EMCL power supply issues add to TransPennine’s troubles
TRANSPENNINE Express has been forced to remove a number of trains from the timetable, either in part or completely, until the end of January.
It had been due to extend most of its Liverpool to Newcastle services to Edinburgh via the ECML from December.
In a message to passengers, TPE managing director Leo Goodwin said: “We have had a number of issues associated with the introduction of our new trains, which caused huge disruption.
“To allow our services to recover and to provide some consistency for customers, we are running an amended timetable throughout the next few weeks along our Liverpool to Edinburgh route.
“The recent issues have caused a lot of frustration and I fully admit that it was not acceptable.”
Mr Goodwin added maintenance backlog and infrastructure issues along with the late delivery of new trains has delayed training.
Challenge
The Liverpool-NewcastleEdinburgh services can only be worked by TPE’s new bi-mode ‘Nova 1’ Class 802 trains, but the company is now facing a further challenge because the power supply on the northern section of the East Coast Main Line has not been upgraded for the additional workings.
The upshot is TPE is running on diesel power for pre-defined short sections on the ECML between Chathill and Longniddry.
Network Rail is currently going through a programme of PSU2 upgrades to key electrical feeder stations. The work includes a new 132kV connection at Hambleton junction, 27 new sub-stations with infrastructure work, new feeder cables, and two new static frequency converter compounds.
The inability of the power supply to handle additional trains can be traced back to the original electrification by British Rail in 1991 when fewer electrically powered trains were expected to serve Edinburgh, and a significant proportion would be diesel HST sets travelling on to destinations north of the Scottish capital.
The upgrade of the power supply between Bawtry and Edinburgh (PSU2) was set to follow PSU1 – a £237million scheme to uprate power supplies between Wood Green and Bawtry, completed in August 2017.
Despite clear indications PSU2 was vital as far back as 2014,
DfT authorisation to proceed with the work was not granted until January 2019. Even in 2016 concerns were being expressed by the ORR, which said “it seems unlikely the other necessary power supply enhancements will be completed much before the end of 2020, and that is subject to Network Rail working out what exactly it should do and securing funding to do it”.
The on-going delay has been partially responsible for the collapse of the Virgin Trains East Coast franchise, which pointed out to the Transport Select Committee the Intercity Express Programme (IEP) Infrastructure Output Specification commits NR to delivering an adequate power supply to utilise the new rolling stock from 2018.
DfT ‘failure’
However, by September 2018, Network Rail was telling the Transport Select Committee that the PSU2 upgrade would be fully implemented in Control Period 6 (2019-2024) after “delivery in late CP5 and CP6”.
Network Rail has made it clear the responsibility for the delay is firmly down to a failure to act by the DfT.
Work on PSU2 should start sometime in 2020. Early work includes the new feeder at
Hambleton, where site work is already underway, but a further delay to the project is likely in the provision of a feed from the National Grid, to be delivered by Scottish Power Networks.
LNER has been given indications this work may not be completed until 2024 because of the amount of work needed to provide a feed in a remote part of the UK, meaning some major timetable changes that should have come in later this year could still be five years away.
As well as the impact on TPE, the lack of capacity will have a short-term impact on LNER’s services, with managing director David Horne telling The RM: “Assessments have been done on the power capability versus the timetable, and essentially once we’re fully ‘Azuma’, we have insufficient power for the Sunday service, where we run three trains an hour from Edinburgh to the south – so one of those will run in diesel until the power supply gets upgraded.”
There will be an impact on the maintenance regime for the LNER Class 800s and the
TPE Class 802 ‘Nova 1’ sets, where they will be using the diesel engines more than was originally envisaged.
Additionally, the PSU2 delay is likely to have an impact on First Group’s new open access service between Edinburgh and London.
It is due to start in May 2021 using a fleet of five Hitachi
AT300 electric trainsets, but they don’t have any diesel capability, and need to be pathed carefully on the northern section of the ECML, where priority will be given to LNER as the franchised operator.