It’s a well-known fact that Britain’s railway network faces some sizable challenges concerning capacity, reliability and efficiency. As a result, billions of pounds are being spent on both rolling stock and infrastructure projects across the network.
With rising ticket prices and the current economy, budgets have never been under such heavy scrutiny, so it is now vital that all solutions are implemented, not just for the present, but for the future, taking into account projected growth which will have a measurable impact on efficiency.
Throughout the UK, rail passengers and the general public are aware of substantial station upgrades designed both to enhance the passenger experience and to develop new retail and dining opportunities for local people.
However, those same railway users are often completely unaware of work taking place behind the scenes, where huge investments are being made to upgrade depots across the country that house and maintain the new and improved trains.
As always, safety is at the forefront of all asset upgrades, with innovation the key to achieving the high standards the UK is known for across the world.
The use of composites
Traditional materials are becoming, in many instances, a thing of the past due to the emergence of composites that are now widely available and used across the network, providing a host of benefits that outweigh the use of such materials as timber, steel and concrete.
Composites UK, the industry’s trade association, defines a composite material as one which is “composed of at least two materials, which combine to give properties superior to those of the individual constituents”.
Glass and fibre-reinforced plastics (GRP and FRP) are examples of composite materials that have, over the past couple of decades, increasingly been used for railway projects across the UK. From end-of-platform steps to complete station platform refurbishments and huge multi-story maintenance depot walkways, GRP can solve problems associated with traditional materials and reduce cost at the same time.
A few of GRP’s key benefits include its light weight, high strength and non-corrosive, non-conductive, easy-to-cut nature. With careful planning and good design, costly heavy lifting equipment can be eliminated and installation time can be reduced considerably. Ongoing maintenance can also be minimal, saving both money and time.
Typical example
Selhurst Train Care Depot is one of many depots across the UK that have opted for Step On Safety’s composite GRP materials over traditional steel and aluminium, in this case when choosing access solutions for use with Class 377 trains.
In both the inspection and cleaning sheds, maintenance teams carry out work on HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) units and pantographs, located on the train’s roof alongside the door controls.
To access and service this equipment, the depot’s engineers were frequently utilising a range of non-permanent mobile aluminium access platforms and steps along with harnessed man-safe systems. This was deemed to be an unsafe method of access, one that should only be used as a last resort, as the possibility that an operative could be left stranded on the man-safe line required detailed rescue plans to be drawn up each time it was used.
This type of access also caused problems when dealing with heavy and cumbersome equipment, adding further risk to the operation.
Collaborative project
As a result of these concerns, a fast-track project was drawn up to reduce any hazards associated with the current access plan whilst also reducing the chance of slips, trips and falls, enabling depot engineers to access roof-mounted units on the Class 377 trains safely. Safe access to switchgear inside the door wells was also required.
Step On Safety, leading specialist in GRP and FRP composite solutions within the rail and construction industries, collaborated with train operator Southern (part of Govia Thameslink Railway – GTR) and rail maintenance assessor SGS to provide a turnkey solution to the problem. Together, they sought to design, deliver and install a number of permanent, static multi-story access platforms, replacing the hazardous mobile equipment and man-safe systems. The project was ambitious, with a very short turn around of only 10 weeks.
The material selected for the structures was Step On Safety’s Quartzgrip GRP composite, which offered a fast and effective turnkey solution. Permanent platforms provide engineers with easily identifiable and specific gated access points, to accommodate both four and five-car train units enabling simultaneous side access. All designs are to Network Rail standards, with a design load of 5kN/m2.
Two permanent double-story GRP access platforms, totalling 175 metres in length, were installed in the inspection shed. Various access points were included, giving safe access for maintenance to HVAC, pantograph and door-control units.
In the cleaning shed, due to ground restrictions, only one permanent GRP access platform could be installed – 87 metres long and 3.5 metres high with dual access stairs. Bespoke GRP suspended access pods were installed along the adjacent side, giving the maximum working area for the safe removal by crane, cleaning and replacement of roof-mounted units.
In both scenarios, the substructure was made from GRP channels, H-beams, box sections and angles, while the treads and deck boasted GRP anti-slip mini-mesh Quartzgrip gratings, providing the highest slip-resistance certification in accordance to BS 7976-2. Modular handrails and gates, also in GRP, are non-conductive, non-corrosive, and warm to the touch, ideal for depot environments.
The exacting 10-week deadline was met. Step On Safety’s ability to precision engineer a bespoke design and pre-fabricate complete units in its workshop meant that the fast-track installation programme was achieved while causing little disruptions to the live operating depot. No heavy lifting equipment was required as the team stuck to the methodical installation plan.
The designs at Selhurst depot utilised all of the space available while creating the most efficient working platforms, allowing engineers to keep the trains in top condition to deliver the best possible service. The success of the project demonstrates the benefits of collaborative working between Step On Safety, Southern, GTR and SGS.
The future
Further to these works, other depots across the country have adopted Step On Safety’s single and multi-story permanent access solutions. Managing director Mike Warren commented: “The rail industry is an extremely important part of what we do and an integral part of future growth strategy, which is why we apportion a high percentage of our R&D resource to it.”
The company is currently working on a contract at Stewarts Lane traction maintenance depot in Battersea, London, where its composite expertise will provide another turnkey solution for 230 metres of dual 3.5-metre-high GRP permanent access platforms with multiple emergency access points at set intervals. Once again, the bespoke design and installation will result in little disruption to the work of the live depot.
As a result of this success, a full-scale demonstration unit is being constructed at the company’s head office in Brantham, Suffolk. Here, visitors will be able to see the advantages of GRP access platforms for themselves and to discuss design and installation with Step On Safety experts.
Antony Theobald is business development manager at Step On Safety.
In issue 86 (December 2011), Rail Engineer reported on the £650 million Russian Railways “Transsib in Seven Days” project to increase the capacity of the Trans-Siberian railway to enable it to carry transit traffic from South East Asia to Europe in seven days. This included providing loops 1.5 kilometres long to accommodate trains of 71 wagons. At the time, the transit traffic over the Trans-Siberian railway was 18,000 TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units).
Last year this traffic had risen to 277,000 TEU, partly due to an increase in goods ordered on the internet and traffic to Chinese subsidiaries in Europe.
Much of this was carried on 3,800 block trains running on 48 regular routes between 17 Chinese and 20 European locations. In 2016, there were 1,800 such trains on 19 routes. However, these freight flows are unbalanced with 64 per cent of this traffic being from China to Europe.
Two-thirds of this traffic from China passes through Kazakhstan to Russia, the remainder from northern China is sent via the Trans-Siberian railway. Almost all these trains reach Europe via Brest on the border between Belarus and Poland.
To get a container from Shanghai to Hamburg, would cost around $2,500, $6,000 or $30,000 respectively by sea, rail and air with respective delivery times of around 30, 16 or five days. The higher cost of rail compared with shipping is justified for high-value goods, or those that are part of a manufacturing process.
Strategic Partnership 1520
Rail Engineer regularly reports on the annual 1520 strategic forum held in Sochi each year for Russian gauge railways and their suppliers. In February, this forum was held in Europe for the first time, specifically to consider the issues and opportunities associated with this huge increase in rail traffic. The forum had 57 speakers and 415 participants from 29 countries and was jointly opened by the Austrian and Russian transport ministers.
It was also the first time that this forum had a speaker from the European Union since it imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014 over its annexation of Crimea and intervention in Ukraine. Keir Fitch is the European Commission’s head of railway safety and interoperability. He was particularly concerned with what happens to these freight flows once they reach the European standard-gauge network which, unlike Russian Railways, cannot accommodate trains that are 1.5km long and does not generally give priority to freight either.
Fitch described the development of the European Traffic Network and Rail Freight Corridors, which will have 740-metre long loops. He also mentioned the interoperability requirements for traffic that used the 1435 and 1520 networks and referred to the harmonisation of approval arrangements when the European Rail Agency becomes Europe’s ‘one stop shop’ for rail vehicle approvals in June 2019.
Changing gauge
A significant bottleneck faced by these container trains is the changes of gauge between 1520mm Russian gauge from and to 1435mm standard gauge as trains cross the Chinese and European borders. There is also the change in loading gauge, although for containers this is not an issue. Trains in Russia can be 5.3 metres high and 3.75 metres wide as compared with the 4.32 metres height and 3.15 metres width specified in Europe to accommodate ISO containers.
To accommodate this change of track gauge, wagons can have their bogies changed or be equipped with sliding wheelsets or can have their loads transhipped onto another train. Sliding wheelsets provide the fastest transit across the gauge change but, for long distance freight, are not economic as they are only used once every few thousand miles.
Containers are generally transhipped. With the right infrastructure, a container can be transferred from one train to another in a matter of minutes. On the Chinese/Kazakhstan border, the new dry port of Khorgos has a gauge-changing station that can handle six trains at a time and process 1,600 TEU per day.
Slovakia has two gauge-changing stations on its border with Ukraine. One, at Dobrá, is for containers and can handle 700 TEU per day. The other, at Matovce, has facilities to transfer bulk cargo and re-pump liquids between trains. This facility can handle seven million tonnes each year in this way and guarantees transhipment within eleven hours.
Due to the current political situation, little container traffic passes from Russia through Ukraine, which has gauge-changing stations at its borders with Hungary and Romania, in addition to those in Slovakia. As a result, almost all container trains between China and Europe are routed through Belarus and its gauge changing station at Brest.
With such a large volume of traffic passing through a single point, there is a need for alternative routes to Europe, as was shown last summer when disruption on the Polish network caused significant delays. This resulted in the opening up of an alternative route through Kaliningrad, as described later.
1520 to Vienna
In 2008, Russian Railways, along with Austrian, Slovakian and Ukrainian railways, created a joint venture, Breitspur Planungsgesellschaft, to extend the 1520mm gauge line from Kosice in Slovakia for about 400 kilometres to Bratislava and Vienna. This would enable container trains from China to run through Russia, Ukraine and Slovakia to logistics hubs in Bratislava and Vienna without a change of gauge.
The company produced a feasibility study report in 2017. This concluded that an electrified single line railway, with a maximum speed of 100km/h and that had twelve seven-kilometre long passing loops, was required. This would require 377 bridges, including one over the Danube, and 19 tunnels totalling 43 kilometres. Its estimated construction cost was €6.5 billion.
The estimated transport volumes in 2050 on this broad-gauge line were between 16 and 25 million tonnes. The feasibility study also identified significant economic benefits for the four countries concerned.
Joint efforts to connect the Vienna-Bratislava region to the Russian broad-gauge network were part of an agreement signed at the strategic forum by the respective CEOs of Russian and Austrian railways, Oleg Belozerov and Andreas Matthä, in the presence of the two country’s transport ministers. This agreement also concerned cooperation with current freight and passenger services.
At the forum, Austrian Transport Minister, Norbert Hofer advised that an environmental impact assessment for this new broad gauge will be carried out jointly with Slovakia, and that the final planning phase will begin soon. This could enable construction to start in 2024, with opening of the line envisaged in 2033.
As Ukraine regards its rebel-held eastern areas to be “temporarily occupied by Russia”, it was perhaps not surprising that it was not represented at the forum and was barely mentioned at it. Nevertheless, Ukraine is still part of the Breitspur Planungsgesellschaft joint venture and is essential to the success of the ‘Russian gauge to Vienna’ project. It would seem that the view is that much will have changed by its completion in 2033.
Bureaucratic bottlenecks
Much has been invested in rolling stock, terminals and rail infrastructure to ensure a reliable service and speed up this transit traffic, which now travels around 1,000 kilometres per day. Yet there are still some delays at borders. Many speakers focussed on the need for common consignment notes, tamper-proof containers, unified Eurasian transport legislation and simplified customs clearance. The need for electronic consignment notes and customs documentation was also stressed.
However, the creation of a customs union between Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus in 2011 has helped create frictionless borders between these countries which, for transit traffic, is an aim endorsed by all speakers.
