FIRST battery train to Headbolt Lane
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- In today's video we ride the first trains in and out of the new Headbolt Lane station in Knowsley on the Kirkby branch of the Merseyrail Northern Line.
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Great video, honestly I like the station Building
Thanks Simon. It is a nice station. Do you think you'll be heading their yourself?
Good to see Headbolt Lane finally open, but it would have made more sense to extend the Merseyrail services to Wigan Wallgate, where the 777s could have terminated in the bay platform
It's one small step and a proof of concept, the battery trains still have to prove themselves. At least the station has been designed so it could one day become a through station.
@@Rail_Focus
I hope that comes about. It is perfectly feasible and cheap to do. Liverpool Central to Wigan. And hopefully to Skem.
A great step forward in battery technology, hoping that fast charge is next and the 777's will run the Wrexham to Bidston line.
I really hope they're a success, battery trains seem to be the only possibility of getting trains from Wrexham through to Liverpool.
Why? TfW already has new Class 230 trains for that line. The line should be split into two, with Merseyrail terminating at Heswall or Neston or Deeside if that station is ever built. Half of the line is in Wales with most stations in Wales. It is needless to take Meseyrail trains 27 miles from Bidston and right into Wales. They would be providing a metro for TfW.
Splitting the line is a non starter, you'd never get the Welsh Assembly to agree to that.
The Class 230s were always seen as a stop gap measure and unfortunately haven't been that reliable.
Why not utilise the technology available. Wrexham after all is the largest conurbation in North Wales had close ties to North West England.
@@Rail_Focus
The Welsh assembly has no impact. Rotheram can take Liverpool trains to Heswall, inside the Liverpool City Region. Making a turnback is easy and cheap. If TfW want to still take trains to Bidston at one an hour then fine. In Heswall and you want to get to central Birkenhead or Liverpool? You will not take the Welsh train.
The only sensible and logical thing is to split the line. Few travel from Bidston to Wrexham. Most traffic and stations are inside Wales.
As the Wrexham-Bidston line is part of the national Network, split between Network Rail and Network Rail Wales then Rotherham has little power over what can be done, without at least getting NR England to agree.
But the point is moot as the LCR is in active talks with TfW and Welsh ministers to get trains to Wales. If that means the Welsh Assembly providing funding, then so be it. But it makes no sense to sever a crucial England-Wales rail link.
I actually quite like the Class 777 and Merseyrail have made such an improvement to the whole network by introducing these new electric-battery multiple units in service and to replace the Class 507 and Class 508. Which are going to be sent for scrap.
Also Northern could do with more new trains to replace their existing trains that are getting old including ordering more extra Class 195 and Class 331 Civity trains that were built by CAF.
Nice to see Class 777s running on battery power that can last for hours or even days without having any charge. Or perhaps have solar panels on top of them during sunny days.
And also nice to see the new Headbolt Lane station now opened. This is what Southern England might need especially on the Uckfield Line and Marshlink Line on Southern and on the North Downs Line (Reading-Redhill/Gatwick Airport) to replace the diesel trains.
Was great to see the battery 777 finally in action, so many possibilities for future extensions if they're successful.
Absolutely. Merseyrail should allow them to operate on the City Line if some have retained the pantograph that can operate on AC 25kv OHLE.
Or maybe order more Class 777s that would be dual voltage and to operate between Liverpool Lime Street-Wigan North Western and Warrington Bank Quay.
I'm glad to see the station in the day! I'm quite impressed by the station, and I hope this acts as precedent for Merseyrail to pull their finger out and start expanding (or rather increasing the density of) their network!
Then again, while I hold out hope in my heart, my mind well knows that we're only going to get crumbs at best as long as profit runs things.
I forgot to say too, I'm a big fan of the cycle storage! This country needs a cycle revolution soon!
Perhaps another kind of revolution too, eh? 😉🌳✊
LCR setting its sights on Liverpool Baltic next. But hopefully if the IPEMUs are successful then there may be future extensions on the cards.
@@Rail_Focus I mean, there are places in Liverpool that Merseyrail aren't running trains where they SHOULD be.
For starters: reopen Wavertree, Sefton Park, Mossley Hill, and Speke stations!!! Run OLE-adapted 777s from Lime Street to Speke, and maybe even a new Halewood South station to cover the new housing developments (and underserved town in general)! That's as cheap as you can get! Then, to add to that, introduce the airport line diverting south, past Hale (another new station opportunity??) and below the airport terminal via cut-and-cover. What a vital link!
What about the Canada Dock branch? It lies basically dormant, but is still double-tracked! Fit OLE, run from Lime Street and via Edge Hill, and reopen Edge Lane (or Stanley), Tue Brook, Breck Road and Walton & Anfield stations, and terminate at a lower level platform at Kirkdale?
