An Elegant Way To Cope With Roof Leaks
I took these pictures at St. Pancras station.
Note.
- The full wording is “I catch rain, not rubbish”
- The green grass is something like Astroturf.
- There were three of them!
- They appear to be fitted with castors.
I’m surprised, I’ve not seen this idea used before.
Rolls-Royce Seeks Private Funds To Power Nuclear Project
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.
The article is based on this press release on the Rolls-Royce web site, which is entitled More Power And Updated Design Revealed As Nuclear Power Team Targets First Place In The Assessment Queue In Autumn 2021.
This is the first two paragraphs.
The consortium, led by Rolls-Royce, which is creating a compact nuclear power station known as a small modular reactor (SMR), has revealed its latest design and an increase in power as it completes its first phase on time and under budget.
It has also announced it is aiming to be the first design to be assessed by regulators in the second half of 2021 in the newly-opened assessment window, which will keep it on track to complete its first unit in the early 2030s and build up to 10 by 2035.
It would appear that they are following AstraZeneca’s example and building the relationships with the regulators early, so the process of regulation doesn’t delay entry into service.
An Updated Design
These two paragraphs describe the design changes.
As the power station’s design has adjusted and improved during this latest phase – with more than 200 major engineering decisions made during this latest phase – the team has optimised the configuration, efficiency and performance criteria of the entire power station , which has increased its expected power capacity, without additional cost, from 440 megawatts (MW) to 470MW.
The refreshed design features a faceted aesthetic roof; an earth embankment surrounding the power station to integrate with the surrounding landscape; and a more compact building footprint, thanks to successes optimising the use of floor space.
These changes appear to be positive ones.
Transformation To A Focussed Business
Rolls-Royce are transforming the current consortium to an as yet unnamed stand-alone business, as detailed in this paragraph from the press release.
With a focus on continuing its progress at pace, the UK SMR team is transitioning from being a collaborative consortium to a stand-alone business, which will deliver a UK fleet of power stations to become a low carbon energy bastion alongside renewables, while securing exports to make the power station a key part of the world’s decarbonisation toolkit.
Are Rolls-Royce aiming to repeat the success they’ve had with Merlins in World War II and large turbofan engines for airliners with small modular nuclear reactors that decarbonise the world? The strategy is certainly not going against the heritage of the company.
Use Of A Small Modular Nuclear Reactor
This paragraph from the press release outlines a few uses.
The power station’s compact size makes it suitable for a variety of applications, helping decarbonise entire energy systems. Each power station can supply enough reliable low carbon power for around one million* homes, or be used to power net zero hydrogen and synthetic aviation fuel manufacturing facilities, desalination plants or energy intensive industrial sites.
Their size would appear to increase the number of applications.
Hydrogen Production
I particularly like the idea of using an SMR to produce hydrogen for chemical feedstock or to make steel.
I indicated this in Will INEOS And Rolls-Royce Get Together Over Hydrogen Production?
I estimate that a 470 MW SMR would produce around 4,900 tonnes of hydrogen per day.
The numbers certainly seem convenient.
Cost Of Energy And Capital Costs
Tom Samson, Chief Executive Officer of the UK SMR consortium is quoted as saying.
Nuclear power is central to tackling climate change, securing economic recovery and strengthening energy security. To do this it must be affordable, reliable and investable and the way we manufacture and assemble our power station brings down its cost to be comparable with offshore wind at around £50 per megawatt-hour.
Hinckley Point C has a strike price of over £80 per megawatt-hour.
The release also gives a price of around £2.2 billion per unit dropping to £1.8 billion by the time five have been completed.
Benefits To The UK
The press release lists these benefits to the UK.
- create 40,000 regional UK jobs by 2050
- generate £52 billion of economic benefit
- have 80% of the plant’s components sourced from the UK
- target an additional £250 billion of exports – memoranda of understanding are already in place with Estonia, Turkey and the Czech Republic
The value of exports would indicate export sales of over a hundred reactors.
Lifetime
The press release indicates the following about the lifetime of the reactors.
- The reactor will operate for at least 60 years.
- The design, which will be finalised at the end of the regulatory assessment process, proposes that all used fuel will be stored on each site for the lifetime of the plant.
I would assume that Rolls-Royce are developing a philosophy for taking the SMRs apart at the end of their life.
