Northern (Arriva Rail North)

[iMarkeh]

RE: Northern (Arriva Rail North)

(30/03/2019 07:30)wirralbus Wrote:  Coupling services has an inherent risk just ask the Southern franchise if one of the service then arrives late , Southern have tried there best to stop it .

Is Platform 12 the one constrained by the trains in Platform 13 hence its apparent low usuage

The lack of calling on must be a local agreement , the half platform signals are probably used to make the signal in rear be nearer than it would have been to ensure platform re fill as quick as possible .

While I fully agree it can have a downside, I think that sometimes, needs must. We can't have loads of 2 car trains running in and out of Piccadilly taking up the capacity. Imagine if London was like that? Loads of 2 (or even 4) car trains going out of Victoria. It is just not ok to work in this day in age. We need bigger trains on certain routes and if we can't do that, we need to couple up trains through bottleknecks in order to make the most of the capacity on the railway.

It isn't a lot but even if they can make it so that a few extra trips can run (especially in the peak). I know quite a few trains come out of Newton Heath in the evening. Just something like extending them and then running the extra services into Stockport. The coupling is then all done in the depot.

Based on what was said in the article, there is the stock and staff for the extra trips, it's just a path issue. In which case, surely it has to be worth looking at this option. If a train is late, it terminates at Stockport (to save the onward delays). The Buxton trains seem to link up well but they would need retiming slightly to accomedate the coupling/decoupling at Stockport (and would need to use P1/2 instead of P0 southbound.

P12 isn't affected by P13. It looks like it is but the tracks really link onto the top end of platform 9. Same as platform 10 and 11.

The P14 rear signal wouldn't make any difference really. As long as the train in P14 is far enough up the platform, the path into platform 14B should be free. Regardless of loading/unloading there, they could wait there for a short time until P14 is free.
If they won't path trains int 14B then they should have a signal just before the points which are at the end of P13/14B. The closer trains are together, the more trains you can get through. Currently the signals before P14 are on the Mayfield loop.