High-Speed rail : the European network

[Fabb]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

Well this morning I was standing in the station of Massanet (south of Girona) and there wasn't that many changed since 12 months ago.
It seems they are taking their time on Spain...pity

What really matters is the construction progress of the tunnel.
I'm also worried about the end of the line in Barcelona.

Last august, I had the opportunity to take pictures of the Viaduc de Ventabren, near Aix-en-Provence :

[Gava]

Originally Posted by Fabb

What really matters is the construction progress of the tunnel.
I'm also worried about the end of the line in Barcelona.

I don't think the tunnel will be that much of a problem, the main concern I think is the ever delayed Sagrera station. It was conceved a decade ago and still hasn't comenced.

[Fabb]

Originally Posted by Gava

I don't think the tunnel will be that much of a problem, the main concern I think is the ever delayed Sagrera station. It was conceved a decade ago and still hasn't comenced.

Is it the new Barcelona station ?
Where is it planned to be built ?

[Gava]

Originally Posted by Fabb

Is it the new Barcelona station ?

Yes

Originally Posted by Fabb

Where is it planned to be built ?

On the old railfreight terminal grounds in the northern part of the city, it is easy to spot since it is the largest undeveloped plot in the entire inner city.

It was supposed to be built already, they have done several redesigns and now the station is supposed to begin construction 2009 to open 2012, although that will likely be delayed since the project is huge.

The station will have something like 6 underground levels, subway, carparking, comuter trains, HSR trains and busses all on different levels. They are also going to build several thousand apartments, office buildings and hotels.

http://www.geocities.com/medit1976c4/sagrera2.htm
on the left side you can see the location for the station in the third pic

btw, that webpage is the best you'll ever find on the net regarding buildings and construction projects in Barcelona and it has information in english on just about every bulding worth a metion in that city.

[Fabb]

Thanks Gava.
I seriously hope the new station won't be delayed too much... I plan to be an extensive user of the line.

[Fabb]

Fire down below

Economist.com | LONDON

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulli...m?Fsrc=glvrnwl


EUROSTAR, which operates cross-Channel passenger trains, is not enjoying the best of weeks. The Channel Tunnel was shut down on Thursday afternoon when a fire broke out on a freight train near the French end, and no rail services have run since. It is not clear yet whether they will do so over the weekend.

The fire highlights how reliant Eurostar's service is on a few vital pieces of infrastructure. When it's good, it's very good. When it's bad, it's horrid. Eurostar is in the process of asserting real dominance over airlines on the London-Paris route—it had 70% of traffic last year—but this imbroglio could well persuade some passengers into the skies again.

Air France-KLM is one of the airlines that seemed to accept that it had lost the cross-Channel battle against Eurostar. Instead it has been making a lot of noise about the train services it intends to run between the capitals, in co-operation with Veolia, a freight operator. The week’s other blow to Eurostar saw Air France-KLM announcing that its proposed rail service would complete the journey in less than two hours by using Alstom's new AGV trains. Eurostar’s service takes 2hr 15mins. Air France-KLM hopes to run the services by late 2010, when competition will be allowed on the route. And it seems probable, as previously noted, that certain trains will go direct to Charles de Gaulle airport, meaning some British passengers will be able to get to Paris's main airport more quickly than they can to London's (Heathrow).

There is certainly scope at St Pancras for these services. As the Evening Standard reported: "St Pancras International is capable of handling eight departures and eight arrivals every hour—far more than the current timetable which has at most four departures and four arrivals an hour."

So two questions arise this week. Firstly, will the fire send Eurostar passengers scurrying back to the planes? I actually think not: Eurostar's services have been reliable enough in recent years for them to get over this particular problem without haemorrhaging customers. And secondly, will the company lose out to a fleeter-footed competitor in the next few years? Maybe, but a bit of competition could actually help Eurostar by killing off even more cross-Channel flights. Much, indeed, for the company to consider as autumn approaches.

Update: I should add that I've finally got through to an Air France spokesman who says the airline's relationship with Veolia is in its very early stages, that no routes, destinations, times or journeys have been decided, and that the two companies are still "evaluating a partnership".

Update 2, September 16th: Eurostar is running a restricted operation this week, with many fewer services than usual through the Channel Tunnel. Passengers with non-essential journeys are being discouraged from travelling and to get their tickets refunded. Gulliver was due to take the train to Paris this weekend, but has now cancelled his tickets and is flying instead.

(Photo credit: AFP)

[tigernar]

That Air France-KLM and Veolia partnership seems very interesting. Flying with Air France is already very good, so I look forward to try their AGVs in the future...

[Gava]

Some construction pics from around Spain;

These photos are from the new HSR line that will connect Madrid with the northwest of Spain. Due to the mountainous landscape the railroad has to run over dozens of large viaducts.
These are by Zoltan;



Photos from Episa construction company;




These photos are from La Encina I believe, it is where the HSR from Madrid and Valencia will meet on their way towards Alicante.
By Monolo;



On this pic you can see the Euromed train, it runs between Barcelona and Alicante at up to 200km/h (125mph).

