Great Western Coffee Shop

Some of you may remember my favourite French branch line - well, sort of - Nantes to Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie. It was notable for the dire state of the track, kept going by make do and mend maintenance and severe speed restrictions.

Well, it came down to a choice of either renew it or close it - and it was decided to renew the track completely (really, just from Sainte-Pazanne). Since holiday travel is very important here, it had to stay open in July and August, so the window for work would be September 2014 to the following June. So for ten months the line has been closed completely, with replacement buses. Reopening was promised on July 5th (when July starts as far as French holidays are concerned).

Then yesterday SNCF came out with this press release (http://www.sncf-reseau.fr/sites/default/files/upload/_Mediatheque/presse/CP%20NSGNP%2024%2006%2015.pdf) (my translation):


A few more figures - that 84 kn is mostly single track, with 22 level crossing upgraded and 9 closed. Six small and one large bridge were replaced in whole or in part, and all stations get higher platforms and some are lengthened.

Oddly, the signalling was modernised five years ago, so presumably it is its recertification that is in question.

(Typo in date corrected)

Then there's the continuing saga of the Brussells Amsterdamn high speed line.

Is that press release really dated 2014?

No - just my translation (in the sense of moving from A to B) error.

...or perhaps it's the time warp as you cross the Channel.

I have an update to this story, which I'll get round to posting real soon now, honest.

While you are waiting, here's another bit of news to trigger your d^  vu ganglions (no English source that I can find, but there are some pictures).

From Le Figaro (http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2015/07/17/01016-20150717ARTFIG00289-le-trafic-tgv-interrompu-entre-montparnasse-et-le-sud-ouest-jusqu-a-20-heures.php):

Paris-Bordeaux line closed for four hours on one of those busy holiday "criss-cross" weekends, due to an SNCF track worker hittting a catenary support mast with his vehicle -
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CKH6B6rWUAAc99_.jpg)

The "quick" fix was to send a crane to hold it upright while they thought of a better idea:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CKIhlu1WgAAuh5g.jpg)

Of course both the incident, and its cure, only happened because there was an access road next to the track (though not so close as to explain how that driver ever got to hit the mast - and at some speed, by the look of it).

PS: there were also a couple of lineside fires to close the diversionary routes near Bordeaux.


(Edit to correct font on the French bit)

Indeed: he's apparently hit that mast at a good pace, to have caused such damage and overturn his car.  :o ::) ???

For other delayed projects on the continent of Europe one has to look no further than the saga of Berlin Brandenburg Airport - the planned new airport being built next to the existing Sch^nefeld airport to replace it and Tegel.

It was supposed to open in 2010 and now it looks as if it won't be ready before 2019...

For English language summaries see  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Brandenburg_Airport and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/10755543/Berlins-long-delayed-airport-needs-1.1-billion-bailout.html

My brother-in-law lives near Potsdam and it has recently been announced that the flight paths, in spite of previous announcements that they would avoid the area, will be re-routed close by. The natives are very restless...!

Getting back to rail topics another poorly planned project is the on-going saga of the rebuild of Stuttgart's Hauptbahnhof from a terminus to an underground through station, the project being known as Stuttgart 21. Widely exceeds its cost estimates and much later than planned.

Back, belatedly, to this thread's sheep. The original SNCF press notice, on Wednesday 24h June, promised an audit to be published "before the end of the week". And it was - it was carried out from 23rd to 25th and delivered in some form by the Thursday afternoon, though in full written form the following week.

That seems impressive, but really it was just a sanity check on the internal management investigation, performed by SNCF's Director of Audit and Risk and an external consultant engineer. They may have queried some facts, and rewritten some conclusions, but little more.

The story is set out in this presentation (http://www.sncf-reseau.fr/sites/default/files/upload/_Mediatheque/Audits/rapport%20audit%20du%20projet%20de%20r%C3%A9ouverture%20des%20lignes%20Nantes-Pornic%20-%20St%20Gilles%20Croix%20de%20vie%2002juil2015.pptx), where the management jargon is tricky - you need to know your ma^trise d^ouvrage d^gu^e from you ma^tre d^uvre g^rale. But it does have some familiar features, starting with the use of subcontractors because of the shortage of S&T effort within SNCF.

The main signalling was renewed earlier, so the new elements are mainly for the level crossings. These were either open or AHB and now need to be AHB but for higher line speed. The train detectors were the key item, and a design issue meant they were replaced late on. A few other "normal" delays also arose (asbestos found, that sort of thing).

