I can understand why the B Fan are seen as redundant, as they have always been a bit of design weakness of the yard.

But I struggle to understand why the C Fan tracks are seen as more valuable than the reception sidings adjacent to the mainline.

Looking at an aerial photo, the C Fan tracks are only around 450m in length. Surely if one is wear a cost-cutting hat one would abandon Fan C in favour of the seven Fan A rception tracks, which are 750m-plus in length.

Don't know which train crew you have been speaking to; C fan doesn't have 8 tracks, only five (six if you include B8) and one of those is out of use at one end! Also A fan only has five roads as well and one of those is out of use at the south end.

Most likely outcome is to concentrate remaining trains on the Reception roads of which there are seven, fully track circuited and signalled.

B Fan is quite useful for doing repairs and suchlike, especially as much of it does not have OHL to complicate matters.

Thank-you 33056; regarding the actual number of roads in Wembley EFOC I stand corrected. However what might seem as common sense to you will not necessarily be the action DBS take. The only update I can give is, it is the intention to only use 3 roads in 'C Fan'.

I must say, the only only logical rationalisation seems to be a retraction back to using just the reception roads. After all, DBS still needs the capability to 'hold' Channel Tunnel trains, and, therefore, I'm sure the company will indeed carry on using these 750m-plus tracks in preference over the shorter Fan C tracks.

If the Fan C tracks do fall out of use, I'm not sure this ought to be seen as any major loss.

A more worrying development is the moth-balling of the Trafford Park terminal. Is DBS is not able to drum up enough Channel Tunnel traffic from the Manchester area then things must be bad.

I very rarely travel by train nowadays so I often see big changes between trips. A recent weekday journey from Dundee to Sheffield produced just three freight trains on the 300-odd mile route including areas of heavy industry. Should the question be "End of the line for freight?"

No, it's not the end of the line for freight.

In terms of intermodal trains carrying shipping containers to and from British ports, they will always exist and will rise in number as world trade grows again.

In terms of intermodal trains carrying European swap bodies and containers, be that traffic via the Channel Tunnel or via the East Coast ports, these will carry on running so long as the costs of running them do not rise to a prohibitive level - cost has historically been the major barrier to growth for these services.

In terms of trains carry bulk products by the train-load, these will carry on running.

Also, I expect the tiny number of wagon-load trains to carry on running along the same core network that exists now, bolstered by the continuance of MOD traffic.

The reason why you did not see many freight trains during your journey between Dundee and Sheffield is not because the railway is failing in any way. If you want to see large numbers of freights, many of which running one after the other, pop down to southern section of the WCML.

I hope that you are right, I'm sure you are when it comes to container traffic - I sometimes work next to the main line at Romford & there are always plenty of containers passing. When I moved to Sheffield in 1980 I often got the Master Cutler to London and freight trains would be literally nose to tail on the goods lines from Tapton Jct (Chesterfield) to Clay Cross. On a similar journey today I would guess that you might see one freight all the way to St Pancras. I didn't know that any wagonload stuff still ran - do you have any details?

Regarding Wembley, I read in one of the railway magazines that much of its Enterprise/wagonload work is transferring to Didcot. Does this imply that these services are to be integrated more with the MoD network (Didcot being a hub for this)? Also read that Trafford Park's traffic is transferring to Wakefield Europort, as the latter has 'better transport links'. As for money wasted on under-used/unused freight infrastructure, a prime example must be the new terminals built for the Royal Mail traffic, most of which can only have seen a couple of years work. At the other end of the scale would be the siding built at Kyle of Lochalsh for wagonload freight - did it ever generate any? And what has become of the new terminal in Portsmouth - I haven't read of anything out of there yet.

. At the other end of the scale would be the siding built at Kyle of Lochalsh for wagonload freight - did it ever generate any?

Not in the last 11 years!

Les

I am ex BR and also worked for EWS from day 1.
As a trade union rep at National Level and also at my depot I have worked with company directors and local managers.
The whole management culture on EWS revolves around bully boy tactics from all levels of the management strata.
They do not care about certain sections of staff, and thier MO is to reduce staffing levels at all costs, using any means at thier disposal.
This includes implimenting work rosters, ignoring local agreements made under the Partneship Agreements.
The managers will lie and cheat in thier dealings with staff, and cannot be trusted in any way shape or form.
We had an MD from Canada, and now he has gone home, in my view thats the best place for him.
I am glad that I took the money when I did, cos that brass is better in my pocket then in EWS's pocket.
This is my opinion on this company but is bourne out all over the system when you talk to other staff.