Rail & the Liverpool City Region - The Track to Growth

This week I was fortunate enough to be invited to an event in Liverpool called “Rail & the Liverpool City Region - The Track to Growth”. The event was an opportunity for city, transport and business leaders to publicly give their full backing to Transport for the North's (TfN) Strategic Transport Plan (STP), and it was also an opportunity to celebrate 5 years since the formation of the Liverpool City Region, and the £340m that has been invested in rail over that period.

As part of the STP, Transport for the North have set out £40bn worth of investment in rail which amongst other things will see Liverpool connected to HS2 and Manchester by a dedicated 2 track high speed line. This is something the city has been demanding since the route of phase 2 between the West Midlands and North West was announced. Whilst business and political leaders have been supportive of HS2, with benefits coming to the region from 2026, they were never fully satisfied with Liverpool's connection to HS2 being as far south as Crewe.

Rather than seeing HS2 connectivity as an insurmountable challenge the LCR and TfN have worked together to see how HS2 could be extended and integrated with a new line which provides Liverpool with direct connectivity to HS2, but also to Northern Power House Rail heading east to Manchester and Leeds.

Also this week a proposal was put forward for a new railway station to be built within Liverpool city centre, which would be connected to NPR. The new station would ideally have platforms 400m in length to take full advantage of the new longer trains that will be used on the HS2 core network. Currently Liverpool Lime St is limited to trains of around 260m in length (the length of an 11 car Pendolino). Lime St is also about to reach the limits of its capacity, this despite the recent the upgrade to the track approaching the station and the construction of a new platform. Very soon new services to Scotland and to Chester via Halton curve will consume the new capacity created. HS2 itself will also introduce 2 new services each hour to Euston from 2026. Therefore city leaders say that it is vital that Liverpool gains a new station and dedicated connection to HS2 and Manchester via NPR.

LCR estimates the HS2 link could provide £15bn worth of economic benefits and attract an additional 3.9m visitors per year to the region. Claire McColgan MBE Director of Culture Liverpool spelled out just how important having good transport links is to the tourism economy in the region, but also how vital tourism and culture are to the region's economy. Ms McColgan made it clear that event organisers want to host events in the LCR “because they know that the city transport sectors work together”. Pointing to success stories such as the Giants Spectacular last year which attracted 1.4m visitors across Liverpool and the Wirral, and the sailing of the 3 Queens along the River Mersey, which saw 1m people line the River on both sides to see the ships sail in.

Liverpool City Region

The event wasn't focused solely on the STP, it was also a good opportunity to celebrate some of the success stories over the past 5 year, since the formation of the LCR. The LCR led by by Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram brings together Liverpool City Region’s six local authorities – Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral working in cooperation to tackle issues that face the region. Not just transport for but housing, skills and Energy. In terms of transport though the LCR was able to bring together local transport plans, Network Rail's RUS and the needs of businesses to identify key infrastructure improvements that were required to help unlock the potential of the region.

The result of the collaborative approach was a £340m package of measures that would improve rail connections across the region and would help to enable new services and improve reliability. The largest of the measures was the work undertaken at Liverpool Lime St, but improvements were not focused solely on the city centre. A long held aspiration to re-instate bi-directional running at Halton Curve linking the North Cheshire railway to the WCML at Runcon has been realised, and a brand new station named Maghull North has been constructed.

Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram

Shortages of rolling stock has meant that services using the now complete Halton Curve have been delayed, but it is hoped that Transport for Wales Rail will begin to operate services between Chester and Liverpool, calling Helsby, Frodsham, Runcorn and Liverpool South Parkway in May this year.

Skills

It is clear that Liverpool transport, business and political leaders fully support HS2 and the TfN STP, but a word cropped up again which has the potential to threaten any future investment, that word was skills. Echoing the challenges outlined by the NRIL – Building New Railways report, Northern Powerhouse Rail Director Tim Wood made it clear that "the major risk to the programme is not money, it is skills” (or the lack there of). This is something I have written about for many years, in fact I first wrote about the skills gap back in 2015 when it emerged that GWML electrification was going to be delivered late and over budget, and that electrification of the Transpennine route was to be "paused".

