Budget 2021: Rishi Sunak Defends Lowering Domestic Air Duty
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
These are the first two paragraphs.
The chancellor has said his Budget – including tax cuts to air tax – will help the government meet its net zero carbon targets.
Rishi Sunak used his Budget to slash taxes on domestic flights, which is forecast to lead to 400,000 extra air journeys a year.
I think he could have gone further.
It is my belief that the first area of aviation to decarbonise will be the short-haul sector.
We are seeing electric aircraft being developed like the Cessna Electric Caravan, Eviation Alice and Project Fresson.
Perhaps, domestic flights in true zero-carbon aircraft like these should be free of Air Passenger Duty?
It might even speed their introduction.
Waterloo & City line To Operate All Day By The End Of November
The title of this post, is the same as this article on City AM.
Hallelujah!
Here in Hackney, it’s our best route to Waterloo, as we have several buses to Bank. I have two; the 21 and 141.
Let’s hope the Drain continues to work during the Great Blockade in the New Year, whilst the Northern Line is connected to the new tunnel at Bank.
London To Edinburgh On Lumo
Yesterday, I took the 10:45 Lumo service from King’s Cross to Edinburgh.
I took some pictures on the way.
I have split them into sepate topics.
Lumo’s Class 803 Train Arrives
Note.
- The train is in Platform 10 in the old suburban station.
- This has now been reduced to just two platforms.
- In the other platform is a Grand Central service to Bradford Interchange station.
At least it appears, that there could be space to reinstate a third platform, if it should prove necessary.
Seating On Lumo
Note.
- I didn’t get a seat with a proper window.
- The seat-back table is generously-sized.
- There is a light over the table.
- The luggage racks were well used.
- There is more than normal leg-room. My neighbour, who was taller than my 1.70 metres, also liked the leg-room.
Both of us, thought the seats were more comfortable than LNER.
I have a spine that curves outwards at the bottom and it often objects to train and car seats. But after four-and-a-half hours on Lumo, it wasn’t protesting.
York to Church Fenton Improvement Scheme
When the York To Church Fenton Improvement Scheme and the closely related Huddersfield To Westtown (Dewsbury) Upgrade are completed, the TransPennine route between Huddersfield and York will be fully-electrified.
These pictures show the electrification is underway.
York to Huddersfield will be over forty miles of electrified line, with a remaining gap of just eighteen miles to the electrification being installed between Stalybridge and Manchester Victoria.
Work At Reston Station
Reston station is being built North of Berwick-on-Tweed. I took these pictures as we passed through.
I describe the station in a post called A New Reston Station.
Arrival In Edinburgh
I took these pictures when we arrived in Edinburgh.
Note Edinburgh is not short of platforms that can take five- and ten-car trains.
These are a few other thoughts about the journey.
Non-Stop Between King’s Cross And Newcastle
It seemed to me, that a lot of passengers left the train at Newcastle.
- Times between King’s Cross And Newcastle are comparable betyween LNER and Lumo.
- Lumo is non-stop until Newcastle.
- Lumo is probably more affordable.
I can see Lumo picking up a lot of business on this leg.
Football At Newcastle
I have come across several Newcastle United season ticket holders in London.
Looking at Lumo’s full timetable, there are these two trains on a Saturday.
- A train leaves King’s Cross at 10:25 and arrives in Newcastle at 13:25.
- A train leaves Newcastle at 19:35 and arrives in King’s Cross at 22:29.
These could be ideal to see the match and get back to London.
Food
The full food service isn’t in operation yet, but we the trolley did come through twice.
Passenger Loading
Most seats were taken, as we left King’s Cross, but due to high number, who left at Newcastle, there were a few gaps as we ran between Newcastle and Edinburgh.
But then this is a shorter leg and perhaps travellers are more likely to drive.
I suspect that Lumo can’t wait to build up their service to the full five trains per day, as it does look like the demand is there.
Morpeth Station
There wasn’t many boarders and leavers at Morpeth station, but as services build up and travellers realise the system is there, will business increase?
Conclusion
I shall take another trip in the New Year, when the full service is implemented.
Michael O’Leary On Sustainable Aviation Fuel And Food Prices
This article on Hydrogen Fuel News is entitled Ryanair CEO Predicts Cost Of Hydrogen Fuel Will Spike Food Prices.
Logically, this could happen to foods with a high quantity of food miles, such as peas and beans from Kenya.
