A New Era For Train Travel – FlixTrain Has Ordered 65 New European High-Speed Trains
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Flix.
These four bullet points act as sub-headings.
- FlixTrain has ordered 65 new European high-speed trains, produced by Spanish train manufacturer Talgo, with locomotives supplied by Siemens
- The contract volume amounts up to EUR 2.4 bn, including certain maintenance services
- Flix sees enormous market potential for FlixTrain in Germany and Europe
- CEO André Schwämmlein: “We will start a new era of train travel”
These three paragraphs add more details.
FlixTrain, a subsidiary of the global travel–tech company Flix SE, today announced that it has ordered 65 new European high-speed trains. Talgo will provide the respective trainsets and certain maintenance services, while Siemens will provide the locomotives. The contract volume amounts up to EUR 2.4 bn, of which more than EUR 1 bn is already firmly committed.
With this strategic move, FlixTrain is responding to the growing demand for fast and affordable rail travel. The company intends to use the new high-speed trains to leverage the enormous market potential in Germany and Europe. The high-speed rail market in Germany is expected to grow by 45% by 2030, compared to 2021 volume. Across Europe, the market potential is even greater – around EUR 27 bn in 2023 with an expected annual growth of 4 – 5%.¹ In 2024 alone, FlixTrain expanded its offering by 40%, and recorded significant passenger growth, building on the strong results of 2023.
“We are pursuing a long-term strategy with FlixTrain and we will significantly expand our services in the coming years,” says André Schwämmlein, CEO and co-founder of Flix. “With the tremendous expansion of our train fleet, we will start a new era of train travel in Germany and Europe.” FlixTrain’s overall goal is to bring more people to sustainable travel by train: “We plan not only to increase our market share, but also to significantly grow the market itself”.
It looks like they’re creating a Lumo in Germany.
I have some thoughts.
The Politics
The press release says this about the German government’s view.
On the political side, the newly formed German government has acknowledged the immense potential of long-distance rail by committing to long-term investments in rail infrastructure and a reform of the track access system in Germany. These plans could unlock more private investment in Germany’s rail sector, fostering innovation for a broader range of services. Ultimately, this would lead to more competition and a better offer for customers.
I don’t think, they would be allowed to set up in the UK, as they take revenue from Great British Railways.
I can also see FlixTrain appealing to a future Reform UK government.
Passenger Service
The press release says this.
At the same time, FlixTrain works closely with the European Commission to foster European train travel and to provide a better overall offer for passengers.
I can see FlixTrain providing a better value service in Europe, than that provided in the UK by Great British Railways.
FlixTrain Is A European Product
The press release says this.
Currently, thanks to a comprehensive cooperation with regional transport, around 650 destinations are bookable via FlixTrain; 50 cities are directly connected to the vast FlixTrain network. Together with around 300 FlixBus stops in Germany alone, Flix provides a unique intermodal long-distance travel offer of international bus services and high-speed train connections. The new trains are intended to drive expansion in Germany and other European countries. “We see FlixTrain as a European product. Starting from our home market, we also want to make the service available in other countries” adds Schwämmlein.
I regularly see Flixbuses in London on their way to where?
Conclusion
If FlixTrain is allowed to setup in the UK, Great British Railways is finished for long distance services.
So of course, it won’t be allowed to setup in the UK or even come through the Channel Tunnel.
Offshore Grid For Irish, Celtic and North Seas Closer To Delivery
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Irish Times.
This is the sub-heading.
Joint development can be ‘key step for Europe’s energy future’ and climate neutrality
These paragraphs add detail.
EirGrid and other leading European power transmission system operators (TSOs) have backed moves to develop an offshore electricity grid for the Irish, Celtic and North seas.
The next stage in a collaboration, being undertaken by nine system operators under the Offshore TSO Collaboration (OTC), was announced at the WindEurope annual conference in Copenhagen on Wednesday.