What was true in 2015, unfortunately is still true today, we simple do not have enough skilled engineers in the UK to undertake the work that is necessary to get the North moving. It is frustrating in a number of ways, one because it seems as if people read on a daily basis in the main stream media, that the government should cancel HS2 and invest in the North and how it will solve all of our problems, but it just wont. And it's frustrating because we should be getting on with building infrastructure in the North, but we can't, not yet.

Let me give a example of why cancelling HS2 today would not improve railways tomorrow. In simplified terms HS2 is new railway and as such is moving towards the heavy civil engineering phase in which earth is moved, tunnels are excavated and structures are built. This requires a certain type of engineering skill set, such as earth work contractors and tunnelling experts. If they stopped work today and were moved up north to build something, what would it be? There are no detailed plans for NPR, no shovel ready civil engineering projects for them to begin work on.

What people might be thinking when they say “improvements” are upgrades, which is understandable, but those tunnellers and earth work engineers aren't correctly skilled to then start upgrading the railways. Most of the egineers who are correctly skilled to upgrade our railways are already doing so. Tens of thousands of them working tirelessly usually at night to improve Britian's railways.

Now I know it is probably a bit over simplified, but it does demonstrate that you simple can't down tools on one project and start another, and especially not by just throwing money at it.

The skills gap is going to take years to fill, and while good progress is being made with universities working in cooperation with TfN and NRIL and the formation of National High Speed Rail college, there is still a long way to go. Getting children ready to become the engineers of tomorrow needs to begin in primary and secondary schools.

We cannot allow there to be another lost generation like mine, which was told university is the only avenue available to you if you want any sort of career. I know in my school careers in science, education and IT were promoted, but the idea that you could have a successful career in engineering just never came up.


One last word on HS2, it was clear from yesterday's event that the LCR and TFN who represent 19 local transport authorities from across North thoroughly reject the notion that we should scrap HS2 and invest in the North instead. Tim Wood spelled out the message from TfN again "Let me be clear, we absolutely need HS2". The simple fact is we need both HS2 and NPR.

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Northern's new electric trains will enter service before 2021

Not the most eye catching of titles I grant you, however it is (I hope) accurate. Because, as far as things stand the new class 331 EMUs which are being introduced by Northern will begin to enter service this year. This is despite yesterday's announcement that longer platforms at Leeds station will not be completed until 2021. This means unfortunately that Northern will not be able to operate 6 car formations formed of 2, 3 car trains working in multiple. However Northern will be introducing it's new trains as they complete testing, which means that the first new units should start to enter service this year.

I wrote on Wednesday how I feel that the mainstream media usually only ever seems to focus on the negative and this story certainly wasn't any different. What drove me to write this blog though is the choice of wording used, headlines like “Longer six-carriage trains won't be arriving” and “Northern's long six-carriage trains delayed by two years”, I feel seemed to suggest that Northern's new trains won't be coming into service until 2021.

I don't think I can hold the mainstream media fully responsible for the misleading headlines however, as “6 car formations formed of 2, 3 car trains working in multiple” would not make for a catchy headline, and to be honest it took several attempts for me to get it to read correctly. What's more organisations who's job it is to represent the rail industry, or at least those who work within the industry didn't help the situation with their response either.

The train driver's union ASLEF chose to start the title of its response with “Failing Grayling“. Now come on! ASLEF is supposed to be a professional organisation who's job it is to represent train drivers. Rather than explaining why Northern will not be able to work 6 car trains in or out of Leeds until 2021, ASLEF General Secretary Mick Whelan instead used his response as an excuse to attack Grayling, the DfT and at one point almost seemed to suggest it was somehow Northern's fault. Not once was Network Rial mentioned, despite the organisation being responsible for carrying out the platform alterations.

The DfT also appeared to try to shift the focus to Northern by stating that Network Rail had informed Northern as early as 2017, that it would not be able to operate 6 car trains until 2021. I'm not sure how this helped to bring any clarity to the situation, but it does underline the fact there seems to be a culture of finger pointing within the DfT and the unions.

So perhaps in this instance the MSM can be forgiven for slightly misleading headlines?

