If You Controlled NR Spending Fund...

[MidnightFlyer]

What projects/improvements would you take on?

 

[37401]

I'd blow it all on pork pies got a serious craving for them at the moment

 

[Aictos]

Platform Extensions to 12 car operation for:

Sandy
Biggleswade
Arlesey
Knebworth
Welwyn North
Welwyn Garden City
Hatfield
Potters Bar
New Barnet
Alexandra Palace
Finsbury Park
Kings Cross (Suburban Platforms)
Letchworth
Broxbourne

Platforms extended to 8 car Operation

Hertford North
Gordon Hill
Enfield Chase
Cuffley
Foxton
Melreth
Shepreth

Track Improvements

Hertford Loop with passing loops at critical locations
Langley Junction to Stevenage using a new track to a new island platform at Stevenage and being able to use access on and off the Hertford Loop from the fast lines
Kings Cross to Holloway bringing back in use all 3 tunnel bores
Electrification of Peterborough to Ely
4 tracks between Huntingdon and Peterborough
Parkway station at Hampton just before Peterborough

Station Improvements

Full CCTV and CIS not to mention staffing from first to last train
Simple signage in use trialling on the former WAGN and Thameslink route ie NSE signage
Painting programme to spuce up stations

Train improvements

Addon order for 379s to run alongside 377s for the TL route thus cascading any 319s to other routes
Order for 377s and 378s for the GN route to run alongside the 365s thus cascading the 321s, 313s and 317s elsewhere

That's all I can think of for the time being,

 

[MidnightFlyer]

I would re-staff every station in the country with over 80,000 passengers per year...

Skipton-Colne and Oxford-Cambridge would also be done

 

[Drsatan]

Reopen Fareham-Gosport as a railway NOT a guided busway, Brighton-Horsham, Chichester - Midhurst, Lewes-Uckfield (with a tunnel bypassing Lewes station to avoid reversing at Lewes) and the Castleman's Corkscrew (Brockenhurst - Ringwood-Bournemouth).

I'd also electrify Redbridge Junction - Salisbury, Romsey - Eastleigh, Ashford-Ore, Uckbridge - Oxted, Basingstoke - Reading and any unelectrified portions of the North Downs line.

Platform one at Salisbury station would be brought back into use, as would platform four at Westbury. Platform five at Portsmouth Harbour would be reopened, the south-facing bay platform at Chichester would be reopened, while platform two at Fareham would be converted into a through road.

 

[starrymarkb]

Lots of minor reallignments and tweaks where they would result in significant benefits, station improvements where needed, progressive knitting of GWML and MLL with various infills where they would give benefits.

Training academy for P-Way staff aiming to create a new generation of engineers

Look hard at efficiency of NR and reduce its bloat. Not cut to the bone but make it at least a well toned operation.

 

[thefab444]

Platform five at Portsmouth Harbour would be reopened

Surely you mean platform 2? Currently PMH has platforms 1, 3, 4 and 5. Not entirely sure why platform 2 was deemed surplus to requirements though.

 

[Drsatan]

Surely you mean platform 2? Currently PMH has platforms 1, 3, 4 and 5. Not entirely sure why platform 2 was deemed surplus to requirements though.

My mistake

 

[Ivo]

I would probably do too much and thus bankrupt the whole railway

Principal objectives would be the East-West Rail Link, electrification of the MML and the GWML, Evergreen 3, and ensuring that notable station is staffed and every notable settlement has a decent railway service to the nearest major centre.

 

[Lampshade]

Reopen Buxton - Matlock

 

[tbtc]

Forget increasing existing linespeeds that are already 100mph+ and concentrate on the lines with speed restrictions and slow stretches

Concentrate resources at the known bottlenecks that cause most disruptions (look at how certain junctions/ scheduling/ platform availability cause the majority of delays)

Stop giving out new paths to new services when resources need to be concentrated on existing crowding

Adopt a much better media relationship whereby you get some of the good news the railways do noticed and stop giving them ammunition

Don't bother opening any new lines whilst we don't have the paths or rolling stock to meet existing demand on the current lines

Small scale electrification (on a rolling programme) is much more effective than trying to do a whole "line" - e.g. the North Downs line, Manchester - Blackpool, Coventry - Nuneaton - don't have ridiculous ambitions when we struggle to do the basics right

 

[leewoods60019]

Personally I would spend it on upgrading line speeds rather than this great big HS2 idea, I would also put down a new production of older diesel such as 37's etc. and produce increased speed on the older diesels made new. I would also fund a service to huddersfield-london KX (Thats how it should be!) I would make sure the FGW was to be owned by a new franchisor and sort increase line speed etc. I would replace all the 75mph and below trains with 80-90mph trains and the northern routes more frequent and build new lines where possible for even quicker railway services.

 

[90019]

Give to OT, fill up with a pint and off he goes!

 

[Aictos]

Give to OT, fill up with a pint and off he goes!

Don't forget the blonde secretary,

With Hertford as much as I would to have a central station location in the middle of Hertford and not have two seperate stations but due to the link between the Hertford East and Hertford Loop being built on and also seeing as the people of Hertford would lynch me it's a non starter!

