Carstairs Overhead Line Equipment renewals and upgrade

[Mollman]

Maryport's platform is on a loop line, so not the same as Malton.

I do apologies, I always thought the middle line was the down loop.

 

[68000]

https://twitter.com/NetworkRailSCOT/status/1649455453833756682

We've completed the latest phase of upgrade work at Carstairs. This means direct West Coast main line trains between Glasgow Central and Carlisle return on weekdays from Monday (April 24).

On course to reopen the Glasgow portion on Monday morning

 

[adamedwards]

Very pleased it's nearly finished. Will there be a large turn out for the first train through? How early is it?

 

[Bald Rick]

Very pleased it's nearly finished. Will there be a large turn out for the first train through? How early is it?

first service train is 0548 off Central.

 

[Waverleystu]

Will there be speed restrictions on the up/down fasts or 110mph services passing through?

 

[Put Kettle On]

Opens Monday with 50 MPH TSR on both lines.

 

[Frankton Junct]

Opens Monday with 50 MPH TSR on both lines.

That should be the end of the Avanti Voyager shuttles between Glasgow and Carlisle via the Glasgow Barrhead Kilmarnock and Glasgow and South Western routes.

 

[Railsigns]

That should be the end of the Avanti Voyager shuttles between Glasgow and Carlisle via the Glasgow Barrhead Kilmarnock and Glasgow and South Western routes.

I don't think it is, though. It appears that a journey I have planned for 29th May will involve one of these shuttles.

 

[Frankton Junct]

I don't think it is, though. It appears that a journey I have planned for 29th May will involve one of these shuttles.

I checked post #32 which itself quotes a Network Rail press release:

Network Rail has today (20th February) released a Press Release about the closure, and subsequent disruption through to Sunday 4th June

£164m overhaul for key cross-border rail line

The West Coast main line will close for 16 days in March as Network Rail engineers deliver a vital programme of work to upgrade Carstairs Junction.

www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk

The final phase, between Saturday April 22 and Sunday June 4, will see most services return to normal during weekdays with the junction fully closed each weekend.

So, yes, the shuttles will still run for a while yet.

 

[jayah]

Press release from last Friday, not yet posted:

West Coast main line to close for major overhaul

Carstairs Junction will be modernised as part of a £164m Scottish Government investment in the railway.

www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk

It is a pity they can't act strategically as well as talking about strategic infrastructure.

Carstairs Junction itself is about 70 houses, perhaps 150-200 people. There is no justification at all for a station, it presumably exists purely from its historical junction status.

Carstairs settlement is perhaps 250 homes if I am generous, located a mile away. Under a thousand people all in. Still not a justification for a station. Being a mile away, almost everyone from the larger settlement will be driving to access the railway and Lanark has a far better service and is well within reach. Many people in Carstairs probably do this already. There are probably 50 other settlements on the passenger railway lines in former Strathclyde with a better justification for having a station than Carstairs does. The cost of what is being done to accommodate the existence of Carstairs station is out of all proportion to the hardship that would arise closing it.

Scotrail run something like 6 train pairs between Glasgow and Edinburgh via Carstairs. Towards Glasgow, all other stations are served by the Lanark line. Towards Edinburgh the same is true from the next station Kirknewton, which is on the Shotts Line.

The 6 train pairs serve two purposes - the 60k annual footfall at Carstairs, most of whom don't live near the station and to provide Motherwell with a 'fast' service to Edinburgh. The former, most of whom could just as easily railhead at Lanark don't justify the service, while the latter could be served better by improving the connections at Bellshill, or even opening a new station between Bellshill and Holytown connecting the Shotts and Balloch routes, but which in its own right would serve far more people than station at Carstairs does.

Aside from the amount of infrastructure, the subsidy for these 6 train pairs must be huge.

But rule still seems to be that nobody can be made worse off by a change, no matter what the cost benefit.

 

[zwk500]

But rule still seems to be that nobody can be made worse off by a change, no matter what the cost benefit.

Whilst there is an element of this, A large part of this project was driven by the need to provide 775m freight loops and a shunting facility for the Sleeper train. As those two elements could not have been removed from the scope, the additional work to accommodate the sleeper was insignificant.

 

[najaB]

But rule still seems to be that nobody can be made worse off by a change, no matter what the cost benefit.

Closing a station is a relatively expensive proposition, typically it's a lot cheaper to keep it open with even a token service.

 

[OB23Gone]

I do apologies, I always thought the middle line was the down loop.

