InsideTrack May 2021

May 2021

May 2021 | Issue 1 railbusinessdaily.com

BUILDING BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS

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Major rail construction projects railbusinessdaily.com

High Speed Two Crossrail East West Rail and more...

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Contents

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Supply chain stands ready to Build Back Better

Philip Hoare, Rail Supply Group chairman and president of Atkins, looks at the opportunities and challenges of the ‘new normal’.

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Why HS2? And why so much?

HS2 has its supporters and its denigrators. One group stresses the benefits to the nation, the other the cost and environmental impact.

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HS2: Building phase 1

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Is HS2 heading east?

Construction of HS2 has begun in earnest, with tunnel boring machines starting to dig under the Chilterns.

Tel: 0800 046 7320 Sales: 020 7062 6599 Editor Nigel Wordsworth nigel@rbdpublications.com Writers Danny Longhorn Dave Windass Designer/Production Editor Chris Cassidy Print Manager Dan Clark Distribution Manager Nick Wright Advertising Team Christian Wiles – chris@rbdpublications.com Freddie Neal – freddie@rbdpublications.com Elliot Gates – elliot@rbdpublications.com Published by RBD Publications Ltd, Suite 37, Philpot House, Station Road, Rayleigh, Essex, SS6 7HH. Printed by Stephens & George © 2021 All rights reserved. Reproduction of the contents of this magazine in any manner whatsoever is prohibited without prior consent from the publisher.

For subscription enquiries and to make sure you get your copy of InsideTrack please ring 0800 046 7320 or email subscriptions@rbdpublications.com The views expressed in the articles reflect the author’s opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher and editor. The published material, adverts, editorials and all other content is published in good faith.

The eastern leg of HS2 phase 2b is still in doubt, even though both the Oakervee Review and the Prime Minister say it should be built in full.

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HS2 procurement

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Giving young people a Kickstart

A look at the procurement processes and strategy behind Britain’s high-speed rail project.

The rail industry is getting involved in the Kickstart scheme, a government initiative to provide full-time employment for young people.

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Trial running on Crossrail

Crossrail – Europe’s biggest railway infrastructure project – now has trains running through it on a regular basis as trial running is underway.

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Crossrail overground

All through the project, Network Rail has supported Crossrail in refurbishing stations and upgrading track and railway systems along the overground sections of the route.

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The plans for a second Crossrail

Crossrail 2, a new railway line under London from North to South, was due to follow the successful opening of the current Crossrail project.

35

Conditioned collaboration

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More space needed!

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East West Rail connecting Oxford with Cambridge

Businesses working across UK rail infrastructure projects are forming new alliances and reaping the rewards from a strong SME network.

As Britain’s train operators buy new trains and plan for larger fleets, they will need new and enhanced depots to house them.

46

Strong signals right across Britain’s railways

Kent-based signalling specialist Amaro is entering a new era with managing director Micky Ewart in the driving seat.

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The doubts over future demand

With people now used to working from home, how many will want to get back on a train, and how soon will they do so?

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Extending the Northern line

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Taking the train to Barking Riverside

London Underground is building its first major line extension this century as it takes the tube to the regeneration area around Battersea Power Station.

Transport for London is extending the Gospel Oak to Barking line to a new station that will serve east London’s largest housing development.

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Railway stations reimagined

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Extending the West Midlands Metro

Scotland’s 7N Architects has won an international competition to improve the passenger experience at Britain’s small to medium-sized stations.

The light-rail system that connects Wolverhampton and Birmingham is currently being extended in four different directions

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Taking the tram to Newhaven

After a six-year pause, the City of Edinburgh is completing the tram line it first began in 2008.

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Solving the branch-line challenge

A new National Innovation Centre is being built at Dudley in the West Midlands to develop the concept of Very Light Rail.

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Innovative battery-charger for VLR

In a world-first, Dudley’s National Innovation Centre for Very Light Rail has installed an ultrarapid charging station.

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Restoring your railway

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The railway of the future

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Records broken while rebuilding the Dartmoor line

The infamous Beeching report resulted in the closure of 5,000 miles of track and over 2,300 stations. Now that process is being reversed.

RIA’s annual Innovation Conference covered a multitude of topics, from working with academia to alternative fuels and decarbonisation.

Plans to reconnect the two great university towns The first project to gain approval from the by rail have been under discussion for the past ‘Restoring your Railway’ programme is racing to 15 years. completion in Devon.

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Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

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Introduction

Building Britain’s Railways W

elcome to the first issue of InsideTrack, the new magazine for Britain’s railway industry that seeks to inform readers about the major issues of the day, the opportunities and challenges they present, and how the sector is changing and reacting.

Published six times a year, every issue will have a theme. This first issue looks at Building Britain’s Railways, so it covers new-build projects such as HS2, Crossrail – which will become the Elizabeth line once it opens next year – East West Rail, extensions to tram and London Underground networks, and even a new test track for Very Light Rail in the West Midlands.

Later topics

railbusinessdaily.com

are “ forRailtheprojects long term

– they can take 10 years to build and then be in service for 150 years after that

“

This issue also touches on the challenges facing train operators as COVID-19 restrictions ease, and Operating Britain’s Railways will be the focus of our second issue in July.

Enhancing Britain’s Railways is a major topic, and we shall look at that in September.

Upgrades to the Transpennine route, the electrified rail network and the East Coast main line’s signalling system will all feature, as will plans to make other railway routes quicker, more resilient and safer.

Safety on Britain’s Railways is always of paramount importance – the safety of passengers, who trust the rail industry to look after them and keep them safe on their journeys, the safety of track workers who go to work each day expecting to return home safely at the end of their shifts, the safety of the public around construction sites, and even the safety of the reckless few who trespass where they shouldn’t and abuse facilities such as level crossings.

Maintaining Britain’s Railways is an important and often unappreciated job. Steel rails wear out, complex systems get affected by weather, rails break and signalling cables get eaten by rodents or stolen by thieves in the night. All have to be fixed when they occur, and measures have to be put in place to minimise the risk of them happening again.

Finally, we shall look at Governing Britain’s Railways, at how they are funded, who makes the important decisions and the checks and balances in place. Readers will learn a lot of acronyms in this issue – DfT, TfW, TfL, ORR, RSSB, RAIB, RMT, TSSA, RDG, RSG and RIA could all feature.

Those are our plans for the future of InsideTrack.

This first issue, put together by the team at RBD Publications, home of Rail Director magazine and the Rail Business Daily newsletter and website, will hopefully explain some of the background behind Britain’s new railways, reveal the thinking and plans behind them, and answer a few questions as to what the future might hold.

Reviews and pipelines Talking of the future, several major government reports have been delayed by COVID-19, the General Election, uncertainties over funding and Brexit. The Williams Rail Review, set up in September 2018 to look at the structure of the whole rail industry and the way passenger rail services are delivered, has been through several drafts and alterations and could now be published while this magazine is being printed.

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The Union Connectivity Review, led by Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy, is considering the current state of transport connectivity within the UK and the case for future investment. An interim report was published in March, the final report is due ‘in the summer’. The Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline (RNEP), the list of rail enhancements approved for funding by the government and details of those currently being planned, is overdue for an update, having last been published in October 2019.

Uncertainty The UK is certain to have a difficult time in the coming months and years. The coronavirus pandemic has cost the country dearly, so savings will be sought to balance the books. At the same time, the Prime Minister has committed to Build Back Better, so major rail infrastructure projects could be one way of doing that and restoring prosperity and long-term job prospects.

Passenger numbers have fallen, so overcrowding is now not the problem it was.

However, rail projects are for the long term – they can take 10 years to build and then be in service for 150 years after that – and who is brave enough to say what the current pandemic will do to passenger demand in 20, 30, 40 years’ time?

As always, there are a lot of unanswered questions, but InsideTrack will do its best to explore those issues over the coming months.

Nigel Wordsworth, Managing editor, RBD Publications

Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

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Comment

Supply chain stands ready to Build Back Better Philip Hoare, chairman of the Rail Supply Group and president of Atkins, looks at the opportunities and challenges of the ‘new normal’.

S

Driving innovation and change It is very encouraging to see that investment in infrastructure is a cornerstone of the government’s recovery objectives and that rail is a key part of this. The role of the supply chain will be integral to help drive the innovation and change that is necessary to ensure we continue to improve efficiency and productivity and demonstrate value for money.

I am therefore very pleased to see that the government’s ‘Build Back Better: our plan for growth’ honours the existing sector deals – including the Rail Sector Deal which the government has asked the Rail Supply Group (RSG) to deliver.

railbusinessdaily.com

I know that our exceptional rail supply chain stands ready to do what needs to be done, supporting the Whole Industry Strategic Plan (WISP) by offering a clear focus on accelerating innovation and helping to drive the sector’s journey to carbon net zero while adapting to the post-COVID environment in the UK.

Fail to invest in “ this new talent,

“

ince the first rail journeys nearly 200 years ago, the UK’s rail network has been part of the backbone of our economy. In 2019, we celebrated a doubling of passenger journeys since privatisation.

Train services had increased by nearly a third and a record 1.8 billion passenger journeys were being made every year. In short, a success story in which the extensive rail supply chain has played a vital part.

Then on 23 March 2020, it all changed.

Everyone in the rail sector did their upmost to get us through the worst days of the COVID pandemic, keeping Britain moving and rail travel safe. Thanks to an army of unsung heroes, key workers were still able to get to work, while vital supplies continued to be delivered by rail freight.

Encouragingly, we are now seeing a gradual return to rail travel, but there are still many uncertainties and challenges ahead. The daily commuter market that underpinned revenue has changed beyond recognition, and we will need to adapt and change accordingly.

The government’s ongoing support and commitment to our railway will be vital as we move forward and adjust to the ‘new normal’, decarbonise our railway, continue the journey towards a digital railway and thoroughly refresh our operating models and service to our customers.

and we will be left behind

I am proud of the progress we have made on the Sector Deal and, in particular, with the RSG’s Act Now initiatives that have shown the power of what the industry can achieve when it comes together.

The RSG’s current Work Pipeline Visibility Charter campaign is one example of being key to

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sustaining a healthy and productive industry and encouraging collaboration between companies from the largest to the smallest.

We are ready to support the findings of the Shapps-Williams review. I hope this will create a north star to guide the future of our railway with a clear long-term vision for the sector and a plan to get us there that will unite us and create a great environment for the rail industry both now and for future generations.

Investing in people and skills and, importantly, new digital skills will be essential if we are to increase the pace of innovation and succeed. As well as great engineering talent, we’ll need data experts, economists, environmental scientists and cyber security specialists among countless other new capabilities in order to rise to this challenge.

Fail to invest in this new talent, and we will be left behind.

Like the early pioneers of nearly 200 years ago, this is a fantastic opportunity to reposition our sector. Let’s make sure we take it and create a new legacy that will last into the next century and beyond.

Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

HS2

Why HS2? And why so much?

HS2 has its supporters and its denigrators. One group stresses the benefits to the nation, the other the cost and environmental impact.

S

o much has been written and discussed about HS2 that it is difficult to know how to explain the project in a few words. Its own website describes HS2 as “a state-of-the-art, high-speed line critical for the UK’s low carbon transport future. It will provide much-needed rail capacity across the country and is integral to rail projects in the North and Midlands – helping rebalance the UK economy.”

The important thing here is that “it will provide much-needed rail capacity”. This is actually the entire justification for the project. The ‘High Speed’ name was imposed on the project by politicians to make it sound exciting, but it did the project no favours.

Why HS2?

May 2021

This upsets environmentalists, hikers and residents along its route. No one wants the new railway running past their house – some don’t even want it to be visible from their towns and villages.

And that’s where the government’s ‘High Speed’ label comes back to bite them. Opponents claim the whole project is about ‘fat cats’ from Birmingham getting to London 10 minutes quicker.

“

To compare current estimates with those from 2009 is rather like comparing apples and pears

“

The real reason for the new line is that the West Coast main line, the route from London Euston north to Scotland, is full. It supports long-distance services from London to the West Midlands, Manchester and the North, suburban services into London and other cities, and is also one of the country’s busiest freight routes.

Although a certain amount of capacity improvements can be derived from better signalling and train management, the route is so full it needs another two lines. This can then take the long-distance traffic off the existing lines, freeing up capacity on those for stopping services and freight.

However, adding two new lines isn’t easy.

The current route was built by the Victorians, before the days of planning permission, public inquiries and the right to be heard. Putting two more lines next to the existing ones would mean demolishing large swathes of Rugby, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Crewe, Stoke-on-Trent and Stafford.

At Birmingham, New Street station is built underground, in a box. Its 12 platforms are already all split into A and B, with a couple of Cs, so the 12 platform faces can actually be operated as 26 separate platforms. There is no chance of building any more, or any more approach lines.

So, the only choice is to build a new twintrack railway. And it can’t run alongside the existing formation, it has to go through open countryside.

It isn’t. It’s about regular people from Birmingham, and other towns and cities, getting to London at all!

The proper term for the project should have been the ‘West Coast main line capacity enhancement scheme’. But that’s not as sexy as High Speed Two… The other ‘bullet’ that objectors fire at the project is its seemingly spiralling cost. Starting at around £37.5 billion at 2009 prices, estimates are now over £100 billion – and commentators seem to sometimes pluck any number they like out of the air.

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In fact, there are many reasons for the ‘increases’.

One is the phenomenon of ‘optimism bias’.

This was the subject of a report prepared for the Department of Transport in 2017, primarily about Network Rail projects but its findings can be equally relevant to any rail project.

The report was commissioned in the aftermath of the cost of Great Western electrification having risen dramatically, causing the project to be reassessed and have some elements cut.

Better than average outcomes Prepared by five leading business academics, the report defines optimism bias as “the tendency of individuals to expect better than average outcomes from their actions. In the context of rail infrastructure projects, optimism bias can lead to underestimation of project duration, overestimation of its benefits and underestimation of its total cost.”

What was startling was that the report’s authors estimated that the initial costs of a new project could be understated by as much as 66 per cent. By the time that the detailed design stage is reached, that level of underestimate is down to only six per cent.

So that, in part, can explain the sharp increase in project cost as the design moved from a broad outline to fine detail. In addition, inflation plays its part.

Everyone knows that £1 in 2009 is not worth £1 today.

railbusinessdaily.com

HS2

Leeds

Tables of building cost indices (sourced from costmodelling.com) show that, using the year 2000 as a baseline of 100, the index moved from 152 in the first quarter of 2009 to 187 in the second quarter of 2021, a 23 per cent increase.

Phase 2b

Manchester Piccadilly Wigan

Crewe East Midlands Hub

Birmingham Curzon Street

Interchange

Phase 1

Then there is the cost of the trains themselves.

Estimated to be £7.5 billion at 2013 prices, this cost was left out of the original total as they would be leased from banks, as other trains in the UK are, and so should not be included in the total.

This decision was reversed in 2013, and the train cost was added to the bill.

Then there was the cost of changes to design to appease residents and politicians along the route.

More and longer tunnels, deeper cuttings and other measures to ‘hide’ the railway added to the civil engineering and the total cost.

So, it’s hardly surprising that the cost has increased. Whether it has gone up more than could have been foreseen is a matter for debate.

But to compare current estimates with those from 2009 is rather like comparing apples and pears.

Similarly, comparing the cost of HS2 in the UK with other high-speed lines around the world is also problematic. Their planning processes are

Phase 2a

Additional costs

Old Oak Common London Euston

different, as are their environmental requirements.

