ATO (Automated Train Operation) on Thameslink

Three buttons sit on the driver's panel of Thameslink's Class 700 trains.
After a brief stop in a new tunnel between Kings Cross and St Pancras,
the driver of the 09:46 from Peterborough to Horsham presses the middle
yellow button and the train starts to drive itself.

The journey was the first on the UK's mainline rail network to use an
automated driving mode and sets the scene for thousands of partly
automated journeys in 2019.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/tham...tfl-city-govia


I note: The new tunnel is between Finsbury Park and St Pancras, not
between Kings Cross and St Pancras

In message , at
20:26:17 on Thu, 23 Aug 2018, Ding Bat
remarked:
ATO (Automated Train Operation) on Thameslink

Three buttons sit on the driver's panel of Thameslink's Class 700 trains.
After a brief stop

Interesting that they have to stop. Perhaps that's why the timing for
that leg of the journey is so relaxed. Ironic that "speeding up" the
trains necessitates stopping them!

in a new tunnel between Kings Cross and St Pancras,
the driver of the 09:46 from Peterborough to Horsham presses the middle
yellow button and the train starts to drive itself.

The journey was the first on the UK's mainline rail network to use an
automated driving mode and sets the scene for thousands of partly
automated journeys in 2019.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/tham...tfl-city-govia

I note: The new tunnel is between Finsbury Park and St Pancras, not
between Kings Cross and St Pancras

I'm prepared to give them that, because no-one will have heard of Belle
Isle, and it's far closer to Kings Cross than Finsbury Park, and in
effect part of the KGX extended station throat, south of the NLL.

I do think they need to carefully consider the date for 24tph though,
which they probably want us to forget was originally December 20*18*.

Earlier this year, before "meltdown Monday" the train companies were
already saying that the 24tph would need to be phased in (rather than
delivered in one go in Dec18), with additional steps in May19 and Dec19.

*Then* came the meltdown, and later the agreement to scrap all of the
December 2018 timetable change. Thus those pre-meltdown plans to have
three phases in Dec18/May19/Dec19 would need to be *reduced* back to two
phases, which sounds a bit, err, courageous.

Meanwhile, there's the Kings Cross Throat project in "Spring" 2020,
which would go a lot better if the final Cambridge trains weren't still
using the station, and is needed for LNER to be able to deliver improved
services in Dec20. However, they could arrange for at least both the
Cambridge stoppers to have been switched to through-running (along with
one Brighton train) by Dec19. Then add the second [new] Brighton train
later.
--
Roland Perry

I've always been deeply sceptical about the 24 tph schedule through "the core" as to both its feasibility and its necessity. Is 24 tph a prerequisite for the Kings Cross throat project?

In message , at 10:12:30 on Sat, 25
Aug 2018, Robin9 remarked:

I've always been deeply sceptical about the 24 tph schedule through "the
core" as to both its feasibility and its necessity. Is 24 tph a
prerequisite for the Kings Cross throat project?

In the long run 24tph is a prerequisite for 6tph to Cambridge/Kings
Lynn. (Up from 4tph last year).

In the short run they could make do with 23tph in the core by postponing
the increase from the current 5tph to 6tph, and in any event that 6th
train is to Brighton, so doesn't impact Kings Cross.

And if that's not enough of a relaxation, they can always postpone some
of the MMLSouthern through running which also contributes to the
increase from [whatever pre-Dec19] to 24tph overall.

What they do need, however, is to increase [whatever is the core tph
today] by two, to get the two currently-KGX-terminating slows into the
core.
--
Roland Perry