Borders line (Scotland) electrification news and updates

[snowball]

From Midlothian View:

Borders Railway electrification bid revealed - Midlothian View

Electrifying plans which would lead to a greener future for part of the rail network in the Borders have been disclosed.

www.midlothianview.com

Borders Railway electrification bid revealed​

Electrifying plans which would lead to a greener future for part of the rail network in the Borders have been disclosed.

Network Rail has submitted a screening request to Scottish Borders Council over plans for the rail electrification, with associated overhead line equipment and gantry, between Newcraighall Junction and to the southwest of Sherriffhall Mains and at land between the south of Bowshank Tunnel and Tweedbank Station.

The area is currently non-electrified and is approximately 15.5km of single track line.

A spokesperson for Network Rail said: “The project will involve a number of physical interventions to the existing railway infrastructure to deliver the electrification of the line.

“During the construction phase there may be a temporary increase in emissions, but mitigation measures will be put in place. Longer term, the development will allow a move to greener electric trains and have a positive impact on air quality standards and reduce reliance on the car.”

So two stretches of wiring. At the north end, wires from the existing wires at Newcraighall to a point SW of Sheriffhall Mains. At the south end, from the south of Bowshank tunnel to the south end of the line.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

From Midlothian View:

Borders Railway electrification bid revealed - Midlothian View

Electrifying plans which would lead to a greener future for part of the rail network in the Borders have been disclosed.

www.midlothianview.com

So two stretches of wiring. At the north end, wires from the existing wires at Newcraighall to a point SW of Sheriffhall Mains. At the south end, from the south of Bowshank tunnel to the south end of the line.

In terms of stations, where would electrification end before restarting?

Apart from that, great to see more electrification

 

[snowball]

In terms of stations, where would electrification end before restarting?

The northern electrified section would include Shawfair station and would end somewhere near the Edinburgh City Bypass bridge. The OS map shows Sheriffhall Mains about half a mile north of the bypass. At first glance it looks like 30 or 35km to run on battery.

 

[james73]

The northern electrified section would include Shawfair station and would end somewhere near the Edinburgh City Bypass bridge. The OS map shows Sheriffhall Mains about half a mile north of the bypass. At first glance it looks like 30 or 35km to run on battery.

Would the trains running under OHLE be recharging the batteries as it goes?

 

[snowball]

Would the trains running under OHLE be recharging the batteries as it goes?

Yes. Similarly on the lines in Fife. Initially they only have to electrify about a third or a quarter the length of a route to remove diesel trains. That's the beauty of the chosen approach.

 

[59CosG95]

Assuming the northern section feeds from Portobello, where will the southern section feed from?

 

[gingertom]

Assuming the northern section feeds from Portobello, where will the southern section feed from?

there's grid switching at Tweedbank so likely to be there. There's also a wind farm near Bowshank tunnel so there'd be an option to link up to the grid access there.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

The limits are shown below but full documents are here



Seem bizarre how short the northern end extension is but perhaps there are physical constraints in that area that they are seeking to avoid have to undertake work on?

The supporting document says this

The initial phase of the electrification of the Borders Line will involve discontinuous electrification. The discontinuous approach results in an electrification ‘island’ being created with a feeder station and a small amount of electrification where battery trains charge under the overhead line and operate under battery in the non-electrified section. This approach will allow decarbonisation to be achieved earlier and the remaining section can be infilled at a later stage. For Borders Railway, Battery Electric Multiple Units (BEMU) would run from Edinburgh Waverley to south west of Sherrifhall Mains on Overhead Line Equipment (OLE). From Sherrifhall Mains to the south of Bowshank Tunnel, the trains use battery power. The trains would then run on OLE from south of Bowshank Tunnel to Tweedbank Station, where the train would idle for a short period to allow further recharge.

The feeder station is to be located mid way between Tweedbank and Galashiels adjacent to Scottish Powers Tweedbank GSP.

 

[AngusH]

Am I right in thinking the northern section stops just short of the Edinburgh bypass bridge, where the railway goes under the road?

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Hopefully that's just coincidence, because the bridge was a new build for the railway reopening.

I think there are also electricity pylons over the track at the same rough location, does that make an issue at all?


I'm glad to see the work being done on this and hope it works out well.


edit: It looks like it stops exactly at the pylons, well short of the bridge (?)

 

[59CosG95]

The limits are shown below but full documents are here

View attachment 119555

Seem bizarre how short the northern end extension is but perhaps there are physical constraints in that area that they are seeking to avoid have to undertake work on?

The supporting document says this


The feeder station is to be located mid way between Tweedbank and Galashiels adjacent to Scottish Powers Tweedbank GSP.

Perhaps it's being done like this as the *current* supply at Portobello (if you'll excuse the deliberate pun) isn't enough to support the extra load?
I know there's an upgrade for Portobello in the pipeline.

