last look at switzerland - for now ...

At ten o'clock on a Sunday evening this Geneva tram was packed - and all on a line that wasn't even here five years ago!


One of the attractions at the end of one of the tram lines - the United Nations Geneva Headquarters. The chair is around 20 metres high and represents landmine damage. We were here around 10.30 at night on a Sunday with the trams operating every twenty minutes for another two hours. This is REAL public transport - and all FREE thanks to the tickets given out by every hotel which cover the whole public transport network in Geneva - including the boats!

There are more tram lines being built - every time we go something new has just opened. We visited my second cousin in Geneva, an engineer at CERN, and he was very proud that a new tramway was going to be built to CERN shortly. Other lines are planned to stretch right into France, bringing international trams back to the city after more than 70 years.


A step in the right direction of easing capacity restraints - double deck carriages. These were on a 14 coach train from Geneva Airport to the east. Not an option for us in the UK thanks to our stupid loading gauge - but perhaps an option for the new London-Scotland high speed line announced today?


Something for Mick Knox! New build COMPARTMENT stock. This was a real surprise as I wasn't aware of them. We will definitely be looking at providing the New S&D with new compartment stock. This is the most civilized way of travelling - not only by train but by anything!

Okay, it's back to Somerset and Dorset from tomorrow. I'm well aware of the amount of hate mail I get when I dare to move outside of certain readers' comfort zones LOL!!

swiss inspirations

Why do we sometimes worry that sections of the S&D have roads currently running on them? It wouldn't worry the Swiss - they'd simply run the trains down the middle, as here in Aigle. This line sees two trains an hour, one of which runs against the one way traffic flow. The Swiss have their priorities right! As car traffic falls and rail traffic rises this scene will become more common everywhere. In other parts of Switzerland ten coach loco-hauled trains regularly operate along roads.


This section of track is now disused, but this is because a new line has been built alongside the SBB main line which joins the original route a mile or so further south. This was the old AOMC line.


This is the brand new narrow gauge station at Aigle, where 3 metre gauge lines run up the mountains, serving many villages and towns. All three lines have an hourly interval service throughout the day. This was a major investment by a small company. The Swiss invest seriously in their railways, an example we should follow ASAP in the UK. These narrow gauge feeder routes are very successful, keeping many rural people connected to the outside world. All narrow gauge trains connect with main line services, making it very convenient to travel round Switzerland without ever needing a car. This is the future! And all powered by renewable electricity ....


Another view of the superb new Aigle station with AL (Aigle-Leysin) and ASD (Aigle-Sepey-Diablerets) trains waiting in the station. Aigle is smaller than Midsomer Norton but boasts a 14 platform station! It also has three or four other stations on the narrow gauge routes. Britain should hang its head in shame at the appalling provision of railways that we currently have to endure.

back from switzerland

A few teaser pictures from this weekend's trip to Switzerland - content to follow tomorrow!

swiss interval

We're off to Switzerland tomorrow for the Nuits des Fees in Leysin. If you feel that being a railway enthusiast is a bit socially isolating you're blaming the wrong thing! I discovered Leysin in the early 70s, it was on the end of a metre gauge line from Aigle where, incredibly, three narrow gauge lines started their journeys up into the mountains, all using street running in Aigle. Not a lot has changed in the last three decades although the AOMC no longer uses it's street running section having built a new line alongside the main line. A few years later I spent nearly a year there, both summer and winter, discovered skiing and also managed to visit just about every line in Switzerland. I still have friends from my Leysin days.

What Switzerland taught me is that railways can easily become the prime form of transport if it has the proper support within the country. Since my first visits new lines have been built throughout Switzerland, many employing extremely long tunnels. Nearly all lines are electrified, using hydro electricity so are well up in the sustainability rankings.

Leysin, a town about a fifth the size of Midsomer Norton, has FOUR stations and trains at least every hour.

So I'll be away for five days. I may be able to post when I'm away but don't count on it. But don't worry - this blog has been running for over three years and a delve into the archives should be very rewarding. Otherwise why not visit one of the S&D websites (on the sidebar)?

Who knows, I may even come back more fired up than ever!

threat to heritage railways?

In climate terms, coal is the most damaging fossil fuel there is, and despite all the assertions from industry and government, the "carbon capture and storage" technology required to make coal "clean" does not exist.

What do you think? Do pure heritage railways using steam have any future? Please post comments in the comments section!

shepton update

(Photo Andy Lunness)

Info on the Shepton Mallet steam runs is hardening up!