Add to this the fact that, in building a new railway, it makes sense to use the latest standards, and no one else has yet built a railway to operate at 360km/h (224mph) and with an alignment that gives passive provision for 400km/h (250mph) operation, which makes comparison with lines that operate at lower speeds problematic.

Despite the arguments over costs, environmentalists’ objections and comments, questions in parliament and complaints from those who see this as just another ‘London-centric’ scheme, HS2 was granted Royal Assent to build phase 1 in February 2017 and received its Notice-to-Proceed in July 2020. Royal Assent for phase 2a, taking the new line to Crewe, followed in February 2021.

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Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

HS2

HS2: Building phase 1

Image: HS2

Construction of HS2 has begun in earnest, with tunnel boring machines starting to dig under the Chilterns.

HS2 trains at London Euston station

Phase 1 Phase 1 runs from London Euston station towards Birmingham. The route leaves London underground, in the Euston tunnel, a 4.5-mile twin-bore tunnel that takes the line to its first stop – the ‘super-hub’ station at Old Oak Common.

The high-speed line will share Old Oak Common with the Elizabeth line (Crossrail), Heathrow Express and the Great Western main line to Bristol and South Wales. Six underground platforms on HS2 will connect by lifts and escalators with eight at ground level, served by the other lines.

Leaving Old Oak Common, the line runs through the Northolt tunnels. 8.4 miles long, these will be bored from each end with the tunnel boring machines (TBMs) meeting in the middle.

The Colne Valley viaduct takes the route above ground over the Colne river and the Grand Union

May 2021

canal. The UK’s longest rail viaduct, it will be over two miles (3.4km) long, which is 0.6 miles longer than the Forth rail bridge.

Straight after leaving the Colne Valley viaduct, and just before reaching the M25 motorway around London, HS2 will dive underground again into the Chiltern tunnels. These 10-mile-long ‘twin bore’ tunnels will be the longest on the project and are the first to start construction, with the tunnel

“

Phase 1 runs from London Euston station towards Birmingham

“

C

onstruction of HS2 has begun. It is being built in phases, and work on the first phase is well underway, with tunnel boring machines starting to dig the line’s longest tunnel. To understand the size of the task, it is necessary just to recap the route.

boring machines (TBMs) set to be underground working 24/7 for more than three years.

The Chilterns tunnel is closely followed by the Wendover tunnel, a so-called ‘green’ (cut and cover) tunnel that is 0.9 mile long.

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At Calvert, in Buckinghamshire, HS2 crosses under East West Rail, the line being rebuilt between Oxford and Cambridge. This will be the site of an HS2 maintenance depot, and HS2 contractors will deliver both the overbridge and the junction that will allow East West trains to access Aylesbury and Aylesbury Parkway.

HS2 is delivering this work so as to reduce both the number of contractors working on the site and disruption to the local community.

Further tunnels Continuing northwards, running almost parallel with the M40 motorway, the railway passes through two more ‘green’ tunnels at Greatworth (1.6 miles) and Chipping Warden (1.5 miles) and one bored tunnel at Long Itchigton (1.1 miles long, but of which 0.1 mile is cut-and-cover).

The half-mile long Burton Green ‘green’ tunnel leads into the second stop on the route, Interchange station in Solihull, close to Birmingham airport and the NEC. If travelling to Birmingham, the train then turns left at the Delta junction, through the 3.5mile long Bromford tunnel, which will be bored

railbusinessdaily.com

Image: HS2

HS2

Approaching Old Oak Common station

by only one TBM, digging seven miles in total.

Once back in fresh air, the final approach to Birmingham Curzon Street station will be on an elevated section. Trains for the north will continue straight on after Interchange station, onto what will be phase 2a of construction.

In total, phase 1 of HS2 will include:

elta junction, outside Birmingham, which D is 5.9 miles (9.5km) long and includes seven bridges and viaducts that span three rail lines, eight roads, five rivers and canals and the M6.

Before Royal Assent

While construction of HS2 had to wait for the Notice-to-Proceed, which was received in July 2020, some preparatory work had already O ver 500 bridging structures; started, even before Royal Assent was granted in M ore than 50 viaducts, measuring about nine February 2017.

132x188 half page ad:Layout 1 07/09/2017 11:55 Page miles (15km) in total; The1 High Speed Rail (Preparation) Act 32 miles of tunnels;

RAILWAY

2013 authorised the Secretary of State to incur expenditure in preparation for the construction of a high speed rail network. This expenditure obviously covered the design of the new route, but also covered some works that were essential to the design process.

“We had to choose very carefully what we did,” explained Mike Lyons, HS2’s programme director for phase 1. “The design process is obviously the first part, and the consent process. But we also carried out the largest ground investigation work ever undertaken by a project in Europe, never mind the in the UK. So that was £65 million of ground investigations, up and down the route of phase 1, to get the information ready for the joint venture teams and designers that we were going to start to develop.”

These ground investigations led on to the Advanced Critical Works. These were elements that had to be undertaken before any construction could begin, including environmental impact assessments and archaeology.

“We really take our responsibilities towards the environment very seriously,” Mike continued.

“We had to start early to make sure we delivered that part of the programme in a responsible way, working with colleagues from Natural England and others.

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Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

Planning consent That preliminary work allowed HS2 to create a preliminary design for the new railway. Not a detailed design, but detailed enough to start applying for planning consent.

Fortunately, the various local authorities came together to create one planning forum with which HS2 could negotiate. Ted Allett, who had obtained the planning consents for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (later HS1), agreed to chair the planning forum.

“That worked really well,” Mike exclaimed.

“We obviously didn’t want to have to get consent for every single railway asset, every bridge pier, every parapet, every overhead line mast individually. We therefore agreed a number of common design elements with our architects and our engineers, and then worked with the planning forum as a collective to agree these common design elements.

“So, as long as we used those common design elements within our design, they would be deemed approved.”

Of course, some major items such as the Colne Valley viaduct are bespoke designs that don’t use the common design elements, but even here the planning forum members involved can negotiate collectively, simplifying the process.

Once the High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Act 2017 had received Royal Assent, planning permission for the whole railway was deemed to have been approved. Schedule 17 of the Act put in place a process for the approval of certain matters relating to the design and construction of the railway, including: uilding works B ground buildings);

(permanent,

above-

ther construction works (earthworks, O road vehicle parks, screens, transformers, telecommunications masts, pedestrian accesses, fencing/walls, lighting); atters ancillar y M (construction camps);

May 2021

to

development

TBM Florence at the Chiltern tunnel portal.

ringing into use (to ensure that appropriate B mitigation has been incorporated); Site restoration.

The final element, site restoration, doesn’t necessarily mean putting everything back to the way it was before the work started. Some councils have requested that access roads be left in, as walkways and cycle paths, while others will be retained by HS2 as access for maintenance.

In some locations, to help HS2 blend into the countryside, railway structures have been designed to look like something else. Tunnel vent headhouses that house equipment and emergency access staircases have been made to resemble agricultural buildings. Several are out in open country – one is even in the middle of a highway roundabout!

“

Designed by Align’s partners Jacobs and Ingerop-Rendel, along with architect Grimshaw, this will be the longest railway viaduct in the UK

“

These were all things that that we needed to do before we could start main construction.

“And if, at the very end, parliament decided we weren’t going to do it, everything could actually be put back to the way they were, so there was no permanent damage to the to the country and the environment.

“Effectively, there was no permanent works being undertaken yet that couldn’t be reversed ahead of notice to proceed. Lots of preparatory works, but nothing irreversible.”

Image: HS2

HS2

With the granting of Royal Assent and then the issuance of the Notice-to-Proceed, construction has now begun in earnest.

Align, a joint venture of Bouygues Travaux Publics, a subsidiary of Bouygues Construction, Sir Robert McAlpine, and VolkerFitzpatrick, a subsidiary of VolkerWessels, set up a major work site at Chalfont Lane between junctions 16 and 17 on the M25.

This is where the first of two giant tunnel boring machines (TBMs) has just been ‘launched’ to dig the Chiltern tunnel, which will stretch for 10 miles to South Heath in Buckinghamshire.

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As they dig, the tunnel will be lined behind them using more than 118,000 concrete segments, which will be cast on site. The twin-bore Chiltern tunnel will be the longest and deepest tunnel bores on route, with separate northbound and southbound tunnels and five ventilation shafts.

The ‘arisings’, or spoil from the digging, will be mixed with water to form a slurry, so that it can be pumped out of the tunnels quickly and efficiently.

At the surface, this slurry will be dried out and used for landscaping, avoiding the need for the material to be taken out by road.

The South Portal Chalfont Lane site will, at 135 acres (55 hectares), be the biggest construction site on the project. Teams from HS2’s main works contractor Align JV will work with its subcontractors to deliver not only the tunnelling but also the construction of the adjacent Colne Valley viaduct.

The UK’s longest rail viaduct Designed by Align’s partners Jacobs and IngeropRendel, along with architect Grimshaw, this will be the longest railway viaduct in the UK. At 2.1 miles (3.4km) long, it will carry HS2 across the Grand Union Canal and surrounding lakes. Further south, the line will go into tunnel again before arriving at Old Oak Common and London Euston.

Around 350 staff from Align JV are now permanently based on site. At the peak of construction, around 1,200 people are expected to be employed in the design and construction of the Chiltern tunnel and the viaduct, with 50 opportunities for apprentices.

Dedicated motorway slip-roads have been built to link the new site with the M25 and take construction traffic off local roads.

With tunnel boring having commenced, piles being sunk for the Colne Valley viaduct, work progressing well at Euston station and in the West Midlands, construction of HS2 is now well underway. Like many readers, Inside Track can’t wait to catch that first train.

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HS2

Is HS2 heading east?

The eastern leg of HS2 phase 2b is still in doubt, even though both the Oakervee Review and the Prime Minister say it should be built in full.

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ritain’s new high-speed railway, High Speed Two (High Speed One is the former Channel Tunnel Rail Link between London St Pancras International and the Channel Tunnel at Folkestone), was always intended to be built in two phases.

Phase One would take the railway from London Euston to Birmingham, with a link onto the existing West Coast main line. Phase 2 would extend that line in a Y-shaped formation, with the western leg going to Manchester and the eastern leg to Leeds. There, both would connect to the conventional rail network, taking passengers onwards to the North and Scotland.

In November 2015, it was announced that the southern half of the western leg would be built first, taking the line to Crewe, where there would be an interchange with both the West Coast main line and other local routes. This would be known as Phase 2a. the remaining half of the western leg, and all of the eastern leg to Leeds, would be built later as Phase 2b.

May 2021

It drew 62 conclusions, of which the final one was: “The Review strongly advises against cancelling the scheme.”

“

The point is, how do we get the benefits of it as quickly as possible?

“

The HS2 project was always controversial.

Opposition came from various groups, including MPs and people living along the line of the route, particularly in the Chilterns, who didn’t want the line running through their communities (the ‘nimbys’ – not in my back yard), environmental groups concerned that the line would go though large areas of natural beauty and important wildlife habitats, those who were concerned about the escalating costs (although many of the increases were due to changes to the route forced on the designers by the other protesters) and people who felt that improving the existing network would have the same effect of increasing rail capacity from London to the Midlands and the North at lower cost.

Because of the mounting pressure, in August 2019 the government commissioned a review of the plans for HS2, to be chaired by Douglas Oakervee, a past president of the Institution of Civil Engineers. The results of the Oakervee review were published in February 2020.

The report concluded that the full network was needed to realise the benefits of the investment in HS2 because “Phase One as a standalone scheme makes little sense” and the impact of cancelling the project outright would be significant.

Image: HS2

Doubts and reviews

Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Parliament that he was committed to Phase 2b of the project, extending high-speed rail from the West Midlands to the North. In order to work out how best to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail, Midlands Engine Rail and Phase 2b more effectively, he said that the government would draw up an integrated plan for rail in the North, informed by an assessment from the National Infrastructure Commission.

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That Integrated Rail Plan is still awaited. However, the government decided to split Phase 2b and press ahead with the western leg from Crewe to Manchester. Legislation, in the form of a Hybrid Bill, is expected to be put to Parliament early in 2022.

As a result, it is the eastern leg of Phase 2b that is still in doubt. Although Oakervee recommended, and the Prime Minister accepted, that the scheme should be built in full, until the Integrated Rail Plan is published and accepted, communities along the route of the eastern leg will feel that their part of the project is at risk.

Particularly so as an earlier report published by the National Infrastructure Commission in December 2020 – “Rail Needs Assessment for the Midlands and the North” – looked at shortening HS2’s eastern leg and terminating it at East Midlands Parkway station, between Derby and Nottingham, where it would connect with an upgraded conventional rail network.

However, in an interesting development, Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps told Birmingham Live, during a visit to

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mic impacts at investments unities, and nity UK-wide. tions will serve er, condemning of financial otential.

In February 2020, the Government confirmed that while the development and delivery of Phase One (from London to Birmingham) and Phase 2a (from Birmingham to Crewe) would continue as planned, the Government wouldHundertake a review of Phase S2 2b of the project, publishing an Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) to consider how both its Eastern and Western legs can be best integrated within the wider transport network. We expect this to be published before the end of 2020.

HS2 Line (Phase 2a) HS2 Line (Phase 2b - Eastern Leg) HS2 Line (Phase 2b - Western Leg)

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HS2 Services on existing network

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Newcastle

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Carlisle

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Durham Penrith

Midlands Engine Rail

Darlington

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Oxenholme

Bradford

Leeds

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York

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Derby

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Stafford EMA

The Midlands argument

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HS2 Line (Phase One)

Carstairs

part of this solution, one that will create thousands of high-skilled jobs and spread the benefits of investment and regeneration to the local communities that need it most.

Government has committed to levelling-up the UK economy, it must now deliver on this Due to the uncertainty, a number promise, starting with the full construction of the Eastern groups put Leg.” forward their cases for

of pro-HS2 the eastern novation Campus leg of Phase 2b to be built. One of these was HS2 or a fairer and stronger futureEast, the campaign representing many of the UK’s ‘powerhouse’ cities and industrial heartlands across the Midlands, the North and Scotland, which published a report “Mind the gap: The role of HS2’s eastern leg in bridging England’s eastwest divide” in September 2020.

For the full benefits of our new high speed network to be realised, it must be built in its entirety; both the Eastern and Western legs of Phase 2b should be delivered as soon as possible.

Edinburgh

Glasgow

T

Birmingham at the end of March 2021: “It has always been this government’s intention, as the Prime Minister’s said, it’s not a question of 2b or not 2b – or 2b east or not to be ... the eastern part.

We have always said we intend to complete HS2.

“The point is, how do we get the benefits of it as quickly as possible?

“Remember, at the moment, the eastern part isn’t scheduled to bring those benefits until the 2040s. So, if anything, I’d like to bring sections of Cllr forward Kay Cutts, leader of that for earlier benefit.

Nottinghamshire County “So, watch this space, we are going to have the Council, said: outcome of the Integrated Rail Review this spring “Now is the time to build back better and build greener,how accelerating and thenback describe we can get this eastern leg our economic recovery from COVID-19. linked up faster, I hope, the original plans.”

The Eastern Leg of HS2 is an than essential

Eastern Leg of HS2 Phase 2b, both compared to the Western Leg of HS2 Phase 2b, and the UK as a whole. As well as outlining the nature of these inequalities, this report will explain how investment in our new high speed network will catalyse the regeneration, development and social mobility needed to address these disparities.

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challenges of vestment in the ssures, new to demonstrate ging projects nities out of n.