One constraint arising from the rapid increase in traffic is a shortage of container flat cars. Alexander Panchenko of the Summa Group called for a subsidised programme of flatcar construction in Russia. He pointed out that, otherwise, it was unlikely that sufficient flatcars would be available as there was not the required certainty of income due to the Chinese subsidy of this traffic.
A geography lesson
In addition to Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan and Slovakia, various other countries straddle different routes for rail freight between China and Europe as shown by various presentations at the forum, which offered an interesting geography lesson.
The deputy chairman of Azerbaijan Railways gave a presentation showing how his 2,900km 1520mm-gauge network was now part of the Trans-Caspian corridor from China to Europe via Kazakhstan and the Caspian Sea. The route then follows a new 849km rail corridor, completed in October, through Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and southern Europe. This has a gauge change station at the border between Georgia and Turkey and required the construction of 110 kilometres of standard gauge line into Turkey.
By 2021, with the completion of a 164km section of railway in northern Iran, Azerbaijan will also be on a North-South railway route that will take traffic from India via Iran’s Persian Gulf port of Bandar Abbas to Russia and northern Europe. This will provide a shorter route than the current one through Turkmenistan.
Mantas Bartuška, director general of Lithuanian Railways, explained how the country’s Baltic port of Klaipeda could tranship traffic off 1520mm gauge railways to ships for short sea voyages to northern European ports such as Hamburg and Rotterdam.
The Russian enclave of Kaliningrad also has a Baltic port and is bordered by Lithuania, Belarus and Poland. It offers a rail route to Europe from Russia via Latvia and Lithuania, as an alternative to the one through Belarus, and was first used in September by a train from Łódź in Poland to Chengdu in China. In his presentation Ivan Besedin, head of the Kaliningrad Centre for Commercial Transport Services, explained how Kaliningrad’s gauge-changing station was being enhanced to develop this traffic to provide an alternative to Brest. He also advised how Kaliningrad also offered a useful sea route to northern European ports.
Austria’s railways
For Austrian Railways, the forum was an opportunity to showcase its capabilities and stress its potential, which includes the proposed Russian gauge line to Vienna. With a network of 4,826 kilometres, Austria’s railway is about a third the size of Britain’s railways, yet it carries 38 per cent more freight.
Austria currently has two major railway projects. The 130km Koralm high-speed railway between Klagenfurt and Graz, which includes a 33km tunnel, is a €5.4 billion project which is expected to be operational in 2023. In addition, €3.3 billion is being spent on the 27km Semmering base tunnel, on which work started in 2014. This is expected to be completed in 2024 when it will by-pass the line between Gloggnitz and Mürzzuschlag – part of the Baltic to Adriatic corridor that, when opened in 1854, was the first line over the Alps.
Christian Helmenstein, chief economist of the Federation of Austrian Industries, explained the vital contribution of the country’s rail industry. With exports to the value of €1.3 billion, the country ranks fifth in the export of railway vehicles and associated equipment, in which it has a 5.1 per cent worldwide share compared with 0.9 per cent for all goods. Its rail industry stimulates an added value of two billion euros, which is 0.7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
He also described various studies that showed the microeconomic impact of Austria’s railways, which included stimulation of new businesses and added value from journey time savings.
One belt, one road
This perhaps-confusing phrase was used many times during the forum. It is the development strategy proposed by the Chinese government for cooperation and connectivity between Eurasian countries.
Russian Railways CEO Oleg Belozerov considered that this new silk road could be carrying three million TEU by 2040, a six-fold increase on the current level of traffic. Hence there is a need for significant investment and an innovative approach to provide the capacity for this traffic.
First deputy CEO of Russian Railways Alexander Misharin described how its trade routes will connect five billion people, or seventy per cent of the world’s population, and how this had enormous potential for economic growth.
He described how the internet was one factor driving this growth with the volume of e-commerce expected to be 4.5 trillion US dollars by 2021. A characteristic of e-commerce is the customers’ expectation that delivery will be in a matter of days. It also often involves high-value goods with significant frozen capital during transportation. For these reasons, if rail is to be competitive, speed of delivery is essential. Hence much of this traffic is carried by air even though this is five times the cost of rail transport.
To satisfy this demand, Misharin explained the concept of HSR Eurasia. This would be a high-speed freight-passenger railway corridor that would connect the existing European and Chinese high-speed networks. This ten-thousand-kilometre route would pass through Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan and China, the first part of which is the proposed 762-kilometre Russian high-speed line between Moscow and Kazan. He forecast that, by 2050, this could be carrying 12 million tonnes of freight and 58 million passengers.
Misharin felt the HSR Eurasia would provide a huge boost to the local economies along its route. This is certainly an ambitious vision but, given the ever-increasing trade with China and the way that the Chinese have built their 22,000 kilometres of high-speed line in just over ten years, it is not unrealistic.
His vision was just one aspect of a fascinating forum that showed how the ever-increasing rail traffic between China and Europe will require significant changes to all the railways that carry it.
When Abellio took over the ScotRail franchise in April 2015, it had 22 months to replace six-coach diesel trains on the Edinburgh to Glasgow main line with seven-coach electric trains, as required by its franchise specification.
To do so, the following month, the company signed a contract with Hitachi for 24 four-car and 46 three-car Class 385 multiple units. As well as the Edinburgh to Glasgow main line, these units are to operate on the Shotts route between the two cities and on services to Dunblane from the two cities. Both these routes are to be electrified by 2019.
ScotRail’s Class 385s were the first order for Hitachi’s AT200 series of units which are part of the AT (aluminium train) family. These also include the AT300 series, of which the Inter City Express Programme (IEP) Class 800/801/802 trains ordered by the DfT for the Great Western and East Coast routes are an example.
This contract required Hitachi to have the first unit in service by last Autumn, and by December to have delivered 24 units to provide a seven-car Class 385 service between Glasgow and Edinburgh at a 15-minute frequency. Thus, the contract required type approval to be obtained within 17 months. Yet when it was signed, the Newton Aycliffe plant that was to build most of these units was still under construction.
First unit to Scotland
The plant was opened in September 2015 and rolled out its first completed IEP train on 9 December 2016. On the same day, a Japanese-built Class 385 left Newton Aycliffe for Scotland to start its testing programme there. This unit had been built at Hitachi’s Kasado plant and shipped from Japan in August 2016.
In the same month another unit left Japan for the Czech Republic for testing on the Velim test track.
On 12 October, Newton Aycliffe unveiled its first completed Class 385, together with another three Japanese-built units. At this time, two Class 385 units were under test in Scotland and a further two units were undergoing unpowered dynamic testing on the German rail network. This was because there was insufficient track access in Britain to complete these tests within the programmed date.
A week later, a Class 385 completed its first successful powered test run under the newly electrified Edinburgh to Glasgow wires. With the late delivery of the EGIP electrification programme, this was five months later than originally planned. This had a significant impact on the testing programme. Although the Class 385s had access to other electrified lines in Scotland, these could not be used for type-approval testing, which had to be carried out under overhead line equipment (OLE) built to the latest TSI standards as the EGIP OLE had been.
Hitachi’s type testing programme required 160 hours under EGIP’s wires, in the event less than half of this was available. This shortfall was addressed with tests under TSI-compliant OLE in the Czech Republic and Germany. However, capability testing could only be undertaken between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Notwithstanding these testing programme delays, Hitachi under-estimated the Class 385 delivery dates. This is perhaps understandable as it required an assessment of the time required to set up the supply chain and production process, recruit and train 1,200 employees and let them gain experience before ramping-up production. As this assessment was completed whilst the factory was still under construction, it was based on judgement rather than experience.
In December the new Millerhill servicing depot was opened and a Class 385 unit based there was used to start the ScotRail driver training programme – up until then most of the Class 385s driving had only been done by drivers from DB Schenker who have a contract with Hitachi to support the testing programme.
Riding the 385
In February, Rail Engineer was invited to take a ride on a Class 385 unit during one of its mileage accumulation runs. Each unit has to complete 2,000 miles fault-free running before it can enter service.
Travelling on the empty four-car unit was an impressive experience. The ride was smooth as the train accelerated up to 60mph in 47 seconds. This compares with current Class 170 diesel multiple units that take around one minute 50 seconds to reach this speed. The 1 in 41 gradient up Glasgow Queen Street tunnel is one of the steepest on the network. Despite the climb, the driver had to throttle back once the unit reached the tunnel’s 50mph speed limit. After exiting the tunnel, the unit accelerated to climb at the permitted speed of 60mph, again not at full power. Even at full throttle, the Class 170 DMUs can only climb this gradient at around 40mph.
The driving cab is small, as the units have a corridor connection as specified by Transport Scotland. However, even when standing behind the driver, the field of vision ahead is well within the relatively small windscreen. At night, the strong headlight lit up the track hundreds of yards ahead of the train. The driver was from DB Schenker which, for over a year, has provided drivers to test the Class 385s in Scotland.
Passenger benefits
On board, managing director of the ScotRail Alliance Alex Hynes explained the operational and customer benefits of this corridor connection. Currently, some services on the Edinburgh to Glasgow route are made up of two Class 380 EMUs which have a corridor connection. Alex understands that fewer passengers travelling on these trains arrive without tickets than those on the pair of three-car Class 170 units which do not have a corridor connection.
Alex advised that the Class 385 will reduce journey times between Edinburgh and Glasgow from 51 to 42 minutes by December this year. Initially, seven-car Class 385 trains, comprising four and three-car units, will operate peak services. These seven-car trains will have 479 seats, 27 per cent more than the current six-car Class 170 DMUs. When platforms at Glasgow Queen Street are extended in December 2019 as part of the station’s redevelopment, the service will then be operated by eight-car Class 385 trains, giving a total of 546 seats.
Hitachi’s Class 385 programme manager Andy Radford was also on the train. He stated that the type-approval testing, undertaken by four specially kitted-out units, was virtually complete. This required a demonstration of compliance with around 2,000 clauses in the relevant standards to be shown in a technical file which he advised was about to be submitted to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) which, at the time, was expected to issue its letter of authorisation to allow the units to enter service by mid-March.
Passengers on the increasingly busy Edinburgh to Glasgow line have suffered disruption and delays from the EGIP electrification programme. So, having left the test train, it seemed that they would very soon benefit from the introduction of the new Class 385 units and their extra seats. Alas this was not to be.
Windscreen concerns
A few days later, Scottish newspapers carried headlines such as “ScotRail Class 385 fishbowl windscreen safety concern”. This follows concerns expressed by Kevin Lindsay, ASLEFs organiser in Scotland, that “the windscreen is curved and at night is making the driver see two signals”. As a result, his union has informed ScotRail that they will advise their members that these trains are not safe to drive at night.
Alex Hynes told Rail Engineer that ScotRail takes ASLEF’s concerns very seriously and that the problem concerns a ghosting effect at night, which is particularly apparent at locations with multiple signals. Hence there was a potential problem of driver distraction and fatigue. Transport Scotland’s response is that “drivers input into the testing process is vital and that, having had that feedback, it is vital that Hitachi and ScotRail work towards a solution.”
A Hitachi spokesman advised Rail Engineer that the problem has occurred due to a new standard requiring driver’s windscreens to be more impact resistant to protect drivers. As a result, the new, tougher windscreens have more layers which, in a slightly curved windscreen, produced the observed ghosting effect.
He said the company was working closely with ScotRail, drivers and suppliers to find a solution so the trains could come into service as soon as possible and are seeking independent advice about the conditions under which it would be safe to run. Hitachi also confirmed that the technical file has been submitted to the ORR. Although this demonstrates that the windscreens are compliant with the required standards, as confirmed by the Notified Body, the company recognises that the trains can’t enter service until the windscreen issue is resolved.
Faster, longer trains soon?
