Electrification Delays On The Great Western Railway Must Be Serious
This article in Rail Magazine is entitled GWR and DfT discuss ‘revised plan’ after electrification delays and it talks about what is to be done to get a decent passenger service running on the Great Western Railway, despite all of the delays to the electrification program.
If you want to know more of the problem this article on the BBC web site from July 2015 is an excellent summary.
- The under-performance of the High Output Plant System, a factory train made up of 23 vehicles, has, according to rail observers, made a big contribution to Network Rail falling at least a year behind schedule.
- The whole electrification project for the Great Western line was really based on the High Output train because of the amount of work it could do so much more quickly,
- Engineering insiders told the BBC that a newly designed wiring system did not match the specification of the holes the Hops train was designed to dig and that a new design of pile-tubes hammered into the ground to house the thousands of electrification masts – went in too deep after ground surveys were missed.
- Even where the Hops train has managed to dig holes, it has damaged existing signalling cables.
- Network Rail is short on experienced engineers and experienced operators – people who know how to run a railway.
- It was decided by the Department for Transport that the new trains will be 26m long per vehicle and our railways are built for 23m long,
I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a badly-designed and executed project in my long years on the dark fringes of project management.
So now it is sucking engineers and resources out of every other electrification project in the UK!
For instance, on my local electrification of the Gospel Oak to Barking Line, nothing much seems to have happened for the last few weeks.
I had to have a quiet chuckle, when I read this last paragraph in the Rail Magazine article.
GWR has tested short-formation High Speed Trains, and these could potentially be used on longer-distance services currently operated by multiple units, such as Cardiff-Portsmouth and Exeter-Penzance. They could also be used on some of the longer branch lines in the South West, such as Par-Newquay and Exeter-Barnstaple, although neither GWR nor the DfT would confirm this. A potential additional order for bi-mode AT300 hybrid trains could also be under consideration.
Terry Miller’s wonderful stop-gap design of the 1970s; the High Speed Train, is coming to the rescue again.
But then very serious problems, need the most serious of solutions!
I’m not running Network Rail and I’m not the Transport Minister, but in my view, it is now time to think extremely radically.
- Electrify as far as possible from London and run Class 387 trains or dependable-but-ugly Class 319 trains where you can.
- Run services to Bedwyn, Newbury, Oxford and the various branches East of Didcot using IPEMU variants of Class 387 trains.
- Replace as many HSTs on the East Coast Main Line as possible with new Class 800/801 trains and deploy Miller’s Masterpieces to the Great Western.
- Build new Class 800 electro diesel trains, instead of Class 801 electric trains and use them on the routes of TransPennine and Hull Trains.
We have been lucky with our train purchases and development.
- Class 800 and Class 801 are identical except for the diesel engines.
- Class 700 trains are being delivered to release Thameslink’s Class 387 and Class 319 trains.
- There are fifty or so Class 387 trains, that could be converted into IPEMUs, which would have a sixty mile range on batteries.
- Bombardier could probably build a few more Class 387 trains, alongside the Aventras.
I think that many places will get different and probably better and bigger trains, but not everyone will get the expected new electric trains.
Small-Scale Connectivity To Crossrail
I live about twenty-five minutes from my nearest Crossrail station at Moorgate on a 141 bus and as I walked around today, I just wondered what will be the best way to access London’s new East-West rail line when it opens in a few years time.
So what do I mean by small-scale connectivity?
I think it is best defined as any method that isn’t more than perhaps ten stations on heavy rail, light rail, the Underground or trams.
And of course, you might substitute Thameslink for Crossrail! Or if you don’t live in London, it could be your major cross-city line.
So in my case, the following would be small-scale connectivity to Crossrail.
- Walking
- Cycling
- Car
- Taxi
- Bus
I do have a heavy rail link to Crossrail in the form of the East London Line between Dalston Junction and Whitechapel, so that will be included as it is only a short stretch of line of four stations.
These are the methods available to me in Dalston.
Walking
For good connectivity, the walking routes around a station should be properly mapped and signposted on a physical wayfinding system, like Legible London used all over the capital.
I also think it is essential that a common format is used, along a line.