In a time where we need to work together towards a safe and prosperous future, this report does not intend to create divisions between the great regions of the North and the Midlands. We believe that both the Eastern and Western legs must be delivered in full.

Newcastle and on to Scotland, the Eastern Leg of HS2 Phase 2b will connect communities that are home to over 13 million people and six million jobs.

W

tical and sured, in the media th divide. vernment are significantly than North.

on the Western and Eastern Legs of HS2, demonstrating that a pervasive East – West divide provides the clinching case for why the Eastern Leg of HS2 Phase 2b must be built in its entirety.

Birmingham Curzon Street Birmingham Interchange

Image: HS2 East

oyment mobility are all phy – and the

Leicester

Bedford

Old Oak Common

London Euston

3

In it, HS2 East explains that, as well as the welldiscussed north-south divide in England, there is also a pronounced east-west divide. The report states: “An analysis of social and economic indicators has

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revealed a stark disparity between the outcomes and life chances of communities living along the eastern leg of HS2 Phase 2b, compared to communities surrounding the western leg of HS2 Phase 2b.”

Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

HS2

Are home to more social mobility ‘coldspots’.

Several other factors suggest a need for transport investment in the eastern leg geography, to stimulate economic opportunity. A number of towns and cities along the eastern leg are home to a high proportion of ‘financially stretched’ households, and the concentration of transport poverty is significantly higher than the UK average and correlates strongly with areas of social deprivation.

Cllr Kay Cutts, leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, commented: “Now is the time to build back better and build back greener, accelerating our economic recovery from COVID-19.

“The eastern leg of HS2 is an essential part of this solution, one that will create thousands of highskilled jobs and spread the benefits of investment and regeneration to the local communities that need it most. Government has committed to levelling-up the UK economy, it must now deliver on this promise, starting with the full construction of the eastern leg.”

Her words were echoed by Chesterfield Borough Council leader Cllr Tricia Gilby in that city’s own pro-HS2 report ‘Don’t Cut Here!’ “We need to give our young people hope that they can thrive in towns like ours, not just survive,” she said. “HS2 coming to Chesterfield gives us the confidence to tell the next generation that the future is bright.”

Benefits of HS2 HS2 East believes that the eastern leg of HS2 will catalyse the regeneration, job creation and economic growth needed to lift up communities surrounding the new high-speed railway line. It will do this by: Raising productivity – The new high-speed railway will transform connectivity between the UK’s major cities and produce huge journey

York +7,000 jobs +£1.6bn GVA

The East Midlands +74,000 jobs

Sheffield

+£4bn GVA per year

+12,000 jobs +1,220 new homes Chesterfield

+ £970m GVA HS2 will generate swathes of development around Sheffield Midland station including over 180,000sqm of commercial space, new homes, leisure destinations and retail units.

+10,000 jobs +4,740 new homes +£270m GVA per year New HS2 maintenance depot at Staveley creating hundreds of highly skilled jobs.

time benefits. Less time spent travelling and increased ease of access to new domestic markets will increase productive output and reduce the disruption caused by cancellations and delays.

Encouraging social mobility – Not only will HS2’s construction see the creation of thousands of apprenticeships, it will also prompt the creation of over 150,000 new jobs along the eastern leg, many of which will be highly skilled. The ease of access to these opportunities, along with the regeneration of deprived inner city areas will expose young people to a host of new possibilities.

Catalysing regeneration – The arrival of HS2 is prompting widespread regeneration around the planned new station in the East Midlands, as well in Chesterfield, Sheffield, Leeds and York. This level of transformation has not been seen for a generation, and will see thousands of new homes built, new leisure destinations opened and a host of holistic placemaking in inner city areas.

Inside Leeds station.

May 2021

Tees Valley +16,000 jobs over the next decade

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The HS2 East Midlands Hub at Toton will be home to a state-of-the-art innovation campus, bringing together established businesses and start-ups to create 10,000 highly skilled jobs.

‘Access to Toton’ transport plan will link over 20 cities, towns and villages to the HS2 station, improving local transport networks across rail, road, bus and tram.

Image: HS2 East

Receive significantly less transport investment;

Leeds +40,000 jobs +8,000 new homes +£54bn to the local economy by 2050 Supporting the development of Leeds’ South Bank, set to double the size of the city centre, creating new leisure facilities, housing and office space.

Image: HS2

Compared to communities on the western leg of HS2, the eastern leg of HS2 and its surrounding communities: Have lower productivity rates;

Reducing transport poverty – HS2 will be the backbone of our public transport network for the next century, and will vastly improve access to public transport for communities along its route. It is the basis of complementary regional transport initiatives Northern Powerhouse Rail and Midlands Engine Rail that both utilise HS2 infrastructure, connect communities to the high-speed line and use the capacity HS2 frees up on the existing network to run additional local and intercity services. This will raise productivity, encourage social mobility and reduce transport poverty.

Reducing emissions – HS2 will create space on the conventional network for over two million lorries’ worth of goods to be moved from Britain’s roads onto its railways each year. A move that will reduce carbon emissions by 76 per cent. It will eradicate the need for domestic air travel, providing a carbon-neutral alternative to the hundreds of polluting flights that run between England and Scotland each week.

Baroness Judith Blake, former leader of Leeds City Council, sums up the case for taking HS2 through to Leeds: “There’s no arguing with the facts – the eastern leg of HS2 is home to communities that are blighted by low productivity, are less likely to achieve social mobility and that have suffered from a chronic underinvestment in transport.

“Government must remedy this now and commit to building the eastern leg of HS2 in full, as soon as possible, giving the Midlands and the North the resources needed to spark regeneration, job creation and economic growth.”

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HS2

HS2 procurement

Image: HS2

A look at the procurement processes and strategy behind Britain’s high-speed rail project.

Robin Lapish, supply chain manager, rolling stock & railway systems, HS2.

May 2021

All other contractors, subcontractors and suppliers would work for one or other of those 15, not HS2 directly.

overarching contracts and push responsibility for subcontracts – and the workload that goes with it – onto the main contractors.

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Current situation

From mainstream civil engineering giants to small enterprises supplying on-site catering, all would play their part

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A

ny major construction project, whether it be in rail or another sector, is delivered by a number of suppliers. Principal contractors, subcontractors, sub-subcontractors – they all have their part to play.

So, a mammoth programme such as HS2, worth a reported £100 billion, would be expected to involve numerous contractors, at tier 1, tier 2, tier 3, tier 4 levels, and even further down the supply chain. From mainstream civil engineering giants to small enterprises supplying on-site catering, all would play their part.

It therefore wasn’t surprising that more than 2,000 people attended the first two national supplier conferences HS2 hosted in London and Manchester in 2014, wishing to hear what new chief executive Simon Kirby had to say about future opportunities.

What he did say was a little surprising. He told his audiences that he intended to build HS2 using only 15 suppliers – several civil engineering contractors who would be responsible for construction in a geographical area, a couple of lead designers, three or four railway systems suppliers, and that would basically be it.

He had no intention of abandoning the tier 2,3,4 and lower suppliers to market forces, he said he would keep control of important elements such as payment terms and other contractual obligations, but it would be up to the supply chain to get their work from the 15 directly contracted organisations, many of which would be joint ventures.

It was easy to see why HS2 would do this.

Procurement is a time-consuming business, and this way they would keep control of the

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Seven years later, with a number of contracts placed and work underway, and with a different chief executive at the helm in the person of Mark Thurston, how is the HS2 procurement process working?

Robin Lapish is HS2’s supply chain manager for rolling stock and railway systems, two of the items which have yet to be procured, so it seemed to be a good question to aim at him. He has been working on the project since 2014, and he also attended those early conferences.

“Those were the first major external engagements that we did,” he remembered. “It was October 2014. We launched our outline procurement strategy to the market for phase 1.

“We had been doing a lot of internal assessments to understand the nature of the market and HS2’s position in that market against the demands from other infrastructure clients at that time. It was important to understand how we featured within that fluid and ever-changing market.

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Image: HS2

HS2

Old Oak Common station will be built on two levels.

“Those conferences were our first broadcast event to outline our procurement strategy at the time for phase 1 – how we were going to deliver it – with a view to then engaging the market on an individual package-by-package level to develop the detail about the different categories of work.”

On HS2, there are several principal categories: Enabling works – three management contracts were let on a geographical basis in November 2016. Now largely complete as main works start.

Main works civils – two-stage design-andbuild contracts awarded in Summer 2017, seven packages awarded to four joint venture consortia.

Rail systems and rolling stock – all the contracts that turn a building site into a fully functioning railway. Railway systems comprises 16 contracts, originally six, but this number has grown as the procurement strategy has developed. Although railway systems are still route-wide contracts, so there will be one signalling system for example, others have been split or are being procured in parts.

“One reason we have done this is to help inform the design team,” Robin explained. “For example, we have procured the cross-passage doors for the tunnels. These were originally part of the routewide M&E (mechanical and electrical) package, but an individual contract for the cross-passage tunnel doors has now been awarded to Booth Industries, based in Lancashire.

“The reason we have done that is so that our main works civils contractors now know where to put the holes in the tunnel linings, and how big to make them.

“So those are some of the nuances that we have worked through and thought that there is merit in bringing some packages forward.”

The rolling-stock contracts – there are two, one for manufacturing and one for servicing, but they will be awarded to the same supplier – are expected to be awarded in summer 2021. These will be the biggest single contracts in the entire programme.

The rail systems contracts, such as signalling, operational telecommunications and overhead catenary, are being procured for phases 1 and 2a together, now that phase 2a has Royal Assent. The plain-line precast slab-track contract, which was awarded last autumn, has gone to one supplier for the slabs, to keep the system uniform across the railway, but installation will be split into four contracts – three for phase 1 and one for phase 2a.

“The slab track is a really interesting subject as it is a great example of HS2 providing benefit to the UK economy beyond its route,” Robin added.

“It was awarded to a consortium of Porr UK and Aggregate Industries and, as part of that, they are going to build a new factory in Somerset, a part of the world that isn’t directly served by HS2 but from a supply chain perspective will generate a lot of benefit for that community. It’s a £260 million contract and it’s going to create up to 500 jobs, so it’s a fantastic example of the early benefits of the project to different parts of the UK. “It’s also a great example of offsite manufacture, which we are keen to promote. Build as much as possible in a factory environment, remote from site, which creates the benefits of regional economic spread of opportunities. It minimises disruption to communities along the route and it produces a better quality outcome as well by having them produced in a controlled, factory environment rather than on a muddy construction site. So, the more we can bring manufacturing into the process, the better.”

Working together The combination of overseas technology (Porr of Austria) and UK manufacturing (Aggregate Industries) is not unique to the slab track contract.

“We’ve seen quite a lot of that on HS2,” Robin confirmed, “where international expertise has joined forces with UK expertise. High-speed rail experience joins forces with the UK contractor with the know-how on the ground, the local supply chains and logistics and the ways of working in the UK.

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Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

HS2

We haven’t dictated these arrangements, it’s purely how the market has decided to react to our contract opportunities.

“Main works civils is a great example of that, where we’ve got some international contractors joining forces with UK contractors. They bring that high-speed rail experience into the mix, which is great from a legacy perspective as it helps with the upskilling agenda and getting the UK more experienced in high-speed rail delivery.

“In turn, the supply chain will benefit from access to that expertise as well.”

May 2021

risk and capacity utilisation perspective, so we are not overly exposed to particular specialist areas of supply at tier 2 and we can alert our tier 1 contractors where they may be constraints in other areas of the project.

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So far as Brexit is concerned, nothing much has changed. HS2 is still operating under the Utilities Contract Regulations 2016

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To date, HS2 has placed contracts with a total value of £17 billion, made up of 54 contracts worth over £5 million in value. There are an additional 17 contracts at PPQ (pre-qualification questionnaire) or ITT (invitation to tender) stage, worth another £7 billion, and a further 39 contracts in the pipeline. These are mainly the railway systems contracts, phase 2a and Interchange station, and 26 of those 39 are expected to be awarded in the 2021/22 financial year.

So far as Brexit is concerned, nothing much has changed. HS2 is still operating under the Utilities Contract Regulations 2016, but it welcomed the Construction Playbook, published in December 2020, which captures commercial best practices and specific sector reforms and outlines the government’s expectations of how contracting authorities and suppliers, including the supply chain, should engage with each other.

HS2 no longer has to post its contract opportunities on the OJEU (official journal of the EU) website, but instead it posts them on a very similar site set up by the UK Government called Find a Tender. Opportunities are also posted on Contracts Finder, which lists contracts worth over £10,000 with the government and its agencies, including HS2.

All indirect opportunities are advertised on CompeteFor, the supplier platform that enables businesses to compete for contract opportunities linked to large-scale public and private sector buying organisations, as all HS2 tier 1 contracts oblige them to post any tier 2 contract opportunities on the site.

“We take an active interest in the tier 2 supply chain, it’s not like we let a contract and then rinse our hands of what happens thereafter,” Robin stated. “We have a central view of our supply chain, both at tier 1 and tier 2 level, so we have visibility of our tier 1s’ procurement schedules.

We understand who is tendering for work at tier 2 level, who has been awarded work for critical packages, and we monitor that from a financial

Image: HS2

Procurement

“We don’t want to interfere in the process, but we do take an active interest and we do have visibility.”

Prompt payment has been one of the cornerstones of HS2’s relationship with its supply chain. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the company moved from a 30-day payment term to payment ‘on approval’, or basically immediate payment once the documentation was signed off, and now has three payment runs a week.

HS2 also set up project bank accounts last summer, which provide greater transparency of payments and offers speedier payments for companies at all levels of the supply chain.

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Payments are made out of one pot and do not have to cascade through multiple tiers of contractors.

The payment system is now working well, and Robin sees no reason to revert to the old ways when COVID-19 is finally beaten.

A railway project?

Robin also had an important message for the railway supply chain. “We’ve been a civil engineering project to date,” he said. “We’re now just starting to move towards more of a railway engineering project, particularly with the advent of the railway systems contracts. As soon as they start coming on board next year, it will give the project a completely different focus which will translate into a greater diversity of supply chain opportunities, for the rail sector in particular.

“Rail suppliers are probably scratching their heads right now and thinking ‘well I haven’t won anything from HS2 yet and I’m a rail supplier, and it’s supposed to be a rail project, so why not?’

“And that’s because of where we are at with the project. It is heavy engineering, it’s heavy earthmoving, but that will change, particularly when we bring in the train contracts as well, there will be a real array of supply chain opportunities of relevance to that rail sector market.

“So the message is – hold on, and there will be opportunities coming your way…”

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Kickstart

Giving young people a Kickstart The rail industry is getting involved in the Kickstart scheme, a government initiative to provide full-time employment for young people.

Various railway companies have taken up the opportunity. Since March, LNER has welcomed a total of 14 young people to its business, taking up a wide variety of roles, from engineering to marketing and HR, as they experience what it is like to work within the rail industry.

The young people on the placements are benefitting from a bespoke employability development programme, getting the chance to gain new experiences and develop their key skills in areas such as teamwork and communication.

Each individual has a development plan which will be monitored throughout the placement to ensure they get the most out of their time at LNER. Sophie Partington, who joined LNER on the Kickstart scheme in March, said: “I graduated from

May 2021

university last year and have found it to be a struggle to gain a meaningful job without prior experience. I am therefore really excited about my placement with LNER and look forward to gaining new skills and experience that will help me in my future career.”

“I was originally a bit anxious after a year spent largely at home, but I’ve been given a really warm welcome and already feel part of the team.”

