Portsmouth resignalling delayed... until October?!

[class 313]

Although on this occasion, Tom has nothing to do with it....

I've checked through the history of that page, and the last update was in January.

Okie doke,

Cheers.

 

[Tom]

I very rarely edit on WP - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Tubechallenger

 

[paul1609]

I'd say it's more the Portsmouth branch...

I shall now quote Wikipedia - which is 99.9% right:
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Western_Main_Line)

That clearly says that the SWML is London - Weymouth, whereas the Portsmouth Direct line is a branch from this line at Woking.

As far as Im concerned the SWML leads to Southampton Docks. It was sadly truncated and Southamptons Major Station closed in the 1960s. Nowadays you have to take the branch to the former Southampton West station. How anybody can describe a 20 mph trundle round through Southampton City centre, followed by a trundle through the container terminal and across the River Test as a main line is beyond me. Beyond Bournemouth the situations even worse with single line sections and the trains stopping at every lampost.

Its about the same as Southern deciding to close Brighton station and divert the trains along the West Coastway renaming Hove "Brighton Central" and the line the Sussex Coast Main Line.

The Portsmouth Direct is a Branch off the West Coastway at Havant. The main line is to London Victoria via Horsham.

 

[Tom]

Admittedly, you're right there, but it's only a 25mph trundle through Northam curve, when I think it goes back up to 35/40. After all, the ECML was "diverted" so you could say it's only the ECML as far as Doncaster.

 

[WessexWarrior]

As far as Im concerned the SWML leads to Southampton Docks. It was sadly truncated and Southamptons Major Station closed in the 1960s. Nowadays you have to take the branch to the former Southampton West station. How anybody can describe a 20 mph trundle round through Southampton City centre, followed by a trundle through the container terminal and across the River Test as a main line is beyond me. Beyond Bournemouth the situations even worse with single line sections and the trains stopping at every lampost.

I agree in some respects, but you can't discredit the glorious run through the heart of the New Forest. Stunning scenery that is in a way completely unobtainable by any other kind of transport.

 

[Kris]

Right. Time to settle this one. Fastest line wins :thumbrig:

Which route has the highest average line speed (and overall line speed)?

 

[class 313]

Right. Time to settle this one. Fastest line wins :thumbrig:

Which route has the highest average line speed (and overall line speed)?

Id say the WCML

 

[Tom]

Depends on how far you're going to, entire line?

I'd tend to go for WCML if going to Glasgow, ECML if going to Edinburgh.

ECML is fastest between London and York though.

 

[Kris]

No ..... talking about the SWML. What's the fastest route - average line speed? Might surprise you this one.

 

[paul1609]

Id say London Waterloo to Exeter St Davids on SWT.

 

[Tom]

I'll tend to agree on that.

 

[Kris]

Damn! Curses! Foiled again.

Yup - you got it. Should've known Shouldn't I? :roll:

 

[Tom]

Looks can be deceiving.

 

[Tom]

Some random stats now;

Route                       Train           Milage   Avg Speed
London Waterloo - Exeter    0920 WAT - PLY  172.18   80.08mph
London Waterloo - Weymouth  0935 WAT - WEY  143.85   52.63mph
London Waterloo - Ptsmouth  0900 WAT - PHB   74.50   48.59mph

However, if you shorten it all down a bit...

Route                       Train           Milage   Avg Speed
London Waterloo - Woking    0935 WAT - WEY  24.38    63.60mph
Woking - Basingstoke        0920 WAT - PLY  22.34    76.99mph
Basingstoke - Salisbury     0920 WAT - PLY  36.05    61.80mph
Salisbury - Exeter          0920 WAT - PLY  88.90    52.81mph
Basingstoke - Winchester    1005 WAT - POO  19.10    76.40mph
Winchester - Soton Central  1005 WAT - POO  12.95    48.56mph
London Waterloo - SotonC    1035 WAT - WEY  79.35    64.34mph
London Waterloo - Winchstr  1035 WAT - WEY  66.50    71.25mph
Soton Ctl - Bournemouth     1035 WAT - WEY  28.85    59.69mph

Don't ask me why I did those, was bored!

 

[scb201]

Looking at those figures though, the average speed is dragged up by the Exeter-Plymouth bit. This by no stretch of the immagination can be descibed as the SWML. I think the Waterloo-Exeter average speed would be very similar to the Waterloo-Southampton C average speed.

But then again.... having been a regular on the Waterloo-Exeter service, a bit more double tracking, or at least more convenient passing places would make it far faster. Many a time I have waited for a good 15 mins at Yeovil Junction. Suprisingly prompt service though. If it was doubled could actually compete on timing with GWML service.... not that the Dft would want that!!!

