three services per hour until 10:00, half-hourly until 17:00, four services per hour until 19:00, half-hourly until 23:00
Blairhill is identical

Mon - Fri Westbound
Bathgate to Coatdyke has three services per hour from 05:30 until 09:00, half-hourly until 23:00
Blairhill is identical

 

[CarterUSM]

I received my copy of the timetable today

Mon - Fri Eastbound
Helensburgh has an hourly service until 08:00, half-hourly until 23:00
Milngavie has an hourly service until 09:00, half-hourly until 20:00
Coatdyke has three services per hour until 10:00, half-hourly until 17:00, four services per hour until 19:00, half-hourly until 23:00
Blairhill is identical

Mon - Fri Westbound
Bathgate to Coatdyke has three services per hour from 05:30 until 09:00, half-hourly until 23:00
Blairhill is identical

That sounds pretty good to me.

 

[djw1981]

It si also on the scotrail site journey planner - select an appropriate date and then choose your preferrred journey time etc

 

[me123]

^I've been having a look on there as well. I've worked out that, even though Blairhill "only" get 2tph; there's a 6 minute change at Sunnyside Eastbound (which is somehow not appearing on the journey planner) and 8 minutes Westbound. (In fact, this works for all stations).

That should allow running without it stopping (although I can't say for certain until I see a proper timetable), and will give us effectively 4tph. But it needs to be better advertised.

And I am glad to see that we are retaining the same timetable, albeit with some tweaks for understandable reasons.

 

[rail-britain]

It certainly makes travelling to/from Bathgate, Livingston and to a certain degree Haymarket and Edinburgh a shorter journey time, as well as remvong the need to change train

It will be interesting to see how loading factors between Glasgow QS and Edinburgh are affected

I am also currently awaiting a response to see if the 3 out of 7 Central Scotland Rover will be valid, as it is also valid via Shotts
If so, I might spend the first three days on it, albeit it is only Class 334 units

 

[CarterUSM]

It certainly makes travelling to/from Bathgate, Livingston and to a certain degree Haymarket and Edinburgh a shorter journey time, as well as remvong the need to change train

It will be interesting to see how loading factors between Glasgow QS and Edinburgh are affected

I am also currently awaiting a response to see if the 3 out of 7 Central Scotland Rover will be valid, as it is also valid via Shotts
If so, I might spend the first three days on it, albeit it is only Class 334 units

Has there been any reduced loading due to the semi fasts from central? The services themselves have become noticeably busier, with a fair amount of Glagow-Edinburgh travel.

 

[Bittern]

Airdrie - Bathgate is now available on the journey planner for http://www.scotrail.co.uk/, as long as you set your date as Dec. 21st or later. The new stations (Caldercruix etc.) are still not recognized.

 

[me123]

It certainly makes travelling to/from Bathgate, Livingston and to a certain degree Haymarket and Edinburgh a shorter journey time, as well as remvong the need to change train

It will be interesting to see how loading factors between Glasgow QS and Edinburgh are affected

I can see, even from the start, healthy loads from Livingston and Bathgate through to Glasgow. And I reckon that there'll even be good loads from Edinburgh Park as well, given that no Glasgow services currently stop there. In the other direction, there will definitely be healthy traffic from Monklands to the East. In both cases, it allows you to avoid the M8 (and the notoriously busy and substandard A8 gap from Newhouse-Ballieston). And having a 15 minute frequency will inevitably see a huge shift onto the rails.

I also think you'll start to see passengers from the West of the City (particularly from Partick) staying on the same train. It looks like there's not going to be much benefit from changing at Queen Street, and there's a good risk you'll miss your transfer. So I think some traffic from the West End will move over.

And I don't think that the traffic from the new stations should be forgotten either. Caldercruix and Blackridge have seen hue housing developments in recent years (probably as a result of the rail link), and I reckon people will take to the rails fairly quickly. Same goes for the established town of Armadale.

Finally, Livingston itself is a big town, and there's been a lot of development there. With good bus links to, for example, industrial estates, St John's Hospital and the Shopping Centre, the station will be well used. A Livingston plusbus ticket (if it ever happens) would be excellent for the town's economy.

