[forwiser]

830 tysięcy? Skąd oni tych "weteranów" biorą.

 

[geogregor]

830 tysięcy? Skąd oni tych "weteranów" biorą.

Pewnie kazdy ktory byl w armii moze nabyc ta "Veterans Railcard". Troche sie tego uzbiera.

Veterans Railcard

Are you eligible? - Veterans Railcard

You’ll be eligible for a Veterans Railcard providing you have served for at least one day or more in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces (Regular or Reserve) or Merchant Mariners and have seen duty on legally defined military operations.

Znizki:

Like our other Railcards, the Veterans Railcard offers savings of 1/3 on rail travel, whether your are visiting family and friends or simply enjoying a day out.

You can also nominate a companion to get 1/3 off when travelling with you and up to 4 children travelling with you get 60% off.

 

[geogregor]

Dzisiaj rano w Stirling:

Jak on tam wjechal?

EDIT, juz wiem, prosto z parkingu:

 

[forwiser]

No to czas iść na jeden dzień do wojska. Cóż za kuriozum. I jeszcze nazwać to Veterans Card.

 

[japan]

Czy wiadomo coś na temat tego, kto przejmie połączenia po Cross Country?

 

[forwiser]

A to Virginia się posypała? Chyba przespałem.

 

[geogregor]

Czy wiadomo coś na temat tego, kto przejmie połączenia po Cross Country?

A to Virginia się posypała? Chyba przespałem.

Operatorem Cross Country od wielu lat jest Arriva. I wlasnie podpisali umowe na nowych "covidowych" zasadach:

A new contract has been announced today (16th Oct) by Rail Minister, Chris Heaton-Harris, between the Government and Arriva CrossCountry.

Arriva CrossCountry, which has run the service since 2007, will continue to operate the franchise for three more years until October 2023. This announcement provides certainty for passengers and staff as the future direction of rail reform takes shape.

As people return to the railway, passengers will benefit from improved capacity, and more train drivers and on-board staff to advance services and performance.

This comes together with new measures to help passengers with disabilities, including the ability to reserve space for assistance dogs and better staff training to meet the high standard, best practice seen across the rail industry.

The contract also highlights a focus on tackling environmental impacts. To decrease diesel emissions, Arrive CrossCountry will trial the use of electrical shore supplies when their Turbostar fleet are in depots for cleaning, which will reduce the use of diesel engines.

The Department for Transport will also proceed to work with the owners of the Voyager trains to trial the use of on-train batteries when they enter and leave stations, so that engines are turned off when they’re at platforms further improving air quality.

This new contract completements the Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements (ERMAs) announced back in September, in place for up to 18 months, where the Government pays train companies a small management fee to keep services running through the pandemic.

The contract will see the Government take on the revenue and cost risk associated with the franchise and pay Arriva a performance-linked fee to run the service. This will incentivise the company to deliver improvements to operational performance, passenger experience and service quality.

Rail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris said: “This agreement ensures that vital train services will continue across the UK’s most extensive rail network, as the country continues to fight and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The deal announced today reaffirms our commitment to ending the complicated franchise system, and is focused on the best interests of passengers, delivering better services and helping create a new kind of railway.

“With a real focus on boosting capacity and seizing the opportunity to create more environmentally sustainable services, this new contract will benefit passengers in the long term, improving their experience when travelling on our railways.

 

[geogregor]

Odbudowana kilka lat temu linia do Tweedbank czyli tzw. Borders Railway:

 

[geogregor]

W zwiazku z robotami torowymi na Kings Cross w ten weekend sklady Hull Trains pojawily sie na MML i London St Pancras:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1317427710210310144

 

[geogregor]

Pdobno pierwsze sklady klasy 720 maja wejsc do regularnej sluzby w tym roku. Uwierze jak sam zobacze na Liverpool Street Station...

