Meet Coventry’s Battery Boffin Taking On Tesla
This is the title on an article in the Business section of The Sunday Times.
Read it, but if you can’t here’s a quick summary.
- Professor David Greenwood at the Warwick Manufacturing Group is developing a battery for Jaguar and Land Rover.
- Plans are afoot to build a massive battery factory in Coventry.
- Greenwood and his team are working to give the Nissan Leaf more range and a more affordable battery.
I don’t believe that the team in Coventry are the only group in the world with similar aims.
Note that in How Big Would The Batteries Need To Be On A Train For Regenerative Braking?, I reckoned that one battery from a Nissan Leaf could handle the regenerative braking energy of a four-car Class 710 train, running between Gospel Oak and Barking.
We are approaching the era of battery transportation at a fast pace.
Threat Of UK Tax Cut Staves Off Hostile EU
This is the headline on an article in the Sunday Times, which suggests that the UK may cut corporate tax rates from 20% to 10% unless the EU grants the UK access to the single market.
I don’t know whether it is speculation on the paper’s part, but it does illustrate how Brexit means that it removes a whole set of rules from the UK Government.
It is an interesting suggestion!
I think it could have these effects.
- Companies like Apple, Starbucks, Google and Amazon would look at the UK favourably.
- If a company was spending fortunes on research, the UK would probably be more attractive, as if say they developed a world-beating drug, they wouldn’t pay as much tax on the large profits.
But I never heard it mentioned in the Referendum.
It probably shows how our politicians all think inside boxes and that those in Europe do even more so!
Timetable Updates At West Ealing
I’ve just been looking at the National Rail Journey Planner, and it appears that starting from January 9th 2016, to get between Greenford and Paddington, you’ll need to change at West Ealing station.
So this means that Platform 5 at West Ealing station will be opening after Christmas and the New Year.
But it also appears that the frequency of the shuttle on the Greenford Branch is still two trains per hour (tph).
This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the layout of lines at West Ealing station.
Note the track to the new bay Platform 5, shown as a dotted line.
But note that if a train uses the bay platform, the track layout does not allow it to return to Greenford on the correct left-hand line as there is no cross-over.
This means that if two trains are working the shuttle, there is no way they could pass and it restricts the shuttle to 2 tph.
To get to the promised 4 tph, a cross-over needs to be installed.
As the current bridge at West Ealing station, is one of the worst disabled-unfriendly horrors in London, I suspect that until there is a decent bridge across the line, the shuttle will be restricted to 2 tph.
I think the only way, that they could start a 4 tph shuttle earlier, that wouldn’t cause problems will be, if the bridge is one that has already been assembled off-site and it will be lifted in during a convenient blockade.
The Evil Devices In Our Midst
I recommend that my readers, if there are any out there, read this article on the BBC, which is entitled ‘Smart’ home devices used as weapons in website attack.
It would appear that last Friday, that a company called Dyn suffered a denial of service attack. The attack and its effects is described in on Wikipedia.
The reasons behind the attack are still not clear and it could be in support for Wikileaks or in my mind just to prove it can be done.
But I doubt it will have any repercussions for the average John and Jenny, unless they want to buy something on eBay say!
To me, as someone who believes that in his day, he was a world-class programmer, I think that we haven’t seen anything like the end of evil minds working their wicked spells on the Internet.
Suppose you use an App to access your bank account or pay for your taxi on your phone.
How long before you’re sitting in a coffee shop, library or railway station, happily surfing the Internet and a message comes up on your phone, asking you to download the latest Taxi App say? Except that it won’t be!
You innocently download it and within minutes your bank account has been emptied or your credit card has been maxed out.
For that reason, I and other programmers I’ve spoken to, will never load an App that needs any financial information to my phone.
Any web site with your financial information, should only be accessed from a totally private connection.
We cannot be too careful.
When I started to use my American Express card for contactless payments, I noticed some strange payments without any recognisable name on my statement.
So I challenged them with Amex and they refunded them.
