Why We Should Use Independently-Powered Electric Trains
I was looking for something else and found this article in the Henley Standard entitled Goring rail line work ‘will ruin countryside’. This is said.
THE electrification of the railway line through Goring will ruin the surrounding countryside, say residents.
Network Rail is installing overhead power cables as part of the scheme, which covers the route between Reading and Oxford and is expected to be finished next year.
Last week contractors began felling trees and putting up steel lattice gantries which will span the track at regular intervals to hold the wires in place.
You can argue that on a major line like the Great Western Main Line, we need robust overhead wire systems, as many of us have suffered serious delays on lines like the East Coast Main Line and the Great Eastern Main Line because of the flimsy overhead wire design.
But still the residents have a point and I think there must be a better design that mitigates the visual intrusion. Would Jasper Maskelyne and others skilled in the art of camouflage have ideas to assist Network Rail?
Network Rail can get it right, as is shown at the Grade 1 Listed Wharncliffe Viaduct, where the overhead wires are arranged to reduce the visual impact.
Are they usually as measured about where they place a gantry, as they have been on the viaduct?
Away from main lines, there will be lines like the Settle and Carlisle and the Hope Valley Line, where visual intrusion will be very important and activists will attempt to stop the installation.
It is for places like this where we must have independently-powered trains to service the route. There are two available technologies.
Electro-Diesel Trains
At the present time, there is only one electro-diesel train planned in this country and that is the Hitachi Class 800 train, which soon be seen on the Great Western Main Line and the East Coast Main Line.
They are a solution to the problem and can switch between propulsion modes at line speed, but they require diesel engines to be lugged around the country for where they are needed, so they may not be as efficient as a purely electric train.
There seems to be a few ideas for electro-diesel trains, but none appear to be comng to fruition.
Electric Trains With On-Board Energy Storage (IPEMU)
I rode the Class 379 train, that had been converted to act as a demonstrator for this technology.
It was impressive, as we trundled through the Essex countryside powered by energy stored in batteries, that had been charged from the overhead wires.
The fact that the technology works is all down to the physics of steel wheels on steel rails, which make train travel efficient in the first place.
As an electrical engineer, I know that this is technology, that can only get better.
- Electricity storage, whether based on batteries, flywheels, capacitors or some other method, will only get better.
- Trains will roll better through improvements in design.
- Energy harvesting from sources like regenerative braking will be more comprehensive.
- Secondary electrical systems on trains like air-conditioning, toilets and the provision of wi-fi will use less electricity.
- Automatic control systems will control the train tightly according to schedule, terrain and signals to minimise electricity use.
- Pantograph deployment will be automatic, when overhead wires are available.
But using the on-board storage to power the train on its route, is only one of the reasons it will be installed.
- If a train has on-board storage and regenerative braking, it will be more efficient.
- When the overhead line gets damaged or the power supply is cut, an electric train with on-board storage might still get through.
- Depots can have simplified electrification, which is safer for staff.
Bombardier must be impressed with the concept, as all Aventra trains will be wired so that on-board energy storage can be fitted.
Conclusion
Both technologies for independently powered trains are proven, but you wouldn’t want to use on-board energy storage over more than a limited distance, beyond which the diesel would be ideal.
By using independently powered trains, you can balance electrification cost, installation disruption and visual intrusion against the extra cost of a train with on-board storage or diesel engines.
Provided of course, the independently powered train can handle the route to the satisfaction of passengers and rail companies!
On the Great Western Main Line because of the distances involved and the reliability required, electric trains using overhead power on robust supports are probably the best method we have at present.
Although, Great Western Railway have been reported as saying they might use Class 387 trains with an IPEMU capability to destinations a few miles off the Great Western Main Line, like possibly Bedwyn and Oxford.
Is TransPennine Going For A One-Class Fleet?
This report on Rail News announces the awards of the two rail franchises in the North.
It says that First TransPennine will be committed to acquiring forty-four new trains comprising 220 vehicles. The article also says this about increasing services.
The frequency on many routes will be increased, so that there will be six trains an hour between Manchester and Leeds, and 35 a day between Manchester and Scotland — twice as many as now. A new route between Liverpool and Scotland will be introduced in 2019.
The numbers say they are five-car trains, which will certainly sort out some of their capacity problems.
At present First Transpennine has the following fleet.
- Class 156 DMU – 6 of two cars
- Class 170 DMU – 4 of two cars
- Class 185 DMU – 51 x 3 cars
- Class 350 EMU – 10 x 4 cars
All except the Class 350 are diesel-powered.
Add up the current carriages and you get two hundred and three.
So if some of diesel multiple units were retained, there would be a useful increase in fleet size.
But surely from the train maintenance and staff points of view, it would be better if there was one fleet of all the same type of train.
There may also be a slight problem with Scottish services, especially as the number of them is more than doubled.
This will mean that between Preston and Glasgow, they will need extra paths on the overcrowded West Coast Main Line.
I think we’ll see trains between Manchester Airport and Liverpool, and Glasgow, joining and splitting at Preston, as this will mean that Liverpool to Scotland services will not need any extra paths on the West Coast Main Line. Some could also split at Carstairs, with one train going to Glasgow and the other to Edinburgh.
I’ve used the Class 350 trains from Glasgow to Preston and despite being too small, they are also only 110 mph trains, whereas the Class 390 Pendelinos used by Virgin, usually run at 125 mph.
Simple common sense says, that if all trains cruised up the West Coast Main Line at the same speed, this maximises capacity. Also as parts of the TransPennine network in the East are also 125 mph lines, this might be desireable design speed. The government press release about the franchise award also talks about 125 mph trains.
But the biggest problem as is pointed out in the press release is that full electrification is not expected to be complete until 2022.
