A Victory For Good Project Management
Network Rail were going to close the West Coast Main Line in the Watford area for track works this Summer and in February next year.
But these closures have been cancelled, according to this article in Modern Railways.
It looks like that some nifty project management has been applied.
So often this type of major project ends up causing troubles all round, as the project management is non-existent.
Here, Network Rail deserve praise, especially, if it works out as planned.
Madness At Hackney Wick
This story is beyond belief. Here’s the first bit.
A young woman was in a serious condition in hospital today after leaping on to a freight train in London and being burnt by live overhead cables.
The 22-year-old sparked an explosion by touching the 25,000-volt wires and was thrown 20ft on to the platform where her friends had stood watching, the London Evening Standard reported.
The only good news is that she wasn’t killed. It probably shows that if say the 25,000 volt cables are dragged down in an accident, you might just about get away with being hit. But I certainly wouldn’t recommend any experiments.
It Happens Again Travelling To And From Ipswich
This afternoon, I went to football at Ipswich and like last week, when I encountered the troubles detailed in this post, I had more trouble.
I decided to get the 13:00 rather than the 13:30, in case the latter was a bit late. I was advised by staff at Liverpool Street station, not to take the 13:00, as it was only going to Colchester. Instead I was told to get the 13:02 slow train to Ipswich. After a few stops and hiccups, I eventually got to Ipswich, a few minutes later than the 13:30 normally would, which meant I missed about two minutes of the match.
Then at half-time, a couple of people turned up who had caught the 13:30, which had arrived forty-five minutes late.
Returning to London, I normally catch the 17:09 and I did today, but it had lost thirty minutes from its schedule by Manningtree.
By Colchester, we were going better and eventually got into Liverpool Street only losing a few more minutes.
The ticket collector told us all that it appeared that there had been an attempted cable theft, although that is not mentioned in this article in the Eastern Daily Press.
Is The Forth Bridge Scotland’s Best Loved Landmark?
Not my words, but those of Network Rail on a web site describing their plans for the Forth Rail Bridge, called The Forth Bridge Experience.
If the experience is as well thought out as the web site, they might be on to something.
After all if Tower Bridge in London can have an experience, why not the Forth Bridge!
Thinking about it though, recognisable landmarks in Scotland, that are recognisable to non-Scots, are thin on the ground.
I think if I go back to before I first visited Scotland in 1965, I would suspect that the Forth Rail Bridge would have been the only landmark I could recognise.
Suffolk Shows The Value Of Improving Train Services
The East Suffolk line from Ipswich to Lowestoft is one of those train lines, that British Rail would have liked to close in the 1960s and 1970s. Everything was simplified and a lot of the line was made single-track.
Then a year ago, they introduced a loop at Beccles and an hourly service between the two biggest towns in East Suffolk.
The result has been an 11.5% increase in passengers as is reported here. Here’s the first paragraph.
It was a record setting year as passenger numbers of the East Suffolk Line hit an all time high in 2013. A record 653,000 journeys were made on the line between Ipswich and Lowestoft last year, an 11.5% increase on 2012. Compared to 2009 / 2010 that number is up by 60%.
We’re not talking massive sums on improving the line, but it shows that if you provide a better train service, it’ll get used, as I found out earlier this week on the Settle and Carlisle.
Long Live The Settle And Carlisle
Or as I rode the Settle and Carlisle line yesterday from North to South, should I call it, the Carlisle and Settle?
I’ve never ridden it before and I can’t understand why, as it is a spectacular line running through magnificent scenery.
The weather yesterday wasn’t good as the pictures show. But that didn’t stop the 15:05 from Carlisle being about two-thirds full. Most seemed to be small groups, whohad had a day out and were returning to Leeds. But judging by their clothes, they weren’t going to stray far into the hills.
If this a typical journey on a wet Tuesday afternoon in late January, there can’t be much wrong with the way the line is managed, as a partnership. Judging by the age of many of the customers, the ridership is probably a tribute to the Senior and other railcards.
Reading various web sites it would seem that Network Rail have got to grips with the magnificent Ribblehead Viaduct, the track and other structures, and the Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company seem to have been doing their best in restoring stations and other lineside structures. I also found this article on the Network Rail web site about improving communications and signalling.
It would appear too, that there is a lot of enthusiasm and common sense in securing the future of this line.
So what do I think the future will hold?
The Development Company and others want to see more trains on the line. Currently, there are seven trains in both directions between Leeds and Carlisle, with the first leaving at 05:29 from Leeds and 05:50 from Carlisle. If that isn’t a schedule to get people into the hills for a heavy constitutional, then I don’t know what is? The train I rode was one of Northern Rail’s two coach Class 158s. It would be interesting to see how crowded these trains get in the summer! Obviously new trains are out of the question, but with the Manchester-Liverpool-Blackpool electrification, there might be some more of these Class 158s available. If those backing a direct Manchester to Carlisle service over the line, they’ll certainly be needed. But people have said to me, that there is a shortage of decent diesel multiple units in the UK.
