Whitechapel Station – 10th August 2021
I took these pictures as I passed through Whitechapel station, this morning.
Note.
- Much of the platform lighting on the Sub Surface Lines platforms is now in place.
- The main entrance to the station on appears to be coming on.
- The walkway over the Overground trains appears to be fairly well fitted out.
- There are a lot less blue hoardings generally.
This picture from Crossrail is a visualisation of the Overground platforms, after completion.
My last five pictures show the final design emerging.
When Will Whitechapel Station Be Finished?
This weekend, the station is closed on Saturday and Sunday. Could the builders be having a big push to get the station ready for opening?
- Your guess as to the finish date is as good as mine!
- The station is gradually coming out of its shell of hoardings and starting to look impressive.
But I did write a post called Is Whitechapel Station Going To Be A Jewel In The East?. I still have high hopes for the station being an architectural gem.
New Company Established To Help Transition Bus Fleets To Hydrogen
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on H2 View.
These first two paragraphs describe the company.
A new asset financed company has been launched to help design, deliver, and finance the seamless transition to a zero-emissions bus fleet with hydrogen included.
Launched by Wrightbus owner Jo Bamford today (August 9), FUZE will support the energy transition to cleaner variants by offering packages that enable the transition to hydrogen or electric fleets of buses.
If Jo Bamford gets this right, it could certainly smooth the transition to hydrogen and electric buses, where bus companies will be introducing new technology.
The words asset-based make me think, that buses, fuelling systems and chargers could all be hired on a bus-by-the-hour basis in much the same way train manufacturing companies like Hitachi and Stadler supply trains to the train operating companies.
The manufacturers are contracted to supply so many trains each day and if there are reliability or availability problems, then they must compensate the operators. That model would surely work with buses.
- I also suspect the model would allow flexibility, as to the choice of either an electric or hydrogen bus.
- I also think, that the model would be able to provide short-term deals for large events and Rail Replacement services.
- Buses no longer needed could also be returned, repainted and hired by another operator.
- FUZE could also have a standby fleet, so any bus operator wanting to try hydrogen buses for a month, could enter into a short-term deal.
I also think that this new generation of buses can open up innovative ideas for bus use. In Three Hydrogen Double Decker Buses Set For Dublin, I describe how Dublin will use just three hydrogen buses to create a fast commuter route.
Conclusion
I like it!
Short Term Hire Of Buses
I have a feeling that if say you wanted to hire a small fleet of buses for say a festival like Glastonbury, that hydrogen buses could be the better bet.
Suppose you wanted to run a fleet of five buses to and from the car park at the nearest rail station.
- Feeding the chargers for five buses will need a substantial electricity feed.
- Hydrogen buses can be refuelled from a mobile fuelling station.
- Hydrogen buses can probably run all day on one refuelling.
The ease of refuelling would appear to favour the hydrogen bus.
The Crossrail Tracks To The West Of Paddington Station
This map from carto metro, shows the track layout to the West of the Crossrail platforms at Paddington station.
Note.
- The Crossrail tunnels are shown in dotted purple at the Eastern end of the map.
- The tracks change from purple to black at the Royal Oak tunnel portal.
- Two tracks named CRL Eastbound and CRL Westbound appear to pass either side of two turnback sidings.
- These tracks change to purple in colour and can be followed to the Western end of the map.
- Tracks break off from this route to the North and serve the depot at Old Oak Common.
It appears to be a very clean and simple layout.
Crossrail Formally Hands Paddington Station Over To TfL
The title of this post, is the same as that article on Ian Visits.
Ian says this about the current status of the stations.
This is the sixth of the Elizabeth line stations to be transferred over to TfL, following Custom House, Farringdon, Tottenham Court Road, Woolwich and Liverpool Street stations, which leaves only Canary Wharf, Whitechapel and the late running Bond Street to go.
Paddington station certainly looked very ready, when I visited yesterday and took the pictures in The Main Crossrail Entrance At Paddington Station.
The Main Crossrail Entrance At Paddington Station
These pictures show the entrance to Crossrail at Paddington station, which is by Platform 1.
Note.
- The whole entrance is under a massive glass roof.
