rail announcement june 2014

ii9h_Rail AnnouncementAnnouncing all the news from the rail industry

June 2014

Japan to open rail market to EU

West Coast bid by GNWR

Memorial planned for Jack Mills

Rail Picture Library Commissioned and stock [email protected]

Iconic images of the

rail

industry

Welcome to the third issue of Rail Announcement and thanks for the good wishes and positive comments that have been received.

Apart from the UK, we have readers in Austrlia, Japan, America and China, to name but a few countries, making it a truly inter-national publication.

In this month’s edition we have news on a planned memeorial to Jack Mills and David Whitby, what GNWR think about the opposition to their West Coast ambitions and plans to fill the platform gap at busy Thameslink stations to reduce station dwell times.

I would also like to say a big thank you to the industy insiders, that for obvious reasons cannot be identified, who are happy to have a “frank and open converstion” about projects in the news.

It helps Rail Announcement eliminate spin and report on the real news that readers tell me they want to read about. We’ll leave churning out press releases to others.

Jonathan Webb Editor

[email protected]

Rail Announcement 2

Sleeper win for Serco

News

Serco has been awarded the new 15 year Caledonian sleeper franchise, which starts next April.

Transport Scotland is providing a grant of £60 million towards the cost of replacing the current Mk3 fleet of carriages with 72 CAF built vehicles that will include on-suite facil-ities for business class travellers and passen-gers under 12 eating free when an adult meal is ordered. This ties in with the more family friendly ethos that Serco promise.

In the interim the current fleet will be deep cleaned before the first of the new carriages arrive in 2018.

The announcement came as a blow to First Group, which runs the sleeper service as part of its ScotRail contract, but it is believed that it did not offer the possibility of replacing the current fleet of carriages and instead pro-posed refurbishing the rolling stock. An an-nouncement on which company has won the ScotRail franchise is expected in the autumn.

Serco also announced that the Fort William sleeper service will call at Glasgow Queen Street low level, although their press office was unable to say if diesel power would be used on this enclosed section of route.

Onboard staff will be offered training towards an SVQ level 3 qualification in hospitality and the company says it is committed to ensur-ing that 15 apprenticeships are created and apprentices trained in the first two years.

Under the current arrangement the sleeper

costs Transport for Scotland £21 million a year in subsidy, but TfS press officer Donna Watson said : “ The Sleeper service is subsi-dised but will now be substantially less than it would have been if the current arrangement had continued (a combined ScotRail/Sleeper franchise) and it is expected to fall further as revenues go up.”

Transport for Scotland’s Aiden Grisewood said that regarding the ScotRail franchise : “points are up for grabs in reducing journey times” and “25% of marks are based on qual-ity”

News Rail Announcement 3

National Express to run Thameside franchise

Fears that National Express would be forced out of the rail sector have been dispelled following the announcement that the com-pany has been awarded the Thameside Essex franchise, currently branded c2c, from No-vember this year until 2029. If they had failed it would have been left with no UK rail fran-chises come November.

Chief Executive Dean Finch has managed to turn the company’s fortunes around follow-ing the disastrous East Coast franchise, which saw National Express hand it back to the government in 2009.

Over the 15 year life of the franchise National Express says it will pay £1.5 billion to the DfT. Based on DfT methodology ,which is based on DfT discount rate of 3.5% in real terms, the net present value of franchise payments is estimated to be £1.1 billion.

The December 2015 timetable will see 20% more trains each weekday, equating to an additional 438 services into and out of Fen-church Street and creating 38% more capac-ity into Fenchurch Street station during the morning peak. The company will also buy 17 new trains, equating to 68 new vehicles, for use from 2019 and refurbish the current fleet of class 357s.

A three year station improvement pro-gramme will also commence which includes a £5.3 million redevelopment of Barking station and £1.7 million to enhance facilities at Fenchurch Street station. Both stations will see retail kiosks cleared from the concourse , with every station staffed from the first to

the last passenger train. Passengers will also benefit from free wireless Internet access at stations an onboard trains.

There will also be an alliance formed with Network Rail in a bid to reduce running costs and improve performance. This alliance will see National Express contribute towards a joint agreement to increase line speeds and reduce journey times.

A Personal Performance Promise will also be introduced that will automatically pay com-pensation to registered passengers for delays over two minutes. Other developments will see smart ticketing introduced from the start of the franchise with contactless payment to be introduced from 2017.

Dean Finch, National Express Group Chief Executive, said: “National Express is very proud of our record on C2C, transforming it from the ‘Misery Line’ into consistently the best performing railway in the country.

Rail Announcement 4 News

Edinburgh trams start as inquiry set to begin

and extension to Newhaven mootedTrams have returned to the streets of Edin-burgh for the first time since 1956, with the opening of the 14.2 km Edinburgh Airport to York Place route on May 31.