The windscreen problem is clearly an issue which all parties are working hard to resolve. How long it will take remains to be seen. Meanwhile, production is being ramped up at Newton Aycliffe. From April, cars will be produced at the rate of four a week. At the beginning of March, there were ten units in Scotland with another two completed in Newton Aycliffe.
The line’s passengers faced further problems at the beginning of March, when it had been expected that Class 385s would be operational, when some of ScotRail’s Class 170 units came off lease to operate services elsewhere. As a result, during the Edinburgh to Glasgow peak service, one train in each direction is a three-car instead of a six-car train. Until the Class 385s can be introduced, ScotRail has alleviated this problem by attracting passengers onto the slower, alternative route via Bathgate with a cheap fare.
Introducing a new train is never easy and, however rigorous the design process, unforeseeable problems can arise, as the Class 385 saga illustrates. It would seem likely that the solution to the windscreen issue is a flat screen, which may take some time to design, have tested and be approved. If so, will the long days of the Scottish summer months allow the units to be introduced for daylight operation whilst new windscreens are fitted?
Asset management can simply be defined as the coordinated activity of an organisation to realise the value from its assets. That is according to the Institute of Asset Management’s Julian Schwarzenbach, a data evangelist with decades of experience on the subject. In reality, however, the process is far from straightforward.
Unlike maintenance, which is concerned with preserving an asset’s condition, asset management relates to a number of assets, built to different standards with different conditions, histories and demands. It necessitates trade-offs with the available resources to balance performance, risk and costs. Significantly, asset management is big business.
On 28 February, delegates battled the sub-zero and blizzard-like conditions from the ‘Beast from the East’ to attend the inaugural Rail Asset Management Summit at Addleshaw Goddard, London.
Holding back the economy
Despite the adverse weather, the high turnout showed the guests’ resilience but, as speaker Patrick Bossert, infrastructure intelligence advisor at EY, explained, the same cannot be said for the country’s construction output.
While manufacturing output per hour has risen 60 per cent in the last 25 years, and services output 30 per cent over the same period, construction output has only risen five per cent. That is according to Patrick, who is part of the Digital Built Britain programme to improve the construction industry’s productivity. He has also helped deliver savings of £100 million a year for Network Rail through digitising asset information and driving out costs as part of its Offering Rail Better Information Services (ORBIS) programme.
Patrick set the tone for how much of an impact asset management can have with his exploration of how constraints on the country’s infrastructure are acting as a brake on economic growth. It is not just how things are built but how it is used, he explained, noting that train delays cost the economy £1 billion a year (though not as significant as the £31 billion blow as a result of traffic congestion) and that delayed and cancelled electrification in 2015/16 cost the UK economy £6 billion.
“Infrastructure in the UK is putting a brake on the economy,” said Patrick, in a joint presentation with Professional Construction Strategies Group (PCSG) chair Mark Bew. “If we use information, BIM and asset management to change the dials the returns are significant.”
Virgin’s Voyagers
Following a presentation on integrating BIM and asset management from WSP technical director Matthew Justin, PCSG associate director and event host Olly Thomas guided the audience through the day’s talks.
Bombardier’s Eric Holmes, head of bids engineering, provided one of the most revealing presentations; a case study on the maintenance programme of Virgin CrossCountry’s (VCC) Voyager fleet between 2001-2014, which carried one of the day’s key themes – that people are a company’s most valuable asset.
The new family of diesel-electric multiple units entered service in 2001. Following the signing of a contract with VCC in 1998, Bombardier was responsible for maintenance – including overnight servicing – of 352 coaches configured into 78 units. To fulfil the work, a dedicated €45 million (around £40 million) maintenance facility was built in Central Rivers, Staffordshire.
Eric explained that, initially, things didn’t go to plan. Based on contracted availability requirements, 70 out of the 78 units had to be delivered each day to VCC. On average, however, 68 units were available each day. This record was not helped by the trains’ poor reliability. VCC needed the units to operate around 28,000 miles between service affected failures but this figure was closer to 8,000 – 28 per cent of the required target.
In addition, there was a poor safety culture with workers getting injured trying to maintain the trains. Eric revealed that, between 2004 and 2006, five person-years were lost with an average of 24 days off per accident.
The turnaround
Unsurprisingly, there was a happy ending to Eric’s tale. One key step to turning the facility’s performance around included the balancing of maintenance regimes by switching planned and preventative maintenance regimes to the night shifts, which freed capacity for reactive maintenance on the day shifts. This meant that the number of failures dropped because staff had the time to get it right the first time.
It also meant that staff were not ‘firefighting’, as Eric described it, and putting themselves at risk, to ensure the trains were out on time. It was not an overnight success but, between 2007 and 2008, accident rates decreased and, from 2008 to 2014 – there was a spike during 2008 – the facility went 2,278 days without a lost-time accident because of fundamental safety process changes.
Reliability also improved by 468 per cent and Bombardier consistently met VCC’s train availability requirements.
Lessons learnt from this experience have been developed into what Bombardier describes as its business improvement cycle. This begins with a diagnostic review of all of the fundamental processes to operate the business measured against best practice to assess where they are.
Standardising workdays is a key element for some members of staff. A production manager, for example, would have a standard number of meetings and the day is planned, almost out to the minute, with standard activities. Eric explained that, in an asset management environment, with many complex roles and responsibilities, there is a need to coordinate them into something that works effectively and efficiently.
All of this needed a big cultural change. But, once people started to see that it worked, they bought into the process.
Eric added that the Central Rivers case study has put Bombardier in the shop window for fleet maintenance work in the UK and globally. Indeed, global customers now visit the site to see its work at first hand.
Are Thunderbirds go?
Looking ahead, Crossrail’s long-awaited opening will take place, at least in part, in December. Route asset manager Jon Jarrett explained how good asset management practices have been embedded throughout due to starting from scratch.
For example, Jon explained why he is “driving Crossrail mad” by tagging all of its assets (well almost all, he had to compromise on tagging every one in ten sleepers). As a result, if a particular type of fastening or bolt fails, an engineer can look at the population, find out where they are and then look at the inventory of what has been done to maintain or replace them, all of which feeds back into its asset management system.
Jon also explained how Crossrail has installed maintenance pods at every station, shaft and portal.
He said: “When has Thunderbird 2 ever taken off, landed, opened the door and thought ‘oh dear, we’ve got the wrong kit’, or ‘we’re in the wrong place, we’re not meant to be here’? It hasn’t. So why do we accept that in the railway?”
Inside all of the pods are the spares and equipment that’s relevant for the piece of railway that’s adjacent to that pod, with tags on them. This tagged equipment is monitored by a live system that automatically sends a replacement once it has been used.
Ultimately, Jon said, the goal is for the infrastructure to manage itself, for it to be intelligent, autonomous, predictive and require minimal human intervention through good asset design and the integration of high performing maintenance equipment, systems and techniques.
Summarising, he added: “The message is, don’t take the people out of the system, put them into the system and help them improve by providing information and asset information in intelligent forms that make their work easier and safer.”
Packed line-up
In total, there were 11 presentations at the conference – the weather got the better of only one speaker.
Mark Bew, PCSG chair who jointly presented alongside Patrick Bossert, stressed the need to treat data – much like people – as assets. Just like a real asset, data costs money to construct, it degrades and needs maintaining by recollecting it. It should be someone’s job to maintain it, Mark added, and for someone to correct it when it goes wrong.
Innovation consultant Stephen Collicott touched on Pauley’s work managing and building digital assets for the National Training Academy for Rail, as well as the National College for High-Speed Rail, to enhance the institutions’ learning through interactive and immersive virtual reality tools. Stephen also demonstrated how augmented reality is helping to support smart engineers of the future through using augmented reality to provide asset information at the point of need.
Network Rail was represented by Tim Flower, professional head of maintenance, as well as Eliane Algaard, Anglia route director for safety and asset management. Both touched on CP6 plans. Tim spoke of Network Rail’s intelligent infrastructure programme to expand its monitoring capabilities and move further away from reactive towards predict and prevent maintenance.
Eliane, meanwhile, touched on Anglia’s plans, where the money is being spent (mostly on signalling) and how it approaches its asset management plans by assessing projected passenger and freight growth and asset condition to identify renewals, refurbishments and maintenance.
Perpetuum commercial director Justin Southcombe explained the company’s deployment of intelligent bogie technology worldwide, Thales business development director John Raymond discussed predictive maintenance and Atkins’ technical director Richard Arrowsmith called on the delegates – and the industry – to work towards sharing asset information for the benefit of all by joined up and integrated data.
International presence
Building on the success of its predecessor the Rail BIM Summit, the Rail Asset Management Summit attracted guests from around the world. Akasyah Sabri, head of asset management at Mass Rapid Transit Corporation, flew in from Malaysia, Andres Lindemann, Rail Baltica planning specialist, arrived from Estonia and there were two delegates who travelled from Lithuania. The latter three probably wondered why the weather was causing any problems at all!
Thanks to the Rail Asset Management Summit hosts, Addleshaw Goddard, and event sponsors Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Harris Geospatial Solutions, Thales, Traka, Unipart Rail and WSP, as well as all of the expert industry speakers.
16/08/2017. FREE TO USE IMAGE:
"Virgin Azuma crosses Royal Border Bridge, travelling north on its first journey to Scotland."
Picture Ian Rutherford
With around 7,000 new rail vehicles on order to replace more than half of the passenger rolling stock fleet, Britain’s trains are about to change as never before. Scotland is no exception. In 2018, Hitachi’s Class 385 electric multiple units (EMUs) will replace the Class 170 diesel multiple units (DMUs) on the Edinburgh to Glasgow main line. Once further electrification is completed, more Class 385s will displace DMUs on services to Dunblane and through Shotts.
This year will also see some of the iconic British Rail High Speed Trains (HSTs) get a new lease of life as specially refurbished four and five-car sets operating on Scottish Inter-City services.
Passengers who sleep through the night between Scotland and London will also experience new trains being built by CAF in Spain for Caledonian Sleeper. These will be introduced later this year on services from Edinburgh and Glasgow to London and next year on sleeper trains to the far North of Scotland.
From 2019, HSTs on the East Coast main line will be steadily replaced by new Azuma trains – Hitachi-built Class 800 bi-mode and Class 801 all-electric units. The Class 800 bi-mode units will operate services from London to Inverness and Aberdeen.
Whilst introducing each one of these fleets is a complex task, there are also significant operational and maintenance interactions between these new train projects, including the transitional arrangements for their introduction. This is particularly true for the depots concerned, in which Hitachi has invested over £20 million for the Class 800 and Class 385 fleets.
Maintaining the new trains
Currently, the Virgin East Coast depot at Craigentinny, just east of Edinburgh, maintains the East Coast HST fleet and services a wide variety of other stock (issue 139, May 2016). On the other side of Edinburgh, ScotRail’s Haymarket depot maintains and services DMUs including the Class 170 units that operate the main Edinburgh to Glasgow service. The depots at Inverness and Aberdeen service Caledonian sleeper trains, HSTs and ScotRail DMUs.
The Edinburgh depots face significant changes of role and ownership. Later this year, Craigentinny’s lease transfers from Virgin East Coast to Hitachi, which will maintain both the Azuma fleet and ScotRail’s Class 385 units. As these are, respectively, the Hitachi AT300 and AT200 family of units, they have many similarities. These fleets will be subject to condition monitoring, both from sensors on the train and from condition monitoring stations such as the one at the new Millerhill servicing depot just south of Edinburgh.
For Craigentinny, this is both a change in maintenance philosophy and the type of equipment maintained as, after the transition period, the depot will no longer maintain HST power cars as it has done for the past forty years.
Ironically, Haymarket depot is to start maintaining HSTs for the first time as they start operating ScotRail’s inter-city services. This requires significant alterations to the depot to accommodate them. At the same time there will be a significant reduction in the number of DMUs maintained by the depot as Class 385 EMUs start running between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Over the following years, further electrification will see yet more DMUs replaced as Class 385 units start operation on Dunblane and Shotts services.
