HoW netWork rail deliVers tHe Goods

Tyseley’s ‘Polar Express’ will use goods lines as well as those built for passengers – and it’s something charters do a fair bit. So, how does that work?

The short answer is ‘with permission’. For goods and passenger lines aren’t simply fancy titles – the rules for each are different. As the Office of Rail and Road explains, “freight-only lines are often built and maintained to differing standards to passenger lines, so when passenger trains travel over these lines it may be necessary to apply operational controls”.

Those might include imposing speed limits, and clamping points manually (which is what happens in Tyseley’s case, in which Network Rail sends out a ‘Mobile Operations Manager’ to do it). For, ever since the 19th century, point locks have been mandatory on passenger lines to make sure the points can’t move – or ‘split’ – under a train. Goods lines don’t have the same restriction.

In the case of charters, requests for ‘Goods Line Authority’ are made when the bid or ‘spec’ for a train is put in 14 weeks before a trip (for standard operations the time is eight weeks); NR’s charter planners then go to the Route (Region) in question.

What happens next, reports NR’s Jack Harvey, is that engineers are asked to confirm the track condition is suitable, vegetation is checked, and the local operations manager is brought in to “confirm if the signalling is fit for the passage of a loaded passenger train. It is at this stage that any need for securing points is identified, and a MOM is usually allocated to do this.”

Authority to run, Jack says, “is normally requested for each operation as the track conditions will vary over time based on latest track patrol surveys or inspection trains.”

There are exceptions, though

– such as the goods loops on the West Coast Main Line, “where we seek an annual authority in advance… they are effectively passenger-rated in all but name”.

So, next time you’re on a trip that includes goods line working, think for a moment about the background work that allowed you to be there.