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The Internet of all things rail

Not just a futuristic concept, the quaintly-named ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) is the network of uniquely-identified physical objects which can be accessed through the Internet – usually using cloud-based technology. This offers real opportunities to take the management of transport networks such as London Underground to a new level by introducing connectivity, data collection and intelligence into the traditional management systems behind such businesses, then making use of smart devices and user- friendly platforms in order to control them.

Applying this technology can improve the efficiency of work carried out on transport networks. It is no longer a question of monitoring objects and fixing them when they go wrong. Now, collecting real-time information and intelligence allows their behaviour to be predicted so they get fixed before they have a chance to fail. These improvements improve reliability, service availability and cost effectiveness.

Cloud technology makes this possible by removing the need for localised processing and data storage, significantly reducing costs and enabling the data to be accessible from anywhere. Any number of assets are connected and managed, cheaply and quickly, via a pre-designed interface, thus creating an Internet of Things for the rail environment.

Introducing new technology

The development and application of sensors to monitor asset performance at a component level has paved the way, with companies such as technology services provider Telent already managing and often maintaining system elements remotely. Now, the ability to collect and store performance data, then analyse it and use it intelligently to predict, prevent and minimise the impact of equipment degradation, changes the way in which ever-more- efficient maintenance is carried out.

Microsoft has recognised the progress that Telent is making in the tangible application of these technologies and has identified work for London Underground as a great opportunity to bring its Azure Intelligent Systems Service to the market.

Steve Pears, managing director of Telent Rail, explains: “Our initial work with the Internet of Things started as part of our asset management work, which we carry out across the UK rail industry. Our customers want to run trains and they want the travelling public to be well informed during their journeys. They use us to provide, monitor and maintain the systems that inform, such as train times, public address and CCTV, and also to help them keep vital assets, such as lifts and escalators, operating.

“We were contracted by London Underground to update station information systems. As this was a ‘whole life’ contract, we were also to be responsible for maintaining the new assets as well as providing year on year efficiencies.”

This set the scene for a new approach which Telent has since taken into other rail contracts, including those with train operating companies. Many of the systems are IP based, connected by customers’ WANs
(wide area networks) and using these secure systems to monitor the status of devices.

A modest start

The project started with customer information and public address systems using some fairly basic tools. However, the benefit of being able to remotely monitor the status of these systems was quickly realised. Some of the assets are in difficult locations so being able to locate faults accurately and quickly and then arriving with the correct tools, spares and access equipment is crucial.

“Initially, we were using the Internet of Things to drive efficiencies in our maintenance organisation and to  help our customers mobilise the right organisation to get a first time fix,” Steve Pears continued. “Since then, we have continued to develop our monitoring and control skills. This has included giving our customers the capability to carry out remote monitoring via their PC, or on the move using a tablet.

“We have also extended the range of assets that we monitor. For example, just before the 2012 Olympics, London Underground wanted to ensure the best reliability of their lifts, particularly important during the Paralympics. Together, we used a variety of communications channels and added IP-connected Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) to monitor the critical parameters. This was a collaborative development – we provided the communications and monitoring skills and London Underground had the asset knowledge. This was a great success with excellent availability of these lifts throughout the games and since.”

Together, the two companies then embarked on further extending this approach by monitoring the status of escalators, control rooms and gathering data for the ‘cooling the tube’ programme. The consistent theme is that the availability of this data gathered from the Internet of Things drives performance improvements, assets are more available and maintenance costs are lowered.

Obvious benefits

Over the last two years, Telent has implemented asset-monitoring systems to deliver real-time feedback on key parameters that can affect asset performance. For example, monitoring the vibration on escalators to look
for an increasing trend which can indicate a potential failure. By alerting maintenance staff early, the status can be checked and rectified overnight resulting in reduced down time during service hours.

Increasingly, frontline staff are using tablets and mobile devices to respond effectively to alerts on site. Deploying Microsoft embedded technology in data gathering agents has provided an open extensible platform with a fast development cycle that can be supported long term.

Looking to the future, the next stage of development will focus on two key areas; prognostic assessment and enterprise integration. The vision is to have a system that defines the remaining useful life of an asset and integrates this knowledge seamlessly into the enterprise. Using web and mobile delivered data will enable operations and maintenance teams to see in real-time the detailed performance of their critical assets.

What is the overall impact today? Steve Pears is clear: “We are able to provide a more efficient service. We have cut costs. The assets we maintain and monitor have higher availability for supporting the travelling public. It takes less time to fix something that is broken and many of those things can often be fixed before they even fail.”

Plans for prettier columns

The universal column – the UC – has a lot going for it. It’s sturdy and predictable.

With equal sides it doesn’t have the awkward detailing arrangements as its (generally) smaller cousin the joist, nor of its (generally) larger relative the rolled universal beam. The flanges have parallel sides so there are no tapered washers to remember. The web is parallel and chunky and there are no pesky radii to work round. The UC was designed to stand up straight, to carry out the mundane task of taking axial loads and to be pretty stiff in the process.

It’s an example of elegant engineering design.

On the railways there are tens of thousands of them, for it is the lowly UC that forms the basis of most overhead electrification structures. Smaller ones carrying the cantilever equipment, larger ones forming the uprights of portal structures spanning many tracks.

Plain and simple

They’ve been used over the decades because they do the task of keeping up the power cables and all the associated paraphernalia extremely well. Remember the parallel flanges? They’re just the job for clamping or drilling. The sturdiness – excellent for being…. sturdy.

And there’s the prospect of many more being installed which, if they really are that great, might cause some general rejoicing. But no, strange as it may seem for such a simple piece of steelwork, some people think they are ugly. Yes, ugly, blots on the landscape. Just downright, plain ugly, despite their sound engineering credentials.

It’s taken a little while for this to be said by the industry and for an attempt to make amends. And this is where FutureRailway (yes, just one word) comes in.

The FutureRailway programme is a collaboration between Network Rail and RSSB working with industry and the supply chain to deliver the RTS.

And the RTS – the Rail Technical Strategy – supports national policy for the development of the railway over a 30-year planning horizon.

FutureRailway manages a cross-industry research, development and innovation programme to help the innovator to navigate the complex rail industry landscape and identify the most appropriate route to market. It also supports the rail industry and its supply chain to develop long term technical strategies and to facilitate the research, development and innovation needed to deliver these strategies.

The focus is on de-risking business solutions and technologies by helping move them from research through prototype to demonstration and eventual implementation.

But why should FutureRailway bother with the Universal Column which has always done what it says on the tin – and is likely so to do for another few decades?

Time for change?Finalist with model_Bystrup [online]

With the advent of a new north-south high speed rail link and the national rail network preparing for more electrification, now is a good time to ask whether the design of gantries and cantilever structures be made more aesthetically pleasing while at the same time making sure that engineering performance criteria are met.

FutureRailway recently teamed up with HS2 to promote a new innovation challenge through competitions organised by RIBA – the Royal Institute of British Architects – a venture which was funded by the Department for Transport.

In association with RIBA, the Enabling Innovation Team (EIT), which forms part of the Future Railway Programme, HS2 Ltd and the Department for Transport (DfT) intend to identify overhead line structure designs that will minimise their impact on the surrounding environment. The aim is to arrive at design solutions that are more visibly appealing to lineside neighbours, that have construction
and installation costs close to that of existing structures and that are relatively easy to install – particularly in hard to access locations.

Each of these criteria is a pretty hard call in its own right, let alone trying to come up with something that satisfies every one of them.

Selecting the best

The competition was launched in December 2013 and attracted 62 entries. Some may have been a little tongue-in-cheek, but others caused the initial selection panel some real challenges. In the end, ten entries were shortlisted and were awarded up to £15,000 each to fund the next stage of development of their scheme, which included producing a scale model of their design.

The final judging took place at the National Railway museum in York. The scale models of the entries were lined up in amongst the historic steam engines in the Great Hall and the public were given the opportunity to leave comments on the various schemes.

After two intense days the judges, who included experts in OLE design, industrial architecture and your very own editor of The Rail Engineer, recommended that three designs will go forward to the next stage of development.

The three – along with comments supplied by the entrants – are:

The High Speed T – ‘HST’ by Bystrup Architecture, Design and Engineering

The High Speed T Mast reduces the overhead rail line to two elements; a triangular cable network carrying the power, and the aesthetic T-shaped mast which supports twin systems serving adjacent tracks.

High speed twin rail lines require less land with a single line of T masts between tracks than with traditional masts either side. There are therefore no masts forming an obtrusive barrier between the track edge and its surroundings.

Tomahawk – a design family by COBE

Tomahawk (pictured) is a family of overhead line structures that minimises the visual impact of the entire line. This is achieved by reducing the overall height, reducing the number of structural elements and by using contemporary materials and manufacturing techniques.

By Keeping It Simple and Straightforward (KISS), the end product is buildable and well suited for its purpose. The simple design will also work visually when repeated hundreds of times throughout the landscape.

Integrated OLS by Moxon Architects with Mott MacDonald

The form of these masts is simple – slender and tapering, the design reduces the visual impact in the landscape. The Integrated OLS scheme simplifies the components of the power line support equipment, replacing insulating pots with built-in insulating properties through the use of a densified laminated wood.

So now it remains for these three proposals to be worked into a form that will stand the final judging. By then, maybe the UC will have some serious competition.

Edinburgh calling

Station announcements have long been the trigger for comedian’s jokes on stage, the impersonation of garbled messages always good for bringing a laugh. Writes Clive Kessell

Some of this implied criticism is valid but so many of the larger stations are acoustic horrors, the enclosed space with an overall roof being a fine echo chamber. Railway engineers have tried several theories and methods down the years to improve the quality of sound but never quite reached what could be called perfection.

Maybe the problem has no universal solution but in Scotland and in response to considerable public comment, Network Rail decided to engage some of the best brains in the acoustics industry to properly analyse the circumstances of Edinburgh Waverley prior to committing to hardware renewal. This has proved quite a challenge but the results are impressive.

Assessing the station

Edinburgh Waverley station is set in a hollow, so is relatively long with four through platforms and a number of bays at the east and west ends. Road access is from a ramp off the North Bridge that spans the hollow, leading to a central concourse area with taxis and other vehicles all descending to this level. Pedestrian steps and escalators from the north (Princes Street) and south (the Old City) lead to a footbridge across the complex with stairs down to platform level. The central part of the station is protected by an overall roof.

Much has been done in recent years to improve the fabric of the station and add more platforms but all work has needed to take account of the listed building status. Train services are about half diesel, half electric, so ambient noise levels vary considerably. As with most big stations, retail outlets abound and there is a ‘quiet’ central waiting area – passengers and staff in all of these need to hear important announcements.

Another factor entering the equation has been the need to improve the fire alarm and evacuation procedures from such a diverse site. Normal alarm bells do not trigger the public reaction that is required and most people just stand around wondering what all the noise is. A verbal message is much more effective and the VA (Voice Alarm) requirement became part of the project. Sounds straightforward enough but the impact is to make the resulting PA (Public Address) a safety system and this introduces significant requirements for reliability and availability.

Designing the system

The prime need has been to get clear and concise sound to every part of the station regardless of the ambient conditions. The novel element to achieve this is the use of intelligent loudspeakers. These are formed in long columns of individual speaker units, each of which has its own sound setting. The amplifier for the unit is contained within the loudspeaker column, thus each of these needs a power supply as well as a cable for the input sound signal.

Some 47 of these intelligent speakers are used in the central area where the overall roof (train shed) covers the station, there being three types – ’64’ very big; ‘48’ medium; ‘32’ small. The goal is to have a constant output volume whether standing close to the speaker or 50 metres from it. This suggests negating the laws of physics but amazingly it does work.Edinburgh PA 'Big' Intelligent Speaker [online]

Each speaker has two audio feeds separated, wherever possible, in diverse routes to obtain maximum reliability and a data cable enabling each speaker to be separately monitored. All are set up individually and programmed in line with sound measurements taken on site.

The intelligent speakers are complemented by some 300 normal speakers mounted on lampposts and off canopies, in shops and customer locations, away from the train shed area. These latter operate from a conventional 100V line.

The system includes noise-sensing microphones so as to adjust sound levels if high background noise levels occur, typically a diesel train idling or starting away. Feedback from this is sent to the speaker amplifiers but once the announcement has started, the level will remain unchanged until completion.

