Great Western Main Line
The Great Western Main Line ( GWML ) is a major railway line in Great Britain . It runs from Paddington Station in London in a westerly direction via Reading , Swindon and Bath to Bristol . The GWML was the former main line of the Great Western Railway, nationalized in 1948 . It was built between 1838 and 1841.
route
Almost all express and regional trains operated by First Great Western operate on the GWML . Express train stops are Slough, Reading, Didcot Parkway, Swindon, Chippenham and Bath. Heathrow Express express trains run between London Paddington and London Heathrow Airport . Local trains on this connection are offered under the name Heathrow Connect . Trains of Virgin Trains operate on the route Reading - Didcot, trains from South West Trains occasionally between Bath and Bristol.
The GWML was expanded for traffic in the 1970s to allow the introduction of the HST125 high speed train . The maximum speed between London and Wootton Bassett (branch of the South Wales Main Line ) is 125 mph (201 km / h), from there to Bristol 100 mph (161 km / h). The section between London Paddington and the junction to London Heathrow Airport is electrified with 25 kV 50 Hz alternating current . By the end of 2017, the overhead line was extended as part of the Crossrail project to Didcot Parkway, an originally planned electrification to Bristol and further to Cardiff and Swansea was postponed to an unknown time in July 2017. The remainder of the route is operated in diesel mode, partly with electric-diesel hybrid multiple units of Class 800 and, since 2018, Class 802 .
As of July 2019, electrification up to Bristol Parkway, which started again in 2018, is in operation and has made good progress to Cardiff, so that electrical operation on the entire London - Cardiff route can begin in December 2019.
Branch lines
Trains on the GWML are sometimes diverted onto the Reading – Plymouth line to Westbury . From there they continue to operate on the Wessex Main Line to Swindon , Bath or Bristol . Beyond Bristol, some trains run on the Bristol – Taunton Line to Weston-super-Mare or further.
Network Rail's 2007 annual report also includes the following routes on the Great Western Main Line:
- from Didcot to Oxford and Worcester on the Cherwell Valley Line and the Cotswold Line
- from Swindon to Cheltenham on the Golden Valley Line
- from Swindon to Cardiff and Swansea on the South Wales Main Line
- the Cross Country Route south of Birmingham
- all branches
history
The GWML was built under the direction of the well-known engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel . He made two controversial decisions: Since he believed that a wider track would improve the running properties at high speeds, he did not choose the standard track of 4 feet 8½ inches (1435 mm), which was already common at the time , but a track width of 7 feet (2140 mm). He also decided to run the route on a direct route through the Thames Valley , although there were no cities of note in the area at the time.
The first section of the GWML between London and Taplow was opened in 1838, followed three years later after the breakthrough of the Box Tunnel, the section as far as Bristol. The Great Western Railway could not prevail with its broad gauge and in 1892 the last section was converted to standard gauge. In the 1930s, the Cheltenham Spa Express, at times the world's fastest scheduled steam-hauled train, ran over the route. After nationalization, the route became the property of British Rail in 1948 . Since the privatization of British Rail in the mid-1990s, the route has mainly been used by First Great Western trains.
From 2017 [obsolete] the Maidenhead – Paddington section will also be used by Crossrail , which will then establish a rail link to the Great Eastern Main Line via a tunnel . The electrification of the Great Western Main Line is planned. At the end of 2017, the overhead line extending to the junction to Heathrow Airport was extended via Maidenhead and Reading to Didcot Parkway. Electrification of the entire route to Bristol and the subsequent South Wales Main Line via Cardiff and Swansea, originally planned for 2016 and 2017 respectively, was postponed indefinitely by the government after delays.
The line will be one of the first in Great Britain to be equipped with ETCS Level 2 by 2019 [obsolete] . A modernization of the existing light signal system is planned beforehand, which is then to be overlaid by ETCS. Around 1800 vehicles must be equipped with ETCS for operation on the route.
See also
literature
- The railways from London to Bristol and Dover . In: Illustrirte Zeitung . No. 22 . J. J. Weber, Leipzig November 25, 1843, p. 348-352 ( books.google.de ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ronald Krug: From the train transport service: The fastest steam trains. International comparison of records, top speeds and travel speeds. EK-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 2014, ISBN 978-3-88255-770-1
- ↑ Chris Jackson: Intelligent train management will cut costs . In: Railway Gazette International . tape 167 , no. 6 , 2011, p. 61-64 .
- ^ Dan Harvey: Boring begins on cross-London link . In: Metro Report International . tape 26 , no. 1 , 2012, p. 30-34 .
- ^ Intelligence Market . In: Railway Gazette International . tape 171 , no. 6 , 2015, p. 18 f . ( online ).