Welcome to Reconnections’ Friday Reads.
-
- • Stripping GTR of its franchise not a viable threat (LRTwitter)
- • Central line heatwave (Wired)
- • Do Londoners dream of electric buses? (IanVisits)
- • Dunbar number for places is 25 (UniversityofLondon)
- • Recall for new Bombardier streetcars to fix welding defect (TorontoStar)
- • America’s love of SUVs is killing pedestrians (DetroitFreePress via TheOverheadWire)
- • Rich train buffs hitching their railcars to Amtrak trains (Wall Street Journal)
- • San Diego opens first new trolley station in years (ProgressiveRailroading)
- • Bus driving & operating experience simulator (CityLab)
- • Numtots: millennials who find fixing public transport sexy (Guardian)
Check out some of our most popular articles:
And some of our other sections:
If you have something you feel we should read or include in a future list, email us at [email protected].
Reconnections is funded largely by its community. Like what we do? Then help us to do more.
As a NUMTOT, I approve of that article’s inclusion in this week’s reads.
It is absolutely amazing that something as basic as welding should be got wrong in today’s industrial world. This indicates a fundamental failure to transfer basic process control from the European factory to the Mexican one and or failure to manage the process.
I recall from my days involved with projects that change control risk was assessed on a changes of design, which one would expect, and on changes or process and on changes of location where the work was performed. I well recall sending trains away for current modification work, one trains a week to each of two UK plants operated by the same supplier. That supplier seemed rather surprised that I expected work to be carried out to the same design and same quality on both sites. The supplier complied but it took a lot of effort. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was!
Londoners do, indeed dream of electric buses – there are even several still in existence, & well I remember riding on them.
Bring back the: 557 / 657 / 699 / 623 / 625 / 555 / 581 (!)
The “Private Railroad Car” article really boggles the brain-cells. I assume all proper safety certification is in place?
( Did like the 50’s/ArtDeco interior of the Budd car, though )
My impression of the Numtots article (never heard that expression until today) was “it’s English, Jim, but not as we know it”!
Ian Visits says that the new garage is London’s first all electric bus depot. Not so, the famous electrobus had an all electric garage in Victoria before the first world war.
The Waterloo bus depot is also the home of the rather good Bus Cafe – a traditional works cafe open to the general public.
If you have £3.50 and a big appetite, there’s no better place on zone 1 for you to be.
The article states that the Central Line is over 10 degrees warmer now than when it was built. Will the line get hotter and hotter over time?
JBD
Assuming power supplies are more robust & can take feedback current from regen-braking, then no.
We should be close to “peak heat” followed, we hope, by a very gradual decline as power is fed-back into the system, rather than dissipated as heat ….
@JBD, @GT
Even without technological changes, the line will not just get hotter and hotter but rather asymptote towards an equilibrium temperature. This is because although the clay, etc. surrounding the stations & tunnels is a good insulator, it is not a perfect one (nothing is) so some heat does escape. As the temperature on the line increases, the amount of heat dissipated through the clay, etc. will increases until a balance is reached.
Of course, this could take a very long time!
TfL knows that the Central line is too hot, but it’s a big challenge to do anything about it. The replacement traction packages on the existing trains will help a little as they will be a bit more efficient than the existing systems and the regenerative brake will be a little more effective. I suspect that works to extract more heat from the system will end up being done as part of enabling works for the new air conditioned trains – some years away – and as spot schemes for particularly hot stations. Shortage of funds (not re-rehearsing reasons for this) will, not doubt prevent faster progress.
Later this year, and in 2019, passenger numbers on the central core of the Central line will fall due to the Elizabeth line opening.
By the way, I suspect the ventilation systems on the main core of the Elizabeth line are getting on for the same capacity as those on the whole of the LU tube network put together!
Greg Tingey / Stewart,
Obviously there is an upper limit to the temperature rise on the Central Line, but how hot is this limit? Does anyone have any idea? Another 10-15 degrees in 100 years would surely force the line to close.
