Mastodawn

Mim54 Feb 26

@jon mmm just read it and it doesn’t say anywhere who the train operator might be does it. I had a lot of involvement in the borough during the channel tunnel rail link construction and this seems possible but not altogether probable

Speculation Fictive Feb 26

@jon Ian Visits is one of very few sites I can see which hasn't just copy-pasted the press release and provides some additional context https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/barking-eurohub-set-for-15m-upgrade-to-finally-unlock-rail-freight-to-europe-87784/

Barking Eurohub set for £15m upgrade to finally unlock rail freight to Europe

A large rail freight depot in East London is to be upgraded to handle more cargo moving between Britain and mainland Europe via the Channel Tunnel – reviving a site that was purpose-built for exactly that role.

ianVisits

@speculationfictive some additional useful nuggets of info in there indeed. Thank you!

@jon I think locomotives were the biggest issue. You can't just take a Vectron or Traxx through the tunnel currently.

@moritzkraehe No. There are plenty of Class 92, 10 spare are stored. The issue is high costs to operate, and - partly - a messy layout of the Barking terminal.

@jon But the 92s aren't great. I read a fairly detailed analysis on Channel Tunnel freight a while back -- can't find it right now sadly -- and if I remember correctly the 92s can't work in multiple, which severely restricts possible train lengths on HS1.

@moritzkraehe you can’t get any train longer than 750m into Barking. So 🤷‍♂️

Absence of multiple working might be more a constraint on lines other than HS1, but there you have the loading gauge issue that’s even more problematic.

@jon I found the paper -- it's an interesting, and frustrating, read: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/International-Rail-Freight-Opportunities-for-Growth.pdf

The limit for one 92 is 1100 t on HS1 -- Easy to reach that with trains far shorter than 750 m.

There also aren't plenty of 92s, only 16 of them have TVM430 which is necessary for the tunnel.

@jon Plus of course, even if Channel Tunnel capable Class 92s were plentiful and could run in multiple, most operators simply don't own any of them.

@moritzkraehe but other than Barking or Dollands Moor there’s nowhere *to run*

@jon I'm aware. But more operators who *could* run the trains would mean higher likelyhood that there is an operator who might *want* to do it, right?

@moritzkraehe so of a class of 46 locomotives to use for tunnel traffic they did not equip 30 of them with the necessary signalling? That’s absurd! Although channel tunnel freight is so limited currently you’d not need more than 4 or 5 currently.

@jon Maybe they changed the signalling in the tunnel at some point but didn't update most of the locomotives because there wasn't enough freight traffic to justify it?

@moritzkraehe no, it’s been TVM430 from the start.