Monday’s Friday Reads – 31 August 2020

On By In Accessibility, COVID, Electrification, Friday Reads, New York, Pedestrians, Tunnels

• Cities’ offices depend on vertical transport COVID maths problem (Wired)

• Wapping Tunnel reopening proposal for Liverpool (AnonW)

• Runaway Tube trains of (recent) yore (HydeParkNow)

• Blue Pullman HST charter to take to the rails in November (RailwayHerald)

• Scottish rail decarbonisation by 2035 plan unveiled (IntlRailJ)

• Only a quarter of NYC Subway stations accessible as upgrades bog down (Bloomberg)

• NYC Penn Station replacement Moynihan Train Hall at $1.6B & rising (RailwayAge)

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9 comments

  3. I remember the UK 2040 target for zero emissions, then NR had ending diesels by 2030.

    This ‘Scottish government has revealed its plan to decarbonise the nation’s passenger rail services by 2035’ also has zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, with interim target of 75% by 2030 and 90% by 2040.

    I gather there is a combination of some electrification, battery on shuttles, and hydrogen fuel cell for longer lower usage routes.

    Are these still just words or is there a funded strategic plan? These dates are getting closer.

  4. The Wapping Tunnel connection project is a really good idea – unfortunately, like similar ideas in Sussex ( & Kent ) it’s likely to be torpedoed by the absolutist puritans of the ORR. ( “Third Rail is Evil & must never be extended ) Which is a great pity.
    [ See also recent issues of “Modern Railways” on this subject ]

  5. I like the images in the New York City Moynihan Station, and believe that the article’s author’s take really lacks understanding of the importance of a great station environment on passengers using it, as well as the city in general.

    This article shows the majesty of the original Penn Station.

    This one shows the replacement Penn Station, underneath Madison Square Gardens hockey/basketball/concert stadium, in all its faded shopping mall at Christmas ambiance.

  6. The reality of most decarbonisation by (early date) plans by assorted public authorities is that they are, at best, zero-carbon-ready or zero-carbon-emission-at-point-of-final-consumption. They will be zero carbon, to a realistic understanding, only when the electricity grid is fully decarbonised and zero carbon hydrogen or other fuels are widely available. The government’s stated objective is to deliver that by 2050. Every year or so, the Climate Change Commission says they are falling further behind, and publishes an ever more challenging plan to get there from the revised starting point.

  7. re Ivan – even 2050 is unrealistic from a systemic view and likely included at least three stalled nuclear projects.

    The political situation seems to indicate ‘something should be begun’ from 2030 onwards. There is already speculation about a reduction of the rail network size, Christian Wolmar has cautioned about the mothballing of diesel rural branches. Present operating subsidies have been extended through June 2021 but will there be continued willingness as the tax increases bite.

    The pollution issue is more pressing in built up areas than the remote branches and a city ban on diesel exhaust is more likely by 2030. Running electric where available is a start like the new GWR Gatwick fleet

    https://www.gwr.com/about-us/media-centre/news/2020/august/gwr-receives-the-uks-first-tri-mode-train

  8. Network Rail system operator managing director Paul McMahon makes priorities clear, saying: ‘Ultimately, diesel cannot play any part in a zero-carbon railway.’

    In June 2019 the UK Government set out a legislative target to achieve ‘net zero’ greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
    The Department for Transport asked the rail industry to explore whether it would be possible to remove all diesel-only trains from the network by 2040 in England and Wales.
    The Scottish Government also set a target to decarbonise domestic services by 2035.

    Network Rail in collaboration with the rail industry have published the Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy, the best way includes a long-term, stable and efficient programme of electrification which will last for at least thirty years with the last diesel trains withdrawn or converted to other forms of traction.

    A key recommendation is that ‘from now on, diesel-only trains should only be bought where there are clear strategic and economic reasons for doing so. Where this is necessary, only trains where the possibility exists in future to replace the diesel engines with a zero-carbon alternative should be chosen’, future traction sources are more conventional electrification, batteries or hydrogen fuel cells.

    There are 15,400 single track kilometres on Network Rail’s infrastructure which have not been electrified. 11,700 single track kilometres are candidates for electrification, while 400 STKs will be used by battery trains and 900 more by hydrogen units. How 2,300 STKs will be operated is not yet decided, because at the moment there is ‘no clear technical choice’.

    Note these plans require the reinstatement of previously cancelled electrifications like the Midland Main Line and East West rail.

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