So this probably means that London will decide how walking maps and signposts at Crossrail stations in Essex and Berkshire will look.
Will that be acceptable to towns and cities, that have called in consultants to design their ideal wayfinding system?
One problem with wayfinding systems, is that in some places the locals who know the city or area well, say they don’t need the system and think it a waste of money.
You also have the problem in areas with more than one local authority, that each go their own way, rather than agree on a common system.
Remember too, that London is so large, that the average resident finds themselves regularly in an area of the city they don’t know. So Londoners on the whole are very pro-Legible London.
I feel that we need to impose the same wayfinding system all over the UK.
Cycling
Just as there should be good walking routes to a station, the cycling routes should be obvious and well-signposted.
And if bikes are provided for hire at the station, the payment system must be compatible with London’s.
Perhaps we need a nationwide bike hire system?
Car
Many people will want to drive to their local Crossrail station and park their car before they get the train.
i have a feeling that when Crossrail opens, the biggest complaint will be the lack of car parking at stations.
Taxi
For about the last three months, I’ve been suffering badly from plantar fasciitis and because of the limited mobility, it gives me at times, I now feel very strongly that every Crossrail station, should have a proper black taxi rank.
Recently Transport for London have announced that one of my local stations; Highbury and Islington, is going to have a taxi rank. I have yet to find a taxi driver who is against the idea and I believe this could be a winner for both passengers and black cab drivers.
Bus
Every London rail and tube station is a bus hub with its own spider map, which details all of the buses and their routes from the area. This is my lovcal bus spider map for Dalston.
Dalston Bus Spider Map
Venture outside of London and in many places, bus mapping is often missing or very bad to give it the benefit of the doubt.
As with walking maps, local authorities outside of London with a Crossrail station, will have to adopt London’s system.
Other Rail Lines
Crossrail does connect to quite a number of heavy rail, Underground and Overground Lines.
- Bakerloo Line
- Central Line
- Circle Line
- District Line
- East London Line
- Great Eastern Main Line
- Great Western Main Line
- HS1 – After extension to Gravesend
- HS2 – After Old Oak Common
- Jubilee Line
- Metropolitan Line
- North Kent Line
- Northern Line
- Northern City Line
- North London Line
- Thameslink
- West Anglia Main Line
- West Coast Main Line – After extension to West Coast Main Line
- West London Line
I have included links to extensions to Gravesend and the West Coast Main Line and Old Oak Common in this list.
Small Branch Lines
But it also connects with several smaller branch lines or perhaps in the future, some tram and light rail lines.
- Abbey Line – After extension to West Coast Main Line
- Brentford Branch Line
- Croxley Rail Link – After extension to West Coast Main Line
- Greenford Branch Line
- Henley Branch Line
- Marlow Branch Line
- New North Main Line
- Reading to Basingstoke Line
- Romford to Upminster Line
- Shenfield to Southend Line
- Slough to Windsor and Eton Line
- Staines and West Drayton Railway
- Waterloo to Reading Line
I believe that Local Authorities will develop these smaller lines and create others to maximise their benefit from Crossrail,
A Metro In The East
The two lines that I think have the most likely chance of being developed, are the Romford to Upminster and Shenfield to Southend Lines.
- The main line rail company; c2c, is very ambitious.
- In the next couple of decades, South East Essex will be an important economic growth area.
- Better links are needed to Southend Airport and the London Gateway.
- There is substantial development of jobs, housing and leisure opportunities in the areas the lines serve.
- Give the people of Essex an opportunity and they embrace it fully.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a substantial metro network created in the area, based on Billericay, Shenfield, Southend and Thurrock.
A Metro In The West
If a metro network can be successfully developed at the eastern end of Crossrail, is there the potential of creating something similar at the western end?
Consider.
- Heathrow dominates thinking in West London and feels that everybody should jump to its tune.
- Heathrow should wake up to the fact that it will never get a third runway, as London’s electorate will always vote to block this.
- There will always be a Heathrow, but in time, it will cease to dominate the air travel market in the UK, as it does now!
- Heathrow has very limited rail connections to Basingstoke, Reading and the West.
