East West rail, Bletchley to oxford line

[The Stationmaster]

2 hours ago, lmsforever said:

You only have to go to Bicester to see how housing estates are rapidly making the town bigger every month and infrastructure is not growing as fast ,similar patterns are affecting Aylesbury and other towns . Services should go hand in hand with housing but it is not happening and people are suffering especially with surgeries and nurseries  traffic is growing so lets hope east-west actually does provide good services that attract passengers.

But at least Bicester has got some rail links.  Wallingford with no everyday rail link is currently being gradually surrounded by estate after estate of 'Oxford' overspill housing while Didcot continues following that same path.  My uncle - who has been. using the road through Didcot for more years than he can remember didn't even recognise the place as Didcot when came through there last week.

[RJS1977]

Though even if Wallingford did have an everyday rail link, it would be facing the wrong way and need two changes to get to Oxford. Going on the X39/X40 bus would be quicker (either to Oxford or Reading), but has been suffering from unreliability issues recently owing to driver shortages.

 

Of course, one reason Didcot is unrecognisable is the demolition of Didcot "A" power station.

[Rugd1022]

For the past three days I've been working down the branch on 6Y60, 6Y61 and 6Y62, we got as far as just east of Winslow which is the furthest I've been so and a few signals have started to appear at the Bletchley end. I took some photos yesterday but will upload them tomorrow. It was interesting seeing the site of Swanbourne station and goods yard for the first time - the weighbridge office is still intact at the entrance to the yard and what's left of the shunter's cabin is standing at the other end. It's not difficult to imagine it all being open in BR days and looking like a typical cross country wayside station.

[Nearholmer]

The remnants of Swanbourne Station, still managing to convey the sleepily rustic charm that the whole place had, last summer.

 

[Nearholmer]

Is there a train down there tomorrow? I can’t see anything on RTT.

Edited January 26, 2023 by Nearholmer

[KingEdwardII]

4 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Didcot continues following that same path.

Didcot has been expanding for years on the back of its superb rail service to London - fastest services to Paddington are 40 mins in the morning. This is way shorter than the time taken from Winchester to Waterloo - and Winchester has been prime commuting territory for many, many years. The only surprise for me is that Didcot has not got a lot bigger a lot faster.

 

The new Elizabeth line connecting Paddington to Canary Wharf only makes things yet more attractive...

 

Yours, Mike.

[Davexoc]

26 minutes ago, KingEdwardII said:

Didcot has been expanding for years on the back of its superb rail service to London - fastest services to Paddington are 40 mins in the morning. This is way shorter than the time taken from Winchester to Waterloo - and Winchester has been prime commuting territory for many, many years. The only surprise for me is that Didcot has not got a lot bigger a lot faster.

 

The new Elizabeth line connecting Paddington to Canary Wharf only makes things yet more attractive...

 

Things on the Elizabeth Line may not be as attractive as you think if this is to be believed...

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64373366

 

Longer distance commuting is often quicker and easier. When I lived in Lincs. a mate who worked for the MOD in Holborn had a similar journey time from Grantham as those who lived south of Peterborough.

[Northmoor]

28 minutes ago, Davexoc said:

 

Things on the Elizabeth Line may not be as attractive as you think if this is to be believed...

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64373366

 

Longer distance commuting is often quicker and easier. When I lived in Lincs. a mate who worked for the MOD in Holborn had a similar journey time from Grantham as those who lived south of Peterborough.

I've not seen yet how the Piccadilly Line has been affected by the opening of EL services to Heathrow.  Mixing commuters with tourists carrying large cases in tube stock was never ideal; not having luggage racks might be an issue on the 345s but in my experience people do not want to stand any distance from their luggage anyway.  If the new trains are busy then good, the project was a success.  We'd have a lot more to complain about if after spending £Billions, the trains were half empty.

[KingEdwardII]

1 hour ago, Davexoc said:

Things on the Elizabeth Line may not be as attractive as you think

Interesting, but it does not match my experiences. The money quote is that passenger traffic is 3.5M per week against an expected 2M, which sounds like a wild success to me. That it is busy in the rush hour is no surprise and let us note the design of the trains, which provides for a *lot* of standing room. Compared with typical tube services, I think that Elizabeth line looks pretty attractive. The timings from Paddington to Canary Wharf are 17mins with a train every 6 mins - and this is not yet the full final service on the line, which should have double the frequency of trains!

 

A commute from Didcot looks like a doddle to me...

