PERMANENT WAY & INFRASTRUCTURE
Thameslink – the next steps
The recent confirmation of the official class number and livery for the new Thameslink fleet to be delivered by Siemens prompted us to check in on progress on the wider upgrade programme. First Capital Connect’s projects director Ian Duncan-Santiago explained how much has been done – and how much is yet to do – to achieve a nominal 24tph capability through the Thameslink core from 2018.
“It’s
a brilliant time to be working in the industry,” says FCC’s projects director
Ian Duncan-Santiago. “Most of us railway people would agree. We’re seeing a fantastic, unprecedented level of investment.”
The Thameslink programme, now four years in and expected to be completed in 2018, accounts for about £6bn of that investment.
He said: “It stems from the need to improve capacity. We’ve already done an awful lot of work thus far in terms of increasing the capacity on our network: more trains, more coaches, lengthened platforms.
“But the real step-change for us will be when the Thameslink programme comes fully online, planned for December 2018.”
New fleet
The new train contract was finalised in June (more on page 30), and Duncan-Santiago explained the passenger benefits of fixed- formation sets, which cuts the number of cabs, equipment and thus weight. “It gives the opportunity, over a longer train, for a wider walkthrough – à la the S Stock on the Metropolitan Line. You get a lot more circulating movement, more comfort, more security – there’s many advantages for the customer on the train.
“We’ve done our own research on this, to help the DfT. Passengers were clearly saying no 3+2 seating layouts, for example.”
This message was forcefully reiterated by Passenger Focus chief executive Anthony Smith in the previous edition of RTM.
Linking Thameslink and the Great Northern
Duncan-Santiago also described the “physical engineering challenge” of joining up the Thameslink and Great Northern routes, and said Network Rail and its contractors have done a “fantastic job” – though the infrastructure works have created challenges for FCC as an operator in terms of maintaining services. “Look at the amount of work that’s been taking place at Blackfriars, for example, and St Pancras International, and now bits of London Bridge are missing (pictured top right).
“But we need to get more trains through the core, from St Pancras to Blackfriars and out to London Bridge. We need to get services from the Great Northern route and the Thameslink route through that core and out the other side. London Bridge is the key bottleneck we’re trying to unblock at the moment, hence the works at the station and its approaches, east and west. That gives us the opportunity to run 24tph through the core route. We’re currently
running 15tph during the peak. It’ll be a massive change.”
He said achieving such a dense, metro-like frequency of services will depend on the track infrastructure, new traffic management system and the new signalling all working well together.
Duncan-Santiago said: “The new signalling helps to close the trains up, so you can maximise the use of the track space you’ve got.”
The new signalling system will function as an overlay on top of the existing physical infrastructure (as is happening on the Great Western Main Line, as opposed to stretches of the East Coast Main Line where a complete conversion is taking place). Duncan-Santiago said: “There’d be a huge cost associated with changing all your rolling stock and your signalling over at the same time. It’s better to have a phased approach.”
64 | rail technology magazine Aug/Sep 13
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