Elizabeth line to Reading. Really?

[coppercapped]

Likewise, the world does not revolve around freight operations.

Given that in 2022/2023 financial year [page 198/228] the entire freight industry paid a total of £11m (down from £53m the previous year) to Network Rail for infrastructure access, compared to well over £2bn for passenger operations..... I'm not sure crippling the Elizabeth Line for the marginal benefit of freight operators is a good plan given the dire financial condition the railway is in.

It's hard to get good data but I'd be very surprised if Elizabeth Line didn't pay far more than the entire railfreight industry for the upkeep of the infrastructure.

However, even if you were going to require additional infrastructure to allow freight operators to avoid shifting to night operations etc, the obvious answer would be to build a single track freight railway which could easily handle the required traffic. That would have the major advantage of ensuring that low performance freight trains stop getting in the way of passenger operations (of any type).

I was not referring only to freight operations.

 

[AlastairFraser]

The Berks and Hants isn't very important in the grand scheme of things for its length and capacity. Freight of course is imporotant. From memory:

Reading-Newbury/Bedwyn slow (1tph)
London-Newbury (1tph)
London-Plymouth/Cornwall (1tph)
London-Exeter semi (1tp2h)


Maybe the Exeter going hourly (at least to Westbury) - and another hourly service would help - but it's not where the biggest gaps are.

After Reading itself, Oxford, Swindon and Bristol are the busiest flows. Bath too. All feel relatively well-served for now. Growth should be focused on EL and building housing along the route - as wel as intensifying job and housing development in Reading and Slough specifically. And modal shift at Heathrow of course.

While service along the eastern GWML could do with increased frequency for several reasons, the purpose of a HSR line has to be partially improving links between London/Wessex/the South West as well.
That means not just increased frequency, but electrification the whole way to Plymouth at least, and journey time improvements (e.g. a sub 2 hour time Exeter-Paddington), and sub 3 hours Plymouth to Padd.

 

[SynthD]

I was not referring only to freight operations.

Could you share what you were referring to? The relief lines are only used by freight and Liz line, so it is the only possible assumption to make there.

 

[Snow1964]

The thread on GWML Paddington-Reading being worst is not open

Evening Standard is reporting a £140m package to upgrade and fix infrastructure

Network Rail reveals £140m plan to tackle Elizabeth line delays west of Paddington

Plan follows meeting with Sadiq Khan, who said the issues over the past six months were ‘not acceptable’

www.standard.co.uk

 

[Mgameing123]

No, the GWR service crosses to the relief line at Dolphin Junction off peak so that the call at Slough is no longer on the main. This has enabled the main line platforms to be fenced off at Slough.

In the peak, it stops on the main at Maidenhead, then crosses at Ruscombe, thereby leaving room for the extra Elizabeth Line service to Maidenhead.

I swear they still stop a few Cheltenham Spa trains in case of disruption.

 

[mangyiscute]

I swear they still stop a few Cheltenham Spa trains in case of disruption.

They have been doing this the past day or two because of disruption, but it is not usually the case.

 

[Mag_seven]

We have a new thread to discuss this actual (not speculative) initiative which can be found here:

Reading - Paddington route set for overhaul - BBC report

from Paul Clifton: Network Rail has announced a recovery plan for the Reading-London Paddington route after months of poor performance. It made national headlines when broken wires left 4,000 passengers stranded on trains for four hours at night, near Ladbroke Grove, on 7 December. Most...

www.railforums.co.uk