Readers get a double helping of Informed Sources this month. There’s the standard column, plus the annual reliability review. This covers every fleet on the main line network and forms part of Modern Railways’ traditional feature coverage.
Unusually, while I was writing the January column, developments at DfT Rail were moving so fast I had a job keeping up! In his Pre-Budget Statement on 25 November, Chancellor Alistair Darling announced that £300 million was being made available to accelerate procurement of 200 vehicles. These turned out to be DMUs for Great Western, Northern and Trans-Pennine. And when the Chancellor says ‘accelerate’ it seems his old Department can move very fast indeed.
DfT Rail issued the OJEU Notice on 1 December, expressions of interest were required by 16 December and bidders were due to get the Invitation To Tender on 22 December. The aim is to place the order before the end of March 2009, even though the 200 vehicles (the OJEU says up to 250) are part of the 1300 vehicles to be funded in Control Period 4. Since CP4 doesn’t start until
If you take away the 24 vehicles to lengthen the
All the 200 new DMU vehicles ‘are expected to be in passenger service by 2012’. You might think that this means a walkover for the Bombardier Class 172 ‘green’ Turbostar. But no. DfT Rail, as ever, sees this order as another chance to bring new manufacturers into the
CSR of China is definitely planning to bid, as is CAF of Spain, which has already supplied DMUs to both Northern Ireland Railways and Irish Rail. Rotem of Korea, which is currently delivering 46 inter-city specification DMUs to Irish Rail, is the third potential bidder. All three are likely to be cheaper than the home team.
Meanwhile, the long running saga of the 24 vehicles for
While it’s all go on the DMUs, it’s all slow on the new Thameslink EMU fleet procurement. How slow? Since April, the start of revenue earning service has slipped from trains (plural) in February 2012 to train (singular) in November 2012. That’s nine months project time slippage in seven months real time, which takes some doing.
But, despite this, DfT Rail still says that the first trains ‘will be available for testing in autumn 2011’. Assuming ‘autumn’ ends with the winter solstice in December, we are looking to have the first trains for testing at the latest 20 months after contract signing. Testing will need more than one 12 car train. So, a pretty demanding schedule.
Of course, the manufacturers are not coming cold to the project. Informed Sources tell me that Siemens and
And last week I had a presentation from Alstom on their new high density commuter train which really gave me pause for thought. The full description will have to wait until next month’s column, but the French are back big-time and in my book their X’trapolis (crazy name - crazy train) could be the one to beat. DfT Rail, which is adamant that only a clean sheet design can meet the 24 trains/hour service through Thameslink’s central London core, will love it.
While the Thameslink spec’ talks in terms of diagrams, I reckon the actual requirement is around 1270 vehicles. So if the first train is in service in November 2012 and Thameslink is due to be fully operational for the December 2015 timetable, that’s about 400 vehicles a year.
Of course it’s not a simple as that. According to the specification, Thameslink trains will operate with Automatic Train Operation (
Signalling design for Thameslink is running late. And seven years from this month is not a long time to get ETCS and
Meanwhile, back in the here and now, Thameslink Key Output Zero (KO0) is in trouble. In March 2009, the bay platforms at Blackfriars are due to close for work to start on the station. Also closed will the branch from Farringdon to Moorgate.
KO0 sees First Capital Connect and South Eastern introduce a new joint service to work round the Blackfriars closures. The new timetable is based on the 23 new-build Class 377 dual voltage Electrostar EMUs which Southern will sub-lease to FCC.
But deliveries of the Class 377s are running late. This is being blamed on problems with Bombardier’s sub-contractors, including gearboxes and wiring.
Contingency plans are being developed which should allow KO0 to go ahead in March, but with a modified timetable based on a minimum of 14 Class 377s which Bombardier says will be delivered in time. The Class 378 Electrostars for London Overground are similarly delayed.
And it’s not just trains. Network Rail is also running late with supporting works, particularly at Farringdon, where a new footbridge, needing three possession, has yet to be installed.