Sadly it is not going to be a real narrow gauge train but rather a 7 1/4" gauge narrow gauge outline loco running across the viaduct. I've got 7 1/4" gauge in my garden so am quite fond of the gauge!

Bottom shot is almost certainly the loco that will be used, Tinkerbell no 3, which is used on the miniature railway at the East Somerset Railway, which opened in June this year. It's a pretty serious engine for such a small gauge.

I'd still recommend going as this may be the only chance to travel across the viaduct in the next ten years or so, although I suspect if successful this may become an annual event or, dare I suggest, a permanent miniature or narrow gauge railway may be installed, at least until standard gauge trains return.

shepton surprise!

Well, wonders on the S&D keep happening.

This August bank holiday you will be able to travel - by steam train - over the magnificent 27 arch grade 2 listed viaduct that looms majestically over Shepton Mallet.

This is an initiative by the superb Kilver Court gardens that now lie beneath the viaduct.

It will be many years before standard gauge trains return to this section so I'd advise you all to take this amazing opportunity.

Now for the details (more in depth info has been requested)

Trains will be narrow gauge (probably 2 foot) and will be steam hauled, using a loco hired from the East Somerset Railway. The trains will operate on the viaduct itself, so expect fantastic views.

Trains will operate August Bank Holiday Weekend Saturday 29th - Monday 31st August 10am till 5pm. More details here.

This means that there will be TWO S&D stretches running narrow gauge steam over this weekend (the other is the Gartell of course). The S&D really is coming alive all over and diverse people are now appreciating what a fantastic asset this line is.

Hopefully a lot of you will get there - we'll certainly be going on one of the days at least! If you see me please say hello!

busway impressions

I'd promised a piece on busways weeks ago so I thought I'd do an impressionistic piece rather than a straight narrative as a few people have had a lot to say on this.

1. Today, after finishing nights I decided I would pay a visit to the guided busway near the A14. This busway replaced a railway that although closed to freight in 1992 still had track in situ and was reckoned to cost £50m to reinstate for passenger use. Instead the Tories on the local council decided to spend £116 million of taxpayers’ money on a guided busway, which only 4 persons voted for, with 2400 against!

With a spring 2009 opening date, things are obviously not going too well, but as they have spent so much money you will be told how much of a success it is, but my view as you might guess, is that it is just a pile of sh*te. It isn’t a road, nor is it a railway, but it looks more like a plateway as seen in the NRM and tried 200+ years ago. These boffins ought to get out their history books as see what has gone on before. I’m sure this was tried in Devon, a long, long time ago. Oh well, when it snows, floods etc, or the track needs tamping they’re going to find out how bad the whole thing is. All this to travel by bus! Smooth enough to drink coffee onboard they claim? Rightyo? Utter b*llocks there then?

And the freight will still be on the A14? I like trucking!

Anyway, like the open level crossing for the busway? Different rules apply there then? Someone will eventually jump the lights, as per railway crossings!

Ignore the weeds, they won’t grow much ...


2. 3800 voted for the return of the railway, 4 for the buses!

http://www.castiron.org.uk/

sounds like EU style democracy?

3. When the guided bus nonsense is finally abandoned, I have little doubt that nobody will be accountable for wasting the public's money. I believe that the Glasgow one is now being abandoned -any info? I don't think the Aussie one has been deemed a success either. I have also heard that there was a collision on one (info?) and both rail and road inspectors refused to get involved. Surely this comes under ROGS? 'Rail and Other Guided Systems'? (My italics) I think Cast Iron may well be able to stir things up big-time if there is an incident! But like you say Steve; you couldn't make it up.

4. Apparently according to a comment on your blog, Dunstable is next in line for a busway? Again the track is still in situ.

Do they Tory road brigade feel more threatened by the fact the rails are still there, and they need to deal with these former railways first?

Long term they’ll lose…

5. I got this today Steve. Guess what? Guided buses are excluded. What cr*p! They're guided for crying out loud! Other Guided Systems - Hah!

http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/rogs-gdnce_270709.pdf

6. Caught the local news for Gosport last night (Meridian I think it was) and the Guided Bus fiasco has been given the go-ahead there now. The usual crowd of dip-sticks were interviewed for (pro) vox pop, and some bloke who was against it cuz his garden backed onto it, then a huge bunch of 'genuine' antis were shown but none were interviewed to give their view. Biased reporting I think it's called!!