With these delays, and the shortage of key staff being even worse than expected, an extra package of work was transferred to a subcontractor, covering test and certification of the new signals systems. Of course the required additonal specialists, who need to be familiar with SNCF paperwork, didn't actually exist for anyone to employ. So the work was done with a few experts trying to train up novices on the job. Error number one - if you are the only end-user of a kind of labour, you should know how much of it is out there.

The work had to be done in ten months, since the line has to be open during July and August for the French holiday season. So the reopening date on 5th July was very fixed - making it impossible to suggest any delay. When work fell behind, the remaining programme was adjusted to become more and more a fantasy, while the parties stopped talking to each other except for the formal minimum via official channels. And the overall project director (or owner) didn't spot that and intervene. Error number two - well, several, really - such as don't believe a completion date (or any other promise) just becasue it's what you wanted to hear.

The "get better" programme involves enforced cooperation via joint working groups, and the pooling of expertise to make sure the contractors know how the documentation has to be done. Also, SNCF's maintainers, who are the real "customer", are to be fully involved where they were left out until too late before.

I did say I'd report how this work was going, as I've got the notes and pictures, so here - in the interests of comparative ferrology - it is.

In their apologetic announcement of the overrun, SNCF promised "exceptional measures" to minimise the impact of not opening the line. So what does that mean? Not much, as far as I can see.

This is a single line with passing possible only at stations, and these are spaced at roughly 20/20/12/12/12 km, so this does not severely restrict service frequency. The line speed is being raised from 90 to 140 km/h in December, and timings should improve a lot then. Bus replacement to St Pazanne increases the 90 minutes journey time to around two hours. A direct bus would be quicker, but was not on offer even though there were plenty hired in.

The service (http://cdn.ter.sncf.com/medias/PDF/pays_de_la_loire/%28PDF%29L11%20NS%20-%20CHA%20-%20SGV%20du%2005-07%20au%2030-08%20V2%20du%2023-07_tcm67-55344_tcm67-53641.pdf) was almost the same as before August, and that was much the same as before the closure and from September (http://cdn.ter.sncf.com/medias/PDF/pays_de_la_loire/%28PDF%29L11%20NS%20-%20CHA%20-%20SGV%20du%2031-08%20au%2012-12_tcm67-57727_tcm67-57724.pdf) (ignoring the usual changes between in (July-August) and out of season timetables). There are about nine services a day (midweek, with a few more Monday or Friday). With three for commuters into Nantes, the rest are unevenly spaced with some big gaps between them. Some of those services have always been SNCF buses, but with similar timings as the line was so slow.

Confusingly, in addition to the rail replacement buses there are two other kinds, which are in the normal timetable. Some are the SNCF buses, i.e. train services run by buses. However, one of these - the last train from Nantes on Friday - is now a train (with bus). This is not, however, good news as this normal bus took 90 minutes like the train (with a few fewer strops).

The other buses are "regional", and serve railway stops on the way to other places. As the region pays 2/3 of the cost of the trains, they are in a sense the owners of both.
There are also special buses from the railhead to the coast and back, just once a day (but these may be a normal summer season addition). Cost - only ^2. Some of them seem to connect with the curtailed trains - some don't fit at all. They were not much publicised, that I could see.

So how did it all work out? Well, they did hire in a lot of buses. Most were old, and came from Transdev or local coach companies including the scarily-named Sovetours. There were not, on the whole, a lot of passengers. The buses ran fairly well to time, though the one I was on wasn't very well to start with. The driver thought it was having trouble getting its air pressure up - which is taking its train imitation a bit too far.

There were, if not Ribena girls, some "filles grenadine", whose T-shirts said "Effia synergies" (but the boss (SNCF) was, indeed, a "gars cassis"). Effia are a big transport consultancy/outsourcing company that help run the buses, and customer phone lines, and probably much besides. At the railhead at St Pazanne, there were at least six of these Effia helpers (not all female), which was more than enough to shepherd twenty people.

Actually, France has always been big in outsourcing - that may seem odd, given the protected nature of government jobs in particular. However, that is one of the main reasons; if flexibility is important it can be impossible to use standard labour contracts. Recently they have even been doing big infrastructure projects on a PPP basis, starting with "Atlantique 2017" (LGVs to Bordeaux and Rennes).

