Fortsätt till huvudinnehåll

Big train order for Bombardier




These trains, called Electrostars, and the diesel version called Turbostar, were originally designed by Adtranz, the train manufacturer which is now part of Bombardier. They got off to a shaky start in 2000, but after a lot of work by the engineering teams they are well established and reliable. But when the initial orders were complete, the production line at Derby was shut down. Now, there are new orders, for example, from London Overground, and the production line has been reopened, demonstrating the industry's confidence in the design. It is likely that it will comprise a high proportion of new build for in the forseeable future, for example, as replacements for classes 313/507/317 and 455 as these become due for replacement.

The trouble is that the design, never entirely satisfactory, needs a thorough overhaul to get rid of the things that are wrong with it and take advantage of technical developments; for example, because of changes in the way the infrastructure is managed, it might be possible to make the trains wider, which would be more comfortable for the passengers. Other modifications could increase the capacity, improve the bouncy ride and reduce the time the trains stand at station while passengers get on and off.

These changes would cost money in research and development, but with this unexpected prospect of a big production run, they would be a good investment to make at this time.

Sadly, the most likely outcome is that the production line will go on churning out the same thing, warts and all indefinitely. There are many worse trains around but it is a pity that there is no real desire for improvement.
Etiketter:

Kommentarer

Skicka en kommentar

Populära inlägg i den här bloggen

The dreadfulness of British governance

I wrote to my MP on two entirely separate issues recently. The first was to do with the replacement for the Inter City 125 train, which at £2.6 million per vehicle, is twice as expensive as it ought to be. The second concerned the benefits of a switch from business rate and Council Tax to a tax based on site values. In both cases, the replies were full of spurious, unsubstantiated assertions and completely flawed arguments. This is typical. You will not get an iota of sense from the government on any area of public policy at all - finance, economics, trade and employment, agriculture, housing, health, transport, energy. All junk. If you write to your MP you will invariably receive answers that are an insult to your intelligence, no matter what subject you are writing about. Of course they cannot understand statistics. They are innumerate. Whitehall is staffed with idiots with a high IQ. Look at their IT projects. And mind your purse, they will have that too.
Skicka en kommentar
Läs mer

How much more will the British tolerate?

The British are phlegmatic, tolerant and slow to rouse. Thus there was no great reaction after the terrorist attack in July 2005. The murder of Lee Rigby created a sense of outrage, but nothing more, since it appeared to be an isolated incident. Two serious incidents within a fortnight are another matter. Since the first major terrorist incident in 2001, authority has tried to persuade the public that Islam is a religion of peace, that these were isolated events, or the actions of deranged "lone wolves", having nothing to do with Islam, or to reassure that the chances of being killed in a terrorist attack were infinitesimally small. These assurances are are beginning to wear thin. They no longer convince. If government does not act effectively, people will take the law into their own hands. What, however, would effective action look like? What sort of effective action would not amount to rough justice for a lot of innocent people? Given the difficulties of keeping large n...
Skicka en kommentar
Läs mer

Importing people to sustain demand

I got involved in a discussion with a Youtuber called “Philosophy all along”. This was in connection with criticism of Trump’s policy of deporting illegal migrants, which he argued would be bad for the economy as it would reduce demand. This implies that there is a need to import people to sustain demand. There is no obvious reason why a population should not be able to consume everything that the same population produces. If it can not, then something else is going on. It is a basic principle that wages are the least that workers will accept to do a job. Wages are a share of the value added by workers through their wages. The remainder is distributed as economic rent, after government has taken its cut in taxes. Monopoly profit is a temporary surplus that after a delay gets absorbed into economic rent. Land values in Silicon Valley are an example of this; it's like a gold rush. The miners get little out of it. Rent and tax syphon purchasing power away from those who produce the g...
Skicka en kommentar
Läs mer