international passenger news

[Buslist]

schlimm

As I was saying, maybe there is something inherent in the UK that makes rail a struggle?

 

And the fact that SNCF was not broken up into more than 130 companies as was BR. That and its vertical disintegration has been minimal. I thought I read somewhere that the EU is not happy with them because of insufficient separation of infrastructure and operating companies. Open access seems to be almost nonexistent.

 

Note that just now the French are preparing to contract out some local services which the Brits have been doing for about 15 years and the Germans 5-10(?).

 

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/regions-prepare-for-market-opening.html

Working on a summary of my thoughts on the U.K. situation, will post in a day or 2.

 

[schlimm]

As I was saying, maybe there is something inherent in the UK that makes rail a struggle?

[krtraveler]

SNCF, too.

http://m.railjournal.com/index.php/financial/sncf-moves-into-profit-in-first-half-of-2017.html?channel=522

[Buslist]

azrail

Network Rail (the company that controls the tracks and infrastructure) is gov't controlled. It would have been better to split up BR back to the Big 4 railways (GWR,LMS,LNER,Southern)

 

 

"December 2013, the ONS announced that from September 2014, Network Rail will be classified as a "government body". This resulted in the company's debt of £34 billion being added to the national debt."

 

"Network Rail is effectively a subsidiary of the Government-controlled SRA."

[azrail]

Network Rail (the company that controls the tracks and infrastructure) is gov't controlled. It would have been better to split up BR back to the Big 4 railways (GWR,LMS,LNER,Southern)

[Buslist]

VOLKER LANDWEHR

 

 

Buslist

Since then National has totally exited the rail scene.

 

 

National Express operates commuter (regional) lines in Germany.
Regards, Volker

 

Correction, exited the U.K. rail scene with the sale of the C2C franchise.

In Europe its Germany only, with 2 active and 2 more to come on line in the future. They are also eyeing the Spanish market.

[Anonymous]

Buslist

Since then National has totally exited the rail scene.

National Express operates commuter (regional) lines in Germany.
Regards, Volker

[schlimm]

Buslist

It now seems that Network Rail is admitting that progress might be better working with other entities.

http://m.railjournal.com/index.php/track/network-rail-opens-door-to-private-sector-participation.html

 

Very interesting!  Is it possible the fault isn't whether public or private ownership, since it seems like neither has worked well in past or is working now, but that it is something inherent about the UK? Private operation franchising is not working so well for passenger trains, either.

Maybe time to return to British Rail?

[Buslist]

It now seems that Network Rail is admitting that progress might be better working with other entities.

http://m.railjournal.com/index.php/track/network-rail-opens-door-to-private-sector-participation.html

[Buslist]

The East Coast Main Line franchise in the U.K. is in trouble again. It is beginning to look like it will fail for the third time. Last time National Express walked away from it turning it back to the government. Since then National has totally exited the rail scene.

In this case the franchise holder (Virgin Trains East Coast, Virgin 10%, Stagecoach 90%) over estimated their revenue. The losses are severely effecting  publicly held Stagecoach's financial performance. There is now a great deal of hand wringing trying to decide what's next. Options range from a complete renegotiation of the franchise to letting VTEC walk away from it.

One of the reasons cited for the revenue shortfall is Network Rail's inability to deliver route improvements to get the London Edinburgh journey time down sufficiently (I haven't followed this bit of activity to know anything about the why's and wherefores, only what's reported in the press), among other factors. It will be interesting to watch, this may require a shakeup of the whole U.K. franchise procedure/concept.

 

BTW with the exit of National Express there are now said to be more operators based outside the U.K. (DB, SNCF, MTR, Trenitalia etc.) than U.K. ones.

[Buslist]

schlimm

 

 

Buslist

I guess if you call knowledge bias. Actually what I'm doing is presenting facts not baseless speculation. Something coming from someone that critizes amatures making comments is your area of expertiese. Why are you so biased against facts? Making up excuses like Britexit and presenting them as if they are facts?

 

 

Just my opinion based on correspondence with several friends in the UK. But I will acquiesce to your knowledge base and look at the website you've mentioned.

 

You might want to look at this item, written for the non rail professional. Note last year's cost overruns by Network Rail are almost 1/2 as large as the entire Caltrain electrification.

 

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/rail-electrification-swansea-cardiff-been-13357575

[schlimm]

Thanks!!   Link activated.

