Tales from the tracks - a talk with former crew of the A4s (Courtesy: NRM)
To start our Autumn Gathering we had an equally impressive gathering of former A4 crew. During this event five former crew members shared their experiences of a career on the railways in a fascinating talk. Our Autumn Gathering runs until the 11 November http://www.nrm.org.uk/mallard75
From left to right:
Dave Court -- Doncaster based driver, that has crewed many A4s before and after preservation.
Harry Knox -- fireman at Haymarket who often prepped Mallard for the non-stop service to King's Cross
Ron Birch -- Doncaster based fireman who worked on the A4s, later became a driver at King's Cross
Alf Smith -- old top shed driver who frequently worked the non-stop service from King's Cross to Edinburgh
Wally Blazey -- King's Cross fireman, worked on many A4s but particularly Dominion of Canada
HS2 - The Strategic Case for HS2
A series of short videos explaining the case for HS2 from the strategic viewpoint...
(All videos from transportgovuk on YouTube)
GOV.UK
HS2 needed by Britain to meet future transport needs.
Britain cannot meet its future transport needs without HS2, according to new evidence published by the government today (29 October 2013).
Even with over £50 billion of planned transport investment over the next 6 years the country’s railways will be overwhelmed. The strategic case for HS2 sets out in detail the need for a new railway line to provide the vitally needed extra capacity.
Central to the case is new data that reveals the true extent of the crisis facing the UK rail network and the impact alternatives to building HS2 would have.
The document outlines how demand for rail travel will continue to grow. By 2026 on commuter services into London during the evening peak, 40% of passengers will be standing. While research by Network Rail and Atkins shows that the alternative to HS2 would result in up to 14 years of weekend closures on existing lines and deliver only a fraction of the additional capacity.
Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin said:
We need a radical solution and HS2 is it. A patch and mend job will not do – the only option is a new north south railway.The East Coast, West Coast and Midland Main Lines can only carry a finite number of trains each day before they become clogged. HS2 will add 18 trains an hour between Manchester, Leeds and London and will allow significantly more freight onto the wider rail network.
HS2 brings massive benefits to the north, is great for commuters and the alternatives just don’t stack up.
Now is the time to be bold and deliver a world class railway which Britain deserves and can truly be proud of. Future generations will not forgive us if we fail to take this opportunity.
The new railway is also estimated to deliver an annual boost to the economy of up to £15 billion as a result of productivity benefits to business from faster journeys and reduced crowding. There will also be benefits of increased production efficiency from businesses being closer together. The analysis shows that the railway is vital in rebalancing the economy benefiting the north overall more than the south.
The government expects considerable regeneration around stations delivering jobs and growth similar to the experience of HS1 (the Channel Tunnel rail link). The ‘Strategic case’ points to £10 billion private sector investment around the new HS1 station sites as well as Google, the Crick Institute and other major international firms moving in to the area around King’s Cross and St Pancras demonstrating the likely economic investment expected along the HS2 route.
The government has updated the benefit to cost ratio (BCR) of the railway, valuing it at 2.3 or providing 2 pounds worth of benefits for every one pound spent. This is similar to Crossrail and higher than the benefit cost ratio for some other major projects when approved, such as Thames Link and the Jubilee Line extension. The BCR will increase to 4.5 if rail demand continues to rise until 2049.
Other benefits of the railway included in the document are estimates from Network Rail that over 100 cities and towns could benefit from new or improved services as a result of capacity released on the existing rail network. These include:
- additional commuter services into London from places such as Watford, Milton Keynes, Rugby and Northampton
- new commuter services into Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester
- new longer distance services, for example providing new and better links between Bradford and London; Lincoln and London Shrewsbury and London; and Leeds and Cambridge
- more paths for rail freight, with at least 1,000 lorry-loads a day carried on the network
Bosphorus Strait Undersea Rail Link Connecting Asia With Europe ..
The 90th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Turkey is being celebrated by opening a railway tunnel underneath the Bosphorus Strait, a new link between the Asian and European shores of the Turkish metropolis Istanbul.
With Japanese aid, the tunnel is the world's first connecting two continents, and is designed to withstand earthquakes, reports said.