Construction on the La Encina junction.



At first the tracks will be Spanish standard gauge on this line and later converted to european standard gauge.

As you can see the sleepers are already prepared for the migration to european gauge.

Finnished trackbed waiting for installation of rails and signaling

and one more

Construction on a tunnel through San Fernando just east of Cádiz, today almost every large city in Spain put their railroads in tunnels.
By Canyailla;




One last photo from the Madrid-Valencia HSR line, this bridge will be Spains largest arch bridge (261 meters) once finnished. At a 100 meters it will also be one of the tallest railroad bridges in Spain.

[Fabb]

Thanks for the extensive coverage of the constructions, Gava.
I had no idea that Spain was so busy extending its HSR network.

[R@ptor]

Speaking of the Spanish HSR network...one thing that really surprised me when I was travelling in Spain with the AVE in May was the low frequency of the trains. Sometimes there is just one AVE train every two hours on the route Madrid-Zaragoza-Barcelona. Considering that MAD-BCN used to be the air route with the highest passenger volume in the world this is really surprising and you would expect a train every 20 minutes or at least one every 30 minutes.

Are there any plans to increase the frequencies?

[Gava]

Originally Posted by Fabb

Thanks for the extensive coverage of the constructions, Gava.
I had no idea that Spain was so busy extending its HSR network.

The infrastructure plan really works wonders since it is backed by all the important political parties meaning it doesn't matter who's in charge, the massive rail spendings were begun during the rightwing parties rule and now the leftwing parties are in charge and spend even more. It's also interesting that they have begun construction on so many different lines at the same time.

Right now the total construction going on along various lines measure up to some 1500km, some of them like the Madrid-Valencia and Madrid-Lissabon are built completely before opening, others like the Seville-Cadiz and La Coruña-Vigo are built and opened in stages.

R@aptor;

The frequency now is 26 trains every day each way, starting at 6 AM you have a train every 30 min until
10AM the every hour until 3PM. From 3PM to 21PM you have a train every 30 min.

The direct trains (10) are concentrated to mornings and evenings.

I think that the frequency will get even better, probably 40 to 50 trains a day (each way) when the market opens up to competitors (2010).

[Fabb]

Originally Posted by Gava

The frequency now is 26 trains every day each way, starting at 6 AM you have a train every 30 min until
10AM the every hour until 3PM. From 3PM to 21PM you have a train every 30 min.

The direct trains (10) are concentrated to mornings and evenings.

But they still don't run at full speed, do they ?
What's the shortest travel time between Madrid and BCN ?

[Gava]

Originally Posted by Fabb

But they still don't run at full speed, do they ?
What's the shortest travel time between Madrid and BCN ?

2h 38min, although the timtable is very generous to avoid delays, 99,3% of all trains during the first 6 months were on time. They run at 300km/h which is the maximum allowed speed until ERTMS level 2 is installed.

When ERTMS level 2 is installed (maybe november 2008) the teoretical traveltime will be 2h 7min, but will probably be capped at 2h 15min. Renfe has this delay garanty to give back the ticket (full refund) when trains are late so they add a buffer to the timetable, the fastest shedule will thus probably be 2h 25min.

[Grumpy]

Is RENFE going to be the only company for HS trains in Spain?

[Grumpy]

Took this photo a few days ago in Brugge : 3 of these locomotives are going to be used for the shuttle service from Antwerpen to Noorderkempen on the HSL towards the Netherlands:

[Gava]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

Is RENFE going to be the only company for HS trains in Spain?

Until the market is deregulated 2010 yes.

[Fabb]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

3 of these locomotives are going to be used for the shuttle service from Antwerpen to Noorderkempen on the HSL towards the Netherlands

They don't look fast. Are they ?

The opening of the high speed service between Paris and Amsterdam in programmed next June.

Will the Brussels-Amsterdam line be in service before that ?

[Gava]

A new project was revealed by Talgo last week:

AVRIL-Alta Velocidad Rueda Independiente Ligero

"High-Speed Wheel Independent Lightweight - AVRIL." . The train-or rather the concept was introduced Thursday September 18 at a roundtable in which no one in the business was missing, the concept as well as other european HSR concepts were presented during the graduation ceremony for the members of the sixth graduating class of Masters Degree in Railway Systems that now begins its 7th course.


To begin with the string of surprises, the platform (read family) AVRIL train is designed for a maximum of 380 km / h, and follows the basic principle of the times: in a liberalized market, rail companies want a more profitable train. And that means more capacity and lower costs of operation.

Among the few AVRIL features that Talgo unveiled to the public, and to a large number of its competition (Siemens, East Japan Rail, Korail, CAF, Siemens, Bombardier), highlights above all: the Spanish insists on the ground floor, to be at the same level of the platform, which allows travelers to upload and unload fast, gaining time at stops. To do this, Talgo maintains its classic system with wheels independent of each other and an articulated design.

