Is This The Shape Of Freight To Come?
This article on Rail Advent is entitled Eversholt Rail Unveils First Swift Express Freight Train In Doncaster.
It is a full report on the first of a new breed of freight trains based on redundant 100 mph electric multiple units.
Three Rail Problems
The rail industry, its financiers and customers have a lot of problems, they’d like to solve, but these three seem to be coming together to create a whole new industry.
Rolling Stock Leasing Companies Have A Surplus Of Redundant Rolling Stock
Most of the released rolling stock has been made redundant because of the arrival of new trains.
- Some trains and locomotives, like Greater Anglia’s Class 379 trains and Class 90 locomotives will probably be passed on to other operators.
- Some trains like Greater Anglia’s Class 315 trains and Govia Thameslink Railway‘s Class 313 trains and Merseyrail‘s Class 507 trains and Class 508 trains will probably only be fit for scrapping.
- Climate change ambitions will probably finish off anything which is elderly and diesel-powered.
What will be left will be a an assortment, which will contain a lot of trains with these characteristics.
- Four cars
- Can run in formations of 4, 8 and 12 cars
- Electrically-powered.
- Some trains are even dual voltage.
- 100 mph operating speed.
- Good reliability.
- Easy maintenance and modification if needed.
Many were even built over thirty years ago by British Rail Engineering Ltd.
As someone, who used to part-own a company that leased trucks to operators, I know that to maximise cash-flow and ultimately profits, you don’t want them sitting in a yard or a siding.
Conversion to zero carbon is one option.
- Porterbrook have said they will convert the Class 350 trains, that they own to battery-electric operation.
- Porterbrook have also converted some Class 319 trains to electro-diesel Class 769 trains.
- Porterbrook have also converted a Class 319 train to hydrogen operation.
- Eversholt Rail Group and Alstom are converting Class 321 trains to hydrogen operation.
I also believe that the redundant Class 379 trains will also be converted to battery-electric operation.
But there will still be a substantial number of quality trains, that need a second life.
The Growth Of Parcel Freight
Parcel freight traffic driven by on-line shopping, has boomed in the pandemic.
This type of traffic often originates from outside of the UK and enters the country at places like London Gateway or East Midlands Airport.
Much of it is currently distributed to large cities by truck, which in this day and age is not a green option, or even an option at all.
Rail Operations Group have leased ten Class 769 trains and 9 Class 319 trains with the intention of running parcel services under the Orion brand. I wrote about this proposal in A Freight Shuttle For Liverpool Street Station Planned.
Road Congestion
Road congestion is getting worse and there is bir much point in having product stuck on the motorway, when it can be running along at a 100 mph on an electrified rail line.
The Need For Just-In-Time Deliveries
Many factories these days work on the Just-In-Time principle, with product delivered just as its needed.
As an example Toyota build their cars at Burnaston near Derby, but the engines are built in North Wales. I suspect that they go across the country by truck.
Looking at maps, the engine plant could be rail connected and I feel one could be arranged at Burnaston.
Do they keep a good stock of engines at Burnaston?
I can see several situations like this needing a regular company train.
Fast Food
Because of Brexit we will need to be growing more of our own food.
Traditionally, the Class 43 power cars of InterCity 125 trains carried flowers and fish up from Cornwall.
So will we see rail provide an alternative.
Conclusion
Put these problems together and you can see a fair number of four-car electric multiple units being converted to short 100 mph electric freight trains.
Eversholt Rail Group‘s Swift Express Freight Train is very much a demonstrator for their ideas and it has some expected and unexpected features.
Based On A Class 321 train
The train is based on a four-car Class 321 train.
I rode one recently and I timed it at over 90 mph on the way to Southend.
Trolley Cages
Pictures in the Rail Advent article show a stripped-bare interior with a steel floor, with another picture showing three supermarket trolley cages arranged across the train.
One estimate in the article says that each coach can handle over fifty of these cages and up to nine-and-a-half tonnes of cargo.
Four Seats And A Toilet
Eversholt feel that some of the trains could be used in a Travelling Post Office mode and there may be a need for sorting en route, so two first-class seats, two second-class seats and a toilet are provided.
This train would enable an Anglo-Scottish parcel service.
- It might stop several times en route.
- At each stop parcels would be rolled out and in, perhaps with the help of a Harrington Hump.
- The on-train staff would sort the incoming parcels and put them in the required trolley for offloading.
I don’t think though, they’ll be delivering postal orders.
A Last Mile Capability
The article also disclosed that Eversholt were thinking of fitting a Last-Mile capability to the Swift Express Freight Train.
Batteries were mentioned and they would obviously work.
But one development recently is Porterbrook’s HydroFlex train, which has converted a Class 319 train to hydrogen power.
- The conversion was done by Birmingham University.
- It appears that all the hydrogen gubbins is underneath the floor, so cargo capacity would not be reduced.
I suspect underfloor hydrogen power could be very viable in an express freight train.
Fleet Size
The article talks of a fleet size of twenty and also says that the first train has been leased to an unnamed parcel distributor in the UK.
Hydrogen Train “Coradia iLint”
The title of this post, is the same as that on this page of the Austrian Railways web site.
One of the sections is entitled Tried And Tested On Geographically Demanding Routes, where this is said.
Up to now, hydrogen trains have mainly been used on flat routes in Northern Germany and the Netherlands. By testing on geographically demanding, alpine routes in the southern parts of Lower Austria, the hydrogen train is now being put through its paces for the first time.
They also give a link to a route timetable.
World’s First Hydrogen-Powered Tram Runs In China
The title of this post is the same as this article on Global Rail News.
This is the first two paragraphs.
Rolling stock manufacturer CRRC has announced that the world’s first hydrogen-powered tram has been put into passenger operation in China.
The three-carriage hybrid electric tram enter service in the city of Tangshan, Hebei, on October 26.
It seems to have the following characteristics.
- Three cars
- 66 seats
- 70 kph.
- 40 km range.
It all sounds very tram-like.
It does seem there’s a lot of train and tram manufacturers thinking about hydrogen power.
The Anonymous Widower 