The project has not always had a smooth ride and apart from opening 3 years behind schedule was almost £300 million over bud-get,

Problems began shortly after the Scottish Parliament voted to fund the project in 2007 and authorised £490 million to be spent on a tram service connecting Edinburgh Airport and Newhaven. Initially due to be completed in 2011, it was discovered that contractors would have to deal with almost double the expected utility diversions and, later on, be-coming embroiled in disputes with the infra-structure contractor.

The 27 trams, along with a 30 year mainte-nance contract, were constructed by Con-strucciones y Auxilar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) at their factory in Irun, northern Spain.

Measuring 42.9 metres in length they are the longest trams in the UK and are powered by twelve 80kW traction motors.

Just 1 week after the first tram had entered passenger service ,First Minister Alex Sal-mond annonced that a public inquiry would be held into the project.

Led by a judge, the inquiry is expected to hear evidence from local politicians, officials from Transport Inititives Edinburgh (TIE)

and contractors.

The inquiry will be non-statutory , which means that it will not have the legal powers to compel witnesses to appear, leading to some Lib Dem and Tory politicians to doubt if the inquiry will be effective.

Currently only around 12 of the 27 trams are required to operate a full service, as it was envisgaed when the trams were ordered that the network would serve Newhaven.

This possibility is now back on the agen-da, with much infrastructure work already carried out, and all the track and sleepers already purchased, before the extension was cancelled due to rising costs.

It is estimated that to reach Newhaven will cost £80 million and the council is looking at varios loan options to fund it, despite already being in an agreement that sees it repay £15.3 million a year as part of a 30 year payment plan, borrowed at a rate of 5.1%, which it borrowed to fill the scheme’s funding gap.


Memorial planned for Jack Mills and David Whitby

Plans are underway by various railway offi-cials to erect a memorial to Crewe driver Jack Mills and his assistant David Whitby , the crew injured during the robbery of a Royal Mail train in 1963.

Joining the railway in 1919 and becoming a driver in 1942, Jack Mills was 57 at the time of the robbery and David Whitby just 26.

Leaving Crewe station with the Glasgow to London mail ttrain at 00.30 on August 8 Mills and Whitby had an unevental journey until they approached Sears Crossing where they encountered first a distant signal at caution, although the AWS bell rang indicating a clear aspect , followed by a red intermediate home signal, which also activated the AWS bell. Both signals were controlled from Leighton Buzzard signal box and had been tampered with by the robbers.

After coming to a halt, and noticing that Cheddington’s distant signal was showing a green aspect for their train, Whitby climbed down from the footplate and tried to tele-phone the signal man at Leighton Buzzard before realising that the line had been cut.

Shortly after this he was ambushed and thrown down onto the ballast.

Driver Mills later recalled how after hearing someone try to clamber onto the footplate he turned to see a figure , his face hidden by a balaclava, with a cosh in his hand and how he had lunged at him as he reached the top of the steps, his right hand going for his throat , and how the robber had given a gasp of surprise as he came against Mills trying to defend his train.

Just as he thought he was getting the better of the robber another member of the gang stormed onto the footplate from the other door and coshed him over the head.

Unconcious for around 5 minutes driver Mills was then dragged back onto the foot-plate to drive the now divided mail train, as the retired driver brought along by the robbers could not create enough vacuum to release the brakes due to the robbers not plugging the brake hose on one of the discon-nected carriages.

After driving the short disance to Bridego Bridge Mills and Whitby were ushered out of the cab as the robbers unloaded the money bags.

Jack Mills never drove a train again and was given a job handing out depot overalls until he retired. His son John, who went onto work at Crewe works, said his father’s hand never stopped shaking after the robbery and “He was not my dad of old”

The Rev Richard Cook holds a memorial service for Jack and David at Crewe station in 2013.


Shortlist announced for HS2 college

___________________________________________LOROL to run out of Liverpool StreetLondon Overground train operator LOROL has been appointed to run West Anglia ser-vices for 17 months.

From 31st May next year LOROL will take over operations, for 17 months, from Great-er Anglia on the Liverpool Street to Enfield Town, Cheshunt (via Seven Sisters) and Chingford routes in addition to the Romford to Upminster branch.

The current Overground concession expires in November 2016 and this will enable a sin-gle Overground contract to be let which cov-ers existing and west Anglia routes. LOROL, which is a joint venture between Hong Kong’s MTR and Germany’s Deutsche Bahn, has op-erated the Overground network since 2007.

Preliminary work regarding the new Over-ground concession has already commenced , with new trains already on order. These are due to enter passenger service in 2018.

Birmingham, Derby, Doncaster and Man-chester have been shortlisted to become the home of the National College for High Speed Rail. All the shortlisted cities have a long tra-dition of railway manufacturing.

The new college ‘hub’ will be at the centre of numerous ‘spokes’ across the country and will provide training for the UK’s next gener-ation of rail engineers, working on HS2 and rail projects into the future.

The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) has appointed Terry Morgan, chairman of Crossrail, chair of the National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering, and was previously chief executive of Tube Lines and group managing director for BAE Sys-

tems, to advise on developing the scheme and which city should be its base.