New nodes

Distribution of sound from the central node unit located in the station basement to so many speakers was a challenge so ‘sub nodes’ have been provided in the north, west and east sections of the station. These are linked together by a fibre optic ring and enable a significant reduction in conventional cabling.

Getting the power distribution has been a major challenge. The main unit is sited next to the central node and comprises an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) with associated battery. The battery supply has sufficient capacity to maintain the system in full operation for at least a half hour and an evacuation broadcast to all alarm zones for around another 30 minutes. However, this is considered insufficiently robust and so a standby generator will kick in after a three minute in-built delay if the mains power fails.

The importance of resilient power arrangements has resulted in some very large cables to connect the five nodes. Finding cable routes with a sufficient bending radius tested the initiative of the installation team.

The PA in operation

Almost all train announcements are automatically generated and triggered. The pre-recording was done by the ATOS operation in Nottingham but using a person with a Scottish accent to ensure familiarity with the local populace.

Management of announcements is controlled from Nottingham and transmitted to Edinburgh via a router in Birmingham. Triggering of messages uses a combination of timetable and train running databases. Such is the advancement of message construction from individual words and phrases that it is not obvious to the untrained ear that it is computer derived.

Currently, only a single message is made for each train service, this being broadcast five minutes before departure giving platform number, departure time and calling points. Arrival information is only announced for trains not terminating at Edinburgh.

Additional messages are broadcast if disruption occurs. Although a zoning facility does exist, currently every announcement is heard everywhere. Microphones for live messages are located in the station reception office and the signalling control centre, needed mostly for ‘person alert’ communication but also if serious out-of-course situations occur.

Retail units, the ticket office and all other public areas can be programmed whether or not to have train announcements depending on the disturbance likely to result, but must receive any voice alarm messages.

Voice Alarm operation

Any fire alarm activation from a call point or smoke detector will initiate an alert to the station reception and triggers a ‘call to inspector’ voice message. That person then has six minutes to go to the alarm site and check whether the situation is indeed a real problem or, more likely, an equipment fault or minor incident such as the toast being burnt. If no further action is needed, a call to the station reception will lead to the alert being re-set.

Failure to resolve the alarm trigger within six minutes will result in a voice evacuation message being broadcast. Should a second alarm be generated during the six-minute timescale, the evacuation message will immediately result.

Edinburgh PA Tannoy Cntrl for Intelligent Spkrs [online]Controlling an evacuation is itself a challenge and with the arrival of fire engines and personnel, additional information will be broadcast from one of five Fire Microphones that are positioned around the station (pictured above). From these, the public will be told the routes to be followed and any other relevant data.

This procedure may sound draconian but so far no unintended evacuations have taken place. Any VA message will have priority over any train announcement.

Providing the System

With such a complex system, no single supplier was capable of providing all the elements. Network Rail competitively tendered for a management contract and system integrator, which was awarded to Babcock International. From this a number of sub contracts were let, the most significant being:

  • T G Baker based in Clydebank near Glasgow for acoustic design and programming of speakers, also the construction of the main and sub node racks;
  • ASL Ltd of Lewes for their Vipedia product that routes the audio signals to the speakers;
  • Tannoy of Coatbridge who supplied the intelligent speakers;
  • Ogilvie of Stirling for cable running, power provision and overall installation;
  • Lanarkshire Welding for design, fabrication and installation of speaker bracketry.

To satisfy the listed building requirements, photo montages of the speaker installation had to be produced so that the visual aspect could be agreed in advance. Testing had to be carefully managed so as not to interfere with the day-to-day running of the station but also not to disturb nearby residents at night. Complaints from some home owners, hotels and art galleries did arise and led to a consultative process being put in place from which the operating volume of the system has been constrained.

Testing and commissioning

To test each intelligent loudspeaker, firstly a known frequency is injected and used to set the loudspeaker’s maximum level which is between 85 and 88dB. The loudspeaker is then equalised and balanced using ‘pink noise’ (a range of frequencies with a corrected balance to match the response of the human ear) to achieve roughly the same level of around 85dB. Following this, a repetitive drum click is broadcast to each platform at 80dB to confirm and adjust the loudspeakers’ audio delays. This ensures the announcements heard from each speaker will arrive at the human ear at the same time.

When all loudspeakers have had gain, equalisation and delays set-up, the system is tested from the audio inputs (microphones, recorded announcements and evacuate/alert messages), these being broadcast to each zone from which volume levels are set. Lastly, sound intensity measurements are made to confirm the system’s intelligibility.

Authorised in 2012, installation work commenced in September 2013 and the system was commissioned on 28 February 2014. Getting it right was never going to be cheap but the overall project cost of £2.5 million is considered well worth it for the significant gains that have been made.

So is the new system a success? Most people will not even notice the new speaker columns so improvement can only be measured by the lack of complaints on audibility from the public. Certainly, announcements are much clearer than before and thus, to date, the team are confident that success has been achieved.

A nice touch has been the re-use of the old equipment, the speakers going to a University Student who wants to see his study of ambionics put into practice and the amplifiers being acquired by the Strathspey heritage railway.

Stations as a service

So what are railway stations for? The answer is obvious: they are the places where you go to catch or get off trains. For many this is true; cold, draughty platforms that are not nice to hang around on – especially if trains are delayed. Writes Clive Kessell

In the remoter locations, stations are unstaffed with lack of information on train services except perhaps for a printed timetable.

But is this perception really fair, when so much has gone on in recent years to brighten up station environments, provide better information and maybe a place for shops and cafes?

The improvements have been largely piecemeal and brought about by Train Operating Companies and local community initiatives. You will not find a national specification setting out what a station should provide. Upgrades have not been integrated to take advantage of modern technology and the opportunities that could result.

However, this uncoordinated approach may be about to change under a new banner of ‘Stations as a Service’. A recent seminar hosted by the Rail Safety & Standards Board and Cisco brought together the various interested parties to discuss how new facilities and usage will be progressed.

Project Background

Innovation is the buzz word of this decade and several initiatives are underway to both steer and fund foreseen opportunities. One such goes under the ‘Catapult’ banner, with a number of topics being considered. Catapult aims to bridge the gap between government, academia and industry such that the best brains available can focus on a designated problem.

Co-funded by the Technology Strategy Board and RSSB, Stations as a Service is intent on looking at the whole operation of stations, what they do well, what could be done better and what opportunities could emerge. Topics are numerous and wide ranging:

  • Interchanges
  • Impact of disruption
  • Seamless journey with modal interchange
  • Personalised information
  • Use of transport information to improve network performance
  • End to end mobility
  • Integrating quality of life with city based economic benefits
  • Whole journey accessibility
  • Systems approach to investment
  • Seamless freight.

These can involve many railway disciplines but all are seen as having some impact on station facilities, operation and management. The ongoing scenario needs also to take into account climate change, the growing population, urbanisation, mobile technology, social and sharing trends, and ownership replacement with service provision.

Constituents, Participation and Objectives

Stations as a Service (StaaS) is one of seven projects going forward under the ‘Enabling the Digital Railway’ collaborative approach and is a consortium of four project partners and several industry observers. Cisco is leading the project and will drive the futuristic IT vision, while systems integrator Telent will facilitate the trial modelling and mock ups. Several TOCs are involved,
as is Network Rail, RSSB and a number of private companies. Opportunities will exist for small and medium sized companies to participate as the project gathers momentum.

The project has four main headings spelt out by Cisco’s managing director for the public sector, Rod Halstead: security, operations, retail and the passenger experience. Information technology is very much part of all these and the IT world of today has come about only in the last twenty years. Part of StaaS will take account of the huge increase in smartphone usage – around 74% of the UK population now has one.

Photo: shutterstock.com
Photo: shutterstock.com

In more specific terms, Felix Gerdes, the Cisco business development manager for rail and mass transit, set out the objectives from three perspectives.

The IT and industry perception is that retail opportunities in stations are poorly delivered and ready for a re-think. Assets can be remotely monitored and managed by taking advantage of greater standardisation in IT. There should be improved integration of smaller station groups and the removal of split responsibilities at stations.

The TOCs’ view mirrors this to some extent. They are interested in ways to use stations more effectively, to increase the time spent by travellers in retail areas while, at the same time, reducing the risk of accidents and overcrowding. There is also a need to focus on what to do during disruption with the provision of better information.

Network Rail, which manages most of the very large stations, has similar views but, because of the potential for larger crowds, has some additional requirements. These are promoting a richer traveller experience, making enhancing capacity and traveller management, improving transit times for passengers, increasing operational efficiency and finding ways to monetise the facilities.

A more contentious vision is to move from replacing products with service provision. To illustrate this, in the airline business, jet engines are often leased on the basis of hours of thrust rather than directly owned. Service does, however, mean being able to connect things and station infrastructure needs to be controlled and delivered as a managed service. This may well emerge by creating standards that allow for station information services and retailer needs to be provided by a single IP based protocol. Due notice will need to be taken of legislation such as disability requirements, and the effectiveness of trials will mean putting in place a constant feedback loop.

Trial sites and the need for caution

As Stephen Goodman from Cisco commented: “No plan survives the first contact with the enemy”. Whilst there is no real enemy here, there will be many false starts and lessons to be learned. So how to take this forward?

In conjunction with Abellio Greater Anglia, three stations have been chosen as a trial: one large (Liverpool Street), one medium (Colchester) and one small (Ingatestone). All of these have multiple dissimilar systems and networks. A starting premise is that nothing must affect the safe operation of trains and anything new will not replace existing systems at this stage. A local station based management automation system will then support:

  • Public and staff WiFi, noting that passengers are often better informed than staff;
  • Location based services including WiFi connection between platforms if cable routes are unavailable or difficult to access; » CCTV with local archiving;
  • Fire alarm and safety systems, VA/PA;
  • Voice communications and help points;
  • Interactive customer service signage;
  • Ticket machines and gates.

All facilities will be connected together on a centralised network and monitored initially from the Telent office in Warwick. Due cognisance will be taken of the 25kV electrification and any adverse effects from interference and pantograph sparks.

The TOC reaction

Whilst welcoming the initiative, Mike Kean from Abellio spelt out some factors that will need longer-term consideration. A franchise still typically lasts only seven years and it is hard to get a payback in that period. Network Rail, as the station owner, is only obliged to maintain the sites and not improve them. As such, lease arrangements are complex.

For smaller stations such as Ingatestone that are often unstaffed for periods of the day, safety is important but managing cost is often dominant over service quality. Making these stations part of the community, maybe using the building as a public communications centre, will be welcomed. Beware also of listed buildings and the limitations this can mean.

Medium stations like Colchester invariably have many legacy systems but need to develop as a transport partnership with buses, taxis, bike hire and car parking. Longer dwell times for people may result from this thus enhancing retail opportunities.

A large station like Liverpool St often has multi-TOC usage, all being tenants of Network Rail. Passenger service and support is dominant with dwell time being the biggest problem when major disruption occurs. Staffing cost splits between Network Rail and TOCs can cause disputes on the number of staff required.

Technical challenges

The StaaS project will need to show that associated equipment and system architecture is robust. Peter Felton from Telent described it as ‘the internet of things’; the crunching of data is not difficult, joining it together is the main challenge and will be the main focus for StaaS.

Video evidence for security problems such as vandalism, theft of luggage and third party issues, is very much part of station management obligations but this will be enhanced by mobile access to station CCTV monitoring.

Getting information out to travellers in advance of arriving at the station by use of social media will become the norm. Maximising IT to give information when all stations on a line of route are likely to be affected is another objective, as is collective gathering of data for alarms and asset management.

Whilst retail outlets have expanded over the past ten years, these tend to be only at larger stations. Opportunities at smaller sites are as yet untapped: a ‘click and collect’ service to save the tired commuter a shopping expedition at the end of a long day could be worth trying, although there would be staffing implications. Maybe retail staff could be doubly employed as a visual presence for aiding station security?

Incident management and physical security are issues where faster access to knowledge can be all important. The firm Workware Systems believes that the imshutterstock_166211510 [online]pact of the mobile tablet could be vital for police officers called to deal with a problem. A video picture of what is currently happening will enable data to be gathered in quick time which can be used to both decide what action needs taking as well as providing future evidence.

Going forward

It would be all too easy to think that the present situation is all wrong. Stations like St Pancras, Kings Cross, Manchester Piccadilly, Nottingham and the ongoing work at Birmingham New Street and London Bridge can transform the station experience. There is much to commend this new initiative but part of the task must be to analyse what is being done to improve stations as part of other projects, and not seek to replace these just for the sake of it.

