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Journey by Journey / London to Didcot, Oxford and Banbury / Re: Disabled access at Cholsey: time for a campaign!
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on: March 06, 2024, 11:20:01
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For stations that aren't accessible, there already *is* a free taxi service to the nearest accessible service. That is how Access for All on the rails works everywhere
The "Access for all" programme is about upgrading station facilities; as that's infrastructure it all goes through Network Rail (though the money comes from the government). The label for operational support is "Passenger Assist", which is a national scheme but implemented and publicised by TOCs▸ individually. GWR▸ describe theirs on their web site, and in the booklet "Making rail Accessible". The relevant bit of text says: We can also give you advice about the trains and stations you want to use, and how accessible they are.
If they’re not accessible for you, our Passenger Assist team will talk you through your journey options and find out what support you need. We aim to ensure that you can make as much of your journey by rail as possible.
However, for those parts of the journey where this is not possible, we will arrange alternative transport that is accessible to you, to the nearest or most convenient accessible station, free of charge.
They are rather vague about what that might involve, no doubt because needs vary so much case by case and they prefer not to create a more specific "right". |
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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture Overseas / Re: At least eleven dead as French TGV test train derails near Strasbourg - 14 November 2015
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on: March 04, 2024, 19:56:06
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Two SNCF▸ employees, including the train’s driver, and one Systra employee will also be on trial, facing maximum sentences of three years in prison and fines of up to €45,000 each.
That's a bit misleading; all three of the people who collectively drove the train are on trial. The reports are not using the same terminology as the BEA-TT report (based on SNCF's documents) either. Those three were the hands-on driver, a driver manager who told him what to do and when, and a Systra engineer who handed over the "script" to the other two and then was meant to monitor the trial and answer technical questions. |
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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture Overseas / Re: At least eleven dead as French TGV test train derails near Strasbourg - 14 November 2015
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on: March 04, 2024, 12:58:31
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As expected, Systra has been mis en examen (roughly charged) and SNCF▸ is expected to follow in a few days. That allows for formal questioning, though how cautioning works with a company I'm not sure.
Finally, with all the urgency we've come to expect of the French legal system, the trial of several bits of SNCF, including Systra, began today. Here from RFI:Trial of deadly 2015 high speed train crash opens in Paris
The French national rail operator, SNCF, along with two of its subsidiaries and three rail workers are due to appear at the Paris criminal court at the start of a two month trial for their role in the accident involving a high speed TGV▸ train on a test run in 2014 that left 11 people dead and 42 injured.
Issued on: 04/03/2024 - 11:53
The SNCF and its subsidiaries Systra and SNCF Réseau are on trial for “injury and involuntary homicide” for the 14 November 2015 accident that killed 11 of the 53 people on board the train and injured everyone else.
The defendants are facing 88 civil parties, including survivors who were not employees, but were on board the train anyway.
The crash occurred near Strasbourg, in eastern France, on what was supposed to be the final test run of the new high-speed line connecting the city with Paris.
The train struck a bridge and derailed, breaking in two as it landed in the Marne-Rhine canal.
Systra, the company responsible for railway tests, is being prosecuted for its decision to try a test speed of 330 kilometres – the train’s upper limit - rather than the 187 kilometre per hour operating speed.
A 2017 investigation that lead to the charges against the defendants concluded the train’s drivers had not received the necessary training to carry out such high-speed tests.
Non-employees on board
The three companies are accused of failing to take precautions to prevent “inappropriate actions of the driving team in terms of braking”.
On board the train were employees as well as their guests, including four children, and one of the questions in the trial is why non-employees were on board.
SNCF and Systra, as the test operators, and the project owner, SNCF Réseau, face fines of up to €225,000 if found guilty in the trial that runs through 16 May.
Two SNCF employees, including the train’s driver, and one Systra employee will also be on trial, facing maximum sentences of three years in prison and fines of up to €45,000 each.