Construction
This paragraph from the press release talks about the construction process.
The power station’s design cuts costs by using standard nuclear energy technology used in 400 reactors around the world, so no prototyping is required. The components for the power station are manufactured in modules in factories, before being transported to existing nuclear sites for rapid assembly inside a weatherproof canopy. This replicates factory conditions for precision activities and further cuts costs by avoiding weather disruptions. The whole sequence secures efficiency savings by using streamlined and standardised processes for manufacturing and assembly, with 90% of activities carried out in factory conditions, helping maintain extremely high quality. In addition, all spoil excavated will be reused on site to build the earth embankment, removing the need for it to taken off site, reducing road journeys that are both financially and environmentally costly.
I have talked to project managers, who have assembled factory-built railway stations and their experiences would back the Rolls-Royce method of construction.
My project management knowledge would also indicate, that the construction of an SMR could be much more predictable than most construction projects, if the factory-built modules are built to the specification.
Funding
According to the article in The Times, the consortium now seems to be in line for £215 million of Government funding, which will unlock £300 million of private funding.
Conclusion
It looks like this project will soon be starting to roll.
DfT To Have Final Say On Huddersfield Rebuild Of Rail Station And Bridges
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Rail Technology Magazine.
This is the first paragraph.
As part of the £1.4bn Transpennine Route Upgrade. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is to rule on planned changes to Huddersfield’s 19th century rail station and not the Kirklees council, in what is to be a huge revamp of the line between Manchester and York.
According to the article eight bridges are to be replaced or seriously modified.
As Huddersfield station (shown) is Grade I listed and three other Grade II listed buildings and structures are involved, I can see this project ending up with a substantial bill for lawyers.
But then, to have a world-class railway across the Pennines, a few eggs will need to be broken.
Electric Trains Across The Pennine
This page on the Network Rail web site describes the Huddersfield To Westtown (Dewsbury) Upgrade.
When the upgrade and the related York To Church Fenton Improvement Scheme is completed, the TransPennine route between Huddersfield and York will be fully-electrified.
As Manchester To Stalybridge will also have been electrified, this will mean that the only section without electrification will be the eighteen miles across the Pennines between Stalybridge and Huddersfield.
Will this final eighteen miles ne electrified?
Eighteen miles with electrification at both ends will be a short jump for a Hitachi Intercity Tri-Mode Battery Train, the specification of which is shown in this Hitachi infographic.
The Class 802 trains of TransPennine Express are able to be converted into these trains.
The trains could work these routes.
- Liverpool Lime Street and Scarborough
- Manchester Airport and Redcar
- Liverpool Lime Street and Edinburgh via Newcastle
- Manchester Airport and Newcastle
- Manchester Piccadilly and Hull
- Manchester Airport and Cleethorpes
Note.
- I suspect some more Class 802 trains with batteries will be needed.
- The trains would either use battery or diesel power to reach Hull, Redcar and Scarborough or there could be a few miles of electrification to stretch battery range.
- Will the Class 68 diesel locomotives be replaced with Class 93 tri-mode locomotives to haul the Mark 5A coaches to Scarborough.
- Manchester Airport and Cleethorpes could be a problem and will probably need some electrification around Sheffield and Grimsby.
This would just mean TransPennine’s two short routes to be decarbonised.
- Manchester Piccadilly and Huddersfield
- Huddersfield and Leeds
As except for the eighteen mile gap between Stalybridge and Huddersfield, these two routes are fully-electrified, I suspect that a battery-electric version of a 110 mph electric train like a Class 387 or Class 350 train could run these routes.
Conclusion
It looks like if these sections of the TransPennine Express network are upgraded and electrified.
- York and Church Fenton
- Huddersfield and Westtown
- Manchester and Staylebridge
Together with a few extra miles of electrification at strategic points, that TransPennine Express will be able to decarbonise.
Romania Wants To Buy Hydrogen-Powered Trains
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Romania Insider.
This is the first paragraph.
Romania’s minister of transport announced that the National Relaunch and Resilience Plan (PNRR) includes the purchase of some 10-12 hydrogen-powered trains for the Bucharest-Pitesti route.
Note that Bucharest and Pitesti are about 120 kilometres apart.
Conclusion
It looks like an ideal route for hydrogen trains.
