Isn't this the reason, or at least one of them, for the reconstruction of Reading station? Planning for this work started in Control Period 3, Control Period 5 has just started. The problems have been known about for years but with the increased numbers of trains the number of conflicts increase. The problem is that large infrastructure changes take time to implement.
Corrected typo.
It'll improve flow through Reading for some services but freight will still cause delays coming across Southcote Junction, which I believe should have dived under the Westbury lines and will still cause problems between Reading West Jnc and Oxford for relief line services.
Anyone who uses the Readng to Basingstoke will now the route isn't the best for punctuality and that boils down to the fact freight is given priority. Freightliners are given that priority because of the stiffer financial penalties Network Rail receive if they run late.
You've only got to look at huge disruption events like a fatality. When the line reopens th first thing they do is send all the freight through, an hour or so later it'll reopen it to passenger traffic.
The priorities now are all wrong, the railway is no longer a public service. If the financial penalties to Network Rail were the same for both freight and passenger traffic things would be very different.
Edit note: Quote mark fixed, for clarity. CfN.In principle I agree with you that a grade separated junction at Southcote would be an improvement. Ideally, I would suggest, that this could also include an independent line for the north-south (and vice versa) container trains to the west of the existing lines which would connects directly into the Reading West Curve to Scours Lane. It would need a new bridge over the Oxford Road, so it is an expensive pipe-dream!
However, the best is often the enemy of the good and it may be that a new bridge at Southcote would be a bridge too far in terms of expenditure. Don't forget that the traffic density in this area is already less than that seen on the
GW▸ 's main route so any expenditure is unlikely to have such a dramatic effect in reducing delay minutes as that on the main line. The improvements already being made will certainly reduce the number of conflicts at the Reading junctions and the additional platform roads will also increase throughput so it may be difficult to justify an expenditure of ^50 to ^100m for further reduction in what will already be a reduced number of delays.
It has been suggested that the capacity of the Reading-Basingstoke line could be increased by adding some more signals. A further reduction of delays to the container trains, and hence also in the passenger traffic, has been proposed by adding an additional line at Basingstoke to the north of the existing platforms (essentially on the site of the old GW station) and allowing the freights to join the South Western line on the less congested western side of Basingstoke station. Whether this proposal is being taken forward at the moment I don't know.
An area which will be upgraded in this Control Period is the section from Didcot North junction through Oxford to Wolvercote and this should also ease regulation. This will almost certainly reduce knock-on delays further reducing the justification for a Southcote flyover.
My main point though is that conflicts will always occur. It is also certainly true that poor choices have been made in train regulation. However, what one doesn't know from the information at hand is whether, to take your example of a freight being sent out in front of a passenger train with the result that the passenger train was 10 minutes late at Reading, another choice might have caused even more delays further down the line if the freight had been held and as a result missed its path at, say, Aynho Junction causing mayhem later in Birmingham. Freight doesn't necessarily have priority, but the
FOC▸ does have a contract with
NR» concerning performance, as do the
TOCs▸ , so the FOC also expects fair treatment. It also has to get its freight to its customers on time - or, at least, as near as possible to time!
The other point you make - about freights being sent through first after a fatality - may well be true if a suitable fright train is in the area. After all, containers are less likely to be upset by the sight of body parts than are passengers.
It's all a compromise, but the DeltaRail signalling and traffic control equipment at Didcot
ROC▸ holds the potential to minimise global delays by working through all the consequences of a suggested course of action before a decision is made. Computers are good at things like that - it is entirely possible that life will get better!
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