I to had the same problem with line layouts. Have enclosed new layout diagram along with photos from last Friday

 

[FS-2-11]

How do drivers prepare for the new layout opening, from a route-knowledge perspective? Is it just via a notice being published in advance, and a classroom exercise, or does the schedule of work allow for drivers to get some practical training on what it looks and feels like now, before they drive it for real?

 

[Mollman]

I to had the same problem with line layouts. Have enclosed new layout diagram along with photos from last Friday

Thanks for the annotated photos, very useful.

 

[MadMac]

How do drivers prepare for the new layout opening, from a route-knowledge perspective? Is it just via a notice being published in advance, and a classroom exercise, or does the schedule of work allow for drivers to get some practical training on what it looks and feels like now, before they drive it for real?

Thirty years ago admittedly, but one of the things that came out of the Newton inquiry was that drivers had little opportunity to familiarise themselves with what was a radically changed layout other than a walkthrough and the opening notice. Now, there are simulators which can replicate practical experience of the site.

 

[driver9000]

How do drivers prepare for the new layout opening, from a route-knowledge perspective? Is it just via a notice being published in advance, and a classroom exercise, or does the schedule of work allow for drivers to get some practical training on what it looks and feels like now, before they drive it for real?

We have been given briefing packs, maps and a classroom day with an Instructor to go through a video of every move in the new Carstairs area and to discuss the new signalling arrangements and speeds. The first time I saw it for myself was my first working over the new layout when the Edinburgh route reopened.

 

[Wynd]

Closing a station is a relatively expensive proposition, typically it's a lot cheaper to keep it open with even a token service.

Or.....hear me out....do things that encourage uptake at the station....

The idea of closing stations today is even more mad than it was 65 years ago.

 

[Huntergreed]

Video of the new layout, at a slow speed from a voyager:

https://twitter.com/guychord1/status/1650586246186409991?s=46&t=gux8jV-239P7vFWJRyru_A

 

[Cowley]

Or.....hear me out....do things that encourage uptake at the station....

The idea of closing stations today is even more mad than it was 65 years ago.

There’s now an entirely non controversial thread for that side of things here:

Should Carstairs station be closed or the area developed for more housing?

Or.....hear me out....do things that encourage uptake at the station.... The idea of closing stations today is even more mad than it was 65 years ago. It's not totally mad, Lanark and Carluke aren't that far away, and Carstairs is in the middle of a really awkward bit of main line to serve...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[OB23Gone]

Video of the new layout, at a slow speed from a voyager:

https://twitter.com/guychord1/status/1650586246186409991?s=46&t=gux8jV-239P7vFWJRyru_A

Some 1st Day Photos

 

[Scotrail88]

Opens Monday with 50 MPH TSR on both lines.

Presume this will remain in place until works are finished to protect staff.

Be good to see the actual benefits in trip time once completed

 

[The Planner]

Presume this will remain in place until works are finished to protect staff.

Be good to see the actual benefits in trip time once completed

More likely until it gets some tonnage over it and a follow up tamp.

 

[OB23Gone]

More likely until it gets some tonnage over it and a follow up tamp.

Your Tamping wishes have been fulfilled. A couple of Tampers on duty yesterday 29th 1 each on UM & DM. About Tonnage have noted on RTT that on the Down services, including freight & Engineers, that there is a kind of pattern of alternative moves using the Down Passing Loop and DM. Suppose this is part of the Bedding in process.

 

[Railsigns]

A few pictures taken on site today, as Stage 3 nears completion.

 

[Scotrail88]

Great pics!

Will the main line TSR be removed once this stage is completed?? Be good to experience the true line speed through the area

 

[Beebman]

This video was uploaded yesterday on the Scotland's Railway channel:

Carstairs Modernisation - Track and Station Update
(with in-vision subtitles)

We caught up with Neil from Rail Systems Alliance Scotland, a partnership between ourselves, Babcock and Arcadis, to hear about what we're up to at Carstairs. We're rebuilding the platforms and changing the track layout during the £164m Scottish Government funded project.

 

[swt_passenger]

A few pictures taken on site today, as Stage 3 nears completion.

Is the first picture speed signage logical? Wouldn’t you expect the left hand “20” to have a left facing arrow?

Indeed it’s a left arrow in the first drawing in post #79?

 

[Railsigns]

Is the first picture speed signage logical? Wouldn’t you expect the left hand “20” to have a left facing arrow?

Indeed it’s a left arrow in the first drawing in post #79?

Well spotted. It has been installed incorrectly and will be corrected before commissioning.

 

[swt_passenger]

Well spotted. It has been installed incorrectly and will be corrected before commissioning.

Thanks, it just instantly looked wrong to me!