12:08 - Redux

[Devvy]

1992 - Cardiff

Cardiff Bay before renovation.

(*1) The city was recognised as the capital city of Wales on 20 December 1955, by a written reply by the Home Secretary Gwilym Lloyd George. Welsh local authorities had been divided on the issue of where a new capital of Wales should be, with only 76 out of 161 opting for Cardiff in a 1924 poll, organised by the South Wales Daily News. Because of the divided opinion, discussions had not been revived on the issue until 1950, and Cardiff thus took steps to promote its 'Welshness'. The stalemate between Cardiff and Caernarfon (and Aberystwyth) wasn't broken until Cardiganshire County Council decided to support Cardiff and, in a new local authority vote, 134 out of 161 voted for the city. Although the city hosted the Commonwealth Games in 1958, Cardiff only became a centre of national administration with the establishment of the Welsh Office in 1964, which later prompted the creation of various other public bodies such as the Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh Development Agency, most of which were based in Cardiff.

However, the coal exports from which Cardiff had grown had already began to dwindle by the 20th Century. By 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression which followed the 1926 United Kingdom general strike, coal exports had fallen to below 5 million tons, and dozens of locally owned ships were laid-up. It was an era of depression from which Cardiff never really recovered, and despite intense activity at the port during the Second World War, coal exports continued to decline, finally ceasing in 1964.The East Moors Steelworks closed in 1978 and Cardiff lost population during the 1980s, consistent with a wider pattern of counter urbanisation in Britain. During this period the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation was founded in 1987, and was active in promoting the redevelopment of south Cardiff. It had several objectives, but it's primary one (as befit it's name) was the regeneration of the areas around Cardiff Bay, which had been extremely neglected following the withdrawal of dock activities, and working with other regeneration projects in South Wales; a region struggling overcome deindustrialisation.

One of the major projects in Cardiff at the turn of the decade, was the construction of the Cardiff Bay Barrage, to stablise the dock waters, and the regeneration of the areas around it. The area was ripe for rebuilding, and looked set to play host to a large array of new housing, as well as an entertainment area and plenty of watersport mini-hubs dotted around the Bay. Tied in to this, were new roads - wide avenues intended not just for motor traffic, but pedestrians and ideally a rapid transit system for the area (*2). Funds, however, were not forthcoming for such an expensive conversion, given that the new light rail system would have to be threaded around central Cardiff itself as well to be of any use. The scheme was overhauled in 1988 to create a regional metro system, winning backing from major institutions such as (the then) University College Cardiff for new halls of residence for students, the growing Welsh Development Office (prior to it's financial controversy) and a new International Exhibition Centre.


The Cardiff Metro map

As with other cities, British Rail was only more than happy to reduce it's network size, handing over expensive urban track mileage and the responsibility for operating services which attracted complaints from crowding at peak rush hour, and had little usage outside of this window. Only minor works would be needed to reroute trains from the tracks to be handed over, and from Cardiff's view, only minor changes were needed to form the transit network (*3), although station construction at new sites would continue over the following decade, thanks to EEC funding to what remains a European region less developed than the rest.


1992 - "Crossing the Severn", by Bob McAlpine

The Severn Channel has long presented a barrier to traffic between England and South Wales. The old Aust Ferry, dating from 1829 ferried goods, and later vehicles across the Severn - the only other option was otherwise a 60 mile round trip via Gloucester, far upstream. Bridge proposals had come and gone for decades, until the coming of the railways, and growing coal industry in South Wales demanded faster connections. A rail bridge at Sharpness opened in 1879, and later followed by the major Severn Tunnel in 1886 brought South Wales firmly on to the UK rail network - and allowed the GWR to operate a train-based car shuttle to operate under the Severn.

The original Severn Bridge under construction.

Post World War II, plans advanced for the motorway network, and the road based Severn Bridge began construction in 1961, and completed in 1966. Within 20 years though, the rise in road traffic had rendered the bridge "busy", with projections that by 1990 the bridge would be at full capacity. Consultants reported in 1986 that a new bridge should be built, shortly downstream from the existing bridge.

Tied in to this road-based decision were other factors. The Severn Tunnel, now owned by the national British Rail, was sound and of good clearances, but leaked water at such a rate that continual pumping was required to keep it from flooding. Despite attempts to brickline the tunnel to make it more watertight, the water pressure in the surrounding groundwater began to pop bricks out of the lining. Water pressure was such that if the pumps and fans were turned off, it was estimated the tunnel would completely flood in less then 30 minutes (*4). The necessity to keep the tunnel operating, was made all the more important following the closure of the route across the Severn Rail Bridge; two barges had collided with the bridge in 1960, followed by another tanker hitting another pier later, resulting in BR assessing the bridge as "beyond economic repair". Without the Severn Tunnel, trains from London to Cardiff would have to be routed via Gloucester, adding on almost an hour to travel time. Added to this was the existing electrification from London as far as Didcot Junction, with the density of traffic encouraging further extension of this system as far as Bath, Bristol and Swansea for both passenger and freight traffic.

Other energy-based proposals came to the fore at the same time. A 1987 study for a tidal barrage suggested using a site just downstream from the Severn (Road) Bridge, costing approx £1.5 billion, and generating 2.75TWh of electricity per year, or an average of 313MW throughout the year. Using the site over the English Stones would avoid any issue with the docks at Cardiff or Portishead, and so far smaller locks could be used to facilitate boat access up the River Severn towards Gloucester. All these factors slowly coalesced during the 1980s, and then during the concept build of Dornoch Firth Bridge, a combined rail & road bridge in Scotland. It's success in delivering the combined solution allowed other larger schemes combining different concepts to provide an integrated piece of infrastructure to be suggested with realism.

With the Government in power looking for a private sector solution, bids were duly received from three consortia. The new combined crossing would be built roughly where the Severn Tunnel sat, between England and Wales, and making use of the English Stones as a point to build upon. The eventual design would see a motorway of three lanes in each direction, as well as a full four track railway in between the motorway carriageways across the bridge, underneath which would sit a barrage, with sets of turbine sluices between each set of supports. A small set of locks at the middle, where the road & rails were at the highest would allow continued boat access to the River Severn. A set of windbreakers on either side of each motorway carriageways would reduce any crosswind effects on road vehicles, with trains protected by a further inner set of windbreakers to further reduce any crosswinds. (*5)

The new bridge links in to existing road and rail routes.

Disagreements over the subsidy for the electricity generated in order to make the power generation economically viable continued to hamper discussions between the Government and all three consortia, along with a vocal minority (*6) involved in environmental protests. With the eventual withdrawal of the barrage, the project fell back to a combined road-rail bridge. Disagreements over even that arrangement, given the lack of subsidised electricity profits to justify the construction costs continued to hamper the agreement when two consortia suggested billing British Rail for each train crossing the bridge, at which point BR would threaten to walk away and continue using the Severn Tunnel which required significant maintenance, but would still be cheaper then the private sector suggestions.

A subsequent agreement reached later allowed the builder to levy tolls on the cars crossing the bridge, whilst a defined contribution from British Rail, matched by the Ministry of Transport ensured untolled rail access across it with a convoluted maintenance regime. This meant the Severn Tunnel could eventually be closed - saving a large amount of expenditure on maintenance and water pumping. It would also provide the stepping stones for electrification, which currently terminated just west of Didcot, covering suburban services but not the Intercity services; something which was under heavy study by British Rail for extension given the short distances to electrify to convert services to Bristol, and then Swansea to electric traction. The four track solution would provide capacity for the future, with passenger numbers having continued to rise on average throughout the 1980s. Linking in directly to the quadruple track westbound to Newport and Cardiff, it would allow separation between the local passenger & freight workings (*7) on one set of tracks, and the faster Intercity services to/from London and elsewhere on the other track, whilst also providing redundancy. This meant the total bridge width would be circa 50 metres - one of the widest bridges in the world, although supported every 80 metres. The bridge, later named the "Bevan Bridge" (*8) in memory of the famous Welsh politician, chiefly responsible for the creation of Britain's NHS, opened in 1999 in a ceremony attended by the Prince of Wales on the day after the 40th anniversary of his investiture as the Prince of Wales. The Severn Tunnel was filled (to avoid any subsidence to the bridge above), and the pumps turned off. Today it is a thing of speculation for enthusiasts and historians, with trains today taking the trip over the bridge with passengers able to admire the spectacular view between the windbreaker slats.


--------------------
(*1) Credit where it's due; basically the background chapters are from Wikipedia.
(*2) OTL plans were to ditch the Cardiff Bay Branch and convert it to light rail / tram system.
(*3) See map, but the routes are easily segregateable. BR Rhymney Line services now transit via a short rebuilt chord (closed during Beeching but still existing) from Energlyn to Taffs Well, and then continue down to Cardiff via the City Route (via western Cardiff).
(*4) All true.
(*5) I ummed and arred over including this project. The Severn Barrage has been suggested repeatedly over the decades, and the Second Severn Crossing is going ahead anyway. The barrage went ahead in the first draft of this chapter, and was subsequently removed following discussion in the comments in this thread. Rail is included, unlike OTL; you only have to look at the troubles in OTL for the difficulties in providing electrification through a very damp and wet tunnel to see the difficulties. See: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-44690614
(*6) As always, it's only a minority who can be bothered to actually protest something.
(*7) Due to the many heavy freight workings in South Wales.
(*8) The best name I could come up with!

-------------------
Other notes;
Well by this point it's fairly obvious BR is still under heavy financial pressure; small rail routes which go nowhere are still closing. Electrification is still continuing at a slow pace with Government funding only slightly different to OTL, and much of the infrastructure works tied in to the major projects; Pullman, Channel Tunnel, Britannia Airport. This is a BR network which is still too large for the 1970s and 1980s - but obviously that will shift around when the 1990s/2000s come with rising congestion, especially around the cities.

 

[Devvy]

1992 - Safety on British Rail

A memorial at Clapham to the victims of the rail crash. (*1)

The 1980s had been a hard time for British Rail. A number of high profile crashes, including loss-of-life had occurred in the late 1980s, with some down to driver error (in one occassion exacerbated by lack of signal visibility due to overhead cables), and one down to faulty signalling equipment. British Rail had accepted blame for a number of incidents, and had been slated by the public at large; newspaper headlines decried "Is the train safe?", whilst coroner's inquests returned rulings of unlawful killing. In addition to this, the fire at Kings Cross tube station also put the spotlight on the related London Underground system, who shared many similar processes and systems as British Rail. The board duly highlighted new concerns for safety, and a renewed drive to resolve them; tackling human safety, implementing best practices, and installing safety technology. As the 1990s turned over, British Rail had a significant amount of work to do.

The response of an external investigation in to British Rail was further damning, and internally BR reformed itself with the incoming (new) Bob Reid as Chairman, bringing a safety committee to the fore in the Board meetings. A large reform in the processes for workers on the physical railway by giving much greater responsibility to the person in charge of work on site resulted in an upswing in safety for them; in later years this took the form of a personally assigned portable "men at work" balise; the person in charge would fit this to the track in front of the area they were working to alert the incab BBS system of any train approaching to either emergency stop, or slow down to either 25km/h or 50km/h depending on the nature of the works being carried out (*2). A reform of working practises to formalise a lunch break with national testing for drugs & alcohol after safety-critical incidents or when reporting for safety-critical jobs attempted to reform the working culture of British Rail, where the job inevitably involved caring for other's safety in some form - but was tempered by the national problem of drug and alcohol abuse within the United Kingdom. (*3)

The major result however, was the problem of signalling attentiveness; making sure the signal showed the correct aspect and was duly acted upon by the train driver. Here, the Pullman service was ahead of the times; it's system of track-based balises, or beacons, allowed the automatic transfer of signal information from track to train, and the display incab of the target speed and speed limit. This was all operated by a single electronic signalling centre based at Rugby, which controlled the entire route from London to Liverpool and Leeds, simplified by the largely segregated nature of the line. Any changes in target speed were accompanied by a bing or buzz depending on whether the speed went up or down, and had to be acknowledged by the driver within a few seconds. This system, for the first time, would be overlaid on existing traditional routes, with the South Western Main Line (*4) and several of the associated branches, from London to the South Coast.

The new "Networker" train (*5), currently under order and construction for Network South East, would include the new cab equipment to support the new signalling systems, whilst also including the rail equivalent of a "black box" for post-incident analysis. The new trains would also feature a new "Cab Secure Radio" (*6) for voice communication (via a radiowave system) between driver and signaller, and the new version of the BBS (British Rail's "Balise Based Signalling") also transmitted the identifier for the local signaller, allowing the driver to press a single button and be connected with the signaller. On the opposite side, with the rebuild of signalling processes to sit in four large electronic signalling centre (Wimbledon, Guildford, Southampton and Poole), the train equipment would transfer the train identifier and last known position (as identified by the last balise) with the call to the signaller, so the signaller knew who they were talking to. An emergency button also allowed the driver to communicate to a special emergency line in the signalling centre. Signallers could then change signals to danger nearby at the flick of switch - the remaining signals, in common with the high speed line would be linked to the balise and show either a red light for danger/stop (showing where to stop, and reduced to a single red light instead of the two red lights on the high speed route), or a blue light to proceed at limited speed until the next balise would refresh signalling information.

A standard BBS signal; lower red indicates stop/danger, upper blue indicates continue past and adhere to incab signalling information.

A few years later, with signalling reforms coming to an end on the South West Main Line "Network", a corresponding rebuilt was begun on the Great Western Main Line and branches - a large job. A new signalling operations centre at Slough would control the entire suburban (and mostly electrified) stretch from London outwards to High Wycombe, Oxford, Swindon, Newbury and Basingstoke (*7). With the new version of BBS also allowing the train to transmit some information back to the signalling system (train identifier), the system could work out punctuality and begin to live inform station staff about the punctuality of incoming services.

-----------------------------------
(*1) This is a real memorial to the victims of the 1988 Clapham Rail Crash; I didn't want to use any real pictures of the crash as personally I think it'd be a bit distasteful.
(*2) The in-cab signalling would then obviously reset back to normal when hitting the next balise.
(*3) Most of that paragraph is roughly OTL.
(*4) So the same system as the Pullman/High speed signalling is rolled out to the South West Main Line (where the crash happened), on it's full length.
(*5) A new electric multiple unit for NSE, to be covered at some point.
(*6) Cab Secure Radio is/was a real thing (rapidly being replaced by the European standard GSM-R), for roughly this purpose. The only real difference here, is the BBS balises tell the train which signalling centre to route "call the signaller" calls to.
(*7) Yes, the Chiltern Line is usually lumped in under the Great Western Main Line brand here in this TL, as it's effectively a suburban branch of the GWML operating out of Paddington station (remember Marylebone closed down).

 

[Devvy]

Railopedia Article on "High Speed Line: West Yorkshire"
Redirected from "HSL:WY"

Following the opening of Britain's first high speed line (see: HSL:NW), passenger numbers immediately began to rise (*1). The "sparks effect" (*2), in full swing here, brough new comfortable trains, better facilities and faster train times - London to Manchester went down by 15%, but Sheffield dropped by a full 33%, and Nottingham by almost 40%. And importantly, not only were the train times improved, but dedicated and isolated nature of the route meant that punctuality was much improved. Even Liverpool, with a largely unchanged train time to London, saw an increase in numbers due to the far more comfortable travel style. The timing could not have been better either; as the early 1980s recession ended, the economic recovery began and the Pullman services were there to facilitate demand increases. The opening brought politicians, eager for publicity shots, anxious to be associated with the new and fast trainsets - what some previous politicians would have referred to as the "white heat of technology" (*3) in the United Kingdom. More than anything else, it was an important PR win for British Rail - usually few and far between, a publicly effective and efficient service provided to the public, and a clear selling point to use rail transport.

Within a year, people were already looking for extensions, with cities further north eager to be connected to the new rail network. However, without extensive spending, the Pullman services were not going to extend particularly far north without sharing tracks with traditional services - something business managers were eager to avoid given the new found qualities of punctuality, reliability and speed - something which was easily marketable to customers. West Yorkshire turned out to be the only realistic destination within the funding limits present on British Rail. It would also present a solution for the East Coast Route; the Deltic Class 55 locomotives were well over 20 years old in service life, and reliability was suffering. The withdrawal of services to Leeds from these locomotives would provide a larger fleet of locomotives for the East Coast London - Scotland route allowing more proactive maintenance, and would allow spare locomotives to be cannibalised for spare parts.

The Route

Branching off from the existing HSL:NW just east of Sheffield at Beighton; the line north via the Midland "Old Road" towards Rotherham is now electrified at 25kV AC system, and running via Wakefield to Leeds. The line as engineered during the 1980s for Pullman service included provision for another branch to extend further north for the North-East and Scotland if later required.

The station at Rotherham, prior to rebuilding.

Rotherham Masborough (*4), with 5 platforms, continues to serve as both the classic railhead station for Rotherham but also the Pullman service operating to places north. This was the latest in a plan of several new "Parkway" stations (*5), especially for Intercity, acting as a station for many customers to drive to easily and park for significant time. Due to the position of Rotherham Masborough station, it was unlikely that high speed commuter services would be calling here, so it was decided that 2 platforms for classic services would suffice as a costcutting measure, which would allow the station to be used unmodified (except the large car park to be built adjacent!). The Parkway status was also a recognition of the South Yorkshire PTE strategy; they were far more focussed on bus transit rather than rail, and providing a large car park instead of rail connections was simply a neccessity given the dire state of affairs of the railways in South Yorkshire at the time.

The station entrance at Wakefield; it's modern station structure clearly visible.

Wakefield Westgate, historically Wakefield's premier station would provide an additional station in West Yorkshire, for passengers from the surrounding areas. At the end of an embankment, the station was far too constrained too offer any kind of separation for Pullman service bar the line as a whole. Consequently, the track area was narrowed to just two tracks wide, with the platforms being infilled to provide more circulation space, whilst the station building dating back to the 1960s was rebuilt, cleaned and modernised. All other British Rail services would operate through Wakefield Kirkgate. This station separation would be one of the prime motivators behind the 2010s project (currently in early planning stages) for "Wakefield Cross" (*6); a single bi-level station where the two lines cross each other, offering both Pullman and British Rail services, at the cost of being slightly further away from the town centre. Whilst this station debate continues, an almost continually growing car park makes this station a quasi-Parkway station itself, with many passengers opting to drive to the station from their homes in Wakefield, Kirklees or Calderdale Boroughs.

A newer Pullman train, awaits departure at Leeds whilst wearing a promotional livery (*7).

Leeds Central, (confusingly, the renamed former Leeds Wellington station) has been the main station in West Yorkshire for decades, serving the entire town of Yorkshire even if this role is now slightly shared by the resurrected Leeds Piccadilly (the former Leeds Central station (*8) ). This huge station used to be a bottleneck in operations, but has been much relieved by the conversion of some routes to Pullman services, and the later "East Side Access" (*9) project to divert tracks. The 1990s removal of several terminating platforms on the north side of the station, led to significant fill in work and renovation of the station with a much larger art-deco style retail area with shops, cafes, restaurants and a large Pullman lounge for eligible passengers. Although the Pullman, long-distance, platforms are now on the south side of the station, this has allowed the Pullman tracks to remain separated from the standard BR network and allow quicker / easier access for passengers to local services.

Most of the route is a conversion of existing routes to keep costs down and renovation of existing stations, with classic British Rail services being diverted via other lines and routes. A notable diversion was the East Coast Route from Kings Cross; in order to access Leeds, it now ran north from Doncaster, bypassing Wakefield and used a new south-to-west chord near Selby to access Leeds from the east, where it would usually run on towards Bradford. The main cost came from the renovation and track works in the Leeds area; the track segregation and electrification was awkward with so many junctions, and the Holbeck Viaduct was mostly used with some expensive reconstruction works to accommodate the loading gauge of the Pullman trains on the tight twists outside Leeds Central station.

The Trains

The rolling stock operating the route were an add-on order to the original batch of trains for the North-West route; consequently, all trains were the same model and interchangeable, simplifying operations and processes.

Service

Following the popularity of the High Speed North West route, the West Yorkshire route was also provided with 2 trains per hour. Historically, this route only justified a single train hourly, however the upswing from the North-West was hoped to be replicated, and the extra trains would serve as some relief to Nottingham station directly as well as attract some of the Sheffield commuters to Rotherham instead, spreading the load - and thus increasing the capacity for Manchester and Liverpool passengers who would be paying a more expensive fare for the journey.

London Euston: 00:00
Britannia Airport: 00:31
Nottingham Vic: 01:12
Rotherham Masb: 01:39
Wakefield Westgate: 1:55
Leeds Central: 2:10

--------------------------
A bonus chapter for today; just realised I had this finished chapter ready to post but hadn't actually been posted yet.

