New in Birmingham 2: Buses with catenary

Been to Birmingham Airport recently?  If so you'll have seen two of these large and unmissable monoliths appear.  These are for opportunity charging new electric buses in use on the long stay car park shuttles at the airport.  Opportunity charging means that buses take on a small amount of charge each time they stop at the bus stop outside the airport terminal.

Close up of the charging equipment.

As long as the bus stops at the correct point (which has been painted on the road) the pantograph style charging equipment drops on to the bus to provide a quick burst of energy.   This is different to electric trains where a train-borne pantograph extends to contact fixed electric wires.

Volvo 9700e bus being charged.

And for completeness, from the rear.

The charging infrastructure (the Opp Charge system) includes a screen, presumably intended to be used to incorporate some kind of departure/real time information, and a mysterious red button.

As well as two opportunity charging points, the airport has also installed two plug-in charging points, which when fully charged should give buses 10-12 hours of operation without the need for further charging (however, I expect they will opportunity charge on every trip to keep them out running for longer).

New in Birmingham 1: Trams without catenary

The next phase of Midland Metro has opened.....three years after the extension down Corporation Street, the tram now extends from 'Grand Central'  - for New Street station, to 'Library', better known as Centenary Square.  And it's catenary free!  The CAF Urbos trams have received batteries which allow them to work through the historic Victoria Square  without the need for visually intrusive overhead wires.

A Midland Metro CAF Urbos tram navigates the junction from Hill Street on to Paradise Street. The Frankfurt Christmas Market is in full swing in the background. 

The first of the two new stops is called Town Hall.  I'd have called it Victoria Square.  Despite being delivered with pink branding for Network West Midlands just a few years ago, Transport for [the] West Midlands (as I think Centro is now called) decided on another rebrand of the public transport network, which has resulted in the trams now being blue.  Trains, historically green, have had to be painted gold. Wasteful!  Oh, and Midland Metro isn't a metro....

The second of the new stops, and new temporary terminus, is Library.  I think it would more logically be called Centenary Square, as it is home to a number of attractions as well as the Library, including the International Convention Centre and Repertory Theatre.  The big wheel behind is a temporary addition in the run up to Christmas.

Between Town Hall and Library the Midland Metro negotiates the inner ring road.  It looks like a sea of cones is going to give way to a sea of potentially quite complicated road markings.    On the pus side the bottom of Broad Street, round the Library Metro stop, looks like it is going to be bus only.

The impact of a West Bromwich Albion home game? Trams are supposed to operate every 8 minutes but on Saturday 21 December headways were all over the place. Presumably there's no event timetable to account for this.

Getting 2.8 million people to Luton Airport every year

Amongst all the noise about the third runway at Heathrow, second runway at Gatwick, possibility of Crossrail 2 or HS3, a long overdue piece of airport/rail infrastructure is quietly taking shape on my doorstep in Luton....

This is Luton Airport Parkway station, opened in 1997.  It is connected to Luton Airport by a shuttle bus, which is initially free but has been charged for the last fifteen years or so, ostensibly to pay for a brand new fleet of Wright FTR buses placed on the service by First.  This has been quietly forgotten as the FTRs were transferred to Swansea, and then a scrap yard, as
older, second hand buses replaced them.

The station opened and shuttle bus operation started when the airport was handling 5 million passengers per annum (mppa).  In 2018 the airport handled over 16 mppa and is expected to meet, if not bust, its maximum permitted of 18mppa in 2019.  Some 15% of those passengers access the airport by rail.  As an airport with a focus on low cost airlines and a heavy [price conscious] visiting friends & relatives (VFR) market, good public transport access is essential.  For completeness, broadly the same number of passengers arrive at the airport by express coach from London. 

The demand for travel to the airport has outgrown the capability to provide it using shuttle buses.  At both ends of the route customers are routinely left behind.   In late 2020 a new rail timetable will be introduced with a half hourly non-stop service between St Pancras and Luton Airport Parkway, which will only increase the number of people choosing rail to access the airport by train. Or at least it would if there was good access onwards to the airport......

