Virtual Speed Bumps
This article on the Mail Online is entitled What do YOU see? Optical illusions of speed bumps are being used in London to trick drivers into slowing down.
It is an interesting idea!
Waterloo Upgrade August 2017 – Mid-Platform Entrance/Exit On Platforms 23/24 At Waterloo Station
These pictures show the mid-platform entrance/exit on Platforms 23/24 at Waterloo station.
Note.
- This mid-platform entrance/exit must mean that Platforms 20 to 24 effectively have a double-deck gate line.
- Access is also to the Waterloo and City Line.
This article in Rail Engineer, which is entitled Waterloo and South West Route Upgrade, says this.
Improvements in access to the Bakerloo, Northern and Jubilee tube lines from platforms 1/2 and 3/4 and from the former International terminal.
These pictures were taken at 09:30 at the end of the Peak.
When finished it looks like it will be impressive.
Will the access on Platforms 1/2 and 3/4 be double-escalator like this access on the former International platforms?
As I indicated in Waterloo’s Wide Platforms, the design of the older platforms isn’t cramped, so it could be possible.
Incidentally, I couldn’t see any lifts on Platforms 23/24, but these structures behind the grey hoardings could be for lifts.
Will there be any platforms in the UK with better step-free access?
And it’s not as if the platforms are for an exotic destination like Cardiff, Huddersfield or Norwich, although I suspect services will go to the regal delights of Windsor! Will Liz be amused?
Waterloo Upgrade August 2017 – Waterloo’s Wide Platforms
These pictures compare the platforms at Waterloo station.
The pictures are shown in increasing platform number order.
Platforms 5 to 14 are in the old part of the station, which was opened in 1922, whilst Platforms 20 to 24 are in the former International station.
Surprisingly, the platforms in the old part of the station seem to be fairly generous in width compared to say those in other London terminals.
They are not much narrower than those built for Eurostar in 1994.
Note that it appears that the old platforms have around five to seven gates per platform, as the space allows, whereas the new ones have thirty gates for the five platforms.
As gates are reversible, that surely is enough to cope with the Peak, especially as there is a mid-platform entrance/exit on some platforms to the Underground.
I suspect the platforms can cope with a whole battalion of guardsmen complete with full kit, all arriving at the same time!
Waterloo Upgrade August 2017 – Was It Alright On The Day?
This article in the Standard had a headline of Waterloo station upgrade: Furious commuters hit out at ‘shambolic’ queues on first weekday of major works.
This article on the BBC had a headline of Waterloo station: Stations quiet after upgrade warnings.
This article on the Independent had a headline of Waterloo station upgrade: Passengers report trains better than normal despite predictions of ‘month of chaos’.
There certainly isn’t lots of interviews on the BBC this morning with irate passengers.
This was the first paragraph from the Independent.
Commuters reported easier journeys than normal on train lines into London Waterloo on Monday morning as some passengers apparently took alternative routes or worked from home to avoid a predicted “month of chaos”.
But I think that Network Rail and South West Trains must have got it more or less right.
London thought they would have a problem during the 2012 Olympics and Transport for London flooded the streets and stations with extra staff to help passengers.
And it worked!
Network Rail and South West Trains have done the same, at least at Waterloo.
And it seems to be working!
Is Highbury And Islington Station To Get An Upgrade?
This article on IanVisits is entitled New Entrance Planned For Highbury and Islington Station.
If this happens, it will be good news for me, as Highbury and Islington station is my nearest Underground station.
But it is a cramped, very busy station with extremely poor access. According to Wikipedia, it is the fifteenth busiest station in the UK and in terms of passenger numbers, handles more in a year, than Manchester Piccadilly, Edinburgh Waverley, Glasgow Queen Street and Liverpool Lime Street.
A lot of these high passenger numbers are due to the unrivalled carrying capacity and success of the Victoria Line and the recently-rebuilt North London Line.
Proximity to Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium has also added thousands of passengers.
The future will draw even more passengers to the station.
For the last two years, passengers like me, have tended to avoid the station, as contractors have been rebuilding the road bridge in front of the station.
But this will finish soon and Islington Council and Transport for London have grand plans to create a very pedestrian-friendly environment outside the station.
And then there’s Crossrail and the Northern City Line!
Crossrail doesn’t connect to the Victoria Line, but thanks to the Northern City Line, Highbury and Islington station has a good connection to Crossrail.
