OF CHANGE GWR ON THE CUSP

Transcription

1 GWR ON THE CUSP OF CHANGE GWR Managing Director MARK HOPWOOD told the Railway Study Association about his plans for the franchise Great Western Railway has a proud heritage, dating back to the days of Brunel. Today s GWR franchise bears many similarities with its historic predecessor: as an integrated franchise providing high speed, commuter and regional branch line services, it covers a huge swathe of the country, including the Thames Valley, the West of England and South Wales. It is a distinctive franchise and the name GWR engenders pride today in the way it did a century or more ago. The GWR brand connects with our desire to return to a more evocative and enjoyable rail experience, where high standards and a re-focus on passengers create more enjoyable rail journeys. Commentators sometimes ask why we have not adopted the chocolate and cream livery used by our predecessors: the answer is that in market research it did not gain favourable reaction with a 21st century market. Instead we have adopted a smart green livery. Our train fleet is gradually being repainted with this, although we have decided not to spend a huge amount of money to relivery the fleet immediately; trains will be treated when the paintwork falls due for maintenance. This is an exciting time to be at the helm of GWR as the new Super Express Trains and new EMUs coming as part of the Great Western modernisation programme will spark a cascade of rolling stock across the franchise and improve our services across the board. By the close of the franchise in 2019, we will have introduced new or refurbished trains on every part of the network, including those designated as Community Rail lines. This is a busy railway: GWR carried more than 103 million passengers in And it is a complicated one to operate, as we are maintaining services while Network Rail executes the 7.5 billion modernisation of the Great Western main line around our operations. We have had a busy time of things: not only have we had the ongoing electrification and resignalling of the main line, but also the rebuild of Reading and a spate of infrastructure SET for transformation: GWR bi-mode IEP unit No at London Paddington on 30 June following a special press trip from Reading. ANTONY GUPPY 51

2 failures, including the collapse of the Dawlish sea wall in early 2014 and flooding problems at Hinksey and Maidenhead. I am pleased to report that through all this our operating performance has held up, tacking along at about 90% Public Performance Measure. Our customers recognise this: GWR s overall satisfaction rate hit 84% towards the end of last year, its highest-ever peak. A key plank of our strategy moving forward is to put proper emphasis on the role of our employees. GWR has PARTNERING WITH THE DFT Investor in People gold award status and has put a heavy emphasis on training. The company has established apprenticeships in railway operations for year olds, set up leadership training courses for managers and organised customer experience training for all staff. WORKING WITH THE COMMUNITY Community Rail has been an amazing success and Great Western is keen to support and work with the Community There is a massive programme of infrastructure and rolling stock investment that is being made by this Government in the franchise as part of our long term economic plan. Having a stable partner that understands the complexities of this vital franchise throughout these works will allow for better value for money during this award and enable us to get to a steady state operating pitch on which to build the next franchise competition. Claire Perry, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Transport, extract from letter to Parliamentary colleagues, 10 October 2014 Rail movement. We have five Community Rail Partnerships on our patch (Cotswolds, Devon & Cornwall, Heart of Wessex, TransWilts and Severnside), along with 26 user groups and numerous Friends of groups covering most of our network, both Community Rail and other lines. Devon & Cornwall Community Rail Partnership, based at the University of Plymouth, is a best practice partner of the Department for Transport and has successfully secured European funding for the development of Devon s railways (supplement, October 2015 Modern Railways). We have witnessed strong growth on our Community Rail lines; for example, the Falmouth branch, which benefited from investment in a passing place at Penryn, has seen growth of 164% in the past seven years. Indeed, four out of the five fastest-growing Community Rail lines are in our territory (Table 1). However, it should be recognised that some of these lines are growing from quite a low base (Figure 1). TABLE 1: TOP FIVE GROWING COMMUNITY RAIL LINES, 2007/ /15 Severn Beach line 185.5% Truro Falmouth 164.0% Derby Matlock 120.1% Exeter Barnstaple 108.2% St Erth St Ives 86.2% Growth of passenger journeys nationally over this period: 35.8% Growth of passenger journeys on regional network over this period: 27.7% 52 Modern Railways August 2016

