rail announcement august 2014

ii9h_Rail AnnouncementAnnouncing all the news from the rail industry

August 2014

One North plan unveiled

One North plan unveiled

First Group forEast Coast ?

ETCS win for Hitachi

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The amount of possitive news coming out of today’s rail in-dustry each month is testament to the hard work of rail staff, of which I was one before becoming a journalist, much of it behind the scenes and not seen by passengers.

The cleaner who works permanent nights cleaning commuter trains, the signaller who uses their regulation skills to prevent delays to services under their control and maintenance teams en-suring that infrastructure doesn’t fail. All largely unseen, but all worthy of recognition.

Next month will see a memorial to Crewe driver Jack MIlls un-veiled at Crewe station, near to his former booking on point, recognising his bravery in attempting to defend his train on that fateful night in 1963. Despite the passing of the decades, Jack is still remembered not only by the railway family, but by the peo-ple of Crewe.

In this issue we cover everything from the One North plan to the tram girls in Hiroshima, as ever, without copy and pasting press releases.

All the news non of the spin.

Enjoy the issue.

Jonathan Webb Editor

[email protected]

News Rail Announcement 2

Network Rail to be nationalisedInvestment in Britain’s railways is to come under renewed government scrutiny whenthe body responsible for implementing the changes is effectively nationalised nextmonth.

A European Union edict means that Network Rail is to be reclassified as a publicbody from September 1 , resulting in its £34.2bn gross debt shifting from theprivate sector to the government’s balance sheet. The impact on the infrastructurecompany will be that it will no longer borrow on the public markets, receiving loansfrom the government instead.

The changes will bring about an end to the company’s ambiguous status which has ledto many awkward questions being asked re-garding its accountability to taxpayers ,who will contribute around 60% of Network Rail’s income over the next five years.

Set up as a private company in 2002, Network Rail has no shareholders and benefitsfrom having its finances guaranteed by the government.

As a public body, the government will be ea-ger to introduce a more stringentgovernance framework to Network Rail to reduce the risk that ministers may be forcedinto accepting blame for future problems within the rail industry, as it will be somuch more difficult for politicians to blame Network Rail once ministers become moreresponsible for decision making.

The new relationship that Network Rail will have with the government means that inessence it will become part of the public sec-tor and as such will have to report onits financial performance to parliament.

It is likely that executive pay and bonuses will be restructured, with incentivesclosely linked to performance. It is known that the DfT is far from keen on thereforms, in stark contrast to the treasury.

Regarding Network Rail’s debt of £34.2bn, £33.2bn of this is in listed bondsresulting in much of its income going to-wards servicing its debts. The financialyear 2013/14 saw the infrastructure company pay put £1.4bn in financing costs. Thisrepresents 22% of its total revenue of £6.3bn.

The company’s revenue can be broken down into :

Grant 62%Track access charges 34%Property and station income 4%

Rail Announcement 3 News

Grand Central gets 10 more years

Open access operator Grand Central, which operates services from London King’s Crossto Sunderland and London King’s Cross to Bradford Interchange, has been granted anew 10 year track access contract by the Of-fice of Rail Regulation.

Grand Central’s previous track access rights are valid until 2016, but this new dealsupports the operator’s plans to enter into a new train leasing deal. It is alsoexpected that it will dispense with its current HST fleet , using class 180s for allits services from 2016/17. The company cur-rently operates both forms of traction.

Adopting a uniform fleet will allow GC more flexibility in deploying its trains andreduce its costs , as the HSTs will not need to be fitted with the European TrainControl System (ETCS) .

Replacing two previous separate contracts, the new agreement means that theoperator’s routes are secured until 2026. In-cluded in the agreement are plans by Deutsche Bahn, who own Grand Central, to invest in stations and, subject toagreement from Network Rail and stakehold-ers, to reinstate the disused platform atHartlepool station.


