Bristol electrics
Overhead lines are energised and electrification of the Great Western Main Line extends to Bristol Parkway and Newbury.
ELECTRIFICATION of the Great Western Main Line was extended to Bristol Parkway and Newbury on New Year’s Eve.
The first passenger-carrying Class 387 Electrostar reached Newbury after the overhead lines were energised, at the end of a disruptive year-long installation programme. And a bi-mode Hitachi Class 800 ran from Paddington to Bristol Parkway entirely on electric power.
However, the start of regular passenger services on January 2 was marred by a breakdown at Thatcham. It left a Class 387 stranded for an hour, blocking the westbound line to Newbury.
“I gather it was a power issue,” explained Great Western Railway Managing Director Mark Hopwood, who had been on the preceding train between Reading and Newbury.
“Something happened between the wires and the pantograph, and it wouldn’t go up again. Not sure of the cause, but I will say that train has been in steady use on other routes for nearly two years.”
After passengers were taken off, and some transferred to taxis to complete their journeys, the stricken rolling stock was coupled to a following train and dragged back to the Reading depot.
Hopwood added: “Since switching on Bristol Parkway we’ve seen trains accelerating much more quickly - making up two or three extra minutes, sometimes more. In due course we will introduce a new timetable, but for the moment it’s about improved performance.
“Some passengers will notice, some probably won’t, because the trains do perform pretty well in diesel mode as well.
“We’ve had a tough year - everyone recognises that. Over Christmas we’ve run trains to 90% punctuality, which is a lot better than recent weeks and months. We just don’t have the volume of engineering work this year that we’ve seen during 2018, so our hope is that performance will now improve steadily.”
Mark Langman, Network Rail’s Western Route Managing Director, told RAIL: “The electrification programme was re-set in 2015, and over the last three years we have hit every milestone that we said we would deliver.
“We still have a small piece of electrification to complete between Swindon and Chippenham. That will be done in March. Then we will spend the rest of this year focusing on electrification to Cardiff. That is due towards the end of 2019. When we get to Cardiff that will be completion of the whole scheme.”
Electrification through Bath to Bristol Temple Meads, from Didcot to Oxford, and on Thames Valley branch lines, had all been part of the original project. But despite major investment in preparatory work in the Box tunnel and through Bath, these parts of the programme are on hold indefinitely. And with bi-mode trains operating to similar speeds under both diesel and electric power, there has been widespread speculation that the wiring will never be completed.
There are also rolling stock issues affecting stopping services on the line through Newbury to Bedwyn.
As previously reported in RAIL, new bi-mode Hitachi trains for the route were unable to start as planned on January 2. Older Class 165 Turbo diesels will remain for several months, delaying a cascade to other parts of the network. A turnback siding at Bedwyn was extended last summer in preparation for the arrival of the new trains, which operate driveronly, without a guard.
“We have a problem with the cameras that the drivers use to close the doors,” Hopwood admitted.
“The images are not as good as we would like. Safety comes first, so we’ve said we won’t use them until the issues have been resolved. We are working with Hitachi to sort it out, and we hope to do that within the next few months.”
Longer-distance services on the route to Devon and Cornwall use the same trains. But they all carry guards, so are unaffected by the camera faults.
Class 387 services terminating at Newbury add up to 20% more seats compared with the Turbo trains they replace. However, TravelWatch SouthWest, which represents passengers, remains deeply critical of the process of electrification, completed on the same day that regulated fares on GWR rose by 2.9%.
“People on this line haven’t been able to rely on the train for almost a year. It has been enormously disruptive,” said spokesman Christopher Irwin.
“That is just not acceptable for a part of the country in which a growing number of people are travelling to London every day.
“And wiring to Bristol is five years late. That’s terrifying. It makes us wonder about the competence of people charged with big railway project management.
“Whether the railway keeps on growing depends on investment. Whether it gets investment depends on delivery of promises. And so far, the railway management shows itself as very bad on delivery. This has paralysed Government willingness to invest.
“If the managers deliver only delay and more expense, one wonders whether the Government will ever go for the proper electric railway service we should really expect of this country.”
Network Rail portrayed the launch of electric services as a positive boost for passengers, as the £2.8 billion infrastructure project enters its final phase.
Irwin retorted: “Network Rail pay a lot of money for a lot of spinners of news. They ought to pay more money for very good project managers. Passengers have had a very raw deal - the new trains are uncomfortable, and so far they have been unreliable.
“Why people should pay more for a lesser-quality service is something that really doesn’t make sense. It’s perverse, it’s anti-commercial, and it’s a political misjudgment.”