A decision is expected in July.


Best foot forward for Chiltern’s Anna

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Extra carriages for Southern trains

Chitern train manager Anna Stimpson has completed a 105 mile walk between Birming-ham Moor Street station and Manchester Pic-cadilly station in memory of her Manchester based train driver friend Jane Woods.

Joining Anna on the walk were fellow Chil-tern employee Jim Hamilton, Dave Jackson from East Midlands Trains, Vikki Rowboth-am from TransPennine Express, Jane;s sister Sandra Artingstall and Tony Bishop from the fire service.

Anna trained for 10 months prior to the three day walk and had to undergo knee surgery last September.

The walk raised over £2,500 for Beechwood Cancer Centre

Delivery of new class 377s and lengthening of platforms will enable most Southern operat-ed services between Milton Keynes Central and South Croydon to be formed of either five or eight carriages by late summer. Cur-rently many services are formed of only four carriages.

Platforms at Clapham Junction, Imperial Wharf, Shepard’s Bush and West Brompton have been lengthened to accommodate the 40 new Bombardier built carriages, bringing a total of 227 additional carriages since the franchise commenced in 2009. The TOC says that this now completes its investment in new trains during the current franchise.

There are currently another 116 class 387 vehicles on order from Bombardier for the Thameslink route. From July next year South-ern and Thameslink will be part of a single GoVia operated rail franchise.


Latest ETCS developmentsLast month Rail Announcement was invit-ed by Network Rail to travel on their ETCS, which is part of the wider European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS), class 313, which is currently being used on the Hertford loop between Bragbury and Mole-wood.

To allow for daytime testing to take place the two lines are split into two bi-directional lines , with all service trtains using the south-bound line.

It’s been three years since ERTMS first went into operation in Britain, with the launch of ERTMS level 2 on the Cambrian lines.

The £95m project was not without its fair share of teething problems which included drivers having difficulty seeing their driver machine interface screens when it was sun-ny and finding them too bright in the dark. There was also some cofusion regarding dis-played release speeds and movement author-ities which resulted in a number of signals being passed at danger.

With these initial problems now overcome Network Rail is keen to build on this learning curve.

It is envisaged that ETCS will be installed on the London Paddington to Heathrow route, as an overlay to the current colour light sig-nalling, by 2017. The overlay is expected to reach Bristol by 2019, with all colour lights being removed by 2025.

The East Coast route between King’s Cross and Wood Green will operate in overlay mode by 2018, with Doncaster being reached

in 2020, allowing all coulour light signals on the route to be removed.

Network Rail is currently evaluating four suppliers (Infrasig, Siemens, Ansaldo and Alstom) to supply the signalling equipment, with tesing due to finish in November.

The four test labs are housed in the ETCS National Integration Facility (ENIF), located in Hitchin. When ENIF is in use the signaller in King’s Cross signal box switches out and passes control of the line to ENIF.

Once testing has been completed the test track will have to undergo sight modifica-tions in order to be able to test the ECTS that will be used on Thameslink, with the proposed signalling between Blackfriars and Farringdon being replicated on the Hertford loop. Initially only 313121 will be used for this, but will be joined by Siemens built 700 004 in February 2016. The Thameslink testing is expected to finish by July that year before the first of the new Hitachi built IEP trains arrive for testing.

Suppliers have pointed out that the equip-ment works well in Europe, but in Britain its implimenrtation is different because not only is there a high volume of leagacy equipment but the rolling stock belongs to different age


groups and there is the issue of installing an overlay on existing signalling. All things never encountered in Europe or on the Cam-brian route.

Four new crossovers have been installed on the Hertford loop test track to give maximum flexibility. As the route is also used as an East Coast diversion route, the test train must be prepared to clear the line in 30 minutes in times of disruption on the ECML.

One of the biggest challenges, with the pres-sure on rolling stock, facing the project is securing donur vehicles for first in class. There are similar challenges when it comes to fitting the equipment to on-track planta and preserved steam and diesel locomotives, where there is a huge variaton with a small and specialised fleet.

Freight operators have contracts that protect them frm network changes so Network Rail will fund the fitting of equipment to around 850 locomotives, along with the required driver training costs.


Two new stations for Leeds to Bradford route

Two new stations on the Bradford to Leeds route are to be constructed by August 2015.

The stations will be located at Apperley Bridge and Kirkstall Forge, with the former including a park and ride facility that can serve both Leeds and Bradford. The work at Kirkstall Forge will kick-start over £400 million of mixed-use development at the old Forge site.

The Department of Transport is providing £9.5 million of the scheme’s total cost of £15.9 million, with work to start next month.

It is envisaged that the project will support 300 jobs during construction.

___________________________________________Filling the gap to speed up servicesPlatform humps and platform gap filler tech-nology will be introduced on the core area of the Thameslink route (Blackfriars, City Thameslink, Farringdon and St Pancras sta-tions) in order to keep station dwell times to a minimum.