City leaders unveil One North plan

City leaders in the north of England have unveiled plans for rail investment aschancellor George Osborne indicated that there will be new funding committed totransport in his autumn statement.

Transport leaders in Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool, Newcastle and Leeds are,after long running complaints that London receives a disproportionate share oftransport funding, backing plans for a pro-gramme of investment that has parallels toLondon’s Crossrail project. Costed at £15 bil-lion the One North plan includes aproposal for a new 125mph link across the Pennines, although under European Unioncriteria it is unable to be classed as a high-speed rail route. The new tunnel wouldnot only include freight tunnels at each end, but have delta junctions, allowingtrains to run south, north or straight on when exiting the tunnels. The One Northreport goes on to say that a case for a drive-on facility for road freight, similarto Eurotunnel, would be examined, providing an all-weather trans-Pennine freightcapability and helping transform the freight functionality of the north.

The cost of this new rail route is estimated to be more than £5bn and has a targetdelivery date of 2030. The One North report goes on to say :” While this is a majorinvestment, it should be realised that invest-ments of this scale are now routinelycontemplated for London and the south.”

Also recommended in the report is the up-grading of the East Coast Main Line between

Newcastle and Northallerton, which would not only reduce journey times by 10 minutesbut improve classic compatible services once HS2 opens. The ECML upgrade which : “is likely to mean some new route construc-tion” would also increase capacity forcommuter services between Tees Valley, Wearside and Tyneside.

In the past joint campaigning by northern cities has secured delivery of the £600mNorthern Hub package of rail enhancements. Despite the One North proposals costingmore than 10 times this, Mr Osborne has raised expectations that this unparalleledinvestment may be given the go ahead.

At the launch of the One North report the chancellor said : “ “I’m ready to commitnew money, new infrastructure, new trans-port and new science. And real new civicpower too. Today I’m setting out the pathway to this Northern Powerhouse, so wedeliver a real improvement in the long term economic performance of the north ofEngland. This will be a centrepiece of my Au-tumn Statement.” He continued by saying: “ First we’ll take today’s report and work on delivering its component parts:extra motorway capacity, better rolling stock, more efficient freight routes fromour ports, local metro and tram improve-ments and faster and better rail connectionsacross the north.”

Mr Osborne went onto say that this would be followed by the publication in Octoberof the David Higgins’ report into the north-ern phase of HS2, followed by the autumn


statement which will include a long term eco-nomic plan for the northern powerhousewhich will incorporate “ plan to build it with a plan to pay for it.”

The One North report includes an indicative timescale for the rail improvements.

By 2019

- Northern Hub and electrification between Liverpool-Manchester-Leeds-Hull andMiddlesbrough and consequent new rolling stock.- Midland Main Line electrification.

By 2024

- Further electrification including to Scarbor-ough, Calder Valley and HopeValley/south trans-Pennine routes, together with new electric fleets, in addition tomore rolling stock generally across the north.- 40 minutes journey time at most between Leeds and Manchester and improvements inservices between Manchester and Sheffield.- Network gaps from the north east to South Yorkshire and northwards towardsScotland closed.- Rail/light rail connection to Leeds Bradford Airport.

By 2026

- With HS2 delivered earlier as far as Crewe, provide additional capacity andcapability for onward links to Manchester, Liverpool, Warrington and to both inlandfreight terminals and ports.- Speeded up (140mph) and more reliable ECML and new route to serve Newcastle.- Cross city region suburban services for Leeds, Liverpool (east-west), Manchester,

Sheffield, Bradford (north-south link such as a tram-train or similar), Newcastleprovided by good quality rolling stock.

By 2030- New tunnelled trans-Pennine route at 125 mph.- To the west, direct connectivity with Man-chester Airport, Liverpool and Manchester.- To the east connectivity with Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle and Hull.- Recasting HS2 in Yorkshire - bring forward Leeds-Sheffield section in conjunctionwith new trans-Pennine route- In Leeds integrate HS2 into existing Leeds station.- In Sheffield City Region create connectivity with a HS2 station with east-westcapability.