Surely though, greater capacity on the line will help to generate tourism in the area and all the much-needed employment it creates!
As I write this note, it has been announced that the West coast Main Line has been closed due to overhead line problems at Penrith. So like the problems I encountered last Saturday on Greater Anglia, there I suspect, a lot of frustrated passengers and rauilway managers and staff, wondering what is going to happen!
So perhaps one option might be to electrify Settle to Carlisle and the related Leeds to Morecambe line. This would provide a double-tracked by-pass from Carnforth to Carlisle. This option, which could also be used by freight trains is discussed here. Remember that the West Coast Main Line is mainly double-track, so an electrified Settle to Carlisle line, would give some extra much-needed capacity between the North of England and Scotland. Admittedly, it wouldn’t be a 200 kph like the West Coast Main Line. It certainly, is a line that can take heavy trains, as the media is always showing pictures of trains like steam driven excursions using the route.
As I indicated earlier, there is a shortage of diesel multiple units and this is often the reason that drives services on the UK’s railways. Greater Anglia run a deplorable service from Ipswich to Felixstowe using a single coach Class 153. But it’s not their fault that they can’t get hold of something bigger and better. Nothing else exists!
I have said before that the High Speed Diesel Trains, that will be surplus to requirements after the introduction could be reused on some of the lines in the UK like Settle to Carlisle and Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh. As Chiltern have shown, if the Mark 3 coaches are refurbished and returned to their original seat layout, they ride like Jaguars and are some of the finest trains in the world.
On Settle to Carlisle line, they would be ideal to allow the reinstatement of direct Glasgow to Leeds and East Midlands services, which currently go via Edinburgh.
I don’t know what is going to happen in the next few years, but without doubt, something will happen to invigorate the Settle to Carlisle line.
The line will outlive us all!
An Open Letter To GreaterAnglia
As I have been travelling up and down to Ipswich from London since probably about 1963, when I used to put my bicycle in the guard’s van and have it hauled by a Britannia between my parent’s main and retirement homes, it was inevitable, that one day I’d end up in the sort of incident that I did last night.
I should say, that after the death of my wife and son to cancer, and a serious stroke, I retired to London from Newmarket, and as I’m still a season ticket holder at Portman Road, I come up for every Ipswich Town home match.
Yesterday incidentally, was the first day, when my chosen train up (down in your terminology) to Ipswich, the 13:30 from Liverpool Street hasn’t been within a minute of its scheduled arrival time of 14:43 and I missed the first few minutes of the match. Luckily, Ipswich left the excitement for later. As I’ve taken this train, perhaps fifty times in the last three years, that is probably not a bad record.
I usually go home on the 17:09, so that I can experience the comfort of First in a Mark 3 coach. Yesterday though, we were advised to take the Football Special and in common with everybody else, I ended up on Colchester station. At least the buffet was open, and I was able to get a decent cup of hot chocolate, as from my knowledge of railway electrification, I knew from the fact that all the lines for London, were blocked by fallen trees, we could be in for a long wait.
But Ipswich fans tend to be fairly stoic and resourceful, especially after the troubles of the last few years. I thought and hoped, that my mate, Ian, who lives in Kent and had also been at the match, might be in the area, and as luck would have it for me, but not I suspect for him, he was visiting his father in Colchester Hospital.
So unlike others, just after 18:30, I was sitting comfortably on my way south. Ian lives near Ebbsfleet, so he was able to drop me at the station there, to get the High Speed service to Statford, which is an Overground ride away from where I live in Hackney.
I was starting to get hungry, but as I’m a coeliac, getting food at Stratford and the nearby Eastfield shopping centre is difficult, as not even Marks and Spencer, has anything like a gluten-free sandwich and there is no restaurant that I trust to serve a meal without gluten.
So instead of getting home at about seven, I was home just before nine, which given the circumstances and probably the experiences of other passengers, wasn’t too bad.
It is interesting to compare the trip[, with one I took on Deutsche Bahn in similarly awful weather, where I was abandoned at Osnabruck on a trip from Hamburg to Amsterdam, and left to my own devices. With incidentally no offer of compensation.
Obviously, you will always have problems with trees by the line, if we continue to get this awful weather. And obviously now, unlike in the 1950s and 1960s, there are no Britannias to periodically clear the trees, by setting fire to them.
In some ways, you suffered from one of the problems of an all-electric railway, which is obviously vulnerable to an event as last night. It would of course have helped if the line from Ipswich to Cambridge had been electrified, as it would have enabled the ferrying of Ipswich passengers for London to Cambridge, for onward travel. But that infill won’t happen for some years, if it ever does.
