Noel Dolphin
@NoelDolphin
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⚡️Electrification of all things⚡️Public transport advocate. Working hard to build a sustainable business and a sustainable transport network. 🚃🚎🚋🚎 (he/him)
Somewhere in the Channel
Joined March 2013
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We are now at the point the UK is incapable of delivering anything. Everything is debated forever, everything needs one more consultation. Every time we delay costs spiral, meaning we must cancel the work. We are now NIMBY Nation.
East West Rail: Bedford mayor unveils eight alternative routes
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If we want the countryside to survive for the next 100 years - we need sustainable transport solutions. Campaigning against sustainable transport is utterly bonkers.
The Countryside Regeneration Trust has accused East West Rail of committing a ‘crime against the countryside' over plans to build a train line across nature-rich farmland in Cambridgeshire.
Find out more:
@CRTWildlife
@eastwestrail
#farmland
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WTF - I have been on a video-conference for almost 30mins and have been dressed as an extra from The Prisoner, with Portmeirion backdrop. Yet no one has noticed - I genuinely despair
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There has been a lot of talk about freight hyperloop today. So this evening I am doing a track walk on the original high volume, fully automated, electric, freight distribution line: Mail Rail. (1/3)
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Ticket office closed, only one ticket machine working - train in 5 minutes. Looking forward to this becoming the new norm in the UK.
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Network Rail had been to Denmark to see why their electrification costs are so much lower than the UK. Perhaps not what you think:
1) Denmark has a rolling programme, 1362 single track km over 10 years. A nice steady amount. (1/4)
This afternoon at RIA HQ, Phil Doughty, Chief Mechanical and Electrical Engineer at
@networkrail
addressed the RIA electrification and traction decarbonisation group.
#raildecarb23
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Good grief - just stick it on a train and stop with this nonsense.
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The train is running late - so GWR is cancelling intermediate stops. Almost everyone gets off the train at Slough, and GWR can now run an almost empty train, but catch-up time. Glad delay minutes are more important than passengers.
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Railway station lunch. Couldn't find a Pret so had to come here.
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St Pancras looking stunning this morning. I for one think we should make Christmas a full 1/4 of the year.
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My local council sold their town centre leisure centre to property developers. Built a new one not in town centre. Promised a shuttle bus, never delivered. LIterally didn't even bother to build a path, wanted everyone to drive. We can't keep to 1.5 degrees with councils like this
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A small reminder: majority of UK rail network isn't designed for temps we will see next week. For electrification, older equipment will be designed for 38oC or less. Newest equipment is only generally designed to 40oC. We are unprepared for next week & the next 100 yrs
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My bus is every 30mins, fast train is every 30mins (pre-Covid was every 15). Train/bus used to line up, but long-term road works mean they never do & I have a 28min wait. I guess with reduced timetable this is being played out on thousands of journeys every day, all over the UK
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I want all rail fault logs to be read out in Parliament. This is the only reason I watch Parliament TV. 🍿
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The 'War on Cars' is bullshit. A smokescreen, conceived by people who profit from sowing division. The same people who created a modern Culture War to divide us & separate us politically. The reality is so benign that arguments against it are constructed from thin air (1/11)
Talking about freedom, sat in Margaret Thatcher’s old Rover.
Earlier I spoke to
@Telegraph
about how important cars are for families to live their lives. It’s something anti-motorist Labour just don’t seem to get.
And it’s why I’m reviewing anti-car schemes across the country.
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Today’s fuel duty cut extensions are expected to cost £27 billion over five years. Roughly the same amount it would cost to electrify 11,000 kilometres of Britain’s railway – 17 times the length from London to Edinburgh on the East Coast Mainline (1/3)
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In just 4,500 years we will have electrified the UK rail network. 👍
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An explanation of today: we're building a demonstrator at Wellingborough to show you can load/unload freight trains on electric roads: end-to-end electric traction. Where unloaded it can be retracted. Working with
@TarmacLtd
&
@GBRailfreight
. Today's pics explain it all (1/3)
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After 9 months of working on an Electric Road System (ERS) project I’ve a few lessons. 1 of 3 UK DfT feasibility studies. Aim is to range extend battery lorries, essentially lorries with pantographs running under DC overhead line. (1/8)
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So much of HS2 is involved in upgrading the entire infrastructure around the line. From bus lanes to road bridges - almost everything it touches will run better afterwards.
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Feels a little like being an archaeologist when you leave Swansea and see the abandoned electrification masts in the distance. I imagine in 100 years someone trying to work out what these relics are.
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My new favourite German word is: Hochgeschwindigkeitselektrifizierung = High Speed Electrification 🇩🇪
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Looking back at an old DfT press-release carried by the BBC. Wonder if 50% happened by 2019. Perhaps 70% by 2029. Southampton by 2019 not sure DfT thought that through.
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4) Lots of electrification was simple 2 track areas in Denmark.
5) Less change, less performance targets that drive the wrong behaviour.