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/new-french-high-speed-train-gets-fighter-escort-for-som-1796755373

[ORNHOO]

Anybody interested in seeing a TGV "flying formation" with a Rafale fighter jet? http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/new-french-high-speed-train-gets-fighter-escort-for-som-1796755373

[schlimm]

Buslist

I guess if you call knowledge bias. Actually what I'm doing is presenting facts not baseless speculation. Something coming from someone that critizes amatures making comments is your area of expertiese. Why are you so biased against facts? Making up excuses like Britexit and presenting them as if they are facts?

Just my opinion based on correspondence with several friends in the UK. But I will acquiesce to your knowledge base and look at the website you've mentioned.

[Buslist]

schlimm

 

 

Buslist

 

 

schlimm

 

 

Buslist

 

 

blue streak 1

UK is putting on hold further expansion of electrification due to cost over runs and lack of supplies.  Also note that article states system is at capacity much of day.  That may be the reason that supplies are in short supply ?

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those delayed projects are now canceled. 

http://m.railjournal.com/index.php/europe/britain-cancels-major-electrification-projects.html 

 

Let's follow the U.K. model as some have suggested!

 

 

 

 

The UK cuts are part of continued austerity by the failing Theresa May government and a Brexit-damaged economy.

 

 

 

 

Has nothing to do with Network Rail's mismanagement and its inability to accurately estimate the costs, even to the point where that ability has been part of the question sessions in Parlement. Note the mention of cost overruns in the OP. This whole thing was falling apart long before the Brexit vote. 

Suggest you invest some time reading the official Journal of the UK's Railway Study Association. Espically Roger Ford's "informed sources" colum. 

 

 

 

 

Thank you, I will.  It also seems obvious that you have a very strong negative bias, based perhaps on your past history with the UK rail scene?

 

 

I guess if you call knowledge bias. Actually what I'm doing is presenting facts not baseless speculation. Something coming from someone that critizes amatures making comments is your area of expertiese. Why are you so biased against facts? Making up excuses like Britexit and presenting them as if they are facts?

[schlimm]

Buslist

 

 

schlimm

 

 

Buslist

 

 

blue streak 1

UK is putting on hold further expansion of electrification due to cost over runs and lack of supplies.  Also note that article states system is at capacity much of day.  That may be the reason that supplies are in short supply ?

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those delayed projects are now canceled. 

http://m.railjournal.com/index.php/europe/britain-cancels-major-electrification-projects.html 

 

Let's follow the U.K. model as some have suggested!

 

 

 

 

The UK cuts are part of continued austerity by the failing Theresa May government and a Brexit-damaged economy.

 

 

 

 

Has nothing to do with Network Rail's mismanagement and its inability to accurately estimate the costs, even to the point where that ability has been part of the question sessions in Parlement. Note the mention of cost overruns in the OP. This whole thing was falling apart long before the Brexit vote. 

Suggest you invest some time reading the official Journal of the UK's Railway Study Association. Espically Roger Ford's "informed sources" colum. 

 

Thank you, I will.  It also seems obvious that you have a very strong negative bias, based perhaps on your past history with the UK rail scene?

[Buslist]

schlimm

 

 

Buslist

 

 

blue streak 1

UK is putting on hold further expansion of electrification due to cost over runs and lack of supplies.  Also note that article states system is at capacity much of day.  That may be the reason that supplies are in short supply ?

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those delayed projects are now canceled. 

http://m.railjournal.com/index.php/europe/britain-cancels-major-electrification-projects.html 

 

Let's follow the U.K. model as some have suggested!

 

 

 

 

The UK cuts are part of continued austerity by the failing Theresa May government and a Brexit-damaged economy.

 

Has nothing to do with Network Rail's mismanagement and its inability to accurately estimate the costs, even to the point where that ability has been part of the question sessions in Parlement. Note the mention of cost overruns in the OP. This whole thing was falling apart long before the Brexit vote. 

Suggest you invest some time reading the official Journal of the UK's Railway Study Association. Espically Roger Ford's "informed sources" colum. 

[schlimm]

Buslist

 

 

blue streak 1

UK is putting on hold further expansion of electrification due to cost over runs and lack of supplies.  Also note that article states system is at capacity much of day.  That may be the reason that supplies are in short supply ?

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those delayed projects are now canceled. 

http://m.railjournal.com/index.php/europe/britain-cancels-major-electrification-projects.html 

 

Let's follow the U.K. model as some have suggested!

 

The UK cuts are part of continued austerity by the failing Theresa May government and a Brexit-damaged economy.

[Buslist]

blue streak 1

UK is putting on hold further expansion of electrification due to cost over runs and lack of supplies.  Also note that article states system is at capacity much of day.  That may be the reason that supplies are in short supply ?