 

[snowball]

Just a couple of days ago we learned (from the soundtrack of a video in a press release) that the feeder facilities at Portobello are to be expanded, and this this will count as one of the frequently-mentioned six new feeder stations. See post #147 in the Decarbonising Scotland's Railways thread (which recently got moved to the speculation section after going off at a tangent about Stranraer).

I would therefore expect that by the time battery trains start to be delivered, the Portobello upgrade will be finished.

Looking carefully at the planning map, the northern electrified stretch appears to end immediately north of the more northerly of two parallel overhead grid lines. This presumably accidental fact can be used to compare with OS mapping, and shows that the endpoint is about 500m north of the bridge under the bypass. I do not believe there are any constraints nearby. Maybe they are just doing a sort of minimal or symbolic northern electrification to tidy up the interfaces with the electrified line to Millerhill depot and to provide a test of the new/expanded feeder at Portobello.

By another OS map comparison, the southern electrified stretch appears to go right up to the portal of Bowshank tunnel.

The Tweedbank/Galashiels feeder station is where predicted in the Decarbonising Scotland's Railways thread.

We now have confirmation of the locations of four of the six new feeders: Ferguslie, Portobello, Galashiels, Thornton (the last of these was also named in the soundtrack but the detailed location is not yet known). We also know that the existing feeder station at Eglinton Street, Glasgow, is to be expanded but it's not clear whether this counts as one of the six (see East Kilbride/Barrhead thread, #880 and #883).

 

[AngusH]

Maybe they are just doing a sort of minimal or symbolic northern electrification to tidy up the interfaces with the electrified line to Millerhill depot and to provide a test of the new/expanded feeder at Portobello.

That does seem very plausible, perhaps assuming that bit more funding might turn up later and the simpler plain line sections can then be extended?

Another thought occurred to me, that the short stretch would cover more of the initial acceleration (from 0) at the previous station, so might be useful to preserve the battery life somewhat?

 

[InOban]

There are plans to rebuild Sherrifhall junction to carry the bypass over the roundabout. This will require the the building of temporary roads alongside to carry the traffic. Probably much easier if the tracks aren't wired at 25kv!
Although the road design has been agreed there is no budget and so no timescale.

 

[snowball]

There are plans to rebuild Sherrifhall junction to carry the bypass over the roundabout. This will require the the building of temporary roads alongside to carry the traffic. Probably much easier if the tracks aren't wired at 25kv!
Although the road design has been agreed there is no budget and so no timescale.

I thought of that in bed last night and meant to post it, but then forgot it. In fact I think it may require slight permanent widening of the bridge (lengthening of the tunnel, from the point of view of the railway) to carry the slip roads. The northernmost point of the road scheme red line boundary on this map, along Millerhill Road, seems close to the end of the wires.

https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/46491/a720-es-figure-12-proposed-scheme.pdf

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Perhaps it's being done like this as the *current* supply at Portobello (if you'll excuse the deliberate pun) isn't enough to support the extra load?
I know there's an upgrade for Portobello in the pipeline.

Portobello FS isn't going to fallover from an additional EMU. Portobello upgrade is support the additional Fife traffic and future proof it for the future aspirations for all the long distance traffic.

Looks like the limit is set before the single line section commences but given how far N.Berwick is from Drem they could have easily got further. No doubt someone has worked out the optimal length of running under the wires to allow charging time to cover the non electrified section although without any units for the service that will presumably now drive the specification for the BEMUs. Do we know the isolated section running proposed for the Fife electrification?

 

[gingertom]

Portobello FS isn't going to fallover from an additional EMU. Portobello upgrade is support the additional Fife traffic and future proof it for the future aspirations for all the long distance traffic.

Looks like the limit is set before the single line section commences but given how far N.Berwick is from Drem they could have easily got further. No doubt someone has worked out the optimal length of running under the wires to allow charging time to cover the non electrified section although without any units for the service that will presumably now drive the specification for the BEMUs. Do we know the isolated section running proposed for the Fife electrification?

it's been mentioned in the decarbonising thread that the extents of the wiring are to be:
north, Ladybank; south, Kinghorn; north east, Leven; west, somewhere between Lochgelly and Cardenden.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

it's been mentioned in the decarbonising thread that the extents of the wiring are to be:
north, Ladybank; south, Kinghorn; north east, Leven; west, somewhere between Lochgelly and Cardenden.

All the off wire running is far less than the 30km they are targeting for the Borders.

The Alstom units running live trials in DB are doing 35km off wires (its an out and back with recharging at one end only) but Stadlers FLIRT Akku reckons 150km is useable range so if they can fit the kit inside our loading gauge there are viable units out there that can deliver the requirements.

 

[iainp]

There are plans to rebuild Sherrifhall junction to carry the bypass over the roundabout. This will require the the building of temporary roads alongside to carry the traffic. Probably much easier if the tracks aren't wired at 25kv!
Although the road design has been agreed there is no budget and so no timescale.

It'll be a miracle if that ever happens given the SNP/Green Party tie up, lack of budget for roads and other road schemes likely to be scaled back........

