Ashington Blyth and Tyne Line Reopening Mulled Over In Six ‘Quick Win’ Rail Projects For Northern Transport
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Rail Technology Magazine.
This is the first paragraph.
A series of ‘quick wins’ have been identified to fix the “current crisis” in the north’s transport network in a report by the IPPR.
What are the quick wins?
This page on the IPPR website gives access to the report which is entitled Quick Wins For The North’s Transport Network.
These quick wins are given in the report.
Reopening Of The Ashington, Blyth And Tyne Railway Or Northumberland Line For Passenger Services
This summary is given.
North of Newcastle, and along the North East coast, there is an area with great potential but numerous challenges. This area contains several small and medium-sized towns: Blyth (population 37,000) and Ashington (population 28,000) are the largest (Centre for Towns 2017). The public sector dominates in terms of employment (education, health and public administration provide one-quarter of jobs), and the areas’ private sector is largely in the ‘everyday economy’ of retail (5,900 jobs) and food and beverage services (4,130 jobs) (ONS 2018c). The Port of Blyth handles 2 million tonnes of freight each year, and there are some significant development sites for renewable energy in the area (Port of Blyth 2018).
The history of the area is a vital consideration for its transport infrastructure. The area boomed during the industrial revolution as coal mining and port towns grew – Ashington was once considered the world’s largest coal-mining village (Whitfield 2018). The Ashington-Blyth and Tyne railway line once connected a number of Northumberland settlements between Ashington and Newcastle – it was not a single route, but a small network, built in 1840 to link the collieries to the River Tyne, and was opened up to passengers in 1841 (NCC 2015). But in 1964, passenger services were withdrawn under the ‘Beeching Axe’,although it has remained open for freight.
This idea has been talked about for years and I wrote about it in Northumberland Unveils £3.5m Rail Project To Bring Back Passenger Services.
This is a project, where it is probably time to stop talking and get the planning started, before updating the railways.
Surely, if it can be done for £3.5m, it must be good value. I suspect it will cost more, but not as much as Network Rail’s estimate of £191m.
Leeds/Bradford Airport Parkway Rail Station
Consider.
- Leeds Bradford Airport handles four million passengers per year.
- It has no direct rail access.
- It has direct services to airports like New York.
- It connects via hub airports like Heathrow and Schipol to a wide number of destinations.
- It could capture more of the localo air passengers with better connections.
The proposal is to build a Parkway station the Harrogate Line, between Horsforth station and Bramhope Tunnel.
- It would be a 1.3 kilometre drive in a shuttle bus to the Airport.
- The station would serve as a Park-and-Ride station for Leeds, Harrogate and other destinations.
This Google Map shows the area.
Note.
- The Airport is in the North-West corner.
- Horsforth station is in the South-East corner.
- The Harrogate Line runs North South from Horsforth station.
The new Park-and-Ride station could be built on any convenient location near to the Airport.
It looks to be a simple plan, that has been costed at £23m.
Consider these points about the Harrogate Line.
- It is only thirty-six miles.
- Services take around seventy minutes between Leeds and York via Harrogate
- It appears to be double-track
- The operating speed is sixty mph between Leeds and Harrogate.
- It doesn’t appear to be very busy.
I suspect it would be a good idea to iimprove this line, so that Northern’s Class 170 trains can stretch their legs.
If there was a Park-and-Ride station at Leeds Bradford Airport would First TransPennine want to run a service to the Airport?
I can see this plan, stimulating a lot of rail improvements between Leeds and York.
Supporting The Development Of Hydrogen Trains
The IPPR report says this.
Transport for the North plans to work toward the roll-out of hydrogen trains.
Consider.
- The North has a lot of routes, where hydrogen-powered trains could be used.
- Alstom are converting trains to hydrogen-power at Widnes in the North-West.
- Hydrogen is or can be produced by petro-chemical companies in the North.
I feel that increasingly, the North will have another big problem, for which hydrogen could be a solution.
Currently, there is a massive expansion of offshore windpower, which will produce a lot of electricity at awkward and random times, when it won’t have an obvious use.
So it will need to be stored!
One sensible method energy storage is to use the electricity to electrolyse water or brine to produce hydrogen and other gases. The hydrogen is then stored and can be burnt or used in a fuel cell to generate heat and/or electricity.
I can see a lot of innovation being employed to create hydrogen filling stations for users, such as companies with large fleets of smaller vehicles, railway companies, emergency power sup lies and other applications.
Unlike the production of hydrogen using steam-reforming of methane, electrolysis using renewable energy doesn’t produce any carbon dioxide.
Tees Valley Rail Interventions
The report talks of these interventions.
- Darlington station upgrade.
- Middlesbrough station upgrade.
- Teesport To Northallerton gauge clearance.
One of the main reasons for doing this, is that it will improve access to Teesport, which will bring wide benefits to the North.
Integration Of Traffic Management To Improve Air Quality
This is from the report.
Air quality is a major health problem across the world – especially in major cities. Vehicle emissions are the major contributor to this problem – particulate matter and nitrogen oxides cause numerous health problems, including asthma and lung cancer. Road transport accounts for at least 50 per cent of these emissions – and this is likely to be an underestimate (Cox and Goggins 2018). Clearly the volume of traffic is the principal cause, but so is the ‘stop/start’ of traffic flows, which tends to further increase emissions (O’Brien et al 2014). Exhaust fumes aren’t the only source – 60 per cent of particulate matter emissions come from the tyres and brakes.
Suggestions to reduce emissions include.
- Freight priority schemes
- Bus or cycle priority at signals to encourage transport modal change.
