Air quality in stations if electrification curbed.

[DarloRich]

The politicians have no option but to be cagey because the experience of the last 3 years has taught them that if they commit to a date, it will not be achieved, or the assigned budget will be vastly exceeded, or more probably both. They have learned the hard way that committing to a date does not magically cause it to be achieved.

perhaps they have also learnt to check with the deliverer before committing to a date!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Most people are in the station for a few minutes so their exposure will be negligible and i would bet little more than standing at a busy pedestrian crossing in a city. I really don't think there is a serious problem.

Have you been in New St when a Voyager has been sat idling there for a while?

Mind you, as I said, you don't need to electrify to solve it - you just need to adapt the units so the engines are stopped whenever it is not moving. DB have taken that approach for years.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Heritage DMUs kicked out a hell of a lot of filth, of course.

On an older driver's eye view dvd of the Hammersmith and City iirc there's a 1st gen DMU pulling out of Paddington just as the LU train is pulling in and it was like a smoke screen!

 

[sduob]

I lived in Birmingham for four years until 2015 and regularly used New Street; I didn't really notice much about the Voyagers etc at that time, unless I happened to be standing right next to one or whatever.

I recently returned on a weekday around 9am and nearly passed out. It was a very intense smell/difficult to breathe/etc.

Whether it's "worse" or whether it's just because I'm not used to it anymore - my local station is Reading, which I find generally quite breezy - I couldn't say.

 

[HSTEd]

The ignorance and arrogance of some of the posts here never fail to disappoint me.

But thats literally the meaning of them being Stage IIIB instead of some "earlier" standard.

'Postponed' is not the same as 'axed'. Look the meanings up.

This is politics - "postponed indefinitely" and "axed" are normally synonyms.

The completion has been pushed back to the next control period because signal engineers and money are in short supply. Money is in short supply because NR has effectively been nationalised.

No it hasn't.
It has been "pushed back" - we have no idea when it will be completed, they haven't deigned to tell us.
And NR being nationalised has nothing to do with the shortage of money, that is a political decision by the paymasters in light of the problems this project has been happening.

As NR's expenditure for the next Control Period has not yet been determined it is hardly possible to be more precise.

Indeed, since it has not been determined we have no idea if those projects will ever be completed.

 

[boxy321]

Certainly at New St DMUs (such as stinking, filthy Voyagers) are the problem - locomotives and HST power cars sit outside the covered area (and the trainshed at most termini) so passengers don't get to breathe the fug. Even at through stations the fumes would only be emitted for a short period.

If the spare Voyager is left idling, as it occasionally is, the atmosphere at platform level at New St is barely breathable.

No smoking on the platforms though! I often stand on platform 1 at New St. and watch the XC voyager wait to leave (xx:04 I think) P2. The smell (and heat) is horrible. There appears to be some fans but I believe they are just the PA speakers, so they've basically gone 'sod it, the wind'll blow it out'.

A dispatcher could easily make a claim for having to work in the New St. pit, then we might see a few more orders for new trains taking place (or more likely services being suspended/halted).

 

[SpacePhoenix]

If the spare Voyager is idling to provide power to the compressors, could a suitable shore supply be installed to allow the spare to have all it's engines shutdown?

 

[exile]

The New York City authorities banned non-electric trains from the city centre 100 years ago. Maybe similar action is needed here.

 

[221129]

The New York City authorities banned non-electric trains from the city centre 100 years ago. Maybe similar action is needed here.

And how exactly would that work?

 

[Darandio]

The New York City authorities banned non-electric trains from the city centre 100 years ago. Maybe similar action is needed here.

And the city is near permanently gridlocked with thousands upon thousands of road vehicles, i'm not sure that decision made a century ago has made a blind bit of difference to the air quality.

The idea of banning non-electric trains from cities always looks fantastic on paper....

 

[AlterEgo]

The New York City authorities banned non-electric trains from the city centre 100 years ago. Maybe similar action is needed here.

Please not this again.

America, that railway panacea. Or not.

 

[robbeech]

Is there a maintenance part to this too?

The EMT power cars that VTEC have on loan at the moment appear to smoke like hell in comparison to their own. One is a noticeable stream at idle and a very very noticeable cloud when departing a station. Noticed this at Leeds a couple of weeks ago. Much much worse than the MTU engined ones, though i'm not sure engine type is the key here.

Watching 37800 start up at Derby on Friday puts things into perspective though.

Rob