- New hydrogen trains can probably take over from the current diesel trains with only a few modifications to the tracks and signalling.
- A hydrogen refuelling station would need to be provided.
- The route is not overly long.
- The train manufacturer could be delivering a standard fully-financed package of trains, hydrogen refuelling system and training.
As it is effectively, a replacement of one self-powered train with another, from the time order to in service could be a fairly short time of a couple of years or so.
BECCS Beats Hydrogen For Decarbonizing Steel In Europe: ArcelorMittal
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on S & P Global Platts.
This is the first paragraph.
Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) offers a more cost-effective, readily available solution for decarbonizing the steel industry in Europe than clean hydrogen, steel producer ArcelorMittal’s head of strategy David Clarke said May 17.
So what do they mean by bioenergy?
To make iron from iron ore, you need a reducing agent like carbon or hydrogen.
Iron ore is rich in oxides of iron.
The carbon is usually some form of coal, which produces large amounts of carbon dioxide with the oxygen from the iron oxides.
Hydrogen produces lots of water with the oxygen.
David Clarke of ArcelorMittal explains the process in the article.
“We know biomass worked as a replacement for coal,” he said. “We’ve been using it in our operations in Brazil and other places for many, many years. We have a project in Belgium that we’ll be starting up next year using waste wood, using that to make bio-coal,” with a project to take the emissions from the bio-coal to produce bioethanol.
Is this a case of Back-To-The-Future? If I remember my history, didn’t Iron Age men use charcoal to smelt iron and other metal ores?
If those scientists from Velocys can make Sustainable Aviation Fuel and biodiesel from household waste and used disposable nappies, can they apply their magic to make bio-coal?
I see great cost advantages with this process, as surely it would enable existing blast furnaces to be used, provided they were fitted with carbon capture and storage.
It’s Time To Detopsify Stratford Station
Stratford Station has grown like Topsy for too long and has several problems and possible future expansions.
Not least of these include.
- The final arrival of Crossrail.
- A direct connection to Chingford.
- A Stansted Express service.
- Massive housing developments in the area.
- More hotels
- New cultural developments like the branch of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
- A new campus for University College London.
This article on IanVisits is entitled Stratford Station Set For Massive Transformation.
This is his opening paragraph.
Stratford station could be radically redeveloped under plans being worked on by the rail companies and local council.
That is rather understated!
The station will become several times busier and needs a complete rethink, many more services and deTopsification.
These are my thoughts.
The Development Of The High Meads Loop
The High Meads Loop exists and is a double-track loop that can turn trains arriving at Stratford station via Lea Bridge station.
- It is underneath the Eastfield Shopping Centre – Westfield is in the West of London.
- Each track of the loop has its own long platform in the station. – Platform 11 is for clockwise trains and Platform 12 is for anti-clockwise.
- It has been used in the past for a Stansted Express service.
The Wirral Line in Liverpool like the High Meads Loop is now a modern loop for turning trains.
- The Wirral Loop is only single-track.
- It gives connections for over thirty stations on the Wirral and in Cheshire and North Wales to Liverpool City Centre.
- It is run by fifty-year-old Class 507 and Class 508 trains.
- The loop has now been improved and can handle upwards of the fourteen trains per hour (tph) it currently does.
Merseyrail will soon be introducing new Class 777 trains on the Wirral Line in the near future and will be increasing services and the number of destinations.
British Rail’s vision for Liverpool, that was cruelly cut-short by Liverpool MP; Harold Wilson, is finally coming to fruition.
Newcastle also got its British Rail tunnel which is now being used by the Metro, but what would have happened in Manchester if British Rail had been allowed to build the Picc-Vic Tunnel?
I have a strong belief, that a Lea Valley Metro can be developed on the West Anglia Main Line.
- It would have two Southern terminals – Liverpool Street station and the High Meads Loop at Stratford.
- When it opens, Crossrail will mean that Liverpool Street and Stratford stations will be seven or eight minutes apart with a frequency of at least 12 tph.
- Northern terminals would include Broxbourne, Cheshunt, Chingford, Enfield Town and Hertford East.
- Crossrail 2 was planned to have a frequency of 10 and 15 tph between Tottenham Hale and Broxbourne stations.
