RAIB and RSSB

RSSB are the Rail Safety Standards Boards and responsible for maintaining the safety on the railway. This has been helped by the RAIB or Rail Accident Investigations Branch, who are responsible for finding the cause of any incident on the railway. They also make recommendations to Train Operating Companies and Network Rail.

All RAIB Reports are available to view at www.raib.gov.uk

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Service to the Far West Country.

There are a number of people who are calling for a service improvement to the current 12 trains per day with journey times of about 3 hours to 3 hours 51 minutes to and from Penzance / Plymouth. Some people are suggesting that cutting some of the stops on the services could save 1 hour to the full service time. Other people have suggested the 10 Car IEP sets to travel to Plymouth and splitting with the front 5 cars proceeding into Cornwall.  Short platforms in Cornwall and other parts of the network will require SDO (Selective Door Opening) to be in operation.

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Inside story: CrossRail.

CrossRail is the next underground railway in London to Open. It will connect Stratford and Canary Wharf to Bond St and Heathrow Airport. The Line running east to west will start at Abbey Wood and Shefield in the east and Finish at Heathrow Airport and Maidenhead in the West. The Line is currently proposed to open in 2018/2019.

The first proposals for CrossRail were put forward in 1948 with similar schemes being undertaken in later years. Different things were proposed in addition to having a tunnel from Paddington to Liverpool St there were plans for a tunnel between Victoria and London Bridge. The CrossRail bid was accepted in 2005 with work starting in 2008. The project is set to cost £1.6 Billion. Almost £1.2 Billion will be invested in the 14 mile twin bore tunnels of 6.2 meter diameter.

Aiming to achieve the 24 Trains Per Hour target in the central section of the railway will be the new Class 345 trains. There will be 60 trains, all of 10 car length. The trains will also have to be capable of being Driver only operated and running at 100 mph. The trains will be maintained at Old Oak Common and Ilford Depots.

There are 3 proposed extensions of the Crossrail project. On the west side there are proposed extensions to Reading and Milton keynes And on the East side to Gravesend.

There are also proposals for a CrossRail 2 between Wimbledon and Epping. This is in order to release the capacity at Waterloo and Victoria Main Line stations.

Crossrail will be handed to TFL for the start of service.

Next weeks Inside story will be South West Trains

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Train Simulator 2014

Branching off slightly from what I would normally post about. For Railway fans this should still be important news for you. The new Train Simulator will launch on the 26th September 2013. This will be the 4th game in RailSimulator.com series. This game has been much anticipated with it including some of the DLC lines of Trains Simulator 2013.

The routes are London St Pancras - Faversham, The Donner Pass and Hamburg - Hanover. You can also add in the old Train Simulator 2013 routes. Such as  London - Brighton, Portsmouth Direct Line and The Great Western Main Line.

Here are some screenshots of my Train Simulator 2013.   

First Great Western 150236 at Weston Super Mare

South West Trains Class 444's at Portsmouth and South Sea.

Southern Class 377's, South West Trains 455's and a South West Trains Class 444 at Clapham Junction

South West Train Class 450 and Class 444 with a Southern Class 377 at Batersea Park

South West Trains Class 444 at Gatwick Airport

First Great Western High Speed Train at London Liverpool St.

I do Hope that you will join me in enjoying this new game.

More information can be found on Rail Simulators Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/railsimulator/app_159117757558938

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Windermere branch, plans for electrification.

There are currently plans for the Windermere Branch from Oxenholme to Windermere to be electrified as a part of the North West Electrification Project. The project would cost £16 Million and would be approved to go ahead if all of the long term business objectives could be achieved. If approved the project would be finished in 2016. This would stop the need for a Transpennine Express diesel train to operate on the area of line which will shortly be all electric trains. There are also plans for a Blackpool to Windermere service.

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Inside story: Northern Rail.

Northern Rail are a Train operating company that operates in the Midlands, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Merseyside and Manchester.  Northern Operates routes to places like Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, York, Newcastle, Carlisle, Blackpool, Hull, Nottingham, Stoke on Trent, Crewe, Chester, Wigan and Preston.

