tbtc
Veteran Member
Some "bottlenecks" are only bottlenecks because of the large number of two/three coach services passing through.
Rather than spending (tens of?) millions of pounds, we could just write a simple reliable timetable where services run at the maximum length permitted by the infrastructure.
Welwyn is a bit different as the majority of services will be 200m+ long (a handful of GC/HT180s, but they are a tiny share of the total number of services over the viaduct each day). But, as others have said, the line isn't four track all the way to Peterborough so removing this double track section over the viaduct would only push the problem slightly further up the line.
The biggest nonsense is the Slade Lane issue - only a problem because we have so many long distance (and therefore un-coordinated) services run by short trains (or at least trains shorter than the infrastructure will permit). Cut it down to a well co-ordinated six services per hour on the Airport branch (say, three non-stop, three stoppers), reduce the number of services doing Stockport-Oxford Road and Airport-MainPiccadillyShed and you remove most of the problem.
Same goes for the OP's mention of the junction outside Leeds - remove the need for services from (all of) Bradford/ Huddersfield/ Wakefield to get through to York/Hull and you can run Leeds station as three or four independent stations - so no cross contamination between the different lines - then just increase the length of services on each line (rather than, say, running seven or eight two/three coach DMUs per hour on the Calder Valley...).
However, in the old Southern Region, there's not the same simple solutions - services are often already at the maximum possible length and most services are following a pretty simple clock face timetable and simple pattern (i.e. get everything to/from Waterloo or Victoria or wherever).
And New Street is a nightmare. I can't see the Liverpool/Walsall - New Street - Euston services helping that much but hopefully someone somewhere has a plan...
Rather than spending (tens of?) millions of pounds, we could just write a simple reliable timetable where services run at the maximum length permitted by the infrastructure.
Welwyn is a bit different as the majority of services will be 200m+ long (a handful of GC/HT180s, but they are a tiny share of the total number of services over the viaduct each day). But, as others have said, the line isn't four track all the way to Peterborough so removing this double track section over the viaduct would only push the problem slightly further up the line.
The biggest nonsense is the Slade Lane issue - only a problem because we have so many long distance (and therefore un-coordinated) services run by short trains (or at least trains shorter than the infrastructure will permit). Cut it down to a well co-ordinated six services per hour on the Airport branch (say, three non-stop, three stoppers), reduce the number of services doing Stockport-Oxford Road and Airport-MainPiccadillyShed and you remove most of the problem.
Same goes for the OP's mention of the junction outside Leeds - remove the need for services from (all of) Bradford/ Huddersfield/ Wakefield to get through to York/Hull and you can run Leeds station as three or four independent stations - so no cross contamination between the different lines - then just increase the length of services on each line (rather than, say, running seven or eight two/three coach DMUs per hour on the Calder Valley...).
However, in the old Southern Region, there's not the same simple solutions - services are often already at the maximum possible length and most services are following a pretty simple clock face timetable and simple pattern (i.e. get everything to/from Waterloo or Victoria or wherever).
And New Street is a nightmare. I can't see the Liverpool/Walsall - New Street - Euston services helping that much but hopefully someone somewhere has a plan...
