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Another relatively minor project that seems to have been in the pipeline for ages, but as of 4th August trains designated as 'MU' (Multiple Unit - i.e. HST's, Turbos) will be able to travel at 90mph on the Relief lines between Reading and Hayes rather than the current 75mph.

It won't exactly revolutionise travel on the suburban services, but it will mean there is a bit more capacity for service recovery - I estimate 45 seconds will be saved between Maidenhead and Twyford and 30 seconds between Maidenhead and Slough and again between Slough and West Drayton.

It will also be useful for weekend possessions on the Main Line as non-stop trains from Paddington to Reading will save around 3 minutes if routed on the Relief lines.

There will still be reductions of speed through Maidenhead (75mph) and Slough (60/55mph) but otherwise it's 90mph all the way from Reading to Airport Junction (and some sections beyond).

A few very minor signalling changes have been necessary to allow for these increases, including Banner Repeaters and minor repositioning of signals, but I am suprised that more comprehensive alterations weren't required to allow the required SBD (Service Braking Distances) - indeed, the Network Rail briefing pack makes note that they are now very near the limit of what is allowed - especially between Sonning and Maidenhead. I hope no drivers fall foul of this and have a SPAD.

Since when were HSTs permitted to use MU speed restrictions?

Believe they can also use SP speed boards.

Thanks for the good news - the increase is something which should have been done years ago. Am I right in thinking that the main problem between Sonning and Maidenhead is that most of the signalling on the relief lines is 3-aspect hence the braking distance problem?

Good news but it seems to have taken a very long time to implement. We seem to have had late evening closures of the Relief lines between Slough and Maidenhead with bustitution for years (and still are).

Regards running times i regularly caught the  07:23 off Taplow, stopping Burnham Slough Hayes Ealing Padd diue 07:56. Before Ladbroke Grove I used to reckon 3 minute Maidenhead Taplow vice 4 booked
1 minute less Burnham Slough.
2 minutes less Slough Hayes

So basically 4 slack Maidenhead Hayes.
Possible 1 minute Hayes Ealing but that required quite brisk runnng.

Ealing Padd in 7 minutes (07:49 - 07:56)  was quite tight, especially as we were  routed Up Relief to Line 4 at Ladbroke Grove often with I think the Greenford passing on Line 3 to Down Relief.

Since August the 4th or should it be from August the 4th :D

There will a gradual changeover of all speed boards to the MU type to bring them all together as one standard throughout the country

There won't be any 3 minute saving on the HST's I drive or that of any other High Speed drivers I have spoken to. The increase of speeds to 90 don't last long enough. As soon as you would have reached it it would be time to brake for the decrease. Waste of fuel for no gain in my opinion. The turbo's however may be a different story.


The above reason is enough for me to keep my speed in this area at what I am used too. I'm not partial to sticky brown stuff seeping into my trousers!

I disagree with you a little there 12hoursunday. With Maidenhead to Reading being around 12 miles if you are going 90mph all the way on green aspects then you'd save almost 2 minutes on this stretch alone - even allowing for acceleration from 75-90mph. Of course, it's entirely up to you what speed you drive your train, but I have always thought it ridiculous when on the dead straight section between Maidenhead and Twyford (5 miles long in itself) trains on the relief are restricted to 75mph when you can usually see 4 or 5 signal sections ahead of you - bet you won't go 75mph all the way, on a dry rail with good visibility if it's your last trip!  ;)

With HST's acceleration from 60-90mph being FAR superior to Turbos through that range, they acually stand to gain the most seconds of all. It is a shame that they couldn't retain the 90mph stretch through Maidenhead as well to give an even longer stretch of continuous 90mph running.

Let's just rejoice in the fact that, however small, projects that have been talked about for years (Maidenhead Down Main platform extension for example) are now starting to filter through and that when you add them all together they WILL make a positive impact on railway users.

And as you say, MU boards will be springing up all over the country and an imminent rule book change will cater for HST's being included in that category.

Yes, with the exception of the area around Twyford. I'm a little surprised that more 4-aspect signals weren't put in between Twyford and Maidenhead when they renewed them to LED style ones a few months ago - that would have allowed comfortable 90mph running and even allowed 100/110 for some stretches.

The Maidenhead platform extension I'm afraid is beyond me! I can't seem to be able to grasp that when Higher speed lines are being mooted throughout the industry the powers that be seem to want to slow up trains as HST & Turbo's stopping here will do. Already Trains at xx00 to (Bristol) can be right up the backside of a xx52 (Cotswold) at Slough. I would imagine that some of these xx52 will be stopping at Maidenhead as well. It's common talk that the 18.06 (Frome) will also call at Maidenhead in the December timetable. Already the 18.15 to Swansea has a considerable wait for platform clearance at Reading. Therefore unless there is a twinking with the timetable or Platform allocations at Reading there will no positive impact on railway users, not if your using an so-called express service to Bristol or Swansea anyway

I don't think there are any plans to stop off-peak fast trains at Maidenhead, even though I believe that there is justification for an hourly service off-peak in terms of passenger loadings. Perhaps the odd peak one will call? During engineering works, or during problems with the relief line platform, it will no doubt be useful to have a full-length platform as an option - getting punters off a platform that can only handle two HST carriages as the situation was is pretty time consuming stuff if it's a busy train!