(*1) We'll cover this at another time.
(*2) The "Sparks Effect" is the upswing you get in passenger numbers after electrifying a rail route - usually down to the fact you get new (and usually more comfortable) trains, which accelerate quicker (due to electric traction) and thus journey times decrease.
(*3) Just to refer to the 1960s!
(*4) Rotherham Masborough, on the main line past Rotherham, formerly hosted Rotherham's primary station. Here it continues that role, additionally as an interchange between Pullman and other local train services.
(*5) Parkway stations were rolled out by BR (usually Intercity sector) in OTL, as here, at certain locations which had good road access, were near large towns/cities and had main lines running through. Bristol Parkway, Tiverton Parkway and Birmingham International are the classic examples in OTL.
(*6) Just a future "aspiration" to combined Wakefield stations.
(*7) Yes that is a "Eurostar" train (Class 373) at Leeds station. GNER leased some of the shorter ones meant for regional England-Europe for a while to operate London-Leeds services. They couldn't operate much further north then that as they couldn't cross the bridge in to Newcastle station due to loading gauge issues.
(*8) Yes, two stations serving Leeds. More on that at another time.
(*9) The rerouting of some services to access Leeds Central from the east side. Again, more on that at another time.

 

[Devvy]

1992 - "The Privatisation of British Rail", by Michael Waldegrave (*0), pt1

Passenger numbers on British Rail since it's inception. The sharp rise in the 1980s is credited to the economic boom as well as the "Pullman effect" being operational at the right time to capitalise on it, although growth has stalled since then.

The moves towards privatisaing British Rail has it's origins in the 1980s, when according to government policy many nationalised industries were privatised and competition introduced. British Rail was present at this point; the privatisation of British Telecom on to the open market fueled the rise of Mercury Communications (later part of NTL) (*1) who leased communications bandwidth from British Rail's nationwide communications network to provide national access. Privatisation of several of British Rail's subidiary businesses also occurred through the 1980s; much of the Anglo-French ferry business was sold off (ostensibly to act as competition against the new Channel Tunnel and avoid a monopoly situation), much of the rolling stock manufacturers (some of which later coalesced with French partners) and the hotels division to name some (*2).

Privatisation of the rail system itself was considered by most to be a step too far in the 1980s (*3), although the private sector became more and more involved in the freight business on BR's network throughout the decade, resulting in the situation of de facto private rail operations for freight businesses; freight companies would often own their own wagons, with a few owning their own locomotives (*4). A flat fee would be paid to British Rail (Railfreight sector) to operate the train between two points, optionally including the hire of the locomotive to do so. An attempt by Stagecoach to retail train seats between London and Scotland did not fare well (*5), and further brought negative opinion on the possibilities of privatised passenger operations. An earlier attempt to run down the operation of the remaining Cambrian Line, from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth, met popular oppposition and was stymied; British Rail then tried to sell the line off by competitive tender to a private buyer, but was again stymied by politics - several constituencies the line ran through were sensitive swing seats for the Government at the time.

However, the 1992 General Election saw the Conservative Party include a manifesto commitment to "privatising the railways and introducing competition" (*6), and so the 1990s saw a great deal of change between the British Rail of 1990, and the British Rail of 2000 at the end of the decade. Various options had been proposed over the years, ranging from the reform in a new vertically integrated (*7) "Big Four", similar to the pre-nationalised 4 companies, a return to a pre-grouping circa-20 vertically integrated companies, a division in to a single track authority and many operating companies, a privatisation of the British Rail sectors, and lastly just a privatisation of British Rail as a whole. All were floated over time, with varying groups advocating for them, or decrying them - although many despised the entire principle of privatisation. The unlikely electoral win of the Conservative Party in 1992 saw the question, to many, become how BR would be privatised rather than if, given the manifesto commitments.

Equally though, British Rail had not been standing still, and it's "Organising for Quality" (*8) reorganisation programme saw the elimination of the last vestiges of the geographical regions, and reform in to a completely sector led business and overarching management company handling strategic services. Almost 110,000 staff worked for the sectors either directly or indirectly, with only 10,000 staff working in the British Rail headquarters with jobs focussed on strategy and common functions. A convoluted financial mechanism to be rolled out in future meant that the sectors would now "pay" for their rail access to the British Rail headquarters, but this was then in conformance with the latest European Community regulations on rail operations (*9). It allowed private freight operators (such as Foster Yeoman) to gain drivers with a WEG-rail driving license and to pay for track access across the British Rail network - and potentially elsewhere in the West Europe Group, and the same mechanism would be used by Eurostar for accessing London via British Rail's high speed lines.

Lots of pre-election analysis predicted the Conservatives would be short of a majority.

Such a plan quickly ran in to trouble within British Rail, with much of BR management opposed in principle to privatisation - especially before the 1992 election, where Labour was expected to win, and many upper management largely in favour of retaining vertical integration - the same organisation operating both track and trains. This was exactly the kind of monopoly that the EEC Directive 91/440 was seeking to avoid; an organisation running their own trains on their own track, with a high risk of interest in disadvantaging anyone else. Although the same kind of model had already been deployed in Sweden - where SJ operated trains, and paid BV for the track usage, it was at loggerheads with the commercial approach imposed on British Rail by the Government; aligning the full BR organisation to commercial sector requirements. And even then; newcomers such as ARC and Chartrail had attempted to enter the market and find new opportunities for railfreight, but both quickly entered financial problems. This had hardly provided a glowing example of the possibilities of the private sector in the rail market, although it took a court case to fully resolve a "private WEG driving permit" versus older British statute law to fully open the tracks (*10).

When the dust settled after the 1992 General Election, the clear victory of the Conservative Party seemingly sounded the horn for rail privatisation; and prevailing opinion was that BR would be broken up in to several dozen smaller focussed companies within the 5 year Parliamentary window.

-------------------------------
(*0) As with almost all the names I've used, they all reference someone related to that topic...
(*1) We'll keep NTL hanging around in this TL, partly because I find Virgin particularly irksome and also I think "NTL" is a better name.
(*2) As mentioned in previous chapters.
(*3) Thatcher herself was purportedly against rail privatisation, at least for BR itself.
(*4) As Foster Yeoman did with the Class 59.
(*5) As per OTL by Stagecoach.
(*6) And as per the 1992 manifesto OTL.
(*7) Vertically integrated means a single company owns track and operating the trains; the exact opposite to today in OTL.
(*8) Roughly as per OTL.
(*9) Again, roughly as per OTL and regulations requiring the adoption of commercial operations and separation of infrastructure and operations.
(*10) There was some question during privatisation over whether British statute law allowed for privately employed train drivers. Whether or not, in this TL, legislation has allowed the WEG train driving permit to come in to fruition for the Eurotunnel trains, cross-border freight, Eurostar, but the notion of a private company gaining a WEG permit as a route to operating in GB would be further step. Here, that's been resolved by court case, and drivers can get a WEG permit to operate (at least in the UK) for private companies.

-------------------------

Interesting chapter on Yorkshire High Speed rail there- seems quite a good setup.

Is there many more lines surviving in the area compared to OTL?

I wouldn't say lots, but it depends upon your terms of reference. This TL Beeching closed less then OTL, but this still left BR with lines which more slowly got killed off by car and bus.

Duplicating lines have still needed to be closed; so still expect much of, for instance, the Midland & Great Northern Railway to be axed. Lines not really serving anyone; the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway gone.

But other lines are still in service. Norwich-Dereham-Kings Lynn I see as still being in service. Parts of the Somerset & Dorset have survived. And of course, the Great Central Main Line & Woodhead Line have been reused here for Pullman instead of having been closed.

 

[Devvy]

1992 - "The Privatisation of British Rail", by Michael Waldegrave, pt2

Following the election of the Conservative Government in 1992, privatisation was very much "on" for British Rail. Relations between the British Rail Board & Reid (the Chairman) in particular, and the Department of Transport nosedived as clashes occurred on several fronts, and many think this was at least partly responsible for the Government's poor view of British Rail's organisational structure, and thus it's admiring looks at Sweden with a separate track authority and rail operator (*1). Also influential was the Treasury view, backed by the Adam Smith economic group who opined for a separation of track and train, where the train operating could be "franchised" out to the highest bidder, earning considerable funds for the Treasury (*2). Such an approach would also fulfil the requirements of the EC regulations, "allowing" third party train operators and providing an independent control of the track. Things were not helped either by Ministers publicly backing private consultants Arup's proposal for finishing the high speed link from London to the Channel Tunnel (or more accurately London to the Medway), in which Arup proposed accessing central London via eastern London (where public authorities were eager to see a rail link for regeneration purposes) over British Rail's proposal via southern London (where public authorities and residents were highly against the link for disruption and "blight") (*3).

It was not to be however, as the provisionally named (and succinctly named, for the changes it envisaged) "Railways Act" of 1993 proved politically difficult. Critics focussed on British Rail's leaked opinions about the better efficiency of vertical integration, whilst others focussed on British Rail's slow but steady turnaround; "we haven't spent decades getting British Rail working just to sell it off!". A large groundswell of people were just opposed to the privatisation of what they saw as a "public good", and asked if the motorways were going to be privatised next and operated as toll roads - a loaded question considering the toll charges on the new Severn Bridge under construction. It's envisaged structure underlined the Government's belief that British Rail could not be privatised as it is (nor as the sectors), as it's financial losses were too great and would continue to be dependent upon continuing large subsidies from the taxpayer (*4). Thus the Government opted to pursue a course of separating track and train operations in to separate organisations, with train operations slowly sold off or contracted out to the private sector. Railfreight operations, as well as Mail & Parcels, will be fully privatised in to the private sector, with operators free to run services as they see commercially fit, paying British Rail for track access.

The planned structure for British Rail

A opposition motion "that this House opposes the privatisation of the railways" came very close to passing, with single digit votes between the "Ayes" and "Noes" after several MPs went "missing" (*5), and put further pressure on the Government actions. Eager to be seen fulfilling their manifesto promises however, the legislation was "reformed"; keeping much of the structural & organisational changes and railfreight privatisation, but leaving much of the controversial passenger changes out apart from some "test cases". The hope purportedly being, to lay the groundwork for privatisation at a later stage, and also prove that privatisation could work. Legislation was then presented to Parliament in 1994 as the "Rail Reform Act", which had three key strands. The first was the reform of British Rail; a new British Rail Board subsidiary "Railtrack" (*6) (and later renamed "Network Rail") would be responsible for operating the track, and maintaining it to it's defined specification - bringing British Rail in to legal compliance with EC directives. It would be funded by money cross-charged to the train operating sectors - Intercity, Network South East, Regional Railways, and all other operators. Secondly, railfreight would be fully privatised (*7), with each business area being moved out to a shadow subsector and then sold off to the private sector - locomotives, rolling stock, depots and all, with the designated staff transferred across. Freight via road, sea or air was not subsidised, and the Government saw no reason why it should subsidise railfreight; a financial judgement on the concept, rather than anything else. Freightliner was privatised via a management sellout after little interest from the private sector (and helped by a block financial grant to cover track access charges until 2000).

There remained a few areas of privatisation for the passenger operations were designated "test" areas; areas of the network reasonably easy to separate from the bulk of British Rail's passenger network. BR Railtrack would remain the track owner, however passenger operations were to be leased out to the private sector for 10 years;

• The LTS Route (deemed "Essex Thamesside")
• The Isle of Wight Network
• The Wherry Network predominately in Norfolk
• The Wharfedale Route
• The Ayrshire Coastal Network

The Schengen Agreement had removed virtually all traces of an international border between many European Community countries.

Lastly; Eurostar, and thus British Rail's "European Passenger Services" as originally intended would be amended after discussion with the other WEG countries. The signing of the Schengen Treaty between France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and West Germany had fundamentally altered the balance of the original BLAP centred network, and West Germany's adherence to 25kV AC (instead of the 15kV AC used on their classic network) allowed interrunning between the countries for certain service. A new consortium, jointly owned by SNCF (France), SNCB/NMBS (Belgium) and NS (Netherlands) would see a single international high speed operator along much of the European side of the BLAP network, with agreements to even operate as far as Frankfurt once high speed line construction was finished west of Cologne. This led to the breakdown of the agreement for Eurostar; the French and Belgians wanted to see the route folded in to the new "Thalys" combined network, but the British refusal to even entertain the idea of joining the Schengen Treaty complicated matters; the British maintained the future idea for running direct trains from the northern regional cities to Europe.

The final proposal would be found due to realities on the ground (*8); Brussels was a through station, Paris was not. Thalys run direct trains from Belgium, Netherlands and Germany via Brussels to London and Britannia Airport (UK domestic travel not allowed, but European cities to Britannia Airport flights allowed to transfer directly without UK immigration), whilst British Rail's Pullman service would eventually be allowed to operate non-stop to Paris. In both countries, land would be leased to the opposing country, so that Thalys platforms in both London and at Britannia Airport would be legally French, with passengers going through Schengen emigration and then UK immigration checks upon leaving the train. This legal fiction meant asylum seekers and other people who lacked UK entry permission would be turned back at Schengen emigration given they were still legally on French soil, with just Schengen emigration checks at Britannia Airport to allow direct transfer to departures. The exact inverse situation would apply in Paris, whereby both UK exit and Schengen entry checks would be done upon arriving, and Schengen exit and UK entry checks done prior to boarding a departing train from Paris.

----------------------------
Reserving the right to amend where needed after commentary! BR privatisation had many facets and cogs working together which created the OTL situation, so it might need some fiddling in a bit!
(*1) Swedish Railways were split in to SJ who continued to operate the trains, and BVK who were the track manager.
(*2) With such a view being successful in OTL.
(*3) Arup's proposal being the one built in OTL.
(*4) As evidenced in Hansard and the Tory whitepaper on privatisation.
(*5) OTL was 309 for privatisation, 270 against. Here there are a few more against, and some who have abstained or are conveniently not present in Parliament for whenever reason for the vote.
(*6) Railtrack exists! Just not how it does OTL. And just before I get ElPip'd (patent pending!) on this; the Govt/Tory whitepaper on privatisation ( https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/DoT_WP001.pdf ) references the infrastructure owner remaining under British Rail at least to start with, and I quote: " The Government believes that track and train operations should be separated at an early stage and that a new track authority - Railtrack - should be established initially within BR with responsibility only for track and associated infrastructure." Here that structure has been left in place due to Parliamentary opposition, so they can get the first bit through to at least separate track/train operations, and privatise later. Also from Parliamentary briefing papers ( http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN01157/SN01157.pdf ) : "He (Devvy: meaning MacGregor, Transport Secretary) announced that Railtrack would not, as originally intended be a subsidiary of BR but would instead become a separate ‘Government-owned company’.18 Other changes made during the passage of the Bill included...."
(*7) As laid out in the white paper, and no where near as controversial as the passenger service privatisation.
(*8) I think I've covered the bases here which would allow UK and French acceptance of the new international entry/exit checks. It's far from ideal, as arriving trains will end up dumping hundreds of people in to passport checks suddenly, but it "works". I think longer term it could be simplified for European Union nationals to have a single electronic exit & entry mechanism which would cover the bulk of passengers, but still.

PS: Some of those "test privatisation" networks were mentioned in the papers as candidates for privatisation or early franchising, or "vertically integrated privatisation".

 

[Devvy]

Railopedia Arcticle on Class 91 Locomotive

The very first Class 91 locomotive, now in storage.(*0)

With the advent of rail freight privatisation, which raised circa £250 million for British Rail from the forced sale, (Speedlink remained under British Rail for a lack of interested buyers - although Speedlink's customers would be rapidly poached by the newly privatised rail operators) finance was promptly announced by the Government as "new funding for electrification of the Great Western Route to Bristol and South Wales" - along with the resignalling of the whole route to utilise BBS. The works also saved them the embarrasment of later having an electrified rail route over the Second Severn Bridge, but no electric route approaching it and no electric trains to run over it.. The newly christened rail orbital - nicknamed the "R25" (*1) around London brought electrification full around London from the Channel Tunnel to the ports of Felixstowe and Harwich, and allowed far more electric traction to operate freight trains.

The new rail freight operators, chiefly Freightliner and GBRf were looking for new locomotives, which could haul increasingly heavy trains (to reduce costs), but also new locomotives which could take advantage of the growing overhead wire network. The concept, and subsequent use, of dual-mode multiple units by Scotrail proved an interesting model. Much of the long distance operation could be done under electric power, but the shorter distances to/from yards and on smaller lines would require diesel traction. The dual-electrics system (*2) locomotives employed by SNCF to haul international freight trains to Ashford International Freight Yard also demonstrated the flexibility of electrical systems. As such, the Class 91 project was born, and would continue during the 1990s, culminating in Freightliner placing an order for 10 Class 91 locomotives.

The newly privatised operators also wished to be able to operate to Europe however, and despite the commonality of 1.5kV DC overhead system across the vast majority of the WEG countries, the Channel Tunnel in the middle was electrified at 25kV AC overhead power due to the higher power requirements (due to the steep gradients and heavy loads being hauled). This meant the design specification grew to cover 25kV AC / 1.5kV DC / Diesel, however axle-load requirements then became an issue with the amount of electrical and engine equipment required, and the bogies were redesigned to adopt Co-Co wheelsets instead (3 axles per bogie). This reduced axle load on the track, and allowed a smaller diesel engine to be included - resulting in a lower powered diesel power performance. This would allow the locomotive to haul (at slow speed) trains in to non-electrified sidings or routes off the main lines. The transformers mounted below the body between the bogies for weight distribution would step down and convert the 25kV AC to 1.5kV DC, then feeding the usual DC traction arrangement; this was not the most efficient arrangement, but would suffice given the small amount of 25kV AC track mileage in Great Britain.

Brush Traction and GMC (GEC-Metro Cammell) both offered designs, and eventually GMC's design was accepted by Freightliner. The design was highly modular, and would allow swapout of faulty modules in a workshop for repair, allowing the locomotive itself to continue on. Problems with the diesel engine continued to rear for the first few years however, and a redesigned Caterpillar engine was later introduced; older locomotives were just used as electric locomotives with Freightliner receiving a rebate for them. Whilst operating under 1.5kV DC, the system allows regenerative braking; under 25kV the renegerative ability is lessened due to the systems of electrical conversion, but was deemed as acceptable due to the very limited expanse of 25kV on the freight capable network. A passenger variant evolved too, after Intercity expressed interest, with a different gearing allowing a slightly higher top speed and using the Scharfenberg couplers which were by now almost standard across much of British Rail's passenger fleet.

Freight Variant: Maximum Speed: 130kmh / 80mph
Passenger Variant: Maximum Speed: 160kmh / 100mph
Power Output
@ 25kV AC: 4,600kW
@ 1.5kV DC: 4,000kW
@ Diesel: 600kW (most units upgraded in late 2000s to 1,000kW with newer engines)

The locomotive proved versatile, even if not the most powerful ever (especially under diesel power), and found wide appeal with drivers thanks to the insulated and comfortable driving cab. The design was later purchased by EWS, the fledgling freight operator for many of their operations, offering flexible and cheap operations as the startup tried to embed itself in the market, and as such with the variety of operators could be seen in use across the country, from Exeter to Inverness.

Intercity also purchased many to work in two different roles - firstly, to act as emergency "breakdown" locomotives for trains, with the 25kV AC capability allowing them to also rescue Pullman trains when required on the high speed lines. Intercity would also plan to use them on the Great Western Routes, taking over from their existing Class 47 diesel locomotives with their ability to use the electric power available at the eastern end of the routes. The electrification as far as Oxford, Swindon and Newbury allowed more efficient (and cheaper) operations out from London, and also meant that as electrification extended westwards towards Bristol and South Wales, trains would be able to work more and more efficiently. Routes such as that to Exeter, Plymouth & Penzance stood little to no chance of being electrified in at least the foreseeable future - the line was long, service frequency less than others, and added complications such as the Dawlish Sea Wall would hike up the price further.

--------------------
(*0) Yes, this is a Class 89 locomotive. And the Class 91 locomotive is OTL the Intercity 225 locomotive. However, in this TL, there is no Intercity 225, and this locomotive was developed after the Class 90 mentioned in previous chapters, hence in this TL it becomes the Class 91.
(*1) Wait for the following chapter for more info on this.
(*2) Supporting 1.5kV DC and 25kV AC for operation across France and the Channel Tunnel.