But surely we can replace these with products grown in places like the Fens.
But still O’Leary got his name in a news article, which was the purpose.
He doesn’t bother me, as I don’t fly much and there are several airlines, I use in preference to Ryanair.
I also don’t fly in Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, in which O’Leary has made a large investment.
Calcutta Cup By Lumo
According to Scottish Rugby, the Culcutta Cup between Scotland and England next year is at Murrayfield on the 5th of February 2022.
I have just looked up services that day on Lumo’s web site.
- It would be possible to travel North on the 05:45 train, which arrives in Edinburgh at 10:06.
- After the match, there is a train South at 17:56, which arrives back in London at 22:29.
- Tickets are available at £45.50 both ways.
As Lumo could probably run both services with ten-car trains, that hold eight hundred passengers, this could earn ticket revenue for Lumo of £72,800.
Ineos In Runcorn Is Key To UK Move To Hydrogen Energy
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Runcorn and Widnes World.
These are the first two paragraphs.
Thousands of buses and HGVs in the UK could soon be running on hydrogen – made in Runcorn.
The town, which already produces enough clean hydrogen to fuel 1,000 buses or 2,000 HGVs every day, is ramping up production to help reduce the amount of harmful CO₂ emissions on Britain’s roads.
The INOVYN site used to be owned by ICI in the 1960s and I used to work on the Castner-Kellner plant that electrolysed brine to produce sodium hydroxide, chlorine and hydrogen.
Hull Trains Is Back And Stronger Than Ever
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Hull Trains.
This is the first paragraph.
Timetables at Hull Trains will be back to pre-pandemic levels from December as public confidence in rail travel continues to grow.
These are other points from the press release.
- The number of returning passengers is steadily increasing.
- From December 12th, Hull Trains will be running 94 trains per week in total, which is two higher than the pre-pandemic record.
- An additional service will be run on Sunday to match the six trains per day (tpd) on Saturday.
- There will be seven tpd on weekdays. That’s not far off one train per teo hours (tp2h) all day.
Passenger numbers must be coming out from the pandemic well.
This sentence from the press release gives a clue to how Hull Trains will cope with increasing passenger numbers.
Ten-car operations will commence on Fridays and Saturdays to provide additional capacity just in time for Christmas travel and the general growing demand as we prepare to enter 2022.
I suspect by rescheduling maintenance and running all five trains in services, they can run some trains on Fridays and Saturdays as pairs.
- As Hull trains only stop at Stevenage, Grantham, Retford, Doncaster, Selby, Howden, Brough, Hull and Beverley, there aren’t many stations, that need to be able to take ten-car trains.
- I suspect a couple of platforms might need lengthening, as a ten-car train is 260 metres long. Or they could instruct passengers to only use the front train for the stations with short platforms. Or only use five-car trains to the stations with short platforms.
- But the longer trains won’t need any extra paths.
- I was also told last year, that Hull station can take nine-car trains, so perhaps it can take a ten.
So to increase capacity on the route, Hull Trains just need to add another train to their fleet.
As all costs are probably well-known, with a bit of simple modelling, Hull Trains can probably predict, when they need to add a new train.
Whilst I was looking at the Lumo train yesterday, I got talking to a driver from Hull Trains, who had come over to take a professional look at Lumo’s Class 803 train.
I asked him what he liked about Hull Trains’s Class 802 trains as a driver. He said the brakes, which is probably most important to a driver, as they’re at the sharp end, if anything happens. So that’s comforting.
He also said that some of the Hitachi trains had shown they were stable at 140 mph. So that’s good too.
On talking about the batteries on the Lumo train, I got the impression that batteries will appear on other Hitachi Trains.
Conclusion
It appears to be all trains go between London and Hull.
In Could We See Between London And Much Of The North By Train In Under Two Hours?, I looked at the effect of improvements on the East Coast Main Line and concluded that timings between London Kings Cross and Hull could be around two hours and twenty minutes. This would surely be a spur to increasing traffic on the route.
Surely, when Hull Trains use battery-electric Hitachi trains between London and Hull, this will be the icing on the marketing cake, as we seem to be coming to a point, where zero-carbon sells.
As an aside, will Lumo, who are another First Group company, use a similar mix of five- and ten-car trains on the London and Edinburgh route to increase capacity?
I suspect that what is good for Hull Trains will be good for Lumo.
HS2 Downsizes Euston Station To Save Costs
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Construction Enquirer.