During the investigation, the lawyers for all the defendants suggested that they would be pleading for acquittal. Including the driver in this trial seems particularly harsh, given what he's been through and how responsibility was described in the report as lying mainly with others. No doubt there would have been others but they wel killed in the accident. Mind you, I don't think (without thoroughly revising the subject) the points picked out in that piece are the key ones. They may of course be present in a much longer legal text. |
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Journey by Journey / South Western services / Re: Wokingham resignalling
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on: March 03, 2024, 00:14:08
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“Can anyone explain the relevance of the first photo to a resignalling project?”
The pic of what looks like bank stabilization works does seem irrelevant; probably another example of Network Rail’s Media Contractors’ Reputation Management efforts or should it be mismanagement efforts ?!
True, if that is slope stabilisation work, it does not seem to fit even the track replacement work in the project. But then apart from the two staff recorded at Wokingham Station, the other scenes in the video are not related to the recent work. The level crossing being renewed is Mays crossing in Datchet, and the overhead view is of Wood Lane crossing at Isleworth - done ages ago. For a resignalling project, it did seem a bit odd for 1 km of track replacement to be included. But replacing Wokingham Junction did make sense as resignalling, not just using the blockade for another job. It would not make sense to replace it and to do the motorisation as separate steps. And while it's not obvious how to measure the single track length of a junction, that one is likely to come out as is over 800m. Then there are the two crossovers worked by ground frames, at Bracknell and Blackwater, which have been motorised - and may have been replaced in the process. |
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Journey by Journey / South Western services / Re: Wokingham resignalling
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on: March 02, 2024, 22:56:51
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When I went to have a look on Monday (19th) afternoon, there was a guy with a video camera on a tripod. He turned out to be one of the Basingstoke signallers who does the level crossings! He was promising shorter barrier-down times, suggesting there was a new block, or least a distant signal, on the approach from Crowthorne (though I'm not convinced of that). I would expect the ROC▸ to be quicker than a local signaller, resetting the route for the next train using the lever frame before crossing the box to press the button, especially with ARS▸ . Crossings now have their own signaller, and I was surprised to see that they use a box with lights and switches per crossing, not a patch of a screen. I didn't gather whether this video was for familiarisation and briefing purposes, or whether he was being a railway enthusiast (which he obviously was). I've now found the video on YouTube, where he calls himself M-Train. So if you like watching level crossings operating, he has more like this ... https://youtu.be/7sCDrGmJ5YwHe said the emergency number goes to the relevant signaller, and they get a lot of non-emergency stuff: complaints and insults mainly. I'm surprised there isn't an operator to screen calls in this sort of urban area. We both thought one of the zigzags (the far one in the video) was rather low - perhaps to improve the sighting for drivers? Well, a driver's eye view doesn't support that, what it really shows is how dense the thicket of signs and posts is there. |
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Journey by Journey / South Western services / Re: Wokingham resignalling
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on: March 02, 2024, 22:47:30
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Yellow and white line painting seems to wear very quickly. Is that because of economy and they put down the thinnest layer. I know ones in London which have survived for ages, but I can also feel them when I go over them on the bike.
The main factor is, I'm sure, that there are three main ways of applying these markings (that I've seen used here - and many more I've not). Paint is obviously likely to wear off, and most notably so on plastic surfaces like the level crossing boards (have you tried painting drainpipes?). Then there's the gloop - officially it's a thermoplastic resin - which forms a thick solid layer. This will eventually break up like the road itself, but does seem more durable. I see cold gloop is now available, and lasts even better. When the Wokingham crossing and junction were rearranged in 2015, some of the white lines at the junction were applied as sticky shapes. The process involved preheating the road with as gas torch, then rolling them down. It did not work, and they got lifted up, and stuck down on other markings - which looked really bad, and pretty confusing. |
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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture Overseas / Open access operators in France
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on: March 02, 2024, 16:17:45
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We had news of Railcoop before, trying to set up a worker-owned operator of long-distance regional trains. There are also two groups setting up similar operations but of high-speed trains. All of these are slowly working their way through the required steps: approval by the regulator (ART), negotiation of a track access agreement with SNCF▸ Réseau, raising their starting capital, and signing a deal with a manufacturer to buy the trains (not in that order). Le Train wants to operate in the west of France, linking Nantes with Bordeaux partly on LGVs▸ but not going via Paris. They have a deal with Talgo for ten trains, for delivery by 2025. Kevin Speed (no, really!) aim to do a Lumo, more or less, from Paris to Lille, Strasbourg, and Lyon. The are touting very low prices (down to €3), and targeting frequent travellers with a discount based on recent ussage. They have just announced an access deal with SNCF Réseau, and got a lot of TV coverage from it, but don't have a deal for trains yet. Their trains will be branded "ilisto" - I have no idea why. ("Kevin" has become quite popular as a name in France recently, and has a "popular", as opposed to elitist, image.) |
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Journey by Journey / South Western services / Re: Wokingham resignalling
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on: March 02, 2024, 00:19:28
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Here's how to paint, or rather repaint, a level crossing - not exactly a modern automated process.
