Sudbury, Suffolk to London direct link.

[ironstone11]

The local Sudbury paper has an article about creating a direct link to London via a new London facing chord at Marks Tey. The proposal, it is claimed, has the support of the local council and MP.

Although there appears to be enough land on which to build a chord, the junction with the main line would be some distance to the west of Marks Tey station.

Apart from this and establshing paths on the main line, what does the Forum think?

 

[jopsuk]

any train serving the branch direct would have to be an 8 or 12 car electric train, and it would have to split/join at (and therefore have paths north of) Kelvedon. So, other than electrification of the branch, using non-existent paths and the complex works to add a junction, all to provide a sleepy branch worked by 156s and 153s, with a direct train to London, it's an entirely sane plan

 

[Bald Rick]

Been suggested approx every 5 years or so for as long as I can remember. I wonder if the local council and MP would be willing to chip in. Absolutely no chance of happening.

 

[christopher]

More chance of ginger approving of a certain operator on a certain line!

 

[secludedsfx]

I really doubt there's a case for it in terms of passenger numbers and it's not really a giant inconvenience switching at Marks Tey.

 

[dk1]

Been suggested approx every 5 years or so for as long as I can remember. I wonder if the local council and MP would be willing to chip in. Absolutely no chance of happening.

Thought it had been a while since they raised that old chestnut :roll:

 

[306024]

It will sell a few newspapers and keep the MP in the public eye, and that's about it.

 

[Pugwash]

The local Sudbury paper has an article about creating a direct link to London via a new London facing chord at Marks Tey. The proposal, it is claimed, has the support of the local council and MP.

Although there appears to be enough land on which to build a chord, the junction with the main line would be some distance to the west of Marks Tey station.

Apart from this and establshing paths on the main line, what does the Forum think?

The mainline is busy enough, given that the Lowestoft East Suffolk line trains, used to be direct and then were curtailed due to there not being enough diesel stock capacity, the chance is zero.

The costs are a new Chord and New Diesel Stock, and finding new paths at the expense of freight. Ask yourself, is this realistically going to happen ?

 

[MP33]

I have a number of old OS Maps dating from the 1930's. One of these shows a triangular junction at Marks Tey. A building marked Works is in the middle of the junction, although this could have been non Railway.

I would think that the Up platform on the branch line would be some walk from the Mainline Up Platform.

 

[Tobbes]

A bit pointless, I would've thought, unless the branch were extended beyond Sudbury (even if the mooted Great Cornard station were ever built).

The branch has a decent service and reasonable patronage - wiki suggests in 2011/12 patronage was 406k (Sudbury 314k, Bures 54k, Chappel 38k), but I'd be interested to know how many more would use an (hourly?) direct London service.

As much as anything else, the total population isn't that high, so unless there is significant housing growth - for which a direct London service could be very attractive - I don't see it being a runner (sadly - I'd love to move back!)

Tobbes

 

[Sleepy]

be careful what you wish for : look at Braintree branch operation, as soon as GE mainline goes pear shaped buses are used Witham - Braintree !!

 

[Tobbes]

be careful what you wish for : look at Braintree branch operation, as soon as GE mainline goes pear shaped buses are used Witham - Braintree !!

Don't worry, won't happen when it's extended back to Stansted, doubled and electrified throughout...!

 

[dk1]

be careful what you wish for : look at Braintree branch operation, as soon as GE mainline goes pear shaped buses are used Witham - Braintree !!

That or a 'shuttle' service makes perfect sense operationally when things go wrong. Just tell the punters to spend a bad day with control & they will understand.

 

[Z12XE]

Whats the one thing that the Braintree passengers now ask for when their service gets cancelled at Witham due late running?

A shuttle service to come back, they'd rather have a service on the branch that was more reliable and change than constantly losing peak services due to the train being turned back at Witham/Chelmsford/Shenfield.

'Nuff Said

I suspect the local MP will no longer care (not that he did anyway), he's not been selected for re-election in 2015 (Tim Yeo)