Recent content by Richard123

Agreed. There is a difference between great headlines of the Boris Johnson era with no thinking or funding behind them, and the more boring work and funding that gets work done. Sadly it seems many people are more swayed by the stuff that sounds attractive, even with nothing behind it, than...

The ability of people on this forum to turn any thread into “we hate the government “ is mind-boggling. This is a £45bn funding allocation to public transport with £1.1bn up front for design work. That’s huge news.. NPR was cancelled by a previous government, not the present. Why is this...

Also the business case gets worse each year. You start with the new design, approval and project on-costs. Then each year, there are fewer years of remaining train life over which to amortise the investment. The only precedent I can think of is the Pendolinos, which was unique as Virgin had a...

Apart from all the factors you mention release suppressed demand. Even normal compound growth over the 6 years or so that Hitachi take to get a new order working outstrips 10%. Double units are not always rammed (although often are), but the continued operation of crammed single units...

That's the rub here in the UK. We are talking about battery services on routes that elsewhere in Europe would be electrified as most cost effective approach. It's all about the business case, and NR seems to have developed the world's most expensive electrification, by a multiple not a percentage.

Without pointing out the obvious flaws in the political rant, battery chemistries for rail vehicles are designed for the preferred business case. Some of the manufacturers are guaranteeing to midlife. Of course by that time, batteries will be much lighter and cheaper still. But why let facts...

They do improve grid power quality by reducing “background” NPS and harmonics when connected, but grid effects are quite localised so it won’t help another railway site many km away much. (Also, depending how the grid is configured and varying loads, the existing imbalance itself varies, which...

Railways seem expert in picking lowest cost bids, disregarding previous contract overspends/overruns. It can seem being an honest bidder with regard to programme and capability as well as price is marked down. Witness NR national programmes a decade late and multiple of original cost as NR...

While you see this as the benefit of the contract, it seems the reverse. Agility’s profits, despite poor availability of working trains, suggests they are under little commercial pressure to spend serious money improving. Even when the LNER service was being hammered and the MD was livid, they...

Rail this month provides a bit of insight on the contract:

You hit the constant power limit pretty quickly. The idea of so many powered axles increases maintenance, track wear and does little for journey times. I'm sure they will be just fine: 40% powered axles is still high by historical norms!

As Agility were making big profits while LNER were publicly complaining about the continuing non-availability of the number of trainsets required each day (and ended uo paying to retain some 91s), I doubt a missing GU is hurting them financially!

The 802s are very expensive compared to a straight electric. Even comparing IEPs like for like, in the IEP contract I believe the bi-mode IEPs were 25% more expensive than the electrics, and higher track access charges also

I think the issue is that LNER want to run a service so have to accept what they get. David Horne has been forthright (including on LinkedIn) criticising Hitachi's availability but it hurts LNER more if they diagram trains that Agility can't deliver consistently. I suspect that LNER...

MR this month reports improved IET availability on ECML, with it being "some time" since the planned 49 trains have not been available. That's 25% unavailable! The original contract was for 58 diagrams daily, for which Hitachi built 65 trains. That explains the retention of the class 91s, and...