On Feb 28, 9:12 am, Graeme Wall wrote:
In message .com
"Adrian" wrote:





On Feb 28, 12:56 am, Graeme Wall wrote:
In message .com
"Adrian" wrote:

[snip]

Much of the freight traffic on the North London Line does not even need
to be in London. I am convinced that the UK needs a freight arc from
Felixstowe to Southampton. This could be constructed using, in part,
the track beds of the DN&S and LNWR Oxford to Cambridge routes.

What would be the logic of a freight connection between Southampton and
Felixstowe? I would have thought that there would be little or no
traffic actually between those points. Both are major container ports
with traffic to and from the major manufacturing centres of Britain.
Those connections could certainly do with upgrading. The two ports are
too close together by sea for there to be any advantage in unloading
containers at one port, railing them across country and reembarking them
at the other.

-- Graeme Wall This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html

There would be zero containers, one would guess, running between the two
ports. However, this arc would cross every main line running west and
north from London and therefore allow container, and other freight, trains
to access the network without entering the conurbation.

I thought you were implying the ports needed connecting. Certainly there is
a pressing need to improve the rail access to both ports. There is a certain
arguement that such improvements should take preference over improvements to
passenger services, at least outside the major conurbations.

--
Graeme Wall
This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Indeed not! My point is that there would be a very significant
freight source at both ends of the 'arc'.

It is my view that passenger and freight traffic do much better when
they are segregated. If I recall correctly, north of Bedford the
Midland main line was a passenger pair and a freight pair.
Furthermore I seem to remember British Rail reduced the freight pair
to a single track.

In the unlikely event that my freight arc is ever built I would
suggest that the Midland freight pair would be the natural route for
development as a freight mainline to the English East Midlands and
North. There would need to be some conflict free junctions in the
Bedford area.

How one would feed Tilbury and Channel Tunnel freight trains into this
network I don't know. I do believe that said trains have the
potential to keep limiting the availability of the North London Line
for passenger movement.

Adrian