Are Train Coaches Making A Comeback In The UK?
There were two stories yesterday, where new coaches to be built by Spanish company CAF.
- In TransPennine Express Buys Spanish Trains, I wrote about the new trains for TransPennine Express, which include thirteen five-car rakes of coaches pulled by Class 68 locomotives.
- In Expanding The Scottish Sleeper, I wrote about how new coaches could transform the Caledonian Sleeper.
Both sets of coaches probably use the same basic bodyshell, running gear and electrical and heating services, so once CAF designed the sleeper trains, they probably have developed a vehicle that could be used for any profitable purpose.
At present the Caledonian Sleeper uses two types of coach; a sleeping car and a lounge/seated sleeper car and these are being replaced with an identical number of coaches.
But little has been said about the design and make-up of the new coaches.
I suspect, that we will see lounge cars with large windows, so that the Scottish countryside can be enjoyed in style, if the weather permits.
The new coaches will be compared to British Rail’s legendary Mark 3 coach.
- I’m also sure that CAF have set out to design a coach, that rides better.
- The new coach must also be capable of running at 200 kph., as Mark 3s do every day in large numbers.
- Will the coaches pass the cement lorry test, as a Mark 3-derived multiple unit did at Oxshott?
The 1960s design of the Mark 3 has set a very high bar.
Even less has been said about the five car rakes of coaches for TransPennine Express.
But in common with the other rakes of coaches in mainline service in the UK on Chiltern and the East Coast Main Line, and in East Anglia, they would need some means of driving the train from the other end, which is currently done with a driving van trailer.
A DVT is very much a solution of the 1970s, although it does have advantages in that the empty space can be used for bicycles, surfboards and other large luggage. Hence, the van in the name.
If you look at CAF’s Civity train, it is very much a stylish modular design and I’m sure CAF, have the expertise to build a stylish driving cab into some of the new coaches they are building.
I therefore think we will be seeing these five-car rakes of coaches for TransPennine Express, with a driving cab at one end.
One of the big advantages of this approach is that trains can be pulled and pushed by any suitable and available locomotive.
- Class 68 diesel locomotives could provide reliable go-anywhere diesel power.
- Class 88 electro-diesel locomotives could provide electrical power from overhead lines and diesel power elsewhere.
- Class 73 electro-diesel locomotives could provide electrical power from third rail and diesel power elsewhere.
- Class 90 electric locomotives could be used with overhead lines
- A 200 kph-capable electric locomotive could be used on high-speed electrified lines.
Operators wouldn’t be tied to one particular power unit, so as more electrification is installed, they could change to something more suitable.
You also have the possibility of designing the coach with the driving cab as perhaps a buffet/observation car or using it for First Class, so that the other coaches are very much a standard interior.
The approach also has the advantage that if you need a longer train, you just couple another coach into the rake.
I’m sure that CAF have designed a rake of coaches that has impressed TransPennine Express, otherwise they wouldn’t have ordered the coaches.
Some people might think that going back to coaches is a retrograde step.
Consider.
- Chiltern run an excellent service with coaches.
- Deutsche Bahn still uses lots of rakes of coaches.
- Rakes of coaches are more flexible than fixed-length multiple units.
- The most appropriate locomotive can be used.
- Some passengers might think, that coaches give a better ride than multiple units.
But I suspect the biggest factor in the revival of coaches, is that a rake of stylish new coaches and a Class 68 locomotive are more affordable than a new Class 800 train. They are also available earlier.
Imagine going across the Pennines from Liverpool to York in the buffet/restaurant/observation/driving car of one of these new trains, enjoying a Great Western Pullman Dining experience, as the countryside goes by.
If it is done, it would set a high standard for other train operators.
TransPennine Express Buys Spanish Trains
After Arriva Rail North bought 98 Civity trains from CAF, which I wroye about in Arriva Rail North’s New Trains, it probably wasn’t much of a surprise that TransPennine Express have gone to the same source for twenty-five new trains, as is detailed in this article in Global Rail News. This is said.
The new fleet, which will be maintained by Alstom at Longsight depot, will consist of 12 five-car Civity EMUs from CAF – financed by Eversholt Rail – and 13 five-car loco-hauled intercity trains.
The announcement follows an order placed earlier this year with Hitachi for 19 bi-mode train sets. Both fleets of new trains are due to be delivered between 2018 and 2019.
If there is a surprise, it is that they are going for locomotive-hauled sets or rakes of coaches.
The 12 five-car Civity EMUs will be running between Liverpool/Manchester and Edinburgh/Glasgow. According to the CAF data sheet, there will be a 200 kph version available, so these could mix it with other operators’ Class 800 trains.
