Meon Valley Railway Line

Afternoon all

Someone recently mentioned to me, about Meon Valley Railway being reopened to serve as Eastleigh avoiding line?

I've read a few society's tried to reopen Wickham to West Meon as a heritage line, but couldn't see what become of that plan.

Does anyone have any info? I'm local to that area and am very interested in the subject.

 

While the prospect of what's now the Meon Valley Trail being restored as a railway is perhaps just barely conceivable, I would expect Hell to be covered by glaciers well before a section of the A32 is closed and turned back into a railway. It is of course possible to build new railway on a new alignment, as has been done for a section of the Borders Railway, but that seems to me no more likely for the Meon Valley than closing the road.

 

Also, why would anyone use the Meon Valley to bypass Eastleigh? That implies using the Alton branch as a new mainline, but feeding towards Fareham rather than Southampton - and the line via Hamble isn't exactly straight or fast.

I wonder if there's confusion over the two approaches to Fareham from the Eastleigh direction after the Meon Valley junction, and the way that the railways has chopped and changed over the years about which it would use?

 

Sorry, it sounds very much like a WIBN idea. It's a bit late for a 1st April spoof. I suspect there is more chance of the DN&S being reopened between Winchester Jn and Didcot.

It really needs an identified traffic flow or potential traffic flow for any railway expansion scheme to even be considered. The Fareham avoiding lines were built as part of the Meon Valley line scheme. Most of the Fareham avoiding line around the tunnels was sold off over 30 years ago and is now covered with housing or is a linear park.

In the peak hours, the Botley to Fareham North Jn single line section sees four trains per hour so is effectively at line capacity. Re doubling through the tunnels isn't possible due to limited clearances.

The real pinch point on the Wessex main line is Basingstoke flat junction. There was a scheme developed for a flyover for down freight services from Norn Road bridge to somewhere west of the station, Unfortunately a great big car park has been built for rail customers and the former up yard is likely to be remodelled as carriage stabling sidings. Even the "back line" behind platforms 4 and 5 is no longer a viable idea with a peak hour station entrance built across it.

Cheers, Neil

 

I thought it was the Woking junction that was the biggest issue?

 

I don't think there's much in it. There are more conflicting movements at Woking, but a container train takes longer to clear the (more restrictive) Basingstoke junction than even a stopper does that at Woking.