- Eastbourne Terrace is above the station and connected to it by stairs and a pair of lifts.
- There is a bus stop and short-term parking on Eastbourne Terrace.
- There are a large number of escalators between the main line station and the Crossrail level.
- There are plenty of seats everywhere.
- It is only a short walk between one set of escalators to Crossrail and the shops in the Lawn.
I think Brunel would have liked it, as it has a touch of the over-the-top.
This is a 3D Google Map of the new entrance.
Note.
- The cloud pattern on the roof is clearly visible.
- The lifts to the station are in the middle and the stairs are at the ends of the roof.
- The blue dot shows the position of the bus stop, where about five routes stop.
Will cars and taxis be able to drop people off in Eastbourne Terrace?
Conclusion
It’s an impressive new entrance to the station.
A New Timetable For The East Coast
The title of this post, is the same as that of an article in the August 2021 Edition of Modern Railways.
The Modern Railways article describes in detail the thinking behind the proposed timetable for the East Coast Main Line, that will be introduced in May 2022.
The new titletable would appear to be a compromise and judging by the number of complaints that have appeared in the media, the compromise doesn’t suit everyone.
A lot of my programming was concerned with the allocation of resources in large projects and that expertise convinces me, that the East Coast Main Line doesn’t have enough capacity to accommodate all the services that passengers need and train companies want to run.
These are my thoughts.
High Speed Two
When High Speed Two is completed to Leeds, it will add the following services to Leeds.
- Three trains per hour (tph) between London Euston and Leeds in a time of one hour and twenty-one minutes.
- Two tph between Birmingham Curzon Street and Leeds in a time of forty-nine minutes.
- One tph between Bedford and Leeds, run by Midlands Connect, in a time of one hour and thirty-six minutes.
Leeds will benefit from these services from the South on the new High Speed Two.
But the High Speed Two network has been designed to need to run three tph between York and Newcastle, which will have to share with other East Coast Main Line services.
Both High Speed Two and the aspiration of providing more services on the East Coast Main Line mean that more capacity must be provided between York and Newcastle.
High Speed Two is not mentioned in the Modern Railways article.
I know the Eastern Leg of High Speed Two is many years away, but surely, it should have an influence on the design of East Coast Main Line services.
For instance, destinations like Bradford, Cleethorpes, Doncaster, Harrogate, Huddersfield, Hull, Lincoln, Middlesbrough, Peterborough, Redcar, Scarborough, Skegness and Sunderland are unlikely to be served by High Speed Two services, so how does that determine our thinking, when planning train services to these destinations.
Perhaps, there should be lists of secondary destinations, that should be served by the various operators.
London And Leeds In Two Hours
This is mentioned in the Modern Railways article as being an aspiration of Virgin Trains East Coast, when they ran the franchise.
In Thoughts On Digital Signalling On The East Coast Main Line, I did a few rough calculations and said this.
Consider.
-
- The fastest current trains between London Kings Cross and Leeds take between two hours and twelve minutes and two hours and fifteen minutes.
- I suspect that the extra tracks into Kings Cross, that are currently being built will save a few minutes.
- There must be some savings to be made between Doncaster and Leeds
- There must be some savings to be made between London Kings Cross and Woolmer Green.
- There could be a rearrangement of stops.
I think it is highly likely that in the future, there will be at least one train per hour (tph) between London Kings Cross and Leeds, that does the trip in two hours.
It is my view, that any new East Coast Main Line timetable should include services between London Kings Cross and Leeds in a few minutes under two hours.
London And Edinburgh In Four Hours
This must be another objective of the train companies, as it is competitive with the airlines.
But it is not a simple process as cutting stops to save time, often annoys the locals.
So achieving the objective of a four-hour trip between London and Edinburgh probably needs some major upgrades to the East Coast Main Line.
Some of the improvements needed are detailed in Northern Powerhouse Rail – Significant Upgrades Of The East Coast Main Line From Leeds To Newcastle (Via York And Darlington) And Restoration Of The Leamside Line.
Projects in the related article include.
- Phase 2 Of The East Coast Main Line Power Supply Upgrade
- York to Church Fenton Improvement Scheme
- Darlington Station Remodelling
- The North Throat Of York Station Including Skelton Bridge Junction
- Use Of The Leamside Line
- Full Digital ERTMS signalling.
