Great Western Coffee Shop

From International Railway Journal: https://www.railjournal.com/freight/new-british-operator-plans-green-parcels-service/

This sounds an excellent idea, though with most unfortunate timing.

Would they have enough parcels to fill a train ? Not completely full but sufficiently full as to be profitable.
At present the coronavirus is eclipsing all else, but eventually it will pass.
When it does pass, parcels will still need delivering, and carbon emissions of road transport will still be a concern.

I wonder if it would be possible to run a mixed train that conveys several passenger coaches in addition to parcels. There would be a saving in paths and in train crew if compared to running two trains.
If the service was run primarily for parcels as is proposed, then the extra costs of conveying passengers would be modest.
Purchase or lease of suitable stock.
Wages of a guard.
Cost of extra traction current.
No cost for a path, as needed anyway to convey parcels.
No cost for a driver as needed anyway for the parcels service.

Maybe start with a Norton Fitzwarren to Minehead service.

Would love to know how many small vans take a small parcel to Minehead from the Taunton direction,as well as in the other direction.

Yes, but its going to take months, if not years, to set up a track access agreement with NR, so better to start that as soon as you feel you have made a business case for it all.  I welcome new ideas like this, its about time some others did it as well (calling all well known parcel delivery companies and food chain suppliers!).

Did FGW run a parcels service from Pnz to Pad that ceased when the HST's went out service?

Didn't they transport fresh fish from Cornwall to London?

I think it appeared on a Portillo programme with a fragile highly decorated cake being sent from PNZ to PAD.

Is this the rebirth of the Red Star parcels service that I remember (without knowing very much about it) from my youth?

Don't think so, red star parcels were sent primarily via existing passenger trains, whereas this is a proposal to run a new service dedicated to carrying parcels.
It would be good to see a return of express parcels by passenger train, but of course new trains have no space "wasted" on a guards van in which such would be carried.

Never an opportunity missed, eh?

Given the explosive growth in parcels traffic over the last few years, it makes environmental sense to create a new rail distribution network that can take the volumes they are no doubt hoping for.  With timings and capacity that suit the parcels company at both ends, and no delays to passenger services as crates are unloaded at intermediate stations (such as Doncaster, named in the report). 

And closer to home, imagine trying to load up a train with parcels at the same time as hordes of passengers are joining at Paddington.  And think of all those services which didn't have many or any parcels in them running around with wasted space.

But still, the good ol' days were always the best, weren't they? A fraction of the current services; Travellers Fare; even the strikes were better in those halcyon days, with Sid Weighell and Ray Buckton running the unions. 

I hope to see this service or something similar running in a few years.

Yes, as I said earlier, its something we should all be encouraging, not trying to put obstacles in the way.  They will have enough hoops to jump through as it is, to get it all up and running.

https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2020/03/exclusive-a-qa-with-varamis-rails-managing-director-ahead-of-new-parcel-rail-service.html

The attached link with a Q&A on the subject includes a further link to a short video presentation, which is also linked here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcfq57sBFY8

I really hope it succeeds.

Third time lucky? We had GB Railfreight (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=19560.0), and then Intermodality (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=17959.0) - so all three seem to be separate business proposals. Incidentally, Varamis the company is only a year old, and listed its business field as "Urban and suburban passenger railway transportation by underground, metro and similar systems". The hangover cure is a separate business, I think.

More info here: https://orion.railopsgroup.co.uk/

Is Orion (a subsidiary of Rail Operations Group) yet another separate contender - number four?

Yes, I believe so.

Not exactly parcels, but ...

You may have seen the news that a TGV was used today to transport 20 COVID-19 patients from Strasbourg to other places where hospitals still have ICU capacity (Le Mans, Angers, Nantes, La-Roche-sur-Yon). While described as a "first in Europe", obviously it was nothing of the kind - certainly if you look back as far as WW1; probably much more recently. In addition,SNCF have always run stripped-out carriages for those on stretchers and other wheeled sickbeds to Lourdes, and reportedly now have a TGV to do likewise.

This was in any case more of an improvisation that an adaptation. Four stretchers were lodged across the backs of four facing second-class seats in a lower saloon, and tied down with straps. Oxygen bottles and all the support machinery, including ventilators, were put on the floor or seats underneath.  The advantage compared to road or helicopter ambulances is mainly extra space for staff and ease of access to the patient - the only comparable method is the French army's medevac aircraft, an A330 with four IC beds in it, which was used for similar transfers a few days ago.

The value of the operation was related to way the outbreak was been so heavily concentrated in Alsace and nearby, with very few in the west so far. But everyone expects that to change quite soon, of course. Here, while it's not yet clear, it looks as if London will reach ICU saturation first.

The NRM has an interesting article about the last British ambulance train which ran until 1994. https://blog.railwaymuseum.org.uk/commander-of-last-british-ambulance-train-speaks-at-nrm-railways-and-warfare-conference/ (https://blog.railwaymuseum.org.uk/commander-of-last-british-ambulance-train-speaks-at-nrm-railways-and-warfare-conference/)

I came across this on Twitter yesterday from GB Railfreight (https://twitter.com/GBRailfreight/status/1254742115944476674)

The accompanying photos aren't very exciting, they show one of those high sided cages in a former London Midland train with the seats still in place!

Orion have had a converted train doing the rounds to have its picture took for several months. It looks very ... blue. From Orion's pages on the ROG site (https://orion.railopsgroup.co.uk/news/):

This comes from Modern Railways back in August:

Oh dear.

An update on this interesting idea:

https://www.railjournal.com/freight/rail-operations-uk-to-launch-orion-logistics-service-in-april/

Much confused reporting there, I reckon “London to Liverpool” seems to be the originally reported London Gateway (shipping terminal) to Liverpool Street, reading between the lines.  Either the journalist has misinterpreted, or it’s been badly edited...

Paul

On show yesterday at Euston Station - see Network Rail Press Release (https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/passenger-trains-converted-to-deliver-parcels-to-city-centre-stations)

News of the Varamis proposed service appeared nearly three years ago, but it has hardly been heard of since. Well, it seems it started full operation last week! And the trains it is using are the ones Eversholt converted to be operated by "Swift Express". So maybe that was a pretend customer all along, while they were talking to more than one contender to do it. From Global Railway Review (http://From Global Railway Review):

More on the trains from Railway technology last October (https://www.railway-technology.com/news/eversholt-varamis-swift-express-train/).

From The Evening Standard (https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/electric-zeroemission-freight-train-service-varamis-rail-b1054402.html)


Right to highlight the majority of freight still being diesel hauled. 

Comparing the average speed of a diesel train with the top speed of an electric is misleading. And comparing the speed of a specialist lightweight operation with general freight including quarry stone is also naughty.