Who named the Azuma by the way?
VTEC marketing. I'm sure it was thoroughly focus grouped tested in all key markets
Who named the Azuma by the way?
Since my last post, I still haven't had an answer to the question I asked, other than "contracts and money". Why is the difference between the train going at 100 mph and 125 mph on diesel so significant?
Claire Perry claim confidently that gWr won't have to raise ticket prices to pay the leasing cost of these trains?
I would also be very careful about reading too much into the current GWR lease charges being low. This is because they do (mostly) their own L5 on the HST fleet, which consequently don't appear in the lease cost line.
What calculations has your department done to make Claire Perry claim confidently that gWr won't have to raise ticket prices to pay the leasing cost of these trains? Seeing how expensive the leasing costs are you must have done some calculations or made certain assumptions for her to make that claim so confidently.
Even BR charged extra premiums for new/faster trains on the WCML and ECML when they were electrified (which we continue to pay today).
Trains
GWR’s 16 mile long IEP ‘test track’, between Reading and Didcot has top priority. It should have been energised in September last year Energisation and is now scheduled for September this year.
There’s a chart in the column showing the build-up to the 50 IEP daily diagrams in the IEP contract, which leaves something in hand ahead of the 2018 timetable. The first five car bi-mode diagrams become available in June 2017.
Because of the delays to energisation DfT has taken the decision in principle to issue a variation order to Agility Trains West, the train service provider, to deliver GWR’s 21 Class 801 electric multiple units as bi-modes.
Cost
As of now, £2.8 billion, is still the official Anticipated Final Cost (AFC). This is at current prices. While the Treasury is biting the bullet on GWEP, significant cost reduction is essential if electrification schemes are to survive ordeal by Benefit: Cost Analysis in future. GWEP know this and a lot of work is being done on value engineering and improving installation efficiency.
Last week, there were two Virgin events, the catch-up dinner for the railway press mentioned last month plus the launch for the Virgin East Coast IEP fleet at Kings’ Cross. The Virgin livery certainly enhances the IEP’s lines. I was amused by the ‘credits panel’ on the side of the nose which included ‘DfT’.
The big topic at both the dinner and the livery launch was what Virgin can do about the ‘outer-suburban’ interiors which I saw in the GWR IEP at North Pole Depot. Defensive Virgin managers jump in to claim that, unlike GWR, they at least have argued a buffet bar out of DfT.
But they know we are talking about rock hard seats packed into 26m long drab tubes. Coincidentally, also at the Cross was Virgin’s first refurbished IC225 set. And while I think the leather trimmed seats in First Class are a bit ‘boy racer’ compared with GWR’s gentlemanly ‘Jaguar’, getting passengers to see IEP as an upgrade within the constraints imposed by DfT won’t be easy.
While the Treasury is biting the bullet on GWEP, significant cost reduction is essential if electrification schemes are to survive ordeal by Benefit: Cost Analysis in future. GWEP know this and a lot of work is being done on value engineering and improving installation efficiency.
I'd like to think that the places they will be sitting stationary for any length of time will have semi-decent security measures to keep the ne're-do-wells at bay.
There's around 1100 single track kilometres planned for electrification in CP6, CP7 and CP8 (announced in the latest Rolling Stock Group publication).
Benefit:Cost Analysis is a laugh too - there's a lot of projects out there where the BCR has been low and schemes have been progressed, similarly, sensible BCR ratios have been blown out of the water by the "built it and they will come" model. Borders Rail, Ebbw Vale, Airdrie to Bathgate, Vale of Glamorgan and we're just waiting to see how successful electric services in the North West are, what sort of boost they're providing to passenger numbers.
And what is CP 6 etc. I don't employ people that say Q1 etc, so explain it.
Since you asked so nicely.
Network Rails delivery plans are broken into 5 year chunks (known as Control Periods). We are in CP5 at the moment which runs from April 2014-2019, CP6 runs from April 2019-2024 etc.