 

[Devvy]

The slow progress of the spark, Christopher Greane

Electrified traction on the West Coast Main Line

Electrification has made slow and steady progress under British Rail. It's decision in the 1950s and 1960s to continue with the existing 1.5kV DC system as opposed to the newer 25kV AC system regularly comes in for criticism and suggestions of switching. However, within Great Britain, the network effect was rapidly approaching; as more and more mileage was electrified, many interlinked routes needed only a short distance of cables to fully switch operation to fully electric, allowing much cheaper operating costs. Electric multiple units in particular cost approximately half that of diesel traction in just fuel cost; added to this are the cheaper rate of maintenance both on the train and on the track, quicker acceleration and top speeds (allowing a better service to be advertised, hopefully attracting extra revenue), whilst the trains themselves are usually cheaper to procure against diesel equivalents.

By the 1970s, much of the West Coast Route had been electrified with the 1.5kV DC system, bringing a rise in passenger numbers who were attracted in by the clean new trains, which operated faster then their predecessors. The 1970s (and in to the 1980s) saw the 25kV AC system installed on the former Great Central Route, now known as the Pullman Main Line, which brought in extra custom once again with even faster trains (*1).

The 1980s, however, were a lean time for British Rail, starved of investment by central Government. The only additions to the electrified network in Scotland were some works from Glasgow towards Stirling and Falkirk, Edinburgh to Leith (to reduce Edinburgh station congestion, which was the only reason Edinburgh Princes Street station was still open) (*2). South of the border, a short extension of the Pullman Main Line from Sheffield to Leeds was authorised with the associated works to separate the line; much of the success of the Pullman route is down to it's high speed and punctuality, which results from it's largely separated network. Infill works had been the main aim in the North-West, and allowed further electric urban operations around the densely populated area. More Manchester to Liverpool routes, via the interlying towns and villages were connected to the urban networks, whilst Blackpool & Fleetwood were eventually electrified from the main line at Preston. Wigan, Bolton, St Helens, Leigh and Stalybridge all also saw the spark, and better train services provided (*3).

The main part of Conservative policy had been completing the Channel Tunnel project, bequeathed to them by the previous Labour administration. The single largest rail works therefore was inevitably to support the project, especially since diesel traction was banned through the Channel Tunnel. With routes through London at a premium since Eurostar and British Rail managed to isolate a route for high speed operations (*4), and London Regional Transport eyeing the former "Widened Lines" (*5) through the heart of London, the only real way to route the predicted large increase in rail freight would be to route it around London instead of through.



1.5kV DC Electrification; darkest blue is existing, grey is installed over the 1970s/1980s (mostly short schemes and infill), and light blue is under construction. Green is 25kV AC system for the Pullman high speed services. (*10)

The project would also have the added side benefit of introducing full electric trains through Britannia Airport, which was continuing to rise in popularity both for passengers and airlines. The route would see the full orbital route, later nicknamed the "R25" (Rail-25) after the corresponding London orbital motorway, the M25. A new overbridge would be required at Redhill, and clearance works for the overhead lines, but otherwise it was an uninterrupted route from Ashford (where the International Freight Yard sat) in a full circle around London via Britania Airport to Ipswich where multiple large commercial dockyards sat, allowing electric traction of the long heavy intermodal container trains from the seaports to the inland ports (*6).

The low investment years of the 1980s were not completely black however though. For a Prime Minister who was supposedly anti-rail (*7), some noticeable approvals were granted, in part due to British Rail's evidence on the costs; over the decades, the experience and knowledge gained in electrifying miles and miles of track had paid off, and the now almost constant work groups solely focussed on the job meant that the institutional and technical knowledge was retained, used and built on. By the late 1980s, British Rail was able to show that the price per track kilometer had reduced from approx £125,000 in the 1950s/60s to £62,000 by the mid 1980s - halving the cost of electrification (*8) (both figures expressed in 1985 pounds). 1986 and 1988 would therefore see works begin on an urban electric network for Birmingham and then a larger project to push out electric trains further in to East Anglia - Norwich, Kings Lynn and Peterborough would all see wires and new trains eventually by 1993.

The works currently in progress are also taking measure of the latest technical advancements in electrification, and specifically those which fix some of the "deficiencies" the DC system has in comparison to the AC system. A system of better insulated rail ties (which hold the rail on the sleeper) help prevent stray return currents from corroding materials has been implemented where ever track renewals are taking place on electrified track (or planned to be electrified), reducing maintenance requirements with regards to electrolytic corrosion.

The Class 71 locomotives also used flywheels successfully as booster sets for the third rail to help transition between the third rail gaps.(*9)

A trial using flywheels mounted near to stations, to absorb regenerative braking energy supplied by trains, and providing it in to the grid during the acceleration phase of trains would allow trains to regeneratively brake more often (including when no other trains are nearby to use the electricity), and potentially reduce and smooth out the electricity requirements to the national electrical grid, reducing costs. The technology has been mooted before - the technology has been used and learnt from in the early Class 70 and 71 third rail locomotives. It is only now however, in the 1990s using modern technology such as carbon fibre composite materials with a high tensile strength, and better electronics to control the mechanism, that British Rail has considered the proposal seriously. The trial scheme is to be installed at London Paddington station, Reading station and Swindon station where almost all trains (including Intercity services) call. The scheme will run for two years, and if deemed successful will be rolled out further nationwide.

--------------
(*1) Obviously much of these works have already been discussed in past chapters.
(*2) Mostly mentioned in the Scotrail chapters I think.
(*3) The urban routes between Manchester and Liverpool. The main stations at either end are electrified already, so this is just filling in the gaps in between to allow more electric services to operate and reduce costs.
(*4) As Eurostar currently still accesses London via Bromley, Herne Hill and terminating at London Holborn Viaduct.
(*5) Which became Thameslink OTL, but it was shown on the London Transport map a few chapters ago.
(*6) The orbital runs from Ashford west to Tonbridge, Redhill (new east-west) flyover, Guildford, Reading, Oxford, Bletchley, Sandy, Cambridge, , Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich. Electrified as part of the Channel Tunnel project to allow electric freight services to and from the Channel Tunnel as well as Thames ports at Harwich, Felixstowe and Tilbury.
(*7) As Thatcher was supposedly anti-rail (although she did apparently oppose rail privatisation, and electrified the full length of the ECML).
(*8) P. Semmens, Electrfying the East Coast Route (Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd, 1991), p. 93.
(*9) The pantograph was for early Southern Region freight yards which used overhead lines at 750v DC for use at slow speed in lieu of third rail, given the risk to staff loading/unloading/maintaining the freight train.
(*10) To be honest, the Woking-Portsmouth Line is a mistake; it was electrified on third rail 750v DC prior to the PoD, but it's already rather laid down in this TL it's 1.5kV DC overhead system. So in this TL, it was converted in the 1970s as an experiment in to conversion of the third rail system to overhead system of the South West Main Line, which hasn't really progressed beyond Woking, suffice to make sure bridges are built high enough to permit eventual conversion (as with everywhere on third rail).

 

[Devvy]

A Brief History of the Railways in Devon

The early LSWR/SR railway trundled around much of rural Devon.

Pre-Nationalisation (*1a)

The pre-nationalised railways acted in significant competition with each other, and in South Western England, a fierce rivalry between the London & South Western Railway and the Great Western Railway developed. Both companies had main lines operating in to the area, with smaller new railways promoted by local interests either operating closely with one or being backed & purchased by one. As the railways spread west, and the counties closer to London became fully served, competition spread further out to the relatively undeveloped areas of western England. The LSWR (and thus later the Southern Railway) and the Great Western Railway both served Devon via Exeter, and both eventually had lines on to the important city of Plymouth; the GWR ran along the southern side of Dartmoor via Newton Abbot, whilst the LSWR ran over the northern side of Dartmoor via Okehampton. Branches sprang up quickly from smaller railway interests; the GWR saw interconnections to places such as Tiverton, Minehead and Dartmouth (Kingswear)(*1b), whilst the LSWR saw connections to Barnstaple, Exmouth and even as far west as Bodmin amongst others.

Early DMU trials were less then ideal, with poor reliability, maintenance schedules and comfort. The result pushed British Rail towards a diesel locomotive, electric multiple unit strategy in the 1960s (*2).

British Rail

The Devon area, being somewhat underdeveloped quickly saw a large tourism trade spring up even before nationalisation. The plentiful seaside resorts attracted large numbers of tourists, many of whom accessed the area via train, and then moved around the area by train as well. This combination of factors led Devon to be particularly hard hit by the reduction in passengers during the 1960s, as many factors came in to play.

The private motorcar and road-based buses decimated short distance journeys, with winding local branches unable to compete on journey time or convenience, and the dire financial situation of British Rail meaning the ticket price wasn't particularly marketable either. With tourist summer holiday traffic beginning to also dry up, many local branches simply shut up. The mid-1960s saw most of western Devon lose their railway connection (including parts of Cornwall), as the former Bude Branch, North Devon & Cornwall Junction Railway and North Cornwall Railway all saw service eliminated. This area, with the railway land not sold off for a while and later protected from development as green politics emerged, saw Devon and Cornwall County Councils later purchase the land in the 2000s. The routes were converted to a small cycle route network centred on Halwill, linking many of the smaller towns and villages together, and also importantly removing cycles from the road network where many of the roads were small with cycles both causing congestion and being at danger from speeding drivers.

Likewise, the northern side of Devon faced a similar fate, with several tiny lines used only by a handful of people, and the geography presenting difficulties with operating an attractive service to passengers. The Devon and Somerset Railway from Taunton to Barnstaple via Tiverton, latterly part of the GWR & Western Region of British Rail, with steep gradients and a significant amount of engineering works saw closure in the 1960s as well. Much of the route was later lost, being built upon as a new link road for North Devon . The linking bridge at Barnstaple, where the line merged in to Barnstaple Junction is easily viewable from the Rumsam Bridge to the south, where it now forms part of the road access to the community school, community centre and sports clubs for Barnstaple. Tiverton itself barely clung on to it's services, with a local service to Exeter being the sole remaining route; albeit several smaller stations were closed. The rural nature of all the lines in Devon, bar the main WR and SR main lines from London, meant significant investment in the infrastructure was never a serious option, and likewise the area would not be a primary target area for rolling stock.

A Class 50 hauled train exits the Riviera Line from Kingswear, heading towards Exeter with a tourist special - despite the poor weather.

Post Sectorisation

After stumbling along, with old diesel locomotives, and even older coaches, the 1980s saw the advent of sectorisation within British Rail. The former SR main line, now the "West of England Route", now became part of Network South East, with the former GWR main line, now the "Devon & Cornwall Main Line" (south of Taunton) saw new market-based attention on the area. The introduction of the "Network Railcard" by NSE saw off-peak discounts on their services, and the distance from London meant that travellers could start discounted journeys after 09:00 (as opposed to 10:00 elsewhere - or more precisely east of Yeovil), which provided a small - but important - upswing in usage (*3).

The D&C Main Line saw the introduction of newer Class 91 locomotives in the 1990s, able to use electric power east of Newbury, and otherwise using diesel power (*4). The steep gradients and challenging topography of the area saw them later reassigned to duties elsewhere however, with full diesel locomotives restored which had far higher power available when running on diesel. However, the two routes through Exeter; Intercity broadly north/south and NSE broadly east/west saw little co-operation between respective routes, with Regional Railways adding their bit in with branches to Kingswear and Tiverton. Freight continued to play it's part on keeping the rural lines going; china clay from quarries at Marland and Meeth, and milk trains from Torrington to London were two major flows along the North Devon lines via Bideford and Barnstaple (*5). The former, china clay traffic, was almost lost prior to EEC funding to upgrade the line to accommodate heavier wagons, as had begun to be used in Cornish china clay quarries as well. Milk traffic largely dried up in the 1980s as a shift began towards road traffic, as well as more local farming.

An NSE train awaits at Exeter St Davids

21st Century

The 21st Century has seen a large revival in Devon, with a resurgence in tourism in the local economy leading the way, bolstered by the local amenities; award winning beaches, small villages and both Dartmoor and Exmoor National Parks on the doorstep. With small roads often inundated during the summer months, and "busy" during the rest of the year with the large surge in car ownership, rail usage has seen a revival in fortunes. The release of rural Scottish diesel electric units, after newer units had been procured for new fully electrified routes, allowed newer (well refurbished) trains to operate with more comfortable seats, and on a more reliable & punctual timetable.

In to this waded Devon County Council, with a new transport strategy. New stations were to be added - either brand new (such as Digby & Sowton), or reopened (such as Cullompton), and a new "Exeter Cross" strategy was to be adopted, building on the former Regional Railway's efforts. Regional's cost cutting efforts, given such a large and subsidy-funded network, saw many smaller routes merged together in to a single longer route, often branded as "Alphaline". In Devon, this would see Exeter St Davids become a central interchange station for many local services, forming three primary local axis; Exmouth to Torrington & Ilfracombe, Kingswear to Tiverton, and Honiton to Plymouth. These would then be built upon by the longer distance services; Intercity (both from Birmingham and London) through Exeter, Newton Abbot and Plymouth towards Cornwall, and Network South East (from London) through Exeter to Ilfracombe and Plymouth via Okehampton. The NSE service to Ilfracombe had proved to be extremely popular during the summer months, with direct transport from the capital almost to the door step for several of Devon's best beaches, but the limitations of single track routes in the far reaches of the network limited extra services. As such, it was not unusual in the "school holiday summer" period to see trains formed of 10 coaches (*6) long in operation to cater for the large crowds, and several level crossings were converted to overbridges to avoid further congestion on the roads.

Further to the Devon Transport Strategy, which brought forth the "Devon Rail Partnership", which provided some much needed investment on the Devon branch lines, 2014 saw huge disruption to Devon, and Cornwall, when the Dawlish Sea Wall was breached (*7) and washed away. This cut off Intercity service past Exeter, and removed local services from the Kingswear branch to Exeter, although a bus replacement route between Newton Abbot and Exeter provided a veneer of public transport between the two. Network Rail, as Railtrack had been renamed too, worked hard to restore rail service, repairing the rail lines and sea wall, and providing additional defences in front of. In light of the more regular occurrences of "extreme weather", a new single track north-west chord north of Exeter was built, allowing a diversionary route when the route south of Exeter was closed; in such a case, Intercity would terminate half their services at Exeter, with the other half rerouted via Okehampton to terminate at Plymouth (therefore with connections available to Cornwall). Local pressure groups continue to advocate for the construction of alternative diversionary routes, noting that the Okehampton route does little to help the Torbay area, but politicians quote the price tags as unreasonable given the "emergency" nature of such a route.

One heritage line operates in Devon (*8), from Newton Abbot station where it links to the British Rail network, operating to Bovey railway station, and is part funded by freight trains using the tracks to operate to Heathfield where a small freight depot exists. An array of former GWR steam locomotives operate along the route, and an array of British Rail Mark 1 coaches, lovingly restored.

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(*1a) All pre-nationalisation stuff basically OTL.
(*1b) Kingswear was a normal railway station. Dartmouth railway station was unique in that it was a station with no rail service, platforms or even track. It lay on the opposite side of the river to Kingswear station, linked by a small ferry across the narrow part of the river.
(*2) As you may have noticed in many previous chapters, the overall strategy has been electric multiple units when the route is electrified, and diesel hauled trains otherwise using coaches. The Scottish originated diesel/electric multiple unit has blurred the lines slightly though!
(*3) The existant lines slightly further west, operated on by NSE, means the OTL Network Railcard has a slightly wider coverage down that way.
(*4) As discussed in a previous chapter.
(*5) As per OTL; freight kept the Bideford branch open to Torrington.
(*6) Photos of Ilfracombe station seem to show long trains such as this.
(*7) As per OTL.
(*8) Taking the place of the Dartmouth Steam Railway!

And I'm back after real life made some demands on life

 

[Devvy]

Railopedia Article: Northern Spirit

History
After Government efforts to seek the privatisation of British Rail itself were defeated in Parliament, attention diverted to the privatisation of several smaller isolated networks. These routes would be separated from British Rail, and allowed to operate fully privately, under a de facto 20 year lease, with "public safeguards" built in to the lease. One network so designated was the "Leeds North West" network, and this was privatised via a management buyout by former British Rail managers via a competitive auction.

The network stretched from Leeds in the east, where they used the former Leeds Central station, which was renamed to "Leeds Piccadilly" to more easily separate it from the adjacent "Leeds Central" station which would continue to be used by British Rail (*1). In preparation for the separation (and by co-incidence), British Rail had been working on diverting all services along the Airedale Line via Bradford and in to Leeds via Pudsey (*2) (or towards Wakefield via Cleckheaton), with all services from Caldervale Line (from Halifax) no longer running through Bradford, but using a southern station reopened at Bradford Bowling. All this left the route between Leeds, Bradford and Ilkley/Skipton separated after a new bridge was built in Leeds to access the new Piccadilly station (passing over the BR tracks from Harrogate). Along with this triangular network, running as far north as Skipton, the tracks continuing west of Skipton were granted to the company reaching Burnley, Blackburn and eventually Preston. Despite interest in reviving the former Harwood Loop Line, the trackbed remained derelict, eventually being turned in to a public pathway popular with dog walkers, especially over the Martholme Viaduct.

By 1996, a rebanding effort as "Northern Spirit" had taken place (later shortened to just "Northern" by 2005), with a new livery of green on purple and stylised "N" on. Later sub-branding divided services in to "Northern Connect" for the local stopping services, and the "Northern Express" for the express Leeds-Preston services.

In 2014, Northern became one of the elite few private rail operators to have their lease extended for a further 30 years by the coalition Government (*3), after consistently being rated higher then British Rail by local residents and receiving backing from local government. Private rail as a concept remains controversial, but three successful private operators remain across the country. As part of this, Northern agreed to increase certain services, due to overcrowding on some services, in return for a continuing operating subsidy. The process for implementing this is ongoing, as new rolling stock is required.

Services
Northern currently operate a "base 2tph" on most local "Northern Connect" services in West Yorkshire and Lancashire, with the service to be increased on certain routes:

• Bradford to Ilkley (1tph, to be 2tph by 2020)
• Preston to Burnley (2pth)
• Bradford to Leeds (2tph, to be 4tph by 2023)
• Leeds to Ilkley (2tph, due to start in 2023)

The Northern Express service, operating from Leeds to Preston, and calling only at limited stops in between will also be made faster by omitting smaller stops once the new local service between Leeds and Ilkley begins operation. Such works has required an upgrade in road/rail crossings, particularly in Lancashire. Bamber Bridge in particularly received a new bridge to avoid trains halting cross-town traffic on the road each time a service passed through.

Business Success
Part of the reason for Northern's success has been it's small and closely targeted operations across two urban areas, and subsequent close relationship with local government who subsidised the local services (*4). Private business techniques were adopted; a smaller management layer then British Rail reduced costs, whilst locally empowered station managers (within a defined scope) allowed quicker action on faults and issues and a relentless drive to reduce operational costs even if it required investment. The local station managers were responsible for the station by station rapid deployment of wifi in almost all Northern stations as a locally driven programme, rather then a top-down order. These actions also helped mitigate against service issues in 2000 (*5) when Northern imposed driver only operation and reduced the guard role to optional onboard, resulting in driver strikes for several periods in 2000 before an agreement to retain the full guard role on what would become the Northern Express service and a pay rise for drivers brought the dispute to an end.

Another significant reason for Northern's success has been their backing (at times financial as well as political) for line side projects. New housing projects along with new stations at Rodley and Apperley brought new passengers to the line accessing Leeds (and to a lesser extent Bradford). New stations in city suburbs (often financial supported particularly by West Yorkshire) widened the scope of potential passengers as road congestion increased. A large out-of-town shopping village opened at Kirkstall Forge opened in 2015 with a new train station integrated in to, and at the heart of, the design with many new apartment homes also on the site, and a similar smaller project in eastern Blackburn also now under construction. All these side investments have increased the number of potential passengers living within easy access to a Northern station, whilst also providing more destinations easily served by Northern trains for passengers. (*6)

Finally, Northern's forward looking management came to agreement with Transport for London in 2007, allowing them to adopt Oyster cards for ticketing, and began issuing their own version in 2008, marketed as the "M Card" (for Metro Card). Whilst the early days of Northern featured higher then normal ticket costs as they attempted to update the railway, attracting opposition, business transformation and reduce operational costs, post 2006 days brought static ticket costs static despite inflation, drawing significant praise locally and allowing passenger numbers to continue to rise rapidly in the late 2000s despite the economic woes nationally.