In the core area there is a nominal dwell time of 60 seconds, with a target of 45 sec-onds when services are recovering from disruption. It would be impossible to de[ploy manual boarding ramps for passengers with reduced mobility in this short time, so humps will be installed adjacent to where the two centre carriages of the new class 700s will stop.

Platforms on the heavy rail network are spec-ified to be at a nominal 915mm above rail level, while the floor of the new class 700s is at a nominal height of 1100 above rail level, like most suburban passenger trains.

The new humps will present level access, but have to be set back slightly because of the size of all vehicles allowed to use the railway at

the floor height of the class 700s. To enable a permanent step=-free access with a min-imum clearance for the class 700s the gap will be narrowed with a rubber fingered edge which is rigid in the vertical direction , allow-ing people with wheelchairs and pushchairs to use it safely, but the fingers will be brushed out of the way by a passing vehicle.

This technology is also being considered for use on some London Overground and Un-derground platforms.


Direct award for VirginAn increase in car parking spaces at Carlisle, Stafford and Lancaster is also being devel-oped as is a plan to remodel Carstairs Junc-tion to enable journey times between London and Scotland to be reduced.

A decision on new rolling stock, promised in First’s 2012 franchise bid, will not be made until the next, long-term, West Coast fran-chise is let.

Under this latest agreement the DfT is guar-anteed a payment of £430 million over the life of the contract, presuming that the economy falls in line with expectations.

This new deal, according to Virgin, increas-es payments to government by 58% when compared to the management contract. The £430 million due between 22 June 2014 and 31 March 2017 works out as £155.3 million a year , compared to the management contract from December 2012 to 21 June 2014 where Virgin will pay £150.9 million which equates to £98.1 million a year.

To counter any overcrowding issues when the number of first class seats are reduced, as ordered by the DfT, the DfT has instructed Virgin to stop selling or reduce the availabili-ty of cheap advance first class tickets.

Many 11-car peak services on the Manches-ter and Birmingham to London route are already, or near, full in first class so Virgin will have to ensure that the new 9-car forma-tions, with one less first class coach, are kept off these busy services as Virgin, not the DfT, will be blamed by passengers , some paying very high fares, if they are unable to get a seat, with the resulting bad publicity.

Under the latest direct award from the DfT Virgin Trains will continue to operate the West Coast franchise until at least March 2017.

Virgin has run the service under a manage-ment contract since the TOC challenged the decision in 2012 to award the franchise to First Group. The direct award, which runs for two years and nine months with a one year extension at the discretion of the DfT, will give the DfT time to let a new long-term contract. This new direct award returns the franchise to a commercial footing, allowing Virgin to invest in new initiatives.

As part of the £35 million investment prom-ised by Virgin the TOC says it will convert 21 first class carriages (coach G) in each of the remaining 9-car Pendolino sets to stan-dard class (providing an extra 5,500 standard seats a day) , with more than £20 million to be spent on enhancing a number of Virgin stations, £2.5 million on improving the interi-ors of the Pendolino fleet and catering facil-ities benefitting from an investment of £2.75 million.

In addition passengers can expect free wire-less internet access at stations and on the entire Pendolino and Super Voyager fleets. Network Rail has installed new track-side infrastructure which is expected to see the first significant inter-city introduction of 4G technology across the UK rail network.

The Office of Rail Regulation is expected to agree to Virgin’s proposals for direct London to Blackpool and Shrewsbury services in time for December’s timetable change.


Frameworks announced for LU work

£250 million of investment in high voltage electrical systems over the next eight years has been pledged by London Underground. The new systems will support more trains and create a more reliable service for the rapidly growing passenger demand on the network.

Seventeen suppliers have been chosen for the two eight-year power upgrade frameworks that run concurrently for the installation, de-sign and commissioning of power networks.

Currently London Underground is finalis-ing the completion of the power upgrade required for the sub-surface network. This equates to approximately 40% of the network and comprises the modernisation of the District, Metropolitan, Circle and Hammer-smith and City lines. Planning has already commenced regarding upgrading the power supply on the Piccadilly line and other parts of the underground.

The framworks, which include the design, in-stallation and commissioning of high voltage substations along with 11kv and 22kv cable routing. There is a four-year break option in the zero-value contracts, so called because there is no cast-iron guarantee of work, in-cluded within the framework agreement.

David Hughes, director of major programmes sponsorship for LU, said: “We’ve embarked on the biggest programme of Tube moderni-sation ever seen.”

The 17 companies are:

- ABB

- Alstom Transport UK- Balfour Beatty Engineering Services- C Spencer- Clancy Docwra- Data Techniques- Giffen Group- High Voltage Maintenance Services- Industrial Switchgear Services- J Murphy & Sons- MJ Quinn Integrated Services- McNicholas Construction Services- Thorntask- TXM Group (Ombros Integrated Services)- UK Power Networks Services (Commercial)- URS Infrastructure & Environment UK- Vital Human Resources & Electren UK


Osborne raises possibilty of HS3George Osborne only told the Department for Transport about his announcement re-garding a high-speed line between Manches-ter and Leeds three days beforehand and has admitted that he had no specific plan, but wanted to “ start a conversation” about what has been dubbed HS3.