7. Yeh; you're right Steve - the dozy sods try and drive alone railway lines so it's anybody's guess how long it'll be before there is a crash of some kind - head on twixt bus and car probably. Did you get my email re the ROGS? What a bloody fiasco! The guided buses are specifically excluded. Is it guided or what?! There was definately a crash on one somewhere and both road and rail investigators refused to have anything to do with it! Checkout the Glasgow one (found it somewhere on the web) It's being abandoned in favour of a tram apparantly. Incidentally, I've got a funny feeling that the inventor of this has actually come out and said it's a nonsense.

8. http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/transport/guided/

just heard on the local anglia bbc news that the busway is being delayed again and won’t now open until November….

Just in time for a bit of snow hopefully?

My own twopennyworth - This is all good fun - except for those communities that are going to suffer this barely believable misallocation of resources. I think this government, cravenly backed by certain opposition councils, is frightened of what will happen when the hornets' nest of rail reinstatement really takes off, for we are talking HUGE sums of money, and to get that they will have to accept and declare the reality of Peak Oil. We'll probably be drip fed the information, look out for a slight backing away from Climate Change and more emphasis on 'energy security', still a clumsy attempt to cloud the issue but at least a step in the right direction. This will probably all come out when the government (whoever it is) needs to start building nuclear power stations.

Busways will come and go, like monorails and other impractical pretend trains. I firmly believe that St Ives will get its trains back, but they may need to wait a few more years. In the meantime consider the busway as a custodian of the trackbed, a rather more expensive Sustrans!

None of this will affect the New S&D of course ...

freight - us and recession style

Most people think of the USA as pretty much backwards transport wise, but in fact as rail freight goes it is cutting edge. Most freight in the USA is moved by rail, not road.

So this piece, in an investment newsletter, caught my eye. To me it shows that rail is beginning to push itself to the front of the agenda, and also really does provide an indicator of economic activity, something our clogged roads can never do!


The No. 1 Reason I Don’t Trust This Market

BY TOM DYSON

The train drew round the bend and approached the crossing. The warning bells rang, and the barriers fell across the road. Then the engineer pulled four long blasts on his horn. Two 4,400-horsepower GE locomotives rolled past me at low speed ... bending the rails with their weight. This was an express container train bound for Chicago..."Shorter than normal," I thought. "And more empties than usual." Last week, I was on vacation in California. While I was there, I took the opportunity to gauge railroad activity. We drove a hundred miles beside Union Pacific's southern California mainline. This is one of the most important stretches of railroad in the country. It links the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles with the eastern seaboard. I was expecting to see dozens of trains. We only saw two...

Then we stopped in Los Angeles to ogle the huge tangle of idled Union Pacific locomotives outside the Port of Long Beach. There must have been over 100 of them.

Freight trains move our most important basic materials around the country... like coal, fertilizer, steel, and container boxes. By watching the trends on America's freight railroads, you can get an excellent feel for the strength of the economy.

Right now, the railroads are hurting. Railcar loadings are down about 20% from last year's levels, railroads have abandoned half a million freight cars and idled over 5,000 locomotives. CSX Railroad has even closed a local freight yard near where I live in Florida and is using it entirely for storage.

Here's the thing: Since the stock market started rising in March, and the news from the housing market has improved, everyone's talking about economic recovery and the end of the recession. Last week, the non-farm payroll numbers came out. They were stronger than expected, sending the stock market to a new nine-month high... So why is business in the railroad industry still deteriorating?

This month's issue of Trains Magazine features a study of the number of locomotives held in storage by the major, "Class 1" railroads. The number of idled locomotives has swelled 57% between March and June...

Each quarter, Economic Planning Associates releases its Rail Car Overview report. In the second quarter, orders for new rail cars by railroads and shippers tumbled to 2,165 units from 2,374 units in the first quarter.And finally, the Association of American Railroads released its weekly report on rail car loadings last Thursday...

For the first seven months of 2009, total U.S. rail car loadings were down 19%, while container and trailer transportation fell 17.2%. All 19 major commodity categories tracked by the AAR saw car loads decline in July. The biggest declines were coal (down 9.9%), metals and metal products (down 47.7%), metallic ores (down 58.9%), and crushed stone and gravel (down 25.8%).The message from the railroads is, the economic recovery is a mirage. Things are going from bad to worse. Until you see the railroads turn around, you should continue to be suspicious of the rally in the stock market and the "green shoots" story in the news.

prepare the stocks

(Evercreech Junction 1968 Jeffery Grayer)

