Thursday 31 May 2018

Baffling bi-modes.

Electrification; it's good for the environment and good for train operators and passengers, but it's a very slow, expensive process. Back in the 1960s when the west coast main line was being electrified northwards from Euston, electric locomotives would haul the train as far as Crewe, and later Preston, where a class 50 diesel would take over to pull the train along the yet-to-be electrified sections onward to Glasgow. Once the wires were up all the way to Glasgow in 1974, the class 50s were reallocated to the western region. However, swapping locos is a time consuming business. What if an electric loco could carry its own diesel engine for the bits of track with no electricity supply? The southern region's solution was the class 73 electro-diesel. On the 3rd rail electrified network it worked as an electric locomotive, but where the 3rd rails ended it had a diesel engine to power it. Fast forward to the 21st century and a new breed of electro-diesel locomotive has been introduced: the class 88. It can work off the 25kv overhead wires, or use an on-board diesel generator on non-electrified railways. It could potentially be used with the Mk5 "Nova 3" loco-hauled sets being procured by Transpennine Express, although these will be hauled by conventional class 68 diesel locos initially.
A different solution is offered by the Class 800 IEP train, which is essentially a DEMU fitted with a pantograph. These are intended to replace Intercity 125 high-speed trains. However the Class 800 units are far shorter, coming in either 5 or 9-car sets. Given the inadequacy of 5-car Class 221 Voyager trains on Intercity routes, one wonders why any TOC would bother with a 5-car class 800? But I digress...
A more unconventional electro-diesel comes in the form of the Class 755  train for the Greater Anglia franchise. This is almost the opposite of the class 800, being built primarily as a conventional EMU, but with a separate power car containing four diesel generators. To convert the train from electro-diesel to straight electric, it is simply a matter of removing the power car from the train. As electrification spreads and the need for electro-diesels is reduced, this seems like a good way of keeping a train in service for longer. A class 800 would require considerable time in the workshop to remove all of its diesel engines.

Saturday 19 May 2018

It's time to give up on franchising.

Once again, the East Coast Main Line franchise has failed leading the government to take back the route and hand it to to a nationalised "operator of last resort". Last time it was National Express East Coast who couldn't afford the premium payments they had agreed to. This time it's Virgin Trains East Coast. Exactly the same problem, exactly the same result.This time, instead of branding the line "East Coast", the nationalised franchise will be called "LNER", to perhaps evoke the good old days of the pre-nationalised operator. Back then of course, LNER owned all the track, designed, built and ran all their own trains without the government specifying their services. Franchising is a different kettle of fish. Tracks are owned by public sector Network Rail, trains are leased from ROSCOs, and the new IEP trains that will replace BR-era rolling stock on the route is being specified by the Department for Transport. The franchisee is merely there to sell tickets and provide customer service. Which makes privatisation a joke. In any other business (including on the railways before 1948), a private company raises capital and invests it in making and/or selling goods/services. They have total freedom to specify the design of their product, the level of service they provide and the price they can charge. On the railways, the franchisee bids to run a service. They tell the government how much they will pay back to the treasury (or how little subsidy they want in the case of loss-making services) and the DfT picks the highest bidder. Services are tightly specified by the government, taking all decision making out of the hands of the franchisee. The flaw is, if the company overbids (as was the case on the East Coast route) they can run out of money and then have to pull out leaving the government to pick up the pieces. The trains must still run even if the franchise fails. All for the illusion of private enterprise. It's a farce. It would be far simpler to go back to British Rail. Have the whole network run by the public sector. Profits go back into the railways instead of the pockets of private shareholders. The service remains the same. The need for re-branding every few years is eliminated. The need for rewriting contracts every few years is eliminated. Money is saved by getting rid of a pointless and expensive bidding process. The taxpayer wins, railway employees win, passengers win.