So trains will need some form of independent power source to bridge the gaps in the electrification.
- Five carriages
- The ability to run in pairs.
- 125 mph cruising speed.
- Some form of independent power.
Logic says that this means they will be Hitachi Class 800 trains, which would use their on-board diesel engines as required.
Currently, the factory at Newton Aycliffe is busy with Class 800/801 trains for Great Western Railway and Virgin Trains East Coast and EMUs for Scotland, so like the extra Class 800s for the South Western routes, they would probably have to be built in Japan.
Would this mean that early introduction into service would be very difficult?
The only alternative would be to stretch the current four car Class 387 trains to five cars and make them IPEMU variants, which would then use their on-board energy storage to bridge gaps in the electrification. If the technology can be proven for a route like Leeds to Manchester, then they could probably start to be delivered next year.
These are some points and questions about Class 387 trains and Bombardier’s IPEMU technology.
- Class 387 trains are built in Derby by Bombardier.
- There are currently a total of fifty seven four-car Class 387 trains either built or on order.
- There must be some standard Class 387 trains sitting in sidings, as they are destined for routes on the Great Western Railway, where there are no overhead wires.
- I doubt it would be difficult to lengthen the trains to five cars, as the closely-related Class 378 trains have received an extra car twice.
- This report in the Derby Telgraph, says that Bombardier have recently received an award for their IPEMU technology.
- This article in Rail Technology Magazine, states that Bombardier are doing extensive testing of the batteries at Mannheim
- IPEMU trains could be more efficient, as regenerative braking is used to recover energy instead of always recharging from external sources.
- As IPEMU technology improves, the range will get longer making it possible for electric trains to serve more destinations in the TransPennine network.
- Bombardier’s next generation train, called the Aventra, will all be wired for the fitting of on-board energy storage,
- The new franchise for First TransPennine has effectively started, as it just a continuation of more of the same. So early train delivery would show they meant business and it wasn’t just jam tomorrow.
- The standard Class 387 trains could be introduced on Scottish services as soon as trains were delivered.
If the IPEMU technology can be proven to be viable on First TransPennine, a lot of companies and groups will benefit.
- Network Rail will be able to avoid a lot of difficult, sensitive or expensive electrification.
- Bombardier could sell a few more trains.
- Passengers will get new electric trains in many places, as fast as they can be built.
- Some politicians and others could get a lot of credit.
It’ll be interesting to see what First TransPennine have decided to do!
Hull Trains Take The Pragmatic Decision
The September edition of Modern Railways has an article entitled Hull Trains Plans Bi-Mode Fleet.
Like First Great Western, First Hull Trains seem to have lost patience with Network Rail and the article said they were thinking about ordering bi-mode or electro-diesel trains.
They have now ordered five Class 800 trains from Hitachi, as is reported here on the BBC. This is the start of the article.
A rail company is investing £68m in a fleet of faster trains to ensure shorter journey times to London.
Hull Trains said it was buying five trains capable of running on either electricity-powered routes or with diesel fuel.
The firm said the trains had been bought because of delays in country-wide electrification of the rail network.
So it looks like the non-electrification of Selby to Hull has caused the company to take this pragmatic decision. In the last few months, they’ve even looked at electrifying that line themselves.
At least they will not be left with a fleet of incompatible trains, as when the electrification finally happens on all their routes to Hull and Beverly, the trains can be converted to all-electric Class 801 trains.
I do wonder if the delayed electrification across the UK, will cause a few more companies to take pragmatic decisions!
I think we might see.
- First TransPennine ordering Class 800 Trains for Liverpool to Hull and Newcastle.
- Virgin ordering Class 800 Trains for London to Chester, North Wales and Holyhead.
To get around the problems of non-electrified lines.
First Great Western’s Pragmatic Large And Little Solution To The Problems Of Great Western Electrification
The electrification of the Great Western Main Line from West of Airport Junction to Bristol, Cardiff and Swansea is proving to be a difficult project to deliver.
This article on the BBC web site talks about the problems and starts with these paragraphs.
Electrifying the Great Western line is “a top priority”, the transport secretary has said, as he announces a rethink of a £38bn programme to overhaul Britain’s railways.
Patrick McLoughlin said Network Rail’s five-year plan was being “reset” as it was “costing more and taking longer”.
In an ideal world, the whole of the Great Western Main Line and its branches to places like Worcester, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Exeter,Plymouth and Penzance would be electrified.
But it was never intended to electrify the major branches and for a time InterCity 125 diesel trains will be used on these lines.
Then in February 2014, the sea wall at Dalwish was breached in a storm and much of the track and Dawlish station was washed away. Although the line was rebuilt in a few months, it is only recently that the sea wall and the walk alongside the railway has been reinstated.
The force of the storm probably put an end to thoughts for many years of fully electrifying the line from Exeter to Plymouth and Penzance
The Large Class 800 Electro-Diesel Train
The trains that will work the Great Western Main Line to Bristol and Cardiff are the Hitachi Super Express, which comes in two variants.
The two trains are very similar, but the Class 800 has on-board diesel engines to generate electricity. Wikipedia says this.
The Class 800 units will be electro-diesel multiple units, able to draw power from electrified overhead lines where available and power themselves via underfloor diesel generators outside of the electrified network. The train specification requires that this changeover can occur at line speed. The trains are able to be converted to electric only operation by removal of the diesel engines
Current plans are for 21 9-car Class 801 and 36 5-car Class 800 to replace 60 InterCity 125.
With no prospect of electrification to Devon and Cornwall and because of the nature of the line with gradients, First Great Western have taken the pragmatic decision to order twenty-nine more trains, which will effectively be a variant of the Class 800, but with uprated diesel-engines and larger fuel tanks. It’s reported in this article in the Railway Gazette International.
