Great Western Main Line electrification - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[stuving]

I don't know. It looks like a robust - and hopefully plastic - stanchion 

Well, structural steel certainly will undergo significant plastic deformation, once the limit of its elastic strain has been reached. If that's what you meant.

[Timmer]

How not to do it! MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) blast 'unacceptable' handling of bungled Great Western Railway upgrade:

Report published weeks before construction of High Speed 2 line gets under way
Public Accounts Committee slams Department of Transport and Network Rail
Estimated cost of electrifying line between London and Swansea soared £1.2bn
Committee’s chair called it a ‘stark example of how not to run a major project’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4277098/MPs-blast-unacceptable-handling-Rail-upgrade.html

Interesting day of the week to try and 'bury' a bad news story 

[stuving]

The PAC report, for which the guilty were grilled in December, is published today.

This, from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s written submission, is probably the most interesting in this forum:

The DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) also accepted our recommendation for GWR to procure an additional seven Intercity Express Trains, giving us enough trains to operate bi-mode trains on fast trains from London Paddington to Oxford, despite the deferral of the Didcot to Oxford section of electrification. We are retaining some of the current Turbo diesel trains to operate direct local peak services between Reading and Oxford, but most local journeys through Didcot to Oxford will require a change of train at off peak times.

In addition, subject to an infrastructure change, the additional bi-mode trains we have procured will enable GWR to run bi-mode trains through to Bedwyn, meaning customers between Newbury and Bedwyn will retain their direct London services, overcoming the need to switch from diesel to electric trains at Newbury.

Changes in the shape and speed of Thames Valley electrification does mean we will need to retain more diesel trains in the London area, and the rate of cascade will be slower than originally envisaged. This will affect our planned cascade of vehicles to Bristol, and from there to the South West. To help mitigate this, we have put forward a suggestion to the DfT that we retain a number of upgraded HST^▸ (High Speed Train) trains, running in shorter formations, to provide some of the promised regional services across the South West. This should allow us to meet our promises on capacity and frequency improvements by early 2019. We are in the final stages of discussion with the DfT in this regard, and hope to be able to discuss in more detail shortly.

[paul7575]

Platform 1 has also been done, as you can see. But I can't help feeling there's something missing here

End of run insulators perhaps?  I think they are normally fitted later by cutting and splicing.

Paul

[Oxonhutch]

I don't know. It looks like a robust - and hopefully plastic - stanchion 

Well, structural steel certainly will undergo significant plastic deformation, once the limit of its elastic strain has been reached. If that's what you meant.

As above with Paul7755 - I was expecting some insulation between the OHL^▸ (Over-Head Line) and the - grounded - stanchion.

[grahame]

From The BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

The electrification of the Great Western rail line has been described by MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) as a "stark example of how not to run a major project".
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said "mismanagement" of the project had left customers "angry and frustrated".
It warns "similar flaws" could impact on planned electrification schemes on Midlands and TransPennine routes.
Network Rail claimed it had "learnt lessons" and major projects no longer start before being "properly scoped".
However, doubts have been expressed that the plan to electrify the London to Cardiff line can be delivered by December 2018 and to a budget of £2.8bn, while the PAC described a £1.2bn increase in costs "in the space of a year" as "staggering and unacceptable".
'Appalling waste'
Among its recommendations it said the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) and Network Rail should reassess the case for electrification section-by-section and fund schemes "only where worthwhile benefits for passengers could not be achieved otherwise at lower cost".
The committee added Network Rail needed to produce "realistic cost estimates" and have "robust and detailed" plans.
Meg Hillier MP, chair of the PAC, said mismanagement of the Great Western programme has hit taxpayers hard and left many people angry and frustrated.
"This is a stark example of how not to run a major project, from flawed planning at the earliest stage to weak accountability and what remain serious questions about the reasons for embarking on the work in the first place.
"The sums of public money wasted are appalling - not least the £330m additional costs the Department for Transport will have to pay to keep the trains running because of delays to electrification."
Network Rail said the modernisation was agreed in 2009, "long before the scale of the work was properly understood".
"Network Rail and Department for Transport (DfT) have learnt the lessons from the poor early planning of this project," a spokesman said.
"Today we do not take forward major projects until they are properly scoped, properly planned and we have a robust estimate of what the cost will be."