Very few of the listed features are entirely new; most exist today but as isolated systems. Joining them up into a new ‘single platform’ operation is the important part of the vision. The use of IP based communication is a natural technology progression but even this must be considered in conjunction with other projects.

The Traffic Management System deployment has, as a spin off, the improvement of train service information at stations, possibly by graphic displays to the public. Getting similar information onboard trains is a follow on from this.

The upgrade of Network Rail’s FTN to offer a nationwide IP service will surely have an impact on how StaaS evolves. Above all, it will be about re-educating the public on rail station expectations and this will only be possible when the early trials of StaaS have been measured, analysed and updated in the light of experience.

Watching what happens at Liverpool St, Colchester and Ingatestone will be an interesting exercise.

 

Dawlish – six months on

Last February, a good portion of the UK land mass appeared to be underwater and the coastline was being buffeted and bashed by storms and unprecedented high tides. This badly affected many costal railways, but perhaps the worst problems that Network Rail had to deal with were in Devon, on the main line running along the exposed and vulnerable sea wall at Dawlish. Writes Colin Carr

The damage to this coastal stretch of railway was extensive. Around 80 metres of the sea wall had initially been breached by the waves and washed out to sea but, by mid February, that breach had expanded to more than 100 metres in length and the formation and track ballast behind the wall had vanished, as had a retaining wall supporting a private roadway and then the roadway itself leaving a substantial number of houses beyond in a very precarious state (issue 113 March 2014).

First 48 hours was critical

It’s now early summer, so The Rail Engineer has been back to Dawlish to meet some of the engineers who were involved in putting the railway back together, to find out what they think about it all now that the adrenalin has settled and they have had time to reflect. Alex Evason was Network Rail’s senior construction manager. He was involved with the repair work throughout the period working for Tom Kirkham, the project manager for the emergency.

Alex explained that the appointment, in the first 48 hours of the emergency, of BAM Nuttall as principal contractor for the main breach of the sea wall and all the additional myriad of sites suffering from the storm damage had been critical. This ensured a clear line of command and responsibility from the start of the repair work.

Daily meetings were established at 9am and 4pm, chaired by BAM Nuttall, to ensure that plans and ideas were shared, understood and resources appropriately allocated. Amalgamated Construction (AMCO) was drafted in to provide additional expertise and support.

Andy Crowley, AMCO’s contracts manager, explained that they needed plant, resources and materials on site as quickly as possible and one of the early challenges was to develop an understanding as to how they could best use the resources available to protect the railway and minimise further deterioration whilst the storms continued to rage. To help this process, Network Rail also procured the services of Tony Gee & Partners to develop a design for repairing the main breach.

The ability for the repair team to easily and securely share large data files such as architectural blue prints with the team on the ground at Dawlish and those working at other locations including BAM Nuttall and Network Rail’s offices was critical. Alongside this was the need to incorporate separate access to site visitors, including members of the Cabinet oversight committee.

IMG_2084 [online]Trellisworks, a specialist wireless connectivity expert, designed and deployed an emergency communication network based around the Pepaves MAX wireless router range. This network was capable of sending and receiving large quantities of data rapidly and reliably, yet also needed to be flexible and resilient enough to cope with the changing situation on site as well as ongoing challenging weather conditions.

Rob Youster, Head of ICT at BAM Nuttall said: “We needed a communication solution that was robust and capable of handling the high-end data needs of the site. It needed to provide secure Wide Area Network (WAN) and wireless access reliably 24×7. The communications network that Trellisworks created was absolutely vital to the smooth running of this project and ensured that the team on site were able to communicate and collaborate effectively with colleagues who were not based at Dawlish.”

“You could smell the gas”

The main breach became known as the “Hole” and in the early days it was the main focus of attention. Each high tide was washing more of formation away from the railway and the roadway behind. In addition, many of the houses had been badly damaged and they had to be evacuated. Gas, sewage and water were leaking across the site from the houses so something had to be done immediately before the houses started to collapse or the site became too dangerous to work in.

Lenny Wilkinson, BAM Nuttall’s works manager, has a reputation on site for making things happen using a network of good contacts acquired over the years. Whilst working on a previous job in Jersey, Lenny remembered that steel ship containers were being used for protection and he brought this idea for discussion to one of the daily meetings. Within 48 hours, Lenny’s coordination skills ensured that eleven new containers arrived from Southampton docks. They were cut open in preparation for filling with ballast and formation rubble on site then welded together.

Further storms on 14 February extended the “Hole” to more than 100 metres, which meant that more containers were required. Eventually, a total of nineteen sea containers were used to protect the vulnerable sea wall and, although they are now in a dilapidated state, they are still in place acting like one of those medieval shield walls providing a last line of defence. The effectiveness of this defence was discussed at a COBRA meeting chaired by the prime minister… now there’s endorsement for a good idea!

The Army offered its services and brought some interesting proposals. However, although the sea wall probably felt like a war zone, it was a different environment and the materials and skills that the army had at their disposal were not really suited to this particular task.

Relocating plant and resources

Once the containers were in place and absorbing the battering from the sea, work to stabilise the site could commence. AMCO, which had been working 30 miles away in Whiteball tunnel near Taunton (issue 113, March 2014), was able to relocate its plant and spray concrete onto the exposed formation using the now redundant track as additional ballast and reinforcement. This was another critical step that bought precious time.

At its peak, 300 engineers were working day shifts followed by 200 engineers working nights. To ensure that they were able to resource such numbers, it was decided to redefine the site as a ‘High Street’ location rather than a railway location. This was possible as it was no longer a functioning railway and it meant that skilled engineers who had not worked in a railway environment before could do so without any additional site safety training. However, Alex was keen to point out that at no time were safety standards compromised and throughout this intense period of work, carried out in appalling conditions, only two minor injuries (both sprained ankles) were recorded.

Filling the Hole

AMCO as the main contractor, along with BAM, was tasked with acquiring concrete vehicle collision barriers (VCBs) from around the country.

These were placed in the “Hole” and fixed together laterally with dowel pins and 40mm stainless steel transvers bars. Then, more than 5,000 tonnes of C50 concrete, an additional 150 tonnes of steel, and a new 600ft-long section of track were used to complete the repairs.

More than 450 metres of parapet sea wall was either badly damaged or missing altogether along with associated footpaths, walkways and steps. Hanson’s precast concrete works at Derby provided L-shaped units within three weeks. These ranged from 2 to 3.25 metres high, 1.2 to 1.6 metres wide and 1.6 metres long and they were used both behind the parapet sea wall and the retaining wall for the roadway behind. Cornish Concrete produced 260 coping stones weighing 1.8 tonnes each.

Hanson also provided pumped concrete to the site, using highly-skilled professionals concrete pumping services which had the expertise to get the material to this exposed location. This was not an easy matter since the only access way to the “Hole” was down a series of narrow flights of stairs winding between houses on a very steep incline.

Dawlish station repairs

In addition to this major damage at Dawlish, there were at least five other locations between there and Dawlish Warren where the sea wall had also been breached, albeit not as severely. Dawlish station had also taken a battering, the wooden down platform boarding had been ripped out and furnishings badly damaged, and there were concerns about the stability of the sea wall at a number of other locations further up the coast in the Teignmouth area.

The SISK Group carried out repairs and reconstruction of the down platform at Dawlish station while Dyer & Butler focused on other repairs to the sea wall between Parsons Tunnel and Teignmouth station. Lee Davey, senior site agent, explained that they were the local maintainers and so they were able to add vital knowledge and expertise to the team.

More than 37 individual landslips were identified. One, known as the Woodland landslip, was particularly worrying and was one of the reasons why the completion date was at one point revised to 28 April. AMCO’s specialist contractor CAN, working at Woodlands to stabilise the bankslip, reported back-scars that were initially 80 metres long and three to five metres deep. Because of the torrential rain these scars were growing, becoming anything up to ten metres deep, which indicated that there was some serious ground movement taking place.

IMG_2127 [online]Drone technology

AMCO procured the services of a drone that had been used on the previous year’s slip site adjacent to the Woodlands location.The drone was able to take  pictures that confirmed the concern that a 55 metre high cliff was slowly releasing 35,000 tonnes of debris onto the tracks. To deal with this AMCO, then procured the services of the USAR (urban search and rescue) from the Devon & Cornwall Fire Brigade and China Clay, both experts in the field of high-pressure water pumping equipment. This expertise was used to accelerate the failure of the slip by a combination of pumping water into the back-scar to lubricate the slip plain and hydro-cutting the cliff face, as is common practise in the world of quarrying and mining. This proved successful and the debris was then disposed of into the sea with kind permission and approval from the Maritime Marine Organisation.

Dyer & Butler then had to repair the parapet wall that had been damaged by the slip.

So, although the potential slip put back the expected reopening of the line from around mid-March to mid-April, Network Rail was subsequently able to announce that the line would reopen on Friday 4 April in time for the Easter holidays. David Cameron officially declared the line open. The local community laid on an event in the town hall for the Orange Army; clearly they had appreciated all that had been done on their behalf.

It has been a field day for the press with spectacular pictures and videos of a washed away railway protected by a sacrificial wall of ship containers, welded together, filled with rock and rubble and lined up on the footpath in front of the 100 metre breach. It took teamwork to put everything back together, and all those involved commented that everyone pulled together. Frequent mention was made of the many suppliers and sub contractors who played an invaluable part in ensuring that everything possible was done to ensure that the railway was restored as soon as was humanly possible.

Secondary wall

With an overall cost in the region of £35 million, it has been an expensive experience for Network Rail. So what will happen in the future? What has been learnt?

Well, AMCO has now been appointed as principal contractor for the next phase. Approximately £8.5 million is being made available to complete the construction of a secondary wall in front of the original Brunel wall and the plan is to have this secure by the end of the summer. A marine approach to the works will be adopted, with new pre-cast wall sections being lifted in by jack-up-barges to minimise disruption to train services.

Dyer & Butler will continue to work within a budget of £500,000 to carry out day-to-day maintenance including pointing. A five-year plan is being developed to improve the resilience of the wall and there is a feasibility study underway by Tony Gee & Partners to consider the viability of seven alternative routes.

Finally, as Alex pointed out many times, it was fundamentally a team effort with everyone working together to restore a railway for the benefit of the West Country. Alex also added that the local community, particularly hotels and suppliers, did very well out of the disruption and there was a boost for the local economy. It just goes to show that every cloud does have a silver lining of sorts!

Revitalisation progressing well – An update on Manchester Victoria

Manchester Victoria station is not one of the country’s great stations. Voted “the worst station in the country” in a 2009 Department for Transport-commissioned report, it was badly in need of improvement. Network Rail’s plans to rectify this undesirable status and to transform the station into a key interchange location for transport in the city of Manchester were outlined in issue 105 (July 2013). Writes Colin Carr

So, one year on, it was time to revisit the site to meet Faisal Farooq, Network Rail’s scheme project manager and Nick Culshaw, Morgan Sindall’s project director, to find out what progress had been made. The changes were very evident and quite significant.

Detailed heritage survey

Throughout the early stages of the project, there had been detailed discussions with Manchester City Council and English Heritage about the removal of the existing station roof. This was not a simple process given that the station is a Grade II listed building, so a detailed heritage survey was commissioned to establish whether there were any unique engineering aspects to the roof that needed to be retained and preserved for future generations. As none were found, full demolition was allowed and the old train shed no longer exists.

As Faisal pointed out, the demolition was really a careful dismantling of the roof. It was carried out as part of the Morgan Sindall contract using the services of Crossways Scaffolding (Elland) group to supply and erect the scaffold.

The scaffold is a new lightweight system provided by a Dutch company, Van Thiel. It uses fewer loose components, thus reducing the risk to the public passing underneath – a detail that will be appreciated by one of the key stakeholders for this project, Northern Rail. It is also more efficient to erect than conventional scaffolding, since construction requires less manpower, and takes less time because of its push/fit system, an advantage when working over a live railway.

Before the £16 million new roof consisting of fifteen steel box girder rib units, each weighing up to 70 tonnes, could be erected, a considerable amount of ground work was required. Each rib unit is designed to be supported by an 18 metre high steel tubular column and anchored on a four metre high reinforced concrete buttress. Therefore, more than 100 continuous flight auger (CFA) piles have been284 [online] installed for the buttresses and 66 auger piles for the columns.