3 FIGURE 1: COMMUNITY RAIL GROWTH 2,200, % 2006/7 1,650, % 2014/15 Passenger numbers 1,100, , % +112% +181% +37% +42% +59% +66% +143% 0 Severn Beach Bristol Barnstaple Exmouth Gunnislake Looe Newquay Falmouth St Ives TransWilts Weymouth Community rail line Royal commemoration: HST power car No has been given a special livery in honour of the Queen s 90th birthday celebrations. On 11 June it heads the Penzance to London Paddington service through Sonning Cutting. KEN BRUNT Railway project with the Prince s Trust, providing training and work experience. Another project is Young Great Westerners, where we have been working with the National Schools Partnership to support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) education in primary schools, growing future railway engineers. There is a common theme with all this: GWR seeks to be not just a railway, but part of the fabric of the community. SECOND DIRECT AWARD GWR operates the franchise under Direct Award arrangements; this is the second Direct Award, known as DA2. The 7.5 billion Great Western route modernisation programme lies at the core of DA2. During the period up to the end of the franchise in 2019, GWR will work with partners to combine infrastructure, station and rolling stock investment with new timetables (with two major changes, in December 2017 and December 2018) to deliver substantial passenger benefits and major capacity improvements. SUBURBAN TIMETABLE ENHANCEMENTS Recent months have seen a change in thinking on the suburban fleet. While GWR was to receive Class 387/1s cascaded from the Thameslink route with the arrival of We are working to achieve more on these lines. We have pledged to invest 791,000 in Community Rail over the course of this franchise and we have established a 2.2 million Customer and Communities Improvement Fund for which we have invited bids for a share of the fund. GWR seeks to build relationships with local suppliers. For example, for the food sold on our trains, we try wherever possible to source within 15 miles of the railway. One example would be the tea served on GWR services: this all comes from Tregothan tea plantation in Cornwall. Our contract with the tea grower has led to that company taking on five more people, in an area short of employment opportunities. GWR also aims to support young people in our area. The company has established the Get into Great Western Cotswolds line: Turbo DMU No forms the Great Malvern to London Paddington service departing Moreton-in-Marsh on 21 November KEN BRUNT 53

4 TO TONBRIDGE TO LONDON Platform 3 Track to be removed 1 Platform 2 New Platform 0 TO GATWICK AIRPORT Under revised plans for the new platform at Redhill, Platforms 2 and 0 will accommodate 12-car Up London services while Platform 1, which is to be single-ended, will host Reading services. Originally, London services would have been on 1 and 2, while the Readings would have been on 0. new Class 700 trains there, now extra Class 387s built specifically for GWR are in prospect (p11, last month). In conjunction with Porterbrook, we had already ordered 8x4-car Class 387s from Bombardier; now GWR is to receive an additional 14 of the 20x4-car 387s ordered by Porterbrook Leasing in November These will be supplemented by an order for 23 further units, taking our Class 387 fleet to 45x4-car a larger new-build fleet than was originally intended. The first Class 387 was expected to be delivered to GWR in mid-july. In addition to the Class 387s, GWR was earmarked to receive 21x4-car Class 365s cascaded from GTR s Great Northern route. Given that the electrification of the line to Oxford has been put back and this route is not due to be wired now until June 2019, Carmarthen Swansea Hereford Cardiff Bristol Temple Meads an extra order for Hitachi AT300 bi-mode trains could be a more sensible option. A number of timetable changes are coming up as the new EMUs feed through into service. September 2016 will see the end of through running of Greenford services into Paddington, with the branch operating instead as a shuttle from West