Overview of The Windsor Lines

Overview of The Windsor Lines
Overview
Type	Suburban rail, Heavy rail
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Locale	Surrey, South East England
Operation
Opened	1843–1850
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	South Western Railway
Technical
Number of tracks	2 to 4
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	Yes
Route map (Click to expand)

This is an overview of the routes make up the Windsor Lines. The routes are the Hounslow Loop Line, Waterloo–Reading line, Staines–Windsor line and Chertsey branch line. Lines opened between 1843 and 1850 and were electrified in the early 20th century.

History

The Lines were built by the London & South Western Railway (LSWR) and South Eastern Railway (SER). In 1923 the Lines were into the Southern Railway (SR). In 1948 the Southern Railway (SR) was nationalised and Became part of British Rail (BR). In 1986 it became part of Network Southeast (NSE). In 1994 it was privatised a Became part of the South Western Franchise witch was run by south west trains TOC between 1994 and 2017 and South Western Railway TOC 2017-.

Rolling Stock

The rolling stock used to run services on the lines generally comprises of Class 165; Class 166, Class 450, Class 455, Class 458 and Class 707.

Key Stations

The key Stations are London Waterloo station, Reading railway station and Clapham Junction railway station. These stations are run by Network Rail, formally Railtrack, formally Network SouthEast, formally British Rail Southern Region, formally Southern Railway (UK) and finally formally the company's pre big four. The rest where run by the South Western franchise, formally Network SouthEast, formally British Rail Southern Region, formally Southern Railway (UK) and finally formally the company's pre big four.

Services

This part is for the Services each the Lines Service are under a different sub-heeding.

Services on the Chertsey branch line

On Mondays to Saturdays, a half-hourly all-stations service to London Waterloo runs via Staines and the Hounslow Loop Line. Travel time may be shortened by a few minutes by changing to a fast train at Staines or Weybridge. On Sundays there is an hourly all-stations service which, instead of going to Weybridge, takes the west curve at Byfleet Junction and terminates at Woking. That curve is little used although from 2000 to 2002 the London Crosslink service of Anglia Railways from Colchester and Ipswich to Basingstoke via north London and Staines, which used Class 170 DMUs, took it. Copied content from Chertsey branch line; see that page's history for attribution

Services on the Waterloo to Reading Line

In the current timetable, there are two trains per hour between Waterloo and Reading, every day of the week; the Reading service only calls at major stations Clapham Junction, Richmond, Twickenham, Feltham (with a short bus link to Heathrow Airport), Staines and then all stations to Reading. During peak hours, additional trains are run which skip Winnersh, Winnersh Triangle and Earley, and add stops at Vauxhall and Ashford (Surrey).

Connecting lines add additional services on this line -

• Services on the Weybridge branch line (Chertsey Loop) run in part between Virginia Water and London on the line, namely before and after using the Hounslow loop
• Services on the Staines–Windsor line between Staines and London
• Services on the Kingston Loop Line between Twickenham and London
• Services on the Hounslow Loop Line between Twickenham and London
• Services on the North Downs Line run between Reading and Wokingham do not stop at the intervening stations
• During peak hours, four trains in the morning on the Shepperton Branch Line and three evening trains to that line run between Twickenham and London
• During peak hours, some trains commencing at Farnham and then on the Ascot to Guildford line are extended to London, providing more services between Ascot and Waterloo.

Services are mainly formed of Class 458/5s, but a few 450s also work the line. Copied content from Waterloo to Reading Line; see that page's history for attribution

Services on the Hounslow Loop

The typical weekday service in trains per hour is:

• 2 from Waterloo, taking the loop at Barnes and leaving it beyond Hounslow to go via Richmond to return to Waterloo
• 2 from Waterloo, running via Richmond and taking the loop at Hounslow and returning to Waterloo
• 2 from Waterloo, taking the loop at Barnes and leaving it beyond Hounslow to go via Feltham to Weybridge
• 2 from Weybridge, taking the loop at Hounslow and returning to Waterloo

Limited trains to/from London start/terminate at Hounslow, however South Western Railway timetables and departure boards indicate that every other train from Waterloo terminates or starts at Hounslow whilst they are actually running as loop services.

The Sunday service is

• 1 train per hour in each direction between Waterloo and Woking via Staines
• 1 train per hour between Waterloo and Hounslow via Brentford in the afternoon.