Trains
Following privatisation, the network operated with a rag tag assortment of services, with many operated using older diesel locomotives from British Rail and old coaches stock. The later 1990s saw a large upswing in rail passenger numbers however, and subsequently a new order for a standardised "Northern Train" was placed in 1999 with train manufacturers for a new 4 coach train ("Northern A Stock"). Moving away from British procurement, with the main UK builders not being particularly innovative with their designs, the order eventually was placed with the Spanish train builder CAF. The train would feature 2-abreast standard seating only, and would also be capable of diesel or electric traction, with Northern expressing interest in electrifying the route to further decrease operating and maintenance costs. The train was fast accelerating (especially under electric power), and featured regenerative braking, whilst much of the train equipment was placed in modular units under the carriages, allowing quick swap of faulty kit to allow the train itself to keep operating. Electrification began in 1999, using much of British Rail's initial preparation for the Leeds/Bradford area electrification scheme (which did not see execution under British Rail), before later being extended in 2009 when cheap loans and a subsidy from Government were available in order to keep the economy going during the recession. Existing trains were able to use the provided electricity straight away, providing more and more savings as electrification spread out and was switched on.

A subsequent order was placed in 2017 for "Northern B Stock", which would see Northern Express services get new trains, with the existing A stock cascading over to Northern Connect services to provide the improved service levels. The B stock will see a 4 coach multiple unit again, but again controversially (given the longer distance journeys) with no first class area. More comfortable 2-abreast seating would be provided however, with all seating centred around tables with Firewire connections (*7) for charging phones/tablets/computers and providing internet access, whilst the trains will be fully electric and faster to accelerate, resulting in time savings on the route.

A Stock terminating at Ilkley from Bradford

B Stock pulling in to Preston from Leeds

On Sundays only, a reserved-seat only, non-stop special service operates from Leeds to Preston and return again. This is operated by one of two preserved steam locomotives, and refurbished old coaching stock (inherited from British Rail upon taking over the route):

• Former British Rail Class 9F, named Red Rose
• Former LNER Class A4, named White Rose

Other locomotives on tour from heritage lines or private collectors have also occasionally operated the Sunday service, with an LMS Class 5MT from the North Yorkshire Railway being a more regular sight.

Ocassional freight trains, operated by private freight operator EWS can also be seen, hauling aggregates from quarries near Grassington.

Ticketing
When the route was taken over by Northern, much of the ticketing systems used legacy British Rail processes, with small paper tickets and manual on-train checks. New computerised ticket machines were installed at most major stations within a few years, allowing passengers to purchase tickets without needing to use the ticket office, and utilised magnetic stripes on the back which encoded the ticket information. This allowed ticket barriers to be installed at several key stations to cut down on fare evasion, despite such a move being unpopular with the public at large. Growing passenger numbers through the early 2000s led to further difficulties with ticket sales (especially at ticket gated stations), and led to agreement with Transport for London in 2007 to use the Oyster card system (8), following in the footsteps of the C2C operator a few months prior. This led to the entire network being separated in to zones, with the fare calculated using the Northern ticketing system computers, before the fare then being processed and paid for using the existing Oyster system. Rather then using the concentric zones system of London however, simplification of the ticketing system for Northern took the place of five adjacent zones (or grouped stations), with the fare calculated upon how many zones you passed through. More urban zones cost more than the rural ones, whilst the fare is also time dependant on when you travel. In 2008, Northern began issuing their own "Oyster Card", branded as a "SpiriCard" in homage to the company's original name, although they remain mutually interchangeable.

Similarly to London, season tickets are issued on a photocard version of the SpiriCard, with under 18s also able to get a photocard version for 1/3 discount on all travel (including peak time). The cards also feature a topup money wallet for pay as you go travel, which in a move which predates London by several years, Northern began to use for payment at "platform side" concessions; tea/coffee/snack stands, and other small fee shops in the stations (*9). By 2012, the SpiriCard could be used at parking machines in station car parks as well, with other shops close to a station also beginning to experiment in accepting payment by SpiriCard; a McDonalds in Accrington became the first fast food outlet to accept it.

Project Evergreen
Project Evergreen is the Northern strategy for the next 20 years of operation in the North. Potential aims include (*10):

• Continuing to invest in line-side sources of traffic for the route; either housing estates built around a Northern station, or shopping outlets near to a station.
• Working with local authorities to push more passengers towards public transport.
• Negotiating with Merseyside local authorities over access to Liverpool via the Preston-Liverpool Line.
• Continuing work to reopen the Preston Urban Line, extending the existing route through Preston station and out to the north-east towards Longbridge.
• Taking over the Leeds-Harrogate-York & Northallerton Line.
• Resignalling the entire line using a new version of the common Balise Based Signalling system to further reduce maintenance requirements and reliability. An exception, which would have allowed Northern to deviate from the common standard, was turned down by the Department of Transport in order to allow cross-network trains where required (predominately for freight).

Many of these are future aspirations, and time will tell which are carried through.



------------------------------
Notes:
(*1) As mentioned previously when discussing Leeds station in the West Yorkshire Pullman article.
(*2) As discussed a long time ago; Bradford had it's stations connected, so Airedale Line services from Skipton run via Bradford on their way to Leeds.
(*3) So in this TL, there are a few private rail operators, as a legacy of the 1990s movement, but it's not widespread. In part, the fact that the few successful operators (I'm thinking there are three in this TL) have full control of train and track, and separate ticketing, means there isn't a public appetite for doing any more as it'll segregate the network and eliminate cross-border trains (whether passenger or freight).
(*4) Never bite the hand which feeds you; Northern has forged a close relationship especially with West Yorkshire authorities.
(*5) In terms that better passenger information and people able to respond to questions are available unlike OTL; the train service itself will still be affected.
(*6) Kind of similar to OTL in West Yorkshire, who have reopened several stations. Here the focus is on making sure either housing or attractions are trackside, to enable the train to be used; in a slightly similar approach to the Japanese private rail operators..
(*7) As mentioned previously, I've already established Firewire for charging phones/network, so it carries here.
(*8) Well established smart card ticket mechanism, private rail operator with more freedom to innovate then OTL; seems like a quick and easy win.
(*9) This bit is directly comparable to Japan; why TfL don't allow in station tea/coffee/snack points to allow payment by Oyster I don't know - the payments are only going to be a couple of quid each time. Maybe financial rules about being a payment provider? Not sure.
(*10) The name is from Chiltern Railways long term objectives, but the rest of this is just possible future stuff for Northern. The only really realistic major options are the takeover of the Harrogate Lines from Leeds to Northallerton & York, and the route resignalling. Otherwise it's just gradual improvements along the line to keep building passengers numbers; once numbers get high enough to introduce a 3tph service on some routes, a service every 20 mins is almost enough for passengers to ignore timetables and turn up and go (usually considered 1 train every 15 mins, but 20 mins isn't exactly a long way off).

------------------------------

It was built badly, on the cheap, too close to some major coal workings. First remedial works were needed before they had even finished building it, repairs were a regular requirements and it leaked it's entire life.

It was shut to passengers before WW2 so it can't have been that much of an important link, though I admit I don't know the rail network up there that well.

Remember as well, here the Bradford "Crossrail" project came through, so that link is going to be pointless; traffic can cross at Bradford rather then clog up Leeds West junctions.

I think those routes are gone as per OTL; Keighley-Oxenhope is a heritage line as per OTL.

 

[Devvy]

1995 - "Pullman the Second", by Dick Barnson

Concept artwork for the Pullman-2 train

By 1995, the original Pullman trains had completed almost 15 years of operation, covering the tracks from London to Liverpool or Leeds repeatedly and reliably for that time. Over the course of time, the new Britannia Airport had opened, and Nottingham station had to be expanded slightly due to the increase in passengers; largely due to the expansion in commuter traffic to London, something which had been unforeseen by British Rail, but was a welcome benefit. Although little looked like changing at the southern end of the route, despite the closeby terminii of the high speed routes to the north and to Europe, yet unconnected, to the north things were a little different. The Government was making some noise about extending the Pullman further north, using as much existing infrastructure as possible, and connecting Newcastle to the Pullman network, whilst also connecting Manchester and Leeds more directly to allow a Pullman regional express to operate. This would undoubtedly require new trains to operate, and the existing trains were starting to get to the point of requiring a large overhaul, renovation and heavy maintenance.

British Rail decided to embark upon a new trainset, and thus be able to re-engineer the train to suit 15 years of experience in running the Pullman Line, whilst also being designed specifically for the route is was operating on; the original Pullman trains had been designed in an ill-fated attempt to run on the traditional British Rail network, with tighter curves and smaller loading gauge. This led to the problems which eventually meant Pullman trains would operate on a dedicated set of lines.

The new trains were to do away with all that as far as possible. They would be designed in the hope that the two stretches of high speed line might later be connected together, allowing services from the north of England directly to Europe. The loading gauge could be larger, as they would only be operating on the dedicated network, although some clearance work would be required on the London approach where the West Coast Route fast tracks had been switched to Pullman services, as well as some platforms. Finally, the traction equipment could be upgraded; experience had shown that acceleration was key to fast services and delay recovery, particularly in the north of England where many stations lay in close proximity to each other (in contrast to the line south from Nottingham).

A new testing train was built, dubbed the P300, indicating the desired increased design top speed of the new Pullman train at 300km/h. It emulated several Japanese technologies in order to increase speeds; a testament to an information sharing programme with the West Japan Railway Company in the mid-1990s. Realistically, desires were to hit 280km/h reliably and other increased metrics, rather then a higher headline speed. Newer three-phase asynchronous AC motors were installed in the P300, which were designed to be robust, less expensive to maintain and crucially more powerful then it's predecessors, and the twelve motors together gave the P300 train a whopping 14.4MW power output (*1).

The Win350 test train in Japan, in testing just before the P300.

The four intermediate coaches, specially built for the trial were filled with sensors and sat upon a new design of articulated bogie, designed for a smoother ride. The coaches themselves - now wider at 2.9m (*2) - used a new aluminium honeycomb panel structure, given British Rail's desire to thoroughly test new technologies again. This time however, they would be evolutionary instead of revolutionary - having learnt the lessons from the earlier APT/Pullman-1 project. One of the most notable features by the public was the increased streamlining of the train along the entire profile, and such refinements reduced the power required accordingly, better slicing through the air rather then against it.

During testing, the P300 train logged thousands of miles on daily runs up and down the Pullman route, often during the less busy early afternoon period. Acceleration was much improved, and work British Rail had done over the years on the Pullman route (making sure the entire trackwork was continuously welded rail for a smoother ride, as well as superelevation on the curves, particularly between Britannia Airport and Nottingham which was the longest stretch between stations) allowed the P300 to log a record speed for the Pullman network of 322km/h (*3) during a special overnight run when no other trains were operating.

-------------------------
(*1) Calculated on 3 motored bogies (2 under the locomotive, and 1 on the closest bogie of the adjacent carriage) at each end of the train, so 12 motored axles, each with a 1.2MW motor which seems right for the time. The OTL Class 91 locomotive, dating from late 1980s early had 1.16MW motors...
(*2) About the widest I can see being technically possible on the former GCML.
(*3) Probably just reached somewhere around Rugby before having to rapidly slow down again for curves at that speed. But superelevation on the reasonably gentle curves between Britannia and Nottingham should produce some good speedy areas.

 

[Devvy]

Chapter deleted due to author error. Long hours at work and being away on business trips, I'd made some mistakes when I came back to this TL. We already discussed the reopening of this TL version of Thameslink (see bookmark: 1986-London), and this chapter here also covers the same kind of thing in a similar vein, but with some differences which should have been changes after the correct 1980s reopening.

Spoiler: Deleted Chapter

1995 - "Rails Through London" by John Mitten

Historical rail around Blackfriars

The double track stretch of railway, usually called the "City Widened Lines", harks back to the Metropolitan Railway in 1863, and their requirement to quadruple track their own system (which would later form the London Underground Circle Line). The result would later see gradual separation between what would become the Underground tracks and the British Rail tracks, and then the introduction of goods depots in the area to serve the Great Western, Great Northern and Midland railways. Passenger operators ventured in via St Pancras and Kings Cross, allowing trains to terminate at Moorgate on the edge of the City of London. The link further south, towards Elephant & Castle or London Bridge did not prosper though due to the nearby London Underground alternatives; the route became a staple ingredient in cross-city freight services however (*1).

The cross-city link between Holborn Viaduct and Farringdon was later terminated, mostly due to the installation of an international rail terminus at Holborn Viaduct for trains to/from Europe. Originally deemed to be a temporary location, it lasted over 20 years and the station was far from ideal for that purpose. With the Beck Line the only rail access to the station, London Underground worked with British Rail on a new concept; a cross-city heavy rail link (*2). The joint proposal heavily references the Hamburg S-Bahn and Parisian RER system; both heavy rail cross-city routes, which were well used by passengers and commuters. The price of creating the London version was cheap compared to the route it would provide; the only significant expenditures would be the electrification of the Midland Main Line as far as Dunstable, the reconfiguration of the tracks just north of London Blackfriars to allow the new route to dive under the high speed tracks from Europe heading in to Holborn Viaduct, and the rolling stock itself. Freight trains would be diverted to run via the West London Line, via Kensington Olympia (*3).

The under development Crossrail train - the 1991 date on the side actually refers to the project launch date, confusingly for readers. Note the dual Network South East and London Transport branding.

The new rolling stock would need to be dual voltage capable; neither British Rail nor London Transport had any intention of paying to convert the third rail system south of the river in to an overhead system. The tunnel itself, damp in places with the inherent safety risks of a highly powered rail along the ground, was converted to overhead power, with the changeover to the third rail system now occurring at Blackfriars station (which was dual equipped with both systems). Initial artistic mockups were quickly available, and used for advertising in the London Underground system early on, back in the days when the name for the new link looked to be "Crossrail". The design elements of both London Transport and Network South East are abundantly clear; the smaller wheels look similar to London Underground trains, although didn't make it through to production versions. The body, equally resigned would feature 2 sets of wider-than-normal doors for the expected heavier usage through central London, with seating only 2x2 transverse seating (*4), to allow space for standing passengers along the coaches.

Equally, the management structure changed. The project had been for years a joint NSE-LT one, but with the project approved by Government, choices had to be made for where it would sit within the London transport structures. This is where British Rail's new structure, even if somewhat foisted upon it, came up trumps. The route would be marketed as part of London Transport, and ticketed as such, branded as "London Overground", with London Transport accepting the revenue risk for the route. Any Thameslink-only stations would be managed and maintained by London Transport; shared stations (such as London Bridge) would continue to be British Rail/Network South East managed. Train/rail operation of the route would be done under contract to British Rail's "Abellio" unit (*5), for contract operations - legally speaking, the route would continue to form part of the British Rail network as Thameslink services would interweave with other NSE services, particularly around London Bridge. This was much to the chagrin of Network South East who stood to lose out financially from the deal. Operations would, a few years later, be transferred as a unique exception to Network South East due to their operation of all other routes in the area. Such a move simplified the management structure, as well as HR affairs (having a larger shared pool of drivers to utilise).

The new line, by 1993 branded as "Thameslink" instead, opened in 1994 (*6). The first routes saw an 8 trains per hour service (4 trains on each of the pair of branches to the north and south). To the north, the route ran as far as Luton using the Midland suburban lines, where it then diverged from the Midland Main Line and terminated at Dunstable. The other branch would take over the suburban lines of the East Coast Route as far as Welwyn Garden City - it could go no further north anyway, due to the restricted capacity Welwyn Viaduct which was only dual track (*7). A separate, but linked, project in the area would see Thameslink also operate the new "Hertford - Moorgate" service (*8), which would likewise utilise it's own tracks and be operated under the same Thameslink structure.

East Croydon station in quieter years.

To the south, the mess of routes, all diverging using flat junctions was made for difficulty in fitting a new service pattern through. For simplicity more than any other reason (although being well utilised was certainly a factor in the decision), the first branch was chosen to be the Greenwich & North Kent Line, with the Brighton Main Line as far as West Croydon in an effort to divert local passengers away from the busy East Croydon station (*9).

Passenger traffic grew rapidly; numbers more than quadrupled within the first year of operation as people enjoyed far faster cross-London services, with passengers numbers then continuing to grow at a lower rate (*10). The huge success of the new network encouraged British Rail and London Transport to work on improving the route. Extension of the northern branch at Dunstable along the mothballed former tracks to Leighton Buzzard were a quick win (*11), helping to divert some traffic away from the saturated West Coast Route. Contributions from the British Airports Authority to extend again the short distance to Britannia Airport would give another rail link to the airport (*12), and allow public transport access via another axis of towns, whilst a smaller contribution from Hertfordshire County Council was for the same thing due to the high levels of congestion around Leighton Buzzard on roads to access the airport. The airport, which had been operating for over a decade now, was in full swing of the "low cost carrier" boom, and was planning for a new "international terminal" to handle all international flights. The existing terminal, now too small for requirements, would be used for all domestic and Irish flights where customs, immigration and security check requirements were far lower (*13).

2005 would see the beginning of the "Thameslink Programme" (*14). This would see improvements on the North Kent Line, with better separation in to terminal platforms at Dartford, as well as a new branch stub to serve Thamesmead. On the Croydon branch, services would be extended from West Croydon to new terminating platforms at Sutton (*15). Both branches would call at a new station at Bermondsey, where the former Spa Road station used to be sited (*16), to improve access to this area of London. Improved service frequencies would occur on both branches to 6 trains per hour (a train every 5 minutes through the core section). Through the middle core section, new flyovers would be required to the north and south of London Bridge station to separate the route from other Network South East services as much as possible, whilst reconstructed platforms at Farringdon would lend some extra width to the platforms. However, most of the changes would lie around the Kings Cross & St Pancras area. The former Kings Cross York Road platform(s) (*17), allowing access from the Thameslink route to the East Coast Route would be closed, with a new set of platforms to be built below the northern area of St Pancras station to service both stations (*18). The tracks would then continue north, to serve the new Boudica station (*19), where it would then separate in to two sets of tracks to towards the Midland Line or the East Coast Route. The works concluded 10 years later in 2015, but an extension to the project agreed in 2009 would see Finsbury Park station reorganised to allow better cross-platform interchange between the two Thameslink branches, allowing quicker access to Moorgate and the City of London from Welwyn. Finally, new Class 378 rolling stock, operating would operate the route, featuring similar 2x2 transverse seating as well as luggage racks for airport-bound passengers, but with inter-carriage connections to allow passengers to spread along the train more easily.

New Class 378 rolling stock, with London Overground livery.

----------------------------
(*1) This first paragraph is all roughly OTL.
(*2) This TL version of Eurostar is obviously hindered by the less connected terminus at Holborn Viaduct; the Beck Line is directly connected. The Central Line is underneath, but it's technically difficult to create new platforms on a route which is in heavy use without taking it out of service which is somewhat difficult for such a busy line. Farringdon station is perhaps 400m walk away with the services there. So, obviously, Holborn Viaduct adds an extra reason for this route.
(*3) Roughly as per OTL; cross-London freight either running via the West London Line, or electric freight (especially from the Channel Tunnel) using the London Orbital Line Ashford-Tonbridge-Redhill-Guildford-Reading-Oxford-Bletchley-Bedford-Cambridge-Bury-Ipswich as discussed in previous chapters.
(*4) Transverse seating is more comfortable for longer distance travellers, but obviously need some standing room for when it goes through central London.
(*5) Abellio was one of the British Rail subsidiary units, when we covered the BR reorganisation a few chapters ago.
(*6) Surprise, surprise, it's ended up with the OTL name of Thameslink. Funnily enough, means I can use pictures from OTL....
(*7) Welwyn Viaduct is a capacity bottleneck in OTL too, and is why the suburban service terminates at Welwyn Garden City.
(*8) The Northern City Line is an offshoot of the Thameslink network, with a Hertford North to Moorgate service.
(*9) Chose North Kent Line (Greenwich-Woolwich-Dartford) as a) it's on the north side of the junctions, so easily accessible using separated lines, serves busy areas, connects with Beck Line at Greenwich, and can also access as far as Dartford with minimal further works. The Brighton Main Line to West Croydon is equally busy, and also will ease London Bridge somewhat. What the role for Cannon Street is longer term is an open question.
(*10) As per OTL.
(*11) The line Luton-Dunstable was still in use for freight until the late 1980s; here it's continued a little longer, and now happily accommodating Thameslink trains.
(*12) The line beyond Dunstable is mothballed, but easily reactivated, and a short stretch from Leighton Buzzard to the airport to allow more public access to the airport without car.
(*13) Britannia Airport is large and expanding rapidly.
(*14) Imaginative name I know....
(*15) Using space available next to the station.
(*16) As there is no tube line station at Bermondsey in this TL, and much of the space/works required are still there.
(*17) These platforms were taken out of use in the 1970s OTL, but here are still present and being used for Thameslink until now.
(*18) New Kings Cross / St Pancras Thameslink station built roughly where the new one under St Pancras International is in OTL.
(*19) Boudica Station making an appearance here...