But they kept coming, until I realised that they were for a branch of a well-known store that had setup its tills wrongly.
In all this, Amex had been puzzled too and one of their security experts had talked to me. He told me that the level of fraud on contactless cards was less than they had expected, something which seems to have been confirmed by the lack of hard stories of fraud on contactless cards.
A policeman told me, that the limit of thirty pounds is not enough for the average card criminal, who like to deal in thirty thousand pounds a hit.
He also felt that as many contactless transactions are on CCTV, that intelligent criminals think they could be a Get Into Jail Quickly card.
As other more reliable payment methods like face recognition become more common, I feel that in the future, there will be no need to store any financial details on your phone, that can be hacked.
But until that happens, there will be no obvious financial details on my phone.
Certain details like passport number are hidden in the phone, in case of loss abroard.
Walloonacy
In Brexit – Signalling Implications For The UK, I quoted this from an article on Rail Engineer.
The endless committees to discuss and agree how the standards will be implemented do not get in the way. Whilst not suitable for main line usage (at least in the foreseeable future), there could be suburban routes around cities (for example Merseyrail) that could benefit from CBTC deployment.
So when I read articles like this one on the BBC, which is entitled Ceta talks: EU vows to unblock Canada trade deal, I do wonder if the EU has got its decision-making right.
Allowing the Walloons to block the trade deal with Canada, is a bit like giving a handful of MPs, the right to block new standards on the making of sausages.
When we leave, which is something I don’t want, the EU must surely reform itself to make it a more efficient and sensible organisation.
After One Tunnel Finishes In London, Another One Starts
Crossrail’s massive tunnel under London is now in the fitting out stage and some of the capitals human moles, are probably now working on the Thames Tideway Scheme to create a super sewer under London.
But according to this article in Global Rail News, others have moved on to Kennington and have started to dig their way to Battersea for the Northern Line Extension.
This though is one of London’s traditional smaller-bore tube tunnels and the tunnellers are stating in a traditional way. This is said.
The article also has this map of the line.
Although TBMs will be used to construct much of the extension, tracked excavators supplied by Schaeff are being used initially to excavate the tunnels around the Kennington loop, where the new line meets the existing railway.
This map from carto.metro.free.fr, shows the layout of the lines at Kennington station.
Track Layout At Kennington
Note.
- The map can’t show it, but the platforms at Kennington are on two levels.
- There is also a reversing siding between the two tracks going South.
- Charing Cross Branch trains use the loop and Bank Branch trains use the siding to reverse.
- The extension to Battersea is shown in dotted lines.
It was very good of the engineers, who extended the Northern Line in 1926, to future-proof it with a loop, that looks like it makes the extension to Battersea, easier to build!
Do On-Line Advertisers Waste Their Money?
I monitor my INR using a Coagguchek device. And very good it is too!
But how many times a week do I get an on-line advert for the device? I’ve not counted, but it must be many.
Why does on-line advertising, preach to the converted?
Google needs a better algorithm!
A Visit To Heathrow Terminal 5
The Heathrow Pod I talked about in An Innovative Scheme For A Rail Link To Glasgow Airport, just had to be seen, so when I found myself at West Drayton station and a 350 bus arrived with Heathrow Terminal 5 on the front, I just had to take it.
I got on the top deck and took these pictures, followed by others when I arrived at the Terminal.
Many of these pictures of the system were taken from the Cafe Nero on the Departures Level of Terminal 5. This cafe is a good place to meet someone, as the views are good if you have to wait.
I got a good view of the Heathrow Pod, but because of all the steel-work in the way, getting a good photo was not easy.
A few points about the Heathrow Pod.
- It appears that both carriageways of the system are bi-directional.
- The developer’s web site is here.
- The official web site is here.
- The most interesting comment was from a member of British Airways ground staff, who said that her kids always want to use it.
- BAA has a stake in the company that makes them.
- What I saw is probably a restricted system designed to be as reliable as possible.
Here’s a video
Watching the video and reading about the pods, I suspect they are best described as self-driving cars, that run on a restricted network of roads, which are described as guideways.
