ERTMS Live and working

[brianthegiant]

thanks Meroddlliw - good tip. Nicolas Bourne now being lobbied also, have had a keen response from members of Machynlleth's car share club, who are keen on sustainable travel.

 

[merlodlliw]

thanks Meroddlliw - good tip. Nicolas Bourne now being lobbied also, have had a keen response from members of Machynlleth's car share club, who are keen on sustainable travel.

Best of luck, I hope all those Mach rail men and prospective rail men have also lobbied.

BTW Brian ensure it is someone living within Mid Wales who asks for a written question to be put by Nick Bourne, PM me if you want a form of wording for this.

M

 

[Beveridges]

Anyone know when we will know when the WAG make the decision on funding the hourly service, and more importantly, if they decide to go ahead with it, when the grant would be given to ATW? Are we still looking at January 2011?
Thanks for keeping me up-to-date so far with the news. Without this forum I would have no idea whats going on, and have heard absolutely nothing from ATW since July about it. To give an idea how long I've been waiting, the Cambrian job I'm "on hold" for was advertised in December 2009 with an original proposed start date of March 2010. They then put it back to April, then May/June, then after that it became "completely unknown".

 

[merlodlliw]

I like Gareth have my ears on the ground,I have no idea when a date will be given for starting or delaying the hourly service.

The only way you will find out is to lobby your A.M. and M.P,however the listed A.Ms of non Lab/plaid (Tory & Lib) will usually be more active in asking questions. A written question will usually also get an off the cuff chat as well.
Have you involved your local paid area Rail Relation officer.

Look at the all Wales plan, quote it, if you don't lobby you will be left in limbo,have you attended your A.Ms/M.Ps local surgery to ask outright?

by very active lobbying using A.Ms/M.Ps/press/passengers & others we have achieved

1. Reinstatement of Sundays only 2204 Chester to Wrexham service,cancelled by ATW for use of stock eleswhere.

2.Getting Wrexham Station bays funded for W/S services, £1M, when WAG
originally voted it out in favour of another area, 50 jobs locally gained.

3.Getting the Minister to confirm Wrexham/Chester double track funding is still in place along with Gowerton.

If little or no interest is shown by passengers in the hourly service, it will be left as a dream. The Minister as ensured his favourites have got funding,£2M for one years extension of Gerald(Wagexpress) & £4.8M for another 4 years of Wagair. Thats £6M plus for your area gone in a stroke of madness. Note to this Geralds subsidy up from £1.7M to £2M & Wagair up 50% to £1,2M a year. Plus another £400K a year paid for the civilian terminal at Valley by WAG(this was disclosed today)

Remember you only have a week left before WAG A.Ms have their month off.
some of the above I know is repetitive, but use the info to remind them.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/w...r-attack-over-elitist-service-91466-27768753/

M

 

[brianthegiant]

Best of luck, I hope all those Mach rail men and prospective rail men have also lobbied.M

quite a few rail women in Mach also

this from mick bates so far:

Dear Mr ,

Thank you for your email regarding the hourly service on the Cambrian
Line. I met with Network Rail two weeks ago and with Arriva Trains
today to discuss this matter and I understand and share your concerns.

I have drafted a letter to the Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones which I aim to
have signed by cross party Assembly Members, asking for clarification of
the train timetable, implications for staff and carriages and a
timescale for development.

I will forward a copy of the letter once signed by the selection of AMs
and will send on a copy of the response once received.

Regards,

Mick Bates
Assembly Member for Montgomeryshire
Aelod Cynulliad dros Sir Drefaldwyn
A National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff Bay, CF99 1NA

 

[brianthegiant]

Nick Bourne AM has also written to the deputy first minister (& minister for transport & economy)

Response directly from Ieuan Wyn Jones scretary directly so far regardgin "hourly peak-time service" is that the "minister is currently considering the detailed implications of the draft budget and will be making an announcement in due course"

anyone else had any responses from other AMs etc?

 

[merlodlliw]

quite a few rail women in Mach also

this from mick bates so far:

Dear Mr ,

Thank you for your email regarding the hourly service on the Cambrian
Line. I met with Network Rail two weeks ago and with Arriva Trains
today to discuss this matter and I understand and share your concerns.

I have drafted a letter to the Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones which I aim to
have signed by cross party Assembly Members, asking for clarification of
the train timetable, implications for staff and carriages and a
timescale for development.