So the total fleet will eventually be 47 9-car trains and 39 5-car trains of all new variants to replace 60 2+7 InterCity 125 and 5 5 car Class 180 trains.
So it would appear that about 490 x 23 metre cars will be replaced by 618 x 26 metre cars. On a crude calculation that is just over a forty percent increase in capacity, with a sixteen percent increase in the number of trains.
When everything is delivered towards the end of this decade, First Great Western would seem to have available a substantial increase in capacity, with a large proportion of the fleet having a go-anywhere capability because they are electro-diesel trains.
So it looks like some of these trains will be used to extend the network, as well as increase the frequency to Devon and Cornwall.
But there will be no need to need for any extra electrification. Although of course if there were, this would only be to the advantage of the electro-diesel trains, which would run on electric power for longer.
The Little Class 387 IPEMU
If the rumours about the Class 387 trains for First Great Western in this month’s Modern Railways are true, then some or all of the eight trains on order will be IPEMUs, with an on-board battery to power the train for up to sixty miles.
Modern Railways said this about their use.
Delivery as IPEMUs would allow EMUs to make use of as much wiring as is available (and batteries beyond) while electrification pushes ahead under the delayed scheme, and in the longer term would allow units to run on sections not yet authorised for electrification, such as Newbury to Bedwyn. The use of IPEMUs might also hasten the cascade of Class 16x units to the west of the franchise.
As Newbury to Bedwyn is probably less than twenty miles, a Class 387 IPEMU could easily do the trip out and back on a battery, charged whilst running from Paddington.
There is also a small problem highlighted in a section entitled Review after May 2015 general election in an article on Wikipedia describing the Great Western electrification.
This has led to speculation that the GW electrification scheme (although it remains “top priority”) could be cut back. On 27 May 2015, the website of Theresa May, MP for Maidenhead, contained the following: “… a recent report stated that it would not be ‘technically feasible’ for electrification to go ahead on the Marlow branch, raising questions about the future of the Henley branch as well”
The Marlow and Henley branches are 7.25 and 4.5 miles long respectively and mainly run a shuttle service to the main line with occasional services to Paddington.
So would it be more cost-effective to use a Class 387 IPEMU on these branches, as there would be no need to electrify the lines?
If a Class 387 IPEMU was good enough for these branches, what about the other branches on the Great Western Main Line to Greenford and Windsor and Eton Central?
The only work that would need to be done on these branches to accept the 4-car Class 387 IPEMU would be some platform lengthening and electrifying any bay platforms they use on the main line.
There may be other places on the Great Western Main Line, where electrification can be omitted by the use of the Class 387 IPEMU.
Class 387 IPEMU Or Aventra IPEMU?
This question has to be asked.
The Class 387 train on which the Class 387 IPEMU will be based is a member of the Electrostar family of trains, that have been produced by Bombardier since 1999,
The Electrostar is being superseded by the new Aventra family and the first orders have been placed for Crossrail and the London Overground.
The improvements in the Aventra design are summed up here in Wikipedia. This is said.
The multiple units have been designed to be lighter, more efficient, and have increased reliability. They 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, Meridians and newerTurbostars.
The design features a gangway design that allows maximum use of the interior space and ease of movement throughout the train.
As the Aventra is a new train, that has been designed since the successful IPEMU trial with a Class 379 in 2014, I do wonder if it has been designed with the ability to be fitted with an on-board battery to make it an Aventra IPEMU! In this article on Global Rail News this is said.
AVENTRA can run on both 25kV AC and 750V DC power – the high-efficiency transformers being another area where a heavier component was chosen because, in the long term, it’s cheaper to run. Pairs of cars will run off a common power bus with a converter on one car powering both. The other car can be fitted with power storage devices such as super-capacitors or Lithium-Iron batteries if required. The intention is that every car will be powered although trailer cars will be available.
So every Aventra can be converted to an Aventra IPEMU! And as that article was written in 2011, it increasingly looks like the IPEMU trial was a test of one of the new systems for an Aventra.
It would surely be a big advantage to a train operator running a fleet of Aventras, if they could add and remove battery packs as their schedules required.
But surely, because of the fact that an Aventra is lighter and more efficient than a Class 387, I wouldn’t be surprised that the range of an Aventra IPEMU is greater than the sixty miles quoted for the prototype.
Every extra mile, that the train can complete on batteries would open up new routes.
I suspect too that the Aventra IPEMU will have more customer appeal than a Class 387 IPEMU.
No-one will believe that a train running on batteries could possibly be a viable proposition, so at least if it looks like one of the new Crossrail Class 345 trains, passengers would at least think the train was modern.
So I wouldn’t be surprised if the order for Class 387 IPEMU was delivered as Aventra IPEMUs.
Oxford
To say that Oxford station has had planning problems in the last few years would be a massive understatement. I talked about them in Network Rail’s Problems In Oxford.
According to this article on the BBC, planning permission has at last been given to extend platforms at the station, so that Chiltern Trains can run services to the city.
But there is no mention of a new platform on the South side of the station, as is mentioned in Future Expansion in the station’s Wikipedia entry.
Or any mention of electrification either!
So will Network Rail postpone the new platform and the electrification to Oxford?
If they do, then First Great Western can serve the city by Class 800 trains going along the Cotswold Line to and from Evesham and Worcester.
First Great Western could also still use the current Class 165/6 trains, but they would like to cascade them to other places on their network.
Now here’s a thing!
Didcot to Oxford is probably less than thirty miles, so once Didcot is electrified, Oxford could be easily reached by an IPEMU.