High Court dismisses HS2 challenge

Claims by the HS2 Alliance and the London Borough of Hillingdon, both petitioningfor a judicial review of HS2, that the govern-ment had failed to carry out aStrategic Environmental Assessment under the European SEA Directive beforesafeguarding the route have been dismissed by the High Court.

It was concluded by Mr Justice Lindblom that because the safeguarding directionswere not a plan or programme that set the framework for development consent the DfTwas not obliged to undertake an SEA prior to making the directions.

Transport minister Robert Goodwill was equally dismissive saying : “ The High Court has once again dismissed a Judicial Review in respect of HS2. I invite interested groups to work with us through the Parliamentary process on making HS2 the very best it can be, and not to waste money on costly and fruitless court cases.”

However, this may not be the end of the fight as the protesters have not rued outmaking an appeal with Hillingdon Council leader Ray Puddifoot stating that thelatest ruling: “ flew in the face of what we would think justice to be”.

The DfT has said that : “The HS2 pro-gramme continues as planned. HS2 is a vitalpart of the Government’s long term economic plan, providing jobs, skills and extraspace for more trains and more passengers to travel on our congested rail network.We will continue the crucial business of get-ting HS2 ready for construction in 2017. “

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GBRf to get its first class 59

GBRf has purchased its first class 59 as it continues with its intention to increase its presence within the aggregates and bulik ma-terials markets.

The locomotive, 59003 Yeoman Highlander, has been bought from German based Heavy Haul Power International.

It is expected that 59003 will enter service in

December.

GBRf refused to comment on suggestions that this may be the first of other class 59s to be purchased by the freight company.


Additional rail services to continueThe additional rail services between Fish-guard and Carmarthen are to continuefollowing a review of the three year experi-mental service introduced in 2011.

Transport minister Edwina Hart has agreed that , following a positive response frompassengers and research showing improved economic benefits, the five additionalservices can continue until the end of the Arriva Trains Wales’ franchise in 2018.

Since the introduction of the extra services passenger numbers to Fishguard,Goodwick and Fishguard Harbour stations have doubled, with all stations inPembrokeshire served by the additional ser-vices seeing an increase in passengernumbers.

___________________________________________Blackpool electrification put back to 2017Originally scheduled for completion by May 2016, the wiring up of the Preston toBlackpool route has been postponed until March 2017.

Network Rail says that postponing the work will allow a more comprehensive upgradeto be carried out, including replacing the cur-rent absolute lock working along theroute and some remodeling to allow longer trains to serve Blackpool North station.Combining improvements to the signalling and track layout at the same time aselectrification work is carried out will se the number of possessions reduced,resulting in less disruption for passengers.

It is envisaged that main works will com-mence in December 2016 and continue foraround three months. In order to avoid dis-rupting the busy summer period, on whichthe popular resort depends, Network Rail says that it will avoid carrying out workover the main summer holiday.

From December Virgin Trains will start run-ning a direct London Euston to Blackpoolservice.


Tests start for battery powered class 379

Greater Anglia’s 379013 is now undergoing trials on the test track Bombardier’s Derby works following the retrofitting of battery packs.

The class 379, which was built in Derby three years ago, is a testbed battery electric unit, officially known as an independently pow-ered electric multiple unit, and forms part of a study into the feasibility of using EMUs on short sections of non-electrified lines, such as branch lines where there is not an economic case for electrification.

Fitted with two different types of battery , lithium ( iron magnesium) phosphate and hot sodium nickel salt, the MSO centre car has beenconverted to a trailer battery car, involving the removal of the vehicle’s traction motors and converting the motor bogie to a trailer bogie.

Six battery rafts have been installed in the space previously taken by the traction mo-tors, with the auxiliary power equipment being moved into the DMSO driving car.

