The Anonymous Widower

DfT and Arriva CrossCountry Sign Agreement

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway News.

This is the introductory paragraph.

The franchisee CrossCountry, which is owned by Arriva, has signed a three-year agreement with the Department for Transport to bring the franchise in line with the Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements (ERMAs).

CrossCountry has the following trains in its fleet.

34 x Class 220 trains

24 x Class 221 trains

This gallery shows Class 220 trains and the closely related Class 222 trains, which are in service with East Midlands Railways.

Note that these three fleets of Bombadier Voyager trains are now twenty years old and will probably need a makeover soon.

If they have a problem it is that they are diesel multiple units and create a lot of noise and pollution in stations and depots.

This is said in the Railway News article.

One element of this new contract is a focus on reducing the environmental impact of the operator’s diesel fleet.

, Two separate projects are mentioned.

• Using a separate electrical supply to Turbostars during cleaning.
• Use of on-train batteries on the Voyagers in stations.

In Have Bombardier Got A Cunning Plan For Voyagers?, I gave my thoughts on the second project, when Bombardier proposed it in 2018.

I can see the following scenario happening.

• When the new Class 805 trains are delivered, Avanti West Coast’s Class 220 trains are transferred to Arriva CrossCountry.
• When the new Class 810 trains are delivered, East Midland Railway’s Class 222 trains are transferred to Arriva CrossCountry.
• CrossCountry update their Voyagers with batteries.
• CrossCountry retire their InterCity 125 trains.

CrossCountry may have enough trains to run a mainly Voyager fleet, backed up by a few Turbostars.

Could Bombardier’s Plan Be Revived In A Different Form?

If CrossCountry had all the Voyages, they would have the following fleet.

• 34 x four-car Class 220 trains – Currently with CrossCountry.
• 20 x five-car Class 221 trains – Currently with Avanti West Coast
• 20 x five-car Class 221 trains – Currently with CrossCountry
• 4 x four-car Class 221 trains – Currently with CrossCountry
• 6 x seven-car Class 222 trains – Currently with East Midlands Trains
• 17 x five-car Class 222 trains – Currently with East Midlands Trains
• 4 x four-car Class 222 trains – Currently with East Midlands Trains

This totals to eighty-five trains with a total of 285 intermediate cars, of which 128 were built with tilt for Class 221 trains.

Currently CrossCountry has a total of 58 four- and five-car Voyagers and enough Class 43 power cars for six InterCity 125 trains.

If they rearranged the non-tilting intermediate cars of the Voyagers, 157 intermediate cars is enough for one of the following.

• 78 – four-car trains
• 52 – five-car trains
• 39 – six-car trains
• 26 – eight-car trains
• 22 – nine-car trains

Add in forty five-car Class 221 trains and there is more than enough trains for CrossCountry to run their current services without the retired InterCity 125s.

CrossCountry would also be able to form the trains into the lengths they needed for efficient services.

This formation photographed at Basingstoke could be formed of a single train, if they wished, as they have more than enough coaches.

I suspect in true design engineering fashion, engineers at CrossCountry have got the toy trains or Lego bricks out to shuffle the coaches on a big table to see what are the best train lengths for their network.

If they decided to go the eight-car route, which could give up to twenty-six trains, this would be more than enough to be able to retire the InterCity 125s.

Could one of the Intermediate cars be converted into a pantograph and battery car?

• If the diesel engine and the associated gubbins were to be removed, this would save around two tonnes in weight.
• A two-tonne battery could probably have a capacity of 200 kWh.
• Bombardier probably have ideas about how a car could be converted.

Someone could have a lot of fun playing musical carriages and the following trains could be created.

• A fleet of Voyager bi-mode  trains of optimum length for CrossCountry’s route network.
• Most services would be run by single trains, which must give advantages to the operator, their staff and passengers.
• All braking would be regenerative braking to battery to save energy.
• Where electrification exists, the trains could use it.
• All station stops would be performed on battery power.

There might even be some left over driving cars and some intermediate cars to be converted into battery electric trains for another route.

Conclusion

There is a route there for CrossCountry to have a much more environmentally-friendly fleet, better suited to their needs

• The Turbostars would be given a local electricity supply to cut noise and pollution during overnight cleaning.
• The InterCity 125s would be retired.
• CrossCountry acquires as many Voyagers as it needs after Avanti West Coast and East Midlands Railway get their new trains.
• The Voyagers carriages would be shuffled so that they could handle all routes and replace the InterCity 125s.
• The design exists to convert the Voyagers into diesel-electric-battery tri-mode high speed trains.

Note.

1. There are enough trains to do a gradual conversion, with CrossCountry having enough trains for a full service at all times.
2. All trains will probably have been built this century or nearly so!

I also feel, that the fleet would be a marketing asset, rather than a bit of a discouragement to use CrossCountry’s services again.

 

 

 

October 16, 2020 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Battery-Electric Trains, Bombardier, Class 220 Train, Class 221 Train, Class 222 Train, Class 43 Power Car, CrossCountry Trains, InterCity 125, Regenerative Braking, Voyager Train