I was leafing through a copy of Colin Maggs' 'The Last Years of the Somerset and Dorset' and found the chapter on the run down of the line really interesting. The S&D was closed despite an assurance from the (surprise surprise!) Labour government of the day that no major railway closures would be implemented without a review of the Beeching Report. Evil witch (surely an oxymoron?) Barbara Castle went ahead and closed the line anyway, making it the longest line closed under Beeching. The bits about the poor people of Wellow and Shoscombe (in particular) having to cope without their trains was heartbreaking. At one point a minibus was put on to replace the trains! Nobody on this side of a lunatic asylum could ever claim that was progress. From having fast modern transport using a dedicated right of way they were suddenly thrown back a hundred years and forced to crowd into a six seater bus that was expected to crawl along little single track roads and then fight its way through the Bath traffic. (This is starting to sound like the Cambridge Guided Busway LOL!)

This madness needs to be dissected in the 21st century to find out what really inspired the closure of the original S&D. Perhaps a few of the perpetrators are still alive and can be called to account. The deliberate switching of freight to less direct routes, the deliberate running down of stations and rolling stock, the dreadful timetable that made almost every journey unbearable if not impossible, the refusal to consider track rationalising or using DMUs - the whole thing was a national disgrace.

It merely confirms to me that the S&D should never have closed, which basically means that there is now no reason for it not to be rebuilt.

Next year the new limited company charged with rebuilding and operating the line will be born. Hopefully the board will, as well as including prominent local businesspeople, have the Chairs of Midsomer Norton, Shillingstone, the New S&D and Washford as members.

At the same time I'll be working on 'The Case for the S&D' taking an incisive look at the hard-to-believe mischief used to deprive hundreds of thousands of people of their trains. And the now unarguable case for bringing them back.

I'm glad I'm on THIS side of the fence and not theirs!!

rail v road

I have been reading a fair bit about Peak Oil etc lately but have a question for you. If electric cars are a bit of a con, how are we going to run trains in the future? I ask, as electric trains seem to be the only way forward [ ] with big electrification schemes coming to fruition.

It's a question of scale and efficiency. I read somewhere that to actually replace our entire car fleet by electric cars we'd need to increase our electricity generating capacity fourfold.

Trains of course are far more efficient for two reasons. Because of the lower friction of steel rail on steel wheel they use energy four times as efficiently. They can also get their supply via third rails, overhead, stubs, conduits etc. They don't need to carry the extra weight of batteries or all need recharging at the same time (overnight mainly in the case of cars).

The other problem for cars is that road surfaces need constant repairing using asphalt, which is oil based. As the price of travelling by car increases less and less people will be able to afford to run cars. This will decrease the tax take, which will probably mean higher road taxes, driving even more people off the roads. If the government try to shift the cost of keeping roads open to the general taxpayer, most of whom will never use roads, they will face huge opposition. Of course the cost of maintaining roads will increase despite the general reduction in traffic levels as the cost of asphalt will be directly connected to the price of oil. All this will be in a background where the future will mean less and less oil.

We'll see a wholesale shift to rail transport both due to government policy and the inability of most people to afford to run a car. The expansion of the rail network will of course mean even less electricity available to the car driver and at the end of the day any government will take the strategic decision to support rail over road, particularly as freight will be switching to rail in huge quantities. I can't see successful electric artics ever working because of the weight of the batteries needed to haul, say, 40 tonnes. Unless they start wiring up all the roads of course, but what would be the point? They may as well then convert them all to railways, to get that 400% efficiency gain!

assailed by peak oil from all sides

When Peak Oil starts reaching the national press - especially the Climate-Change-loving Independent - you know something's up! This was Thursday's headline. Seems cheap oil is running out faster than even the most pessimistic forecasts. The current recession hasn't helped at all (apart from depressing demand slightly) as a lot of investment has been cut back.


Then on Friday MoneyWeek headlines with this. Of course electric cars will only be a short-lived fad as nobody is explaining how all this extra generating capacity is going to be provided or fuelled ...


... and reads even more stupidly when Friday's Economist carried this headline. We can't even keep up with existing demand, especially once the current crop of nuclear power stations are decommissioned over the next decade or two. Electric cars are possibly the biggest con yet.


And on Saturday this succinct gem appeared on a leaflet pushed through the door - no doubt with patriotic force - by the BNP!

the future - I don't think so!

This is the Nissan Leaf. It's being marketed as 'zero-emission'. This is what our leaders seriously think will be the future of transport, along with biofuels, fuel cells, hydrogen and no doubt magic spells.

Let's get this straight. This vehicle is NOT zero-emission. Even a tram or train is not zero-emission. Even a bicycle isn't as it has embedded energy in its construction and maintenance. Nothing, short of walking barefoot, is zero-emission.

