Search results

They won't be used on the WHL, not least because the heavy axle load restrictions on speed on the Mallaig extension would be prohibitive. Availability of the HST sets has been less than ideal for some time. A reduction in units but higher availability should allow a like for like replacement...

The current plan is not to. There has long been a desire for walkthrough on the low level lines, and the 334 fleet has bedded in nicely with reliability quite high out of Bathgate Depot. The team there know their stuff, they know the units, and the 334s do reasonably well on the Airdrie -...

Right yes, but this wiring was ordered back in the mists of time, and the range of battery units was far more uncertain. The next steps of wiring was something I was working on back in 2015, while we had the Levenmouth BCR up and running; the feeder stations were ordered in 2018!

Trams work best on high capacity, high turnover, high demand, destination to destination flows. In Edinburgh that's linking places to Princes Street. Why spend all that money to give trams to places that aren't Princes Street? You'd be duplicating parts of other bus routes; none of the...

This is difficult to say. Honestly, probably marginally quicker, a few minutes at most. The difference comes with capacity. Buses suffer from a phenomenon called "induced throughput limits" where basically, after a certain point, the gains you get from running more of the same thing decrease...

There's your problem. Spending two billion quid to give something a shot isn't really worth it. I wrote a big write up somewhere, it's probably linked in this thread, of how much it would actually cost to build it. Basically, economically it's a basket case. If the alignment were there but...

Also important to note that in the slipping of the award date back to spring next year, they will slip down the queue to be after ScotRail, and most likely after the awarding of the GWR contract which is expected (albeit will probably also be delayed) in the autumn.

Oh dear, I genuinely thought we'd killed this idea off. The sheer economics of building the line and serving 2tph basically all shacks from Central will kill any business case. It was always a white elephant, and even back in the day the sums were questionable to say the least

That's immaterial. It's not a trickle charger feeder, it's a normal, albeit slightly smaller than average feeder. If it were to be extended which it won't be, then it could feed to any extension. But it won't be extended, so there's no issue there. The electrification isn't in planning, it's...

There can be a maximum of four diagrams captive on the line at any given time, captive being anywhere south of Newcraighall. We assume they're all six car units, which is the maximum on the route, accelerating uphill at the same time, which is very possible. That's about 3MW for each diagram...

Funny you should say that.... To give you a more complete answer, about a mile and half is being wired at the north end, and three miles at the south end, to do just that. Piling works started last month, and the feeder station is being built. We are expecting an order of BEMUs later in the...

Indeed they were, we did our homework, and we did it well. It can. Very accurately even. Again, this is getting off topic, however I'd posit very simply; if passengers numbers couldn't be predicted, then why would open access operators exist. We can model new demand incredibly well, what...

The sub needs to be wired for ecs workings. It's a bit of a weak link in that Millerhill and Craigentinny depots, and the ECML, are o lying linked to the rest of the wider electrified network through the Calton tunnel approaches. If and when the eastern end of Waverley is remodeled, the...

This is getting very odd topic, but Portishead I'd have only signed off with 2tph, at ten miles or so it's only really worth it if the wait til the next train if one is cancelled is less that the speed differential with the bus; that waiting for the next train would be quicker than giving up and...

There has not, because it's a non-falsifiable proposition. You'd be trying to examine the hypothetical economic and societal benefits of building it, already knowing what they are. The fact that it didn't exist was true every single day until it wasn't, and the answer to the question "will it...

I am afraid I cant put figures on any of the individual aspects of the project, but I can give some perspective. I still have copies of most of the documents sitting in my office, but equally there's a lot of sensitive data on them, and sharing some of the things would probably get me in...

It's also important to note that you're not comparing these BEMUs to modern diesel units with electronic transmission and a computer optimising the drivetrain at second intervals, or even something slightly older like a 185 with an enormous amount of horsepower available to get them up the hills...

Yep, that is my mistake, that was supposed to be or, not and. I've updated to reflect this. Serves me right for typing that out at midnight.

No, but they perform infinitely better than diesel stock does, especially on that long climb up to Falahill. It's also important to reiterate; every new or altered structure was built to electrification clearances, but existing structures that were deemed to be fine were not, to save money...

No, the line was built on the cheap because the BCR was basically a basket case. Even with optimism bias, we had to strip back a couple of elements from the project to get it through a change of government. Remember that this was the test case, there wasn't any project before this to reference...