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

It'll be a miracle if that ever happens given the SNP/Green Party tie up, lack of budget for roads and other road schemes likely to be scaled back........

The A9 doubling is Scotlands HS2 sink hole

 

[Hagbard Celine]

I thought of that in bed last night and meant to post it, but then forgot it. In fact I think it may require slight permanent widening of the bridge (lengthening of the tunnel, from the point of view of the railway) to carry the slip roads. The northernmost point of the road scheme red line boundary on this map, along Millerhill Road, seems close to the end of the wires.

https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/46491/a720-es-figure-12-proposed-scheme.pdf

The A720 'tunnel' was built longer than necessary to allow for slip roads to be added to the Sherrifhall roundabout.

 

[snowball]

The A720 'tunnel' was built longer than necessary to allow for slip roads to be added to the Sherrifhall roundabout.

Yes, but it would seem that when the flyover came to be designed in detail, it turned out that the amount allowed was not enough. From the non-technical summary of the environmental statement, page 5:

Two new bridges will carry the A720 over the enlarged Sheriffhall Roundabout. The existing
bridge over the Borders Railway, approximately 250m to the east of the roundabout, will be
extended at each end to allow for the construction of new slip roads.

It may be that a more detailed version of this statement can be found somewhere among the online documentation of the scheme. It's a long time since I first read it.

Edit: after a glance at the full Environmental Statement, I suspect the original extra length/width may have been not for the slip roads, but for extra side slopes, because the bypass mainline will be at a higher level over the railway in the final layout than it is now - so the current bridge will be to some extent buried under a new embankment.

 

[hwl]

Perhaps it's being done like this as the *current* supply at Portobello (if you'll excuse the deliberate pun) isn't enough to support the extra load?
I know there's an upgrade for Portobello in the pipeline.

Agreed - not worth doing any more at the Edinburgh end till Portobello is upgraded

 

[snowball]

Agreed - not worth doing any more at the Edinburgh end till Portobello is upgraded

Yes but isn't it likely that Portobello will have been upgraded before the first BEMUs arrive?

As I understand it, it's one of the six feeder stations covered by the recently announced contract, described as lasting three or four years.

 

[ian1944]

An aside on the Sheriffhall roundabout overpass impasse. Both sides of the environment case now seem to be claiming the truth is with them. Don't build, all the queueing traffic spews nasties into the atmosphere, do build, all the extra traffic ... A nox on both your houses comes to mind.

 

[snowball]

it's been mentioned in the decarbonising thread that the extents of the wiring are to be:
north, Ladybank; south, Kinghorn; north east, Leven; west, somewhere between Lochgelly and Cardenden.

All the off wire running is far less than the 30km they are targeting for the Borders.

Depends whether they try to do Edinburgh to Perth or Dundee and back with only the currently proposed Fife wiring, before any wires appear at Perth or Dundee.

 

[lachlan]

An aside on the Sheriffhall roundabout overpass impasse. Both sides of the environment case now seem to be claiming the truth is with them. Don't build, all the queueing traffic spews nasties into the atmosphere, do build, all the extra traffic ... A nox on both your houses comes to mind.

The first point will soon be moot with electric cars. But the second point still stands imo when you consider the other reasons why cars are bad (inaccessible to many people, makes public transport less viable, road accidents)

 

[gingertom]

Depends whether they try to do Edinburgh to Perth or Dundee and back with only the currently proposed Fife wiring, before any wires appear at Perth or Dundee.

Ladybank-Perth is 18miles, so a return trip ought to be well within the range of BEMU, assuming it leaves Ladybank with a full charge. However by the time those bits of Fife are wired, Dunblane-Perth-Dundee will be well on its way. so a Perth service will pick up wires again at Hilton jn.

Dundee from Ladybank is 20 miles, a return trip also ought to be well within range, once again assuming a fully charged unit at Ladybank.

 

[snowball]

Deleted

 

[Mollman]

The first point will soon be moot with electric cars. But the second point still stands imo when you consider the other reasons why cars are bad (inaccessible to many people, makes public transport less viable, road accidents)

The new pollution from road vehicles is rubber from tyres
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...e-particle-pollution-than-exhausts-tests-show

Car tyres produce vastly more particle pollution than exhausts, tests show​

Toxic particles from tyre wear almost 2,000 times worse than from exhausts as weight of cars increases

Emissions from tailpipes in developed countries are much lower in new cars, with those in Europe far below the legal limit. Photograph: Jacob King/PA



Almost 2,000 times more particle pollution is produced by tyre wear than is pumped out of the exhausts of modern cars, tests have shown.
The tyre particles pollute air, water and soil and contain a wide range of toxic organic compounds, including known carcinogens, the analysts say, suggesting tyre pollution could rapidly become a major issue for regulators.

 

[snowball]

One of the documents in the planning submission mentions that the northern section was only recently added to the proposal.

In relation to the North Section, this has recently been added to the project scope and
therefore has not been the subject of an Ecological Appraisal. It is proposed that this will
be undertaken in the coming months (Appendix E).