Anyone travelling through Luton Airport Parkway over summer/autumn 2019 will have seen a new construction rapidly going up on the east side of the station.  This will be the station for a new automated people mover link between Parkway and the airport terminal.

Whilst to the south the track construction is well under way.

The station under construction, viewed from the west.

And viewing from the north.  The foreground will become an interchange between Luton Airport Parkway and the people mover.

The track towards the airport rises over the A1081 (between the airport and the M1) with a bit of art on the actual bridge itself.

The contractor building the station and new interchange has illustrations on their hoardings showing the works taking place.

There will be a new access to the platforms at Luton Airport Parkway.  This includes lifts and escalators to each platform: escalators were not included in the original station bridge to platform construction, whilst the platform 2/3 lift has been out of service for as long as anyone can remember.

Ain't worked for ages.

Soon to be surplus to requirements.

The automated people mover to be installed is a Doppelmayr Cable Car (DCC)  It's not a monorail!  The DCC was first used at Birmingham Airport to replace its MagLev (admittedly with a bus shuttle for many intervening years).  It has since been rolled out in several airports around the world as well as in Las Vegas where it's known as the Mandalay Bay Tram.   My perception is that the technology is very very simple, which reduces the number of things that can go wrong.  This is essential when 24/7/365 operation is likely to be required (both the Birmingham and Las Vegas applications are effectively 24/7).  

As a cable car it is two trains independently operated, which also means that when maintenance is required, a single train service can be operated.  My only concern was that the trains are specified to be more akin to the Mandalay Bay five-section trains rather than the Birmingham Airport two-section trains, and am pleased to read that they will be four section, capable of operating every four minutes.  The nature of train arrivals does mean that demand will be very 'pulsed' towards the airport but that's a problem every such system faces around the world.

As I say, probably five years overdue at Luton and is a step change in the quality of public transport to the airport.  We don't yet know how it will be charged or if free: like the current shuttle bus my feeling is that it will be integrated in to the National Rail fare structure.  

I wonder if this system will be enough if Luton gets its second terminal and 32mppa......

Las Vegas Baby! Trip to Strip

Whilst in Las Vegas in October 2019 I had a need to make some evening journeys for which I expected to be using Uber (as the buses, even the Strip-Downtown Express, are ridiculously slow!).  However I saw a new demand responsive service, Trip to Strip, promoted by the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, and being a sucker for demand responsive travel, off I went.....

Strip Downtown Express ('SDX') in one of its faster sections, heading away from the Strip.

Trip to Strip operates in an area broadly covered by down town Las Vegas (the Old Town), the Strip, airport and Premium Outlets South.  To use it you need to down load the app, at which point you discover the software is that of Via Van, and is almost identical in format to Go Sutton, which also used Via Van technology. 

Excellent, service booked and it's eight minutes away. Gives me time to get from the 18th floor of the hotel to the pick up point.

And three minutes later its arrived, I'm being harassed by text message and then by the driver calling me.  (Note the message sent 18 minutes before the clock time!) 

And here is the van.  Rather than pull on to the hotel forecourt, I am directed to the nearest bus stop.  Talking to the driver, I learn that some hotels and casinos allow them on the forecourt and some don't, but mine does, qv.  As can be seen in the app screen print, the app knew exactly where I was, but that wasn't the pick up.....

This service is operated by a Ford Transit van, configured with seats configured in a 'U' shape.  It is also step entry, unlike low floor vans that tend to be used in the UK.  At the front is a cool box of chilled water and bucket for [cash] tips.  At my first destination the driver knows a better drop off location than the one her sat nav advises, but it was handy she pointed out the official drop off as that was the pick up for my next trip. With the same driver.

Much like my other demand responsive experiences, the two drivers I had on Trip to Strip were  unwavingly positive about the service and the customer reaction.  I remember my Chariot driver explaining just how popular the service was, driving around in the PM peak with just me on board.  It seems bus drivers don't have a great grasp of the customer volumes required to break even but do develop positive relationships with their [few] customers!

I think the low ridership/revenue on demand responsive transport is also responsible for the expansion in service area.  Just as Go Sutton expanded their service area, Trip to Strip was also keen to tell me I could go all the way south to M Resort/St Rosa Parkway (a road well known to me en route to the Henderson airport!). 