So the rail replacement was adequate but tedious, much as here. It did run smoothly, but with a year's practice and few takers so it should. As well as the bus/train service, I also went to Nantes by car and tram, which was quicker (but only slightly, as the "P+R" I wanted was full), and of course allowed much more flexible timings.

What did this rebuild involve?

Well, all those scary old rotten sleepers have gone, and most of the rail is new (though of course it's hard to tell as it's as rusty as old rail). The before and after pictures are the same bit of track.

At St Gilles the switches have been either kept or replaced in situ, and mounted on new wooden sleepers (for length), and they are still manually operated. The point levers are old, though the operating linkages have bee reconditioned with new parts and things like railings added.

What looks really odd to me is that they have retained the crossover at the station end of platforms 1 & 2 (the loco escape). They also have put in a stainless steel sentry box thing, apparently for someone to shelter in - maybe to operate the level crossing, or the points? In the past the point motor cycled from the station along the platform, and I can't imagine he'd want to be sitting out there all day.

The other stations have essentially just passing loops, so I wonder if they would have some automatic or self-acting switch at each end rather than levers, if they can't afford electricity.

It was reported that the two aspects of signalling that were disastrously late were certification documentation and the control and activiation of level crossings. Here are some S&T types working on PN 26, which involved setting off the warning bell from time to time while lots of "tabardiers" stand around and watch. One of these two was logoed "Saferail", that being a local rail engineering contractor - they say they were solely responsible for S&C on the tram-train to Chateaubriant.

Just to the right is this signal, controlling the crossing and exit from the station. It is, of course, one of those funny French things, complete with mystic Pictish symbols.

Almost exactly 2 years ago, I was holidaying by car (with caravan) in this part of France. It is a fantastic area for this type of holiday, by the way.

Whilst navigating by satnav (we had a map aswell, but it didn't help much in this case), we came across one of the above-mentioned closed crossings (as far as I can recall, there were no road signs warning us in advance of this), with an earth bank where the road and crossing used to be and an OHLE'd single-track railway beyond.

There was no space to manouver out with the caravan still attached, so no option but to un-hitch, turn the car around, turn the caravan around, re-hitch and proceed back the way we had come.

It wasn't too far, but I was not a happy bunny (it was a hot day, and I'd been driving for about 10 hours by this point), and neither were the wife and kids, who saw it as my fault that we had ended up at a dead end!

Formidable! He sounds more Italian to me.

That wasn't this line, which is entirely OHLE-free. The main line south to La Roche sur Yon is electrified, but double track, and the nearest single line that is must be one from there to Les Sables d'Olonne.

What is true is that SNCF are pursuing their programme of level crossing closure much more actively than NR (quelle surprise!). The next two crossing from PN16 at St Gilles were closed about five years ago, and replaced by a bridge, though the traffic (even in the holiday season) hardly makes that vital. Note that there are still barriers, even for the bridge...

Is that all down to NR or is it that SNCF don't have to pander to local NIMBYs. 

Hard to say, really, partly due to the lack of good data, but I think it has more to do with the integrated nature of French government (including SNCF). The NIMBYs, and they do exist, are likely to be well represented inside government, especially at the lowest (commune) level which is responsible for minor roads.

It's not the size of the budget - SNCF R^seau refer to ^35 or 50M a year, and say a closure (not clearly defined) costs ^3-10M. SNCF only contributes part of the cost, so I suspect the various levels of government may be putting in more than here. Note also that ^10M upper cost figure - that should apply to a bridge over or under a major road. If it does, that bears out the suggestion that such civil engineering jobs cost a lot more here than elsewhere in Europe (and France in particular).

Government does more direct supervision of SNCF and other actors, rather than pretending they are independent and negotiating contracts with them. That's partly a different mindset, and partly that SNCF has always been a part of government, and has never had its legal status changed by privatisation or "privatisation". Of course being nore integrated with government doesn't necessarily help.

In terms of administrative efficiency or complexity, the French model is famous for being slow and cumbersome, with lots of overlapping responsibilities. For level crossing there is a coordinating body, created in 1997, headed by the ministry (of ecology, sustainable development, and energy - which now includes transport). Two directorates of this ministry supervise SNCF: transport infrastructure (for SNCF R^seau) and transport services  (for SNCF Mobilit^s). This coordinating group for the improvement of safety at level crossings includes representation from SNCF, regions, other local government, research bodies, etc. And during the last year, at least two more committees have been created by the transport minister to do with railway safety in general or level crossings.

