Recent content by David Bullock

There’s a footnote in the ORR policy document linked earlier that says that despite the 3rd rail network being half the size of the AC network it is responsible for 8 times more fatalities/injuries according to the RSSB

The problem with all of these proposals, apart from building eastern leg in full, is that the focus seems to be entirely on reducing journey times to london. The main benefit of the eastern leg would be dramatically improved connections to Sheffield and the East and West Midlands from leeds...

HGVs still wont be electric and you can still make a solid argument for HS2 on released freight capacity, modal shift from domestic aviation and the traffic calming caused through the increased capacity on urban transport. Not to mention that battery production for EVs is very carbon intensive...

Even a carbon intensive railway is more environmentally friendly than road vehicles. The objective is to drive modal shift away from cars, having zero emissions at the point of use is an added bonus. This modal shift can only be achieved with the capacity that HS2 enables both in terms of extra...

I was on an Azuma about a week ago which was stuck on diesel from Harrogate through to Retford. We changed to electric at Retford but had to slow to a crawl in order to do so, not a complete stop though.

Not having HS2 or NPR properly really messes up a lot of the leeds metro plans for a few reasons. 1) no released capacity towards Dewsbury/Huddersfield, Wakefield and Garforth/York. So it would be impossible to have metro style frequencies. 2) the additional platforms that were part of the...

I’ve definitely been on trains which have managed 28 minutes in service with one stop. I used to travel quite frequently between the north east and Liverpool and we’d very often arrive up to six minutes early into Liverpool.

I don’t think it would be acceptable for the leeds trains to be slowed down, or for their frequency not to be increased. More all stations stoppers would be good, but if the train is full from Leeds then it wouldn’t be much use anyway (they are full from leeds for much of the day in 2021, let...

I think that’s pretty much the only way to achieve those frequencies between the cities. I think it’s funny that the IRP talks about how much better the ECML upgrade is for places like Newark and Stevenage when they both lose provision under these plans vs what they have today.

I’ve just found the Strategic Alternatives to HS2 document (which is the one that the IRP refers to for some stuff about ECML upgrades). The proposal for their ‘option 1’ - which is an upgrade of the ECML suggests: 140mph for “most of the route” Quadrupling at Welwyn North Grade separation...

I’ve seen 140mph running mentioned in the Northern Echo article on HS2 from this morning. The other interventions mentioned are digital signalling (which was already announced), power supply upgrades (which are already happening) and “getting rid of pinch points” (assuming this means York...

The National Infrastructure Commission estimated 93 minutes on the “prioritising regional links +50%” outcome. Which is the one that builds a new line to East Mids Parkway and some high speed line out of leeds https://nic.org.uk/app/uploads/RNA-Final-Report-15122020.pdf This is the paper I’m...

I think that the only good things that were said in this were about parcels and about standardisation. But parcels can only happen with capacity (I doubt people would be too pleased if half a coach on a packed azuma was carting Amazon stuff around). And standardisation can only happen if people...

Rail has 10ish percent share as a mode of transport, that is to say that 10pc of all journeys are made by rail, not that 10pc of people in general use rail. It’s an important distinction to make but easy to misinterpret

iirc there’s the 7:24 lime st to Edinburgh that still runs to the old timings (i.e no ~10 min wait at Manchester) which is about 15 minutes quicker to the North East than anything else during the day.