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news.html

 

 

 

Those delayed projects are now canceled. 

http://m.railjournal.com/index.php/europe/britain-cancels-major-electrification-projects.html 

 

Let's follow the U.K. model as some have suggested!

[MidlandMike]

According to the article, Isreal plans to spend over $34 billion ( @ 1 shekel = .28 US$ )

[blue streak 1]

Isreal reported to plan double track miles by 2040

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/infrastructure/single-view/view/israel-railways-sets-out-ambitions-to-double-the-network-by-2040.html

 

[daveklepper]

[quote user="daveklepper"]

[quote user="blue streak 1"]

Haifa funicular reported to have been closed due to fire.  DAVE  ? ?

[/quote above]

 

Shalom, David

 

There was a fire 2 months ago--it burn't up several carriages and some of the stations.

The Carmelit is shut down--till they fix it--about 2 years!

They will also renovate the whole system , over the 2 years.

 

The fire was probably from an electrical fault........

 

Steve

[daveklepper]

 Still checking, meanwhile:

On Wednesday, March 22, 2017 11:03 AM, Steve Sattler <[e-mail]> wrote:

 Before WW1, the Ottoman Empire, in order to compete with the French 1898 J&J railway :: Jaffa to Jerusalem  -planned to build a railway from the North [Damascus, Constantinople and Allepo, and connections from Germany] through Afula, across the hills of the Shomron to Jerusalem.  Meanwhile a pilgrim and military railway [1300 kms long] from Damascus to Medina [but didn't get to Mecca] was running up/down East Palestine. [through Derra and Amman]. This essential railway was also connected to Haifa port through Afula. [We call this section:The Emek line--it is alive today]

Sections of the line were finished through to Nablus and a little further south.

         When  WW1 broke out and Turkish Military Pashas {Generals} needed a good railway line for their 4th, 7th [The Yildrim {lightening} good quality very mobile force] and 8th Armies to get South quickly. They quickly re-routed the tracks from South of Nablus   to Tulkarim and then South to BeerSheva. If fact their master plan to attack and neutralize the [British] Suez Canal-in their three thrusts at the canal [1915/1916]  from Gaza and ElArish ---were failures because their railway service from Afula was incomplete. Their armies had to march from the Gallil/Afula past Gaza, The Sinia and then fight at the canal.  Tired, and hungry soilders do not fight well!

        So, from over 1914,1915+,  1918 and then the British 20s -in West Palestine  there are left-over tracks across/near/into The Shomron. Some of these tracks lead to stone quarries, some to small stations, and some were simple and temporary lines for logistical support for the EEF troops in that big [and unique and very successful] push of September/October 1918!   {those 300+ kilometer Australians--The DMC}

 

The Shmoron area today is a mixture of Israel Military, Jewish settlement populations, Arab villages, Palestanian Authority areas and many historic sites  over-laid by new roads, fences and closed-off areas.

Sybil {of beth Shemesh} and Hans-Henrik {A Danish explorer} took their lives into their hands and went out to find traces of these lost railways in 1999.

Their article is interesting reading.

 Steve Sattler

http://www.landsvig.dk/ramwb.h tm

 http//www.landsvig.dk/ramwb.h tm

[daveklepper]

[quote user="blue streak 1"]

Haifa funicular reported to have been closed due to fire.  DAVE  ? ?

[/quote above]

 

Did not get the news.   Will investigate

[krtraveler]

Nothing to see here or here. How about that conventional wisdom?

[blue streak 1]

Liverpool UK had a landslip cutting off station for at least a week.  This appears to be similar to the CSX landslip in Baltimore a while back.

http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/main-line/landslip-set-to-close-liverpool-lime-street-for-nine-days.html?channel=524

 

 

[blue streak 1]

BNSF service bulletin.  Note how snow cleared appears to be a Jordon spreader ?

http://domino.bnsf.com/website/updates.nsf/updates-service-consumer/007B3A47335F44FC862580C0007DE9B2?Open

Uncofirmed reports Amtrak using bus to take passenger the long way around -- Shelby and Whitefish by way of Missoula ?

[blue streak 1]

Haifa funicular reported to have been closed due to fire.  DAVE  ? ?

[blue streak 1]

Not only US with bridge fires.  New Zeland has a major steel bridge appears destroyed

http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/australia-nz/new-zealand-suffers-second-south-island-line-closure.html?channel=541

This puts KIWI rail in a precarious position since it also is dealing with the earlier 2016 earthquake damage not yet fixed.

[daveklepper]

would better maintenance have prevented this damage?