The train will get its traction from motorized axises and is supposed to have a better utilization of energy and space. Up to 87% of the length of the train will be usable for travelers and services, it will seat up to 470 in its standard configuration, and 540 in a configuration known as "high capacity" (its design promises to be surprising).

The new design is a large leap forward if one takes into account that the Series 102, currently in service with the Renfe AVE in commercial services, seats only 318.

The AVRIL family is not a single train, but a sort of combination of gauges and voltages difficult to enumerate (add and multiply by factorial). In the presentation, Talgo is said to be working on designing trains that can be exported to countries where the rail gauge is either 1435, 1520 or 1668 mm ... or several of them at once, because variable gauge width will also be available.

The train will also be able to obtain power from contact wires with four different currents: 25 kV / 50Hz; 15 kV / 16.7 Hz; 3kV CC; 1.5 kV DC.

Talgo will also offer a diesel version and a hybrid, where the maximum speed will be depending on the total power that the train will be capable of developing.

With all these features, the company hopes to reduce the weight to 287 tonnes (102 Series weight 322) to minimize power consumption from a level that is already small, thanks to structural design elements and low-profile aerodynamic Talgo cars. The train is expected to consume 7% less per kilometer than its predecessor (which touches the 16 kWh / km).

It is in short, according to the manufacturer, a much more efficient design than its predecessor, which seeks to exploit its industrial classical concept in a market full of explosive growth and opportunity.

[Gava]

Originally Posted by Fabb

They don't look fast. Are they ?

If it's the Taurus then it has more than enough potence. Even if the engine doesn't look fast or very modern it's fully possible they have just geared it up, ie increased the engines effect.

[Gava]

translation by google and some improvements by me

Madrid, 25 de septiembre de 2008 (Ministerio de Fomento).

• Fomento ends the tunnel drilling of La Cabrera, the longest tunnel on the Levante high speed rail line.

• During the works, ADIF has exceeded seven times the world record for daily advance, to reach 92.8 m excavated.

• A double-shield tunnel excavator has led the simultaneous tasks of excavation and placement of rings which form the walls of the tunnel.

The Minister of Public Works, Magdalena Alvarez and President of ADIF, Antonio Gonzalez, attended today 'heating' or end of the drilling of the second of the tubes that make up the tunnel of La Cabrera, located in the Siete Aguas-Buñol (Valencia) section of the future line high-speed line Madrid-Castilla-La Mancha Comunidad Valenciana-Region of Murcia.

The tunnel in the Sierra de La Cabrera, with 7250 meters, is the longest on the network of 914 kilometers constituting the high speed line to Levante. (mediterranean coast)
In the 10 months that the work of drilling have lasted, ADIF, public company under the Ministry of Development, has managed to overcome, on seven occasions, the world record of daily advance, up to a day maximum of 92.8 m drilled.

The Cabrera tunnel, whose investment until August 31, 2008 amounted to 317'8 million, is in the section between Siete Aguas and Buñol, 11.2 km in length. The stretch is located geographically in the transitional zone between the plains of La Hoya of Requena and Buñol, and overcomes a height difference of 224 m.

It consists of two tubes with a circular inner diameter of 8.75 meters, which have been excavated through rocky carbonated material (limestones, dolomite, marlstone, etc.). The drilling of the left tube ended in April this year. Subsequently, it was necessary to dismantle the tunnel excavator and place it in the second tube to start the excavation May 6, 2008.

The 11.2 km stretches through a mountainous terrain crossed by numerous gullies, to overcome the geographical difficulties, in addition to the aforementioned tunnel La Cabrera, 2 other tunnels and 2 viaducts were constructed:

- Tunnel of Siete Aguas: 424 m in length.
- Tunnel of Buñol: 1927 m in length.
- Viaduct over the ravine Massegar: 224 m 6 spans.
- Viaduct on the Rambla del Gallo: 50 m 2 spans.

The sum of the length of the 3 tunnels reaches just over 9,600 m, representing 85% of the total route of the stretch. The daily average yield obtained during the execution of the Cabrera tunnel with the TBM has been 26 rings and 41.6 m / day of tunnel completed. With conventional methods the average advance has been 3.5 m / day.

The seven world records:

27/09/2007: 65,6 meters (or 41 rings) in one day.
01/10/2007: 67,2 meters (or 42 rings) in one day.
19/11/2007: 72 meters (or 45 rings) in one day.
25/11/2007: 80 meters (or 50 rings) in one day.
01/12/2007: 83,2 meters (or 52 rings) in one day.
12/06/2008: 89,6 meters (or 56 rings) in one day.
01/08/2008: 92,8 meters (or 58 rings) in one day.

Source:

http://www.fomento.es/NR/rdonlyres/5...2/08092506.pdf