That all said, I don't think people for City-City travel will be attracted to the new services. They're not clock face, stop more often, and even though the fast services aren't all that much slower than the existing trains, I think the main line will still be the first choice for many travellers.

 

[tbtc]

I can see, even from the start, healthy loads from Livingston and Bathgate through to Glasgow. And I reckon that there'll even be good loads from Edinburgh Park as well, given that no Glasgow services currently stop there. In the other direction, there will definitely be healthy traffic from Monklands to the East. In both cases, it allows you to avoid the M8 (and the notoriously busy and substandard A8 gap from Newhouse-Ballieston). And having a 15 minute frequency will inevitably see a huge shift onto the rails.

I also think you'll start to see passengers from the West of the City (particularly from Partick) staying on the same train. It looks like there's not going to be much benefit from changing at Queen Street, and there's a good risk you'll miss your transfer. So I think some traffic from the West End will move over.

And I don't think that the traffic from the new stations should be forgotten either. Caldercruix and Blackridge have seen hue housing developments in recent years (probably as a result of the rail link), and I reckon people will take to the rails fairly quickly. Same goes for the established town of Armadale.

Finally, Livingston itself is a big town, and there's been a lot of development there. With good bus links to, for example, industrial estates, St John's Hospital and the Shopping Centre, the station will be well used. A Livingston plusbus ticket (if it ever happens) would be excellent for the town's economy.

That all said, I don't think people for City-City travel will be attracted to the new services. They're not clock face, stop more often, and even though the fast services aren't all that much slower than the existing trains, I think the main line will still be the first choice for many travellers.

I hope you are right. As I've said before we need re-openings to *at least* meet expected passenger numbers for future re-openeings to stand a chance.

One point to mention which I don't think anyone has said on the thread is that (as well as all the new links) the Bathgate - Livingston - Edinburgh service is doubling too, which may attract a few more at the eastern end. Who knows, that may even be frequent enough to attract some M8 users to use Uphall as a Park & Ride side

 

[Bittern]

I was at Caldercruix today (click for pics) and noticed that something was under construction next to the railway (not part to the railway itself). Am I correct in presuming it's a housing development possibly in connection with the new-old railway?

I hope you are right. As I've said before we need re-openings to *at least* meet expected passenger numbers for future re-openeings to stand a chance.

I can't think of a Scottish reopening that hasn't met predicted numbers. I believe the number of Larkhall branch passengers were almost double of those predicted. Alloa's I can't say much on, but I read it was doing very well too.

 

[Mex]

Airdrie - Bathgate is now available on the journey planner for http://www.scotrail.co.uk/, as long as you set your date as Dec. 21st or later. The new stations (Caldercruix etc.) are still not recognized.

I managed to find earlier ones, starting at 0806 BHG - GLQ on 12/12/2010.

See http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/braindamage/railjourney.png

Is this real or is it dodgy data from Scotrail?

 

[kylemore]

Looking forward to this opening, will make visiting friends in west lothian from the west much easier than going via haymarket.
What an amazing contrast with the Edinburgh tram scheme, more or less on time, on budget and really really useful!

 

[tbtc]

I can't think of a Scottish reopening that hasn't met predicted numbers. I believe the number of Larkhall branch passengers were almost double of those predicted. Alloa's I can't say much on, but I read it was doing very well too.

True, but it'd only take one "underperforming" re-opening to give future ones a bad name, and give "stakeholders" cold feet.

Am sure this won't be the case, especially as both ends of the line area already busy (just the middle bit to beef up)

 

[me123]

I hope you are right. As I've said before we need re-openings to *at least* meet expected passenger numbers for future re-openeings to stand a chance.

Well, I honestly don't think there'll be a problem. In the first few weeks, the novelty of the new line plus the Christmas rush to Glasgow and Edinburgh will definitely mean that there will be huge passenger numbers, even across the new section of line. It will probably keep up through the January sales as well. Indeed, Livingston could also benefit if there's a good bus link from the station to the shopping centre. So, I reckon you'll see particularly large numbers in the first few weeks, before they taper off.