Craig Laughton, head of learning experience at LNER, said: “The last year has been an incredibly challenging time for young people who are just starting out in the world of work. We therefore jumped at the chance to create opportunities as part of the Kickstart scheme, introducing young people to the wide variety of different professions in the rail industry and providing them with new experience and skills that will aid them in their future career.

“We also hope that the scheme will help create a talent pipeline of young people who may not have previously considered the opportunities that our industry has to offer, so we will be working hard to ensure that they are passionate advocates for rail!”

LNER is so pleased with the result of its first cohort that it is planning to welcome a second group of young people as part of the Kickstart scheme later in the year.

Network Rail Network Rail is also getting involved and has recently taken on 12 young people under the Kickstart scheme. With more to follow in the weeks and months ahead, the company’s aim is to take on at least 100 in total.

West Midlands Metro

LNER

Image: LNER

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he government’s Kickstart scheme is a £2 billion fund that aims to create thousands of high-quality six-month job placements for young people.

Announced by the Chancellor on 8 July 2020, Kickstart makes funding available to cover the relevant National Minimum Wage for 25 hours a week, plus the associated employer National Insurance contributions and employer minimum automatic enrolment contributions.

Additional funding will be made available to support young people to develop new skills and to help them move into sustained employment after they have completed their Kickstart funded job.

Through the scheme, employers will be able to access a large pool of young people, particularly those aged between 16 and 24 and who are receiving Universal Credit, who are ready for an opportunity and will be supported by their Jobcentre Plus work coach to enrol in the scheme.

There are, of course, some conditions. The job placements created with Kickstart funding must be new jobs. They must not replace existing or planned vacancies and they must not cause existing employees or contractors to lose or reduce their employment.

The jobs offered must be for a minimum of 25 hours per week for six months, they must be for at least the National Minimum Wage for their age group, and they should not require people to undertake extensive training before they begin the job placement.

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Kickstart

Working across all areas of the business – including HR, communications, finance and project management – Network Rail’s ‘Kickstarters’ will be developing their skills and gaining valuable experience while playing their part in delivering a safe and reliable railway for passengers and freight users.

In addition, while all employers participating in the scheme can apply for funding to cover 100 per cent of the National Minimum Wage, or the National Living Wage depending on the age of the participant, Network Rail is going further and paying its young people in line with the Living Wage Foundation.

Other rail organisations are also getting involved. The National Skills Academy for Rail – NSAR – is supporting the Kickstart scheme by taking on the role of sector representative for rail. It has already hosted a number of webinars outlining the finer details of the scheme, as well as supported employers in gaining access to funding from the scheme.

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Additional funding will be made available to support young people to develop new skills

Looking into the future

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Joe Guy, Network Rail’s HR director of talent and resourcing, commented: “We are delighted to be taking part in the Kickstart scheme – investing in, and providing real opportunities for, young people at risk of long-term unemployment due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Through a combination of real on-the-job experience and high-quality training, we hope to make a real difference to the lives of our 100 applicants and boost their future employment opportunities, either at Network Rail or elsewhere.”

Essex County Council is looking to take on a junior community rail officer to work within its community rail team, the role of which is to promote rail travel on the six rail branch lines within Essex and to encourage people to travel in a more sustainable way. In particular,

the new Kickstart employee will be trained to engage with the local community, especially around the branch line stations, and tackle social inclusion.

Other connections Infrastructure contractor Murphy is taking on 52 Kickstart recruits. West Midlands Metro currently has vacancies for maintenance technical assistants, administrators, a customer experience officer and a driver customer representative as part of the scheme, which can provide a pathway to a permanent position.

RSS Infrastructure is looking for trainee track welders as part of the Kickstart scheme.

They will be trained to perform a range of duties, including becoming skilled in the basics such as rail sleeper changing and welding processes.

The scheme is remaining open for new employees until 31 December 2021, meaning that funding will be available until 30 June 2022 if a young person starts their job on 31 December 2021.

So, there is still time to Kickstart a young person’s career.

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Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

en

Crossrail

Trial running on Crossrail

Image: Crossrail

Crossrail – Europe’s biggest railway infrastructure project – now has trains running through it on a regular basis as trial running is underway.

May 2021

Over eight million tonnes of earth were excavated during the construction of the new rail, station and platform tunnels. Much of the excavated material was used to create a wetland habitat for birds in Essex. Once the tunnels were complete, the focus of the work changed to installing the railway systems and fitting out the stations. This proved to be a complex task, with many more ramifications than had been expected, and as a result costs escalated and the completion date slipped.

“

Once services are fully open, the central section will have a 24-trainsper-hour service in the peak

“

F

irst of all, a recap. Crossrail is the project to run a new railway across London from west to east. The underground section goes from just west of Paddington station to Whitechapel, where the route splits. One ‘leg’ goes up into Essex, eventually reaching Shenfield. The other terminates at Abbey Wood in southeast London.

Crossrail, the project, is being delivered by Transport for London subsidiary Crossrail Ltd. Once services commence, the route will be known as the Elizabeth line.

However, unlike the Victoria line, also named after a monarch, this is no ‘underground’ or ‘tube’ line. The Elizabeth line will be running full-sized main line trains – each nine cars and 200-metres long – through the new twin-bore tunnels.

Digging those tunnels began in May 2012 and ended at Farringdon in May 2015. Eight 1,000tonne tunnelling boring machines (TBMs) created 42km (26 miles) of new, 6.2-metre-diameter rail tunnels under London, up to 40 metres deep. The tunnels were lined, as they were dug, using 200,000 concrete segments weighing three tonnes each.

In addition, further excavations created ‘boxes’ for the eight new underground stations and for crossovers, where trains can change from one tunnel bore to another if needed.

London Underground boss Mark Wild was drafted in to head up the team and get the project back on track. Negotiations between Transport for London, the London Mayor’s office and the Department for Transport released extra funding, and the new line is now expected to be in service by mid-2022.

24

The two biggest challenges faced by the project were integrating and testing the signalling system and completing fitout of the stations, particularly Bond Street and, to a lesser extent, Whitechapel.

The Elizabeth line is more than just the tunnels under London. In fact, there is more of it overground than underground and, over the course of the route, trains will have to run under three different signalling systems, all of which have to talk with each other.

Running safely In the central tunnels, a bespoke metro-style computer-based train control (CBTC) system, developed by Siemens Mobility at its UK headquarters in Chippenham, will be responsible for the safe running of services.

This style of signalling was adopted because, to get the frequency of service, trains will have to follow each other very closely.

Once services are fully open, the central section will have a 24-trains-per-hour service in the peak in each direction. In the east, trains will split evenly with 12 trains per hour serving Stratford and all stations on the Shenfield Line and 12 trains per hour heading southeast through Canary Wharf to Custom House, Woolwich and Abbey Wood.

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Crossrail

Image: Crossrail

It’s all very complex, hence the bespoke signalling control system. It is also all based on the display in the driver’s cab. There are no lineside signals, which reduces both the need for costly maintenance and the risk of delays due to signal failures.

The CBTC signalling system will be extended out of the tunnels into Abbey Wood station, the terminus in the southeast, as that lies only a mile or so from the tunnel portal at Plumstead. In Essex, once Elizabeth line trains emerge at Pudding Mill Lane, they will switch to traditional Network Rail TPWS (train protection and warning system) signalling, with lineside signals.

So, trains have to be fitted with TPWS as well as CBTC, and they need to switch seamlessly from one to the other.

Tottenham Court Road station.

At 24 trains per hour, that is just over two In the west, the plan has 10 trains per hour west of Paddington in the peak, four trains to Heathrow minutes for a train to stop, disembark and board (Terminals 2/3 and 4), and two trains per hour to passengers, and depart before the next train each of West Drayton, Maidenhead and Reading. arrives. It all has to work like clockwork. Each Two systems Off-peak services will be 16 trains per hour in train therefore has to be controlled individually, On the other side of London, near Paddington, the central section, with eight trains per hour to based on the location of the train in front. If that is there are two systems. Trains for Heathrow will each ofNetwork Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. To delayed for any reason, then every train following now be using ETCS – the European Train Control Rail Principal Contractor specialising in the following services: it will have to react to CHANGE that delay and either slow System – which is a pan-European system of in-cab the west, four trains per hour willTRACK run to Heathrow, TOWay DELIVER Design, ConstructionON and Building Works | Permanent Works down or hold at the previous station. two to MaidenheadNetwork and two Rail to Reading.

In the digital signalling that allows interchangeability ONResource TRACK TOON DELIVER CHANGE Principal Contractor specialising in the following services: Civils | Reactive Maintenance | Safety Critical Supply TRACK TO DELIVER CHANGE To recover from a delay, every subsequent west, some trains doDesign, not call at all stations, so between different manufacturers. There are Network Principal Contractor specialising the following services: andRail Building Works | Permanent Way in Works Network Rail and London Construction Underground Training Network Rail Principal Contractor specialising inaspirations the followingto services: train will have a little less time at a station while busier stationsCivils receive up to 10 trains per upgrade the whole of the Great Design, Construction andCritical Building Works | Permanent | Reactive Maintenance | Safety Resource Supply Way Works Design, Construction and Building Works | Permanent Way Works where possible, until the correct timetable is hour, smaller stations generally have a minimum Western main line to this system but, for now, just | Reactive MaintenanceTraining | Safety Critical Resource Supply Network Rail andCivils London Underground Civils | Reactive Maintenance | Safety Critical Resource Supply re-established. of four trains per hour. the spur off to Heathrow has been so equipped.

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25

Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

Crossrail

The rest of the Great Western out to Reading also uses Network Rail TPWS, but from a different control centre, so again the transition from one system to another has to be seamless.

May 2021

Paddington station.

looking after the safety of the railway to make sure trains run reliably.

The move into ROGS was perhaps the biggest step in the delivery of the Elizabeth line so far. The benefits are significant, not least from gaining experience of using the new Railway Rule Book, but also the opportunity for operational and maintenance staff to manage a ‘live railway’.

“

The central core of Crossrail will contain 10 new stations, nine of them underground

“

The central core of Crossrail will contain 10 new stations, nine of them underground. The odd one out is Custom House, which is in open air but lies between the tunnel portal at Victoria Dock and the Connaught tunnel, which was originally built in 1878, closed to passengers in 2006, and has now been heavily refurbished to form part of Crossrail.

All of these stations are huge. The trains they are built to accommodate are 205 metres long and accommodate 1,500 people – compare this with the Jubilee line, the newest underground line, which has trains that are 124 metres long and accommodate 875 people each. So, the platforms are nearly twice as long and have to cope with nearly twice as many passengers. In addition. The trains are running in 6.2-metre diameter tunnels as opposed to 4.35 metres on the Jubilee line.

Of course, the size of the stations underground is not necessarily reflected above ground. Many have offices and retail units above them and access is constricted. This, in part, has contributed to the challenges and delays in getting them built.

The first station, at Farringdon, has now been handed over by Crossrail Ltd to Transport for London, which will operate the station when the new Elizabeth line goes into service. Tottenham Court Road will follow in May, and all 10 will be complete before the line opens next year.

In the meantime, and with all the stations now well on their way to being complete, trains have started running through the tunnels. To start with, as part of the construction projects, individual trains were run backwards and forwards through the tunnels to check gauge clearances, platform clearances, communications, signalling interfaces, platform edge door locations and controls and a myriad of other features. This ‘dynamic testing’ proved that the railway had been constructed as planned and that trains could safely run through the tunnels from one end to the other, detected and controlled by the signalling system.

At the end of March 2021, another milestone was reached as Crossrail changed from being a construction site into a railway. Henceforth, the Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006 (ROGS) will apply in the central operating section.

TfL’s service and infrastructure managers became accountable for the safety, operation and maintenance of the railway, and the ‘trial running’ phase could formally start. TfL took over lead maintenance of 400,000 infrastructure assets,

Image: Crossrail

New stations

In preparation, an extensive health and safety campaign was launched in February with the aim of briefing every person involved on the detail of what it is that they need to know for their roles and responsibilities at the transition to ROGS and the start of trial running. A large team has been involved in preparing materials, engaging with the supply chain and rolling out the campaign for the entire programme.

Under trial running, multiple trains will operate in the central tunnels and along the Great Western and Great Eastern main lines to test the timetable, while the final works to the stations are completed.

This phase will include integrated trials of the railway to demonstrate that the future Elizabeth line is safe and reliable, and that it meets the capacity and performance requirements needed to move to the final commissioning stage.

During trial running, Crossrail will be building up the numbers of trains running at the same time, starting with four trains for a short period, extending to the same four trains operating for most of the day to check reliability and resilience.

26

Then the number of trains running simultaneously will increase to eight, and finally to 12, allowing timetable operation, timetable demonstrations and integration testing to be undertaken.

Some further outstanding works have been scheduled into the programme and these will take place during the trial running period. These include a combination of project maintenance, snagging and enhancements and some testing and commissioning activity.

There will also be four software upgrades that need to me implemented. At these times, the programme will be suspended to facilitate the testing and commissioning of signalling and control systems software configurations.

Trial operations Trial running is critical to increasing train mileage in the central section and supporting the reliability growth of the railway, and to demonstrate that the Elizabeth line can run at the performance levels necessary to move into the next phase of the programme. The system will run under timetable conditions to flush out any remaining software bugs or issues.

Once trial running has been completed, by around October 2021 if everything goes well, the final phase of testing – ‘trial operations’ – will commence. This will simulate the operation of a real railway as closely as possible. It will involve over 150 scenarios in which volunteers will help validate the emergency evacuation processes in trains, tunnels, shafts and stations.

Staff will also practise getting disabled passengers on and off trains, seeing what effect that has on station dwell times, as well as disembarking and boarding full trainloads of passengers.

By the time trial operations are complete, the railway will be running a full timetable to make sure everything is absolutely bulletproof before the Elizabeth line enters service, towards the end of the first half of 2022.

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Crossrail

Crossrail overground

Image: Network Rail

All through the project, Network Rail has been supporting Crossrail in refurbishing stations and upgrading track and railway systems along the overground sections of the route.

Constructing Acton dive-under.

N ew lifts and footbridges, where required, to deliver step-free access at every station;

Oxford, Bristol, the West and South Wales, and the two Relief or slow lines, used for stopping services and freight.

Station improvements Many of the stations along the route were quite small, infrequently used and had platforms only facing the Relief lines.

This is all due to change once the Elizabeth line opens. Its services will call at every station along the route and are likely to displace freight and GWR semi-fast services on the Fast lines.

“

Acton Main Line is one of nine stations that we are completely transforming

“

M

ention the Crossrail project, and many people will automatically think of the 42km of new tunnels under London and the 10 new stations that accompany them.

But Crossrail, which will deliver the Elizabeth line when the railway goes into service mid next year, is a lot longer than that. Three quarters of the route runs above ground on the existing rail network through outer London, Berkshire and Essex, and trains will call at 40 stations in total (including three at London Heathrow Airport).

Preparing the existing main line railway for Crossrail has been a major task in itself, often overlooked when compared to the complexities of the new underground railway.

Major improvements have been made to stations along the route, including: N ew, bright, spacious ticket halls at a number of stations;

Although Network Rail has a programme of station improvement proceeding around the country – the Access for All scheme – some of these stations weren’t big or well-used enough to be part of that programme. Now they are going to be Elizabeth line stations, they are all getting step-free access, with many having new lifts and footbridges in the process.

