In message .com, Bob
writes

http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/group...ts/page/dft_ra
ilways_610690.pdf

Well spotted!

any views?

I agree with Peter that the T5-only terminal could be a weakness - given
the Airtrack journey time from Waterloo, it wouldn't compete effectively
with even the Piccadilly for the other terminals. But I suspect that T5
will eventually take a big slice of Heathrow's traffic once open.

There seems to be no money allocated for any sort of infrastructure
improvement on the Windsor lines - level crossings are specifically
listed as "zero"!

The proposals at Waterloo continue to look very vague - "significant
re-timetabling" of the Reading service, and platform sharing would be
needed. It would be "preferable" to use Waterloo International (I wonder
if SWT would be tempted by the Airtrack franchise as a means of gaining
a lever on the use of Waterloo International for a wider range of
services?).

As far as operations are concerned, "train plans have never been joined
up and tested" sounds a bit ominous.

I also note that this report expects the withdrawal of 10 peak-time
Reading services, not the three claimed on the Airtrack site, and it
mentions nothing of the 3-4 services an hour in peak time that Airtrack
thinks might somehow be possible - it sticks rigidly to twice an hour at
all times.
--
Paul Terry