The target market for Trip to Strip is clearly people who would otherwise use Uber, Lyft or similar service. This is demonstrated by their marketing which highlights 'no surge pricing': at busy times Uber etc will apply surge pricing, which is better known as market forces.  In my case at least, they won!

When I returned to the hotel, on my third Trip to Strip trip of the evening, the driver dropped me off on the hotel forecourt.

My ride back was with another super enthusiastic driver.  The Ford Transit this time had three rows of seats and a wheelchair lift in the rear.  The Americans are generally quite unsubtle about their wheel chair lifts, and this one is no different - a huge lift simply folds out.  The driver was very keen to talk about Trip to Strip, demand responsive buses, Ford Transits or indeed any other subject (maybe hadn't seen a customer for a while) but was also conscious that the app expected him to move off to his nominated parking position.

So another lightly used demand responsive service ticked off.  Uber is a global brand, where customers expect to use the app and get a ride anywhere (ish) in the world.  Locally based DRT requires local knowledge and local apps.  As in so many places DRT seems to be used as an alternative to addressing the real public transport problem: traffic congestion and bus journey times.  I suspect its another questionable use of taxpayers money.  Still, can't fault the positivity of the drivers!

Belkommunmash in the UK?

This week saw the annual bus and coach trade show at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre.  One stand really stood out for me, and that was Belkommunmash, one of the world's biggest manufacturers of electric and trolley buses, based in Belarus.  This is the first tine I have seen or heard of them at a western European trade show.

Belkommunmash did briefly gain some notoriety a few years when their trolleybus products were mentioned in the same breath as the now cancelled Leeds trolleybus project.  I think some Leeds concillors visited the Belhommunmash factory but can't find a link to it.

Belkommunmash are trading as BKM Holdings (in their words, "easier to say") and had brought with them a right hand drive version of their E420 electric bus.

The BKM approach to electric buses is on-going charging via pantograph/overhead wire and supercapacitor, gaining around 25km of range from a 6-7 minute charge, rather than the plug-in electric buses more common in the UK, which require longer charging (overnight) for a whole day on the road.  Whilst this requires roadside infrastructure and some accurate parking, the amount of infrastructure required is far less than installing charging equipment for every bus in a bus garage, which in the UK is typically 100-200 buses.  That's a lot of plugs!

BKM Holdings were represented at Coach & Bus 2019 by both their own staff and those of the Belarussian Embassy in London.  The right hand drive E420 will be trialled in Nottingham (not sure which operator) in the near future.

The right hand drive E421.  Modern looks reminiscent of the Wright Streetcar?

The bus is wheel forward.  Whilst buses such as the WF Wright Streetlite and Optare Solo rely on the driver contorting themselves round to serve passengers, in Eastern Europe a bus is more likely to be crew operated and therefore driver/passenger interaction is usually less.

The wheel forward layout means the cab entry and cash tray is behind the driver.  See previous blog post on the Yutong Citymaster for how this is handled with OPO buses in Skopje.  

Interior of mainly 2+1 seating.  For a 12m bus it has very few seats, 27 in total.

Curious emergency exit location, on the floor.

Cab of the BKM E420

A quite amazing central display for the driver,  ADL eat your heart out with all the information here.

The drivers line of sight has quite an intrusive CCTV monitor.  However I'm sure that can be moved.....

In Belkommunmash's home market, this is an earlier body shape of the E443, articulated super capacitor trolley bus operating in Minsk, Belarus,

The charging point in a Minsk bus station.  Knew there'd be a value to this photo one day!  It can be seen that the contact area for the pantograph on the bus is quite small so required precise docking.  However this technology is increasingly been used in countries such as Poland and the Netherlands.  Whilst quite large, this facility takes up much less space than individual charging points for each bus.

BKM's vehicle description

Rear view of the BKM E420

Above all else, the enthusiasm of the BKM Holdings staff stands out!  Their demonstrator vehicle is a right hand drive version of a vehicle built for the eastern Europe market where crew operation and off bus ticketing is common.  Therefore a fundamental redesign of the front axis and cab layout to a more traditional British door forward design is probably necessary for wider acceptance. 

