The Anonymous Widower

Regulator Approves New Grand Union Train Service From Carmarthen To London Paddington

The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from the Office of Rail and Road.

This is the sub-heading of the press release.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has opened up the Great Western Main Line to competition and enabled a significant increase in rail services between London and South Wales.

These points are made in the press release.

• The rail regulator has approved the introduction of new train services between London, Cardiff and South West Wales from the end of 2024.
• The services will be operated by a new open access operator, Grand Union Trains, bringing competition to the Great Western route out of Paddington.
• Passengers travelling between London, Bristol Parkway, Severn Tunnel Junction, Newport, Cardiff, Gowerton, Llanelli and Carmarthen will benefit from an extra five daily return services and greater choice of operator.
• The decision opens up the Great Western Main Line to competition for the first time, with potential benefits in terms of lower fares, improved service quality and innovation for all passengers using the route.
• The application, submitted to ORR in June 2022, was disputed by Network Rail due to concerns about capacity on the network. But following careful consideration and analysis, ORR has directed Network Rail to enter into a contract with Grand Union.
• Grand Union has committed to significant investment in new trains.
• As an ‘open access’ train operator, however, it will not get paid subsidies from public funds, unlike current operators along the route.

ORR supports new open access where it delivers competition for the benefit of passengers. In making this decision, the regulator has weighed this up against the impact on Government funds and effect on other users of the railway, both passengers and freight customers.

These are my thoughts.

The Company

Grand Union Trains have certainly persevered to get this approval.

• The company was created by Ian Yeowart, who previously created open access operators; Alliance Rail Holdings and Grand Central before selling both to Arriva.
• After multiple negotiations with the Office of Road and Rail (ORR), Yeowart must know how to get an acceptable deal.
• Grand Union Trains have a similar application for a service between Euston and Stirling with the ORR.

Grand Union Trains also have a web site.

The home page has a mission statement of Railways To Our Core, with this statement underneath.

At Grand Union we are passionate about Britain’s railways. We are committed to the traditional values of providing a high-quality customer service and a comfortable journey experience at a fair price.

I’ll go with that.

The Financial Backing Of The Company

All the UK’s open access operators are well-financed either by Arriva or First Group.

The ORR would not receive any thanks, if they approved an operator, which duly went bust.

So what is the quality of the financing behind Grand Union Trains?

This article on Railway Gazette is entitled RENFE Looks At Entering UK Rail Market Through Open Access Partnership, which starts with this paragraph.

Open access passenger service developer Grand Union Trains is working with Spain’s national operator RENFE and private equity firm Serena Industrial Partners on a proposed service between London and Wales.

That is fairly clear and would surely help in the financing of Grand Union Trains.

The Route

Trains will run between Carmarthen and London Paddington, with stops at Llanelli, Gowerton, Cardiff, Newport, Severn Tunnel Junction and Bristol Parkway.

A new station at Felindre will replace Gowerton at some time in the future.

There will be five trains per day (tpd).

I have some thoughts and questions about the route

Felindre Station

Felindre station is named in Wikipedia as the West Wales Parkway station, where it is introduced like this.

West Wales Parkway is a proposed railway station north of Swansea, near to the boundaries of the neighbouring principal area of Carmarthenshire, and the villages of Felindre and Llangyfelach. The station is proposed to be situated at the former Felindre steelworks, near Junction 46 of the M4 and A48, and near Felindre Business Park and Penllergaer Business Park. The project is in the planning stages, as part of a wider Department for Transport proposal to re-open the Swansea District line to passenger traffic.

This Google Map shows where, it appears the Felindre station will be built.

Note.

1. The Felindre Business Park in the North-West corner of the map, with a Park-and-Ride.
2. The M4 running across the bottom of the map.
3. The Swansea District Line runs East-West between the motorway and the Business Park.

It looks that the new station could be located on the South side of the Business Park.

When High Speed Two Opens Will Trains Call At Old Oak Common?

When High Speed Two opens, all GWR trains will stop at Old Oak Common station for these connections.

• Chiltern for for Banbury, Bicester, High Wycombe and the West Midlands
• Elizabeth Line for Central and East London and the Thames Valley
• Heathrow Airport
• High Speed Two for Birmingham and the North
• Overground for Outer London

As Old Oak Common will be such an important interchange, I think they should.

Will The Platforms At Carmarthen Station Need Lengthening?

This Google Map shows Carmarthen station.

Note.

1. The station has two platforms.
2. There are certainly pictures of the station with an InterCity 125 in the station. There is a picture on the Wikipedia entry for Carmarthen station.

These pictures show the station.

I suspect that the station will be upgraded to accommodate Grand Union Trains.

The Trains

An article in the June 2022 Edition of Modern Railways, which is entitled Grand Union Bids For London To Carmarthen, gives these details of the trains.

• Three classes.
• 2023 start for the service.
• Cycle provision.
• Vanload freight will be carried.
• Electric trains could start between London and Cardiff by 2023.
• In 2025, trains could be nine-car bi-modes.
• South Wales-based operation and maintenance.
• 125 full-time jobs created.

It certainly seems to be a comprehensive and well-thought out plan.

I have a few thoughts on the trains.

What Make Of Trains Will Be Procured?

Consider.

• Lumo’s Class 803 trains were ordered from Hitachi in March 2019 and entered service in October 2021.
• So if they ordered their version of the Hitachi trains by the end of 2022, the trains could be in service by July/August 2025.
• It would probably be easier, if the only fast trains on the Great Western Main Line between London and South Wales were all Hitachi trains with identical performance.

