Filton Bank Update?

[whole diary]

[metalrail]

As usual (and also an appropriate subject for the question of the future of the Metrowest project) there's absolutely no mention of the fact that the Four Tracking was originally part of the campaign to enable more local trains to be run more often, and was the key to being able to effectively unlock that potential

It's just been sold again as a boost in the Bristol to London services, same as always;

"The two new tracks will also help get services up and running faster when incidents occur and critically the new lines pave the way for an increase in direct London – Bristol Parkway – Bristol Temple Meads services that will be introduced at the end of 2019"

Yes, it will reduce the journey time from BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains) to PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) by running directly, but that doesn't - in any way - solve the Greater Bristol transport problems we're still stuck with

In fact it goes on to say how it will help to boost Bristol's economy and growth - which is fantastic - but which just adds yet more footfall and congestion to a local transport system which is already years behind being able to cope with the existing living & working population of the area

[TonyK]

Patience would have been a very useful virtue for those who had to negotiate the astonishingly heavy traffic between Montpelier and Clifton Down during the three-week blockade.

Some people might think that a 3-car train running every 40 minutes wouldn't make that much difference to traffic, but with narrow already-congested roads I have no doubt that it makes a huge difference. It would be interesting to ask the scores of schoolkids who use the Severn Beach line to get to Cotham, Colston's and Redland Green schools what mode they switched to during the blockade; my guess is that more than half of them went by car.

St Mary Redcliffe too. There are around 300 seats on a 3-car Turbo, meaning you should be able to cram around 500 onto one. That is five double-deck bus loads, or up to 500 cars removed from the road - far from insignificant.

[Dispatch Box]

As usual (and also an appropriate subject for the question of the future of the Metrowest project) there's absolutely no mention of the fact that the Four Tracking was originally part of the campaign to enable more local trains to be run more often, and was the key to being able to effectively unlock that potential

It's just been sold again as a boost in the Bristol to London services, same as always;

"The two new tracks will also help get services up and running faster when incidents occur and critically the new lines pave the way for an increase in direct London – Bristol Parkway – Bristol Temple Meads services that will be introduced at the end of 2019"

Yes, it will reduce the journey time from BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains) to PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) by running directly, but that doesn't - in any way - solve the Greater Bristol transport problems we're still stuck with

In fact it goes on to say how it will help to boost Bristol's economy and growth - which is fantastic - but which just adds yet more footfall and congestion to a local transport system which is already years behind being able to cope with the existing living & working population of the area

I Thought it was this month, That new trains start, do not want to wait that long, starting to go grey?.

[grahame]

I Thought it was this month, That new trains start, do not want to wait that long, starting to go grey?.

The public timetable is virtually unchanged this month.  After all the problems on Northern and Southern / Thameslink, a "review before we do" policy has brought in and for December that's close to "The answer is NO, what is the question". when TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) ask Network Rail.   Very irritating because some things are ready to go.

You will find two sets of changes on Filton Bank. Firstly, as St Phillip's Marsh ramps down on HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) and Stoke Gifford ramps up on IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train), you'll find movements getting trains to and from depots change. Second, and we're see in it already, redistribution of existing trains make things far less prone to delay and cancellation through capacity issues between Temple Meads and Parkway, including service that only use a part of that line such as Avonmouth and Severn Beach trains.

[grahame]

We appear to have re-opened a very old topic here and now have two thread running.

Continuing posts at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=13113 ... and I am going to temporarily lock this topic to nudge people over there.