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| Portishead Branch 13/02/2010 at 00:16 #705 | |
alan_s
152 posts |
An article in the Bristol Evening Post * today suggests that the Portbury freight branch is not suitable for passenger trains and will cost an extra £10m on top of the previous estimates to get a service to Portishead. How can this be? If the line can take coal trains weighing hundreds of tons, how come it would struggle with a 2 car pacer, which is about all we could expect on this line. Railtours still use this line from time to time, I have been on at least 3 myself! Alan * http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/163-10m-blow-Bristol-Portishead-rail-link-dream/article-1829927-detail/article.html Log in to reply |
| Portishead Branch 13/02/2010 at 00:16 #6651 | |
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alan_s
152 posts |
An article in the Bristol Evening Post * today suggests that the Portbury freight branch is not suitable for passenger trains and will cost an extra £10m on top of the previous estimates to get a service to Portishead. How can this be? If the line can take coal trains weighing hundreds of tons, how come it would struggle with a 2 car pacer, which is about all we could expect on this line. Railtours still use this line from time to time, I have been on at least 3 myself! Alan * http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/163-10m-blow-Bristol-Portishead-rail-link-dream/article-1829927-detail/article.html Log in to reply |
| Portishead Branch 13/02/2010 at 10:34 #6654 | |
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AnyFile
101 posts |
I do not know anything of this line, but in the article you linked, I can read Quote:
can this be the reason? Log in to reply |
| Portishead Branch 13/02/2010 at 10:55 #6658 | |
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alan_s
152 posts |
But is that true? Is it possible that a small light unit going at 60 would put more stress on the track than a heavy coal train going at 30 ? And why would they only just have realised this. Already they know the signalling needs updating and a passing loop adding. I think they're just stalling because they don't want to do it, despite the success of reopening ebbw vale line. Log in to reply |
| Portishead Branch 13/02/2010 at 12:35 #6661 | |
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kbarber
1742 posts |
Complete speculation: is it a signalling issue, with braking distances calculated for 30mph?
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| Portishead Branch 13/02/2010 at 12:41 #6662 | |
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alan_s
152 posts |
Thanks for the suggestion, good thinking. However I believe that 1) resignalling was already costed in before this "extra 10m" and 2) the whole line currently runs on a single token between Ashton Junction and Portbury Dock, so no intermediate signalling. I have just had a thought though - one way where speed may come in - perhaps to get higher speed round corners the track needs to be banked a bit more? Alan Log in to reply |