The Northern City Line is also getting new Class 717 trains and increased frequencies between Moorgate and Hertfordshire.
It all adds up to more pressure for something to be done at Highbury and Islington station.
This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the lines at Hoghbury and Islington station.
Note how the Northern City and Victoria Lines have cross-platform access, courtesy of some clever platform swapping, when the Victoria Line was built.
Two developments will give alternative routes that might take the pressure off the station.
The doubling in capacity of the Gospel Oak to Barking Line from early next year, will help.
Crossrail will benefit the station, in that a lot of passengers wanting to go between Eastern parts of London and the West End, currently use the Overground and the Victoria Line. Some of these passengers will use Crossrail to go direct.
But something needs to be done.
The four Overground platforms have full step-free access, but the deep-level Victoria Line and the Northern City Line both rely on just two crowded escalators.
If you look at the layout of the four deep-level platforms, they lie together and because the two Northern City Line platforms were dug as a pair in the first few years of the last century, I suspect that all platforms are roughly the same level.
As the lift shafts from the old Northern City Line station are still intact, although full of equipment, I feel that the plan of using this abandoned station to create another entrance to the deep-level platforms will be possible.
- A new ticket office can be provided in a quality building.
- It will need escalators, as well as lifts.
- It should be possible to connect directly to the four platforms, with perhaps a wide passenger tunnel under Holloway Road.
- This tunnel could also have lifts on the other side of the road to the Overground.
It is one of those smaller intricate projects, that can be really good value.
Waterloo Upgrade August 2017 – Feltham Station
I took these pictures at Feltham station.
Feltham station is a particular problem, as the level crossing has to be closed.
At present it is closed for preliminary works to take place, so that it can be permanently closed.
This page on the Hounslow Council web site gives more details.
Bombardier On Track For Record Sale Of New Aventra Trains
The title of this post is the same as the title of this article in the Daily Telegraph.
This is the last paragraph.
Aventra trains use energy efficient measures such as regenerative braking, which collects energy generated by the trains slowing down and stores it for later use. They will also offer wifi, and USB sockets in seats.
Does that mean that the trains are fitted with energy storage or in simple terms; batteries.
The Automatic Splitting And Joining Of Trains
Hitachi And Automatic Splitting And Joining Of Trains
The Hitachi Class 395 train was the first train in the UK to be able to automatically split and join in service.
In The Impressive Coupling And Uncoupling Of Class 395 Trains, I linked to this video.
Impressive isn’t it?
In Do Class 800/801/802 Trains Use Batteries For Regenerative Braking?, I quoted this comment from a public on-line Hitachi document.
Because the coupling or uncoupling of cars in a trainset occurs during commercial service at an intermediate station, the automatic coupling device is able to perform this operation in less than 2 minutes.
This is definitely in line with Class 395 train performance.
This document from the Hitachi web site talks about the design of Hitachi’s Class 385 trains for Scotland. This is said.
The lead and rear railcars have an automatic coupler at the front and walk-through gangway hoods. When train sets are coupled together, the hoods fit together as part of the automatic coupling operation to provide access between train sets, meaning that passengers and staff are able to move freely from one train set to another.
Obviously, Hitachi have got automatic splitting and joining of trains spot on!
Current Split/Join Services
There are several places in the UK network, where splitting and joining of trains is used.
- Southeastern Highspeed do it at Ashford.
- Great Northern Kings Lynn do it at Cambridge.
- Southern do it at Haywards Heath.
- Virgin Trains do it at Crewe.
- South West Trains do it at Southampton.
But currently only the Class 395 trains can do it automatically.
The in-service entry of the Class 800 trains will change everything, as it will make a lot more new routes possible.
Virgin Trains East Coast
Currently, Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) run two trains per hour (tph) between Kings Cross and Leeds. In the Peak, some services are extended to Bradford Forster Square, Skipton and Harrogate, where the last route is not electrified.
Will some services to Leeds be run by two five-car Class 800/801 trains working together as a ten-car train?
- Class 800 trains are electro-diesel which could work to Harrogate under diesel power.
- Class 801 trains are all-electric, which could work all electrified routes from Leeds.
At Leeds the two trains could separate, with each train going to a different destination. Reading Hitachi’s published documents, the split would take under two minutes at Leeds and I don’t think there would be a restriction of a Class 800 and a Class 801 working together between Kings Cross and Leeds using the overhead electrification.
