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THE GLOBAL RAIL E-BOOK CONTENTS Chapter 01 p. 5 California The High Speed p. 6 Australia Challenge: p. 7 China p. 8 UK HS2 5 Project Updates p. 9 Kuala Lumpur to Singapore Chapter 02 p. 11 Hydrogen trains, UK and Germany Rail and the p. 14 The Green India Mission [GIM] Environment: p. 15 Door to door commuting, Japan p. 16 Solar powered trains, UK 4 Global Initiatives Chapter 03 p. 19 Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit, Malaysia Urban Rail: p. 20 Shatin - Central link, China 5 Metro Project p. 21 Delhi Metro Phase 4, India p. 22 Sydney Metro, Australia Updates p. 23 Jakarta MRT, Indonesia 01 The High Speed Challenge: 5 Project Updates THE HIGH SPEED CHALLENGE Why High Speed Rail? 1. Housing Costs 2. Commuter Congestion 3. Green Cities High speed rail provides easy All major metropolitan areas are Many cities are working towards access to a wider housing market, faced with the problem of congestion decarbonisation and reduced air making it possible to live further during peak hours. Providing more pollution to improve public health away and commute to major cities. public transport services between and lessen the dangerous effects of This balances out house prices at a more locations reduces the need to climate change. High speed rail not regional scale and creates jobs in commute by car. Increased passenger only reduces the amount of single- local areas. capacity, commuter locations and occupant cars, many high speed speed of travel all work to fix this trains are powered by electricity. issue. THE HIGH SPEED CHALLENGE Project 1: California The California High Speed Rail project [CHSR] began in 2015 with plans to connect 8 of the largest cities in the state, from San Diego to San Francisco. It was scheduled for completion in 2029 and promised 100% electric trains along the route. The project recently celebrated creating more than 3,000 jobs along the 119 mile Central Valley line, but the project has been plagued by issues. Originally estimated at a cost of US$33 billion, it has now risen to US$77 billion with projections as high as US$98 billion. After calls for cancellation from the public and politicians alike the project has been scaled back and broken down into smaller parts. Development will now focus on completing the Central Valley line alone, between Merced and Bakersfield, by 2028. Whether the rest of the project will still be funded is unknown. A state audit in November 2018 identified poor decision making and contract management as the cause for delays and cost overruns. The CHSR authority has vowed to be transparent moving forward and to hold contractors accountable to explain how money has been spent. Construction of the Cedar Viaduct, part of the high speed railway connection, in Fresno, July 2017. Credit: California High-Speed Rail Authority. THE HIGH SPEED CHALLENGE Project 2: Australia High speed rail has yet to get off the ground in Australia but it has been debated as far back as the 1960s. Academics have calculated that over AUS$125 million have been spent on research. The idea of an Australian high speed line crops up before every election but so far no promises have been fulfilled. Now, there is a renewed push to make this pipe dream a reality. Plans for a high speed line between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are being revisited to address the extortionate cost of living and congestion in the major cities. In Sydney in particular, a suburban house close to a rail station could set you back almost AUS$3 million. A line offering faster routes into the city could rebalance the surrounding areas and uplift their value, whilst reducing car traffic. For now though, Australia has promised to upgrade existing lines and build isolated sections of track to high speed standards, to reduce journey times and incorporate fast train travel into existing networks. View of Sydney, Australia. Credit: Jamie Davies. THE HIGH SPEED CHALLENGE Project 3: China China is expanding its high speed rail network by 3,200km starting this year and has just approved a new line between Chongqing and Kunming. This particular line has a budget of US$19.8 billion and a schedule spanning 6 years. The expansion is China’s biggest ever rail investment, totalling US$125 billion, and will establish the largest high speed network in the world. This brings the country close to its target of delivering a 30,000km high speed network covering 80% of its major cities by 2020. However, there are concerns over the level of debt accumulated in order to reach these ambitious goals. Current high speed services are operating at a loss and the next expansion risks a potential debt crisis. It is believed that China’s long term strategy is to continue expanding and grow out of debt - a high stakes bet on high speed rail. A CRH400AF