A9 dualling

[B9127]

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/lo ... ear-perth/ The first accident on the Luncarty -Pass of Birnam section in the roadworks and will not be the last.

[Duncan macknight]

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/lo ... ear-perth/ The first accident on the Luncarty -Pass of Birnam section in the roadworks and will not be the last.

How did the accident happen? Any details? When I drive it, everyone chugs along quite happily at the speed limit and I imagine it was someone not paying attention rather than something caused by roadworks. If this was not 40 I imagine the crash to be more serious but thank goodness it wasn’t.

[Euan]

The road was reopened to traffic fairly quickly despite there being four vehicles in the accident. I reckon the response must have been quite fast given that the accident occurred along the section of the road under construction and would have been noted promptly.

[A9Dan]

https://www.transport.gov.scot/publicat ... -dualling/

Alternatives to four elements of the community chosen route will be considered in DMRB Stage 2:

At Murthly/Birnam, two alternative GSJs have been proposed. The first has no exit from A9 southbound, the second retains all movements but includes entry/exit loops and an underbridge.

For the mainline tunnel, alternatives are a 150 metre underpass at Dunkeld & Birnam station or keeping the A9 at-grade.

For Dunkeld & Birnham station itself, one option would see the station relocated with the other retaining the station in its current location but relocating the car park to Birnam Industrial Estate.

At Dunkeld a GSJ has been proposed as an alternative to the at-grade roundabout. This would allow all movements and include entry/exit slip roads and an underbridge.

[Truvelo]

I hope the idea of an at-grade roundabout is going to be rejected once and for all. Transport Scotland's comments halfway down the second document in that link concerning the safe operation of the roundabout makes complete sense. Recent accidents at Cleanhill are a clear indication that these junctions have no place on such roads.

[orudge]

Let's hope so. There seems to be an accident a week at Cleanhill at the moment, and that's a road that does have another roundabout within 5 miles (if you're coming from the south at least). Sticking one in the middle of an otherwise free-flowing 110 mile route just seems daft!

[clc]

Relocating the station looks like the sensible option.

[Euan]

I do hope that we end up with a sensible alternative to the proposed at-grade roundabout at Dunkeld. Relocating the railway station seems like a good idea - and the move would not be as potentially disruptive as it would if it were another busier station such as Pitlochry or Aviemore which are called at by virtually every train service rather than only some services.

[Nwallace]

A quick squizz at the timetable shows that most scotrail trains stop at Dunkeld and Birnham station.

Moving a station platform may be a fairly simple building task but there's probably a lot of rail works required, like reassessing signalling due to the necessary change in block sizes ans signal locations, driver training - every driver would probably need to do some sort of renewal of their route knowledge such as learning when they need to start to slow for the new platforms. Fairly disruptive in itself!

[Truvelo]

I hope the semaphores will be retained if the station is relocated. I'd hate to see historic signalling replaced by nondescript modern LEDs.

[Duncan macknight]

Let's hope so. There seems to be an accident a week at Cleanhill at the moment, and that's a road that does have another roundabout within 5 miles (if you're coming from the south at least). Sticking one in the middle of an otherwise free-flowing 110 mile route just seems daft!

my friend drove on it last week and even he said that the roundabout is too small and came up quite suddenly. He made a very good point of saying that Longman Roundabout on the A9 is a much better designed roundabout than Cleanhill.

[Euan]

A quick squizz at the timetable shows that most scotrail trains stop at Dunkeld and Birnham station.

Moving a station platform may be a fairly simple building task but there's probably a lot of rail works required, like reassessing signalling due to the necessary change in block sizes ans signal locations, driver training - every driver would probably need to do some sort of renewal of their route knowledge such as learning when they need to start to slow for the new platforms. Fairly disruptive in itself!

Each ScotRail service either calls at every station or almost every station between Perth and Inverness. Dunkeld and Birnam Station is one of the stations more prone to being skipped in the timetable as are others such as Newtonmore and Carrbridge.

If the station is relocated, wouldn't some new tracks need to be built to allow trains to pass each other as they are currently able to do at the existing station?