The High Speed Two station at Euston will now have only ten platforms and it will be built in a single construction phase.
These are my thoughts.
Oversite Development
When completed, there will be a lot of development over the top of the new Euston station.
One way or another, this could be a nice little earner for High Speed Two,
- It will be one of the most convenient addresses in London.
- The development could be housing, offices or some innovative commercial property.
- There might even be a large indoor sports or concert arena like the O2.
But whatever gets developed on top of the station, the developer would surely prefer to be handed as large a site as possible in 2026 all in one go.
And the earlier it is handed over, the earlier High Speed Two gets paid.
I do wonder, if a large international property and entertainment group of the highest quality has made the government an offer that is far too good to refuse to build a world class venue on top of the station.
- It would be a very well-connected by public transport and most visitors could come by public transport.
- Surely, if a massive attraction was on top of the station, High Speed Two and all the railways would benefit from the rail ticket revenue.
- The Manchester Arena is over the top of Manchester Victoria station. So why not a Euston Arena?
Euston station, is a site where High Speed Two and developers must be ultra-bold to maximise the return for everyone, including those sceptics, who believe High Speed Two is a waste of money.
The View From Ian
There is an excellent post on Ian Visits which is entitled HS2 to Cut London Euston Station To Ten Platforms.
Some of the following thoughts have been suggested by reading Ian’s post.
Euston Station Must Be Able To Handle Eighteen Trains Per Hour
The main tracks of High Speed Two are being designed to handle eighteen trains per hour (tph) or a train every three minutes and twenty seconds.
The current plan is that when Phase 2 is complete, the High Speed platforms at Euston station will handle seventeen tph, which will leave one path spare for sorting out problems.
With ten High Speed platforms, that would mean that in a busy hour, each platform would handle two tph or a train every thirty minutes.
With the improvements in signalling and track and train design, I would expect that turning trains in Euston at that frequency is possible.
I suspect that High Speed Two and Network Rail have done extensive Monte-Carlo simulations to prove that ten High Speed platforms can handle the required eighteen tph.
Greater Integration Between High Speed Two And Network Rail
In Ian’s post he says this.
In the meantime, HS2 and Network Rail are working on how they can have a greater integration between HS2 and the associated upgrades of the Network Rail side of the station.
Consider.
- The Network Rail station should be able to handle a single 200 metre long Classic-Compatible train at the present time.
- Under current plans four services into the High Speed platforms at Euston station will be single 200 metre long Classic-Compatible trains.
- I wonder if it would be possible to add a crossover to allow High Speed Two trains from the North to enter the Network Rail platforms alongside the High Speed Two platforms.
- If the track layout were possible, this could effectively give High Speed Two ten High Speed platforms and one or even two emergency ones, if required in the Network Rail station.
This Google Map shows Euston station.
Note.
- The large square building is the current Euston station.
- The building site on the Western side of the station is the High Speed extension, where there will be ten platforms.
- Euston station can take 265 metre long Class 390 trains.
- Platform 1 on the East side of Euston station can take the 355 metre long Caledonian Sleeper.
There certainly would appear to be possibilities to link the two sides of the station to improve operational flexibility.
I wonder if something could be done in Birmingham to improve connectivity.
In Birmingham Airport Connectivity, I said this
But look at this map clipped from the High Speed Two web site.
Note.
- The blue dot shows the location of Curzon Street station.
The West Coast Main Line running into New Street station, is just to the South of Curzon Street station.
New Street station can be picked out to the West of Curzon Street station.
This Google Map shows a close-up of the current Curzon Street station site.
The same pattern of rail lines going past the Curzon Street site into New Street station can be picked out.
Surely, a connection could be made to allow trains from a couple of platforms in Curzon Street station to terminate trains from the West Coast Main Line.
Possible services could include.
- London Euston and Birmingham Curzon Street via Watford Junction, Milton Keynes, Rugby and Coventry
- Cardiff and Birmingham Curzon Street via Bristol Parkway, Swindon, Oxford and Milton Keynes.
- Cambridge and Birmingham Curzon Street via Bristol Parkway, Bedford and Milton Keynes.
There are a lot of possibilities to give High Speed Two much bigger coverage.
How Celiac Disease May Affect Your Risk for Gallbladder Disease
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on verywell.health.
I am posting, as I am a coeliac, who has had gallstone problems and want to be able to find the article easily in the future.
The Anonymous Widower 