Network Rail in attendance at the first in person AGM of ‘Friends of the Far North Line’ since 2019 brought some very welcome news.
FoFNL have long campaigned for the Lentran Loop to divide up the lengthy single track section between Inverness and Muir of Ord which currently takes trains 21 minutes to traverse. A new loop is entering the final design stage with it due to enter service in 2024.
This has for years been both a serious constraint on the timetable and a source of major delays that can cause the entire timetable to fall apart for the rest of the day from one late running train.
If a train arrives at Muir of Ord at the time a train is scheduled to leave Inverness - then one of these trains must incur at least a 21 minute delay with knock on consequences. Where more than one train is due to be flighted through the section the delays increase even further!
As a result of several trains being flighted in one direction then the reverse direction - there are lengthy service gaps that make rail unattractive for travel into Inverness from the North side of the Moray Firth.
Pre covid there were periods where 3 trains would head through Beauly within around 45 minutes to Inverness, then an over 3 hour gap!
The new loop would allow trains to leave Muir of Ord southbound and Inverness northbound simultaneously - vastly increasing the flexibility and resilience of the timetable.
FoFNL have long campaigned for the Lentran Loop to divide up the lengthy single track section between Inverness and Muir of Ord which currently takes trains 21 minutes to traverse. A new loop is entering the final design stage with it due to enter service in 2024.
This has for years been both a serious constraint on the timetable and a source of major delays that can cause the entire timetable to fall apart for the rest of the day from one late running train.
If a train arrives at Muir of Ord at the time a train is scheduled to leave Inverness - then one of these trains must incur at least a 21 minute delay with knock on consequences. Where more than one train is due to be flighted through the section the delays increase even further!
As a result of several trains being flighted in one direction then the reverse direction - there are lengthy service gaps that make rail unattractive for travel into Inverness from the North side of the Moray Firth.
Pre covid there were periods where 3 trains would head through Beauly within around 45 minutes to Inverness, then an over 3 hour gap!
The new loop would allow trains to leave Muir of Ord southbound and Inverness northbound simultaneously - vastly increasing the flexibility and resilience of the timetable.