Crossrail Service Pattern

[JamieLei]

Some good analysis here: http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.co.uk/201 ... ttern.html

Headlines:

All Heathrow trains go to Canary Wharf and Abbey Wood
All Reading and Maidenhead trains got to Stratford and Shenfield

Service pattern:


Of course, changing train isn't too difficult at Whitechapel, Paddington, or anywhere in between! And the vast majority of passengers are only going to Central London anyway. But it still surprises me!

I suppose that to mix things up a bit would require some relatively infrequent service patterns; 4tph to Heathrow is the limit of tolerable, but to send half up the Great Eastern would require only 2tph on each branch. And then Crossrail isn't a turn-up-and-go service, but a timetabled one. And if Heathrow could only serve one of the two branches, it's undeniable that it should be Canary Wharf (despite the fact I live in Stratford!)

[Dave]

Pretty simple isn't it? Does your average business arrival at Heathrow want to go to Canary Wharf... Or Romford?

[NoMorePacers]

Pretty simple isn't it? Does your average business arrival at Heathrow want to go to Canary Wharf... Or Romford?

That's the thing. You appear not to be able to get from Heathrow to Romford without changing at Paddington first. I personally think Crossrail should be run how the other lines in London with many branches are. Whilst I do think the 'core' central section, from Paddington to Whitechapel should get 12tph off peak, the trains should alternate. Lets say 4tph each go end-to-end. 2tph to Reading and 2tph to Heathrow. 2tph to Shenfield and 2tph to Abbey Wood. Mix them all up so you have (as a schedule):
Paddington to Shenfield 2tph
Stratford to Reading 2tph
Paddington to Abbey Wood 2tph
Stratford to Heathrow 2tph
Reading to Abbey Wood 1tph
Heathrow to Shenfield 1tph
Heathrow to Abbey Wood 1tph
Reading to Shenfield 1tph

That's 8 different schedules. So 12tph off-peak through the centre, shall we say. Each branch gets 4tph, with 2 of those going beyond the centre.

Now peak hours should achieve, lets say, 26tph. Here goes:
Paddington to Shenfield 3tph
Stratford to Reading 3tph
Paddington to Abbey Wood 3tph
Stratford to Heathrow 3tph
Reading to Custom House 2tph
Heathrow to Ilford 2tph
Heathrow to Canary Wharf 2tph
Reading to Ilford 2tph
Stratford to Paddington 2tph
West Drayton to Gidea Park 1tph
Maidenhead to Romford 1tph
Maidenhead to Woolwich 1tph
West Drayton to Custom House 1tph

Peaks are a bit different. With most people going to/from the centre, there isn't much need for, say, Reading to Abbey Wood or Heathrow to Shenfield. So the long distance services are cut, so they end in the suburbs/outside the city, but still not at the termini. That's why some services start/end at Maidenhead, West Drayton, Custom House, Woolwich, Ilford, Romford and Gidea Park, to serve the central section with more trains at the expense of long distance travel.

[Pilot]

I personally think Crossrail should be run how the other lines in London with many branches are.

Crossrail is meant to be more like the Tube though, instead of a National Rail Line, so that you can just turn up and go. If they went with your proposal, people would have to wait for a particular train, if they did want to go from, say, Shenfield to Heathrow, instead of knowing "Okay, I can get on any train to Tottenham Court Road, and Change there for the Heathrow"

Also, 2tph from Heathrow to Whitechapel and 2tph from Reading to Whitechapel? What would they do on arrival at Whitechapel? There is no reversing facility being put in place at Whitechapel. Whilst there is going to be a crossover just West, I doubt there is the capacity to reverse 4 trains an hour, and there definitely wouldn't be the capacity for the 7tph you stated in the Peak!

Track Diagrams at the bottom of here.

[NoMorePacers]

Done. Changed it to Stratford.

[teccuk]

Blimey. House prices in Shenfield must of gone up. Hadn't heard of the place.!

[Ameecher]

If you start messing about with mixing lines and giving every route option, as Jamie says, you get rubbish service frequency but you would also potentially get uneven service intervals on the branches. One branch might get 6 trains am hour but they won't be at even 10 minute intervals.

