Cumbria County Council Cumbrian Coastal Railway Capacity Study Final | October 2010 This report takes into account the particular instructions and requirements of our client. Ove Arup & Partners Scotland Ltd It is not intended for and should not be relied 225 Bath Street upon by any third party and no responsibility is Glasgow undertaken to any third party. G2 4GZ Scotland www.arup.com Job number 214161-00 Document Verification Job title Cumbrian Coast al Railway Job number 214161-00 Document title Capacity Study File reference Document ref CC-Cap Revision Date Filename Skeleton Report_v1.docx Draft 1 21/07/10 Description First draft Prepared by Checked by Approved by Name R Owen D Leeming R Dyer Signature Draft 2 23/08/10 Filename Cumbrian Report_v2.docx Description Prepared by Checked by Approved by Name R Owen D Leeming R Dyer Signature Draft 3 Filename Cumbrian Report_v3.docx Description Prepared by Checked by Approved by Name Signature R Owen D Leeming R Dyer Final 18/10/10 Filename Cumbrian Report Version4.docx Description Prepared by Checked by Approved by Name Signature Richard Owen Douglas Leeming Rupert Dyer Issue Document Verification with Document | Final | 18 October 2010 P a g e | 1 J:\210000\214161-00 (CUMBRIAN COAST CAPACITY STUDY)\04 DELIVERABLES\4-05 RREPORTS\4-05-06 TRANS\CUMBRIAN REPORT FINAL.DOCX Cumbria County Council Cumbrian Coast Railway Capacity Study Contents Page Executive Summary i 1 Introduction 4 2 Background to Study 5 2.1 History of Route 5 2.2 Route Configuration 6 2.3 Civil Engineering 7 2.4 Permanent Way 9 2.5 Signalling 9 2.6 Level Crossings 9 2.7 Signal Box Opening Hours 10 2.8 Passenger Services 11 3 Rail Market Assessment 14 3.1 Current Markets 14 3.2 Potential Future Markets 15 4 Analysis Methodology 17 4.1 Introduction 17 4.2 Approach 17 4.3 Capacity Analysis 18 4.4 Capability Analysis 22 4.5 Assumptions 23 5 Results of the Analysis 25 5.1 Introduction 25 5.2 Current Condition 25 5.3 Actual Usage 26 5.4 Currently Available Paths 27 5.5 Practical Paths 28 5.6 Intervention 1: Extended Signal Box Opening 30 5.7 Intervention 2: Opening the Route At Weekends 32 5.8 Intervention 3: Provide Looping Capacity at Whitehaven 36 5.9 Intervention 4: Lengthening St Bees Loop 42 5.10 Interventions Considered but not Developed 46 6 Study Outcome 48 6.1 Introduction 48 6.2 Conclusions 48 | Final | 18 October 2010 P a g e | 1 J:\210000\214161-00 (CUMBRIAN COAST CAPACITY STUDY)\04 DELIVERABLES\4-05 REPORTS\4-05-06 TRANS\CUMBRIAN REPORT FINAL.DOCX Cumbria County Council Cumbrian Coast Railway Capacity Study 6.3 Looking Forward 48 Appendix A Train Planning Graph Note Appendix B Technical Note on Scope Activities Appendix C Currently Timetabled Services Appendix D “Stressed” Train Plan Appendix E “Practical” Train Plan Appendix F “Extended” Train Plan Appendix G Cost Estimates | Final | 18 October 2010 P a g e | 2 J:\210000\214161-00 (CUMBRIAN COAST CAPACITY STUDY)\04 DELIVERABLES\4-05 REPORTS\4-05-06 TRANS\CUMBRIAN REPORT FINAL.DOCX Cumbria County Council Cumbrian Coast Railway Capacity Study Executive Summary Introduction The purpose of this study is to identify what actions might be required in order to allow the Cumbrian Coastal railway to meet the needs of the proposed Nuclear New Build programme. The requirements of the programme are currently undefined, however it is likely that there will be increased demands placed upon the railway network associated with the construction of the new power plants and in particular the delivery of construction material and removal of spoil. In addition, the movement of the workforce during the construction and operational phases of the project are likely to be significant. Based on the project brief it is taken that any new facilities are likely to be in the area of the current works at Sellafield. As a result, the rail planning which has been undertaken in this study has focussed on trains operating to and from this location. This has been a high-level study of the rail capacity in Cumbria based on available information from Network Rail and a desktop analysis of current and potential operations. No detailed modelling work has been undertaken and as such the results should be considered as indicative at this stage, albeit based on a significant degree of analysis and informed by our experience of rail operations. The technical development of the proposed railway works is based on a limited number of site visits and input from Network Rail. Methodology As mentioned above, the study was based on available information and a desktop analysis of the current railway