 

[Devvy]

1995 - Beck Line Extension

Stratford station lower platforms in former days.

By the early 1980s, the position of Canary Wharf as the "second financial district" of London - or at least the second big business hub - seemed essentially secure. 5 large towers were either under construction, or complete, with several others in planning. The Beck Line served the heart of it, via a branch, with up to 14 trains per hour (at least one every 5 minutes) during the peak hours, and up to 12 trains per hour off-peak, on it's position on one of the eastern branches of the Beck Line. Back then, the idea was to stimulate regeneration, in much of the former Docklands area; Canary Wharf rapidly sprang up, around the new tube station and backed by the former Olympia & York, whilst other smaller projects occurred further east. The large exhibition centre at Royal Victoria Dock (now the "ExCeL"), the London City Airport (a smaller business centred airport) and the large University of East London campus all sit further east, but all situated near Beck Line stations. By 1995, employment was almost triple that it had been in the early 1980s in the Docklands, with the amount employed in white collar industries (particularly banking, finance, insurance), rising from a paltry 1,500 to approx 35,000 (*1). As the economy recovered after the early 1990s economic slump, Docklands had been in a prime position for new investment, and the Beck Line was by 1994 extremely congested during rush hour.

The Government, eager to continue the economic growth in the area needed new options to get employees in to growing Docklands area, and Canary Wharf in particular, but options were limited bar building a whole new Underground line in some form. The London Docklands Development Company had suggested a light rail approach in the late 1980s to complement the Beck Line (*2), although this would need substantial reconstruction in areas to weave the line in around existing buildings and was dismissed by the Government at the time. By 1992, the East London Rail Study had been published, and suggested making better use of the existing rail corridors, in particular the Stratford - Docklands part of the North London Line which saw little usage by British Rail due to it's run down nature. The extreme end of it, from the ExCeL to North Woolwich had already been taken over by the Beck Line (now sporting an extremely long travellator to connect the London City Beck Line station to the actual airport), but the Stratford to ExCeL portion saw little usage with most North London Line services terminating at Stratford (*3). Commuters from the rest of East London - particularly those along the C2C Line and Great Eastern Route found getting to Canary Wharf difficult, with commuters having to go change at Fenchurch Street station on to the Beck Line at Tower Hill to travel back out of the central area again.

Looking at cheaper options, London Transport worked together with the Department of Transport, and suggested an inverse branch (*4), which would allow the Canary Wharf branch to operate at a higher frequency. To the north side, it could use parts of the North London Line to provide interchange with British Rail and C2C at West Ham and Stratford, before potentially running further north. To the south, it could either serve more branches from the existing route, or potentially peel off in a new area to serve south eastern London.

Construction began in 1995, authorised by a flagging Government either (depending on the viewpoint) trying to shore up it's election chances and appeal to it's banking backers, or further aid regeneration in less affluent areas of East London. To the south, all trains from central London would now terminate at Hayes, giving a service every 5 minutes, and the new branch, tentatively called the "Stratford Branch", would terminate at Addiscombe giving a service every 5 minutes there (*5). Intentions to expand the route anywhere else were hampered by a lack of funding from central Government; the most elaborate idea would have used 3 more underground stations and taken over the Bromley North Line instead (*6), giving a better service to Bromley. To the north, the line would link to the existing Beck Line station at Blackwall, and then use existing rail alignments to access existing stations at West Ham, Stratford, before continuing further north as far as Walthamstow Central (thereby eliminating the "Walthamstow Stub" from the Network South East network) in order to give some relief to the busy Viking Line (*7). The line opened a mere 3 years later, a testament to the short and sharply defined project, eventually named the "Docklands Line" after alternative names such as "Dow Line" (named after the LNER map designer who was said to have inspired Beck's later work), the "East Side Line" (said to be too similar to the already existant East London Line) and the "Lea Line" (after the river which would be nearby the northern extension, but which was less favoured during surveys).


---------------------------
(*1) Much of this is taken from OTL, but skewed for the Beck Line being present rather then the DLR; faster and more convenient links better integrated with the rest of London. The employment figures are OTL.
(*2) Which became the DLR in OTL.
(*3) This happened in OTL.
(*4) Inverse as in the branch faces away from central London - in this case towards Canary Wharf.
(*5) Very cheap extension to the south, basically no works needed.
(*6) My original intention, before deciding the finances wouldn't be available for such works for reasons we'll come on to later.
(*7) Viking Line will be extremely busy - remember here it is basically the OTL Victoria Line with even more stations on each end. The North London Line terminates at new platforms at Stratford as per OTL, and the "Docklands Line" continues under the station using former BR tracks, then continues up through Lea Bridge and in to Walthamstow Central platforms.

Apologies for the previous chapter; long days at work and business trips away meant I'd lost track of the TL flow in my head a bit!

 

[Devvy]

1995 - High Speed Commuter Services

Milton Keynes Central station

From the north, the use of the West Coast Route "fast tracks" as part of the Pullman Express Line had been causing severe congestion for passengers from the north-west axis / M1 corridor for many years now. During rush hour, commuter expresses trundled slowly along the track from Tring southwards; the sheer volume of trains had to go slower then usual to accommodate the number of them. Something had to break come the 1990s, and rapidly rising passenger numbers forced Network South East's hand. The new town at Milton Keynes had grown extremely rapidly from it's origins as a "New Town" in the late 1960s, located specifically roughly equidistant between London & Birmingham, Oxford & Cambridge. The city grew rapidly, but it's position at the crossroads between the earlier mentioned 4 cities, and then the introduction of the UK's premier airport just outside Milton Keynes changed the area beyond anything imagined earlier. An influx of construction workers for the airport, later replaced by the tens of thousands of airport workers - and those who service their requirements - boosted the population what is now called "County Ouzel" (named after the local river, and despite not being county, as it lies across three different counties). This area is made up chiefly of the urban areas of Milton Keynes, Leighton Buzzard and Luton/Dunstable, and now features a range of high-tech industry and multinational headquarters, due to it's high quality transport connections by road, rail and air, highly educated population from the Oxbridge universities nearby and proximity to London. (*1)

All this left the Network South East commuter services, and the array of Intercity services to Birmingham and places beyond not served by Pullman competing for limited track space. As such, the benefit/cost ratio was unparalled for rolling stock investment and a new rail junction at Rugby, to allow new high speed commuter services. British Rail quickly ruled in favour of using the route, overriding Intercity's own concerns about affecting the punctuality and reliability of Pullman services and capacity for Pullman expansion, but in lieu of their concerns, commuter services were to be limited to 6 trains per hour. This would be matched by 6 trains per hour for Pullman, although they currently only used 4 of those, and Pullman services would get "right of way" over other services. A new section of rail route for Intercity services to Birmingham, linking from the Pullman Express Line near Dunchurch would run alongside the M45 for a short distance before joining the West Coast Route at Wolston; a distance of only approx 8 miles, although it would have to cross over the Leamington Spa - Rugby railway line and motorway (*2). An extra 2 platforms would be provided at Euston station, which would force a very fast turnaround of terminating trains to depart again, but further space was difficult to find; many other West Coast Route trains were locomotive hauled, and took along time to prepare for departure again (*3).

Early artistic concepts drew inspiration from the Pullman-1 train.

Discussions over access rights, and who would run which trains then became a battleground between Network South East and Intercity. Both wanted the lucrative passengers; London-Birmingham could be classed as both Intercity or "Outer-Commuter" depending on the author due to the short travel time. The end result was again a split; 3 trains for each, with all trains running express from Euston station to Britannia Airport; NSE services would then branch off to serve Milton Keynes, Northampton and Rugby, whilst Intercity services would continue to run north, branching off and avoiding Rugby to call at Coventry, Birmingham International, Birmingham New Street and Wolverhampton (High Level). This new service pattern would itself require changes in Birmingham due to the limited space in Birmingham New Street, with the Birmingham Snow Hill - Wolverhampton (Low Level) line being completely renovated in one of the first "Total Route Modernisation" projects (*4). This would allow other services to be moved across, to free up capacity in New Street station.

First class compartments on the new train.

All this allowed Network South East in particular to move forward at pace; their whole proposed route was already electrified (although both with 25kV AC for the Pullman portion, and 1.5kV DC for the legacy portion), and new rolling stock would be needed (later designated the Class 395). Considering the limited route network such a train would be required to run on, it was decided to push all Northampton/Milton Keynes services in to the new service pattern, only leaving slower stopping services using the older slow lines towards Tring or Milton Keynes, competing with other Intercity services. A new streamlined train was designed, early artistic work was clearly inspired by the Pullman-1 train, although the production version was somewhat different. Internally, 2 by 2 seating across the train in standard class dropped any notion of tables except the middle where the "towards-middle" airline style seating met. Smaller luggage racks were included near the doors for any passengers with large luggage, considering the train called at Britannia Airport, although the train was primarily aimed at passengers to/from London rather than the airport. In first class, compartments seating 6 first class passengers with high backs sat next to a side corridor, with reading lights above the seats. A small guards area between the two classes also contained wheelchair areas on the train, a newer design requirement to allow disabled access, and powered plug-style doors completed the aerodynamic look. All this sat within a 5 coach unit (almost always coupled together in to a 10-coach unit), with all three middle coaches having all axles powered, giving traction power of 2.5MW per train; only the outer coaches of the EMU were unpowered as they had the pantographs and electrical systems. One end had the 25kV AC pantograph and underslung rectifiers, whilst the other end had the 1.5kV DC pantograph and the power inverters. Internal electronic destination displays, a public address system and chemical retention toilets - then reasonably new - were all standard on the stock, whilst traction motors were for the first time new three-phase AC traction motors. Trains, when on DC overhead systems would feed in to their core systems directly, with power systems then converting power to AC for the traction motors and separately to in-train systems along the carriages. When under AC power, power would be converted to DC, and then back to AC for the traction motors (*5).

The final train (*6)

The overall design was later copied for the Class 465 electric multiple unit (minus streamlining and AC power capability, and adding 750v DC capability), which was ordered in large numbers. The train would take over a lot of services on the Southern and South-Western sectors of Network South East, operating services from London to Guildford, Portsmouth, Gatwick Airport, Brighton and places in between.

----------------------
(*1) So "County Ouzel" has basically taken the role of the Thames Valley in OTL, largely because of the reasons the Thames Valley became successful OTL.
(*2) Considering the Chiltern Main Line is not electrified, this seems to be the easiest and cheapest way of accessing Birmingham at high speed. It's a standard Intercity service, not Pullman as it does not have reserved seating and is a very short journey in comparison.
(*3) The West Coast Main Line in OTL was still predominately locomotive hauled even in the 1990s until Virgin took over.
(*4) Birmingham is another chapter....
(*5) A lot of this is a mesh of OTL. The side compartment first class is from the axed Class 471, other parts from the Class 465, and other parts from the never-got-off-the-drawing board Class 381 or 342 depending on source. It's all 1990s technology, and believe it or not it's not uncommon for OTL EMUs to feed from DC third rail, and then convert to AC power for traction motors. It's also far from unusual for dual voltage stock to take AC overhead, convert to DC for internal purposes, and then convert back to AC for the traction motors. AC traction motors are that efficient and simple to maintain it's worth doing.
(*6) I used this picture in a TL of mine from ages ago, but sadly I have no idea who did it. Cracking photoshop job though.

-----------------------

Interesting East London update!

Is the Dome still built or is Battersea used for the same purpose or something else? How does that effect transport please?

I think the Dome will take a very different form for reasons to come; at a guess Battersea PS will likely fill the arts and venue role, with the OTL Greenwich Peninsula likely playing host to houses, smaller shopping centres and possibly a redeveloped Valley for Charlton Athletic to play at I think.

 

[Devvy]

1996 - Transpennine High Speed

An older Class 31, now preserved, was the mainstay motive power for Regional Railways for years.

Without including Intercity's "Cross-Country" route from South West England & South Wales directly to the north, Britain's regional cities have always been linked by a patchwork of trains, often offering unattractive timings, poor frequencies and uncomfortable rolling stock. This was the state of play for much of the cross-Pennine inter-urban routes in the 1980s; locomotive hauled trains (steam hauled until the late 1960s!), often with ancient carriages, criss-crossed northern England and north Wales, with the corresponding lack of reliability. The incoming new boss of Regional Railways was determined to change that; whilst many of the city-focussed rail networks had been migrated to locally run networks (Newcastle (*1), Manchester (*2), Liverpool (*3), Birmingham (*4), Cardiff (*5) and Glasgow (*6)), and the removal of some routes for Pullman to use, this left a core network linking together many large towns and cities across the north, and indeed much of Great Britain. Scotrail had now inherited almost all of Regional Railways' operations in Scotland, and was increasingly acting as a full subidiary of Regional rather then a branding, and duly in 1993 Scotrail became the 4th direct passenger sector of British Rail. The successes Scotrail had had over the years, despite an unfriendly geographic mandate outside the Central Belt, led to further calls, and in 1995 Regional Railways was split in two; "Transpennine" would handle Regional's operations in the north (North Wales, North-West, Yorkshire & North-East), with the rest of Regional continuing to handle existing operations south of that, although inevitably several lines involved cross-border operations which were assigned to one or other. This clear capture included the cross-Pennine operations; previously those services had been unreliable, unclear who should be operating them, and unclear whether they should really be in charge of them (*7).

By 1985, an hourly Manchester-Leeds service was operating, rotating between a Newcastle-Liverpool and Scarborough-North Wales service, although the latter was largely empty east of York and west of Chester. Finally in 1986, a clear and concise "Cross-Pennine" service was created, emerging from a Regional Railways meeting in Huddersfield (*7). A clear Liverpool-Manchester-Leeds-York network was clear and unopposed, but extension to Newcastle was stymied by Intercity who were in works to extend Pullman services to Tyneside and wished to operate their own "Regio" service from Liverpool to Tyneside - and hopefully in to Scotland in future. Unmet demand from Hull would be included however, and North Wales as part of the core route would be dropped due to a simple lack of demand. The freight sectors, duly helped out, by switching cross-Pennine freight from the faster Standedge Line to the Calder Valley Lines, which were easier-graded anyhow - and thereby justifying British Rail's decision to retain the Calder Valley Route after a major fire inside a tunnel which was bad enough to turn the brick lining to glass (*14). The real benefit in 1988 was the authorisation for a fleet of new multiple units, closely copying Scotrail's new DEMU bi-mode multiple units (*8). Seats were again a mixture of airline-style and around-table styles, but still 2 x 2 across the train, with large panoramic windows to look out at the scenery though. Other upgrades included power-operated plug doors, full air conditioning and the capability for refreshment trolley services.

The new 3 coach DEMU trains operated by Transpennine, still sporting a quasi Regional Railways livery. Repainting was not a priority for such a BR sector.

The result by 1990 was a new world; a clear every-30-minutes service between Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and York, with services then continuing to a range of destinations to replace older stock on the branch lines; Hull, Scarborough, Whitby and Middlesbrough. North Wales services now terminated at either Manchester Piccadilly (nowadays via Manchester Airport (*9) or Birkenhead (*10), and Intercity eventually relented and withdrew opposition to a service to Newcastle. By 1994, passenger numbers had risen by just over 80%, and ticket revenues by 160%. The massive increases clearly demonstrated the unmet demand, and almost immediately branches of local government (passenger transport authorities in the cities as well as the county councils) began backing further works to improve connections across northern England. In part, it was the backing of local government which spurred the creation of the "Transpennine" sector, squarely aimed at the northern England market and able to act in greater alignment with the market and local political requirements. A cross-group study in to electrification of the route, following the finish of the Great Western project was quoted at £55 million (only £112 million today!), and placed further pressure on more upgrades.

Things seemed to take a back step however in 1995, as Intercity finally flexed it's muscles. Intercity, including Pullman, marketed itself as the "Backbone of Britain", and had far more financial resources to play with as well as the prestige in Westminster following the successes of the Pullman service. Intercity's published plan for extending Pullman north would also see Pullman take a share of cross-Pennine services, with the Standedge Route being "Pullmanified" - modernised and electrified at 25kV AC for Pullman services. The fledgling Transpennine sector disagreed and argued, but knew it was going to be fighting a losing battle - the best it could do was negotiate for the best outcome it could get. The line would use existing Pullman tracks in Manchester and Leeds, but the tracks in between were to be modernised, resignalled with British Rail BBS, and electrified with 25kV AC overhead power - the "Pullman Standard". Pullman's desire for fast intercity services across the north was apparent, but in this came Transpennine's demands, and the result would transform rail transport across Lancashire and Yorkshire.

Huddersfield lay on the primary route between Manchester and Leeds, but clearly was bereft of investment at the time.

They argued for the retention of stations at Stalybridge (connection with Manchester Metro), Huddersfield, Dewsbury and Morley - all important towns, and were granted the first three; Morley was to be served via a continuing "Leeds New Line via Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike (*11). The viaduct tracks east of Leeds would need to be quadrupled anyway to make space for Pullman services to operate east, and a new Pullman Line from Leeds to Church Fenton where it would join with the northern stub of the London-originating Pullman Line, would need to be built - alongside an extended M1 motorway in one area. Transpennine's demands here were not enormous either; a new bridge across the River Aire near Woodlesford to join the existing BR tracks near Neville Hill. This would allow access to Leeds from the east from Wakefield and Castleford areas, and allow trains to continue on without terminating towards Harrogate and the north-east (*12) - reducing platform requirements at Leeds. The method of joining train services together to form longer routes was employed wholesale in Leeds to great success; much of the Yorkshire services which terminated at Leeds would later run through Leeds, forming a "Yorkshire Crossrail" of sorts.

The major concession Transpennine argued for, and eventually received in part due to EU funding for the poorer East Yorkshire area, was the full electrification "east of York" (with the standard 1.5kV DC standard). The direct Transpennine service to Newcastle would be lost, replaced by the Pullman service, but the remaining routes would be operated by a new high speed commuter service across the Pullman Cross-Pennine-North (*13) Route, and branching out east of York. At Church Fenton, both routes (from south and west) would combine and divide out again - one set of tracks on to the legacy network in to York (for Transpennine), and one set of tracks heading directly north towards Newcastle (for Pullman). Service could then be operated by a new fleet of trains, copied from Network South East's new Class 395 high speed commuter train, able to operate on both 25kV AC and 1.5kV DC overhead systems. The existing DEMU units would then be cascaded down to other services; the Southern Cross-Pennine route between Sheffield and Manchester or Derby and Manchester could then be linked with the more urban and electrified routes in the north-west, forming new direct journeys across Manchester.


Leeds Central Station

Leeds New station was a merger between the previous Wellington station and a new cross-city line.

Leeds Central railway station is the larger of the two railway stations serving central Leeds, and the primary station for British Rail. The smaller station, Leeds Piccadilly, is in use by the private rail operator "Northern", who operate services to Bradford, Skipton, Blackburn and Preston, and lies a few hundred meters west. The station has 9 through platforms (4 for legacy tracks, and 5 Pullman tracks), along with 4 further terminus platforms for trains from the west (*15). Following the Second World War, the station had been heavily bombed and needed reconstruction, with British Rail taking the time to rebuild the main station complex. A close escape with a proposed above-station building was avoided in the 1960s (a time when many other stations received similar treatment), after large criticism of the plan which would have blocked much sunlight from City Square. Nevertheless, the station continued evolving; the later 1960s saw further work on approach trackwork, platforms and signalling. By this point, well over 500 trains were using Leeds (Central, then solely called Leeds station, as the adjacent Leeds "Piccadilly" station was at that point worked as a parcels depot), and by the 1980s the station was struggling after Pullman services had begun and isolated 3 platforms to the southern side of the station.

Leeds station concourse was previously used as a car park (*16) before being brought back to life as an enlarged station complex in the 1990s rebuild.

By the 1990s, the station capacity was exceeded daily, and was clearly in need of a thorough modernisation project, which duly toiled away to produce designs, but the new high speed project aimed at pushing high speed trains through Leeds as opposed to terminating at it, forced the project through. The project would see additional approach works, making sure Pullman tracks were fully isolated, and providing 5 Pullman platforms on the south side - 3 for Pullman services themselves (one terminating platform for London services, and two through platforms for high speed Transpennine services between Lancashire and further north). 4 further platforms for British Rail "legacy" services were provided, for east-west through services, whilst a further 4 terminating platforms are providing on the north-west side. In order to achieve this, station platforms and tracks were gradually closed, making use of temporary platforms to the west of the station (called "Leeds Whitehall"), then realigned and rebuilt, to squeeze in 9 through platforms on the site, with each stage reopened and services moved across in order to close the next stage. The station concourse would be completely remodelled, with the historical north concourse brought back in to passenger use (from being a car park) for shops and cafes.

