Hybridflex abandoned? What next for Marylebone air quality?

[fandroid]

According to an article in the Evening Standard, Chiltern Railways "is quietly dropping it's battery hybrid train experiment"


EDIT:

I'm abandoning this thread because I don't have the phone or the fingers or the knowledge to make it comply with forum policy on external sources. Someone somewhere may be able to dig out the original article. I found it quite tricky to find it again after having seen it on my Google news feed. But no doubt the news will soon turn up in a mainstream railway journal

 

[Mordac]

Does anyone know what happened to this unit? Are they converting it back to standard? Has it been just left to rot at Aylesbury?

 

[bspahh]

It was discussed in the Chiltern Electrification thread:

https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...ves-being-studied.248723/page-11#post-6399318

 

[Mordac]

That was two months ago, though, anything happen since then?

 

[Sad Sprinter]

I find it astonishing that in this country we'll bend over backwards to do anything but electrify a commuter railway.

 

[HSTEd]

I find it astonishing that in this country we'll bend over backwards to do anything but electrify a commuter railway.

Getting the couple of billion required to electrify the trains out of Marylebone is going to be a big ask given the state of the railway and public finances.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

Getting the couple of billion required to electrify the trains out of Marylebone is going to be a big ask given the state of the railway and public finances.

Only if you're the Treasury, which hates spending anything over 1 pence.

 

[birchesgreen]

Getting the couple of billion required to electrify the trains out of Marylebone is going to be a big ask given the state of the railway and public finances.

Yes the money is needed for bribes i mean tax cuts.

 

[The Planner]

Meylebone itself will never get wires.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Meylebone itself will never get wires.

It absolutely should. Conventionally electrifying the whole Chiltern line (and alongside it the Snow Hill Lines in full) is by far the best solution. As someone said upthread, this nonsense is something that would happen only in the UK.

 

[deltic08]

Meylebone itself will never get wires.

Never? Ever? How can you be so sure?
Even battery operation needs charging at turnround. I would have thought Marylebone was a certainty.
On a line with two or more trains per hour each way, full electrification is recommended as the best practice. Marylebone should be electrified even if only to Aylesbury.

 

[Fincra5]

Electrify the line between Didcot and Birmingham via Banbury, with OHLE...
3rd Rail Banbury to Marylebone. Allows Chiltern to share LUL power on the branches.

Bunch of DV EMUs. Hey presto!

 

[The Planner]

It absolutely should. Conventionally electrifying the whole Chiltern line (and alongside it the Snow Hill Lines in full) is by far the best solution. As someone said upthread, this nonsense is something that would happen only in the UK.

Never? Ever? How can you be so sure?
Even battery operation needs charging at turnround. I would have though Marylebone was a certainty.
On a line with two or more trains per hour each way, full electrification is recommended as the best practice. Marylebone should be electrified even if only to Aylesbury.

I have seen the options being progressed. I am willing to bet the re-opening of your choice that the station won't be wired.

 

[HSTEd]

It absolutely should. Conventionally electrifying the whole Chiltern line (and alongside it the Snow Hill Lines in full) is by far the best solution. As someone said upthread, this nonsense is something that would happen only in the UK.

Most other places aren't paying £4m/stkm or more for 25kV electrification though!

 

[Trainbike46]

Most other places aren't paying £4m/stkm or more for 25kV electrification though!

And maybe that is because in other places they not only look at how costs could be reduced, but also implement (more of) these steps - I don't think £4m/stkm is likely to continue for plain line (tunnel and bridge reconstructions obviously cause more expensive points).

In any case, Chiltern is one of the few (basically only?) area outside 3rd rail diesel islands where a case could be made to electrify partially with ground-level systems. Here 4th rail LU style would be more suitable than 3rd rail due to it already sharing track with a 4th rail system.

In any case, I think it is important to not treat the higher than elsewhere electrification costs as an immovable thing that can never be changed.

I have seen the options being progressed. I am willing to bet the re-opening of your choice that the station won't be wired.

I'm guessing that's various BEMU (or possibly diesel bimode?) options with wires in different locations to recharge the batteries? Possibly using the shared LU track to recharge as well?

I could see the logic in electrifying sections in the countryside rather than the (likely more costly) electrification at the london terminal.

Are you at liberty to say what is under consideration? Fully understand if you're not

 

[CR165022]

Does anyone know what happened to this unit? Are they converting it back to standard? Has it been just left to rot at Aylesbury?

It's been sat the end of the branch siding at the station for a few months now.

 

[deltic08]

I have seen the options being progressed. I am willing to bet the re-opening of your choice that the station won't be wired.

I will keep you to that if I live long enough. I am approaching 80 and in poor health after multiple strokes.
Harrogate to Ripon please or even Northallerton.

 

[philosopher]

Most other places aren't paying £4m/stkm or more for 25kV electrification though!

Does the UK‘s restrictive loading gauge bump up electrification costs compared to elsewhere?

 

[Mikey C]

I have seen the options being progressed. I am willing to bet the re-opening of your choice that the station won't be wired.

Even if the line is only part electrified, surely Marylebone station itself would be top of the list to be electrified, so that batteries can be recharged?

And even if alternative solutions are being explored at the moment, in 10 or 20 years time, they might change tack.

 

[The Planner]

Even if the line is only part electrified, surely Marylebone station itself would be top of the list to be electrified, so that batteries can be recharged?

And even if alternative solutions are being explored at the moment, in 10 or 20 years time, they might change tack.

You charge on the move.

 

[miklcct]

I find it astonishing that in this country we'll bend over backwards to do anything but electrify a commuter railway.

Please just wire it up for God's sake.

25kV all the way from Marylebone to Birmingham please, and battery trains for Aylesbury branch.