Hi guys , a few questions if Imay, as I'm in SW Scotland and too far to see these works directly ( I did with interest follow the first section that runs to London from Oxford? , At present is there. Tweedbank style ' temporary terminus '? Also how long was that first part and did it open around the same time as the first phase of the Borders line ?.
Second the HS2 bridge I think it is on page 18, ( great photos by the way, and wonderful to be able to see ) I take it the HS2 tracks run under the Oxford to Bletchely section of the reopened route above ?
Also given some bridges are shown as having previously had sidings ran through side portals , is there scope for such portals to be used for ' passing loops , for freight ?, Only given the ' green targets ' , it would be an awful waste , to not make full use of the line, by taking HGV's off the roads and their loads , put onto the rail network , also passing loops might allow for ' express ' high speed train paths?'
( On one technical drawing of this ' new/reopening) I note the line is parallel and twin track, running next to another twin track line , is this not part of the route ?.
Also I have a map from a rail magazine ( and an actual track atlas from years prior to the beeching cuts), both show this line originally was not a mainline , yet seems to be built to allow for To my untrained eye , at least the standard of the East coast mainline ( for example - I'm not too clued up on the real technical side of railways , just learning , in addition to the 00 gauge model rail, my interest is more toward this sort of thing , reversing the beeching cuts and types of trains used ).
So is this being built as a mainline to run for example at 110-125mph line speeds ? , I ask also because on the atlas from before closeure it appears to link to fairford near Cirencester, and Witney , Oxford is shown ( south of the line ) .
Also given the fact it will eventually ( hopefully) be taken all the way to Cambridge, and I cannot recal, but did read of a further eastern extension to link into another ' mainline ', that could in theory give a continuous route for the GWR High speed services , to run between Bath/Bristol and Cambridge, via Milton Keynes ? ( Bletchely bekng obviously part of this , and I assume , ' freeflow to use a road building parlance, ' chords ' to the Wcml and others it crosses , I ask as for example, East Midlands trains , run an east west service on the excellent, Class158 between Liverpool band Norwich, outside of their regular operating area , but having used that service it's popular.
Hence my question about GWR, as in theory they could run services all the way to Norwich , avoiding London and giving passengers an alternative, to going via London and changing trains .
What is the situation with the Aylesbury section? Was there sone question of it being left out or am I mistaking it for another location.
Calvert perhaps (although bad a child I lived in stony Stratford, and only took the train to Bedford on part of this line once , back in the 80's, being so far away I'm unsure of the finer details ).
Does this line have chords where it crosses the Ecml and MML?.
I only ask as I read a long time ago that this was the longest reopening in the UK , and the previous section since the Victorian era.
Finally, will it just be DMU/Chiltern on this route .
Or will As I asked , GWR/Cross country, be able to run ' express ' services , I ask as it wound seem to be a heck of a slog on a Turbo star ( the 158/159 is superior on a long distance run , hence why they use them on the route to the SW .
But with the class 800's that GWR run , would it not be beneficial to offer longer distance routes, especially as like I wrote above it bypasses London , ( kind of like Crossrail , on a larger scale )
Final question the method of track laying , I last saw this on the borders rail, but have always wondered , how does that machine ' stay in course ' plus does it ride the rails it has laid ? , This may sound like an obvious one to some, but my technical knowledge is IT, granted I have a good understanding of how they build bridges etc , that said , it seems amazing that with such amazing machines , these projects still in this time and era take most of a decade to build what the Victorians did in far less tine with Simple, hard labour and steam machinery ( read the Waverley route heritage association's story of that routes original construction), tunnels and cuttings dug, in far less time.
My apologies for the list of long winded questions, I'm genuinely interested, I'm not too sure what the situation is or why HS2 are involved in part of the line , or where the current terminus is.
Also I have a keen Interest in rail , but as I said it's more the closures and reopenings . Plus a railway to me is a right , not a privilege, one could argue , that taking so many lives, left us with the roads and climate chaos we have today.
This new line is an amazing thing to see being restored , if only more were underway .
It gives hope for other projects , for example , the Borders line , extension, or Oakhampton, already so busy that they had to do additional work, to allow a more frequent service , giving further hope to restoring beyond Oakhampton.
Personally, despite the convenience of a car, a rail journey with the right stock is less stressful more relaxing , and nicer than , endless jams, the cost of fuel etc, and the environment.
I for one , hope this line is eventually linked to its goal, and will no doubt be a huge success!.
Again apologies for all the questions, but they are all things I'd like to know and Google is not supplying the answer .
Best wishes to you all from my village Whithorn, SW Galloway ,a fromer branch of the closed , but proposed reopening , line to Cairnryan from Dumfries.
That makes sense. Especially if the only need to fit a single track under the north arch, leaving space to reinforce the foundations of the bridge abutments.
