This report on the BBC is entitled Network Rail to restart electrification of train lines. This is said.
The electrification of two railway lines is to be restarted after the projects were halted so a review could be carried out, the government says.
Work on the TransPennine Express Railway – between Manchester and York – and Midland Mainline – from London to Sheffield – was paused in June.
Sir Peter Hendy, chair of Network Rail, said the “temporary pause” had “given us the space to develop a better plan”
The Aventra IPEMU
Looking at the electrification of the two lines in posts over the previous few days, I have come to the conclusion that properly engineered battery trains built by Bombardier in Derby called Aventra IPEMUs (Independently Powered Electrical Multiple Units) could charge their batteries on existing sections of electrification and jump the gaps at speeds of up to at least 110 mph and possibly 125 mph, by running on batteries.
If that sounds like something that is too good to be true, I don’t believe it is! I was impressed when as a paying passenger, I rode the prototype train between Manningtree and Harwich.
For those who think that a battery train is just so-much Mickey Mouse-technology, note that the battery supplier; Valence is linked to Tessla; the electric vehicle manufacturer. A review of their latest car is on Autocar. The biggest problem with the car is not the power, range and performance, but the time it takes to charge the car from a typical supply. In addition to the overhead wire or third rail of the railway, an Aventra IPEMU has to charge the battery, the train will also charge the batteries using the regenerative braking system.
The TransPennine Line
On the TransPennine Line from Liverpool to Newcastle, the only gap in the electrification is the forty-three miles between Leeds and Manchester.
Aventra IPEMUs have a range of sixty miles, so Liverpool to Newcastle would be electric all the way and could be faster by up to thirty minutes on the current three hour journey.
Read Jumping The Electrification Gap Between Leeds And Manchester for full details on what it would entail.
The Midland Main Line
On the Midland Main Line, the electrification reaches from St. Pancras to Bedford.
As Corby, Kettering and Leicester are all within an Aventra IPEMU’s range from Bedford, these places could be served by these trains, once a certain amount of track and station work had been completed.
Read Thoughts On Midland Main Line Electrification for full details.
Delivering The Projects
The BBC article says this about the schedule.
The TransPennine upgrade is expected to provide capacity for six “fast or semi-fast trains” per hour between Manchester, Leeds and York , reducing journey times by up to 15 minutes.
The Manchester to York section of the work is now planned to be completed by 2022.
Once completed, the whole line from Liverpool to Newcastle will be fully electrified, the Department for Transport added.
The electrification of Midland Mainline north of Bedford to Kettering and Corby will now be completed by 2019, and the line north of Kettering to Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and to Sheffield will finish by 2023.
My project management knowledge and observations of Network Rail, say that to get electric trains to Kettering and Corby by 2019, would be a very tight schedule to perform on a working railway using conventional electrification!
But if it were needed to replace the current Class 222 trains with Aventra IPEMUs, it would just be a matter of certifying the line for the new Aventra IPEMUs and training the drivers and other staff.
There would be little or no work outside in the elements and all of the electrification would effectively be done in a comfortable warm factory at Derby!
I also feel that if say Network Rail said that the projects would be delivered on a particular date, that the risk of non-delivery would be very small.
Aventra IPEMUs can’t be delivered earlier, as the Derby factory will be jammed solid with production of Aventras for Crossrail.
On the other hand to prove the concept, would Bombardier modify a Class 387 train to create an IPEMU variant to run in passenger service between St.Pancras and Corby. Note that there have already been rumours of Class 387 IPEMU variants for Great Western Railway.
I wouldn’t be surprised if such a train is created, as it would be a superb way to identify any problems, train staff, prove the credibility of battery trains to a sceptical public and even deliver electric trains earlier.
A Cunning Plan
There are twenty seven Class 387 trains running on the Thameslink route at the moment, that will be replaced by Class 700 trains between 2016 and 2018.
As the Great Western Main Line won’t be electrified to Newbury, Swindon and Oxford until 2019 or whatever, there does seem to be the possibility of some very new Class 387 trains going into storage.
But as they are very similar to the Class 379 that was used for the IPEMU demonstrator, I do wonder if those clever engineers at Bombardier could convert some of these 110 mph trains into an IPEMU variant that could be used on services on TransPennine and the Midland Main Line.
If there were any spare Class 379 trains, I’m sure that other train companies would find a use for them! Especially, if Bombardier developed a plug-in battery system for the trains, so they could be used to prove if IPEMUs improved the lot of passengers on secondary lines.
