Issue 6 2007

Working towards the railway of 2030

Issue 6 2007 / 27 November 2007 /

Compare our European railway network today with that of 25 years ago. Safety and punctuality have continued to improve, however, traffic growth has been patchy and costs have risen enormously. Meanwhile there have been revolutionary changes in the communications and transport environment. Mobile phones, internet and e-mail didn’t exist 25 years ago. There were no low cost airlines from a convenient regional airport. Cars used leaded fuel; air bags, ‘sat nav’ and air conditioning were unknown. The world around us is changing much faster than we are!

Now think forward to 2030. What must our railway system be like if it is to continue to be an integral part of European life? If 2030 seems far in the future, remember that a quarter of a century represents just one cycle of main line renewal of infrastructure and trains. So much of what we are already delivering today will be part of the 2030 railway. Our challenge, whilst meeting today’s targets, is to start building tomorrow’s railway. (more…)

Tagged with: Environment, Network Rail, Prof. Andrew McNaughton, Rail infrastructure, Safety

Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link: from conception to construction

Issue 6 2007 / 26 November 2007 /

Scotland’s rail network is currently enjoying an unprecedented level of funding for enhancement projects across the country. However, one project in particular has the potential to transform lives throughout the Central Belt.

The Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link project, funded by Transport Scotland and delivered by Network Rail, is the most ambitious rail project currently being undertaken in Scotland. Ultimately, it will provide a new double-tracked, electrified route between Glasgow and Edinburgh, transforming access to public transport for the communities along the line.

The new line presents enormous opportunities for the people of West Lothian in the east and North Lanarkshire in the west, for the Scottish economy and for the companies operating Scotland’s railways.

Despite being named the Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link, the real strength of the new line is in the wider package of enhancements. The impact of the new rail link will be felt far wider than the local communities through which it will pass. (more…)

Tagged with: Network Rail, Rail infrastructure, Ron McAulay, United Kingdom

Reducing CO2 emissions through new rail freight choices

Issue 6 2007 / 26 November 2007 /

Lowering CO2 emissions is central to all businesses these days. Within the rail freight industry, every day we are being asked to provide business with a way to reduce emissions generated by their transport choices.

With rail freight emitting five times less CO2 per tonne kilometre moved than road haulage, the moment is now for railways across Europe to win additional volumes to rail. In less than 12 months, emissions per tonne mile moved have risen sharply up the agenda.

Rail freight customers need reliable, secure and cost effective haulage, but they increasingly also need a low CO2 option. Everybody claims that they offer a good CO2 reduction option, but in the freight sector a new report by Professor Alan McKinnon of the Logistics Research Centre at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh (for the Climate Change Working Group of the Commission for Integrated Transport) has revealed who in domestic freight has low CO2 emissions. (more…)

Tagged with: Environment, EWS, Graham Smith, Rail freight, United Kingdom

Branching out to stay competitive

Issue 6 2007 / 26 November 2007 /

In 1999, Freightliner Group identified a significant opportunity for the company to enter the bulk freight market, and established Freightliner Heavy Haul Ltd (FHH). In an interview for the European Railway Review, Tim Shakerley explains how starting from scratch, the company has quickly grown in the bulk rail business, branching out into numerous sectors of the industry, including aggregates, cement, petroleum, waste and infrastructure services.

Coal was one of the earliest sectors which FHH entered and today it is by some margin the largest sector in the business. The coal business continues to grow year on year and currently represents approximately 50% of FHH’s turnover. Last year, coal haulage capacity increased by 22% and will increase again by another 18% this autumn, with the arrival of another 110 new coal hopper wagons.

In response to the UK’s growing coal freight market and the customer appetite for competition between rail operators, FHH has significantly expanded over the last six years. This is due to contract renewals with increased volumes for existing customers, as well as new customers attracted to FHH by its reputation for high quality of service. FHH continues to develop and expand through investing in new equipment and technology, as well as staff and training. (more…)

Tagged with: Freightliner Group Ltd, Poland, Rail freight, Rolling stock, Tim Shakerley, United Kingdom

United Kingdom joins the high-speed club

Issue 6 2007 / 26 November 2007 /

High Speed 1 (HS1), the UK’s first high speed railway, opened for business on 14 November 2007. Dave Pointon, Managing Director of project client Union Railways, looks back at key aspects of the 14-year planning and construction effort.

Planning for HS1 started in the mid-1980s following confirmation by the UK and France that a Channel Tunnel would be built. Initially routed through and beneath south-east London to a sub-surface station to be built between King’s Cross and St Pancras, the western section of the line was dramatically shifted by the Government in 1991 to follow an Arup-devised alignment through ‘brownfield’ regeneration areas in north Kent and east London, with a Thames crossing near Dartford. An option of bringing the line into the existing, under-used terminus at St Pancras rather than a new subsurface station was confirmed by the Government in 1993, and a Parliamentary Bill seeking authority for the project was deposited in November 1994. (more…)

Tagged with: Dave Pointon, Eurostar, High-speed rail, Union Railways, United Kingdom

High Speed 1: A new benchmark in project management

Issue 6 2007 / 26 November 2007 /

“This landmark project is a demonstration of how passengers can benefit from a combination of Government investment and private sector delivery. I congratulate all those who have been involved in successfully constructing this magnificent new railway on time and within budget.” – Tom Harris, Rail Minister.

Britain is finally getting its first new successful railway line in over a century. Nine years after construction began, High Speed 1 (HS1) is ready to commence commercial services from St Pancras International, the glorious new home of British high-speed rail travel.