Protecting the culvert

In addition, there is an 8 metre high by 11 metre wide culvert, which has a shallow cover, carrying the river Irk under part of the site. Therefore, to protect the culvert from additional loading, the design required two reinforced concrete bridge spans approximately 22 metres long by 4 metres wide, to carry loading from specific columns and buttresses. An additional bridge span of similar size but using precast concrete construction was needed for distribution of loading from railway tracks. Auger piling was necessary for all three bridge decks. All this work has now been completed.

Whilst the ground works were underway, fifteen steel box-girder rib units were fabricated for Morgan Sindall by Severfield-Watson Structures Ltd. As part of the contract, Severfield is also responsible for site preparation and final positioning of all the rib units. To date, five of the 1.2 metre deep and 0.5 metre wide rib units are now in place.

The units are delivered by road to site in 24 metre sections. They are then welded together and lifted directly from the welding area seated onto a buttress and fixed into position on one of the 18 metre high tubular columns with a pin joint. To complete this very challenging lift sequence, a 1,200 tonne mobile crane is being used. Cranes of this size are a very scarce resource and everything is being put into place so that the remaining 10 rib units can be installed as one batch later in this summer.

Once the main rib units are in place, lateral steel bracing is being fitted to provide a framework designed to support cushioned clear light reflecting panels made from ETFE (ethylene tetraflouroethylene). This material was used for the refurbishment of Piccadilly station in Manchester ten years ago and also forms the roof of another highly prestigious building – the Eden  project in Cornwall. ETFE has everything going for it since it is lighter than glass and cheaper as well as safer. The manufacturers also claim that it lets in more light than glass. It has certainly succeeded in making the station brighter and more inviting to pass through or visit.

Working with TfGM

Network Rail has also needed to liaise with Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), another key stakeholder, to preserve its operations that pass through the station either side of an island platform. Network Rail had to ensure and reassure TfGM that services would not be hindered whilst construction work took place. To minimise passenger disruption, and for design synergy and cost benefits, TfGM IMG_8558 [online]decided to include the full remodelling of the Victoria station tram stop which comprises three new tram lines, two island platforms, switches and overhead lines in the works. Network Rail agreed to deliver these works on behalf of TfGM as part of the scheme.

At present, metro trains are able to pass through the station without stopping using a simple train token system for safety. This process is in place whilst the additional island platform is being constructed in preparation for two new tracks to be installed and the third track to be realigned ready to receive the next phase of development for this rapidly expanding metro system.

Besides the existing TfGM island platform, Victoria station has two bay platforms, numbered 1 and 2. There are also through platforms, 3 to 6, which are located under the modern Manchester Arena which was built in 1995. The Arena has quite a significant impact on the footfall of the station since it can accommodate 21,000 people. One of the main exit routes from the Manchester Arena leads onto a stairway situated alongside the main entrance to platforms 3 to 6 and the existing concourse area.

Congested site

This was not an ideal arrangement and following detailed discussions with the Arena, it was agreed that a fourth bridge was required for the project. This new, much longer and wider footbridge is now nearly complete. It consists of a steel deck with reinforced concrete flooring finished with terrazzo tiling.

As both Nick and Faisal frequently pointed out, the site is very congested and, when there is a live event taking place, the influx of an additional mass of people is challenging for the hardiest  of project managers. The completion of this bridge will lead people to the station exit for rail or Metrolink services. This separates visitors to the Arena from the travelling passenger, a much needed improvement that will be most welcome by everyone.

Protecting our heritage

The need to preserve the heritage of this station is a topic that keeps re-emerging.

For example, even though the old roof had no specific heritage value it was decided to construct a zinc outline profile of the old roof onto the wall of the station building. This zinc outline will be illuminated by LED lighting at night to remind everyone what was there before.

c04(3) [online]Sections of the existing Victorian building are also being refurbished, including mosaic floors, wooden panelling and an ornate stained glass dome over the current bar area of the station buffet. Three war memorials within the station will be restored including an archway that was the entrance for troops going off to the trenches in the First World War – a timely memorial. An old tiled map of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway is being cleaned plus an old canopy stretching the whole length of the station building is currently being repainted and refurbished.

Every effort is being made to turn Victoria Station into a location that is at the heart of the Network Rail northern hub, an investment of over £1 billion which will provide faster, more frequent services across the north. The existing footfall is significant, the impact of huge numbers of additional people is being managed, and new modern innovative ideas such as the new roof are being introduced.

Yet, while all this is happening, there is a noticeable acknowledgement and respect for the social, historical and architectural heritage that clearly evident throughout the site. The refurbishment of this site seems to be in good hands and passengers and local people will appreciate the attention to detail that is being included in the revitalisation of this very important transport interchange.

ERTMS UK test site

There have been several articles already on ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System) published in The Rail Engineer, and there will be many more as the years progress. This vitally important system for the future of signalling and train control is slowly rolling out across Europe. Writes Clive Kessell

Here in the UK, another milestone has been reached with testing of several equipment types on the Hertford Loop test track in north London. Known as ENIF (ERTMS National Integration Facility), it is an important preliminary before future main line deployment.

The need for a test site

One of the specified features of ERTMS is that it must be interoperable. This means that the manufacturers of both lineside infrastructure equipment and train-borne radios and control units must work seamlessly with each other. It sounds simple. However, in the European development process, it has been anything but.

Designers of signalling systems have a long pedigree of making things different, both to be different from other suppliers and as new technology has emerged. Signalling also has to facilitate operating rules, these being different in most countries. When signalling was primarily infrastructure based, it did not matter too much but, once signalling kit becomes partially train borne, it is essential that the various piece parts are compatible with each other.

It could be argued that, providing the specification is rigorous enough, then interoperability will happen by default. Sadly, this has not been the case and much development aggravation has occurred in mainland 313.121 cab 2 [online]Europe. Network Rail, being mindful of these problems, has set out to prove that different types of equipment will work harmoniously together. Hence the ENIF project.

What the tests will achieve

ERTMS has two main constituent parts – ETCS (European Train Control System) and GSM-R (the rail adaptation of the public GSM mobile radio standard). The first represents the signalling element and the second the transmission path between control centre and train.

The Network Rail framework contract to supply of ETCS has selected four companies to compete for the long term business – Signalling Solutions Ltd (a consortium of Alstom and Balfour Beatty), Infrasig (a collaboration between Bombardier and Carillion), Siemens Rail Automation (formerly Invensys / Westinghouse) and Ansaldo STS (which supplied the pilot ERTMS project on the Cambrian route) and these companies have to prove the compatibility of their equipment with each other.

The line between Hertford North and Stevenage is double track but, in off peak hours, it has only one train per hour in each direction. Hence a five-mile section of the down line has been made available as a test track with single line working on the up line for the passenger service. A changeover switch in Kings Cross power box enables the test track section to be isolated on demand and, once switched in, testing can take place within the five-mile limit without any control from KX.

A Class 313 EMU has been converted to be the test train and is fitted with Alstom ETCS train equipment. The four suppliers have all provided ground equipment, mainly the track-mounted balises that give position information and the interface to the control system. Each company is allotted specific days when their system is under test, these being conducted from the ENIF control centre which is located in Hitchin.

Controlling ETCS

ETCS still requires computer-based interlockings (or even relay interlockings with the right interface equipment) for the safe setting of routes and junction control. Between these and the control centre screens is a Radio Block Centre (RBC) that interprets the requirements for the ongoing route and translates this into a Movement Authority (MA) that is sent to the train. The interlocking and RBC are proprietary to the particular supplier and, at the Hitchin site, each of these is given a test lab where their control centre is installed. These labs are security controlled so that no-one can steal ideas from another party.

The route setting screens are similar to those that might be seen in any modern IECC using a mouse or tracker ball to select the route of the intended train path.

A summary of the four systems is as follows:

  • SSL (Alstom) – interlocking is the latest Smartlock 400 with the RBC based on similar technology. MAs are shown slightly differently to conventional route setting. ETCS will offer less restrictive approach control to junctions and similarly easier permissive entry to occupied platforms.
  • Ansaldo STS – uses an SEI interlocking linked to its own RBC. The equipment is essentially similar to that at Machynlleth on the Cambrian line.
  • Infrasig (Bombardier) – interlocking is the latest EbiLock product with a compatible RBC.
  • Siemens (ex Invensys) – interlocking is the Westlock product and compatible RBC. Has conventional route setting procedures and the system will also be used for testing ETCS with an ATO overlay for Thameslink.

During the allocated test period, each product controls the test track section and issues MAs to the test train for the test programme of the day. Conditions to be tested include the introduction of temporary speed restrictions and emergency stops.

Since the line retains conventional signals for normal operation, the test train has to pass these. It is possible to set an MA that allows the train past a red signal but this is considered disconcerting for drivers and thus the ENIF control is configured to ensure such signals always show a proceed aspect. The balise operation is slightly different for each manufacturer’s kit and thus these have to be reconfigured prior to the particular day’s testing. The connection of the individual firm’s control to the ground equipment uses the FTN network and is configured by jack-in plugs and sockets on a patch panel.

Each firm is also required to model ETCS for the London to Heathrow and London to Wood Green routes so as to simulate capacity on a busy piece of railway. A temptation to be resisted will be requests from operators to customise the system for ‘special’ UK requirements. The ultimate goal is for any train arriving through the Channel Tunnel to be capable of working seamlessly to the British ERTMS package.

The train-borne system

Configurable Comms links with trackside 1 [online]The test train is equipped with:

  • The EVC (European Vital Computer) that receives and interprets the commands from the RBC;
  • The driver’s control panel showing the Movement Authority as a moving band on the outside of the speedometer and with the driver having to keep the speed inside this limit otherwise alarms and braking will occur;
  • A Eurobalise reader mounted under the train to give position information and data for forthcoming stations, level crossings, etc;
  • Two forms of odometry, both doppler radar and a traditional tachometer, to measure distance from each balise;
  • A GSM-R data radio to receive the radio-borne MA instructions.

Although only one type of train kit is installed on the test train, other types of rolling stock will come to Hertford for compatibility testing. It is estimated that the design, fabrication and fitting of a first-in-class installation takes 18 months with the train being out of service for around 12-16 weeks. Thereafter, fleet fitment should be about two weeks for each vehicle. Driver training is expected to take 2 weeks for full ETCS conditions.

A lesson learned from the Cambrian is that retro-fitting is both messy and costly. There will be franchise implications in the future and ETCS fitment may well become part of a franchise condition. Whenever possible, ETCS will be part of a fleet renewal programme and all vehicles ordered after Jan 2012 or delivered after Jan 2015 must have provision for the system.

Network Rail is likely to sponsor the ROSCOs (Rolling Stock Companies) for retro fitting on a national fleet basis. Similarly for the 850 ‘go anywhere’ freight locos, funding will be made available for the retrofit programme. Network Rail’s fleet of engineering trains and on-track machines must also be fitted but more difficult are locomotives associated with charter and heritage operations.

A solution for steam engines is proving elusive but where there is a will, there will be a way.

GSM-R radio

GSM-R as a track-to-train voice facility is now well established on Network Rail. However, the radio network has also to be a bearer for ETCS and currently this uses circuit switching in that, once a train is logged on, it remains connected for the duration of the journey. This is not an efficient use of spectrum and channel limitations will not permit ETCS to be used in busy traffic areas.

The solution is packet switching (known as GPRS) and entails sending packets of data to a train when required. Signal engineers have reservations about the integrity of this but recognise the advantages. As a result, GPRS is being tested at ENIF on behalf of the ERTMS User Group based in Brussels. So far the results are encouraging and the UK is leading the way for Europe and wider climes.

When GSM-R is used to support ETCS, it is usual to provide additional lineside base stations to provide continuous coverage should a single base station fail. This has happened at Hertford with part of the testing including operation with a switched-out base station.

The Thameslink dimension

The decision by the Thamelink upgrade authorities to use ERTMS for its central London core brings about new challenges. To achieve the 24 trains per hour criteria, automatic train operation is needed and this means providing an ATO overlay to the basic ETCS package.

Again, the UK will be pioneering this facility for Europe. Siemens has the contract to provide the system but sensibly has requested using the Hertford track to test it. Part of the line will thus replicate the Farringdon to Blackfriars section, needing additional signals and links to the Thameslink development centre in James Forbes House near London Bridge.

With the main ETCS integration tests largely complete, the test line will be handed over to Siemens and the Thameslink team in November 2014.