According to Network Rail it is envisaged that acceleration and speed will be similar to that of a DMU when the 379 operates using battery power.

It is expected that the equipment will have a lifespan of around 7 years and that the train will be able to travel for around 50km before requiring the batteries to be recharged.

Following high-speed trials on the High

Marnham test track the 379 will undergo tests on the electrified Wickford to South-minster line, albeit with the pantograph down, so if the train runs into difficulties the pantograph can be raised to get it out of trouble.

If this proves successful 379013 will probably go into passenger service on the Marks Tey to Sudury line, with the battery being charged at terminus stations.

It is likely that any future IPEMU will be new build, as opposed to converting any more ex-isting vehicles to battery power, with 379013 being used to establish battery requirements.

379013 (far right) at Bombardier.


Anger at Northern’s peak ticket restrictions

Northern Rail is to ban the use of off-peak tickets during evening peaks from September 8.

The move, which has been met with anger and dismay from passengers, is as a result of the DfT insisting that the franchise generates more revenue. The RMT union has described it as a “taste of what’s to come.”

Northern’s franchise, following an extension, now runs until 2016, with a consultation on what will happen during the next contract closed on August 18.

Although restrictions on using off-peak tickets in the evening peaks are common in London and the West Midlands, they are far less commonelsewhere, but Northern has said that the changes will have no impact on the majority of their passengers, as they use season tickets.

Mick Cash, the RMT’s acting general sec-retary, said: “The axing of off-peak fares is a savage kick in the teeth for people already struggling with the burden of low pay and austerity and the fact that it has been cooked up by the DfT in collusion with the privatisa-tion pirates from Northern Rail is a warning of what’s to come.”

Just how enforceable the new restrictions will be is open to debate, as the majority of trains out of Manchester between 16.30 and 18.30 are very busy raising questions regarding how the guard will be able to get through the train to check tickets between stations, especially if a service is formed of a double set.

The DfT has defended the decision by saying that the move could “also help reduce crowd-ing on evening services.”


Shortlists announced for Northern and TPEThe DfT has announced that Arriva, Abellio and the GoVia 65/35 joint venture between Go-Ahead and Keolis ave been shortlisted for Northern, which is currently operated by a joint venture of Serco and Abellio.

Stagecoach, First Group and a joint venture of Keolis and Go-Ahead , this time with the majority share belonging to Keolis in the 65/35 partnership, will compete to run Tran-sPennine Express which is currently operated by Keolis and First.

The DfT will issue invitations to tender for both franchises in December, with a view to contracts being signed in October next year and the franchises commencing in February 2016.

According to the DfT the new franchises will

be the foundation for a transformation of rail travel across the north. In contrast , the public consultation, that closed on August 18, has raised fears that some services could be reduced in order to finance a replacement for the unpopular Pacer trains that Northern operate.

___________________________________________Rail subsidies drop by 40%Rail subsidies have fallen by almost 40% over the last 5 years according to the DfT’s latest statistics.

The average amount government pays railway companies has dropped from 11.1p a mile in 2009/10 to 6.8p a mile in 2013/14

The report shows that Northern Rail, at 51.5p per passenger mile, received the most subsidy.

In a recent report from the IPPR think-tank, it discovered that almost half of big transport projects benefitted London and the south-east.It was revealed that overall spending on

transport was £2,731 per head in London compared to just £5 in the north-east.


LU starts train procurement process

The procurement process for a new fleet of trains to serve the Northern and Jubilee lines has commenced.

London Underground is looking to purchase five trains for the Northern line extension from Kennington to Battersea along with 18 new Jubilee trains as part of the World Class Capacity programme, which will allow train frequencies to be increased from 30 to 34 or 36 per hour by 2019.

Currently being upgraded with new signal-ling, a further Northern line upgrade 2 could see frequencies increased from 24 to at least 30 trains per hour. With this in mind LU is looking at ordering 45 trains in order to achieve this level of service frequency.

