When Crossrail Opens To Reading, Will Great Western Railway Have Too Many Class 387 Trains?
Currently, Great Western Railway has a fleet of 45 Class 387 trains
Twelve trains are currently being converted to Heathrow Express duties.
But if Crossrail takes over services between London and Reading, then their main use wuill have disappeared.
As Reading to Oxford is not fully-electrified, they can’t be used on this route, but both Class 802 and Class 769 trains can.
There may be used for trains on routes like.
- Reading and Didcot Parkway
- Reading and Newbury
But there won’t be opportunities to use thirty-three trains.
If Crossrail Opens To Reading In December 2019, How Will It Terminate In Paddington?
If you look at the Services in the Wikipedia entry for Crossrail, the services on the Western Branch are the following in trains per hour (tph).
- Reading and Abbey Wood (5 stops) – Two tph in the Peak, None in the Off-Peak
- Reading and Abbey Wood (12 stops) – Two tph all day
- Maidenhead and Abbey Wood (10 stops) – Two tph all day
- Heathrow Terminal 4 and Abbey Wood (6 stops) – Four tph all day
- Heathrow Terminal 5 and Abbey Wood (6 stops) – Two tph all day
If these services terminate in Paddington station, then the station must be able to handle twelve tph in the Peak and ten tph at all other times.
Perhaps two platforms could be used as follows.
- Reading and Maidenhead services handling six tph in the Peak and four in the Off Peak.
- Heathrow Terminal 4 and Heathrow Terminal 5 services, handling six tph all day.
Or to give a bit of spare capacity and make it easier for passengers, three platforms could be used as follows.
- Reading and Maidenhead services handling six tph in the Peak and four in the Off Peak.
- Heathrow Terminal 4 services, handling four tph all day
- Hesthrow Terminal 5 services, handling two tph all day
For convenience, services could terminate in the two Northernmost platforms 12,and 14. 13 hseems to have disappeared.
- These platforms have their own short gate line.
- They are on the same side of the station, as the slow lines that Crossrail will use to leave the station.
- Platform 14 is 164 metres long, with platforms 11 and 12 longer.
Could these two platforms be turned into a self-contained Crossrail station?
- Each platform could handle six tph.
- I don’t think full-length nine-car Crossrail trains could be used, but seven-car trains could fit a 164 metre platform.
- The lighting needs to be improved.
- If these platforms could be used for exclusively for Crossrail, there would be no crossing of tracks outside the station involving Crossrail trains.
- It would be convenient for passengers as they’d just go to the Crossrail station and through the gate.
But above all, there would not be a lot of work needed to create a Crossrail station.
Unless it was decided to make all platforms capable of handling full-length trains. But hopefully, it would only be needed for a couple of years.
Conclusion
Platform 12 and 14 at Paddington could be converted into a two-platform Crossrail station handling seven-car Class 345 trains, at a frequency of twelve tph, with its own gate line.
Trains Ordered For 2021 Launch Of ‘High-Quality, Low Fare’ London – Edinburgh Service
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette.
This is the first paragraph.
FirstGroup has finalised an order for five Hitachi AT300 electric trainsets which it will use to launch a London – Edinburgh open access service in autumn 2021.
The trains appear to be be similar to those used by FirstGroup companies; Hull Trains and Great Western Railway.
These are some points from the article.
- FirstGroup is targeting the two-thirds of passengers, who fly between London and Edinburgh.
- They are also targeting business passengers, as the first train arrives in Edinburgh at 10:00.
- The trains are five-cars.
- The trains are one class with onboard catering, air-conditioning, power sockets and free wi-fi.
- Stops will be five trains per day with stops at Stevenage, Newcastle and Morpeth.
- The trains will take around four hours.
- The service will start in Autumn 2021.
These are my observations.
Earlier Start
I suspect that the service can’t start earlier, due to one of the following.
- The lead time in building the trains.
- Completion of the new Werrington Junction.
- Completion of the sorting of Kings Cross.
- Completion of the works at Stevenage station.
The track works will probably be needed to create the extra paths needed on the East Coast Main Line.
Electric-Only Trains
Most other AT300 trains are bi-mode trains, but will these be electric-only?
Capacity Issues
If the trains prove too small, they can just add extra carriages or two trains can run as a pair.
Timetables
Trains will probably take nine hours for a round-trip, allowing 30 minutes for turnround.
This would mean that two trains leaving London and Edinburgh at six, would arrive back at home after two round trips around midnight.
Conclusion
I think it will be a successful service.
New Hitachi Rolling Stock Unveiled by Hull Trains As Part Of £60m Investment
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Rail Technology Magazine.
Five new Class 802 trains will replace Hull Train‘s current fleet of four Class 180 trains and an InterCity 125.
Currently, the InterCity 125 runs the service between Kings Cross and Beverley stations, whilst three Class 180 trains are needed to run the six round trips between Kings Cross and Hull stations.
So Hull Trains have a spare train, that can be in maintenance.
With five new Class 802 trains, replacing the current fleet, four will be needed for the current service, thus leaving a spare train.
The new trains will give various advantages.
- The Class new 802 trains have a top speed of 140 mph, whereas the current Class 180 trains can only do 125 mph.
- The Class 802 trains have an increase of thirteen percent in seating capacity.
- They will obviously have a better interior, with everything passengers expect.
In a few years time, the extra speed may offer a big advantage.
The Southern part of the East Coast Main Line is being upgraded to allow 140 mph running, which would probably save around ten minutes on a journey between Kings Cross and Hull stations.
Could this time-saving mean, that extra services between Kings Cross and Hull stations are possible?
If 140 mph running allowed a round trip in under five hours, I have a feeling this could mean over ten trains per day in each direction, if there are enough paths available.
But flights of Class 800 trains and Class 802 trains running at 140 mph might just do it.
Conclusion
What would ten trains per day between Kings Cross and Hull, do for the economy of Hull?
The East Coast Main Line might not have the 250 mph operating speed of High Speed Two, but 140 mph isn’t that slow.
Huge Increase In Capacity On GWR As Final Class 800 Enters Traffic
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Rail Madazine.
This is the first two paragraphs.
More than 10,000 extra seats will be available to Great Western Railway passengers on January 2, compared with the same number last year.
This follows the delivery of the final Class 800 Intercity Express Train.
This means that Great Western Railway (GWR) ‘s fleet is now
- 21 x nine-car Class 800 trains
- 36 x five-car Class 800 trains.
- 21 x Class 802 trains
With still another 15 Class 802 trains to come of the 32 x five-car and 14 x nine-car order.
They are certainly ready to increase services in 2019.
The Anonymous Widower 