Wright Bus Embraces Ultracapacitors
This press release from Skeleton Technologies is entitled Graphene-Based Ultracapacitors Boost Double and Single Decker-Buses Through Low Emission Zones by Reducing Fuel Consumption.
This is said.
The integration of graphene-based ultracapacitors into test WrightBus double deck buses enables a 36% fuel saving compared to a UK based EuroVI diesel bus baseline. It also adds at least another 3 passengers to the capacity of these buses compared to a lithium battery-based hybrid equivalent.
I have a feeling that graphene-based ultracapacitors will give lithium batteries a very good kicking.
Worried Council Prepares Official Response To ‘Crackpot’ HS2 Plans
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Rail Technology Magazine.
This is the first paragraph.
HS2 has been slammed as a “crackpot idea” which won’t benefit local residents by councillors in Northwich as they prepare to submit an official response to the project’s consultation.
This map from HS2 shows how the route will go past Northwich.
On the map purple is the route of HS2 and the dotted line is the West Coast Main Line, which will take HS2 trains to Liverpool and further North. If the quality of the map is anything like the quality of their route planning, then heaven help Northwich.
The Stop HS2 campaign has a page about Northwich,
The area with all the salt lying below the surface is probably a difficult one for building railways, roads or even a brick outhouse.
Improving Services At Northwich
Could the disquiet at Northwich be partly due to the fact that for the good burghers of the town to get any benefit from HS2 to perhaps go to London or Birmingham, they will have to go to Crewe or Manchester first, as they do now.
- Take the one train per hour service (tph) to Manchester and then the three tph service to London is fine, but coming North, you might hang around in Piccadilly for an hour.
- Drive to Crewe and get one of three tph to London.
After 2027, when HS2 reaches Crewe, the railway junction will be just fifty-eight minutes from London.
What is needed is a quick and reliable way to travel the fourteen miles between the two towns.
Under Proposed Future Developments in the Wikipedia entry for Northwich station, there are several suggestions for an improved service at the station.
- The Northern Hub proposes an additional hourly service to run between Greenbank and Stockport.
- Re-instating the passenger service between Northwich and Sandbach has been proposed. This would allow direct trains to Crewe from Knutsford,
- Proposals for a direct link to Manchester Airport from Northwich were first put forward in the 1990s, not much had seemed to materialise from this.
- The running of tram-trains directly in to Manchester.
If Northwich were on the outskirts of Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool or London, it would be likely to have at least two tph and possibly four tph to the major city.
One tph is a disgrace!
What Do You Do With An Unwanted Eurostar Train?
In Edition 865 of Rail Magazine, there is a short article which is entitled Eurostar ‘373s’ Leased To Thalys.
This is the first paragraph.
Class 373s that were due to be scrapped have instead been leased to Thalys for a year.
Class 373 trains and Thalys rolling stock are very similar, as both were built by GEC-Alsthom around the same time.
So just as ScotRail borrowed a few Class 365 trains to make up for a shortage, Thalys are borrowing a pair of Class 373 trains.
I wonder if passengers between Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, that they are getting a train, that was destined for the scrapyard?
SWR Applies To Build New London Maintenance Depot
The title of this post is the same as that of an article in Edition 865 of Rail Magazine.
This is the first paragraph.
Hounslow Borough Council is considering an application by South Western Railway to build a new depot on the site of Feltham’s former marshalling yard in South West London.
This Google Map shows the site.
It appears to be remarkably clear and the only clue to its former use must be Feltham Railway Club.
- The depot will lie between Feltham and Whitton stations on the Southern side of the Waterloo-Reading Line.
- The depot will have ten roads and will be able to accommodate ten car trains.
- Construction will start in February 2019 and the depot will open in 2020.
There houldn’t appear to be too many construction problems.
I do have a few questions.
Would The Opportunity Be Taken To Upgrade The Waterloo-Reading Line?
Waterloo to Reading and Windsor services might be increased in frequency.
Could an extra track be added alongside the depot or other works be performed to add capacity to services Reading and Windsor?