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Enhancements for Midland Metro route

The Midland Metro route between Priest-field and Wolverhampton St George’s will be closed for 3 months from September 6 to allow work on replacing the track and length-ening the platforms at Wolverhampton to take place.

There will also be a crossover installed at The Royal so services can be turned back there in times of disruption.

When finished the lengthened platforms will

be able to accommodate two of the new Ur-bos 3 trams, which are due to enter passenger service the day before.


First Urbos 3 tram to be launched next month

Centro has said that the first of its new Urbos 3 trams will enter passenger serviceon September 5.

A decision on whether to exercise the option of ordering an additional four trams,taking the total to 25, will be made by the end of this year, by which time all 21trams are expected to be delivered.

To date 12 new trams have arrived at the Midland Metro depot in Wednesbury and itis envisaged that there will be six new trams along with two spares available fromearly September, with all the current fleet of AnsaldoBreda T69s withdrawn by nextFebruary.

The original framework agreement with tram builders CAF allows Centro to order moretrams and Centro is considering its options in the light that it is forecast thatpassenger numbers will double on the Bir-mingham to Wolverhampton route over thecoming years.

The majority of the T69s will go into long-term storage at Long Marston, with thebest examples being retained for use on a possible, and long mooted, extension toMerry Hill shopping centre.

The balance will probably be offered for sale, with scrapping as a last option, although a number of T69s have been out of service for along period and have been used as the depot’s ‘Christmas tree’, so the return toservice of these examples is somewhat doubt-ful.

A withdrawn T69 has already been moved to Long Marston and made available to UK Tram and Future Railway.

The first passenger carrying Urbos 3 service should depart Birmingham Snow Hill at around 10.40 on September 5.


First Group tipped for franchise win

First Group shares climbed 7.3p to 126.7p in late August, equating to a 6.1% advance, the single biggest in either the FTSE 100 or FTSE 250, following analysts at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch telling clients that the Group, which is bidding for the East Coast and ScotRail franchises, was likely to win at least one of them.

Analysts say that the “most probable victory” will be East Coast as it is “highly unlikely” that Virgin and Stagecoach, which currently operate the West Coast franchise as a joint venture, would run both franchises. Other bidders for the East Coast franchise are Euro-star and Keolis.

The winning bidders for both franchises will be notified in October, with the East Coast franchise commencing in March 2015 and the ScotRail franchise in April.

___________________________________________Contract awarded for Nothern line extensionLondon Underground has announced that Ferrovial Agroman Laing O’Rourke has been selected to design and construct the 3.3km Northern line extension from Kennington to Nine Elms and Battersea. The six year con-tract is worth £500m.

The total cost of thre project is £1bn and is being funded entirely through developer con-tributions and an enterprise zone from 2016.

Construction is expected to start next spring with a hoped for opening date of 2020.


Passengers reacted with anger following the prediction that rail fares in England would rise by an average of 3.5% in January, with some commuters facing a rise of 5%.

Rail minister Claire Perry, who has use of a ministerial car and taxpayer funded rail travel, did little to assist herself by suggest-ing that passengers should realise that high fares mean that they can enjoy a “comfortable commute” to and from work.

The prediction is based on the Retail Price In-dex for July, which stood at 2.5%, and, based on the RPI +1 formula, is an indication of by how much rail fares will rise in January. The DfT has, however , denied that this is set in stone and it is thought that it may be told to go easy on such unpopular policies to avoid upsetting the electorate just prior to the gen-eral election.

Meanwhile the Scottish government has announced that off-peak fares will be frozen for the second year running, with peak fares rising by an average of 2.5%.

Operators, under the permissable flex ar-rangement, are allowed to apply an addition-al rise to some fares as long as a balancing reduction is applied to others. In January this year the permissable flex was 2%, but in pre-vious years has been as high as 5%.