But the Spanish backers of Grand Union Trains may prefer Spanish-designed trains assembled in South Wales. So would a bi-mode version of CAF’s Class 397 trains be suitable?

On the other hand, the Carmarthen and Cardiff section of the route without a reverse at Swansea is only seventy-five miles.

This Hitachi infographic shows the Hitachi Intercity Tri-Mode Battery Train.

Consider.

• Charging could be provided at Carmarthen using a short length of electrification or one of Furrer + Frey standard chargers.
• Charging would also use the electrification between London Paddington and Cardiff.
• A nine-car Class 800 or Class 802 train has five engines and a five-car train has three engines.
• The Intercity Tri-Mode Battery Train was announced in December 2022.
• In the intervening two years how far has the project progressed?
• For the last twelve months, Lumo have been running trains with an emergency battery-pack for hotel power. How are the batteries doing, whilst being ferried up and down, the East Coast Main Line?

Can Hitachi configure a train with more than one battery-pack and a number of diesel engines, that has a range of seventy-five miles? I suspect they can.

I suspect that CAF also have similar technology.

There is also a benefit to Great Western Railway (GWR).

If GWR were able to fit out their Class 802 trains in the same way, they would be able to run between Cardiff and Swansea on battery power.

• It is only 45.7 miles.
• Charging would need to be provided at Swansea.
• GWR could still run their one tpd service to Carmarthen.

It looks like both train operating companies could be able to do as Lumo does and advertise all electric services.

What Could Be The Maxmum Range Of A Hitachi Train On Batteries?

This Hitachi infographic shows the Hitachi Regional Battery Train.

Consider.

• It has a battery range of 90 km or 56 miles on the single battery.
• I would expect that by a regional train, Hitachi mean a five car Class 800 or 802 train, like those that go to Cheltenham, Lincoln or Middlesbrough.
• A five-car Hitachi Regional Battery Train would have a battery that could contain power equivalent to 280 car-miles.
• Five-car Class 800 or 802 trains have three engine positions.
• These Hitachi trains have a very sophisticated control system, which I wrote about in Do Class 800/801/802 Trains Use Batteries For Regenerative Braking?

I believe the engineers at Hyperdrive Innovation have designed the battery-packs that replace the diesel engines as simulations of the diesel engines, so they can be a direct replacement.

This would mean that battery-packs could be additive, so the following could apply to a five-car train.

• Two battery packs could have a range of 112 miles.
• Three battery packs could have a range of 168 miles.

GWR generally runs pairs of five-car trains to Swansea, which would be 90 miles without electrification.

If five-car trains with two battery packs, could be given a range of 112 miles, GWR could run an electric service to Swansea.

They could also run to Carmarthen, if Grand Union Trains would share the charger.

What ranges could be possible with nine-car trains, if one battery pack is good for 280 car-miles?

• One battery-pack, gives a range of 280/9 = 31 miles
• Two battery-packs, give a range of 2*280/9 = 62 miles
• Three battery-packs, give a range of 3*280/9 = 93 miles
• Four battery-packs, give a range of 4*280/9 = 124 miles
• Five battery-packs, give a range of 5*280/9 = 155 miles
• Six battery-packs, give a range of 6*280/9 = 187 miles
• Seven battery-packs, give a range of 7*280/9 = 218 miles

Note.

1. I have rounded figures to the nearest mile.
2. There are five cars with diesel engines in a nine-car train, which are in cars 2,3,5, 7 and 8.
3. Diesel engines are also placed under the driver cars in five-car Class 810 trains.
4. For the previous two reasons, I feel that the maximum numbers of diesel engines in a nine-car train could be a maximum of seven.
5. I have therefor assumed a maximum of seven battery packs.

These distances seem sensational, but when you consider that Stradler’s Flirt Akku has demonstrated a battery range of 243 kilometres or 150 miles, I don’t think they are out of order.

But, if they are correct, then the ramifications are enormous.

• Large numbers of routes could become electric without any infrastructure works.
• Grand Union Trains would be able to run to Carmarthen and back without a charger at Carmarthen. 
• GWR would be able to run to Swansea and back without a charger at Swansea.

Prudence may mean strategic chargers are installed.

Rrenewable Energy Developments In South West Wales

In Enter The Dragon, I talked about renewable energy developments in South West Wales.

I used information from this article on the Engineer, which is entitled Unlocking The Renewables Potential Of The Celtic Sea.

The article on the Engineer finishes with this conclusion.

For now, Wales may be lagging slightly behind its Celtic cousin to the north, but if the true potential of the Celtic Sea can be unleashed – FLOW, tidal stream, lagoon and wave – it looks set to play an even more prominent role in the net zero pursuit.

The Red Dragon is entering the battle to replace Vlad the Mad’s tainted energy.

South West Wales could see a massive renewable energy boom.

Grand Union Trains will increase the capacity to bring in more workers to support the developments from South Wales and Bristol.

 

 

 

December 3, 2022 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Arriva, CAF, Carmarthen Station, Celtic Sea, Class 397 Train, East Coast Trains - Lumo, Elizabeth Line, Felindre Station, First Group, Furrer + Frey, Grand Union Trains, Great Western Main Line, Great Western Railway, Heathrow Airport, High Speed Two, Hitachi, Hitachi Intercity Tri-Mode Battery Train, Hitachi Regional Battery Train, Office Of Rail And Road, Old Oak Common Station, Open Access Operators, Paddington Station, RENFE, Serena Industrial Partners, South Wales Main Line, Stadler FLIRT Akku, Wales