 

[geogregor]

Taki jesienny strzal z Kornwalii:

 

[forwiser]

No przypomina mi okolice Totnes. Ale to Devon. Muszę przyznać, że tęsknię za dojazdami do Londynu stamtąd, mimo, że to około 2:30h.

 

[geogregor]

No przypomina mi okolice Totnes. Ale to Devon. Muszę przyznać, że tęsknię za dojazdami do Londynu stamtąd, mimo, że to około 2:30h.

Mozliwe, podpis sciagnalem slepo z Twittera.

A tak przy okazji tablica odjazdow na Glasgow Queen Street. Czytelnie i logicznie:

 

[geogregor]

Ciekawy artykul na temat technicznych aspektow drazenia najdluzszych tuneli w ramach HS2:

High Speed 2:
Tunnellers get ready at the foot of the Chilterns

Work on High Speed 2 is ramping up ahead of tunnelling on the first phase of the route.
When tunnel boring machines (TBMs) Florence and Cecilia are launched next spring, the 2,000t German-built giants will work relentlessly and largely unseen for three years to create the UK’s longest transport tunnel.

Named after local nursing and astronomy legends Florence Nightingale and Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, the Herrenknecht TBMs will create 16km of twin-bore passageway under Buckinghamshire’s Chiltern Hills for High Speed 2 (HS2).

Challenging conditions
And like their namesakes, the bespoke machines will display elements of innovation working in challenging conditions.

Due to the length of the tunnel and the amount of time they will be underground, a huge amount of design effort has gone into making the TBMs as efficient and reliable as possible.

For a start, it will be the first time variable density TBMs have been used in the UK. This technology allows the machines to adapt to different ground conditions.


“There are two main types of conventional closed-faced tunnelling machine – slurry shield and earth pressure balance,” explains James Reilly, TBM engineer at contracting consortium Align, which is responsible for the Chiltern Tunnel project as part of a £1.6bn package of works on phase one of HS2.

“Given the constraints we have – such as an aquifer underneath the tunnel and not being able to use certain chemicals – we are to use a variable density TBM, which uses both slurry and pressure balance technology.”

Align comprises Bouygues Travaux Publics, Sir Robert McAlpine and VolkerFitzpatrick. It has thought beyond normal constraints to maximise the efficiency of the TBMs.

“We have changed the design,” says Reilly. “For example, grout used to fill the gaps between segments of the tunnel wall would usually be pumped to the TBM or brought on vehicles to the machine, but given the length of the tunnel this was not practical – so we will have a grout plant on the TBM itself. This means we will not rely as much on logistics on the outside.”

The boring machines also feature robotic arms that will automatically screw in dowels to join concrete lining segments together as well as removing timber planks that separate these segments while they are transported.


“It removes a person from a hazardous area,” says Reilly. “We’ve done a lot of development with the supplier to put the correct equipment on the TBM.”

The TBMs will operate in a “continuous boring” mode that hasn’t been used on site before.

“Usually you would excavate, stop, install a ring, continue excavating,” says Reilly. “We are doing a form of continuous boring where segments can be installed as the TBM excavates. Align has been working very closely with its supplier to make sure it is working; we’ve had to change the interface with the cabin, the hardware, the programming and logic to make the system work.”

Florence and Cecilia will arrive on site in parts this autumn and the team will undertake a six month building phase before launching them next spring. But before the machines’ epic journey can begin, a similar effort has already been required from the engineering team preparing the ground along the tunnel alignment.

The consortium took over the South Portal site – which has its own access slip road between junctions 17 and 18 of the M25 – in September 2019 to prepare for tunnelling as well as construction of the 3km long Colne Valley Viaduct.

Levelling this sprawling, hilly, chalky site and ensuring everything is ready for Florence and Cecilia has required an unblinking focus, especially in the face of a government-ordered Oakervee review of the entire HS2 project, closely followed by a global pandemic.

“The tunnel is on the critical path of phase one of HS2,” says Align construction director David Whiteford. “The decision was taken last year to order the TBMs.

