On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 17:35:51 GMT, "Gareth Packer"
wrote:

[snip]
I have replied with a couple of pictures before i read this, so it blurbs on
about the trains, whether they will or wont exist. I am interested to know
how much is true, however, so here is what I read. Would be interested in
any comments?

***


LONDON UNDERGROUND MAJOR REGENERATION SCHEME, UNITED KINGDOM
London has one of the largest metro systems in the world, carrying almost
one billion passengers a year. Although much of the 'Tube' was built by
private enterprise in the late 19th and early 20th Century, for the last
half-century it has been in public ownership, and governments of all
complexions have been guilty of starving London Underground (LUL) of
funding.

I'd say that was pretty factual.

When the Labour Government came to power in 1997, it chose a Public Private
Partnership (PPP), under which private companies would help to finance
regeneration in return for lengthy maintenance/management contracts and
guaranteed returns. The once autonomous London Underground is now split into
four organisations - two infrastructure companies (Infracos) and Transport
for London. The Infracos are responsible for the maintenance and management
of infrastructure (track, tunnels, stations and structures) and trains.

It is actually 3 infrastructure companies and LUL. TfL own LUL via
Transport Trading. The article is a little loose with its terminology.
LUL manages the trains in terms of how they run and work during the day.
Infracos maintain and upgrade them and ensure they are safe to use on
the railway.

TUBE INFRASTRUCTURE
Around £16 billion investment has been promised by the Government and the
two Infraco consortia over the next 30 years: £4 billion from the private
sector, £5 billion from farebox and retail revenues and £7 billion from the
taxpayer. Early priorities are to improve reliability and cut delays. One
consortium, Tube Lines, is putting all its contracts out to open tender, for
which the three shareholders will be able to bid against other companies.

Not sure I agree with the numbers. Ultimately all the money comes from
the taxpayer as the borrowing and risk for the Infracos is within the
bid infrastructure service charge. It is true that Tube Lines' approach
is to competitively tender as there are no suppliers in the consortium
structure.

Improvements to stations include replacement or refurbished lifts and
escalators, regular 'deep cleans' and a complete rebuild of Wembley Park
station to serve the new national sports stadium.

LUL is paying for the expansion of Wembley Park although a part of the
scope was included within the PPP Contract in so far as it applied to
the old size of the station. The lift and escalator programme has been
rescheduled although reliability work on the worst performing lifts has
been brought forward in Tube Lines land.

The other consortium, Metronet, is carrying out much of the work itself and
is funded in a very different way, with investment from the five partners,
European and other banks, a bond issue, government grants and farebox
revenue.

Metronet is a supply chain organisation and its constituent parts are
big businesses who build or maintain railway assets. They are
restructuring themselves as performance to date has been dire -
especially on project works. It remains to be seen what happens with
Metronet following their restructuring.

Included in this investment are new signalling systems for the Victoria and
sub-surface lines, seven extra trains and improvements in service levels and
journey times on Victoria Line. Track, points and crossings will be renewed,
along with a comprehensive upgrade of all civil assets in the first 15
years, including 4,800 bridges, 1,600 structures and buildings, 130km of
tunnels, 155km of embankments, 225km track drainage and 150 stations.

I have to say that I will believe the Victoria Line upgrade when I see
it. I am not close to the project but given the delays Metronet have
encountered on relatively simple station projects I dread to think what
is happening with something very complex like the Vic Line upgrade. I
sincerely hope to be proved wrong as I use the Vic Line all the time.

The civil asset upgrades have a timespan of 22½ years in the contract.

LONDON UNDERGROUND ROLLING STOCK
One of Tube Lines' earliest decisions was a £160 million order for signal
upgrades to increase capacity and extra Jubilee Line cars to expand the
fleet from the current 59 six-car trains to 63 seven-car sets. The vehicles
will be similar to those already in service on the Jubilee Line, built by
Alstom in 1997-99. However, closure of the manufacturing plant at Washwood
Heath in Birmingham means they will have to be built outside the UK.

Yes - this is to deliver the seven car upgrade and achieve an interim
upgrade in capability for the Jubilee Line.

The major part of the £3.4 billion contract awarded to Bombardier in April
2003 covers the supply of 1,738 Metro cars for the sub-surface and Victoria
lines between 2008-15, all of which will be built at Derby.

If Bombardier can afford to keep Derby ticking over until then. There is
a real shortage of work and they are sacking more people. Quite where
the labour force is going to come from to ramp up production I am not
sure.

In total, 47 eight-car Movia 248 trains (part of the Bombardier Movia Metro
family) will be built for the deep-tube Victoria Line with two
pre-production prototypes arriving in 2006. Once the design is accepted, one
train will roll off the assembly line every 15 days until August 2012. The
Bakerloo Line will have to wait until 2019 for new trains.

If the Vic Line is not arriving until 2012 then I think it will be at
least 2 years late against the target. I'm not at all convinced that
date of 2012 is right.

Improved acceleration and braking will shorten journey times and allow a
planned increase in frequency on the Victoria Line from 28 trains per hour
to 33. In the meantime, 75 six-car District Line trains, the last of
existing stock to be replaced, are being refurbished.

It is true that improvements to acceleration and braking are important
but there are many related issues such as power consumption, heat
generation / tunnel ventilation, track and structures wear if the trains
are too heavy that all have to be considered. The implications of DDA
compliance are also key as revised regulations have been issued and more
are in the pipeline.

Well it is true the D stock is being refurbished. I even got on one of
the trains the other week - it wasn't too bad but then I like the old D
stock interior anyway. I just hope they have wrecked the reliability of
the trains in the process of refurbishment.

LUL SIGNALLING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Much of LUL's signalling is old and unreliable and the Infracos have pledged
to upgrade all equipment across the system.

Westinghouse has been named as Metronet's sub-contractor for the signalling
side of the contracts, worth around £850 million. It will install new train
control systems on Metronet lines to improve safety and reduce headways,
although the new system will not be 'moving block'. Around 75% of LUL
control equipment is Westinghouse and the company has been a supplier to the
Underground for over 50 years. For this reason it was the preferred choice
for Metronet and Bombardier.

Westinghouse had to win a contract from one or other of the Infracos or
else they'd be in dire trouble. Tube Lines have gone with Alcatel for
the Northern and Jubilee Line signalling and control upgrades.

THE FUTURE
By 2010, Tube Lines should have upgraded all 24 stations on the Jubilee
Line, replaced over 16km of track and repaired 5km of drainage.
By the same date the Northern Line should have had 40 stations upgraded,
delays cut, 24km of new track and over 6km of drainage replaced. A year
later a new signalling system should improve journey times by 18%, with
real-time train running information on stations and trains.
Further into the future, new signalling is planned system for the Piccadilly
Line to improve journey times by a fifth, with 93 new trains.

Typically Tube Lines are proceeding well with their station works. 7th
car on the Jubilee Line is on track for January next year. Their track
programme started late but is going reasonably well. There are big
issues with Northern Line performance and the Jubilee Line has good
months and then bad ones. It needs stability. The Picc Line - barring
the bit between Acton and Barons Court which Metronet maintain - is
pretty damn good overall. The performance numbers for the train service
are good although signal issues are problematic. There has been a step
change improvement on this line - if only we could have it on all lines.

The biggest challenges for PPP remain in the future. Concerted efforts
have seen some reliability improvements but a lot still needs to be done
to deal with the interface between aging assets and the improvement
works being implemented to replace them. The train service still has to
run in the meantime and that's where the issues are.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!