A good example is Acton Main Line station, which is between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport. The former Heathrow Connect service, which calls at Acton Main Line, is now run by TfL Rail and will become part of the Elizabeth line when the whole route opens next year. TfL Rail services, using the Bombardier Aventra trains built for Crossrail and the Elizabeth line, are already calling at the station.

Acton Main Line station building, which Tim Ball had unflatteringly described as being smaller than his garden shed, has now been transformed by Graham Construction, with a spacious new steel and glass ticket hall, housing a new gateline, and a covered,

P latform extensions to accommodate the 200-metre-long Elizabeth line trains;

The above-ground works have been delivered by national infrastructure owner Network Rail, acting as a contractor to Crossrail Ltd. Tim Ball, director of the Elizabeth line project for Network Rail, explained the work that has been carried out on the Great Western main line, west of London Paddington.

The railway here consists of four lines, the two Fast lines, used by GWR express services to

May 2021

Acton Main Line station.

28

Image: Network Rail

New signage, help points, customer information screens and CCTV.

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Crossrail

Route Map

BRENT WOOD

Showing rail and air connections

Shenfield

Surface line Tunnel

Brentwood

Portal (tunnel entrance and exit) Harold Wood

National Rail connection

REDBRIDGE

Airport connection Airports not on the Crossrail route - to travel to these airports passengers will need to travel on other connecting rail services.

Step-free travel is possible but assistance will be required to get on and off some trains. Travel from Luton Airport Parkway Station to Luton Airport is via an accessible bus.

Ilford

SOUTH BUCKS

HILLINGDON CAMDEN

Taplow

EALING

Burnham

WESTMINSTER

Hanwell Southall

Acton Main Line

ON GT EA &

West Ealing

LS & IT H SM ER AM MM ULH F

Hayes & Harlington

HA

Iver

Langley Slough

IN NS E KE CH

Twyford

SLOUGH

Northern Central

WINDSOR & MAIDENHEAD

CIT Y OF LONDON

Gidea Park

HAVERING

Liverpool Street Circle Metropolitan Hammersmith & City Northern Central Stansted

BARKING & DAGENHAM

Stratford HAMLETS

Whitechapel

Farringdon

Tottenham Court Road

Chadwell Heath Goodmayes

Manor Park Hammersmith & City District TOWER Overground

Luton Gatwick

Bond Street

Paddington Circle Hammersmith & City Bakerloo District

Seven Kings

Maryland

Circle Metropolitan Hammersmith & City

Central Jubilee

Ealing Broadway

West Drayton Maidenhead

Central District

Forest Gate

ISLINGTON

Romford

Canary Wharf Jubilee DLR

Central Jubilee DLR Overground

NEWHAM

Custom House DLR

Abbey Wood Woolwich DLR

Southend

T1,2,3

GREENWICH

Heathrow T4

Reading

WOKINGHAM

BEXLEY

Piccadilly Heathrow

READING

accessible footbridge with lifts serving both platforms. There are also improved platform waiting shelters, lighting, signage and customer information screens providing a better customer experience for those using or returning to the station when travel restrictions are lifted.

commented. “The new facilities are a massive improvement for passengers using the station – the new ticket office is light and airy and, for the first time in its 152-year history, the station is now fully accessible, with lifts providing step-free access from street level to platforms.”

Ealing stations

“

“

Graham Construction is also working at West Ealing and Ealing Broadway stations. These will also be completed shortly, with bright new, expanded ticket halls and new lifts that will provide step-free access to platforms that will be served by Elizabeth line and Great Western Railway services as well as the District and Central lines at Ealing Broadway.

The remodelling of West Drayton, Hayes & Harlington and Southall stations by Hochtief has already been completed.

In Essex, the stations at Romford and Ilford are being rebuilt by VolkerFitzpatrick.

“Acton Main Line is one of nine stations that we are completely transforming as part of our preparation for the Elizabeth line,” Tim Ball

The central operating section is almost an extension of London Underground where you have a headway railway

No only the stations have been improved, the railway infrastructure has also been remodelled on a large scale. The junction between the GW main line and the Heathrow Airport branch was re-engineered with a new flyover at Stockley and an elevated transition to allow for smoother

traffic flows and add capacity. At 120 metres long, the 1,000-tonne bridge is the largest single span rail bridge to have been installed anywhere to the west of London since the days of Brunel and the whole structure stretches to more than a mile in length.

A new dive-under has been constructed by BAM Nuttall, close to Acton Main Line station, so that trains leaving the Acton freight yard do not delay passenger trains heading towards central London. Before, freight trains entered and left the freight yard by crossing the mainline passenger tracks. The new dive-under allows trains to access the yard without affecting passenger services, increasing capacity and reliability.

Integration But other changes have been needed beyond those to the railway’s infrastructure. “A large part of my job,” Tim Ball continued, “is not about construction but is about how we operate afterwards. A large chunk of the Elizabeth line sits on Western route and Anglia route, on the existing Network Rail infrastructure.

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29

Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

The complications of signalling Connecting the new Crossrail tunnels with the ‘classic’ railway has other challenges too. There are four different signalling systems involved – CBTC (computer-based train control) in the tunnel, ETCS (European train control system) on the line to Heathrow, and then legacy systems in Essex and on Great Western.

A lot of the testing that has been taking place over the past 12 months or so is just that sort of fringe testing – testing those transitions and interfaces. Crossrail has just completed eight months of dynamic testing, and that is exactly what has been tested in that time.

“It’s been largely successful,” Tim stated.

“We’ve had to make a few changes, both on the Network Rail and Crossrail systems, but those transitions are now well tested and tried.

“And we’ve made it even more difficult on the Western as, through that process, we’ve gradually introduced ETCS.” The complexity of the signalling interfaces could do with some explanation.

May 2021

Gidea Park station.

ETCS – in-cab digital signalling with everything controlled by the driver’s display on the control desk – is similar in concept to, but different in application from, the CBTC digital signalling used in the tunnels and supplied by Siemens Mobility. Elizabeth line trains will emerge from the tunnel at Royal Oak, to the west of Paddington, and automatically switch from CBTC to ETCS signalling. If they are going to Heathrow, they will stay on ETCS all the way.

will “Itsbebenefits vast and long lasting

“

“Between us (Network Rail) TfL and the train operators, we’ve got to make all those systems come together and work. This is quite unique.

“The central operating section is almost an extension of London Underground where you have a headway railway, so if you turn up at Bond Street you expect a train to turn up in the next five minutes, you don’t worry about a timetable. You don’t care where it has come from, or where it’s going, you just want to jump on and get to Paddington, or Acton, or wherever.

“But it has to interface with a timetabled railway, and we don’t do that in very many places. That, for me, is the really exciting thing – how we operate this. It will force us to do things differently than we do currently on the Underground and on the wider, national network.

“As with any railway, we have train service contingency plans, and what we are looking at with TfL is how a train might go into the central section as one train, with a view to going to, say, Heathrow Airport, but, if there is disruption, it might come out of the tunnel and end up going towards Reading or terminating at Paddington. So, it has all got to be very carefully managed. We’ve got to learn some new skills. If a passenger gets on the train at Abbey Wood, expecting to go to Heathrow, and the train ends up going on to Reading, because the line to Heathrow is closed or congested or something, then we have to manage that situation.

“Railway operations is not just what you do with your train, or the points, it’s also how you handle the passengers and their expectations, to give the best service we can.”

Image: Network Rail

Crossrail

However, if they are going on to Reading, then they will switch again, from ETCS to more conventional Network Rail TPWS/AWS (train protection and warning system / automatic warning system) at Hayes & Harlington.

That’s complicated enough. But the Heathrow Express services, operated by Heathrow Airport, departs from Paddington on the fast lines, on TPWS/AWS, and then has to switch to ETCS to take the line into Heathrow. So, it is not just Elizabeth line services which have interfaces that need configuring and testing.

At the Eastern end of the new line, there are further complications.

30

On the ‘Kent’ leg, which actually never quite reaches Kent, two new platforms have been added to Abbey Wood station for the Elizabeth line services.

Due to the short distance from the tunnel portal at Plumstead, trains will stay on CBTC signalling right into the station. Which means that Abbey Wood station has two, quite different, railways using it. The two Elizabeth line platforms have 25kV overhead power supplies and are controlled by CBTC signalling, while the other two platforms, on the North Kent line, are third-rail DV electrified and use TPWS signalling.

And the two railways never meet. The only crossover between them is unelectrified and is only used by maintenance vehicles. So, if there is a problem, Elizabeth line trains cannot use the North Kent line platforms, and vice versa.

Pudding Mill Lane to Stratford In Essex, CBTC control stretches from the Pudding Mill Lane portal to Stratford station, where control will switch to the Anglian version of TPWS. If all of this sounds complicated, it is, and is one reason why so much testing is needed to prove all the systems and make sure that the new railway will operate safely.

However, all of the hard work, the delays, the soul-searching and the expenditure will be worth it. As Rail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris MP said in his most recent report to parliament: “When complete, the Elizabeth line will be transformative, reducing overcrowding, delivering spacious new trains, adding significant additional rail capacity to London and the South East, and delivering a huge boost to the recovering UK economy.

“Its benefits will be vast and long lasting.”

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Crossrail 2

The plans for a second Crossrail

Image: Crossrail

Crossrail 2, a new railway line under London from North to South, was planned to follow the successful opening of the current Crossrail project.

W

ith trains now running across and under London in the Crossrail tunnels, the next project to be tackled would have been Crossrail 2, a northsouth line that would complement Crossrail’s east-west route.

However, the programme was shelved as part of the government’s £1.8 billion bailout deal agreed with Transport for London at the end of October 2020.

But shelved does not mean cancelled, and the route is to be safeguarded so plans can be dusted off and reinstated when the estimated £33 billion of funding becomes available. When that will be in the post-COVID world is unclear, but Building Back Better could include major infrastructure projects, and HS2 isn’t the only game in town.

So, what is, or was, Crossrail 2?

Let’s start at looking back to the reasons behind Crossrail. A 2012 government policy paper stated: “Crossrail is creating new transport infrastructure to support London’s economic growth. It will increase London’s rail transport capacity by 10 per cent, make journey times shorter and bring an extra 1.5 million people within 45 minutes of London’s business centres – leading to employment growth of up to 30,000 jobs by 2026 in central London.”

A similar justification could be used for Crossrail 2 – easier commutes and increased

May 2021

employment. However, it was about more than that – it was about housing as well. Crossrail 2 was intended to not only transform travel across the whole of the South East region, it would also support economic regeneration by providing the infrastructure needed to support 200,000 new homes and 200,000 new jobs.

It was not just a railway scheme, it was a growth

scheme as well. Its justification was based on the fact that, by the 2030s, London won’t be able to cope with the demands for travel because population growth is predicted to continue. And, because there is a housing shortage now, and that population growth will create an even bigger housing shortage, London needed to plan its railways so it could open up new housing areas as well as get people to work.

Train service frequency on the Tube: current, planned and maximum theoretically achievable levels Bakerloo Circle/H&C 12

22 16

32

Frequency increase would only be feasible if delivered as part of proposed Bakerloo line Extension by early 2030s

Increased frequency to be delivered as part of 4 Lines Modernisation Programme by 2023

Central District Jubilee Metropolitan

Increased frequency to be delivered as part of New Tube for London Programme by early 2030s Increased frequency to be delivered as part of 4 Lines Modernisation Programme by 2023 WorldClass ClassCapacity CapacityProgramme Programmewill willprovide provldeadditional additional 33-36 World 30 rollingstock, stock,increasing increasingfrequencies frequenc~,es to 34tpl, 202i0 rolling to 34tpl, by by 2020 Increased frequency to be delivered as part of 4 Lines 28 Modernisation Programme by 2023 realistic opportunity to increase line capacity will 31 31-36 Next not arise until next fleet replacement (around 2040) Increased frequency to be delivered by mid-2020s, 33-36 as part of New Tube for London Programme World Class Capacity Programme will improve terminus 34 36 capability, increasing frequencies to 36tph by 2020 Increased frequency to be delivered as part of New 27-30 Tube for London Programme by early 2030s Crossrail infrastructure capable of supporting 30 30tph for additional capacity

32

22 24 23

Northern Piccadlilly Victoria Waterloo & City

24 24 22

Crossrail 01

27

24 02

03

0T

New rolling stock

33-36

rains per hour (core section)

Trains per hour Current

Planned

Maximum

Source: Crossrail 2 NIC Supplementary Submission, 12 Feb 2016.

32

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Crossrail 2

Chelsea-Hackney line

Epping Theydon Bois Debden Laughton Buckhurst Hill Woodford South Woodford Snaresbrook Hackney Central Leyton stone Dalston Junction Leyton stone King’s Cross Essex Road Angel Tottenham Court Road Piccadilly Circus Victoria Kings Road Parsons Green Putney Bridge Parsons Green East Putney Wimbledon Park Wimbledon

Crossrail 2 was intended to take innersuburban services away from Waterloo and Liverpool Street and provide much-needed additional capacity. It was not just about moving existing commuters in a more efficient and quicker manner, it was about giving them new places to live and work as well.

It would also relieve congestion on the ‘classic’ Underground network. While TfL has plans to increase capacity on the tube, there is a limit as to what can be achieved on the existing lines. Adding another north/south alternative would help with this future challenge.

In 2009, the proposed route was reassessed and it was decided that the safeguarded route was no longer the best one.

Early planning

The overall need for improved transport from the southwest to the northeast of London was still there, but, with recent improvements to train services on the Jubilee and Central lines, as well as the London Overground service, the alignment in the northeast could be improved.

“

By the 2030s, London won’t be able to cope with the demands for travel because population growth is predicted to continue

In particular, improved connectivity would needed up the Upper Lee Valley, so the route was redirected to open up that area in terms of additional housing.

In fact, the review reassessed the whole route, looking at about 100 different options in terms of how Crossrail 2 could be aligned in the general southwest to northeast corridor.

The overwhelming response was that stakeholders wanted to see a regional route. because not only would that help London’s problems of growth and immediate capacity shortage in the centre, it would also help the wider southeastern UK. The principal change to the route was in the northeast. The original plan had been for a tunnel across London connecting the District and Central Lines, linking ‘Chelsea to Hackney’. Instead, it was rerouted through to Tottenham Hale, where it was to connect with the Network Rail route to Waltham Cross and beyond, and then continue to New Southgate.

There was also a modification of the route to include a combined Euston/St Pancras station, rather than King’s Cross, where it would connect with HS2.

With platforms 250-metres long, it was intended that the Euston connection would be at one end and the St Pancras one at the other.

As on the Elizabeth line (the name given to services built as part of Crossrail 1), trains would also be long – 200-metres long – full-sized trains running on a full-sized railway under the heart of London.

“

South of the river

Plans for both Crossrail 1 and Crossrail 2 were first drawn up in 1991. Crossrail 1 was taken forward for further development and Crossrail 2, then called the Chelsea-Hackney line, was safeguarded for the future.

The original Chelsea to Hackney alignment was also reviewed with a view to taking it to Tooting Broadway, where there would be an interchange with the Northern line, helping to relieve congestion on one of the busiest sections.

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Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

Crossrail 2

However, Tooting Broadway is on a geological fault line and the soil conditions in that area would make building a station there difficult.

The plan was therefore revised again, taking the line to Balham, which would still connect with the Northern line but would stay on the right side of the fault line.

But a public consultation revealed that passengers wanted the line to go to Tooting Broadway, not Balham. A final decision on which route would be built was still outstanding when plans were shelved.