Just to add to what I said earlier - the longer platform will allow longer than 3-car turbos to stop there, which if there is a possesion on the Relief Line prohibits longer trains running on the local services on Sundays. If the passenger numbers keep increasing then this will severely restrict capacity at a time when passenger numbers are growing (especially on Sunday early evening from the capital), and engineering works increase when Crossrail construction starts in earnest.

Having looked at the site earlier today, works appear substantially complete with lighting and platform surfaces finished and just a bit of fencing to complete. By the looks of it, the ramp off the end of the platform leads to a footpath to gain easy access to the down side car park. I'm guessing that this will be a 'peak hours only' entry/exit? I wonder whether anything is to be done with the old platform buildings which looks very shabby next to the new tarmac and concrete?

I noticed yesterday evening that it looked more-or-less complete and most importantly that the temporary fencing which was blocking it off from the existing length of platform appeared to have been removed. However there were no signs of any stopping marks for Turbos nor any DOO mirrors or monitors so I wouldn't like to guess whether or not it's fully available for use. The new longer platform will help when the 17:36 6-car Turbo to Oxford is unable to cross from the Down Main to the Down Relief east of the station as has happened on a few occasions due to points failures. When that happens the train has had to continue non-stop to Twyford and the poor Maidenhead passengers have had to double-back from there!

Ooh, I do hope so... I've been asking for the 18.06 fast to Maidenhead to be re-instated ever since they took it away (it being in the list of top ten overcrowded train in the country Times at the time!!)

Reinstating the 17:06 fast to Maidenhead would a good step the 17:18 which replaced the first evening fast to Maidenhead is over crowded

In fact both would be good!.. please FGW?  :)

Are FGW going to do any passenger awareness campaigns on the raised speed limit especially at Burnham and Taplow which have most non stop trains throughout the day?

Burnham is an island platform and fairly narrow by the building. Platform 3 (Down Relief) at Taplow is on a curve and particularly narrow at one point. Tplow and Burnham both have numbers of school children joining services in the morning peak.

Presumably this speed increase is why there is a 100mm cant through Taplow to allow 90 mph.

Hopefully there'll be some posters up at the stations at least - Langley poses the same potential problems.

Hi,

Thanks for posting about this speed increase  :).  As a member of the public I'm always interested to here about any progress - I hope FGW put up some posters to let people know about the upgrade as I'm sure a lot of people would be interested.

I've no idea about the decision making progress involved in such projects but after the upgrade to 90mph it sounds like 4-aspect signals would be a higher priority and may still happen - is that the case?  Especially, if as IndustryInsider says below, this would allow for further speed increases on some stretches?

Also, I'm sure there's a good site to find out the specs of various train units but out of interest can someone tell me what is the actual maximum speed of the Turbos (assuming on the flat and without an enforced speed restriction)?  Is it actually around 90mph?

Thanks,

Boppy.

Yes, the max speed of Thames Turbos is 90 mph.

They have a maximum service speed of 90 mph, and an overspeed sensor will kick in and cut power to the engines at around about 92-93mph depending on the set. If there was no overspeed sensor then I reckon engines in good condition could reach 100-105mph. There was a brief trial (in the mid 90's I think) to see if 100mph would be a more beneficial top speed, but I believe it was dropped due to the additional wear-and-tear on the engines. Any more than 100mph and you start to run into safety restrictions regarding passengers travelling in the front of carriages. Chiltern Railways very similar Class 168 (Clubmans) are 100mph capable, as well as the latest designs of Turbostars.

Thanks for the info.

Interesting how there is a preventative overspeed sensor to protect against excessive wear and tear.

Cheers!

Boppy.

The overspeed sensor is there to stop drivers exceeding the maximum permitted speed, and I believe is on most if not all passenger stock. (No more 140mph dashes in HSTs that we got in the 1970s.) The wear and tear relates to the decision not to raise the maximum speed of the units. 

Well, we're over a day into the new linespeeds, though I haven't heard any reports of trains arriving half an hour early into Paddington yet....  ;)

Read somewhere that FGW management did not consider turbos safe enough to run at higher speeds and will stick to the non DMU permissive speed signs.

My experience so far after two days is that the Turbos I've used on the reliefs between Twyford and Maidenhead have been definitely faster. No longer does the driver "take his foot off the gas" at White Waltham! Yesterday's 17:36 from Paddington was half a minute late leaving Maidenhead but it was half a minute early at Twyford. I didn't exactly time today's train but it was definitely early arriving at Twyford. Up until last week an on-time departure from Maidenhead simply meant an on-time arrival at Twyford.

That's not the case, devon_metro, Turbos are being permitted to travel at the new 'MU' speeds, as BBM suggested.