It followed the initial results of a pilot study evaluating how the grid could be established.
The report supports Europe’s goal of establishing a “green power plant” offshore that will play a crucial role in the Continent securing an independent, affordable and climate-neutral energy supply.
If you open the article, there is an excellent map of the various interconnectors, that will be in place by 2040.
Conclusion
This is all good stuff and can only lead to energy security for the participating countries.
Tevva Unveils 19-Tonne Hydrogen Electric Truck
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Fleetpoint.
These paragraphs outline the company’s launch into Europe and their new 19-tonne hydrogen-electric truck.
Electric and hydrogen truck OEM Tevva is to unveil its 19-tonne (19t) hydrogen-electric truck and announce its strategy for mainland Europe at the IAA Transportation show in Hanover, Germany from Monday 19 September.
The company is partnering with its wide portfolio of customers, including Kinaxia Logistics, Codognotto and FM Logistic, to showcase its range of full-electric and hydrogen-electric medium-duty (7.5t to 19t / Class 5 to 8) truck solutions designed for the European market.
Its largest truck platform launch to date, Tevva’s 19t hydrogen-electric model represents a significant milestone and highlights the scalability of its technology. As with the 7.5t hydrogen-electric model, the 19t variant benefits from the company’s revolutionary dual energy system, combining lithium-ion batteries and a hydrogen fuel cell range extender. The truck is expected to have a range of up to 500km depending on the number of hydrogen cylinders specified, which can be refilled in 10 minutes.
Since, I first wrote about Tevva trucks in Tevva Presents 7.5 Tonne Truck With Range Extender, I have felt that their design of truck could be one way to go.
- It seems to give a very good range.
- It has a good load carrying capacity.
- It is zero-carbon.
- The batteries can be charged on a charge system or by use the the hydrogen fuel cells.
- It would be good for deliveries in a city.
Tevva’s engineers seem to have done a good job.
Namibia Proposes Green Hydrogen Supply To EU To Replace Russian Oil And Gas
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on H2 Fuel News.
These paragraphs explain the plan.
The African country has considerable wind and sunshine resources available, providing the opportunity to use renewable energy for the production of H2. Namibia is located along the African South Atlantic coastline and is among the world’s driest countries. Its 3,500 hours of sunshine per year mean that solar panels will be able to absorb a tremendous amount of energy, without much unexpected downtime.
That energy will be used for producing yellow H2, a form of green (renewable) H2 made using electrolysers powered by solar electricity. The electrolyser will split seawater, another abundant resource for the country due to its position on the map. As a result, it has the potential to offer the European Union a clean fuel source that can help it to simultaneously combat the energy crisis and the climate crisis.
Note.
- Liquid hydrogen will be shipped to Europe by tanker.
- I don’t think Vlad the Mad will like the plan!
- How many other countries have the resources like Namibia to become hydrogen exporters?
This plan was proposed at the World Economic Forum at Davos.
Could The Morocco-UK Power Project Be Developed Into A Western Europe And Africa Interconnector?
This page on the Xlinks web site, describes the Morocco-UK Power Project, which is proposed to generate solar and wind power in Morocco and deliver it to the UK.
- The plan envisages 10.5 GW of electricity being generated.
- There will be a 5GW/20GWh battery in Morocco.
- They will export 3.6 GW of electricity to the UK for at least twenty hours per day.
- The electricity will be exported to the UK by an Interconnector that skirts to the West of Spain, Portugal and France.
- The interconnector will be 3,800 kilometres long.
I described the project in detail in Moroccan Solar-Plus-Wind To Be Linked To GB In ‘Ground-Breaking’ Xlinks Project.
This Google Map shows Western Europe And North Africa.
Note.
- The light blue of the Continental Shelf
- The darker blue of deeper water.
- The Southern end of the Morocco and the UK interconnector will at Guelmim Oued Noun in the South of Morocco, which is indicated by the red arrow.