It would appear there’s a lot of work to do, but all of it, will be needed for High Speed Two.
The Modern Railways article does point out, that the new Hitachi trains have superior acceleration to the InterCity 225 trains, that they have replaced. So that will help!
Although it is a worthwhile objective, I think it will be some years before London and Edinburgh times of under four hours are obtained on the East Coast Main Line.
Hitachi’s Intercity Tri-Mode Battery Train
These trains are described in this Hitachi infographic.
Within a couple of years these trains will start to be seen on the East Coast Main Line serving destinations like Cleethorpes, Grimsby, Harrogate, Huddersfield, Hull, Lincoln, Middlesbrough and Sunderland.
Although, it says batteries will replace one engine in the infographic, I believe the standard five-car train for the East Coast Main Line will have two battery packs and an emergency diesel engine. Before the end of the decade, they will be fully-decarbonised with three battery packs.
Splitting And Joining
Although the Hitachi trains can accomplish splitting and joining with ease, it is only mentioned once in the Modern Railways article and that is concerned with a service to Huddersfield, which will split and join at Leeds.
I can see this being used to make sure that each train running into Kings Cross is either a nine-car or a pair of five-car trains, as this would maximise capacity on the route.
Currently, trains to York and Lincoln share a path into Kings Cross, with trains alternating to each destination, so each destination gets one train per two hours (1tp2h).
It would surely be possible for a pair of trains to leave Kings Cross, that split at Newark, with one train going to York and the other to Lincoln.
- The Modern Railways article says that the Middlesbrough service will be an extension of the 1tp2h York service.
- This means Kings Cross and Middlesbrough would call at Stevenage, Peterborough, Grantham, Newark North Gate, Retford, Doncaster and York.
- So at some time in the future could the Middlesbrough and Lincoln services share a path, with a split and join at Newark?
If the Lincoln and Middlesbrough services were to be run at a frequency of 1tp2h, the intervening paths could be used for other destinations.
Theoretically, by using pairs of five-car trains and splitting and joining, four destinations can be given a service of 1tp2h to and from London, that all use the same path.
I think the following splits and joins would be feasible.
- Lincoln/Middlesbrough splitting and joining at Newark North Gate.
- Lincoln/Scarborough splitting and joining at Newark North Gate.
- Nottingham/Sheffield splitting and joining at Newark North Gate.
- Harrogate/Huddersfield splitting and joining at Leeds.
- Bradford/Skipton splitting and joining at Leeds.
- Hull/Leeds splitting and joining at Doncaster.
Note.
- The two Lincoln splits and joins at Newark North Gate could possibly be arranged, so that Middlesbrough got roughly 1tp2h and Scarborough got perhaps two trains per day (tpd).
- Hull would be a very useful destination, as it is a large station to the East of the East Coast Main Line.
- Nottingham and Sheffield could be useful destinations during any disruption on the Midland Main Line, perhaps due to installation of full electrification.
The permutations and combinations are endless.
All Fast Trains Must Have Similar Performance
East Coast Trains, Hull Trains, LNER and TransPennine Express all use trains with similar performance.
But other operators like Great Northern use slower trains on the East Coast Main Line.
As the Hitachi trains will be running at up to 140 mph under the control of full digital signalling, it strikes me that for safe, fast and efficient operation, the other operators will need faster trains, where they run on the fast lines of the East Coast Main Line.
Grand Central
Grand Central‘s fleet of Class 180 trains will need to be replaced to decarbonise the operator and will surely be replaced with more 140 mph trains to take advantage of the digitally-signalled East Coast Main Line.
As their routes are not fully-electrified, I suspect they’ll be using similar Hitachi battery-electric trains.
The Cambridge Effect
Cambridge is becoming one of the most important cities in the world, let alone England and the UK.
It is generating new businesses at a tremendous rate and it needs an expanded rail network to give access to housing and industrial premises in the surrounding cities and towns.
- Peterborough is in the same county and is developing alongside Cambridge.
- Bury St. Edmunds, Norwich and other towns are being drawn into Cambridge.