I believe that if services in East London are thoroughly reorganised, that all the benefits of Crossrail 2 can be brought to East London by the use of the High Meads Loop and the upgrading of existing lines.
Stansted Express Services
Go to Stratford station and there is an out-of-date sign at the end of Platform 1 and 2, where the Overground trains terminate.
It directs passengers to Platform 12 for Stansted Airport.
The picture was taken in 2017, but there is still a walk-through to Platform 12, that I use regularly, if I’m changing between London Overground and Greater Anglia or TfL Rail services to destinations on both the West Anglia or Great Eastern Main Lines.
I believe that there is still a need for a Stansted Express services from Stratford, as for some people, including myself, it is easier to get to Stratford, than Liverpool Street.
From some places the connections to and from Stansted are not very good. Try going between London Bridge, Canterbury, Euston, Victoria or Waterloo and Stansted with a few mobility issues like a heavy suitcase and/or a baby, without a degree in Ducking-and-Diving!
An additional Stansted Express service from Stratford would make things a lot easier to get to the airport for many travellers, because of Stratford’s connections to the Central, Jubilee and North London Lines and SouthEastern’s Highspeed services.
Better Connection Between High Speed One And The High Meads Loop For Passengers
Some passenger connections are missing at Stratford.
This is indicated in the IanVisits article.
This map from cartometro.com shows the Topsy-like nature of the platforms at Stratford.
Note.
- The Docklands Light Railway is shown in turquoise.
- The DLR platforms in the North-West corner of the map are those of Stratford International station.
- High Speed One and the four platforms of Stratford International station are shown in black.
- The North London Line of the London Overground is shown in orange.
- The North London Line terminates in Platforms 1 and 2, which have a level link to Platform 12.
- Platform 12 is on the anti-clockwise platform for the High Meads Loop and has step-free access to the subway system underneath the station.
- Platform 11 is on the clockwise platform for the High Meads Loop and has level access to Platform 10a and full step-free access,
- Platform 10a is used by some services to East Anglia.
- Crossrail is shown in blue.
- The Central Line is shown in red.
- The Jubilee Line is shown in silver.
It is not the best passenger-friendly station layout.
- Inevitability, you often find yourself trudging a long way at Stratford station.
- Changing to or from any high speed services is supremely difficult.
- Often you have to walk through the busy Eastfield Shopping Centre.
Particularly annoying for me is coming back from Kent on High Speed One and needing to take the North London Line, as I do several times a year.
As it involves a long walk through the Shopping Centre, I now take the easy way out and carry on to St. Pancras and get a taxi home.
As Stratford International is one of the draughtiest stations in England, the station is a real Design Crime and it needs a serious makeover.
Conclusion
Sort it!
USTDA Grants $1 Million To Support Battery Storage Project In Africa
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Running Africa.
This is the first two paragraphs.
The United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), an independent body of the US government, has reportedly issued a grant of just under USD 1 million to support feasibility studies for large-scale battery storage schemes in Senegal and Mozambique.
Notably, these large-scale battery storage projects have been grouped with wind energy in Mozambique in Southeast Africa as well as Senegal in West Africa.
A Dutch company seems to be doing the development.
We need more aid projects like these, as with electricity and clean water life can be so much better!
On Track – Network Rail Reaches Key Milestone On Dartmoor Line
The title of this post, is the same as that of this news release on the Network Rail web site.
These are the first two paragraphs.
The reopening of the railway line between Okehampton and Exeter is one step closer after Network Rail finished relaying the new track and sleepers this week.
Following the confirmation of government funding in March, engineers started immediately and have worked tirelessly upgrading this 14 mile stretch of track between Okehampton and Coleford Junction, where the Dartmoor Line joins the existing railway line to Exeter.
Perhaps the most significant fact about this project, is the speed with which work has progressed since it started.
So far it appears the following has been done.
- 11 miles of track has been laid.
- 24.000 new concrete sleepers have been installed.
- 29,000 tonnes of ballast has been installed.
Much of the work was done by a clever machine which is shown in a video.
I do wonder if this machine, when it finishes in Devon will be sent all the way to Newcastle to relay the Northumberland Line in the same manner.
A New Reston Station
This page on the Scotland’s Railway web site, gives an overview of the project to build a new Reston station on the East Coast Main line about 3.5 miles North of Berwick-upon-Tweed station.