Proposed Crossrail 2 route Brox bourne

Key

HERTFORDSHI R E

Cheshunt

Stations

Waltham Cross

London Underground Enfield Lock

London Ove rground Crossrail 1

High Speed 1

Ponders End

High Speed 2 London Trams

Angel Road

Tunnel portal

New Southgate

Wood Green

Intermediate shaft

H A RIN G E Y

B A RN E T

Tunnelled section depotsHand stabling A RR O W

Alexandra Palace

W A LTH A M FORE S T

Seven Sisters

Regional branches

Northumberland Park Tottenham Hale

Turnpike L ane

Central core of route

Potential future Eastern branch

The best laid plans…

Route previously consulted on via Tooting Broadway BRE N T

Crossrail 2 was a big scheme, twice as big as the first Crossrail. That has a total of 44km of tunnels under the capital, while Crossrail 2 would have 38km of twin-bore tunnels, a total of 76km.

Dalston Hackney Central

Option via T urnpike Lane and Alexandra P alace HILLIN Option GDO N v ia

NEWH A M

Euston St. P ancras

Wood Green

Angel

WESTMINST E R E A LI N G

Tottenham Court Road

TOW E R H A MLE T S

H I T SM ER A M MM U LH HA & F

C ITY O F LOND O N

Vi ctoria K ENSIN G T O N

King’s & CRoad HELS E A Chelsea

SO U THW A R K es

am

r Th

Ri ve

HO U NSL O W

Clapham Junction L A MBE T H

RI C HMO N D UP O N TH A M E S

W A NDSWOR T H

LEWISH A M

Balham S U RR E Y

Sunbury

Kempton Park

Upper Halliford Shepperton

Fulwell

Hampt on

Teddington

Hampton Wick

Hampt on Court

“

Thames D itton

Preliminary design began, a large part of the work being undertaken by Arcadis working with Taylor Woodrow, so as to have good contractor involvement. The original plan was to have a hybrid bill through parliament by this year, 2021, to start construction in 2023 and to open the line in 2033.

But the programme was delayed and then finally shelved. The project that the National Infrastructure Commission described as a “national priority” in 2016 was a victim of the COVID-19 epidemic, increased government spending and general belt-tightening in 2020.

Consultancy contracts were run down and a statement was released: “We will work to help the Secretary of State refresh the safeguarding directions in order to safeguard the scheme’s latest proposed route from future developments.

“We are in discussion with DfT on the likely timetable for this work. We will also continue to work with stakeholders whose developments are affected by the safeguarding so that we can continue to protect the route until such time as the railway can be progressed.

“Given TfL’s current finances and the lack of a viable funding package for the scheme at the moment, we are not in a position to confirm

H A CK N E Y

ISLIN G T O N

CA MD E N

Newly proposed route

“

Crossrail 2 will still be needed in future to support London’s growth

May 2021

Brimsdown

ENFIE L D

National Rail

Tooting Broadway Norbiton

Kingston

Raynes Park

N ew Malden

Wimbledon

Motspur P ark

Berrylands

MERT O N BROML E Y

K IN GMalden ST O N Manor UP O N Surbiton TH A M E S

Tolwor th

C ROYD O N

Worcester P ark

Chessington N orth

S U TT O N

S U RR E Y

Stoneleigh Chessington South Ewell West

Source: Network Rail

S U RR E Y

Epsom

when our work on seeking consent can restart.

Crossrail 2 will still be needed in future to support London’s growth and we have clearly demonstrated the case for the scheme. The

project has been put in good order, ready to be restarted when the time is right.”

Hopefully, Crossrail 2 will emerge into the light of day again in the not-too-distant future.

Balham in southwest London has been considered for Crossrail 2 due to problems with nearby Tooting Broadway

34

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Supply chain

Conditioned collaboration

Image: Simon Miles and Network Rail

Businesses working across UK rail infrastructure projects are forming new alliances and reaping the rewards from a strong SME network.

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Group, is strong evidence of how collaborative relationships with SMEs can work effectively, in addition to bringing a highly adaptive and innovative approach to delivery.

“

We all pulled together for the common goal of delivering the project

“

N

etwork Rail is committed to achieving the government target of 33 per cent of its annual expenditure to be spent via small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) by 2022. HS2 is aiming for 60 per cent of its supply chain to be with SME organisations. Currently, over 70 per cent of its contracts are with organisations that meet the criteria.

Since the 2016-17 financial year, Network Rail has increased its expenditure with SMEs and has stepped up the breadth and depth of its activity, recognising that SME engagement is a key part of the government’s Industrial Strategy and the resultant Rail Sector Deal.

At the same time, businesses working across UK rail infrastructure projects are forming new alliances, and enhancing the nature of their collaborations, to take advantage of this stated commitment.

By taking the lead themselves, an increasing number of SMEs will go on to bid successfully for railway business, while creating a vibrant, healthy, innovative, competitive and diverse marketplace of suppliers in the process.

The complex 24-month, £30 million Stevenage Turnback Project, delivered by rail infrastructure specialist and principal contractor, Spencer

The project was delivered a year ahead of the planned opening, due to the clear accountability and outstanding collaborative relationship formed between client Network Rail, Spencer Group, and a supply chain that included, amongst many others, Trackwork, Motion Rail, TICS Rail Signalling and Keltbray. Also essential to the success of the project was early contractor involvement with these partners.

This major capacity enhancement project saw the full design and build of a new Platform 5 and a 1.6-mile electrified turnback line, including alterations and improvements to the adjacent East Coast main line and the connecting Hertford loop.

35

The scheme, completed in August 2020, formed part of a £1.2 billion upgrade to modernise key parts of the East Coast main line to improve journeys and enable additional services between London, the North and Scotland.

Success through collaboration Joe Bennett, Spencer Group’s project director, said: “The success of this project was down to the collaboration between Network Rail, Spencer Group and the entire supply chain. We were all working to established objectives, agreed timescales, and going above and beyond to meet and exceed Network Rail’s requirements.

“We all pulled together for the common goal of delivering the project for Network Rail and Govia Thameslink that would make a huge difference to the travelling public and freight companies. Phil Daniel, Network Rail’s project manager, enabled a collaborative approach to work brilliantly and he was really positive throughout – he was great to do business with.

“Everybody involved bought into the same, positive ‘can do’ ethos and attitude in planning and delivery. Collectively, we led by example and shared our methodology with our supply chain partners.

Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

Trackwork’s operations director Bob Purshouse said: “We certainly welcomed the early contractor involvement, with Spencer Group’s senior project manager Martin Lewis assisting with the planning of the work. In our opinion this should be the model for future infrastructure projects, where we can bring our collective experience and knowledge together for best results.

“Speaking for the Trackwork delivery team, the project at times was fairly stressful, which you would of course expect for a high-profile scheme such as this. However, I do think that, as the works progressed, this became less so and it did feel very much that we were a single entity collaborating to satisfy the demands of the stakeholders.

“Post disruptive possessions, there was a high level of co-operation to make the installation of

the actual turnback line fairly straightforward.

This always had the potential to be extremely tricky, with multiple disciplines working in a congested and narrow site, within close proximity to the overhead line electrification (OLE) and adjacent lines open, and in full view of passengers.

“

It did feel very much that we were a single entity

“We now know and understand each other’s requirements, abilities, expectations and shortcomings. Commercial differences are set aside when like-minded organisations are determined to deliver safely and deliver well…together.”

Installation of two new OLE masts, OLE and wire transfer (Pre-COVID) August 2019

May 2021

36

Motion Rail, which provides specialist railway communication services nationwide on Network Rail and London Overground infrastructure, provided a Fixed Telecommunications Network (FTN) relocation on the project.

Good example Emma Dymond, CEO of Motion Rail, said: “The Stevenage station project is a great example of Spencer Group engaging Motion, an SME and telecommunications specialist, from the start and the benefits of early contractor engagement.

“This enabled us to develop and deliver a truly collaborative solution to upgrade a key commuter station and accommodate a new enhanced timetable safely and ahead of programme.

Image: Simon Miles and Network Rail

Early connections

Installation of the new turnout at Langley Junction (Pre-COVID) Dec 2019

“

“This strong leadership that was demonstrated on the project was supported by the professional approach of our supply chain partners and exceptional project execution from all involved.

Working together in the way that we did has created a blueprint for success.”

Trackwork delivered permanent way and signalling design, installation and commissioning works on the project. These included the construction of a 1,340-metre turnback siding to serve Platform 5, and the installation of an FVs 24 turnout unit, utilising a Kirow crane, to form a new mainline connection.

The company’s in-house signalling division, TICS Rail Signalling, re-signalled the new line and upgraded the existing infrastructure including new location cases, cables, power changeovers, new signals, points, tracks, hot axle box detector, AWS, TPWS, panel changes and alterations to the existing GEC interlocking to accept the new routes and functions over a three-mile leg.

Image: Simon Miles and Network Rail

Supply chain

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Image: Simon Miles and Network Rail

Supply chain

Completion of the new platform 5 at Stevenage Station.

OLE work Keltbray is a specialist railway OLE contractor that was employed to undertake the OLE installation and commissioning works at Stevenage.

This included the introduction of Siemens SICAT equipment. This was the first main line installation of SICAT in the UK. The system is now being rolled out onto other projects including the Transpennine Route Upgrade project. Motorised switches were also built and commissioned by Keltbray as part of the project, giving remote functionality of the overhead line switches feeding the new Platform 5.

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Keltbray’s programme director Mark Wood said: “From early involvement in the staging and integration of the works through to the entry into service, a number of specialist contractors worked collaboratively to deliver the works. The main OLE stages delivered by Keltbray included headspan conversions and the core OLE commissioning event that utilised rare disruptive possessions along the East Coast main line. Integration and co-ordination of the overall works programme was led proficiently by Spencer Group, with a practical and focused approach that enabled key interfaces and collective objectives to drive out very detailed stage works.

works were “Theclassed as the

“

“Developing the solution in collaboration with Spencer Group, and being awarded both telecommunication packages of work, allowed us to plan the work, allocate resources and procure equipment in advance, creating efficiencies.

Although Motion was a subcontractor delivering specific packages of work, our workforce was included in Spencer Group’s deconflict whiteboard planning sessions and briefings at the start of each shift, creating a teamwork ethos from the outset and keeping everyone informed.

“Motion is proud to have supported Spencer Group deliver the high-profile Stevenage station project and, through working collaboratively, a trusted relationship has been built and developed to deliver other projects successfully.”

most critical along the network “Significant closures of the East Coast main line, and the associated risk to restoring the operational railway, meant the works were classed as the most critical along the network on the commissioning weekend in which they were undertaken.”

37

The pandemic led to site closure for one week, during which the site layout and working practices were revised to make them COVID-secure.

Regular delivery team meetings were established to allow sharing and to incorporate best practice from other Network Rail sites.

Effective communication Open and collaborative planning sessions were held, so that everyone involved in the project had a clear understanding of delivery requirements, constraints, other operations on-site, third-party concerns and interests, and to align all parties to the delivery of the project. These regular sessions allowed for planning and tracking, and provided confirmation that all actions were closed out, while a control room worked to help progress cross-organisational issues.

Spencer Group’s Joe Bennett added: “We have developed a really strong network of supply chain partners and, together, we can really deliver a range of fantastic projects.

“It is really important that we constantly review the way we operate with SMEs and work as hard as we can to work to engage and support smaller organisations and, in particular, new entrants to the market. As a business, we want to support sustainable relationships with SMEs, and build strong, long-term relationships that deliver significant value through a collaborative approach.”

Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

Depots

More space needed!

Image: Mike Page.

As Britain’s train operators buy new trains and plan for larger fleets, they will need new and enhanced depots to house them.

New Greater Anglia trains stored on the Mid-Norfolk Railway.

The site in “North Tyneside is ideal for us

“

P

assengers around the country are already benefitting from a host of new trains, as operators look to improve performance and reliability, enhance the passenger experience and meet government targets.

However, more trains take up more space, and already-stretched depot capacity is struggling to meet the demand.

In addition, when a new fleet arrives before the old one is retired from service, where do operators park them all? And where do they store the retired ones before they are sold on or scrapped?

Different operators have differing solutions.

Here are a few examples.

As a result, a contract was awarded to Buckingham Group Contracting to build a temporary depot at Howdon in North Tyneside.

Located on a former landfill site, this would be used as a maintenance facility for the cleaning and preparation of up to 10 Metro trains while the main Metro depot in South Gosforth was rebuilt.

Tobyn Hughes, managing director of Nexus, said: “We need a temporary Metro depot while we transition to permanent new maintenance facilities and the new Metro train fleet.

“Our main depot in Gosforth is going to be completely rebuilt and this work will happen in stages, so we must have a bespoke location to store and maintain our trains while that project is delivered over the next few years.

“The site in North Tyneside is ideal for us, and it can also be used as the delivery point when the Metro new trains start arriving.”

To fund the project, Nexus secured a government grant of £337 million towards the projected £362 million cost of designing and building a new train fleet and depot.

Tyne and Wear Metro has been open since 1980 and has run its fleet of Class 994 Metrocars ever since. To replace them, Nexus, the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive, has ordered a fleet of 46 five-car units from Stadler, which were due to start arriving at the end of 2021 and enter service in 2023.

The current fleet is maintained at South Gosforth, the Metro’s only depot. With the new fleet ordered, the decision was taken to refurbish the old depot using the simple process of knocking it down and then completely rebuilding it. But how would the existing fleet be maintained and stabled in the meantime?

May 2021

Tyne and Wear Metro’s temporary depot at Howdon.

38

Image: Nexus

Temporary depot

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Storage With three fleets of new trains on order, Abellio Greater Anglia had a storage problem once they all started to arrive. Driver training wasn’t complete, nor was the rebuild of Norwich Crown Point depot.

The company turned to the nearby Mid-Norfolk railway, a popular heritage attraction, and arranged

Aerial view of the new Tyne and Wear Metro depot at Gosforth.

to reopen the Wensum sidings, close to the depot, which gained them almost 5km of storage space.

Northern had the opposite problem during the first COVID lockdown. It had agreed to withdraw its unpopular ‘Pacer’ fleet and replace it with more-modern trains. But, as the pandemic hit, and the number of services that Northern ran was dramatically reduced, the opportunity came to withdraw them early. Which meant they had to be stored somewhere.

Northern came to the same decision that Greater Anglia had, and arranged to park them on the Keighley and Worth Valley railway, solving

Image: Nexus

This and the ongoing maintenance of the fleet over 35 years makes the total budget about £500 million. The Howdon depot was completed in October 2020, when demolition of South Gosforth began. VolkerFitzpatrick was contracted to build the new depot by Stadler, which not only has an order for the new trains but also a contract to service and maintain them for 35 years.

The project involves the safe demolition of the old depot, clearing the site and re-building the new depot. Work is scheduled to be completed by 2025 and is being undertaken in stages, to enable the legacy fleet to continue operating from the depot while the construction work takes place.

Although planned to be temporary, the depot at Howdon may end up being permanent, as Nexus is planning to use more government funding to double some of its track and increase services.

Inside the new Tyne and Wear Metro depot at Gosforth.

Image: Nexus

Depots

the problem and also providing the heritage line with welcome funding while it was closed due to COVID-19.

Enlarged facilities GWR’s depot at Exeter St David’s could take a pair of two-car diesel multiple units, and another single car in the heavy maintenance shed.

Then electric trains were introduced on the GW main line, along with plans to bring the new five-car Class 802 bi-mode (diesel-electric) trains down into Devon and Cornwall. The depot at Exeter couldn’t take them, so the only option was to knock it down and rebuild. But the site was also very restricted, so a lot of ingenuity had to be used to get the new depot to fit into the space available.