The article also says this about the locomotive-hauled rake of Mark 5 coaches.
In addition to the new CAF trains and carriages, Beacon Rail-owned Class 68 locomotives will be leased from Direct Rail Services to operate intercity services between Liverpool and Newcastle.
So it would appear that the Class 68 locomotives could work Liverpool to Newcastle before the line is fully electrified. They would also be ideal for routes to Hull and Scarborough.
I would also suspect, that as the Class 88 electro-diesel locomotive is very similar to a Class 68, that these locomotives could also work some of the services, once the route is partially electrified.
The Mark 5 coaches, are probably similar to those being built for the Caledonian Sleeper. One question that has to be asked, is why haven’t TPE opted to bring some of the legendary Mark 3 coaches up to a modern standard.
- The concept of a quality set of coaches with a locomotive at one end has been proven to work in East Anglia, on Chiltern and on Deutsche Bahn.
- The conversion of doors, toilets and other issues, might mean that new coaches are better value for money.
- New coaches are probably good for at least thirty years.
- All the basic design has been paid for in the Caledonian Sleeper order.
- One of the five coaches in each set, could have a driving cab integrated into one end, so there would be no need for a separate driving van trailer.
- Have CAF applied all their designs for the modular Civity train to build a train, where you just plug a suitable locomotive into one end?
- New coaches sell seats, especially if they are designed for a good passenger experience.
- If you want six, seven or more coaches, you could probably just slot them into the rake.
I suspect that CAF have seen a gap in the market and have produced a design for a rake of coaches, that will appeal to the UK. I think we could be seeing these coaches appearing elsewhere.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to cost, reliability, flexibility and the quality of the passenger experience.
It does look to me, that by virtue of good design and manufacturing capacity, that CAF seem to have nicked a nice order from under the noses of the big companies.
- CAF could probably deliver coaches in 2018.
- Suitable locomotives are already in the UK and Stadler/Vossloh would probably oblige with a few more.
- The Class 68 locomotive doesn’t seem to generate bad reports in the media.
- The three previous points, might mean that TPE could be running new reliable trains earlier than anybody thinks.
- The Civity family is proven and is being built for Arriva Rail North.
- Hitachi haven’t probably got the capacity to build more Class 800 trains early enough.
- Bombardier haven’t built a high-speed Aventra, although they might have the capacity, but not a diesel variant.
I certainly think that TPE have got a good replacement at an affordable price for the overcrowded Class 185 trains.
A Good Information Board
I saw this information board at Kings Cross station.
I think the seat on the right, should be by the Tube Map.
But it’s a good attempt!
Two Beautiful Seats At West Acton Station
This seat forms the waiting area at West Acton station on the Central Line.
With the rounded window, it must be one of the most beautiful platform shelters on any rail station.
Note the picture of the second one on the other track.
Wikipedia says this about the design of the station.
The current station, replacing the original building, was designed by the Great Western Railway, on behalf of London Transport as part of the LPTB’s 1935-40 New Works Programme improvements and extensions to the Central line, by the GWR’s architect Brian Lewis and was completed by November 1940.
So it was actually designed by the Great Western Railway.
London’s Trains With Built-In Energy Storage
I took this picture at Blackhorse Road station on the Victoria Line.
London’s Trains With Built-In Energy Storage
Since it opened in 1968, all trains have had built-in energy storage to save energy. Under Design in the Wikipedia entry, this is said.
Each platform constructed specifically for the Victoria line from new is 132.6 metres (435 ft) long. The line has hump-backed stations to allow trains to store gravitational potential energy as they slow down and release it when they leave a station, providing an energy saving of 5% and making the trains run 9% faster to a speed of 87.2 km/h.
I wonder if Crossrail and other lines use this technique.
Dear old Vicky, may be just two years off fifty, and some things may have been skimped in the construction, but some features of the line can’t be described as anything but the best of designs.
Abbey Wood To Romford In Forty Minutes
I didn’t believe this figure when I calculated it yesterday, so I’m laying it out properly.
Crossrail have said that the two Eastern branches of the line;Abbey Wood and Shenfield will both run a dozen trains an hour.
- Whitechapel to Abbey Wood would take 15 minutes
- Whitechapel to Canary Wharf would take 3 minutes
- Whitechapel to Romford would take 24 minutes
- Whitechapel to Shenfield would take 38 minutes
- Whitechapel to Stratford would take 5 minutes
These times are from Crossrail’s journey time calculator.
But obviously, when changing trains at Whitechapel to go from say Abbey Wood to Romford, you’d have to wait for the next train going the other way.
So as there are twelve trains an hour in the peak, that would mean a wait of up to five minutes.
Or would it?
