Aesthetic Problems With Overhead Wires On The Great Western
The April 2016 Edition of Modern Railways has an article entitled Thames Valley Wires Retrofit Planned. This is said.
A retrofit of overhead electrification on the section of the Great Western main line between Reading and Didcot is on the cards following complaints about the visual impact of the current design.
This are some pictures of the overhead gantries.
In my view, the design of the overhead gantries may well be better from a structural and reliability point of view, but it isn’t going to win plaudits for looking good.
Network Rail will have to do better!
Could This Be A Ground-Breaking Idea In Station Design?
This is an aerial view of the winning design proposal for Oxford station, by AHR
AHR’s Proposal For Oxford Station
It looks from the visualisation,that you have a wide covered bridge across the tracks, with a restaurant and other customer facilities on top.
I think it’s simple, but brilliant and if it gets built as designed, it will be an enormous asset to Oxford.
This Google Map shows the current station.
The Current Oxford Station
Note the white building to the north of the station on the East side, which is the Parcels Office, which is going to be turned into new platforms for Chiltern. In the new design, it looks like they are covered with car parks, with green grass roofs.
The simple concept of a wide covered bridge with a restaurant and other passenger facilities on top, has advantages.
- It turns a station into a fully-functional meeting point for the town or city.
- It could give spectacular views of some historic places.
- I suspect, that like Custom House station, it could be built in a nice clean weatherproof factory and put together like Lego.
- I feel, that it could be erected around and over a working railway without interrupting trains or passengers.
The concept would work in various places on the UK and other rail networks.
- Chelmsford – A major station on a cramped site.
- Coventry – Any poor architect couyld create something better than the current complete crap.
- Durham – Spectacular views of the Castle and Cathedral
It would also work on some of those wonderful stations, where the rail lines are squezed along the coast.
I think that AHR’s concept will be copied extensively.
Rain, Beautiful Rain!
I’m feeling so much better today and it must be the break in the weather.
My face and beard doesn’t feel so dry, my gut would score at least 9/10 and my nails feel like real ones. The muck pouring down my throat has eased too!
Strangely, my INR was 2.8 on Wednesday, 2.7 yesterday and 2.1 today. It goes up and down with the weather.
Piccadilly Line Drivers Give Heathrow Express A Helping Hand
Yesterday, as the BBC reports, the drivers on the Piccadilly Line went on strike.
My view on the tube drivers and their constant strikes, is that it is not about safety, Night Tube or whatever, but a power struggle between the drivers union and Transport for London.
At least it’ll all stop if Sadiq Khan becomes Mayor as the unions will calm things down in the hope, that they’ve got a more union-friendly Mayor.
The only winners yesterday were Heathrow and their overpriced Heathrow Express, which as most Londoner’s wouldn’t use it, except as a last resort, probably got some strong language going in the pubs and on social media.
Three Good Gluten Free Links From The Londonist
I was looking for some gluten-free teryaki sauce and found these pages in The Londonist.
- Where To Buy Gluten Free Food And Ingredients In London
- London’s Best Restaurants For Gluten Free Dining
- London Pubs That Serve Gluten Free Beer
I shall be exploring.
There’s No Football In London Today
As today would appear to be the best day for weather this Easter, I thought it might be an idea to go and see some live football.
But there’s not one match in London at all from the National League upwards!
Now Yorkshire Gets An Outbreak Of London Overground Syndrome
The April 2016 Edition of Modern Railways has an article entitled Kirkstall Forge Opening In Mid-April, which talks about the three stations in Leeds; Apperley Bridge, Kirkstall Forge and Low Moor, which are currently being built.
This is said about Apperley Bridge station.
Meanwhile, the report to the Committee stated that passenger use of Appleby Bridge station has increased more quickly than expected.
So there is another outbreak of London Overground Syndrome, where traffic on a new piece of railway is higher than was predicted.
More On Class 345 Trains
In an article in this month’s Modern Railways, which is entitled 345 Counting On It, Ian Walmsley gives more details of the new Class 345 trains for Crossrail.
Ian uses phrases like.
Let’s get this out of the way first before I start enthusing (and I will) – personally I don’t like the interior colours.
Now I will go into full enthusing mode,
The bogies are the FLEXX Eco Bogie B5000-derivative inside-frame design similar to that on the Meridian (probably the only good thing about Meridians in my view)
The bodyshell is brilliant, and I say this as a passenger and an engineer.
The train is a fine piece of work.
He finishes by saying that he thinks the train will be a success for Bombardier.
Ian also throws in a few clues as to where Aventras might end up.
The 125 mph Aventra
Apparently, 125 mph Aventras are a possibility.So we could see High Speed Trains with similar performance to an InterCity 125, based on a train originally designed for commuters across London.
The High Speed Train With Batteries
One thing that Ian doesn’t mention about the Class 345 trains is whether they will be fitted with onboard energy storage. But he does say this.
Most braking will be done electrically, regenerating power to the grid.
So the answer is probably no! But it should be noted that Bombardier have told me that all Aventras are wired to accept onboard energy storage.
This raises the interesting possibility of the High Speed Train running on batteries.
I think that this could be a surprisingly large market.
Think of the routes which consist of two types of line.
- A high speed electrified line, which permits trains to travel at 100-125 mph.
- A secondary or branch line without electrification, that is up to about forty or fifty miles long.
On a quick look, I can think of these routes.