 

[Tom]

The Exeter - Plymouth bit doesn't count as I only went as far as Exeter in the counting, just tried to find the fastest train between London and Exeter.

Just looked back and it appears I made an error, accidentally went to the 0820 column. Whoops! Shall bring up the corrected speed in a second...

-------------------------------------
0920 London Waterloo - Plymouth
South West Trains
-------------------------------------
1 minute dwell time allowed at each station, except
Woking (2 mins), Basingstoke (2 mins), Salisbury (6 mins),
Yeovil Junction (2 mins)

Milage is milage between 2 stations - rough guide
T.Mlge is total milage on train route
AvgSpeed is average speed between two points (dep, arrival)
T.ASpeed is average speed between end to end (dep, dep)

Calling Points    Time   Milage  T.Mlge  AvgSpeed T.ASpeed
London Waterloo   0920   0.00    0.00    0.00 mph 0.00 mph
Clapham Junction  0927   3.95    3.95    39.50mph 39.50mph
Woking            0946   20.4    24.35   72.00mph 60.88mph
Basingstoke       1007   27.37   47.77   64.42mph 63.69mph
Andover           1024   18.48   66.25   69.30mph 63.10mph
Salisbury         1048   17.30   83.55   57.67mph 56.97mph
Tisbury           1102   12.90   96.20   59.54mph 57.15mph
Gillingham (Dset) 1113   9.05    105.18  54.30mph 56.35mph
Templecombe       1120   6.80    111.98  68.00mph 56.46mph
Sherborne         1128   6.11    118.09  52.37mph 55.79mph
Yeovil Junction   1135   4.56    122.65  54.72mph 54.51mph
Axminster         1155   22.02   144.67  69.54mph 56.36mph
Honiton           1207   12.08   156.75  65.89mph 56.66mph
Exeter Central    1228   14.68   171.42  44.04mph 55.00mph
Exeter St Davids  1232   0.76    172.18  11.40mph 53.81mph

 

[Kris]

God knows how you do that - makes my head hurt just looking at it.

 

[Tom]

Quail, a brain (for modifying chains into decimal point), and MS Excel.

Oh, and Notepad!

 

[scb201]

More details from Portsmouth:

Portsmouth area engineering works: service update
Following Network Rail’s recent announcement regarding the overrun of engineering work, being carried out in the Portsmouth area, we can now confirm what level of service we will be able to run.

From Monday 2 April 2007 and until further notice – we will be operating five trains per hour through to Portsmouth Harbour. These will be three South West Trains’ services, one First Great Western service and one Southern Trains’ service.

So?

How many services ran to Portsmouth Harbour before the resignalling started? 1 FGW, 4 SWT?, 2 Southern?

I really dont know. Well 5 is better than 3 at least!!

 

[paul1609]

In the peak it was from Harbour;
4 x SWT to London Waterloo (1 x via Basingstoke)
1 X Southern Coastway Stopper
1 x Southern London Vic
1 x FGW Cardiff
from Town station
1 X SWT Scum stopper
1X Southern Coastway Stopper

 

[Kris]

1 X SWT Scum stopper

That's not nice! ....... True though

Some gorgeous looking girls down that way - but when they open their mouths hock:

I stopped under the bridge at Hilsea with a slammer one day and this girl said "Are you the driver?"

"No", I said, "He's down the back."

"Oh".

"You stupid ****"hock: hock: hock: her friend replied, "Of course 'e's the drivah!"

And when I was looking back as the train left.

"You ain't even lookin' where you're goin'"

"It's OK" I replied, "It knows where it's going."

 

[Tom]

So so so so true!!!! !!

 

[paul1609]

Id suggest leaving the Ipod on.
At least Pompey has females under the age of 60

 

[AndyPompey]

Doing a little research, I had a look at an old time table from 1962, and found the the quickest the British Rail timetabled a train from Portsmouth to Waterloo was 1Hr 39 minutes [ish - this is from memory, I'll check on Monday when I get back to my desk].

The fastest I can find for SWT [and I'm sure I'll be proved wrong here] is 1:37.

Will the Portsmouth resignalling improve this SWT figure?

The BR figures show the time from Portsmouth & Southsea to Portsmouth Harbour to be consistently 5 minutes. SWT seem to consistently timetable it at around 9 minutes.

Have the two stations got further apart in the last 45 years?

 

[Tom]

No, slack and speed restrictions will have lengthened journey time. The resignalling should provide capacity increases though.

 

[AndyPompey]

FWIW, here's that research I did [attachment only - sorry I don't know how to insert it].

Don't know if the linespeed has increased in the last 40 years. That may account for the slight average decrease in journeytime, although the fastest time does not seem to have changed much.