Salisbury - Exeter punctuality improvements?

[brad465]

Exeter Airport looks set to have new owners. How easily could we get the new owners to contribute finances towards upgrading the WEML? Having Exeter-Axminster upgraded at the very least will be of huge benefit to the airport, if the airport sees increased patronage through a better train and bus service at Cranbrook:

Exeter Airport set to be sold to investment group ICG

ICG is taking on the Devon hub, along with Bournemouth and Norwich airports, in a £200m deal.

www.bbc.co.uk

Exeter Airport is set to be sold along with two other English regional airports in a multimillion-pound deal.
Investment firm ICG has agreed a deal with Rigby Group to purchase the Devon airport, along with airports in Bournemouth and Norwich, the BBC understands.
The deal is reported to be worth £200m, according to Sky News, and BBC sources said leading business officials in the South West had been briefed about the sale ahead of an announcement expected on Monday.
ICG and Rigby Group have declined to comment after being approached by the BBC.
Exeter Airport, which is in the village of Clyst Honiton, opened in 1937 and today has commercial flights to a number of UK and international destinations, including Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Lanzarote.
The site was used by fighter planes during World War Two, including the Polish Air Force's 307 Squadron, who "saved the city" in May 1942 by defending Exeter during a Nazi bombing raid.
The airport has grown in size, with a new arrivals building being opened by the Princess Royal in June 1999 before a £950,000 departure lounge opened four years later.

 

[Mike Machin]

Exeter Airport looks set to have new owners. How easily could we get the new owners to contribute finances towards upgrading the WEML? Having Exeter-Axminster upgraded at the very least will be of huge benefit to the airport, if the airport sees increased patronage through a better train and bus service at Cranbrook:

Exeter Airport set to be sold to investment group ICG

ICG is taking on the Devon hub, along with Bournemouth and Norwich airports, in a £200m deal.

www.bbc.co.uk

We need to look at this realistically. The numbers of passengers using Exeter Airport together with the types of journeys undertaken would never contribute enough additional business to fund major railway upgrades. The majority passengers using the airport are leisure travellers, many with children for whom public transport is not a realistic option. Struggling with heavy cases and children is not most people's ideal solution to getting to an airport, when one can simply load everything into the car at home and on arriving at the airport, simply grabbing a trolley and going to check-in and bag drop is just so easy.

Exeter Airport's catchment area is widely scattered, with most people not living near to a station or even public transport. In addition, passenger numbers are very low - today for example if every seat was taken on every departing flight there would be a total of 844 passengers departing. If optimistically rail could attract 10% of that business, it would only be fewer than 100 passengers scattered throughout the day. The new owners are looking to expand and develop the airport, and perhaps eventually in several years time they could raise passenger numbers by 50% and maybe even double them between now and 2040, but even then that would probably only yield less than a couple of hundred departing passengers who avail themselves of a rail/bus link per day. Across a 16-hour day, it would probably add-up to around a dozen passengers an hour to fund rail upgrades.

 

[The exile]

You could have fast chargers at Crediton and Eggseford to top up the battery on route as the train stands there for a few minutes to exchange tokens.

Neither of those is going to help Waterloo - Exeter trains, though.

 

[BerkshireRails]

Neither of those is going to help Waterloo - Exeter trains, though.

It was suggested by one member to extend the Exeter services to Barnstaple and Okehampton. Hence why Crediton and Eggseford came up.

 

[martin butler]

Really though, the problem is twofold, first, the 159's are now nearly life expired, or in need of overhaul, so They have got to be replaced, and the line, as it is, is in need of upgrading, in the terms of additional double tracking, and also in permanent way work to strengthen the formation,

So where do you start, upgrading the track, relaying redoubling and increasing the overall line speed, to reduce timings, ideally to 100 mph,

then you need units that can operate an faster schedule, and do you go for diesel electric, that can work either on 3rd rail, or Deisel, or do you go for a full line improvement package, that future proofs the line, which is full relaying of double track, overhead electrification, and dual voltage EMUs,

 

[devon_belle]

So where do you start, upgrading the track, relaying redoubling and increasing the overall line speed, to reduce timings, ideally to 100 mph,

I suspect redoubling will reduce line speed in many locations, as currently the single track is slued to the 'racing line'. Redoubling will mean a sharper corner on the inside of the curves. Granted, there are several long straight sections, but I don't know if those would offset the difference if they could be increased.

However, better acceleration (new units, or even electrification?) and adding double track would be the best combo for journey times and resilience in my opinion. The railway rarely looks further than 20 years ahead, but surely within 50 years an hourly 1 tph 6 car service throughout will no longer be tenable. Perhaps not a problem for now, but doing little and often would seem less painful to the treasury. For example, one could at least hope for platform extensions when and where possible.

 

[brad465]

Really though, the problem is twofold, first, the 159's are now nearly life expired, or in need of overhaul, so They have got to be replaced, and the line, as it is, is in need of upgrading, in the terms of additional double tracking, and also in permanent way work to strengthen the formation,

So where do you start, upgrading the track, relaying redoubling and increasing the overall line speed, to reduce timings, ideally to 100 mph,

If you wanted 100mph I'd have thought the easiest place would be Worting Jct-Salisbury, where long straights of 90mph already exist. Not sure it's saving much time though, given a 10mph increase at that level is probably only a few seconds a mile at most. West of Salisbury the top speed is 85mph, but, apart from Gillingham-Yeovil, has more curvature, so getting above 85mph here might be more difficult. However, faster accelerating units and more double track will achieve more time savings than any line speed increases (except any tight permanent speed restrictions).

then you need units that can operate an faster schedule, and do you go for diesel electric, that can work either on 3rd rail, or Deisel, or do you go for a full line improvement package, that future proofs the line, which is full relaying of double track, overhead electrification, and dual voltage EMUs,

The favourite seems to be some form of battery unit, and there appears to be discussions involving the DfT about getting the 158 and 159s replaced in a fleet order that is combined with GWR and Chiltern, so the units will probably be a similar spec to those. Given GWR have third rail and OHLE in their area, SWR maybe could have a tri-mode fleet that's third rail on the SWML, then battery and OHLE to Exeter, with some OHLE islands in places like Salisbury, Yeovil and Exeter, where GWR could use the same sections for charging to make the OHLE installation case more effective.

 

[JKF]

Wiring to Exmouth looks pretty straightforward as these things go (no tunnels, only a few overbridges, mostly single track), could you have services scheduled to run into St David’s that could then do a trip down to Exmouth, recharging on the OLE, then running on battery to wherever afterwards? I suspect the answer might be no for reasons of resilience/timetabling - perhaps better for Okehampton/Barnstable than anything going back east.

 

[brad465]

Wiring to Exmouth looks pretty straightforward as these things go (no tunnels, only a few overbridges, mostly single track), could you have services scheduled to run into St David’s that could then do a trip down to Exmouth, recharging on the OLE, then running on battery to wherever afterwards? I suspect the answer might be no for reasons of resilience/timetabling - perhaps better for Okehampton/Barnstable than anything going back east.

There are two tunnels that Exmouth services go through on the WEML part of the journey: St David's tunnel and Blackboy tunnel. I don't know how easy they'll be to wire, however if they could be wired there, they are on steep banks, especially the former, so wiring and running some form of BEMU/EMU would improve acceleration, and may also lift the restriction on signalling that prevents a train leaving St Davids unless it's clear through to Central.