I think that the only solution, that might help, would be if you had a couple of Class 88 engines to run direct services to Yarmouth, as their go-anywhere capability would have allowed a shuttle via Cambridge. But then the first of these is a few years away from being built.
I think, under the circumstances, you did as well as could be expected. But probably the fact, that Ipswich had won, meant most fans were in a good mood. But you can’t please everybody!
Certainly though, your performance in times of smaller troubles over the last few years, has in my experience, been a lot better than some other companies I could name.
The Overground Wins The Passengers’ Votes
I like the London Overground and believe that it has helped to improve the part of London where I live. I’ve heard stories of people getting their first job because it enables them to get reliably to a job out of the area they live.
But don’t just believe me, read this report. Here’s an extract.
The London Overground has trounced the competition in a survey of passenger satisfaction.
Overall, users had an 89 per cent satisfaction rate with the service, a survey conducted by independent rail watchdog Passenger Focus showed.
This compares with 82 per cent for all operators in London and the south east and 83 per cent across the national network.
Let’s hope the Overground works its magic on Tottenham, Walthamstow and Enfield, as it expands next year.
Changing Trains At Liverpool
To get from Birmingham to Preston, I took a London Midland train to Liverpool, from where I got a local service to Lancashire’s County Town.
The first train was excellent, as one of the pictures shows. It cost me £24.10 in First, but I had a big table to myself. I’ve used the company before when travelling between Liverpool and Birmingham and I prefer them to Virgin for that route.
Liverpool is a good interchange, as the station is close to Liverpool’s magnificent Civic Buildings. You can also walk down to the Mersey and then get a train back from St. James’s Street. I know that I know Liverpool well, but it must be the only city in England, where the iconic sites can be reached by walking downhill. But then it seems that few city centre stations are close to the shops and attractions. Some like Leeds and Nottingham mean an uphill walk.
On this trip, I’d picked up some sandwiches in Birmingham New Street Station, so all I did was visit the Walker Art Gallery or the National Gallery of the North, as it is sometimes called. We need more attractions like this, close to major interchange railway stations.
The poor part of the trip, was the train from Liverpool to Preston. it was one of Northern Rail’s Class 156, which after the two other trains of the day, was a real drop in standards.
Is Beeching To Blame?
I remember the railways in the 1950s and 1960s well. Some will look upon that period as a golden age. But in truth trains and stations were terrible, with some of the diesel multiple units, like these Class 105, seemingly designed to remove the fillings from your teeth. Living in London, you used the Underground, where you could, rather than put up with the dirty local trains and stations. This was all before the Beeching reports, and it showed how bad our railways were. Very few people, who didn’t have to for commuting or work, used the trains and everybody preferred their new-found freedom given by a car.
Something had to be done, especially to cut costs and improve standard. The cuts are outlined here in Wikipedia.
When I was travelling up and down to Liverpool University in the 1960s, the trains were starting to get better, as electrification of the line was added. But still, it wasn’t anywhere near as clean, comfortable and reliable as it is now!
Generally, I believe Beeching was right to recommend closing many of the lines he proposed. They weren’t being used and the country couldn’t afford to fund a white elephant.
But it was the way that politicians and management did the downsizing of the railways, that is to blame for some of our railway problems today.
The way that line closures was done in a sometimes unthinking way, is illustrated by the problems of trying to restablish a rail route from Oxford to Cambridge. The original route was called the Varsity Line, and Wikipedia says this about its closure.
Services were withdrawn from the Oxford – Bletchley and Bedford – Cambridge sections at the end of 1967, even though the line had not been listed for closure as part of the Beeching Axe in 1963.
Although parts could still be reinstated, some parts are blocked by housing and other developments, and the Cambridge University Radio Telescope. The status of the line is described here.
So did an overzealous accountant or politician see the short term gain and lost sight of the future. As Beeching felt the line should stay, they must have thought, they had very good reasons to effectively close it for ever.
But now the government has stated that an East-West Rail Link should be built and they have funded the first part from Oxford to Bedford to open in 2017. The proposals for the link from Bedford to Cambridge are detailed here. Whatever happens, it looks like finding an acceptable route will be difficult.
In some places in the UK, rail closures were done, so that they could be reinstated. Scotland has recently recreated some of these lines and is currently rebuilding some of the Waverley Route.
Did the Scots have the vision, did managers and politicians not have a destroy policy or was it just luck?
London had a different policy. Both the Overground and the Docklands Light Railway were created out of the remains of old forgotten train lines. But then London was lucky, in that roads that could have used the space, were off the agenda and no-one had any decent vision on how to reuse the lines. So they were saved for their renaissance!
The Anonymous Widower 