Birmingham new street air quality

[Bletchleyite]

It does, but Voyagers are most of the problem. 196/197 have quite clean exhaust, and some of the others don't serve New St.

 

[The Planner]

Build the Bordesley Chords and move the NE-SW XC Voyager services to Moor Street.

Kings Norton and Water Orton both need to be remodelled as part of the Midlands Rail Hub, and that remodelling will happen before more OHLE goes up over the rails. So we should be able to divert the Voyagers away from New Street and into Moor Street many years before we've finished building OHLE from Leeds to Bristol and ordered new EMUs/BEMUs for the XC routes.

That destroys any connections and solves XCs rolling stock issues as less people would use them.

 

[MattRat]

Is it possible to bring up a health and safety issue to the government about the terrible air quality and health risks, to get them to do something about it?

 

[hwl]

Is there any realistic/practical way of configuring the 220/221s so that they only need say 1 or 2 engines running in the Birmingham New Street area, given the relatively low line speeds around the Station then restart them all once the train has exited the tunnel or the Station and proceed as usual? (Similar to the Eco mode on 185s)

You're right. I wonder how much fuel the Eco Mode system which Class 185s use saves them. Could something similar to this be fitted to 220/221s which automatically turns all but one engine off whilst it's at New Street/exiting the Station?

Or do something similar to what I posted earlier in this thread- Setup the 220/221s so they only have one engine running per 4/5 car in the New Street area, then once clear of the Station, fire up all of the turned off engines.

Unfortunately the power distribution within the voyager units isn't that great:

1. traction power within the vehicle only
2. limited ability to power auxiliary and hotel loads in adjacent vehicles due to cable and auxiliary alternator sizing.

Hence in a 4 car voyager you would need at least 2 engines running and in a 5 car voyager at least 2 or 3 engines running depending in which vehicles had the engine powered up. The positioning of the compressors also creates more complications.

Meridians have much better potential for shutdown as many lessons were learnt from how to do thing better after building the voyagers. But it would cost a lot to get the voyagers to the same level of shutdown potential as the Meridians and then you have to do something about realising that shutdown potential.

 

[voyagerdude220]

Unfortunately the power distribution within the voyager units isn't that great:

1. traction power within the vehicle only
2. limited ability to power auxiliary and hotel loads in adjacent vehicles due to cable and auxiliary alternator sizing.

Hence in a 4 car voyager you would need at least 2 engines running and in a 5 car voyager at least 2 or 3 engines running depending in which vehicles had the engine powered up. The positioning of the compressors also creates more complications.

Meridians have much better potential for shutdown as many lessons were learnt from how to do thing better after building the voyagers. But it would cost a lot to get the voyagers to the same level of shutdown potential as the Meridians and then you have to do something about realising that shutdown potential.

Thank you, I wasn't aware of those problems.

 

[DM352]

They solved it (not) at London Victoria with the Uckfield DMUs going to London Bridge as the Victoria fans were spaced for the older DEMUs.

Unrelated, would rather still have the original roof at Victoria instead of the low 1980s retail raft which wiuld have the same problem as New Street trapping fumes if idling diesel trains used the higher number platforms.

 

[xdbjacx]

DFT says: ‘Not London, so tough sh*t’

 

[172007]

DFT says: ‘Not London, so tough sh*t’

So what if any authority does Birmingham Council have to impose at ULEZ charge in trains that exceed a set criteria.

Put it another way, how looseley defined is the primary legislation that allows charging vehicles to enter a ulez that it could be extended to railway vehicles even of train were never meant to be the target. I.e. does the primary legislation target vegihicle or simular wording with the assumption its aimed at road vehicles but does not limit itself to road vehicles rather jusy sayung vehicles. Its potentialy arguable that a train is a road vehicle as it runs on a rail road. Could votagers end up too costly to enter some city centres and force the hand of the DaFT to procure bi-modes very soon.

Councils like Birmingham have very tight budgets and classes 158, 220 & 220 could provide a minimal but important income stream!