- East West Rail to Bedford, Milton Keynes and Oxford is coming.
Cambridge is well-connected to London, but needs better connections to the North and Midlands.
King’s Cross And King’s Lynn
Currently, this route is run by 110 mph Class 387 trains.
These trains are just not fast enough for Network Rail’s 140 mph digitally signalled railway between King’s Cross and Hitchin.
In Call For ETCS On King’s Lynn Route, I examine how 125 mph trains and full digital signalling could be used to run between King’s Cross and King’s Lynn via Cambridge.
This would allow the trains to use the fast lines into King’s Cross.
I also feel, that to maximise the use of paths into King’s Cross, that the King’s Lynn service could be paired with a new Norwich service. The two trains would split and join at Cambridge.
Liverpool Lime Street And Norwich
This service is currently run by Class 156 trains and needs decarbonising. It also runs on 125 mph lines between.
- Peterborough and Grantham
- Nottingham and Sheffield
It certainly needs a thorough redesign and modern rolling stock to replace the current rolling road blocks.
East West Rail will certainly increase Cambridge and Norwich services to two tph, so why not terminate this Liverpool service at Cambridge rather than Norwich?
- Cambridge station has a lot of space to add extra platforms.
- The service would not need to reverse at Ely.
- It would add much-needed capacity to the Cambridge and Peterborough route.
- The service could even terminate at the new Cambridge South station.
- There have been plans for some time to split this service at Nottingham.
As between Peterborough and Grantham is a fully-electrified four-track line, I suspect that a Cambridge and Nottingham service could be handled by a 110 mph battery-electric train based on a Class 350 or Class 379 train.
Similar battery-electric trains could probably handle the Northern section between Nottingham and Liverpool Lime Street.
Stansted Airport And Birmingham Via Cambridge
After the work to the North of Peterborough at Werrington, this service has a clear route away from the East Coast Main Line, so it can be ignored.
The service does need decarbonisation and I suspect that it could be run by a 110 mph battery-electric train based on a Class 350 or Class 379 train.
CrossCountry And TransPennine Express Services
CrossCountry and TransPennine Express also run services on the Northern section of the East Coast Main Line.
- CrossCountry – 1 tph – Leeds and Edinburgh via York, Darlington, Durham, Newcastle, Alnmouth, Berwick-upon-Tweed and Dunbar (1tp2h)
- CrossCountry – 1 tph – Sheffield and Newcastle via Doncaster, York, Darlington and Durham.
- TransPennine Express – 1 tph – Liverpool Lime Street and Scarborough via Leeds, Garforth and York
- TransPennine Express – 1 tph – Manchester Airport and Redcar via Leeds, York, Thirsk, Northallerton, Yarm, Thornaby, and Middlesbrough.
- TransPennine Express – 1 tph – Liverpool Lime Street and Edinburgh via Leeds, York, Darlington, Durham, Newcastle and Morpeth.
- TransPennine Express – 1 tph – Manchester Airport and Newcastle via Leeds, York, Northallerton, Darlington, Durham and Chester-le-Street (1t2h)
In addition LNER and East Coast Trains also run these services on the same section.
- LNER – 1 tp2h – London Kings Cross and York
- LNER – 1 tph – London Kings Cross and Edinburgh via York, Darlington, Newcastle, Berwick-upon-Tweed
- LNER – 1 tph – London Kings Cross and Edinburgh via York, Northallerton (1tp2h), Darlington, Durham, Newcastle and Alnmouth (1tp2h)
- East Coast Trains – 5 tpd – London Kings Cross and Edinburgh via Newcastle and Morpeth.
Aggregating the stops gives the following.
- York – 8.5 tph
- Darlington – 6 tph
- Durham – 5 tph
- Chester-le-Street – 0.5 tph
- Newcastle – 6 tph and 5 tpd
- Morpeth – 1 tph and 5 tpd
- Almouth – 1.5 tph
- Berwick-on-Tweed – 2 tph
- Dunbar – 0.5 tph
Note.
- 1 tp2h = 0.5 tph
- Scotland is building two new stations at Reston and East Linton.
- Northern run trains between Newcastle and Morpeth.
