theageofthetra
On Moderation
- Joined
- 27 May 2012
- Messages
- 3,510
Of courseThe restriction is between The spur and Petts Wood Jn.
Of courseThe restriction is between The spur and Petts Wood Jn.
The competition has been cancelled, therefore neither will get the franchise. It’s heavily implied in press releases that it’ll be some kind of management contract for Govia or OLR. My best guess is that it’ll be OLR as that will be the easiest way to implement any changes from the Williams Review.i wouldn't mind having the networkers replaced with FLIRT variants should Abello get the franchise in April (unless DfT goes the LNER route)
An "Operator of Last Resort", also known as "Going to public ownership."who or what is OLR?
The competition has been cancelled, therefore neither will get the franchise. It’s heavily implied in press releases that it’ll be some kind of management contract for Govia or OLR. My best guess is that it’ll be OLR as that will be the easiest way to implement any changes from the Williams Review.
TfL can't afford to. SE metro is to big for them to take on given their current finances and other investments they need to make.It seems to me that the Government wants to make an example out of the SE in order to get the TOC operating efficiently. The government is under pressure from both trade unions and passengers alike to go back into public ownership and they hired Keith Williams as an external source to create a document probably implying to keep the railway in private ownership, whilst instilling principals from the British Rail days. The Government are also looking into why TFL runs the tube effectively. Don't be surprised if we begin to hear talk about TFL potentially trying to take over part or all of SE.
Whats' this?Some 50 new jobs are set to be created in Ashford after councillors approved plans for a new light maintenance train depot at Chart Leacon.
Planning committee members last week backed Network Rail's application for the former Bombardier Transportation Ltd site in Beaver Lane, which has stood empty for more than five years.
Southeastern trains displaced from the town's Hitachi depot as a result of the £7 billion Thameslink programme will be housed at the new stabling yard – in short, a place to park trains between uses.
Agent Leonie Oliva explained at last Wednesday's meeting: "This [facility] must be in Ashford to provide the most sustainable and effective operational arrangement.
"A failure to provide an appropriate long-term solution for the displaced Southeastern trains would compromise the ability to provide a punctual, clean and efficient service on routes across Kent.
"This is not something any rail user would want to see happen.
"As such, the stabling is a vital piece of infrastructure."
The development will see existing buildings demolished and replaced with an office for approximately 50 employees, 36 parking spaces, and changes to the five siding tracks.
Only the sidings are earmarked for development by Network Rail, with the rest of the site set to remain mothballed.
But the decision is likely to be challenged by the landowner after it claimed not to have been consulted by Network Rail, nor have compulsory purchase order proceedings been lodged by the public body.
A letter from Bellamile Limited's lawyers reads: "Bellamile has no intention of permitting Network Rail's development to proceed on its land without first exhausting all of its legal rights and challenge options as site owners."
But the planning committee was told the threat of a legal challenge should not influence the decision of whether to grant planning permission, and councillors unanimously supported the application.
Council leader and non-voting member Cllr Gerry Clarkson (Con) added: "It is absolutely essential these are brought back into use, and it does provide those engineering jobs for predominantly local people."
Whats' this?
Southeastern trains displaced from the town's Hitachi depot as a result of the £7 billion Thameslink programme will be housed at the new stabling yard – in short, a place to park trains between uses.
TfL can't afford to. SE metro is to big for them to take on given their current finances and other investments they need to make.
Bombardier Transportation Ltd site in Beaver Lane to create 50 new jobs
09 August 2019
https://www.kentonline.co.uk/ashford/news/railway-depot-plans-to-create-50-jobs-210154/
Abellio wasn't going with Flirts...i wouldn't mind having the networkers replaced with FLIRT variants should Abello get the franchise in April (unless DfT goes the LNER route)
TfL can't afford to. SE metro is to big for them to take on given their current finances and other investments they need to make.
Even if TfL took over the Metro routes, that wouldn't solve the rest of the Southeastern franchise. TfL are broke anyway, so it's not as if they'd suddenly be able to magically improve services and stations
The so called delays/extensions could give them the time to locate the resources..... its not an impossible task.... its only a theory by the way.... it might not even be TFL it could be another company entirely?
Bombardier owned it post privatisation (they did overhauls there) and then sold it on 5 years ago. The new owner was presumably hoping to get some non-rail use approved by the council at some point but hasn't done anything with it.The article says Network Rail need to compulsorily purchase the site and the landowner is challenging this. I thought this was a former railway works site too. Was it a works site that was sold off prematurely and Network Rail now realise they need to site back - or is the site needed adjacent to the rail works and therefore needs to be compulsorily purchased?
TfL are operating incredibly close to their borrowing limit so no room for manoeuvre there.The so called delays/extensions could give them the time to locate the resources..... its not an impossible task.... its only a theory by the way.... it might not even be TFL it could be another company entirely?
Splitting would also increase the total cost of the operations vs today.It's elegant in principle to split out Metro and devolve to TfL, but there are deep interworkings between Metro and long-distance, with the most obvious being conflicting junction movements at places like Lewisham and platforming at London Terminii, never mind the complicated service pattern in particular in the peak. That's not to say a formal split would be impossible but I think it would take at least 2 years to complete, which may be what the DfT / Post-Williams world decides to do starting April 2020.
SE Metro is about 90% of the size of the combined current LO operations and future full Crossrail operations combined. (With the extra stock needed it would move to about 95%...)
The TfL plan (unlike DfT's) appears to be minimal investment in trains in the short /medium term but recast timetables to improve utilisation a bit, but go big on fare collection (gating and enforcement) in a big revenue push. With the original 2016 plans TfL were hoping for a dowry from DfT which just wasn't going to happen.
Nope, just some 375/377s that currently berth in the sidings adjacent to the Hitachi depot will need somewhere else to berth overnight, nothing more to it than that.wait, does this mean the 395s have been evicted from their depot? or is this a different Ashford depot?
The sort of investment seen on the original LO network and on the West Anglia routes which has been so successful in increasing ridership (and therefore presumably raising revenue) can't have been cheap!
I'd argue that LO has done very little for West Anglia (apart from shiny uniforms and some new signage) and WA ridership was already high. They made some things worse, such as communicating service issues. New trains would have come regardless as the 315s were expired.
'Overgrounding' a route isn't a magic wand and won't automatically make things better. The old Silverlink routes, however, we're in total agreement on. Maybe the difference is that TfL had a lot more money 10 years ago, and Silverlink were pretty much the rock bottom so the only way was up for TfL.
I think TfL would be way in over their heads if they tried to take on the Southeasten operation in their present state.
It's elegant in principle to split out Metro and devolve to TfL, but there are deep interworkings between Metro and long-distance, with the most obvious being conflicting junction movements at places like Lewisham and platforming at London Terminii, never mind the complicated service pattern in particular in the peak. That's not to say a formal split would be impossible but I think it would take at least 2 years to complete, which may be what the DfT / Post-Williams world decides to do starting April 2020.
DfT have done that in the past - see the Southern starting 10 years ago in the '09-14 franchise. Its cost a lot so have to be done early in franchise so a return on investment can be seen. The Problems is that SE have being on continual direct awards and extensions so does happen, brake that cycle and ...So many here seem to think financial issues today cannot change. A spending review easily can change the game. The DfT is as much a financial messmas TfL right now.
The biggest argument for TfL is that after taking over Abbey Wood there was an immediate 50% increase in counted passenger numbers.
Queue the "but DfT can do that" except they never do.
TfL are operating incredibly close to their borrowing limit so no room for manoeuvre there.