If this happened Oxford would get new 110 mph 4-car electric trains to replace 90 mph 2-car and 3-car diesel trains.
The electrification needed for the East-West Rail Link would be done later, when Oxford decided to join the twentieth century.
Rolling Stock Cascade
At present First Great Western has a fleet of diesel multiple units that work the Thames Valley Services.
- Sixteen 3-car Class 165 trains
- Twenty 2-car Class 165 trains
- Twenty-one 3-car Class 166 trains
These will be replaced by twenty-one 4-car Class 365 trains from Great Northern and twenty-nine 4-car Class 387 trains cascaded from Thameslink as the new Class 700 trains arrive.
Another order for eight 4-car Class 387 trains has been placed and it is this order that Modern Railways said could be for IPEMUs.
In terms of carriages 151 diesel carriages are being replaced by 232 electric ones.
According to this document on the ATOC web site, this will happen to the Class 165 and Class 166 trains.
Some will be displaced by electrification (and the resulting cascade) on Great Western. One option is that they remain in service, to accommodate growth and to provide a cascade of Class 15x vehicles, subject to necessary modifications and PRM-TSI.
So it looks like they will be used to replace the outdated Class 15x trains.
Cardiff to Portsmouth
Cardiff to Portsmouth is a route run by First Great Western. When I went from East London To Yeovil By The Long Way, I used a First Great Western Class 158 train from Fratton to Salisbury. I said this in the related post about the journey.
I think this journey shows up our trains in a reasonable light. The journey times are slow not because of slow trains, but because of the frequent stops and complicated route. The journey took three hours seventeen minutes from Littlehampton to Yeovil, but there was only thirty-three minutes wasted in connections.
Although some trains date from the 1980s, there wasn’t anything as bad as the dreaded Pacers that inhabit the North. The services were pretty well-used and except for the short leg from Littlehampton to Fratton, there was a catering trolley on all trains.
I do think though, that perhaps this journey might be better done in something like a 4-car Class 800. Although, there isn’t much electrification to make use of until you get to Bristol, once you’ve left Southampton.
An IPEMU wouldn’t be much help, as it’s a long way between Cardiff and Portsmouth.
So is there a need for a 4-car Class 800 train, optimised for long cross-country routes, where there is not much electrification or high-speed running?
Conclusion
The Large and Little approach by First Great Western seems to be a pragmatic way around the problems of the Great Western electrification.
The new Class 800 trains and their closely-related siblings will enable services to be expanded at the extremities of their network, without any need for full electrification.
If all or some of that future order for eight Class 387 trains, was for the IPEMU variant or were even Aventras, so long as electrification reached Newbury and Didcot, new Class 387 IPEMUs could run to Marlow, Henley, Windsor, Oxford and Bedwyn.
One side effect would be the release of Class 165/6 trains, currently used on the routes out of Paddington and the branch lines, for other services on their network.
Rumours Of Battery Powered Trains
In the September edition of Modern Railways, there is an article entitled Class 387s Could Be Battery Powered.
The Class 387 train is an electric train, where the first twenty-nine members of the class are running on Thameslink between Bedford and Brighton. Built in Derby by Bombardier, they are possibly the last variant of the numerous Electrostar family. When the new Thameslink Class 700 trains are delivered, these units will be transferred to First Great Western to run services out of Paddington on the electrified Great Western Main Line.
At present Bombardier are building twenty-seven new Class 387 trains to run the Gatwick Express out of Victoria.
When this order is complete, they will build another eight units for services out of Paddington, for delivery in late 2016.
It is these eight trains that are rumoured to be capable of battery running, using technology I saw demonstrated and talked about in Is The Battery Electric Multiple Unit (BEMU) A Big Innovation In Train Design?
If you still think these trains aren’t practical, there is a BBC video on YouTube of the Class 379 IPEMU during its tests at Manningtree.
In their article, Modern Railways says the following.
Delivery as IPEMUs would allow EMUs to make use of as much wiring as is available (and batteries beyond) while electrification pushes ahead under the delayed scheme, and in the longer term would allow units to run on sections not yet authorised for electrification, such as Newbury to Bedwyn. The use of IPEMUs might also hasten the cascade of Class 16x units to the west of the franchise.
Note that these trains are now called IPEMUs or independently powered electric multiple units.
It looks to me, like the rolling stock engineers at Bombardier in Derby are getting their fellow engineers in electrification out of trouble.
Having a small number of IPEMUs could be very useful to train companies, as they could be used tactically to perhaps extend electric services, when the wires are being installed or onto a scenic branch line, where putting up overhead wires would be strongly opposed. They could also be used for blockade busting, say when a tunnel or bridge is being rebuilt.
It would be interesting to see the cost difference between a standard Class 387 and one with batteries, as this would determine, whether to electrify say a branch or use IPEMUs.
Other Places For An IPEMU
Also in Modern Railways are three articles, where an IPEMU could be the solution.
- Hull Trains are reported looking for a bi-mode fleet to run their Hull services, as they would bridge the unelectrified seventy miles of line between Selby and Hull. A Class 387 IPEMU probably doesn’t have enough performance, but it might be capable of running the route.
- Services to Blackpool have also been approved, which if the electrification is not ready in time, is a route that could be handled by a Class 387 IPEMU.
- Roger Ford is also talking about Open Access Hotting Up. Some of the routes would be ideal for a Class 387 IPEMU, as lots of places without a decent service to London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow or other large cities, are thirty or so miles off a main electrified line. Places like Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Sudbury, Cromer, Lincoln, Skrgness, Wisbech, Windermere, Chester and Burnley come to mind.
I also think, that as the years pass, IPEMU technology will get better and much more efficient with a longer range when running on the batteries. Drivers will also learn how to coax the maximum range out of the trains.