What Will Be The Affects Of The Proposed Heathrow Southern Railway?
The Heathrow Southern Railway is a proposal for a new route between Waterloo and Heathrow Airport via Clapham Junction and Staines.
Should Level Crossings In The Area Be Closed?
There are level crossings at Barnes, Feltham, Isleworth, Mortlake and North Sheen.
Would The Land Be Better Used For Housing?
This could be the major objection from the Council.
They could always build a depot with housing on top.
Could A Bigger Feltham Station Be built At The Same Time?
This could be a possibility, with perhaps a turnback platform for the proposed West London Orbital Railway.
Conclusion
Building the depot seems a good and fairly simple plan, but willit cover all possibilities?
Could There Be A Tram-Train Connection At Reeve’s Corner?
A few day’s ago I took the tram from Croydon to IKEA. Coming back, I got off the tram at the Reeve’s Corner stop and took these pictures.
Note how close the trams are to the rail lines just to the West of West Croydon station.
This Google Map shows the area.
Note.
- The road bridge appears in several of the pictures.
- The rail lines appear to have plenty of space to accomodate an updated layout.
- The Reeve’s Corner tram stop is only used by trams going to Croydon.
- The trams share a single-track section between Reeve’s Corner and Wandle Park tram stop.
The single-track layout must be a restriction on the number of trams that can run between Croydon and Wimbledon.
This map from carto.metro.free.fr, shows the layout of the tracks in the area.
This map shows why there is plenty of space, as there are the dotted-lines of the West Croydon to Wimbledon Line, which was closed in 1997 to be converted into the London Tramlink.
This Google Map shows the route between Wandle Park and Revve’s Corner and how it crosses the rail lines.
Note that Reeve’s Corner is just beyond the North-East corner of this map.
Third-Rail Tram-Trains And The London Tramlink
The London Tramlink was designed twenty years ago, well before we had modern tram-trains, like those that are running all over Karlsruhe and have just started services between Sheffield and Rotherham.
I believe that third-rail tram-trains, as I proposed in The Third-Rail Tram-Train, are a viable concept, if they only use third-rail electrification, when running as a train.
Why Create A Tram-Train Connection At Reeve’s Corner?
The obvious reason, is that it would allow tram-trains to run between Wimbledon and West Croydon stations.
To the East of West Croydon, they could go to places like the proposed Steatham Interchange or the existing Crystal Palace, Beckenham Junction or Bromley stations.
Conclusion
Creating a tram-train connection at Reeve’s Corner is one of a number of places, where the trams and South London’s third-rail network can be connected.
I believe that developing these connections could enable several useful routes.
- Extra train and tram services to Beckenham Junction station.
- Tram-trains to Bromley South station.
- Extending the Bromley North Branch using tram-trains to Bromley South station, by street running through Bromley Town Centre.
Tram-trains could even serve Gatwick Airport and provide services around the wider Airport site.
Cost Of Widening The Last Section Of The A465 Will Be More Than The Entire South Wales Metro
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Wales Online.
The article is a good example of comparing costs between road and rail and is well worth a read.
Ludgate Circus And Blackfriars Station
This morning, I had an excellent full English breakfast with a large mug of tea in Leon at Ludgate Circus.
It is unusual for a fast-food restaurant, in that it has acres of space, alcohol, including gluten-free beer, for those who want it, five or six large tables that seat ten and an outdoor area for a sunny and warm day.
So at ten in the morning, I can always find a place to lay out my copy of The Times and read it at leisure.
Others seemed to be having breakfast meetings or encounters.
The Wikipedia entry for Ludgate Circus has a section on Stations, which says this.
Had the Fleet line of the London Underground been built, it would have had a station at Ludgate Circus. However, the Fleet line’s proposed route evolved into what is now the Jubilee line, which went south of the River Thames before reaching Ludgate Circus. In 1990 however, St. Paul’s Thameslink (later renamed City Thameslink) was opened on the site of the proposed Ludgate Circus station.