This is the project summary given on the web page.
Network Rail has developed proposals to create a new station at Reston in the Scottish Borders.
We worked with local partners and stakeholders to develop plans for the station and liaised with the local community in advance of submitting a planning application to Scottish Borders Council.
Planning consent was granted in February 2021 and the team are gearing up to deliver a challenging programme of work to create the new station.
The page also says that work on the station started in March 2021. Certainly, by May 2021, there was quite a bit happening.
This Google Map shows the village of Reston.
Note.
- The A1 running East-West at the top of the map.
- Main Street running East-West across the middle of the map.
- The East Coast Main Line runs North West-South East across the South-West corner of the map.
The station would appear to be East of the road called The Orchard.
Station Facilities
Looking at the video the station appears to have the following facilities.
- Two platforms.
- About seventy car-parking spaces, which is designed to be expanded
- Five disabled car-parking spaces.
- Electric car charging.
- Bicycle storage
- Full step-free access, at the South-Eastern end of the station.
There does not appear to be any avoiding line for freight trains or a bay platform to reverse trains.
But there appear to be a pair of crossovers to the North of the station site.
Distances Between Reston Station And Selected Towns
This are road distances between Reston station and selected towns.
- Duns – 10 miles
- Galashiels – 38 miles
- Hawick – 47 miles
- Kelso – 26 miles
Are there plans for new housing in the area?
Services Between Newcastle And Edinburgh
The following services run between Edinburgh and Newcastle.
- CrossCountry – 1 tph – Plymouth and Edinburgh/Glasgow – Stops at Alnmouth (irregular), Berwick-upon-Tweed (irregular), Dunbar (1tp2h)
- East Coast Trains – 5 tpd – London Kings Cross and Edinburgh – Stops at Morpeth
- LNER – 1 tph – London Kings Cross and Edinburgh – Stops at Berwick-upon-Tweed
- LNER – 1 tph – London Kings Cross and Edinburgh – Stops at Alnmouth (1tp2h)
- TransPennine Express – 1 tph – Liverpool Lime Street and Edinburgh – Stops at Morpeth
Note.
- tpd is trains per day.
- tph is trains per hour.
- tp2h is trains per two hours.
- All services are run by 125 mph trains
- All services stop at Edinburgh and Newcastle.
- A typical service averages around 88.9 mph between Edinburgh and Newcastle.
The timetable appears to be arranged to ensure at least 4 tph between Edinburgh and Newcastle.
I have a few thoughts.
How Many Services Should Call At Reston?
On an urban line, stopping frequencies of services of up to four or even six tph are common, which would probably be in excess of what is needed at Reston.
Most rural main or secondary lines have frequencies of one or two tph.
I would suggest that if you’re designing and building a station, that will cost several million pounds, then the station must have at least an hourly service, but that two tph would be much more preferable.
In an ideal world, there might be two tph.
- A slow train that stopped at all the larger stations, which could include East Linton, Dunbar, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Almouth and Morpeth.
- A fast train that stopped just once at Reston station between Edinburgh and Newcastle.
Note.
- Like Reston station, East Linton station is also under construction.
- Reston station, is likely to have a selection of buses to Galashiels and other towns in the Borders.
- Reston station has space for a sensible amount of parking.
I would also expect bus and train services to obey these conditions.
- Be timetabled to arrive and leave at the same time each hour.
- Run from early until late.
- Provide an easy interchange, so that travellers don’t have to endure too much unfriendly weather.
- Have a comprehensive ticketing system to attract passengers.
I also think that a warm waiting room and cafe should be provided.
Will Reston Station Have A Direct Service To London And The South?
Both of LNER’s services between Edinburgh and London call at York, Darlington and Newcastle, with only one service calling at Berwick-upon-Tweed.
This Google Map shows the location of Berwick-upon-Tweed station.
Note.
- The long island platform between the tracks.
- There are 124 parking spaces.
- The A1 is some distance away to the West.
It all looks very cramped.
So if, one of LNER’s London services stopped at Reston, would it be better for all travellers and operators.
I would suggest that it would probably be ideal if one of LNER’s two services stopped at Berwick-on-Tweed and the other stopped at Reston.
It would also probably be a good idea for ticketing to consider Reston as a Berwick-on-Tweed station.