This could enable services like.
- London to Norwich via Cambridge
- London to Salisbury
- Ipswich to Cambridge and Peterborough
- Manchester to Sheffield
- Newcastle to Carlisle
In my list, there would seem to be a large number of routes in East Anglia. But then Anglia Greater Anglia were part of the trials of the test train.
Visual Intrusion Of Electrification
I think too, we shouldn’t underestimate the lack of visual intrusion if say a picturesque branch line was to be served by an IPEMU rather than by a traditional electric train. The Windermere branch and some lines in South Wales may well be better served by a more visually acceptable IPEMU.
Affordable Electrification
I have listed that these IPEMU trains would be able to run between Carlisle to Newcastle.
I don’t know the Tyne Valley Line well, but it is about sixty miles long and has electrified lines at both ends. Traditional electrification may require a lot of bridge and station reconstruction to accommodate the overhead wires, whereas a Class 379 IPEMU could use the line without any modifications to infrastructure, as it can use any line that the current Class 156 trains on the line can. There would of course be a need to make sure that at both ends of the line, there was sufficient electrification to fully charge the train for its return journey.
So the cost of replacing diesel trains on this line with modern electric ones, would be solely the cost of the new trains, and perhaps the cost of a small amount of electrification in the stations and the stabling sidings at each end of the line.
In this case, I suspect Network Rail would breathe a big sigh of relief, if they didn’t have to electrify this line, with all its logistical and possibly environmental problems.
How many lines in the UK, could be electrified this way?
Route Proving For Electrification
The lines in East Anglia from Felixstowe and Ipswich to Cambridge and Peterborough are not electrified.
They carry a large amount of freight to and from the Port of Felixstowe, so if they were to be electrified the benefits of replacing Noisy and polluting diesel locomotives with environmentally-friendly electric ones is probably easily calculated.
But how do you calculate what will happen when two and three car diesel multiple units, albeit modern Class 170 trains, with new four-car electric ones?
In the case of these East Anglian lines, you could run a Class 379 IPEMU on the line.
The only problem after the test was completed, would the passengers allow their brand-new ekectric train to be moved elsewhere.
But you would get an accurate figure to put in your costings for electrification.
Electro-Diesel Freight Locomotives
Nobody except possibly the operators, love the Class 66 locomotive, which is extensively used for freight in the UK. It doesn’t meet the latest EU regulations and it’s noisy and unloved by the drivers to whom I’ve spoken.
Electrifying freight routes like Felixstowe to Nuneaton, would allow operators to send freight trains between Felixstowe and the Midlands, North and Scotland, using electric haulage all the way.
Next year, we’ll see the first of the new electro-diesel locomotives; the Class 88, which is an electric locomotive, that can use an on-board diesel engine, where there are no overhead wires.
How will these and other locomotives using similar technology affect the costs and need for electrification?
In the case of any electrified route to a port like Felixstowe or London Gateway, overhead wires in the port can present a problem, which an electro-diesel locomotive solves, as it uses the on-board diesel, anywhere near the sidings in the port.
Class 800 Trains
The Class 800 train being introduced in a few years is an electro-diesel train, which has been designed to run at 200 kph to the farthest corners or the UK, as a replacement for the diesel InterCity 125.
The specification of the train and what they’ve seen so far of the prototype must have impressed First Great Western as they’ve ordered extra trains as Wikipedia reports.
In March 2015 First Great Western agreed to acquire 29 bi-mode Hitachi AT300 (Class 800 variant) trains as HST replacements on services in and to the southwest of England. The order consisted of 22 five-car and 7 nine-car trainsets, with an option for 30 more sets. Differences with the original design included more powerful diesel engines more suited to steeper graded line in Devon and Cornwall, as well as larger fuel tanks. A £361 million contract between FGW and rolling stock leasing company Eversholt Rail was signed in July 2015. The expected introduction date of the new trains was summer 2018.
So where else could these trains appear to provide high speed services on routes with no or only partial electrification?
The Class 800 is closely related to the Class 395 train used on High Speed and third-rail routes South of the Thames. So could we see a third-rail version of the Class 800, or an electro-diesel Class 395 variant, which could run from St. Pancras to Hastings and Eastbourne and from Waterloo to Salisbury and Exeter? This would kill any thoughts of adding more third-rail electrification.
The Class 387 IPEMU and the Class 800 are a Little and Large combination to provide a cost-effective alternative to full electrification of some routes across the UK.
Conclusions
The Class 387 IPEMU, could be a component of a series of solutions, that bring high-quality new electric or electro-diesel trains to a large portion of the UK.
My only worry about them is the battery technology of the IPEMU, which has reportedly been troublesome in some applications on buses and aircraft.
History Repeats Itself
The BBC is today showing a clip on Breakfast Time, where their Transport Correspondent, gets a ride on the new Class 800 train from Hitachi, as it runs round the test track.
But it is already suffering from the same problems that dogged the British Rail trains of the 1970s and 1980s. According to this document on a web site about the Advanced Passenger Train, the drivers blacked the train for twelve months because it was single-crewed. The writer claims this was a factor in the abandoning of the project.
So what was last week’s strike on First Great Western about?
Crew levels on the new trains, as is reported in this article on the BBC.
We may be in the twenty-first century, but some people and their attitudes are still in the nineteenth.
Racing Trains To Scotland
As a child, I was never a great reader of books, except for encyclopaedias and other factual books. In an effort to get me to read more, my mother got me a book from the library about how the various train companies in the late 1800s tried to outperform each other to Edinburgh in 1888 and Aberdeen in 1895.
All of this has come back to me, as this month’s edition of Modern Railways is talking about developments in the services to Scotland, that could happen over the next few years.