It has been revealed that last year Ms Perry made 68 journeys from her Wiltshire constit-uency to London, but made only two of these journeys by train. For the remaining 66 trips to the capital she used the car, claiming back £2,689 in expenses.

Rail fares expected to rise by 3.5% as rail minister tells passengers that it is the price of a comfortable commute

Ms Perry at recent ticket launch in Cambridge


Rugeley services safeCannock Chase Council, along with its part-ners Staffordshire County Council and Cen-tro, is to continue subsidising Chase Line rail services until March 2016.

The new agreement, to keep additional ser-vices on the Birmingham to Rugeley route, has been sought following the decision to extend the London Midland franchise from September 2015 to March of the following year. It is hoped that when the new fran-chise commences that the new services will be incorporated within it, meaning it will no longer be necessary to agree funding at a local level.

The current contributions towards the ad-ditional services are £146,000 a year from Centro, with Staffordshire County Council paying £39,000 and Cannock Chase Council £10,000.

Without the funding passengers would see services reduced to an hourly frequency on a Saturday and many evening services with-drawn.

Passenger numbers on the route have risen 5% year on year and the line is due to be elec-trified in time for the December 2017 timeta-ble change.

The line was resignalled in 2013, with manu-al signal boxes at Bloxwich, Hednesford and Brereton being abolished.


London Midland accepts final DesiroLeasing company Angel Trains has accepted the last of the new Siemens built class 350 Desiro electric multiple units for train opera-tor London Midland.

This concludes a £131 million contract signed in February 2012 for the delivery of 20x4 car class 350s. Ten of these went to TransPennine Express, with the balance gping to London Midland.

Following the acceptance of the first Tran-sPennine Express unit in December last year, Angel Trains has accepted a unit approxi-mately every two weeks, with the final unit being accepted on 14 August.

Approved for 110mph operation, the Lon-don Midland class 350s will enter passenger service this autumn once driver training has been completed. The last TransPennine 350 was delivered in March and these are being used on the operator’s Manchester Airport to Scotland services.

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Hitachi signs Network Rail ETCS contract

Hitachi Rail has signed a contract with Net-work Rail for the implementation of the Eu-ropean Train Control System (ETCS) on two class 37 locomotives for West Coast Railways, allowing the locomotives to operate over the Cambrian route.

Scheduled for completion by August next year, the project involves design, vehicle modification, installation of ETCS , testing and commissioning.

This latest development, the first formal ETCS order for Hitachi , follows the recent

successful proof of concept of Hitachi ETCS using a class 97 locomotive.


First Great Western to keep quiet carriages

First Great Western is to retain quiet carriag-es on its services, despite a reconfiguration of its fleet that will see the number of standard class seats increase by 3,000 a day.

This will see first class seats in dedicated quiet carriages disappear as first class accommoda-tion is reduced to one and a half carriages on the operator’s longer distance services.

Prior to conversion First Great Western’s long distance trains had two or two and a half first class carriages. The first of the new carriages entered service earlier this month and are being fitted with specially designed headrests and partition screens in order that noise lev-els can be kept to a minimum.

The refurbishment represents an investment of £13m and includes the installation of free-to-use wireless internet access, currently available on the Night Riveria sleeper service, and will be rolled out across the entire FGW fleet over the next 12 months.

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Proposal for Gresley statue at King’s CrossThe Gresley Society has applied for a bronze statue of the famous locomotive engineer to be erected at London King’s Cross station.

Sir Nigel designed two of the World’s most famous locomotives, namely Flying Scotsman and Mallard, and the 100th pacific, A4 4498, was named after him in 1937.

Born in Edinburgh in 1876, Sir Nigel held a number of posts before being appointed LNER CME in 1923. Such was his talent that the rival LMS tried to persuade him to be-come their CME in 1932, but Sir Nigel re-fused.