Deployment

Having witnessed the problems with the roll out of ERTMS in Europe, Network Rail is wise to provide the Hertford / Hitchin test facility. If nothing else, it has driven the message home to manufacturers that interoperability must be achieved.

Although the software level of the infrastructure equipment is version 2.3.0d which will eventually need upgrading to 3.0.0 or later derivatives, this should happen as a cross industry roll out with insistence on Siemens 1 [online]backward compatibility.

Hertford has its limitations; the maximum line speed is only 70kph and there are no junctions under ETCS control. A next step is to equip the Old Dalby test line where speeds up to 180kph are possible. It will also give unlimited access, not possible at Hertford as the line has to be handed back for peak hours.

The main line deployment of ERTMS is aligned to route modernisation so time is short to get the major contracts let. Currently, future implementation plans are:

  • Great Western main line Paddington to Heathrow – 2017
  • Great Western main line Paddington to Bristol – 2019
  • Thameslink fleet service – 2018
  • East Coast main line Kings Cross to Wood Green 2018
  • Northern City line Moorgate to Drayton Park- 2018
  • East Coast main line Kings Cross to Doncaster – 2020
  • Midland main line – 2022

One of the suppliers is intent on offering ERTMS Level 3 as part of the package using experience gained in Kazakhstan. This is intended as a potential package for secondary routes and has the advantage of further reducing lineside infrastructure.

ERTMS will reduce the cost of signalling but, above all, it will yield important capacity benefits. It sits alongside the 12 regional operating centres and the traffic management systems as the cornerstone of Network Rail’s train control strategy. Much is at stake but with customer and industry working together, it will succeed.

Thanks are expressed to the ERTMS programme, project and engineering teams for facilitating the visit and the openness in explaining the system. 

East West Rail – Unleashing the potential

If you were presented with a project that offered reduced journey times, improved connectivity between growing conurbations, new routes for rail freight traffic, regional growth and benefits to local communities with the potential for creating 12000 new jobs, less road traffic so less pollution and congestion, what more would you want? Writes Colin Carr

Well, that’s what the proposed East West Rail (EWR) is offering and it’s a ‘no brainer’ as they say. Liking no brainers, The Rail Engineer visited Bernard Hulland, Network Rail’s project development manager, at their offices in Milton Keynes.

EWR is not a simple concept as it has aspirations to link Oxford, Bicester, Bletchley, Milton Keynes, Aylesbury, Cambridge and beyond into East Anglia. It is a major project that establishes a strategic railway connecting East Anglia with Central, Southern and Western England bringing with it the inevitable challenges and opportunities for the railway engineering community.

Old railways revitalised and upgraded

Bernard explained that the East West Rail project was originally promoted by the EWR Consortium consisting of local authorities and other organisations with an interest in improving access through this growth area. In 2012, the ‘Western Section’, comprising Oxford to Bicester and Bicester/Princes Risborough to Milton Keynes/Bedford, was included in the High Level Output Statement by the Department for Transport. It became a commitment for Network Rail to deliver during Control Period 5 (2014-19) although the Bletchley to Bedford upgrading ismorelikelytobedoneinControlPeriod6 forming a third phase.

The ‘Central Section’ will run from Bedford to Cambridge, while the ‘Eastern Section’ will take the route out to Norwich and Ipswich.

The first phase of the ‘Western Section’ extends from Oxford to Bicester, refurbishing approximately 14 miles of a low speed, single line route currently used for local passenger and some freight traffic. Much of the old double track was removed in the 1970s and the associated embankments and bridges have been allowed to decline so they need to be restored to modern standards.

In fact, this part of the project is based upon an existing project developed by Chiltern Railways, formerly known as the Evergreen 3 scheme. The original main aim of the Evergreen 3 scheme was to provide Chiltern Railways and its passengers with a new route from the city of Oxford into London’s Marylebone Station. It will be the first new rail route from a city into London for 100 years.

The EWR project is not changing this aspiration but it is raising the specification for the route between Oxford and Bicester from a single line with loops to a 14-mile two-track railway to accommodate both the half hourly Chiltern Railways service and the later introduction of half hourly EWR services to Milton Keynes and Bedford. The work throughout the route has been let to a joint venture between Buckingham Group and Carillion, contract value £87 million.

Work is already underway to create a new chord linking the line from Oxford into the Chiltern main line and there will be an extensively upgraded Bicester Town station to accommodate this route alongside the main Chiltern line. In addition, Islip station will be fully refurbished with new platforms and car parking to cater for the two tracks and the expected rise in volume of passengers.

A new Oxford Parkway station is being built at Water Eaton alongside the existing Park and Ride facility. This work will be completed by spring 2015, when the station will act as the terminus until a new track layout is completed between Oxford North Junction, near Wolvercote, and Oxford station. A new platform will be constructed at Oxford station and the work is expected to be completed by the following spring in

EWR route [online]2016.

Removing level crossings

At present there are thirty-seven level crossings catering for different needs along the route between Oxford and Bicester. All except the Bicester London Road crossing, which will become a refurbished full barrier level crossing, will be removed. Some will be replaced by bridges, some will have the right of way amended and some will disappear altogether.

The existing signalling system for the route is totally inadequate and it is being replaced by Siemens which is installing a modern Solid State Interlocking (SSI) system. This will largely be controlled from the Marylebone signalling centre with the Didcot signalling centre being responsible for the Oxford end of the route.

Flood modelling

Much of the route is in the River Thames flood plain and, as many will recall, flooding in this area featured quite prominently throughout last winter. Network Rail procured the services of Wallingford HydroSolutions (WHS) to review the plans for the project so that they do not aggravate the flooding problem in the area and, most importantly, to ensure that new assets are not exposed to flood risk and potential failure.

WHS has identified a number of locations that would benefit from further detailed flood modelling. For example, the closure of some redundant crossings and their associated structures, the construction of new access roadways and the creation of new track formations all have the potential to create additional flooding problems. The modelling was used to design mitigation measures, such as compensatory storage areas, to help control the flood risk identified. The modelling has also been used by WHS to help Network Rail identify areas where compensatory storage could be discounted or reduced in area and depth. This has been crucial in some areas of the scheme that pass through protected archaeological features. It has been estimated that for this first phase of the EWR project, the benefits of this modelling work has saved the project more than £100,000 so far.

Removing level crossings

At present there are thirty-seven level crossings catering for different needs along the route between Oxford and Bicester. All except the Bicester London Road crossing, which will become a refurbished full barrier level crossing, will be removed. Some will be replaced by bridges, some will have the right of way amended and some will disappear altogether.

The existing signalling system for the route is totally inadequate and it is being replaced by Siemens which is installing a modern Solid State Interlocking (SSI) system. This will largely be controlled from the Marylebone signalling centre with the Didcot signalling centre being responsible for the Oxford end of the route.

Flood modelling

Much of the route is in the River Thames flood plain and, as many will recall, flooding in this area featured quite prominently throughout last winter. Network Rail procured the services of Wallingford HydroSolutions (WHS) to review the plans for the project so that they do not aggravate the flooding problem in the area and, most importantly, to ensure that new assets are not exposed to flood risk and potential failure.

WHS has identified a number of locations that would benefit from further detailed flood modelling. For example, the closure of some redundant crossings and their associated structures, the construction of new access roadways and the creation of new track formations all have the potential to create additional flooding problems. The modelling was used to design mitigation measures, such as compensatory storage areas, to help control the flood risk identified. The modelling has also been used by WHS to help Network Rail identify areas where compensatory storage could be discounted or reduced in area and depth. This has been crucial in some areas of the scheme that pass through protected archaeological features. It has been estimated that for this first phase of the EWR project, the benefits of this modelling work has saved the project more than £100,000 so far.

Flooding and other environmental issues will always play a significant role in such a picturesque and environmentally sensitive area as the Chilterns and it is not surprising that bats in Wolvercote Tunnel, badgers throughout the area and of course, our good friend the Great Crested Newt have all demanded a certain amount of attention. In fact, the newt has ensured that about 30km of special newt resistant fencing has had to be installed.

This phase of work will also bring important conurbations such as High Wycombe into the scheme offering further transport links to Oxford and onwards as well as starting to introduce additional pathways for freight traffic.

image [online]The second phase, which is between Bicester/Princes Risborough and Milton Keynes/Bedford (although as already stated, Bletchley to Bedford upgrading is likely to be completed after 2019), has significant potential to further enhance these and many more options. The sum of two million pounds was raised by the consortium group to enable Atkins to carry out a detailed feasibility report for this route, outlining the work that would be required to enable the following pattern of train service to operate efficiently and effectively:

  • Oxford to Milton Keynes – 1train/hr;
  • Oxford to Bedford – 1train/hr;
  • Aylesbury to Milton Keynes – 1 train/hr;
  • Bletchley to Bedford – 1 local train/hr;
  • Spare capacity to be built in for additional passenger and freight traffic.

Structural assessment of viaduct

This second phase was sold to the DfT and now forms part of the CP5 package of work. It will require the mothballed line, last used in 1992, to be brought back into use. This includes the lightly used Bletchley Viaduct with its prestressed concrete beam structure, completed in 1962. Core samples are currently being extracted from the structure to assess its condition and ability to carry future loading requirements. In addition, a large amount of vegetation has been cleared from the disused section of line so that a topographical survey can be undertaken. This phase is planned to be completed in 2019, which is the end of the financial period.

Further extension, over the proposed EWR ‘Central Section’, from Bedford to Cambridge, has not yet been defined in detail but definition is imminent. Unfortunately, parts of the old railway now have structures such as radio telescopes and housing developments built on them, especially in the Sandy and Cambridge areas, so at present plans are aspirational. However, there is the potential for a radical new railway and the will certainly appears to be there.

Whilst all this is going on there are plans being developed for the HS2 route to come near Aylesbury and to cross the East West railway between Bicester and Bletchley. Whether this will happen remains to be seen as it’s not quite a no brainer with estimates in the billions! However, costs for the Oxford, Aylesbury to Bedford part of the scheme are in the region of £270 million, with the completed EWRL scheme estimated at approximately £530 million.

The benefits outlined earlier and the opportunity to create new alternative routes for freight and passengers alike, plus the added potential benefits for commuters and land developers, mean that this ‘no brainer’ really does appear to have the basic credentials. It will also enable railway engineers to use their brain and ingenuity to ensure that the many challenges that will emerge will be met with skill and effective solutions, as always

Rail Live 2014

Rail Live 2014. An exhibition which does exactly what it says on the tin – it shows off railway engineering working in front of an audience, live. Writes Nigel Wordsworth

The first Rail Live took place on 18/19 June at Long Marston near Stratford-upon-Avon. Building on the success of last year’s National Track Plant Show, over 300 exhibitors gathered together to show off their latest products, equipment and services to around 5,000 railway engineers from around the UK and abroad.

Getting ready

It was going to be three long days including the Tuesday for build-up, although many of the organising team had been on-site for a lot longer than that. So a bit of preparation was necessary.

First of all – PPE. As this was going to be a working site, full PPE was mandatory. Although in possession of a full set, it was more suited to spending several hours on-track at midnight in the wind and the rain than three days of (hopefully) sunshine in a field in Warwickshire in high summer.

So some adjustments were made. Some good socks from Workforce turned out to be wonders – not so thick that they were too hot yet thick enough that there were no problems with sore feet for the whole show.

Four orange polo shirts from Safeaid’s Signal range were cool enough to not cause discomfort, while a hard hat from JSP was selected as it has a short peak and so wouldn’t get in the way of cameras and flash guns.

After adding all of these to the standard kit, it was off to Long Marston to make sure that everything was ready. On the Tuesday afternoon, the site was full of vehicles unloading everything from tents and generators to shiny new yellow machinery. Every exhibitor had to be self-sufficient so there were gazebos and marquees of all shapes and sizes springing up.

By 6pm there was some semblance of order about the place, and most would-be exhibitors knocked off for a well-deserved burger and beer (or water) at the Network Rail-organised barbeque. After some entertainment from a band which featured Martin Arter, Network Rail Infrastructure Projects’ commercial director, on guitar (they were good too!), it was time for some awards. These were introduced by Steve Featherstone, track renewals director and the driving force behind the show.

Awards were presented to the best suppliers to Track Renewals and for the best stands – although how they had been judged during the organised chaos of build-up that afternoon was a puzzle. A suggestion that a half- finished award be presented for the best half-finished stand fell on deaf ears though.