The Press of the time, dubbed this Victorian rivalry as the Race To The North and in the section in the Wikipedia entry about the rivalry to Aberdeen in 1895, this is said.
In his 1958 book about the series of races, Oswald Nock wrote of the 22/23 August journey, “And at that astonishing average speed of 63.3 mph made sixty-three years ago the London–Aberdeen record still stands today”
The time was even more astounding, when you consider it wasn’t beaten until the 1970s by an InterCity125, which still work the route today.
The time on the night of the 22nd/23rd of August 1895 was eight hours forty-two minutes with Victorian steam locomotives and today the 200 kph diesel train takes just a few minutes over seven hours. But the modern train takes the shorter East Coast route!
The East and West Coast routes obviously don’t race each other these days, but according to Modern Railways, it looks like travel between London and Edinburgh is going to get faster and more interesting, as Virgin are aiming for quite a few four-hour trains throughout the day and two new companies are applying to run direct services between the two capitals.
If I understand the article correctly, by 2020 Virgin will be running three trains an hour between London and Edinburgh. The train from London on the hour will stop at Newcastle with York in alternate hours. The one stoppers will do the journey in four hours with the others just a few minutes slower.. Hopefully by 2020, the new Class 800 and Class 801 trains will be running the semi-fast services in four hours twenty-three minutes. The fastest trains now take four hours and twenty minutes.
Two new operators are applying to run trains on the route.
GNER which is ultimately a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn is planning to use 12×9-car Pendelinos to provide an hourly ‘fast’ service in three hours forty-three minutes from December 2018. They have said, that they are aiming to tempt passengers to switch from plane to train.
The article quotes that rail has a 30% share of the London-Edinburgh market, where there are 42 flights a day. They want to push rail’s share up to 50%.
In Edinburgh – Train or Plane? I compared a journey up by easyJet from Stansted with a return in First on East Coast. Both journeys cost and took about the same time from Hackney to the centre of Edinburgh.
FirstGroup is aiming to run five trains each way between London and Edinburgh in four hours from December 2018, using new Hitachi AT300 electric trains with three stops en route at Morpeth, Newcastle and Stevenage. First has said it will be targeting passengers from the low-cost airlines.
I’ve only talked about Edinburgh in this piece, but a lot of the analysis will also apply to the West Coast Main Line, which has already hsad a dose of a competing service, in the share of First TransPennine to Manchester.
If these plans come to fruition, it would look like the slowest trains on the Edinburgh route will be the Virgin semi-fasts, which will take just a few minutes longer than the fastest trains today.
Out of curiosity, I looked at trains and flights for tomorrow (today is a Monday). I could get the 08:00 out of Kings Cross, which gets me into Edinburgh at 12:20, just in time for lunch, for a Second Class cost of £33.95 and a First Class cost of £65.95 (both costs third-off with Railcard), whereas the easyJet flight from Gatwick or Stansted costs around £60, but would probably mean leaving home well before five in the morning.
This leads me to think, that if all these train services to Edinburgh come to fruition, that the only losers will be the airlines, especially if the large increase in capacity on the route brings down train fares.
The Japanese Are Going To Invade Devon And Cornwall
This is not a troubling story, but First Great Western have been given an extension to their franchise between London and the West Country that now runs until 2019.
As part of the franchise agreement they are going to purchase 29 new bi-mode AT300 trains from Hitachi. These will be similar to the Class 800 trains, that will be introduced from 2017 on the Great Western Main Line, but with bigger fuel tanks and engines to better cope with the demands of the route. This article in the West Briton explains it all in detail. This is said about the overall service to Devon and Cornwall in a similar article in Modern Railways.
The agreement promises more direct trains into Devon and Cornwall, including two trains per hour to the south west, a doubling of the number of services into and out of Cornwall, an earlier arrival into Plymouth and journey time reductions between Paddington and Penzance of up to 14 minutes.
My only worry about the express service, is will First Great Western still be offering Pullman Dining? I certainly hope so.
The At-300 will have that advantage that as electrification creeps further towards the West, they will be able to run more and more from an electric supply, which should speed up the service.
In tandem with the improvements on the express services, Class 365 and Class 387 electric multiple units will take-over the services between Paddington and the Thames Valley, which will mean that some Class 165, Class 166 and Class 168 diesel multiple units will be available to run local services in the Far West.
Things are looking up for trains in Devon and Cornwall.
But as there are respectively 36, 21 and 15 in each of the Classes 165, 166 and 168, I suspect that there will be a at least a few of these 1990s-built Networker trains to consign a several Pacers to the scrapyard.
So in my view although this is a deal for the West, it will have positive effects all over the UK.
Are Rail Passengers Enthusiastic About High Speed Rail?
I ask this question, as in some ways it is a continuation of a conversation I had with a fellow First Class passenger, whilst we were waiting for our Manchester train on Saturday in the Lounge at Euston.
He asked if I’d ever flown to Manchester from London. I said no and he said he wouldn’t either, as the trains were good enough. So we were two satisfied Virgin riders.
But we were both travelling on a Saturday and I bought my ticket some weeks ago on-line.
So what if I needed to go urgently to see someone tomorrow, how much would it cost?
Looking on the Virgin web site this morning, I can get a ticket to Manchester from Euston for £67.50, if I leave on the 10:00. The cheapest flight available on British Airways in the morning is £211. But there is one big difference, with Virgin the ticket is a First Class Advance, which includes an unlimited baggage allowance and free drinks and snacks. I’d also get a third off the £67.50 as I have a Senior Railcard.