A new three-road depot opened in earlier in 2021. Two roads can take a full five-car train, while the third can take three cars but is fitted with lifting jacks and an overhead crane. The site also includes stabling sidings, a carriage wash and refuelling points. All in the space originally taken up by a small shed and some abandoned sidings.

These are the answers that four train operators came up with when faced with the arrival of new trains and the disposal of old ones. There are many more, and no doubt Inside Track will look at some of them in later issues.

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Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

E a s t We s t R a i l

East West Rail – connecting Oxford with Cambridge

Plans to reconnect the two great university towns by rail have been under discussion for the past 15 years.

Photo: Network Rail

T

he UK railway network, while extensive, isn’t great across country. Most of the main lines radiate from London, and connections between other parts of the country can be more difficult.

Many of the ones that did exist were badly affected by the Beeching report of 1963.

Strangely, the Varsity line, which connected the two great university towns of Cambridge and Oxford, wasn’t closed by Dr Beeching – he actually recommended the line be kept open. However, as it was losing money, most of it closed anyway.

Two parts remained open. Oxford to Bicester, although reduced to a single-track railway, and the Marston Vale line between Bletchley and Bedford both stayed in operation.

Plans to reopen the route, at least between Oxford and Bedford, started to take shape around 2006. They were confirmed by the government is 2011 and became part of the Department for Transport’s rail strategy in 2012.

Oxford Parkway station

service site between Kidlington and Oxford. The track would be extended beyond Bicester Town station and a new chord constructed, allowing trains to join the Chiltern main line and head to London Marylebone. Provision would be made for the future electrification of the line.

The project got underway in February 2014.

Trains started running between the new Oxford Parkway station and Bicester (where the station had been renamed Bicester Village, not due to a downsizing of the town but after the nearby Bicester Retail Village) in October 2015.

Oxford to Bicester The first part of the route to be rebuilt was the stretch between Oxford and Bicester. Train operator Chiltern Railways had announced its Evergreen 3 project in 2008. Its plans were to introduce services from Oxford to London by joining the Chiltern main line at Bicester.

The track was to be redoubled with a new station – Oxford Parkway – to be built alongside the existing Water Eaton park-and-ride bus-

The Three Connection Stages

Milton Keynes Central

Bedford

Oxford

May 2021

Bicester Village

East West stage 1 To continue the route eastwards, the government originally planned for Network Rail to upgrade the route. However, electrification was deleted from the project’s scope by the Department for Transport in 2016, though passive provision for a future scheme would remain.

St Neots / Sandy area

Ridgmont

Winslow

Oxford Parkway

Two trains an hour went all the way to Marylebone, but the new services didn’t reach Oxford’s main station until December 2016.

Woburn Sands

Bletchley Aylesbury Vale Parkway

Aylesbury

40

Cambridge

Cambourne

Connection Stage 1: Oxford to Milton Keynes Connection Stage 2: Oxford to Bedford Connection Stage 3: Oxford to Cambridge

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E a s t We s t R a i l

In December 2016, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling announced plans to privatise the line and the Department for Transport set up East West Railway Company late in 2017.

The line from Bicester to Cambridge would be delivered in three ‘connection stages’.

Connection stage 1 would effectively be Bicester to Bletchley, since Oxford to Bicester had already been completed. Connection stage 2 would be Bletchley to Bedford and Connection Stage 3 Bedford to Cambridge.

The work is being carried out by the East West Rail Alliance, a partnership of Atkins, Laing O’Rourke, Network Rail and VolkerRail.

Following confirmation of funding in the 2020 Spending Review, work on constructing the section between Bicester and Bletchley has commenced. This will allow trains to run from Oxford to Milton Keynes by 2025.

Plans for this stage include:

Key Bedford Midland station

East West Rail – Marston Vale line

Bedford St Johns

Station used by existing service and new East West Rail services Station used by existing services only

Kempston Hardwick

Other area of East East West Rail

Stewartby

Millbrook Lidlington Aspley Guise Ridgmont station Fenny Stratford Woburn Sands station Bletchley station

Bow Brickhill

aking railway crossings safer by replacing M structures and diverting or closing highway, foot and field crossings;

I nstalling new and upgraded signalling and associated cabling; E stablishing Environmental Compensation Sites (ECS) to offset the ecological impacts of constructing the project; learing overgrown vegetation along the C railway corridor; onstructing and restoring structures, including C a new station at Winslow, new high-level platforms at Bletchley station, refurbishments, reconstruction and general repairs to existing infrastructure.

Work commenced in 2020 with marking out and preparing the additional land needed to build the new railway. Parts of the mothballed line were very overgrown, so this had to be cleared and the remaining vegetation managed.

To bring the Bletchley flyover up to modern standards, parts of it need to be deconstructed and rebuilt. Work compounds were set up, to act as main hubs for construction workers and equipment.

Environmental mitigation, including the creation of new habitats for badgers, otters, reptiles, great crested newts, bats and butterflies, also began.

Bridges and structures along the route needed repairing and strengthening, and local roads were improved, putting in passing bays to enable construction traffic to use them safely.

Photo: Network Rail

pgrading track, including doubling track and U upgrading infrastructure between Bicester and Bletchley;

Bletchley flyover

May 2021

42

Heavier construction work commenced in 2021, on the new station at Winslow, on the rebuilding of the Bletchley flyover and on a new road bridge at Charbridge Lane in Bicester.

Work on the Bletchley flyover is due to be completed by 2022. So, too, will the installation of railway tracks between Bicester and Claydon Junction, which will allow installation of the new signalling system, power and communications systems to start.

Track between Claydon Junction and Bletchley will be laid in 2023. HS2 will hand over the area where the two new railways cross. This intersection requires the current Claydon to Aylesbury line to be realigned towards the East and for the Oxford to Bletchley route to be raised in order to provide the necessary vertical clearance for the HS2 route to pass beneath it.

Claydon is also the planned location of a major construction depot, which will later become the principal Infrastructure Maintenance Depot (IMD) for HS2 South. Near Little Kimble, the HS2 alignment will pass beneath the Aylesbury to Princes Risborough branch. Testing the signalling, power and communication systems will begin in 2023 and run through into 2024. By the end of that year, the new route will see its first test trains, ready for passenger services to commence in 2025.

Bletchley to Bedford Having reviewed original plans for construction, East West Rail found the level of upgrade required between Bletchley and Bedford was much higher than originally planned and would need much larger levels of investment than anticipated.

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A public consultation on East West Rail’s plans will run until June 2021, after which a funding bid will be put forward to government for consideration and approval. This section of the route is the current Marston Vale line, largely twin-tracked but with a speed limit of 60mph.

It is classified as a rural line, operated by West Midlands Trains two-car Class 230 units.

East West Rail will upgrade the line to increase speeds and service frequency. Platforms will be extended, to handle the longer trains, at Woburn Sands and Ridgemont stations, and consideration is being given to moving Lidlington station to the northeast, to replace the existing Lidlington and Millbrook stations, and moving Stewartby station to the north to replace the existing Stewartby and Kempston Hardwick stations.

Bedford St Johns station is also likely to be moved, with two different options under consideration. Substantial improvements will be needed to the existing Bedford station. A number of infrastructure changes may well be necessary, including to the existing railway as it approaches the station, the Thameslink (Jowett) sidings, Platform 1A and other platforms, and the location of the station building, and its access.

Bedford to Cambridge Unlike stages 1 and 2, where current mothballed and rural routes can be upgraded and brought back into service, the route for stage 3 will be completely new railway, the old formation of the Varsity line

Photo: Network Rail

E a s t We s t R a i l

Bletchley flyover span lift May 2020

no longer being available due to building that has taken place over the intervening years.

East West Rail sought public opinion on nine alternative routes between Bedford and Cambridge. These were then whittled down to five, with two of them looking the most likely, both quite similar. Their route goes via Cambourne and the Sandy/St Neots area, the most popular option and one which also provides the best value for money and the best environmental outcomes.

Plans will now be refined, taking public feedback into account, before final proposals can be formulated. In 2023/24, East West Rail hopes to submit its proposals to the Secretary of State as part of an application for a Development Consent Order.

On his behalf, the Planning Inspectorate will carry out a public examination of the application, which normally lasts up to six months.

Once any initial conditions or requirements included in the Development Consent Order have been adopted, the government will consider the full business case for the project to make the final decision to proceed.

Following further conversations with the public and stakeholders, construction of stage 3 – Bedford to Cambridge – could start in 2025.

With construction of the various stages stretching forward to well after 2025, there are plenty of opportunities for the railway supply industry to get involved.

Stages 1 and 2 of the project, Bicester to Bedford, include the need for: Earthworks – 1 million m³ 100km new track and drainage Two new stations

Five different route alignments, and six different new station locations new station locations

A1

Three platform extensions

St Neots

Cambourne North station (new)

St Neots South Option B station (new)

A428

A6

Bedford St Johns

Tempsford Option B station (new)

Sandy

Four bridge demolitions 130km new fencing

Cambridge South (proposed)

Tempsford TempsfordOption OptionA A station (new) station (new)

A421

23 refurbished bridges

Cambridge North

Cambridge station

Cambourne South station (new)

Bedford station

15 new bridges

Waterbeach

A14

St Neots South Option A station (new)

A603 A1198

Shelford Shepreth Foxton

Kempston Hardwick Stewartby Millbrook Lidlington

Key

Route Alignment 2 St Neots South Option A station to Cambourne South station

May 2021

Route Alignment 1 Emerging preference St Neots South Option A station to Cambourne North station

Route Alignment 6 St Neots South Option B station to Cambourne South station

Route Alignment 9 Emerging preference Tempsford Option A station to Cambourne North station

Route Alignment 8 Tempsford Option B station to Cambourne South station

Other area of East West Rail

Proposed A428 alignment Alignment

National Rail station

Station used by East West Rail services

Station that Station thatmay maybe be used by East West Rail services East West Rail services

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UK supply chain portal CompeteFor has a section dedicated to East West Rail, with 26 opportunities currently listed, including for rail signage, scaffolding, drainage and telecoms cable.

Mark Cuzner, project director at Laing O’Rourke and a director of the East West Alliance, said: “The East West Rail Alliance is committed to supporting and developing the local and SME supply chain, both directly and indirectly across various sectors; delivering long term social and economic benefits to the communities that line the route of the project.”

The East West Rail project will therefore not only benefit the travelling public in the future, but the rail supply industry for years to come.

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10/03/2021 09:57

Supply chain

Strong signals right across Britain’s railways Amaro is entering a new era with managing director Micky Ewart in the driving seat.

of Amaro.

The Kent-based business is well-known as a leading provider of specialist signalling, while the company has a growing reputation in the LV, HV and OLE sectors.

Around 60 per cent of Amaro’s work is delivered directly for Network Rail, while its Tier 1 clients include Dyer & Butler, Morgan Sindall, BAM, Kier and Osborne. Much of Amaro’s work is currently delivered in the South East, Wessex and Anglia routes. Now, having overseen a successful 12 months of contract delivery and business growth during the pandemic, Micky firmly believes Amaro is entering a new era, with a big role to play in delivering for the UK’s rail network.

Micky, who took the helm in late 2019 after a year as Amaro’s Operations Director, said: “People know the Amaro name but we’re a different business now. We have a different set of values, a different attitude, vision and mission.

“I’m a new MD, 95 per cent of the staff are new to this company and we’re making some serious investment both in people and the business.

“While we have ambitions to grow as a company, our focus is on building our reputation and becoming known as the most highly skilled, technical, and innovative signalling and E&P rail company in the UK, with engineering excellence at the heart of everything we do.”

The journey of a lifetime Micky’s journey as a railwayman commenced when, having left school in his home town of Newcastle, he saw an advert in the jobs pages of the Evening Chronicle for British Rail apprentices. He expected to complete his ONC and then go off and do something else. It didn’t quite work out like that. He remained on the tools, following British Rail with jobs at Balfour Beatty and Jarvis, then headed to Network Rail, by which time he had completed his MSc, and was promoted to infrastructure maintenance engineer.

A former colleague from Jarvis offered him a role as operations director at Giffen, and Micky played a part in turning that business’s fortunes around, at which point it was purchased by Renew Holding’s under the umbrella of Amco, and the company renamed AmcoGiffen.

May 2021

Amaro to “beI want known as both

a brilliant place to work and brilliant to work with

“

M

ichael ‘Micky’ Ewart is bringing 30 years of experience to bear in his role as the managing director

Micky remained at AmcoGiffen for two more years before joining Amaro in 2018.

Amaro is about to take up new office space for 24 staff in Stevenage, while retaining its Rochester HQ, which will allow the business to venture into new geographical territory, given the close proximity of Stevenage to the London North Eastern and East Midlands Route.

46

Clearly the company is well-positioned to bring its engineering excellence to a host of CP6, CP7 and HS2 projects.

Network Rail connections Since Micky has moved up to managing director, Amaro has been appointed to four Network Rail signalling frameworks, including the five-year Signalling Minor Works Framework, delivering in the Southeast, and the Signal Structure Framework, where it will deliver in Wessex. In early 2021, Amaro was also appointed by Arcadis to provide safe systems of work, possession booking, line blockage and safety critical staff. Recent contract wins also include a 12-month project to support Arcadis in surveying OLE traction bonding across 440 miles of the Anglia Route. Around 50 per cent of Amaro’s work is still signalling, with increasing amounts of E&P work along with OLE, bonding works, E&P, LV and signalling power supplies.

railbusinessdaily.com

Supply chain

“For me, our people are the ones out there on the pitch and I’m the one on the sidelines. I do what I can do to enable them to get on and do the best job they can.”

Something else building the Amaro team spirit is a Strava group that was set up to raise funds for the Railway Benefit Group, with Amaro staff aiming to raise £1,858 by covering 1,858 miles by walking, running or cycling.

Performance is covered in the Safety StandDown meetings and so clear are the benefits to health, fitness and wellbeing that the plan is now to attempt to cover 18,858 miles and raise even more money.

Micky said: “Being appointed to the frameworks has allowed us to move forward as a business. While lockdown was a tricky period of time to navigate we’ve taken the opportunity to develop this business and invest in plant, tools and equipment, a new fleet of vehicles, and, most importantly, in people.

“We’ve recruited across all parts of the business, from management to our on-site teams and now directly employ 42 people.”

Team focus

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want to be “ We regarded as a highly skilled specialist business

“

As every good business knows, it’s people that make a company successful. To that end, Micky places a great deal of his focus on the health, happiness and wellbeing of his team.

He said: “I want Amaro to be known as both a brilliant place to work and brilliant to work with.

We look after our people and that starts with listening and engaging with them, encouraging them. We will give them all of the training and support they want and need. We’ll implement the ideas our people come up with and, when you do that, everyone is confident that their ideas are valuable and they’ll come forward with more.

That makes a real difference.”

Every Thursday afternoon at Amaro a Safety Stand-Down takes place, providing the opportunity to talk openly and honestly.

A Control Room meeting on Tuesdays allows for conversations across the business, with the last item for discussion the ‘one per cent improvements’ that have been made across the business, something that Micky realised the importance of during Lean Management training.

He explained: “Often, those one per cent improvements are the most important things to people.

“When you come into a business in a management role people think that you should write down your processes and that will solve all of the problems, but actually it’s listening that matters the most.

“Our Control Room lets us provide support and development and changes the way our people think, which changes behaviours, drives actions and then drives results.

