There have been five railway races involving Scotland over the years.
This article in Rail Engineer is entitled Full Glasgow To Edinburgh Electric Service In July.
The article suggests this could be another railway race with Scotland involved.
In the red corner are the devious English, who are entering a series of redundant Class 365 trains, that nobody else wants.
- They are thirty-year-old trains
- They were built by British Rail.
- To improve their relationship with drivers, WAGN fitted them with cab air-conditioning. Marketing then named them Happy-Train, as the air-conditioning inlet, had given them a smile.
- It has also been rumoured that their class number was chosen to give the air of year-round reliability.
To gain an advantage, the first train was actually sneaked into Glasgow by road, as no-one was sure that they could fit the routes to Scotland.
To get the trains ready for Scotland, work is being done by the German company; Knorr-Bremse Rail Services at Springburn in Glasgow.
The Scottish entry in the blue corner, is the Hitachi Class 385 train, which is manufactured mainly in Japan and screwed together at Newton-Aycliffe.
Unfortunately, the train was designed for drivers with Asian eyesight and the curved windows in the cabs, give unreliable images at night, with the average Scottish driver, even if they’ve been training hard on Irn-Bru!
It is hoped that new windscreens will be approved for use soon!
So the race is on to see who can get their train into service first.
As to the verdict on which train is better, I think we could be seeing a split decision.
Glasgow will prefer one train and Edinburgh will prefer the other!
June 1, 2018
Posted by AnonW |
Transport/Travel | Class 365 Train, Class 385 Train, Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Program |
1 Comment
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on City AM.
So the rumours that I talked about in New Overground Trains For Gospel Oak To Barking line Delayed… By Three Months, would seem to be correct!
According to the article, Bombardier are saying it’s due to software issues dragging out the testing, of the Class 710 trains.
All trains these days are about software and I speak from personal experience of fifty years writing extremely complex software.
Getting all of the software systems working correctly is an extremely complex task and, as this is only the second train of the Aventra family to be built, Bombardier are probably still going through a learning curve.
I feel, the problems are made worse, because of a lack of test tracks in the UK. A lot of train testing seems to be done for Hitachi’s new Class 385 trains in the Czech Republic and Germany and I find it interesting that Talgo, are thinking of building a new test track in the UK, as I reported in Talgo Explores Options For Building UK Test Track.
My experience of software writing, says that there is light at the end of this particular tunnel.
According to Wikipedia, twenty of the Class 710 trains have now been built, so when one train is approved, if the other nineteen are identical, twenty trains can surely be introduced into service fairly quickly, once enough drivers and other staff have been trained.
The City AM article finishes with these two paragraphs.
Darren Rodwell, leader of Barking and Dagenham council, said: “Coming on the back of the announcement of a delay with the Barking Riverside Overground, this is another slap in the face for the residents of Barking and Dagenham.
“Moving the completion dates of this project tells a lot about the contractors managing it and in future, may need us to look very closely into how these private sector contracts are awarded and managed.”
Does he believe, that if everything were to be nationalised, it would be much better?
If I go back to the 1960s and 1970s, my memory tells me that British Rail had lateness problems, when they did everything. Some projects like the Advanced Passenger Train never even saw service, after consuming millions of pounds.
In some ways, the real problem is the lack of testing facilities for the large numbers of new trains and the new digital signalling coming into service. Too much has to be done at the Old Dalby test track near Melton Mowbray.
Incidentally, I’ve just returned from the Aosta Valley in Italy, where their new Stadler Flirt trains have been delivered, but are yet to enter service. The new trains for the Aosta Valley Line are still not in service, as I reported in Where Are The New Trains For The Aosta Valley?.
So do the Swiss have software problems as well?
Building trains would appear to be a complex business.
June 1, 2018
Posted by AnonW |
Transport/Travel | Class 710 Train, Gospel Oak And Barking Line |
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One of the reasons I went to Northern Italy this week was to get a glimpse and a possible ride in the new Stadler Flirt trains for the Aosta Valley.
This article in the Railway Gazette is entitled Electro-Diesel Flirt Unveiled.
This is the first two paragraphs.
The first electro-diesel version of the Flirt multiple-unit family was unveiled at Stadler’s Bussnang plant in Switzerland on June 15, two years after the Valle d’Aosta region awarded a €43m contract for the supply of five units and the provision of five years of maintenance.
The Flirt3 units are scheduled to enter service on the Aosta – Torino route in May 2018. Bimode operation will remove the need for passengers to change trains at Ivrea to reach Torino Porta Susa station, where diesel operation is not permitted.
I didn’t see any sign of the trains, as I rode between Turin, Ivrea, Novara and Aosta, which were supposed to start services last month!
Perhaps, the trains have software problems?
June 1, 2018
Posted by AnonW |
Transport/Travel | Aosta Valley, Italy, Stadler Flirt |
2 Comments
The Anonymous Widower 