The End of Pacers (And 'that' documentary)

Pacers (class 142/144s) have become the trains that passengers love to hate and the mainstream media loves to use as a weapon to attack government policy with. Now however the end is in sight for the units which are now over 30 years old. By the end of this year (2019) the entire fleet of Pacers operated by Northern will have been phased out. In order to achieve this new trains are being built and some existing trains are being delivered as they come off lease from other operators.

The good news for passengers is brand new trains are on the way, the introduction of which will see the phasing out completely of Pacers on routes operated by Northern. It is unfortunate however that the introduction of the class 195 DMUs has been delayed. The first class 195 was delivered to Northern for testing in June 2018, and it was expected that it would enter service in December 2018. Unfortunately during testing faults were found, and it wasn't until December 2018 that the units were cleared for passenger use. As far as I can tell driver training on the class 195s didn't begin until February this year, with Northern now saying the new trains will begin to enter passenger service in early 2019.
  

[Click to enlarge]

 

Northern class 142 at Chester Station

Class 195s aren't the only new trains being delivered to Northern, the operator is taking delivery of new class 331 EMUs which should also begin to enter service this year. Although Northern will eventually have 98 new trains in service, that doesn't mean that Pacers are to be replaced by the new trains. Some older units such as class 150/6/8s, 170s and 319s will remain in service with the 150s replacing Pacers. However Northern's train refurbishment programme which had refurbished the 100th train in February is completely transforming these units. Existing trains will feature upgraded seating, disabled access controlled emission toilets (to comply with PRM TSI rules which come into force in 2020) new floor coverings and LED lighting which will provide “a lighter and brighter on-board environment”. In total 243 units operated by Northern will be refurbished.

Refurbished class 319 interior 

All this is great news for passengers who have been waiting a long time for improvements to materialise. Delays in the arrival of new trains and the May 2018 timetable fiasco has meant that passengers have had a tough time and have rightly felt annoyed. However change on this scale is never easy and Northern can't be held fully responsible for the May time table chaos, which was down to a catalogue of failures rather than the fault of one organisation.

'That' documentary.

The fact that brand new trains are on the way hasn't stopped some in the media from using Pacers to attack government policy, specifically over the construction of HS2. I couldn't bring myself to watch the now infamous Dispatches documentary, however the premise as far I could gather was, that the government should invest in the North rather than building HS2. Now I could go on at length why this is wrong on many levels, but I'm more interested in the fact that it seems as if the old Pacer was again used as an example of under-investment in the North. Had this “documentary” been made just 12 months later, say mid-late 2019, the one weapon that was eagerly wielded would no longer exist, at least not on routes operated by Northern. Instead what Liam Halligan who wrote and presented the documentary would have found was a mix of brand new trains and existing trains which have been refurbished to a high standard.

Recently refurbished class 150 at Liverpool Lime Street

Even in late 2018 Halligan could of stood in Liverpool Lime St and explained that it had recently undergone a huge upgrade (part of a wider £340m investment in the Liverpool City region), next to a recently refurbished electric class 319 with 4 cars, which are quiet and spacious, and a world away from the Pacers which are being phased out. But no, the focus was on the old Pacer and the unhappy passengers who have had to endure them for decades.

Longer platforms at Liverpool Lime St

 

I didn't really want to get drawn into writing about the Dispatches documentary, but it is programmes and news stories like this that really annoy me. Forget the tenuous HS2 or Northern investment argument, what gets my back up is mainstream media's continued insistence on focusing only on the negative when it comes to the railways despite of the facts, which are clearly there for all to see.

Refurbished class 319 at Liverpool Lime Street 

Now I know new and refurbished trains won't make up for the lack of investment in the North but they will go a long way to providing passengers with the modern, fast and reliable service that they deserve. With Pacers gone, maybe class the class 150s, which despite being fully refurbished, will themselves be over 30 years old, will be the mainstream media's next target. One thing is for sure attacking train operating companies over the how old their trains are and calling for HS2 to be cancelled will not mean that Northern Powerhouse Rail is built any faster.






