Recent content by Tramtrain

It’s a shame the EL trains from Twyford in the peaks are not more evenly spaced. At the moment they depart 10 mins apart with a 20 min gap, but the second train is 5 mins faster so they arrive in the central section 5 mins apart. Coupled with the fact the GWR service departs in the middle of the...

Will these services stop at Cramlington and Widdrington as was heralded initially? Cramlington in particular is woefully underserved by the hourly Northern service, particularly on Sundays

Is a renovated Belmont Viaduct not still viable for use as a spur to Durham? If it was, or a similar alignment could be built, you could have stops at Durham - Belmont P&R - Chilton Moor Black Boy Rd (1) - Shiney Row - Washington South - Washington North (2) - Follingsby (3) - Heworth -...

I remember reading there was major overhaul of the signalling on the line due anyway, so if anything that cost was just brought forward slightly

If capacity could be found, say 4x GWR services per hour could divert from OOC via Kensington and Vauxhall to Waterloo, as there’s already a connection GWML-WLL past the Hitachi depot (albeit some additional track might be needed). That would then create space for 3/4 HS2 trains per hour at...

Couldn’t a connection be built at OOC to the West London Line to allow trains access down to Waterloo, terminating at the old Eurostar platforms?

Why are SWR terminating every other evening Reading-bound service at Bracknell? This seems to be a long term change, making a bad service at Wokingham even worse. It’s already cheaper and quicker to drive to Twyford to use GWR (even after paying to park there). With endless closures and...

Are paths likely to be set aside for the Northumberland Line services?

Equally the 07:53 from Twyford in the AM peak is rammed, often leaves passengers behind at Maidenhead, and that’s with 12 coaches

If Heathrow Southern Rail was ever built, 2tph could divert to stop at Heathrow then run fast/semi fast to Paddington, for a journey time of less than 1hr WKM-LON.

I guess the trouble is stopping at places like Longcross, where demand is infinitely less than other stops on the line, at the same frequency as Wokingham or Bracknell. It’s somewhat ridiculous it’s as quick, or quicker, to go from Waterloo to Southampton than to Wokingham. The journey...

Calls for trains from Reading to London Waterloo via Earley, Wokingham and Bracknell to be made faster Perhaps this should have been part of SWRs mysteriously disappearing “consultation” for Dec 22. How feasible would it be to path Reading trains to run non-stop from Twickenham to Waterloo?

Are TPE quietly ditching the planned extra calls at Cramlington/Widdrington on their North of Newcastle journeys? The only call showing at CRM now is the ~0710 call towards Newcastle and nothing NB.

Similarly they’ve inserted trains M-F ex WAT (to RDG) at 1735 & 1835. In my experience the 1820 is a busy train. Surely 1735 & 1805 would make more sense, to have a 15-min frequency through the evening peak

RailAdvent reporting there will be 2 extra rotations EDI-DUN-Reston-BWK from May 2022, and also that most of the southbound journeys won’t call at Cramlington due to “capacity” issues...