Synopsis: Technology can help, but how we manage electrification is the biggest cost driver.
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Spotted a good reminder today: if you don't specify it, it doesn't happen. Caps on the ends of these tubes are to stop water, debris & birds nests collecting. Custom & practice is for these to be yellow, so you can see from the ground of they are in place (1/2)
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New safety fence at my local station, between platforms. Not sure inducing people to sprint down a platform to get to the next gate is a safety improvement.
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At Maidenhead Station this morning, seeing the lonley Marlow branch DMU, on an otherwise electrified route. Reminds me that parody often becomes reality - this video shot in the same platform (Dave Allen).
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Interesting article comparing Victorian rail finance to now. Essentially: People hate new infrastructure, until it is built then they love it. We've so tied ourselves consulting everyone for everything that nothing is built without costing a fortune
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I thought we had cable theft issues in the UK. At a presentation about a project near Hanover, Germany - whilst the line was closed for a renewal all the conductors along 6km of railway was stolen (that is 24km of wires). 😱
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I don't think I could be more excited this morning if I tried.
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New housing development near me - no cycling signs everywhere, but park your car wherever you want (ps: that is not just 1 car, but a row of 20 cars)
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I have decided to try to be more positive. Rather than thinking about rail maintenance cuts - instead, I am focusing on this beautiful wildflower garden. 🌼
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Derby is to be HQ of the 'semi-independant' GBR and the 11 staff being moved there. Aptly staff will travel there by diesel train till 2070. 👍
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Loving the new timetable update. People panicking - running up and down the platform trying to find space. Approx 100 people didn't get on (including me). Next fast train in 30mins and slow train adds 25mins. Nothing like a big screw you to customers.
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I'm at Eurostar's Temple Mills depot today. Eurostar wants to start refurbing the e320 train bogies & this means installing lifting jacks. Tops of the trains will be above the high of the electrification when raised - this needs to move way out of the way (1/3)
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They scrub tunnels clean in Switzerland. Looking at CP7 budgets, we are lucky if we maintain them in the UK.
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Our team has been helping out at the
@RailwayMuseum
- electrifying the Eurostar e300 - as was always intended with a fully electric train. Looking good.⚡️
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UK first: Patchway gap on Great Western (between Patchway Short Tunnel & Patchway Old Tunnel) has just been wired with tensionless conductor bar as part of the electrification programme. Due to the size of gap (160m) it would have been difficult to wire in a tensioned system ⚡
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Now is not the time to compromise on safety - so remember: Never stand on a tank under live overhead line⚡️
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Maidenhead to Bern-Brünnen today - a 100% electric journey - just over 1000km. 4 mainline trains, 1 London tube. Top sped 315km/h. Here are 4 lovely pantographs that effortlessly took me here. We have already invented an efficient, fast, decarbonised mode of transport.
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It is hot again – so here is a cautionary tale of maintenance, heat, money, access and above all, priorities (1/6)
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2) Greater access to the railway: longer shifts, lots of daytime working. On a 2 track railway, 1 track would be closed for work, other left open. Compared to delivering work in a few hours at night in the UK. (2/4)
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OK- I am geared up and ready for a one person protest. Next stop Treasury.
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As locals think the HS2 viaducts are "hideous" they have proposed a bulkier budget Victorian pastiche -dubbed the Great Wall of Balsall 👏👏
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OK - we did phase 1 of Great Western Electrification (phase 1 - highlighted). When are we doing phase 2 (phase 2 - tracks without highlight)?
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Watched a presentation from Japan. They have captured Optimus Prime and turned him to an electrification installer. The most bonkers and brilliant thing I have seen this week.
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Nothing happening on North Wales electrification - after Gov promised to use the imaginary money saved from cancelling HS2 2b to build the project. Wow - who could have foreseen that they would do nothing 🙄
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3) 30 % of UK electrification costs civil enabling works, such as bridge reconstructions. In Denmark all enabling works done separately & prior to electrification. Contractors have contracts that target them to reduce bridge reconstructions, they make money by doing less work 3/4
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To all the people who told me in today's Transport Decarbonisation conference - it was impossible for somewhere like Leeds have a tram. 🖕
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I think I am going to move into Leamington's waiting room.
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I feel I have finally unlocked the 'supervisor' level achievement badge - by drinking tea whilst others work.
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Like thousands of others over the past month, I took part in the trial ops today for
@Crossrail
- for the soon
#ElizabethLine
. What's more I got to take my kids on it - for the 1st trial that allowed children. Testing 8 trains to see if they can turn around in 2.5mins (1/3)
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Whilst waiting at St Pancras... Eurostar trains use 2 pantographs to take power from electrification. There's a 2nd pantograph, but it's so far down the other end of the train you can't see. 1st pantograph sets up a wave in the wires, which impacts performance of the 2nd (1/2)
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I think the highlight of yesterday was when one of the people in the basket, saw me taking photos and asked me to WhatsApp him the photos so he could show his kids.
