Recent content by HSTEd

With modern traction motors and drives the limit is likely to be the rating of the transformer on 25kV on electric power. EDIT: To clarify, I mean that the transformer output will limit the output of the train on electric power, not that electric will have lower performance than diesel or...

Of course, purchased at the cost of how much on electrification?

Does that have any real advantage over simply buying more Class 810s once they presumably manage to get this batch working?

Yes, but I'm not aware of anyone having actually built one that light for 25kV single phase. Even the power electronic converters proposed by ABB and others are still substantially heavier than 35kW/kg.

The bridge replacement will likely have been paid for years ago, there would no saving from cancellation. Even survey work was likely contracted an awful long time ago.

The Report titled ' Continuing investment in HS2 Phase 1: accounting officer assessment (October 2023)" released by the government. They put the BCR for continuing with HS2 Phase 1 at that time, rather than cancelling and securing the sites for abandonment at between 1.1 and 1.8. That falls...

This is a commonly cited argument in the documents yes. Although as a Nuclear Engineer, its worth noting that the existing site will force a "no retreat" defence of the complex for a century for decommissioning under current plans. So not sure its a particularly strong argument.

It is also entirely possible that the MML electrification project was pursued primarily as a matter of political signalling rather than on the basis of hard economics. Or that cost assumptions have changed significantly since then and altered the arithmetic.

That was Lord Adonis, who cooked up this scheme during Labour's damacene conversion to high speed rail (which happened about the time it became obvious they had no chance of winning in 2010..... funny that). Most of the decisions taken that have led to this debacle were taken 15 years ago. It...

The static pantograph charging current in the relevant standards is apparently 80A, or a nominal 2MW per pantograph. Obviously there will be no standing wave effects in the catenary if the train is stationary, so conceptually you could raise any and all pantographs present on the train. I think...

Cynically, have you got a better way to get people to not be upset about disruption? Even if the project is dead, it has only officially been "paused", which means any work that needs doing can be claimed to be part of it.

As far as I know it is. However government policy on nuclear changes like the weather. so who knows. Bradwell et al may make a return, and I like to annoy people by calling Moorside Calder Hall B!

The only way I can see the Dungeness branch gettinga ny traffic at all is if the government changes its mind and approves a Dungeness C power plant. Even then it would only be a handful of years of construction traffic.

The cost of moving any large portion of this traffic to rail would swamp the solution of implementing the eHighway system on the trunk road network. As proposed a couple of years ago by the academic centre for sustainable road freight. 7500 two-way kilometres of road electrification for...

Do you have room for a diesel tnak that can be filled by a lorry delivery? Once liquid fuel demand starts falling radically (within a decade it will start falling about 5-6% per annum), it may become physically difficult to obtain retail quantities of diesel in many places. Diesel will last...