Freight fights capacity constraints

Once on the slow line the maximum speed is 90mph, but we can run at a maximum of 60mph. The problem, Keeble explains, is that there is a GTR stopping train in front - this means that even if we get a succession of green lights, it is pointless getting up to 60mph because all too soon there will be cautionary signalling meaning that the train will need to slow down.

Again, this highlights the question of priority. “If we had gone before the stopper, we would have been away. Network Rail does this all the time,” says Amos.

At St Albans, a siding between the Up and Down slow lines houses a pair of Class 319s. They formed the stopping train that we have been following. Keeble suggests that the next ‘catch-up point’ will be Luton. If not there, then certainly Bedford.

As we arrive at Luton, a Freightliner Heavy Haul Class 66/6 stands on a stone train in Crescent Road terminal. In front of it are two pairs of Class 319s waiting to run south. Meanwhile, we have a double yellow facing us. “That means there is something at Leagrave,” sighs Keeble.

At Bedford, we are held at a signal before being routed onto the Down Fast. At this point 66702’s train is 31 minutes late. “This is rare to get the Fast,” Keeble acknowledges.

We head north along the Down Fast, passing a DB-hauled cement train at Sharnbrook Junction that has been held on the Down Slow. Just north of here we cross to the slow line. This bi-directional section of railway feels like a branch line - it is single-track and set away from the MML. There is provision for the forthcoming MML electrification - bridges have been raised, while the track looks freshly laid and with enough space for a fourth track.

We travel along a mix of three and four-track from Wellingborough (where GBRf operates a sizeable infrastructure yard) to Kettering Junction (where the Corby branch heads away from the MML), where we transfer to the Down Fast again. From here, it is a two-track railway until Leicester.

This section has long headways between signals, and yet is as busy as the railway north of Bedford, except for the EMT services that run to Corby. Amos suggests it is one and a half miles between signals, which he says is typically more than on the southern end of the MML.

Just after the MML meets the line from Nuneaton, there is a junction for the line to Bardon Hill. This is single-track, but is well kept. And it is busy, with trains to Bardon Hill and to Stud Farm (trains for the latter leave this route at Bagworth Junction). GBRf continues to Bardon Junction, where the quarry is located.

The line continues towards Burton-on-Trent, and is double-tracked yet rarely used. GBRf operates weekly Tube train deliveries along the line. The firm also takes trains to Coalville Mantle Lane to run round, or stable.

Today, 66702 deposits its train and is stabled. The ‘66’ is the first of three to arrive, and will later run to Peterborough with the others.

The yard is small, with only a handful of relatively short sidings. AI has its own Rolls-Royce shunter that it uses to push the wagons up a steep 1-in-40 incline that is also on a tight bend, and as we leave 66702, this is noisily moving its train back into the quarry.

Amos is happy that the train made up some time, and that there is no issue with the customer. He later emails to explain the delay: “When they had the contract last year, Freightliner used to propel from Neasden South Junction up the curve to Neasden Junction. To avoid this we do two run rounds.

“The signaller alleged that the schedule has not been altered to reflect this, but it has! The schedule shows that we should have run round at Neasden South Junction 0952 to 1012, which I think we did, then go up the curve to Neasden Junction and run round there 1017 to 1039. We then depart Neasden Junction and cross onto the correct line and head towards Cricklewood, where we are booked to wait for our path on the MML from 1047 to 1106. The 6M22 Cricklewood to Calvert is due to pass us immediately after we depart Neasden Junction.

“What actually happened is that the signaller held us at Neasden South Junction from about 1010 to 1048 until 6M22 went over Neasden Junction, giving us a 33-minute delay. The DB train that waited for us to arrive at Neasden Junction was 7M62 Acton to St Pancras, and was a couple of minutes early.

“We would have made up most of the delay going on to the MML, but as you saw we struggled to get a path and then they put us out right behind a St Albans stopper which pretty much took us back to our original lateness!”

That, in a nutshell, illustrates the problem the railway faces. Capacity is not, subject to perception, a passenger railway-only problem. It seems that attitudes, and culture, may have to change. 

• This feature was published in RAIL 775 on May 27 2015