Ealing. This is to free up paths into London ready for an EMU shuttle service between Paddington and Hayes, taking advantage of the first stretch of wiring to be completed. So instead of two-car DMUs taking up precious paths into Paddington in the peak, from September we will be running eight-car Class 387 EMUs on the Hayes shuttle. The December 2017 timetable will see the deployment of EMUs on Didcot and Newbury to Worcester Shrub Hill Cheltenham Spa Bristol Parkway Weston-super-Mare Exeter St. Davids Swindon Oxford Didcot Parkway London services, slightly reducing some regional and long distance travel times thanks to the improved acceleration characteristics of the new trains. At this time, through trains to London from the Thames Valley branches (Henley and Marlow/ Bourne End) will cease, while there will be a reduction in Bedwyn/Kintbury/ Hungerford through services. New EMUs will prompt the cascade of the Class 16x fleet from the Thames Valley to the West to provide additional capacity in the Bristol area and on the Cardiff-Portsmouth route. Class 158s will be retained for longer distance services in the West. Turbo DMUs cascaded from the Thames Valley suburban services will also permit increased frequency on the North Downs line (Reading to Redhill/Gatwick), where SET SERVICE PATTERN DECEMBER 2018 Hourly train path Peak only variations Off-peak variations Certain hours only Reading London Paddington TO REIGATE AND READING today s two trains per hour goes up to three per hour in the December 2017 timetable. Facilitating this will be the extra platform that Network Rail is building at Redhill, giving more capacity there. The platform to be used by the Reading services will only be accessible from the south, which is good news for GWR as it means that the platform will not have to be shared with London services. SET TIMETABLE Our fleet of Super Express Trains are now all to be delivered by Hitachi as Class 800 bi-mode units, allowing us to take advantage of stretches of wiring as they become available while using diesel power on the unelectrified parts of the route. The wiring is expected to reach Cardiff before it reaches Bristol Temple Meads (Table 2, p62 last month), as recent resignalling work in South Wales simplifies electrification; older-generation signalling around Bristol and Oxford explains why these areas are further back in the wiring programme. We will have a fleet of 36x5-car and 21x9-car which will gradually be introduced into service from summer 2017 onwards. The benefits from the introduction of Super Express Trains will become fully apparent in December 2018, when the main line timetable will be recast. The standard off-peak pattern will be: n 2 trains per hour (tph) London to Bristol via Bath and Chippenham; n 2tph London to Bristol Temple Meads via Bristol Parkway; n 2tph London to South Wales via Bristol Parkway; 54 Modern Railways August 2016

5 EMU precursor: Turbo DMU No departs the new bay platform 5 at West Ealing with the service to Greenford on 21 June 2016; the service was cut back to this point due to a derailment on the approach to Paddington on 17 June. From 5 September some peak hour Greenford services will terminate at West Ealing so their paths can be used by Class 387 EMUs operating shuttles from Hayes & Harlington to Paddington. IAIN C. SCOTCHMAN 55

6 GWR ROLLING STOCK CASCADE EXISTING INTER-CITY FLEET 119 Class 43 power cars, 447 Mk 3 carriages Class 180: 5x5-car FUTURE INTER-CITY FLEET 36x5-car and 21x9-car Class 800 bi-modes (369 carriages) 7x9-car and 22x5-car Class 802 (AT300) bi-modes EXISTING TURBO SUBURBAN FLEET Class 165/1: 20x2-car, 16x3-car Class 166: 21x3-car FUTURE SUBURBAN FLEET Class 387/3: 45x4-car new-build 20 Turbos to be retained for diesel lines in South East Bi-modes under consideration for Oxford route EXISTING REGIONAL FLEET Class 143: 8x2-car Class 150/0: 2x3-car Class 150/1: 15x2-car Class 150/2: 19x2-car Class 150/9: 2x3-car Class 153: 14x1-car Class 158: 2x2-car, 13x3-car FUTURE REGIONAL FLEET 37 Turbos: Portsmouth Cardiff and regional services around Bristol Class 158s: Exeter-Barnstaple and Exeter-Penzance Class 150/0 and 150/2: Devon and Cornwall branches Class 143, 150/1, 150/9 and 153 fleets to be released Up to 20 mini-hsts possible as an interim fleet n 1tph North Cotswolds (Moreton-in-Marsh route); and n 1tph South Cotswolds (Kemble route). Thus Bristol Temple Meads will have four trains per hour to London (two via Bath and two via Parkway) as will Bristol Parkway (two from Temple Meads and two from Cardiff). In the peak the service