R A I LT R AC K - The Railways Archive

Route characteristics
DESCRIPTION The route has two main elements. First, the line from London
Waterloo to Reading via Staines, which is primarily a suburban commuter route,
with little variation in stopping patterns and train speeds. Second, the North
Downs Line connecting Reading, Guildford and the Brighton Main Line at Redhill.
This line, despite being less busy, has a greater mix of traffic types, as it is used by
freight and longer-distance passenger services.
The route is predominantly two track, the only four-track section being
between Clapham Junction and Barnes. There are short sections of single line on
the approaches to Reading and between Frimley and Ash Vale. There are two
non-electrified sections of the North Downs Line; these are
Wokingham–Aldershot South Junction and Shalford Junction–Reigate.
Route vision
To capture a greater market share to Heathrow while improving suburban, orbital
and cross-country services. In the short term, we have entered into a
partnership with SWT, London Transport, BAA and the London Borough of
Hillingdon to open a new rail–bus interchange at Feltham Station. This will open
in the second quarter of this year. Feltham Station will then become a coordinated
and timetabled interchange with direct bus links into Heathrow
Airport. In the longer term, we see an opportunity for a rail link into Heathrow
Airport from the southern direction and will work with the major industry
players such as BAA, train operators and local authorities on the development of
a proposal for a scheme named Airtrack. The Airtrack concept will give access to
Route development and customer requirements
Quality of service is important to us and our customers and so we are helping
them to introduce new rolling stock on the route. This will also provide
opportunities to improve journey times to Reading and improve the
attractiveness of the route.
Although this route has not been identified as a bottleneck, we have been
working with SWT on a capacity study which includes Waterloo–Barnes. The
aim of the study is to develop potential solutions to overcrowding on trains
approaching Waterloo. The route is operating close to capacity during peak
times and any immediate solutions found to ease this will be announced before
the next NMS. We recognise that, if Feltham Gateway and Airtrack are
successful in improving rail’s market share, capacity improvements will be
required. Solutions to these could be higher density rolling stock and longer
trains, coupled with a platform extension programme, but in the longer term
expensive infrastructure solutions will have to be found. We are working on a
strategy so that we can offer options to potential funders.
The orbital line from Reading to Guildford and Redhill is a key strategic link
for Thames Trains’ services between Oxford, Reading and Gatwick Airport, and
for Virgin Trains’ services between the Midlands, the North and Portsmouth.
Our vision is to improve the attractiveness of the line to encourage a significant
increase in rail’s share of traffic from the Reading–Guildford Corridor to Gatwick
Airport. We also expect further growth in passenger numbers on commuter
services into Reading and Guildford and the route is under consideration for a
potential gauge enhancement scheme which may result in increased freight usage
of the line.
While the present infrastructure is adequate for the current level of service,
key pinchpoints are track and platform capacity at Reading and signal spacing
between Wokingham and North Camp. We will undertake a study in
conjunction with our customers to identify the level of enhancement needed to
cope with projected growth.
We are working with Thames Trains to identify a package of linespeed
improvements to reduce the journey time between Reading and Gatwick
Airport. Initially, we will identify incremental improvements which can be achieved
in the short term. We will also examine further, major work which would be
required to achieve Thames Trains’ aspiration of a one-hour journey time
between Reading and Gatwick Airport.
Other suburban routes branch off the core route at Barnes for the Hounslow
Loop, at Twickenham for links to Shepperton and Kingston, at Staines for
Windsor, Virginia Water for Weybridge and at Ascot for Ash Vale.
The linespeed between Clapham Junction and Feltham and on some of the
branch lines is 60mph. To the west of Feltham and on the North Downs Line,
the predominant linespeed is 70mph.
The suburban stations are capable of accepting eight-vehicle trains and this,
together with the limiting capacity of the line to Waterloo, reduces the shortterm
options to reduce overcrowding on trains at peak times.
Heathrow Airport from Staines, on the Windsor & Eton Riverside Route. It
could also provide new journey opportunities from this route to other parts of
the national network.
Although this route is essentially a suburban railway, we believe there is a
demand for a faster journey time to Reading from Waterloo in order to make
this route more competitive. This will also be important if, or when, the Airtrack
development is completed. We recognise that there are some significant
difficulties in achieving this but are looking at economical ways to deliver the
industry vision.
Train performance is an area that we and our customers take very seriously. We
are therefore developing a strategy that will see a rapid and steady reduction in
infrastructure failures on the core of the route between Waterloo and Barnes.
We anticipate that this improvement will be tangible by the next NMS. This will
be achieved through enhanced maintenance and targeted renewals of
infrastructure. Together with our maintenance contractors, we have developed
teams of specialists who target persistent infrastructure failures until they are
eliminated. We see this as essential to drive down train delays and improve train
punctuality. We are also working with our customers on initiatives that will yield
performance improvements through train timetabling and contingency planning.
Improving train punctuality when the number of trains running on our
network has increased substantially is an enormous task. Wo rking with tra i n
o p e ra t o rs, we will improve charter punctuality by two percentage points over the
next two ye a rs. This improvement, which will vary across service groups, will
t y p i c a l ly result in 16% fe wer trains arriving at their destinations more than fi ve
m i nutes late.
We recognise that, as demand increases, we will have to address depot
capacity and location and have started working with our customers on a depot
strategy that will enable us to make incremental improvements to the depots as
demand increases.
We intend to work with customers to improve the attractiveness of
stations through completion of the regeneration programme and will be
renewing existing customer-information systems on South West Trains’ operating
area over the next two years.
In partnership with SWELTRAC, we are working to deliver environmental
improvements to various stations in South West London. We are also working
with the Rugby Football Union to seek improvements at Twickenham Station to
accommodate passengers attending events at the Twickenham ground.
We recognise that increased demand for passenger services also requires
more car-parking capacity. We are working with our customers to identify
locations where improvements in car-parking facilities can and should be made,
including facilities to cater for off-peak demand. In conjunction with South West
Trains, we are currently exploring a car-park extension at Egham.
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