A large and extremely wide overbridge now runs over the full width of the station, with coffee shops and "quick snack" shops situated on it. A small open-air Pullman lounge for eligible Pullman passengers sits above the Pullman platforms, but is aided by a larger Pullman lounge in the main station area. Track renewals, point work and signalling was again renewed, with control over much of the area eventually handed over to a new "Leeds Signalling Centre" to the west of the station next to the River Aire. Pedestrian access from the south side, on Neville Street, was provided where much of the Yorkshire-based financial companies were based, with much of the station covered by a large platform roof.



----------------------
(*1) 1973 - Tyneside Metro
(*2) 1982 - Manchester Metro pt2
(*3) Yet to be discussed in detail, but suffice to say Merseyrail is on it's way in the 1990s
(*4) As briefly mentioned last chapter, a West Midlands network is underway in 1990s
(*5) 1992 - Wales
(*6) 1967 - Strathclyde
(*7) OTL snippets for you.
(*8) Copying for economic reasons, but also similarly to OTL when the first Class 158s when to Scotrail, with the second batch to the north.
(*9) This TL version of the Manchester Airport link being a through route, from Manchester to the Airport and on towards Knutsford and destinations beyond.
(*10) Birkenhead Woodside still going strong.
(*11) Mothballed line, not used since 1970s, but here to come back in to operation.
(*12) Harrogate-Ripon-Northallerton also still operating...
(*13) Cross-Pennine-North, as opposed to Cross-Pennine-South Pullman route (Sheffield-Manchester via Woodhead Route)
(*14) True story.
(*15) Should just about fit in core area, with viaduct widening needed on platform ends and approach tracks from both sides. From the east side, a second viaduct to carry Pullman double track would be required; it'd have to be on the south side of the existing viaduct due to historic protected buildings on the north side.
(*16) Never realised that it was a car park myself, until I was researching this chapter.

So here, the Transpennine main line between Manchester and Leeds is being electrified; a large part of the business case is for Pullman to be able to operate across the Pennines which will in turn create a better business case for extending the Pullman tracks further north. Liverpool - Manchester - Ashton is already electrified as part of the existing Pullman route. Some EU funding for the less affluent East Yorkshire parts of the route, because building a train which accepts 25kV AC, 1.5kV DC and diesel power is pushing the technical limits for the time.

 

[Devvy]

1996 - Swansea Railway Station (Gorsaf reilffordd Abertawe (*1)), Article from Railopedia

History

The approach to Swansea Victoria station in decades gone by.

Swansea has had, since the 19th century, several different railway stations owing to the different railway companies; originally, the city had seven stations in 1895, owned by five different railway companies: High Street (GWR), St Thomas (Midland Railway), East Dock (GWR), Riverside (Rhondda & Swansea Bay Railway), Victoria and Swansea Bay (both London & North Western Railway), and Rutland Street (the town terminus of the Mumbles Railway). Of all five, only a single station now remains for British Rail, although High Street station is operated by the "Welsh Railway Museum" which preserves several old steam locomotives used in Wales and has a short stretch of track (built in 2006) to operate back and forth on along side the Swansea Tramway.

Rationalisation of the situation came in the 1960s, as British Rail attempted to stem financial losses. Swansea lay at the middle of a few long distance lines however; the South Wales Main Line (to Cardiff and London, and the predominant passenger route), the West Wales Line (to Pembrokeshire, important for freight to the various docks at Milford Haven), the Central Wales Line (to central and northern Wales, important for political reasons as a link to the rest of Wales), and various "Valleys" rail routes which predominately served local freight. The mid 20th Century would see huge rises in car ownership, and bus usage for short distance travel, and the Mumbles Railway was axed in the 1950s; an early vision of the future for several routes, particularly as mining freight traffic from the Valleys began to dry up, and oil shipping slowly left Swansea. Out of the two main stations, Swansea High Street was the main station as far as the Western Region of British Rail were concerned; they were the modern incarnation of the Great Western Railway who had built the station. The only other station left was Swansea Victoria; a smaller station to the south side of the main city centre, and from which most of the services to the west and northwards operated. (*2)

By the late 1960s, further closures of local rail routes meant that even two stations was over the top, and expensive. 1970 saw the the "Swansea Rail Study" as British Rail decided what to do in order to cut costs in the Swansea & Neath area. Swansea High Street was undoubtedly the "main" station, but it was a terminus, and forced all traffic heading east to west to pull in from the main line, stop, and then reverse out to continue it's journey - or bypass Swansea entirely. In the mean time, Swansea Docks continued to stick around, with the Prince of Wales Dock, Kings Dock and Queens Dock all in use into the 1980s, and using rail for goods transfer. 1971 saw the full closure of the Swansea South Dock, with the North Dock already closed, and suddenly space opened up. British Rail headquarters, who had kept the Western Region on a leash ever since they attempted to use completely different locomotive traction types in the 1950s (*3), forced their hand, despite the WR favouring High Street station. Swansea Victoria, expanded using the released South Dock space, was to be Swansea's primary railway station, and allow Swansea to be a completely through station. Not for many decades had passenger trains run over the high level rail bridge since a train fell off in to water when the bridge itself had been raised, resulting in the death of driver and fireman (*4). It had gradually worn down over time, particularly as freight declined; it would need some works done on it, but otherwise was largely left in place (in the closed position, as ships no longer needed to access upstream). The bridge would be demolished and rebuilt slightly south in the late 1980s in preparation for electrification, with a wider loading gauge, space for overhead line supports, and smoothing out the tight curves on either side as warehouses were demolished and heavy industry evaporated.

Central Swansea in it's former years.

Services

Despite having space for terminating trains in the middle two platforms, these days Swansea is largely a through station and sees a wide range of trains pass through. Shorter diesel multiple units, part sponsored by the Welsh Government, operate from Cardiff via Swansea to Carmarthenshire & Pembrokeshire (either Fishguard, Milford Haven, Pembroke or Newcastle Emlyn (*5)) via Llanelli. Longer distance trains, still locomotive hauled operate from Cardiff via Swansea again to the north of Wales via a winding route through the heart of Wales, but operates infrequently, with only 6 trains per day. The service, marketed as the "Welsh Explorer", is the attempt at a Welsh answer to the Scottish scenic railways, as it winds through the Welsh mountains on a generally single-track route offering dramatic views. The train is usually timetabled to terminate at Chester, but some specific services do continue to Holyhead; usually special weekend services hauled by steam. The GWR Castle class locomotive "Drysllwyn Castle" (*6) is a firm favourite on the route, and spends the rest of it's time in preservation at the heritage centre at the former High Street station. London services also operate here, and are the only trains which terminate at Swansea, being as they are electric-only, although electrification is now being considered further west to Carmarthen for freight trains, and the growing tourism market further west. Such a move, planned for 2025, would see Intercity services extended to Llanelli and terminate at Carmarthen as an alternative to A40 widening in the area, although a replacement of the Loughor Viaduct would also be finally required (*7).

Rails around Swansea now:
Blue: British Rail electrified
Black: British Rail unelectrified
Green: Swanea Metro (Tram)

The last group of passenger services are those from Cardiff on the Valley Lines via Aberdare and Neath. These trains formerly terminated at Swansea too, but since the 2012 when the Welsh Government finally reopened the roughly 2 miles of short line (as a single track spur) from the main line to Mumbles (*8), the services have been extended through Swansea to Mumbles. Finally, a selection of freight trains, predominately from the Milford Haven ports, operating to inland ports across Great Britain. Most of them are hauled by powerful bimode diesel / electric locomotives, slowing briefly as they pass the Swansea stations platforms in order to switch from diesel to electric (or vice versa) traction; the switchover and sudden silencing of the diesel engines when operating eastwards shortly after can cause bewildered looks from non-locals (*9) - Swansea is one of the few places in Great Britain where the switchover takes place in a station.

Facilities

Planned new Swansea station.

The renovated Swansea Victoria station, now just "Swansea" railway station, is a 4 platform affair, and sees a wide range of trains passing through nowadays. To the east, on the other side of the river, lies a large train maintenance and stabling depot, for the electric Intercity trains, built on the former dock railway lands (*10). It provides train inspection facilities, as well as train washing for the interior and exterior, employing several dozen locals. A cafe, ticketing facilities and a small shop fit inside the 1970s "CLASP" style slab concrete station building (the only such example in Wales) on the north side of the tracks, although in 2005 a new southern entrance opened providing access from the Marina area (former South Dock). British Rail has planning permission to demolish the station and rebuilt it, in a style befitting the local area.

The Swansea Tramway (*11), operated by Transport for Wales, operates from the station via the city centre to northern suburbs of Swansea, terminating at Clydach using older disused rail alignments outside of the city centre, and is fairly well used. A later Park & Ride addition next to the M4 motorway provided some extra passengers, whilst a southern extension to Swansea University provided extra student traffic. Studies are underway to extend this to Neath or Gowerton, using the former GWR main line to access the former stations which were protected for future reuse by the British, and later Welsh, Governments. The Swansea Metropolitan Line which is nowadays only used for a few freight trains bypassing Swansea, heading from the Cardiff Valleys to the Central Wales line, with some freight trains also using the line to bypass Swansea during busier times.

----------------------------
(*1) Hopefully that's correct...
(*2) Those first two chapters roughly OTL, but that after is diverging.
(*3) Ever since the Western Region wanted to introduce non-standard diesel hydraulic transmission locomotives which were untested in Britain during the 1950s, and BR blocked it, forcing standardised locomotive types (unlike OTL!).
(*4) Again true, apparently no passenger trains ran over the bridge following the accident. Here, the closure of the North Docks means the bridge can stay shut, and as such is eventually used again by passenger trains.
(*5) Line still operating via Carmarthen, kept open due to milk/creameries until 1980s when a trial passenger service was attempted and was retained, and then gradually expanded in service. I'd imagine each of these destinations having an every 2-hour service, resulting in a every 30 minutes service east of Carmarthen.
(*6) A classic GWR locomotive seemed right for the route.
(*7) So the Loughour Viaduct hasn't been replaced...yet...but is firmly on the cards as it's a bottleneck on the route. Potential Intercity extension west to Carmarthen, maybe 1tph with others terminating at Swansea, and 2tph to Carmarthen during summer peak?
(*8) Mumbles Line closed, and then reopened later. Just a single track spur; but that's all which is required to operate the service.
(*9) We've discussed bi-mode diesel and electric locomotives, so shouldn't be a surprise they are also hauling freight!
(*10) Plenty of spare land here at the time for train stabling, cleaning and maintenance.
(*11) Welsh funded tram system; not particularly long, but stretches circa 10 miles from Clydach to the University now.

-----------------------------

Looking on maps it appears the approach tracks to Northgate crossed the north wales coast / great western main line just west of a hypothetical deeside station. A cheap single track link might not be impossible allowing Northgate trains to call at deeside and general or continue to the wirral.

It's possible, but tbh I can't see it being financially sustainable. There's too many rural lines in that area for the population; some are going to have to be abandoned, and that's highly likely to be the Chester Northgate network.

Sorry it’s not directly related to the timeline, but does anyone know why Newcastle’s trainline was allowed to cut straight through its Castle?

It was in the way? After all the railway pretty much demolished the castle at Berwick because it was in the way. The Victorians were more than happy to bulldoze their way through existing buildings, which, given what happened in the '60s and '70s is slightly ironic.

No idea of the top of my head (and despite doing some Wiki trawling looking for some hints about it); will defer to JN1 on that!

 

[Devvy]

1997 - The Labour Manifesto for Government [excerpts] (*1)

Railways
The process of rail privatisation was refused by the British Parliament, but the Conservatives have pursued stealth privatisation nonetheless. It has made fortunes for a few, but has been a poor deal for the taxpayer, and has fragmented the network. Their economic recklessness with British Rail has limited investment and resulted in areas of our network becoming rundown, unreliable and unsafe. Our task will be to improve the situation as we find it, not as we wish it to be. Our overriding goal must be to win more passengers and freight on to rail. The system must be run in the public interest with higher levels of investment and be a truly "British Rail" which serves all of Britain - not just a few cities (*2). There must be convenient connections, through-ticketing and accurate travel information for the benefit of all passengers.

To achieve these aims, we will establish an effective and accountable financial programme for British Rail, ensuring that the public subsidy serves the public interest. We will reform British Rail to devolve more, and truly serve local communities across the country, whilst establishing national standards and programmes nationwide to provide a clear, coherent and strategic programme for the development of the railways so that passenger expectations are met.

The Conservative plan for the wholesale privatisation of London Underground is not the answer, much as it was not the answer for British Rail. It would be a poor deal for the taxpayer and passenger alike. Yet again, public assets would be sold off at an under-valued rate. Much-needed investment would be delayed. The core public responsibilities of the Underground would be threatened.

Road transport
We remain unpersuaded by the case for heavier, 44-tonne lorries mooted by the Conservatives. Our concern is that they would prove dangerous and damaging to the environment, and the case for them is weakened if British Rail can be reformed to offer better freight solutions.

Life in our countryside
Labour recognises the special needs of people who live and work in rural areas. The Conservatives do not. Public services and transport services in rural areas must not be allowed to deteriorate (*3). The Conservatives have tried to privatise the Post Office. We opposed that, in favour of a public Post Office providing a comprehensive service. Conservative plans would mean higher charges for letters and put rural post offices under threat.

We favour a moratorium on large-scale sales of Forestry Commission land. We recognise that the countryside is a great natural asset, a part of our heritage which calls for careful stewardship. This must be balanced, however, with the needs of people who live and work in rural areas.

Our initiatives to link all schools to the information superhighway will ensure that children in rural areas have access to the best educational resources. (*4)

Sport
A Labour government will take the lead in extending opportunities for participation in sports; and in identifying sporting excellence and supporting it. We will bring the government's policy of forcing schools to sell off playing fields to an end. We will provide full backing to the bid to host the 2006 football World Cup in England (*5). A Labour government will also work to bring the Olympics and other major international sporting events to Britain.

Devolution: strengthening the Union (*6)
The United Kingdom is a partnership enriched by distinct national identities and traditions. Scotland has its own systems of education, law and local government. Wales has its language and cultural traditions. We will meet the demand for decentralisation of power to Scotland and Wales, once established in referendums.

As soon as possible after the election, we will enact legislation to allow the people of Scotland and Wales to vote in separate referendums on our proposals, which will be set out in white papers. These referendums will take place not later than the autumn of 1997. A simple majority of those voting in each referendum will be the majority required. Popular endorsement will strengthen the legitimacy of our proposals and speed their passage through Parliament.

For Scotland we propose the creation of a parliament with law-making powers, firmly based on the agreement reached in the Scottish Constitutional Convention, including defined and limited financial powers to vary revenue and elected by a proportional electoral system. In the Scottish referendum we will seek separate endorsement of the proposal to create a parliament, and of the proposal to give it defined and limited financial powers to vary revenue. The Scottish parliament will extend democratic control over the responsibilities currently exercised administratively by the Scottish Office. The responsibilities of the UK Parliament will remain unchanged over UK policy, for example economic, defence and foreign policy.

The Welsh assembly will provide democratic control of the existing Welsh Office functions. It will have secondary legislative powers and will be specifically empowered to reform and democratise the quango state. It will be elected by an proportional electoral system.

Following majorities in the referendums, we will introduce in the first year of the Parliament legislation on the substantive devolution proposals outlined in our white papers.

Good local government
London (*7)
London is the only Western capital without an elected city government. Following a referendum to confirm popular demand, there will be a new deal for London, with a strategic authority and a mayor. Both will speak up for the needs of the city and plan its future. They will not duplicate the work of the boroughs, but take responsibility for London-wide issues - economic regeneration, planning, policing, transport and environmental protection. London-wide responsibility for its own government is urgently required. We will make it happen.

The regions of England (*8)
The Conservatives have created a tier of regional government in England through quangos and government regional offices. Meanwhile local authorities have come together to create a more co-ordinated regional voice. Labour will build on these developments through the establishment of regional chambers to co-ordinate transport, planning, economic development, bids for European funding and land use planning.

Demand for directly elected regional government so varies across England that it would be wrong to impose a uniform system. In time we will introduce legislation to allow the people, region by region, to decide in a referendum whether they want directly elected regional government. Only where clear popular consent is established will arrangements be made for elected regional assemblies. This would require a predominantly unitary system of local government, as presently exists in Scotland and Wales, and confirmation by independent auditors that no additional public expenditure overall would be involved. Our plans will not mean adding a new tier of government to the existing English system.

----------------------------
Much as I usually try to stay out of politics, this is directly relevant after 18 years of Conservative rule, which, like OTL, has been "gently" pro-car. Although we should note that even in OTL, Thatcher authorised the East Coast Main Line electrification and accompanying trains, as well as the Channel Tunnel and early days of Eurostar.

(*1) This is basically the OTL manifesto, but suitably "refined" for taking place in this TL.
(*2) No prizes for guessing what this refers to....
(*3) Inferring no cuts to rural rail services.
(*4) Meaning more railway lines; particularly closed railway lines still owned by British Rail to be used to lay new telecommunications cables.
(*5) I think we all know how that turned out. It's destiny in any TL that England must never host a World Cup (football) after 1966.....
(*6) So Welsh and Scottish devolution is coming in.
(*7) And hello to the London Assembly.
(*8) And lastly hopefully some form of regional devolution within England, as previously hinted in chapters past. I still think this will only pass in certain areas, and effectively replace the county council level with a regional authority level, retaining the two levels of local government in England, but with more powers at the regional level.

 

[Devvy]

1997 - Merseyrail

The maze of railways around Birkenhead in pre-British Rail days

History
The programme of route closures in the 1960s, known as the Beeching Reforms, caused a great deal of concern in Liverpool, and the wider Merseyside area. It was a city well served by rail, as befitting a major port in Great Britain, with railway connections in every direction; the main problem was that many of these were completely unconnected from one another and therefore was not particularly efficient. The 1970s saw further declines in rail usage, and some stations - and Liverpool Central in particular - became very rundown, and was proposed for closure. Liverpool Riverside terminal station at the Pier Head was an early casualty, and closed in the early 1970s. However, it was rather uncontroversial: the demise of the trans-Atlantic liner trade forced its closure, with it's last acts being the transport of troops to docks for transfer to Northern Ireland (*1).

Come the 1980s, Pullman services were introduced to the city. Despite Lime Street being the predominate, and busiest, station, it was difficult to isolate a route in to Lime Street - and many passengers along the Lime Street routes could catch a train in the opposite direction and transfer to Pullman at Manchester instead. This opened up the study to several more stations in Liverpool. Eventually Liverpool Exchange was decided upon (*2); a long station, with capacity for long straight platforms, underused at the time, with a location right in the city centre. 4 platforms were isolated for Pullman services, and removed from standard usage. As rail usage began to rise in the later 1980s and 1990s, the station became busier and busier; the lack of onwards connections made it increasingly difficult to access the station, and roads became gridlocked at time around the station. Against this backdrop was the Merseyside Area Local Transport Action Review (MALTAR) in the late 1980s; a study in to a prospective local transport network, noting that Liverpool lagged far behind Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle and Birmingham, let alone London. The MALTAR report recommended that the suburban and outer-suburban commuter rail services into both Exchange and Central High-level stations be rerouted via new tunnels under Liverpool, and linked together, connecting in to the mooted Liverpool central regeneration project. Liverpool City Council wholeheartedly backed the report, and envisaged a "Merseyside Rapid Transit" network, or "Merseyrail" as it would become known. Importantly for the business case, this proposal would also release station capacity at Exchange station for an increase in Pullman services, and provide a step change in accessibility for the station (*3).

The Merseyside Strategic Plan in 1990 envisaged that further phases would allow the Edge Hill Spur to the east of the city to be connected to the central underground sections, and the lines to St. Helens, Wigan and Warrington would be electrified and all integrated into Merseyrail by 2000 (*4). A tight grip on finances kept the project tightly defined; the Exchange-Central link would only require one underground station to be built from scratch and a short connecting tunnel, whilst the Wirral Line would be connected via Exchange to the older Victoria Tunnel to connect eastwards. The only major new underground station would be at Exchange station, which would serve as the connecting point between both routes (*5). Electrical systems would utilise and standardise the existing stretches of third rail DC (*6) electrification, which also would reduce the size of tunnel required to only a 5 metre diameter whilst still allowing larger trains to operate.