“The tunnel is on the critical path of phase one of HS2,” says Align construction director David Whiteford. “The decision was taken last year to order the TBMs.

“We have targets to meet so we cracked on with the plans as the Oakervee Review happened. We could not afford to pause as we are working to a tight plan that includes procuring buildings and processes.

The team is moving in the region of 850,000m3 of chalky earth to create the right conditions to build a raft of construction facilities and to build and launch the TBMs.

Align South Portal construction director **** O’Hare says the high water content of chalk means it can become unworkable after heavy rain.

“A big challenge was that chalk has an extremely high water content – up to 33% – so any more water makes it unworkable. We were therefore unable to move a lot of the material through the winter. We started at the beginning of April and we’ve done about 500,000m3 over the summer.”

As the groundworks are delivered, the construction aspects of the project can begin. One major structure that the consortium has already created is a 17m high headwall for the boring machines to break through when they are launched. “When you launch a TBM forward, you have to bury the whole of the cutting head straight away, so you need vertical ground to press into,” says O’Hare.

Almost 700 reinforced polymer soil nails, each up to 20m long, were driven into the wall to stabilise it. A specialised rotary drill took up to two hours to create each bore hole before each nail could be installed.

“Building and nailing the headwall took seven months, starting in December 2019 and completing this June,” adds O’Hare.

All the precasting for this section of HS2 will be done on facilities that Align is purpose building on site.

“We’re creating three batching plants to produce all the concrete,” says Whiteford. “There will be tunnel segment and viaduct deck precast facilities.

“We will also be processing 3M.m3 of arisings from the tunnel and placing them into the recently quarried landscape. Water has to be added to the chalk at the face of the tunnel to slurrify it, then it can be pumped down the tunnel and we immediately squeeze the water out. The slurry treatment plant is a process in its own right. We have a facility to reuse as much of the water as possible.”

Digging the tunnel approach cutting and creating the reinforced concrete launch slab for the TBMs is another major project.

“It is a technically challenging reinforced concrete structure,” he says. “It’s only an 18m section and has 207t of steel due to the weight and thrust that will go through it when we launch.”

Designing the slab took 18 months of close collaboration between the Align team and its design joint venture Jacobs and Ingerop-Rendel. It is described by Whiteford as among the largest co-ordinations of permanent and temporary works he’s ever worked on.

As this issue of NCE went to press, work to build the launch slab was well underway ahead of the arrival of the TBM components.

"... It will be the first time variable density TBMs have been used in the UK. This technology allows the machines to adapt to different ground conditions."
plus
"... Usually you would excavate, stop, install a ring, continue excavating. We are doing a form of continuous boring where segments can be installed as the TBM excavates."

High Speed 2 | Tunnellers get ready at the foot of the Chilterns - New Civil Engineer

When tunnel boring machines (TBMs) Florence and Cecilia are launched next spring, the 2,000t German-built giants will work relentlessly and largely unseen

www.newcivilengineer.com

 

[nessah]

UK ma swoja nature2000 i to bez brukseli. Na moje chamskie oko wyglada ten teren jak pagorki, czego w uk jest na peczki i 13,5 km tunelowania w prostym terenie gora, a ciezkim pod spodem wyglada jak fanaberia. Jakieś ważne i szanowane postacie sie tam osiedliły czy nie doceniam uroku okolicy?

 

[forwiser]

No pagórki są i to dość mocne. Cały tunel przechodzi tak naprawdę przez wypiętrzenie nazywane The Ridgeway. I faktycznie jest tak, że przygotowanie variable TBM dla każdego tuneliku, jego demontaż i instalacja ponownie mogłaby być dużo bardziej droga niż tak jak się to robi obecnie.

Do tego warto dodać, że jest to okolica wyjątkowo ładna naturalnie jak na okolice Londynu, mieszka tam dużo wpływowych ludzi a do tego nimbism praktycznie zablokował nawet ten tunel. Bo nie sięga on całości wzniesień z drugiej strony (są one łagodniejsze w dalszej części - więc być może ich skład gruntowy jest mniej zróżnicowany.

