Outrageous Infrastructure Proposals

[Gwenllian2001]

I think the WG are going to be in big trouble when that is annouced publically.
I can guess where the money went for that.

I will be glad when the next election comes and labour can be kicked out of office. This currrent administration is terrible even Plaid Cymru were better when they were in coalition.

Agreed. Plaid Cymru is very rail minded and has been for many years.

 

[NotATrainspott]

Right now a huge proportion of the Central Belt's rail network is dependent upon the two tracks and the flat junction of Hyndland to Partick, and it's only going to get worse as the Cumbernauld, Whifflet and Shotts lines are electrified and almost certainly diverted to the low level stations (even if they don't go so far as HYN-PTK, they're still going to be affected by troubles there).

Completely grade-separating Hyndland East junction and 4-tracking between there and Finneston is the only way to fix this - and once you do, you remove a bottleneck without any sufficient diversionary routes. Obviously there are other 2-track railways with higher complexities and frequencies (i.e. Thameslink) but unlike London, where there are diversionary routes via the Tube etc, there is simply nowhere else for the trains to go from the West as Westeron/Anniesland to Queen Street isn't electrified and there aren't enough paths to have services terminate there instead anyway.

If I were to do it, I would firstly move Jordanhill westwards to Westbrae drive as has been proposed. This would allow the Up line to go up and over a lowered Anniesland Down line, and would allow the Maryhill line services to serve there once electrified and reconnected southbounds through Anniesland, via the current ECS-only chord. The alignment through Hyndland is wide enough for four tracks already but there would need to be some demolition of the retail park on Crow Road and across Dumbarton Road too to allow a second bridge span to be built. At least some of the housing development to the southwest of Partick would have to go as well but presumably the new station build could include new residential work as well due to the enhanced service it would provide. Then it's just a matter of widening the viaduct since Finnieston is already grade-separated.

If I were to do anything else it would be to build a tunnel connecting the former Whiteinch Victoria Park spur to the Glasgow and Renfew District Railway spur at Braehead to allow a station at the new Southern General super-hospital and a permanent public transport link between the Clyde on the western side of the city.

 

[tbtc]

Westeron/Anniesland to Queen Street isn't electrified

Sorry to go off topic (and I agree with you about the Partick pinchpoint), but do you know if there are plans to electrify this short DMU route?

I've just realised that I can't remember seeing it listed amongst all of the other "suburban" Glasgow routes (Whifflet, Cumbernauld, East Kilbride, Paisley Canal etc)

 

[PR1Berske]

Outrageous Level 1: Reopen Burscough Curves and (re)open Midge Hall/"Leyland West"

Outrageous Level 2: Make Manchester-Leigh into Metrolink and build extension from Platt Bridge into Wigan Wallgate

Outrageous Level 3: "Lancashire Underground"

 

[Mu301nh]

I love the transatlantic vacuum maglev idea!

 

[D365]

Rebuilding/reopening Offord/Buckden station beside the village LC between Huntingdon and St. Neots ECML - similar but more developed plans exist for Huntingdon North (Alconbury Weald, replacing Abbots Ripton to a degree) between Huntingdon and Peterborough are taking shape with the associated 4-tracking. I reckon Offords can only realistically be done post-HS2/A14 with a north or south village bypass.

 

[NotATrainspott]

Sorry to go off topic (and I agree with you about the Partick pinchpoint), but do you know if there are plans to electrify this short DMU route?

I've just realised that I can't remember seeing it listed amongst all of the other "suburban" Glasgow routes (Whifflet, Cumbernauld, East Kilbride, Paisley Canal etc)

I seem to remember it mentioned in an early document but only in the sense that it was one of the DMU lines that will be electrified someday. Something which does go against it being electrified off the bat is that it is used to reduce the number of trains lying idle in Queen Street so it's served by 156s, 158s and 170s (even ones with first class!) after arriving from further afield. If it's going to be electrified soon I imagine it would be a Paisley Canal operation in the sense that it can still be run with diesel trains if required (IIRC the reason it was electrified so soon was because the 156s were needed for the extra services put on to mitigate the effects of the Kessock Bridge work up in Inverness - Conon Bridge was reopened for the same reason). The Maryhill/Anniesland line was only returned to suburban passenger service in 1993 and the passenger numbers haven't exactly set the world on fire - there were reports a few years back that they might close some of the stations on it because they're so close together.

If Partick/Hyndland quadrupling were to happen then it would almost certainly be electrified first so as to allow blockade buster services to run. The line as is is completely mobbed when there is a blockage so to be able to run 6 car EMUs for weeks at a time would certainly help keep services running.

 

[59CosG95]

Does anyone else here think that sinking the Alton Line into a retained cutting/tunnel at Farnham is a good idea to remove the level crossing? Or can you think of something more outrageous?

 

[Gareth Marston]

Common folks its rebuilding the Bishops Castle Railway.

 

[tsr]

Reopening Westcott Range Halt (near Dorking) would probably be pretty outrageous in the eyes of NR & FGW... I doubt the good people of Westcott would find it that useful given the need to walk out of the village to it, either!

 

[southern442]

I love the transatlantic vacuum maglev idea!

There was a fantastic idea to build a tunnel through the Bering strait so that you could run London to new York trains a while ago

 

[MidlandMainlie]

My outrageous proposal is if and when the line from Manchester Airport station is extended westward towards Northwich then the Mid-Cheshire line should be electrified and Electric services introduced from Chester via the airport to Manchester.

 

[Bill EWS]

I remember reading away back in the mid 60's of plans/suggestions of building a star-shaped station under central London with all routes leading too and from it, with only one signalbox controlling the whole of the U.K.

Likewise with signalling being controlled from a single point! Remember this was still mostly semefore days and I recall one elderly driver at my depot that they couldn't signal trains from Reading to Swinden, as was already being buit at that time. He just couldn't believe that it could be done.

I remember thinking of the difficulties the signal controller(s) in London would manage with the numerous 'local' accents from some hundreds of miles from London. However, it still beats me as to why everyone has to change inumerous London jtermini ust to get to their destinations further afield or through the channel tunnel.

 

[AndyLandy]

My outrageous proposal is if and when the line from Manchester Airport station is extended westward towards Northwich then the Mid-Cheshire line should be electrified and Electric services introduced from Chester via the airport to Manchester.

That's possibly not as outrageous as you might think it is. I've heard rumours suggesting there's a desire to add an extra hourly service between Greenbank and Stockport. Once you've got 2tph on the core, you start to raise the possibility of electrification.

I also wonder if you could path Crewe-Chester trains on that line via the Sandbach-Northwich line. I'm led to believe that electrifying to Chester via the current Crewe-Chester line is likely to be difficult due to the number of overbridges that'll need work. So, maybe routing them into Chester a different way has some merit.