Marlow branch line - engineering work, closures, incidents (merged topics)

[whole diary]

[Ollie]

Probably same reason they wouldn't allow the crossover at Ruscombe to be used the other day, "Network Rail Key Route Strategy" be interesting if anyone has it

[Chris from Nailsea]

I've done some digging on the internet, Ollie: can you give me any further clues - where do I go from this, for example?

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/666.aspx

[Ollie]

No it's a different document to the RUS^▸ (Route Utilisation Strategy) stuff.
I don't know much about it, might try and find out more about it.

[eightf48544]

Can't find this posted elsewhere apologies if it is.

MH and CW^▸ (Christian Wolmar (rail journalist)) will be at the AGM^▸ (Annual General Meeting) of the Maidenhead Marlow Passengers Associationon Friday 27 March.

It will be held at 20:00 in the Bourne End Community CentreWakeman Road  turn  at Total Garage in centre of village.

All welcome.

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Bucks Free Press:

Business park bosses are being called upon to revive the ^gateway to Marlow^.

Councillors this week spoke of the need for investment to help brighten up the area leading up to Marlow train station in Station Approach and improve the waiting area within it. Marlow Town Council have asked operator First Great Western if they can fund refurbishment but have not yet heard whether any money is available.

The possibility of attracting a sponsor from Globe Business Park, which is situated within walking distance of the train station, was raised at a council meeting on Tuesday.

A three sided brick wall ^ one of which has a hole in it ^ is the only shelter currently provided for waiting passengers at the station. The current untidy appearance and litter surrounding the area gives a bad impression of Marlow, councillors agreed.

Cllr Richard Scott, who also sits on Wycombe District Council and Buckinghamshire County Council, said: ^As a gateway to Marlow it's not very attractive for a relatively small amount of money we should be able to improve it.^ Creating some flower beds outside would be one way to improve the appearance, he said.

The Marlow Society also believes improvements need to be made and called upon Marlovians to come together to reinvigorate the area. Society spokesman David Steele said he had been ^embarrassed^ recently to watch a Canadian couple visiting the town getting wet and wind swept due to the lack of shelter there. ^Here's an opportunity to spend a little bit of money to make a better impression when people come into Marlow and when they leave it. It's not as if we're talking about a massive redevelopment. If you want to attract people onto public transport it needs to be as nice as possible.^

The station is simply in need of a little ^tender loving care^, Mr Steele said.

Mr Steele said signs and maps of Marlow would make a significant difference and aid travellers getting to the town centre because of the distance.

Paul Murphy, secretary of Marlow-Maidenhead Passengers' Association, said although he was not aware of any passenger complaints about the state of the station the organisation believes the Marlow stretch of the track could be better marketed and smartened up.

First Great Western were unavailable for comment.

[IndustryInsider]

It's not an unattractive station - I could certainly name many worse - it's in the middle of a small business park, so it's going to be very difficult to make many improvements.

The biggest eyesore is the old station yard and former car park (I assume) which stands empty and full of brambles. This could be tarted up and turned into, erm, I don't know, a Car Park perhaps? Some new commuters might want to park their car there then...

[Electric train]

The "former station yard" is where the original station stood or at least part of it.

Marlow station is just bland and functional station which is a shame as parts of the line between Bourne End and Marlow have some good views of the Thames, it would take very little money to improve things just some effort from the local movers and shakers to get some funding, getting money out of Globe Park might be a challenge as it was designed and built road friendly (good connections to 2 major motorways) I don't think the designers even gave public transport a thought

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Maidenhead Advertiser:

Marlow station set for makeover

Marlow Railway Station could be given a major revamp, it was revealed at a meeting of the Town Council last night.

First Great Western (FGW^▸ (First Great Western)) and Network Rail have been approached to remove graffiti and install CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision), ticket machines, and information screens.

The scheme is in the early stages but money has been budgeted by FGW to install CCTV with work carried out some time in the new year.

Speaking after the meeting, chairman of the Maidenhead and Marlow Passengers Association, Susan Morrison likened the station to an 'unloved step child'.

"It is clearly not very attractive, and we would like to see it given a major revamp," she said.

Read more in next week's Advertiser.

[eightf48544]

There is still a resonably active Maidenhead and Marlow paassenger Association who are quoted in the post.