All the trains on Crossrail will be tightly controlled to keep to an exact schedule, so that twenty-four trains an hour can go through the core tunnel between Whitechapel and Paddington. Think Victoria Line with full-size trains carrying fifteen hundred people a train.
So if it was timed that trains from Abbey Wood turned up at Whitechapel at 0, 5, 10, 15 etc. minutes past the hour and trains left Whitechapel for Shenfield at say 1, 6, 11, 16 etc. you’d have a minute to walk a few metres across the platform to await the arrival of your onward train.
Trains from Shenfield could arrive at Whitechapel at 2, 7, 12, 17 etc. with trains leaving for Abbey Wood at 3, 8, 13, 18 etc.
Obviously, the flow of trains to and from the West would have to be at precise frequency of twenty-four trains per hour or one train every two and a half minutes.
I think trains could be timed to the second!
These train times of mine are just speculation, but I can’t see why the interchange at Whitechapel needs to take more than a minute.
So adding up the times to Abbey Wood and Romford from Whitechapel with a minute for the change gives 15+24+1 = 40.
Stratford to Canary Wharf would take 3+5+1 = 9, which is the same time as on the Jubilee Line.
The East of London doesn’t know the revolution that will be happening to their lives.
Whitechapel station will truly be the Jewel In The East and one of the most important transport interchanges in the UK, let alone London.
Aesthetic Problems With Overhead Wires On The Great Western
The April 2016 Edition of Modern Railways has an article entitled Thames Valley Wires Retrofit Planned. This is said.
A retrofit of overhead electrification on the section of the Great Western main line between Reading and Didcot is on the cards following complaints about the visual impact of the current design.
This are some pictures of the overhead gantries.
In my view, the design of the overhead gantries may well be better from a structural and reliability point of view, but it isn’t going to win plaudits for looking good.
Network Rail will have to do better!
Two Bus Stops On High Holborn
I went to visit one of my investments on Fetter Lane and I knew that if I could find the stop I could get a 341 bus from the area to Islington or my home.
There were two bus-stops and I knew I was on the right side of the road.
But which one do I go to? I had to walk to both of them to find the answer.
I don’t show it in the pictures, but there was a street sign between the two stops.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a finger post to tell you where the stops are for various buses?
High Holborn is also one of those places, where there aren’t enough crossings.
Does London need a reporting system for poor street layouts or an army of elderly/disabled/teenage street walkers to collect possible simple improvements to the walking realm in the city?
Arriva Rail North’s New Trains
Arriva Rail North have announced a deal for a future fleet of new trains from privately-owned Spanish manufacturer; CAF.
Class 333 trains from this manufacturer, are already running in the North, so I suspect that Arriva Rail North know a lot about their quality and reliability. As a mere passenger, I’ve found the trains around Leeds to be very acceptable.
In the UK, CAF’s trams run on the Midland Metrolink and in Edinburgh, so CAF is not a manufacturer unknown to the UK.
CAF are proposing their Civity train, which comes in various modules, as summed up by Wikipedia.
The Civity is a modular concept which can be delivered as an Electric multiple unit, Diesel multiple unit, Diesel-electric or Dual mode. This family of trains is designed for 4 different power supplies: 1500 V DC, 3000 V DC, 15 kV AC and 25 kV AC. Each unit has shared motor bogies and a low floor of 860 mm. The design was launched in 2010.
So it would appear that, as a modular design, where DMUs and EMUs will share components and characteristics, it may offer cost savings to an operator.
This data sheet from CAF describes the Civity range. Points to note.
- It has been designed for standard gauge.
- There is a UK version called Civity UK.
- There is a cold-weather version called Civity NORDIC.
- There is a Russian gauge version. As CAF have sold to Ireland, I suspect there’s an Irish gauge version.
- Top speed is 160 kph, but 200 kph is available.
- The list of interior options is wide.
Reading the data sheet, I get the impression that Arriva Rail North are getting standard trains with the features they want.
I don’t know the answer, but I suspect that like the Class 378 trains of the London Overground, the Civity trains can be lengthened or shortened, by adding or removing trailer cars between the two driving cars. This concept has worked so well on the Overground, I doubt that a train manufacturer wouldn’t copy it.
Thus you could have four car DMUs on a route like the Calder Valley Line. When the line gets electrified, you do a bit of swapping and add two electric driving cars and get four-car EMUs and two-car DMUs.
The trains are already in service in three countries; Italy, Latvia and Montenegro, with an order for 120 trains for The Netherlands in the pipeline.
Reading the various articles about the purchase, some worries surface in comments.
One is that do CAF have the capacity to build all the trains required? I think they do for two related reasons.
