What about implementing passing loops on Main Lines so High Speed Services can overtake Slow Services.
Would be handy for Bristol > W-S-M > Taunton as an example. If the
XC▸ Fast service is running slightly late, Sometimes the signaller will allow the
FGW▸ Slow service to leave first, which is fair enough because nobody wants 2 late trains. However the consquences of the decision made by the signaller are that you get stuck behind it with the stop start motion right the way through to Yatton or W-S-M!
Having passing loops would prevent this. However I doubt very much that it would be practical or cost effective. Also there is the planning permission and existing infrastructure to content with. The costs of reconfiguring the signalling system
AFAIK▸ would be huge!
I've answered my own question there really...!
I was going to post something similar re loops. It's not a new idea the last main line (no not the
GC» ) but the
GWR▸ and GWR and GC joint line from Old Oak to Anyho had 11 passing places where there were loops mostly at staions although quite a long stretch of 4 track from South Ruislip (where the GC joined via a burrowing junction) past West Ruslip.
Not sure
OOC▸ is good place for a hub it's out in wilds for London passengers, it might make an interchange station, but then that defeats the objective of having a high speed line to London. Any
HS▸ line will have to use one of the exisitng London terminii. Even the French use Lyon, Nord and EST and the conventional lines for the last few clicks from the end of the
LGV▸ lines into Paris.
I was looking at a road atlas with a table of distances between major towns. it's amazing how close some are to each other. Basically if you say have staions every hundred miles then you only have three staions between London and Glasgow namely Birmingham Manchester and Carlisle. Or London Edinburgh, Birmingham/Leicester Leeds Newcastle.
Every 50 miles and you might serve Milton Keynes/Bedford Stafford/Nottingham or Sheffield but not both, Preston or Lancaster/York. But no station in Scotland.
As others have said we are really too small with too many towns too close together to justify a dedicated HS passenger line.
I would suggest three ways od meeting demand for rail travel. Tram trains serving on street in towns and sharing lines out to the edge of town. Bristol is ideal, Portishead to Severn Beach Filton and Yate with one loop through Temple meads the other through the docks and town centre joining line North of Temple meads. This could apply to many provincial towns.
As for the mainlines, increased line speeds and provision for overtaking both freight and stoppers. Thus you could run a stopper from Penzance overtaken by a fast at Plymouth, the stopper continues to Newton Abbot where it is overtaken by an Up Torquay fast and connects with a down Torquay. it then proceeds all staions to Exeter where it's overtaken by the next Up fast from Penzance/Plymouth so on up the line.
Passengers from iall stations get a through train to their nearest big town where they can change for fast to Birmingham ot London. Big towns get a regular limited stop service to London and any one wanting to go from Liskguard to Totnes will have a through train admittedly with short await at Plymouth. If the changes were cross paltform then so much the better.
But as the trout says boiling frogs would probably make this solution far too expensive that it could be cheaper to build a dedicated HS line from scratch.
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