Busiest and least busiest Main Line routes

[alwaystouchout]

Forgive me if this has been covered ad nauseum, but what are the busiest and least busiest sections of the Main Line network? (WCML, ECML, MML, etc.) Or in other words, what are the sections of route with most scope for service improvement and paths available, and the sections with almost no scope and virtually at capacity.

I think surely the most congested section as to be the WCML south of Rugby or MK; I think I read somewhere that the MML is relatively underused.

Cheers guys!

 

[Searle]

My (uneducated) guesses are Brighton Mainline from East Croydon to Gatwick as most, and either the middle bit of the Chiltern Mainline or the West of England Mainline to be the least busy

 

[NSE]

I'd say the ECML is pretty solid south of Peterborough. Up to Stevenage you have 5x EC, 6x FCC fast/semi fast, 3x FCC slow and normally another 1x HT or GC on the xx:48 path, but then the slows are pretty empty north of Hitchin until they finish at Huntingdon.

I'd say the WEML might not have as much space available as you think. Its single track mostly after Salisbury and I think one Salisbury terminator every two hours gets sent two stops further to Gillingham and when I used it not long ago the passing loops always had a train waiting to enter/leave, so they seem to be squeezing quite a bit out of it. Without double tracking I don't know if it has much slack

 

[thealexweb]

In the north, between Euxton Junction and Preston is pretty congested.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

.....

 

[W230]

My (uneducated) guesses are Brighton Mainline from East Croydon to Gatwick as most

Was thinking just this on Saturday while traversing the route in my trusty 319. There is absolutely no more capacity up from Brighton.

The xx:25 semi-fast leaves Brighton for Victoria. By the time the xx:34 has got to Haywards Heath it is catching the xx:25 train up, which then runs non stop to Gatwick Airport. The xx:37 all stations affair squeezes in just behind the xx:34 but is then looped at Haywards Heath and overtaken by the xx:49 non stop service to East Croydon service - by which point this is catching the xx:34. And this is off peak all within half an hour, let alone all the other services that join along the route.

Since working on TL I've begun to realise how much of a nightmare timetabling really is and how when there are (what seem like) strange departure times, they actually serve a purpose. It must be an absolute nightmare just to try to change something somewhere and also highlights why Thameslink services are so prone to problems elsewhere - the potential for it all to go wrong is enormous!

 

[samogers]

Was thinking just this on Saturday while traversing the route in my trusty 319. There is absolutely no more capacity up from Brighton.

The xx:25 semi-fast leaves Brighton for Victoria. By the time the xx:34 has got to Haywards Heath it is catching the xx:25 train up, which then runs non stop to Gatwick Airport. The xx:37 all stations affair squeezes in just behind the xx:34 but is then looped at Haywards Heath and overtaken by the xx:49 non stop service to East Croydon service - by which point this is catching the xx:34. And this is off peak all within half an hour, let alone all the other services that join along the route.

Since working on TL I've begun to realise how much of a nightmare timetabling really is and how when there are (what seem like) strange departure times, they actually serve a purpose. It must be an absolute nightmare just to try to change something somewhere and also highlights why Thameslink services are so prone to problems elsewhere - the potential for it all to go wrong is enormous!

That's why we need BML2

 

[PaxVobiscum]

Sorry for the digression, but what is the definition of a 'main line'? (Apart from being part of the name of course). Is the Edinburgh - Polmont- Glasgow route a main line for instance?

Perhaps there is an official designation of route status, a list of main lines to which routes can be promoted or demoted?

 

[alwaystouchout]

Sorry for the digression, but what is the definition of a 'main line'? (Apart from being part of the name of course). Is the Edinburgh - Polmont- Glasgow route a main line for instance?

Perhaps there is an official designation of route status, a list of main lines to which routes can be promoted or demoted?

The lines which carry the bulk of intercity passenger traffic perhaps? So for example the WCML, ECML and BML, and also the Huddersfield Line, for example, but not the Cornish or West of England 'main lines?'

 

[Searle]

Sorry for the digression, but what is the definition of a 'main line'? (Apart from being part of the name of course). Is the Edinburgh - Polmont- Glasgow route a main line for instance?

Perhaps there is an official designation of route status, a list of main lines to which routes can be promoted or demoted?

I simply classified it as any line with the worlds 'mainline' in it