Inverness and Aberdeen depots currently service Virgin East Coast HSTs, ScotRail DMUs and Mark 3 Caledonian Sleeper coaches. Soon they will handle East Coast Class 800 bi-mode units, ScotRail HSTs and the new Mark 5 Caledonian Sleeper coaches as well as some ScotRail DMUs.
Depot alterations
The coaches of the Class 800/801 units are 26 metres long, compared with 23 metres for an HST coach, and require depot alterations to accommodate them. Furthermore, the new Caledonian Sleepers and ScotRail’s refurbished HSTs have controlled-emission toilets (CET) that require discharge facilities. With the provision of on-board showers and other improved facilities, the capacity of the water tanks in the new sleeper coaches is three times that of the existing vehicles.
These depots also require AdBlue® facilities so that new diesel engines on the Class 800 bi-mode trains can comply with Euro 6 emissions regulations by selective catalytic reduction. This is the injection into the exhaust gases of microscopic quantities of AdBlue, a non-toxic colourless urea and water solution. This combines with exhaust emissions to break down the harmful diesel exhaust mono-nitrogen oxides into nitrogen and oxygen.
Ensuring that the existing depots can accommodate, service and maintain their new trains needs much planning, a high degree of co-operation between the train operators concerned and a lot of training. It also requires significant alterations to the depots concerned.
Several companies are working to make this happen. One of these is Story Scotland, the Scottish division of Story Contracting, which has grown fivefold in recent years, allowing investment in future talent with apprenticeships and graduate schemes. The company has recently worked on various high-profile contracts including the slab track replacement in Queen Street tunnel (issue 142, August 2016), Stirling station canopy replacement (issue 141, July 2016) and St Ninians level crossing replacement (issue 158, December 2017).
Aberdeen and Inverness
Story’s work at Aberdeen Clayhills depot, which was worth £1.8 million and took eight months, was completed in September 2017. This required the construction of a new 120-metre long servicing apron, a 60-metre trackpan for oily waste with associated drainage, four new refuelling points with modifications to the fuel distribution network, three new facilities and a plant room for CET as well as dispensers for AdBlue and water tanking. The positioning of these facilities and the length of the hoses were optimised to take account of the varying lengths of the different stock to be serviced. The work also involved alterations to associated M&E services, pipework, drainage and lighting, as well as new pedestrian walkways and access gantries.
The work at Inverness depot was worth £2.2 million, took nine months and was completed last October.
This required the construction of three new refuelling dispensers, an 85-metre trackpan for oily waste requiring the lift and replacement of 90 metres of track, four AdBlue facilities, three new CET facilities and a new canopy apron for which 33 micro piles were required.
As at Aberdeen, this work also involved alterations to associated M&E services, pipework and drainage and had to take account of the varying train lengths.
Due to the nature of depot operations, the work at Inverness required the construction of temporary fuelling facilities. A further complication is that the longer Class 800 units will block an existing level crossing in the depot during the fuelling operations. This required Story to provide a new alternative pedestrian crossing with a white light indication.
There has been a depot at Inverness since 1855, since when many ‘nasty substances’ have dripped onto the ground. Hence, part of the design involved analysis of soil samples to determine the level of contamination. To avoid any future such pollutants, extra capacity was built into the new refuelling line’s drainage system to ensure satisfactory operation of the oil separators during extreme weather.
Story’s project manager for both the Aberdeen and Inverness depot projects was Alan Rundell, who explained how the work was scheduled at Aberdeen. “Most of the Aberdeen servicing and refuelling takes place in the evening, with maintenance work done in the shed during the day. This means we had all day Monday to Friday to work except for the one sleeper train. We stood down for an hour to let it pass through the depot, to get it refuelled and then into the stabling area.”
In contrast, around eight trains had to be refuelled during the day at Inverness, hence the need for the construction of a temporary fuelling point. At both depots, everything had to work with the existing trains so, once all of the new add-ons were installed, everything was commissioned and transferred over to the new systems.
Craigentinny and Haymarket
Working within the confines of a depot environment requires flexibility to minimise the impact on depot operations. Story is not new to the complexities of depot work, as it is one of Network Rail’s collaborative delivery programme framework contractors for building work.
One item of work, worth £336,000 and awarded under this contract, was the replacement of high-level sodium lighting with more efficient LED equivalents at Craigentinny depot. This required 359 lights to be replaced in four sheds. As the existing lighting controls, wire runs and power supplies were not replaced, this work was relatively straightforward.
However, it required agreed channels of communication, which included weekly updates for the works, an access strategy that didn’t impact on the day-to-day running of the depot, and a detailed communication strategy.
All work at the depots is controlled by Virgin Trains’ permit system, including review of work package plans and task briefing sheets, after which a work access notice is issued allowing work to commence. A dedicated person for safety from Virgin Trains was the main point of contact and co-ordination point for all works.
Project manager Eddie Esdale commented: “We sat down with depot staff on a daily basis to discuss our access requirements. A back-shift arrangement gave us the best opportunity for access and offered the least amount of disruption to the depot. Possessions and isolations of the OLE were required, adding another layer of complexity to the planning. In this way, the work was delivered on time and within budget, without causing any delay to Virgin Trains’ daily operations.”
Last but, in this case, least of the work done by Story to support the introduction of Scotland’s new trains, was a £100,000 job, awarded under the framework contract, at Haymarket depot in November. This was the repair of the inspection pit on road number three, which had a defective rail joint for which concrete repairs were also required. This had to be done before work could start to modify the depot to accommodate the ‘new’ ScotRail HSTs. For this reason, all concerned were glad that Story was able to start work within three days once instructed to do so.
The longer Azuma trains will provide more seats on the East Coast route to Scotland whilst the introduction of ScotRail’s new trains will increase the number of rail passenger vehicles it operates from around 800 to 1000 over the next two years.
Although the depot alterations for them are not obvious, Scotland’s rail passengers, who today often travel in overcrowded conditions, will have a good reason to thank companies like Story which have paved the way for these new trains.
At Infrarail 2018, Rail Engineer will once again be hosting and arranging the keynote speakers and the technical seminar programme.
Tuesday 01/05/2018
10:30 – Grand opening – Jon Shaw, chief engineer, Network Rail
Having started his career as a British Rail S&T maintenance trainee in the early 90s, Jon Shaw “re-joined” Network Rail in 2015 from Bombardier, where he was VP Engineering responsible for the design development and maintenance engineering of Bombardier’s trains across Europe, Middle East and Africa. Jon’s previous roles also include Global VP Engineering for Ansaldo STS based in Genoa and seven years working for Hitachi on the development and introduction of the Javelin trains onto HS1. A chartered engineer, Jon is a Fellow of both the IRSE and IET and following the award of a gold scholarship holds an MBA with distinction from the University of Manchester. Jon will be joined at the opening ceremony by Stephen Brooks, chairman of exhibition organizer Mack Brooks, and Darren Caplan, chief executive of the Railway Industry Association.
11:10 – Condition-based Supply Chain – Dr David McGorman, managing director, Instrumental
Digital technology has been transforming business practices and processes for some time and the Industrial Revolution 4.0 is having a huge impact on all commercial sectors including the rail industry. The increasing expectations of passengers and government regulators are providing the impetus for train and network operators to invest in new systems and technology that will deliver long term financial and operational benefits. In his talk at Infrarail, Dr David McGorman will introduce the concept of an integrated condition-based supply chain – the seamless management of real-time data and information, combined with multiple data sources relating to the asset, to deliver increased operational efficiencies and maintenance savings. This concept brings together several existing and emerging technologies and capabilities into a complete Digital Eco-system. To power the system it needs data that is collected and combined from multiple sources. Condition Based Monitoring (CBM) sensors are one source of data but other useful information can be used to help monitor and predict the need for replacement parts.
11:50 – Keynote – Increased investment for the railway of the future – Chris Grayling, Secretary of State for Transport
Over the next six years, the government will channel unprecedented investment into the country’s railway infrastructure with the goal of improving capacity, journey times and the passenger experience. Funding of £48 billion has already been earmarked for Network Rail for the period 2019-2024. Primarily for maintenance and improvements, as well as enhancements that are already planned, this represents an increase over the total spend of £40 billion over the previous five year period. When some additional key construction projects are added to this, the total will be far in advance of any investment that has gone before. In addition, the government is supporting and funding the construction of HS2, with services from London to Birmingham due to commence in 2026. This investment will total some £56 billion by the time phase two to Manchester and Leeds opens in 2033. And the government is funding, through Transport for London and the Lord Mayor, both a fleet of new trains for the deep tube on London Underground and the construction of Crossrail 2 which, subject to approvals and consents, should be underway by 2022. So, all in all, this is a time of major investment in the railway. It is now down to the industry to both make the most of the opportunity and to deliver for our ultimate customer, the paying passenger.
12:30 -RILA – mobile survey at linespeed. Too good to be true? – Trevor Burton, UK Programme Manager, Fugro
RILA is a train mounted mobile mapping system developed in the Netherlands and introduced to the UK rail network in 2013. The system has now received Network Rail Product Acceptance and is incorporated into Network Rail survey standards and considered as a ‘Business As Usual’ service. Capable of being mounted on both dedicated locomotives or on the rear of in-service passenger trains, the system collects absolute track position data and 3D point cloud data of the entire corridor whilst operating at linespeed. Survey information collected can be used for topographical survey, gauging, height and staggers. Negating the need for surveyors to be on or near the track in the acquisition of the survey data, RILA delivers a clearly defined health and safety benefit. But can it really deliver survey data suitable for design level applications? This seminar looks objectively at the use of the system and explores the opportunities and constraints of operating the system in the UK.
13:10 – FUU Synthetic Wood Technology – Dr Gunther Koller, Technical Consultant, Sekisui Chemical
Network Rail’s first FFU trial project took place in 2014, followed by others in 2015 and 2016. They certified this technology for the use on their network in 2017. London Underground installed their first project in 2016 and FFU got full acceptance by LUL. Iarnrod-Eireann installed their first bridge in Limerick with FFU in 2017. FFU stands for Fibre-reinforced Foamed Urethane and was developed in 1978 for use in railway sleepers and switch and crossing bearers. Since then, more than 1,400 km of track have been installed at switches and bridges in more than 25 countries. Installed for the first time in 1980, today 18.9 million tons a year currently pass over FFU sleepers. Inspected after 15, 20, 25, and 30 years in service, the sleepers show no cracks/warping, no changes in the colour of the surface layer, and no loose screw or spikes. As a result of these tests showed, FFU sleepers are estimated to have a service life of 50 years. FFU was also tested against applicable European standards, partly those concrete sleepers. The Technical University of Munich’s report was extremely positive for FFU in all areas. For example:
» Average extraction force: FFU 61kN, wood 35kN;
» Static load in centre: FFU 240kN, wood 80kN;
» No signs of fatigue after 2.5 million load cycles.
Based on these favourable results, the EBA (German Federal Railway Authority) granted full approval in 2017. As well as sleepers and bearers, FFU can be used for longitudinal baulks on bridges, and this will form part of the subject of this presentation.
13:50 – Asset Management: Performance Improvements and Maintenance Reviews – Mark Whiteaway, Leading Consultant and Quality Assurance Manager, BMT
The ability to manage assets effectively and efficiently is key to business success. There is a clear need to make traceable, transparent and better-informed decisions, drawing on a full-spectrum of evidence, analysis and data relating to asset performance. Recognising asset-related risks, and eliminating or reducing them where practicable, will ultimately reduce costs, recover and boost revenues and achieve an overall improvement in financial performance. While Strategic Maintenance Reviews (SMRs) have been undertaken for years, some of the softer skills and related activities, fundamental to maximise success, are often forgotten. In many cases the SMR leads to a need for significant change in order to realise many of the benefits. This may include the need for a robust communications and cultural change plan, an up-skilling of the work force and an overhaul of the supply chain and inventory holdings. The addition of new technology and ways of working are often also needed to optimise the asset mix and performance. On large fleets of assets, in international organisations that work within complex operating environments, understanding how to maximise output and benefit is not an easy task. However, putting in the effort to do so will allow better decision making to take place that should lead to asset performance optimisation and financial improvements.
