Waterside Line Reopening
Located to the south of Southampton, the Waterside Line (formerly known as the Fawley Branch Line) is an old line that branches off the South Western Main Line. It was mostly used by freight services serving a refinery and military port. Network Rail are taking forward proposals to reopen the line with stations at Marchwood and Hythe to support 1,500 new homes and 2,500 jobs. Services could be extensions of the West Coastway Line that currently runs from Southampton Central to Brighton.
Images sourced from Network Rail: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/runnin...ne/#background
DLR Extension to Thamesmead
TfL have formally put forward their proposal to extend the DLR from Gallions Reach to Thamesmead via a new Thames tunnel and an intermediate station at Beckton Riverside. The extension would unlock 25,000-30,000 new homes on both sides of the Thames. TfL are targeting construction commencing in 2028 with an opening in the early 2030’s.
Image sourced from TfL: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-t...=dlr-extension
Carterton & Witney Railway
To the north-west of Oxford, there used to be a 35km single-track branch railway (off the Cotswold Line) that ran to the towns of Witney and Carterton, the line was opened in phases from 1861-1873, but was closed in 1962 to passenger services. Oxfordshire County Council are proposing restoring services to these towns to help alleviate congestion on the A40 route with four new stations at Eynsham, Witney, Carterton North and Carterton.
A potential service pattern has not been announced, but it could extend the current London Paddington to Oxford service. Should approval be granted, the phased opening would span 2031-2035.
Images sourced from Oxfordshire County Council: https://news.oxfordshire.gov.uk/down...yv1-0final.pdf
London Overground
The London Overground is a collection of former dilapidated orbital and radial lines and some new infrastructure that came under TfL ownership back in 2007. The network currently spans 167km and 113 stations, and pre-pandemic had 365-day average ridership of 515,000. Ridership had recovered to 82% as of Dec-2022.
The extent of the network however does present its own problems, as the following map shows, the network is not one line, but six lines, of which three have branches. For people not used to London’s network that creates confusion; the Victoria Line as an example interacts with five of these lines, but they all show up as
London Overground on maps. That means that for Londoners and visitors alike, a problem at Emerson Park is completely meaningless to the rest of the Overground network. The Victoria Line interacts with the Overground at five stations, yet these are all of separate lines which can be confusing.
In the railway world, these lines have unofficial names (e.g. the East London Line or the Gospel Oak to Barking Line (GOBLIN)) but there have been various attempts going back to 2015 to allocate each line its own identity. TfL are now looking to spend £4mn to go forward with their own identity:
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/lond...-b1069634.html.
Image sourced from TfL: https://content.tfl.gov.uk/london-ov...etwork-map.pdf
Luton DART
After some delays, the new people-mover system has opened, connecting Luton Airport to Luton Airport Parkway station on the Midland Main Line. Previously – and unlike the other London airports – passengers wishing to arrive by train needed to catch a shuttle bus.
Images 1, 2 + 3 sourced from Modern Railwayson Twitter: https://twitter.com/Modern_Railways/...76798323339264,
Images 4, 5, 6 +7 sourced from Luton Rising on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LutonRising/stat...31463229964302 and
Image 8 sourced from Benny Urban on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BennyUrban/statu...95838384054275
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Midland Main Line Electrification
Work continues to electrify the electrify the Midland Main Line which runs from London St Pancras up to Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Sheffield and Leeds.
Image sourced from National Rail: https://www.networkrailmediacentre.c...line-this-july
East West Rail
Work progresses on upgrading the existing and disused parts of the old Varsity Line that connected Oxford and Cambridge. The preferred route alignment from Bedford to Cambridge has also been announced including:
A grade separated alignment through Bedford station for interchange with East Midland Trains and Thameslink services on the Midland Main Line
Installation of an additional two tracks alongside the existing four tracks on the MML heading north and then around Bedford
A new interchange station at Tempsford (to the south of St Neots) would provide interchange on the East Coast Main Line with Great Northern and Thameslink services
EWR then heads to the growing new town community of Cambourne, before heading south to join the Cambridge Line
EWR then serves Cambridge South and Cambridge stations
Photos taken by Phil Marsh on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Marshrail/status...66482725036044 and https://twitter.com/Marshrail/status...78448778485777 and
Document Images sourced from East West Rail: https://eastwestrail.co.uk/routeupdate
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Elizabeth Line
The Elizabeth Line continues to go from strength-to-strength, last month registering a new daily ridership of 685,000 passengers. Yet buried in a TfL report published at the start of the year, there was an interesting comparison of the pre-pandemic forecast against the actual patronage (and that is before the meteoric rise in ridership in the past few months). As you may be able to see, the Elizabeth Line didn’t actually reduce the number of passengers using the Tube, Bus, Overground or National Rail lines, meaning the Elizabeth Line may have acted as a catalyst for additional public transport journeys than before the Pandemic. Another interesting note is the green bar: that is entirely new journeys or former car journeys; the forecast was for a minor bump, yet it accounts for nearly a third of patronage which is very encouraging. Time to just get on with Crossrail 2 now!
Image sourced from TfL: https://content.tfl.gov.uk/travel-in...-report-15.pdf
