Jump to content
 

Class 80X series operation


Philately
 Share

Recommended Posts

Probable that the upcoming IETs for the MML will have to run on diesel between London and Bedford too as the OLE is only good for 100mph and the upgrade shows no sign of happening for some time if at all.  

 

All hail the infinite wisdom of the DfT for whom running tens of thousands of diesel operated train miles per week on electrified railways, and following the twinkly rainbow towards hydrogen and other wholly unsuitable niche technologies, passes for logic. 

  • Like 1
  • Agree 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
1 hour ago, DY444 said:

Probable that the upcoming IETs for the MML will have to run on diesel between London and Bedford too as the OLE is only good for 100mph and the upgrade shows no sign of happening for some time if at all.  

 

All hail the infinite wisdom of the DfT for whom running tens of thousands of diesel operated train miles per week on electrified railways, and following the twinkly rainbow towards hydrogen and other wholly unsuitable niche technologies, passes for logic. 

To say nothing of Bionic Duckweed - Roger Ford's preferred fuel source of the future !

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, Mike_Walker said:

To say nothing of Bionic Duckweed - Roger Ford's preferred fuel source of the future !

 

Indeed.  The re-emergence of bionic duckweed as official DfT policy is classic Sir Humphrey stuff.  There's an episode of Yes Minister where Sir Humphrey and Sir Arnold are explaining to Bernard that new ministers are always good news because the service can wipe the slate clean of anything it didn't like and re-present old stuff that previous ministers had kicked out.

 

That is exactly what is happening now.  The DfT went through this whole magic stardust/bionic duckweed energy sources nonsense in 2007 until it was overturned.  A few ministers later along comes wide eyed Shapps and here it all is again.

Edited by DY444
  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
6 hours ago, Stevebr said:

It’s because the power supply has not been upgraded in time. There are a maximum no of trains/hour that can run on the overhead and all the allocation is taken by the LNER. Upgrades are apparently “in progress”

And so it goes on.  At Eurostar in the 1990s we were paying for power supply upgrades at the northern English end of the ECML and that work (mainly north of Newcastle) was allegedly completed.   Presumably we didn't pay enough?

  • Informative/Useful 1
  • Round of applause 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
6 hours ago, Stevebr said:

It’s because the power supply has not been upgraded in time. There are a maximum no of trains/hour that can run on the overhead and all the allocation is taken by the LNER. Upgrades are apparently “in progress”

 

There's an update on the current position and timescale for completing 'Power Supply Upgrade 2' (the stretch of line from Doncaster to Edinburgh) on page 59 of the March issue of Modern Railways.  

 

The print issue should arrive on newsagent shelves on Thursday 25th February.  Sub copies should be on the way, mine arrived earlier than usual last weekend.

  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

And so it goes on.  At Eurostar in the 1990s we were paying for power supply upgrades at the northern English end of the ECML and that work (mainly north of Newcastle) was allegedly completed.   Presumably we didn't pay enough?

No idea what was done then, but the increase in electric load since then has been substantial, so any capacity which Eurostar bought will have long since been used up.

 

I think the biggest change is that the London to Newcastle service has been extended to Edinburgh, so it's 2tph all day, plus any HST activity is now an 800 on electric. Plus the Scotrail service is now much more electric - that's mostly west of Edinburgh, but still impacts the ECML power supply because of where the supply points are.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Many thanks gentlemen.  I had wondered whether TransPennine were quoted a price for electricity that was uneconomic.  Now I know it's a shortage of capacity in the OLE.  I must say that the new Trans-Pennine stock seems to run very quietly for diesel.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...