- If you look at the list of small branch lines, several are clustered around the western end of Crossrail, with its two hub stations of Slough and Reading.
A metro in the west could be developed based on hubs at Basingstoke, Heathrow, Slough and Reading. The Windsor Link Railway is surely thinking along those lines.
A Metro In The South East
Of all the stations on Crossrail, Abbey Wood is one of the most disappointing.
As a terminus for Crossrail, that connects to the North Kent Line and to services to South East London and the Dartford area, four platforms doesn’t seem enough, when you compare the station to the other terminals of Reading and Shenfield.
Transport for London have proposed that the Gospel Oak to Barking Line could cross the river to serve Abbey Wood and if this should happen, there must be opportunities to create another metro system based on Abbey Wood.
A Metro In The North
There are proposals to extend Crossrail to Milton Keynes from Old Oak Common.
This would surely, bring in the possibility of a network of local lines based on Watford.
- The Abbey Line is one of those difficult-to-run lines, that needs substantial improvement.
- The Croxley Rail Link could be expanded to serve Amersham.
- Local services on the West Coast Main Line and the Watford DC Line are very crowded.
This will only be developed once Crossrail serves Watford.
Conclusion
Crossrail in 2030, will be an entirely different line to that being created today.
West Ealing Station – 28th February 2016
Work is also progressing at West Ealing station, as these pictures show.
The bay platform for the Greenford Branch is also obvious and I wonder , what the eventual form, timetable and opening date for that line will be. In a section on the Future of the Greenford Branch, Wikipedia says this.
In 2017 Crossrail is due to begin using two of the four tracks of the Great Western Main Line and the Greenford service will terminate at West Ealing, rather than continue to Paddington, to obviate interference with Crossrail, and to create track capacity for increased services to Heathrow. In compensation the branch line service will increase from two to four trains per hour. Ealing Council desires to have the line connected to the south west to Clapham Junction via the West London Line, and to the north west to West Ruislip.
Of the various things said in this little section on Wikipedia, I think some might happen.
- Transport for London like fifteen minute interval turn-up-and-go services, so an increase in frequency to four trains per hour would be a serious possibility and make the line a good feeder service for Crossrail.
- Some have said that the branch will become part of the London Overground.
- I doubt the service will go past West Ealing, as that would interfere too much with the Crossrail service pattern.
- I don’t rule out, arranging schedules, stairs and lifts, so that the interchange between the two lines is an easy one, with the minimum of waiting time.
- If the Greenford Branch were to be extended past Greenford, it could create a link between Crossrail and Chiltern.
It would appear that Transport for London won’t get control of West Ealing station until perhaps some time in 2017, so I think it is unlikely, that Greenford Branch services will be changed before this happens.
I also think, that on their past record, Transport for London, might come up with something that is a lot better than any speculation can propose.
What A Waste Of Valuable Land
I took these pictures as the train passed the Southall Gas Works site to the west of Southall station.
As can be seen these days it is mainly used as a car park for passengers using Heathrow Airport.
That is a terrible waste of a site, that could be cleaned up and used for much-needed housing. This Google Map gives an impression of the extent of the site.
Southall Gas Works
But things are happening and there is a web site called The Southall Gasworks, put up by the Berkeley Group, who are developing the site.
In this post entitled Could The Golden Mile In Hounslow Get A Station?, I postulated that the gas works site could be linked to Hounslow’s Golden Mile and the Thames by a tram and concluded by saying this.
I think that there are possibilities for a well-designed solution in the area to connect the Golden Mile to Southall station for Crossrail.
There are certainly possibilities to link everything together.
- Southall station will be served by Crossrail’s high-frequency trains.
- The Brentford Branch is an underused working railway.
- The Southall Gas Works development needs good public transport links.
- The Golden Mile needs rejuvenating.
I do think we’ll see lots of small-scale connectivity to Crossrail and this would be an easy one to build.
Hayes And Harlington Station – 28th February 2016
Work on the new platform and the station building, seems to be going on at Hayes and Harlington station.
They certainly seem to be building the new bay platform 5 to take the heaviest of passengers and their cases and buggies.