With a maximum operating speed of 300kph, HS1 will slice the journey time from central London to Paris to only 2 hours 15 minutes and the journey to Brussels will take less than 2 hours. When commuter services come into operation in 2009, the journey time from central London to Ebbsfleet in north Kent will be only 17 minutes compared to the current 50 minute journey time to the area. (more…)

Tagged with: Environment, High-speed rail, Safety, United Kingdom

Significant developments of GSM-R in France

Issue 6 2007 / 26 November 2007 /

Many railway operators decided to implement ground-to-train radios on their networks during the fourth quarter of the 20th century, which, for most of them, was to use variants of UIC specific analogue technology.

In order to anticipate the upcoming obsolescence of this existing radio and having in mind the objective to improve interoperability of railway operations all over Europe, the UIC took action in the early 1990s to determine which new technology could be specified and promoted. (more…)

Tagged with: Alexandre Saide, France, GSM-R, Rémi Bévot, SNCF, UIC

Construction of the new Lower Inn Valley Railway

Issue 6 2007 / 26 November 2007 /

The construction of the new Lower Inn Valley Railway is one of Austria’s largest infrastructure projects. By 2012, the first section of the Northern feeder line to the Brenner base tunnel will be constructed on a length of ca. 40 kilometres.

The roots of today’s rail development projects through the Brenner mountain with its Northern and Southern feeder lines can be traced back to the budding public awareness of the environment in the 70s and 80s of the last century as well as the ‘success’ of the new traffic routes at that time. A few years after its completion, the new Brenner motorway showed traffic development exceeding all prognoses of traffic planning. In transport policy terms it became quite clear that, in the long term, neither the industry nor the abutters would accept the continuously increasing road traffic, the related environmental pollution and the more and more frequent quality losses. Though the existing Lower Inn Valley Railway, which began operating in 1858, had been continuously modernised, it was evident that it would reach its capacity limit sooner or later. Even today, there is no synchronised passenger suburban rail service between Innsbruck and Kufstein. (more…)

Tagged with: Austria, Brenner Eisenbahn GmbH, Germany, Italy, Johann Herdina, Rail infrastructure, Tunnelling

A joint agreement to improve the French railway network

Issue 6 2007 / 26 November 2007 /

On 25 May 2007, Anne-Marie Idrac, the president of the SNCF Group and Hubert du Mesnil, the President of Réseau Ferré de France, signed a new infrastructure management agreement to cover the financial years from 2007 to 2010 inclusive, for maintenance and upgrading of the French national railway network.

There are three concerned areas. Firstly, there is path plotting, of which an annual sum of approximately €32 million has been set aside for. Then operations, that is to say operational traffic management and traffic follow-up. An annual amount increasing from €794 million in 2007 to €861 million in 2010 will be dedicated to this area, which includes the safety and regularity assessment missions. Finally, the management agreement concerns the routine maintenance and major maintenance of railway facilities, for an amount decreasing from €1,890 million to €1,860 million over the term of the contract. (more…)

Tagged with: France, Funding, Jean Prevot, Rail infrastructure, Réseau Ferré de France (RFF), SNCF

Performance of Poland’s operational programme

Issue 6 2007 / 26 November 2007 /

This article comprehensively describes a modernisation plan for the Polish rail network to be fulfilled during 2007-2013 and subsequent years. This great investment plan is lead by PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe S.A. (PKP Polish Railway Lines Company). The plan is an extensive one and there is still enough time and financial means for everybody who wants to participate in it to put their thoughts forward.

I would like to draw the attention of all European Railway Review readers who are representing companies cooperating within the railway sector and for rail operators, that in the heart of our continent we are creating convenient circumstances for the development of both domestic and international railway transport, aimed at interoperability and complete liberalisation of the passenger and freight transport market available to all EU operators. (more…)

Tagged with: Funding, High-speed rail, Krzysztof Celinski, PKP, Poland, Rail infrastructure

Bedding optimisation in turnouts

Issue 6 2007 / 26 November 2007 /

Geometrical discontinuities along turnouts can lead to strong localised variations of superstructure loads. By using Under Sleeper Pads (USP) with varying stiffness, the bedding conditions can be optimised and as a result the turnout area can be smoothed out.

Modern railway tracks need to be able to bear the loads from rail vehicles via the rails, rail seats and sleepers as evenly as possible and distribute such to the track superstructure and subgrade. By distributing these loads sufficiently, stresses on the superstructure elements can be kept as low as possible, helping to minimise maintenance expenses and thus increase the operating life of the track system.

Although one can draw on tried and trusted calculation methods, as per Zimmermann for beams on elastic foundation in respect of the load distribution effect, there are limitations when it comes to turnouts. Due to their geometry alone, turnouts are an irregularity which can result in various degrees of rail deflection within different areas, even if other boundary conditions remain unchanged. (more…)

Tagged with: Getzner Werkstoffe GmbH, Harald Loy, Track maintenance & engineering, Turnouts

Improvement of Alstom’s high-speed bogies

Issue 6 2007 / 26 November 2007 /

Alstom’s high-speed bogies are the result of a joint collaboration with SNCF which started some 30 years ago in the frame of the TGV development. From the outset of the TGV development, it appeared that articulated train architecture would be the most suitable solution to satisfy the objectives of safety, comfort and cost-efficiency. Once the general architecture of the trainset was adopted, it was necessary to define the bogie architecture and its main characteristics. (more…)

Tagged with: Alstom, Carriage engineering, France, High-speed rail, Jean-Daniel Nast, SNCF, TGV