The conversation was typical of many, I’ve had with savvy passengers on British trains, not always in First Class. Moans include the overcrowding and the quality of on train snacks and drinks. But with most passengers going a distance, there is generally no problems with the price. Obviously, passengers would like to get there quicker, but in the UK in recent years, I’ve never heard anybody complain about the length of the journey, on trips to and from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cornwall and Wales.
You might get the odd comment, about looking forward to a slight speed-up, but no-one has ever mentioned that they can’t wait for a High Speed train to whisk them to say Edinburgh at 200 mph.
I think that passengers choose a train that meets certain criteria. It must be convenient and comfortable, at a keen price and so long as it is fast enough no-one seems to care. I remember, once being told by a one of First Great Western’s Customer Service Agents, that one of the common question they get asked is “Is the train going to be an InterCity125?”
I must admit, that one of the reasons, I travel on Chiltern to Birmingham, is that the trains are comfortable and spacious, Mark 3 coaches, rather than the cramped Pendelinos. My only problem, is that Euston is easier for me to get to, than Marylebone.
So you pays your money and takes your choice.
Obviously, we’d all like to get there a few minutes sooner and to illustrate this, at Bolton, I had a long chat with a fellow Ipswich fan, who like me was looking forward to the implementation of the Norwich in Ninety improvements.
When HS2 is built to Birmingham, I do wonder if I’ll use it! A lot will depend on the trains, being comfortable and spacious, and I’m not going to pay a silly price to save a few minutes. I’d also be more likely to use the line, if I could just hop on the Overground at one of the Dalston stations and then change across the platforms at say Old Oak Common.
Convenience is everything! Especially, when there is a comfortable, affordable alternative! Which there will be!
If you look at the only high speed link we have, that to Paris and Brussels, through the Channel Tunnel, it obviously meets a lot of passengers’ criteria. But it did take some time to get popular, as I believe it will with HS2.
The interesting thing, will be how successful, the new electrified line to Bristol and South Wales, is in attracting passengers, after it opens hopefully in 2017. There will be new Class 800/801 trains, but I have my doubts, they will be liked as much by passengers as the forty-year-old InterCity125s.
The Great Western Main Line, like the West and East Coast Main Lines, will be a genuine 200 kph plus line, that because of signalling developments will be able to run faster than current services.
All three lines by the end of this decade will share some characteristics.
1. Fast, frequent services in modern trains at speeds up to 140 mph.
2. Services will stop at a convenient intermediate stations, like Crewe, Doncaster, Swindon, Newport and many others.
3. If the current trend continues its upward curve, on-board service will be better.
4. All classes will have free on-board wi-fi.
These services will set a very high bar for services on HS2 to achieve.
The more, I read about HS2, the more I’m convinced that it is needed more on capacity grounds than anything else. And especially, the capacity the line will release for freight! It will certainly find it difficult to offer some of the reasons we use the trains we do today.
So to answer my original question, I think the current answer is no. But in a few years time, there may be a different answer. Unless of course all of the negative publicity about HS2 convinces a government, that it is not worth the trouble.
Electrification Of Manchester To Preston Via Bolton
My trip to Bolton today, beautifully illustrated that the Manchester to Preston line needs to be electrified and the Ordsall Chord needs to be built. This chord would allow trains to serve both Manchester Piccadilly and Victoria stations as they pass through the city.
Trains do run directly between Piccadilly and Horwich Parkway, but going to the match, I did want to take some pictures in Manchester, so I walked to Victoria and got the train from there. Hopefully, when the scheme is fully implemented, all of the stations served by the line will get better connections at Piccadilly to and from the South.
Wikipedia says this about services between Horwich Parkway and Manchester
Northern Rail: there is a half-hourly service Monday to Saturdays northbound to Preston, with hourly extensions to Blackpool North and southbound to Bolton, with trains running alternately to Manchester Piccadilly or Manchester Victoria. An hourly service continues onwards to Stockport and Hazel Grove.
Trans-Pennine Express: one train per hour calls in each direction throughout the day, northbound to Blackpool North and southbound to Manchester Airport.
I think after the Ordsall Chord is built, it is reasonable to assume that a good proportion of the services will call at both Manchester stations. Certainly, it has been stated that Manchester Airport services will do this.
The train I got to the match from Victoria was one of Northern Rail’s better elderly diesel units, but coming back I was in one of TransPennine’s modern Class 185 trains.
After electrification of the line, I suspect there’ll be a bit of a reallocation of routes between the two train companies and most services on the line will be run by refurbished Class 319 trains. These are four carriages to a trainset and they can also be run in eight and twelve coach formations, so they can run services based on the newly-electrified lines in a very flexible manner, suited to the traffic.
I personally think that the train service between Manchester and Blackpool is totally inadequate at just a couple of rather pedestrian trains per hour.
As electrification is likely to bring a raising of speed limits and a larger pool of bigger and much better rolling stock, I would think that in a few years time, the Manchester-Blackpool service will bear no relation to the terrible one it is today.
At present it is not just the Manchester-Liverpool and Manchester-Preston-Routes that are being electrified. In their description of the electrification in this report, Network Rail show this map.
Northern Electrification Map
Note how Wigan-Liverpool via Huyton, Manchester Victoria-Leeds via Huddersfield and Guide Bridge-Stalybridge are also shown as going to be electrified. As is the Windermere Branch Line, which is not shown on this map. All are costed and funded, but there have been a few engineering problems, meaning that the Manchester to Liverpool services didn’t start when they should have done. The problems are reported in the Liverpool Echo.
Network Rail has admitted the long-awaited launch of electric train services between Lime Street and Manchester Victoria and Manchester Airport will now be postponed until next year, possibly as late as February.
The serious delay has been blamed on “unexpected ground conditions and technical issues” encountered while installing the overhead catenary wires on the 184-year-old former Liverpool & Manchester Railway mainline, said Network Rail.