West Drayton Station – 28th February 2016
This pictures show progress at West Drayton station.
It does appear that there has been significant progress in changing the tracks to the East of the station.
The track work will bring the disused Platform 5 into use. This is the most northerly platform.
Welcome To Huddersfield
In my trip to Huddersfield yesterday, I took the TransPennine Express from Manchester Piccadilly.
These pictures show the supremely inadequate three-car Class 185 train at Huddersfield and passengers tying to board to get to Leeds and York.
On return, I asked a Team Leader what was going on. He said trains had been cancelled because of driver shortages and that three-car trains were inadequate anyway and should be five-car. They certainly have overcowding issues and bad passenger feedback.
In some ways these trains are their own worst enemy. After Huddersfield, it was standing room only and the stop at Stalybridge took a lot longer than it should, as passengers fought to get on and off with suitcases and bicycles. So by the time we got to Manchester Piccadilly, where we called at the inadequate and very crowded Platform 14, we were nearly fifteen minutes late. There were several passengers who missed their booked seats on the 1815 to London.
I never book return seats on a journey back from football, especially if TransPennine or Manchester Piccadilly is involved.
The Team Leader at Huddersfield didn’t seem pleased, but he did indicate something would be happening soon.
It certainly needs to.
I think TransPennine’s only problem of their own making is the driver shortage. Nearly everything else can be put down to inadequate investment by various Governments over the last fifty years.
I suppose you could blame passengers for creating the increased demand across the Pennines, but as the Class 185 trains seem to have been ordered without an ability to lengthen, the trains have been unable to grow with the demand.
Compare this situation with that of the Class 390 trains on the West Coast Main Line and the Class 378 trains on the London Overground. Both these trains have been lengthened, by the simpler expedient of adding new carriages in the middle.
We should make sure that all the Ministers and the Civil Servants, who conspired to give the North some of the most crowded trains in Europe, should ride these trains at least once a week, so they can at least understand their crap legacy to the travelling public.
But then no self-respecting Government Minister or Civil Servant, would be seen taking a train between Manchester and Huddersfield, when a perfectly serviceable chauffeur-driven limousine is available.
Improving The Hastings Line
In The Lewes Horeseshoe, I discussed how an idea from Railfuture might be used to improve services between London and the South Coast.
I came to the conclusion, that if various improvements were carried out, including the running of trains with Class 395 performance from Ashford to Brighton along the East Coastway Line, that this would present an opportunity to close and rebuild the Hastings Line.
The Hastings Line is only thirty-two miles long from the South Eastern Main Line to Hastings, but there are deficiencies in the tunnels, which led to four of the eight tunnels being made single-track, when the line was electrified in 1986.
Surely, the fact that the line is constantly switching from double to single track, is one of the reasons, that the line only has a pathetic one semi-fast and one stopping train per hour between London and Hastings.
But things have moved on since 1986!
Network Rail must have learned a lot of tricks with tunnels. In particular, all the lessons learned in the re-boring of Farnworth Tunnel will be invaluable.
The length of the line is also such, that services could be run using IPEMU trains, charging the on-board storage on the South Eastern Main Line and between Battle and Hastings stations.
Would running some parts of the Hastings Line without power, mean that it could be simplified by the partial removal of electrification?
I estimate that around twenty-five miles would be without electrification, which would be an easy gap to bridge for an IPEMU.
Would this simplification in the various single-track tunnels, coupled with modern tunnelling techniques, allow Network Rail to create a fully double-tracked route from the South Eastern Main Line along the full length of the Hastings Line to Hastings?
If four trains per hour could be run between London and Hastings, that would be a tremendous improvement. At the London end of the route, the Thameslink Programme should create extra capacity for trains into Charing Cross station.
In addition, it would appear that the line is already capable of handling ten-car trains. Could this be stretched to twelve?
I am certain, that in the light of developments in the last few years, that Network Rail are looking at ways of increasing the capacity on the Hastings Line.
They’re also probably looking to do other engineering work, as there was a major landslip on the line a couple of years ago.
But in truth nothing can be done, until alternative routes are provided via Ashford and/or Brighton, as the tunnel work would probably mean that the Hastings Line would need to be closed, whilst some of the work is performed.