[jackal]

Good to see that a GSJ is at least back as an option for Dunkeld. It would be madness to spend billions on the route only to leave a random roundabout in the middle.

The terminology of "Community's Option" is a bit weird, especially now they're presenting alternatives to it - presumably these are anti-community options...

[Berk]

I hope the semaphores will be retained if the station is relocated. I'd hate to see historic signalling replaced by nondescript modern LEDs.

That means customers have to have slower journeys, because of limitations with semaphore technology.

It’s not like we’ve kept all our 1950s traffic lights, or Anderson motorway signs, besides.

[Truvelo]

All the times I've driven the A9 I don't see too many trains so capacity doesn't seem to be a problem. I can't see why this line can't be an exception to the rule on semaphores whereby they can only clear when a train is due and not operate like colour lights and automatically clear when the block section ahead is empty.

[Nwallace]

All the times I've driven the A9 I don't see too many trains so capacity doesn't seem to be a problem. I can't see why this line can't be an exception to the rule on semaphores whereby they can only clear when a train is due and not operate like colour lights and automatically clear when the block section ahead is empty.

I suspect the move to fully electronic Control will likely kill them off.

Of 12 weekday northbound services only 3 are not timetabled to stop at Dunkeld.

Of 7 northbound Sunday services only 2 are not timetabled to stop at Birnam.

The Highland main line has significant sections of single track running which affects capacity.

Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk

[Altnabreac]

All the times I've driven the A9 I don't see too many trains so capacity doesn't seem to be a problem. I can't see why this line can't be an exception to the rule on semaphores whereby they can only clear when a train is due and not operate like colour lights and automatically clear when the block section ahead is empty.

The Highland Main Line frequency is being increased to hourly as part of HML upgrade phase 2 at the moment. This involves resignalling in Pitlochry and Aviemore.

The calling patterns as part of that classify the stations in 3 groups:
Every train calls: Pitlochry, Aviemore
2 hourly train calls: Dunkeld & Birnam, Kingussie
Less frequent train calls: Blair Atholl, Dalwhinnie, Newtonmore, Carrbridge

Transport Scotland actually announced the High Level CP6 (2019-2024) funding priorities yesterday and it included a project described as "new phases of Highland Main Line and Aberdeen to Inverness Improvements,which will look at maximising the existing investments to create more andfaster services for passengers and opportunities for freight"

I'm fairly certain that this will include upgrading signalling at the remaining passing loops (Dunkeld, Kingussie, Kincraig, Carrbridge, Slochd, Tomatin, Moy and the double track section Blair Atholl - Dalwhinnie). I suspect it will also involve a new section of double track, possibly from Newtonmore - Kingussie.

[Sulzer:1999]

I hope the semaphores will be retained if the station is relocated. I'd hate to see historic signalling replaced by nondescript modern LEDs.

Aviemore lost it’s semaphores just this weekend, following a 3 day possession, the box was switched out for good late on Thursday.

Murray Duncan

[Norfolktolancashire]

I do hope that we end up with a sensible alternative to the proposed at-grade roundabout at Dunkeld. Relocating the railway station seems like a good idea - and the move would not be as potentially disruptive as it would if it were another busier station such as Pitlochry or Aviemore which are called at by virtually every train service rather than only some services.

Maybe a bit of publicity in the possible development of service area/fast food restaurants would sway the locals to a GSJ instead?

[Euan]

I do hope that we end up with a sensible alternative to the proposed at-grade roundabout at Dunkeld. Relocating the railway station seems like a good idea - and the move would not be as potentially disruptive as it would if it were another busier station such as Pitlochry or Aviemore which are called at by virtually every train service rather than only some services.

Maybe a bit of publicity in the possible development of service area/fast food restaurants would sway the locals to a GSJ instead?

I'm sure it was noted upthread, but I think the Perth - Inverness A9 corridor was intentionally left without any typical service areas during the original upgrade of the road so that it would not take business away from the towns and villages that were being bypassed.

If anything I think that a grade separated junction at Dunkeld might encourage more people to go into Dunkeld than there would be if there was an at-grade roundabout as it would be much easier to access the village without there being too much congestion at the junction.