This ambitious project of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was first conceived by an Ottoman Sultan in 1860. The underwater section of the tunnel runs for 1.4 kilometer (0.8 miles), but it extends to 13.6 kilometers (8.5 miles).
The rail link, which the Turkish government hopes, will make train journey between Beijing and London via Istanbul possible in the near future.
The rail service will be capable of carrying 75,000 people per hour in either direction.
(News Source: RTT News www.rttnews.com)
www.parliament.uk
PAC publishes report on progess in delivering the Thameslink programme
Public Accounts Committee publishes it's 26th Report on Progress in delivering the Thameslink programme.
The Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:
“It was clear as long ago as 1989 that the Thameslink route needed to be upgraded but passengers will not start to see the benefits until the 2020s.
The first proposals to modernize the route and increase capacity were developed by a succession of rail industry sponsors but nothing much happened until the Department for Transport became sponsor in 2005. The Department has done well to deliver the first phase of the infrastructure project under budget and on time.
The other two aspects of the programme are going less well. The procurement of new trains through a £1.6 billion PFI deal has taken over three years longer than expected. And the timetable and approach for letting the new franchise have been revised.
The planned completion date has been put back to 2018. But meeting the timetable for delivering the new trains will be very demanding and risky. We are also sceptical about using PFI to fund this project. It is alarming that the Department compared the PFI option against only one other private sector option and did not construct a public sector comparator to understand better the relative costs, risks and rewards of choosing a PFI funding route over a public one. We intend to examine the contract which the Department has recently awarded to Siemens and Cross London Trains.
Another source of worry is the small size of the Department’s core Thameslink team – just five people for a programme of this size and complexity. We question whether the Department has enough people with strong project management and commercial skills necessary to take forward its very ambitious portfolio of big projects.
The impression that there is a scarcity of these skills is reinforced by the apparent need to move the key civil servant leading the Thameslink team, the man whose experience, skills and continuity have been crucial to the delivery of the programme, over to the High Speed 2 team.”
Margaret Hodge was speaking as the Committee published its 26th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Department for Transport (the Department) and Network Rail, examined progress in delivering the Thameslink programme and the risks to delivery that remain.
The Department is sponsoring the programme to increase passenger capacity on the Thameslink route through central London. The programme comprises three interrelated projects— to improve rail infrastructure, to buy new trains, and to let the new franchise to operate the new services. The infrastructure project to improve tracks and stations at a cost of £3.55 billion (2006 prices), is being delivered through Network Rail. The Department is buying the new trains, with an estimated capital cost of £1.6bn, through a private finance initiative. It is also responsible for letting the new franchise and overall management of the programme.
The excessive time taken to get the Thameslink project off the ground means passengers have to wait far too long—over 30 years—for this upgrade. There was clear evidence of the need to upgrade the Thameslink route in 1989 but passengers will only start to see the benefits in the 2020s. Proposals for the route were developed throughout the 1990s and early 2000s by a succession of rail industry sponsors, until the Department became sponsor of the programme in July 2005 and put in place delivery arrangements in 2006. The Department told us that the lessons learned from the slow start on Thameslink show that clear objectives, political consensus and a stable, predictable funding base are important factors in getting big projects up and running quickly.
Recommendation: The Department should develop a long term investment strategy for transport projects built on a strong evidence base, including better passenger travel data and more reliable forecasts. This should help to secure political consensus and greater certainty of funding, which will in turn help to get projects up and running much more quickly.
The Department suffers from a shortage of strong project management skills. There is a core Thameslink team of just five which seems too small for a programme of this scale, compared with teams for other complex government projects. The programme management skills and the continuity of the current senior responsible owner (SRO) have been crucial to the project so far, but he will now be moving to support delivery of High Speed 2. We are worried about the impact this will have on the Thameslink programme given the scale of what remains to be done to complete it by 2018. The apparent need to move the Thameslink SRO onto High Speed 2 illustrates the scarcity of the project management and commercial skills that the Department has available.
Recommendation: The Department must put in place a clear plan to build sufficient, appropriate skills in the organisation to match the scale and ambition of its portfolio of projects. Clear succession plans should be built into project plans taking into account the key points in the project lifecycle when staff moves can be made with minimal impact.
