DfT makes commitment to legacy technology?

Good news for historians of t'interweb!

According to the Department for Transport...

The rail industry is to roll out high speed mobile broadband on the busiest parts of Britain’s rail network, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced yesterday.

Under the plans, 70% of the travelling public will benefit from the new technology by 2019, with passengers expected to begin noticing improvements to their journey during 2015. 

Hmm... 2019 is six years away.

So perhaps the equivalent of saying in 2007 that all trains will be fitted with cable or DSL access...

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

"Under the plans, 70% of the travelling public will benefit from the new technology by 2019"

Or 2021, obviously, if it is being delivered by Arriva Cross Country.

Captain Deltic issues a call to arms!

This from the good Captain (for it is he)...

Another railway research strategy consultation document has been published - this time by consultants TRL on behalf of DafT.

It is, if anything, even worse than the TSSB/TSAG document featured in the February Informed Sources.

Here is the link.

Consultation is open until April.

Here are the questions posed by TRL which consultees might care to consider:

• Is the strategic focus right?
• Do you agree with key actions that come out of the report?
• Can we develop leadership for research in a fragmented industry?
• Can we strengthen the case for research in a difficult economic climate?
• Can we share knowledge and maintain the legacy/heritage knowledge in an industry with changing ownership?
• Can we be more effective in making use of technology developed in other industries?
• How do we make the rail industry a more comfortable place for innovation and research?

Where to start!

Talk is cheap

Telegrammed by our man in 222 Marylebone Road
According to Appendix A – 'Indicative Strategic Research Projects' of DafT's 'Rail industry research strategy implementation plan':

"A recent modelling study by Birmingham University demonstrated an energy saving of 6.75% for hybrid use on the East Coast Main Line and 14.75% for the Great Western Railway."

Aside from a wormhole of 60 years that allowed the GWR to slip into the appendix why a Desk study?

Whilst DafT postures the real railway industry (in the form of Brush Traction, Hitachi and Porterbrook Leasing) have already designed and developed a hybrid High Speed Train power car 'proof-of-concept-demonstrator', tested it, run it in daily service powering Network Rail's New Measurement Train and measured the fuel consumption savings.

Job done!

The Hayabusa hybrid is now being converted back to standard configuration because East Midlands Trains need more traction.

So lucky it didn't win the innovation award on Thursday night.