You have to make your assets sweat.
Conclusion
I may be wrong, but I can’t see any other way to meet the schedule that has been published, unless some form of IPEMU is used to bridge the gaps in electrification..
It could be said that the North needs fast electric trains now and George Osborne needs them by 2020, as he has an election to win!
It might not matter much to most people if the trains didn’t run until say August 2020, but George Osborne would be unlikely to win an election in May 2020, if the trains were not delivered and running smoothly.
September 30, 2015
Posted by AnonW |
Transport/Travel | Class 387 Train, Electrification, George Osborne, Leeds, Manchester, Midland Main Line, Politics, Project Management, TransPennine Express |
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Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of having an unusual taste in clothes and also not owning a suit.
I suspect though that his attitude to clothes is typical of many of us, who grew up in the mid-1960s.
Men were liberated from the rules, just as much as women were.
For years I never owned a suit and possibly for the last fifty years, I’ve always worn short-sleeved shirts.
Look at some other respected men of the 1960s like Richard Branson and James Dyson. You may see them dressed conventionally, but often they dress for the occasion like my left-wing accountant once accused me of, many years ago.
I’m certainly someone who believes that the message is much more important than the packaging.
So for instance, if I was invited to appear on television to discuss a subject like computer programming or project management software, I’d probably wear my thirty year old tweed jacket, M & S chinos and a short-sleeved shirt, with decent walking shoes. My one nod to style would be a bag or brief case by a well-known designer. The brief case incidentally is forty years old. Design is more important than any famous designer name.
Jeremy Corbyn though, has the task of impressing those who currently don’t, to vote for the Labour Party in an election. So unfortunately, he should observe certain norms or he’ll be leading his party to oblivion.
September 16, 2015
Posted by AnonW |
News | Jeremy Corbyn, Politics |
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If you use Anagram Genius to find an anagram of “Jeremy Corbyn”, you get the following result.
Enjoy Merry CB
So who is CB?
At least his anagram wasn’t rude, unlike some other politicians!
August 9, 2015
Posted by AnonW |
World | Jeremy Corbyn, Politics |
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This week the much-loved actor, George Cole passed away at the age of 90.
Most of us loved his most famous character of Arthur Daley, who went from one disaster to another as not only was he accident prone, but totally incapable of organising his affairs, so he avoided trouble with people like the Revenue and small-time low-life.
It struck me that if Arthur ran a Financial Advice company, that was as well-managed as everything else he did, would you put a brass farthing of your money with his company to look after and grow.
Certainly not!
So why does anybody seriously think about voting for Labour candidates in an election, when they can’t come up with a foolproof and sound method for electing their next leader? The system is so full of holes, that allow interest groups to hi-jack the process, that the final result could be far from what real Labout members want!
To return to my pension example, when you are voting, you are voting to create a good future for yourself, your children and your grandchildren.
So can you be sure that the political party you favour has the capability to manage the economy, if they can’t manage something relatively simple, like electing a leader?
If you go back a few years, the Labour Party of Michael Foot and the Tory Party of Ian Duncan Smith were a shambles, as they drifted too far from the centre.
Only when both parties elected leaders with a bit of sense; Kinnock and Howard respectively, did the parties reorganise themselves sufficiently, so that they were able to regain power a few years later!
August 8, 2015
Posted by AnonW |
World | Labour Party, Politics |
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This report on the BBC is entitled Cornwall devolution: First county with new powers.
It is not full devolution, but various powers have been given to the Council.
- Give Cornwall Council powers for franchising and improving local bus services
- Help Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly councils create a plan to bring health and social care services together
- Enable the council to choose what projects will see millions of pounds of investment
- Give the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) more input on boosting local skills
- Make it easier for the LEP to integrate national and local services to help local firms grow
I suspect we’ll see a lot more powers devolved to the Council.
There is no mention of rail services, which are detailed here in Wikipedia, although I suspect these are covered by the Council choosing where to invest.
I suspect though that a lot of improvement in rail services has already been covered. I detailed the improvements for both Devon and Cornwall in The Japanese Are Going To Invade Devon And Cornwall.
I also suspect that as the economy improves in the Far West, whoever is operating the express and sleeper services to London, will upgrade the services to match the demand. The new AT300 trains, that First Great Western have ordered could even be used between Cornwall and Birmingham.