We are sceptical that the programme will be delivered by 2018 given the delays in awarding the contract for new trains, and have concerns about the Department’s choice of PFI for this project. The delay of more than three years in awarding the contract to buy new trains means that there will be less time for the trains to be delivered than was originally planned. The Department said that it is confident that the trains can still be delivered on time but was unable to cite any examples of a manufacturer delivering trains early and we are not confident that the trains will be delivered on schedule. The Department told us that the delays are partly down to underestimating the complexity of the procurement and to difficulties in raising finance in the current market. Both of these issues highlight the importance of understanding properly the risks of the chosen delivery model from the start. In this context, it is alarming that the Department only compared the PFI option against another private sector option and did not construct a public sector comparator to understand better the relative costs of choosing the PFI route. Since our hearing the Department has awarded the contract for supplying new trains to a consortium of Siemens and Cross London Trains and we intend to examine this deal further.
Recommendation: For all future procurements the Department should evaluate all the delivery and funding options and ensure that it fully understands and compares the costs, risks and rewards of each option.
The Department was too slow to recognise the impact of planned infrastructure works and new trains on its plans for letting the new franchise. In July 2012 the Department considered and rejected using a ‘management-style contract’ under which the franchisee is paid a management fee for operating the route instead of being dependent on revenue from ticket sales. This would transfer a lower level of risk to the franchisee than conventional franchise arrangements as the Department receives the revenue from tickets but bears the risk that sales are lower than expected. However, in January 2013 the Department changed its view and decided to adopt this approach as the franchisee will have to deal with disruption from planned infrastructure works and focus efforts on bringing new trains into service, rather than on growing passenger revenue on the route. The Department knew about these factors well before 2013 and should have made the decision to use a management-style contract earlier. We are concerned that the change in approach to the franchise indicates a worrying lack of forward planning or integrated thinking across the programme.
Recommendation: The Department should focus on integrated planning and aligning decision making across the different elements of complex programmes from the very start.
We are not convinced that the Department has thought through all the risks associated with letting a new style of franchise for the first time. The Thameslink franchise will be expanded to bring Great Northern, Southern and parts of the South Eastern franchises together under one operator. It will be the first time the Department has let a management-style contract and it will be a seven-year agreement. The Department acknowledges the challenges of letting a new style contract, and outlined measures it has taken to strengthen its franchising programme as a whole. However, the Department did not explain how it would address the specific risks of letting a management-style contract for the first time. Our report on the cancellation of the InterCity West Coast Mainline franchise shows the mistakes that can be made if insufficient time and resources are invested in adopting a complex new approach.
Recommendation: The Department needs to invest sufficient time and resources in considering the details of the management-style contract and develop a clear approach to running the Thameslink competition which identifies the risks and shows how these have been managed.
(Source: www.parliament.uk)
International Railway Journal
CZECH wagon manufacturer Legios filed for insolvency on October 28, owing around CKr 220m ($US 11.7m) the VUB bank and more than CKr 300m to other creditors.
THE European Commission (EC) has approved the planned acquisition of a 25% stake in Spanish open-access railfreight operator Comsa Rail Transport (CRT) by French National Railways (SNCF), which was first announced in April.
CHILEAN State Railways (EFE) has awarded Bombardier a $US 21m contract to supply and install ETCS Level 1 on the 22km Santiago Alameda – Nós line, the first commercial deployment of ERTMS in Chile ..
Transportation Research Board (US)
National Academy of Engineering Video Contest: Engineering for You
To celebrate its 50th Anniversary, the National Academy of Engineering is offering a $25,000 prize for the most inspiring one-to two-minute video that demonstrates how engineering innovations have advanced and will continue to advance human welfare and address societal needs. The video should focus on innovations that have occurred in the past 50 years and innovations that are likely to occur in the next 50 years. Video submissions are due March 31, 2014.