I'm a mere signalman so I expect someone like PHILIP PHLOPP can explain to far better than I!
Where can this be found?
Since you asked so nicely.
Network Rails delivery plans are broken into 5 year chunks (known as Control Periods). We are in CP5 at the moment which runs from April 2014-2019, CP6 runs from April 2019-2024 etc.
I'm a mere signalman so I expect someone like PHILIP PHLOPP can explain to far better than I!
Then there's the Bowe (or was it Shaw) report which recommends taking long-term projects like electrification out of the Control Period cycle completely, and funded like Crossrail.
Meanwhile, we are very dependent on the next CP6 cycle continuing the funding for these schemes. That is due to kick off mid-2017 with the HLOS.
We just have to hope government finances don't implode before then.
Andrew Adonis's National Infrastructure Commission will also have a role to play - he is a big supporter, having authorised GW and NW electrification when in office.
Then there's the Bowe (or was it Shaw) report which recommends taking long-term projects like electrification out of the Control Period cycle completely, and funded like Crossrail.
Meanwhile, we are very dependent on the next CP6 cycle continuing the funding for these schemes. That is due to kick off mid-2017 with the HLOS.
We just have to hope government finances don't implode before then.
Andrew Adonis's National Infrastructure Commission will also have a role to play - he is a big supporter, having authorised GW and NW electrification when in office.
PS No sooner had I written this, than DfT and NR issued a Memorandum of Understanding on the delivery of enhancements: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...45/mou-dft-network-rail-rail-enhancements.pdf
It doesn't discuss specific projects, but it does post a clear way ahead for things like electrification to be outside the CP process, and driven by a Business Case.
This is now very off-topic, sorry.
Cost benefit analysis is a nonsense because it rests on too many shaky assumptions.Increasingly convinced that BCR is a tool used by Civil Servants and Council Officers to sink projects they don't like or make politically unpopular projects impossible to not support. Fudge the assessment and away we go!
Meanwhile, back to the subject of this thread. Can anyone tell me please how far along the testing of the class 800's are at all please?
Is there likely to be testing done on the GWML between London and Oxford before the end of this year?
Meanwhile, back to the subject of this thread. Can anyone tell me please how far along the testing of the class 800's are at all please?
Is there likely to be testing done on the GWML between London and Oxford before the end of this year?
Yea sure buddy. GWR have their Class 800 testing done at Old Dalby and frequently run overnight testing runs of these between Old Dalby and Doncaster. Virgin will have similar done when Old Dalby is free and has the room to accomodate more testing. Most of the Class 800 testing is done under diesel power at the moment but once this is completed, the electric testing will most certainly commence. As for testing on the GWML, well an update to the electrification plans recently suggests that it may well be quite a while before any Class 800 units are tested on the GWML under electric power, and since diesel testing is already being undertaken at Old Dalby, the amount of Class 800 testing on the GWML looks very minimal for the forseeable future.
Has the Newton aycliffe factory assembled any trains yet?
K
Yea sure buddy. GWR have their Class 800 testing done at Old Dalby and frequently run overnight testing runs of these between Old Dalby and Doncaster. Virgin will have similar done when Old Dalby is free and has the room to accomodate more testing. Most of the Class 800 testing is done under diesel power at the moment but once this is completed, the electric testing will most certainly commence. As for testing on the GWML, well an update to the electrification plans recently suggests that it may well be quite a while before any Class 800 units are tested on the GWML under electric power, and since diesel testing is already being undertaken at Old Dalby, the amount of Class 800 testing on the GWML looks very minimal for the forseeable future.
As far as I know, none have been manufactured at the facility just yet but some may be in the process of being made, only Hitachi employees would know.
Upcoming Hitachi milestones:
February 2016 – Recruitment stepped up with about 20 people joining every week and testing begins on the first two completed carriages.
Summer 2016 – First full train completed at Newton Aycliffe rolls out of the facility for further testing.
Summer 2017 – First train enters service on the Great Western Main Line.