Liverpool Lime Street And Newcastle By Battery-Electric Class 802 Train
After my visit to Morley station, which I wrote about in Morley Station – 17th August 2023, in this post, I look at how a battery-electric Class 802 train might run between Liverpool Lime Street And Newcastle stations.
These are the various sections of the route.
- Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Victoria – 31.6 miles – 36 minutes – Electrified
- Manchester Victoria and Huddersfield – 25.7 miles – 30 minutes – Not Electrified
- Huddersfield and Dewsbury – 8 miles – 7 minutes – Currently Being Electrified
- Dewsbury and Leeds – 9.1 miles – 14 minutes – Not Electrified
- Leeds and York – 25.8 miles – 30 minutes – Currently Being Electrified
- York and Newcastle – 80.2 miles – 58 minutes – Electrified
Note.
- Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Victoria, Leeds and York and York and Newcastle are all long enough to fully charge a battery-electric train.
- There is electrification of both ends of the route.
- Manchester Victoria and York is a distance of 68.6 miles.
- The total route length is a distance of 180.4 miles.
In the August 2023 Edition of Modern Railways, there is an article, which is entitled GWR Seeks Opportunities To Grow.
This is the sub-heading.
Managing Director Mark Hopwood tells Philip Sherratt there is plenty of potential to increase rail’s economic contribution.
This is a paragraph.
Meanwhile, GWR had announced plans with Eversholt Rail to trial the replacement of a diesel generator unit with batteries on a Class 802 IET. However, Mr. Hopwood says this would not be useful for GWR and so the trial is not proceeding; instead, a TransPennine Express Class 802 will be the subject of a battery trial.
Could the trial be conducted on TransPennine Express’s Liverpool Lime Street And Newcastle route?
- The total route length is a distance of 180.4 miles.
- The two electrified sections at the ends of the route; Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Victoria and York and Newcastle are both long enough to fully charge a battery-electric train.
- The central section between Manchester Victoria and York is not overly long at 68.6 miles.
- The route is convenient for Hitachi’s headquarters at Newton Aycliffe.
It looks like, the Liverpool Lime Street And Newcastle route would make an ideal test route for battery-electric Class 802 trains.
Manchester Piccadilly And Newcastle By Battery-Electric Class 802 Train
This is a very similar route to the Liverpool Lime Street And Newcastle route with a different Western terminal.
These are the various sections of the route.
- Manchester Piccadilly and Huddersfield – 25.5 miles – 42 minutes – Not Electrified
- Huddersfield and Dewsbury – 8 miles – 10 minutes – Currently Being Electrified
- Dewsbury and Leeds – 9.1 miles – 14 minutes – Not Electrified
- Leeds and York – 25.8 miles – 30 minutes – Currently Being Electrified
- York and Newcastle – 80.2 miles – 58 minutes – Electrified
Note.
- Turnround time at Manchester Piccadilly and York and Newcastle are all long enough to fully charge a battery-electric train.
- There is electrification of both ends of the route.
- Manchester Piccadilly and York is a distance of 68.4 miles.
- The total route length is a distance of 148.5 miles.
Like the Liverpool Lime Street And Newcastle route, I believe the Manchester Piccadilly And Newcastle route would make an ideal test route for battery-electric Class 802 trains.
Morley Station – 17th August 2023
These pictures show Morley station, which is currently being upgraded.
I was rather surprised at the lack of any sign of electrification.
There was no sign of any gantries for overhead electrification, either installed or ready to installed.
In Is There Going To Be Full Electrification Between Leeds And Huddersfield?, I said this.
I have now found this document on the Network Rail web site, which is entitled Huddersfield to Westtown (Dewsbury).
This statement is included under proposals.
Electrification of the railway from Huddersfield to Ravensthorpe – and right through to Leeds.
Because there is a dash in the words, has electrification to Leeds, been a recent addition?
I also showed this map, that I have copied from the Network Rail document
Note the railway lines shown in red. Are these the ones to be electrified? As they go from Huddersfield to Westtown, I think the answer is probably in the affirmative.
Surely, if there were going to be electrification through Morley, they’d have at least put the gantries up by now or installed the bases for them by now?
These are some distances from Real Time Trains.
- Leeds and Morley – 4.6 miles
- Morley and Dewsbury – 5,5 miles
- Dewsbury and Huddersfield 8 miles
Note.
- Leeds and Dewsbury are only 10.1 miles apart, which would be an easy journey for a battery-electric train.
- Trains typically take eighteen minutes between Dewsbury and Huddersfield, which would surely be more than enough time to charge the batteries on a train.
- It also appears that the only trains through Morley station are passenger services run by TransPennine Express or Northern Trains.
It certainly looks to me, that the section of the route between Dewsbury and Leeds though Morley station is to be run using battery-electric trains.
New Livery On An InterCity 225
I took these pictures of an InterCity 225 at Doncaster station.
They scrub up well for a train that entered service in 1989.
The Anonymous Widower 