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Correction, domestic services on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link will start two years late
Have you ever wondered why this column rarely uses the word exclusive? Pure arrogance, I'm afraid. I assume readers know that you get stuff here no one else writes about (Err, is that necessarily a plus point? Ed).
Mind you, two years ago I did claim to have a ‘scoop', revealing in the November 2002 column that the trains for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Domestic Services (CTRL-DS) were already up to a year late. And this was even before procurement had started.
This was not an academic issue, because when expressions of interest were sought from train builders early in 2003, the official requirement was for 12 five car electric multiple units to be in service for the completion of the CTRL in January 2007. Since Bombardier were up to the ears in Electrostars for Mk1 stock replacement and couldn't deliver in time, they declined to bid.
This was, of course, appallingly naïve of them. Especially as another hiatus in the main line market was obviously on its way. Between the end of Mk 1 stock replacement and the re-equipment of the Underground, Derby works would have a nasty gap in the workload from around 2006 to 2009.
Alstom, Hitachi and Siemens, being more worldly wise, went ahead and pre-qualified on the basis that since no one could do the impossible, the requirement would have to change. And on 27 October, Transport Secretary Alistair Darling personally made the announcement that Hitachi had been selected as the preferred manufacturer.
Hitachi had been the expected winner of the contest, being run by HSBC Rail on behalf of the Strategic Rail Authority, because the prices of its trains were the cheapest by far and the cost of the associated maintenance contract had people wondering whether a zero had gone missing somewhere.
What was in doubt, up to the very end, was whether the trains would be authorised. The business case is non-existent and there were some lively arguments, not just between the Department for Transport and the Treasury, but within the DfT over the cost.
However, the decision to go ahead was driven by two imperatives. As Mr Darling's announcement made clear, the imminent delivery of London 's bid for the 2012 Olympics needed extra transport muscle.
He described the new Domestic Service as the flagship transport scheme to deliver people to and from the Olympic Games. The trains will play a ‘crucial role' in the 'javelin shuttle' moving spectators from central London to the Olympic Park in Stratford in under 8 minutes.
Then there was Kent . The CTRL Domestic Services were part of the sweetener to get local authorities in the county to support construction of the Link. While that was some time ago, when the SRA's consultation document on the proposed services was issued earlier this year the irate response from Kent over service cuts on existing routes took the SRA by surprise.
Franchising supremo Nicola Shaw was reportedly taken aback by 4000 responses plus a petition with twice that number of signatures. Quizzing new Transport Minister Tony McNulty about CTRL-DS – to no avail, I must add – I mentioned Nicola's post bag. With great feeling he replied ‘She doesn't have to deal with the North Kent MPs'.
SRA and its ‘preferred financier' HSBC Rail, are now in detailed discussions with Hitachi ‘with a view to reaching contract close as soon as possible'. But note the DfT's caveat that the size of the fleet will not be finalised until the contract negotiations have been completed. I would still not be surprised if CTRL-DS was eventually based on a cheaper traction and rolling stock solution.
Meanwhile, there are a number of changes from the OJEU Notice and the Integrated Kent Franchise consultation document. To start with the requirement is now expected to be for ‘about 30' six car units rather than 33 five cars.
As for the delivery schedule, I was as optimistic as ever. Originally, 12 units were ‘likely' to be required for the opening of CTRL Phase 2 in early 2007. Hitachi say the first four units will now enter service in ‘Spring 2009' with an unspecified number of ‘further trains' to be delivered during the year.
Regular readers will recall Informed Sources Third Law ‘Mistrust all delivery forecasts based on the seasons. However my chums at Hitachi reckon that the first A-Train will arrive in the UK in 2007, allowing at least a year for acceptance work.
When I asked DfT for the cost, they initially demurred, then said that the 30 sets will cost ‘in excess of £200million'. Using my skill and judgement, as they say in ‘spot the ball' competitions, I reckon we are looking at around £250 million for the full fleet. The cost of mandatory signalling equipment alone is £500,000 per train.
While all the national press assumed that Hitachi would be supply a Shinkansen ‘Bullet Train', the more prosaic truth is that A-train is a plain vanilla EMU with a sexy front end. However, it will have a Shinkansen heritage being derived from the Series 400 Bullet Train which entered service in 1992.
Series 400 ‘mini-Shinkansen' was designed to run beyond the standard-gauge high speed network onto existing routes converted from narrow gauge. The resulting loading gauge is closer of the routes to Ramsgate and Canterbury on which the new trains will operate.
A significant difference is that the Series 400 has a steel body shell while the CTRL-DS stock will be fabricated from extruded aluminium extrusions. This is one area where the new trains really do offer something new.
To date, manufactures have arc welded extrusions together in an atmosphere of inert gas. Hitachi is offering friction stir welding (FSW). A rotating rod passes along the join, the friction between the rod and the extrusions causing the aluminium alloy to melt and fuse together.
This has several advantages. The first is that heating is local and controlled, unlike MIG or TIG welding, where the heat softens the metal along the join which then has to be heat treated to restore strength. The join is also pure alloy, without the filler introduced by the welding wire. Finally, it produces an exceptionally smooth finish.
FSW will see its first application on a Shinkansen trainset with the Series N 700 prototype which Hitachi is building for Central Japan Railway.
One of the hopes for FSW fabricated body shells is that it will reduce the risk of seams ‘unzipping' in a high energy accident. This happened in the ICE derailment at Eschede in Germany .
Hitachi , oddly for a Japanese manufacturer, claims that the new trains will have the h ighest rating of crash resistance of any UK Train. I say ‘oddly' because Japanese railwaymen cannot understand the British obsession with crashworthiness, preferring to stop trains crashing in the first place.
Where Pendolino and Voyagers have 3 MegaJoules (MJ) of energy absorption in the cab ends, Hitachi is aiming for 4.5MJ with the CTRL A-trains. Since a six car train at 100 mile/h will have around 240MJ I can't see the point. What will really count will be the willingness of HMRI to allow passengers in the front coach at 140mile/h on the CTRL.
Something this column tries to avoid is assuming that because something is foreign it is automatically different and better. I had just finished reading a description of the A-Train's body shell features, the use of extruded brackets and so on. It sounded very exciting until I realised that word for word it could be applied to an Electrostar – or any other modern aluminium bodyshell come to that.
And the Hitachi press release even quoted an internal sound level for the A-Train of 65 dB. Does that mean anything to you? Well, for comparison the 35 year old Mk3 is rated at 59dB.
So, forget the hype. What Hitachi has to deliver is the railway equivalent of those boringly reliable Japanese cars. With an SFE, of course.