If you read the article, it is clear that simply extrapolating past rises in temperature is not the way to go. Expedients already exist to increase the amount of cooling going on, and they are described in the article. Mind, they are expensive.
The limit to the rise in temperature is nothing to do with the physics. It is all to do with the economics of putting in more cooling and/or improving trains to generate less heat. And with the politics of subjecting passengers to discomfort and risk of harm. These factors will interact, I predict, to keep the temperature in the region perceived as “somewhat uncomfortable but not (very) dangerous”.
I hope they run the ventilation systems at night when the ambient air is colder so that cooling is more effective and electricity is cheaper, and not just during the day for the benefit of passengers. Does anyone know the operating regime?
RogerB…..the Central line ventilation system is minimal except for the piston in tube system which runs during traffic hours only…….I.e. the trains running through tunnels are an integral part of keeping air moving and getting fresh air into the system and warm air out.
Re: stripping GTR of franchise.
The assumption is always that this would be a punishment. But given that (a) Govia has suffered massive reputational damage* and (b) it was advised long ago that earnings would be less than expected, does the dynamic of the situation change if Govia itself takes the view that “being stripped” is preferable to keeping it?
*Poor choice of company name – I think I’m right in saying that before GTR Govia had never used its own name in the public-facing brands of its operations (e.g. Southeastern) or their legal names (e.g. London & South Eastern Railway Ltd), and there is a world of difference between on the one hand a footnote about ownership in a media report and on the other almost every reference including the group’s name. OK, technically GTR isn’t a public-facing brand, but I still think it that Govia would be less in the firing line if it had been called, say, TSGN Ltd. Some of course may consider this transparency to be a good thing!
Malcolm:
Actually the article explained that because cooling isn’t designed in as built it is very hard to cool the Central Line, and that the line had heated up considerably since it has been built. The heat energy has nowhere to go, and at the moment much of it remains in the tunnels. That isn’t an easy problem to solve, even with large amounts of money.
So the question I am asking: “Could the Central Line become so hot it is forced to close” is not a foolish question. Alternatively, if you want to ask it this way, is: “how much would it cost to stop it heating up” and “what would you have to do”? Would any solution be practical?
@Balthazar: See question 1.7 of the Passport Pre-Qualification Questionnaire for rail franchise bidders:
If:
The Applicant has shown significant or persistent
deficiencies in the performance of a substantive requirement under:
(i) any passenger transport contract or operation in which the Applicant has been engaged within the last three years and which has an annual revenue of at least £40million…
which led to early termination of that prior contract
then that can be grounds for refusing a passport, which would prevent Govia from being awarded any future franchise. Although whether the DfT would want to reduce the dwindling pool of franchise bidders still further is another question.
Ian J
This raises the comparison with other European countries, where franchising & open competition seem/appear to work.
But, then, those countries still have “state” railway systems as well as “open-access” competitors – & it usually seems to work.
[ Except, possibly, Fance, where the situation is almost the exact opposite of here.
Here: NO “nationalised” railways is allowed for doctrinaire “reasons”.
France: To all intents & purposes, no open-access allowed, because of SNCF’s death-grip. ]
John Bull’s Dog: Sorry if I gave the impression that I thought your question was a foolish one. I didn’t. But I like your reformulation of the question. Unfortunately, I have no idea of the answer about cost and practicality. The fact that partial solutions exist and have been implemented, however, may be a small pointer, especially as the effect of these can perhaps be measured and evaluated.
Re Ian J,
Potential Implications for Stagecoach there as well…
Refusing a passport could lead to legal action again DfT forcing lots of material into the open which DfT probably doesn’t want.