As for commuters, it will probably be a while before you start to see people switch off the road. I reckon it would be at least September before you start to see sizeable numbers of people taking jobs and university/college courses and commuting via the new line, but the people coming off the M8 would probably be enough to help in the short term. I can see the novelty of getting the train to work being quite popular for Livingston-Glasgow and Monklands-Edinburgh commuters because of the road problems on the M8/A8 that I mentioned earlier.

 

[rail-britain]

I managed to find earlier ones, starting at 0806 BHG - GLQ on 12/12/2010
Is this real or is it dodgy data from Scotrail?

That is correct, as I've mentioned before the line will open on Sunday 12 December, as part of a public preview (details are still being finalised)
Passenger services commence on the Monday

There is also an opening ceremony planned for Friday 10 December
Starting from Edinburgh, running to Airdrie, back to Bathgate, then return to Edinburgh

Quite a busy few months...
25 October, official launch of Class 380 units at Glasgow Central
15 November, official launch of Shield Road Depot new train care facility

 

[route101]

its all kicking off up here . Im very much looking forward to these projects . I will certainly use this service to edinburgh to have a bit of variety. Hopefully crossrail will get the go ahead and we can see edinburgh to ayr services or east kilbride to stirling or falkirk . the people of monklands can take the train edinburgh and experience culture ha.

 

[me123]

the people of monklands can take the train edinburgh and experience culture ha.

Oi!

Well, actually... you have a point

 

[rail-britain]

Hopefully crossrail will get the go ahead

It's dead in the water now, it had to be put into place BEFORE the M74 was built over it
The planned station can't go ahead anymore (well it could, but will now be even more expensive)
Without the interchange the scheme is pointless

Even the plans I have for the M74 clearly show "completed interchange station"
Initially this delayed the M74 planning process (1986) as it was made clear the station had to be in place before work commenced
It was even included in the public inquiry

There is now more chance of a rail link to Glasgow Airport...

 

[Nightrider]

Certainly for anybody living in the East End of Glasgow the A2B line must be a boon when travelling to anywhere east of Airdrie.
An example would be rail users living say near Shettleston station wishing to go to Edinburgh.
Do they take the train west all the way into GQS to travel on the Inter City or do they just travel on the first train going east.
If there is any longterm downside to this it might well the Glasgow/Edinburgh inter city.
Why would a Partick/Edinburgh passenger bother changing at Queen St when you then lose time waiting for the next Edinburgh train.
The biggest surprise of all is the number of local people who have never heard of this new line.

 

[rail-britain]

The biggest surprise of all is the number of local people who have never heard of this new line

Why would they?
There is little or no point advertising something that has not yet commenced
Equally, if they did advertise there would always be some "person" that would turn up expecting it to be running...

Expect the publicity machine to commence in the two weeks prior to commencement of service, with items in the local press and leaflet drop
Equally, I understand one of the main newspapers will be including vouchers equivalent to the fare between Airdrie and Bathgate, for the Sunday, so that people can travel on the service for "free"

 

[tbtc]

Certainly for anybody living in the East End of Glasgow the A2B line must be a boon when travelling to anywhere east of Airdrie.
An example would be rail users living say near Shettleston station wishing to go to Edinburgh.
Do they take the train west all the way into GQS to travel on the Inter City or do they just travel on the first train going east.

I wonder where the "tipping point" on this route will be, for people to use this route and not changing to go via Falkirk.

At the east end, I think anyone from West Lothian (Uphall, Livi, Bathgate) would use this new route without question. I can't imagine much use from Edinburgh Park (hardly a residential area).

However, at the west end, where does the hassle of travelling west into Queen Street and changing trains outweigh the faster journey time?

Whether this attracts passengers from Dumbarton/ Clydebank/ Partick will sit on the slow one will be very interesting. Presumably the planners have models for this kind of thing, but it'll be interesting to see where the "habit" of changing at Queen Street competes with the "convenience" of sitting on a slower train. May make a difference depending on how the four Bathgate trains (each hour) slot between the four Falkirk trains leaving Waverley/ Haymarket for the west.

If there is any longterm downside to this it might well the Glasgow/Edinburgh inter city

I think that's a route that needs a little damping down, if anything, the diversion of passengers away from the route will leave it a busy (but not overcrowded) route.

This may change in a few years if the Falkirk route gets new long EMUs