Could An Open Access Operator Develop A Train Service Along The South Coast of The UK Between Kent and Fishguard?
Before I go into detail, I will answer a question that explains the terminology and the why’s and wherefores’ of the title of this post.
What Is An Open Access Operator?
This is the first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry of an Open Access Operator.
In rail transport, an open-access operator is an operator that takes full commercial risk, running on infrastructure owned by a third party and buying paths on a chosen route and, in countries where rail services run under franchises, are not subject to franchising.
In the UK, these are all open access operators, that are running services.
Note.
- Other groups are developing services.
- Regional, High Speed, International, Local and Sleeper services seem to be offered by various open access operators.
- Grand Central is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn,
- Hull Trains and Lumo are both subsidiaries of FirstGroup.
Open Access operators seem to operate in most European Union countries.
Why Run Between Kent and Fishguard?
- The main purpose of the train service would be to provide a low-cost rail connection between the island of Ireland and particularly the Republic of Ireland, with the Southern part of England and the European Union.
- At both ends of the route the train service would connect to ferries.
- At the Eastern end, the train service would also connect to Eurostar services through the Channel Tunnel.
- The Port of Dover could be efficiently connected to Dover Priory Station.
- Dover Priory Station could be the Eastern terminus.
- The service could stop at Folkestone Central station, if ferries call at the Port of Folkestone in the future.
- The service could stop at Ashford International station for Eurostar services.
- Fishguard Harbour station has been built as a train terminus for the Port of Fishguard.
- Fishguard Harbour station could be the Western terminus.
This could be a busy service.
Where Would The Trains Call?
Intermediate stations would depend on passenger umbers, but could start as Folkestone Central, Ashford International, Hastings, Eastbourne, Brighton, Portsmouth & Southsea, Southampton Central, Romsey, Salisbury, Warminster, Westbury, Trowbridge, Bradford-on-Avon, Bath Spa, Bristol Temple Meads, Bristol Parkway, Newport, Cardiff Central, Gowerton, Llanelli and Carmarthen.
How Long Would The Journey Be?
The journey would be around 377 miles and I suspect could take about three and a half hours with modern digital signalling.
Surprisingly, the route is fully-electrified except for the following.
- Ashford International and Ore – 27.9 miles
- Southampton Central and Bristol Parkway – 82 miles
- Cardiff Central and Fishguard Harbour – 115.6 miles
All gaps should be able to be bridged using battery power.
I suspect trains would be Hitachi high speed battery-electric trains.
Would Any European Funding Be Available?
This is an interesting question, as the service does join up two separate sections of the European Union.
DHL Teams With Volvo Trucks To Speed Up Transition To Fossil-Free Trucking
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on CleanTechnica.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Electric buses, electric garbage trucks, and even electric construction equipment are becoming more and more commonplace in urban landscapes, but there’s still some debate over whether or not battery electric vehicles will take over open-road, long distance trucking any time soon. To help make the case that electric trucking is the way forward, DHL Freight and Volvo Trucks have partnered to speed up the introduction of heavy duty electric trucks to be used for regional transport throughout Sweden.
Read the article and see what you think.
The author takes the view that electric trucks may be able to handle heavy duty road transport and that would sideline expensive fuel cell trucks powered by hydrogen.
This is a paragraph.
If it’s successful, the move to battery electric trucking could be one of the final nails in the coffin of expensive hydrogen fuel cell projects like Nikola Trucks and Volvo’s own recently acquired Daimler truck division.
I am not so sure, that he is right!
Recently, I wrote Holyhead Hydrogen Hub Planned For Wales and Felixstowe And Harwich Ports Submit Bid For ‘Freeport’ Status, where hydrogen hubs are proposed at the posts of Holyhead and Felixstowe.
- This is a distance of 335 miles.
- As trucks average 55 mph on motorways and dual carriageways, this journey would take six hours.
- Six hours is the maximum time a truck driver can work without a break.
- Tesla have said that their battery Semi Truck will have a range of 300 or 500 miles.
I feel that this rough calculation shows that both electric and hydrogen trucks could handle the Felixstowe and Holyhead route.
- With the battery truck, the weight and size of the battery would probably reduce the payload.
- Factors like cost of ownership, payload and drivers hours would probably play a big part in the choice.
- Trucks would need to be refuelled at the start of the journey, if they’d just come off a ferry.
- On Tesla’s figures, recharging a battery truck would take thirty minutes.
Once we start looking at practical journeys like say Cologne and Dublin, if you want to do it with one truck, it has to be hydrogen.
But a container between Felixstowe and Holyhead could probably be handled by an electric truck.
If you look at between Dover and Holyhead, that is 370 miles and at 55 mph, it would take almost seven hours. So the driver would need a break.
Conclusion
There will need to be extensive modelling to decide, what type of truck is best for a particular route, operator and cargo.
Daimler’s Philosophy
In Daimler Trucks Presents Technology Strategy For Electrification – World Premiere Of Mercedes-Benz Fuel-Cell Concept Truck, I examined Daimler’s strategy for hydrogen and electric trucks.
This is a summary of their philosophy.
- Mercedes-Benz GenH2 Truck, a fuel-cell truck with a range of up to 1,000 kilometres and more for flexible and demanding long-haul transport – customer trials in 2023, start of series production in second half of this decade.
- Mercedes-Benz eActros LongHaul, a battery-electric truck with a range of about 500 kilometres for energy-efficient transport on plannable long-haul routes – projected to be ready for series production in 2024.
- Mercedes-Benz eActros, a battery-electric truck with a range of well over 200 kilometres for heavy urban distribution to go into series production in 2021.
Note.
- 500 kilometres is 310 miles,
- The Mercedes-Benz eActros LongHaul will be able to handle Dover or Felixstowe and Holyhead with a thirty minute driver break/battery charge somewhere in the Midlands.
- The Mercedes-Benz GenH2 Truck will be able to handle Dover or Felixstowe and Holyhead without refuelling.
- The Mercedes-Benz GenH2 Truck will be able to handle a 620 mile out-and-back journey from Dover or Felixstowe without refuelling. This would allow journeys to Birmingham, Derby, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield
The flexibility built into Daimler’s philosophy is probably a sensible approach and ideal for truck journeys from Dover and Felixstowe.
Daimler would appear to have done a lot of modelling.
Visiting Dover Castle By Train
Dover Castle is on the featured list on the English Heritage web site. They say it is 1.2 miles from Dover Priory station, but is it an easy, stiff or hard walk?
This Google Earth image shows the location of the station and the castle.
Dover Station And Castle
The castle is obvious and the station is in the bottom-left or south-west corner.
I shall be visiting soon. After all it does give me an excuse to have a ride in one of the excellent Class 395 trains.
Night Crossing
I left Dunkirk just as it was getting dark last night.
Maerske Dover at Dunkirk
I did sleep a bit on the trip over as I was in VIP class and the seats are wide enough for a lie down. But I did have a couple of free coffees and then spent the last few minutes of the crossing on the blunt end of the boat watching it dock at Dover. So I did arrive fairly refreshed.
Dover Docks at Night
This picture shows the moment we docked.
To our right was the new LD Lines, High Speed Ferry that goes to Boulogne.
We need more like that. Hopefully like they used to be on Harwich to the Hook of Holland. I use it on my trips to Holland.
The Anonymous Widower 