14:30 – Wireless communication – an essential building block for Railway 4.0 – Ian Poulett, Head of Sales, Industrial Communication, Identification & Solutions Services, Siemens
When it comes to wireless applications in trains, most people think of on-board WLAN for passengers. However, wireless technology in the railway sector reaches beyond the scope of public Wi-Fi: such as in train to ground communication for vital and non-vital services, reading and retrieving operating data in the railway depot, remote maintenance, CCTV and other areas. Such applications are helping to reduce operating costs for train companies by improving overall communications, enabling remote monitoring, and extending long-term reliability and train uptime. Ultimately, they are contributing towards the concept of Railway 4.0 by enhancing preventive maintenance – which could help operators avoid train breakdowns altogether in the not-too-distant future. In this knowledge session, the audience will learn about digitalisation trends and their recent growth in the railway industry, and will receive a useful overview of the technological requirements and associated challenges – as well as the surprisingly simple and fast to install infrastructure needs – when working towards a wireless solution. How to upgrade to wireless communication whilst minimising disruption to the existing network will be explained. Effective communications with other systems form an essential part of this trend and the challenges of linking up different systems will be briefly covered. The audience will also receive an introduction to different use cases and the corresponding benefits they have brought those companies, their in-house operating teams and maintenance engineers, and ultimately, their end users and customers.
15:10 – Corrosion Protection of Steel by Hot Dip Galvanizing – Iqbal Johal, Marketing Manager, Galvanizers Association
This paper will provide a technical overview of hot-dip galvanizing that includes details about the galvanizing process, its unique coating characteristics, design, specification and comprehensive information on its performance. The presentation is intended to provide information for specifiers of the process with enough information to be confident in specifying it for steelwork. A project library of past and present projects is featured, alongside reference to case histories that highlight the performance of hot-dip galvanizing in a variety of environments. The Galvanizers Association has educated and informed professionals within the construction industry via the provision of CPD (Continuing Professional Development) presentations for well over 25 years. Founder members of the RIBA CPD Providers Network, the Galvanizers Association works closely with the Royal Institute of British Architects to continue to provide relevant information for specifiers across all sectors of the construction industry.
Wednesday 02/05/2018
10:30 – Keynote – The challenges faced by the industry over the next few years
In the five years from 2019 to 2024, the railway industry will have more money spent on it than ever before. £48 billion by Network Rail, yet more by the government on new enhancement programmes, new trains for main line franchises and London Underground – the picture does indeed look rosy. Except there are some areas where spending will reduce, the introduction of new technology is always fraught with more problems than expected, and external forces such as BREXIT could affect the balance of payments and jobs. This keynote speech, to be delivered by a senior member of the industry, will look at the challenges ahead and suggest ways to tackle them. Lessons can be learned from other sectors and countries, and then used to the best advantage of the British rail industry.
11:10 – The changing role of data and the impact of measurement techniques for design, planning and construction – Trevor Moore, Head of Infrastructure, Murphy Surveys
Measurement technology is moving at an incredible pace. New methods and tools for data collection, presentation and management of 3D information enable data to be captured faster and more accurately than ever before. Advancement of technologies such as UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), Laser Scanners (Dynamic and Static) and Photogrammetry enable data to be captured remotely, eliminating exposure to hazardous site conditions and making the whole process much safer than it has ever been. This seminar session will look at how rail surveying is changing, what the future holds for the data capture process and how clients can take advantage of the rapid pace of change…
Development and improvement of new and existing workflows for faster, accurate, cost effective and safer data capture;
Implementation of quality assurance procedures and digital construction workflows to minimise reworks, reduce delays and mitigate risk;
Developments in collaborative working environments to retrieve up to date data, quickly and easily, for more effective real-time decision making;
Increased use of BIM (Building Information Modelling), digital workflows and the use of 3D data to assist in the design, planning and visualisation of projects;
The changing role of the surveyor as data managers and a key link between stakeholders such as designers, engineers and quantity surveyors.
11:50 – A technical approach to product innovation and development: benefits for the customer – Dr Julia McDaid, Director of Technical and Product Development, Cubis Systems
Cubis Systems is Europe’s leading manufacturer of innovative, lightweight structural access chamber and cable protection systems used in the construction of infrastructure networks. Used within the rail and light rail markets, Cubis’ composite range of products offers clients a modular, lightweight, scalable system that can be built on-site, significantly reducing costs of in-situ construction through time savings. The Cubis approach to innovation in a ‘traditional’ industry has been to develop products from multiple lightweight material types that incorporate intelligent technical design features, and integrate together to replace more traditional construction materials such as brick and concrete. Dr Julia McDaid, director of technical and product development, will talk about how Cubis has developed a full range of integrated, modular access and cable protection products that offers the structural integrity of traditional build methods, with the flexibility, fire retardancy and cost saving benefits that modern design practices and leading contractors require for major global rail projects.
12:30 – Use of rail milling technology to extend rail life and eliminate defects – Elvis Kozica, International Sales Manager, Linsinger
Railways worldwide are confronted nowadays with both increasing passenger numbers and an increase in the freight tonnage moved every year by rail. In order to meet this challenge, railways are reorganizing themselves to provide a reliable service with no downtime. Due to the steadily growing frequency of the trains around the world, rail maintenance has become one of the biggest challenges. One of greatest threats to networks are head checks (rail cracks) and other railhead defects, often caused by rolling contact fatigue (RCF), which can dramatically increase the risk of rail failure, and reduce the lifetime of the rail. Removing the top surface of the rail is one way to eliminate the defects by cutting away the cracks. This is often done by grinding, which removes a small amount of material in each pass and so necessitates multiple passes. An alternative is to cut away the surface using milling, a proven method of metal removal. This presentation will give an insight into how the Rail Milling Technology can help to eliminate railhead defects as well as give technical details of the process itself.
13:10 – Electromagnetic capability for infrastructure and products: what do you have to do – Dr Rob Armstrong, Consultancy and Training Manager, York EMC Services – Eurofins York
Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) is an important part of any project; be it large infrastructure projects for Network Rail, London Underground, Crossrail, or for products, systems and equipment to be supplied into the rail environment. EMC is a legal requirement that the railway and its equipment do not interfere with the correct operation of external radio communications and broadcast services, and therefore needs to be treated properly at the very start of a project’s life cycle. This presentation will explain what designers of infrastructure, products, and project managers need to do in order to comply with UK and European legislation, Network Rail requirements and general EMC compliance. It will guide and advise delegates through the EMC process from management and strategy, through risk assessment, reviews and testing (if required), to the final EMC documentation for the project. For products and equipment, a Declaration of Conformity is required to back up the CE mark that is needed to place products on the market in the UK and the EU. Common pitfalls, requirements and examples will be included in this presentation. Dr Amstrong’s presentation will be essential viewing for anyone involved in building or supplying electronic or electrical equipment to the rail environment.
13:50 – VMS Compact Colour Light Signal and Combined Alphanumeric Route Indicator – Mark Johnson, Technical Sales Manager, VMX Variable Message Signs
Mark Johnson will present some recent signalling developments that will enable signals and indicators to be deployed in locations with space restrictions. Firstly VMS has developed a compact version of the current MKII Colour Light Signal. As well as reducing the overall size of the signal a number of features have been introduced to make signal replacement simpler. The four-aspect signal will also be available with a reduced separation of the double yellow; which is of particular interest for ground mount applications where the maximum height for signals is extremely restricted. The technology used in VMS route indicators has allowed a MKII Standard Alphanumeric Route Indicator (SARI) to be configured to also display Miniature Alphanumeric Route Indicator (MARI) aspects as well as the standard size characters. This new signal type will be known as a Combined Alphanumeric Route Indicator (CARI). Combining the functionality of two different indicator types into one has clear benefits for locations where space does not allow separate units to be used. Mark will include in his presentation a description of the technologies employed in these new innovative signals and the design processes that allow these developments to be introduced in extremely short timescales.
14:30 – Efficient digitisation of the rail network environment – Raphael Goudard, Mobile Mapping Segment Manager, Hexagon Geosystems
Ageing infrastructure, growing populations and mass influx to urban centres present rail network operators with many challenges. To meet the ever-increasing demand, networks must find ways to efficiently build, maintain and modernise railways. This can be achieved through a series of undertakings that digitise an entire network. From platforms to tracks to catenary, when a rail network is digitised, stakeholders are able to best see the entire picture and make more informed decisions. In this presentation, Raphael Goudard will present case studies from around the globe of Hexagon’s solutions to capture, measure, analyse and visualise rail networks that help to keep passengers safe and arrive at their destinations on time. He will further explore applications in digitising rail networks. He will start with 3D rail surveying where the reality capture of the tracks and all surrounding network assets builds the basis for a rail digital reality. He will then dive deeper into maintenance and planning for rail, identifying how operators can pinpoint the most critical areas in need of upgrade. Following this, Raphael will delve into safety and emergency management, explaining how stakeholders can predict and mitigate hazardous situations. Finally, he will look at asset management, discussing how GIS enables rail professionals to keep networks working at optimal conditions.
15:10 – Network Rail & Dura Composites collaborate on Fire Testing Standards – Stuart Burns, Managing Director, Dura Composites
Dura Composites, supplier of composite products for the rail industry, has been working closely with Network Rail to put in place stringent fire safety standards for composite products used for important evacuation routes, such as station platforms, as well as non-evacuation routes including bridge walkways, stairways and trackside solutions. As composite materials are playing an increasingly important role in the rail industry thanks to their high strength to weight ratio and huge durability, Network Rail wanted to update its fire safety specification requirements aligned to particular test standards for certain common applications. Working with Dura Composites’ commercial director and materials science expert, Tom Bowman, classifications have been developed that cover both structural (evacuation) and non-structural (non-evacuation) applications and include fire tests such as flame spread, burn-time and load bearing testing. All Network Rail projects are obligated to use products that meet the relevant British and European Fire Safety Standards for the application in question. Working with both the railway infrastructure and construction industries, including Network Rail, London Underground, Crossrail and major rail contractors, Dura Composites is pleased to be able to confirm it exceeds all Network Rail specified fire safety requirements as part of its standard specification.
Thursday 03/05/2018
10:30 – Keynote – HS2: a lasting legacy – Lorna Pimlott, Phase Two Sponsorship Director, HS2
HS2 will have a transformative effect on travel in Britain. It will form the new high-speed backbone of the country’s rail network, connecting eight out of 10 of Britain’s largest cities with a fast, frequent and reliable 21st-century service. It will change our concept of geography, shrinking distance and bringing businesses and people closer together. Just as our generation benefits from the engineering skills of the Victorians, so future British generations will be using the infrastructure we build now well into the 22nd century as HS2 will have a design life of over 100 years. So we have a responsibility to build HS2 to the highest standard and with the most flexible and adaptable design. If we do this properly, we have a huge opportunity to grow the skills base in Britain. Over the next 15 years, thousands of young people will be trained and work on HS2 construction, providing a lasting legacy to the UK infrastructure industry of highly skilled and experienced people. The opportunities for the UK supply chain will be huge too. If we provide the right incentives for innovation and engineering brilliance, we can help create a new high-speed rail industry in Britain that is the envy of the world. HS2 is not a standalone project. It will be integrated into other projects such as Northern Powerhouse Rail and the existing local and regional transport network. Regions and cities are already working to get the best out of HS2 for local people with long-term economic and regeneration plans. In this way, HS2 will help get the best out of Britain too.
11:10 – Geosynthetics: What are they and what is their relevance in Rail Engineering? – Dave Woods, Head of Application Management, Low & Bonar
Geosynthetics; polymeric textiles, geogrids, mats and geofoam are used in reinforcement, drainage, filtration, erosion control and as lightweight fill materials. They are one of the last developments within the field of geotechnical engineering and can still be seen as a new material form and a risk by the broader civil engineering community, in spite of their successful implementation on a wide range of schemes over the last 30 years. In rail applications, geosynthetics can be used to provide filtration, separation and reinforcement of the ballast/subsoil interface to reduce trackbed deformation and can also incorporate metallic elements to allow for remote monitoring of the interface to better plan maintenance work. Grids, drainage and erosion control fabrics can be used to repair failing embankment and cutting slopes or to facilitate track widening whilst reinforced soil walls can provide solutions for both temporary and permanent bridge abutments and retaining walls. Wick drains, encased stone columns or lightweight fill materials can be used to enable construction over fill materials liable to consolidation settlement whilst reinforced platforms can improve the bearing capacity of poor soils. This presentation aims to give a brief introduction to the range and applications of geosynthetics and explain their relevance to rail engineering and the cost, time and environmental benefits to be gained by their proper application.
11:50 – Technical expertise for building stronger railways – Stephen Lewis, Consultant, Rail Technologies, British Steel
British Steel is helping to build stronger futures for high speed, heavy duty, mixed traffic, metro and tramway networks both with its rails and also its know-how. Rail technologies consultant Stephen Lewis will discuss two different aspects of rail technical services, both areas to help improve operational efficiency and network performance. Joining rails is an essential part of building and maintaining any rail network. With a wealth of welding experience and knowledge, it is no surprise that people call in British Steel experts when they require help, whether they’re looking for help with compliance to international standards, improving static, mobile or even repair welding processes. In his presentation, Steve will give some practical examples of solving real welding challenges. Light rail systems are an essential part of many plans for sustainable and connected cities. Smart and targeted management of the rail asset is a vital part of keeping commuters and shoppers on the move cost effectively. The infrastructure space shared by road, rail and people poses some extra challenges to keeping this multi-use space running smoothly and Steve will describe some of the ways practical asset intelligence assists in extracting the best life of the rail asset.
12:30 – Advances in rail surveying using digital image processing – Phil Storr, Director, MRL Eye (Aerialtronics)
This presentation will look at how using the latest image capture technology with commercial unmanned aerial vehicle technology results in highly accurate digital mapping of railway infrastructure. Combining these two new technologies provides infrastructure operators and asset managers with powerful insight into structures and equipment enabling critical points of failure to be identified earlier, thereby instigating timely interventions, reducing service outages and improving whole life cycle costs of assets. Capturing this data and processing it more intelligently empowers asset owners to make smarter decisions through a quicker and more effective workflow. This is important as the UK rail network has over 20,000 miles of track and 40,000 structures, all of which require regular inspection, monitoring and maintenance. Furthermore, when considering that this work is still predominantly completed through traditional inspection methods and data processing techniques, the ability to complete this work in weeks rather months also supports more timely and effective business decisions. This presentation, through a number of case studies, gives insight into the advances in rail surveying using digital image processing and how combining the two emerging technologies of UAV’s and data processing can change how assets are managed.
13:10 – Modelling of rail traction and power distribution systems – Derek Smith, Business Development Director, ETAP Automation
City and state-wide growth and development often requires reinforcement on both train and power distribution systems to provide safe, reliable, and robust train operations. An optimized design requires multi-scenarios analysis of traction operation and traction infrastructure, considering substation locations, capacity, reliability assessment, centralized database, rolling stock considerations, varying track configuration and schedules, as well as the associated capital cost and energy demand. Hence, a solution for addressing the key industry challenges for design and operation of rail traction systems is needed, one which will eliminate guesswork using real-time data. In addition, interactions between traction operation and power distribution network must be analysed to understand the reliability of train performance during normal operation, network disturbances and other unplanned events. eTraX provides such a solution platform for the design, analysis, prediction, optimization, operation and automation of AC and DC railway traction power systems, low voltage auxiliary, signalling power supply, and high voltage grid distribution system. Using advanced geospatial asset information and views, eTraX provides an intelligent model for electrical network life-cycle management to analyse train operation vs. substation performance, predict the behaviour of rolling stock, verify / size system infrastructure, and evaluate energy consumption and losses of rail infrastructure.
Infrarail, which takes place at ExCeL London between 1 and 3 May 2018, is the UK’s premier trade exhibition for the railway industry. Alternating with sister show Railtex, Infrarail gives the infrastructure suppliers, particularly the smaller, specialist manufacturers, a chance to show off their wares.
This year’s exhibition is no exception. The sheer variety of goods and technology on display will be eye opening. Exhibitors will be showing off their LED signal heads, staircase treads and nosings, drainage pits, cables, fasteners, hand tools and geosynthetics.
Some of the displays will be high-tech. There will be surveying equipment, including aerial surveys using drones (UAVs), the latest signalling control and power systems, lasers and RADAR.
Innovative and clever software, to measure and control everything you can imagine and a few things you can’t, will be everywhere.
But the traditional infrastructure technologies won’t be forgotten, even if they too have undergone a bit of a makeover. Concrete, albeit lighter than before using clever reinforcement and compositions, will be found on several stands. So will rail (but made from special steel), sleepers (from imitation wood), switches and turnouts (with improved mechanisms), and overhead catenary (with fewer components that make it lighter and quicker to install).
The professional bodies are involved. The Permanent Way Institution (PWI) joins the Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET) in having a stand. So too do Crossrail and HS2.
Of course, Rail Engineer will be there. Your favourite railway engineering magazine has arranged for Network Rail chief engineer Jon Shaw to open the show, Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling MP to deliver the first keynote, and director of HS2 Lorna Pimlott to speak on the last day.
In addition, in the Rail Engineer Seminar Theatre, sixteen lucky exhibitors (chosen from over 30) will have the chance to explain their latest developments and discuss the merits of their newest products with show visitors as part of a series of free seminars.
A second theatre, the Knowledge Hub, organised by the Railway Industry Association, will bring even more experts to talk with Infrarail visitors. Expect to hear from Crossrail chief engineer Chris Binns, Digital Railway’s David Waboso, and Jeremy Long from MTR.
Do you want to know more about Rail Baltica, a standard-gauge rail link between Finland and Poland via the Baltic States, or MosgortransNIIproekt, a multidisciplinary design and research institute that is working on, amongst other things, the Moscow Monorail? You can – by visiting the Knowledge Hub.
Rail Engineer is also involved in the ontrack display. On two lengths of track kindly supplied by British Steel, some of the latest high-technology kit will be on display.
Even in an extended issue of the magazine, such as this one, it is impossible to preview everything. We have only mentioned some 65 of over 200 stands at the show, although we have provided a synopsis of every technical seminar. The only way to find out what is actually there, and what might interest, surprise or intrigue you, is to visit the show for yourself.
It’s open for three days and entrance is free, provided you register in advance. Whichever day you come, be sure to drop by stand H18 and say hello – that will be Rail Media’s home-away-from-home. We look forward to seeing you there.
An essential sub-system of any railway signalling or traffic management system is the signalling power supply (SPS). This typically includes: source of supply (usually the distribution network operator – DNO), principal supply point (PSP), signalling power distribution system (SPDS) and signalling equipment.
The majority of distribution systems are autonomous cable networks that are not interconnected although, in new installations, an increasing number are double-end fed systems. Thousands of kilometres of power cable interconnect the power supply points and signalling equipment housings positioned along the railway via functional supply points.
As with all electrical supply systems, safety is paramount. Network Rail has a rolling programme to improve electrical safety in the Signalling Power Systems which drives significant performance improvements in our network. Signalling power cable failures can be very disruptive to railway traffic. Even short-term interruptions can have a wide impact on performance across the network.
The introduction of new technologies, in the form of Distribution Interface Transformers Assemblies (DITA’s) together with a new tool for modelling network electrical performance, Target Earth Calculation Model (TECM), will support asset managers, designers and contractors to deliver significant improvements in electrical safety and performance.
To support this, Network Rail has drawn up a new standard, NR/L2/SIGELP/27416 ‘Alteration to Signalling Power Systems (SPS)’. This introduces a new set of tools, methods, processes and technologies for driving electrical safety in the largest non-traction power supply system in operation, which covers the entire rail network.
Network Characteristics
The SPS network is not homogeneous but has a number of key characteristic that are similar for the entire network installation. Some of these are driven by the age and technologies used at the time of installation. Any network electrical safety and performance assessment requires asset managers and designers to characterise the network. This can be challenging where some installations have an asset age exceeding 50 years.
The new NR/L2/SIGELP/27416 standard now sets out a supporting appendix describing typical electrical configurations across the network and a guide for characterising the network electrical system and configuration.
Signalling Power Systems can be made up of electrical systems that are:
Single-phase, IT individual with 2-core unarmoured cable;
Single-phase, IT individual with IT grouped, with 2-core unarmoured cable mixed with 2-core armoured cable;
Single-phase, IT individual with IT grouped, with 2-core unarmoured cable mixed with 3-core armoured cable;
Single-phase, IT, Class II signalling power distribution systems with 2-core enhanced unarmoured cable.
IT – Individual Terra – is a form of earthing that has its earthed connection isolated from the power supply and components are individually earthed and double insulated with the supply fed through distribution interface transformers. This earthing system is tolerant of cable earth faults. Cable sizes can range from 6mm2 to 185mm2. The number of cores is dependent on electrical configurations. Cable networks can comprise multiple feeders, installed in a range of outdoor environments including cable troughing, under-track crossings (UTX) or direct buried. These can be subjected to humidity and water immersion with typical network lengths (multiple feeders) combining to give a total cable network length in the range of 30 to 70km. Individual feeders can range in length from 5 to 30km.
This can cause leakage capacitance to earth in the range of 1μF (microfarad) to 100μF depending on the age and size of the network, the cable type and cable installation method. The cable network connects into signalling locations comprising metallic parts with a local resistance to earth values less than 1 ohm or values up to 1000 ohms (or more). This can be a key driver for assessing the electrical safety compliance of the installation.
Cables can have multiple in-line and transition cable joints and networks comprise both single phase and/or three phase AC systems.
Reasonable opportunity Introducing alterations to an existing SPS is often a highly disruptive process, since it affects many sub-systems across a large part of the network. However, this disruption in itself creates an opportunity to carry out other minor works which, hitherto, would have been postponed because the upheaval required is large compared with benefit gained.
In the past, minor work that could have been carried out at the same time as alteration work may have been ignored and managed by derogation, largely because it is outside the scope of the alteration work defined. Although this means that only work defined within the work scope gets done, it also means that any additional work related to improving electrical safety, that would be sensible to carry out at the same time, is not included.
A key principal of the new standard now requires designers to undertake a reasonable opportunity assessment alongside the asset manager when developing a design to introduce alterations to an SPS. Reasonable opportunity assessments determine any additional work that it would be reasonable to carry out at the same time as the alteration work, to address or improve electrical safety and/or performance.
Improving electrical safety
A central strategy for managing the network electrical risk is feeder sub-division. This drives the network to be subdivided into smaller and more manageable sub-networks. It also has the benefit of reducing network capacitance and reducing the risk of electric shock, along with improving performance by allowing asset managers to identify emerging faults easier than in larger networks.
Sub-dividing the network into smaller parts using Distribution Interface Transformer Assemblies (DITA) allows a reduction in system capacitance termed First Fault Current Reduction (FFCR). FFCR may be used in combination with earthing to reduce the maximum permissible earth resistance value to control touch voltages under first fault conditions in IT Electrical Systems. This can be quantified by using a new tool in accordance with NR/L3/SIGELP/27420 – ‘Target Earth Calculation Methodology for Signalling Power Supplies’. The tool, which is available as a free download, forms a key part in allowing designers to establish lengths and target earth values and it also helps determine feeder sub-division lengths. First Fault Current Reduction (FFCR) may be used in isolation or in combination with local earthing, traction bonding and Class II/hybrid equipment. This may be useful in installations where: The magnitude of electric shock risk is to be reduced for all installations on the feeder network without the need to address each Signalling Apparatus Housing; Individual feeder Insulation Monitoring indications allow a response time for faults to be achieved within the maximum permitted time; Individual soil conditions and access arrangements make it difficult for the construction of local earth farms and the installation of Class II / hybrid equipment.
