Reducing cost, increasing efficiency and safety, and benefiting sustainability were all topics referred to throughout the Rail Industry Association (RIA) SigEx 2025 Control, Command and Signalling (CCS) exhibition and conference. Held in October at York Racecourse, RIA organised the event in partnership with Network Rail and over 200 people attended. The event connected decision-makers, offered insightful presentations, and provided much to see and discuss in the exhibition hall.
The exhibitors included Unipart, Complete Cyber, Bender, Firstco, The Formal Route, Amey, Sella Controls, SEI Interconnect Products (Europe) Ltd, Frauscher UK Ltd, Hitachi, Phoenix Contact, Universal Signalling, Arentis, Ibstock, the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE), Sopra Steria (Graffica), Mallatite, Luso Electronics, Prover, and Tilt Consulting.
The morning began with a presentation from James Dzimba, Head of CCS at Network Rail. James explained that the industry is under immense pressure, with assets that are life-expired and a very challenging economic situation. The fundamental challenge for the industry is that traditional signalling is very expensive. The industry must deliver safer control systems, but ones that are affordable. ETCS has a lot to offer, but it requires significant change, which is expensive, and establishing a business case and obtaining funding for less busy routes is extremely challenging. At best, some parts of the network will have to wait until Control Period 9 (2034–2039) for ETCS.
James showed a graph illustrating signalling renewals continually being deferred because the schemes are unaffordable. The need is for the industry to collaborate and innovate far better in order to find ways of delivering interoperable and safer control systems at lower cost.
In the question session it was highlighted that developing more cost-effective signalling technology would also not be cheap and may stifle competition if it is not made interoperable. It was also noted that other parts of the world need cheaper signalling systems, so there may be international support for development, and a successful UK company could find a larger global market for innovative solutions.
Amar Sansoa from Sella Controls described its next-generation, proven PLC-based control systems, and explained that Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) systems can deliver cost savings and reliable, safe, flexible, scalable signalling solutions.
Ian Maxwell from the IRSE discussed the challenges and opportunities for lowering the cost of signalling. Ian stressed these were his personal views, not those of the IRSE or the Government.
He explained that there are two key factors in developing low-cost signalling solutions. The first is the limited proportion of the network that might be suitable for such a solution. Secondly, the cost of equipment is often only a small part of the total cost. Therefore, focusing on reducing the amount of signalling equipment may not achieve significant cost reduction. In many cases, the substantial costs are incurred by ensuring solutions meet the customer’s needs, are compliant with standards, and are safe. Finding ways of streamlining these activities can save costs on all projects, whether complex or simple.The best way to reduce cost is through repetition of standard solutions and modular solutions. These have been used a number of times, with the most recent in Great Britain being ‘Modular Signalling’. It aimed at cost reductions but failed to become an adopted solution primarily because it was too restrictive on the locations where it could be applied. So why can’t the industry make this work?
Ian concluded by saying that there will always be a desire for simpler solutions for sections of railway with low-capacity demands, but the development of new solutions is expensive and only justified if there are sufficient volumes for its application. It makes more sense to explore ways to reduce the costs of the majority of the signalling rather than special solutions used only on specific and limited areas.
Again, the physical equipment is only a small part of the total project costs. The major costs are associated with processes such as design and verification, and the best way to reduce these costs is by using standard product modules and minimising bespoke features.
Level crossing safety
Following a series of short spotlight exhibitor presentations, attendees heard from Jonathan Evans, head of level crossing engineering at Network Rail. Jonathan began by explaining the trends with level crossings. Over the last three years there has been a welcome reduction in the number of passive level crossings, with either closure (approximately 1% of the crossing population) or replacement with an active level crossing (approximately 4.5%).
Unfortunately, this still leaves over 60% of the level crossing population as passive level crossings. A passive level crossing provides no warning of a train’s approach, other than by the train driver who may use the train horn. It is the user’s responsibility to stop, look, and listen to check whether it is safe to cross. Active level crossings warn the user of a train’s approach through the closure of gates, barriers, or miniature stop light systems.
In terms of level crossing incident risk, there has been a steady reduction. However, this has now plateaued and it is very difficult to reduce level crossing risk further. The near miss trend for both pedestrians and vehicles is a concern with incidents still occurring. In particular, in terms of pedestrian incidents there is a worryingly small increase. In February this year, the national level crossing conference held in Birmingham welcomed a long period with no level crossing pedestrian fatalities reported. Unfortunately, since February there have been several level crossing fatalities, mainly pedestrian but also some vehicles. Therefore, the industry cannot ‘rest on its laurels’ said Jonathan and must do more to reduce level crossing risk.
In terms of challenges, many objectives of the ‘Level Crossing Strategy’ (see Enhancing level crossing safety 2019-2029) have been delivered, but there is still much to do. Work is underway with the University of Southampton to understanding human behaviour and decision making at level crossings. This sets out to help improve safety at level crossings by developing a deeper understanding of how people behave at them, and creating decision support tools for level crossing managers, engineers, safety teams and investigators.