Just as Crossrail is going to give London and the South East a massive kick up the ladder, the electrification and modernisation of the Great Western Main Line is going to do the same for England west of Reading, And of course South Wales!
I see a sunny future for Cornwall!
Which English county is going to be next in the queue for devolution?
July 16, 2015
Posted by AnonW |
Finance & Investment, Transport/Travel | Cornwall, First Great Western Trains, Politics, Trains |
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What the Labour Party hasn’t realised is that the electorate has changed radically over the last twenty years. More of us have gone to University and everybody now has much better grasp of the issues facing the country. Even if they are getting on in years or not very politically informed, they have a friend or relative who understands the complex issues. So gradually the electorate is realising that the old philosophies of both left and right don’t work.
July 16, 2015
Posted by AnonW |
World | Labour Party, Politics |
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According to one reporter on the BBC this morning, Angela Merkel did her usual and kept going for many hours in the Greek debt negotiations.
I’ve also read reports, that Margaret Thatcher used to show the same stamina. In fact, she was awake working, when the Brighton Bomb went off.
Interestingly, they are both women with a scientific training!
July 13, 2015
Posted by AnonW |
World | Angela Merkel, Margaret Thatcher, Politics |
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I have a feeling that there could be some secondary effects from the budget and particularly the announcement of a National Living Wage.
Nowhere will this measure be felt more than at the bottom end of the employers. If you read the tabloids, you get the impression that dodgy low-quality businesses are the big employers of illegal immigrants, keeping them in squalor and paying them in cash, if they’re lucky.
With a solidly enforced living wage, will this make it more difficult for these companies and operators to survive, so this country might be less of a magnet for illegal immigrants. I don’t know, but a higher level of living wage gives the Tax Authorities a good reason to investigate the sort of businesses who rely on no-questions-asked labour.
I very much watch innovation in the media and also have been in touch several times with universities in the last few years. I think we’ll see companies using their local innovators to make sure they support their now more highly-paid employees. I know several universities are giving students real projects in local companies.
So will we be pushing our employment up-market? I think we will!
As an example, an industry that we all seem to use more these days are couriers to deliver the goods we’ve bought on-line. They have got so much better over the last few years and that is just not the delivery reliability, but the staff as well, who seem to be polite and very much on-the-ball. Incidentally, most staff who’ve delivered to me lately seem to have been British born and educated.
I don’t know what will happen in the next few years, but I have a feeling that the Chancellor’s announcements may be helping to move the country on from a low-wage, low-skilled and badly-supported work force to one where a job, where you work hard and efficiently gives you a real living wage.
Of course Labour think that the restructuring of Tax Credits will mean many will lose out. But then Labour’s solution to a low-wage, low-skill economy was to pay people at the low-end to do nothing or crap jobs.
The other thing the Chancellor must do to help, is make sure that our transport links are improved. It’s one thing to get a job and often it’s a much more difficult thing to get to that job every day. You just have to see what the Overground and the fleets of new buses have done for Hackney and the surrounding boroughs, here in London, over the past few years.
July 9, 2015
Posted by AnonW |
Finance & Investment, Transport/Travel, World | Employment, George Osborne, Innovation, Politics |
4 Comments
The Times has a report today about a web site called sexymp.co.uk, which is searching for the sexiest MP.
I gave it a try and all the MPs I was shown to judge, had rather a touch of The Battersea about them!
July 1, 2015
Posted by AnonW |
World | Politics, Relationships |
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In some ways the impact of HS2 on the General Election was more noticeable by its absence. I have only found one serious article in Rail News, that even discusses the subject. This is the first two paragraphs.
Ahead of the general election campaigners against HS2 made much of the opportunity for opponents to vote for parties that wanted the project scrapped. But the final election results suggest HS2 had little impact.
Only UKIP and the Greens put scrapping HS2 as a core issue in their manifestos. And a lone single-issue candidate also campaigned against HS2 in the Westminster North constituency but came bottom of the poll with 63 votes, or just 0.2 per cent of the total cast.
Ukip are a law unto their own, but why are the Greens against HS2?
I do wonder if HS2 is going through a similar popularity as Crossrail, where parts of London were against the building of the rail link in the early days of the project. Now Londoners seem to be getting enthusiastic about their new railway.
May 20, 2015
Posted by AnonW |
Transport/Travel | General Election 2015, High Speed Two, Politics, UKIP |
2 Comments
The Anonymous Widower 