Details are unlikely to be forthcoming this close to a general election, but he implied that the options are to upgrade the current route between the two cities or to build a new line. The two cities are currently linked by a rail service that takes nearly 50 minutes to com-plete the journey.

This latest proposal, which has drawn criti-cism from Lord Adonis, is seen as a catalyst for a ‘Northern Powerhouse’ to rival London and comes just three years after ministers scrapped the ‘Northern Way’ initiative , designed to improve transport connections across the region.

Before HS3 can even get off the drawing board it will have to compete for funds against other schemes such as the proposed Crossrail 2, which it is envisaged could re-lieve congested rail routes between north and south London.

Lord Adonis said : “ It’s not going to be a high-speed line, he’s just making a big thing of further upgrading the line. “ He went on to say that by announcing HS3, Mr Osborne is implying that HS2 is done, although no route north of Birmingham has been published and that “ HS2 does not exist at the moment north of Birmingham as a scheme ,let alone as a project that’s actually being implement-ed.”

It’s not the first time that the chancellor has been embroiled in a high-speed rail contro-versy when it was revealed that the proposed route of HS2 would avoid, at an extra cost of £600 million, the most affluent areas of his Tatton constituency, the so called ‘Golden Triangle’ of Prestbury, Wilmslow and Alder-ley Edge. The chancellor denied any involve-ment in swaying the decision.

Passengers arrive at Manchester Piccadilly


EVR to open Shottle station in August_____________________________________________________________________________________

Ticket office closures to start this yearTube boss Mike Brown has said that London Underground will start closing ticket offices by the end of the year.

The closures, which will see 256 ticket offices abolished, are to go ahead despite resistance from the unions. A proposal to carry out a pilot scheme and a suggestion that a public consultation should be held were also both dismissed during Mr Brown’s appearance in front of the Assembly’s transport committee.

When pressed by Labour Assembly member Val Shawcross on the impact such closures would have on disabled passengers Mike Brown replied that no office would be closed until he was personally satisfied that the sta-tion was accessible to all users.

The Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, which con-nects Wirksworth with Duffield, is to reopen Shottle station on August 9, allowing passen-gers to reach the viillage by rail for the first time since June 1947, when all stations on the route were closed, although the line remained open for freight until 1989.

It was to be another decade before the volun-teers from the EVR were to arrive on site and begin restoring what had by then become a railway beneath a forrest of trees.

The line now houses a large collection of steam and diesel locomotives.


Cumbernauld route electrified

___________________________________________Thirty new stations for Merseyside

Electric passenger services are now operating between Glasgow and Cumbernauld follow-ing the completion of a scheme, carried out by Carillion, to electrify the 50 km between Springburn and Cumbernauld.

The scheme was carried out as part of a £80 million upgrade of the route and sees the number of services increase from 36 each weekday to 59, equating to an additional 6,000 seats.

In the longer term it is hoped to electrify the whole of the Glasgow to Edinburgh route , along with redeveloping Glasgow Queen

station.

Cumbernauld is also to benefit from a new ticket office and waiting room, replacing the current building which dates from the 1970s and has been deemed unsuitable for modern needs.

A list of sites for potential 30 new stations on Merseyside has been drawn up by Mersey-travel, although officials have refused to pub-lish the locations, before a full survey of each site has taken place, in a bid to stop expec-tations being raised in case the development does not go ahead.

Currently each location is being examined to discover if a new station is necessary and the cost of the proposal . Merseytravel says that some some sites have more potential than others at the moment. David Brown, chief ex-ecutive of Merseytravel, said: “We are trying to identify those that will unlock develop-ment so we can identify investment opportu-nities. We are looking at the revenue potential and aspiration. We are trying to identify the economic positivity each could bring.”

It’s likely that a new station at Maghull North and reopening St James’s station are on the list of 30 sites, which is part of Merseytravel’s 12 rail priorities for the next 30 years. Other priorities include improving rail connections between Liverpool and other major cities and increasing capacity at Liverpool Central station.


GNWR in bid for West Coast services

Aspiring open access operator Great North Western Railway Company has announced that Network Rail has agreed to sell it access rights to commence services on the West Coast Main Line.

Presuming the Office of Rail Regulation grants permission, a decision is expected this autumn, GNWR will start running six return trips a day between London and Blackpool by 2017, with six return trips between Lon-don and Huddersfield, via Manchester Victo-ria and Leeds, commencing a year later.

GNWR has told Rail Announcement that although it is currently focussing on Queen’s Park , which has a freight loop where trains can lay over between journeys, as a desti-nation, the operator believes that capacity should be available at Euston by the time its trains start running.

It is envisaged that Alstom built Pendolinos will be used, although fundamentally the same as the Virgin fleet, GNWR’s rolling stock will have a slightly updated design and will run as a six-car formation.

