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SRA says it needs 30 EMUs for West Coast services for September 2004. What's wrong with Modern Railways/Roger Ford, some Mks 3s and a DVT?
When I wrote back in the April column that SWT's 32 five car Class 450/2 Desiro EMUs might head north for service with Silverlink and Central Trains, some readers noted the cover date and assumed an April Fool. ‘Fraid not: SOP on this column is ‘No April Foolery'.
This is not another case of BOFM, rather the fruit of bitter experience. Back in my early days on the magazine I wrote a wizard jape one April. The original role playing game ‘Dungeons & Dragons' was all the rage, so I ‘reviewed' a variation called ‘Regional Manager'.
This review was simply an excuse to poke fun at British Rail. You can imagine the sort of thing, ‘Peter Parker visits your region, lose one day's productivity but gain three morale points'.
Not exactly a subtle April Fool, I thought, until readers started writing in saying that they had been to Hamleys who knew nothing about it. Then we got a formal order from the Human Resources department at Amtrak for six copies to be used for staff training. Explaining to a serious American that it was a JOKE cured me of April Fools for ever.
So, the Drang nach Nordern is deadly serious. So serious that the Strategic Rail Authority asked National Express Group to do something about it.
Why NEG? Well the company already had an OJEC Notice out for high performance electric multiple units for Silverlink and as Table 1 shows the SRA's requirement also involves routes operated by Central Trains.
So NEG has issued invitations to tender for the supply of 120 100mile/h electric multiple unit vehicles for service on the West Coast Main Line from October 2004. According to Informed Sources ITT has gone to the three ROSCOs plus Bayerische Landesbank. Manufacturers are also involved but with the requirement 15 months away, new build is not a serious option.
WCML EMUs |
||
| Route | TOC | Diagrams |
| Euston-Rugby | Silverlink | 10 |
| Birmingham-Northampton | Central | 7 |
| Birmingham-Liverpool | Central | 5 |
| Birmingham-Preston | Central | 5 |
Thirty four car units are required to cover the 27 diagrams shown. The service date is linked to capacity issues when all 53 Pendolinos start tilting at 125mile/h and eating up paths.
In the case of Silverlink, services out of Euston will then turn round at Northampton and Rugby , to free-up paths on the Rugby-Birmingham corridor. The extra diagrams would allow the existing Silverlink Class 321s to run as 12 car formations to provide extra seating capacity in the peak. Ideally, the new trains will also have sufficient oomph not to get in the way of the Pendolini. This would also help on the Birmingham-Rugby service.
Central Trains' proposed Birmingham to Liverpool and Preston services would compensate for the changes to the Virgin Cross Country Voyager timetable. Liverpool , in particular, comes off the Voyager Network in September.
Siemens growth build of 32 five car Class 450/2 Desiros presents SRA with a bit of a dilemma. Since the collapse of the 20 year SWT franchise and associated infrastructure upgrades for the 10-car railway, the 450/2s are surplus to requirement. This applies even if SRA could afford to rate the Southern Region Power Upgrade to accommodate 10 car power hungry lard-butts.
But, if SRA says ‘sorry, SWT don't want the Class 450/2s after all', someone will have to compensate Siemens for the cancelled order. And since the 450/2 fleet represents around £150million of hardware, compensation could be substantial.
So, the West Coast requirement is a neat way out of another fine mess? Well, at a price.
Siemens has nearly completed the 100 four car Class 450/0 Desiros. The 450/2 fleet is due for delivery between April and September 2004. But converting the 450/2s for the West Coast would have cost implications beyond a pantograph on the roof and a transformer underneath.
A more up-market interior specification would be required for the longer journeys on the WCML. But long lead time items which would have to be changed, including interior panelling profiles, seating and the like, are already being procured for the 450/2 fleet.
When Siemens was asked to cost modifying the 450/2 for West Coast duty, informed sources claim that the company came up with the Mother Of All Variation Orders. There was, I am assured, ‘a major dust up' with the SRA. As a result, Stuart Baker, SRA's Project Director West Coast, told some chums in mid-May that he was off to Bombardier at Derby to look at new EMUs. So there!
But I don't think Siemens should worry. It's all very well the SRA playing the field, but you would think that by now the importance of a safety case would have sunk in. As we are finding out with Pendolino, WCML safety cases are not easy. If SRA must have a fleet of new trains in service on the WCML in September 2004, time is running out fast. While neither Electrostar nor Desiro has a WCML electrical safety case, Siemens hold a trump card.
Remember Angel's not-all-that-speculative order for dual voltage Desiros, placed in anticipation of the big orders? Well six four car units remain unallocated. So if NEG did decide to accept the MOAVO and splash the SRA's cash on converting the 450/2s to 25kV AC and new interiors, a couple of those original units could start safety case testing pretty well instantly making a September 2004 service date feasible.
Another reason for choosing Desiro is the fact that getting hold of 30 Electrostars would mean the SRA going to Connex or Govia and Bombardier and fiddling with the Derby delivery schedules. That could seriously prejudice Mk 1 stock replacement which is not a good thing with an election approaching.
Before getting onto the blindingly obvious, cost effective, sensible solution, I am sure you would want this column to throw in a wild card or two Here goes.
Why not convert the Alstom Class 458 Juniper fleet to 25kV AC with new interiors? SWT has reluctantly (it claims) leased these mobile delay-minute generators for another two years, partly to cover for the delayed Hermans and partly to provide driver training on modern equipment, thus simplifying conversion when the Desiros are available in quantity. SWT also picked up £8.5million in liquidated damages which ain't bad on a 30 train fleet.
Performance wise, the Junipers would, I reckon, be an even better bet than the 450/2s since they have six axles motored, rather than four. In addition, they share the Onix traction package with Pendolino, which should make the safety case simpler.
Mind you, whether Almost could do the conversion in time is debateable and the passenger ambience wouldn't be so good, so it is a wild card.
As is converting the Post Office's 16 Class 325 EMU fleet back to passenger configuration. When these 100mile/h Class 319 clones were built, provision was made to just such a conversion. One estimate puts it at £400,000 per car, compared with £850,000-900,000 for a new high-spec EMU. On top of which, like the Class 450s, they have only four axles motored and might not have the required acceleration. No doubt more about what the Post Office does with its redundant EMUs in future.
Which brings us to all those Class 87 hauled DVT equipped sets of Mk 3s which Virgin will be handing back to Porterbrook as the Pendolini enter service. Informed Sources say that Class 87s will then be as cheap as chips and shortened formations would be ideal for, at the least, the Birmingham-Liverpool/Preston services.
Just think of it. Mk 3 ambience, bags of performance and probably a darned sight cheaper than any EMU option. Plus the chance to travel behind 87.006.
I think we used to call it ‘cascading' in the bad old days.