Germany - rail services, ticketing and incidents (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Working out the services you want, then working out where you don't have the capacity to run them and looking to add that capacity make sense and - err - has been done in practice for a while, and is the way a lot of the way future requirements are looked at.

Want a half hourly service Exeter to Yeovil Junction, with alternate services onward to Salisbury and onward (when they're a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) diversion) to Castle Cary?   Take a look at where they'll be passing each other and that's where you need your loops.    But, yet, not as simple as that.  There are places that a loop will be expensive, impossible, delay trains by adding a stop away from stations, and you'll slide the trains up and down, perhaps change stopping patterns, etc, to make best use of existing loops, platforms, etc - there's no point in spending for the sake of a train running 5 minute later throughout provided that doesn't mean adding a train to the cycle or missing a connection.

Another benefit ... clock face = same each hour = you will make really good of the facilities and not have lots of them each used only occasionally.  And another benefit - where there's a good connection it will be a good connection all day and (please!) if you can get it to work as well in the other direction you have a very marketable product on the flow.

Now ... I was actually looking at "Here's the service how do we do it" for the Wiltshire, Somerset and Weymouth.

Hourly trains - six in the cycle:
Weymouth passes trains at ...
* Maiden Newton (existing loop)
* Around Spakford (new dynamic loop, perhaps from Pen Mill - see also services via Yeovil Junction)
* Between Frome and Westbury (on main double line)
... time at Westbury to connect into Bath and Bristol and from Southampton area train (add 4th platform?)
* Between Melksham and Thingley (new dynamic loop most of the way)
* Shrivenham/Grove (on main double line)
... on way to Oxford
With the train having a turn-around of just over 12 minutes at each end

Hourly trains - South Wales or Bristol to Solent, for those Westbury connections (broadly current stops in our area plus Dilton Marsh and Wilton)

Every 30 minutes Bristol Temple Meads to Bradford-on-Avon, alternating on to Chippenham or Swindon and Westbury or Warminster (this is where the "slide it" exercise comes in and perhaps we're looking far, far ahead) or Radstock.

But is starts ... not even from the service but from:
* the passenger journey which gives
* the service pattern which gives
* infrastructure needs
or as Network Rail are saying - "putting the passenger first".

[eightf48544]

Lets hope the money follows.

[stuving]

That sounds like the same concept as Network Rail's "Improving Connectivity" - as examined in their report in 2014 and consultation. I can't see that report available any more, and I don't think it ever led to much at all. It was discussed in this thread.

There was a discussion of why NR^» (Network Rail - home page)'s attempt at doing this ground to a halt at such an early stage here, at Railfuture. This refers back to the original Swiss Taktfarhplan.

[grahame]

From Mail Online

BERLIN (AP) - Germany's national rail operator on Tuesday announced plans to reopen 20 stretches of railway around the country that have been closed over the years, a move intended to help get more people and freight on trains as the country steps up efforts to fight climate change.

The stretches that state-owned Deutsche Bahn plans to revive have a total length of 245 kilometers (152 miles). They were chosen after a team of experts assessed shuttered routes totaling around 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) for potential viability.

The routes include several suburban lines in and around Berlin and Duesseldorf, as well as other local routes in various parts of the country and a cross-border connection from Breisach in Germany's southwestern corner to Colmar, France.

We have looked at a number of railway re-openings on the forum - but based on financial / business cases with an icing of politics - rarely if ever based on an environment and climate change element.  Which are the lines in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) that are already making the largest environmental difference, and are there others which, if re-opened, could make an outstanding difference?

[infoman]

I still would prefer ticket gates installed at most large stations,

and I am refering to Sheffield station along with Doncaster Chesterfield Rotherham and Meadowhall.

At the last (proper)count 10 million used Sheffield station a year,so the loss must be in the millions of pounds

[grahame]

I still would prefer ticket gates installed at most large stations

I think that is a different issue, though.   I don't see ticket gates doing anything for the environment and climate except indirectly by helping in the measurement and financing of rail development through better stats and revenue collection. Might even drive some of the folks who make free train use into other ways ... I can think of places in Wiltshire where a fully enforced daily payment to travel would result in a heavier use of Dad's taxi.

[Rhydgaled]

Which are the lines in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) that are already making the largest environmental difference, and are there others which, if re-opened, could make an outstanding difference?

In the case of exisiting lines; the routes making the largest environmental difference are probably the electrified ones... or perhaps some that carry alot of freight (avoiding HGV movements on the road). I think the environmental case for diesel-powered passenger rail is difficult to make - the full-length 125mph IC125s on the Great Western and Midland main lines probably were among the better performing routes in this regard - because the high speeds would probably have been attractive to passengers who may otherwise have gone by private car and the CO2-per-seat figures for an IC125 if I recall correctly are/were quite a bit better than the gas-guzzling Voyager/Meridian units.