I will forward a copy of the letter once signed by the selection of AMs
and will send on a copy of the response once received.

Regards,

Mick Bates
Assembly Member for Montgomeryshire
Aelod Cynulliad dros Sir Drefaldwyn
A National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff Bay, CF99 1NA

Good it can not be swept under the carpet,please put the response up,I knew Mick Bates would wake up when Nich Bourne was involved.

It does pay to lobby, we have won many a battle.

 

[Gareth Marston]

The AM for Ceredigion is Elin Jones a Minister so cant be seen to lobby in public. I'm told by sources within Plaid in Ceredigion that "I know for definite that the political will is there with Plaid".

The 2 regional list members for Mid & West that are Labour are both Pembrokeshire and have been little heard of.

The way the transport cookie crumbles will be dependent on whether they ditch the big cost line the dualling of the A465 between Gilwern and Brynmawr and Dowlais and Hirwuan. A mountain dual carriage that's along the route of the LNWR's mountain line between Abergavenney Junction and Merthyr - well worth looking it up in the history books a "duplicate" line born of competition to get access to coal and heavy industry markets in the Valleys by taking it out the top rather than down the valley. The road though has support in Plaid and Labour.

 

[fairlie]

I see there are half hour delays at Porthmadog today because of weather-related signalling problems. Is ERTMS not snow-proof?

 

[talltim]

You cant have 'portable' ERTMS as far as im aware - for one thing the equipment box is the size of a fridge with a healthy apetite for electricity! There are options being explored to allow the Cambriam steam trips however.

Chris

Why is it so big? Surely at the end of the day its just a radio, computer and screen?

 

[the-gog]

Why is it so big? Surely at the end of the day its just a radio, computer and screen?

I don't why it's so big, it just is. This gives you some idea of what the kit inside the 97/3s fitted with it is like:

http://class.trains.railways.fotopic.net/p59905376.html

And remember, those are 19" racks.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I see there are half hour delays at Porthmadog today because of weather-related signalling problems. Is ERTMS not snow-proof?

NR had been crowing that the kit is more weather-resistant than standard signalling kit, and even survived being submerged under water at Dovey Junction when that flooded.

They had problems last Friday with ERTMS. Services up the coast were running 1hr 15m or so late. Heard that one train was stuck at Minffordd but got moving again. The 2J15 off Mach got to Harlech on time but left 27 late. It got into Pwllheli 65 late. Won't it be so much fun when they switch it on for the entire Cambrian system?...

 

[The Planner]

Points failure at Porthmadog apparently, no normal detection on points 5034 only reverse.

 

[talltim]

I don't why it's so big, it just is. This gives you some idea of what the kit inside the 97/3s fitted with it is like:

http://class.trains.railways.fotopic.net/p59905376.html

And remember, those are 19" racks.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Just under half of them appear to be blanking plates.
I suspect that the quantities required for a national rollout would make it cost effective to do the development to reduce the size.

 

[Gareth Marston]

Just under half of them appear to be blanking plates.
I suspect that the quantities required for a national rollout would make it cost effective to do the development to reduce the size.

The noises that have come out are that NR is not keen to retrofit the kit following the troubles with the 158's. They'd rather have ertms kit installed in new trains where they've deigned the space for it. As we all the know the chances of new trains plus having a line exclusively run by new trains is as likely as hell freezing over puts question marks on ERTMS ever being rolled out nationally. I'm sure someone out there in NR has done the brainwork - anything with less than 15 years life in it will be deemed uneconomic to install, even coinciding it with say GWML electrification will be problematic due to the large number of types of stock that will still ply the route.

 

[starrymarkb]

The size will reduce though, consider that some mobile phones now boast a 1 GHz processor. I suspect with that being test kit, its going to be modular for swapping components in and out!

As I understood it the main issue with the 158s (and potentially other sprinters) has been space for the cab displays (ERTMS uses a glass cockpit where the instruments are displayed on a screen rather then physical dials)

As for mixed traffic, just use ETCS Level I on shared sections, Stuff with ERTMS kit uses the cab displays. Other Traffic uses the classic signals.

I think the next major installation will be HS1 for the ICEs, ETCS is overlaid on TVM on LGV Est for them.

 

[Chris125]

The next major installation is the GWML isnt it? Coinciding with electrification presumably.