Stop taking Northeast Corridor for granted, Amtrak's Boardman says
BNSF: Piggott to assume CFO reins after Hund retires next year
CSX signs 'historic' agreement for West Virginia locomotive shop, TCU says
North Carolina records ridership, revenue gains on Amtrak lines in FY2013
Hurricane Sandy: New York City subway riders allowed free rides in hardest-hit areas on one-year anniversary
Napoleon, Defiance & Western completes trackwork to offer CSX, NS access
New Mexico DOT seeks public input on state rail plan
Rail supplier news from Bombardier, Wabtec, TUV Rheinland, Hub Group, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Salco and ASCE (Oct. 29)
www.railway-technology.com UpdatesBombardier to implement INTERFLO 250 ERTMS solution for Chile's EFE
Bombardier Transportation has won a $21m contract from Chilean national railway Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado (EFE) to implement its INTERFLO 250 European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) Level 1 solution.
Storm disrupts rail services in UK
Rail services in the southern half of the UK have been disrupted by a severe storm with hurricane-force winds, affecting infrastructure in the country more than expected.
EIB finances Dnipropetrovsk Metro project extension in Ukraine
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a €152m finance contract to extend its support for the existing Dnipropetrovsk Metro project extension in Ukraine for more than 25 years.
Amtrak to field test new long-distance cars this winter
Amtrak is expected to commence field testing of its new long-distance passenger rail cars in the final quarter of 2013, as production of the first rail cars units nears completion.
Shedmaster Railway News
Ho Chi Minh City metro Line 5 funding secured - Railway Gazette
Rail Accident Investigation: 131015_Camden_Road
Melbourne’s B-Class trams to be refurbished - Railway Gazette
World Heritage & Railway News
GWR - Gloucestershire's mainline heritage railway - Cornishman wins top HRA accolade!
Flying Scotsman restoration update - About us - National Railway Museum
The National Railway Museum has today announced that work to complete the restoration to mainline operation of the iconic locomotive Flying Scotsman, will be undertaken by Riley & Son (E), Bury. The locomotive is moving from York to Bury today.
The announcement comes during the Museum's Autumn Great Gathering showcase, a celebration of another Gresley–designed steam giant, the world's fastest locomotive Mallard which broke the world speed record 75 years ago. The dazzling display of all six survivors of Gresley’' A4 class pulled in 20,000 visitors in its opening weekend.
Taking the advice of engineering specialists First Class Partnerships, a decision was made earlier this year to complete the remaining stages of the project using an external contractor and tenders were sought. Riley & Son (E), Bury were appointed as an outcome of their successful bid to take on this high profile project –making a 1920s locomotive, the sole survivor of the A3 class, fit to operate within the stringent requirements of today’s modern railway network.
Paul Kirkman, Director of the National Railway Museum, commented:
"We are pleased to have appointed a contractor with the specialist skills and expertise required for the final stages of the project. We are now progressing cautiously towards completing the restoration, subject to reviewing the condition of the main side frames. We are currently showcasing British engineering genius, with our Mallard 75 Autumn Great Gathering celebration so it’s great that we can now announce the next step for another Gresley-designed icon. Now contracts are signed, Flying Scotsman will leave our museum for Bury so work can commence as soon as possible."
Ian Riley, Director of Riley & Sons, added:
"We have been closely involved with this complex project to restore this iconic locomotive to working order. We are delighted to have been selected to work together with the museum to see the restoration through to completion and its first two years of operation."
The remaining works that will be undertaken at Bury include the alignment of the middle steam cylinder. All three steam cylinders are also currently oversize and need to be fitted with new liners and rebored to a nominal 19 inch diameter. This corrective work on the cylinders means that they will have to be separated from the frames of the well-known locomotive.
There is a small section of the main side frames that cannot be examined until the steam cylinders are removed. A final assessment of the viability of the restoration will be made once the condition of this final piece of the locomotive is known.
First Class Partnerships will continue to provide specialist engineering and project management advice to the museum.
The timescales involved with the remaining stages mean that Flying Scotsman will not operate on the mainline before Summer 2015.
Once the return to mainline operation is complete, a commercial partnership agreement has been reached, under which Riley & Sons will manage the operation of the locomotive for a period of two years. This will include a programme of ongoing maintenance and helping to resolve any issues that may arise.
(News Source and Photo: Courtesy NRM)
Railway Engineering News
CBI: CBI responds to Government HS2 report
Why HS2 will spread prosperity - Speeches - GOV.UK
News | The East Lancashire Railway
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