First you mark out the lines with a chalky string (p1). I didn't see any careful measuring, so I think they had a plan or image of the crossing, with the pattern drawn onto it. They did some of the white lines and the yellow lines at the ends with hot gloop while I was away. I was told by one of the main contractor's guys that the yellow gloop does not stick to the Strail plastic panels in the centre, but not why the white stuff does.
Putting gloop down obviously involves a degree of skill, using what I gather is called a drawbox (p2). Those Strail panels were done with roll-on paint, following masking with sticky tape (p3). Supposedly that does adhere - but in the final view, from Monday, it's already wearing off (p4).
On Sunday, they were installing new trespass guards after all; they are some kind of rigid plastic and are screwed down. And I was told, about that fencing, that they now had to make all the 1.4s into 1.6s. I take it that means the standard they work to now says six-foot high fencing is needed all round it.
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Journey by Journey / South Western services / Re: Wokingham resignalling
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on: March 01, 2024, 23:45:37
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I don't think this crossing was, in fact, ever likely to become am object detection one. The guide (Level crossings: a guide for managers, designers and operators) says of CB-ODs: This type of crossing may be suitable at sites where road traffic flows freely, road lay-out is simple and there is no significant history of misuse. Risk assessment should, in particular, consider how the risks from blocking-back of road traffic and high or problematic pedestrian usage will be controlled. The station crossing was never going to meet that description; even the Star Lane one, which might, has gone to MCB▸ ( CCTV▸ ) as well. However, that guide has been withdrawn by ORR» , and "replaced" by Principles for managing level crossing safety, which is guidance for doing risk assessments. I don't see that as a replacement, and I'm not convinced it's helpful (a topic to return to, probably.) |
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Journey by Journey / South Western services / Re: Wokingham resignalling
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on: March 01, 2024, 23:37:00
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My posts on Monday 19th's reopening got held up; here's the catchup (in parts). The reopening was left until after a final proving train had run - which I heard go past - a turbo to Guildford and back between 1 and 3 am. (This was also able to rescue a dead Turbo, stuck in Guldford P6/7 since before the blockade.) There was also a swap of the SWR» train stuck in Reading for a new one, proving the other line.
So here's the junction after all the clearing up, and the crossing which currently has barriers that meet exactly in a straight line (for how long?). We now have the yodel alarms instead of bells, but they are surprisingly quiet. Direct phones to the signallers are no longer fitted; I guess it now makes little difference. The phone number to call is on the small signs, but the standard NR» signboard for the track access point also gives it - and one for the ECR too.
The point about the the big signs facing the track is just that - it's an odd place to put them. But there is an issue with names: is it reasonable to expect the public to use "railway names", which are often different to what anyone else would say, historical, or just wrong. Here, a lot of locals would call this the station crossing because they know there is at least one other crossing in Wokingham. And while you need to see one of the small signs to get the number to call the signallers, and that has the official name, a lot of calls come in via other routes (e.g. 999).