It is also well known that a Mark Hopwood is a Marlow man.

[Electric train]

From the Marlow - Maidenhead Passangers Association website http://www.mmpa.org.uk/tt/maytt.html

0703 Maidenhead ^ Paddington non-stop service (0620 from Didcot Parkway) to be formed as a 5-car instead of 4-car. This provides an additional 100 Standard Class seats in a key morning peak service
0602 Reading ^ Slough ^ Paddington service to call additionally at Maidenhead, providing a new fast service into London
1736 Paddington ^ Oxford service (fast to Maidenhead) will be formed as a HST^▸ (High Speed Train) instead of a 4-car Turbo
1742 Paddington ^ Bourne End to be accelerated, running 5 minutes faster to Maidenhead and 4 minutes faster to Bourne End
Continuation of recent introduction of Maidenhead call in 1750 Paddington ^ Oxford HST service
1818 Paddington ^ Oxford service (fast to Maidenhead) to run as currently; with a better connection to Bourne End, arrival time there will be accelerated by 4 minutes
1833 Paddington ^ Oxford ceases to operate between Paddington and Oxford For Maidenhead, the 1833 will be effectively replaced by an accelerated and retimed 1842 Paddington ^ Bourne End service. Instead of taking 36 minutes to get to Maidenhead (which makes it a relatively unattractive service), it will depart at 1836 and get to Maidenhead in 27 minutes. As far as Maidenhead it will be formed as a 5-car service instead of a 3-car, providing an additional 186 seats on this train. (NB the 1842 presently has an average load factor of c.72% so there should, on average, also be a further 75 standard seats available for use from Paddington)
The Bourne End connection out of the 1918 Paddington ^ Oxford will be retimed, accelerating the journey time from Paddington to Bourne End by 4 minutes
An additional Maidenhead call will also be inserted into the 1947 Paddington ^ Cheltenham HST service, taking the pattern of fast services to Maidenhead up to 2000
1519 Taunton ^ Paddington HST service will call additionally at Maidenhead (1730)
For Twyford, an additional call will be inserted into the 1848 Paddington ^ Cheltenham HST
1812 Paddington-Henley becomes a 3-car v 4-car service
Saturdays: 2245 Paddington ^ Didcot runs 2 min later from Maidenhead to Reading to provide a better connection off the branch
Saturdays:0650 Twyford ^ Henley runs 7 min later to improve connections onto the branch
Sundays: An additional 0835 Maidenhead ^ Marlow and 0901 return trip will run, giving the branch a 1-hour earlier start on a Sunday compared to the usual service. Long term operation will depend on sufficient traffic being generated.

[Electric train]

Yesterday Network Railwork (NR^» (Network Rail - home page)) imposed a 20mph TSR^▸ (Temporary Speed Restriction) between Furze Platt and Cookham, this meant this morning the 07:57 from Fuze Platt to Maidenhead missed the connection with the 07:03 the driver on the branch stressing the point the late running was due to the Network Railwork (NR) speed restriction imposed because of track conditions.

Last Autum NR did some spot sleeper replacement at Furze Platt station removing the tie bars they had put in a month or so before, but a few weeks ago the tie bars were back so I wonder when the full repairs will be done as it obvious the whole stretch is in need of work.

For those unfamiliar with the line the section between Furze Platt (a single line) is fish platted 60ft bullhead rail with wooden sleepers with a normal line speed of 50mph

Edit: VickiS - clarifying acronyms

[IndustryInsider]

More tinkering with the peak service than usual.  Whether the end result is just a shuffle of the pack or a noticeably better/worse service for Slough/Maidenhead/Twyford to London commuters remains to be seen - though it looks like the withdrawal of the 18:33 has been tempered by other changes.  Peak stops at Maidenhead and Twyford on the Cheltenham's is interesting - probably won't go down to well with the need for speed brigade!

[Electric train]

Also interesting is the 15:19 Taunton Padd stopping at Maidenhead

(Edit Corrected typo in the time)

[John R]

This has to be seen as a retrograde step, stopping HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) between Reading and Paddington. I can't imagine East Coast trains stopping at Biggleswade or Virgin trains stopping at Hemel Hempstead.

[Btline]

This has to be seen as a retrograde step, stopping HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) between Reading and Paddington.

What he said. Hopefully it's temporary.