Limitations on engineering works/minimum service requirements?

[Bald Rick]

Though it doesn't require the closure of both lines so it is possible to use pilotman working to keep trains moving, albeit only during the sparser late evening service. Ditto tampers etc. can work even when the other line is open for traffic.

Not necessarily. Certainly when I was involved, you need adjacent lines blocked for an hour or so at the start and end of the HOBC working period to get the machine ‘cut in’ and out.

 

[Annetts key]

If we are talking about ballast cleaning machines, yes, in order to get the excavating cutter bar in place (the bit that goes under the sleepers and rails), you need people on track, and as such, both them and the equipment needs to be a certain distance from any open line.

 

[Krokodil]

But once that has been completed traffic can resume on the other line.

 

[The Planner]

But once that has been completed traffic can resume on the other line.

Presumably at 20mph past the worksite? And if you need to overtake the HOBC you don't have the infrastructure to do so and the high output team dont have the cash to pay out on pilotmen etc. If its for just the one or two trains then it won't be considered cost effective either.

 

[snowball]

Not sure if this has been widely discussed until now.

At the time you posted that, a discussion had started in the Haymarket-Dalmeny electrification thread in Infrastructure, and subsequently grew.

 

[Horizon22]

This has been going on for decades - I live in Chelmsford and before that was always travelling up to Norwich for home games - I've managed three this season thanks to the engineering works and strikes. It has been a combination of OLE/track works, preparation for CrossRail but it must be one of the most overengineered lines in the country - I cannot recall a single Christmas/New Year/Easter period when part of the GEML is shut for one reason or another. In recent times GA customers get all the disruption but no actual benefit - journey times aren't any quicker. As GA gets all of the Schedule 4/8 payments there isn't much incentive to argue the toss. You'd have to ask when these long term/major disruptive works actually cease, noting that most of the last services on the GEML are also bus replacements. I know engineering/maintenance works are needed but it seems excessive on the GEML and the replacement bus shambles isn't worth bothering with.

Unfortunately it's a rather battered line requiring extra maintenance than others lines which @Bald Rick has explained before. Broadly speaking it's due to the high speed of the line, the high frequency of freight services and also Crossrail work had a lot to do with it. I wouldn't expect it to end fully any time soon.

The GEML has a unique set of circumstances which means the track gets hammered more than anywhere else on the network:

1) frequent high speed passenger services (100mph) - which needs a good alignment
2) frequent heavy freight services on the same tracks (an average of 2 freights an hour each way, usually at 75mph, which batter the tracks)
3) largely built on London Clay which is a cross between jelly and a sponge.

Therefore the track needs replacing often, and maintaining very regularly, to keep it in a reasonable condition.

Having done my fair share of track renewals between London and Norwich, what comes out is usually a messy gloop mix of ballast, liquified clay and, ahem, all the things that get flushed out of train toilets for the last 30-40 years.


As others have said, on top of this is all the work required to replace the late 40s overhead line kit (now done) and lots of work for Crossrail. Coming up - replacement of all the point work at Witham, and building the new station near Chelmsford.

 

[Canary73]

cheers for the responses - there will be more coming up especially with the construction of Beaulieu Park - from what I saw of the service provision associated with the draft network change, its very much driven with London bound services in mind - for those heading north it still makes sense to use Chelmsford

 

[Krokodil]

Presumably at 20mph past the worksite? And if you need to overtake the HOBC you don't have the infrastructure to do so and the high output team dont have the cash to pay out on pilotmen etc. If its for just the one or two trains then it won't be considered cost effective either.

Yes it was at slow speed. We ran bang road under pilotman working (as it was then called). I think that the amended schedule lengthened the journey considerably, but that is preferable to bustitution.

Another operator sign a diversion from that route, which adds an hour to the journey but again an extended journey time is always preferable to changing for a bus.