Congratulations to all the winners, and to Amey, Colas, Babcock and Carillion who paid for the food.

By now dusk was falling and the wise went off to bed ready for a busy day tomorrow. The less fortunate went back to finish off building their stands, and Andy Reynolds enjoyed his birthday cake.

And they’re off!

Wednesday was another fine day. By 8am busses full of people in orange were already arriving at the site having come from the car park at the old airfield down the road. Coping with this unexpected rush, harassed–looking people from MacRail were scanning tickets for two lines of people while a third was reprinting them for those who DSC_9327 [online]had forgotten to bring them. After the initial rush, that area ran like clockwork for the whole show.

What a transformation awaited the new arrivals. The stands were all finished, vehicles had been cleared from the site (apart from a few shiny ones on display) and everything was ready for a 9:30 start.

To drag visitors through the site, the conference programme, which would run through both days, was at the far end of the showground. Despite that, the tent rapidly filled to hear Pete Waterman, music impresario, railway enthusiast and champion of youth training. He is also very involved in the rail industry. “I’m in Parliament at least 2 days a week now as one of my jobs as an ambassador for the Government,” he told his audience. “I represent Crewe, Cheshire and Warrington, Cheshire East and Cheshire West; I’m on the Government body for rail for the North West.

“So I spend a lot of time in Government and have done for over six or seven years and I can promise you there is a difference from when I first went to the House of Commons seven years ago – they understand … that

if this country wants prosperity, if it wants jobs and it wants to go forward it has to invest in infrastructure, it’s not about anything else, it’s about infrastructure and if you don’t modernise it, if you don’t renew it then it doesn’t provide jobs and it doesn’t provide wealth.

At last we’ve persuaded all parties to understand that’s exactly what the railway is about. And I am old enough to remember when the railway was a joke with politicians, they would have closed it as quickly as they could have done, now we’re opening it up faster than we ever closed it, which is great news.

“But to do this, to get this to work we need young people. We need young people from school, we need people that are only just going to junior school to understand that this is a career, this is a real good job, it’s a job for life, it’s a job that no longer is just about digging holes, it’s a job where you need specialities; you couldn’t be like me and leave school at 14 unable to read and write because you couldn’t work any of your computers, so we need to train our children and our young people differently.

“It’s an exciting world that we live in right now in the railways because for the first time we have a bright future, and that bright future is our next generation of people that we’ve got to train and bring in.”

The CP5 challenge

Later that morning, Steve Featherstone took the stand. He covered the challenges for track renewals over CP5 and his ten-point delivery plan. One of the stand-out comments he made was about value for money and the supply chain:

“I let the on-track plant contracts when I was maintenance director about seven years ago and we bought those based on price; whoever had the cheapest machines won the bid. And we took about 8% off the price of the machines and we patted ourselves on the back and said, didn’t we do a good job, we have screwed the supply chain on price.

“What that did was it commoditised the plant supply chain. Every shift of the weekend or every mobilisation at the weekend typically costs £250,000. We put a £250,000 delivery system at risk because we ‘nickel and dimed’ on a £500 piece of kit and if we’d maybe paid £550 for that piece of kit but it was better maintained, more reliable, it de-risks a £250,000 delivery system.

“We have got to start thinking about reliability in service, far more than we think about price, recognise that the supply chain, if they are going to give us reliability and service then actually we have to allow them to make a reasonable margin.”

DSC_9538 [online]Other speakers covered their elements of the CP5 challenge, and there was an underlying theme of the innovation that would be needed to deliver those plans to budget. David Clarke of Future Railways looked at enabling innovation, Saleem Mohammad previewed the National Electrification Programme and Simon Scott went through the development of Network Rail’s new product approval process.

On the second day, Mark Southwell covered the CP5 signalling programme, Steve Naybour gave details of the success of the Track Partnership between Balfour Beatty Rail and London Underground, and Robbie Burns gave an entertaining and unscripted update on Crossrail and the Great Western upgrades.

Government support

Almost at the close of the show, just before Nick Elliot talked about the importance of the Supply Chain, Secretary of State Patrick McLoughlin visited the show and spoke in the conference centre. He went over the investment that the Government was making in the railways, both by funding Network Rail through CP5 to the tune of £38 billion and also committing to HS2.

He was impressed by what he saw at Rail Live 2014. “We’re very lucky in the UK that we have so many world- class businesses in the rail industry. I’ve just seen some of the exhibition and I’m going to see more a little later on, but I want that industry to be able to benefit from our long-term sustained investment and that to be felt throughout the nation’s supply chain. For that to happen we want you to be able to recruit skilled people that you need, so we’ve built the Crossrail Tunnelling Academy and we’ll be building the new HS2 academy, the first new further education college for over 20 years to train the next generation of world-class engineers.

“A record investment is without a doubt a huge vote of confidence in the UK rail industry; it is important to invest in your track record – you’ve shown in CP4 and building Crossrail that together you can deliver major infrastructure projects on time and on budget and that’s what’s going to be so vital over the coming years.

“While the economy is recovering from our financial crisis and years of borrowing beyond our needs, people still feel that the cost of their commute is going to be incredibly important to continue to be as efficient as possible, so that rail travel is affordable to the fair payer and is good value for the tax payer – that’s what we mean by ‘keeping innovation and improving partnership working’ so that planned improvement work can be undertaken more quickly, so that works are completed on time, every time and track is handed back more quickly without actually compromising safety at all.”

Electrification demonstration

As well as a two-day conference programme, there were demonstrations taking place around the site. Everything from piling to track welding could be seen on almost every corner.

One of the largest was an electrification demonstration from ABC (the Alstom/Babcock/Costain joint venture for electrification) and Network Rail’s Overhead Conditional Renewal (OCR) team. Each member of the demonstration team was dressed in arc-protection PPE supplied by PHS Besafe. PHS individually measured each of the ABC staff to ensure a comfortable and flexible fit and then they were all issued with baselayer long sleeved t-shirt and shorts and then lightweight orange trousers and an ABC branded orange jacket.

The first day’s demonstration began with the SB Rail piling Kirow using its hammer attachment to install two 610mm x 4 metre piles. Once those piles had been driven, 7.2 metre structures were lifted and fastened to them.

When that was completed, the Kirow travelled to a second location and repeated the process. Meanwhile, Innovative Railway Safety Ltd installed a length of magnetic safety barrier, segregating the spectators from the demonstration area.

Next, two OCR SRS road-rail lorries and an ABC MEWP accessed the track and proceeded to install the fixed termination brackets and four new series 2 cantilevers.DSC_9395 [online]

The second day began with the OCR wiring train pulling out contact and catenary wires under tension and clipped into the cantilevers while another team began installing the pre-fabricated droppers. Once the train reached the final structure, the wires were terminated to the fixed end self-supporting anchor (SSA). At the other end of the demo, another OCR team in an SRS attached the wires to the tensioners.

All in all, it as an impressive, real-time demonstration on how to electrify a railway.

SB Rail, which was part of that electrification demonstration, enjoyed a very successful two days in the sunshine. The live piling demonstration delivered with its uniquely designed and adapted Kirow KRC250, the only one of its kind currently available in the UK, was a tremendous success and generated a real buzz around the show ground. This very special event enabled SB Rail to demonstrate its capability and efficiency in the safe delivery of piling and mast erection work in a way that would not normally be so accessible to so many people.

The World Cup

England’s performance in Brazil is probably best left unmentioned. However, Rail Live exhibitors and guests got into the spirit of the event at a Word Cup Dinner that was held at Stratford’s Holiday Inn on the Wednesday evening. The biggest dinner ever held at that venue, it raised £2500 for Railway Children and was enjoyed by all who attended.

Congratulations to Shannon Rail for sponsoring the event and to Ruth and her team for their hard work in organising it.

300 things to see

But, of course, the heart of the show was the three hundred exhibitors who had come to connect with their colleagues and customers. The range of products and services on show was matched almost by the varieties of tents, marquees, gazebos and mobile display units (caravans) that were packed into a seemingly-too-small 150 acres of Warwickshire.

Rail Media was handily placed in the centre. Editors Grahame Taylor of The Rail Engineer and Andy Milne of RailStaff both attended, and the entire events, marketing and sales team was on hand to meet industry contacts.

But that was just one of a host of exhibitors, and all seemed enthusiastic about the show and their presence.

Astra Rail, for example, was thrilled to be a part of Rail Live 2014. Having been the key supplier of attachments to  TXM (which incidentally won the best show stand award at the barbeque) for over 12 months, Astra’s involvement in the rail industry is growing. There is a strong belief in working with customers to provide solutions (in the form of excavator attachments) for a wide range of applications and Rail Live gave the company the perfect platform in which to exhibit some of the latest additions to its hire fleet.

Cembre was another award winner from the previous evening having received the Best Innovation – Small Plant award for its Robokatta Automatic Rail Disc
Saw. Mark Lewis commented: “The recognition is both encouraging and appreciated, particularly for our hard working design engineers who are trying to ensure there is a safer and healthier environment whilst working track side.” Robokatta certainly attracted a lot of attention on Cembre’s stand.

The VP Group had a joint stand with around seven group companies on display. One was Groundforce which took the opportunity to showcase a wide range of  products and services to a niche and engaging audience. Apologies were due to neighbouring stands for the loud bangs – they were in fact due to demonstrations that involved small footballs vibrating up the hose of U Mole’s Vacuum Excavation rig, with the extreme power causing them to burst. The team thought that it was refreshing to be at an event that is focused on hands-on demonstrating.

Hire Station was another VP company on show, supported by Nightsearcher which demonstrated a range of LED lighting, both 110V and battery operated. Makita also joined in with new 4-stroke petrol cut off and battery operated strimmers together with a range of cordless tools.

New products abound

Datum Geotechnical and Structural Monitoring took advantage of the warm weather to show off RailTempMATE. This innovative solution to the problem of Critical Rail Temperature (CRT) monitoring was a popular attraction throughout both days, generating high levels of interest. The positive feedback that Datum received from everyone involved with CRT confirmed the company’s belief that RailtempMATE is the ideal product for effective CRT monitoring. “Meeting with many knowledgeable people from across the rail industry and helping to build a world-class railway is what this event is all about,” a stand member commented afterwards. “We are proud to have supported Rail Live 2014 and our thoughts have already turned to addressing the new challenges we heard about during an excellent two days.”

IMG_3122 [online]RVT Rentavent demonstrated its solution to the many noise issues contractors are facing during piling works on their electrification works with the launch of a new product. With a lot of interaction over 2 days, noise challenges within the industry were discussed. Solutions to some of these are already available, and the company will be making further developments following the valuable feedback from customers at the show.

Bridgeway Consulting attended this type of show for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it! The team met both old and new contacts at the event and made some links they felt could have great value. Next time, they will bring some larger equipment with them to take advantage of the space available at Rail Live.

QTS, which features on this month’s cover, believe that Rail Live 2014 was a great success. The team endeavoured to show off its most impressive plant fleet and managed to showcase some of its most unique aspects.

PPE

As if having everyone in orange suits wasn’t enough (as well as some yellow and a few pieces of dirty brown!), several PPE manufacturers and suppliers took the opportunity to show off the depth of their ranges and highlight some new products.

Safeaid felt that Rail Live was a resounding success. As a company, they do a lot of exhibitions each year but none of them offer the unique opportunity to see the products they sell being worn and in use in a real rail environment. They found it very beneficial to showcase the broad range of PPE and track safety solutions they offer and felt that the interest they had was outstanding.

Clad Safety had a very busy stand with many new enquiries for rail workwear and PPE. Of particular interest were several new products including the Protal 5 Inherent FR/AS Boilersuit to GO/RT specification, ideal for track welding and grinding, Elka Rainwear waterproof bib & brace, Lavoro Exploration waterproof boots and X2 blue tinted wraparound safety spectacles.

Gore was there, and had a good level of quality visitors from Network Rail and contractors alike.

Bodyguard had a ‘shoot to score’ football competition going on its stand. Visitors were encouraged to contribute 50p per shot to Railway Children, as well as to look at the company’s new products.

Another charity – CLIC Sargent – was the recipient of special recognition when Colas Rail’s newly-refurbished Class 60 was named after the charity which is Network Rail’s charity of choice this year. A further surprise was an ‘interim’ payment of £15,000.