- The UK end of the cable will be at Alverdiscott between Barnstaple and Bideford in North Devon.
- Southern Morocco and Algeria look to be mainly in the Sahara Desert.
If we look at the route of the cable, it connects a lot of possible renewable energy sources.
- Morocco – Solar and wind
- Spain – Solar and wind
- Portugal – Solar and wind
- France – Nuclear, tidal and wind
- UK – Nuclear and wind.
Could the UK and Morocco interconnector be developed into a bigger power project?
- Solar and wind power from Algeria could be added.
- Tidal power from a Severn Barrage could be added.
- Connections could be added to Gibraltar, the Irish Republic and Wales.
I believe that there could be a large amount of electricity developed on the Western costs of Europe and Africa.
An interconnector would move it to where it is needed.
The Painted Hall At Greenwich
The Painted Hall at Greenwich is now fully restored.
I went on Saturday and these are some of the pictures I took.
We had an excellent guide, who explained the imagery of the painting.
Much of it is aimed against the French and today, it can almost be considered to have a Brexit theme.
So has this philosophy about Europe and mainly the French been passed down the generations from the time of William and Mary?
The older I get, the more I realise that some of my personal philosophy on how I live and treat others has a Jewish slant.
Has it all come down from my sole Jewish ancestor, who arrived in this country from the Baltic in around 1800?
.
Spain – Luxembourg Rail Motorway Service Launched
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette.
This is the first paragraph.
A ‘rail motorway’ service carrying unaccompanied lorry trailers 1 219 km between Barcelona and Luxembourg was launched on February 19.
This is the fifth such service to be operated across France and will be operated five times a week, with a sixth service to be added in April.
One of these services takes unaccompanied lorry trailers between Calais and a terminal near Perpignan, so you might wonder why this service doesn’t start in the UK.
The only place, that it could serve in the UK would be Barking, due to our antique loading gauge not being able to accept piggyback trailers.
So we can’t really link the UK to this freight network.
There is an excellent discussion on Rail Forums, which goes through the issues.
Barking
Barking is probably not the best place for a terminal for unaccompanied lorry trailers.
It is close to the heavily-congested M25, but surely trains of unaccompanied trailers could be assembled in other parts of the UK and taken to Barking.
But rail lines connecting Barking to the North include the North London and Gospel Oak to Barking Lines, both of which would need drastic gauge enhancement to take the traffic. As these routes are crowded London commuter routes, this work would go down like a whole squadron of lead balloons.
Specialist Freight
If you stood by the Gospel Oak To Barking Line for twenty-four hours, you would see some specialist freight trains going through, often carrying cars or vehicle components.
I think there will be growth in this sector, perhaps for high-value or perishable cargo, in purpose-built trains. But it would only take a few trucks off the roads.
There is also the problem, that a lot of specialist cargo is only one way.
- Minis go from Oxford to Europe.
- Ford cars and vans go from Europe to the UK.
- Perishable fruit and vegetables go from Southern Europe to the UK.
- Scotch whisky and seafood would go from Scotland to Europe.
I am certain, there is a profitable market niche here to pair compatible cargoes.
High Speed Parcel Traffic
Could we also see a network of overnight high speed parcel trains linking Europe’s major conurbations and commercial centres?
Conclusion
Neither specialist freight or high speed parcel trains will make much of a dent in the number of trucks, that will continue to clog the motorways to the Port of Dover.
How Norway Will Keep Britain’s Lights On
This is the title of an article in today’s Times about the building of the North Sea Link, which is described like this in Wikipedia.
The North Sea Link (also known as North Sea Network Link or NSN Link, HVDC Norway–Great Britain, and Norway–UK interconnector) is a 1,400 MW subsea high-voltage direct current electricity cable under construction between Norway and the United Kingdom. It is a joint project of the transmission system operators Statnett and National Grid plc and is due to be completed in 2021.