Below are just a few links to blogs that I have written about improvements in the North that are already, or will soon be benefiting passengers

• Liverpool Lime Street transformation
• Northern goes electric
• Ordsall Chord - key milestone 
• Halton curve
• North West electrification - Farnworth tunnel

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Transport for the North's long term ambition

Last week I wrote about the “Building the North's New Railways” report which was launched at an event hosted by the Northern Rail Industry Leaders. Within the piece I described some of the challenges that are facing the industry, as set out in the report and how the industry is looking to work together in order to deliver rail upgrades across the North. In this blog I want to look more broadly at what a “Northern Powerhouse Railway” may look like and look at the wider transport planning framework as set out by Transport for the North.

First of all I should point out that the headline £70bn figure for transport investment between 2020 and 2050 covers both rail and road upgrades and is formed in part by money that it is already assumed will be invested in the North over the period. TfN assumes that £39-43bn will be invested in the North based on current levels of committed investment outlined in the Highways England Road Investment Strategy and Network Rail’s Control Period. This means a further £21-37bn will be required if TfN is to deliver the upgrades it says are needed to the road and rail network across the North. The £70bn figure is a huge sum of money, however it equates to only £2.3bn of investment each year over the next 30 years.

If current levels of committed investment are continued to 2050, £1.3bn to £1.4bn will be invested per year over the period. Therefore TfN are seeking a further £900m per year in order to achieve a full package of road and rail upgrades which would go far beyond that which Highways England and Network Rail have already proposed.

It is now up to Transport for the North to prove that there is a viable business case for the proposals that it is suggesting. The NRIL report forms a crucial part of proving the business case as TfN and NRIL need to demonstrate that there will be sufficient numbers of skilled workers in place in order to undertake such a large package of works in the North over 30 years. Without having the workforce in place and without investment in new technologies, schedules could slip and costs could spiral.

Over the past few years I have written at length about the challenges that face not just the North, but the UK as a whole. The Northwest Electrification Programme and GWML electrification, which both ended up over budged and years behind schedule demonstrate what can happen if there are not enough skilled workers in place to undertake the work that is being proposed.

Now that TfN and NRIL have identified the challenges and are now seeking to ensure that the industry trains enough new workers and invests in new innovative technologies, it may just be possible that the ambitious plan set out by TfN can be achieved

So let's take a look at what is being proposed....

Rail

Rail forms a key part of TfN's plan as infrastructure improvements in the right places can bring about transformational benefits to the entire region. Cutting journey times and increasing capacity on the railways would serve to encourage people to switch from road to rail and help to bring the north

together.

Electrification of the Pennine route between Manchester and Leeds has been talked about for years and was supposed to form part of Network Rails Control Period 5 (CP5) package of upgrades. However due in part to the issues raised above and in my previous blog, this hasn't happened and at one point it looked as if electrification had been scrapped all together

So far Network Rail has upgraded signalling and stations at key locations along the Calder Valley route. These upgrades should provide benefits to passengers when new trains finally begin to arrive in the North, starting from this year. I will be taking a look at the improvements that have already been completed in detail in a future blog.

Plans for what is now being called the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) have been submitted to the Department for Transport for considerations, which it is hope will include electrification. The £3bn package of works aims to, in the words of Network Rail deliver “faster, longer, more frequent and more reliable services across the north of England, from Newcastle, Hull and York towards Manchester and Liverpool via Leeds”. Work is expected to begin in spring/summer 2019 and take up to 5 years to complete.

Transport for the North's own proposals which are much larger in scope are set to be submitted to the Government for review in 2020 and it is hoped that if approved work could start in 2024. The points below taken from the TfN's Strategic Transport Plan shows the scale of the ambition that TfN has. The building of new lines, stations and significant upgrades are proposed to take place between 2020/4 and 2050. Links are proposed to connect HS2 to a new Northern Powerhouse Rail which will provide connectivity from Liverpool to Hull.

