CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
"Edinburgh-Glasgow rail link faces three-year delay"
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Posted 6 years ago #
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It takes a very long time to add capacity to railways. The maximum number of trains per hour is defined on the day you design the layout and the more you ride up to this line the less reliable your timekeeping becomes. That's where we are at today in Princes St Gardens.
In an alternative universe where too much capacity exists, Lothians Tory MSP Gordon Lindhurst would be complaining about excessive wastage in the railways.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Going through station today I noted a train at a new platform 'suddenly' appeared at Waverley. This turns out to be an extension of platform 12 which brings it to bottom of ramp.
Been other work as noted.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Between now and the end of summer the big dig now begins to do the same to extend the two stubby sidings next to Platform 7 up to the footbridge
These become platforms 5 + 6 and will be the main home for east coast trains to London.
Posted 6 years ago # -
“
Meanwhile Reform Scotland said: “There needs to be a realisation that simply bringing ScotRail into public ownership would not make the trains run on time.” The think tank said “the majority of delays on ScotRail trains are attributed to Network Rail, whether as a result of operations, infrastructure or other external issues”, adding this meant 54 per cent of delays to ScotRail trains in the year to 11 November were “as a result of a body already within the public sector”.
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Posted 6 years ago # -
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The trains will have more carriages and be able to accelerate faster than the existing diesel trains, providing more seats and cutting journey times between Scotland’s two largest cities by ten minutes to 42 minutes by the end of 2018.
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Selected history -
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The ScR tested several permutations of stops and set 42 min for Haymarket only; 49 min Haymarket, Linlithgow, Lenzie; 50 min Haymarket, Falkirk Grahamston; 62.5 min Haymarket, Linlithgow, Polmont, Falkirk Grahamston, Croy, Lenzie; and 58 min Haymarket, Linlithgow, Polmont, Falkirk High, Croy, Lenzie; returning in 41.5, 49, 49.5, 62, and 57 min. It is important to note these test runs were to acquire timing data only - not to prove push-pull working.
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http://www.6lda28.com/shove.html
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A revised timetable with a train every 15 minutes was introduced, with more stops added to offer improved travel options. Journey times are typically 50 minutes with three stops, which cannot be said to represent a superior performance to that of the hard-pressed ‘27s’ of 45 years ago. However, the power train of the modern DMU is much better suited to the traction load cycling involved in running the service.
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https://www.railmagazine.com/news/rail-features/scottish-diesel-s-rise-and-fall?p=2
Posted 6 years ago # -
Person hit by train at kingsknowe trains were cancelled
Posted 6 years ago # -
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A partially constructed building that forms part of Scotland’s biggest rail project faces being torn down in an extraordinary 11th-hour Scottish Government rethink.
Sources have estimated the cost of the U-turn at Queen Street Station in Glasgow at between £3 million and £15m.
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Posted 6 years ago # -
Posted 6 years ago #
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I seen that at the haymarket yard on Sunday when I was passing on the tram. Looks better than the vt livery, it's a funny looking thing, almost more loco than carriage.
Edit; actually looks like the one in the yard was in the livery of the previous operator. Still looked better than vt.
Posted 6 years ago # -
One of those has been parked up in the sidings at Dundee station for the past few weeks. Two locos, four carriages - one contains buffet car and first class (yellow stripe at roof boundary).
Have to admit I was wondering just how many additional seats that set up would create compared to Turbostar three-car DMUs. Must be a few more, depending on how they are laid out internally. First class will be noticeably better, I should think. Nice to have a proper buffet car too rather than trolley.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Veering back to the Class 385s, here's a recent review from an engineer on one of the mileage accumulation runs:
https://www.railengineer.uk/2018/02/07/on-board-scotrails-new-class-385/
"The 1 in 41 gradient up Glasgow Queen Street tunnel is one of the steepest on the network. Going up the tunnel, the driver had to throttle back once the unit reached the tunnel’s 50 mph speed limit. After the tunnel, the unit continued this climb at the permitted speed of 60 mph, again not at full power. At full throttle, the Class 170 DMUs can only climb this gradient at around 40 mph."
Posted 6 years ago # -
"
Passengers on ScotRail’s busiest rail route face major overcrowding because some of its busiest trains are to lose half their carriages, The Scotsman has learned. The late arrival of a new fleet on the main Edinburgh-Glasgow line will leave the operator short because the lease on four of its current trains expires in weeks.