Asked whether GNWR is confident that a fleet of Pendolinos can be delivered in the required timescale should the ORR give the operator to commence operations it replied:

“We are comfortable with the indicative timescales Alstom has provided us with. If we did believe things were likely to be delayed we may look at whether an alternative would be available for the interim but we are not anticipating this to be necessary.”

In the longer term GNWR has aspirations to

run services connecting London with Edin-burgh and Cleethorpes/West Yorkshire. An application for both these services is current-ly with the ORR, but there is no indication as to when a decision will be made on these applications. GNWR is still in talks with Net-work Rail over whether the route has enough capacity for these extra services, but the operator hopes that the Edinburgh services could be launched in December 2016, again using Pendolinos.

Asked about Virgin’s official line that it welcomes competition, a senior source at GNWR told Rail Announcement: “You can bet they are working feverourishly behind the scenes with DfT to object” “I expect ORR to approve Blackpool for them, probably by one or two Preston ser-vices being extended. As they have an ex-tension to 2017, and we plan to start in 2017 then I’d also not expect the ORR to agree rights for them beyond that time so a full evaluation could be undertaken. It might be they both go forward beyond 2017.” “Major difference of course with GNWR and VT is that we procure trains at our cost with no risk or exposure to the taxpayer, while they won’t procure any trains unless the tax-payer funds them!”


Revenue increases at Network Rail, but so does debt

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East Coast HSTs to receive electronic fuel gauges

Expenditure, revenue and debt have all in-creased according to Network Rail’s full year results for 2013/14.

Capital expenditure has risen from £5,050 million to £6,873 million, which has contrib-uted to an increased asset value of £49,833 million compared to last year’s figure of £46,411 million. During the same period the infrastructure company’s revenue reached £6,333 million, up from £6,197 million, equating to a profit after tax of £1,256 mil-lion, up 86% from £677 million.

The increase in profit after tax is due to a combination of accounting gains on hedging instruments of £304 million (2012/13 £43

million loss) in addition to a tax credit of £221 million (2012/13 charge of £70 million). Operating profit dipped slightly to £2,001 million from £2,207 million last year.

There was also a slight increase in the number of passenger services failing to arrive on time, with the latest results showing a punctuality figure of 90% compared to last year’s 90.9%.

Following trials on East Coast HST power car 43310, it has been decided to install elec-tronic fuel gauges to the entire 32 power cars within the East Coast fleet.

Operated by a float switch and sender, with a gauge located in the engine room, it is im-portant that drivers have an exact reading of how much fuel is left due to the intensive nature of the East Coast diagrams.

The two inter-connected fuel tanks hold 1000 gallons and the longest EC HST diagram is 1250 miles. This usually leaves around 200 gallons remaining , but any service disruption can impact on this and leave things critical as scavenging air from the tank can result in the engine shutting down.

The work, which was designed in house by East Coast development engineer Alasdair McPherson, will be carried out at Craigentin-ny depot.


Passenger numbers continue to rise

New role for DyanNetwork Rail’s London North Western route managing director Dyan Crowther is to be-come the chief operating officer of the forth-coming Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise, which commences in September.

A British Rail graduate trainee , Dyan worked in numerous positions before joining Rail-track at privatisation, before leaving when it went into administration and joining Arriva Trains Northern as their commercial director at a time when it had just been voted the UK’s worst train operator and a lot of its staff were on strike. Dyan is on the record as saying that in these circumstances “ I can’t do anything that’s going to make it worse”

A geography graduate, Ms Crowther is no stranger to front line work and when with British Rail she sold tickets and cleaned the platforms at Peckham when the cleaners did not turn up.

The ORR has announced that the number of passenger journeys has increased by 5.7% during 2013/14. This equates to 1.59 billion journeys on franchised operators, with a fur-ther 1.9 million on open access operators.

London and the south east saw a 7.3% in-crease in the number of passenger journeys to 1.108 billion, accounting for 69.8% of total franchised passenger journeys.

Compared with 2012/13 passenger kilometres for London and the south east increased by 8.1%, more than four times that for long dis-tance services at 1.9% and regional services at 2%. For open access operators the figure was 10.9%.

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Of the 1.59 billion franchise operated jour-neys in 2013/14, 56.5% were made using ordinary tickets, with the remaining 43.5% being made using season tickets.


Expressions of interest invited for Northern and TransPen-nine franchisesExpressions of interest to run the Northern and TransPennine franchises have been invit-ed by the DfT.

Commencing in February 2016, and running for between 8 to 10 years, bidders have been warned that they will have to bear down on costs if they are to stand any chance of being successful.

There are a number of difficult obstacles to overcome, such as how to fund a replacement for the Pacer railbus rolling stock and how to reduce public subsidy. Currently Northern has the highest subsidy per passenger mile of any UK rail franchise with, on average, the taxpayer contributing 53p for every mile travelled by each passenger. The figure for TransPennine Express is 16p.