 

[geogregor]

Tam glownie chodzi o NIMBYsm bogatych i wplywowych ludzi mieszkajacych w bardzo malowniczej okolicy. Gdyby nie to ten tunel spokojnie moglby byc krotszy.

Chilterns Society dokumentuje budowe na swojej stronce, wlasnie wrzucili troche nowych fotek lotniczych z tego miesiaca:

HS2 Photo Diary - Chiltern Society

Portal poludniowy, tu beda montowane TBMy, tu bedzie fabryka segmentow do tunelowania tu tez bedzie skladowany urobek:

Widok z polnocy:

Colne Viaduct, bedzie mial ok 3,5 km nad stawami, kanalami itp:

Chalfont St Peter Ventilation Shaft:

Chalfont St Giles Ventilation Shaft:

Amersham Ventilation Shaft, bedzie wcisiniety w wezel drogowy:

Polnocny portal, tu prace znacznie mniej zaawansowane:

Zastanawiam sie czy nie zalozyc osobnego watku dla tej budowy. Moze jeszcze nie teraz ale w przyszlym roku gdy rozkreca sie prace. Bo z czasem pewnie bedzie coraz wiecej materialow zdjeciowych i filmowych.

 

[forwiser]

Załóż dla Anglików, bo oni coś strasznie kiepsko działają na tym forum w porównaniu z FPW.

 

[geogregor]

Załóż dla Anglików, bo oni coś strasznie kiepsko działają na tym forum w porównaniu z FPW.

Nie jest z tym az tak zle, jest watek o io budowie HS2.

HS2 | Phase 1 construction | London to Birmingham |...

Jak rowniez osobny dla bardziej teoretycznych dyskusji o dalszych fazach HS2:

HS2 General Thread (All Phases/Discussion)

Zwlaszcza w tym drugim tocza sie gorace debaty, czesto city vs. city

Brytyjskie forum jest generalnie mniej aktywne niz FPW ale to nie powinno dziwic bo polska sekcja jest wyjatkowo aktywna.

Kiedys sie zastanawialem z czego to wynika. FPW jest chyba napedzane przez polski glod inwestycji zwlaszca w latach 80-tych i 90-tych. My chyba "jaramy sie" tym znacznie bardziej niz ludzie naszego pokolenia na szeroko pojetym zachodzie. Tam autostrady budowano masowo te 40-50 lat temu, to wtedy tam byla "faza" w tym temacie, podbnie metro, lotniska i wiele innych duzych inwestycji.

Ciekawe czy infra w Polsce tez tak spowszednieje ze za 10-20 lat aktywnosc na FPW zmaleje.

No i nalezy pamietac ze Brytyjczycy bedac anglojezyczni maja po prostu duzo wiecej stron i forow na ktorych moga byc aktywni, czy to z USA czy z ogolnoswiatowych.

A w tematach kolejowych polecam to:

RailUK Forums

Niektore sekcje sa mocno "dla nerdow" czy trainspoterow ale jest tam sporo ludzi siedzacych w branzy i mozna sie wiele ciekawych rzeczy dowiedziec. Chyba na tym forym znalazlem ta stronke z ktorej wrzucalem powyzsze zdjecia.

 

[geogregor]

Jakos nikt jeszcze nie wspomnial o tym ze Walia nacjonalizuje koleje:

Transport for Wales rail services to be nationalised

The Transport for Wales rail service is to be brought under Welsh Government control from next February.

Ministers have confirmed the takeover from KeolisAmey, with day-to-day services to be run by a publicly-owned company.

It follows significant falls in passenger numbers during the pandemic.

The Welsh Tories questioned how much nationalisation will cost taxpayers, while Plaid Cymru called for the Senedd to be recalled.

Economy Minister Ken Skates said the government had stepped in "to stabilise the network and keep it running".

Podejrzewam ze nastepni w kolejce beda Szkoci.