It’ll Be All Change On Buses
I was searching for something else and found this article about hybrid-buses in The Engineer.
One new concept, I’ve not come across before is what is called Flybus, which uses a flywheel as a battery.
I am convinced that hybrid buses are the future, as I have three routes that are partly hybrid near me. From a noise point of view they are so much better for customers and bystanders alike and of course they use a lot less fuel
Pudding Mill Lane Portal – 29th January 2012
These pictures taken on Friday, show that it’s progressing compared to the last time I visited.
The pictures were actually taken through the door window of a DLR train. as it left Pudding Mill Lane station in the direction of Bow Church station.
What Do You Get When You Cross Good Engineering With Good Financial Skills?
February’s Modern Railways magazine has an interesting article about how a whole new lengthened set of trains are being created to work the South West London services for South West Trains.
Currently these services are worked by 4-car Class 458 and Class 450 trains.
For various reasons South West Trains want to go to a 10-car railway, which would mean the simplest solution would be to lengthen the Class 450s to 5-cars and run them in pairs as required. But this would require upwards of about a hundred new carriages and typically these cost about a million pounds each.
But then Porterbrook’s engineers and managers got involved and suggested using the redundant purpose built fleet of 8-car Gatwick Express Class 460 that were surplus to requirements to lengthen the Class 458’s to 5-car trains. This is possible as both sets of trains were built by Alstom to a common design.
So South West Trains will get what they want at a lesser cost and probably earlier too.
The irony is that Porterbrook, is basically a train leasing company and not an engineering one.
So next time you ask, what have bankers done for us, look at a clever piece of work like this. But then it was probably led by engineers who understood money, rather than bankers who understood engineering.
All of the best engineers I’ve worked with always understood the monetary implications of what they did! Some also understood marketing too!
One Of My Least Favourite Stadia Will Get a Station
The Ricoh Arena at Coventry is a reas9onable stadium, unless you want to get there when the buses aren’t running from the centre. That happened on News Years Day in 2011 as I reported here.
But it would now appear that by December 2013, it will have its own station! About time too!
Is Hull Going to be Connected Properly to the Rest of the UK?
Modern Railways are quoted in their February edition, that NetworkRail are going to investigate pushing the TransPennine electrification on from York to Selby and Hull.
This sounds like a good idea and I suspect that all those Hullensians will be pleased. It will also keep NetworkRail’s electrification train busy, especially as that line doesn’t have too many bridges, tunnels and viaducts.
Looking At the Thames Tunnel
The Thames Tunnel is the oldest underwater tunnel in the world and was built between 1825 and 1843 by Marc Brunel and his more famous son Isambard. It is now used to carry the East London line under the Thames and you can actually look into the tunnel from the platforms at Wapping station.
I was looking from the Northbound platform, just by the exit and the stairs that lead up to the street. When the station was designed, they decided to put protective railing to stop you failing on the line, but these do not obscure the view down the tunnel as the train approaches.
The New Island Platform at Cambridge
This view of the new platform, shows the problem we have at many stations in the UK.
The New Island Platform at Cambridge
The only way to and from the far platforms and the one where the picture was taken is by the bridge at the end, which either means a climb and a descent of stairs or two lift rides. One of the problems of overhead lines is that the bridge needs to be high with a lot of steps. In fact at Cambridge a subway as at Stratford would be better, but that would have increased the cost substantially.
But surely, in this day and age something better can be designed, that was quick and easy to install and could be installed at many stations.
Along the Cambridge Busway
Where I was going was just a short walk from a stop on the new Cambridge Busway, but because I couldn’t find anybody who knew the rules about the busway, I decided to go to my meeting in a taxi. I did however take the busway back to Cambridge City centre on the way back to the station and took these pictures.
The bus was quite smart with leather seats and wi-fi.
But the busway has a lot of design faults.
- There is no information on the busway at the station.
- It would be logical if all buses went via the main bus station at Dummer Street and the rail station. I assumed this. When I found myself dumped in the centre, I decided to have lunch and then had to queue up for another bus for the station. I’d have preferred to go straight to the station.
- There is no timing on the bus maps, so you have no idea when you might want to ask someone to pick you up.
- The bus displays at the stops, don’t say whether they go to the rail station. They don’t list the intermediate stops too, as trains do.
- As they are new modern buses, why can’t they announce the stops like all London ones do?
- The bus map is poor and lacks detail. It does have a text system to find the next bus, but you have to type in 8 letters. How come London can handle all of the metropolis with just 5 digits! Perhaps people in Cambridge like to have their fingers tested, whereas those in London can only manage 5 digits!
It all smacks of a design that wasn’t put together by the best designer. It is attention to detail, that makes tranportation systems good. London and Sheffield have informastion systems that are so much better.
A Smart New Train
I went to Cambridge on Tuesday in this smart new Class 379 train, built by Bombardier.
Note the powerpoints for mobile devices like iPhones.
Sadly, I only got a refurbished Class 317 on the way back and I couldn’t face forward as that irritated my back, which the 379 didn’t!
On the 31st I’m going to Ipswich for the football and now, I’ll take a train to Cambridge early, have a late gluten-free lunch in the City before taking a train to Ipswich. I’ll come home direct.
Aurora Borealis
This year seems to be the best in my life for the aurora borealis or northern lights in the media.
I’ve only seen it once and that was from a British Airways jumbo, crossing the Atlantic. The pilot spent a long time making sure that everyone who wanted was able to see the wonderful display as we passed down towards San Francisco over northern Canada. I suppose it keeps the passengers busy on a long flight.
I have been though to one of the best places to see the aurora in the UK. And that is in the cab of a train going from Edinburgh to Inverness in the evening. The night I did the journey, the time was wrong and anyway it was cloudy. But the driver had seen them many times, as they climbed over the Drumochter Pass, which at 1450 ft high is the highest railway line in the UK.
The Anonymous Widower 