Rolling stock
Steve Scrimshaw looks at some of Siemens Rail Systems’ recent and new projects
to another, almost as fast as birds can fly, 15 or 20 miles an hour.’ Today our railways have developed almost beyond recognition, but ultimately that initial aim of moving people from one place to another stands. The days of steam as a general mode of
I
transport may have been superseded by new technologies, improved efficiencies and greater comfort, but one of the biggest issues we face today – capacity and ever increasing passenger numbers - is probably as vast a challenge now as getting steam engines to travel at 20 miles an hour was back then. We’re in a phase of evolution in the UK
right now. As a country we are benefiting from significant investment in railway infrastructure and related projects… Crossrail, Thameslink, HS2, electrification - all of which are designed to address this very issue. But as an industry we are also duty-bound to look at how we can improve the way we do things for the benefit of all stakeholders: passengers, operators and manufacturers. And this doesn’t always mean procuring new trains, it means using existing assets smarter.
Best use of scarce capacity Take London Midland as an example. It operates some of the UK’s busiest rail routes, servicing 50 million passenger journeys a year. With passenger numbers ever-increasing, meeting growing capacity requirements is a real test without the introduction of expensive and time- consuming route upgrades. Ultimately the company needed to consider other options to make best use of scarce network capacity, reduce journey times and increase passenger satisfaction. And so Siemens Rail Systems entered into a collaborative, and very innovative, solution – Project 110.
Increasing the running speed of
existing trains from 100mph to 110mph – an industry first – seemed to provide a simple solution, but implementing the change was extremely complex. It’s not as easy as just pressing the accelerator a little harder like you do when driving your car. In the course of the project, more than 2,700 engineering hours were worked by Siemens engineers in the UK, Austria and Germany and 120 potential technical issues were worked through.
But the benefits speak for themselves. July/August 2013 Page 63
nventor Oliver Evans said (circa 1800): ‘The time will come when people will travel in stages moved by steam engines from one city
Significant time savings (up to 35 minutes per route) combined with increased capacity (3,000 more passengers carried on the route each week) have enabled London Midland to introduce an additional hourly service to operate out of London Euston on the West Coast Mainline. And now Siemens and London
Midland are working together to introduce the faster running speeds on longer trains. Eight car units have just received the necessary approvals, with 12 car units likely to begin operating at 110mph later this year. This is a great example of evolution rather than revolution.
Electrifying a depot The same phrase could be applied to the work we are carrying out at Ardwick (Manchester). Traditionally a diesel facility servicing TransPennine Express (TPE) fleets – which was expected to remain so for the remainder of its operational life - earlier this year work started to electrify part of the depot. This means TPE will be able to use the facility for its new fleet of ten electric Desiro Class 350/4 trains which will start to come into service at the end of this year. Operating between Manchester and
Scotland, the new trains will help to provide an 80 per cent increase in route capacity, while the existing fleet will be used to strengthen other services and make journeys faster across our network - 30 per cent more capacity for everyone. Additionally, TPE will benefit from
having its trains maintained at its existing facility. Costed at £5 million, the works go beyond the scope of the requirements of the Department for Transport thanks to additional investment by Siemens to provide future proofing and improve the operation of the depot. Works are set to be completed at
the end of July, well in advance of the September deadline when the depot needs to be fully operational for test running using a ‘borrowed’ Desiro Class 350/2 from London Midland. On completion of the project, 20 additional jobs will be created with the depot staff looking after 17x Class 185s and 6 x Class 350s every night. All staff will be multi-skilled, enabling them to work on either train with training carried out both at our service headquarters in Northampton and in Germany.
Thameslink contract When we mention evolution, it would be wrong not to mention the advent of the UK’s first truly second generation train,
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148