Now ASLEF Joins In!
I take the headline from this article on Rail News, which is entitled Southern dispute: now ASLEF joins in.
This Southern dispute and the related one in Scotland, appear that they may continue until 2017 at least.
I used to travel up to London in the 1990s with a driver-supervisor on the Central Line. We would discuss various technical subjects and the questions of efficient operation of trains and driver only operation came up.
Nothing he said, ever gave me any hint that driver only operation was anything but totally safe, if you have good communication with those on the platform. In fact, he did give the impression, that when problems did occur, it was because communication between driver and platform staff failed. I can remember him saying that with trainees, he always impressed on them, the dangers of not checking properly before starting when platforms are long and curved, as at Bank.
My view as someone, who has seen a lot of industrial automation at work in factories and industrial plants, is that the safest way to drive a train, is let the computer do the driving and the train driver should monitor what is happening.
Effectively, that is what has happened on the Victoria Line since 1967.
It’s about time that the UK’s trains joined the twentieth century, instead of clinging to the nineteenth.
Katrina Pierson
Katrina Pierson is Trump’s spokeswoman.
This article on The Intercept, which is entitled Donald Trump’s Spokeswman says a lot of things that are not true, gives more idea about her competence and how she does her job.
The article starts with these two paragraphs.
Let this news, and the fact that it is news, sink in: Katrina Pierson, the former Tea Party activist who is now Donald Trump’s national spokeswoman, admitted on Wednesday that Barack Obama was not the president of the United States in 2004.
The reason it was considered necessary to extract this concession to reality from Pierson is that she had insisted, during an interview with CNN the night before, that President Obama was responsible for the death of Capt. Humayun Khan, an American soldier who was killed in Iraq five years before he became commander-in-chief.
She obviously didn’t get the job with Trump because of her brains and scientific correctness.
Perhaps, as she came from The Tea Party, she should go back to what she does best and serve tea in the Texan equivalent of Betty’s.
Improving Services To Lincoln
Lincoln is one of those places, where, companies have promised better train services for years and they’ve never appeared.
The Wikipedia entry for Lincoln station under Future Services reads like a catalogue of broken promises and very little progress.
I think that it is time to think out of the box to provide a better service for the City.
Sorting Out Newark
Newark is an important interchange to get good services to and from Lincoln.
Because of the notorious Newark Flat Crossing, the railways around the town need improving.
Currently there are two fast trains to and between Lincoln and London a day in both directions, an hourly service to Newark and various other random services.
To make matters worse, the change at Newark Northgate station is often fifteen minutes or so.
These pictures were taken as I changed trains at the station for Lincoln on a fine day.
Is an hourly single coach Class 153 train between Lincoln and Newark Northgate an adequate service?
There are other services to Newark Castle station, but the two stations are separated by the notorious flat junction at Newark, which slows services on the East Coast Main Line.
I think in a well-thought out solution, the following will be achieved.
- Trains on the Nottingham to Lincoln Line will pass Newark without inconveniencing trains on the East Coast Main Line, possibly by means of a flyover or a dive-under.
- These trains would ideally call at both Newark stations.
- Hopefully lifts and stairs will make the changebetween the two lines step-free.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a very unconventional solution to the problem.
Newark Northgate station could be closed and a flyover could take the Nottingham to Lincoln Line over the East Coast Main Line to the North of the town, where a new out-of-town station could be built, which had platforms on all lines and they were connected by lifts. I have called this arrangement A Four-Poster Station in the past.
The new station could also be a transport hub, with lots of car parking.
I changed twice at Newark Northgate today and in both instances I waited nearly fifteen minutes.
So why not just build a simple single-track flyover or dive-under and provide a comfortable electric shuttle bus between Northgate and Castle stations, that meets all trains and does the journey in less time, than the current wait?
Remember that Castle station is closer to the town centre.
It would be a cheaper flyover and the money saved might purchase some bigger new trains.
The service from Nottingham could even be run by tram-trains or like in Zwickau by diesel multiple units, which left the Nottingham to Lincoln Line at Castle station and then went walkabout in Newark.
The only certainty about the sorting of Newark, is that there are innumerable ways to do it and some could be unusual.
I doubt though, that we’ll see much improvement at Newark until after 2020.
The Great Northern And Great Eastern Joint Line
In Project Managers Having Fun In The East, I talked about hoe the Great Northern And Great Eastern Joint Line (GNGE) has been upgraded to be a valuable diversion route for freight trains travelling up and down the East Coast Main Line.
£230million has been spent to create a high-quality railway from Werrington Junction just North of Peterborough to Doncaster via Spalding, Sleaford and Lincoln.
Given the increasing traffic on the East Coast Main Line and the long wait for any relief in the shape of HS2 to Leeds, the North East and Scotland, I think we will see further development of the GNGE.