The Loop and Link Project
The major engineering works required to integrate the Northern and Wirral lines became known as the 'Wirral' and 'Link' Project. The 'Wirral' was the connecting of routes from Birkenhead via the Wirral Line tunnel and the 'Link' was the Northern Line tunnel, both under Liverpool's city centre. The main works were undertaken between 1992 and 1997. A further project, known as the Edge Hill Spur, would have integrated further lines into the city centre underground network (*7). This would have meshed the eastern section of the city into the core underground electric city centre section of the network, releasing platforms at mainline Lime Street station for mid to long haul routes.

Merseyrail trains trundle across the docks on a viaduct.

Split from British Rail
As the Merseyrail service started, in 1997, the system was run as a separate logical network; to passengers it was a different network, in the same mold as any of the other major cities, although the network, trains and signalling were all operated and maintained by British Rail. In 2008, after 10 years, Merseyside authorities came to an agreement with British Rail to purchase the network outright; a 5-year transition period began, whereby Abellio (a British Rail subsidiary for contract operations (*8) ) began operating & maintaining the network whilst the network was detached in it's entirety from British Rail. Merseyrail maintenance is still conducted by Abellio and BR Infrastructure under contract, but operation of the network is now done by a consortium of FirstGroup and Hong Kong-based MTR Corporation (*9).

The Wirral Line
The Wirral Line brings together several rail routes via Birkenhead; those from New Brighton, West Kirkby, Neston (*10) and Ellesmere Port. The original Mersey Railway tunnel under the River Mersey allows trains to serve in to Liverpool, whilst also providing interchange with Birkenhead Woodside station (*11). The eastern end of the Mersey Railway tunnel used to connect to the low level platforms at Central station, via James Street, but this was to be discontinued. A new tunnel, diverging from the eastern end of James Street station, would curve northwards, in to the new underground station roughly under the Hackins Hey road. The new station offered "each-end" access, with the northern end linking directly in to Exchange station, and the southern end on to Dale Street near the edge of the "Liverpool One" city centre regeneration project. The Wirral Line could then bend eastwards again, and link in to the Waterloo/Victoria Tunnel where it can then run eastwards. Destinations to the east include Broad Green - plans to run further east were obstructed by the M62 construction which provided a double track obstacle (which would remain in use as British Rail tracks) - and to Liverpool Airport.

Wirral Services:
New Brighton - Liverpool Airport (4tph)
West Kirby - Liverpool Airport (4tph)
Neston - Broad Green (4tph)
Ellesmere Port - Broad Green (4tph)

The Northern Line
The Northern Line is a double-track route which links the Widnes branch to the south (*12) with the Southport branch to the north, and also the Outer Loop Line to the east (*13), thereby creating one single unified route, the Northern Line. It provides direct access from the north and south of Liverpool to the shopping and business districts in the city centre via two underground stations, Liverpool Exchange and Liverpool Central, of which Exchange station also provides interchange with the Wirral Line (and Pullman services). The Northern Line effectively creates a north-south crossrail enabling passengers to travel from the south to the north of the city, and vice versa, via Liverpool city centre. The present Northern Line underground station at Liverpool Central Low Level was originally the Mersey Railway terminus, but was re-engineered to provide the north-south platforms and releasing the ground space where Central station "ground-level" station sat; the sale of land above the station provided a needed cash boost to the project. A section of the original 1880s tunnel between James Street and Central stations still exists as a stock interchange line, to allow trains to transfer between the two network lines, but is not used in regular service.

Northern Services:
Southport - Loop - Widnes (6tph, 8tph-peak) (creating 12tph, 16tph-peak through the core)

Future
Talks are underway between the Merseyside regional authorities and Welsh Assembly over the extension of the route at Neston, reopening the closed route from the 1970s (*14). This would see the Wrexham-Connah's Quay line, which currently links Wrexham to the North Wales Coastal Line, converted to an extended Merseyrail service, with Merseyrail trains running as far south as King's Mills in Wrexham where the line terminates. British Rail services would either then be diverted to Chester and Birkenhead, or a new chord built to the west of Chester to allow the current service pattern to remain. The other long term desire is to extend the Wirral Line (Green Branch) eastwards to meet the Outer Loop, and potentially on to St Helens. Discussions over the future of the British Rail "legacy" services at Exchange station which operate to Preston and beyond are ongoing; Merseyrail would quite like to add the line to their network, British Rail would like to hold on to it, and Northern (private rail operator) (*15) would like to take it over to extend their routes from Yorkshire and Preston to Liverpool.

Newer trains are planned for Merseyrail.

Trains
Services on the electrified Merseyrail network are operated exclusively by Class 508 electric multiple unit trains (EMUs). These replaced pre-war Class 502 (originally constructed by the LMS) and almost identical Class 503 EMUs. As the third rail system slowly shrinks in south eastern England, further Class 508 trains are being redeployed in the Merseyside region, allowing for an increase in peak-time services and allowing pro-active maintenance of trains during the middle of day. The fleet was refurbished between 2008 and 2010 as units began redeployment north, involving trainsets receiving new longitudinal seating (which despite increasing capacity proved unpopular with passengers), interior panel replacement, new lighting, the installation of a Passenger Information System and a new external livery. Further enhancements saw newer traction equipment installed, increasing energy efficiency and providing a smoother journey for passengers.

New trains are to be built (*16), with the tender recently awarded to a European firm. New trains will be 4-coach units (instead of 3-coach), bringing a 1/3 increase in capacity straight away, and being deployed to start with on the Wirral Lines due to overcrowding, particularly on the route to Ellesmere Port. These will feature new and more comfortable seating returning to 2x2 transverse seats, in-train Firewire connections (*17), better passenger information systems, better regenerative braking systems and faster accelerating traction motor systems.


Merseyrail Map

-------------------------------------
(*1) As per OTL
(*2) As per previous chapters introducing Pullman services to Exchange station. Pullman has to be isolated, as it uses 25kv AC electrical systems, rather than the BR standard of 1.5kV DC electrical systems (for better or for worse!).
(*3) In OTL, this happened decades earlier, prompted by the OTL Beeching Axe. In this TL, Beeching Reforms have left more rail routes in place, so things pottered on as they are.
(*4) Although this has never happened in this TL. Slashed budgets with the 1990s economic "dip".
(*5) Envisaging a deep trench, with one line and island platform serving both tracks below the other line with island platform serving both tracks. Therefore interchange is easy, minimal land usage.
(*6) Third rail DC electrification predates British Rail in the area, and there's no point in changing the infrastructure for what will be a closed network.
(*7) Ideas linking to (*4) which never made it; largely the M62 at Broad Green restricts the original quadruple track alignment to double track, so no room for Merseyrail tracks and British Rail tracks. The Merseyrail Broad Green station is just to the west of the M62/A5080 overbridge.
(*8) As previously mentioned "Abellio" is the BR sector business which handles contract operations.
(*9) Symbolic of creeping privatisation in certain areas of the rail industry. Also, BR being an enormous national publicly owned business can't do some work in a manner which is economic and agile enough for small networks like Merseyrail, so other operators climbing in. Similar to London Overground (who operate mostly on National Rail tracks, for local government, as a private rail operator).
(*10) Part takeover of the OTL Borderlands Line. Merseyrail now runs south as far as Neston. From the south, the *Borderlands Line from Wrexham currently gets to Connah's Quay and bends west to join the North Wales Coast Line.
(*11) Birkenhead Woodside still operating
(*12) Using the "Widnes Loop", as you can see in the old maps at the top. British Rail does not run via the OTL Widnes Station line. British Rail here runs via Liverpool South, then along the coastal line towards Warrington Bank Quay as far as Widnes, calling at Widnes station, and using the east half of the Widnes Loop to return on to the OTL British Rail tracks. Widnes-Warrington Bank Quay is only freight (coal for the power station), and Warrington Bank Quay eastwards is closed, due to expensive bridge maintenance.
(*13) Using the full loop line, and rather then being a circular route, services from Southport run south, loop around, and then run on to Widnes, therefore doubling the service in the central core area, and avoiding a circle line (as circular routes are difficult to sort delays on during the day).
(*14) Slightly different twist to OTL.
(*15) As mentioned during the "Northern" chapter.
(*16) Looks pretty similar to OTL right!?
(*17) As mentioned before a couple of times, Firewire is this TL version of USB and offers network/internet and power on the single cable.

 

[Devvy]

1997 - Pullman: Northern Strategy, Summary of Options.

The Pullman trains had come a long way since their early concepts.

Given the 1997 election of Labour, strong majority it had in Parliament, and commitment to making sure "British Rail serves Britain" (*1), it seemed obvious that there would be conversations shortly about the extension of Pullman services further north then Leeds. The commercial successes of the TGV in France were obvious, as was the less-successful financially Eurostar (*2) operation from London to Paris and Brussels.

Since Intercity Pullman operations had begun, huge number of passengers had switched to using the services. Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds had been the initial targets; Manchester and Leeds have gained significant economic benefits from it, although Liverpool with it's position right at the end of the line, had less significant time savings offered. Nottingham had, unforeseen, seen a rise in residency for London commuters (*3), being just under an hour from central London, aided by cheaper property prices. Sheffield, and the other smaller Yorkshire towns directly served, saw less impact for various reasons, but still saw economic advantages over those not directly served, of which Birmingham was the prime example (although served by high speed commuter trains indirectly). With the economy continuing to improve since the early 1990s, not least with the rapid growth of low cost airlines, but generally that demand for travel between the UK's largest cities would be expected to continue to increase significantly.

Since Pullman operations arrived in Yorkshire, there have been several studies in to the benefits (or lack of as some studies backed by third parties advocated) of extending the route north. Thus far, all proposals have not been implemented, for a variety of reasons, although many involve government financing and government policy (*4). The fast, comfortable and punctual trains have interested local layers of government further north repeatedly, and especially influential Scottish politicians (*5) have lamented that Pullman does not serve Scotland, to "detriment of the Union". Within internal benefits, operation further north of Pullman services would take over West Coast and East Coast route expresses to some combination of Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh, allowing the release of existing rolling stock to be either cascaded down to other routes, or scrapped. The Class 55 locomotives, operating from London to Newcastle and Edinburgh are now approaching almost 40 years of operation; their long lasting service is a testament to both their build and design quality, but also careful maintenance by British Rail. They can not, however, operate forever, and new locomotives at the very least will soon be required (*6).

A Class 55 hauled express runs over the viaduct at Berwick.

Rail capacity is, at almost all sections of the route, limited to roughly 12 trains per hour. This is currently divided between Intercity (who use 4 paths for Pullman, and 3 for Intercity operations to Birmingham), and Network South East (who use 3 paths for London outer-commuter services from Northampton). Full trains, particularly from the North-West route, have led to calls for additional services from Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield to London. This, and the additional demand for services from London to "further-north" will lead to congestion on the route, and risks compromising the very factors which have made Pullman a success - speed, punctuality and reliability. It seems implicit therefore, that any extension north will have to be conducted hand in hand with a resignalling of the route to add extra capacity. Examples from France indicate that up to 15 high speed trains per hour should be technically possible by improving the existing British Rail Balise Based Signalling, and reducing the signal block lengths from 1km to 0.5km.

Any increases in capacity and train service in to London, must equally be matched by investment in Pullman services in London. Currently, the Pullman route terminates at 4 platforms within Euston station (*7), as well as using former West Coast Route "fast" tracks south of Tring to access Euston. This places an undue weight on the WCML; it has to only operate with 2 tracks as far north as Tring, and with reduced station capacity at Euston, which was the driving force behind Network South East switching Northampton & Milton Keynes commuter services to run via the Pullman route (*8).

Railfreight by Freightliner on the West Coast Main Line.

Supplemental to the limted rail capacity on the Pullman Route, any extension north would release capacity on the legacy British Rail routes. Growing demand for railfreight, particularly in the conveyance of intermodal containers (*9), is pressing on capacity, especially on the West Coast Main Line which is electrified and therefore cheaper for the transport of freight. The removal of Anglo-Scottish (WCML services to Glasgow) would therefore release track capacity for improved short distance passenger operations and railfreight, especially as express services require more headway due to their speeds.

Working on the economic benefits laid out in prior studies, there is a clear business care for 2 tightly linked projects; extending the Pullman route north, and re-engineering the Pullman route in to London.

Pullman to the North

The three main options for extending Pullman north.

Option A (*10) ) Add extra Pullman services to Leeds, to access Leeds from the east, and then continue north-westerly to serve Carlisle, Edinbugh and Glasgow. This is the fastest Anglo-Scottish route on paper; it is almost a straight line to the Central Belt, but this belies the complexity of terrain. Significant challenges would be found for a new link, let alone environmental challenges through the Yorkshire Dales, or utilising the existing Settle-Carlisle Line would reduce operating speeds. It also means Newcastle, and the wider north-east, are not served.

Option B (*11) ) Add extra Pullman services to Manchester, which then continue north to Preston, Carlisle, Glasgow and Edinburgh. This would allow Manchester to benefit from additional Pullman services, and would take over much of the existing West Coast Main Line north of Preston, with some bypasses in place, particularly around Lancaster, and a large amount of track quadrupling to allow legacy services to continue operating. This option is cheapest, due to the considerable amount of existing infrastructure used, and also does not serve Newcastle or the north-east.

Option C (*12) ) Add a new set of Pullman services, operating to south of Leeds, whereby branch off and head north, utilising parts of the East Coast Main Line where appropriate. This would allow Pullman trains to serve Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow simultaneously, but would require extensive works at each of the cities to allow Pullman segregation.

Pullman across London

Three sample options for extending Pullman across London.

There are several different options for how to extend Pullman services across London, but all rely on a different set of key considerations, and all allow Pullman services from the north to operate across London and on to Europe (customs, security & immigration concerns notwithstanding). It would also allow Eurostar services to operate north of London, subject to the same concerns.

Point A (*13) ) Central London station ("London Grand Central" as some have termed it); should it be at Euston or St Pancras. Building at Euston station would involve considerable disruption at an operation station, and with the associated cost increases. Building at St Pancras station itself would require an extensive overhaul of an old station. However, adjacent to St Pancras station lies the older goods yards, still in British Rail possession. Using this site would allow the reuse of central London property, links in to the existing London Kings Cross & St Pancras British Rail and London Underground connections, and without impact on existing rail operations.

Point B (*14) ) East London access (as suggested by Arup) or South London access (as historically favoured by British Rail). The existing route in to London from Europe, via Bromley, would continue operations for new high speed commuter services from Kent, but Pullman/Eurostar operations would branch off further south. The extended viaducts of the South Bank mean it would be expensive to rise from a tunnel and join the existing line closer to the centre, and Beckenham would be the closest to London tunnel exit point. East London access would involved the route running under eastern London, with a new station at Stratford, before diving under the Thames and rejoining the existing Eurostar route near Gravesend.

Point C (*15) ) London access from the north. Currently, all Pullman services use the previously West Coast Route "fast" tracks to access Euston station, with the corresponding reduction of capacity on the WCML legacy network. One suggestion has been to use the redundant tracks which previously accessed London Marylebone station on the now Beck Line Corridor to run from West Hampstead to Wembley, before diving in to a tunnel again as far as Tring.

Point D (*16) ) Cross London commuter services. High speed commuter services from Birmingham and Northampton have already started operating in to Euston station. A closely linked question would be whether to extend such commuter services "cross-city" as well, improving access for all to the Pullman central station, whilst also allowing new high speed journeys to be possible and the corresponding higher utilisation of rolling stock and reduction int he amount required to run a service.

-------------------------------
(*1) As mentioned in the Labour Manifesto chapter
(*2) Eurostar lower passengers then expected, but basically running 2 trains per hour to Paris and Brussels of standard length (200m) stock. OTL, Channel Tunnel safety rules means a train has to be 400m long; here the earlier state-funded construction of it has led to a different safety rules.
(*3) The less then 1 hour travel time to central London via Pullman, with a service every 15 minutes, I think would lead to Nottingham attracting a reasonable amount of London commuters given it's location, "it's not the north!" location (!), and ease of commuting.
(*4) Sounds familiar in any TL involving Government.
(*5) SNP in pre-devolution days.
(*6) The Class 55 locomotives are obviously old but have worked well for ECML Anglo-Scottish expresses. There will need to be a rolling stock refresh on the ECML (and WCML soon) whatever happens, so might as well make it Pullman!
(*7) Pullman using the 4 western platforms; 2 for Pullman services (1 each for Liverpool and Leeds services, meaning a service must leave within approx 20-25 minutes after arriving to avoid blocking the station), and 2 for NSE/Intercity high speed commuter services (train must leave within 10-15 minutes of arriving, which is "challenging" and requires careful and well choreographed management).
(*8) Longer distance services which stop infrequently obviously don't mix well with slower stopping services.
(*9) We've mentioned this before briefly, and there is another freight chapter coming up; but in brief, intermodal container freight transport is on the rapid rise due to globalisation, similar to OTL. Particularly on the WCML, as it's electrified, and thereby cheaper to operate freight trains on.
And more likely detail for those interested:
(*10) Pullman via Leeds to Scotland. This would see a line through the Yorkshire Dales; I really can't see a new line being authorised through here for environmental reasons, and electrification of the line not being particularly welcome either. The Ribblehead Viaduct would also need substantial work to bring it up to spec. The Settle-Carlisle Line would likely have a max speed of approx 80-90mph if modernised, with standard trains.
(*11) Pullman via Manchester to Scotland. Obviously adds extra services for Manchester and Sheffield but rather indirect. Would probably be able to take over portions of the WCML to reduce cost, but it's still going to be wiggly to avoid the national parks and the general unfavourable terrain. Also "less than direct", which will affect London to Scotland travel times. Some WCML traffic probably offloaded to Settle-Carlisle line as bypass route.
(*12) Pullman via Newcastle to Scotland. Added advantage of serving Newcastle, and allowing a single service to serve both Edinburgh and Glasgow in one, although travel times to Glasgow are not 100% perfect. Probable reuse of much of the ECML between Newcastle and Edinburgh, and north of York where it is dead straight. Some ECML traffic rerouted via Leeds-Harrogate-Northallerton as bypass route. All non-Pullman Anglo-Scottish traffic routed via Carlisle - potential single point of failure!
(*13) So here, I've assumed British Rail have kept the St Pancras yard (which OTL was turned in to the British Library in the 1990s) partly for this reason. British Library now sited in railway lands to north of Kings Cross/St Pancras. The area would require a small amount of house demolition (!) to the west of St Pancras approach tracks, but appears to mesh reasonably well. Euston would be difficult for mentioned reasons.
(*14) The historical HS1 debate in OTL. Both plans have merit, although east London authorities were more favourable to the HS1 scheme then south London authorities.
(*15) Some scope for reducing the amount of WCML takeover. In future, this could become a fully tunnelled route between central London and Britannia Airport, but at the moment I think this will just involve the reuse of some land to reduce WCML congestion rather then bypass the WCML entirely.
(*16) Clear scope for cross London high speed commuter services, and the removal of a significant amount of Kent commuter traffic from the legacy network, as well as speeding up via high speed route, a la OTL HS1.

 

[Devvy]

1998 - Britannia Airport

British Airways is a heavy user of Britannia Airport as it's international hub.

London Britannia Airport (IATA: BTN (*1), ICAO: EGBT (*2) ), is one of the busiest airports in the world, and one of four airports serving London. It also serves much of southern England, lying roughly between London and Birmingham, Oxford and Cambridge, and has acted as a stimulus to the British "Silicon Valley" lying to it's north east around Milton Keynes, where many electronic multinational corporations are based. The airport handles almost 100 million passengers per year (*3), and employs a large number of workers from the surrounding towns and area. Part of that wider area now lies in Britannia Airport's NDZ (Non-Development Zone (*4) ), where development is restricted to avoid the same issues which blighted firstly Croydon Airport and then Heathrow Airport. Much of the NDZ are urban areas which predate the airport development, or forestry; much of the surrounding area (former farming land) was planted over with trees. This was partly to try and negate environmental arguments, but predominately to act as a large visual barrier to the airport (political attempts for "out of sight, out of mind") and further keep out development from the area around the airport. Much of the forest areas are riddled with pathways and cycle tracks, and are popular with dogwalkers, recreational cycles, and plane spotters.

The airport features 4 standard runways on a SW-NW axis arrange in 2 pairs (one for landing, one for takeoff), with both pairs roughly 2 miles apart allowing for simultaneous operations. Two further runways added in the 1990s, perpendicular on a NW-SE axis, cross the south western end of the runways, and are used during high crosswinds (the prevailing wind is south westerly).

There was considerable opposition to the airport construction in it's early years, although it now plays a vital role in the local economy.