All exhibitors were asked to contribute to a central fund which will then be split between CLIC Sargent, Railway Children and St Johns which was supplying medical cover for the event. CLIC Sargent’s share of the final ‘pot’ should be more than the £15,000 handed over by Steve Featherstone on the day.

While on the subject of locomotives, there was a slightly-grubby Direct Rail Services locomotive on site with a Network Rail inspection train. As that company has at least one shiny new Class 68 in the country, why didn’t they take the opportunity to show it off? Colas Rail had a Class 70 on display – so new the paint still looked wet!

Newcomers

Fibrelite had its first experience of the rail industry at Infrarail, held at Earls Court in May. At Rail Live, it was their objective to demonstrate the many benefits of using GRP composite access covers as opposed to the traditionally used heavy (and slippy) metal and concrete. The open spaces of Rail Live, and the hands-on approach, gave them the opportunity to do just that.

E-T-A, manufacturers of circuit breakers for on-board power supplies on rail vehicles, was another company having a new experience. However, the friendly atmosphere helped and the team booked some quality appointments to be followed up afterwards.

Force One intentionally set its stand out to not only show their normal road suction vehicles but also the auxiliary and specialist equipment that allows for working in DSC_9596 [online]rail environments. Visitors were most interested in the new Brokk hybrid vehicle, a blend of suction/vacuum power and excavation power. Being able to demonstrate this vehicle excavating and using its suction power to move material through its intake hoses back to one of their suction vehicles over 20 metres away resulted in a number of project orders being confirmed during the show.

In addition, the Force One team walked around the show talking with other exhibitors and picked up other leads that way. As always at rail shows, there was as much activity between exhibiting companies as there was with the visitors!

Even the show’s insurer got in on the act. Specialist brokers Jobson James Rail and the insurer’s underwriter from rail specialist Newline were very impressed with the whole show. “Where else could I have met an owner of one our leading RRV Plant companies for a mutually beneficial conversation while we both sat in the sun relaxed enjoying our lunch?” joked Keven Parker afterwards.

Experienced players

The Pandrol Group stand was another with multiple exhibitors, in this case Pandrol UK, Railtech UK, Rosenqvist and Vortok, each promoting their own but related rail products.

A range of the current and new Pandrol rail fastenings were exhibited on short track panels, showing the now familiar FASTCLIP system for main line railways, the new ‘FE’ system recently adopted by London Underground, the range of existing and forthcoming ‘Re’ clips and the novel curved and composite pads. Additionally two of the new systems for concrete slab track were exhibited being the ‘FCA’ and ‘VIPA-DFC’ systems for mounting on concrete blocks or sleepers.

Railtech UK exhibited their range of alumino-thermic welding portions and accessories together with the Matweld rail cutting and grinding equipment. Indeed, Network Rail used a Twin Pack Unit and profile grinder for profiling the flash butt welds during their demonstrations.

Rosenqvist also assisted Network Rail staff during the demonstrations, this time of the high speed rail clipping machine CD500 as part of the stressing and welding demonstrations on track. This demonstration was repeated frequently over the two days of the exhibitions and generated big audiences for the high output process. Kieron Loy commented afterwards: “From the emails we have received since the show there is no doubt that the CD500 demo was a resounding hit.”

Vortok International was exhibiting the range of track accessories such as Vortok stressing rollers, safety barriers, temporary speed limit signs and balise fastenings complete with novel small detection magnets for signalling circuits.

Story Contracting, which only visited the National Track Plant Show last year, was glad they had taken the decision to exhibit this time. As a spokesman said afterwards: “After a busy few weeks preparing for Rail Live 2014 it was great to finally be there at the event networking with our colleagues in the industry. We were thrilled at the overall feeling of positivity that is out there in the industry at the moment and the interest we received in our capabilities, machinery and the Story team was fantastic.

Not only was the weather fine, but the overall atmosphere when walking the vast stretches of the exhibition was brilliant. This was a really worthwhile event for us and being awarded with two Golden RRV Awards for ‘Most Improved’ and ‘Best Operator’ was the icing on the cake!”

Network Rail’s own displays

Network Rail was present in force, naturally. Several sections, departments and organisations made an appearance. Most just tried to call themselves ‘Network Rail’, confusingly, but the Rail Live organisers made a valiant attempt to identify them all separately.

The National Certification Body (NCB) was one such. Engineers met with plant manufacturers and operators from the UK and Europe as well as freight operators during the exhibition. Judging by the prospective enquiries discussed, there certainly seems to be a need for NCB’s new approach for conformity assessment services and NCB are more than happy to help – whether it is rail vehicle, on-track plant and machinery, services for freight operators or infrastructure projects, NCB can offer an appropriate, value for money solution which meets safety regulations in all of these areas.

The IP Signalling Innovation Group’s (SIG) Play Pen proved immensely popular with visitors giving them the opportunity to ‘kick the tyres’ of a variety of products and solutions for rail projects. Some were old, some were new and some just ideas being floated for feedback, but all could add value if taken on board. Ranging from lightweight cable route solutions through to the use of PLCs for level crossing control no material or technology was off limits – the team even gave away Blackpool Rock in the shape of Aluminium power cable!

DSC_9553 [online]The Planning and Delivering Safe Work Programme team had a busy two days at Rail Live explaining the purpose of the programme and the forthcoming “Safety Changes” that will ultimately touch everyone that works on the railway infrastructure. They wanted to make sure that we spoke to as many people across the business as possible in an effort to explain the three key elements of the programme and alleviate any concerns that people have.

Network Rail’s Infrastructure Reliability Team showcased a number of new techniques and technologies that it has developed in order to improve the reliability of the railway infrastructure. S&C best practice was demonstrated live alongside displays of location case cooling, treadles, relays and track technologies. Rail Live provided a unique opportunity to share the team’s knowledge with the rest of the rail industry, and there was good engagement with manufacturers, suppliers, other Network Rail teams and even staff from the ORR. Having a complete S&C within a marquee certainly proved to be a unique attraction!

Interesting displays

Harting UK took advantage of the SIG’s focus on Plug and Play, the introduction of Class 2 and the need for ever faster data rates at the show to demonstrate some of its latest innovations. Of particular interest were glass fibre reinforced polyamide Han Eco hoods and housings for use in Class 2 applications, a single cable Cat 7 inter-car jumper assembly and Harting’s highly flexible range of modular connectivity.

Klingspoor Abrasives was another exhibitor demonstrating its products. The market leaders in abrasive rail cutting-off wheels held live demonstrations of some of their new products at the show and are now looking forward to exploring several new applications in which visitors expressed an interest.

Geotechnical Engineering attended Rail Live to demonstrate its innovative slope climbing rigs and collaborative methods for working when delivering site investigation services. The team found the event was a fantastic networking opportunity, highlighting the potential of how many new projects are available in relation to CP5. Indeed, one team member enthused that “Rail Live is one of the best shows we’ve ever attended!”

The Inside Out Group was one of several companies who not only exhibited but also assisted the show organisers. The group, consisting of Inside Out Technical Security and Inside Out Time Lapse Productions, is relatively new to the rail industry, and the event enabled them to share their film production portfolio and enhance their network across the UK. In addition, a film crew covered the event and Inside Out will be issuing a film production of the 2014 show later in the year. The team loved the opportunity to capture footage from Network Rail’s helicopter and is looking forward to including this within the film.

Hot and sunny – but beware of water

Perhaps not surprising after the wet start to the year, drainage and water-related exhibits were a string feature of the show.

Demco felt that the strength of the show was the visitor profile, people connected with the rail industry, who were keen to share experiences and had a genuine interest in track drainage pipework. “As a manufacturer we welcomed this show and in my experience it was quite unique in its scale and focus,” national business development manager Peter Harris commented.

OnSite delivers drainage maintenance services and portable temporary dam solutions. While these are not as high profile as the vast array of rail mounted plant and equipment on display at Rail Live 2014, the company welcomed a large number of practical and interested operational customers to the stand.

“As this event is overwhelmingly attended by rail professionals, who know what they want, we had no tyre-kickers; just serious people making a serious investigation of how we might help to solve their railway drainage problems.” That was the view of Max Reynolds, chief operating officer of Complete Drain Clearance.RAIL_LIVE_2014_-_SELECTION-020 [online]
As well as obtaining some very promising customer leads, the company is exploring partnerships with complementary service providers so that it can offer a more comprehensive end-to-end service for drainage and culvert clearance, relining and reinstatement.

Technological advances

Innovation was a common theme around the show, with Future Railway hosting exhibits in conjunction with the Rail Alliance.

Exhibitors helped each other out. One brought along an old Blackpool tram to show off a new drive system. However, they found that they had no way of getting visitors up into the tram itself as there was no platform. Step forward Martin Brooke from Bratts Ladders with a solution. Well done, Sir!

H2gogo found that being part of the Rail Alliance and Future Railways ‘consortium’ proved to be a fantastic opportunity to launch a new mobile hydrogen product range. They also verified their emissions reduction and engine carbon cleaning technology with impromptu live demonstrations on other stands, such as a Volvo 9 litre truck on the LCM stand, a Land Rover on the AM-UAS stand and the ice cream van by the entrance to the exhibition!

York EMC Services were also located in the Rail Alliance area and had a live electromagnetic compatibility emissions demo going on outside behind the marquee. Steve Seller, technical manager at York EMC’s Castleford laboratory near Leeds, had three antennas hooked up to an EMC survey test system. Visitors were able to see not just background signals (ambients) but also some real live emissions as rolling stock demonstrations went past on the nearby track.

Manta Rail Services had an eye-catching display with a mock tunnel portal. These were used to show off Manta’s range of mobile tunnel ventilation fans and the whole stand justifiably came in for a lot of attention.

Husqvarna displayed the K 1260 Rail Saw, which is one of the most powerful and lightest rail saws on the market. The included attachment RA10 was also shown which provides fast and stable mounting of the saw to the rail track ensuring a perfect right-angle cut. FR 3 blades were also exhibited. Due to its versatility these blades are ideal for the rail industry as they can be used for cutting wooden railway sleepers as well as alloy conductor rails. These blades can also cut through many other materials with ease including lightweight steel, PVC, ductile iron, fibre glass, wood, bricks, rebar and masonry materials.

Motor vehicles

Dawson Rentals was a good example of one of the more unlikely exhibitors at the show. Showing off a range of road vehicles rather than rail plant, nevertheless the company received a lot of interest for its more specialised vehicles such as 5, 6, 9 and full welfare specification. Pleasingly, visitors also discussed the standard product range of cars, vans, pick-ups and 4X4s where time- critical and safety-conscious solutions are of paramount importance. The ability to meet in a forum of likeminded individuals proved to be invaluable and a number of positive steps and meetings took place around future business requirements and vehicle standards.

South Cave Tractors also had vehicles on its stand – Unimogs. To be precise, three of the very latest and environmentally efficient Euro 6 Mercedes Benz Unimogs including the Zagro Rail equipped U423 Road-Rail  shunter shipped over from Germany especially for the event. Enquiries came from many organisations and departments all looking for solutions on-rail, off-rail, under-ground and over, for shunters, working platforms, tool carriers and rescue vehicles. Now the follow-up work begins, but South Cave Tractors couldn’t be happier!

RAIL_LIVE_2014_-_SELECTION-041 [online]Aquarius asked visitors “What do you see? Is it what Aquarius customers see?” and got an excellent response. Specialising in small RRVs Aquarius’ stand illustrated the sheer variety of uses for their nimble R2R 4x4s (Road 2 Rail Land Rovers) and Rail Mules, from the expected traditional personnel and equipment carrying to the innovative scanning now offered in collaboration with Cat Surveys and Topcon. This captures 360 degree images and point cloud measurements that are stitched together to form a 3D image which can be accessed on-site from a PC, phone or tablet.

Visitors were surprised to see how much can be transported with a R2R 4×4 including a full BV1000 kit, all of which is stored on the vehicle, reducing manual handling (and thereby improving health and safety) and  increasing productivity by avoiding trolley pushes. The various trailers on display demonstrated the payload that now can be achieved when used with a R2R 4×4.

Providing a VIP Road2Rail 4×4 vehicle to transport Pete Waterman from the station to the show topped off what was a fantastic event for the Aquarius team!

More to see

Quattro Group brought Dumbo to the show. No – not the cartoon elephant, although it was a graphic on the side of the Vroom suction excavator that gave rise to the name. The track gave the young pachyderm a perfect location to perform small on-track demonstrations, something Rail Live provides that no other exhibition can match.

