The Anonymous Widower

New Trains On Thameslink

I had breakfast at Kings Cross and then hopped across the city on Thameslink to Blackfriars to go for a walk through the Tate Modern. I came back to Farringdon, as because the East London Line is closed, a bus from Moorgate is the best way to get home.

These were pictures I took of new trains on Thameslink.

Note the following.

  • The red trains with the grey doors are Class 387/2 trains destined for the Gatwick Express later this month.
  • The interior shots were all taken in a Class 387/2 trains.
  • The white train with the sloping front and the light blue doors, is a new Class 700 train, which will run on Thameslink.

The pictures were taken at St. Pancras International, Blackfriars and Farringdon.

The new Class 387/2 trains had a definite feel of the Class 387/1 trains about them, except they had sizeable luggage racks and possibly more tables.

There are better and more luxurious airport trains in the world, including probably the Class 332  trains of Heathrow Express. But as a train to speed you to the Airport in thirty minutes or so, with plenty of space for you and your luggage, they probably pass the first test by a good margin.

They would be very good on other Airport routes in the UK.

  • Routes connecting Manchester Airport to Liverpool, Manchester, Crewe and Blackpool.
  • A possible Gatwick Express route from Reading to Ashford International, which I think could happen, if an IPEMU variant were to be developed.
  • To and from Airports like Cardiff, Stansted and Southend.

An IPEMU variant could be useful in developing spurs to airports like East Midlands, Luton and Glasgow, which would be built without wires from lines with full electrification. Bombardier has the technology, all they need is the orders.

Would this approach be an affordable way to create the much needed airport link at Glasgow Airport?

  • A single-track spur leading from the Inverclyde Line to the Airport to a single platform station would probably have enough capacity for a two or three trains per hour service.
  • No electrification would be needed, which would mean that there would be greater flexibility in the route of the line. It might even go in a single-track tunnel under taxiways.
  • There would be some modification to the signalling.
  • The trains would be bog standard Class 387/2 trains, except for the energy storage.
  • Two trains would probably give a two trains per hour service to the airport, as Glasgow Central to Paisley \st. James takes around twenty minutes.
  • The trains would just be more trains running between Glasgow and Paisley.
  • It would be simpler than a tram-train and require no special rules or modified stations.
  • I can’t think of any new regulatory issues, as it will be a train running on a railway.
  • There would need to be some staff training.

The overall system would be no more complicated than running the demonstration Class 379 IPEMU on the Harwich branch, which seemed to work so well.

How much would it cost?

The creation of the new line to Ebbw Vale Town station and the single platform station is reported to have cost less than twelve million pounds.

According to this article in Railway Technology, Porterbrook have paid £100million for twenty Class 387 trains, so two trains would cost ten million.

I also think that provision of the track and trains in something like the Glasgow Airport Rail Link, is the sort of project that a company would provide and then lease to the train operator.

No wonder, that Bombardier have won an award for the technology and Porterbrook bought some Class 387 trains on spec.

February 18, 2016 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

An Open Letter To The Chief Executive Of Gatwick Airport

I am a sixty-eight year old widower, who has recovered fairly well from a serious stroke and who lives alone, a couple of hundred metres from Dalston Junction station, which is just within my walking range with a small wheelie case.

My passion is travel on both trains and planes and I regularly fly somewhere exotic within the EH 111 area, take the trains back across Europe staying in good hotels in the best cities and then write about it in my blog called The Anonymous Widower.

Gatwick is my airport of choice, as getting to Heathrow is difficult from Dalston, as the Piccadilly Line is only for masochists and Paddington was built in the wrong place for the East End.

As a Freedom Pass holder, to get to Gatwick at the present time, I buy a return ticket at the machine at Dalston Junction from the Zone 6 boundary to Gatwick for under a tenner. I then usually go to the Airport with just a single change at the step-free station of New Cross Gate.

Thameslink when it arrives in 2018 will obviously be good news for Gatwick Airport, as it will put millions more people within an hour of the Airport.

That is unless you live along the East London Line. According to the Thameslink web site, there will be no connection between stations from Norwood Junction to New Cross Gate to Thameslink, so to get to the new sewrvice, passengers will have to take alternative arrangements. For me that will mean taking a bus to London Bridge.

On the other hand, I am looking forward to the expansion of your Airport station, as when it is complete, it will mean that getting to see my friends on the South Coast will be easier and your station will probably be my chosen interchange.

That is provided I can get to the Airport easily from the the East London Line.

Those planning Thameslink seem to have forgotten that East London exists.

February 18, 2016 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , | 5 Comments