will be structured slightly differently, with a third Bristol Temple Meads service via Bath and a third South Wales service. All peak trains will be formed of nine- or 10-car Class 800/801 trains; in the off-peak there will be flexibility to operate with shorter trains. An add-on to the AT300 (Class 802) bi-mode order JOURNEY TIME IMPROVEMENTS for the West of England makes provision for some of these trains on the North Cotswolds route. WEST OF ENGLAND CHANGES Bearing in mind the Class 800s will be coming onto the Bristol and South Wales main line in 2017, HST diagrams will be revised in December 2017 to allow West of England services to become self-contained and for the HSTs to be concentrated on this route prior to the Class 802s taking over. This will involve a switch of some current West of England via Bristol services to the Berks & Hants route. December 2017 will see an additional early London to SET component suppliers. Cornwall service (and midday return) and an additional Weston to London service. There will be alterations to North Cotswolds services, extending more services to Worcester and Great Malvern, and additional evening peak high speed services to Cheltenham (16.42 ex-paddington) and Bristol (19.12). On the West of England line, we will be looking to introduce a repeating pattern every two hours. This will feature a two-hourly interval semi-fast service between London and Exeter St David s, picking up traffic from intermediate stations such as Newbury, Pewsey and Castle Cary and allowing the long distance services to make fewer stops. A standard pattern hourly service will leave London, running non-stop between Reading and Taunton and extending hourly to Plymouth and two-hourly to Penzance. When Class 802 units are in use, trains may split at Plymouth, with half the train continuing to Penzance. The Class 802s are due to be delivered in the second half of 2018, so by the December 2018 timetable change we will be able to withdraw our HST fleet from main line duties. With roughly half our fleet of HSTs earmarked for forming Route 2013 December 2018 Improvement Fastest Typical Fastest Typical Fastest Typical London Bristol Temple Meads 1hr 36min 1hr 45min 1hr 19min* 1hr 30min 17min (18%) 15min (14%) London Cardiff Central 1hr 59min 2hr 7min 1hr 45min 1hr 53min 14min (12%) 14min (11%) London Cheltenham 2hr 6min 2hr 10min 1hr 55min 2hr 11min (9%) 10min (8%) London Hereford 3hr 3min 3hr 10min 2hr 56min 3hr 7min (4%) 10min (5%) * via Bristol Parkway Source: GWR 56 Modern Railways August 2016

7 27 short-formation sets in Scotland, there will be spare HSTs available from the end of As reported in Modern Railways last month (p11), delays in the electrification programme have led us to consider retaining some mini-hsts as an interim solution for the West Country while awaiting the arrival of the fleet of cascaded DMUs from Bristol. Between 12 and 20 HST sets in 2+4 formation could be used on the Cornish main line. FUTURE SERVICES IN THE WEST COUNTRY Following the Dawlish collapse in 2014, the Peninsula Rail Task Force investigated ways of improving the resilience of rail services in the West Country. Contributing to this, GWR has funded a 400,000 Speed to the West study on how to make a 3hr London to Plymouth timing the norm. Combined with new Class 802 bi-mode trains, partial electrification and Redruth St. Erth Penzance St. Austell Hourly Hourly 3 trains every 2 hours 2 Hourly - - Extensions every 2-4 hours Truro Liskeard Bodmin Parkway improvements to the signalling could make the 3hr target a reality. A bi-mode train will have better acceleration characteristics in electric mode than diesel mode, but the great advantage of this technology is that it does not require continuous electrification to deliver improvements. For example, there could be Newton Abbot Totnes Plymouth Tiverton Parkway Exeter St. David s Taunton benefits from electrifying the steeply-graded section from Newton Abbot to Plymouth, without stringing the wires all the way from Newbury. Investigations continue into the practicality of reopening the line across the moors from Exeter to Plymouth through Okehampton, with the most recent study advocating a low-cost single track line for regional services that could be used by inter-city services in the Reading Newbury Pewsey Westbury Castle Cary event of problems with the coastal route (p10, June issue). IMPROVEMENTS IN CORNWALL Cornwall has invested over 36.5 million in its local rail network since The improvements have helped triple the number of passenger journeys in the county (up from 2.7 million in to 7.1 million in ). At a time when national rail journey growth London Paddington WEST OF ENGLAND RECAST DECEMBER 2018 SERVICE PATTERN 57

