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| The New Tube for London under construction and the Enviro100EV - © Siemens and Alexander Dennis |
Today (3rd October) has been big news for manufacturing in England as we see the 'New Tube for London' 2024 rolling stock for the Piccadilly line and 32 Alexander Dennis Enviro100EV small electric buses for London Bus Routes 233, R1, R3, R4 and R8.
From Siemens UK
The Secretary of State for Transport Louise Haigh and the Mayor of London attended the grand opening of the Goole Train Manufacturing Facility, a significant milestone for Siemens Mobility and the future of rail transportation in the region. Alongside the opening, Siemens Mobility announced a substantial investment of up to £40 million in a state-of-the-art Bogie Assembly and Service Centre, further solidifying its commitment to the region.
The new Bogie Assembly and Service Centre will incorporate and expand Siemens Mobility’s current capabilities to overhaul bogies from UK trains, including the 3,224 strong fleet of vehicles (572 trains) it maintains in the UK, and will also include new production lines for assembling bogies for new trains, a first for Siemens in the UK.
The investment in the new service centre in Goole, Yorkshire, comes in addition to the previously announced £200 million investment in the Goole Rail Village including the Train Manufacturing Facility. This state-of-the-art facility will play a pivotal role in producing the next generation of trains for the UK, including the highly anticipated new Piccadilly line trains for Transport for London (TfL) that will transform rail travel across the capital. In addition to this, all of Siemens’ future UK train orders including Siemens Mobility’s new battery trains will be built at Goole, which is also gearing up to serving other global markets by 2030.
From UK's Department for Transport#TfL Freedom of Information release:#London Underground's 2024 stock (New Tube for London) Drawing/Diagram Requesthttps://t.co/JqSeBKUuIB pic.twitter.com/Ar75Pj5bD0
— CLondoner92 (@CLondoner92) August 29, 2023
The Secretary of State will attend Siemens’ Rail Village in Goole to celebrate the formal opening of its new £200 million site.
The plant will be home to hundreds of high-skilled jobs where almost 100 new state-of-the-art Piccadilly Line trains will be manufactured and assembled.
In a further boost to the region, Siemens Mobility is also announcing up to a further £40 million towards a new Bogie Assembly and Service Centre at the site which will create up to 200 extra jobs.
The world class hub has been made possible by the government’s funding settlements with Transport for London (TfL), giving Siemens the confidence to invest in the site.
It represents the scale of what can be achieved through joint public and private sector support – and underlines the government’s commitment to attracting international investment.
The grand opening comes ahead of the government’s International Investment Summit on 14 October 2024, which will bring together some of the world’s most influential companies and major investors.
The summit will be an opportunity for the Prime Minister and Cabinet to outline how the government will provide the certainty and opportunities businesses need to make Britain the best place in the world to invest.
The government is focused on creating the conditions for businesses to invest, through trust partnership and stability. We will fix the foundations by investing in the jobs, industries and infrastructure of the future to rebuild Britain and make everyone, everywhere better off.
As part of this drive, the Transport Secretary is working to end the ‘boom and bust’ approach to rail manufacturing by delivering a long-term industrial strategy for rolling stock.
Go-Ahead London will operate the buses from its Orpington Garage on local routes R1, R3, R4 and R8 as well as route 233 between Eltham and Swanley.
All are powered by the medium-duty version of the Voith Electrical Drive System and will have 354kWh batteries, supplied by Impact Clean Power Technology and providing up to 1.2GWh warrantable energy throughput to allow for long operating lives without battery replacement.
Read more
The rest of the London Bus Network will be getting new electric buses of various makes and models; the routes are:
Information taken from the London Bus Routes Service Changes page.
Suggestions
For the New Tube for London, as explained in the social media post embedded below.
TfL should also revive the proposal from 2014 to roll out the 'New Tube for London' for the Central and Waterloo & City lines, as originally planned.Unfortunately, it has taken 10 years for the 'New Tube for London' to get to the construction and rollout for the Piccadilly line. Next is the Bakerloo line, as they need a major upgrade. This includes upgrading the signalling systems. The video is from 10 years ago (2014).
— CLondoner92 (@clondoner92.bsky.social) October 3, 2024 at 1:44 PM
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As for buses, to recap from my previous articles, I'd like to see a new double-deck electric bus with three-doors, two staircases, and two wheelchair spaces to help improve accessibility for the disabled, wheelchair and pushchair users.Highlights from #TfL's 'Fit for the Future' document published in 2014.
— CLondoner92 (@CLondoner92) December 16, 2023
The proposals:
🡒 Met line extension
🡒 Elizabeth line in 2018
🡒 Northern Line Extension to Battersea Power Station in 2020
🡒 Launch of the New Tube for #London for the Piccadilly line in 2022
And more pic.twitter.com/BJLNrBjYWa
They would be ideal for various busy routes in London to help improve loading and unloading and to provide ease of access for wheelchair users boarding the bus, especially with two wheelchair spaces. This is where TfL and other transport authorities (such as Greater Manchester's Bee Network) should progress to improve accessibility for their bus services, and it will help improve customer satisfaction.
I'd also like to see new tram-styled bendy buses for various routes, usually with extensive bus priority measures in London to help increase capacity and improve accessibility. They can also provide an opportunity to convert them to tram lines.
In other news, KeolisAmey retains the franchise to operate the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) for eight years.
I invite you to follow me on X by searching for @CLondoner92 or by clicking on the direct link to my X page here. I'm also on BlueSky and Mastodon.#Transport for #London: KeolisAmey retains the franchise to operate the DLR The new contract is for eight years Making enhancements to timetables to deliver higher frequencies of service and capacity upgrades to support population growth across the network tfl-newsroom.prgloo.com/news/keolisa...
— CLondoner92 (@clondoner92.bsky.social) October 3, 2024 at 10:39 AM
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