Will ERTMS Signalling Be Used Between Edinburgh and Newcastle?
I don’t think this is a question of will, but more one of when.
- It will enable trains to run at up to 140 mph.
- It will handle trains efficiently, when they are running at different speeds.
- It will allow the increasing of the frequency of trains on the double-track route.
- All trains on the route will probably be fitted with equipment to run under in-cab digital ERTMS signalling in a few years.
I would expect that ERTMS signalling could be used to run an increasingly complex pattern of trains between Edinburgh and Newcastle.
Will There Be 140 mph Running Between Edinburgh and Newcastle?
I have flown my helicopter along the route between Edinburgh and Newcastle and ridden it in a 125 mph train many times.
Given how Network Rail have squeezed increased speeds out of routes like the Midland Main and Great Eastern Main Line, I have no doubt that some 140 mph running will be possible between Edinburgh and Newcastle.
I estimate that with a substantial amount of 140 mph running between Edinburgh and Berwick-on-Tweed could save as much as fifteen minutes on current timings.
What Trains Will Be Used Between Edinburgh and Newcastle?
Consider.
- It is a fully-electrified double-track railway.
- There will be 125 mph and possibly 140 mph express trains passing through.
I suspect that to avoid getting in the way of the expresses, trains with at least a 110 mph capability would be needed.
Some of the redundant Class 350 trains would probably do fine.
How Will LNER’s Extra Paths Affect Trains Between Edinburgh and Newcastle?
In the December 2020 Edition of Modern Railways, there is an article, which is entitled LNER Seeks 10 More Bi-Modes.
This is the last paragraph.
Infrastructure upgrades are due to prompt a timetable recast in May 2022 (delayed from December 2022), from which point LNER will operate 6.5 trains per hour out of King’s Cross, compared to five today. As an interim measure LNER is retaining seven rakes of Mk. 4 coaches hauled by 12 Class 91 locomotives to supplement the Azuma fleet and support its timetable ambitions until new trains are delivered.
In A New Elizabethan, I suggest that one of these extra paths could be used to run a third hourly service between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh.
I would think it likely, that it only would only stop at Newcastle, if it provided a fast service between the two capitals.
Is Reston Station About Borders Unemployment?
This post has been up for a few days now and there have been comments about the cost of this station and the more-than-adequate car-parking provision for the small villages.
This article on the Southern Reporter is entitled Unemployment In Borders Up Almost 120% Year On Year.
Could it be that one of the purposes with its expandable car-parking is to allow people to get to jobs in Edinburgh and Newcastle?
- It should also be noted that Britishvolt are planning to build a £4 billion battery factory at Blyth, which according to reports will employ between three and five thousand people.
- It is a distance of seventy miles and Google says it will take nearly an hour-and-a-half.
- I suspect a 110 mph train between Reston and Bebside stations on the Northumberland Line would take about forty-five minutes.
- Bebside station is on the Northumberland Line and will have a shuttle bus to the Britishvolt factory.
- Porterbrook are developing a battery/FLEX version of their 110 mph Class 350 trains.
By choosing to build a station will the possibility of large amounts of parking are the Scottish Government doing the best for the unemployed in the Borders?
You can imagine a scenario in the employment office at Britishvolt.
- They are getting a lot of letters and e-mails asking about jobs.
- Someone does a bit of counting and realises their planned car-park is too small.
- Problems are outlined to ministers in the UK and Scottish Governments.
- The reopening of the Northumberland Line and the building of Reston station do appear to have been accelerated.
Perhaps the rail developments are a small price for both governments to pay to secure a £4 billion investment,
Conclusion
There’s a lot more to Reston station, than first appears.
A New Elizabethan
I can remember The Elizabethan, which was a steam-hauled non-stop express between London and Edinburgh between 1953 and 1961.
- The steam-hauled train took six-hours-and-a-half.
- It used to be the longest non-stop railway service in the world.
- Today, the service could be run by the current or refurbished Azumas or perhaps a new flagship train, built for the service.
- It could be easily under four hours.
It could be an interesting concept, to increase capacity between London and Edinburgh.
The Fastest Rail Journey Between London King’s Cross And Edinburgh
This section in the Wikipedia entry for the Class 91 locomotive is entitled Speed Record. This is the first paragraph.
