Instead
of reporting the news in separate articles I've decided to group them together
where possible, so there will be various news items and transport stories in a
larger article from now on. Your feedback on this will be greatly appreciated
in the comment section.
Crossrail
2 received a huge boost today, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced
funding in the Budget allowing Transport for London (TfL) and Network Rail to
forge ahead with full scale technical development of the railway. This will
enable construction to start in the
early 2020s, which would allow the railway to be operational by 2033.
The
announcement follows the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) report last
week that said Crossrail 2 `should be taken forward as a priority', backing the
railway as the only infrastructure project capable of meeting the demands of
London's future growth. The report recommended submitting a hybrid bill by autumn 2019 and today's
Budget announcement provides funding which, together with TfL funds, will enable the scheme to move forward on
that schedule immediately.
Crossrail
2 would serve central London through
an underground tunneled section between Wimbledon
and Tottenham Hale and New Southgate, connecting to existing National Rail routes in Surrey and
Hertfordshire.
Even
with the successful construction of
Crossrail, and continued improvements to London Underground and the National
Rail network, further large-scale infrastructure projects are vital to
support the Capital's unprecedented population increase.
The
Mayor of London has signalled his support for a vital rail extension to serve
east London's largest housing development site, by asking Transport for London
(TfL) to apply for powers to start construction.
Following
the Mayor's instruction, TfL will now
apply to Government for a Transport and Works Act Order to start construction of the 4.5km extension
of the Gospel Oak to Barking line.
This extension would deliver London
Overground services to a new station at the heart of the Barking Riverside
community, with construction beginning
in late 2017 and train services commencing in 2021.
The
extension will deliver a sustainable public transport alternative to car travel and link Barking Riverside into London's
public transport network through connections at Barking, with District and
Hammersmith & City Tube services and c2c services to London Fenchurch
Street and Essex.
The
extension is fully funded, with the majority of the £263m cost of the scheme being met by the developers, Barking
Riverside Limited, a newly reformed joint venture between the GLA and London
& Quadrant, who are providing £172m
of funding. The remainder is being provided by TfL.
A
Transport and Works Act Order (TWAO) will be submitted to the Secretary of
State for Transport and if approved could mean construction beginning in late 2017 with train services commencing in
2021.
The
Gospel Oak to Barking route, which
is already part of London Overground, is being electrified by Network Rail and
due to be completed in 2017. The new four-carriage electric trains will
run on the route from 2018 replacing the current two-carriage diesel trains, and will provide improved journey times and more capacity.
Transport
for London (TfL) has today announced that it intends to award the new London
Overground operator contract to Arriva Rail London Limited. The £1.5 billion contract will cover seven and
a half years with an option to extend for up to two additional years.
Arriva will take over
from existing operator LOROL in November 2016, and will support TfL
in delivering further improvements for customers on the already hugely popular
network. These will include modernised
stations and more frequent services, the first of which will be on the North London line. New trains will also be introduced in 2018, transforming journeys
on London Overground routes out of
Liverpool Street and on the Gospel Oak to Barking line.
Under
the new concession, customers on some routes will benefit from extended operating hours, and new services will be introduced on some
routes on Boxing Day. Arriva will also be expected to deliver sustained
improvements in performance levels, which have improved hugely since TfL took
responsibility for London Overground
routes in 2007.
To
support this, new incentives have been incorporated into the new contract
including financially penalising Arriva should incidents caused by Network
Rail, train and freight operators impact on London Overground services. Along
with the tightening of the rail industry standard measurement for punctuality
for commuter services to three minutes within the scheduled arrival time. These
measures are being implemented to encourage closer working with Network Rail
and Bombardier to continue to improve reliability and provide high quality
services for customers.
The
contract award is subject to a 10 day standstill period.
The
rail industry punctuality measure is trains arriving at their terminating
destination within five minutes of their scheduled time. TfL believes that
trains on the London Overground network should arrive within three minutes.
The
shortlisted bidders were:
·
Arriva
Rail London Limited
·
LoKeGo
Limited (a joint venture between Keolis (UK) Limited and Go-Ahead Holding
Limited)
·
Metroline
Rail Limited
·
MTR
Corporation
Current
operator LOROL (London Overground
Rail Operations Ltd) is a joint venture
between MTR and Arriva.