However in the short term I am sure that the UK interest will be around the reliability of the vehicle and supporting infrastructure.  Does the charging set up and charge time/operating time suit British city conditions?  What's the risk of it running out of charge, and how easy is it to recover should that happen?  Is there sufficient charge to finish a rounder then run to and from a depot, or is some depot charging equipment necessary too? 

Overall, is this a viable competitor vehicle and technology to the plug-in electrics supplied by ADL/BYD and Caetano, and how does it stack up against potential competitors from Europe or China (e.g. Yutong, who must be due a UK bus breakthrough soon!).  London wants a fully electric bus fleet: it will need some competition in suppliers.....

New in London 3: London Overground Class 710s

Transport for London has ordered Bombardier Aventra units, the successor to the highly successful Electrostar, for operation on London Overground.  The first route is the Gospel Oak-Barking (GOB) line, somewhat belatedly after a botched electrification necessitating multiple extended line closures in 2017, followed by failure to certify the new Class 710s for operation.  Fault lies largely with Network Rail and Bombardier, respectively.

Things got even worse at the beginning of 2019 when the existing train fleet, eight 2-car Class 172 diesel trains were gradually returned off-lease, to take up a new life in the West Midlands with their enhanced timetable starting in the May 2019 timetable change. Despite an abundance of spare Class 313/4/5/6/7/8/9 electric trains available, including some which could have been a simple sideways move from TfL Rail (who's Aventras, named Class 345, did work) instead three Class 378s were stolen from elsewhere on the Overground network, shortened to four carriages (from five) and pressed in to service.  Three trains replacing eight is never going to be great for reliability but at least they all had four carriages.

Londonist
Islington Gazette
City AM

Fast forward to July 2019, and a year and a half late the Class 710s finally entered all day service, and have delivered a quarter hourly electric service on the Gospel Oak-Barking.  As the successor the Class 378 Electrostars there isn't much to tell them apart....but here's the differences....

The 710s come with a much ,ore stylised front end and a menacing amount of shiney black paint and glass.  Wonder how good that will look in a few years...not very would be my guess.

The step up in to the train remains.

There are new arm rests. No idea if any research in to the ergonomics of these was carried out but they aren't very comfortable.  The seating moquette is also new, choco-mint-orange maybe?

It feels like the 710s have longer sections of longitudinal seating but maybe that's just the impression given by a lightly loaded train.

The ends of the train have tip down seats (once again TfL policy for trains and buses being so radically different). At the end are two USB chargers in each side.  I'd be impressed if there was ever anyone sat in the end seat charging two devices at the same time!

The end, close up.

USB chargers are also curiously placed in the carriage connections, again in pairs.  The seating layout does not lend itself to USB chargers unless they were in the ends of the armrests, however to use these chargers you'd need to be standing.  It feels like USB chargers have been added to claim that they are there rather than with any ability to practically use them.

Dot matrix screens in the 378s have given away to flat screens showing next stop and connection information.

There are also electronic screens for advertising along the bodysides.  However in this case the free on-train wifi is being advertised.

Despite the platform extensions there are still some stations (it seems) where some doors cannot be opened, where there was insufficient space to extend the platform to four carriages long.

One of the nice things about the GOB is the view as it trundles along at first floor height.

The GOB is a very busy freight railway: here's a DB Schenker Class 66 (still in EWS colours) hauling a cartic train.

Gratuitous Class 710 photo.

So....710s....very similar to 378s....they do feel quite sporty and quick off the mark, which can only be helpful when they get on to busier lines.  They retain one of the basic problems of the 378s: insufficient doors, but have gained potentially lightly used USB phone chargers.  The interior displays appear to be common to the TfL Rail/Elizabeth line Class 345s which gives some consistency for the customer.

Class 710s are coming soon to the Euston-Watford Junction DC Lines, and then the West Anglia routes out of Liverpool Street.  Displaced 378s from the DCs should bolster North/East London Line services, and then the Class 315/317 EMUs will be replaced, and probably scrapped, on the West Anglia services.  They will be a very common sight at Liverpool Street with Abellio Great Anglia also ordering a load of Aventras for their Southend main line service.