Northern operates a fleet of trains which are one of the oldest in the country. This fleet consists of Class 142’s, Class 144’s, Class 150’s Class 153’s Class 155’s, Class 156’s and Class 158’s. These all operate on the non electrified routes in the area. The fleet also consists of Class 321’s, Class 322’s, Class 323’s and Class 333’s All of which are electric trains and operate on lines that are electrified.

For all of the plans to electrify many lines in the North west there are a number of plans to transfer the Class 319’s from First Capital Connect to Northern to operate service to Blackpool and Leeds.

Northern have been heavily criticised by the travelling public for the continued use of the class 142 and 144 pacer trains. Also the severe overcrowding on Northern services in the North west area. The problem with the Pacer trains is that they have extended past their intended life time and also no longer comply with modern safety standards. Commuters that have to use the service have taken to twitter to express their feelings using the #NorthernFail.

There is a scheme to bring a new electrified railway this area with new trains also to connect it to the currently planned High Speed 2. This however won’t begin until 2016.

The next Inside story will be Crossrail.

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New First Capital Connect Thameslink units.

First let's start with the proposed cascade of units between First Capital Connect and Southern. And eventually (under the Department For Transports plans) to First Great Western.

These will involve Bombardier creating an additional 116 electrostar vehicles, which are specified to be able to travel at 110 mph. These are scheduled to enter Thameslink services in 2015 and when the new Desiro City (Class 700) enter service in late 2016 will be transferred to Southern. This will bring the total order cost to £385 million.

Next is the Class 700 Desiro City trains that will be purpose built for the Thameslink Franchise will be entering service in 2016. The trains built by Siemens will be a mixture of 12 and 8 carriage formations. 55 as 12 carriage and 60 as 8 carriages. This brings the total carriage order to 1,140.

Some of the key features of the trains will be the wide gangways like on London underground s stock. And the no intermediate cabs throughout the train. The livery of the train has been designed in partnership between Siemens and First Capital Connect. With a light grey overall with light blue doors and a white flash at the end of the carriage. This brings back memories of the National Express livery.

The numbering of the trains will be 700001 - 700060 for the 8 carriage trains and 700101 - 700155 for the 12 carriage trains.

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Forth Rail Bridge, opening to the Public.

Network Rails most famous building will be opened to the public to view by the end of 2015. Groups of 15 people at a time will get the opportunity to climb the South tower of the Forth Rail Bridge to over 350ft from the water below.

A visitor center is also be built near to North Queensferry with the ability to teach people about the structure and the history behind it. The project will cost between £12 - 15 million to complete.

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Inside Story: EuroStar.

EuroStar is the UK's only international train operating company operating train services to Paris, Disneyland resort Paris, and Brussels. The trains leave London from St Pancras International normally calling at Ebbsfleet international and Ashford international before traveling under the channel through the channel tunnel. Eurostar services use the center platforms at St Pancras International which extend into the former st pancras train shed.

Trains at Paris gare de Nord use platforms 1-4 as they are linked to the eurostar check in and passport control. From Paris trains travel north on LGV Nord to lillie and Calais.  

EuroStar services are the fastest in the UK running at 300 kph or 186.4 mph. The trains are formed of Class 373 trains which are based on the French TGV and built by Alstom. The Eurostar fleet is due to be enlarged by introducing velaro e320 trains built by Siemens and based on the German ICE train. These trains are capable of 320kph or 200Mph.

The next Inside Story will be Northern Rail

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South West Trains, Waterloo International.

South West Trains plan to include all 5 former Eurostar platforms at Waterloo international to expand the capacity of the station by 10,000 passengers at peak time, when it comes into use in 2019.

South West Trains are also aiming to get a new fleet of metro style trains that will replace the current class 455. The new EMU units are specified to be able to operate as a 3, 5 and 10 carriage trains. The first of these trains are scheduled to enter service in july 2016, with the rest of the fleet being delivered in 12 months.

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London Underground's Piccadilly line upgrade.

The next London underground line to undergo a full upgrade will the the Piccadilly line.

The point of the upgrade that I will focus on is the point of contact with the system and customer. That being the new trains. They will be called The New Tube For London. The train will be open ended carriages (like the s stock on the sub surface lines) and more controversially the trains will have No driver. The trains will operate a service such as on board the DLR where the staff on-board the train act as customer service ambassadors.

