autotank
Member
On the front page of The Henley Standard a few weeks ago there was an article proposing the shortening of the Henley branch by quarter of a mile to improve access to the River and Rowing Museum and Mill Meadows http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/news.php?tabp=y&id=869311
When this was last proposed 10 years ago the residents of Henley vehemently opposed this - I hope they will again (there have already been some pretty fierce letters opposing the plan in the paper). The station is far enough away from the town center already - moving it further would be a retrograde step. Whilst the station car park is under utilized at the moment, this could be improved by a better walking route to the RRM or even a footbridge, which has previously been suggested.
Talking more broadly, does anyone know how the branch service fits in with Crossrail and the electrification of the GWML to Oxford and Newbury? I've heard the line won't get wired, which would be a shame and I assume mean the end of through services to London in the morning/evening peaks? Once Crossrail starts up though presumably there will be a good argument for speeding up the Twyford services by missing out most of the stations between Maidenhead and London?
My pie in the sky infrastructure project would be to install a loop between Twyford and Wargrave so you could run half hourly with one train an hour extended to London calling at Maidenhead. This would provide extra capacity for Maidenhead passengers who don't want to sit for ages on a stopper and reduce the number of HST/IEP that call there in the peaks. The London trains could run as 6 car services as they wouldn't need to use the bay at Twyford. There would still be a 2 car branch shuttle running hourly. At the moment the 0744 Henley-Padd makes it in 45 mins and the 1906 from Padd does the journey to Henley in 46 mins, so you'd only need two sets to run the London service hourly.
When this was last proposed 10 years ago the residents of Henley vehemently opposed this - I hope they will again (there have already been some pretty fierce letters opposing the plan in the paper). The station is far enough away from the town center already - moving it further would be a retrograde step. Whilst the station car park is under utilized at the moment, this could be improved by a better walking route to the RRM or even a footbridge, which has previously been suggested.
Talking more broadly, does anyone know how the branch service fits in with Crossrail and the electrification of the GWML to Oxford and Newbury? I've heard the line won't get wired, which would be a shame and I assume mean the end of through services to London in the morning/evening peaks? Once Crossrail starts up though presumably there will be a good argument for speeding up the Twyford services by missing out most of the stations between Maidenhead and London?
My pie in the sky infrastructure project would be to install a loop between Twyford and Wargrave so you could run half hourly with one train an hour extended to London calling at Maidenhead. This would provide extra capacity for Maidenhead passengers who don't want to sit for ages on a stopper and reduce the number of HST/IEP that call there in the peaks. The London trains could run as 6 car services as they wouldn't need to use the bay at Twyford. There would still be a 2 car branch shuttle running hourly. At the moment the 0744 Henley-Padd makes it in 45 mins and the 1906 from Padd does the journey to Henley in 46 mins, so you'd only need two sets to run the London service hourly.
Last edited: