Train Cab Ride NL / Leiden – Alphen a/d Rijn – Woerden – Utrecht / ICM Intercity / Jan 2018

Описание: Train Driver’s View on the intercity service running from Leiden Central Station to Utrecht Central Station via Alphen aan de Rijn and Woerden. Today we get to run an ICMm with four carriages. The weather is cold with some clouds here and there and also the sun smiles through those clouds every now and then.

It’s 11.52 and we depart perfectly on the dot from our starting point. From this point we’ll make stops on Leiden Lammenschans, Alphen aan de Rijn, Bodegraven, Woerden and our final stop is Utrecht. The departure speed is 40km/h until we’ve passed the bridge. As you can see this bridge has powerlines, making it possible to use our engines even while running over the bridge. A little further on the route you’ll see some other examples of bridges without the powerlines. The first of those bridges can be found right after our departure from Leiden Lammenschans. At this point the engines of the train must be shut down because there will be a huge ball of fire when the train is accelerating. As soon as the end of the power line is there the train will work on its batteries for a moment. The lights, screens with information, security systems etc. will keep working. As soon the power is back on, the train makes a ‘restart’ and takes over from the batteries again. From that point on the engines can be used again.

Most of the route tracks speed on the one tracked route is about 120km/h. But as long as you’re on time the speed can be set to 100km/h for more comfort for the passengers. This was my first time on this route by myself and in that case you need to search for the right speeds to arrive on time at the next stop. During tracks learning the driver I was with told me we can speed up to 130km/h ones and from that point let the train do the rest of the work until Alphen. Actually this is nu fully correct. We arrived 45 seconds late at Alphen aan de Rijn. Almost +1 minute! This is why we speeded up the train a little more between Alphen and Bodegraven to arrive there perfectly on time again.

Btw, after our departure from Alphen aan de Rijn you see another bridge without powerlines. Same procedure as the other bridge for the train driver. As you can imagine: with little view from the cabin during misty circumstances the train driver must know this kind of things from the head. If not, it might give some big problem on the route.

After Bodegraven we get to speed up to 80, 100, 120 and a bit further on the route 140km/h. As long as we’re on time we don’t need to accelerate to the maximum speed, which can be really uncomfortable on this route. Just before Woerden we must slow down to 40km/h because of the junction right before the station. On our departure from Woerden there’s another junction at the end of the platform, but this is made for 80km/h. After this we speed up ones more to 140km/h and let the weight of the train do the rest of the work.

On our arrival in Utrecht you’ll hear a little bell ringing. This is because the train wants us to hit the brakes a little extra. We were already slowing down, but the first set on the braking lever is not enough to satisfy the safety systems on board of ICMm. The reason I did this was because we were already under the 80km/h when we drove by the yellow signal. By first choosing a lower set on the braking lever we got a few extra seconds before the trains starts to really slow down.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride. Stay tuned for more. Have a good weekend! Cheers!

ATB Track Speed: Max ATB speed given to the train from the track.
Vmax: Max speed for that particular part of the track.
Vlimit: Max speed given by light signals or temporary speed limits on the tracks.

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