- I reported in To Dive Or Fly At Werrington, how plans are ongoing to improve the Southern connection of the line to the East Coast Main Line.
- The latest details on Werrington Junction are here on the Network Rail web site and talk about a 2020 completion.
- Could a new Lincoln Avoiding Line be built, so that freight trains avoid going through Lincoln Central station and the level crossings?
- The GNGE has lots of closed stations and some have been reopened in the last few years. Could more be reopened?
All these developments lead me to the conclusion, that there will be improved passenger services on the Peterborough to Doncaster route via Lincoln.
As the GNGE is now a high-class modern route, the single coach Class 153 train will be replaced by something like a two-car Class 158 train or Class 170 train.
The speeds of the three trains are.
- Class 153 – 120 kph
- Class 158 – 140 kph
- Class 170 – 160 mph
As Inter-City 125s are released by the arrival of new Class 800 trains, could we even see shortened versions running between Kings Cross and Yorkshire via Peterborough, Lincoln and Doncaster? These magnificent trains certainly perform well on secondary routes, as anybody, who has ridden in the cab between Edinburgh and Inversion can testify.
I wonder what times a well-driven Class 170 train could achieve. Currently Peterborough to Lincoln takes eighty minutes and Lincoln to Doncaster takes two hours.
I estimate that a Class 170 train could do the journey between Lincoln and Peterborough in about an hour, which is about the fastest time that can be achieved changing at Newark.
An estimate for the time between Lincoln and Doncaster could be about ninety minutes.
All of this speed improvement could probably be obtained without any major infrastructure improvements, but updating Werrington Junction and creating a new Lincoln Avoiding Line would improve things further.
Faster connections to Doncaster and Peterborough would bring various benefits.
- At Doncaster, it would give access to the East Coast Main Line services to the North East and Scotland.
- From 2018, at Doncaster, it would give access to the the improved TransPennine services to Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Manchester Airport.
- At Peterborough, it would give access to services to London, East Anglia and the South Midlands.
- From 2018, at Peterborough, there will be a connection to Thameslink, to take passengers all over London and the South East.
Surely these connections will benefit Lincoln most, but a fast service to Peterborough would also do something to improve connectivity at places like Sleaford and Spalding.
I suspect that when the new East Midlands Franchise is announced next year or when suitable trains are procured, we will see significant speed, frequency and comfort improvements on this route.
Reinstating The Complete Great Northern And Great Eastern Joint Line
With the next East Anglian Franchise, it is rumoured that there will be a marked improvement in train services in the region with new and refurbished trains everywhere, running many more services.
One possibility, is that the Bramley Line to Wisbech will be served by passenger trains, as a network of local services are improved and created around Cambridge with expansion and development needs and its soon-to-be-two stations.
I think that the possibility exists that the line between March and Sleaford might be reinstated to give freight trains to and from Felixstowe, direct access to the GNGE to get to Doncaster, avoiding Peterborough and the East Coast Main Line South of Yorkshire.
If you look at Google Maps, then the old rail line is clearly visible for most of the way between March and Sleaford. However, Whitemoor Prison has been build over the route.
If this Southern part of the GNGE were to be reinstated, could we see passenger services between Cambridge and Lincoln?
I think we would, as the engine of growth that is Cambridge, would then be directly connected by train to all the cities and larger towns of East Anglia and Lincolnshire.
I should say, that just as London dominates the South East, I believe that Cambridge with all its skills, ambition and success will dominate the East of England.
Lincoln to Cambridge could be about ninety minutes using a fully developed GNGE, as opposed to two hours now.
Conclusions
I have come to the following occlusions.
- The record of train companies in getting more direct services to Lincoln says a lot and I’d be very surprised if Lincoln sees more direct services to London.
- Newark is a basket case and sorting it will be difficult and probably expensive
- The best bet for improved services is to put faster trains on the upgraded Great Northern And Great Eastern Joint Line between Peterborough and Doncaster, which could mean Peterborough in an hour and Doncaster in ninety minutes from Lincoln.
- The trains for this should be available in 2018.
In the long term, I can see benefits in connecting March and Sleaford.
Ironically, the GNGE was built to bring coal to East Anglia from Yorkshire and it could be used to bring freight between Felixstowe and the North, in an efficient ,manner.
The Victorians seem to have got the route of the GNGE correct.
Just as they did the Varsity Line and the Borders Railway.
Lincoln’s Tower Bridge
I took these pictures of the new bridge over the railway by one of Lincoln’s notorious level crossings.
Note.
- The bridge may mean that pedestrians can get across easily when the level crossing is closed, but it doesn’t do anything for the vehicles.
- One of the reasons for the height, is to clear the wires, if the line should be electrified.