Feeder sub-division
Where existing installations have multiple feeders derived from a single transformer, opportunities can now be taken to consider either sub-dividing the Principal Supply Point (PSP) transformers such that each outgoing feeder has an individual isolation transformer, and or sub-dividing the feeder into smaller sections by using DITAs in accordance with network rail standard NR/L2/SIGELP/27419.
Distribution Interface Transformer Assembly (DITA) concept
New DITA technologies have now been deployed in several installations including Blackburn King Street; Stirling, Dunblane and Alloa; Halton Curve, Northern Programmes and Bristol Area Resignalling. All now have achieved trial product certification. They are now ready for wider implementation to drive electrical safety and performance improvements. DITAs in accordance with NR/L2/SIGELP/27419 can now also be used in signalling power distribution systems for a number of purposes.
DITAs can be used for segregation between a Class I and a Class II installation to preserve the integrity of a Class II-based feeder when interfaced with a Class I feeder. This is critical where the Class I system has been installed for a number of years and may not be compliant with the requirements of BS 7671.
This would equally apply if a Class I installation was the source and a Class II installation was installed downstream.
A DITA can also provide segregation between feeders and spurs or branches, to divide a signalling power system feeder into sections, particularly long feeders or those having multiple spurs or branches. Similarly, DITAs can segregate distribution feeders supplied by the PSP, from a single isolating transformer serving a network to individual isolating transformers for each feeder, and segregate distribution feeders by dividing an existing feeder into electrically smaller sections.
In addition, DITAs can step-up the voltage (voltage boost). This can be beneficial in installations where smaller cable sizes have been deployed to achieve value engineering or where aluminium cables are used to reduce the likelihood of theft or drive efficiencies.
To minimise the flow of stray traction current between different designs of a railway traction system with different traction earthing arrangements, DITAs can be installed at the interface between an auto transformer traction system and classical AC traction system, between AC and DC traction systems, or between a traction power system and a non-electrified area. If correct isolation is not provided, stray DC traction currents could flow through a signalling system earthing arrangement at apparatus housings, potentially causing electrolytic corrosion.
Componentry
The DITAs have been designed to consist of the switchgear, isolating transformer, protection and control unit, insulating monitoring equipment, distribution feeder soft-start equipment and alarm facilities.
The transformer section of the DITA may contain the incoming isolating transformer(s) and the main isolating device for the DITA system. This is a key component that allows the network to be segregated.
The protection control unit (PCU) contains the Definite Minimum Time electronic circuit protection for the DITA system, insulation monitoring, distribution feeder soft start (DFSS), bypass arrangements, alarms and auxiliary power supplies.
The DMT electronic circuit protection within the PCU, programmable with a definite minimum time characteristic for circuit disconnection in the event of a fault, allows the protection to be tuned to prevailing network characteristics.
The key innovation is the DFSS – distribution feeder soft start – an electronic device within the PCU that allows transformer inrush conditions during start-up to be damped, allowing protection sizes to be reduced and removing the risk of fuses being ruptured under start-up conditions. This technology has the potential to be used to manage high start-up currents in point operations.
National Rollout
John Fry, technical head of E&P for Network Rail Infrastructure Projects, said: “We are keen to support the deployment of new technology to drive electrical safety and performance improvements in our networks when undertaking alterations on the network driven by renewal or enhancement projects.” With the technology now available from three potential suppliers, and with a number of design houses with the experience of network modelling to introduce DITAs, now is the time to review the potential and consider their deployment.
This article was written by Tahir Ayub, a programme engineering manager (enhancements) at Network Rail Infrastructure Projects (Central) who has been the technical lead for the development of the new standard.
Rail Engineer’s report on the 2017 RVE Exhibition (issue 157, November 2017) featured a paragraph describing the mid-life refresh of the Siemens Class 185 DMUs. This led to an invitation to see the work first hand and, in early March 2018, Rail Engineer visited Siemens’ Leeman Road Depot, York, to meet Lee Barron, who is leading the mid-life refresh project. Kirsty Maule, is project manager on site, and Simon Wildgoose, is responsible for day-to-day fleet delivery.
Background
These trains were purchased for the former franchise specifically to provide Inter-City quality service on the trans-Pennine routes. 51 three-car units were obtained, the first of which entered service in 2006. They were so successful in attracting more customers that overcrowding was soon reported, but proposals to expand capacity (by lengthening the units to four cars) were unsuccessful.
Increasing capacity is a major objective of the new franchise awarded to First Group, which retained the TransPennine Express (TPE) name. This franchise commenced on 1 April 2016. TPE has committed to buying a number of new trains but will also retain some of the Eversholt Rail-owned Class 185 units, which will generally operate in six-car trains.
Class 185 cars are 23.8 metres long, with 1/3 and 2/3 door spacing. They are laid out to intercity standards and include provision for a trolley food-and-drink service.
To provide good performance on the hilly trans-Pennine routes, each car is fitted with a 560kW Cummins QSK19 engine driving through a Voith gearbox and final drive. They have a high power-to-weight ratio of approximately 10kW/t, which is approximately the same as a Voyager. They have a top speed of 100mph.
Lee said that, even before TPE won the franchise, Siemens and Eversholt Rail had been discussing how to maintain the value of these trains. They are reliable trains, and the mechanical equipment and bodywork are in good condition, but, after the past 10 years of intensive operation, the interiors and amenities were in need of a refresh.
TPE’s bid included retaining 29 units but supported the whole fleet being refreshed. Following the start of the franchise, the scope was developed to meet TPE’s aspirations. A contract valued at £32 million, or just over £600,000 per unit, was signed in early 2017. The first unit was taken out of service for the work on 9 June 2017 and completion of the entire fleet is planned by July 2018.
Mid-life refresh scope
The work involves renewing, repairing, repainting and recovering, as appropriate, all panelling, flooring and seats as well as providing or upgrading the following systems:
Providing Auto Passenger Counting (APC);
Providing mains and USB power sockets – one per pair of seats in standard and one per seat in first class;
Upgrading internal main and spot lighting to LED;
Providing Automatic Selective Door Opening;
Upgrading the Passenger Information System (PIS), including seven passenger information screens throughout the train that will show ‘Live’ travel data;
Providing Wi-Fi Ethernet backbone and media servers;
New livery (vinyl) and roof painting (which was completed early in an accelerated programme);
Upgrading the catering area with chilled food cabinets and cashing-up table;
Upgrading the headlights to LED;
Prepare the cab for a driver advisory system;
Providing new CCTV cameras, including forward and rear-facing CCTV (FFCCTV);
And a wholesale internal refresh – new seating, tables, floor finishes, vanity units, curtain and wall finishes.
Phasing of works
It is unusual for any operator to have enough trains to allow one or more to be taken out of service for extensive works such as these. Generally, those in charge of maintenance have to ‘tighten their belts’ for the duration of the work to make vehicles available. TPE requires 46 units in service (47 on Fridays). Lee Barron is allowed one unit out of service on weekdays and two at the weekend, leaving Simon Wildgoose with a worst case of three units to cover for casualties and planned maintenance, something that the team at the trains’ home base at Ardwick depot, Manchester, monitors constantly.
The works themselves are carried out on two purposely-modified roads at Siemens’ depot at York. Both the internal and external roads have been adapted with staging at train floor level to provide level and safe access/egress from the vehicles. There is also space for racking, workbenches and storage.
Lee described the production process for which nine days is allowed to complete each unit, the last two days being mainly used for on-train testing and the completion of return-to-service checks. Lee acknowledged that the first four units did take somewhat longer to complete due to the extent of learning being undertaken, but by units five and six this was down to two weeks.
The current schedule is as follows:
Day minus 3 (Wednesday prior) – Unit still available for service. A joint inspection is carried out to identify issues or faults on that unit so that issues can be identified and the work can be planned, for example, any signs of deterioration of the cab or toilet floors or the requirement for new mirrors in the toilets due to damage.
Day 1, (Saturday) – strip the interior – seats, grab poles, vanity units, panelling – with items planned for re-use carefully labelled so they may be refitted in the original position (lesson learned). This work continues into day 2. Seats are collected by Diamond Seating and poles collected by TBM, noting that a spare set of poles was purchased, but there is no float of seat frames.
Day 2 (Sunday AM) – the unit goes through an intensive deep clean of all the panels, heater grilles and doorways.
Day 2 (Sunday PM) – Icomera fits the Wi-Fi and PIS systems and passenger counting (APC) cables throughout the train.
Day 3 (Monday) – power/USB sockets and wiring fitted.
Day 4 to day 7 cover the re-build with specific items on particular days:
Day 4 (Tuesday) – APC sensors and LED lighting are installed; electrical testing of completed sockets and re-installation of ceiling panels are completed. At the same time, the new carpets are installed.
Day 5 (Wednesday) – seat frames (a lesson learned is that seat pedestals have to be fitted earlier, so they now stay at York and are cleaned/touched up on site), and grab poles are installed; Aura carries out spray painting and fitting of internal labels overnight.
Day 6 (Thursday) – standard seat frames and cushions are installed.
Day 7 (Friday) – first-class seats, frames and cushions, tables, bins are installed; the unit is cleaned.
Days 8, 9 (Saturday and Sunday) – pre-service checks and snagging are carried out.
Day 10 (Monday) – the unit returns to service, allocated to an out and back working from York.
Communication, relationships and just-in-time
There are some significant logistical challenges. There is little storage space at York, so the main stores for new items is at Unipart in Doncaster, with only immediate use items on site. Seats are on a critical path as some 180 seats are removed on a Saturday. There are just three days to repair/repaint the frames and just four days to provide totally new seat, cushion bases and backs.
Lee emphasised the close working relationship developed with his supply chain, which is absolutely critical to the success of the project and has led to much flexibility.
As an example, Lee highlighted that, during the recent appalling weather between 27 February and 5 March, just one day was lost. This resulted in unit 27’s seats not being ready to take away on Saturday 3 March and in Icomera coming in on Monday 5 March, rather than Sunday 4 March, to work on train 27. Lee was confident that the lost day would be recovered, and that the unit would be back in service on Monday 12 March as planned.
He also congratulated the supply chain on continuing to deliver safely in spite of the conditions faced because of the weather.
Whilst touring the site, a lot of people were working on the vehicles with plenty of opportunity to get in each other’s way, but there was plenty of good humour in evidence with the team working together. Kirsty Maule described the social media groups set up amongst the team to keep each other informed of progress and issues. (When your writer was involved with train repair and refurbishment, even text messaging was not available!) This communication is useful as the team members that start work on a unit will probably not complete it, in order to provide for proper rest breaks.
Engineering change and assessment
A significant effort was required to demonstrate that all the changes complied with the relevant standards and were fit for purpose. Every change – including changes of colour – required an Engineering Change notice to be agreed between Siemens, TPE and Eversholt Rail. Lee was pleased to report that they had streamlined the process from 40 to 20 days.
Formal assessment was required to demonstrate compliance with the Technical Specification for Interoperability for People with Reduced Mobility. There was also liaison with RSSB over LED headlights, and liaison with TPE staff representatives over the cab modifications (seats, FFCCTV and DAS).
There have been over 60 design meetings involving suppliers, Siemens, TPE and Eversholt Rail to collectively agree all the changes to the units. This just highlights the strong collaboration shown by all parties to achieve successful completion of the project.
Challenges
Lee said it took 12 months and over 50 fire tests before they delivered seats (flat cloth, new foam) before the chosen material could be used in refresh programme. This was made more challenging as the customer required flat cloth and leather upholstery in standard class and full leather in first class.
