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East Coast rolling stock

An open letter to Patrick McLoughlin:

I was delighted with your announcement of a further order of IEP trains for East Coast especially as it will reduce York-Kings Cross journey times to around 90 minutes non-stop. All trains will be uniformly 140mph and with the same acceleration, braking and maintenance characteristics. Whilst this is good in many respects there are one or two negatives that need addressing.

Draft seating plans do not have sufficient table bays in both first and second class. I know it provides more seats per unit area but not everybody likes airline style, especially groups or families travelling together. The single seat row in first class is all airline style. If I am paying extra for first class with dining facilities, I want my meal to be on a proper table and not squashed in a seat with a drop down table from the seatback in front. From experience, my coffee spills each time the passenger in front leans back or sits down. The reason people travel first class by rail is the facilities on offer and the legroom provided. Ambience and comfort are as important as speed/journey time in attracting passengers to rail. I am never comfortable whilst flying due to seat spacing but if I am to have the same on a train then I will go back to flying from Leeds as the journey time is under an hour at usually less than the buy-on-the-day railfare. Could you please look at this.

The original Mark2 and Mark3 coaches had ideal seating matching window spacing in both classes. The Mallard upgrade of Mark3 and Mark4 coaches has it about right for to-day with the first class layouts alternating at the midpoint of each coach. This offers the choice of booking single seats on either side of the same coach. I always book to sit on the right hand side of the coach in the direction of travel if I travel with my wife in a double seat or alone in a single seat. The service is so good now on East Coast that I tend to book First for all journeys just for the extra room and complimentary meals.

If line speed is to be selectively increased to 140mph with the installation of cab signalling, then I can see problems on those parts of the East Coast Main Line that are shared with slower traffic as speed differential is being widened. Doncaster to Northallerton is quite straight and 140mph, if not higher, is easily attainable on this section but 60mph freight trains will still be a hindrance blocking paths for 140mph passenger trains. One freight train takes the space of two high speed passenger trains on this route so ideally freight should be diverted to another route to increase capacity (The route between York and Northallerton is four tracks divided into slow and fast lines in pairs northbound and southbound). There will be 125mph passenger trains in addition to 140mph passenger trains and station stops at Northallerton on the fast lines and additional 100mph passenger trains (diverted from the fast lines) as well as 60mph and 75mph freight trains to/from Teesside and Tyneside and station stops at Thirsk on the slow lines. This will require additional spacing between trains on the slow lines and 100mph passenger trains will only be able to travel at 80mph, the line speed of the slow lines, increasing journey times and also reducing capacity . Freight, particularly intermodal, is forecast to increase by 200% over the next 20 years and the 2010 East Coast Capacity Review identified a need for many more passenger paths post 2016, only three years away now.

There is also a capacity crunch at York itself at Holgate Junction, even after installation of a fourth line in 2011, and Skelton and Skelton Bridge Junctions where there are conflicting at grade moves with trains off the Harrogate route and southbound freight trains crossing south and north fast lines to access the freight avoiding line also conflicting with to/from Harrogate traffic.

There are three ways of increasing capacity on the Doncaster-Northallerton route apart from closing Thirsk and Northallerton stations (which would be political suicide) and that is make all passenger trains uniform in speed i.e. 140mph. Increase your order for five-car IEP units and equip CrossCountry and TransPennine with enough units for their services north of Doncaster/York. This would eliminate passenger speed differential on the fast lines. I have always thought that extending Manchester-Newcastle trains to Edinburgh and then back to Manchester via Carlisle and Preston and vice versa would be commercially viable serving stations between Newcastle and Edinburgh that East Coast serves currently. This would allow acceleration of many London-Edinburgh/Inverness/Aberdeen trains and allow non-electric Cross Country trains to terminate at York. Using additional IEP units would facilitate this.

75mph intermodal freight trains could use the slow lines but 60 mph freight would have to be diverted away from this route as there would still be capacity constraints at the three junctions mentioned above without extensive and expensive remodelling and grade separation. I don’t think it is possible for grade separation due to site constraints and overbridges.

Secondly, instead of remodelling and other capacity relieving measures at York it is possible to create a new strategic freight route by reinstating the railway from Northallerton to Church Fenton via Ripon, Harrogate, Wetherby and Tadcaster and quadruple Doncaster to South Elmsall on the southwest side of the current formation with a reinstated grade separated junction onto the Pontefract line. With an existing flyover at Doncaster already able to carry traffic to/from the Lincoln line over to the west side of the East Coast lines, there would be no freight traffic confliction anywhere between Peterborough and Newcastle if the Leamside line is reopened also. A flyover would be required off the Pontefract-York line near Little Fenton onto the reinstated Tadcaster line to avoid the busy Leeds-York line. Reinstatement of this route would also provide a diversion route between York and Northallerton via Harrogate creating a 7-day railway should this route close for any reason. It has been closed ten times in the last 16 months in emergencies (fatalities and dewiring). At present there is no alternate route and bustitution is inevitable with loss of revenue to TOCS and Network Rail (passenger refunds). Freight cannot be bussed and is just cancelled, again with loss of revenue/profit to the FOCs and Network Rail. Total amount estimated in excess of £1.0m per closure. Reinstatement of this line would pay for itself in 25-30 years in access charges from diverted coal trains alone.

Installing two additional tracks between South Elmsall and Doncaster will increase capacity but also improve timekeeping as it will separate local trains stopping at South Elmsall, Adwick-le-Street and Bentley from fast nonstop Leeds-Kings Cross trains. Even more important when IEP trains are introduced between Leeds and London from 2018 as improved acceleration and higher top speeds will allow London trains to catch local trains before Doncaster is reached.

Conficting moves at the flat junction immediately south of Doncaster station would also be reduced as freight to/from North and South Humberside ports would not be travelling through the station for the west side yard and Sheffield, but along the west side already from Bentley by reinstating the Thorpe Marsh to Bentley line joining the quadruple section (South Elmsall to Doncaster) mentioned above or use the current curve at Adwick-le-Street but this would entail additional mileage and operating costs. Freight to/from Sheffield and the Electric Spine to the Northeast would use the Sheffield-Pontefract-York line as at present but could be diverted away from York between Church Fenton and Northallerton to ease congestion.

Thirdly, two additional platforms are required at Northallerton, situated to the east of the mainline, for stopping trains to/from Middlesbrough and southbound trains stopping at Northallerton on Newcastle-Manchester services and continuing on the up slow line for the Thirsk stop. A grade separated junction could be installed for the down slow line to burrow under the mainline, south of Northallerton, to the new east side platforms as the mainlines are on a high embankment at this point, removing the present at grade junction immediately to the north of the platform as has been done at Hitchin. This would remove all conflicting moves to/from Teesside and stopping trains obstructing the up and down fast lines during dwell time. It would also allow a connection with the proposed reinstatement to Ripon, Harrogate, Wetherby (onwards to Leeds), Tadcaster, Church Fenton (onwards to Doncaster) at the same time.

Ripon, Wetherby and Tadcaster would be reconnected to the national system and to each other and Harrogate would gain a through route to the North reducing current journey times by 55 minutes direct via Ripon instead of via York as at present.

Could you please give this serious consideration as congestion can only get worse here as use of the railways increases year on year.

Re: IEP trains confirmed for East Coast