A Class 91, 91010 (now 91110), holds the British locomotive speed record at 161.7 mph (260.2 km/h), set on 17 September 1989, just south of Little Bytham on a test run down Stoke Bank with the DVT leading. Although Class 370s, Class 373s and Class 374s have run faster, all are EMUs which means that the Electra is officially the fastest locomotive in Britain. Another loco (91031, now 91131), hauling five Mk4s and a DVT on a test run, ran between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh Waverley in 3 hours, 29 minutes and 30 seconds on 26 September 1991. This is still the current record. The set covered the route in an average speed of 112.5 mph (181.1 km/h) and reached the full 140 mph (225 km/h) several times during the run.
Seconds under three-and-a-half-hours was an amazing time nearly thirty years ago, from a short-formation InterCity 225, that went on to become the mainstay of the services on the route.
It makes High Speed Two’s proposed time of three hours and forty-eight minutes appear to lack ambition.
But to be fair to High Speed Two, train services have historically been faster on the the East side of Great Britain.
What Time Could Be Possible Between London King’s Cross And Edinburgh?
In What Is Possible On The East Coast Main Line?, I took a hard look at times on the route, taking into account improvements of the last thirty years and those that will happen in the next few.
This was my conclusion.
I started by asking what is possible on The East Coast Main Line?
As the time of three-and-a-half hours was achieved by a short-formation InterCity 225 train in 1991 before Covids, Hitchin, Kings Cross Remodelling, Power Upgrades, Werrington and lots of other work, I believe that some journeys between Kings Cross and Edinburgh could be around this time within perhaps five years.
To some, that might seem an extraordinary claim, but when you consider that the InterCity 225 train in 1991 did it with only a few sections of 140 mph running, I very much think it is a certainly at some point.
As to the ultimate time, earlier I showed that an average of 120 mph between King’s Cross and Edinburgh gives a time of 3:16 minutes.
Surely, an increase of fourteen minutes in thirty years is possible?
I believe that timings will decrease significantly on the East Coast Main Line with the current trains.
Extra Paths For LNER
In the December 2020 Edition of Modern Railways, there is an article, which is entitled LNER Seeks 10 More Bi-Modes.
This is the last paragraph.
Infrastructure upgrades are due to prompt a timetable recast in May 2022 (delayed from December 2021), from which point LNER will operate 6.5 trains per hour out of King’s Cross, compared to five today. As an interim measure LNER is retaining seven rakes of Mk. 4 coaches hauled by 12 Class 91 locomotives to supplement the Azuma fleet and support its timetable ambitions until new trains are delivered.
There would certainly appear to be a path available if LNER wanted to increase the frequency of trains between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh from the current two trains per hour (tph) to three.
What Would Be The Route?
I feel there could be three possible simple routes.
- A direct non-stop London King’s Cross and Edinburgh service.
- A London King’s Cross and Edinburgh service with a single stop at Newcastle.
- A London King’s Cross and Edinburgh service with stops at Leeds and Newcastle.
Each route would have its own advantages and drawbacks.
Route 1
My thoughts about Route 1.
- This would be the fastest route.
- It would be a serious challenge to the airlines on the London and Edinburgh route.
It would be a marketing man’s dream.
Route 2
My thoughts about Route 2.
- This would be the second fastest route.
- It would be a serious challenge to the airlines on the London and Edinburgh route.
- It would give Newcastle a third hourly service to the capital.
- It would give Newcastle a non-stop train to London every hour.
- It would probably be the fastest train between King’s Cross and Newcastle.
- It would beef up the challenge to the airlines on the London and Newcastle route.
Serving Newcastle may generate extra passengers.
Route 3
My thoughts about Route 3.
- This would be the slowest route as it is 23 miles longer.
- It would be a challenge to the airlines on the London and Edinburgh route.
- It would give Newcastle and Leeds a third hourly service to the capital.
- It would give Leeds a non-stop train to London every hour.
- It would probably be the fastest train between London and Leeds.
- It would beef up the challenge to the airlines on the London and Newcastle and London and Leeds routes.
- There could be an extra call at York
Serving Leeds and Newcastle may generate extra passengers.
Obviously, passenger numbers will determine the best route.
Conclusion
I very much feel that properly thought through, this service could be a success.
The Anonymous Widower 