- This article in Rail Engineer describes how it was built.
- Reportedly, the bridge is the first part of a £12million scheme, which includes a second bridge over another nearby level crossing.
It’s certainly a striking footbridge.
A High Speed Brew
I took this picture, as my train to Newark for Lincoln was somewhere around New |Southgate. We were just twelve minutes out of Kings Cross
A High Speed Brew
The steward had served it almost before we moved off at Kings Cross, with a very full train of passengers.
Liverpool Goes For Gold
This report on the BBC is entitled Commonwealth Games 2026: Liverpool plans to be host city.
Why not?
The only major World or European event it has hosted was the 2008 European Capital of Culture.
But with the Grand National and regular Open Golf just up the coast or across the water, the City has the track record to put on a spectacular.
As the BBC report says, Everton need a new stadium and that could be the main stadium. After all, it worked for Manchester City.
My one question would be, do we need another velodrome, or would borrowing Manchester’s be acceptable?
But in some ways, Liverpool has the same big advantage that London had in the 2012 Olympics.
It can use the City as a backdrop to the events.
I actually, think that 2026 could be Liverpool’s year! I don’t think they were favourites in 2008 either.
- Liverpool is England’s only World City other than London and Cambridge.
- By 2026, the city’s railways will have been revamped with lots of new trains.
- Everton need a new ground.
- If Liverpool puts on a show, people turn up in hoards.
- Liverpool is a day trip from Birmingham, London, York and everywhere in between.
Never underestimate a Scouser when they’re considered outsiders.
Enthusiasm For Class 345 Trains
I have read several articles on the new Class 345 trains for Crossrail.
This article from Railway Technology Magazine, which is entitled There has never been a ‘better designed’ train than Crossrail, is particularly enthusiastic.
This is said.
There has never been a train “better prepared or better designed” in the UK than theCrossrail train, London Underground’s managing director Mark Wild told RTM at a visit to Bombardier’s testing facility in Derby.
Speaking to RTM after the first Crossrail train, Class 345, was unveiled and taken for a ride across the Bombardier test track for the first time, Wild sang the many praises of the state-of-the-art vehicle, calling it a “world-class train” for passengers.
“It’s a sensational train. I’m so pleased to see it – it’s so exciting,” he said. “I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with other train procurements in my career and this is definitely the best. This will be a big success – obviously it has to be tested thoroughly, but it is already looks great.”
But of course the proof of the train, will be in the riding.
I can’t wait, until May 2017, when they will start running between Liverpool Street and Shenfield.
I think that Bombardier, Crossrail and TfL are handling the introduction of the trains into service in a way, that means they can handle any teething troubles.
Consider.
- Liverpool Street to Shenfield is a self-contained line.
- By the end of this year, Liverpool Street to Shenfield will have had the extended platforms completed and the power systems upgraded for Crossrail.
- Bombardier have a facility for servicing trains at Ilford, so the testing will be on their door-step.
Bombardier are also introducing the trains as seven cars, as the platforms at Liverpool Street are too short. But after their lengthening of the Class 378 trains on the Overground, this process probably has no fears for the company.
It will also mean, that when the platforms are lengthened, this can be done at a time, when all the trains are going through the central tunnel.
But to me, the platform lengthening at Liverpool Street has more to it.
The Services section for Crossrail in Wikipedia is saying that only four trains to Gidea Park in the Peak will use Liverpool Street.
Lengthening the platforms for just four trains does seem a lot of work just to allow the standard trains to enter Liverpool Street.
Obviously, if there is a problem like a broken-down train in the tunnel, the ability to use Liverpool Street station as an alternative destination will be valuable.
Or could it be that there are other plans to perhaps run Crossrail trains to Southend Victoria?
I feel the latter would make a lot of sense.
- The Southend Victoria route, gets much needed new trains.
- Southend Airport gets a premium service.
- The use of the upgraded Crossrail route is increased.
- These trains could perhaps just stop at Stratford, Ilford, Romford, Gidea Park and Shenfield.
- They could be mechanically and electrically identical to the Crossrail trains, but with a more appropriate interiror.
This is only the same as is happening on the Western Branch, where other services are using Crossrail’s tracks to go to Paddington.
Crossrail is going to be a lot bigger than a cross-London railway called the Elizabeth Line.
My Favourite Gadgets
The pictures show some of my favourite gadgets, many of which can be classed as engineering pornography.
They may seem a rather odd collection, but I like to think the design is good, even if some of the gadgets are just a few pounds.
Every Local Politician Should Read This
I have never seen such a powerful argument for improving local transport links and especially trains than this article in the National.
It is written by a train driver turned local politician and he is talked about Glasgow.
But his arguments can be applied to any city in the world.
Read the article.
The Anonymous Widower 