Re: GT – I believe that most French urban transport is concessioned out, while here in the UK the West Midlands Metro has recently been municipalised…
@ Greg – I fear your view is a tad simplistic. Yes some countries manage to have contracted rail operations and also open access. It’s a very mixed bag really. Some open access has seemingly worked well but only because the new entrants have deep pockets, in some cases like NTV in Italy *very* deep pockets. Some open access in Germany has failed and failed quickly. There has been some extremely dubious activity in the Netherlands over the conduct of some senior managers in, I think, Abellio (part of Nederland Spoorwegen). It is also worth noting for the record that SNCF is a borderline basket case in terms of financial efficiency, freight operation and the provision of anything other than TGV. We’ll skip over the hundreds of miles of neglected tracks, speed restrictions, replacement of trains by buses on non core lines, shambolic performance on Paris RER lines etc etc. Germany’s DB has had a torrid few years with calamatous “commercial” adventures, an utter mess with Berlin’s S Bahn system and very poor timekeeping on the national network. All of that is just what has reached the UK railway press. I am sure that those really “in the know” in each country could give chapter and verse on what is wrong as well as what works well.
If we want to criticise the UK network then fair enough but making unfair or partial or limited comparisons with mainland Europe operators is not terribly sensible. It is why the endless parade of stupid television documentaries and “worthy” articles in the former broadsheet newspapers are not worth wasting any time on.
One day somebody will do some proper investigative journalism and produce a genuinely worthwhile comparison between UK and mainland European railways. Until then it’s good to consider the UK network, for all the apparent issues, has had years of consistent patronage growth as well as the best safety performance in Europe. Despite all the howls over rail fare levels people seem more than prepared to use trains which helps many of the TOCs “wash their face” financially. And, yes, that is a partial statement before anyone goes “yah boo you forgot the Network Rail block grant from the DfT”. Well I didn’t – I just phrased the comment very specifically. And, no, I have not received a “bung” from the Rail Delivery Group or been appointed as their London Reconnections Media Officer. 😛
WW
What’s gone wrong with the Berlin S-Bahn, then?
I missed that completely.
I was aware of the erm, “mixed fortunes” of separate rail-operations elsewhere in Germany … though I’m uncertain as to the financial structures that enable what (at first glance) appear to be “private” company trains, that actually turn out to be controlled &/or at least part-financed by “local authorities” – meaning the Länder, such as NRW – Nordrhein-Westfalen Bahn, which I’m familiar with.
@ Greg – the Berlin S Bahn problems were a few years ago. DB went into cost cutting overdrive which caused a collapse in rolling stock reliability and there were dreadful problems with new rolling stock. I believe the S Bahn services are a contracted operation and DB felt they were not making sufficient return. Of course their cost cutting plunged them into bigger problems and cost them even more money. When it was later announced that DB had not won some of the S Bahn contracts at a later retendering all sorts of heavy handed threats and challenges emerged. This is not the first time incumbent national railway operators have resorted to this tactic and it won’t be the last. It also appears that the curse of skip stopping has arrived on the S Bahn and that’s attracting some derisive media comment too.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/third-world-conditions-commuter-chaos-in-berlin-until-december-a-638049.html
The U Bhan is also suffering from unreliable rolling stock due to a lack of investment in new trains. BVG then decided to ignore EU procurement rules meaning Siemens challenged a decision to award a contract to Stadler.
https://www.thelocal.de/20171128/state-of-berlins-u-bahn-lines-has-hit-crisis-point
As a side issue Berlin has also had horrific problems with parts of its bus fleet – poor reliability, poor maintenance, high fuel costs. There are also maintenance and staffing issues on the tram network. Berliners have had a pretty torrid few years with their parts of their public transport network. It’s all a tad ironic given Berlin has a Green / Left city government dedicated to a “greener” city with less car use but the public transport operation is unable to cope with the growing number of users and rising public expectation. I’ve always liked using Berlin’s transport network but tourists rarely see all the “wrinkles” that residents experience.
A bit of exploring from the Wired article led me to this rather striking visualisation of Tube traffic levels from TfL’s passenger data: http://tubeheartbeat.com/london/ .
Apologies if it’s been mentioned before, but I didn’t recall seeing it covered.
WW
Oh, that … sorry, I thought you meant something more recent – though it was a serious screw-up whilst it lasted ….
Didn’t know about the skip-stop farrago though – I’ll have to watch out in September, then.
So: Thank you very much for the warning ….