Are Scotrail Going To Replace The Inter7City Trains With Hydrogen-Powered Trains?
This article in The Times is entitled The Caley Is Ready To Roll With New Venture Building Trains.
I feel that this is one of the most significant paragraphs in the article.
ScotRail has indicated that it wants to replace nearly two thirds of its fleet with new, low-carbon rolling stock between 2027 and 2035, comprising about 675 carriages in total, with an initial core order of 64 four and five-car units. A spokesman confirmed: “We are working on a business case that will go to the Scottish government for the procurement of a new suburban train fleet.”
The current Scotrail fleet includes.
- 25 Inter7City trains which comprise 52 Class 43 power cars and 120 Mark 3 carriages – Diesel – 120 cars – 1975
- 5 Class 153 trains – Diesel – 5 cars – 1987
- 42 Class 156 trains – Diesel – 84 cars – 1987
- 40 Class 158 trains – Diesel – 80 cars – 1987
- 30 Class 170 trains – Diesel – 90 cars – 1998
- 21 Class 318 trains – Electric – 63 cars – 1985
- 34 Class 320 trains – Electric – 66 cars – 1990
- 40 Class 334 trains – Electric – 120 cars – 1999
- 38 Class 380 trains – Electric – 140 cars – 2009
- 70 Class 385 trains – Electric – 234 cars – 2015
Note the last three fields are the traction type, total number of cars and the build year of the first train.
I will split these trains into four groups.
- Inter7City – Diesel – 25 trains – 120 cars
- BR Diesel – Diesel – 117 trains – 259 cars
- BR Electric – Electric – 55 trains – 129 cars
- Modern Electric – Electric – 148 trains – 494 cars
Note.
- This is a grand total of 345 trains and 1002 cars.
- Ignoring the modern electric trains and the total is 197 trains and 508 cars.
- The total for diesel trains is 142 trains and 359 cars.
- As Great Western Railway have withdrawn their similar GWR Castles, there must be reasons for Scotrail to do the same.
I will now look at replacement strategies, based on this statement from Scotrail.
ScotRail has indicated that it wants to replace nearly two thirds of its fleet with new, low-carbon rolling stock between 2027 and 2035, comprising about 675 carriages in total, with an initial core order of 64 four and five-car units.
I would expect 675 carriages would be about 232 trains, if the current average train length of just under three cars is carried over.
The Effect Of 675 New Carriages
Assuming that no modern electric trains were replaced, this would create a fleet size of at least 1169 carriages.
This would be a sixteen percent increase in carriages, which would be welcome news for some rail users.
The Initial Core Order Of 64 Four And Five-Car Units
All we know of this order, is the number of trains and that they will be new and low-carbon, according to indications from Scotrail.
Low-carbon would mean one of these traction options.
- Electric trains with full electrification.
- Battery-electric trains with partial-electrification.
- Hydrogen-powered trains.
Note.
- The heritage Taliban would object violently to full electrification of some historic routes.
- UNESCO would probably remove the World Heritable Site status to the Forth Bridge if it were to be electrified.
- Scotland is developing a hydrogen infrastructure.
- Hydrogen-powered trains have long ranges in the order of a thousand kilometres.
- Hydrogen-powered trains are essentially electric trains with a hydrogen fuel-cell to provide electricity as needed.
- Hydrogen-powered trains would need very little new infrastructure, except for a network of refuelling points across Scotland.
- Well-designed battery-electric and hydrogen-electric trains, should be very quiet and comfortable for passengers.
As an engineer, I would choose hydrogen-power for the initial core order.
Where would the initial core order be deployed?
Twenty-five would be used to replace the carbon-emitting elderly Inter7City trains.
These routes could probably handle the other forty.
- Aberdeen and Inverness
- Edinburgh/Glasgow and Aberdeen.
- Edinburgh/Glasgow and Inverness.
- Glasgow and South Western Line
- West Highland Line.
Note.
- A lot of diesel trains would be retired.
- Trains could be designed, for tourists with proper cycle spaces.
- The West Highland Line would get the five-car trains it needs.
This would be a good start.
Conclusion
It looks to me, that the Inter7City trains will be going and will be replaced by new trains.
But will Scotland take the great leap forward and power the new trains by Scottish hydrogen?
The Anonymous Widower 
West Highland is pushing for swiss style scenic carriages.
4 and 5 car units don’t work due to platform lengths, I think a lot are 6 but some are going 7. They also split and join a lot at Crianlarich. And the number of trains you can run is limited by the single track into which a freight or two has to go and at least one freight is longer than all the passing loops so the DMUs go in the loop whilst the freight passes.
so 2 car units with end gangways are best.
Comment by chilterntrev | May 14, 2024 |
Meridian units off EMR will go to Scotland to replace the HSTs.
They also have a couple of 769 bimodes ex GWR doing trials which if successful would give them plenty of options for services with under wire running.
Scottish Govt are short of cash and need to sort out the Health & Education mess first so future electrification projects are falling down the list so hydrogen would be sensible way ahead.
Comment by Nicholas Lewis | May 14, 2024 |
I have a lot of Scottish friends, including a Glaswegian who has worked for a long time in transport.
They despair of what the SNP/Greens have been doing.
The NHS ans education needs fixing first!
Comment by AnonW | May 15, 2024 |
https://anonw.com/2024/05/14/orsted-simply-blue-subsea7-submit-application-for-100-mw-scottish-floating-wind-farm/
In this post, I show that Scotland will have so much energy and one of the few things, they can do with it is turn it into hydrogen.
So why not use some of it, to decarbonise Scottish trains?
Comment by AnonW | May 15, 2024 |
Too much of the money is being pushed into Teeside hydrogen scheme and not enough into Scotland which as you say has plenty of spare wind now. Indeed i saw yesterday that the ESO spent 1Billion pounds in 2023 turning on gas plants in England and turning off windmills in Scotland. That won’t change until teh Eastern Link DC schemes are commissioned so that is energy that could have been used to make thousands of tonnes of hydrogen and this is what the Scottish govt should be pushing.
Comment by nickrl | May 15, 2024
The Scottish gov has just announced new procurement to replace the 125s. “Further details on this announcement will be shared when the contract notice is published in the coming weeks.” https://www.transport.gov.scot/news/scotland-to-get-new-intercity-fleet/
The original plan was for all the routes the 125s run on to be electrified, but their plans have been shafted by the cancellation of HS2, which in turn cut the amount of money Scotland gets under the Barnett formula. If the new UK government increases rail spending, at least some of that may lead to an increase in Scotland’s allocation. We will see.
Comment by Peter Robins | September 3, 2024 |