Whilst investments in technology, signage, and awareness campaigns have reduced risks for all level crossing users, unsafe and non-compliant actions continue to be contributory factors to incidents. Understanding human behaviour at and near to level crossings is therefore a key component in accident prevention. Currently there is no structured process that can be used to apply human factor insights to the design of level crossings.
Signage at level crossings has been improved over the last 10 years, but more can and must be done. Jonathan said work will commence shortly to simplify and improve level crossing signage even further. He also welcomed any other suggestions from RIA members to reduce level crossing risk, such as by encouraging users to operate level crossings properly and safely.
Public highway behaviour improvement is also being looked at and flexible tips to discourage half barrier weaving are being trialled. Improved barrier lights are also being rolled out, and new LED barrier lights were on display on the Unipart stand in the exhibition hall.
To reduce the whole life cost of level crossings, Jonathan welcomed the earlier presentation by Sella Controls and its COTS PLC level crossing controllers to replace bespoke controllers. Jonathan also wanted to look at digital CCTV systems for remote level crossing operation, as currently only analogue CCTV systems are approved. Barrier machine reliability is being looked at, and Jonathan said another area to reduce costs is to identify better and more efficient ways of deployment.
Why does design, V&V, installation, and testing cost many times the product cost? The use of Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve level crossing behaviour and design is also something Jonathan believes can add value. His final point was to say how important it was to help signallers know where trains are when they have to provide users permission to use a level crossing by telephone. This would be covered later by Universal Signalling.
Innovation Acceleration Forum
Susan Millington, Network Rail’s head of programme management, explained the Innovation Acceleration Forum. This aims to support collaboration, transparency, and agility, and to make it easier for the supply chain to develop ideas and deploy them.
Susan said the Forum: “… ensures good ideas don’t get lost, and instead get reviewed, refined and scaled…Not one single organisation can solve these challenges on their own, which is why we set up the forum; to bring together innovators, suppliers and the Network Rail team so the solutions that can make a difference get on the network.” RIA also sits on the forum.
The forum offers support to quickly turn ideas into reality for the good of the railway and passengers, Susan added. She highlighted some of the organisations the forum has already been working with, including Universal Signalling, whose chief executive, Dr Sam Bemment, presented next.
Universal Signalling’s goal is to radically reduce the cost of projects by reducing the time it takes to deploy them. The company is promoting its Universal Interlocking approach to achieve this – as signalling projects should take days not decades to implement said Sam.
Sam explained the company’s U-Beacon Universal Positioning System. This consists of three elements: train side – balise reader and comms unit; track side – RFID tags already used on freight wagons; and a service side – which provides the safety verification and validation. The system is being trialled on 17.6km (11 miles) of the Central Wales line from Llandeilo to Llandovery stations. This is to provide signallers information to help with managing eight public use level crossing telephones. Currently there is no signalling technology on the route to identify exactly where trains are.
The project is a great example of innovation and a new way of working using COTS technology to reduce costs and time when deploying systems. It is exactly the sort of initiative other presenters had identified the industry needed more of. Sam said signalling projects take traditionally many years to complete with a relatively short time of activity ‘on the ground’. All of this costs. On a typical signalling project only 17% of the overall cost is equipment, with the other 83% labour, in the form of design, verification and validation, installation, and testing.
Supported by staff from Network Rail Wales and Borders, the installation was carried out in three overnight line blocks. A peak installation rate of 1.5km per hour verified the cost and time assumptions. This is a very impressive supply and install cost of only £30 per beacon, with the installation technique still evolving. The beacons were fixed to concrete, wood, and composite sleepers, and a steel bridge deck.
In a change to normal railway practice, there was zero design work ahead of arriving at site. This eliminated the major portion of the project cost. Instead, an as-built design record was generated in real-time by a proprietary automated survey trolley. Further verification will be performed by in-service trains, saving further time and cost.
GSM-R hand portable
There was much to see in the exhibition hall and hear about in the spotlight presentations. This included Comms Design (part of Unipart) demonstrating the Funkwerk focX®2. This is a ruggedised handheld terminal, equipped with a radio module for the GSM-R network. It also interfaces with public networks (LTE 4G/5G), WLAN, and Bluetooth, and can run apps. Could this be provided on trains as a back up to the train radio, and see the end of costly signal post telephones?
The final part of the day addressed the West Coast North plans and the supply chain’s capabilities in signalling and telecoms, with Scott Wardrop at Network Rail, Gethin Jones and Phil Waddingham from Amey, and Nathaniel Colman from AtkinsRéalis presenting ‘Right First Time’ with delivering cost efficient signalling solutions in a safety critical environment.
RIA concluded the excellent day by thanking its partner Network Rail and sponsors Sella Controls | A Hima Company, Amey, and Silver Sponsor Phoenix Contact. After the conference, RIA announced it has entered into a new partnership agreement with the IRSE. This will result in the organisations going forward collectively, as appropriate, on rail policy matters and providing mutual support on external affairs including events. IRSE and RIA will also cross-promote respective organisational initiatives and workstreams including on-thought leadership and training courses.
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