From my TravelWatch SouthWest montage ... I wrote LONG on this one. See
(here) on Facebook
Class 800 at Stoke Gifford. We are about to see the biggest change in trains across the South West for a very long time indeed.
Our 40 year old High Speed Trains are to be replaced by class 800 and class 802 super-expresses, which can operate on both electric and diesel traction, changing over while on the move if required. The lines from London Paddington are being electrified - electric power is already available to Maidenhead and it will extend in the next couple of months to Didcot, then later via Swindon and Bristol Parkway to Cardiff, from Reading to Newbury, and from Swindon to just west of Chippenham (Thingley Junction) where the power's fed up from the National Grid at Melksham. The picture shows one of the first class 800 trains to be delivered in the new depot; currently under test, first passenger service is scheduled to be the 06:00 Bristol Temple Meads to London on 16th October.
Electrification of the lines from Paddington means new electric trains there, and releases the diesel trains that have got a few years life left in them yet to us in the South West. That will allow both the strengthening of some or our busiest services, and the release of trains which are end-of-life in the area.
However, the story - or life - isn't as simple as that.
The new class 800 and 802 trains are going to be quicker point to point on electricity, and potentially slower on diesel. Stations stops won't need to be as long as they'll have electric doors rather that prolonged closure procedures. They'll be in 5 and 9 carriage formats, allowing splitting and joining of trains along the way. And the carriages are longer, so that there are works to be done to get them round some corners, and places where those works are impractically expensive for the few
HST▸ trains that used to go on the route.
The class 165 and 166 units being released from the Thames Valley are in 2 and 3 car formations (versus 1 2 and 3), with top speeds of 90 m.p.h. versus 75 m.p.h., and acceleration and braking systems designed for fast start / stop between close stations, rather than longer runs with speed restrictions along the way. And at present the 16x units have only a very limited selective door capability. And whereas the current "West" fleet (143, 150/1, 150/2, 153 and 158) can all work in multiple with each other, the future fleet (150/2, 158, 165, 166, short form HST) will be three distinctly different train types for coupling. Like the 800 and 802 in replacing the HST, line clearance work needs to be done for 16x trains in The West, and in some places that may not be sensible.
Have I got you concerned at complexity already?
With trains faster in some sections of their routes and possibly slower in others, timetables need to be rewritten. There would be public outrage if faster trains were run slower that possible, or waited at stations for longer, to avoid a timetable change. But as soon as you change the timetable, you start breaking connections and creating new conflicting movements over junctions. Yes, it would be great for the 08:00 Paddington to Paignton to be 8 minutes earlier at Westbury and 15 minutes earlier by Paignton, bust if that means that it leaves Westbury 2 minutes before the connecting train from Swindon arrives rather that 6 minutes after, you're going to have some very unhappy customers indeed. All these consequences need looking at and planning in detail.
With the coming of (more) turbo trains - class 165 and 166 - to the Bristol area from 1st January 2018, class 153 and 150/2 should move further west, together with most of the class 158; some of those will remain on "the Brighton"s and on services from Cardiff to and via Taunton. Two cars will be enormously welcome replacing single car 153s on certain services, but will cause platform issues at places like Swindon where two trains (a 1 and a 2 car) currently share the 3 car bay platform.
During 2018, long distance services will gradually change over from HST to 80x operation, with a timetable to suit both. Then the timetable for 2019 will be revised to take advantage of the extra trains and running time improvements possible with the 80x trains. So that's a further set of interactions and connections to be considered. No easy task for
GWR▸ , or for other train companies sharing the lines.
TravelWatch SouthWest is listening to its members to help ensure that excellent inputs are made from its board and technical experts to GWR early in the timetabling process. Not everything will be able to connect with everything (just as it can't at present), and we probably can't expect every train to have seats available for all on every journey it makes - but we can help make those little tuning suggestions that will make a big difference, and we provide (and are providing) inputs to the next franchising process to help in the specification of services which are what's needed / required / wanted for the 2020s.
Picture 29 in the montage of 30 which show the areas of interest of TravelWatch SouthWest (
TWSW» ). TWSW is a social enterprise company which acts as an advocate for passengers to lobby for the improvement of public transport in the region and works closely with local authorities, business organisations, partnerships and other stakeholder groups. This is one of a series of pictures illustrating the wide range of public transport interest across the South West. See
https://www.facebook.com/events/1858736087728344 for our next general meeting at which all groups are welcome (but please book ahead).