Brief History
Cublington (and the appropriately named village of "Wing") lie in countryside roughly midway between London and Birmingham. Following heavy congestion at London Heathrow, the Government began searching for new options instead of further developing the constrained site. The Roskill Commission duly sifted through a number of options, and eventually reported their choice at Cublington, which was met with howls from environment activists and local residents. The airport duly began construction in 1978, and opened in 1982, featuring the main terminal in the north-eastern corner of the site between the runways. The airport immediately proved popular, and was quickly linked in to the London Underground network via the Beck Line (*5), as well as the British Rail Pullman (*6) route which allowed quick access to the airport from several of the major English cities. The terminal, modelled on Berlin's Tegel hexagonal (*7) airport terminal, was interesting for the time, but later proved to be a rather non-flexible or extensible design.

After rapid growth, particularly when air transport deregulation occurred, the airport needed a new terminal. It was decided to build a new "International Terminal" (later abbreviated to "Terminal I" for International), which would absorb all international flights, with the corresponding immigration and customs checks. Domestic flights would continue from the retrospectively named "Terminal D" (for Domestic); Irish flights would be later subsumed fully in to domestic air operations following the agreement in the 2000s of the common British/Irish visa programme (*8). Following continued growth, the International Terminal expanded with 3, later 5, sets of large remote piers (*9) ; notably Pier 3 is now used for all destinations in the United States of America, and features full US preclearance (*10), whilst Pier 4 is used for the vast majority of flights to other European Union (non UK/Ireland) destinations and features Schengen Area preclearance (*11). Of the three remaining piers, 1 and 2 handle all other international flights, as most direct terminal gates were gradually removed from the terminal building to free up further space for post-security waiting and shopping in the 2010s. The last pier, Pier 5, was constructed in the 2000s for low-cost carriers, and is sited the furthest away from the main terminal building and has fewer shops and facilities in.

2015 would see further attempts to make the airport more environmentally friendly in lieu of the 2010s green movement within the United Kingdom. A large solar panel farm was established in the middle of the runways, at the other end of the airport from the terminal building, which power part of the airports annual electricity usage. The enormous terminal and pier buildings, with gently sloping roofs now capture rainwater which is filtered and used for most of the toilets on site, whilst extra insulation, particularly in the underside of those roofs help reduce heating waste.

Berlin's Tegel Airport was an early design inspiration for the first terminal, latterly Terminal D.

Terminal
Britannia Airport has a two terminal system, with the terminals divided by destination.

Terminal D is the older terminal, and serves all domestic routes, and was built in the late 1970s / early 1980s. The main complex is hexagonal in shape, with a central garden area in the middle, and several smaller shops and cafes along the departure hall. It serves all destinations within the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey & Guernsey (Common Travel Area destinations), which have no immigration control, and customs controls are minimal. British Airways operate a smaller business lounge for domestic travellers.

Terminal I is the newer terminal, and built in the late 1990s (*12). The terminal is several times larger then the older Terminal D, at several hundred meters long by , designed to manage with huge amounts of passengers - many of whom are transfer passengers, particularly between North America and Europe. The terminal features dozens of shops, cafes and restaurants, mostly clumped in the main terminal, but with many on the remote piers as well, and with several airport lounges. Terminal I also features a controlled connection from the Thalys paltforms of the Pullman station. (*13)

The Terminal has been extended several times to increase capacity, and is now not far off a kilometre long (*14). The check-in area is divided in to zones for entrance/drop-off reasons, with IAG at one end, followed by most alliances grouped together, and then non-aligned at the other end.

Terminal I under construction.

Pier 1 is the only pier directly connected via an airside walkway to the terminal building. It predominately serves British Airways and close partners (such as Japan Airlines, Canadian Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Qantas). Other EU or US partners use Piers 3 or 4 for operational & preclearance reasons. A few other major carriers (such as Emirates, Singapore Airlines) also use this Pier for operational reasons and their heavy use of the very large A380 plane. The only exception are flights by these airlines to destinations within the USA and European Union (Schengen). The Pier opened in 2007, following the closure of most of the direct terminal building gates to free up space, and the pier offered much better designed separation between departing and arriving passenger flows, whilst also having a suite of gates ready for A380 usage, which at the time was predicted to be heavily ordered.

Pier 2 is the second pier away, and is connected via a secure underground people mover which serves Piers 2 and 3. It serves all other airlines who are not flying to the USA or EU, and has a range of shops and cafes across two levels. It is the largest pier by number of gates, with several dozen of them.

Pier 3 is the pier for all flights to the United States. This pier has US Preclearance for all departing passengers, which is passed through when leaving the people mover at Pier 3. All passengers pass through US immigration and customs stages, allowing their flights to use domestic arrivals upon landing in the USA. Due to the destination, and correspondingly large amount of American nationals using it, this pier features a larger then normal range of American restaurants and cafes, and is notable for the only Chick-Fil-A situated in the United Kingdom (*15).

Pier 4 is the pier for all flights to the European Union (Schengen Area & EU Customs Union destinations, so not including Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Faroe Islands, Greenland or other EU overseas territories). This pier has preclearance for the European Union Schengen Area, conducted by French authorities under the auspices of the British-French Juxtaposed Controls Protocol (*16) under the West European Group. It is served by a separate people mover serving Piers 4 and 5, spreading the load out and avoiding too many passengers concentrated around a single entry point to a single people mover.

Pier 5 is the pier used by most low cost carriers. This has far less shops available, with a handful of cafe and restaurants to use, and operates flights to anywhere globally with no preclearance options. It is the starkest pier, with an enormous amount of seating for those waiting for low cost carrier departures.

Entrance to the London Underground station at the airport.

Ground Transport
The airport features an inter-terminal people mover, based upon the French "VAL" technology. It uses a fleet of 2-car units, which operate with a frequency of every 5 minutes during peak time. This has 4 stops, running west-east via:

• Terminal I & Rail
• Terminal D & Rail
• Medium stay parking (up to 1 week)
• Long term parking (1 week or more)

The airport also has a suite of railway connections. Technically speaking, there are three separate railway stations:

London Underground station: This serves as the northern terminus for London Underground Beck Line services, and lies between Terminals I and D, directly connected to both. Services operate a frequency of between 6 and 8 trains per hour (services every 7-10 minutes), and this provides the cheapest way, although longest way, to access central London.

Pullman station: These are the platforms on the Pullman high speed north/south route, upon which Pullman trains connect to the various British cities. 2 platforms also serve as the northern terminus for Thalys services, with controlled access through passport control, except to/from the International terminus where baggage can be checked in and security passed through before passing directly in to the departure lounge with no further passport checks (as a non-UK entering transfer passenger). Similar procedures are available upon arrival for those connecting to Thalys.

In 2008, Intercity entered in to a codeshare agreement with several airlines, allowing integrated ticketing via the airlines on connecting Pullman services, to allow air passengers to connect on to Pullman services for connecting journeys. An Intercity operated "Airport Express" train also operates for passengers to London, which operates through London and terminates at Gatwick Airport. This provides a fast airport-to-airport connection, and also avoid connecting passengers needing to book on to the Pullman services, which allows the Pullman trains to serve passengers from the north to London (and Britannia Airport), without seats being blocked from the airport south.

Intercity station: These are platforms on the east/west axis, lsituated between Terminals I and D next to the London Underground platforms, and are on the line between Oxford and Cambridge. After a 2000 initiative, a suite of cross-country Britannia Airport focussed services were introduced on the orbital route, although capacity is limited by the usage of the lines by freight trains, particularly from the Channel Tunnel. A core 4 trains per hour operate, with a raft of destinations served in all directions, with at least 1 train per hour serving each destination; Leicester-Portsmouth, Peterborough-Bournemouth, Norwich-Bristol and Ipswich-Swansea.

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(*1) OTL, this is Marlboro County Jetport IATA code, but considering the MCJ has a different identifier by the US FAA, presumably we can see BTN ending up with London Britannia Airport.
(*2) EGBT is OTL the Turweston Aerodrome in Buckinghamshire, but considering this won't be particularly far away from Britannia Airport, we'll assume it was closed in the 1980s due to Britannia development. Apparently at the time it was only used for "gliding training airfield at weekends" prior to 1994 (wiki).
(*3) Calculated from most of Heathrow (most airlines switching over), most of Luton (unlikely to continue as so close to Britannia), a little bit of Gatwick (for those who were prevented from moving to Heathrow in OTL), a sliver of Stansted (some low cost airlines), and most of Birmingham airport (which will likely move to Britannia as well) added together.
(*4) The NDZ is an attempt to avoid the problems of Croydon and Heathrow, particularly with local residents; Britannia Airport is likely to be 24/7 operations later in life. It also means that there is plenty of land in the middle, between the runways, for expansion.
(*5) As mentioned a long time ago in the Beck Line chapter. Actually gives a direct, if somewhat long, single-seat ride to the City of London and Canary Wharf, even if those kinds of travellers are going to want faster service!
(*6) Likewise mentioned a long time ago during Pullman chapters.
(*7) Was looking for the kind of terminal which would be build from new in the late 1970s, and this kind of "architecturally different" seemed about right.
(*8) This was mentioned a long time ago somewhere. In OTL there is a common British/Irish visa scheme for Chinese and Indian nationals. Here in ATL, this scheme is common for all foreigners (bar EEA nationals of course!), and means that there is a single British/Irish visa process for both countries, whichever country you land in...probably except for "special cases" like some kind of IRA-backer visiting Ireland-only as the UK is hardly going to admit them to the UK.
(*9) "Toast-rack style", similar to Heathrow Terminal 5, except with Pier 1 now directly connected to the terminal building via a walkway.
(*10) As currently planned in OTL, but introduced to Britannia earlier, likely in 1990s. Fairly logical given the US already operates full preclearance from Ireland, but also that London<->USA is a very busy set of routes.
(*11) Doesn't exist in OTL at the airport, but "Juxtaposed Controls" exist on Eurostar in OTL which is roughly speaking the same thing, and something similar will be in this TL too.
(*12) In lieu of Heathrow Terminal 5!
(*13) Yes, that does say Thalys. See (*16), this will be explained soon.
(*14) Thinking of Terminal 5 style, but with the ability to take one facade of glass off the end, and then extend it, so each of ground side checkin / security zone / airside departures / arrivals becomes longer and larger in capacity. The parallel runways were planned to be approx 3km apart, which would allow fully simultaneous arriving flights on parallel runways with no concerns, so plenty of space between the runways.
(*15) In lieu of their attempt to open in Reading...
(*16) Juxtaposed Controls a thing here as well as in OTL, but the actual arrangements are for another time!

If the Pullman station is the west of St Pancras, how far is it from Euston? Would a walkway tunnel make sense? Maybe with travelators?

Probably travelator tunnel close enough!

I so wanted the APT to work as it looked so cool to have tilting trains. Alas...

Hold that thought!

 

[Devvy]

1998 - Rail Around Alton

Bentley station, prior to "re-electrifying".

The railways around Alton, and historically important Farnham have a long past. The rail route through Farnham from Brookwood to Winchester was opened by the turn of the 20th Century, and this was followed rapidly within a few years by the light railway from Alton to Basingstoke, and the Meon Valley Railway from Alton to Fareham. 1937 would see the route from Brookwood to Alton electrified using the third rail system, effectively confining London commuter services to as far as Alton, and from hereon the railway effectively was segmented in to different lines, all meeting and effectively terminating at Alton (*1).

As the post-World War 2 economy improved, car and bus usage increased and smaller lines rapidly became uneconomic. The Basingstoke & Alton light railway, never really recovered from losing it's trackwork during the interwar years and was finally fully closed in the 1950s after existing only as a few short sidings for several years, and the Farnham to Bordon Light Railway duly closed as well at the end of the 1950s as the British Army base began to reduce numbers; any required usage could be served via the Longmoor Military Railway anyway via Liss (although that would not last much longer either). The Tongham Branch between Guildford and Farnham, bypassing Aldershot, also made it to the 1950s, before being shut; most traffic avoided the bypass line anyway so that they could serve Aldershot and the important military base there (*2).

Electrification using the 1.5kV DC overhead system progressed on the South Western Route from London to Southampton during the 1960s (*3), at which point it was considered that Woking (*4) was the most suitable point to transition between the electrical systems, it having been judged non-economical to convert the whole of the line to overhead - something later rejudged, and slowly converted. The Alton line was duly re-electrified as well (*5), with multiple changes of traction system en route deemed unacceptable; overhead systems were eventually installed towards the end of the project, bringing the full Brookwood to Winchester line in to electrical operation. At this point, it then served as a popular freight diversion route between London and Southampton dock; the route avoided the busy dual track section of the South Western Route between Winchester and Basingstoke - the 4 dual track tunnels made the line difficult to widen, and the express commuter trains moving at speed to and from London made freight traffic more difficult to timetable (*6). The line was shut in the 1980s between New Alresford and Winchester for a month, in order to build a new bridge and allow the M3 motorway extension to Winchester to happen; difficulties in building this meant it was actually closed for almost 2 months in the end.

The Meon Valley Railway fared only slightly better; it was built at a high standard of construction, to allow easy doubling of the route for main line traffic in it's lifetime (*7), although loadings never warranted such works. It closed to passengers in the mid-1950s, and freight services several years later, bringing it's closure early in comparison to many other line closures during British Railway's efficiency drives of the 1960s. It's closure placed it just out of scope of the 1960s legislation which demanded British Rail keep hold of railway land, such that lines may need to be reopened in future (*8), except by permission of the Minister of Transport, but either way the line passed through a significantly rural and countryside region, now a national park, and the line land was not in demand. The metal viaduct in the middle of the route was sold for scrap - high scrap metal prices brought British Rail some needed income, and used to part-fund the rebuild of Winchester station (former City station) as a larger 4 platform station (*9) using land formerly part of the goods yard, able to handle all the traffic which would operate through it following the planned closure of the "Chesil" station. The southern end of it was used temporarily in the testing of lightweight passenger railcars, by a private contractor (*10), but the investigation went nowhere and the line was left derelict again by the late 1960s.

In 1977, rail enthusiasts managed to lease the Meon Valley Railway from British Rail on a 99 year lease, reopening the southern portion of it from Knowle station to as far as Droxford; the lack of level crossings were ideal and excellent engineering works kept the line in good condition well after it's closure. An extension to West Meon was managed by the close of the 1980s. Significant fundraising, matched by European development funds and the UK Government, in the 1990s allowed for the rebuilding of the Meon Viaduct, helped by the groundwork and remaining concrete pedestals, and allowed the new "MVR" to extend northwards as far as Chawton. The station at Chawton, next to the A31 dual carriageway boosted traffic unquestionably, with far more tourist traffic during the summer months. The picturesque scenery as the line wound it's way down the Meon Valley, and carefully preserved six stations allowed a multitude of events throughout the year, usually culminating in Christmas Specials during the dark winter months (*11).

Meanwhile, the main Alton Line has continued to evolve. Even the remaining smaller rail stations at Ropley and Bentley have been modernised due to increasing levels of patronage despite being unstaffed; new benches and waiting areas accompanied by "Ticket Permit" machines have been installed, in NSE's signature red paint. The branch line from Bentley to Bordon, long disused, is now a leisure route, used by cyclists and horse riders in the nearby Alice Forest which has expanded to the west. Considerable usage of the line is made by students, travelling to schools and colleges along the line, and a special agreement with Hampshire County Council provides for "School Tickets" to be purchased by parents for children at the covered schools and colleges (*12); such permits allow for travel on the local trains for under-16s between Itchen Abbas and Ash stations for no further charge. A concurrent scheme for sixth formers, deemed as adults for train ticketing purposes, allows for subsidised season tickets with all the rights and privileges that accompany normal season tickets, and without the School Ticket restrictions, but still only between Itchen Abbas and Ash. New car parks utilising former goods yard lands were opened at Aldershot and Farnham, which later were expanded to two-storey versions.

The route of the Meon Valley Railway, prior to heritage operations.

The final wish of the Meon Valley Railway, to reconnect to the British Rail network at Alton was finally achieved during the 2010s with a range of funding sources including European, Westminster, Hampshire County Council and Heritage England, as well as significant local fundraising as well. A new bridge over the A31 roundabout closed the final 1/2 kilometre to the BR Alton Line, at which point it ran alongside to the new "Butts Bridge" station at Alton (*13). The new station had been planned by BR for sometime, as a means of spreading demand from the main Alton station, designed as a park & ride station due to it's location next to the A31 main road with large amounts of car parking available; a situation which benefited both parties. Butts Bridge station would then have 3 platforms for British Rail, and then a 4rd and 5th platform for the MVR complete with reverse loop, although the turntable at Chawton would continue to be used to turn around locomotives. A single link between the two railway networks allowed for cross-network operations, and the line is occasionally used by freight trains, usually EWS, providing an independent but important extra source of income for the railway. The new station was the first nationally to see a new co-funded heating and electricity plant, supplying the station, hospital and nearby recreational facilities. It would later be expanded to supply to cover local housing too, with excess electricity routed in to the railway traction electricity grid (*14).

The Alton Line has become busier and busier over time, as the towns have grown. New stations at Butts Bridge, Wrecclesham and Badshot Lea have opened to serve new housing estates, funded by Hampshire or Surrey Councils accordingly, whilst the junction at Ash Vale was eliminated when the Ascot - Ash Vale branch was closed and converted to light rail operation (*15) given the low usage of the line, and easy diversion of heavy rail traffic via Weybridge & Woking. British Rail passenger services along the route continue to be operated by Network South East, and are usually categorised in to two strands. The local services run from Southampton via Winchester and Farnham to Guildford, and usually use a 2-coach EMU unit; formerly the service terminated at Winchester, but this was extended to avoid trains sitting at Winchester for periods of time, and also to allow better access to Southampton and the regional airport there which has a directly connected station. The airport continues to feature a variety of domestic routes, to destinations predominately in Ireland (Republic and Northern), Scotland, and the Channel Islands (all Common Travel Area destinations, so no formal immigration control required). The faster commuter services from London operate via Brookwood and Ash Vale, terminating at Butts Bridge railway station where capacity exists for terminating trains; the rest of the line to Winchester continuing to be mostly single track only, except station areas. The London services are usually operated by 12-coach long EMUs, due to the amount of passengers joining the route at Alton, Farnham, Aldershot, Ash and Brookwood, and operate semi-fast to London Waterloo.

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(*1) All basically OTL from Wikipedia, as prior to the PoD.
(*2) Likewise, all basically OTL background stuff.
(*3) As we covered a long time ago; the fact that 1.5kV DC overhead is used, makes dual mode 750v DC / 1.5kV DC trains easier to build for cross-network operation.
(*4) As almost every train stops at Woking due to it being a major junction station, it's a convenient transition point.
(*5) Not "too" difficult, as 1/2 the line already has most of the base stations and national grid connections in place.
(*6) Can see most Southampton Docks to London freight services operating via Alton due avoid the main line through Basingstoke.
(*7) As per OTL.
(*8) This got mentioned a while back in one chapter, but the TTL Beeching Reforms closing fewer lines meant those lines got protected in case of future requirements (unless Ministerial approval is gained). Closures before Beeching rules (pre-circa 1963) would be closed and often lost/sold off.
(*9) Using goods yard on west side of station, so north bound line will bend to the west side to serve two platforms. Existing platforms used for southbound services, with previous northbound service usually used for terminating trains.
(*10) Again happened in OTL; it was a very early attempt at what would in OTL become the Pacer train.
(*11) The over-engineered MVR route means it's survived closure largely intact, and easy to re-open - except for the missing bridge!
(*12) There are a lot of schools and colleges next to existing stations, and modest school usage in OTL.
(*13) Doesn't exist in OTL, as the line from Alton south/west is all heritage line in TTL, although the area around Butts Bridge is also having a large amount of housing built around it in OTL.
(*14) Just something thrown in.
(*15) It's a tiny line, and as it's in public ownership, can see being transferred to local operations as it'd be easily surplus to BR requirements - probably along with a new station at "Frimley" where the line crosses the SWML, to spread demand from Farnborough which is bursting at it's seams. Light rail running Ascot-Ash Vale, with the southern portion of the passenger route being served from Winchester-Guildford services.

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Updates are slow at the moment, due to family commitments!

Had a thought after watching this hornby video...
With steam lasting longer, did any get put into BR blue and I don't mean VoR? Would be interesting to associate BR steam days without green or black being the only thing when people think about them.

Good point; probably some of them, given they are hanging around a little bit longer. Considering those that hang around longer are going to be prime targets for the heritage movement, although many will inevitably be repainted in to pre-nationalisation colours, there's probably plenty in BR colours.

Only discovered that over the weekend. In the '90s there was a suggestion to use 508s, although the author of the book I was reading was doubtful that they would fit through Ryde Tunnel.
I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that in TTL that the line to Ventnor might survive.

That chapter is taking a bit of time to write!