Friday Reads – 10 May 2019

1. Mind the gaf’s @ Kentish Town had me in stitches …. oh dear.

   Glasgow: Bring back the TRAMS! ( Or something like that )
   How to pay for it is the usual problem, of course

2. Made me think of changeable signs built into those escalator step fronts. Could be used for information and maybe paid for advertising messages. Maybe LED arrays like platform indicators. Obviously would have to be pretty tough to handle the kicking of thousands of toecaps!

3. @GT – The Glasgow article said a range of technologies could be considered, maybe with different solutions for each corridor. The Paisley – Airport – Renfrew – City route would most likely be something very tram-like I would guess though. The Paisley – Airport link project needs an early steer on technology, as they have been considering PRT or APM type systems. A light rail solution, perhaps automated on this segment if segregated, could be fully compatible with further extension into Glasgow and would link the Renfrew and south Clyde bank areas effectively into the Ayrshire rail network without the need to travel into central Glasgow and back out again. The Luton Dopplemayr APM shuttle system was a mistake in my opinion as they could have extended the guided busway to the airport instead and run a few of their own automated electric pod shuttles on it as well as providing other buses with a segregated route into the airport complex.

4. @Mark Townsend 1350

   I came across these in Tokyo last month. The display had moving images that showed a (left to right) scrolling arrow. It was very disorientating as I came to step on the escalator with my body expecting an upward movement but my eyes registering a sideways movement. I just managed not to fall over by grabbing the handrail.

5. I don’t know if there are capacity issues but, taken in isolation, the Cathcart Circle in Glasgow currently looks like an underused asset. It’s main problem is the frequency – only 2tph on the western half and on each of the two branches and only 1tph round the circle. Once, it was a darling of rail investment in Glasgow: now, it seems more like a Cinderella.

6. @Ronnie MB

   All Cathcart Circle, East Kilbride and Kilmarnock trains have to share the double-track line between Bridge Street Junction and Muirhouse Junctions, and all junctions are flat, so difficult to improve frequency.

   It’s smaller scale, but most of London’s capacity issues and constraints are also found in Glasgow.

7. I thought there probably would be capacity issues: though I can still remember the correspondence I had with then Area Manager when the service was cut by half in 1982 to its still present level.

   The explanation at the time was a cut in the SPTE grant rather than lack of capacity – although I have not kept track (if you’ll pardon the pun) of layout changes since then and capacity may also have been reused for other services.

   On a separate but related note, I see that a new tunnel has replaced upcycling the City of Glasgow Union line as the favoured means of achieving Glasgow Crossrail.

8. @RONNIE MB – Good to see the previous useless Crossrail proposal via the City Union finally abandoned. That project included a new chord from the City Union to Pollakshields West and East which might be redirected into Central to help solve approach congestion issues from the Circle using west side platforms released by Paisley corridor trains diverted into the new Crossrail tunnel.

9. @ Ronnie MB

   I think there were fewer trains on the Kilmarnock line in 1982, allowing more on the Cathcart Circle.

Comments are closed.