[SandTEngineer]

Network Rail said the modernisation was agreed in 2009, "long before the scale of the work was properly understood".
"Network Rail and Department for Transport (DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)) have learnt the lessons from the poor early planning of this project," a spokesman said.
"Today we do not take forward major projects until they are properly scoped, properly planned and we have a robust estimate of what the cost will be."

Hang on a minute, thats what the much vaunted NR^» (Network Rail - home page) GRIP^▸ (Guide to Railway Investment Projects) process is supposed to provide.  That process has been in place for nearly 15 years now.  Time for heads to roll in NR.

[ChrisB]

Hmmm - project too big for GRIP^▸ (Guide to Railway Investment Projects) maybe?

Also, if Government ask NR^» (Network Rail - home page) to perform a project "we want to electrify the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)", do you then say 'hang on a few months while we do a GRIP set of reports. It might take a year or two as its a mammoth project"

Can between a x and a y, I feel.

[SandTEngineer]

Hmmm - project too big for GRIP^▸ (Guide to Railway Investment Projects) maybe?

Also, if Government ask NR^» (Network Rail - home page) to perform a project "we want to electrify the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)", do you then say 'hang on a few months while we do a GRIP set of reports. It might take a year or two as its a mammoth project"

Can between a x and a y, I feel.

Having implemented many large projects over the past 50 years I can assure you that it would have been a very brave person who tried to shortcut the NR GRIP process, which after all was introduced by a certain Chief Executive by the name of Coucher. He didn't hesitate in finding a way of getting rid of anybody if they didn't follow 'his' rules.  My personal view, following recent involvement in some significant resignalling projects, is that NR have lost all the personell with the necessary experience and skill set to be able to stand up with confidence and say NO.

[TonyK]

Paul Maynard has been on the telly today. Saying, and I paraphrase and interpret, that there is no longer any need to do the electrification to Bristol ever, because we have all these bi-mode trains. Oh, and there won't be any cascade of stock to Bristol for the Metro.

Oh dear.

[Tim]

I can assure you that it would have been a very brave person who tried to shortcut the NR^» (Network Rail - home page) GRIP^▸ (Guide to Railway Investment Projects) process

I can believe that that is true of those at NR.  But part of the fiasco was caused by some idiot ordering the trains when the infrastructure enhancement was still at a very early stage of the GRIP process.  That was a stupid and expensive mistake.  NR were not guilty of that.  FGW^▸ (First Great Western) probably wasn't either.  It was the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) who ordered the trains from Hitachi.  I am sure it was mere coincidence that the trains were ordered shortly after the PM and Chancellor went to Japan on a trade mission and that they returned with a large order for Airbuses with UK^▸ (United Kingdom)-built wings and engines.  In fact it must be a coincidence because I think that what a cynic might think I was implying couldn't possible happen not least because it would be illegal under WTO rules.

It does seem though that whatever fault lies with NR, someone pushed the start button before the designs, and therefore the costs and timescales had been finalised.  And the only person who can push the start button on a project of that size is HMG   

[ellendune]

It does seem though that whatever fault lies with NR^» (Network Rail - home page), someone pushed the start button before the designs, and therefore the costs and timescales had been finalised.  And the only person who can push the start button on a project of that size is HMG   

Hmm.  Yes politicians, like small children, do like instant gratification.  They've made a decision they want people to get on with that - even when that is ill advised. 

[didcotdean]

The more interesting aspect to me concerned needing to get hundreds of separate local permissions for works rather than getting one for the whole scheme via the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) SoS. They couldn't explain why that had been done except that they would have needed to have more detailed designs available to go this way. Maybe the thought was they needed people to get metaphorical shovels into the ground to show they had started. Whatever, they certainly found the condition, even the existing designs of infrastructure weren't as they had thought.

[TaplowGreen]

Apologies if this has already been highlighted.....

http://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2017-03-03/rail-electrification-sums-of-public-money-wasted-are-appalling/

[IndustryInsider]

Airport Junction to Maidenhead switch-on has been delayed again so not happening this weekend.