Our 'leaders' think we are stupid. We've been sold the semi-myth of global warming as the reason for all this faffing about looking for new 'clean' energy sources. They are TERRIFIED of Peak Oil, the only consolation being that they will not have to worry about the consequences. Even airhead George Bush lives off the grid.

We will almost certainly NEVER find a zero-emission energy source. Anything that helps produce energy or uses energy will have required energy to build it. How much embedded energy went into building this wonderful 'zero-emission' car for example?

And, more to the point, how is it going to run? Well it's 100% electric. So it will need batteries. Batteries need metals to work. Are they mined and transported with NO energy use? And will these batteries never need recharging? No, they'll need recharging very often as the range is just 100 miles! And the electricity needed to recharge them - that's going to be zero-emission is it? No, even if it's fuelled 100% by renewables including nuclear there is still loads of embedded energy in the construction and maintenance process. But of course they will just be topped up via the grid. That means burning coal and oil which produce tons of emissions.

The point is that energy in the future will be constrained. The easy energy has now all been used up. Every decision - economic, political and personal - in the future will have to take into account energy use and availability. Personal transport is unlikely to be anything more than bike, foot or, if you're lucky, horse. To keep freight moving, and people moving further than the range of a bike or horse, we'll need railways. To move perishables quickly we'll need railways. To get people to work or on holiday we'll need railways. To get people around towns and cities we'll need trams. Everything we currently move on our congested and crumbling roads will need to be moved by rail or horse. As cheap energy runs out it'll become harder and harder to seek out alternatives.

The main point is that we can do all we need to do in the future using pre-oil technology. That doesn't mean it has to be dowdy, utilitarian or boring. It can still be ultra-modern. But the principles behind it will be mainly pre-oil. Rail uses a quarter of the fuel to move equivalent loads compared to road transport. It's all to do with friction. It can also have energy delivered by many different modes, from using wires, third rails, conduits, stubs or batteries for electricity, to burning wood or waste for a new generation of steam locomotives. The linear nature of railways will allow plenty of methods of collecting and distributing renewable energy, from solar panels on telegraph poles to windmills at station and loco shed sites. Woodland can be planted alongside railways for future fuel sources.

Roads will die sooner than most of us think. As fuel becomes more and more expensive less and less of us will have the option of personal transport use. We'll be clamouring for public transport. Sustainable public transport. More and more freight will switch to rail, particularly as new lines are opened, taking pressure off the current network. The roads themselves will crumble as oil, a principal component of asphalt, becomes almost impossible to find. Roads may survive in towns, carrying a few underpowered and expensive electric delivery vehicles, but roads between towns will fall into disuse as we all take the train and tram. Their maintenance costs will rocket just as the tax take from a smaller and smaller number of functioning vehicles plummet.

This is the future. Rail will be cool, roads will become like our savaged rail network in the 1960s. For those who doubt that what we are proposing will come about, give this article some serious thought. If we all work towards building a sustainable transport network for the future - cycleways, canals, tramways and railways - then the apocalypse predicted by many (using the old scapegoat 'climate change' as the catalyst) will not happen. The future is, in reality, much brighter than that. The future is a New Somerset and Dorset Railway!

more web content heading your way

Expect loads more content on the website over the next few weeks. We're trying to do a piece on each station, past, present and future. We're always happy to get any further info, especially on the current status of S&D stations. Visit the station part of the website here.

feeding the tigers

We spent this afternoon at the High Sheriff's Garden Party in Bristol. It was a very civilized afternoon!

What's this got to do with the S&D you may well ask!

Well, these are precisely the movers and shakers we will need to bring round to what we are doing. Not in Bristol of course, but in Somerset and Dorset.

Next year we will be launching a company with the sole aim of building and operating the New S&D. It will be a commercial company but owned 51% by the New Somerset and Dorset Railway group. It will be able to raise money through all the normal channels open to commercial companies, through bank loans, grants and subsidies and, of course, by share issues. A ballpark figure of two billion pounds has been suggested for building a New S&D. Whilst this sounds like a lot of money to your average heritage railway 'puffer lover' it's chickenfeed in the business world.

But the clever thing is that it will be owned 51% by a group that understands and appreciates the heritage and history aspect of the original S&D. It will also be well aware of the business case for manned stations, manual signalling and regular steam services overlaying the normal passenger and freight services.

If you're the sort that loves networking and making contacts then why not offer your services to the New S&D?