We are still unsure as to if the trains will have air conditioning however with the Piccadilly line serving some of the busiest stations on the network and Heathrow airport the extra space between carriages will be most welcome.

The dates for the introduction of the new stock is currently scheduled at 2021 and the full fleet in service by 2023.

This will the the same train stock that will be introduced on the Bakerloo and Central lines at the time of their upgrades. This also sees the 1972 stock stay in service on the Bakerloo Line until at least 2030.

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Inside Story: London Midland.

London Midland Operate the Train Services in the Birmingham Area with Local services along the West Coast Main line as far as Crewe and Liverpool Lime St.

The stock that they use mostly consists of class 350s on the main electrified route such as the west coast main line also there are a few class 321s around working the St Albans Abbey  . Class 323s for local services in the Birmingham area. Class 172s for the Birmingham snow hill lines. With class 170s, class 153s and class 150s for all of the other non electrified local routes.

Last year London Midland increased the speed of their class 350/1s to 110 mph and now have reduced the journey time between London Euston and Crewe.

London Midland also is scheduled to get 10 Class 350/4 and 20 Class 350/3 of which 10 Class 350/4 are to be leased to First Transpennine Express for services from Manchester to Glasgow / Edinburgh. The rest of the units will be used to boost capacity on the London Euston to Crewe and Birmingham New St.

The next Inside story will be Eurostar.

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Changes to the UK Rail Blog.

There have been a few changes to the UK Rail Blog in that there is a new set of Adverts on the side of the Page and below the last post. There is also a new Post scheduling system for the UK Rail Blog. Twitter has now turned to HootSuite which enables tweets to be Scheduled to match the time that the post on the Blog is posted.

The UK Rail Blog also now has a Facebook Page which you can like. News on new posts will also be post here and will also be scheduled.

https://www.facebook.com/ukrailblog

Thank you for your continued support.

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Inside Story: Greater Anglia.

Greater Anglia is the Train Operating Company that operates the Anglian main lines and the Stansted Express franchise. The franchise operates the 2 Main lines out of London Liverpool St to Stansted Airport and to Norwich. The Franchise also includes the branch lines off of the main lines to such as Southend Victoria, Braintree, Colchester Town and Enfield town. (There are also more.).  

The train stock consists of class 321’s for services on the East Anglia Main line and other branches from this, For example Southend Victoria, Clacton on Sea and Manningtree. There is also Class 360’s which operate on the longer distance routes covered by the Class 321’s such as Ipswich. Class 90’s with Mk 3 Coaches which operate on services to Norwich. Class 315’s operate on the Shenfield Metro and some West anglia Main line services. Class 317 and Class 319’s operate to Enfield town and Cambridge. Finally the Class 379’s operate on the Stansted Express, Which is part of the Greater Anglia Franchise.

The current Anglian Main lines have speed limits of 100 mph however this is being increased to 110 mph in some places.

The next weeks Inside Story will be London Midland.

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Inside Story: First Great Western.

First Great Western are the Train Operating Company which operates train services for London to the South West of England and South Wales. The company is a part of the Big Transportation company First (Who Currently hold the franchise.)  

First Great Western's fleet of trains include InterCity 125’s (Class 43 Power Car at on end and BR Mk 3 Carriages between. ) These are known as High Speed Trains or HST’s. These trains normally consist of 10 carriages of which 8 are passenger carriages and they operate on services to Oxford, Bristol Temple Meads, Hereford, Penzance and Swansea from London Paddington. Other Trains in the First Great Western Fleet are Class 166 / 165 units which operate services out of London Paddington to the Thames valley area and the North Cotswold's these trains are normally formed of 2-3 Carriages. First Great western also have 5 Class 180’s which operate services from London Paddington to Worcester Fore-gate St, these trains are normally formed of 5 carriages. Class 158’s are used on First Great Western's longer distance services in the south west of England. These are Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central, Brighton to Great Malvern and Weymouth to Gloucester / Bristol Temple Meads. Other trains are used on the local services in the Bristol and Devon area. These are class 150’s, Class 153’s Class 143’s and Class 158’s. These could be formed of 1-2 or 3 Carriages.

