Great Western Coffee Shop

SWT have announced speed restrictions between Waterloo and Clapham tomorrow afternoon due to the hot weather.

 http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/alerts.aspx

"Wrong type of sunshine."

 ;D

NR really needs to get on top of this problem....Can't see it happening in Europe?....

As far as I know... It doesn't.

I've been out to Spain during the summer when the temperature has been in cases unbearably hot. Yet the Alvia Train I was on between Madrid and Alicante still reached 155mph (Overhead Line Powered EMU).

Similarly the Madrid - Murcia train I've caught during the Summer exceeded 100mph, don't have the exact GPS speed to hand. Train was a Diesel Locomotive and rake of coaches.

Quite.

And Spain at least gets the low temperatures that we get also.

So get with it NR.

I bet it does on some older lines.  Either that or they have a more cavalier attitude to safety - perhaps the charge that NR are overly cautious could be levied though?  Anyway, I expect HS1 is currently operating at 186mph as normal and, as yet, bar a couple of very short stretches FGW has so far been unaffected.

The part I find rather worrying is this (my bold):As a layman, this sounds like the tracks have not been maintained and/or upgraded properly between the two stations.  After all, why would the tracks between Clapham and Waterloo be any more prone to temperature damage than anywhere else on the network?

SWT can't pin this onto Network Rail either, as they are now in a "deep alliance", as we keep getting reminded.

Oh, I think they can....

That alliance hasn't been going long enough for their influence to achieve that major job....

I don't know what the linespeeds are in that area, but surely nothing goes that fast between Waterloo and Clapham Jct. anyway?

What fast? Can't see any mention of a specific limit. Just resultant cancellations....

According to the Standard, the speed limit is just 20mph. I think all trains usually manage more than that, even those stoping @ intermediate stations!

A stopper (at Vauxhall and Queenstown Rd) typically takes 10 minutes, with a distance of 3mi 74ch, gives an average speed of 23.55mph.  Of course the train travels faster than this as the duration includes dwell time, so a 20mph speed limit would have a big impact.

My train (which runs non-stop Waterloo to Woking) should take 6 minutes to reach Clapham Junction.  Today it took 12.  The train managed to make up time and became on-time again at Fratton.

Metro said normal speeds of up to 40mph are attained....

My emphasis in bold ::)

You should see the Spaniards building a 3 story building... Impressive, yet very scary!

Either that, or our H&S is extremely over-cautious.

Today it's at the other end of the South West Trains network and between Salisbury and Basingstoke that there are speed restrictions:
From www.journeycheck.southwesttrains.co.uk/

Owing to speed restrictions between Dorchester South and Weymouth trains have to run at reduced speed on all lines.
Impact:
Train services running through these stations may be delayed by up to 20 mins at short notice. Disruption is expected until 19:00 09/07.

Owing to speed restrictions between Salisbury and Basingstoke trains have to run at reduced speed on all lines.
Impact:
Train services running through these stations may be delayed by up to 20 mins at short notice. Disruption is expected until 19:00 09/07.
Customer Advice:
Due to the speed restrictions, trains have to run at reduced speed between Salisbury and Grateley. This is causing delays of up to 20 minutes to all trains between Salisbury and Basingstoke.

I have read elsewhere that this sort of problem does not affect well-maintained and properly ballasted lines. Is that the problem?

There may have been a track renewal or re-ballasting where the rails have not been stressed fully yet or has not been fully tamped.  There are a number of reasons other than "badly maintained track"

OK, so it's being maintained, not badly, but not thoroughly either. Is this just that the difficulty of getting in and doing the work means that there is a perpetual backlog? I assume that this stretch of track is all (with no backlog) to appropriate modern standards.

My education continues. This is a heavily used part of the route, and must take some looking after.