The Anonymous Widower

Two Other Low Profile Rail Projects

Over the next few years there are a lot of projects being implemented on the UK Rail Network, as I listed here.

But two other projects that few have heard of, will have a significant effect on UK rail services.

Travel in or out of Kings Cross and you don’t realise the work what is going on underneath the lines going into the station.

The two Canal Tunnels are being fitted out, which will allow trains on the Thameslink route to go up the East Coast Main Line to Peterborough and Cambridge. These will probably be the most significant new tunnels to be fitted out and opened in the period between the Channel Tunnel and Crossrail. According to the provisional timetable for Thameslink, eight of the 24 trains each hour in each direction will go to and from the ECML. Of these eight trains, four will go to Cambridge. So many difficult cross-London journeys will become much simpler and will become either direct or will involve just a single change.

But think again!

Twenty-four trains an hour is a train every two and a half minutes between St. Pancras and Blackfriars. And to make matters more difficult, the trains will have to change electrical systems from overhead to third rail or vice-versa halfway through each journey.

How do they do that?

New signalling will be installed and the new Class 700 trains will take advantage of this to maintain the schedule. They will be fitted with ERTMS to aid in this task.

And this leads me to the other hidden project that is going to completely change the UK’s railways.

The project is ERTMS or European Rail Traffic Management System. Network Rails plan is here.

In simple words it means that all conventional signals will be removed from the tracks on the railway and the train drivers will have everything on a screen in the cab. This sounds very similar to the way airline pilots have worked for years.

This is Network Rail’s view of the benefits.

Installing ERTMS across the country as signalling becomes life-expired will save an estimated 40 per cent over conventional systems. Each train will run at an appropriate safe speed, allowing more trains onto the tracks. ERTMS will improve train performance and reduce energy consumption.

As an example of what it will mean, most high speed lines in the UK, will be limited to 140 mph instead of 125. This could mean thirty minutes off the journey time from London to Scotland.

June 8, 2014 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Engineering, Trains