There was a pleasant surprise when the much heralded announcement on electrification eventually came on 23 July. I had feared a bland statement of support for a programme of electrification. Instead we got commitments to immediate starts on the Great Western Main Line and the Liverpool-Manchester route, with completion by 2017 and 2013 respectively.
As Transport Secretary Lord Adonis explained when he briefed me the night before the announcement (yes, I know, the Queen warned me that I was in danger of becoming a name dropper only the other day), the two schemes are all about synergies. In particular Thameslink frees up electric multiple units which can replace DMUs, both on the
While the Great Western Route Modernisation (GWRM) will use ‘factory trains’ to get the wires up, the timescale for Liverpool-Manchester means that wiring will be 1980’s style, with the piling train being hauled out of retirement. Not that they hung about in the 1980s, starting work on the ECML electrification within 5 weeks of receiving the go-ahead from Government. So while the GWRM nominally gets the wires up at around 35 route miles/year, allowing two years for design and mobilisation means that the effective rate will be around 50 route miles/year which compares with 55 for the ECML electrification.
Funding of the two schemes will be through the Network Rail credit card, otherwise known as the Regulatory Asset Base (RAB). Network Rail will borrow to fund the work, the new infrastructure will; be added to the RAB for the next Control Period and the Regulator includes the return when setting Network Rail’s income.
Don’t be too alarmed by the ‘official’ costs quoted at around £1 billion. The Government’s figures include the Treasury Optimism Bias (TOB), which for rail projects is 57%. Before TOB the combined cost is around £630 million. On top of this both schemes have yet to go through the GRIP process which could take out some contingencies. Overall the cost per Standard Track kilometre should come in less than the ECML.
Key to the new electrification schemes is the cascade of Class 319 units from Thameslink. Not that anyone had thought to tell the owners before the announcement was made. Nor that the units are to be fitted with air conditioning. This cavalier treatment suggests that the case for electrification was still being made up to the last minute and that DfT Rail has yet to get to grips with privatisation.
Thanks to the Class 319 cascade the need to buy more diesel trains is avoided. So DfT Rail’s Diesel Multiple Units Project (DMUP), the accelerated procurement of 202 vehicles for First Great Western, Trans-Pennine Express and Northern, has been cancelled.
What happens now is that Class 319s will release the class 165/166 Networker Turbos on FGW’s
Whether some Class 16x units will be retained on the Marlow, Henley and Winsor & Eton branches is a little mystery for another day. Stored energy or trolley wires anyone?
Meanwhile, other upgraded Class 319s will be cascaded to Northern to take over regional services on the electrified Liverpool-Manchester route. This electrification will also allow EMUs to replace Class 185 Desiro DMUs currently running under the wires for 85% of the way between
According to the DfT Rail the Class 185s will be replaced by ‘modern, air-conditioned trains which are currently used on West Coast Main Line services from London Euston’. Does this mean cascaded London Midland Class 350 EMUs or extra units added to London Midland’s current procurement exercise? There’s an interesting option which I consider.
Finally, with a new Rolling Stock Plan (RSP) promised for the ‘autumn’ the Column includes the final version of its HLOS 1300 vehicles table. Including the two Parry People Movers the total comes to exactly 1100. Well, it kept us all on our toes.
In the original RSP South West Trains was due to receive a ‘combination of new EMU vehicles together with possibly some EMU vehicles cascaded from the South Central franchise’. Initially the quantity was 105, but SWT and DfT Rail eventually upped the SWT allocation to 140 vehicles which I assumed would be more Siemens Class 450s.
Then SWT issued an OJEU Notice seeking funding for these additional vehicles, which included the option of funding ‘alterations to existing stock’. And in response we now have Porterbrook offering SWT the Class 458 and Class 460 Alstom Juniper EMUs, upgraded and reformed as five car units as an alternative to more Desiros. It’s a smart move by the men from the
Can the much maligned Junipers come good after all? Watch this space
But SWT is small beer. For the ‘big three’ train builders Thameslink is the scene of the real action and in July Siemens introduced its contender – named ‘
Desiro City marks a step change in the evolution of the UK Desiro family. Currently in build is the Class 380 for ScotRail. This is classic Desiro below the floor but include a number of features from the City above.
