Great Western Main Line electrification - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[SandTEngineer]

Info elsewhere suggests a 387 can go through it with PAN up, at not more than 60mph.

[IndustryInsider]

Yes, that's right.  Though not yet - but that will happen once Swindon Cocklebury sidings start being used for 387 stabling.

[Adrian]

Why will 387s need to go to Swindon?

[grahame]

Why will 387s need to go to Swindon?

So they can be stored there overnight. 

Will they actually go into the platform or be able to go straight to / from the sidings?

[paul7575]

Why will 387s need to go to Swindon?

I believe they’re being evicted from the Crossrail facilities at Maidenhead.  Swindon seems to have been chosen for new stabling only within the last year or so, it seems to have superseded an earlier proposal for EMU^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) sidings at Didcot.

Paul

[SandTEngineer]

Why will 387s need to go to Swindon?

So they can be stored there overnight. 

Will they actually go into the platform or be able to go straight to / from the sidings?

The signalling allows entry/exit from/to the Didcot direction but they can also enter/exit from the Swindon station end with a reversal shunt.

[Electric train]

Why will 387s need to go to Swindon?

I believe they’re being evicted from the Crossrail facilities at Maidenhead.  Swindon seems to have been chosen for new stabling only within the last year or so, it seems to have superseded an earlier proposal for EMU^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) sidings at Didcot.

Paul

Looks like OOC^▸ (Old Oak Common (depot)) Elizabeth Line depot is getting tight for space and I expect facilities on the GE are getting tight for space so I suspect Maidenhead is need.  Also through next year of course more and more route knowledge training is going to be needed for the Elizabeth Line drivers in readiness for a years time …………………..

..................… Yep is its getting close

[grahame]

Why will 387s need to go to Swindon?

So they can be stored there overnight. 

Another very silly question ... we have been told that there is no capacity available between Swindon and Didcot for a service that extends an hourly Oxford - Didcot shuttle to Swindon, and / or an hourly TransWilts service to Oxford.    Is that because the capacity is needed for these darned empty stock trains, or because "capacity" is a convenient excuse to give?   I appreciate top speeds 125 v 110 v 90, but then isn't the top speed 60 at the Steventon bottleneck?

[CMRail]

EDIT: This post went dramatically wrong.

[IndustryInsider]

Another very silly question ... we have been told that there is no capacity available between Swindon and Didcot for a service that extends an hourly Oxford - Didcot shuttle to Swindon, and / or an hourly TransWilts service to Oxford.    Is that because the capacity is needed for these darned empty stock trains, or because "capacity" is a convenient excuse to give?   I appreciate top speeds 125 v 110 v 90, but then isn't the top speed 60 at the Steventon bottleneck?

The majority, if not all, the movements to/from Swindon with 387s will be in the very early hours, or late at night.

[grahame]

The majority, if not all, the movements to/from Swindon with 387s will be in the very early hours, or late at night.

Yeah - that makes sense.   I wonder if and when we'll see morning peak Didcot starters to Paddington being extended back to Swindon ... and evening peak services having an extra stop.

[TaplowGreen]

The majority, if not all, the movements to/from Swindon with 387s will be in the very early hours, or late at night.

Yeah - that makes sense.   I wonder if and when we'll see morning peak Didcot starters to Paddington being extended back to Swindon ... and evening peak services having an extra stop.

Why would they be?

[stuving]

The majority, if not all, the movements to/from Swindon with 387s will be in the very early hours, or late at night.

Yeah - that makes sense.   I wonder if and when we'll see morning peak Didcot starters to Paddington being extended back to Swindon ... and evening peak services having an extra stop.

Why would they be?

I think Graham is referring to this, which is from the Western Route Study of 2015:

To accommodate this forecast passenger demand in CP6^▸ (Control Period 6 - The five year period between 2019 and 2024) an option has been identified to provide two additional services between London Paddington and Swindon, in the morning and evening high-peak periods (in the peak direction), calling at Didcot Parkway and Reading. These services would use the Main Lines and would need to have the requisite rolling stock performance characteristics to be compatible with other services. Additional infrastructure is likely to be required to accommodate these services. The scale of infrastructure changes depends on choices that exist to maximise the use of existing network capacity on the core corridor between London Paddington and Reading through separation of the Main and Relief line railway.

But that "additional" service was on top of the fast DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) service from Oxford and Newbury, and the full post-2018 IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) service too. Those have not yet happened, or won't all be electric. So for the time being the extra paths made available by grade separating Reading are not full of IETs, making it possible to run trains now without removing the Twyford and Maidenhead semifasts (which is what that text is talking about).

There is now one 12-car (?) "peak-buster" from Didcot, which is more or less that Swindon service cut short for want of volts. I can't find any more than one - the 7:30 - though it's hard to be sure as GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) do not seem to have put it in any of their timetables. I guess one train does not a service make.

So the answer should be that train will start from Swindon (though it doesn't for this December), but may be taken away whenever the full new timetable escapes from captivity. But in reality, who knows?.

[didcotdean]

There is a Paddington->Reading->Didcot service at 16:36 although this is rather early in the evening to be a 'crowdbuster' as such.

The 07:30 from Didcot in effect enables trains from Bristol and Swansea that used to stop a few minutes either side to now pass through.

[TonyK]

EDIT: This post went dramatically wrong.

Not without precedent  - glad  it ended  well.