Still, it's a pity the GNR, LNER and later BR didn't think about 4 tracking the Hertford Loop with the stoppers using the slow tracks and the freights using the fast tracks leaving the Welwyn route to be purely passenger, I would also have removed the Welwyn bottleneck by building a second viaduct to the side of the existing one, move the down platform and rebuild it and build a new tunnel with 2 tracks to remove this bottleneck.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Destroy all possible evidence of the Cambs guided busway and re-rail it;
Reconvert the Bury, Altrincham (via Sale) and oldham Metro lines to heavy use;
Reconstruct the Belah Viaduct;
Ensure the govt never to give planning permission for houses etc on possible rail lines (as has happened at Arlesford recently).

 

[Ricardo]

"I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered." - George Best

Probably a risk that some of us would end up doing the same thing!

Realistically, if I controlled NR spending, the first thing I'd be doing is tackling why or rail maintenance and project costs are so much higher than in comparable nations.

I suspect that Old Timer already knows why, maybe put him in charge of ironing that out?!

Realistically, if we are squandering 30 to 50% of our capital at the moment, sort that out before embarking on any more projects (throwing away more money in the process!).

 

[ailsa]

I'd electrify to Reading, Oxford and the branches from that line that run commuter services. Someone else would have to fund some new Electrostars before moving 365s to the Oxfords and Turbos to Wessex.

If there was more money in the pot I'd electrify all the way to Swansea.

If there was much more money in the pot I'd re-open Bicester to Bletchley.

 

[37401]

Id put 31s on sleepers

1030 off Euston
1825 in Inverness the next day/week/month/year/decade depends on how much slack we make up along the way

 

[MidnightFlyer]

There was seriously one guy wrote into the Times, suggesting all passenger rail lines in Gb be tarmaced over, and coaaches replace all trains as everyone would be garranteed a seat. Idiot

 

[37401]

There was seriously one guy wrote into the Times, suggesting all passenger rail lines in Gb be tarmaced over, and coaaches replace all trains as everyone would be garranteed a seat. Idiot

Idiot clearly making a joke

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Idiot clearly making a joke

No mate, seriously, this did happen. Idiot was mearly my opinion of him.

 

[Greenback]

The fact that anyone can put forward an idea like that is most disturbing!

 

[swt_passenger]

Surely you mean platform 2? Currently PMH has platforms 1, 3, 4 and 5. Not entirely sure why platform 2 was deemed surplus to requirements though.

Inadequate foundations and overall structural strength, although I did hear that quite a few years ago...

Paul

 

[Ricardo]

Inadequate foundations and overall structural strength, although I did hear that quite a few years ago...

Paul

I believe you are correct, thats the reason I am aware of too.

Interestingly the structure on the remaining tracks is strong enough to cope with locomotives (well, HST power cars) and I believe class 66s as well.

The question is, does PMH really need an additional platform? Yes, it would be nice to have, and would reduce the amount of "top train" working, although now that Portsmouth & Southsea's two terminating platforms are used regularly, "top train" working is much less common than it once was.

If you had the money to spend on new track and structure works for reinstatement of the platform at Portsmouth Harbour, you could probably spend it on a bi-di through line for Platform 2 at Fareham, which would be much more useful for timetabling and in times of disruption.

 

[Aictos]

Id put 31s on sleepers

1030 off Euston
1825 in Inverness the next day/week/month/year/decade depends on how much slack we make up along the way

But the 31s aren't that powerful as a single 57/6 is 2,750hp vs a single 31 at 1,470h or even a single 67 at 2,980hp and a single 37 is 1,750hp so you can see why 57s, 67s and 90s to a certain extend are used instead of 31s and 37s.
If 31s were used then you would have no choice but to path it along the slow lines to keep the fast lines clear for expresses otherwise you might as well cancel Virgin's VHF timetable.

If Paddington to Plymouth was electrified or just Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads electrified, I would have 90s on it with 67s onto Penzance and introduce a overnight sleeper from Scotland to Spain/Germany/France with the train splitting at Calais for the portions to work to Paris, Berlin and Madrid though the channel tunnel using 92s.

 

[Wyvern]

Reopen Buxton - Matlock

Lovely thought but it just wouldn't be economically feasible.

I'd spend serious money on resignalling and increasing track capacity of the Hope Valley Line and through Stockport , to allow trains to be run direct to Manchester in an hour or so from the East Midlands without going to Sheffield and back, but without reducing the Sheffield service.

People would leave their cars at home rather than brave the traffic through Stockport.

 

[GB]

Surely stock requests/alterations would come under the remit of the DfT and various TOCs rather than Network Rail....asuming "NR" in this case means Network Rail?

 

[Bittern]

Reinstate the line from East Kilbridge to Hamilton West to allow something like

Larkhall - Dalmuir via Glasgow Central Low level
Motherwell/Lanark > Milngavie via Glasgow Central Low level
Coatbridge Central - Glasgow Central via East Kilbride

Or at least allow a combination of the current East Kilbride and Cumbernauld services into one to llow Glasgow Central - Cumbernauld via East Kilbride which would help take some of the crowds off the Cumbernauld - Queen Street and return services.