Cumbrian Coast: why terminate at Sellafiled/Whitehaven?

[70014IronDuke]

There is a somewhat strange arrangement on this line in the mornings.

(Apologies, I should have opened the timetable before posting this, now I shall have to do it from memory).

In the mornings, I think it is the third northbound service from Barrow terminates at Sellafield around 09.00 and then heads back to Barrow. (I assume this is primarily to serve BNFL workers.)

Meanwhile, there is a southbound train from Carlisle train that terminates at Whitehaven.

Does anyone know why these trains are not just extended northwards and southwards to create two through services? OK, there may be some delays by 10 minutes or so to current services, but surely the advantage of having through trains would outweigh any disadvantages - especially as by not doing so creates a huge gap in connecting trains at a popular time for departure.

It means eg anyone leaving Whitehaven or Workington for the south either has to get up at dawn or wait until mid-morning. And v v for someone wanting to head north from Millom/Ravenglass/Sellafield. Maybe there is not a huge traffic demand (it's too late for most working commuters, probably) but still seems to me to be a strange negative timetabling move.

 

[NoMorePacers]

Probably because of capacity on the extensive single line running north of Sellafield

 

[30907]

It would be do-able on Saturdays with the present timetable. I presume there is a good reason why the Barrow - Sellafield runs later SX.

However, it's possible that the two workings are operated by different types of unit (153 v 156) and through working would foul up the diagrams.

Having said that, is there that much time-sensitive demand for e.g. Workington-Barrow at 0830?

 

[PHILIPE]

It would be do-able on Saturdays with the present timetable. I presume there is a good reason why the Barrow - Sellafield runs later SX.

However, it's possible that the two workings are operated by different types of unit (153 v 156) and through working would foul up the diagrams.

Having said that, is there that much time-sensitive demand for e.g. Workington-Barrow at 0830?

And, perhaps, additional traincrew. Sometimes Timetables can be resource led, i.e. trains doing whatever for diagramming purposes. Also as long as the franchise commitment of providing xx number of trains and at specified times over a route is met, so be it.

 

[backontrack]

It should really be fully doubled, I think. The line serves Carlisle (pop. 73000), Barrow (56000), Workington (25000), Whitehaven (23000), Dalton-in-Furness (12000), Maryport (also 12000), Ulverston (11000), Millom (7000), Dalston (also 7000), Wigton (5000), and Grange-over-Sands (4000), alongside a nuclear power station.

 

[The Planner]

Why full doubling? What sort of service would require that? The only way you will ever get any sort of major change along there is if a wholesale closure of all the boxes and ERTMS comes in on it, which considering the amount of mechanical boxes along there I am surprised they havent been put on the NR list of doom.

 

[gordonthemoron]

alongside a nuclear power station.

There is no nuclear power station anymore, Calder Hall closed years ago, as did the Windscale AGR

 

[NoMorePacers]

Didn't Windscale catch fire in 1957, thus being the only nuclear event in British history

 

[Bevan Price]

It should really be fully doubled, I think. The line serves Carlisle (pop. 73000), Barrow (56000), Workington (25000), Whitehaven (23000), Dalton-in-Furness (12000), Maryport (also 12000), Ulverston (11000), Millom (7000), Dalston (also 7000), Wigton (5000), and Grange-over-Sands (4000), alongside a nuclear power station.

It would be extremely expensive to try to double some of the sections where the line runs on a narrow ledge between sea & cliffs.

 

[furnessvale]

It would be extremely expensive to try to double some of the sections where the line runs on a narrow ledge between sea & cliffs.

It would probably be easier to put the line via Beckermet back in!

 

[NoMorePacers]

It should really be fully doubled, I think. The line serves Carlisle (pop. 73000), Barrow (56000), Workington (25000), Whitehaven (23000), Dalton-in-Furness (12000), Maryport (also 12000), Ulverston (11000), Millom (7000), Dalston (also 7000), Wigton (5000), and Grange-over-Sands (4000), alongside a nuclear power station.

Go on then. Cut through nature reserves for a small line for which most stations are request stops.

 

[backontrack]

Go on then. Cut through nature reserves for a small line for which most stations are request stops.

There's definitely a need for heightened infrastructure there to serve Sellafield. Perhaps a loop at Nethertown or something...?

 

[NoMorePacers]

The Cumbrian Coast line probably not be doubled anytime soon because:
a) There are nature reserves on the line
b) There would be an extensive resignalling project involved
c) That costs a lot, and with diminishing funds NR have other priorities

 

[30907]

There's definitely a need for heightened infrastructure there to serve Sellafield. Perhaps a loop at Nethertown or something...?

Really? You can easily get 2tph each way with the loop at St Bees.

 

[backontrack]

The Cumbrian Coast line will probably not be doubled anytime soon because:
a) There are nature reserves on the line
b) There would be an extensive resignalling project involved
c) That costs a lot, and with diminishing funds NR have other priorities

Fixed that for you.

 

[43106]

Didn't Windscale catch fire in 1957?

Sort of. There were a couple of atomic piles with the specific task of making plutonium for Britain's atomic bombs. Because of a small design fault, some of the plutonium pellets in one of the piles didn't finish up in the pond of water at the bottom of the end of the pile. As a result, they caught fire, and it spread to the main body of the pile, causing a massive release of radio-active muck through the heat outlet chimney. My father was working on-site at the time (on the AGR) and he got trapped in the site, as the authorities wouldn't allow anyone in or out. I JUST remember it, as I was living in Seascale at the time. See...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windscale_fire