The longest night: finished work, drove the A1M from Tyneside, got dropped off at Redbridge tube. Underground to Victoria, train to Brighton, then last train to Worthing. Fell asleep, woke up at Barnham. No trains back to Worthing for 4 hours. Not much to do in Barham at 1:30am, and this was long before the iphone. Too cold to sleep, so spent the time shivering while staring at an empty platform. Happy days.
Barnham is always a desolate place to end up as it's neither here nor there (I've both lived and went to school there). I've lost track the amount of times I've had to wait for connections at Barnham when coming from either Chichester or Worthing or elsewhere to go to Bognor in the cold and rain and sometimes just given up and got a taxi home when it turns out there's a delay or the train has been cancelled.
This might sound like a silly question, but... Why does a train driver need to learn the route ? Surely the route is controlled by signal boxes etc. I can maybe understand they need to learn what the order of the stations are.
Drivers need to know which signal boxes and electrical control officers control which area, the location of signals and speed restrictions, level crossings, the stations, each crossover and route they could possibly take. Going off of that, they also need to know when to start braking for each of those things and challenge signallers if they are routed wrongly. Including in the dark and thick fog when every single point of reference is practically invisible. There’s an awful lot more to it than that, but overall it helps the driver ensure that all are safe and trains stop at stations! Hope that helps.
All the way from Angmering to Hove the maximum line speed, on a route which is either straight or gently curved, is 70 mph yet the Class 377 EMU's are capable of at least 90 mph. Presumably the numerous Level Crossings are the reason for the 70 mph speed limit? If so, then why is it 75 mph between Havant and Chichester?
It is the same with the section between Eastbourne and Hastings, the top line speed is 70mph, that is because of the amount of stations, points and crossings there are, however a level crossing on a line wouldn’t usually affect a speed limit, where the lines run through it is quite built up with towns and houses close by, that is probably the issue.
There is very little benefit in improving the linespeed. Its congested, the fast trains catch up with the slow trains as it is. It would probably require 4-aspect signalling throughout, or re-positioning the signals. It would also require a full loading gauge re-evaluation of the route. Also, currently half the trains are only capable of 75mph - the class 313s. A far better investment would be to enhance the speed of all the turnouts, especially at Ford and Arundel junctions.