Services are generally operated by Class 707s, operating in 5 or 10-car configuration. These trains entered service in August 2017. Class 450, Class 455 and Class 458 units also work the line. All units on the line are to be replaced by Class 701 Aventra units, with introduction planned for 2020. Copied content from Hounslow Loop Line; see that page's history for attribution

Services on the Windsor to Staines Branch

The service frequency is two trains per hour in each direction every day except early on Sunday mornings when it is one per hour. From Windsor to London Waterloo takes about 55 minutes, some 20 minutes longer than the quickest journeys to London Paddington from the other station at Windsor, Windsor & Eton Central, although according to Network Rail timetables, the journey time to many central London locations is similar from both stations.

The Sunday service is roughly the same, but limited services pass through Wraysbury and Sunnymeads without stopping on this day.

Services on the line run beyond Staines to London Waterloo, running a fast service which calls at these stations:

• Ashford
• Feltham
• Whitton
• Twickenham
• Richmond
• Putney
• Clapham Junction
• Vauxhall
• London Waterloo

Copied content from Staines–Windsor line; see that page's history for attribution

Accidents and incidents

• On Sunday 11 April 1858 a guard was killed by hitting his head on an overbridge while standing on top of a moving train.
• On Thursday 16 June 1859 a special train from Ascot ran into the back of another special train at Virginia Water. No fatalities or injuries were caused but "many persons sustained damage in dress, but not, it is believed, in person."
• On Saturday 13 August 1859 a train derailed at Feltham due to excessive speed and poor track condition.
• On Friday 16 September 1859 a train passed a signal at danger at Staines and ran into the back of another train resulting in 7 injures.
• On Tuesday 7 June 1864 6 people were killed when a special train from Ascot passed a signal at danger and collided with the train in front at Egham.
• On Tuesday 11 October 1864 a passenger train from Reading collided with a goods train at Putney station due to passing an unlit signal at danger.
• On Tuesday 27 June 1871 1 person was killed on a foot crossing adjacent to Twickenham station when they were struck by a train.
• On Thursday 14 August 1884 2 people were injured when a special train from Windsor ran into the back of an empty train due to excessive speed and passing a signal at danger.
• On Saturday 8 June 1889 a goods train reversed into a passenger train at Staines station at low speed.
• On Monday 1 October 1900 1 person was killed and 2 injured when a signalman forgot that a passenger train was occupying the up platform at Virginia Water and allowed a horse box train into the station resulting in a collision.
• On Sunday 7 October 1900 51 people were injured when 2 trains collided at Twickenham station due to confusion over signals as 4 carriages were being shunted from one train to another.
• On Wednesday 19 April 1922 a failure by shunting staff to apply brakes resulted in a light engine running away without its crew from Ascot to Virginia Water.
• On Friday 2 December 1955 13 people were killed and 41 injured when 2 trains collided at Barnes station.
• On Monday 9 May 1988 bridge number 71 over the River Colne near Wraysbury was washed away by a flood.
• On Tuesday 17 October 2000 a train struck a bus on the level crossing at Pooley Green between Staines and Egham. The bus driver had driven on to the crossing and was trapped when the barriers then came down. He led his passengers to safety before the train struck and there were no injuries.
• On Thursday 26 October 2000 the 0821 Weybridge to Staines train derailed about 100 yards east of Virginia Water station after slipping on wet leaves and passing a signal at danger. There were no injuries.
• Early on Sunday 15 November 2009 the bridge carrying the line over the River Crane, London, partly collapsed leading to service suspension. Services were restored eight days later on a temporary diversionary line with a 20 miles (32 km) per hour speed limit laid across the site of the disused Feltham Marshalling yard. The defective bridge was demolished and rebuilt.

Copied content from Waterloo to Reading Line; see that page's history for attribution

Future

In the Future the British Rail Class 701 and 769s will take over stopping services by South Western Railway TOC and Great Western Railway TOC. The British Rail Class 701 are dual voltage and the British Rail Class 769 are tri-model. This means that they run off 25kv ac OLE, 750 volts dc third rail and a Diesel. Plus platform lengthening But where it is not particle to do so the will use S.D.O (Selective Door Operation)

See also

• Future plans of the Windsor Lines maybe
• south western railway website official
• Great Western Railway website Official

References

This article "Overview of The Windsor Lines" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Overview of The Windsor Lines. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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