But once it decides to do something, it can be very effective. Think about roundabouts or cycle paths, both of which were rare in France not long ago (about 25 years and 15 years respectively). Then they were identified centrally as "good things", and slowly started to appear all over the country. Now both are more common than they are here - there's a kind of momentum that keeps the process going. But having said that, any one level crossing closure can still take many years.

I can think of two specific features of the French system that may contribute. On is the prefect and prefecture, meaning that a significant part of central government is split into 100 local parts, headed by a kind of generalised deputy minister. That allows central government to coordinate local government in a very detailed way. The second is that consultations and enquiries seem to be less independent - being run by the central government departments or agencies. So yes, there is local consultation, but it's less of an adversarial either/or decision, more of an enquiry to find the "best" solution.

I think it was somewhere between La Roche sur Yon and Les Sables, but couldn't be 100% certain. The site we were heading to (La Garangeoire, near St. Julien des Landes) is not very far north of where that line runs.

Well, the line did reopen on time (as revised) on Sunday 30th August. And having understandably been very angry, and rude, about the last-minute deferment, even the local politicians seem to have joined in the smiles and self-congratulation on the day (though that mood was lost soon after, as the line was closed in Nantes due to a suicide on the track).

As a footnote to the reopening (well, I hope it's not the first of a series) a train derailed at Sainte-Pazanne station on October 12th. This was an X73500 (Banana) single-car TER, and the points changed underneath it at a crossover.

This was due to a wrong-side track circuit failure, or "d^shuntage furtif", which is a known problem with this train type. They are quite light, and short (only four axles), and run often on old track with few trains (though that is not true at this site) and none heavy enough to really strip rust off. So a new rule has been imposed that they must not run alone, only in multiple - causing an instant shortage.

I gather that that TCAs (gizmos that persuade the track circuit detector the block is occupied) are not much used in France, and not fitted on these ones.

It wasn't (ready before 2019) but plan are that it's ready before 2021. From FlightGlobal (https://www.flightglobal.com/networks/lufthansa-to-make-brandenburg-switch-in-november/137081.article)

Finally welcomes passengers tomorrow - Bloomberg (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-10-30/berlin-s-7-billion-brandenburg-airport-finally-opens-in-the-depths-of-a-crisis) reports

Terminal 2 may not be opening just yet but the old Schonefeld airport terminal has been renamed Terminal 5 and will remain open until the opening of Terminal 3 which is planned to be 2030.

I was booked on a flight there in 2012. At the last minute it was cancelled and replaced with a flight to Tegel. 

I quite liked flying to and from Schonefeld airport, always reminded me of Gatwick 40 years ago  ;D

All of my Berlin flights have been through Schonefeld. I seem to remember the only catering options after passport control were Burger King, a bar, Duty Free and a newsagent. I hope the new terminal has more choice. Oh, and I hope it has more seats too.

My only flight to and from Berlin was through Schonefeld which I think was originally the East German airport for Berlin.  It had probably already been modernised a lot when I was there about 13 years ago and I remember it as being a reasonably up to date airport with good rail and SBahn connection to central Berlin. I opted for the SBahn both ways and was pleased that I did as it provided some interesting views of the city. I wonder if the converted rail carriage cafe is still there near the entrance by the covered walkway leading to the station(s)?

Good heavens no - even "permanent" airport buildings get rebuilt every few years, and these "temporary" ones get moved every year or two. That "Die S-Bahn" was moved from by Terminal C to Terminal D when that was built, then replaced by something bigger - and more German - and wooden (or course). Which was then replaced by something bigger on the car park. And by now? Who kones?

I flew to Berlin twice, and only ever used Tegel, which was of course odd in its own way. I never actually walked to or from it, which was quite feasible if only from Charlottenburg-Nord. Nor did I go by train (S- or U-), which was strangely never possible. So it was the bus (109 or X9).

I had a quick look on TripAdvisor which had Die esS Bahn's most recent location being at Tegel.  It seems to still be able to move a bit!

The old railway carriage that I remember walking past was removed in 2015.
From Der Tagesspiegel and translated by Google (https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/umfunktionierte-zuege-in-berlin-die-ess-bahn-in-schoenefeld-ist-weg/12081532.html)

A few months after opening, new faults and design failures have been discovered at Berlin Brandenburg Airport

From https://onemileatatime.com/berlin-airport-cold/


I wonder how this was not noticed during the many previous winters before opening.

And from the same web page