London’s scrapped trains to revamp rail line?

TRAINS from the London Underground could be brought North to service one of Yorkshire’s most important lines in the biggest upgrade planned for the region’s rail network in nearly 20 years.

The ambitious £150m scheme to electrify the line between Leeds and York via Harrogate has been unveiled today to drag the current beleaguered services into the 21st century.

The upgrade is earmarked to be completed by 2015 and would slash journey times by up to 12 per cent, dramatically increase the number of services and provide a long-awaited replacement to existing diesel trains on the 38-mile stretch of track.

Business leaders and politicians are petitioning the Government to secure funding from £25bn that is due to be spent on improving the nation’s rail network up until 2013/14.

Hopes are high that the money will be obtained as the plans meet many of the credentials set out by former Civil Aviation Authority chairman Sir Roy McNulty in a report published in May outlining a radical overhaul to save Britain’s railways £1bn a year.

The 10:15 Service to Harrogate Will Leave from Platform 3

 

Trains currently being used on the London Underground’s District Line that are due to be scrapped by 2014 would instead be re-deployed to the Yorkshire route. The upgrade would also provide the foundations for a long-term vision for new stations, including a stop-off for Leeds-Bradford International Airport.

The Harrogate Chamber of Trade and Commerce’s chief executive, Brian Dunsby, is spearheading the project which has been developed over the past nine months.

A low-cost ground-level electrification system would be introduced, similar to technology already on London’s Docklands Light Railway and in Copenhagen and Berlin. A fleet of 20 trains from London would undergo modifications costing £500,000 so they can be used on the Yorkshire route.

Passenger capacity would increase by about 40 per cent from the existing diesel stock with seat numbers rising from 207 to 280. Space for standing passengers would also increase dramatically.

The remainder of the £150m would be spent on electrifying the line, and building a maintenance depot near Harrogate. Project director Mark Leving, a former managing director of Hull Trains, claimed the lightweight metrostyle trains provide a ready-made, tried and tested solution to lowering the cost of running the route.

Siemens Named Preferred Bidder for New Thameslink Fleet

Siemens Plc and XL Trains – a consortium comprising of Siemens Project Ventures GmbH, Innisfree Ltd and 3i Infrastructure Plc – have been appointed preferred bidder to build, own, finance and maintain the 1200 new carriages for the Thameslink Upgrade Programme.

The Department for Transport has selected Siemens Plc and XL Trains – a consortium comprising of Siemens Project Ventures GmbH, Innisfree Ltd and 3i Infrastructure Plc – as the preferred bidder in the competition to provide the new trains and depots for the Thameslink Programme.

The Thameslink Programme requirement is for 1200 new carriages to be delivered between 2015 and 2018 which will allow the existing Thameslink trains to be cascaded to other operators.

The above video is a flythrough view of the trains specified and to those in the know, the trains in the animation bear more than a striking resemblance to the Desiro City design produced by Siemens.  The only difference that will be required of the production trains is the need for exit doors in the nose ends of the units to comply with tunnel safety requirements.

The contract will create up to 2,000 new UK jobs. This includes work being created at Siemens’ factory in Hebburn, Tyne and Wear, as well as in the rail industry supply chain. It also includes jobs at two maintenance depots for the new trains which, subject to planning permission, will be built at Three Bridges near Crawley and at Hornsey in the London Borough of Haringey.

FCC Announce New Uniform for Revenue Staff

First Capital Connect have announced a new uniform for all their revenue officers.

Unveiled yesterday at Elstree & Borehamwood station, the new uniform has been designed to make the wearer feel safer and the public feel less threatened.  An FCC SpokesRobot said.” The new uniforms are perfect for day to day use and have received a good response from the public.”

All Tickets & Railcards Please - New FCC Revenue Staff Uniform

The actual story published by First Capital Connect is regarding the completion of upgrade work at Elstree & Borehamwood, the story is available here.

Dear Passenger (The RPO Remix).

Dear Passenger

I’m sorry but your ticket is only valid for use on another operators services from this station.  If you wish to travel on this train you will need to pay the difference and upgrade your ticket.

Please don’t swear, there are children present.

You have an Advanced Purchase Ticket which is only valid on the train shown on your seat reservation.  I’m sorry you missed your train, due to being in the toilet/Burger King/WH Smith (delete as applicable). If you wish to travel, you will need to go to the booking office and purchase a new ticket.  I’m further sorry that your £20 journey will now cost you £199 but it’s not my fault you missed your train.

Please refrain from using such foul language in front of me.

Please ensure that you have your railcard with you when you travel on your railcard discounted ticket.  I cannot allow you to continue your journey until you have amended your ticket at the booking office to the full fare applicable.  However, if the discount is more than £30, you could go to the booking office, fill out the forms, get a photo done and buy a new railcard, this will allow you to travel on your original ticket.

Please, Please stop swearing at me, I cannot and will not assist you if you continue.

Please understand that your ticket says “Not London” on it.  This means that you should not be here and you should have changed trains at Station X.  My only course of action is to excess your ticket to the correct fare for the ticket you need(if you’re lucky this may be a zero excess due to price paid, valid ticket price, etc.) or to send you back to where you should have changed trains and get you to follow the route you should have taken.

For the final time, please refrain from any further profanity or I will have to take action.

I’m sorry, I can’t just “let you off”.  If I did this for you I would have to do it for everybody and this would result in me losing my job as I would not be living up to the requirements of my position.  Oh really, well, let me ask you a question.  If you went into a Supermarket, filled up a trolley full of goods and walked out without paying, would you expect the supermarket to let you off?

Right, that’s it, Officer please remove this passenger from the station, they will not be travelling from this station due to excessive use of profanity.  I’m sorry, you were warned several times about your behaviour and you chose to ignore me.

By the way, HAVE A NICE DAY!!  (Customer Service Training, always wish the customer a nice day/pleasant journey).

The above post gives you an insight into the kind of situations an RPO can deal with several times in one shift.  Please understand that we can get a little fed up with saying the same things over and over again.