A weekly round-up of London’s rail transport news…
Vintage tube train arrives at the Epping Ongar railway
London Underground
Siemens appears to have survived a legal challenge from rivals for its £1.5bn London Underground contract, paving the way for its £200m train factory in Goole. Hull Daily Mail
Ben Goldsmith ridiculed for blaming Tube congestion on immigration – when it was a faulty train iNews
A periodical look at the construction of the Northern line extension to Battersea. IanVisits
Travel chaos for commuters as strike hits London Underground Metro
Renewable energy developers are being invited to provide options for TfL to power the Underground using low carbon sources. Energy Live News
Elizabeth line / Crossrail
London Underground managing director Mark Wild has been drafted in to rescue the Crossrail project, which has come unstuck in its final stages. Construction Index
The Mayor has finally responded to a London Assembly Transport Committee letter requesting information about who knew what, when, regarding the Crossrail delay. London Assembly
It may have failed to deliver Crossrail on time, but TfL’s spin operation is still working at full capacity MayorWatch
Mainline / Overground
Shop owners claim they have been left in the dark about Barking station development B&D Post
Serving members of the Armed Forces will be entitled to free train travel on Sunday if attending Remembrance events. Forces Network
With consultation on the much-discussed improvements at East Croydon and Windmill Bridge open, a look at what is being put forward London Reconnections
Miscellaneous
Kempston schoolboy visited all of London’s 270 underground stations in just two days. Bedford Today
Rail workers’ war memorial unveiled at London St Pancras The Guardian
Old Coats Wanted: Donate at tube stations for Wrap Up London 2018 Londonist
Basildon man flies plane after underground escalator fall left him paralysed Southend Echo
The curious history of the London Underground’s tiles Daily Telegraph (£)
Making trains run on time – Speeding up the “platform-train interface” using AI The Economist (£)
A hawk is to patrol the UK’s busiest train station in a bid to stop pigeons pinching passengers’ food. BBC News
Man stuck in train loo live Tweets his bid to escape – then gets sent funniest photo by rail firm Mirror
Posters with Polish poems have appeared on the London underground as Poland marks the centenary of recovering its independence. Radio Poland
And finally, We’re not attention-seekers, say the railway piano players The Guardian
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Image above is from May 2018: Vintage tube train arrives at the Epping Ongar railway
The Riding Sunbeams study by Nathaniel Bottrell Imperial College,London and Leo Murray charity 10:10 showed that 6% of London Underground (and 15% of Southern Region) trains can be powered directly by solar farms as they can output at 600-800V DC and 3rd rail trains,the tube and trams use 750V DC,cutting connection cost by 20% and reducing power loss by 4-5%.What 10:10 wants is for community owned solar farms with batteries to power trains,as since the Government cut subsidies for renewables investors can get a better rate of return from a PPA from Network Rail and Transport for London than a feed in tariff from the National Grid.
Bankset Group has developed solar panels that clip on to sleepers which have been installed in Switzerland and are being installed in Germany and is working on projects in the UK,US,France,Italy and China with plans in Spain,Japan, Austria and Australia ect.Similar to the Italian Greenrail company solar sleepers the Bankset clip on solar panels will be used with batteries.
https://www.smartrailworld.com/solar-panelled-tracks-renewable-plan-support-the-world-future-energy-demands
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2018/10/10/bankset-energy-announces-gw-scale-plans-for-solar-railways-the-world-over/
The bottleneck at Selhurst triangle junction north of East Croydon has caused lots of congestion to Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and sometimes London Overground have also been affected. But now Network Rail are to start untangling the bottleneck just like what they did at London Bridge, Derby and elsewhere. It’s about time that something has to be done to the busy junction near East Croydon. And with the redevelopment of East Croydon with extra platforms to be built to cope with more trains and to help improve the capacity of passengers using the trains to commute into London much quicker.
Plus London Overground might extend to East Croydon to operate between Highbury & Islington/Dalston Junction-East Croydon. With peak times to West Croydon. Which a extra platform could of been built for London Overground to terminate at West Croydon.