high-speed train at Guangzhou South station. Credit: N509FZ. THE HIGH SPEED CHALLENGE Project 4: UK HS2 The UK scheme to build a high speed line between London, Birmingham and Manchester has been surrounded by controversy. The project is split into two parts: the London - Birmingham section scheduled for 2026 and the Birmingham - Manchester expansion due in 2033. With the latest estimates suggesting a cost overrun of more than £22 billion and a delay of 7 years, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has launched an independent review of the project that could result in cancellation. Despite being a critic of the scheme in the past, Johnson has claimed that will not cancel the project even if the cost estimates break £100bn. He has voiced his commitment to improving infrastructure, claiming that the review is intended to identify waste and areas for improvement. Manchester, United Kingdom. Credit: Fraser Cottrell. THE HIGH SPEED CHALLENGE Project 5: Kuala Lumpur to Singapore The Kuala Lumpur to Singapore line was formally approved in 2013 with a scheduled completion date of 2026. The line was to become the fastest mode of public transport between the two points, reducing travel time to just 90 minutes. The project was originally estimated at a cost of US$11 billion, but this has quickly ballooned to over US$17 billion. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad previously spoke out about cancelling the scheme but negotiations have ended in a different result. Construction has been delayed until May 31, 2020, while a review is carried out to identify cost reduction options including design modifications and updated economic forecasts. Jewel Changi Airport, Singapore. Credit: Samuel Toh. 02 Rail and the Environment: 4 Global Initiatives RAIL AND THE ENVIRONMENT / PROJECT 01 Hydrogen trains, UK and Germany The UK is currently working towards a target to decarbonise the economy by 2050, including the removal of all diesel-only trains from the network in 2040. Scotland, even further, is aiming to deliver a decarbonised rail network by 2030. These targets are crucial to improving air quality, public health and emissions, in particular the levels of Nitrogen Dioxide [NO2] around London stations. London Paddington, for example, is currently in breach of the NO2 European limit. Electrification can go some way toward reaching these goals but it is not a full solution. Not all suburban areas are equipped for overhead lines and electricity still ultimately results in unfriendly emissions. Alstom has been working on a solution: Self-powered hydrogen trains. The Coradia iLint. Credit: Linus Follert. RAIL AND THE ENVIRONMENT / PROJECT 01 What do we mean by hydrogen trains? In this context we are referring to a hybrid train. Hydrogen as the sole power source is not sustainable for two reasons: • Hydrogen requires storage 8 times the volume of diesel. • Hydrogen traction needs 3kW of electricity to deliver 1kW of power to the wheel. Alstom’s hybrid trains combined hydrogen with Li-Ion batteries to alleviate these issues and the result was the Coradia iLint hybrid train. How does it work? • Diesel traction is replaced with an electric traction system. • Hydrogen fuel cells on top of the train act as the primary energy supply. • Intermediate energy storage from Li-Ion batteries is used for boosting during acceleration and recovering kinetic energy when braking. The Coradia iLint was announced in 2014 and is now in its second year of operation in Germany, running amongst a fleet of traditional trains. A full fleet should be in service by 2023. The Coradia iLint. Credit: Linus Follert. RAIL AND THE ENVIRONMENT / PROJECT 01 Hydrogen trains in the UK The UK is now working to convert Class 321 electric trains into hydrogen hybrids. The impact of this could be huge. 1,200 hydrogen trains on the UK network could save: • 533,000 equivalent tonnes of CO2 a year • The equivalent of taking 383,000 cars off the road • £100 million a year in healthcare costs • 110 premature deaths The ongoing challenge The zero-emissions challenge should not just apply to trains themselves. Producing hydrogen still uses fossil fuels and a proper, sustainable supply and demand system needs to be established as the trend towards hydrogen trains increases. Additionally, the refuelling of hydrogen trains currently has to operate on a return to base model which is a change, but a necessary sacrifice. The next goal for Alstom is a train that does not need this model. Inside the iLint. Credit: Linus Follert. RAIL AND THE ENVIRONMENT / PROJECT 02 The Green India Mission [GIM] The GIM is one of 8 missions launched under the National Action Plan on Climate Change in India. Officially launched in 2015, the 10 year plan is dedicated to ‘protecting, restoring and enhancing India’s diminishing forest cover and responding to climate change’.