ScotRail is so concerned at potential overcrowding that it will slash fares on another route between the cities by nearly half in an attempt to persuade commuters to switch.
The firm said it expected up to 12 trains a day to run with fewer carriages than normal from Monday, 26 February to 20 May.
"
Posted 6 years ago # -
Fiascos like this just go to show that the way the railways were privatised remains an utter shambles. Presumable these class 170 units were due to "cascade" somewhere else (Northern Rail?) but if Scotrail actually owned the rolling stock rather than a leasing company, such cock ups would be less likely.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@cb, in an issue of RAIL magazine a year or two ago they had a great in-depth piece about Beattock and Shap, and the speeding up of rolling stock from steam to diesel to electrics. They made the same point, that the 390s, and the 87s before them, have so much power to bring to bear on the gradients that they are having to brake up the hill.
I don't buy the magazine very often because it's £6 or something now.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I saw one of the new HSTs on the Fife line this morning. They look good in their new livery despite there being no attempt to hide where they came from:
They are a lot quieter than the big diesels which they were using previously for that service.
I do wonder how much benefit they give for the Fife line though when a 6 car train ends up being only 3.5 carriages after you remove 2 engines and half a buffet car.
They have also changed all the platform stopping signs to include the HSTs although seem to have forgotten to include 2 car stopping points.
Posted 6 years ago # -
"seem to have forgotten to include 2 car stopping points."
Perhaps the class 158s will finally be got rid of? We can but hope...
Posted 6 years ago # -
They are a lot quieter than the big diesels which they were using previously for that service.
I think I'll miss them when they're gone. My wife thought it was an aircraft one morning.
Posted 6 years ago # -
The big diesel called Valiant was still running the clockwise route this evening.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Does anyone else believe this?
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Ministers have said in the past the line is so important that cutting a minute off the journey would boost the economy by £60 million.
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Posted 6 years ago # -
A minute could be saved by taking the barriers out, or taking some of those shops out that impede the pedestrian flow, or for some putting the taxi rank back in. The station has turned in to a bit of an airport with many shops, barriers, and artificially created congestion (of people).
Posted 6 years ago # -
chdot - odd then that the Final Business Case for EGIP shows that Phase 1 (4 electric trains per hour, and now all that is now likely to be delivered) has a cost benefit ratio of 0.7, or 0.8 if you include "wider economic benefits". This means the project costs more to build than the economic benefits it provides - somewhere between £128m and £231m.
These figures are based on EGIP costing £742m - it is now way over budget, meaning the economic benefits are probably even worse than predicted.
Not sure where the £60m figure comes from - but it would not seem to be applicable to the actual EGIP project.
Details: https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/33804/egip-fbc_-publically-available-version_27012014.pdf
Posted 6 years ago # -
“Not sure where the £60m figure comes from”
Thin air?
The same place as ‘this development will create x,000 jobs and add £yM to the economy’ (ignoring the disbenefits and job losses elsewhere).
Posted 6 years ago # -
“
Mind the Gap: Are Scotland's Trains Fit for the 21st Century
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09t08b0
Next Monday.
Trailer says “there isn’t a spare diesel train in the whole of the UK”.
(So this -
https://twitter.com/profscottthinks/status/964388086380548099
is just party politicking.)
Posted 6 years ago # -
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Mind the Gap: Are Scotland's Trains Fit for the 21st Century is on BBC One Scotland at 19:30 on Monday 26 February.
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Posted 6 years ago # -
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Three Class 365s have been leased by ScotRail, with more to follow. They will be used on an interim basis on the Edinburgh-Glasgow Queen Street via Falkirk High route while windscreen modifications are made to Class 385s.
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https://www.railmagazine.com/news/network/scotrail-hires-in-class-365s-for-glasgow-edinburgh-route
Posted 5 years ago # -
Word also that the HST work on Scotrail sets will not be ready in time. Options here could be to run the services with non-improved trains retired from GWR.
365's conveniently have 100mph capability but possibly reduced acceleration & slower doors. 4 coach units, might have limited choice of platforms at GLQ (7, 6 & 2?)
Posted 5 years ago # -
Posted 5 years ago #
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