Steve Fitzgerald ] wrote on 22 August 2012 16:12:42 ...
In message , d
writes
The NLL is also a busy freight route. Ken had to fight hard to get the
present frequencies.
This freight business always gets mentioned but in that case can someone
explain why you can stand at an NLL station for ages and absolutely nothing
goes past? Where are all these freight trains , are they stopped somewhere
blocking the line?
I think part of the problem is the freight companies pay for paths to be
available for them whether they use them or not and don't want to give
them up.
Freight path usage varies quite frequently as demands come and go. You
can't put a timetable in place for a whole year as with passenger
services. When the 2011 timetable for the refurbished NLL was being
planned, it included 4 freight paths per hour through Willesden Junction
High Level, plus other freight paths elsewhere on the line.
When I last studied the freight usage of the line at Acton Wells a few
years ago, there were about 70 freight train paths actually in use on
weekdays between 06:00 and 23:00, though typically about 50 on any one
day. That was just one location where passenger and freight services
need to mesh together. There are several such flat junctions along the
NLL where freight trains enter or leave the NLL. You might not see the
freight train that was holding up your Overground train because it left
the NLL before your station.
--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)