operations. In practice this has involved the plotting of the current train planning graphs and then overlaying additional paths to build up a picture of what capacity could be made available for a given series of intervention measures. This ranged from simple extensions of the route opening hours to consideration of capital expenditure interventions to bring about further benefits to the network capacity and capability. In all cases the outputs were plotted on the train planning graph and results tabulated. Outcomes The results from the study show that there is a significant level of latent capacity on the route which could be utilised in serving the Nuclear New Build programme. This is split between access to and from the north, and to and from the south of Sellafield. The number of paths possible are higher from the south than from the north. This is solely due to the lengthy single line section which exists immediately north of Sellafield. Further low-cost paths can be gained through the extension of the opening hours of certain signal boxes along the line. Given the number of readily available | Final | 18 October 2010 P a g e | i J:\210000\214161-00 (CUMBRIAN COAST CAPACITY STUDY)\04 DELIVERABLES\4-05 REPORTS\4-05-06 TRANS\CUMBRIAN REPORT FINAL.DOCX Cumbria County Council Cumbrian Coast Railway Capacity Study paths, only a limited extension of the signal box hours has been considered along with a view of the benefits to be gained through longer duration extensions. Enhancement to the infrastructure is also considered and this has focussed on making the train plans more robust and improving the capability of the route. This latter point in particular takes account of the need to maximise the value of the available paths by allowing longer freight services to be operated. The interface with the wider rail network has been difficult to predict. Current utilisation of routes, particularly freight traffic on the West Coast Main Line, is highly volatile given the current economic climate. The current view is that it will be difficult to increase the general volume of traffic at the southern end without affecting overall performance. However, at both Carlisle and Carnforth direct access onto the route south to Settle would appear to be possible. The worth of any such routing will be dependent on the origin and volumes of traffic generated by the programme. Results The following tabulation shows the train paths used by the currently timetabled services on the route. The paths which can be reasonably added on to the route with no capital investment or extended opening hours are also shown – described as ‘Practical Paths’. Finally the impact of extending the opening hours of certain signal boxes is shown (Extended Opening Paths). Table 1: Analysis of Paths Carnforth Carnforth in Furness Barrow Sellafield Whitehaven Workington Carlisle Up 22 23 16 22 21 Weekdays Down 22 25 16 22 21 Current Up 20 18 13 18 19 Saturday Services Down 14 15 10 15 17 Up 7 0 0 2 2 Sunday Down 8 0 0 4 4 Up +16 +12 +7 +7 +6 Weekdays Down +17 +16 +7 +7 +7 Practical Up +14 +14 +14 +12 +12 Saturday Paths Down +9 +9 +15 +15 +15 Up +21 +0 +0 +0 +21 Sunday Down +27 +0 +0 +26 +29 Up +19 +17 +12 +12 +11 Weekdays Down +19 +21 +12 +12 +12 Extended Up +2 0 0 0 0 Opening Saturday Down +2 0 0 0 0 Paths Up +21 +20 +28 +27 +27 Sunday Down +27 +26 +29 +29 +29 | Final | 18 October 2010 P a g e | ii J:\210000\214161-00 (CUMBRIAN COAST CAPACITY STUDY)\04 DELIVERABLES\4-05 REPORTS\4-05-06 TRANS\CUMBRIAN REPORT FINAL.DOCX Cumbria County Council Cumbrian Coast Railway Capacity Study The number of paths quoted in the lower two sections show the number of paths which could be used by the Nuclear New Build services on a daily basis. It is considered that the number of possible additional paths identified here is likely to be at a level such that it would satisfy the traffic requirements of the programme. In order to make the network more resilient to perturbations and allow greater flexibility it is proposed that the route configuration be altered at Whitehaven. This is largely driven by the fact that it is located at one end of the single line section and may require to ‘hold’ trains awaiting paths. The work will see the creation of a loop facility which will allow main line services to pass a stationary freight train held on the main line. The second enhancement takes place at St Bees where there is a loop to allow trains to pass on the single line. The greater intensity of the proposed service pattern means that it will be necessary to pass lengthy freight trains at St Bees.