VTEC gets advantages by using this split and join approach.
- Frequencies and train length to the eventual destinations can be adjusted to what the market will sustain.
- Extra expensive train paths between the split/join station and London are not needed.
- Between the split/join station and London, the train can usually run using electrification.
- Costs are probably saved, if only a half-train is run to some destinations, as track access charges are based on weight.
- A five-car electro-diesel could probably access more routes than a nine-car train.
This is the fleet that VTEC have ordered.
- Class 800 – 10 x five-car
- Class 800 – 13 x nine-car
- Class 801 – 12 x five-car
- Class 801 – 30 x nine-car
These Class 800 and Class 801 trains give VTEC all sorts of of possibilities.
The backbone of the service which is a half-hourly service to Edinburgh probably needs about 35 nine-car trains, some of which would be electro-diesels to work North of the electrification to Aberdeen and Inverness.
But that still leaves quite a few five-car trains available for other services.
Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway (GWR) will probably use their Class 800/801802 trains in a similar manner.
This is the fleet that GWR have ordered.
- Class 800 – 36 x five-car
- Class 800 – 21 x nine-car
- Class 802 – 22 x five-car
- Class 802 – 14 x nine-car
Note that the electro-diesel Class 802 train is similar to the Class 800, but with the engines tuned for more power and larger fuel tanks, so it can handle Devon and Cornwall routes easier.
I think that given the number of five-car trains on order and the lack of promised electrification, I think that GWR will be using splitting and joining in some surprising places, to make sure that as many routes as possible get the new trains.
The Stadler Flirt
This article on Railway Technology describes the Stadler Flirts built for Swiss Federal Railways. This is said.
The train consists of articulated train sets, which contains light rail cars attached semi-permanently sharing a common bogie. The trains are available in two to six car combinations with two to six motorised axles. The automatic couplers, installed at both the ends of the trains, permit connection and disconnection of up to four train cars easily and quickly.
Does this mean that two trains can split and join like the Hitachi trains?
The Bombardier Aventra
The Aventra is a train that has been designed to have everything that customers might need. This is the description of the train in Wikipedia.
The train has been designed to be lighter and more efficient, with increased reliability. It will have lightweight all-welded bodies, wide gangways and doors to shorten boarding times in stations, and ERTMS. The design incorporates FlexxEco bogies which have been used in service on Voyagers and newer Turbostars. The gangway is designed to allow maximum use of the interior space and ease of movement throughout the train.
As Hitachi have published a lot of their thinking on Class 800/801 trains on the Internet, I would find it astounding that Bombardier and the other train building companies haven’t read it.
There have been four orders for the Aventras so far, which total over two thousand carriages.
Two of these orders are for mixed fleets of five-car and ten-car trains.
Are these trains and half-trains just like with the Hitachi trains?
If the answer is in the affirmative, I think it is very likely that Aventras will have the capability of splitting and joining automatically.
Greater Anglia
Greater Anglia has a complex route structure that fans out from a very busy electrified core into Liverpool Street on both their main lines.
They have ordered 89 x five-car and 22 x ten-car of Class 720 trains.
Many of their outer-suburban routes currently run twelve-car services and as their two main lines are only double-track, I can see a lot of five car trains working in pairs.
In Harlow Council Leader Jon Clempner Hopes Crossrail 2 Will Extend To Town, I suggested that Greater Anglia might use splitting and joining on the West Anglia Main Line to get four tph on the Hertford East Branch.
It may not be practical in that case, but Greater Anglia have several electrified branches.
South Western Railway
South Western Railway have a similar route structure to Greater Anglia, with a very busy electrified core into Waterloo.
They have ordered 30 x five-car and 60 x ten-car of Aventra trains.
In Waterloo Upgrade August 2017 – Virginia Water Station, I talked about used splitting and joining to provide a better service on the Waterloo to Reading Line and the Chertsey Branch.
However, I think that most services will be run by ten-car trains given the make-up of the fleet.
The five-cars could generally run on routes where the capacity only needs five-car trains or the infrastructure wouldn’t allow anything longer.
They could then split and join to maximise the capacity and use only one path from the split/join station to Waterloo.
Waterloo Upgrade August 2017 – 5th August 2017
It’s all change at Waterloo station with Platforms 20 to 24 open for business.