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Vivarail chosen for fast charging trial on the Greenford branch
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on: February 29, 2024, 18:40:08
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230001 has made it to Greenford! RTT» can't confirm that, as Greenford East is not only a mechanical box but still has semaphores (though not on the GFD-WEA route). However, there are not many valid ways of getting from P1 to P2 at South Greenford. This morning's run was just a final "make sure it fits" run, and the fast charging kit isn't in operation yet. This afternoon's run was cancelled, as it's been graffitied and needs more cleaning (its duties involve having its picture took for PR▸ - assuming it all works!). The move from Reading took place on Tuesday, and it's being kept at the end of one of the sidings that 387s stable in. Getting from there onto the branch is a bit convoluted, involving going out to Hanwell Bridge Loop to reverse. Getting back from WEA P5 is even worse, unless it uses P4 to reverse. So near and yet so far ... |
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All across the Great Western territory / Fare's Fair / Re: Malvern Link to Birmingham Stations off peak day return
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on: February 29, 2024, 11:03:35
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For this journey, the outcome is the same though: setting a 'Via' for the outward journey constrains the results for the return journey.
I suspect your answers there - with the system making an assumption that you want to go back the same way you went out. But you've told it to do just that. The "via" applies to its train (journey) search both ways, and always did. It does both outward and return searches before you see the results. With the new NRE‡ site you don't see the return options at first any more, but I don't think the underlying OJP▸ engine (the Real Time Journey Planner WebService) has changed. Another change with the new NRE site is that the description of "via" is now more explicitly that the train must stop there; just passing through does not count. That was left ambiguous before. |
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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom / Re: HS2 - Government proposals, alternative routes and general discussion
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on: February 29, 2024, 10:17:53
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That overhead power-carrying pylon is a tad close for comfort. Imagine the power cuts if that had been on top of one of the sinkholes
I doubt that any power cuts would have resulted. ALL major grid lines are duplicated, with at least one alternative route available in case of fault or failure. All but the smallest villages have at least two different routes by which power may be supplied. A pylon line carries two circuits, so a single circuit failure is covered by duplication. But the grid's rules do apply at the level of routes as well. This is defined in National Electricity Transmission System Security and Quality of Supply Standard, where it says (inter many alia): 4.6 The minimum transmission capacity of the MITS shall also be planned such that for the conditions described in paragraph 4.4 and for the secured event of a fault outage of any of the following: 4.6.1 a single transmission circuit, a reactive compensator or other reactive power provider; 4.6.2 a single generation circuit, a single generating unit (or several generating units sharing a common circuit breaker), a single power park module, or a single DC▸ converter; 4.6.3 a double circuit overhead line on the supergrid; 4.6.4 a double circuit overhead line where any part of either circuit is in NGET’s transmission system or SHET’S transmission system; 4.6.5 a section of busbar or mesh corner; or ... 4.6.7 loss of supply capacity (except as permitted by the demand connection criteria detailed in Section 3 and Section  ; 4.6.8 unacceptable overloading of any primary transmission equipment; 4.6.9 unacceptable voltage conditions or insufficient voltage performance margins; 4.6.10 system instability; or 4.6.11 Unacceptable Sub-Synchronous Oscillations But there are exceptions, such as Grimsby West - currently fed by a single two-circuit line. Note that the DNO▸ 's network is built on the same principles, so there will be alternative connection from other grid substations to any of their customers (but these may have limited capacity). There is a plan to have a plan to build a new line from Grimsby West, south to Walpole on the Wash. Consultations have started, though the Planning Inspectorate don't expect an application until 2027. The reasons given for doing this are about capacity not security, but I'm sure that's a motive too. |
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Journey by Journey / South Western services / Re: Network Rail plan to close Tan Hill crossing and replace it with a footbridge
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on: February 28, 2024, 12:14:50
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The nearest concrete plinth looks odd, you’d expect it to be parallel to the legs? I suppose they had a reason to build it at an angle, but it looks weird…
Paul
Yes, while the staircase at the far side is in line with the bridge, this one has to be angled to avoid the car park (from which the picture was taken). Before the car park was built, there was a vague aspiration to continue the route from the footbridge on the level to, and through or around, the car park and on a walkway to the new Carnival Hub [sic]. That never made it into concrete, or even into a concrete plan. |
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