It does appear from comments in the Modern Railways article, that the various train companies and passenger groups can’t agree on who calls where to the North of York.
Perhaps the Fat Controller should step in.
Between Newcastle and Berwick-on-Tweed
With the reopening of the Northumberland Line between Newcastle and Ashington, there may be an opportunity to reorganise services between Newcastle and Berwick-on-Tweed.
- Morpeth could be served via the Northumberland Line.
- Britishvolt are building a large gigafactory for batteries at Blyth.
- It would probably be a good idea to remove slow diesel services from the East Coast Main Line.
- Reston station will need a train service.
- Morpeth and Newcastle are under twenty miles apart on the East Coast Main Line and the route via Ashington is perhaps only ten miles longer.
It looks to me that local services on the Northumberland Line and between Newcastle and Reston on the East Coast Main Line could be run by a 110 mph battery-electric train.
Conclusion
There would appear to be a lot of scope to create a very much improved timetable for the East Coast Main Line.
I do think though that the following actions must be taken.
- Ensure, that all the long-distance train companies have trains capable of running at 140 mph under the control of digital signalling.
- Develop a 110 mph battery-electric train to work the local routes, that run on the East Coast Main Line.
- Get agreement between passengers and train companies about stopping patterns to the North of York.
- Use splitting and joining creatively to squeeze more trains into the available paths.
LNER would also need to increase their fleet.
Distributed Power Supplies Key To Rolls’ Earnings
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Diesel and Gas Turbine Worldwide.
Rolls Royce Power Systems is a German company, that is wholly-owned by Rolls-Royce, that makes power units for trains, ships and power standby systems.
- Despite the pandemic they have not been doing badly.
- Orders appear to have grown 19 % in the last year.
- Climate-friendly products are noted in the article as important for the future.
The company has formed a Sustainable Power Solutions business unit to handle this area.
One of their products recently made its debut in the UK and I wrote about it in First Passenger Journey In The UK With mtu Hybrid PowerPack.
All seemed to go well.
It does appear that one part of Rolls-Royce is on the way to recovery.
LNER To Serve Cleethorpes
Under the proposed new LNER timetable, which will start in May 2022, there will be a new train service between London Kings Cross and Cleethorpes.
According to this article on the Lincolnite, which is entitled Direct Cleethorpes To London Rail Link ‘Close’ To Getting Go Ahead, there will be one service per day.
It will leave Cleethorpes at 06:24 and Grimsby Town at 06:32 before arriving at King’s Cross at 09:25.
The return will leave King’s Cross at 16:10 and arrive in Grimsby Town at 19:05 and Cleethorpes at 19:20.
The August 2021 Edition of Modern Railways makes these points about the service.
- The larger Azuma fleet makes this extension possible.
- ,A more regular service would require additional trains.
- LNER is examining whether other intermediate stations east of Lincoln could be served.
I would have thought, that Market Rasen station could be a possibility for an intermediate stop.
I have a few thoughts.
Extra Services
This single service is ideal for though living in Lincolnshire, but it doesn’t suit those people, who perhaps need to go to the area from London for business or family reasons.
- Lincoln appears to get around five or six trains per day in each direction to and from King’s Cross.
- Services are roughly one train per two hours.
- I suspect the Lincoln service can be run by a single train, that shuttles between King’s Cross and Lincoln stations.
I believe, that Cleethorpes needs at least a pair of services to and from London, so that travellers can spend a day in North-East Lincolnshire.
- This would probably need more trains.
- Services would go via Lincoln and Lincoln may get extra services to London.
- Selected services could stop at intermediate stations, like Market Rasen.
There are surely possibilities for a integrated timetable between King’s Cross and Lincoln, Market Rasen, Grimsby Town and Cleethorpes.
Battery-Electric Operation
Consider.
- LNER’s Class 800 trains are prime candidates for conversion to Hitachi Intercity Tri-Mode Battery Trains, so they can run away from the overhead wires of the East Coast Main Line to places like Lincoln, by the use of battery power.
- These battery trains could charge using the electrification between King’s Cross and Newark North Gate stations.
- The distance between Lincoln Central station and the East Coast Main Line is 16.6 miles.