8 Spring colours: in Supporting North Somerset Children with additional needs livery, unit No forms the Bristol Temple Meads to Portsmouth Harbour service at Norton Bavant on 28 May KEN BRUNT Sleeper refurbishment: mock-up of redesigned cabin on display at the Cornish Expo at Newquay airport in September ANTONY CHRISTIE has been around 3% per annum, the Cornish growth, at 7.9%, has been more than twice the UK rate. A series of investment schemes, promoted by Cornwall Council in conjunction with GWR, Network Rail, the DfT and the European Union, have raised capacity on the county s network: n improvements at Bodmin Parkway, Penzance, Camborne and St Austell stations; n redoubling of the main line, Probus Burngullow; n installation of a passing loop at Penryn and frequency improvements on the Falmouth branch; n frequency improvements on the Newquay branch; and n passenger information improvements. More is underway. A 14 million extension is being built at Long Rock depot in Penzance, allowing sleeper maintenance to be moved here from Old Oak Common in west London, freeing up space there for the planned HS2 station. When it enters service in March 2017, the enlarged depot will also support enhanced daytime frequencies in Cornwall and provide staff with improved facilities. At the same time, work is going ahead on upgrading the sleeper vehicles (p8, November 2015 issue). The improved sleepers will feature: n redesigned and refreshed cabins with power points; n an enhanced buffet and bar area laid out in a brasserie style; n improved facilities for persons with reduced mobility; n new sleeper lounges at Penzance and Truro and an upgraded First Class lounge for sleeper patrons at Paddington; n 2+2 seat layout (rather than 2+1) to increase capacity of the seating coaches used on the Night Riviera and summer Saturday crowd busters in the West; 58 Modern Railways August 2016

9 n extra sleeper vehicles, with the aim being five sleeper vehicles on each service; and n an extra Class 57 locomotive and overhaul of the existing Class 57s. Also planned is a half-hourly service on the Cornish main line from December 2018 onwards. This frequency will be attained with a mixture of London and CrossCountry services, plus existing stopping services and a new semi-fast Class 158 (or mini-hst) service from Exeter and Plymouth to Penzance. The improved frequency is intended to combine with a reshaping of the bus network through devolution of powers to Cornwall Council, with the aim of making the county a model for multi-modal integration. The two trains an hour service in 2018 will require breaking up some block sections in Cornwall; half a dozen new signals will be needed for this. For Control Period 6 ( ), Network Rail intends to resignal the main line from Marley Tunnel (just west of Totnes) to Penzance: semaphores will go and the main line will be controlled from the signalling centre at Didcot. European Union funds were earmarked for this project to move it up the queue, in order to secure operational savings of up to 7 million; as an agreed project, it is thought that it will go ahead as planned. Improvements are planned to the interchange at St Erth at the junction for the St Ives branch, with remodelling of the bay platform and an extra 700 car park spaces to be provided by the end of The difficulty of parking in St Ives makes the branch shuttle an attractive option for day trip visitors to the resort. Another aim is to make Cornwall one of the most connected parts of the rail network. We are planning Wi-Fi at stations in Cornwall and on all our local fleet. DEVON METRO There are exciting developments planned for Devon, not least a plan for service intensification around Exeter, the so-called Devon Metro. This is still being worked up and is not all funded yet. But some elements of the plan are clear. Pacers will go in the rolling stock cascade, while air-conditioned 90mph Class 158s will come in on the Barnstaple branch and on new services from Exeter to Penzance to be brought in as part of the 2tph service frequency on the Cornish main line already mentioned. We are working with local partners to deliver other service and infrastructure improvements. Plans include a new station at Marsh Barton, serving an industrial estate on the western outskirts of Exeter, which we are working on with Devon County Council. Another new station is planned at Edginswell on the