- Change signal timings to improve air quality
- Inform the public to change travel plans when air quality is poor.
- Low emission zones
Some of these measures will go down like a lead balloon.
Tees Crossing
This is from the report.
Roads are essential for the internal operation of Tees Valley’s economy and in order to connect it to the wider North. Passenger rail connectivity remains poor and light rail is non-existent. The economy’s residential and employment centres are highly dispersed across its geography. A modern bus network might relieve pressure, but the deregulated and underfunded network has seen passenger numbers fall and services cut (Brown 2018). The level of freight activity in Teesport and Hartlepool mean that these ports are highly dependent on the road network as well as rail.
The proposed solution js to build another road bridge across the Tees.
Conclusion
It seems a package of sensible measures, but opposition to some may ean they are not implemented.
The Design Of The Class 378 Trains Keeps The Gospel Oak To Barking Line Running
In some ways, London Overground’s Class 378 trains are the ultimate Electrostars.
These ten-year-old trains are no high-performance trains, but they are people carriers par excellence.
Wikipedia describes their interiors like this.
The design is similar to the Class 376 trains used by Southeastern, featuring the same wider metro-style sliding pocket doors for more efficient boarding and alighting. However, it also has significant differences from the Class 376, such as fully longitudinal seating similar to that used on London Underground rolling stock to give more standing and less seating capacity and reduce overcrowding, suitable for the high-volume metro-style services on London Overground.
This picture shows a view through the five cars of a standard-length train.
At the present time they are the only heavy rail train with this seating layout. Although London Overground will soon be running some Class 710 trains with a similar layout.
- The seats are reasonably comfortable.
- All passengers get at least one arm-rest.
- Passengers can walk between cars to find a seat or more space.
- The aisle between the seats is wide enough for passengers to stretch their legs and others to walk through, when all seats are taken.
- There’s plenty of space for standees and lots of handholds.
- In less busy times, everybody gets at least one seat.
There are also wide lobbies and doors for easy embarking and alighting.
Note the perches either side of the door and the numerous handholds.
In my travels across Europe, I’ve never found a better inner-city commuter train.
To run a four trains per hour (tph) service on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line, ideally eight trains are needed; six to run the service, one in maintenance and a spare.
But all London Overground can scrape together is three Class 378 trains shortened to four-cars.
- This limited number of trains can only run a two tph service.
- The four-car Class 378 trains have 152 seats (including tip-up seats) and thirty-two double perch seats.
- The two-car Class 172 trains have 124 seats.
This gives these seats per hour for the two services.
- Class 172 trains – four tph – 496
- Class 378 trains – two tph – 432
The Class 378 trains may offer less seats, but each four-car train can hold a lot of standees.
This article on Railway Gazette is entitled London Overground Class 378 Ready To Enter Service, says that four-car versions of Class 378 trains can hold up to 700 passengers.
If you’ve ever travelled on the East and North London Lines around Dalston in the Peak, you’ll know how many people these trains can hold at a push!
Since the two tph service started yesterday I’ve done several trips on the Gospel Oak to Baring Line over two days.
- 09:20 – Gospel Oak to Barking
- 10:33 – Barking to Blackhorse Road
- 14:27 – Harringay Green Lanes to Gospel Oak
- 14:50 – Gospel Oak to Barking
- 15:33 – Barking to Gospel Oak
- 07:33 – Barking to Gospel Oak
Only the last trip can really be considered to be in the Peak.
I have the following observations on the Off Peak trips.
- There were typically at least twenty per cent of seats available.
- No-one was ever forced to stand, although some were.
- A proportion of passengers were doing short trips of one or two stops.
- Some stops like Crouch Hill, Blackhorse Road and Leyton Midland Road seemed to have more passenger traffic than others.
- The trains had more passengers towards the Barking end of the route.
- I asked a few passengers, if they’d had to wait long and all said, they’d read the timetable and arrived accordingly.
- The usual accessories like dogs, buggies and baggage were carried by a proportion of passengers.
- Two station staff said passengers were only complaining about the frequency.
It appears to me, that Off Peak journeys on the route will be adequate if not as frequent as passengers want.
I have the following observations for the single Peak journey at 07:33 this morning.
- Nearly all seats were taken for the whole route.
- Dwell times were slowed at certain stations, due to the numbers wanting to enter and alight.
- All standees had a decent hand-hold.
- Some passengers were still doing short trips of one or two stops.
- Blackhorse Road with its connection to the Victoria Line was busy.
- A staff member told me, that it all gets less busy after eight o’clock.
I should also say, that one passenger was complaining hard, as he had to stand for his short journey from Crouch Hill to Gospel Oak. But then he was dressed like he would pay for a First Class seat.
On arrival at Gospel Oak, I took a North London Line train to Hampstead Heath and that was carrying more passengers per car.. This added a perspective to the trip.
But then, in my part of London, at times, there are more overcrowded trains that I use regularly.
- The Central, Victoria and Northern Lines on the Underground.
- The North and East London Lines of the Overground.
- The Northern City Line into Moorgate station.
Today’s Peak trip was no worse, than some I’ve experienced in the North of England.
Conclusion
The three gallant Class 378 trains are coping well and if they don’t suffer any failures, I suspect they can hold the line, until reinforcements arrive.
My trip today, illustrated the strengths of the train design as a large number of passengers were transported in a half-hour journey across North London.
Bombardier must also be pleased that it is three of their ten year-old-trains, that have been quickly reconfigured and have made up for their software shortcomings, that are causing late delivery of the Class 710 trains.
The Anonymous Widower 