So many opportunities, but they seemingly don't care! Typical railways ran for profit! They want to put the least possible in while charging the most they can get away with!!
It seems all of the development is in the north of the city, and little to nothing for the south. The north get 3 lines (and the new trains!) as well as 3 new stations, while the south has massive potential but only one line that doesn't go far enough and only covers the riverside!! Shame on Merseyrail for not reopening the Liverpool Extension line, which would be vital today in capturing the east and south suburban car drivers into an environmentally-friendly form of transit!
I've already mentioned my ideas for the North Mersey branch in other videos too! Why not reintroduce it and institute a small freight depot north of Aintree station to get trucks off the road and get cargo into the nearby industry?
Merseyrail could be competing with London for "country's best", but it seems the bare minimum is their modus operandi.
Great video, Chris. This station has had some proper thought in its design - toilets and a ticket office? Excellent!
The trains are a game changer especially if they can prove that the battery technology works - maybe in a few years, the non electrified lines in the south east (such as the uckfield branch) could use this technology.
Ty 🙂.
It's good to see a station with decent facilities, all too often the importance of toilets is overlooked.
The battery trains are promising, I'll certainly be keeping a close eye on how they perform as they may provide an opportunity to get Wrexham-Bidston line trains into Liverpool.
would have been nice for a more detailed look at Headbolt Lane station including the northern rail platform
Noted, but there's not a great deal to see tbh, it's quite a simple but functional station.
These hybrid battery/electric powered trains will change British railways for the good. Merseyrail has pioneered them in the UK.
Nice video, I note everyone queuing to use the ticket office and nobody using the ticket machine!
Yep! Thankfully no matter what happens on the national network Merseyrail will retain all of its ticket offices
currently this makes going to Liverpool from Wigan via Headbolt Ln 1hr 45 with the train only being an hour and leaving as the incoming train arrives. Not much progress in terms of communication!
Yeah, the connections aren't great for some reason. But hopefully the service will return to 4tph soon.
The line is not for end to end users. Liverpool to Wigan is fast via Lime St. It is for those in between.
@@johnburns4017 I'm originally from Pemberton so I am between, but it remains inconvenient still (in theory)
Instead of battery (or maybe aswell) they could’ve used overhead electric which would allow Merseyrail to expand onto rest of the network
That's one potential option, but for this extension it was deemed more cost effective than overhead electrification.
I agree entirely Rimuru. Imagine what we could have if we still had BR, and if the kind of subsidies that are currently going into oil, automotive and war industries instead went into developing a clean, efficient and modern rail network that we are critically lacking and very much require for a future without the climate catastrophe that is currently starting and will only get worse.
@@caramelldansen2204 now the pm is looking at rail and costs (rip hs2) maybe its time for him to be nudged in the direction of a modern era British rail
@@gwrydd I have no faith in electoralism or parliament.
Labour? Tory? Same old story.
Not to mention, "costs" is just a convenient story to deny the working class vital rail links. The government can print money to save banks, and give subsidies to the military industrial complex, big oil and the automotive industry. They don't want us in trains because their class interest is to have us in cars, using as much fuel as possible and requiring the rich or bureaucrats who would otherwise run public transit to instead sit back and siphon money from the buying of cars, fuel, insurance, repairs and car taxes, which we wouldn't have to do otherwise if they didn't force us into cars. They're willing to destroy our cities, our planet and force us into the most dangerous form of transit, all to make unimaginable amount of money, which they won't even spend anyway! It's time we moved away from the foolish habit of profit and capital. Social ownership and control of both industry and the state is the only viable solution.
It's a win for Network Rail. Think of the money they save on substations, 3rd rail or OHLE by just running plain line. Conversely it transfers more of the supply and maintenance costs and burden on to Merseytravel and Stadler.
It would make sense for the present 25kv extension programme from Bolton to Wigan to be extended to Southport and Kirkby or Fazakerley (depending where the DC / battery change happens now). Merseyrail could run via Rainford to Wigan, while the Southport services to Manchester Oxford Road and Stalybridge could be fully electric and not have the more expensive and technically complex bi-mode trains like the 769s or their future replacement.
Battery power to go only that far sounds to me like an excuse to not electrify Headbolt Lane.
It was out of the Combined Authorities hands unfortunately as the ORR was not keen on further 3rd rail electrification and has only recently changed its policy from being against 3rd rail electrification, but only in the southern west. If IPEMUs help the Liverpool City Region to deliver its goals of extending the network then I say what does it matter how they're powered as long as it's not by diesel.
@@Rail_Focus Wish those facts were in the video ;-)
I'm hoping to do a more in depth video soon 😁
@@Rail_Focus Yes please.. Am fascinated where £80million goes to build a cheap small railway station and car park.
Conversion of 7, 777s to battery, upgrade of track and signalling between Kirkby and Headbolt Lane and a not so small new station, also had to widen the bridge over the A506 😁