Paignton branch here the partner is Torbay Council. Meanwhile there is a very real possibility that the railway may be extended over the trackbed of the Southern Railway main line from Bere Alston to Tavistock. Devon County Council is keen to see this happen and is seeking to secure Section 106 funding from developers. Masterplans are being developed for Exeter St David s and Plymouth stations: the upgrades will deliver benefits for passengers. DA2 CHALLENGES Operating the railway at a time of tremendous change is not easy. Our key requirement is looking after our customers so that they remain loyal until such time as the investment bears fruit. With all the investment going in, we have an unprecedented opportunity to transform the passenger experience in every respect, and retain and grow the customer base we must make the most of this. Increasing localism is driving more grant funding decisions to the regions. It is important to cultivate relationships and win new funds into the franchise. We need to manage the project interdependencies that impact across the network, our fleet and at the vast majority of our engineering depots, to avoid costly slippage or mistakes. One of the key DA2 challenges is undertaking the complex management of relationships with Network Rail; Crossrail; Transport for London; SET manufacturer Hitachi and its sister Agility Trains company; and Bombardier, building the suburban EMUs. At the same time we must not forget our staff. Electrification of a diesel railway operation is affecting virtually all our employees. Outsourcing of train maintenance and other such changes will involve substantial staff transfers, while all the new kit means addressing a requirement for unprecedented levels of staff recruitment and training. One of the issues DIRECT AWARD 2 BENEFITS is managing the vacation of the Old Oak Common site to facilitate the construction of an HS2 station there. Our hope is that the positive change that is taking place will prompt the travelling public to revalue rail in their hearts and minds, securing a firm base for the railway of the future. a Details of Association Membership can be found on page 14. Hear the speakers, ask the questions and then read all about it in Modern Railways The DA2 outcomes will be: n new or updated trains in every area of the network, creating three million additional seats a year for customers; n faster trains between South Wales, Bristol and London, cutting journey times into Bristol Temple Meads by up to 17 minutes and Cardiff by up to 14 minutes; n more direct trains into Devon and Cornwall, doubling the number of trains into and out of Cornwall, and reducing journey times between Paddington and Penzance by up to 14 minutes; n more seats for local commuters on key routes across the franchise including Bristol, Exeter, Cardiff to Portsmouth, Oxford and Gatwick services; n 50 million of station and car park investment with partners, including: n GWR 3.5 million Station Development Match Fund for station-related works; n GWR 2.5 million Access Fund for accessibility works; n provision of over 2,000 car park spaces (at 11 locations); n new gatelines at Chippenham and Newton Abbot; n more investment in passenger information and security (CCTV, PA and CIS); n interactive information screens at 10 stations; n roving microphones at 26 stations; and n additional ticket vending machines (TVMs). n upgraded TVMs and ticket office printers; n extended gateline operating hours at Swindon and Bristol Parkway; n additional Customer Ambassadors at Swindon and Plymouth; n additional Customer Assist staff; n new Customer Experience training and more apprenticeships; n over 100 more customer-facing staff on long distance services; n at-seat trolley service for Standard class customers on selected trains introduced in December 2015; n Standard and First Class trolley-based food and drink offer when Super Express Trains (Class 800s) introduced; n GWR 2.2 million Customer and Communities Improvement Fund to target improvements around areas of real social need; n additional funding for Community Rail Partnerships; n co-operation on introduction of smart ticketing; n fitment of free Wi-Fi to Super Express Trains, EMUs and long term DMUs; n at-seat power on Class 387s, Turbos and long term DMUs; n saloon air cooling on Class 165s; and n working with local authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships and others to move forward new and reopened station projects, and schemes such as MetroWest in Bristol and the Devon Metro around Exeter. Source: GWR 59