230 replies to this topic

[Vanda]

RAIL passengers in the Five Valleys are to benefit from shorter journey times after funds were allocated in the budget for the re-doubling of the Swindon to Kemble line.

The £45 million needed for the project will come from £200 million of support for regional railways in England announced on Wednesday by Chancellor George Osborne.

Work is due to start soon and it should be completed by 2014.

In a statement, Network Rail said: "The Government’s decision is the right one for passengers.

"The value for money plan will unlock the potential to bring more trains and better performance for passengers in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and South Wales."

The line between Swindon and Kemble was downgraded to a single track in the late 1960s as a cost-saving measure. It means a maximum of two trains an hour can use the 12 mile route in each direction.

Re-doubling the line will reduce the travel time from Stroud to London by around 20 minutes and is expected to bring more tourists to the district.

"This is a huge change in terms of more visitors being able to come to Stroud, stay here and spend their money," said Stroud MP Neil Carmichael.

"It will put Gloucestershire on the map as a county for economic growth.

"All the Gloucestershire MPs have worked very hard on this and I am delighted that ministers in the department of transport and at the treasury have recognised the strength of our arguments and delivered the funding."

In 2009, the long-awaited plan looked like it was threatened due to lack of funds.

Cotswold MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, supported by the then Stroud MP David Drew, called for a Parliamentary debate to highlight the project as being critical to Gloucestershire's economy.snj

[alan]

To put some of the earlier posts in context, here is an article written by Dan Milmo, Transport Correspondent of The Guardian on 2 March 2011


There is light at the end of the tunnel for millions of long-suffering passengers on Britain's Great Western and east coast rail routes, after years of overcrowding, disruption and underfunding, with the announcement of a £5.2bn investment programme.

Commuters on the London-to-Cardiff route are the biggest winners under the scheme, outlined by the transport secretary, Philip Hammond, which will deliver a new generation of intercity trains. More than 15 minutes will be shaved from the two-hour journey time between the cities.

From 2016, rail users on the route will travel on a fleet of intercity carriages built by a Japanese-led consortium, powered by newly erected overhead lines.

Travellers on the east coast route will also benefit from replacements for ageing trains, to be introduced from 2018.

Hammond said that the much-delayed announcement, which comes in the same week as the launch of a consultation on a £32bn north-south high-speed rail network, confirmed the government's commitment to rail. "It completes a picture of massive upgrades to our intercity rail corridors over the coming years," he said.

However, the schemes, which were announced by the Labour administration, have shrunk under the government's austerity drive. The planned electrification programme will not be extended to the section of track between Cardiff and Swansea, and the intercity order is for 500 carriages rather than the 1,400 heralded by Labour ministers two years ago.

Maria Eagle, the shadow transport secretary, said: "There will be disappointment in Swansea on St David's Day that the plan we announced in government to modernise the entire route into south Wales has not been given the green light."

The new trains will replace the distinctive Intercity 125 diesel and Intercity 225 electric fleets that British Rail bought in the 1970s and 1980s. Subject to the completion of negotiations, they will be built by Agility Trains, a consortium formed by the Japanese trainmaker Hitachi and services group John Laing, which will create 500 jobs at a factory in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

Agility was criticised when it was first chosen as the preferred bidder after it admitted that some production would stay in Japan.

The £4.5bn project will be structured as a private finance initiative, with the consortium meeting the initial cost and the government paying back the cost of constructing and maintaining the trains over a 30-year period.

In recent months there has been speculation that Alstom, the French train manufacturer, will launch a legal challenge against any changes to the intercity order but the company declined to comment yesterday.

The electrification scheme will cost £704m and be funded by debt taken on by Network Rail, the government-backed owner of Britain's rail infrastructure.

Passenger Focus, the rail user watchdog, urged the Department for Transport to launch extensive testing of the new train interiors, which will be deployed on one of Britain's most crowded commuter routes, between Reading and London's Paddington station.

"We would encourage the DfT and the Agility Consortium to build mock-ups of these trains as soon as possible so we can further test the layouts and help deliver a train which sets new high standards for passengers," said Ashwin Kumar, rail director at Passenger Focus.

The managing director of First Great Western, the main operator on the London-to-Cardiff route, said the electrification programme would help revitalise one of Britain's most venerable pieces of rail infrastructure.

[Railfriend]

Lots of interesting comments on the Swindon-Kemble redoubling and the London-Cardiff electrication at:

http://www.firstgrea...hp?topic=3266.0

[Eddie]

Quote

Work could start on the Swindon to Kemble redoubling rail scheme at the beginning of 2012. That's according to Cotswolds MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown. He told Insider the Network Rail team currently working on another redoubling scheme could move straight to Swindon in the new year.
Conservative Clifton-Brown campaigned for the government to finance the Swindon to Kemble redoubling and the Chancellor committed funding in last month's Budget (March).
The cost of the scheme is expected to about £42m but no detailed timetable for the works has yet been confirmed.
But the MP, who was also behind the Oxford to Moreton-in-the-Marsh redoubling scheme, wants Network Rail to move directly from that project to Swindon.
He said: "Network Rail has all the equipment, all the people and all the skill and that scheme should finish at the end of this year, so I'm hoping that the Network Rail team will come straight from the Cotswolds to Kemble and hopefully we'll see a start early next year – this is what I'm campaigning for."

