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Post by Tubeboy on May 1, 2009 6:53:33 GMT
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8028158.stmGood idea, though in some cases, buses are needed. It doesnt create the right impression though, so many buses standing in for trains.
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2009 15:06:22 GMT
it's a shame they don't think about single line working instead of buses
like on the jubilee line in 2005 when it was closed for engineering works
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2009 17:25:17 GMT
They've been using single line working on the ECML on a Saturday evening. St Neots to Connington Junction.
That be said, after 2 points failures resulting in a 2 hour delay - I personally would've preferred a replacement bus service ;D
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Post by norbitonflyer on May 1, 2009 20:33:37 GMT
In that barticle, Ian Coucher of Network rail was quoted as saying ""Fewer people travel at bank holidays, so this is the least disruptive time to undertake the work,"
So why are the newspapers always full of stories about Bank Holiday traffic jams? The reason fewer people travel by train at Bank Holidays is because there is no service .
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Post by suncloud on May 2, 2009 18:28:02 GMT
People's travel is different on a bank holiday to a working weekday. For example people tend to choose to work places they can get to reasonably directly from where they live (or vice versa) and public transport will play an important consideration. As this is the normal situation there will be a natural attempt to balance demand with supply of transport options for commuter traffic.
On a weekend, and more so a bank holiday weekend, people are going to different destinations, e.g. family or for holidays etc. They will be more likely to be travelling as a family, on routes they are less familiar, for longer distances and for cross country journeys where direct public transport is not available. These factors will all affect traffic, especially on parts of the motorway network. Prevalence of engineering works on a bank holiday does affect peoples choice of mode, but cost and ease of journey for the reasons I explain have a similar bearing.
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roythebus
Pleased to say the restoration of BEA coach MLL738 is as complete as it can be, now restoring MLL721
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Post by roythebus on May 2, 2009 22:40:40 GMT
In that barticle, Ian Coucher of Network rail was quoted as saying ""Fewer people travel at bank holidays, so this is the least disruptive time to undertake the work," Iain Coucher, Network Rail's chief executive, added: "There will be more than 2,000 extra trains running over the two bank holiday weekends this May than in 2008." Derrr, am I missing something here? If there are fewer people travelling, WHY are they running 2,000 extra trains?? As a provider of rail replacement buses for the last 20 years or more, as a driver, controller and former m/d of a bus compnay, I know passengers prefer to stay on the train; that's what they've paid for. In the pre-Beeching days on BR, it was usually a simple matter to divert trains as the diversionary routes were there; there was enough spare rolling stock, locos and crew to do such things. These days it's a totally different matter. As for single line working, that is of course feasible, but with the intense services run today, it would not really be possible and would lead to horrendous overcrowding. Speaking to a collegue who is a signalman at Rye, he quotes the Rye-Appledore single line, a 13 minute section. On that section, he can run a 30 minute service in each direction, 2 trains an hour each way. If that section was double track, he could run 4 trains an hour in eachdirection with no intermediate signals. Split the whole section into the standard 1 miles sections with signals, and he could run 12 trains an hour each way! The opposite is also true if we single track a double track main line. 12 trains an hour each way reduces to 2 trains an hour each way IF we have the same 13 minute block, so it's easier to provide a bus service. I was always an advocate of the "headway" system on rail replacement buses, much like LU do, with a bus say every 5 minutes. That's ok in suburban areas, but on the long distance journeys it just doesn't work that well. Better management is needed all round when it comes to engineering works. |
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Post by Tomcakes on May 2, 2009 23:01:54 GMT
The organisation, from my experience, seems to be rather lacking.
You get to the station, and wander about. There's no clear sign where the replacement bus departs from, but you manage to ask a chap in a hi-vi and figure out where the stop is.
A bus rolls up screened "RAIL REPLACEMENT" but hasn't bothered with an ultimate. You ask the driver and are told to "ask an information person". Er, you're driving the bus pal. I'd be a wee bit worried if you didn't know where it was going.