Along with Sir Nigel, it is hoped that a bronze mallard duck may also be placed nextto the statue. This not only gives a nod to the locomotive of the same name, butillustrates his fondness for feeding ducks near his pre-war home.


Kemble to Swindon redoubled

Network Rail has completed the £45m project to redouble the 12 1/2 miles of railwaybetween Swindon and Kemble.

Work commenced in January 2013 and the new track and associated signalling willenable four trains an hour to operate in each direction.

There are currently no plans to increase ser-vices along the route until 2017, when amajor timetable recast is planned in connec-tion with electrification and theintroduction of new IEP trains across the western region.

In its 2008 periodic review the Office of Rail Regulation rejected calls by NetworkRail for the project to be funded as part of the Control Period 4 enhancements, butfollowing lobbying by former transport secre-tary Andrew Adonis , regional fundingwas identified in 2009 and confirmation giv-en in the chancellor of the exchequer’sbudget in 2011.

Originally the route between Kemble, which was the junction for two branch linesserving Cirencester and Tetbury, and Swin-don was double track but was singled in1968 following the closure of the two branch-es in 1964 and subsequent reduction inrail traffic.

The project was delivered as part of a joint venture between Colas and MorganSindall and had initially been scheduled for completion at Easter 2014 in order tocoincide with the closure of Swindon signal box and the transfer of control to theThames Valley Signalling Centre at Didcot. However, the severe storms over thewinter, that washed away a large section of trackbed at Dawlish, saw resources beingredeployed and the redoubling project post-poned.

Other enhancements carried out as part of the scheme include the upgrade of levelcrossings at Minety and Purton Collins lane along with the installation of a newfootbridge at Stroud.


Hiroshima tram girls remembered

August 6 marked the 69th anniversary since an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and, as always, the surviving tram girls will get together at the Hiroshima Electric Rail-way Company for an annual ceremony to re-member their friends who were either killed in the blast or who have since passed away.

Morino Nakamura will not be a name famil-iar to most people in Japan and even less so to those outside of the country, but her place in history is guaranteed as the first of more than 300 school girls to drive or conduct the trams in Hiroshima during the war and, like many of her school girl colleagues, to suffer immeasurable trauma when the Little Boy atom bomb was dropped on the city on Au-gust 6, 1945.

Such was the urgent need to enlist the school girls that training was often rudimentary, with male tram drivers saying to the school girl next to him that she had to carefully watch how he operated the tram before in-viting her to have a go at driving. If she was upto standard the instructor would say ” OK, you are certified.”

One driver, Hatsue Ishikawa, was so small that when she was surrounded by passengers at the front, the people at the back of the tram could not see her.

Other, more sober, memories are recalled by Akira Ishida who remembers that at the time of the blast: “Crowds of people had been walking beside the tram lines. There was not a trace left of them. All the walkers had been carbonised.

Tram girl Haruno Horimoto said :”One day I would be working on the tram, the next I would be searching for my mother. I feared that even her bones had been burnt to ashes. I have no idea what happened to her even today.”

Despite the desperate times romance did blossom on some lines, with tram 101 be-ing renowned for having the best looking girls operating it and subsequently the most school boys riding it.

It is remarkable to think that within 24 hours of the bomb blast rail workers had com-menced rebuilding of the devastated tram system, with over half a mile of track replaced in that short time.

Just three days after the explosion, Hiroshi-ma’s trams started operating again and the first service was driven by a tram girl, con-veying displaced people. Those without mon-ey were able to travel for free.

Reflecting on when the closure of the tram driving training school , Haruno Horimoto said: “ I had gone through hell, but I had not cried once. When the school closed down, though, something broke inside me, tears suddenly streamed out of me like a waterfall. I have been crying ever since. Nothing makes me happy.”

Around 140,000 people were killed as a direct result of the Hiroshima bombing, with anoth-er 70,000 facing the same fate a few days later when it was decided to attack Nagasaki.

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