To put the size of the North Sea Link into context Hinckley Point C nuclear power station will generate 3,2000 MW, so we get 44% of the power reliably for as long as Norway’s hydro-electric power system functions.
The Times article also lists other interconnectors in which National Grid are involved.
- 160 MW system (1961) – 100 MW – co-owned with the French.
- 2000 MW system (1986) – 2000 MW co-owned with the French.
- IFA2 – 1000 MW co-owned with the French
- BritNed – 1000 MW co-owned with the Dutch.
- NemoLink – 1000 MW co-owned with the Belgians.
- Viking Link – 1400 MW co-owned with the Danes.
- ICELink – A possible 1000 MW link to Iceland.
- A possible second connection to Norway
- A possible second connection to the Netherlands.
In addition, there are other links like FABlink and NorthConnect, where National Grid don’t have an interest.
It’s not all importing of electricity, as recently because of troubles with their nuclear plants, we’ve been exporting electricity to the French.
As a control engineer, I think all of these interconnectors are sound investments, as Europe can mix the erratic sources of wind, wave, tidal and solar with the steady outputs of nuclear, coal and hydro.
This Wikipedia article called Wind power in the United Kingdom says this.
The United Kingdom is one of the best locations for wind power in the world, and is considered to be the best in Europe. Wind power contributed 11% of UK electricity generation in 2015, and 17% in December 2015. Allowing for the costs of pollution, particularly the carbon emissions of other forms of production, onshore wind power is the cheapest form of energy in the United Kingdom In 2016, the UK generated more electricity from wind power than from coal.
So back wind up by steady sources from the UK and Europe like nuclear and hydro-electric, when the wind stops and all is well with the lights.
And of course, as many of these interconnectors are bi-directional, when we have excess power, countries in Europe who need it can import it.
Who sits like spider in the middle of this web? – National Grid of course!
All those, who think that coal is a good idea, should be made to sit on the naughty step.
Are You Annoyed By Noisy Trains At The Bottom Of Your Garden?
I have just found this document on the European Parliament web site, which is entitled Reducing Railway Noise Pollution.
It is a fascinating document and this is the abstract.
12 million EU inhabitants are affected by railway noise during the day and 9 million during the night. This study lists measures, funding and regulations to reduce it. The introduction of modern rolling stock will lower noise most significantly. In the short run, the replacement of cast iron by composite brake blocks on rail freight cars is most important. Developing a regulation scheme for a staged process towards low-noise rolling stock is the heart of a rail noise abatement strategy.
Many of us in the UK, would think that we suffer badly from the noise of trains, but it would appear that Germany and other Central European countries suffer badly from all freight trains passing through. The Rhine Valley which has over 400 freighs trains a day, suffers badly from noise.
So how can we reduce noise?
- As the abstract says new rolling stock is the best way to reduce noise and many of our trains have been replaced with new or refurbished ones in the last few years.
- The report says that most (approximately 75%) of UK freight wagons have disc brakes or composite brake blocks. So that is good.
- In my view one of things that gets most complaints is noisy and smelly diesel locomotives, like the dreaded Class 66 locomotives. They may be liked by the freight companies, but they are not favourites of drivers and those living by the railway. More friendly types of diesel locomotives like the Class 68 are starting to appear and it can’t be too soon.
- Surprisingly, with electric trains, pantograph noise is a problem. I’d hand that and any other aerodynamic problems over to the engineers in Formula One and aircraft design. I have read that Bombardier’s new Aventra will be very clean aeodynamically, which must make for a reduction in noise.
Let’s hope that these small improvements continue to reduce the noise by trains.
The report also says this about physical noise barriers.
Noise barriers are a visual intrusion, particularly since they are a target for graffiti; they have a high cost, and cause problems for track access. Their effectiveness depends on their absorption properties, their height, and the proximity of the barrier to the noise source and/or to the receiver.
I am not a fan, as they ruin my taking of photographs.
The Anonymous Widower 