Plenty of opportunity to change along the central section, i suspect journey planners won't encourage changing at Paddington for those that do want to switch between branches as it'll have enough going on without that influx of people.

[Chris]

None of this is really surprising is it? We knew previously that a lot of the trains would be terminating at paddington.

[Dave]

Don't think anyone's questioned that have they? Haha.

They've basically shut half of Paddington so I'd hope what's happening underground is enough to move folk about.

[Chris]

In the blog that Jamie posted the guy was like "errmaahhgaahd there isn't a tube style frequency west of Paddington!!!! How will people cope/what a waste to terminate half the trains at Paddington!"

When in reality we have known for a long time that a lot of trains would terminate at Paddington. He also seemed to think that it would be really difficult for passengers to understand, as if the northern, met, Piccadilly etc. don't exist - passengers can cope with the fact that different trains can have different destinations and can skip one or two stations.

[Kevo00]

Pretty simple isn't it? Does your average business arrival at Heathrow want to go to Canary Wharf... Or Romford?

That's the thing. You appear not to be able to get from Heathrow to Romford without changing at Paddington first. I personally think Crossrail should be run how the other lines in London with many branches are. Whilst I do think the 'core' central section, from Paddington to Whitechapel should get 12tph off peak, the trains should alternate. Lets say 4tph each go end-to-end. 2tph to Reading and 2tph to Heathrow. 2tph to Shenfield and 2tph to Abbey Wood. Mix them all up so you have (as a schedule):
Paddington to Shenfield 2tph
Stratford to Reading 2tph
Paddington to Abbey Wood 2tph
Stratford to Heathrow 2tph
Reading to Abbey Wood 1tph
Heathrow to Shenfield 1tph
Heathrow to Abbey Wood 1tph
Reading to Shenfield 1tph

That's 8 different schedules. So 12tph off-peak through the centre, shall we say. Each branch gets 4tph, with 2 of those going beyond the centre.

Now peak hours should achieve, lets say, 26tph. Here goes:
Paddington to Shenfield 3tph
Stratford to Reading 3tph
Paddington to Abbey Wood 3tph
Stratford to Heathrow 3tph
Reading to Custom House 2tph
Heathrow to Ilford 2tph
Heathrow to Canary Wharf 2tph
Reading to Ilford 2tph
Stratford to Paddington 2tph
West Drayton to Gidea Park 1tph
Maidenhead to Romford 1tph
Maidenhead to Woolwich 1tph
West Drayton to Custom House 1tph

Peaks are a bit different. With most people going to/from the centre, there isn't much need for, say, Reading to Abbey Wood or Heathrow to Shenfield. So the long distance services are cut, so they end in the suburbs/outside the city, but still not at the termini. That's why some services start/end at Maidenhead, West Drayton, Custom House, Woolwich, Ilford, Romford and Gidea Park, to serve the central section with more trains at the expense of long distance travel.

Why on earth would you want such a complicated set up? On networks like this keep it simple. By trying to run from everywhere to everywhere else you risk reducing utility for most users because you'll often have to wait longer for the train you need. The idea that changing is a sin is something of a myth demonstrated by the very popularity of changing on the tube.

[JamieLei]

I suppose there's different types of changing. In transport planning, we use a concept called Generalised Journey Time (GJT) to take this into account, which includes as functions:
- In Vehicle Time (ie: the time spent on a train)
- Interchange time; and
- Average waiting time (somewhat front-weighted)

The effect of a direct train does actually have a significant impact, but I suppose this depends on what the type of journey is. Not too long ago, all Uckfield line trains terminated at East Croydon and passengers had to change for the very frequent service to either London Bridge or Victoria. When they extended them through to London Bridge, passenger numbers shot through the roof. Open Access Operators have very successfully tapped into new markets by providing direct trains to London.

But then travelling from Stratford to Heathrow isn't like Uckfield to London Bridge; the change is same-platform, the interchange time is 2.5 minutes, and you'd consider it part of the same line to begin with (i.e.: no one seems to have a problem going from Aldgate to Watford Met in the off-peak, even though there's no direct trains).