The Main line that First Great Western operate on is the Great Western Main Line which is one of the lines currently being electrified with a 25 Kv Overhead Wire system, This will result in a new fleet of trains with are electrically powered and are capable of faster journey times between stations.

The current Franchise for First to run the Great Western Franchise was up at the start of 2013 and talks between the Department for Transport and First are currently ongoing however the franchise will be up for renewal at the end of 2016.

Next Weeks Inside story will be on Greater Anglia.

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Power sockets on trains.

The area that I am from trains have got power sockets below the seat in front of you. The trains are 40 years old and have been last refurbished about 10 years ago however trains that are less than 5 years old are not able to provide a power socket for a whole carriage. It is very frustrating for some people who are completing something and cannot charge their device. Personally I am going to be completing a challenge (See last post Yesterday.)  and would like to film it so I can show I did it and how it was. This is going to be a challenge for me just to keep charge in the camcorder let alone the challenge itself.

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First Great Western Charity fundraising challenge.

The author of this blog, (Tom Bennett) is undertaking a charity fundraising challenge to visit all 16 terminus stations for the Train operating company, First Great Western. The challenge is to raise money for the Railway Childrens charity, Who help children across the globe who live on the streets.

The challenge is timetabled to 42 hours from 06:00 on the 8th August 2013, however if there is major disruption then the time it will take will increase.

All of the money raised goes to the Railway Childrens Charity and you can donate on the link here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/FGWTerminusChallenge

Thank you

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Inside Feature story : DOR.

Over the next few weeks I am going to be creating a post on each of the train operating companies in the UK. Each of these posts will be on a Monday.

Directory Operated Railway is an emergency company that can operate trains. Directly Operated Railways  has been called into use once at the moment and that is to operate the East Coast Main line franchise from when National Express East Coast pulled out of the Franchise in November 2009. Directly Operated Railway is public funded and therefore any profit / Loss is picked up from the Department For Transport.  

Directly Operated Railway have to apply for a permit to operate a train service and this happens 16 weeks before the end of the talks better the current operator and the Department for Transport. Directly Operated Railway will only step in if the train service will not run.

Directly Operated Railways change the way the service is run only when there is an absolute need for it, The train stock will also be delivered into a White livery with branding so it would be easy for a new franchise to take over.

There is a number of calls from MP’s for Directly Operated Railways to be able to make bids for franchises to bring them a robust, Achievable bid so that objectives can be made and money can be made. It will also bring some more accurate predictions as to passenger growth.

Currently the Directly Operated Railway Company is mobilising to take over the Great Western Franchise and currently operate the East Coast Main Line franchise.

Next Weeks Inside Story will be on First Great Western.

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New Trains for the Great Western Franchise for Local use out of London.

The current plan for the Department for Transport is once the Great Western Main Line to Oxford is Electrified is to operate the trains which have been cascaded from the Thameslink services onto services to Oxford and Reading. These would therefore be formed of Class 314’s (Which are as old as the class 166/165 are!). This would mean the same amount of breakdowns and the same shabby looking stock. Personally I would like to see First Group or whoever inherits the Franchise, to Purchase / Lease and new fleet of trains. Similar to what South West trains have done with the class 450 / 444 and London Midland with the Class 350 and Southern have done with the Class 377.

I (And a number of others) would like a new reliable set of trains to work the Great Western Main Line and make it something the passengers can be proud of.

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Train Advertising.

In the light of the East Coast Intercity 225 set being vinyled into a James Bond (007) livery, to promote the new James Bond film Skyfall. First Great Western has vinyled 2 of there power cars into a white livery with advertising for the new HP tablet. This has not only sparked people to complain about them but for enthusiasts to go looking for them. The current power cars in this livery are 43186 (Former Diamond Jubilee livery) and 43141.

I personally feel that the advertising is good for the industry with reducing ticket prices for customers whilst keeping the same level of service.

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Depots on the Great Western Main Line for the IEP (Intercity Express Program).

The new depot designs have been published in the last few days as to what the depots will look like when the new IEP project and the Great Western Main Line electrification project. The new depots will be at North Pole depot ( Former Eurostar Depot.) , Bristol Depot (In the triangle of Patchway - Bristol Parkway - Filton Abbey Wood.) And at Swansea.  

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