LNER Route Planning Answers

Route Planning

Let’s first look at the Ashington to Newcastle railway route. From North to South: The railway starts in Ashington in Northumberland and heads south roughly parallel with the coastline. It passes by the coastal town of Blyth, before making a sharp turn east towards Seghill. At Seghill the route curves south and then follows the route of the Tyne and Wear Metro line from Northumberland Park It joins the East Coast Main Line just north of Newcastle The railway line is 24 kilometres long and for most of its route it is just a single track. Only one train can use the sections of single track in any one direction, otherwise there could be a collision or serious train crash!

It would take 24 minutes to travel non-stop from Ashington to Newcastle.

Task 1 Passenger trains on this section of line between Ashington and Newcastle can attain average speeds of 60 km/h between each station, accounting for time taken to accelerate and brake. Given the line is 24 kilometres long, how long would it take a passenger train to travel non-stop from Ashington to Newcastle? Please add your response in the box provided. (Hint: Time = Distance ÷ Speed)

Route Planning

Building blocks of a timetable and train plan The journey time between two stations (or junctions) is one of the essential building blocks of a timetable. This is called a Sectional Running Time. If we stop a train at an intermediate station, we also need to allow time for passengers to get on and off the train. We call this Station Dwell Time. At ends of the line, we also need to allow for additional time for the driver to change ends. This is called Minimum Turn Around Time. Note that we don’t need to allow for Station Dwell at the end of the line as the Minimum Turn Around Time is longer. How do we use this to build a timetable? It takes 24 minutes to travel along the line. We also need to allow the Minimum Turn Around Time of at least 5 minutes at each end. Here’s an example:

Route Planning

So, what does the overall timetable look like? The pattern repeats consistently across the day; it’s the same every hour. We allow additional turn around time to give even and consistent departure times from Ashington and Newcastle. This is more memorable for customers as they only need to remember that trains leave Newcastle on the hour and Ashington on the half hour. This timetable only needs one train to run back and forth all day.

Route Planning

26 minutes (12 + 2 + 12 = 26).

12 minutes each

Task 2 You now need to work out new Sectional Running Times (SRTs) for Ashington to Seghill and Seghill to Newcastle. Remember, a Sectional Running Time is the journey time between two stations (or junctions). Please add your response in the box provided: How long does it now take to get from Newcastle to Ashington with the stop at Seghill? The stop is a two minute stop. Please add your response in the box provided:

Adding an intermediate station Northumberland Council sees the value of the service and builds a station at Seghill, roughly half way along the line.

Route Planning

Very quickly, the timetable loses its standard pattern as the departure times shift as the day progresses. This is not very good as we need to be consistent with Mainline services at Newcastle.

Task 3 What happens to our timetable? Hint: Remember Minimum Turn Around Time and Dwell Time. What do you notice about the departure times? You need to fill in the rest of the timetable with the appropriate times. You can add any written notes in the box provided:

Route Planning

22 minutes (10 + 2 + 10 = 22 minutes)

72 km/h (12 km ÷ 10 minutes) x 60 (mins in hour). 12km refers to

12 minutes

So, how do we fix it? The easiest way would be to increase the line speed and/or use a faster train to reduce the journey time. In order to reduce the journey time we’re going to try and save two minutes – on each SRT. Task 4 What does the average speed need to be to make each Sectional Running Time (Ashington to Seghill and Seghill to Newcastle) two minutes quicker? Hint: Average Speed (km/h) = Distance (km) ÷ SRT (hrs). Please add your response in the box provided: This speed increase allows us to reduce the SRTs to 10 minutes. What is our end to end journey time? Please add your response in the box provided:

Route Planning

As a result of the stop at Seghill and keeping improving the end to end journey time, the train is now getting busy. We now want to increase the service frequency to two trains every hour. To do that, we need to allow two trains on the line at the same time. We can do this with a passing loop at Seghill. If Seghill now has a passing loop, two trains can pass: There is a platform on both sides of these passing loops so that trains can use both sides of the passing loop to pick up or set down passengers.

Route Planning

Departure times from Ashington and Newcastle are the same and consistent. Trains pass at Seghill. Departure time for either Ashington or Newcastle is the same at Seghill.

Task 5 We can now use two trains. Your task is to build a timetable with two trains every hour between Ashington and Newcastle. Hints: Each SRT between stations is 10 minutes. You should allow for 2 minutes Dwell Time at Seghill. You should allow a Minimum Turnaround Time. The trains must pass in the passing loop. Think about the passenger and what timetable they would find attractive or memorable. Start with one train at each end of the line. Here’s a blank timetable you can fill in: Please add any notes in the box provided:

Route Planning