- London Liverpool Street – Ipswich – Lowestoft
- London Liverpool Street -Norwich – Yarmouth
- London Kings Cross – Bradford
- London Kings Cross – Harrogate
- London Kings Cross – Huddersfield
- London Kings Cross – Hull
- London Kings Cross – Lincoln
- London Kings Cross – Perth
- London Kings Cross – Sheffield
- London Kings Cross – Sunderland
- London St. Pancras – Hastings – Eastbourne – Brighton
- London Euston – Blackpool
- London Euston – Chester
- London Euston – Huddersfield
- London Euston – Shrewsbury
- London Waterloo – Exeter
I am assuming that electrification is at 2016 mileage.
As electrification increases more and more routes will be possible using a High Speed Train with batteries to extend the route away from the main line.
Merseyrail
Ian mentions Merseyrail as another target.
They would appear to be a good match to Merseyrail’s specification, that I wrote about in Is Liverpool Planning To Invade Manchester By Train?
- Merseyrail are looking to buy energy-efficient trains.
- Merseyrail stated in Modern Railways that they were seriously interested in having IPEMUs.
- Merseyrail want to expend their network and routes to Preston, Manchester via Kirkby, Chester via the Halton Curve and Wrexham via the Borderlands Line are very IPEMU-friendly routes.
- Merseyrail needs trains that are certified for working in tunnels.
- Merseyrail needs trains that can work on both third-rail and overhead electrification, which the dual-voltage Class 710/2 Aventra trains for the London Overground can do.
- Ian feels the train’s low weight could be enough to avoid sub-station upgrades.
In addition, the modular nature of the Aventra design means that Merseyrail could have a mixture of train lengths and voltages to optimise their procurement and operating costs.
East Midlands Trains
Ian says this about using Aventras for East Midland trains electrics.
As a 125 mph unit it would cope well with Corby commuters and the ‘Master Cutler’ crowd. – It is all about the interior.
I think there are other factors, that could be useful, if some or all of the trains were an IPEMU variant.
- I think Corby could be reached from St. Pancras by an IPEMU using the existing electrification.
- Running on batteries through the Derwent Valley World Heritage Site, might avoid tricky negotiations with the heritage lobby.
- Services could be extended past the current terminals of Nottingham and Sheffield.
Using Aventra IPEMUs would enable a whole new method of railway electrification.
Starting from Bedford, the electrification would be performed northward and as each section was completed, the Aventras could reach twenty or thirty miles further.
So electric train services would arrive at a town earlier than by using traditional methods.
Europe
Ian finishes the article with.
With the new design, Bombardier can take them all on. I think we will see this product platform around for many years, capitalising on the succes of Electrostar, and who knows, maybe even exporting to Europe? 345 – count on it.
If Bombardier have the right product, why not?
Will It Be All Systems Go For The Ordsall Curve?
This article in Rail Technology Magazine is entitled Court of Appeal dismisses Ordsall Chord legal challenge and it talks about Mark Whitby’s fight to stop the Ordsall Chord being built.
This is said.
A legal appeal following the dismissal of a challenge to the process for granting permission for the Ordsall Chord has been dismissed.
The Court of Appeal today upheld a ruling to dismiss a challenge from Mark Whitby, former president of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
The Court dismissed all three appeals made by Whitby against the decision of Lang J in the Mrs Justice Beverley Lang: two statutory challenges of the Transport and Works Act order and of the Listed Building Consent, and a judicial review of the planning permission. The Court of Appeal will hand down its judgement early in the new term, after Easter.
I hope this is the end of it, and work can proceed on the much-needed new infrastructure.
But I suppose there’s always the Supreme and European Courts!
I am a Londoner and one thing puzzles me about this case. If say in London, there was an argument about such a piece of infrastructure, those making the fuss would be local people, as they are in Chelsea and Wimbledon over Crossrail 2. In all the reports on the Ordsall Chord, the councils, politicians and the media seem to be in favour and only one lone person is against.
This article in Building gives an insight into Mark Whitby.
Will Redevelopment Of Fenchurch Street Station Help To Pay For Crossrail 2?
I have just written Could Crossrail 2 Go To Grays?, after various articles suggested that a Hackney Branch of Crossrail 2 could take over c2c lines through Barking and have termini at Bssildon and Grays.
This map is provided.
Possible Crossrail 2 Eastern Branch
The red section is new track, which would need to be in tunnel as far as East Ham.
Looking at this proposal, it became apparent, that the number of trains terminating at Fenchurch Street station could be severely reduced.
This Google Map shows Fenchurch Street station.
Fenchurch Street Station
Note Tower Gateway station on the DLR and Tower Hill station on the District and Circle Lines, to the South of the lines into Fenchurch Street.
The site must be worth a fortune in the City of London and could surely be redeveloped.
- It could have enough capacity to provide four trains per hour to Southend and/or Shoeburyness.
- The Docklands Light Railway terminus could be moved alongside the new station.
- It could have direct connectivity to Tower Hill station.
- There would obviously be a lot of offices on top.
There has been a proposal in the past to extend the DLR to Charing Cross and Victoria.
A rebuilding of Fenchurch Street station with the c2c and DLR stations underneath, might enable this extension from the Toewer Gateway branch.
This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the rail lines from Tower Gateway to Charing Cross.
Tower Gateway To Charing Cross
This is said about the proposed route in Wikipedia.
Two reasons driving the proposal are capacity problems at Bank, having just one interchange between the DLR and the central portion of Underground, and the difficult journeys faced by passengers from Kent and South Coast between their rail termini and the DLR. Intermediate stations would be at City Thameslink/Ludgate Circus and Aldwych.
Could it be, that one of the drivers of linking Crossrail 2 to c2c services is to enable the Fenchurch Street station site to be redeveloped?
The Anonymous Widower 