Autumn Statement for Rail

[LNW-GW Joint]

This article has a summary of the points announced by Philip Hammond yesterday which affect rail.
Some of the detail is greater than that in the speech, so there must have been a media brief somewhere.
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/policy/single-view/view/railways-in-the-uk-autumn-statement.html

This will include an additional £450m from 2018-19 to 2020-21 to trial digital signalling. This is expected to ‘achieve a step-change in reliability’ and ‘squeeze more capacity out of our existing rail infrastructure’.
Around £80m would be allocated to accelerate the roll-out of smart ticketing, including season tickets in major cities.
The government is also to bring forward the provision of £100m to accelerate construction of the Bicester/Aylesbury – Milton Keynes - Bedford western section of the East West Rail corridor being developed between Oxford, Cambridge and East Anglia, and will allocate £10m in development funding for the Bedford – Sandy – Cambridge section.
The £170m allocated for flood defence and resilience measures includes £50m for rail projects, including work to secure the Exeter – Plymouth route which runs along the sea wall at Dawlish.
The government is to provide £5m of development funding for the Midlands Rail Hub programme of upgrades around central Birmingham that could ‘provide up to 10 additional trains per hour’.

The Digital Railway trial is presumably what was proposed for the Wherry Lines east of Norwich but currently without a home.
I'm confused about the "Midlands Rail Hub".
I thought it was the planned freight terminal at Four Ashes (north of Wolverhampton on the Stafford line), but it seems to be larger than that.
£5m won't go far though.

Link to the Speech itself: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/autumn-statement-2016-philip-hammonds-speech

 

[The Planner]

Its just building and developing on the West Mids and Chilterns route study, so all the stuff that is known about such as Camp Hill chords etc etc

 

[Blindtraveler]

Good news on East West Rail and the GWML to Plymouth, the latter being a very sensible step to avoid a rerun of a couple of winters ago.

 

[Hartington]

Good news on East West Rail and the GWML to Plymouth, the latter being a very sensible step to avoid a rerun of a couple of winters ago.

Definitely not bad news for the GWR but despite working on Cowley Bridge junction after the last flood that is what caused the problems this week, not Dawlish.

 

[Deepgreen]

How will the Dawlish route be 'secured', I wonder? All attempts so far have been breached in fairly short order.

 

[Ianno87]

How will the Dawlish route be 'secured', I wonder? All attempts so far have been breached in fairly short order.

This article explains more: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/...funding-for-rail-resilience-in-the-south-west

In their report Network Rail identify 3 priority areas where action is needed to prevent the main Exeter to Plymouth railway line being blocked by further extreme weather. These are:
•the risk of landslip from the steep cliffs between Teignmouth and Parson’s Tunnel which would block the main Exeter to Plymouth railway line
•rock falls from the cliffs above the Parson’s Tunnel north entrance
•flooding from the sea of the railway and the road at Marine Parade between Dawlish station and Kennaway Tunnel

The £10 million funding will allow Network Rail to continue their development work on mitigation against these risks from 2017, when the current funding comes to an end

 

[anti-pacer]

What about the North?

 

[Deepgreen]

This article explains more: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/...funding-for-rail-resilience-in-the-south-west

Thanks. It, however, doesn't explain how the sea is to be stopped! A hundred foot high and twenty foot thick wall? Everything so far has failed to withstand the elements for very long. 'Project Cnut' perhaps?!

 

[YorkshireBear]

What about the North?

It is still forgotten about and cruelly cut off to fund lavish schemes in the South West of England.

*I am just preempting*

 

[swt_passenger]

Definitely not bad news for the GWR but despite working on Cowley Bridge junction after the last flood that is what caused the problems this week, not Dawlish.

The planned work to alter the weirs and prevent flooding of the river itself hasn't been started yet though. It is still very much a work in progress.

Probably still sitting in an in-tray at the Environment Agency while they consult with the local badgers and newts... More seriously I've done some googling and found references to the works along the river not being finished until 2018.

 

[Wivenswold]

I haven't had a chance to read-up on the Autumn Statement and look into the details regarding the railway as I'm avoiding the news this week for my own sanity.

However, has anyone stress-checked the Rail announcements to make sure these aren't old announcements for which funding has already been allocated? It's not an unusual trick by whoever is in power, especially when there's little in the piggy bank to spend.

 

[Ianno87]

Thanks. It, however, doesn't explain how the sea is to be stopped! A hundred foot high and twenty foot thick wall? Everything so far has failed to withstand the elements for very long. 'Project Cnut' perhaps?!

The £10m is for Development work, which will include determining what the appropriate solution(s) should be.

 

[Starmill]

It is still forgotten about and cruelly cut off to fund lavish schemes in the South West of England.

*I am just preempting*

Normally I would try to bite my tongue at this, but this kind of cynicism contributes to conflict on these boards just as much as the 'chip on the shoulder' attitude you criticise. It's not just you, there are some other serial offenders, but wouldn't it be nice if we could try not to be the first one to start dishing out unjustified criticism?

It was a simple question about the OP's locale, asked perhaps un a slightly naive way because nothing new was expected to be announced today, but there's not a need to start this from nothing.

 

[WatcherZero]

That was all in the budget speech. What wasnt was he only commited a couple of billion from the new £23bn productivity boosting fund. So theres a lot more announcements to come.