But the most interesting snippet is this from the developer’s web site, about a proposal for a new PRT system at Heathrow.
In May 2013 Heathrow Airport Limited announced as part of its draft five year (2014-2019) master plan that it intended to use the PRT system to connect terminal 2 and terminal 3 to their respective business car parks. The proposal was not included in the final plan due to spending priority given to other capital projects and has been deferred.
There have been suggestions that they will extend the service throughout the airport and to nearby hotels using 400 pods.
I’ve read somewhere, that connecting to Kingston-on-Thames is in their sights.
This is perhaps not so fanciful as you think. Look at this Google Map of the Western end of Runway 09L at Heathrow Airport.
The Western End Of Runway 09L At Heathrow
If you can’t quite distinguish the Heathrow Pod, which is the narrow line snaking its way across in front of the runway, here’s an enlarged view of the Heathrow Pod on the Northern side of the runway.
The Car Park End Of The Heathrow Pod
And here’s another on the Southern side.
The Terminal 5 End Of The Heathrow Pod
The Expansion Of Heathrow Airport
Looking at these Google Maps and applying my devious mind to the Heathrow Pod, I am coming to some conclusions about the expansion of Heathrow Airport.
- Pollution caused by traffic is a big problem around Heathrow. By developing existing and future train services and an extensive Heathrow Pod system serving hotels and car parks, all cars, taxis and buses could be removed to a sensible distance from the Airport.
- In the Heathrow Hub proposal for expansion of the Airport, there is a 650 metre gap between the two portions of the Northern runway. This gap would allow the ILS for the Eastern runway to remain in place and so the approach to this runway would probably be identical to what it is now.
- I suspect the runway gap would also allow the Heathrow Pod to remain in its current place. But that would not be as tricky to move as the ILS. Or as safety-critical!
- The Heathrow Pod system has charisma in digger-buckets.
I feel that an expanded Heathrow Pod could just swing the government to back Heathrow Hub, rather than totally new runways at Heathrow or Gatwick.
The Ultimate Heathrow Pod System
After a drink, I’ve let my mind race ahead.
- Heathrow Pod stations could be placed in all hotels, car parks and train/bus stations ringing Heathrow, up to perhaps five or even ten miles away.
- Passengers who are flying out, could scan their boarding pass and passport in the pod.
- The pod would take you to the appropriate holding area for your flight.
- Or if you failed the checks to an appropriate area for further checking.
- Passengers who are flying in, would use the touch-screen terminal to tell their pod where to go.
- A quick scan of your parking ticket could take you to the station nearest to your car.
I’ve always been sceptical about driver-less cars, but these versions which are all identical running on a fixed and limited network of guide-ways could be another matter.
A Sad Footnote
The driving force behind the system would appear to be Martin Lowson.
Sadly he died in 2013.
ScotRail In Trouble
This article on Rail News is entitled Major improvement plan for struggling ScotRail. This is the first paragraph.
The ScotRail Alliance has unveiled a plan to improve performance, after managing director Phil Verster had described the task of upgrading the network while running trains day-to-day as like ‘performing open heart surgery while doing a marathon’.
After my troubles at the weekend on n Northern Rail with overcrowded trains around Blackburn, I wonder if a pattern is emerging.
Consider.
There is a lot of work going on in Scotland to electrify Glasgow to Edinburgh under the EGIP scheme.
There are delays to the electrification.
ScotRail will soon be receiving a a new fleet of Hitachi Class 385 trains.
There has been a union dispute.
Similar patterns are seen across the network, including in the following places.
- Manchester Area
- Northern England
- Southwards from London
- Thames Valley
- Valley Lines In Wales
I do wonder if the announcement of jam, milk and honey in a few years, prompts people to anticipate the new services and the passenger numbers grow, prior to the new services.
All this probably says, is that we should have a long term plan for the railways, which doesn’t get cut back, the next time government has a budget crisis.
The Anonymous Widower 