Energy efficiency is a key feature of new trains and Siemens went out of their way to remind me that my unkind remarks about their ‘lard butt’ heavyweight trains would no longer apply with the City. Comparing four car units, the new EMU is 15% lighter than a Class 450.
This saving has been achieved through a classic weight improvement programme plus some new technology, including a short wheelbase outside frame bogie. There is a lighter, and stiffer, aluminium bodyshell, lighter traction packages and ‘fly-by-wire’ control is claimed to save a tonne of cabling per car.
A lighter train uses less energy and further reductions should be achieved through the latest version of the ‘eco-driving’ system from the Trans-Pennine Express Class 185 DMUs plus regenerative braking. On board energy storage, probably using capacitors, will be an optional.
Above the floor an ‘intelligent’ air conditioning system will monitors the passenger load by sampling carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere in each vehicle and regulates the individual air flows accordingly. Siemens is claiming an overall 50% energy saving over existing Desiro units on dc electrified routes, although that looks like a suspiciously round number!
Much more technical detail in the column.
When you looked at the facts behind the National Express East Coast (NXEC) franchise problems it was clear that the initial reaction from Transport Secretary Lord Adonis came from the heart rather than the head. Ill advised things were said in the heat of the Today studio. But if Lord A ‘miss-spoke’ who would put the record straight on the Government’s real views of its passenger franchisees?
Obviously, the short straw is given to the most junior minister. And as I quote in this month’s column Chris Mole is a master of the hand-brake turn.
I won’t spoil your enjoyment, but here is a taster. Lord Adonis, told the Financial Times ‘I am determined to make it crystal clear that we expect companies to abide by the terms of their franchises’. Over to Mr Mole in a written answer a fortnight later, ‘Under the NXEC franchise agreement, NEG is obliged to meet its parent company loan obligation of a £40 million loan facility. It is also open to National Express Group, at their discretion, to make available support in excess of this’.
There’s also some news on Elaine Holt’s team at Directly Operated Railways, (
While the DMUP is cancelled, the column highlights an area of diesel traction where the industry could be in big trouble if something is not done in the next decade or two. After DMUP Informed Sources brings you the S08
Last month’s blog left me looking forward to a break in
Two things struck me about the rail journeys. First the old-fashioned connection at
There was plenty to keep me occupied for the following fortnight with the electrification announcement to analyse for both the stealth newsletter and this column. We had been alerted to the possible publication of the Network Rail’s ‘New Lines’ study on 13 August but this was subsequently put back to this coming Wednesday. According to Informed Sources this is causing some tension between DfT Rail and Network Rail, the view from Marsham Street being ‘What has Network Rail got to do with new lines?’
There was also some bad news in the post since the last e-Preview. You may find this hard to believe, but my latest application to become a Public Member of Network Rail has been rejected. That’s three years in a row.
Next month, Network Rail’s new Chairman Rick Haythornthwaite is holding two workshops on the ‘governance debate’. This has been sparked by the recommendations of the Members Review Group which has been considering the company’s corporate governance and has concluded that the Members can either seek change or have reform imposed. More on this in next month’s column.
Meanwhile, I’m sitting here with satisfied smile having succeed in networking the computers in the house with internet access, so it’s obviously the summer break. Next week we’re off to
There’s the High Speed summit on 9 September, Alstom have an evening ‘do’ to bring us up to speed on developments and the first Fourth Friday Club of the new 2009-10 Session is on 25 September when the speaker is Charles Horton of SouthEastern. Details on www.4thfriday.co.uk
Should any readers be interested in Victorian architecture and the arts & crafts movement, St Peter’s church at Ayot St Peter will be open as part of the Open House Weekend on Saturday 13 September from 10.00 to 18.00.
Roger