You then sail around at a leisurely pace - no attempt made to run fast or put your foot down - and go all over the place. (Although I'm aware that sometimes there are two routes, one of which runs Express and the other Limited Stop - thus catering both for the people going through the disruption, and those who want to go to an intermediate station).
Although I will say that when I last used one, it was decently presented - it had obviously been swept in the past six weeks, it wasn't 20 years old and the driver wasn't smoking! Shockingly, it was a Firstbus as well!
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Post by amershamsi on May 3, 2009 7:08:45 GMT
In that barticle, Ian Coucher of Network rail was quoted as saying ""Fewer people travel at bank holidays, so this is the least disruptive time to undertake the work," ... Iain Coucher, Network Rail's chief executive, added: "There will be more than 2,000 extra trains running over the two bank holiday weekends this May than in 2008." Derrr, am I missing something here? If there are fewer people travelling, WHY are they running 2,000 extra trains? You are indeed missing something here, Iain Coucher is quite obvious in his meaning - there will be 2000 more trains over the BH weekends, than last year's BH weekends - i.e. there will be 2000 fewer trains bustituted. Less people travel over BH weekends, hence there will less disruption with work undertaken. We're running more trains that last year's BH weekends. The two sentences aren't linked, other than they reassure the public that there will not be much disruption. |
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roythebus
Pleased to say the restoration of BEA coach MLL738 is as complete as it can be, now restoring MLL721
Posts: 1,255
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Post by roythebus on May 3, 2009 18:41:10 GMT
Oh, I THINK I see what you mean. If we go back 2 years, there may have been f'rinstance 14,000 trains. LAST year there were 12,000 trains. This year there will be 14,000 trains??
To answer another point about drivers and route knowledge, the TOC's did not and probably still do not want to pay for bus drivers to learn the route. This was part of the competitive tendering process. I had a long discussion wirth connex staff about thisd and the cost implications. Their solution was to show the drivers a route video! Whilst this may be ok for train drivers to supplement actual route elarning, when asked who would pay for the video to be made, the time off driving for the drivers to watch the video etc it all came down to cost again.
My company was the largest single contractor for connex Sout Central, and we done replacements all over that system and further afield. In fact, I claim my route knowlegde stretched froma line drawn south of Ely, to High Wycombe, south to Southampton, then back round the coast to Sarfend and everywhere in between on BR and LU! go anywhere, anytime.
It was a bit of an expedition at times, trying to find your way through thick fog, high winds, rain, floods (remember THOSE floods that devastated Lewes in about 2000?). I was there. the amount of rubbish my staff and I had to put up with from passengers was unbelievable, and there we were trying to hlep them get where they wanted to go. The railway management was usually poor to put it mildly, with a complete lack of organisation.
I remember one day talking to the supervisor at Lewes who informed me he was evacuaitng the statuion as his office was by then knee-deep in flood water!!
Southall, yep, Ladbroke Grove, yep, the south western closures after Hatfield, yep, I devised all the schedules for that lot with 3 days notice! It wasn't easy money like it is now.
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Post by amershamsi on May 3, 2009 19:01:44 GMT
Oh, I THINK I see what you mean. If we go back 2 years, there may have been f'rinstance 14,000 trains. LAST year there were 12,000 trains. This year there will be 14,000 trains?? not quite. Normally there are x trains running over a normal Sat-Mon. 2 years ago, on May Bank Holiday weekend there were y trains. 1 year ago there were z trains. This year there are, a trains (where a=(z+2000)) running. That is all we know. We can guess (but not know) that x is bigger than y and z, but we have no idea what the size of that difference is. We also don't have a clue as to the relationship between y and z. In fact, x and y are pretty irrelevant to this discussion - we have no idea what they are. All that we can tell from the statement is this year's figure, a, is 2000 bigger than last years, z. I used letters rather than picking a number out of thin air, which confuses matters (especially as you made this year the same as 2 years ago. We don't know what that number was - it looks like "normal service resumed after lasts year's blip"). |
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