TRACK TECHNOLOGY
or a lifting of the 60mph PSR, Bradberry said – they are simply about ensuring current levels of service can be maintained rather than reduced.
He said: “It’s about maintaining services, improving ride quality and making sure we can keep the frequencies we currently operate, so when Derry-Londonderry is the City of Culture, we’ve got a reason- able service to offer.”
However, a second phase of the works in 2014-15, involving resignalling and the construction of a new passing loop, will allow a higher line speed and potentially an hourly rather than two-hourly service on the line.
£20m has been committed in 2014-15 for those works, which will be completed in 2015.
Smoother ride The end for jointed rail
However, one benefit that passen- gers will notice much sooner is the ride quality, because of the switch from jointed rail to CWR.
Bradberry, who has worked in rail for 26 years, nine of them with Translink, has seen for himself the
Bradberry said: “Ride quality on the line is going to improve tremendously. It’s
a similar
process to the re-railing and welding up between Ballymena and Coleraine a couple of years ago: that’s held up well and the ride quality is so much better. It’s like chalk and cheese compared to what it was like on jointed track.”
As reported in RTM’s special fo- cus on rail in Northern Ireland and Ireland last year, the rail net- work is undergoing something of a renaissance, with passenger numbers up more than 60% since 2002, punctuality figures in the high 90s, new CAF-built Class 4000 rolling stock gradually re- placing the tired Class 80 and 450 stock, and the success of the Enterprise service between Belfast and Dublin following decades of underinvestment in that line.
results of all these improvements, and said the latest works are just “one more element in our overall plan to improve services”.
He added: “This work we’re cur- rently planning and some work on the Larne line will remove all the jointed track from the whole of the network, which helps bring the network quality up.
“With the replacement of the roll- ing stock, we are seeing further improvements in already-good re- liability figures.
“We’re not just getting the trains out and running a good network, but we managed to freeze fares last year, we’re introducing mobile phone ticketing this year, and that is all really helping
to
entice people out of their cars and onto the trains.”
Clive Bradberry
FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit
www.translink.co.uk
rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 12 | 45
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