• A new twin-track line linking Liverpool to HS2 and onwards to Manchester and other Northern cities, via Warrington and Manchester Airport

• Significant upgrades and integration with HS2 linking Leeds and Sheffield

• Significant upgrades between Sheffield, Leeds and Hull

• Significant upgrades of the Hope Valley corridor between Manchester and Sheffield 

• Significant upgrades between Newcastle and Leeds 

• Hub concepts for Northern Powerhouse Rail stations

Ultimately TfN suggest that “all passenger routes to be served by a minimum two trains per hour. Long distance services to achieve average journey speeds of at least 80mph. Inter-urban services to achieve average journey speeds of at least 60mph. Local and suburban services to achieve average journey speeds of at least 40mph. Rail to directly serve each of the North’s international airports. Infrastructure to be available to enable a weekday inter-peak level service on Sundays and public holidays. Major ports in the North to be served by a network that will support movement and future growth of rail freight. A 50% improvement in the average speed of freight services by 2028.”

It is hoped that a new line connecting Leeds and Manchester could deliver a Leeds to Manchester journey time of 40 minutes and a York to Manchester journey time of 62 minutes. As for capacity, TfN suggests six inter-urban services per hour should operate formed of eight carriages, and up to two local services per hour should operate, in both directions.

[Click to enlarge]

Map source: Trnasport for the North's final strategic transport plan 2019

Key

1. Junction on HS2 mainline for Leeds – North East services
2. Junction on HS2 Leeds spur to facilitate through services via existing Leeds station
3. Junction on HS2 mainline for Sheffield – Leeds services 
4. Junction at Manchester Piccadilly to support Northern Powerhouse Rail platforms
5. Junction on HS2 Manchester spur for Manchester – Liverpool services
6. South facing junction on HS2 mainline for London – Liverpool services

• Light Puplre - Upgrades
• Dark Purple - Transpennine Upgrade
• Light Green - Northern Powerhouse Rail new line
• Dark Green - Linking Liverpool to HS2
• Blue - HS2

Roads

Reading the report it doesn't seem as if there is one grand proposal which will connect East with West, however a number of individual schemes are being assessed. Proposals range from grade separation of the A69/A68 and A69/A6079 junctions through to building a new link road connecting the A534 west of Congleton with the A536 to the north.

What is clear though is that road schemes are equally susceptible to cuts as they are for rail. For example schemes to improve the M62 and M53 have been in the words of the report “re-scoped”. Now to be honest I don't know what that means in the context of the report, but to me it sounds like kicked into the long grass?

Proposals to improve the the M56 between Altrincham and Manchester which were due to begin in 2019 have been delayed to 2020 (or after the completion of works taking place on the M62 between junctions 10-12), Highway's England states that the decision was “based on feedback from our customers and stakeholders of their experiences on our network“

Highway England has reassessed the SMART motorway upgrade as a whole and as a result the upgrade of the M6 between junctions 21a-26 has been deferred, with no new start date given. However the completion date for the upgrade of the M62 between junctions 10 and 12 remains unchanged as work is already underway and is due for completion in spring 2020. The start date for work between junctions 20 and 25 of the M62 also remains unchanged and will commence in Autumn 2019.

Proposals to dual the remaining sections of single carriageway on the full length of the A66 from the A1(M) to the M6 are still in the planning phase. However in the meantime major improvements should be made to two junctions on the A69 and should be completed by 2020

A study into the area which covers the M60, M62, M602, M61 and M66 has concluded that there is a strong case for the “substantial” upgrade to the M60 to improve journey times and East–West connectivity.

It looks like the proposal to construct a Trans-Pennine tunnel connecting Manchester and Sheffield have been thrown out, TfN states that “although a long tunnel under the Peak District National Park would be technically feasible, the cost would be prohibitive and offer poor value for money”. TfN is now working on an alternative which includes proposals for partially tunnelled route on the line of the existing A628 and enhancements to M60, M67, M1 and M18/A1.

I must admit to skimming over some of the 86 page report, but I got the feeling that while road enhancements form part of the proposed £70bn investment, the vision on how they can be improved in order to connect East and West was not as clearly defined as the vision for rail enhancements.


Hopefully over the coming 12 months we will begin to get a clearer picture of what Transport for the North is proposing and whether or not the Government will release the additional £21-37bn over 30 years that TfN is asking for.