At the other end of the scale, a 2-car Sprinter unit probably compares poorly to a bus service - especially since a train cannot easily stop at every gatepost to pick up passengers so you need to run the bus anyway as a socially necessary service for people who don't have access to a car. Unless the buses are running full, traffic abstraction from the bus service is counter productive. For a 2-car diesel passenger railway to make a positive contribution to environmental issues it needs to be successful in reducing private car use - to what degree I'm not sure.

[broadgage]

Taunton to Minehead would be my favourite.
The environmental gain would seem considerable since traffic congestion results in much wasted fuel by buses and cars at busy times.
Also provision of through trains to the Butlins holiday camp would encourage rail use from say London or Bristol to Minehead, not just between Taunton and Minehead.

A battery train would be ideal for a Taunton to Minehead shuttle with charging at each end of the line. Through trains would have to be diesel or bi mode.

[Reading General]

Witney to Oxford. The A40 is terrible between the two points.
Completion of electrification to Oxford and beyond is an easy target for electric trains that currently end at Didcot, plus fasts that finish at Oxford.

[Surrey 455]

Taunton to Minehead would be my favourite.
The environmental gain would seem considerable since traffic congestion results in much wasted fuel by buses and cars at busy times.
Also provision of through trains to the Butlins holiday camp would encourage rail use from say London or Bristol to Minehead, not just between Taunton and Minehead.

A battery train would be ideal for a Taunton to Minehead shuttle with charging at each end of the line. Through trains would have to be diesel or bi mode.

Is Butlins open all year round?
Would there be much demand for a rail link outside the summer months?
Would there be much demand for a rail link within the summer months?

[Lee]

At the other end of the scale, a 2-car Sprinter unit probably compares poorly to a bus service - especially since a train cannot easily stop at every gatepost to pick up passengers so you need to run the bus anyway as a socially necessary service for people who don't have access to a car. Unless the buses are running full, traffic abstraction from the bus service is counter productive. For a 2-car diesel passenger railway to make a positive contribution to environmental issues it needs to be successful in reducing private car use - to what degree I'm not sure.

Portishead and Havant-Hayling Island would be my top two on this criteria, as rail is the only realistic alternative in both cases if you were to make a serious attempt to reduce private car use, with the specific local circumstances rendering the bus impotent in tackling it instead.

[Lee]

Taunton to Minehead would be my favourite.
The environmental gain would seem considerable since traffic congestion results in much wasted fuel by buses and cars at busy times.
Also provision of through trains to the Butlins holiday camp would encourage rail use from say London or Bristol to Minehead, not just between Taunton and Minehead.

A battery train would be ideal for a Taunton to Minehead shuttle with charging at each end of the line. Through trains would have to be diesel or bi mode.

Is Butlins open all year round?
Would there be much demand for a rail link outside the summer months?
Would there be much demand for a rail link within the summer months?

grahame has previously looked into the varuous traffic flows here, including the provision of a platform serving Butlins on Seaward Road on the existing route.

[broadgage]

Taunton to Minehead would be my favourite.
The environmental gain would seem considerable since traffic congestion results in much wasted fuel by buses and cars at busy times.
Also provision of through trains to the Butlins holiday camp would encourage rail use from say London or Bristol to Minehead, not just between Taunton and Minehead.

A battery train would be ideal for a Taunton to Minehead shuttle with charging at each end of the line. Through trains would have to be diesel or bi mode.

Is Butlins open all year round?
Would there be much demand for a rail link outside the summer months?
Would there be much demand for a rail link within the summer months?

Not ALL year, but it is used for a much longer season than might be supposed.
Outside of the summer holiday season the venue has been used for hugely popular music events, and also for large scale religious gatherings. I would expect an increase in such events if through trains were available.
A major political party considered holding a conference at Minehead Butlins "to show the west that we care about them" but the idea was rejected due to poor transport links.

[CyclingSid]

The video on some of the work after flooding didn't show quite the equivalent of the Orange Army and lots of hi-tech wizardry, more old fashioned bucket and spade.
https://www.dw.com/en/deutsche-bahn-german-rail-strike-comes-to-an-end/a-59105532
The quote

The union was doing "a disservice to the autonomy of collective bargaining," he said.

at the end from the German Federation of Small Businesses is interesting.

[broadgage]

A large WW2 bomb has exploded during tunneling works in Munich, Germany.
Four persons are hurt and one is in a serious condition.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59487910

Such bombs are still found regularly, but are usually dealt with safely and actual explosions are rare. An enquiry is underway in order to ascertain why this one was not detected and made safe.