Metroblitz

Electric motive power and operations in Southern Africa
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John Ashworth
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Metroblitz

Post by John Ashworth »

There's been a bit of discussion on sar-L about the Metrobiltz. I asked the question, "Why was this high speed experiment so short-lived?", and got a couple of replies.
Alan wrote:The why of the Metroblitz

Since someone asked...

In the late 1970s and early 1980s there was a serious intention on the part of
SAR&H to increase the speeds of passenger trains. Remember those were the days
when there were hundreds of trains covering the whole country.

SAR set up a high speed working group (Or committee or whatever, I forget the
exact name). Mechanical, Electrical, Civil and signal engineers were involved. A
lot of work was done on track design, overhead and signalling, as well as
rolling stock.

This was also the era that the "new Generation" AKA "Blink Stefaans" suburban
sets were ordered.

The MetroBlitz was a test train. To speed things up modified 6E1s and suburban
coaches were used. The intention was to use the 14Es on these trains, of course
they finally arrived long after the project was abandoned. The 14Es were
designed with the potential of 300 km/h with gearing changes. (For the 14E1s, I
decided to make them heavier and slower and simplify the bogies, but that is
another story for another day.) A competing faction wanted a high speed EMU
instead.

Since the Chief Engineers' offices were in Johannesburg and Pretoria, the line
between the two was a perfect location to perform tests. New turnouts were
designed and installed, new overhead wires, some curve easements and new
signalling. The Metroblitz even pioneered "Automatic train stop" in South
Africa. (Which never worked properly). For what it is worth, due to the laws of
physics, center-of- gravity, maximum cant and those sorts of things, standard
gauge trains can go around a curve of a given radius 30-40% faster than a Cape
gauge train. And no, tilting does not help. The maximum safe speed is about the
same as the maximum comfortable speed on narrow gauge.

The Metroblitz went into experimental service, and even ran to Bloemfontein on a
test.

However, about this time the Government had a change of heart about passenger
travel and how to pay for it.

The new suburban trains stopped coming, the idea of high speed passenger trains
was killed and the massive rebuilding of the lines feeding JHB station was
stopped..(The so-called sextupling: six lines to the west running through the
existing Braamfontein yard, and five lines to the East, as opposed to the
current four lines.) You can still see remains of this project between
Braamfontein and Langlaagte.

In this environment the Metroblitz had nowhere to go: It was never intended to
serve a real commercial goal in itself, it was a stepping stone to something
greater. So it was quietly withdrawn.
Ashley wrote:Although, living in Durban, I only managed to travel on the Metroblitz about
three or four times, but I recall its demise caused something as follows.

Initially it was scheduled to leave Pretoria at about 06:30, travelled 69km
non-stop and arrived JHB at 07:15. This seemed to be quite popular and at one
stage one had to book a seat to ensure accommodation - no standing passengers
were allowed. SAR employees were allowed to use their concessions on this train
and, with its convenient arrival time for 07:30 workers, it was naturally used
by quite a few railway concession-holders.

In order to put a stop to this "abuse" of the service, the train was then
scheduled later - I think leaving PRR at about 07:30 and arriving JHB at 08:15,
supposedly for the 9 - 5 executive types but they never migrated to the service
and it ran emptier and emptier. Similar timetable changes were adopted in
the afternoon to deter "Spories" from using the train. Eventually additional
stops were added at Verwoerdburg (Centurion) and Kempton Park, but this didn't
seem to help the numbers much and only served to slow the overall running time
down.

As this is based largely on memory and hearsay, I would be happy to hear any
corrections or other opinions in this regard.


Ashley

PS - Incidentally, as John Wepener would no doubt agree, the allegation that the
train was running "for free" seeing as it was being used by concession holders
is a bit of a misnomer as each railway department has to pay over the balance
owing in terms of the difference paid by its employees between their
concessionary rate and the full fare. I have worked with railway budgets for
some time and can confirm that this definitely happens. The same argument has
often been advanced in terms of the operation of the Orange Express and was
probably central to the decision to reduce this service to only once a week -
but the same applied - other railway departments would have had to make up the
difference in income caused by concession-holders using these trains.
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Steve Appleton
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Re: Metroblitz

Post by Steve Appleton »

Thanks for posting this, John. Two very different answers to the same question there could not be! I had heard Ashley's explanation before, but not the first from Alan. What seems to underlie Alan's explanation is the unfortunate fact that the Metroblitz (and the surrounding high-speed experiments) was introduced almost at the start of an era when the "railways" went out of fashion and entered an officially-induced decline - from which they have never since recovered.

Whilst we all laugh at various politicians' antics and dismiss their short-sightedness, this shows how serious the economic and social impact of their blinkered quick-fix decisions can be and how long that impact can last - in this case, around 30 years and counting.
Last edited by Steve Appleton on 11 Jun 2010, 09:54, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: spelling
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John Ashworth
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Re: Metroblitz

Post by John Ashworth »

It reminds me a bit of the British Rail Advanced Passenger Train (APT) experiment in the 1970s. This was a state of the art tilting train which proved pretty successful in passenger service, but for whatever reason it was ahead of its time and was never developed. 30 years later British railways are full of tilting passenger trains built in Italy...
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Re: Metroblitz

Post by Steve Appleton »

The way the world is going, they are lucky they are even built in Europe! Next versions may well come from China or Korea!
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Re: Metroblitz

Post by John Ashworth »

The British Class 395 non-tilting high speed train for outer suburban service, to be named Javelin during the Olympics, is built in Japan...
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Derek Walker
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Re: Metroblitz

Post by Derek Walker »

The issue about the spories using their PTO's is true though as I worked for them at the time. Every second spories that could rode that train, although in the techncial side where I worked our hours were 07H00-16h42.
I also recall how they bought up the houses in Mayfair in Railway Street and redid the lines into Mayfair station and changed the Church Street bridge. And then nothing happened. They were also going to alter the one bend at Hanover Street in Mayfair which was quite steep and they wanted to expropriate houses there as well. I also recall how they had to cut a few inches off the edge of the platforms where the train was to pass through. Such a lot of potential was wasted when this fell through, not to mention money and time.
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