- In Plans To Introduce Battery Powered Trains In Scotland, I quote Hitachi, as saying they expect a sixty mile range for battery trains.
I am sure, that these trains would have sufficient range on battery to be able to work King’s Cross and Lincoln services without using diesel.
But could the Hitachi trains reach Cleethorpes with some well-positioned charging?
- The distance between Lincoln and Cleethorpes stations is 47.2 miles.
- In Solving The Electrification Conundrum, I describe Hitachi’s solution to running battery-electric trains, by using well-placed short lengths of 25 KVAC overhead electrification controlled by an intelligent power system.
With a range of sixty miles on batteries and charging at Lincoln and Cleethorpes stations, it would appear that battery electric operation of Class 800 trains between King’s Cross and Cleethorpes is a distinct possibility.
Lincoln Station
Lincoln station has three operational through platforms and I suspect all would need to be electrified, so that trains could be charged as they passed through.
These are distances from Lincoln station.
- Cleethorpes – 47.2 miles
- Doncaster – 36.9 miles
- Nottingham – 33.9 miles
- Peterborough – 56.9 miles
- Sheffield – 48.5 miles
It does appear that if Lincoln station were to be electrified, most services from the city could be run using battery-electric trains.
Cleethorpes Station
This picture shows Cleethorpes station with two TransPennine Express Class 185 trains in the station.
Note.
- The Class 185 trains are diesel, but could be replaced by Hitachi Class 802 trains, which could be converted to battery-electric operation.
- Cleethorpes and Doncaster are 52.1 miles apart, which could be in range of Hitachi’s battery-electric trains.
- It doesn’t look to be too challenging to electrify a couple of platforms to charge the battery-electric trains.
- Cleethorpes station could surely charge both the LNER and the TransPennine Express trains.
- The Cleethorpes and Barton-on-Humber service which is under fifty miles for a round trip could also be replaced with battery-electric trains.
Cleethorpes station could be totally served by battery-electric trains.
Battery-Electric Trains For Lincolnshire
At the present time, there is a surplus of good redundant electrical multiple units and the rolling stock leasing companies are looking for places where they can be used.
Porterbrook are already looking to convert their fleet of Class 350 trains to battery-electric operation and I am certain, that now that Hitachi and others have solved the charging problem, a lot more trains will be converted.
Most would appear to be four-car 100 mph trains, which will be very convenient and should fit most platforms.
Conclusion
Running battery-electric Class 800 trains to Lincoln, Grimsby Town and Cleethorpes could be the start of decarbonisation of Lincolnshire’s railways.
What would battery-electric trains do for the economy of Lincolnshire?
Is King’s Cross Station Ready For Parcel Trains?
In Is This The Shape Of Freight To Come?, I wrote about the converting of redundant electrical multiple units into 100 mph freight and parcel trains.
A couple of days ago, I was walking through Kings Cross station and took these pictures.
Note.
- The wide platforms.
- The gates in the ticket barriers to allow vehicles through.
- The passenger entrances line up with the gates in the ticket barriers.
It does look like everything is setup to efficiently get cargo between the trains and the road network outside.
A collateral benefit, is that access to the trains for passengers is step-free.
A Day Trip On East Coast Trains
Over the years, I’ve done plenty of day trips to Scotland.
In the days of Artemis, I would regularly go North to sort out a problem and since I’ve retired, I’ve gone North for various reasons.
Usually, now I take the sleeper and then come back on the last train. After all, if I fall asleep travelling to King’s Cross, I would hope I get chucked out by staff and can take a ten-minute taxi home.
But in a few weeks, there will be another practical way.
- Take the 05:45 from King’s Cross and arrive in Edinburgh at 10:10.
- The last train home leaves Edinburgh at 19:58 and arrives in London at 01:05 on the next day.
And all for a total fare of £50 courtesy of East Coast Trains.
There will also be corresponding trains that run in the opposite direction.
- Take the 06:14 from Edinburgh and arrive in King’s Cross at 10:51.
- The last train North leaves King’s Cross at 20:18 and arrives in Edinburgh at 00:46 on the next day.
Combining one of East Coast Train’s services with a sleeper must surely give some interesting possibilities.
The Anonymous Widower 