More talk of new UK lines
Yet more talk about planning new high-speed rail lines in the UK. Why don’t they stop talking and build, the 2012 Olympics are getting closer and the UK needs to benefit from this, not just London…
Rail bosses are to look at the possibility of building five new high-speed main lines as part of a review of the network’s future, Network Rail said.
Network Rail said it was to commission a study which would look into the feasibility of new lines along the UK’s busiest routes in what would amount to the largest track build since the 19th century.
The review, which will be announced on Monday, will also assess the need for high speed trains similar to the French TGV to cope with Britain’s growing number of rail users.
Question is: will they really bring TGV to UK or just look at France and say “That’s nice”. One thing that did strike me looking at the BBC article is that the routes are primarily focused on connecting the rest of the UK with London with little thought put in to cross-country routes - say linking Edinburgh and Glasgow, even going North in Scotland, or even connecting Birmingham with Bristol as an easier way of going North-South. This is one of those issues in France, you need to travel to Paris if you want TGV from the South West to South East Bordeuax to Marseille; whilst this is being rectified, someone else has made this “mistake” so maybe the UK should learn. Then again it is the feasibility of doing such cross country routes, are they actually used.
High speed rail can boost economies (?)
My guess is that this is a way to convince governments to build high-speed rail networks, talk in terms they understand on the basis that they are vote winners. Think of the political mud that can be slung if you refuse to invest in regions in order to safe-guard the future.
The engineering firm Atkins published a report that suggests a huge overall gain can be achieved by building a high-speed network all over the UK. One quote that caught my attention is this from Network Rail...
‘The challenge is to look at the developing and changing demographics, and demand along particular corridors, and see what fits best. High-speed travel is likely to be one of a multitude of ultimate solutions. As we develop our plans to build a bigger, better railway over the next few years, we will look at this in more detail.’
In other words we don’t like the idea of non-government organizations putting there nose where it is not welcome. Its back to using helicopters again then.
Shifting to Rail?
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, in the UK, is urging a substantial shift to using rail as the major form of transport in the UK.
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) says changes are needed to government policies on transport pricing, energy and town planning. A train journey can produce about one tenth of the carbon emissions generated if the same trip is made by air. The report’s authors say substantial investment in the railways is needed.
As with anything from the UK and railways, we will have to wait a long time to see.
High-speed UK
Looks like the head of the Railway network in the UK has told the government that they need to spend 50billion GBP for a high speed rail network prior to 2020. I bet he really had to stop himself from saying that if they weren’t such a bunch of useless oafs the UK would already have such a network and they would not need to spend so much money. But then he could be lucky and some of the network he proposes is actually realised. However, the UK government is not the best when it comes to this kind of future planning…
[The head of UK's rail network] will commission a detailed study soon into possible routes for a network that is likely to cost more than £50 billion to complete. Network Rail has decided to take a lead after becoming frustrated by the Department for Transport’s lack of progress on the issue of high-speed rail.
Good luck.
HST replacement project
Its been around for 30 years and now the rail authority in the UK feels its time to replace them. The first thought the came to mind is how many will be fully preserved - can’t see too many preserved railway groups running a full HST down the line but you never know.
The requirements are interesting. The new units need to be configurable for use on overhead power lines, self-powered (diesel) and a combination of both. The new units should be available for use by 2014 - from the tender being offered to first prototypes being trialed the time line is around four years!
I agree with the caption of this photo that it is still one of the UK’s finest trains in the UK (also used in Australia). Its sad to think that the bidders for the project are not British, but then the UK has all but killed off its rail manufacturing comapnies so there is not other choice. It will be interesting to see who will win the tender and what the new units will look like, more so to see how long they will last.
Waterloo…
No, not a attempt to cover the early ABBA hit but rather the end of an era. Whilst St Pancras has had all the attention and fanfare marking its glorious return to magnificence and the start of the UK journey to high-speed rail, Waterloo station is now winding down its International links. Its easy to overlook the station and its place in history but at least it will have a place in history books (at least Railway ones).
The dawn of a new age
Its more of a hope than anything else. Tomorrow (06 Nov 2007) sees the opening of the reconstructed St Pancras station in London. Not only being the home to the UK International rail terminal, it will be the home to the first true high-speed rail line in the UK and the station itself will aim to be a focal point in London, a place to meet and eat. In 2009 the station will also be the terminal for the UK’s first domestic high-speed route. It is this specific aspect that is hoped will herald the dawn of a new age, a high-speed revolution.
This hope is shared by Chris Green, the Railway Forum chairman who told the BBC…
“HS1 is really a trailer for what we could be enjoying across the length of Britain,” says Chris Green, Railway Forum chairman. “It is the best way to get more long distance transport capacity and get the UK economy into better balance by bringing the North and South closer together.”
Having a working example, real-life anecdotes and some sort of positive press could provide a “viral” extension of the high-speed network. Even just concentrating on a few parallel routes to compliment existing ones (North West and North East to Scotland and West to Wales) would make a difference. Imagine being able to see that travellers going from Kent to London taking half the time to make a journey, in incomparable comfort, that the rest of the UK takes almost twice as long to make. At some point people will start asking questions as why they can’t have the same and why its only the South of England that has this type of thing. At least this is the hope, and it makes sense.
I would not be convinced that the UK needs anything more than three further high-speed routes that take in a huge swathe of the population, with perhaps an additional route between Edinburgh and Glasgow. One step at a time, but at least this appears to be a step in the right direction.
- BBC News
- St Pancras
- Daily Telegraph - Bullet Trains in UK
- The Times - Building Railways
**Update**
The opening of St Pancras: The Times (06 Nov 2007); Der Spiegel (in English)
First outing for faster Eurostar
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** Update ** Well, it looks like they did it, according to the BBC or an alternative view from The Guardian which interestingly mentions the “Two hour club” - those destinations within two hours (or so) from Paris. One point they do miss is that fact that the line will also be used by domestic services, so it will not just be a EuroStar, London->Paris/Brussels line.
The BBC, however, does have a more in depth look at the new route and what it is all about. Finally, there is the concept of High-speed rail in the UK, and the name of the route - high-speed one - does imply that they want to have more (I hope). Given that Germany only has two, true high-speed lines going at 300km/h, it puts the UK in a misleading light of almost being up with the best. It puts the UK still on the lower rung of the ladder, but at least on that ladder of countries with high-speed rail.
High-speed railways arrive in UK
Class 395, High-speed railways arrive in UK.
The new fleet of 29 Hitachi Class 395 trains will be able to accelerate rapidly to 140mph, slashing the current journey times from Kent into London St Pancras. For example, London to Ashford will be reduced from 83 minutes to 36.5 minutes. The trains are currently in the design stage, but the first four models will arrive for testing this year. The remainder will be delivered in 2009.
Related stories:
Upgrades
The UK is getting a railway upgrade, or at least its getting a plan and probably followed by an upgrade. Highlights include:
- 1300 new carriages (300 more than previously announced)
- Improved stations at Birmingham New Street and Reading (it needs it)
- London Thameslink (North-South)
- London Cross-rail (East-West)
- Platform extensions
- Longer trains
- Possibility of re-opening disused lines
No mention of high-speed (TGV style) routes in and out of London or anything else. The hope is this is the first step of many