This will only be the start of the revolution.
As there are 86 Class 319 trainsets, that are to be split between the North and the Great Western Main Line, I’m sure that enough sets can be found to run a good service between the following destinations, when the current electrification plans are complete.
- Liverpool-Blackpool
- Liverpool-Lancaster, Carlisle and Scotland
- Liverpool-Leeds/Newcastle via Manchester Victoria
- Manchester-Blackpool
- Preston-Windermere
Services from Liverpool, that go North up the West Coast Main Line, don’t run at present, except to Preston and Blackpool. But if the lines are all electric, subject to the paths being found, I think that one of the operators will run direct services between Liverpool and Glasgow. Failing that Liverpool to Blackpool services will probably be timed to connect with services to both Scotland and the South at Preston. Or perhaps some of the First TransPennine services between Scotland and Manchester , could divide and connect at Preston. But whatever happens travel between Liverpool and Scotland will be a lot easier.
Once electrification gets to Leeds, this will enable services from Manchester and Liverpool to go all the way to Newcastle, opening up more possibilities for new services.
I don’t believe that this will be the end of the development of electric services in the North.
The Class 319 trains currently ply between Bedford and Brighton, which by road is about 120 miles. So they should be capable of serving the slightly shorter distance between Liverpool and Hull. It would seem they are capable of travelling across the North of England reliably. As they are 100 mph electric trains, they certainly wouldn’t be slower on the route than the current Class 185 trains and probably only slightly slower than the new Class 350 trains, that First TransPennine use on Manchester-Scotland services.
In a few months time, electric services between Liverpool and Manchester will commence, probably followed about two years later by electric services from Liverpool and Manchester to Preston and Blackpool.
If the North like their refurbished trains running on electrified lines, it will be hard to resist the pressure to put in more electrification.
If Network Rail can get its act together on electrification, I think that by 2022, the number of electrified lines in the North will be greater than currently planned.
The route from Manchester to Sheffield by the Hope Valley Line will probably be a priority, as when the Midland Main Line from Sheffield to Doncaster, Nottingham and London is electrified in 2020, it will open up all sorts of routes like Liverpool and Manchester to Nottingham and the East Midlands.
If Hull to Leeds and Doncaster is electrified, then this opens up the possibility of electric Liverpool and Manchester to Hull services via Leeds. The BBC has this report about ministers backing the electrification.
The government has backed plans to electrify the Hull to Selby rail line.
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said he was making £2.5m available to take the project to the next stage
First Hull Trains is planning to spend £94m electrifying 70 miles (112km) of track to improve connections with the wider rail network.
Work is already under way to electrify the line from Manchester to Leeds, York and Selby and is due to be completed by December 2018.
This one will happen, as First Hull Trains wouldn’t spend £94million of their own money, if they didn’t think they’d make a decent return. They are probably trying to get their hands on some of the InterCity225s that will be made redundant by the new Class 800/801 trains.
It is almost if a hundred miles per hour railway across the country is fighting its way to birth by stealth, aided by some refurbished over twenty-years old British Rail rolling stock.
An interesting aside is what will happen to the thirty one InterCity225s. I have heard a rumour that some will be cascaded to the Greater Anglia Main Line to run London to Ipswich and Norwich services currently run by Class 90 locomotives hauling Mark 3 coaches.
I haven’t travelled in an InterCity225 for some months, but the last time I did on a short trip to Peterborough, they did not appear to my untrained eye to be scrapyard fodder yet.
As they are genuine 200 kph high speed trains, could we see them providing fast services from Liverpool to Newcastle and Hull in under two hours? Politicians and comedians may well have poked fun at British Rail for years, but now that we have a UK cash flow shortage, who are stepping up to the plate to help out our impoverished railways? A whole series of British Rail trains like the InterCity 225s and Class 319. No-one should forget the refurbished Class 315, Class 317 and InterCity125s, which will fill other gaps in the bad planning of our railways in theThatcher, Blair and Brown decades.
The only problem with the InterCity225s, is that they may be too long for some of the stations across the Pennines. But solving that is in the grand scheme of things a relatively minor problem for good engineers, architects and construction teams. Also, as they get replaced will some end up on the West Coast Main Line providing direct services to Blackpool?
Once the basic spine across the country is complete and running high-capacity services fast electric services between Blackpool, Liverpool and Manchester, in the West and Leeds, Hull and Newcastle in the East, two things will happen.
Politicians will press Network Rail to create a genuine high speed railway or HS3, across the country, as they love high profile projects, by which they will be remembered.
But more importantly, all of those connecting lines across the North will be prime candidates foe electrification, so they can be home to some more Class 319s.
HS3 will eventually be created, but only when the new electrified service is in need of more capacity.
I think that the electrification in the North is an unstoppable series of projects, that will only finish, when all lines are electrified.
Talking to people on the trains to Bolton yesterday, I don’t think the passengers know how their lives will change, when what is certainly going to be implemented happens.
One very extensive traveller, I met on the train between Manchester Victoria and Horwich Parkway, didn’t realise that the new electric trains in a couple of years would be larger units that the current diesels. He also had travelled on Thameslink to his daughter in South London and actually thought the current trains on that route were pretty good. He hadn’t realised that these would be running after a basic refurbishment all around Manchester.
And then on the trip back to Piccadilly, I met two young ladies, who were coming all the way from Eskdale to see the Who in Manchester. They didn’t kow that the branch to Windermere is going to be upgraded and said that it would have made their journey today a lot easier.
The rail industry in the North needs to spread the word. I have a feeling that the Class 319s, when they start operating in a few months between Liverpool and Manchester will start the process.
The Anonymous Widower 