I’m working up a feature article on signalling policy under Railtrack with the title ‘Decade of delusion’. One of the problems with a monthly column which is always looking ahead, is that you rarely have a chance to write a considered view of how we got to where we are. But every now and then I try to put a technology in context and in the case of signalling such a retrospective is long overdue.
Meanwhile, the good-ish news is that Network Rail has got over all the weird policy decisions it inherited and we now have a relatively rational signalling policy. Ten years after Railtrack told the signalling manufacturers, ‘If you are making SSI (Solid State Interlockings) you are in a blind alley’, the grandsons of SSI have taken back their inheritance.
Westinghouse’s development of Westlock, piloted at
While Westinghouse was undeterred by the ‘blind alley’ warning, Alstom, as was, believed it and backed off for a while. But Alstom has now set up a joint venture with Balfour Beatty called Signalling Solutions Ltd (
Alstom’s 21st Century SSI successor is called Smartlock 400. It has been in service on the Brussel’s Metro for three years and is also replacing 100 interlockings on Belgian National Railways under a ‘modular interlocking’ programme.
What about the
With Network Rail choosing a critical project like
At the end of last month’s e-Preview I mentioned that DfT Rail was planning to announce the preferred bidder for the Intercity Express Programme on 19 December. This date was subsequently brought forward TO 18 December. ATOC briefed its members to expect an announcement on 18 December too.
When I was at the Department’s press party on 16 December I dropped hints about THURSDAY (nothing if not subtle). This got a professional silence, but on the way out I was tipped off to be ready for a briefing on Friday morning. Anyway, Thursday came and went. First thing on Friday Informed Sources reported that DfT would announce that the decision had been delayed until February next year because of the current banking crisis.
By lunchtime Friday nothing had happened so I phoned the Press Office and was told “Commercial negotiations are continuing on a confidential basis. The DfT hopes to make an announcement about the preferred bidder for the Inter-City Express Programme in the new year”.
So expect an update in the next column. But the sudden switch from a precise date to ‘hopes’ and ‘New Year’ has all the signs of a project in trouble. When you consider that half of the initial batch of vehicles would be to ‘commuter’ specification and a quarter of the batch will be for 100mile/h outer suburban services (King’s Cross-King’s Lynn and Euston-Northampton) we have a classic example of a misconceived concept looking for any application to justify its existence.
Incidentally, I have recently been a bit harsh about the DfT Rail press office. What I didn’t know was that there has been a total turn-round in personnel so the longest serving press officer is a veteran of all of eight weeks. That explains a lot and apologies for the brusque treatment chaps.
As you will see in the magazine, the Golden Spanners awards go from strength to strength. The November Fourth Friday Club had a record attendance of around 260 guests and a record number of sponsored tables. The ‘Spanners’ is nothing if not a feel-good event for our industry and the cold numbers show that there is a lot to feel good about – for once. Should we start a Golden Pandrol Clip award for infrastructure reliability. Hmm, still thinking about that one.
It was down to Ashford the following week for a tour of Hitachi’s new depot and my first chance to have a serious look at a Class 395 and give the interior the ‘fist of quality’, treatment. It’s a well thought out depot with some original touches – I particularly noted a tunnel beneath the bogie drop which allows bogies to be transferred to and from the stores without disturbing work on the Depot floor.
Giving the Class 395 interior the ‘fist’ was probably unfair as these are the four pre-series trains used for testing. In terms of buzzes and rattles I thought the Javelin was not quite in the same Class as the Desiro. Mind you, once I had found my way round a chaotic
Sadly, pressure of work meant that I had to give the Rail Freight Group Christmas Lunch a miss, but last week there were the two events already mentioned: Christmas drinks with the Transport Ministers on Tuesday evening and a presentation followed by a working lunch with Alstom the next day.
It is clear that the days of Almost (anag) in the
Usually I end this blog by outlining my future movements, but I have yet to fill my new diary with events. And the next fortnight is a chance to catch up on the admin, do a bit of research and try and clear the desk ready for another hectic year.
Meanwhile my best wishes to all e-Preview subscribers for Christmas and the New Year. Thanks for all the feedback, not to mention the exchange of notes on colonoscopies!
All the best
Roger