In a consultation document the DfT has invited views on how these savings can be achieved by possible trade offs. These in-clude cutting little used services, reducing ticket office opening hours and raising fares. The document states: “Both franchises are seeing strong growth in demand and expe-rience crowding at times; we would wish the next franchises to provide additional capacity to meet this demand. As demand patterns change there may be a stronger case for improving some weekend, early and late services but the additional revenue from this may not cover the additional costs. At the same time there are many very lightly used services and stations, especially among those operated by Northern.”

Bidders for the Northern franchise are also being asked how driver only operation could be introduced on appropriate services. This

is likely to attract strong opposition from trade unions. Driver only operation will be left to bidders’ discretion for those wishing to bid for the TransPennine Express franchise. Around a third of rail services in Britain are already DOO.

Expressions of interest have to be received by 17 July, with the consultation ending on 18 August.


Railway Chaplain appeals for helpRailway chaplain Rev Richard Cook, himself once a railway guard, is seeking relatives of private Ernest Sykes, a plate layer from Moss-ley, and private William Wood, a depot su-pervisor from Edgeley who were both award-ed the Victoria Cross for their bravery during World War I.

A plaque in honour of private Sykes is to be unveiled at Mossley station on August 11, with a plaque honouring William Wood due to be unveiled in September and it is hoped some of their relatives, no matter how distant, will be able to attend.

In 1914 private Sykes joined the 7th Battalion The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, leaving his wife and two sons, but suffered severe injuries to his feet during fighting at Gallipoli. After a number of operations he returned to the front line with the 27th Battalion, Nor-thumberland Fusilers. It was in 1917 that , under constant and heavy fire, he ventured out into no man’s land at Arras in France to rescue four comrades, before going out for a fifth time to apply dressings to those men too badly injured to be moved.

Upon his return to the railway the LNWR

named a Claughton class locomotive after him in 1922. When this locomotive was with-drawn the name was transferred to an LMS Patriot class locomotive.

Starting his railway career in 1914 as an en-gine cleaner at Edgeley shed , William Wood joined the Cheshire Regiment in 1916 as a stretcher bearer, later transferring to the 10th Battalion The Northumberland Fusiliers.

He was awarded the VC for, although only armed with a Lewis gun, charging against german machine guns and forcing the sur-render of 163 men.

Returning to Edgeley shed after the war, pri-vate Wood became a fireman in 1919 before being promoted to a driver at Newton Heath. He retired in 1960 as a supervisor at Long-sight shed. Like private Sykes, Wood had a Patriot locomotive named after him once the Claughton had been withdrawn.

The Rev Richard Cook can be contacted by email [email protected]


Darlington museum could be saved

___________________________________________Japan to open procurement markets to EU

Three companies of the Japan Railway Group have agreed to open their equipment pro-curement markets for companies in the EU.

East Japan Railway Co., Central Japan Rail-way Co., and West Japan Railway Co. have promised to liberalise their rail related mar-kets for rolling stock, brakes and other rail equipment manufactured in the EU.

The rare move, which came during Japan-EU negotiations regarding an economic partner-ship agreement, should see talks concluded by the end of next year.

It is thought that the three JR companies submitted a code of conduct to the EU ne-gotiators which promised to treat Japanese and foreign companies equally and to be

transparent with regard to tenders. This will increase opportunities for European train makers to enter the Japanese market.

The Japanese rail companies will disclose im-portant points ,for those wishing to tender, in English on their websites along with annual business schedules in an effort to encourage European companies.

In 2012 the market for Japan’s railway equip-ment was worth ¥250 billion with about 90 % of orders awarded to Japanese companies

Darlington’s Head of Steam museum faced closure when Darlington Borough Council announced last December it was going to cut the £265,000 annual subsidy it pays to operate the popular attraction, but members of the council cabinet are now being asked to continue the funding beyond the planned end date of 2016/17, as plans emerged that the museum is hoping to be at the centre of events to mark the 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the world’s first passenger line, in 2025. In addition a bid for World Heritage Site status has been made.

Exhibits include Stephenson’s Locomotion No. 1, built for the opening of the Stockton

and Darlington Railway, along with Derwent, the earliest surviving Darlington built loco-motive.


UK and China to forge closer rail ties

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Serco and Abellio to splitAbellio and Serco , the two companies that took over the Northern franchise in Decem-ber 2004, have agreed to pursue different paths with regard to the new Northern Rail franchise when the current interim agree-ment, signed last March, ends in February 2016. This latest move could result in both companies bidding for the franchise.

The Merseyrail franchise, which Serco and Abellio also operate as a joint venture, is un-affected by the Northern decision and is due to run until 2028.

Recently selected to operate the Caledonian sleeper contract, Serco is waiting to hear if its bid to continue with the Docklands Light

franchise has been successful. The company says it is also evaluating options for a number of other franchises, including Northern and TransPennine Express. The latter has a simi-lar procurement timetable as Northern.