Apart from the fire tests, the seats still have to be comfortable. Your writer can attest that the seats in both first and standard were supportive of his ample posterior – no ironing boards here! Moreover, a new suite of cleaning instructions has been developed and deployed by the Siemens presentation team to keep the new fabrics in good condition.
The various changes to the auxiliary electrical system provided some interesting challenges for the team. The provision of chilled food and drink cabinets, and the additional power sockets, would increase the load and the LED lights would reduce it. It was straightforward to show that all this was within the capability of the power subsystem.
An up-rated transformer is being provided to cope with the chillers’ start up load, but practical trials were required to determine the rating of the protection for the power sockets. They needed the MCB not to trip when everyone is charging their laptops, but to protect the system if higher-powered devices are connected despite the warning notices. Access to the MCB for the guard was also provided.
One imagines a “bring your electrical device to work” day for such a trial, which in reality is what Siemens did to test the system.
Unexpected discoveries
It seems to be a feature of refurbishment and refresh projects that problems are uncovered that no one was expecting. Lee was pleased that there was little to report on this aspect. Just a couple of toilet floors that had suffered severe water ingress, recognising that supposedly interchangeable panels should be refitted to their original location as they weren’t actually interchangeable, and some minor differences between the as-made drawings and the vehicles.
He also mentioned that TPE’s customer hosts found that their trolleys presented a tougher physical challenge to wheel across the new, thicker Axminster carpet, but another unexpected effect of the deeper pile was a quieter saloon environment than in the un-refreshed trains.
Vital statistics
Lee was pleased that most of the contractors were local, as was most of the on-site team. There are 27 different direct suppliers, 12 of which were involved in the design. TXM had supplied approximately 36 personnel for the site work and Lee said that, on average, the site team expended 1,600 hours on each unit. They would work 12-hour shifts, 06:00 to 18:00, and night work was confined to specialists (Icomera and Aura).
In addition, while completing the works, Siemens has also taken the opportunity to raise funds for the Railway Children Charity. Simply, for the duration of the modification works, each of the 51 units get renamed for a donation. The allocated name is installed onto the passenger information system and each contributor will be awarded a certificate, which includes an interesting fact about their renamed unit. All the units have been allocated names, raising over £1,000 for the charity.
Finally
Your writer made a point of travelling to York via TPE services and had the luck to travel on both original and refreshed units. The original train was comfortable but worn and lacked useful customer facilities such as Wi-Fi; it had an early 2000’s look and feel. The refreshed unit looked more contemporary, was comfortable for a journey of over an hour and Wi-Fi was a bonus.
Thanks to Siemens’ Emma Whittaker for organising the visit and to Lee Barron, Simon Wildgoose and Kirsty Maule for their patient explanations.
Of the current orders for 6,000 or so new rail vehicles, destined for routes and operators around the country, only 286 will be diesel powered. When these orders were placed, the future was to be electrification, so it was considered that the demand for diesel trains on rural routes could largely be met by cascaded DMUs that would be released as lines were electrified.
It was also expected that, with additional electrification, the many surplus EMUs displaced by orders for new trains would find homes on other lines. It is now almost certain that such perfectly serviceable EMUs will be scrapped. It would be interesting to know whether the cost of replacing them with diesel trains was considered when electrification schemes were cancelled.
The 286 diesel-powered vehicles on order comprise 140 DMU cars for Northern Rail, 80 DMU cars for West Midlands and 66 locomotive-hauled coaches for First TransPennine Express, all of which are being produced by CAF of Spain. The DMUs are from its Civity family of regional trains and the coaches are Mark 5 coaches similar to those that CAF is currently producing for Caledonian Sleeper.
Spain’s train builder
Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) has its origins in 1892 when an iron works in the Basque town of Beasain was converted into an industrial workshop to manufacture and repair wagons. This became the basis for CAF, which was set up in 1917. After the Spanish Civil War, the company was heavily involved in the reconstruction of the country’s rail fleet and opened a factory in Irun in 1940 to deal with its expanded workload.
In 1954, CAF acquired a factory at Zaragoza that had manufactured trains, subway trains and trams since 1897. It rebuilt the plant in the early 1970s. Like Alstom in France and Siemens in Germany, CAF benefited from the rail investment boom as a result of the construction of its country’s high-speed network in the 1990s.
CAF has 8,000 employees in Spain, where it now has four manufacturing plants: Beasain, Zaragoza, Irun and Castejón which respectively have covered areas of 181, 93, 21 and 19 thousand square metres. CAF also has factories in France, USA, Brazil and Mexico.
Today, the company has a record order book of €6.3 billion, of which 63 per cent is for new vehicles and the remainder for services and components. The split of orders for new vehicles is: locomotives (4%), high-speed trains (5%), regional trains (43%) and light rail vehicles (48%). The international market accounts for 87 per cent of its orders with 23 per cent of these orders being for UK trains. The company sees Britain to be an important market, having previously manufactured Heathrow Express trains and trams for Edinburgh and Birmingham. As a result, CAF is now building a 46,000 square metre factory in Newport that will employ 300 people and be opened this summer.
CAF’s UK orders
The company’s current UK orders are as shown in the table (below). Of these, construction and delivery of the new Caledonian Sleeper coaches is well advanced, with the first trains expected to enter service between Glasgow or Edinburgh and London in October. Some coach and EMU bodyshells have been produced for the TransPennine’s order and construction of Northern Rail’s EMUs and DMUs is well advanced.
Northern Rail’s Class 195 DMUs and Class 331 EMUs are being procured and financed by Eversholt Rail in a £490 million deal, which is one of the biggest orders that CAF has ever received. The contract includes the option to build more coaches to extend the units if specified before a certain date.
One of the key factors in Northern’s choice of CAF as a train builder was its ability to supply DMUs and EMUs of the same train family. For reasons of operational and maintenance, Northern wants its diesel and electric units to be as similar as possible.
Gary Tremble, Northern’s head of engineering, commented that, during the design phase, “CAF were brilliant in handling our requests”. As Gary’s day job is ensuring that the company’s current 1980s-built fleet is maintained, he is clearly looking forward to receiving these new trains and has found it very satisfying to have had a say in their specification.
The North’s new trains
Ian Hyde, Northern’s head of new trains, explained: “This is a once-in-a-generation chance to significantly improve the quality of rail services in the North; we’re enhancing the overall on-board experience. The introduction of these units will increase our fleet size allowing us to offer more and faster services.”
The age of many of its trains, which date back to the mid-80s and include the bus-like Pacer trains, makes it difficult for Northern to attract customers from their cars. This should change with these new air-conditioned trains that have 24-metre-long coaches with 2+2 seating and seats, which are cantilevered from the side of the coach, complete with armrests. The number of seats in the two, three and four-car units are, respectively, 123, 203 and 284.
Ian also explained that the intention was to provide the largest possible train. This required some standard components to be modified to fit within the UK loading gauge and may require some minor infrastructure alterations. He also advised that the amount of seat padding was determined from a passenger evaluation that considered three options.
The seats are generally aligned to windows and most have tables. Other seats have seat-back tables. There is a power socket between each pair of seats and free Wi-Fi is provided. The passenger counting system is supplied by Dilax, which also provides the seat reservation system displayed above each seat. However, there is a slot at the top of each seatback for reservation labels if required.
The electrically powered double-leaf sliding plug doors are at 1/3 and 2/3 car door positions and have large vestibules to provide good movement within the coach to minimise dwell times. For stations with short platforms, there is automatic selective door opening.
Each unit has one universal-access toilet, adjacent to two wheelchair spaces. Cycle storage is provided behind three fold down seats. The customer information screens are linked to the Darwin system and so can provide real-time information about disruption elsewhere on the network if required.
Almost identical units
Other than their power source and drive train, the Class 195 and 331 units are virtually identical. The differences in the bodyshells are from the need to accommodate pantographs and exhaust pipes. In the cab, the only apparent difference is that the engine start button in the Class 195 is replaced by a pantograph button in the 335. As a result, much of the driver training for these two units is common.
The units have automatic power control and, as shown by a blank screen in the cab, passive ETCS provision.
The 100mph units have an aluminium bodyshell with lightweight bogies that have inboard bearings with temperature monitoring on both trailer and motor bogies. They have a 35-year design life. The three-car Class 195 formation is DMSL (driving motor standard lavatory) – MS (motor standard) – DML (driving motor standard). The four-car class 331 is DMSL – PTS (pantograph transformer standard) – TS (trailer standard) – DMS.
Each of the Class 195 vehicles has an MTU power pack with Daimler 6H 1800 R85L engines that deliver 390kW. The engines have selective catalytic reduction to meet the stringent requirements of the EU stage IIIB emissions directive. ZF supply both the EcoLife six-speed automatic transmission and final drive.
On the Class 331, the driving cab vehicles are the only powered vehicles. Each has two motor bogies powered by 220kW asynchronous traction motors, one on each axle, that are supplied by Traktionssysteme of Austria. The traction control comes from CAF Power and automation and the 2570kVA transformer from ABB.
Both classes of units have Dellner auto-couplers and so can couple to each other. Coupling bars for rescue operations will be kept at strategic locations on the Northern network.
Building the units
Three of CAF’s Spanish plants are involved in the manufacture of Northern’s new trains. Zaragoza is producing the bodyshells for both types of units. The assembly, painting and static testing is being done at Zaragoza for the Class 331 EMUs and Irun for the Class 195 DMUs. The bogies for both types of units are produced at Beasain.
At the end of January, Rail Engineer was invited to tour the Zaragoza plant and see a completed Class 331 unit in EMU in the testing shed. At that time, Zaragoza had completed one 3-car and four 4-car EMUs, whilst Irun had completed one 2-car and six 3-car DMUs.
The tour of the plant started in the body shop, where bodyshell components – including solid aluminium underframes and complex aluminium extrusions supplied from Switzerland – were seen. With the use of conventional MIG welding, grinding to smooth the weld joints was evident.
The assembly line has seven production positions at which windows, wiring, pipework, underframe components and doors were fitted in the correct sequence. It was interesting to note that, once the vehicle’s interior lighting had been fitted, it was used to replace the temporary lighting at the previous position.
CAF’s technical project manager, Ramón Casalé, explains that each car currently spends eight days at each production position, although this will soon be reduced to six days. The assembly shed has two lines, one of which was producing EMUs for Mexico. Once this order is completed, both lines will be used to enable the assembly shed to produce one Northern vehicle every three days.
Testing times
In the test shed there was an opportunity to examine a gleaming four-car Class 331 that was complete, except for the seat tables. Here, the units will be subject to static testing before sent away for dynamic testing. Ramón explains that, in mid-March, this unit will depart for the Velim test track in the Czech Republic for three month’s type-approval testing.
Other units are expected to start arriving in the UK in May. They come by ship as the 1,668mm Spanish gauge precludes sending the trains by rail to Britain through the Channel Tunnel. The Class 331 is to be tested on the West Coast main line between August and November. The first unit of each type must complete 1,500 miles of fault-free running before acceptance. Once this has been done, other units must clock up 500 fault-free miles.
The first Class 195 is to be sent to Velim and to the Faurei testing centre in Romania before coming to the UK. Without the need for overhead line testing, this diesel unit is expected to obtain its letter of authority to operate before the Class 331 EMU and is expected to enter service in December.
40% more seats
The Class 195 DMUs will be maintained at Newton Heath, whilst the Class 331s will be maintained at Allerton. The units will be maintained by Northern with some technical support from CAF. Maintainability has been built into the design with a modular approach for ease of component replacement.
The Class 195 units are expected to be first used on Chester to Leeds services, whilst the first Class 331 units will operate Blackpool to Manchester Airport services. The introduction of these trains, between December and February 2020, will start a cascade process within the Northern fleet that will lead to the withdrawal of the Pacer units.
When the full fleets are deployed, they will give Northern’s commuters forty per cent more seats during peak services. Will these trains also tempt northern drivers out of their cars? On the evidence seen in Zaragoza, this seems likely.
