• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Search results

  1. MarkyT

    The San Jose BART extension and making changes to cut costs

    The 'eliminating confusion' assertion seems nonsense. Just because passengers may be able to see trains going in the other direction in some side-by-side platform configuration doesn't prevent them ending up on the wrong platform. Good signage and information systems are the best policies to...
  2. MarkyT

    The San Jose BART extension and making changes to cut costs

    Maybe the single large tunnel with vertically stacked tracks could have allowed platforms within the bored tunnel, with compact shaft access, like Barcelona's lengthy line(s) 9/10, partly open already but still under construction. From...
  3. MarkyT

    Bishops Lydeard - Frome/Westbury service?

    The two layouts shown here are informative: https://www.s-r-s.org.uk/html/gwb/S399.htm I think the blurred date for the later one, already singled through the station, is 1970. Possibly acceptance lever working with continuous track circuiting between Frome North and Blatchbridge Jn, or...
  4. MarkyT

    Bishops Lydeard - Frome/Westbury service?

    A renewal could only do that if there was an identified and funded need for more capacity/flexibility/resilience. It would be expensive with a new bridge over the A362 at the London end and access arrangements for a second platform. Renewal budget money can be a powerful tool, especially where...
  5. MarkyT

    Reading West Revamp

    Interesting. I didn't realise they'd changed to a 3 units service already. Does that mean another stop en route could be practical or are the new paths too close for comfort relative to other limited stop passenger and freight traffic on the line?
  6. MarkyT

    Bishops Lydeard - Frome/Westbury service?

    The signalling system in the area is getting on for 40 years old now, the nominal life of such assets, and although many components will have been renewed routinely over that time, the underlying ecosystem of trackside cabling and equipment cabinets is likely to be getting rather tired now. A...
  7. MarkyT

    Derailment near Grange Over Sands

    Agreed. I have read elsewhere the box was switched out at the time so there would have been nobody there to manually replace the signal to danger. Here's a nice photo of the instrument shelf and diagram on Flickr. I think the signal concerned is #13. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jjm2009/41907715340
  8. MarkyT

    Bishops Lydeard - Frome/Westbury service?

    I fully agree a parkway in the middle of nowhere is a poor solution where more central locations are available. There's no choice at somewhere like Devizes. A problem at some historic station sites might be accommodating suitable car parking nearby. Some locals may also get agitated about new...
  9. MarkyT

    Reading West Revamp

    It's not really 'capacity', it's journey time that's the problem. The turnrounds were already tight before Green Park. Adding another station would likely be impossible with current rolling stock unless the timetable was revised. An extra unit might be used inefficiently with a long layover...
  10. MarkyT

    What other possibilities are there to improve capacity around Reading?

    Here are some ideas for Reading West and Southcote Junction incorporating some grade separation:
  11. MarkyT

    Why not control future-build EMUs from the rear cab?

    Saving a cab change for a shunt would be very useful, especially for shuffling units around depots and servicing yards. Driving from the wrong cab was routine for such purposes but seems to have fallen out of favour in the UK, although, like locos propelling, there are ways to do it safely using...
  12. MarkyT

    "HS2 Back on Track" - front page of Sunday Express - private sector plan to build Birmingham to Manchester

    B&H maybe, but it'd have to be electrified completely to the trains' eventual destination, Plymouth in most cases. Birmingham-Exeter is quite gently curved and already supports 125mph in many places without tilt. Across the Somerset levels the track is arrow straight for miles in many places but...
  13. MarkyT

    Why not control future-build EMUs from the rear cab?

    You wouldn't get much sympathy from customers, the general public and media if the driver was seen to be hiding away at the back of a train because of the risk of collision to which everyone else onboard would be more exposed. Having a responsible staff member at the front of the train making...
  14. MarkyT

    Coventry VLR

    Perhaps autonomous vehicles could couple virtually rather than doing so mechanically. They could space themselves out a bit more on a tight turn as required, at a necessarily limited speed. Larger wheels might intrude into the cabin within wheelboxes, as in many existing low-floor tram designs...
  15. MarkyT

    Discontinuous Electrification - RUK's thoughts?

    Maybe deploy a eurobalise at every extremity of the HC area to switch into an appropriate less limited mode, and back to default on exit. South Wales Metro is building a system for pantograph control on their partially electrified network using this tech. Maybe use GPS + driver verification...
  16. MarkyT

    Coventry VLR

    Or multiple units could couple together to meet a demand surge. An incoming tram at a terminus could couple up to one or more spares parked at the buffer stop. Many full-size conventional tram designs are available in varying lengths, usually accomplished by joining the required number of...
  17. MarkyT

    Discontinuous Electrification - RUK's thoughts?

    So it sounds like there should be some capacity headroom on the Brighton Line. Much of Kent had been strengthened previously in the same way for Channel Tunnel traffic and Networkers. I don't know much about the South Western beyond there being shiny newer-looking equipment huts at many of the...
  18. MarkyT

    Talgo AVRIL

    That would have been pretty horrible, especially considering Voyagers have a narrow tapering body profile for tilt. The Avril cars are even wider than typical continental stock (which is wider than typical UK stock), due to having shorter vehicles. They're are also built for level boarding at...
  19. MarkyT

    Strensall station should've been built, not Haxby

    I don't know about comparative usage, but there are also good Plymouth bus services in Ivybridge, the half-hourly Stagecoach Gold from Paignton and two hourly Citybus routes. The buses are all far more convenient for most people in the town than the railway station, although some estates on the...

Top