R A I LT R AC K - The Railways Archive

Route characteristics
DESCRIPTION The Great Eastern Main Line runs from London to Norwich
and has a number of branches. There are four tracks between London and
Shenfield; two with speeds of 80mph, and two of 70mph. Beyond Shenfield the
main line is two track with speeds up to 100mph. The London–Norwich route
and the routes to Southend, Braintree, Clacton, Walton and Harwich are
electrified. The route also serves the ports of Felixstowe (the country’s largest
container port) and Harwich.
MAJOR STATIONS
London Liverpool Street Our station regeneration work will begin in
1999/2000 and has been timed to integrate with other proposals to improve
passenger facilities. Other schemes we are considering with our customers
include additional and improved ticketing and information facilities, as well as
airline check-in facilities for services to Stansted Airport.
BOTTLENECK ANALYSIS During the peak, demand growth can be met by
the existing infrastructure, although some work will be needed at Stratford
Route vision
Our vision is to further develop the rail market share from the major centres of
population in East Anglia, including Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich and Norwich,
while providing attractive services for rural communities.
The major modernisation completed in 1997 invested £220M in creating a
route capable of reliably delivering 24 trains per hour into London from Shenfield
over the main lines, in the peak, and up to 20 per hour over the ‘E’ lines
between Ilford and London (18 per hour from Gidea Park). In the future, journey
times will be reduced without loss of reliability or capacity wherever possible,
with an aspiration of a ten-minute reduction from London to Norwich, a minute
of which will be achieved in 2000 following OLE improvements.
We will provide capacity sufficient for fast, frequent and regular passenger
services across the route network. Early in the year 2000, we will complete the
Station to improve connections to Docklands Light Railway and the Jubilee Line
Extension. In the off peak, however, when GER and Anglia Railways are looking
to develop their business, there is a bottleneck between Forest Gate Junction
and Stratford, where fast and stopping services share a four-track railway with
freight traffic crossing between the LTS and NLL routes on flat junctions. If freight
traffic grows at predicted levels, up to five extra train paths an hour will be
needed by 2008; the existing infrastructure only has the capacity to provide four
extra paths.
We are relieving the problem by installing new signals in 1999 between
Woodgrange Park and South Tottenham (NLL), which will allow more dieselhauled
freight services to be diverted away from Stratford, via Barking and
Gospel Oak. This will allow off-peak passenger demand to be accommodated on
the main line for the next ten years.
By July this year we will have concluded our freight routeing strategy and
agreed whether Felixstowe–Midlands and beyond trains will run on this route or
via Peterborough. This year we will double freight capacity to the Po rt of
F e l i x s t owe as we complete the Ipswich–Felixstowe Line modernisation project.
resignalling of the Sheringham Line. This includes renewal of a number of level
crossings, and provides the opportunity to introduce new signalling technology
to the UK which will improve the reliability of the services for these rural
communities.
We are working with our customers to examine the potential for new
stations on this route. Options include Southend Airport, Beaulieu Park
(east of Chelmsford) and Braintree Freeport, which should open later this
year. At a number of stations we are working with our customers to increase
car-park capacity.
The Franchising Director has asked us to assess the implications of
increasing service frequency between Ipswich–Lowestoft to hourly. This
would require the provision of an additional passing loop, probably at Beccles.
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