More here

[Railfriend]

'... implementation to start in 2012-13, with completion by 2014-15.' The second track was pulled up virtually overnight in 1968, yet it is seemingly taking forever to put it back. And what planning is Ms Villiers on about? According to earlier information, all of the £2million planning needed has already been done; it just needs the work crews on site.

Why the endless delay??? At this rate the redoubling won't be completed much faster than if it had been included in Network Rail's next five-year plan -- in which it was to be first in line. Osborne's recent announcement has proved to be political rhetoric -- nothing else. Just a lot of noise to keep the Gloucestershire masses quiet. With all this delay, the current Stroud MP has nothing to crow about.

http://www.thisisglo...tail/story.html

[alan]

Article from The Citizen on Saturday 25 June 2011

CONSTRUCTION work on a £45 million railway revamp for Gloucestershire will start next year, ministers have revealed.

The long-awaiting redoubling of the Swindon to Kemble line should be ready by 2014.

Campaigners say they "can't wait" for the work to start.

Rail user David Skinner, 31, who commutes from Gloucester to most of the South West and London due to his work as a sales executive, said: "The trains in Gloucestershire aren't the best.

"Anything which makes the journeys I have to make easier is great – I can't wait."Design work has already started on the future development of the 12.5 mile route.

It is set to see journey times between London and Cheltenham cut by 20 minutes, and will allow Intercity Express trains to be introduced on the London-Gloucester-Cheltenham route, and for services to be doubled.

Community leaders in Gloucester have welcomed the work.

Councillor Paul James, leader of the city council, said: "This really is a vital link.

"It will speed up services to London and plenty of people in Gloucester have been lobbying for a long time for this to happen. It is very important."

The scheme is seen as critical to the county's economy and a gateway to the South West.

Route

The current single track limits the reliability and frequency of trains on the line and the number of services on the route.

It will also provide a second double track rail route into South Wales, reducing disruption when engineering upgrades, such as electrification work on the Great Western Main Line, take place. The timetable for the scheme was raised by Stroud Conservative MP Neil Carmichael at House of Commons transport questions.

Rail Minister Theresa Villiers said: "Network Rail has commenced design work, and I expect implementation to start in 2012-13, with completion by 2014-15."

Mr Carmichael responded by saying it was "great news for Gloucestershire."

Rail users from the Kemble area are now calling for investment in improved parking at the train station.

[Eddie]

Quote

Cheltenham's MP has sought assurances that the size of trains on a Cotswold rail line will not be reduced.

Liberal Democrat Martin Horwood said the line between Cheltenham and Swindon is served by eight-carriage trains but this might be reduced to five.

"Clearly that would be a bit of a problem if it was anywhere near peak capacity," he said.

First Great Western, the franchise holder, said the plan was for five carriages but could run up to 10.

Mr Horwood said his main cause for concern surrounded a plan for new trains when the Great Western mainline to London is electrified.

"The government is investing a lot of money in public transport, including Intercity Express Programme.

"These are going to be new trains but the issue is how many cars they might have.

"There's a suggestion in the industry is that we might be reducing from eight-car sets down to five-car sets.

"I know there are times when you can barely get a seat so that would be a real worry if we're going to all be squashed into an even smaller train."

BBC

[Railfriend]

As Eddie reports elsewhere, the Oxford-to-Worcester redoubling is now finished. I would hope that the Swindon-Kemble work would start very shortly, based on the earlier reports that the O-to-W crew would be moved to the Swindon-Kemble site as soon as the O-to-W work was completed!!!!

[Railfriend]

Has anyone seen any follow-up on the following:

http://www.fsb.org.u...ng13May2011.pdf

Near the end it mentions that a follow-up meeting would be held in September 2011, with a report being made available.

Anyone heard of any reports as to when the track laying is finally going to start? The Oxford-to-Worcester work was finished in August, and I understood that they would be starting Swindon-Kemble shortly after finishing that work. I sincerely hope that they aren't going to drag this out, with work not starting for another few years.

[Railfriend]

To anyone intending to contact Network Rail, please note that according to a national newspaper N.R. has closed all regional offices (including the one that was on Gloucester Street in Swindon) and consolidated into new premises in Milton Keynes. I had suspected as much upon receiving a letter last week from Milton Keynes to a recent enquiry directed to N.R. at Swindon re the starting date of the Swindon-Kemble work. The Milton Keynes' letter didn't answer my enquiry, instead simply stating that it was being passed to another part of N.R. who would provide an answer in due course.

[Railfriend]

I did ultimately did get a reply from Network Rail. "NR 'hopes to start the work before 2015'." So much for Cameron and political shenanigans. Swindon-Kemble would have been first on the list of projects for NR's 2015-19 five-year plan in any case. All of Osborne's posturing about a go-ahead for the work in the Budget was nonsense, just to quiet down the Gloucester crowd. Shows how politicians play their games.