New generations, fast-tracked delivery, brand new and modified fleets – train building and upgrading is back on top of the UK rail industry agenda, with speed and capacity as essential design factors. Railnews looks into the latest train fleet developments and weighs up the possible entry of a major new player.

Super Express opens up potential for speed

BRITAIN’S next generation of inter-city trains will be capable of 140mph running, according to technical data released by the Agility Trains consortium.

Agility, the recently announced preferred bidder for the £7.5 million contract to build up to 1,400 Super Express coaches, says the trains would be built to run at 125mph, but capable of 140mph “with minor modifications”.

At present, the maximum speed for UK inter-city services is 125mph. Alstom-built Pendolinos, which operate the West Coast main line services of Virgin Trains, were built to run at 140mph, but plans to raise the line speed to this level were abandoned after upgrade costs soared.

Since then talks have been held between Virgin Trains and Network Rail about raising the line limit to 135mph over some sections of the route.

International Eurostar services can already run at 186 mph over High Speed 1 and, from the summer, Southeastern domestic services using Hitachi-built Class 395 electric trains over the route will be able to reach 140mph.

Introduction of Super Express is likely to coincide with major infrastructure investment along key routes, including possible electrification of much of the Great Western main line and possible line speed improvements, which could take advantage of the potential higher top speed of the new trains.

Agility is set to supply 26 metre-long coaches – 13 per cent longer than current inter-city trains – with faster acceleration, enabling up to 15 minutes to be shaved off journey times between London and other major cities without an increase in maximum line speeds.

The first new Super Express trains are due to enter service on the East Coast main line in 2013, with full services linking London with Leeds, Hull, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh, and with the Thames Valley, Bristol and South Wales two years later.

Also, the Government has an option to procure Super Ex-press trains for long-distance services between London Paddington, Exeter and Penzance, as well as for commuter services between London Euston and Northampton.

Adelantes kick off open access TOC’s fourth daily service

TWO 125mph five-car Class 180 Adelante diesel trains are to join Grand Central’s fleet of High Speed Trains following the signing of a lease with Angel Trains.

The deal follows ORR confirmation of the open access operator’s firm rights to run a fourth daily return service between Sunderland and London King’s Cross from summer.

Grand Central managing director Tom Clift said: “We are very pleased to have concluded negotiations with Angel Trains to lease these trains, which are key to our extra services between the Durham coast, Teesside, North Yorkshire and London.

“These are set to create more journey opportunities for existing and potential customers.”

Modifications push up Class 315 reliability

A NUMBER of fleet modifications combined with more robust monitoring and reporting of faults have significantly improved the reliability of National Express East Anglia’s Class 315 electric trains during the past year.

In a comprehensive programme of upgrading, high intensity discharge headlights, door control units and public address systems have been improved, along with reliability of the trains’ main compressors, associated equipment and electrical relays.

Also, reviewed and better managed stores procedures at Ilford depot, east London, are ensuring ready availability of components to speed repair.

DFT plans first automated London commuter trains

THE Department for Trans-port has revealed plans for automatically operated Thameslink trains to cope with a hugely increased intensive service through central London from 2012 – a first for the UK’s national rail network.

The next generation of trains due to enter service in three years’ time for the expanded Thameslink route will be equipped with Automatic Train Operation, says a report.
But the trains will have drivers at the controls at all times and will only be switched to automatic during the critical central London part of the new route.

Drivers will operate train doors and oversee safety, but leave the driving of the train to computers and high-tech signalling equipment. Manual driving would resume beyond central London.

Introduction of ATO on the Thameslink route, currently operated by First Capital Connect, would be a first for the UK national rail network.

News of the automated driving system follows last year’s DfT shortlisting of rolling stock manufacturers Alstom, Bombardier, Hitachi and Siemens for the tender to build 1,200 new Thameslink coaches able to accelerate and brake more quickly than the existing fleet.
Bidders are now being invited to comment on the Government’s technical specification – including the automatic driving plans – for the fleet before the detail is finalised.

Various ATO systems are currently used on the Dock-lands Light Railway and the Jubilee and Victoria Tube lines of London Underground, but the technology is untried on the main rail network.

Senior civil servants and rail staff have been forced to consider ATO after it emerged that the Thameslink Programme’s plans for 24 trains an hour through central London were insufficiently robust, and were unlikely to be deliverable for more than a few hours without delays and disruption.

Analysis conducted between last April and November found that punctuality above 93 per cent under the public performance measure could be achieved only with a maximum of 20 trains per hour with conventional driving.

According to the DfT, computer modelling has shown that ATO will deliver around four trains an hour more through the central London corridor than could be achieved reliably with manual driving and conventional signalling.

Its operational challenges include steep gradients, low speed limits and short distances between stations, which require very precise driving to avoid knock-on delays.

As well as dispensing with traditional driving, Thames-link ATO is likely to be the first UK commuter rail adoption of the next generation European Railway Traffic Management System, which replaces traditional trackside signalling with a digital radio-based system.

Network Rail is currently trialling the system on the rural Cambrian Line in Wales, but its implementation on a busy commuter route would be a major test of the technology.

Under plans published by the DfT for consultation, the new Thameslink trains will be fitted with a European Train Control System as part of the ERTMS initiative.

In another first for the national network, they will not be fitted with existing train protection systems such as TPWS and AWS, but run using ETCS Level 0 which interprets the trackside infrastructure of the current systems.

But with completion of Thameslink in 2015, the trains will run with ETCS Level 2 using the new digital system, and no longer require current ‘traffic light’ signals.

Meanwhile, Network Rail will procure separately traffic management, interlocking and radio block centre systems for the Thameslink area that will deliver and respond to ETCS messages, including those developed under the rolling stock contract for Thameslink vehicles.