Rail Products UK introduced the new ART 17T MEWP to the industry at Rail Live. 2014 has been an immediate success for Rail Products with Readypower ordering the first 20 machines. Derek Burns, managing director, was impressed by the outstanding organisation of the Event, the quality of the visitors and the total enthusiasm of all participants.

Capel Group is a specialist vegetation company that are capable of delivering projects from start to finish. It owns its own road-rail vehicles that have been specially designed to go on the track to help to make Network Rail a more mechanised environment. The two days of Rail Live gave Capel a chance to meet people from all over the rail network and let them know what machinery is available to keep the railways clear.

Alert5® was delighted to be invited to attend the 2014 Rail Live event, as it was a valuable opportunity to meet with vast numbers of influential decision makers in the industry, particularly within Network Rail. The Alert5 app was well received, generating many positive comments regarding its user-friendly interface and the fact that the app notifies up to five phone contacts in the event of an emergency. It was reassuring to see how committed the industry is to the health and safety of railway operatives.

The Nationwide Federation of Plant Equipment Operators (NFPEO) chose Rail Live as their launch event and it provided a great opportunity to create awareness of the Federation’s key objectives. Recent research carried out amongst members has identified ‘Training’ (beyond blue), ‘On-site Safety’ and a ‘Consistent rate of pay’ as important points that operators want the NFPEO to address in the near future. Therefore, the Federation found it especially pleasing to receive positive feedback and support on these points from a stream of visitors as well as fellow exhibitors.

Huge variety

Latchways, the leading manufacturer of fall protection systems, were exhibiting its complete range of products for working at height activities in the rail industry. Products included ManSafe® cable systems for personal fall arrest on ladders & monopoles, the ManSafe SRL for use on overhead systems in fleet depots and the Latchways Personal Rescue Device®, for challenging access duties associated with track gantries, signalling equipment and overhead cable installation and maintenance.

RAIL_LIVE_2014_-_SELECTION-054 [online]Horizon Utility Supplies was well supported by its suppliers, Klauke GmbH whose range of cutting and crimping tools were well received. Connector Products Inc. where the demonstrations of shear-type wedge connectors proved a great focal point and YDS/Goliath whose specialist footwear raised many enquiries.

Omnicom had a very busy couple of days. Stand staff received lots of great feedback and suggestions for Track Locator and the augmented reality app and Google Glass which are currently in the development stages. They also came away with some very valuable leads for future surveys of the network.

Complete Composite Systems debuted at this year’s RailLive, introducing for the first time their ground- mounted polypropylene cable troughing. Lightweight and structurally superior, CCS’ TerraSystem was roundly welcomed, as was their highly competitive, elevated composite trough, the ArcoSystem, which offers rapid, low cost installation, supported at six metre centres. CCS’ cable management systems were complemented by their range of composite access engineering, fences, bridge structures, decking, houses and the exclusive rail clamp system for track crossings for which the reaction was remarkably positive.

Anderton Concrete, another troughing manufacturer, used the exhibition to launch its Anderlite and Anderlite 500 ranges. The two systems reduce the weight of traditional troughing whilst still keeping the typical characteristics and integrity users have come to expect from proven cementitious technology. Anderton also launched Ander-Clip and Ander-Fin, both systems have been designed to alleviate lineside cable theft.

Talking of which, Remsdaq experienced much interest from both Network Rail and contractors in its new covert cable theft detection system. The system uses a covert fibre optic cable and analysers using digital signal processing to provide an early warning of attempts to steal cable from the Network Rail estate.

Gray Campling was another company to benefit from an interest from fellow exhibitors. Paint sprayers is a niche market, but Gray Campling picked up a number of leads from within the show as well as from visitors.

Enthusiastic visitors

Clarity Visual Management observed more enthusiasm than ever for visual management as there is currently such a strong emphasis on performance improvement. Visitors showed particular interest in visual management boards – a very simple and clear method of monitoring and tracking key measures effectively, thereby increasing awareness and accountability.

Ballast Tools just used the show to meet customers old and new. Dinesh Patel reported that it was great to meet and shake hands with engineers and end-users with whom they normally just speak with on the phone.

Alan Dick Communications chose Rail Live to stage its first exhibition specifically aimed at the rail industry. The show provided a great opportunity for exhibitors to demonstrate their products and services in a way that an indoor event could never do. It gave the company the perfect platform to present its Rapid Repeater solution for RF in-fills and,  as part of the exhibit, the training team demonstrated the process of Arc fusion splicing using rail specification optical fibre cable. This practical demonstration proved very popular amongst rail management professionals helping them to appreciate the processes involved by ‘de-mystifying’ optical communications within rail.

The innovative display by Liniar created quite a stir, with the firms lead-free, UK manufactured and eco- friendly track-side refuge on permanent display at the Long Marston site. Enquiries came thick and fast from contractors wanting reassurance that the PVCu product really is as lightweight to handle as it appears – and that it can be carried easily to site. Liniar was able to demonstrate the strength of its plastic log effect piling system, a real alternative to concrete or timber, and has already sent out many samples following the exhibition.

‘Smile if you got lucky last night’ was was just one of the examples of stickers printed up for visitors by KROY Europe. It was demonstration after demonstration on this busy stand. Now, Martin and James can’t wait to visit all the depots to see the signage that’s been produced by the staff, and if that sample is anything to go by the selection could be quite varied!

Siemens Rail Electrification brought its CUBE to Rail Live in June. Siemens RE shared its exhibition plot with the Rail Electrification Delivery Group (REDG) which is formed of Network Rail, RIA and the wider rail electrification supply chain and in which Siemens RE is an active member.

The REDG team steering group works on a collaborative approach in delivery of the £4 billion electrification work bank with member companies undertaking responsibilities in areas such as planning, resources, materials, plant and standards.

The Siemens and REDG exhibition area was visited by a large number of Network Rail employees and delivery organisations over the two days. REDG showcased the annual linesman event – a competition sponsored by REDG to seek out the best OLE engineers in the business.

All engineering projects rely on good drawings, and A-Tec Dos/Entwistle were on hand to show off wide-format printers, scanners and plan folders. Watching the Rigoli fold a five metre wide track drawing was an experience and, despite the sun, waterproof tear-proof films as an alternative to paper drawings have an obvious attraction.

A lot of engineers were clutching iPads on site. Peli Products were showing off protective vaults which keep dust and rain out of the works, keeping valuable data safe and allowing for the devices to be used in poor weather. They work too – the editorial iPad Air is safely housed in one of them!

ISeeU Global is a company very new to rail which is learning all the time. They found everyone willing to help them make connections, and set them straight on some of the terminology (who would have thought railway lines are called roads?). They made some good contacts and several very good leads, especially around Fatigue DSC_9223 [online]Management, Lone Working and Incident Reporting.

The Plastic Piling Company took the opportunity to displace a few myths about plastic sheet piling, particularly the fact that they can be driven effectively using conventional pile driving equipment.

The idea of combining plastic piling with timber posts, steel tubes and even concrete was well received, with this extending sheet piling into king posts and formwork.

The Kent Group was another first time exhibitor. The electrical, mechanical and civil engineering company , which also specialises in fire protection and steel fabrication, had a lot of interest. “The benefit of having all the industry in one place is immense,” commented Ian Kent. “What an event!

The summer weather was superb and the size of the event was staggering. The Organisers should be congratulated and the money raised for Charity is superb.”

Looking back

So that was Rail Live 2014. The weather was good, the exhibitors were numerous, the demonstrations were awesome, the speakers were interesting and the crowds were made welcome. The food, provided by Network Rail’s Westwood training centre, was good too although busy editors didn’t get much time for it. Lunch on Wednesday was one of Colas Rail’s very welcome ice creams, and on Thursday it was a chocolate donut from Van Elle (thanks Ronnie!).

Congratulations to the team from Network Rail, Rail Alliance, Rail Media, and MacRail who put the whole show together – it was a job well done. A lot of hard work had been put into preparing the site by teams from Motorail and Quinton Rail Technology Centre, so well done to them as well.

Steve Featherstone was understandably happy. “Rail Live 2014 was a fantastic event. We think that we had half a billion pounds’ worth of equipment on display.

Unless anybody knows otherwise, we think that Rail Live was the largest rail event in the world where you can actually see so much of the equipment being used live.

“Standing back and looking at the event, it spoke volumes about an industry and a supply chain that has a confidence in its future and is prepared to innovate to continuously improve the services that we deliver and the way that we deliver them.

“The intention was to bring the people with problems and the people with solutions together. I think that we achieved this on a massive scale.”

A Story of Partnership

Network Rail recognised the achievements of its contractors and supply chain last night at the 2014 Partnership Awards, held on London’s south bank. Writes Nigel Wordsworth

The sixth annual Partnership Awards were introduced by chief executive Mark Carne, who said: “Everyone here tonight has made a difference to Network Rail and I’d like to take this opportunity to express my thanks and gratitude for everything you have done to help deliver a better railway for a better Britain.”

Awards were divided amongst 11 categories covering everything from Heritage to Sustainable Excellence and Best Small/Medium/Large Project. Companies were able to make submissions for as many or as few categories as they wished. These were then whittled down to a published shortlist by the judges and a winner – and usually one or two highly commended entries – chosen from those.

Mark Carne [online]
Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne.
Comedian Ed Byrne entertained the guests, mainly with anecdotes about rail’s mortal enemy – the aviation industry. He then also presided over the awards themselves.

Some big names did well. Balfour Beatty Rail won two awards, for Safety and for Heritage, Carillion won Driving Efficiencies, which was nothing to do with train driving, andSpencer Rail won two – Best Large Project  and Best Collaboration along with Balfour Beatty, Atkins and Medway Council.

However, smaller concerns also had their time in the limelight. Capgemini UK won Best Use of Technology & Innovation for Linear Asset decision Support (LADS) with Dual Inventive highly commended, while Mission Room were Highly Commended for Safety.

At the end of the category awards came two more. A Special Award was presented by the MP for Newton Abbot, Anne Marie Morris, to the team that rebuilt the Dawlish Sea Wall and the Great Western main line to Cornwall. Tom Kikham, Andy Crowley, Rob Burr and Rob Allen were named individually, but the 300-strong ‘Orange Army’ received the award.  Quite a number went on stage to receive it.

Then it was time for the final award, the Supplier of the Year.  Mark Carne presented that one himself, and it went to the recipient of the Best Small Project award – Story Contracting.  A cheer went up, not only from the Story team present but from the room at large, showing that it was a popular choice.

As a large group of smiling Story faces walked to the stage for the presentation and photographs, the remaining guests were left to ponder that, for the second year running, Network Rail had chosen one of the middle-ground, companies which are sometimes principle contractors and sometimes sub-contractors, proving that the contributions from suppliers of all sizes are truly valued for the contribution that they make to the railway.

Winners

 

Category Company Project
Best Collaboration Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Spencer Rail and Medway Council
(highly commended East Midlands Trains and also Signalling Solutions)		 East Kent resignalling phase 2
Best Project – Large Spencer Rail
(h/c Costain and Hochtief JV)		 Network Rail Ipswich Chord
Best Project – Medium Buckingham Group Contracting Ltd
(h/c Capgemini UK)		 Salford Crescent Railway Station
Best Project – Small Story Contracting
(h/c Crosscountry Trains)		 Story Contracting and Network Rail: Merseyrail Slab Track Renewal
Best Use of Technology Capgemini UK plc
(h/c Dual Inventive)		 LINEAR ASSET DECISION SUPPORT (LADS)
Community Engagement Morgan Sindall
(h/c Colas Rail/Morgan Sindall JV and also Spencer Rail)		 Haymarket station Capacity Improvement project
Driving Efficiencies Carillion Rail
(h/c AMCO Rail and also Siemens Rail Automation)		 Southampton to Basingstoke W10 Gauge Clearance
Heritage Balfour Beatty Rail
(h/c Buckingham Group Contracting)		 Masonry arch bridge strengthening using XiSPAN
Investing in People ScotRail
(h/c Carillion Rail and also Emergency planning College)		 ScotRail – Investing in talent and skills
Safety Balfour Beatty Rail
(h/c Mission Room and ScotRail)		 Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace Capacity Improvement Project
Sustainable Excellence ScotRail
(h/c Buckingham Group Contracting and also Signalling Solutions)		 ScotRail’s energy reduction strategy

Special Award – Dawlish reconstruction

SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR – STORY CONTRACTING

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