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I asked AI to come up with a new design for a carrier wire neutral section (simply where different electrical phases meet in rail electrification). It came up with these 2 designs. One looks good as an explainer, the other one looks insane. Neither make sense, but look good. 👍
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Happy
#ElectrificationFriday
again - the RhB roundhouse at Landquart - something you don't see to often in trains, and electrified roundhouse. Little more common in buses. Have a great Friday evening -
#electrifyallthethings
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Every day I see people with no disabilities stumble on this ludicrous height difference, as no one not familiar with the platform expects such a difference. Platforms are crap, bring on level boarding (in 2553 at this rate)
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This is a genuine Swiss railway safety installation, to stop people poking their heads out of train windows. Whilst temporary scaffolding is up on platforms in Basel - for the few trains that have opening windows still. I suppose a broom in the face is better than be decapitated
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Utter bollocks from the TaxPayers' Alliance - Network Rail is responsible for most delays, so we should not have any form of joined up railway. Demented, economic fundamentalists - as usual
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Ah - the archaeological evidence of electrification at Swansea. In many years from now historians will scratch their heads at this.
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Happy
#ElectrificationFriday
- I could just tweet the Why Rail Electrification? Report, but that would be lazy. How about something different. An unusual view of Crossrail - looking up. To quote Oscar Wilde “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
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I've made a video from the pan cam photos from the issue at Paddington last week - umbrella blown from road at back of Paddington onto a train. (note: tweeting now as NR have publicly published photos individually so they are in public domain).
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Archaeological evidence of a bygone era when electrification was springing up to Oxford. One day everyone disappeared & no one knows where they went. Locals talk of a legend that on clear nights, with a full moon, you can still hear the bang of a piling rig echoing in the valley
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But drawing didn't specify colour - it is just always was yellow. So early manufacturer on Crossrail West made in grey - which did comply to drawing. Drawing was later updated - so now we have a mix of grey and yellow caps. Write it down, otherwise it doesn't get done. (2/2)
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And what a piece of engineering it is. Designed as the most efficient way to move parcels and mail around a busy city. In the late 1990's I worked in the maintenance office upstairs - when the line was running - so this is deep nostalgia. (2/3)
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The UK's JET fusion laboratory closes, and we won't join the EU's plans - as the Gov has an ambition to build one in Nottinghamshire. I wonder how much this ambition like all the Gov's ambitions, will evaporate.
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𝗔𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗧𝗜𝗖 𝗥𝗔𝗜𝗟𝗪𝗔𝗬 𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗫𝗢𝗡: So much talk, disagreement & argument on twitter about aesthetic electrification & overhead line on railways – I thought I would outline an alternative way of thinking -in one mega thread (1/45)
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Class 92 - making it's way into the demo site at Wellingborough - yesterday. It is now sunny - so can't wait to get to site.
#DecarbonisingRailFreight
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I think this should be a good news story for rail freight - Tesco, already the biggest retailer shipping by rail, wants to ramp up to 90,000 containers a month by rail to beat HGV driver shortages.
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Next time someone complains about the size of electrification mast foundations - I am showing them this lamppost
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Super interesting day looking at the manufacturing of train pantographs at Chard (Somerset). Felt a little like the end of an era - Brecknell Willis were one of the pioneers of electrification in the UK. By the end of this year UK manufacturing will have stopped.
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Amazingly we had Francis Bourgeois on site today, thanks to
@GBRailfreight
- to learn about rail freight electrification.... And yes I did ask for an obligatory team shot with him
#DecarbonisatingRailFreight
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On a train that arrived 9mins early. I had to sit down on a platform bench to recover.
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I think I have identified the exact moment in 2017 - where the multiverse split (we ended up in the shit version).
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One freight train has takes the equivalent of 60 lorries off the road. With 80 tonnes cement per wagon, each wagon takes 15mins to fill. Taking these off the road 👉
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Heading into London town today - am I on brand for the new GBR?
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Farringdon looking quiet this evening. Clearly no one is commuting to work anymore.
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Severn Tunnel is currently live & electrified at 25kv for the first time. For testing in the run up to full switch on later this year.⚡🚆
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One thing we can do to improve UK productivity is have great wi-fi on trains. Trying to send an email on EMR - sometimes feels like beating your head against a wall
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My jaw has just dropped - Network Rail has just used this slide at the
@railindustry
Electrification group as the solution to decarbonisation. Hosted by
@DCFutureRail
(1/3)
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I am so old - I remember a time before gasometers were cool.
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A history in maps - 1956 to now - central Gov plans for UK rail electrification (1956 is a very fancy map).
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Walked pass this today. Home of a Swiss person living in the UK. When you live in the UK, but still want a little piece of Switzerland in your garden.
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I am going to be an old, old man when I stop getting a kick out of a TfL train stopping in Maidenhead.
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Always great to visit Long Marston, stunning weather today as well. This place could be a theme park.
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Bit sad if Arrival is gone before it even really had an impact on the UK bus market.
Times up for Arrival’s UK business as administrators called in
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