London Banter - View Single Post - Lord Adonis announces tram-trains for the Abbey Line

rosenstiel@cix.compulink.co.uk · October 30th 09, 06:24 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article
,
(E27002) wrote:

On Oct 30, 3:42*am, "Peter Masson" wrote:
"burkey" wrote in message

...
From the Department for Transport
Friday 30th October 2009

Rail passengers travelling between Watford and St Albans are in line
for more regular and more frequent services thanks to exciting plans
to create a new tram service, announced today by Transport Secretary
Andrew Adonis and Hertfordshire County Council.

This raises a lot of questions.
Will the tram trains use the existing 25 kV OHLE, or will the line be
re-electrified at 750 V DC?
Will there be additional stations (Garston and How Wood are
comparatively recent additions)?
Will the tram trains be high floor or low floor? If the latter the
existing stations will have to be altered.
Are street-running extensions envisaged at either end?

Those were the questions that came to my mind. If the system extends
in the street 25 kV would not be an option there. OTOH, IIRC Karlsruhe
has dual voltage units.

Re-electrifying the line would not be a cheap, or easy, option.

Don't they need at the very least a new passing loop to allow the
increased frequency? I'm not sure, if so, why they need to convert to
tram-train. It's not as if any street running is proposed, is it?

--
Colin Rosenstiel