 

[snowball]

I haven't had a chance to read-up on the Autumn Statement and look into the details regarding the railway as I'm avoiding the news this week for my own sanity.

However, has anyone stress-checked the Rail announcements to make sure these aren't old announcements for which funding has already been allocated? It's not an unusual trick by whoever is in power, especially when there's little in the piggy bank to spend.

The transport-related announcements are listed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...ents/autumn-statement-2016-transport-projects

 

[moggie]

£450M (call it half a Billion) is one hell of a lot of money for a signalling system! What are they doing for this sum of money being as it's already 'sold' on the basis of it being an 'existing' system in common use elsewhere in Europe? To put it in perspective we're talking in terms of half a dozen major conventional resignalling schemes. Is it L2 or is this the UK dipping its toe into L3 territory (the only system capable of realising real capacity benefits).

Has the penny dropped somewhere that L2 using today's underlying train detection technology (and still required where colour light signalling is retained for non ETCS trains) is unlikely to provide the real line capacity benefits being trumpeted on traditional mixed traffic lines. We shall see.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

£450M (call it half a Billion) is one hell of a lot of money for a signalling system! What are they doing for this sum of money being as it's already 'sold' on the basis of it being an 'existing' system in common use elsewhere in Europe? To put it in perspective we're talking in terms of half a dozen major conventional resignalling schemes. Is it L2 or is this the UK dipping its toe into L3 territory (the only system capable of realising real capacity benefits).

Has the penny dropped somewhere that L2 using today's underlying train detection technology (and still required where colour light signalling is retained for non ETCS trains) is unlikely to provide the real line capacity benefits being trumpeted on traditional mixed traffic lines. We shall see.

I think it's more about TMS (Train Management Systems), which integrates functions across signalling and train cabs.
Things like ARS (automatic route setting) and Driver Advisory Systems. Roger Ford goes on about it regularly in MR.
The cost is probably driven by the need to install ETCS first and upgrade the cabs of trains that work over the line.
The intention was to trial it on the lines from Norwich to Lowestoft/Great Yarmouth, but that is now apparently "unsuitable" for a trial.
They need somewhere busier and more typical than the Cambrian, but where the locals will not get upset if the service collapses during the trial...
Somewhere in Southern land should do nicely.

The money stretches into CP6.
It sounds like Mark Carne wanted it ring-fenced ahead of the CP6 negotiations.

 

[Richard_B]

Slightly stupid question but, What does digital railway actually mean?? From the previous two posts it sounds like in cab signalling? I heard it when listening to the Statement and was rather bemused and confused to what it exactly meant.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Slightly stupid question but, What does digital railway actually mean?? From the previous two posts it sounds like in cab signalling? I heard it when listening to the Statement and was rather bemused and confused to what it exactly meant.

I believe it's more to do with what happens at the signalling centre end.
Automatic Train Operation, as is planned for the core Thameslink section, is one aspect of it.
There are several pilots going on in the new ROCs for various components of the software system, but NR needs somewhere to trial the integrated system to see if they can run more trains than they do now.
It's also about faster service recovery after disruption, by making better decisions when trains and crews are out of position.

 

[Gareth Marston]

I believe it's more to do with what happens at the signalling centre end.
Automatic Train Operation, as is planned for the core Thameslink section, is one aspect of it.
There are several pilots going on in the new ROCs for various components of the software system, but NR needs somewhere to trial the integrated system to see if they can run more trains than they do now.
It's also about faster service recovery after disruption, by making better decisions when trains and crews are out of position.

Its all well and good in theory but what UK Plc needs is boost to rail capacity now- and that should have been £400 million on new carriages. A massive wasted opportunity all because of the arcane definition of capital and revenue.

 

[Hophead]

Its all well and good in theory but what UK Plc needs is boost to rail capacity now- and that should have been £400 million on new carriages. A massive wasted opportunity all because of the arcane definition of capital and revenue.

But £400m on new carriages won't boost capacity now; it'll boost capacity in 2 years time (minus whatever needs withdrawing because it's clapped out and no longer viable for ongoing operation).

If you'd wanted to boost capacity now, you should have thought about it 2 years ago. Fortunately, somebody did, and the Great Western lines are being electrified and wires will release large numbers of diesel units in December 2016 - that's just a few weeks time! What more could you possibly want?

I'll just pop into the Infrastructure and Rolling Stock forums to see how it's all going and get right back to you on progress. I'm expecting good news!!!!!

 

[Class 170101]

There is some capacity available now and some imminently.

Class 442s could return to SWT to relieve capacity issues short term. Yes there are issues with the trains but beggars cannot be choosers.

in the near term 317s and 321s from GN become available. Not all of these are spoken for with AGA as far as I am aware.

319s are coming off lease from GTR and again not all spoken for.

The big issues are shortages of DMUs. The first option would be to truncate routes where the wires begin. For example Manchester to Blackpool services at Preston. Through passengers will have to change.

Secondly Pacers should be refurbished for continued use beyond 2020.

Thirdly small wiring schemes should be proceeded with as soon as possible. Perhaps Nuneaton to Coventry, Windermere, Thames Valley branches, Rugeley to Walsall.