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fittie

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Restrictions have already appeared on the Whilton/Buckby locks as well as others, I was wondering if restriction the time you can access the flight actually saves any water?

We entered the flight as soon as poss and I know the were boats "trapped" over night in the flight and some pounds were already down quite a bit. The pumps can not cope with all the boat movements happening over a short period of time and to that end it would be better if the movements were spread out over a longer period?

People sharing looks would help more and not turning a look when in the next lock is a boat. It would be better to wait for the boat and then turn the lock thus saving a lock full.

Just a thought. I'm not looking towards boating in the summer with shed loads of restrictions like it was in '76.

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Before this week's monsoons, the reservoirs for this stretch were over 86% full.

By locking people in the flight, it may well waste more water, especially if next morning boaters set off at different times.

It is apparently done so the back pumps can replenish the higher pounds overnight, water is being pumped up to the Leicester summit from the top of Buckby too via the Watford flight.

I am really not sure it saves water other than to stop people leaving gates open/paddles up overnight if cruising late.

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We are moored at the end of the Leicester Line by Norton Junction. Had a couple of beers in the New Inn this evening before taking a walk down the pound after the top lock. I reckon there are over a dozen south bound boats,moored in the pound tonight. As soon as the flight re-opens, that pound is going to run dry in no time. And currently, looking out of the window, there is definitely no flow of water being pumped back up the Leicester line.

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14 hours ago, Big Bob W said:

We are moored at the end of the Leicester Line by Norton Junction. Had a couple of beers in the New Inn this evening before taking a walk down the pound after the top lock. I reckon there are over a dozen south bound boats,moored in the pound tonight. As soon as the flight re-opens, that pound is going to run dry in no time. And currently, looking out of the window, there is definitely no flow of water being pumped back up the Leicester line.

That's my point really. Because the pressure on a flight being spread over all the day light hours (mostly) it is now going to be condensed into a smaller window, what ever time they decide and the pumps can not keep up with that kind of demand whey they most likely have a better chance of keeping on top of things if the demand for water was spread  a little thiner .

Just a thought.

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20 hours ago, fittie said:

That's my point really. Because the pressure on a flight being spread over all the day light hours (mostly) it is now going to be condensed into a smaller window, what ever time they decide and the pumps can not keep up with that kind of demand whey they most likely have a better chance of keeping on top of things if the demand for water was spread  a little thiner .

Just a thought.

The mathematics, science, art and psychology of queuing systems is complex and often far from intuitive. Simple measures such as long term average flow, are rarely much help in making the best use of restricted resources. By definition, dealing with queuing only occurs when something is restricted.  Another driver can also be economic - the sort of silly political objective of demanding 100% usage is always a quick route to disaster.

 

I don't know what complexity CaRT use, but we do know that their water modelling is always being improved and is at present reasonably sophisticated. Again, economics comes into it as sometimes more complexity, which costs money, does not deliver comparable benefits. Simply knowing stuff does not necessarily mean you can do something about it.

 

I cannot tell whether all of these restriction schemes have been properly tested against these models but, unless there is strong evidence to the contrary, I'd at least want to hear the argument before leaping to criticism.  

 

Remember, that one of the dominant factors is human behaviour and in the case of lock restrictions, vandalism and the inability (or wilfulness)of boaters to follow simple rules is often the main driver.

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1 hour ago, David Mack said:

I seem to recall someone from BW/CRT once saying that restricting lock opening hours reduced the total number of boat movements ( and hence water used). Boaters did not just retime their trips. 

I've often wondered about this too. This year we got caught in the restrictions on The Leeds & Liverpool. Locks 44 down to 30 were restricted to 10am-5pm with last entry to the flights at 4pm. As hirers, we weren't in the position of not taking the trip... well, at least not once we'd paid for the boat ! We have to work round the restrictions. I can't see how a queue of boats waiting to climb a set of locks is better than the same number of boats spread out. The only advantage I see (.. but only on a wide canal..) is it may force boats to share rather than turn up singly, and thus may reduce the overall number of lockages. I can't really see any advantage on a narrow canal.

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After the last couple of weeks rainfall, and even more to come, it will be interesting to see how the reservoirs have recovered.

I wonder if CRT will relax the restrictions? I suspect they will remain in place through the summer - just in case...!

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5 hours ago, David Mack said:

I seem to recall someone from BW/CRT once saying that restricting lock opening hours reduced the total number of boat movements ( and hence water used). Boaters did not just retime their trips.

I think that you are dead right. The thing is this could have a real negative effect on canal side businesses as less passing traffic and therefore less footfall. One business owner was talking about closing for the summer and having an extended holiday.

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1 hour ago, Big Bob W said:

After the last couple of weeks rainfall, and even more to come, it will be interesting to see how the reservoirs have recovered.

I wonder if CRT will relax the restrictions? I suspect they will remain in place through the summer - just in case...!

The reservoirs were not in a bad state anyway.....so CRT figures tell us.

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