UK and Chinese rail industries have agreed to work together in an effort to boost economic growth, jobs and skills.

This development follows the signing of a bi-lateral agreement between the two countries and will pave the way for closer cooperation in areas such as rail design , engineering and supply. Transport Secretary Patrick Mc-Loughin signed the Memorandum of Under-standing on behalf of the UK Government with Xu Shaoshi, Chairman of the Nation-al Development and Reform Committee (NDRC), signing for the Chinese.

The MOU states that contracts won in the UK should make use of the UK supply chain. It is hoped that the agreement will also open up

the Chinese market to UK companies.


Depressed freight rates picking up

Signs are showing that rates are picking up for Intermodal traffic following a period of depressed rates that make the current prices barely sustainable and has been described as a battle in a low-rate environment by the European Intermodal Association.

Last year traffic grew by 4% but EIA secre-tary general Peter Wolters said: “intermodal operators are still licking their wounds from depressed freight rates as a result of rate cuts

by road haulage competitors. Having invested long-term in ’sustainable’ terminal equipment and specialised rolling stock etc., they simply didn’t have the additional financial means to match these rate cuts.”

Intermodal traffic is expected to grow by 5-6% this year and the EIA and its members are now looking into solutions to develop anew intercontinental supply chain security project and the introduction of 45ft MegaS-wapBoxes.

___________________________________________Boom in light rail travel

Recently released figures by the Department for Transport show that the number od pas-senger journeys and vehicle miles on the UK’s 8 light rail systems reached the highest figure recorded in the modern era during 2013/14.

During this period 227 million passenger journeys were made, an increase of 2% on the previous year, with almost 60% of these attributed to the Dockland Light Railway and Croydon Tramlink.

Vehicle milage increased by 10% on the previous year to 17.8 million vehicle miles, although this was largely down to increases in Manchester where when two sets are joined together to form one train, something that has increased in recent years, the milage run will be counted twice. It is estimated that this has contributed around a third of the overall increase for this system since 2011/12.

Revenue also increased by 6% in real terms to £290 million compared to 2012/13.

However overall occupancy of trams has fall-en for the past 2 years from the highes figure in modern records of 57 passengers per tram in 2011/12 to 52 in 2013/14.

Rail Announcement 24 International News

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Goodnight for sleeper train

KitKat is just the ticket

In a bid to increase tourism in the north of Japan, passengers on the Sanriku Railway can use KitKat wrappers as their train ticket.

Three years ago the region was devastated by the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which destroyed large areas of the rail network. It was discovered that many of the rail workers involved with rebuilding the network were being given KitKats as the brand name is similar to the Japanese phrase Kitto-Katsu , which translates as “you will surely win”

For each bar sold in Japan around 20 yen is donated towards the rebuilding efforts.

KitKat is one of the country’s most popular chocolate bars and come in various Japanese tastes such as bean cake and Kobe pudding.

After a quarter of a century it has been an-nounced that the iconic Twilight Express , operated by the West Japan Railway Compa-ny, is to cease running from next spring.

Running four times a week from Osaka to Sapporo the 930 mile journey takes 22 hours and is currently the longest distance passen-ger service in Japan.

At present the train runs four days a week, but from the final week of January through February it will run everyday except Sundays.

The main reason given for withdrawing the service is the age of the rolling stock, which now needs replacing.

International News Rail Announcement 25

Certification process makes progess

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First class service for French mail customersLa Poste has announced a three-year €100m investment programme that will see swap bodies used for moving mail by rail from a new terminal to be built at Bonneuil-sur-Marne in the southeastern suburbs of Paris. Sheduled to open late next year the new ter-minal, costing €23m, will replace the current terminal at Paris-Charolais used by the dedi-cated fleet of postal TGV trainsets.

The post office claims that using TGVs to move mail no longer meets the requirements of its customers and from the end of 2015 bulk mail, newspapers and magazines, along with small freight consignments, will be con-veyed in swap bodies.

Over the next three years the volume of mail moving by rail is expected to increase, ex-

ceeding by 30% the capacity of the current TGV service.

As a result of consolidating operations from two road terminals it is envisaged that the new Bonneuil-sur-Marne terminal will re-duce lorry movements by 638,000 km a year.

A year after new procedures were introduced to streamline Germany’s tortuous and ex-pensive rolling stock certification process, the German Railway Industry Association (VDB) says some progress has been made but that the process to certify modernised roll-ing stock is still far from clear and in need of legislation.

Measures to accelerate the certification pro-cess were introduced in June last year after an agreement was reached between the VDB, the Feder

VDB president Martin Lange said : “A new locomotive that has been assessed during the final part of the certification process under the new rules can receive approval just 11 weeks after the submission of all documents.”

This would have been impossible before the agreement and the VDB had repeatedly criti-cised the previous process as being “extreme-ly time consuming, costly and unpredictable.”

Mr Lange said that : “ The reform of the ap-proval process in Germany must be pushed forward on a legal basis as fast as possible.”

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