LOROL
currently operate London Overground services and will continue to do so until
their concession ends on 13 November 2016.
Arriva
UK Trains also operates Wales and Border
franchise under Arriva Trains Wales brand, Chiltern Railways, New Cross Country
franchise, Tyne and Wear Metro and the Grand Central Line which is an open access route. Arriva UK Trains are expecting
to start the Northern Franchise on April 1st under the Northern brand. Arriva is a
subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which is owned by the German government.
Transport
for London (TfL) has completed trials of Intelligent
Speed Assistance (ISA) technology fitted to buses, proving that the
technology can be used to control speeds on London's bus network.
The
trials, the first in the UK, form part of the Mayor and TfL's commitment to
halve the number of people killed and seriously injured on London's roads by
2020. They saw the technology, which prevents
vehicles from accelerating over speed limits, fully tested on two bus
routes that included a variety of road environments and differing speed limits.
All
buses fitted with ISA remained within the speed limit 97-99 per cent of the time, proving the effectiveness of ISA. The extremely rare incidents of excess speeds
were seen on downhill sections of road.
The
trials were particularly effective when travelling through 20mph zones - which are being widely introduced and cover around a
quarter of London's roads - helping to ensure other vehicles in the area
adhered to the limit.
As
part of the Mayor's world leading bus safety standard for London, that he
announced last month, TfL intends to require
all new buses from 2017 to have this technology fitted.
Let's take a quick
look at one of the TFL board papers from their board meeting on 17th March.
Authority Approval:
To
approve budgeted project authority to a
total of £154.1m for the New Tube for London programme inclusive of £95m to commence the procurement of new rolling stock
and signalling systems for the Piccadilly line modernisation, deliver enabling works and to continue
design development for the Bakerloo, Central and Waterloo & City line
upgrades by 31 March 2018.
Outputs
and Schedule:
This
request covers the initial preparatory works for the modernisation of the Piccadilly line and further development of the
Bakerloo, Central and Waterloo & City line upgrades, as follows:
•
Commencement
of procurement for a new Signalling and
Train Control system including preparation and issue of an Invitation to
Tender (ITT);
•
Completion
of competitive tendering and supplier
negotiations for new Piccadilly line trains;
•
Commencement
of designs and specifications for the procurement of infrastructure and railway
systems upgrades on the Piccadilly line; and
•
Commencement
of HV power supply upgrades and signalling immunisation works.
These
preparatory works will contribute towards the following strategic outputs:
•
Delivery
of line modernisation, asset renewals and capacity upgrades on the Piccadilly
and Waterloo & City lines by 2026;
and
•
Subsequent
modernisation of the Bakerloo line by
2028 and the Central line by 2033;
The
Board is asked to approve additional budgeted Project Authority of £353.2m to December 2022 to allow full implementation of the Bank Station Capacity Upgrade (SCU)
The
Bank SCU will provide additional capacity at Bank Station to meet forecast
growth in passenger demand; step-free
access to the Northern line platforms and improved fire and evacuation measures. Works commenced in 2015. The new
capacity will be available below ground from 2020 with a new entrance open in
2021.
The
Board is requested to approve additional
budgeted authority of £69m increasing total Project Authority to £104.6m.
The
project will deliver all workstreams to support introduction of a 36tph peak service from April 2020, except for 10 additional trains which are provided via
the separate Jubilee and Northern Line Additional Trains project. This
project includes implementation of power, cooling, track, depot enabling and
signalling works. The overall JLU2 business case is assessed as giving an 8.6 to 1 benefit to cost ratio.
Over in Egypt, the
manufacturing industry MCV
(Manufacturing Commercial Vehicles) will be exporting 60 of the Volvo B5LH
MCV EvoSeti Hybrid buses to Go Ahead London.
From Step Feed
The
launch marks the first time for Egypt to export the world-famous red
double-decker bus, a historic transportation vehicle in London which has become
one of the most widely recognized symbols of the city.