Unless a sensible alternative is provided, I’m sure Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells will be penning another letter to the Telegraph.
The Lewes Horeshoe
A friend pointed me at the Lewes Horeshoe, which is described on this page of the Railfuture web site. They say this.
Events last year at Dawlish have shown the need for alternative routes to provide network resilience. A simple loop at Lewes, following the A27 Lewes bypass and the Cockshut, could be completed in Control Period 6 (or sooner) to provide an alternative route between Brighton and Haywards Heath without reversing, which would have enabled a service to be maintained when Patcham Tunnel was flooded recently, and would enable direct services between Falmer and London. It would also avoid reversing of the Lewes – Brighton shuttle service at Lewes, which might improve stock utilisation, and would facilitate services via a reopened Uckfield – Lewes line to Brighton. The radius of curvature is similar to that of the new curve on the East London Line Extension at Shoreditch, which operates without disturbing local residents.
They also show this map of the horseshoe.
Railfuture’s Lewes Horeshoe
This is a Google Map of the area.
Lewes Horseshoe
And for completeness, this is a Google Map of the East London Line at Shoreditch.
Shoreditch Curve
Knowing the East London Line well, I don’t think that the curve at Shoreditch is particularly tight and certainly thousands of up to five car trains have gone round the curve in safety without annoying too many of the residents. But are there that many residents?
So what do I think of the idea of the Lewes Horeshoe?
I believe that smaller rail projects like the Hitchin Flyover, Ipswich Chord, Ordsall Chord and Todmorden Curve, may not seem to offer high value before they are proposed, but once they are created, rail companies and politicians find innovative ways to use them.
I don’t know Lewes station well, but I always seem to spend some time there waiting for trains, when I visit.And would thus say that the area needs a bit of sorting out.
Now that the Uckfield Branch of the Oxted Line has been improved, as I wrote about in Future-Proofing The Uckfield Branch, I think that there could be moves to reinstate the Wealden Line and improve Seaford Branch services to Newhaven and Seaford.
Obviously, if there is any work at Lewes to sort out the services, all proposals should be examined.
There is also all of the proposals for a Second Brighton Main Line. I think that this project is so large, that I don’t think those using the trains between London and Sussex could put up with another project the size of Thameslink in the near future.
I also think, that several smaller projects along the current routes between London and Sussex should be sorted first.
- Improved longer and more frequent electric services from London to Uckfield.
- Improved longer and more frequent electric services along the West Coastway and East Coastway Lines.
- Improved links between Southeastern Highspeed services and Crossrail at Stratford International.
- The development of East Sussex services, so passengers can use Southeastern Highspeed services into Stratford and St. Pancras.
- The completion of the new interchange station at Gatwick Airport to improve connectivity.
- The sorting of the interchange between Thameslink and the East London Line.
- Improved services on the Hastings Line.
- A New one million pound car park has been built at Uckfield. Expect to see more!
- Improved layouts and extra tracks on the current Brighton Main Line.
I think that we’ll see some truly radical ideas and services implemented between London and Sussex, taking advantage of some of the new technology that is currently being developed.
For instance, if the East Coastway Line and the related Marshlink Line were to be improved, I feel that a limited stop Class 395 train could run from Stratford International to Brighton in under two hours.
I also believe that if the order of the projects is organised in an optimal order after Thameslink is completed through Gatwick to Brighton, that the important capacity between London and the South Coast can be maintained. This could be one possible order.
- Finish Thameslink, Gatwick Airport station and some Brighton Main Line improvements.
- Run twelve-car services between London and Uckfield.
- Improve the East Coastway and Marshlink Lines, so that trains with Class 395 performance can run between Brighton and Ashford.
- Add some more parking.
Finally, the bullet must be bitten and the Hastings Line can be closed and rebuilt, so that four trains per hour can be run between London and Hastings.
I discuss this in Improving The Hastings Line.
Combined Food And Power
I suppose it sounds too good to be true to produce both food and power from the same industrial process.
But look at this page entitled Combined Food And Power on the Orthios Group web site.
The company might have something.
The Anonymous Widower 