My thoughts about SMART

To be honest I'm not sure if the postponement of SMART upgrades is a blessing or a curse, anecdotal evidence from regular commuters suggests that SMART just doesn't work. People complain of the hard shoulder not being used by motorist even when it is open to traffic and dangerous changes to speed restrictions between gantries (when working in combination with speed cameras).

My experiences of SMART is on the M6 heading into Birmingham and I did see cars sat in lanes 2, 3 and 4 driving below the speed limit when lanes 1 (hard shoulder open at the time), 2 and 3 were clear. Never mind middle lane hogging, witnessing lane 3 and 4 hogging while drivers were driving under speed limit and the carriageway ahead was clear, was a new one on me.

I have also experienced the speed limit changes, with gantries displaying speeds of 60mph, which would then drop at the next gantry to 40mph, with speed cameras in operation. This speed differential causes drivers to use the brakes, which has the potential to lead to the dreaded “phantom traffic jam”, which leads to congestion. Highways England say that gantry signals should be sufficiently visible that drivers have the time to slow down without braking, but I would dispute that statement. Reducing the speed of a car or indeed HGV by 20mph from the time of seeing the gantry sign to reaching the gantry and possible speed camera is difficult.

I do fully understand the principles behind the SMART motorway, controlling the speed of traffic has been shown to smooth the flow and opening the hard shoulder in effect increases capacity without the need to widen the motorway. But sometime what looks good on paper doesn't always translate to the real world, not when you factor in driver behaviour (or misbehaviour).

Maybe it's a case of driver education, many people haven't even driven on a SMART motorway yet and would not be fully aware of the rules when they do enter a sections of SMART motorway. But I also believe better policing of lane hogging drivers is needed and that a more gradual decrease in speed between gantries could also help.


The TfN report can be found here: https://transportforthenorth.com/wp-content/uploads/TfN-final-strategic-transport-plan-2019.pdf

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Northern Rail Industry Leaders, Building the North's New Railway

We want a faster, more reliable, high capacity railway in the North and "we deserve it" the words of Mike Hulme Co-chair of the Northern Rail Industry Leaders speaking today at the launch of the "Building the North's New Railways" report. I'm certain these words will resonate with any commuters from the North who perhaps looks to South at projects like Crossrail and think, why haven't we got a Crossrail of the North?


As a passionate campaigner and supporter of the railways, but still, somewhat of an outsider, it was fascinating to hear what each of the speakers had to say as to why the North does not yet have its own Crossrail. I came away with a clearer understanding of the challenges facing the industry which could act to stifle investment in transport in the North, but also a sense that we are at the cusp of a seismic shift in the future of the railways right across the North.

Mike Hulm, Co-chair of NRIL

But first I want to skip to the very end of the conference, I was the guy sitting at the back who asked the awkward question, a straightforward question I thought about improvements to the Oxford Rd to Manchester Piccadilly corridor, which as far as I knew was up until fairly recently a shovel ready project which was almost about to begin. My two-part question, was "what has happened to the project" and "are they starting from scratch?" with regards to design and funding of the project, which at one stage formed the backbone of what was called Northern Hub. Admittedly possibly a question for another time, however, I asked the question, the room fell silent breifly, but I did get answer of sorts (no disrespect to Mr. Wood who did answer) but he said that the area in question is particularly challenging, with high-frequency passenger services mixed with slow-moving freight trains powered sometimes by diesel, sometime electric, which means that untangling the corridor is not straight forward, adding we will know more in the summer...

Why bring this up? One, my own curiosity, but also to get a sense of where Transport for the North is up to with regards to investment and unblocking a bottleneck at a key part of the East-West railway network. The answer I got though did underline one of the challenges facing the North as a whole, the East-West corridor is extremely congested, it serves, local, regional, intercity and freight services all competing for only a finite number of train paths. It would seem then that providing greater capacity and reduced journey time is a monumental challenge. But a challenge TfN and those within the industry are willing to take on in order to unlock a potential prize of £100bn worth of economic benefits by 2050.