The
buses will be manufactured and exported by Manufacturing
Commercial Vehicles, a multinational Egyptian company that mainly produces
commercial trucks and buses.
During
his Sunday visit to MCV’s factory in New Salheya city near Cairo, Egyptian
trade and industry minister Tarek Kabil said that the launch is a testament
from foreign markets to the quality of the Egyptian product.
“Launching
a direct manufacturing line for the export of 60 double-decker buses for the first time to Britain. Egyptian
manufacturing.”
He
added that it is also a testament to the Egyptian product’s adherence to the
highest local and international standards and specification requirements, as
well as its ability to compete with its imported counterpart.
In
addition, Kabil said that the investments of MCV’s New Salheya factory complex
are 100 percent Egyptian, adding that they reach 500 million Egyptian pounds.
“Finally,
after seven months of uphill working, we released the first Hybrid Double Decker vehicle in the Middle East. Proud of
being one of the engineers who built this Egyptian monster,” Egyptian engineer
Hesham Muhammed Ali said, who worked on the new product, in an Instagram post.
According to London
Bus Routes Service Changes page, these Egyptian built buses
are expected to enter service on route
40 by 30th April 2016, operating from Camberwell (Q) garage by Go Ahead
London.
The diesel-electric
hybrid buses are increasing and with information taken from London Bus Routes
service changes page I have compiled the routes which are expected to have new
hybrid buses. This also includes New Routemaster conversions.
Route
|
Hybrid
bus type
|
Operator
|
Date
expected
|
21
|
Unknown
|
Go
Ahead London
|
8th October 2016
|
26
|
Enviro400H
City
|
CT
Plus
|
25th June 2016
|
35
|
Enviro400H
MMC
|
Go
Ahead London
|
30th April 2016
|
40
|
Volvo
B5LH MCV EvoSeti
|
Go
Ahead London
|
30th April 2016
|
53
|
Enviro400H
MMC
|
Stagecoach
|
23rd July 2016
|
59
|
New
Routemaster
|
Arriva
London
|
April
2016
|
63
|
Unknown
|
Go
Ahead London
|
12th November 2016
|
72
|
Unknown
|
London
United
|
3rd September 2016
|
85
|
Volvo
B5LH Gemini 3
|
London
United
|
2nd July 2016
|
91
|
New
Routemaster
|
Metroline
|
April
2016
|
114
|
Unknown
|
Metroline
|
3rd September 2016
|
140
|
Unknown
|
Metroline
|
3rd September 2016
|
182
|
Unknown
|
Metroline
|
3rd September 2016
|
189
|
New
Routemaster
|
Metroline
|
July
2016
|
211
|
New
Routemaster
|
Abellio
|
June
2016
|
328
|
Volvo
B5LH Gemini 3
|
Tower
Transit
|
30th April 2016
|
363
|
Unknown
|
Go
Ahead London
|
12th November 2016
|
Yes, that is 17 routes
that will be getting diesel-electric hybrid buses!
Lastly some news from LOTS
(London Omnibus Traction Society)
Last
Tuesday 15th one of Metroline’s BYD
electric double-decks was formally handed over at City Hall. BYD1472 was decorated in the ‘green leaf’
design and already had its AC garage code applied. The batch of five is due to enter service on route 98 during April. On
the next day 16th the first Volvo B5LH
with Wrightbus SRM body was present
for a press preview outside the LT
Museum Covent Garden. With registration LJ16 EXD the body was to
the New Routemaster design but with two doors, one staircase and 66 seats
(rather than three, two and 62 of the NRM itself). RATP-DEV
has ordered six of these, due to go on London
Sovereign route 13 later this summer.
The
first 16-plate buses for London have gone into service. The very first were GoAhead 8.9m E20Ds
(SE288-290) on Thursday 17th on route 138 – these three were actually ordered
against the pvr increase on route 162.
The next out on Saturday 19th were the Abellio 9.0m E20Ds (batch
8210-8219) when they took over route 367.
However the new 10.9m E20Ds for Abellio route C10 did not enter service
on the 19 (the contract date) as might have been expected.
I have also written
about the BYD double deck battery electric bus and the Volvo B5LH with SRM body in case you missed them.
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