Network Rail starts to think

Jul 03 2007

Network Rail starts to think

Published by John Redwood at 10:08 am under Blog

??

HOW CAN WE GET MORE TRAINS ON OUR TRACKS?

??

???????? The UK lacks transport capacity of all kinds. More people would use trains for their journeys if

a)?????????? there were more seats at busy times

b)?????????? there were more frequent train services, so they did not have to wait a long time if they just missed one

c)?????????? they could get to the station easily

??

The Railway industry has been reluctant to tackle the shortage of trains in any novel way. They are looking at two main options new signals which reduce the safety margin between trains on the tracks, and longer trains which require longer platforms.

??

The signalling option is unlikely to yield more than a 25% increase in train frequency at best. Longer trains by definition do not increase service frequency and convenience.

??

There are two other possible ways of greatly improving train frequency and network capacity, without eroding the safety margins by different signalling.

??

The first is to include some rubber on the wheels, or on separate fly wheels, to provide more grip and traction on stop start commuter services. The Paris metro uses some rubber tyres on lines with steep gradients to give the trains grip. Stop start commuter services need long lengths of track to accelerate and brake because there is so little friction between steel wheel and steel track. With more friction capacity on commuter lines could be doubled, as trains would accelerate and brake much better allowing smaller gaps between trains. The railway industry has so far been reluctant not invented here. Their only argument against is the cost of the rubber.

??

The second, now being considered by Network Rail, is lighter more modern trains. Current trains are very heavy. A 125 train set on the Great Western is 350 tonnes of train.?? 250 locomotives on the passenger network in England and Wales are over 10 years old. Old and heavy trains use a lot of fuel, are slow to accelerate and take a long distance to stop. If the manufacturers halved the weight of trains it would be possible to accommodate many more on the network, as stopping distances would be?? much reduced. Acceleration would also be enhanced, and fuel burn reduced. This in turn reduces the need to haul substantial quantities of fuel for the journey.

??

The railway industry should be encouraged by government which pays so many of the bills at the moment to use new technology to increase capacity substantially.

Network Rail needs to be more responsive to access and car parking problems at stations, and could embark on a rebuild programme. In many cases, as with my local station, there would be private money for a suitable redevelopment at the station site.

Share and Enjoy:

4 Responses to “Network Rail starts to think”

# David Anthonyon 03 Jul 2007 at 11:44 am

I recently made a trip from Darlington rail station. There are no direct bus or rail links to the station from my house so I had to drive there.

Coming back from my trip after only 2 days, I found that I had a bill of

[Reply]
# Peter Turneron 03 Jul 2007 at 5:14 pm

This may seem silly but what is wrong with double decker trains on suitable routes. It works well in Switzerland. We also have a funny approach to speed. Speed is not all that important. What is important is that a train leaves the station when it should and reaches the next station when it should i.e. we need to know the departure and arrival times. How fast the train goes between these two points is of little concern. Are our trains late so often because we have come to expect more than they can deliver?

[Reply]
# aplon 03 Jul 2007 at 10:35 pm

There is a third way

What is the point of government subsidy of the rail system on the one hand, when you are taxing the rail companies on the other? That is just making jobs for

[Reply]
# aplon 04 Jul 2007 at 8:12 pm

JR:

[Reply]