It seems to have been all traction and rolling stock in Informed Sources at the moment, but there is a wider range of topics lined up for future columns. And railway finance will not doubt be back on the agenda soon enough/
Readers will no doubt be relieved to hear that my long running game of ‘hunt the HLOS 1300’ has come to an end. DfT Rail has now listed the new fleets to be acquired during Control Period 4 (CP4). Although note that this is subject to the Train Operators concerned being able to make a business case.
When you add up DfT Rail’s allocations you get 973 vehicles. Are we being short-changed? Not really, because as I explain in the article, we all missed a parliamentary statement last year which corrected Transport Minister Tom Harris’ claim that the 1300 additional vehicles and the new Thameslink fleet were separate.
So apologies for missing that. Although even the Tories, who asked the question that triggered the correction, seemed to have forgotten the answer!
To get to 1300 we need to add in 377 vehicles from the early deliveries of the Thameslink fleet. These will cascade a range of EMUs, including the Class 319 fleet, the Class 365s and some 465s. These are assumed to cover the 226 net additional vehicles for South Eastern and South Central in the Rolling Stock Plan (RSP)
Meanwhile South West Trains has gone from a net additional gain of 105 vehicles in the RSP to 140 and has just issued an OJEU Notice for 28 five car units. The previous expectation was for 33 new single cars to lengthen Class 450s to provide 10 car trains on the Windsor Line, plus another 18 four-car Class 450s.
Last month’s extended feature on
But now we have a neutral technical description of the Super Express Train (SET), it’s time to return to DfT Rail’s deus ex machina – the bi-mode. And there is still widespread confusion over the configuration, with even experienced railwaymen believing that the 10-car Bi-mode is a full power electric train plus a diesel power-house at one end. But, in fact, the Bi-mode will have a 2MW electric traction package at one end and a 2MW diesel power house at the other.
So to get the same performance as a 10 car electric SET, for example on the East Coast Main Line, the 10-car Bi-mode is going to have the diesel engine running and quite a lot of the time.
What foxed me in my Bi-mode analysis in the February 2009 column was Hitachi’s decision not only to have 20 axles motored, but also to go for a much higher acceleration rate that that specified in the bid documents. Indeed SET acceleration follows the maximum allowed by Network Rail.
Will blistering acceleration conquer all? It all comes down to Tractive Effort/Speed curves, just like those freight locomotives.
A comparison of the curves for the electric SET and the Class 390 Pendolino point up the different philosophies. With much more starting tractive effort, the SET rockets away. But with more power the Class 390 accelerates more strongly at higher speeds.
In the case of the 10 car Bi-mode under diesel or electric power alone, it’s a bit like matching the sprinter Usain Bolt against Paula Radcliffe over 10,000 metres. With only 2MW the Bi-mode holds that starting tractive effort for a very short time, before tractive effort starts sliding down the constant power curve.
So a Bi-mode leaving King’s Cross is going to need some diesel assistance before it exits Gaswork’s Tunnel if it is to keep to SET or IC225 timings. But, the Bi-mode is only there to run onward from Edinburgh. And while a bit of a side show, the philosophical question raised in the February column concerns claims for the 10 car Bi-mode versus IC125 on these routes.
Hitachi kindly provided me with the acceleration curves for the two trains and my brother Professor DP2 (younger, less noisy and more practical) ran some analysis for me.
This shows that from a standing start the Bi-mode is already over 100 metres ahead after 30 seconds and hitting 50km/h to the IC125’s 35km/h. After 70 seconds both trains are running at 79km/h, with the bi-mode 200 m ahead. But with more power the IC125 accelerates more strongly as speed rises and after 3.5 km, and running at 130km/h (80 mile/h) overtakes the bi-mode.
DfT Rail argues that diesel Bi-mode operation will be on routes with line speeds of 90mile/h or less and the higher acceleration will compensate for the lower power. And there is more to time-keeping than starting acceleration. When following line speed profiles the IC125’s superior acceleration above 25mile/h will give the old stager the edge. I remain in Didymus mode.
There was good news and not so good news on successive evenings. At a Network Rail dinner for the railway press Network Rail Chief Executive Iain Coucher was enthusing about the prospects for a rolling programme of electrification totalling 5,000 single track km over 10 years – or ‘10 track km a week for a decade’. He expects this to be the basis of the announcement promised for this summer by Transport Minister Lord Adonis.
The next evening, Stuart Baker, DfT Rail’s Divisional Manager National Rail Projects, gave a presentation on the West Coast Route Modernisation to the Railway Study Association. Afterwards, trying to be helpful, Richard Malins asked Stuart to comment on the prospects for electrification beyond the expected
This reluctance to comment chimed with reports from Informed Sources that DfT Rail is concerned by rising costs, both of putting up the wires and installing new electricity supply points. Being a cynic I also suspect that High Speed Lines are more attractive to politicians.
Note how the Government latched onto Theresa Villiers’ adoption of a High Speed network as central to Conservative transport policy. The beauty of HSL is that any serious money is at least two parliaments away while the political kudos is immediate.
Electrification, on the other hand, will need a commitment in the next HLOS in 2012 with spending starting in five years time. Another push is needed
April began with the Network Rail press dinner, where no one mentioned bonuses and Iain Coucher did not repeat the claim that we are seeing the biggest expansion since the day’s of Brunel. I have just been going through the Network Rail Delivery Plan for Control Period 4 and it is clear that a sizeable gap between expenditure and income still exists. Brunellian certainty is in short supply. More next month.
As already mentioned the following evening Stuart Baker gave an excellent presentation on the history of the WCRM. It included an aerial photograph of station works in which Stuart claimed you could see Chris Green timing the first attempt to couple a Class 57 ‘Thunderbird’ to a Pendolino. I’ll try and get a copy.
Last week I went to visit Faiveley in
This week we have the April Fourth Friday Club meeting. The guest speaker is Mike Storey, Head of Capital Rail Projects at the Olympic Delivery Authority. If I get a chance to ask a question (members come first) I’ll try to sort out the link between the Olympics and Thameslink KO1.
Looking ahead to May, the Diary is still fairly clear, although I have several visits to arrange. I’m giving one of my talks to a local Probus club on 12 May and at the end of the month it’s the Stagecoach Spring Reception where I will try to bottom out the new vehicle requirement.
Now to get down to the Network Rail delivery plan plus some freight analysis as a change from all this self indulgent traction and rolling stock stuff.
Roger