 

Yours, Mike.

[The Stationmaster]

14 hours ago, KingEdwardII said:

Interesting, but it does not match my experiences. The money quote is that passenger traffic is 3.5M per week against an expected 2M, which sounds like a wild success to me. That it is busy in the rush hour is no surprise and let us note the design of the trains, which provides for a *lot* of standing room. Compared with typical tube services, I think that Elizabeth line looks pretty attractive. The timings from Paddington to Canary Wharf are 17mins with a train every 6 mins - and this is not yet the full final service on the line, which should have double the frequency of trains!

 

A commute from Didcot looks like a doddle to me...

 

Yours, Mike.

In ail terms Didcot is a relative doddle - get a seat before the Reading mob get one (although the Swindon lot will already be there).  Not far to walk to the Liz Line at Padd off the Main Line side of the station so the only problem then might be overcrowding on the UndergrounD but that's nothing new.

 

What the Liz Line numbers aren't telling us is where all those passengers are or aren't travelling from/to.  A goodly number of them won't go anywhere West Drayton or east thereof and from what I've seen a goodly number travelling in the central area are within that area and could well be diverting from other lines, especially the Central and Bakerloo at the Paddington end.

[Nearholmer]

Part of the purpose of the line is to relieve the Central and Jubilee particularly, the Bakerloo less so because it is nothing like so heavily used. The Jubilee effectively filled up the day it was opened to CRW, and the Central-DLR interchange traffic at Bank it a tsunami in itself.

[Rugd1022]

Photos from my midweek trips down the branch - Swanbourne to just east of Winslow...

 

 

 

 

 

[Rugd1022]

Second batch...

 

 

 

 

[Rugd1022]

Third batch...

 

 

[jamie92208]

According  to the Modern Railways HS2 supplement  the EWR bridge deck over HS2 at Calvert was installed in December.   There is a small picture.

 

Jamie

[Tony Teague]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

According  to the Modern Railways HS2 supplement  the EWR bridge deck over HS2 at Calvert was installed in December.   There is a small picture.

 

Jamie

 

Yes there are two which are HS2 / public domain:

 

 

 

I have been over to Calvert and it is pretty difficult to see this from any public viewpoint - the road alongside being closed.

 

Tony

[simon b]

Not a great pic, but this is just after it went in.

 

The bridge which carrys ewr over the new road is nearly finished to, they are building the embankments up to the new track level at the moment.

[KingEdwardII]

4 hours ago, simon b said:

they are building the embankments up to the new track level

Let's hope they do a better job than the South West main line near Hook  ;-)

[rodent279]

Are any of the bridges being raised, or is the trackbed being lowered, to accommodate future electrification?

[Nearholmer]

Some of the occupation bridges have been jacked-up, although I do nt know to what extent. The new bridges look to have a bag of clearance.

[Northmoor]

55 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Some of the occupation bridges have been jacked-up, although I do nt know to what extent. The new bridges look to have a bag of clearance.

I think all new bridges built over railways are built with adequate 25kV electrification clearance and have been for some decades.  This takes no account of the likelihood of electrification ever taking place.

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

I think all new bridges built over railways are built with adequate 25kV electrification clearance and have been for some decades.  This takes no account of the likelihood of electrification ever taking place.

I think that's been the policy or about 50 years.

 

Jamie

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

I think all new bridges built over railways are built with adequate 25kV electrification clearance and have been for some decades.  This takes no account of the likelihood of electrification ever taking place.

Hasn't that been revised up in more recent times?

I recall Bromsgrove station footbridge having to be raised before it opened because it didn't meet the latest figure, even though it was a new bridge at a new station built as part of the electrification of the line and had been designed to the then current requirements.

 

[corneliuslundie]

When  we failed to obtain a derogation from new European standards for catenary height, clearances etc it became necessary to revise our specifications to allow for these. Despite having left the EU, and there having been no need for them in the first place in the UK, as far as i can see, they are still in force. Probably that bridge was designed before the change.

Jonathan

[jamie92208]

19 minutes ago, corneliuslundie said:

When  we failed to obtain a derogation from new European standards for catenary height, clearances etc it became necessary to revise our specifications to allow for these. Despite having left the EU, and there having been no need for them in the first place in the UK, as far as i can see, they are still in force. Probably that bridge was designed before the change.

Jonathan

Yes a spectacular own goal by the DafT which delayed the Edinburgh Glasgow electrification.

 

Jamie