They are a private company based in the Basque country and it will be a matter of pride on the part of the owners and the region to not fail. This section from Wikipedia about the countries history is interesting.
Since 1958 the company has modernized and enlarged its Beasain plant and expanded its activity to include all kinds of rolling stock. In line with this, in 1969 CAF created its Research and Development Unit, which increased the company’s competitiveness and intensified the focus on in-house technology.
CAF gives the impression, it is an ambitious, technology-led company and I believe the Arriva Rail North and Dutch orders are just steps up the ladder.
Worries are also raised that there aren’t enough trains ordered by Arriva Rail North and that the new trains will not be built in the UK.
On the number of trains, I would tend to agree, but if Arriva Rail North’s business plan is successful, then there will be money to purchase more trains and lengthen the existing ones, just as happened on the London Overground. People seem to forget we live in the New Age of the Train and Tram and the days of inadequate rolling stock orders to please the Treasury are hopefully over.
The fact that the trains will be built in Spain rather than the UK, is not that significant, if you look at what has happened in the motor industry, where a dead industry is now thriving on exports. We may not see any more train factories in the UK, but we do produce good railway technology in certain areas and as trains revive all over the world, there will be opportunities for the best companies manufacturing in the UK.
I would add a question about the order.
Over the next few years, the North will gradually develop a network of electrified trunk lines, which Arriva Rail North will exploit with the Northern Connect sub-brand.
Ever since, I rode the prototype IPEMU at Manningtree, I have believed that the technology has a place in the UK’s rolling stock and especially on routes in the North.
So I do wonder, if CAF have an IPEMU in their stable, as it would be ideal for say the Windermere and Barrow services.
But CAF did have a large hand in the creation of the Seville tram. This is said about the tram’s movement without catenary in Wikipedia.
From the start it was envisaged that part of the Metrocentro system should be able to run free from using the overhead contact wire for power. On several occasions the City of Seville administration had to dismantle the overhead wires to allow, at Easter, processions to pass without restriction; the builder of the rolling stock paid the extra cost for this.
The final system, which is now in use commenced from Holy Week 2011, the system uses advanced technology ACR (Acumulador de Carga Rápida) fast charging batteries -developed and patented by the Spanish company CAF.
As an electrical and control engineer by training, I feel that the modular design of the Civity train, which does include dual-mode trains, could possibly lead to an IPEMU.
Lets face it, Bombardier probably haven’t got much unique IPR in their IPEMU design and batteries and other energy storage devices are used in all sorts of vehicles from racing cars, to hybrid and electric cars and buses.
It’s all about putting the right modules together, to create a fleet of trains that fits the services you want to run.
If you look at the various Northern Connect routes, some could use EMUs, some DMUs and others like Windermere to Manchester Airport could use dual-mode trains.
This is said in an article in Rail Magazine.
The contract is for 31 three-car and 12 four-car electric multiple units, and 25 two-car and 30 three-car diesel multiple units. The carriages will be owned by Eversholt Rail, and all will be in traffic by December 2018.
Using the diagrams on this page on CAF’s web site, this translates into the following.
- 86 EMU cabs
- 110 DMU cabs
- 85 Trailers
Which rather unsurprisingly adds up to 281 cars, the figure given in the article.
The question has to be asked, how many, if any, of the trains will be dual-mode variants, which can run on either overhead wires or on-board diesel engines.
It should be noted that the installed diesel power on a three-car dual-mode train is 200 kW or about the same as that of a single-car Class 153 train, so it might be fine when trundling Between Oxenholme and Windermere, but it is no long-distance charger.
Until we see the full fleet running a full service, we won’t see the actual mix of trains.
I think, that we’ll see other orders for the Civity family of trains in the near future.
Some will be in the UK.
Birmingham, Bristol, East Anglia and South Wales are all places, where a flexible fleet like Arriva Rail North seems to have ordered, will go down well.
If you look at the latest offerings from Alsthom, Bombardier, Hitachi and Siemens, they lack the flexibility of the Civity design.
I think that Arriva Rail North’s order could be more significant than anybody thinks!
Manchester Victoria Station Is Nearly Finished
It’s getting to the point, where the upgrade of Manchester Victoria station is nearly finished.
It really does show how good design can take a dark dump and make it a place you are happy to visit. Unlike Manchester Piccadilly, which now looks very third-rate.
There’s lots of space and it’s only a short walk to the trams.
In my view the following needs to be done to finish Victoria.
- Walking maps around the station.
- The Metrolink could do with better maps and information.
- A few litter bins.
- Contactless bank card ticketing.
But then the devil is in the detail.
Manchester should start to realise that it will get lots of visitors, who won’t know their way around the city centre.
The Anonymous Widower 