R A I LT R AC K - The Railways Archive

• the impact of these flows on several key locations on
the network including Leeds,Manchester, Leicester, the
West Midlands,Reading,the North London Line and the
West London Line.
• the effect on our existing routes of the construction of
the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) and the
opportunities to use it for freight.
From this work, we expect to be able to carry our
customers’ forecast freight volumes on these seven routes
for the next five years,together with all declared passenger
requirements.We are now producing indicative timetables
for our customers to confirm this conclusion,although,
inevitably, forecasting five-year timetables cannot be done
with certainty.
To accommodate the highest growth forecasts on these
routes for all ten years, we propose the following:
WCML corridor
Under the PUG 2 agreement, we committed to providing an
additional 42 paths for passenger and freight.In the past two
years,the number of freight paths used on the WCML has
stayed static at around 40,while our freight customers are
forecasting a demand for more than 150 on some sections
by 2009.The West Coast Route modernisation works
include, at the south end,the provision for an increase in
train length by around 40% which will help accommodate
some of this extra demand.To provide a robust solution, we
have to finalise one of three options.
• Further investment in the WCML to accommodate all
customer requirements which would involve substantial
extra track work at a cost of at least £400M.We do not
expect the traffic to be able to support this investment;
it would have to come from grant funding.
• Displacing some of freight’s requirements to other
routes such as the MML or an orbital route that avoids
London.Some further investment would then be
required on those routes.
• Further restructuring of the timetable for all the lines
and all operators at the south end of the WCML which
could release further capacity for freight.
We will have finalised our proposals with customers and
other stake h o l d e rs by July 1999, not just for the WCML bu t
also for parallel routes such as those in Route 38.
Additional capacity along the ECML Corridor
Freight operator requirements – in terms of capacity,
capability and funding – are being incorporated into the
upgrade of the main route .This will include the provision of
a mainly four-track corridor from London to Newcastle .To
achieve this, we will use some parallel routes and reopen the
Leamside Line in Durham.At a number of locations, we will
create grade-separated junctions to minimise conflicts
between train movements.Full details are set out in Route
Strategy 2.
Felixstowe Port traffic
We propose to transfer port traffic to a cross-country route
via Peterborough and Leicester to the WCML at Nuneaton
by 2004 to reduce volume on the Great Eastern (Route 16)
and North London Line (Route 26). We also intend to
enhance the gauge of this new route.We expect to have
proposals by July 1999.They will require grant funding.
London-area capacity
We shall create additional capacity between the eastern end
of the GWML (Route 3) and between Acton and
Cricklewood along the west end of the North London Line.
This would accommodate freight requirements,together
with a possible increase in passenger traffic. We will evaluate
options with all our customers during this year.
Southampton Dibden Bay Container Port
If the Dibden Bay development proceeds in 2004, we may
not be able to accommodate all train-movement forecasts in
the Southampton area (Route 21) and at Reading (Routes 3
and 4). We will carry out feasibility work later this year to
assess whether the projected train movements can be
accommodated and,if not,what would be required to
accommodate them.
The ECML upgrade
will include the
provision of a mainly
four-track corridor
from London to
Newcastle
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