Bi-Directional working

[rodent279]

Am I right in thinking that most double track stretches of line in Europe are signalled for bi-directional working, and that it gets used much more often than over here, where it seems to be for emergency use and for engineering work only?

 

Cheers N

Edited August 26, 2018 by rodent279

[hmmueller]

On the whole, all double tracked lines are nowadays signalled for bi-diectional running, yes. However, Germany has still many lines with missing left-hand home signals. And there are, AFAIK, big differences between its use.

 

For example, in Germany, typically block signals are present only on the right track, and there are no starting signals on the left-hand through station tracks even on new lines; this makes running on the left-hand track quite cumbersome; still, on the heavy-traffic Munich-Rosenheim line, there was more or less planned left-hand running up to a few years ago - but then, for reasons I don't know, it essentially stopped.

 

In Austria, it is used "without hesitation" if it helps a train to gain a few minutes.

 

For other countries, I don't know (if the above counts as "knowledge") enough to say something substantial.

 

H.M.