North-South Thameslink services through the double-ended City Thameslink station, with its numerous escalators and lifts, will reach twenty-four trains per hour (tph), from the current sixteen tph by the end of next year.
I could have taken Thameslink to Blackfriars station, but I walked and took these pictures on the way.
It is not a pleasant walk with all the traffic.
Next time, I’ll take Thameslink!
The reason, I went to Blackfriars, was to catch a Circle or District Line train to Tower Hill station.
Where is the Fleet Line, when you need it?
Phase one of the line ran to Charing Cross station, where it was extended to become the Jubilee Line, we have today.
The original plan for the Fleet Line as given by Wikipedia was.
Phase 2: would have extended the line along Fleet Street to stations at Aldwych, Ludgate Circus, Cannon Street and Fenchurch Street. Parliamentary approval for this phase was granted on 27 July 1971.
Phase 3: would have seen the line continue under the river to Surrey Docks (now Surrey Quays) station on the East London Line, taking over both of the ELL’s branches to New Cross Gate and New Cross stations, with an extension to Lewisham.
Parliamentary approval for this phase as far as New Cross was granted on 5 August 1971 and the final section to Lewisham was granted approval on 9 August 1972.
Phase 2 would have whisked me to Fenchurch Street station and Phase 3 sounds a lot like the current proposal for the Bakerloo Line Extension.
I very much feel that there is a need for a line across London on the route of the Fleet Line and Transport for London have a plan to extend the Docklands Light Railway, that I wrote about in A Connection Between City Thameslink Station And The Docklands Light Railway.
This map from Transport for London, shows the possible Western extension of the DLR.
With all the problems of the funding of Crossrail 2, that I wrote about in Crossrail 2 Review Prompts Fresh Delays, could this extension of the DLR, be a good idea?
It would certainly provide an East-West route at City Thameslink station.
Crystal Balls For Brexit
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Rail Technology Magazine.
This is the first paragraph.
Have you noticed how it is almost impossible to have a sensible debate on the impacts of Brexit? The rules seem to be: take a firm, preferably dogmatic, position; talk about how history supports that position; refuse to entertain dissent; retreat to meet likeminded people; remain strangely bemused by the question, ‘what will happen next?
The article then goes on to give the author’s view on what Brexit will mean for the rail industry.
He comes to the following conclusion.
Brexit will bring costs, uncertainty, and a one-off opportunity to refresh our industry, reaching further into the communities that rail serves. Let’s grab it.
The article is well worth a detailed read.
Is The End Of The Beginning Approaching For The STAR Upgrade?
I changed trains at Tottenham Hale station today and looked at Greater Anglia’s list of closed days, so that work could proceed on the STAR project, which will create a third track between Stratford and Angel Road stations..
It would appear that after the 12th of January, services could include a two trains per hour service between Stratford and Tottenham Hale stations.
There is a disclaimer on the timetable, which says that you should check, but it looks to me, that there’s a chance, that at least the third track will be completed sometime in January.
I shall be watching progress with interest.
Am I The Only Person Who Feels That Wheelie Cases Should Be Restricted?
I have a vision defect, which means I sometimes miss things low down on the left.
I haven’t flattened a toddler yet, but I’m always on the lookout in case I do.
But I’m getting rather fed up with people who wheel more than one case at the same time.
Several times, I’ve been sent to the ground, as someone has wheeled a case from behind my left side and then turned sharply in front of me.
The latest fad, is that one case isn’t enough, so let’s have more.
I got mixed up with a party of about twelve tourists in Bond Street station, where I was walking at a moderate pace between the Piccadilly and Victoria Lines. One meadow lady twice tried to bump me out of the way.
I did swear!
And then I had my revenge. We all needed to get up a short flight of stairs and I deliberately crossed from left to right twice on the stairs, whilst they were struggling with their heavy cases.
Luckily the stairs and the heavy cases slowed them down and I was able to get my |Victoria Line train.
I do think though, that something should be done to curb the number of heavy cases people take on the Underground.
Regularly, you see people with two and in one case I saw someone with four!
The Anonymous Widower 