 

Q and A  panel from left to  right 

• Mike Hulme, Co-chair NRIL
• Justin Moss, Co-Chair NRIL
• Tim Wood, Transport for the North
• Lucy Prior, RTS solution
• Daniel Cochlin, Head of External Affairs Northern Powerhouse Partnership
• Professor Simon Iwnicki, University of Huddersfield

The focus of the report however, wasn't directly about the technical challenges or what Northern Power House Rail will look like, it was about something often overlooked and something which as it turns out could potentially be a greater hurdle than the engineering changelings that lay ahead. Northern Powerhouse Rail Director Tim Wood said something that is crucial for future of rail investment in the North; that the Treasury will not release funds if TfN cannot prove that there is the skilled workforce in place to undertake the improvements that are being proposed.

When people talk about investment, they usually talk about how much a project will cost or how the Government should invest more in the North. What I took from the speaker's comments is that Government is willing to invest but there is a massive skills shortage facing the industry and it is up to the industry to train the skilled engineers required to undertake such a massive undertaking as connecting East and West with a fast, high frequency rail network

In response the industry via this report seems to be saying that they need a steady stream of work so that they can be confident enough to invest in training the thousands of workers needed, not just engineers on the ground but, architects, project managers and procurement professionals, to name but a few. Not only that the but also to invest in new technologies that will be required to help deliver additional capacity, better customer interfaces and help to deliver projects on time and on budget.

This potentially could leave the industry, TfN and Government at an impasse with neither the Treasury or industry willing to budge. However, and now comes the good news, the industry has taken up the challenge and in the words of Mark Hulme, "today is a call to arms". A call from the 8 companies who helped produced the report to the industry, from SMEs and large companies to Universities and government bodies, on how the industry as a whole can overcome the shortages of skilled men and woman and how they can use technology and big data to improve efficiency.

Throughout the report and today's talks there was a common theme, that the industry needs a smooth and stable pipeline of work, with a working figure of between £2b and £3bn each year over 30 years. But also crucially that industry if willing to change, modernise and train the skilled workforce needed in order to deliver a transformation upgrade of railways across the North.

It's worth mentioning not once did I hear the phrase we need HS3 (Northern Powerhouse Rail) instead of HS2, it's clear to business leaders and the rail industry in the North that we need both. In the words of Tim Wood "we need HS2 and we need East West capacity as well, it is about capacity not just speed"

In the next blog I hope to set out key objectives of the report and if there are any clues as to what a new Northern Powerhouse East-West railway might look like.


One last quote to finish on, which gives a good sense of the mood within the industry in the North currently; "Northern Power House Rail and HS2 are coming and we need to be ready" Tim Wood

Read part 2: Transport for the North's long term ambition

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Airbus Beluga XL first visit to the UK

On Friday 15th of February 2019 the Beluga XL made its first visit to Airbus'  Broughton manufacturing facility in the UK. This was in fact, the first time the new replacement for the existing Beluga aircraft had visited the UK since it first rolled off the production line in January 2018. Since 2018 the Beluga has undergone ground testing culminating in its maiden flight in July 2018 after which it underwent a rigorous flight test certification campaign.

Beluga XL F-WBXL is the first of 5 super transporters to be built in order to carry aircraft sections between the various manufacturing facilities spread right across Europe. The new Beluga XL aircraft will work alongside the existing Beluga fleet until they are finally withdrawn in 2021.

Once the Belgua XL is fully commissioned it will become a regular visitor to Broughton as has its predecessor for more than 20 years. The Broughton facility manufactures wings for all of Airbus's commercial aircraft including the A350 and A380.

[click to enlarge]

First dummy landing approaching Broughton

One of the main constraints with the existing Beluga fleet is their wing carrying capacity, currently only able to carry 1 A350 Extra Wide Body wing at a time. The Beluga XL with 30% more capacity than the existing Beluga will be able to carry 2 A350XWB wings at a time to the aircraft manufacturing facility in Toulouse.


While the large bulbous upper fuselage was manufactured specifically for the Beluga XL, the aircraft actually uses other sections from existing Airbus commercial jets. Its aft sections for example is based on the A330-300 while the forward section on the A330-200. The floor structure which is reinforced comes from the A300-200F which is the freighter variant of the A330-200.

