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Levenmouth rail link to reopen: project updates
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It would appear that the trains that have run in the last week, including one formed of two HST power cars, have been to test the signalling. One of the two Facebook pages (https://www.facebook.com/LevenmouthRail/) says that this has been completed, the signalling has now been commissioned and driver training will follow.
The other Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Levenmouthbuildingarailway) has aerial photos showing that work the steel structure of the elliptical station building at Leven is well advanced, and that the temporary bridge over the river (left over from the Bawbee bridge reconstruction) has been retracted from over the river and will soon be removed from the site.
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Dfatcontroller
Member
The powercars visiting will also be Driver Training for Colas for the Infrastructure monitoring services having to cover this branch too.
norbitonflyer
Established Member
I have to go to that area on February 9th for a funeral. Any news on whether it will be open in time for me to go there by train?
H&I
Member
Sorry for your loss. This article says the official opening will be at the beginning of June:
Milestone as first passenger train in 54 years leaves Leven railway station
The move marked the beginning of driver training ahead of the line's official opening later this year.
www.thecourier.co.uk
It looks like they are still doing driver training on the line.
Waverleystu
Member
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Is the electrification infrastructure getting put up before the opening? Surely better to have in place before opening to save on future closures albeit it wouldn’t be going live for a few years
No. Many of the mast foundations are in place (perhaps all of them but I haven't seen any confirmation of that) but no masts, let alone the knitting.
For a long time press releases kept saying the project included electrification, then some time last year they stopped doing so. It was frequently commented on here that it would be a mistake to put up the wires before there was anything to enliven them, but then they must have decided to not do even the masts yet. Cashflow problems are dreadful right now.
Very little has been heard about Thornton feeder station which is one of the six around central Scotland contracted in 2022. A question in the Scottish parliament got an answer saying it will not be ready before 2025. Maybe even that is optimistic as it won't be much use until some wiring is done on the routes radiating from Thornton.
Waverleystu
Member
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Yes I can’t find any info on the electrification now and I’m guessing with the electrification up to Dalmeny shelved for the foreseeable and no sign of BEMU’s on order that Leven won’t see masts or wires in this decade but you never know!
East Kilbride will be finished by the end of 2025 and I will be very disappointed if there isn't something to follow on from it, most likely Haymarket-Dalmeny or Fife (or Borders).
If I was a betting man, I would put money on the branch getting wired around 2027/8.
I’m not so optimistic. People are saying rail battery technology is a few years away from being mature enough to buy. If that’s the case and given the time it will take to procure and build them I’m not confident we’ll see BEMU’s entering service this decade.
Are they ?
If we’re talking about the 230’s then they’re barely in service / functional, struggling to get 1 out 5 working per day. If we’re on about the 398’s or 756’s then they’re not in service yet.
Charged up
Member
The forward thinking folk at Merseyrail are pressing on with new battery powered fleets which don't require full OHL installation - if only we had such radical thinking in Scotland lines such as Leven, East Kilbride and Borders could have DMUs off leased well before expensive wires appear!
Publicly-owned Class 777 trains now running on all on Merseyrail lines
The last line on Merseyrail saw its first Class 777 trains enter public service as new publicly-owned trains began running between Hunts Cross and Southport.
www.railadvent.co.uk
Trainbike46
Established Member
Scotland's plan wasn't that different; use OHLE (or 3rd rail for merseyrail) at key locations to charge BEMUs. The difference is that in Scotland a lot of those key locations don't have overhead wires yet, and therefore things like the electrification spanning out from Thornton are neededThe forward thinking folk at Merseyrail are pressing on with new battery powered fleets which don't require full OHL installation - if only we had such radical thinking in Scotland lines such as Leven, East Kilbride and Borders could have DMUs off leased well before expensive wires appear!
Publicly-owned Class 777 trains now running on all on Merseyrail lines
The last line on Merseyrail saw its first Class 777 trains enter public service as new publicly-owned trains began running between Hunts Cross and Southport.
Merseyrail have them in service on the Headbolt Lane route. Not been smooth sailing, but given those and the 756s which will be in service this year it seems ambitious to claim that they're a technology which is years away. The 230s have been a disappointment whatever traction they've been equipped with, so they aren't a great example of how the technology is or isn't doing
NotATrainspott
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The Merseyrail project isn't comparable. The batteries on the 777 fleet are really just to allow incremental extensions of existing electrified Merseyrail services, but without the regulatory complexity of new third rail installations. The most direct analogy I can think of for Headbolt Lane is the Drumgelloch extension from Airdrie, but that was solved fairly easily by reusing OHLE equipment cut back from the Balloch branch.
What ScotRail needs is a fleet of 38x-alike regional BEMUs suitable for replacing 170s on commuter routes around Edinburgh. These will need a much larger battery, unless the government can also commit to getting a lot more electrification installed. Installing that OHLE will take time, and in that time the BEMU technology will improve.
The industry as a whole, across the world, is best off finding opportunities for incremental improvements like the Merseyrail projects and using them for BEMU trials. As technologies are proven and come to market, they can be used to solve larger and larger problems. In the meantime, the correct thing for governments to do is to invest in the electrical grid connections that will be needed anyway.
What ScotRail needs is a fleet of 38x-alike regional BEMUs suitable for replacing 170s on commuter routes around Edinburgh. These will need a much larger battery, unless the government can also commit to getting a lot more electrification installed. Installing that OHLE will take time, and in that time the BEMU technology will improve.
The industry as a whole, across the world, is best off finding opportunities for incremental improvements like the Merseyrail projects and using them for BEMU trials. As technologies are proven and come to market, they can be used to solve larger and larger problems. In the meantime, the correct thing for governments to do is to invest in the electrical grid connections that will be needed anyway.
The Merseyrail project may not be comparable but Austria and Germany have mainline 80km range BEMUs running today in service, Japan has BEMU units of various sizes from a 'donkey' battern on some High-Speed units to metro and regional units, while France is in proof-of-concept stage for batteries and Ireland are ordering BEMUs for the DART.
It's a BEMU and it's running. I was just correcting that. I'd be more than happy to see more wires, but it's not really possible to sniff away the whole existence of battery technology.
When I said I wasn’t confident about seeing BEMUs entering service this decade I should have said 'in Scotland’. I had just been reading some chat on the East Kilbride/Barrhead Enhancements thread suggesting that Transport Scotland would hold off buying BEMUs for a few years as rail battery technology 'isn't there yet'.
According to post #615 in this thread, the long-awaited Scotland decarbonisation strategy "Refresh" and rolling stock plan update are to be published within a month.
Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
Is your crystal ball working well today, as there had only been 473 postings on this thread, prior to this one.
I think you've missed the fact that 'this thread' in the post you quoted is hyperlinked to a different thread.
Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
My eyesight at 78 years of age must have missed it, as all the type looked the same to me...
I've thought before that it's a pity that the board is set up to distinguish links only by a dark shade of blue (and on a pale blue background at that!). I would have preferred either a more contrasting colour such as red, or or for links to be underlined as well.
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Yes, it's why I tend to put 'here: <Link>' when I remember to do so, although I quite often forget.
There’s an article in this months Modern Railways about the 777s which references the battery range. Whilst the manufacturer claims 50km+, the operator thinks only 20km (just 12 miles) is more realistic in average operational conditions. So we’re still a distance away from BEMUs being the answer.
Brissle Girl
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I saw that and thought it’s quite an extreme example of range anxiety.