I think what has been revealed today is an excellent stop-gap to allow platforms 1 to 9 to be extended.
- Network Rail and South West Trains are also to be congratulated on putting a large number of informed staff on the platforms to answer passegers’ questions.
- With luck too, the vast open spaces around platform 20 to 24 will help to calm passengers.
- But they weren’t lucky in that everything was disrupted by a signal failure early in the day.
If I have any criticism it is over the length of time it has taken to get these platforms open.
The International platforms were closed about the time my wife died in December 2007.
That closure has just been too long.
Passenger And Train Capacity
From what I saw today, Network Rail have opened five new platforms numbered 20 to 24, with the following features.
- The ability to handle twelve-car trains.
- Wide platforms for large numbers of passengers.
- A new very wide gate line.
- Lots of natural light and fresh air.
Passengers will wish all stations could be this good.
Just imagine five packed commuter trains arriving at those new platforms at around the same time.
- Each pair of new five-car Class 707 train can hold just over sixteen hundred passengers.
- A ten-car Class 720 train, which must be similar to South Western Railway’s new trains can hold around fifteen hundred passengers.
So can the platforms, gates and concourse handle all those passengers?
As the flow of passengers seems straight down wide platforms and into the Underground or out of the station through the Victory Arch, I suspect that the station has been designed to handle the greatest number of passengers, the trains can deliver.
With Crossrail, the stations at Shenfield and Abbey Wood will be handling twelve trains per hour (tph) in a two platform layout or 6 tph at each platform.
I suspect that the signalling and track layout at platforms 20-24 at Waterloo station, is such that each platform can handle at least four tph and possibly the six, that will be achieved at Shenfield and Abbey Wood.
If they can handle six, that is an unbelievable thirty tph.
This figure is probably way in excess of other capacity constraints in the complex rail network out of Waterloo, but at least platform capacity won’t be a constraint on growth in the future.
But four tph on each platform, would give a theoretical capacity of twenty tph or around thirty thousand passengers per hour. That is a massive increase in the capacity of the station.
It has to be taken into account, that part of the Waterloo Upgrade for August 2017 is lengthening Platforms 1 to 4 at the station and improving the track layout for the lower-numbered platforms. Access to the Underground is also being improved at platforms 1 to 4.
Are Network Rail creating another high-capacity set of four platforms at the other end of the station?
What is happening at platforms 1 to 4 will be revealed at the end of the month.
Conclusion
The work has whetted my appetite as to what the station will eventually look like!
In An Analysis Of Waterloo Suburban Services Proposed To Move To Crossrail 2, I came to the following conclusion.
Crossrail 2’s proposals for the suburban branch lines from Waterloo to the four destinations of Chessington South, Epsom, Hampton Court and Shepperton stations, can be fulfilled using the following.
- More platform capacity at Waterloo.
- Modern high-performance 100 mph trains like Class 707 trains.
- Some improvements to track and signals between Waterloo and Wimbledon stations.
- Wimbledon station would only need minor modifications.
- A measure of ATO between Waterloo and Wimbledon stations.
What effect will this have on the design of Crossrail 2?
The Class 707 trains will not be arriving, but high performance Aventras will.
This August’s Upgrade will certainly make substantial increases in service frequencies and passenger capacity possible.
Waterloo Upgrade August 2017 – Virginia Water Station
I took these pictures at Virginia Water station.
The station was updated a few years ago, but the platforms have been lengthened to twelve-car platforms, as part of the August 2017 upgrade.
If the station has a problem, it is that the Waterloo to Reading Line and the Chertsey Branch, split on the Waterloo side of the station, so it would be impossible to have a ten-car train formed of two five-car units arrive in the station, with one departing on each line.
I suppose they could always split at Egham station, which has recently been updated with twelve-car platforms.
These two half-hourly services.
- Waterloo to Guildford via Aldershot
- Waterloo to Chertsey
Could be run by five-car trains, which ran as a ten-car train to Egham.
- Both services would move from two to four trains per hour.
- No extra train paths would be needed.
If the Class 707 trains can’t run a service like this, they’re history.
This Google Map shows Virginia Water station
Note that the scar of a chord that used to connect the Reading and Cherstey Lines can be seen South of the station.
Would it have any possibilities?
The Anonymous Widower 