Airbus Beluga XL facts and figures

• Length: 63.1 m

• Wingspan: 60.3 m

• Height: 18.9 m

• Capacity 50,500 kg

• Max takeoff weight: 227,000 kg

• Cargo hold: 2,209 cubic metres

• Engines: 2 × Rolls-Royce Trent 700

• Cruise speed: 737 km/h (458 mph) 

A380

None of the existing or new Belugas have or will have the ability to carry the wings for the A380 Super Jumbo, they have always been transported from the factory over land and sea. The journey begins by special barge along the River Dee to the Port of Mostyn, at which stage the wings are loaded onto a roll-on/roll-off vessel for the journey by sea to the French port of Pauillac. From there they are transferred to another barge which carries them up the Garonne River from Pauillac to Langon. The last section of the journey to the factory in Toulouse is completed by road.

Sadly it was announced on the same day as the Beluga XL visited the UK, that Airbus will stop making the A380, surely a bitter bittersweet day for the employees at Broughton and around the UK who currently manufacture parts for the A380. Airbus will stop making the A380 in 2021 after it has delivered the final super jumbo to Emirates. It is unclear how this will impact on jobs at Broughton as it will continue (as far I know) to make wings for all of Airbus' other commercial airliners. However the future of those workers involved in the complex logistics by road, river and sea is less clear.


Although the end of A380 production is concerning news for employees throughout Airbus, the fact that the Beluga XL is being built specifically to help support the ramp-up in production of the A350XWB should come as some comfort to the 12,000 skilled men and women who work for Airbus in the UK alone.

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Northern Gateway, Deeside

Progress is finally beginning to be made on the multi-million pound Northern Gateway scheme for which outline planning permission was first granted for housing development, a hotel and technology park back in 2013.

Since then the only visible sign of progress was the completion in 2016 of an access road leading from the B5441 Welsh Road, for which £3.1m was awarded by the Welsh Government. Since then it appeared as if the project had stalled and the road sat unused, however work to clear the land ready for development is now well underway.

A key part of the North Gateway scheme is a 140-acre development lead by Praxis Real Estate Management Ltd. The scheme has outline planning permission for the development consisting of B2 general industrial units and B8 Storage or distribution units, with industrial units ranging in size from 50,000 sq ft up to 1,000,000 sq ft.

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D Morgan PLC which had previously constructed the link road is now the principal contractor for The Airfields development and has already begun work to clear the site. The image below shows the scale of the works that has already been undertaken.

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As well as The Airfields development, detailed proposals have also been submitted by developer Pochin to build 134 houses on the former Corus steelworks site located in Garden City. It is proposed that a total of 725 homes will be constructed over a period of 9 years on the site.

If the full scope of the Northern Gateway development can be realised it is hoped that 5000 jobs will be created in total. If this is to be achieved it is vital that transport links to Northern Gateway and Deeside Industrial Park are improved.

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So far it has been announced that “Red Option” which aims to reduce congestion on the A494 to A55 corridor has been chosen to be taken forward to the planning phase. Enhancements along the A548 and a new section of road to be constructed connecting the Flintshire bridge to the A55 will vastly improve the vital link to Holyhead and help to reduce congestion on the section of the A494 known as Drome Corner leading to Aston Hill.

Plans to improve public transport are also being explored with a proposal put forward to improve Hawarden Bridge station on the Wrexham Bidston line which would serve the Garden City/Corus steelworks development. In addition, plans have been taken forward to explore the feasibility of building a new station on the Wrexham Bidston line that would serve the Deeside Industrial Park

The new station known as Deeside Parkway would be located near to the UPM paper mill and Great Bear distribution centre. If the new station was constructed not only would it provide access for workers from the Wirral and North East Wales to access the Deeside Industrial Park, but it could also serve as a park and ride facility for residents from Flint and Connah's Quay who wish to travel by rail to Liverpool, which has the potential to reduce congestion on the Welsh road leading to the M53. The provision of shuttle buses to serve the Deeside and Garden City areas area are also being considered as part of a wider public transport strategy.

If the plans can be delivered in conjunction with improvements to road and rail links then Northern Gateway has the potential to have far-reaching economic benefits and provide employment not just North East Wales but also the Wirral and Cheshire West. I hope to able to follow the development over the coming years.

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