NEWS
Chiltern leases six Class 68 locos for Mainline services in £15m deal
Chiltern Railways is spending £15m to lease six new diesel locomotives for use on its Birmingham to London Marylebone services from winter 2014.
The 85-tonne Class 68s will be supplied and fully maintained by Carlisle-based Direct Rail Services (DRS).
The TOC called them “the most up-to-date diesel locomotives in the UK”.
Earthwork improvements ‘unlikely’ to meet modern criteria – RAIB report
Network Rail’s on- going earthwork improvement pro- gramme is to
achieve
“unlikely” “modern
criteria” in the fore- seeable future, a new report from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) says.
RAIB undertook a ‘class investigation’ into earthwork issues after six landslips hit Network
Rail infra-
structure between June 2012 and Feb- ruary 2013, including the Hatfield Colliery incident.
There have
Passenger journeys double since 1990s
The number of annual GB rail passenger journeys has more than doubled since the mid-1990s, according to the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR).
Journeys rose by 3.3% over the past year to 1.27 billion – more than double the number of journeys in 1995-96 (590 million).
Sleaford rail upgrade complete
The latest phase of modernising the Great Northern Great Eastern (GNGE) line between Peterborough and Doncaster via Lincoln has been completed with new signals and level crossings installed at Sleaford.
Phil Verster, route managing director for Network Rail, explained: “The GNGE line is an important route for both freight and passenger trains.
“Demand for rail services continues to grow and the upgrade of this line is an important project to help meet that demand. During just 10 days our engineers have installed modern signals which will help to allow for future increases in services as well as improving reliability.”
10 | rail technology magazine Apr/May 14
The first Siemens-built Class 700 Desiro City vehicles for Thames- link have undergone climate chamber test- ing to ensure they can endure extreme weather conditions.
Three vehicles chamber
Arsenal in
were
tested in the Rail Tec
climate Vienna.
The tests ensured The air condition-
ing and heating were tested in extreme con- ditions, as were exte-
More than 45 body shells have been completed
and the
doors would work in severe snow and ice; that wind- screen
heaters did
their job in the iciest conditions; and that the windscreen wipers worked at speeds of up to 100mph.
been many more land- slips since.
RAIB notes that many
The report said: “There is a lack of clar- ity about who should be carrying out visual checks for risks which can develop on neigh- bouring land between examinations which take place at intervals
of Network Rail’s in- herited earthworks were constructed with steeper slopes – more susceptible to land- slips – than would be achieved with modern design procedures. But it says: “Network Rail’s ongoing earth- work improvement programme is unlikely to
achieve modern
criteria in the foresee- able future.”
of up to 10 years. The mandated process for collecting information about neighbouring land is, in parts, diffi- cult to implement and not usually followed.”
Network Rail said: “With extreme weath- er
events becoming
more and more fre- quent, a greater fo- cus on these areas is
key to our plans over the next five years, with hundreds of millions of pounds set aside specifically for investment and better management of our earthworks and embankments. We will take on board RAIB’s recommen- dations and take any actions deemed necessary.”
Thameslink Class 700s undergo extreme weather testing
rior components like the traction system, brakes and CCTV cameras.
Siemens’ Thameslink director Iain Smith said: “There’s noth- ing worse for rail pas- sengers than having to deal with a late or cancelled service be- cause of faulty doors, or sitting in discomfort during hot weather, so we’ve really put the new trains through their paces in the cli- mate chamber.”
first full 12-car train has been delivered to Siemens’ test track in Wildenrath, Germany, to begin an intensive testing programme and fault-free mileage accumulation.
Overall, 1,140 car- riages will be manu- factured and the programme is on schedule.
The tests were wel- comed by Jonathan Bridgewood, First Capital Connect Thameslink director, who was interviewed in the previous edition of RTM.
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