“When I was on the tools, I’d often be sitting in a van, asking why I’d been sent on site, with no chance of getting on the track, knowing that if I had the right tools I could work more efficiently.

Back then there was nobody listening.

47

New apprentices As part of its recruitment strategy, Amaro is also providing opportunities for people to join the company as apprentices, working with training provider PM Training and Assessing Ltd. The company also works with Train 2 Train to identify the apprentices and engineers of the future.

Micky added: “When I look back on 30 years in rail I realise I was lucky to join this industry, spending seven years on the tools, taking 22 years to get to director level, then another seven years to get to MD. I’ve done it the right way and all of that hands-on experience is useful when it comes to running this business and building the team we have at Amaro.

“When you’ve renewed sets of points in the freezing cold that definitely helps when talking to the teams on site.

“Amaro is a 10-15 year project for me and I am determined to develop the company into a fantastic business and leave a legacy. So it’s for me to take this on, build on what we have and then for the next generation coming through to take the company forward.”

Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

Tr a i n S e r v i c e s

The doubts over future demand With people now used to working from home, how many will want to get back on a train, and how soon will they do so?

Emergency agreements Naturally, the privately owned train operators couldn’t sustain running services without anyone buying tickets.

May 2021

The Department for Transport (DfT) therefore put in place emergency measures agreements (EMAs) with the franchised train operating companies (TOCs) to mitigate the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic and ensure that rail services could continue to operate.

“

Twitter was full of photos of trains with only a couple of people on them

“

A

s COVID-19 restrictions ease, with amenities reopening and more than 20 million people having had their second vaccination (nearly 40 million have had their first), life may be returning to normality.

But what will the new normal be like, particularly for the transport industry?

Government advice, right through the pandemic, has been “if you can work from home, then do so”. As a result, office workers stayed home in droves and commuter travel plummeted.

During the first lockdown, which began on 16 March 2020, almost nobody travelled. A few NHS workers still needed to commute by train, but nearly everybody else stayed at home.

Twitter was full of photos of trains with only a couple of people on them – some even ran completely empty.

But the government needed the trains to keep running. Not the full timetable, that was almost halved with only 55 per cent of the usual timetable running, but enough to keep a full service to most major towns and to transport key and essential workers – NHS employees, police and emergency services, and even transport workers themselves.

The EMAs were agreed in March 2020, and took effect from 1 April 2020, with their financial provisions backdated to 1 March 2020. For the majority of TOCs, the EMA applied until 20 September 2020 and operated as a temporary amendment to the underlying franchise agreement, which remained in place.

From 21 September 2020 onwards, the EMAs were replaced by emergency recovery measures agreements (ERMAs) for the majority of TOCs. The ERMAs were a further temporary amendment to the underlying franchise agreements and were of varying lengths, up to a maximum of around 18 months. Although these EMAs and EMRAs were temporary amendments to the existing franchise agreements, many believe that the inevitable conclusion is that the franchise model

48

is effectively finished and will be replaced by some sort of management agreement or concession in the future.

The unions hailed these moves as renationalisation of the railways. Most think it won’t go that far, but that change is certainly on the way.

The long-awaited Williams review, which will almost certainly push for a change to franchising and was probably going to do so even before COVID-19 hit, could even be published while this issue of InsideTrack is being printed. The industry waits to see what it has to say.

After that first initial cut in services, operators slowly added more trains into their schedules as construction workers and others who couldn’t work from home returned to full or part-time employment from 10 May 2020.

However, a number of trains were laid up and staff furloughed.

Changing criteria

By September 2020, 89 per cent of the preCOVID timetable was back and running.

However, the Prime Minister announced a return to working from home on 22 September 2020 and train services were cut again.

England entered its third national lockdown on 6 January 2021, which lasted until restrictions started lifting on 8 March, though some are still in place.

railbusinessdaily.com

Tr a i n S e r v i c e s

30,000

As lockdowns eased, they reopened, only to close again when the next lockdown hit.

Fortunately, both are owned by large transport groups, First Group and Arriva, but it hit them hard financially.

TRAIN SERVICES PER DAY

25,000 20,000

Service reduction

15,000 10,000 5,000 Jan-20 Feb-20 Mar-20 Apr-20 May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20 Aug-20 Sep-20 Oct-20 Nov-20 Dec-20 Jan-21 Feb-21 Mar-21 Apr-21 May-21

0

What no one knows is how badly the coronavirus restrictions will have affected the willingness of the public to travel. Many office workers will continue to work from home, with many companies telling their staff to do so until at least October. Leisure travel could become more important, especially as international travel by air is still restricted.

How ready will people be to get back onto

busy trains, and stand or sit in close proximity to other people?

But while the franchise operators were making their various emergency agreements with the government, the open access operators Hull Trains and Grand Central could not. They live entirely on their income from fares, and without sufficient passengers they were forced to close down and furlough their staff.

Heathrow Express, another open access operator, continued running through the pandemic, as did the largest of them – Eurostar. However, its services were curtailed to just one or two services a day at times, and a number of staff were furloughed. Although many of the company’s staff reside and are based in the UK, the company is 55 per cent owned by French national rail operator SNCF, with the rest of the shareholding split between investment companies and the Belgian state railway operator.

This led to intergovernmental discussions and trade union involvement, with calls for the UK Government to bail out the beleaguered operator even though Britain holds no shares in it.

With new variants of COVID-19 still appearing and some restrictions still in force, this is a topic that InsideTrack will return to in its July issue – Operating Britain’s Railways.

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Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

Northern Line Extension

Extending the Northern line

Image: TfL

London Underground is building its first major line extension this century as it takes the tube to the regeneration area around Battersea Power Station.

Kennington Green vent shaft.

The existing line The Northern line is unusual in that it actually has two alternative routes for most of its length, which makes it different from other London Underground lines, which are end-to-end railways. North of Camden Town the line splits, with one branch going to Edgeware and the other to High Barnet, with a side branch to Mill Hill East.

South of Camden Town, the only station north of the River Thames where the Northern line comes together, it splits again, with the western arm (the Charing Cross branch) running through Leicester Square, Charing Cross and Waterloo to Kennington, near the Oval cricket ground and south of the river.

May 2021

Here it meets the eastern arm (the Bank branch), coming from Moorgate, Bank and London Bridge and continuing on to Clapham, South Wimbledon and Morden. Trains on the Charing Cross branch don’t run through to Morden, instead, they run around the semicircular Kennington loop and then return northwards.

“

Building an intermediate station at Nine Elms absolutely released the business case benefits for the whole Northern Line Extension

“

T

ransport for London is extending the Northern underground line from Kennington to a new station at Battersea Power Station, with a second new station at Nine Elms along the way. This will improve transport links and public spaces in the Vauxhall, Nine Elms and Battersea area, a designated regeneration area on the South Bank.

Due to the improvement in public transport, up to 25,000 jobs and 20,000 new homes could be created. Journey times from Nine Elms or Battersea to the West End or the City will, in some cases, be less than 15 minutes. An independent report on the economic impact of the Northern Line Extension (NLE) has shown it could generate substantial benefits to the area.

Under the plan for the NLE, some Charing Cross branch trains will not go around the Kennington loop but will instead turn right and go on, through new tunnels, to Nine Elms and Battersea.

Various options were considered to improve access to the Battersea area, including trams, buses and extending the underground.

Martin Gosling, project director for the NLE, explained: “It was decided that an extension to the Underground, coming off the Kennington loop on the Charing Cross branch at Kennington station, was the best way forward.

50

Various options of that solution were then considered – some only had one station at Battersea, some went through Vauxhall station and some didn’t – but the decision was not to go through Vauxhall, as that is pretty well full with the Victoria line already.

“However, building an intermediate station at Nine Elms absolutely released the business case benefits for the whole Northern Line Extension.

It opens up the Nine Elms area and Wandsworth Road as well as the Battersea development site.”

Value for money The project is authorised at £1.2 billion, and TfL is working hard to deliver value for money within this. The NLE costs, up to a cap of £1 billion, are being financed by the Greater London Authority through borrowing which is to be serviced and repaid through a combination of developer contributions and incremental business rates. Any costs in excess of £1 billion plus the net property receipts (primarily associated with the Nine Elms over-station development) will be covered by TfL. Once approval was given, construction commenced, largely remotely from the existing London Underground infrastructure. A designand-build contract was awarded to a Ferrovial Agroman Laing O’Rourke (FLO) joint venture, which appointed Mott MacDonald as primary designer.

“We started from the Battersea Development Site end, down by the cats and dogs home, excavating the large hole in the ground necessary to build Battersea station,” said Martin.

railbusinessdaily.com

Northern Line Extension

Pimlico

Lambeth North

Imperial Wharf

Battersea Power Station

Vauxhall

Kennington

Elephant & Castle

Nine Elms Oval Wandsworth Road Clapham High Street

Clapham Junction

Stockwell Denmark Hill

Clapham North Clapham Common

Brixton

Clapham South Balham Tooting Bec

Further from the junction, the two tracks can go back into their own tunnel bores, so the cavern walls step back down in size again.

“Originally, when the junction was designed, there were four or five steps and the cavern was around 100 metres long,” Martin Gosling recalled. “We carried out some value engineering and ended up with only two steps and a cavern 50 metres long – which was a massive saving.”

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“There is an environmental message here too,” Stuart Harvey added. “All the spoil from the TBMs and from the digging of the caverns went out by river barge, so keeping lorries off London’s roads.”

“That equated to about 701 river barges,” Martin recalled, “and just under 850,000 tonnes of spoil went out by river, which saved about 47,000 lorry movements in that area of London, to take the spoil away.”

Image: TfL

“That’s where we launched the tunnel boring machines (TBMs). We had the station box, and immediately joining it we had the crossover box, where the crossover between the twin tracks was going to go so that trains can go in and out into either platform. We actually launched the TBMs in the crossover box, in March 2017.

“They bored the 3.2km twin tunnels, so we had two TBMs operating at the same time, towards access shafts we had built at Kennington Park and Kennington Green. When they arrived, six months later, the TBMs were taken out via those access shafts. We did that because, as the new tunnels have to join into the Kennington loop, we couldn’t take the TBMs right up to the existing tunnels. So, we excavated spray-concrete-lined tunnels from the two shafts in Kennington, one about 200 metres long and the other about 100 metres long, and then we opened up a massive cavern around the Kennington loop, while trains were still running.

“Prior to Christmas 2017, over weekend possessions, we broke into the Kennington Loop, exposing the tunnel within the large cavern we had built, where trains were still running on the existing tracks. Then, over Christmas 2017, we closed the Kennington Loop for 10 days, broke out the existing tunnels and track to put the junctions in that would lead to the new extension.”

Stuart Harvey, TfL’s director of major projects, broke into the conversation at this point. “You make it sound so easy!” he said. “I remember going down into that large cavern and standing under the existing Northern line tunnels, which were metal tubes with cast iron segments. And you could hear the trains running through those tubes, which were supported by concrete headings underneath.”

The junction is what is termed a step-plate junction.

This refers to the ‘steps’ in the cavern wall as the bore increases or decreases in size. When the bore just houses a single track, it is at its smallest. After the junction, as the bores diverge, the cavern has to step-up in diameter to accommodate the two tracks.

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Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

Northern Line Extension

moving-block system, similar to the one currently being installed on the sub-surface lines. So, it was just a case of installing the same equipment in the new tunnels and stations. “Sounds simple when you say it like that,” Stuart laughed.

has had “toEverything integrate with the existing Northern line systems

ensure sufficient trains are on hand at all times.

Just before Christmas 2020, with the railway systems up and running, dynamic systems testing could start. Passenger trains have been running over weekends to test the systems. A four-day test over Christmas used one train, running back and forth, and this was followed by a second four-day test, this time using two trains, over Easter 2021.

This tested the signalling system, and some minor updates that had been installed since the test at Christmas, but having two trains in the tunnels at once also allowed engineers to test the tunnel ventilation systems.

Systems integration As part of this programme, the Kennington Loop now has bi-directional signalling, a first for London Underground. Trains stabled at Battersea overnight and running the first few services of the day can therefore run a shuttle service to Kennington, running round the Kennington Loop in the ‘wrong’ direction, until the first trains from the northern end of the line reach the new junction.

The Northern line is operated using 106 19958 stock six-car trains. No new ones have been ordered for the additional services into the NLE, but an agreement has been reached with service contractor Alstom to maintain a higher level of availability than was previously demanded to

Stuart Harvey is satisfied with the way the programme has proceeded. The systems integration has benefitted from its early planning, and the two ‘halves’ of the contractor joint venture have brought their own strengths – Ferrovial for the tunnelling and Laing O’Rourke for the railway systems, though both companies also have expertise in the other discipline.

Much of the specialist work has been undertaken either by London Underground’s own teams or by its regular framework contractors.

The next step is trial operations, which will take place over the summer, and the opening date is still anticipated to be September 2021.

Image: TfL

With the tunnels bored, the station boxes excavated 25 metres deep from the top down, and the cavern at Kennington completed, it was time to build a railway inside them.

“The important thing about the railway systems was integration,” Stuart noted. “We planned them from the very start. So, we thought about the signalling, we thought about the comms systems, the station systems, so they were all designed to make sure they fitted together.

System integration was fundamental, so we made sure everything was sized correctly, powered correctly and installed in the correct sequence. We had a systems integration team from the very first day, before the contract was let, to make sure the contractor thought that way as well.

“Obviously, we are using the same trains as the rest of the Northern line, the same signalling system, the same communications. But we have had to put more capacity into the system, more vehicle control centres, a new signalling desk at the control centre at Highgate, and new DNO (distribution network operator) substations to provide traction power, which went live at Christmas 2019.

“Everything has had to integrate with the existing Northern line systems, which meant we were integrating with an old system, and that was another challenge.”

The Northern line had been resignalled in 2013/2014, using a modern Thales computerised Transmission Based Train Control (TBTC)

A test train passes through Nine Elms station.

“

Turning tunnels into railways

Image: TfL

The spoil from the excavation for the Battersea station box and the spoil from the TBMs came out at Battersea and was taken across the site by conveyer to the old Power Station pier, where it was loaded onto barges. Spoil from the Nine Elms station box was moved by road the short distance to the Battersea site, which was registered as an official ‘waste transfer site’ – “The first time that’s happened on a London construction site,” Martin interjected.

Two TBMs took six months to bore 3.2km of twin-bore tunnel between Battersea and Kennington.

May 2021

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Barking Riverside

Taking the train to Barking Riverside Transport for London is extending the Gospel Oak to Barking line to a new station that will serve east London’s largest housing development.

A 4.5km extension that spurs from the existing Tilbury Loop line to Barking Riverside; Reconfiguration of Network Rail’s Ripple Lane goods sidings so the extension can connect to the Tilbury Loop; Construction of a 1.5km viaduct over the Ripple Lane yard and the Tilbury Loop, with its foundations constructed between the HS1 tunnels that lie beneath, that crosses over Choats Road before descending into the heart of Barking Riverside;

Image: TfL

T

he Barking Riverside extension, due to open in Autumn 2022, will be capable of operating four trains per hour from Barking. They will run along the existing Tilbury line, which is used by C2C between Fenchurch Street and Grays, until, after passing under the Renwick Road bridge, they will take the new extension, heading south to a new station in the heart of the Barking Riverside development.

The extension – which includes 4.5km of existing and new track – is one of several transport measures designed to serve the emerging development area at Barking Riverside, the largest housing development in east London, with planning permission for up to 10,800 new homes as well as healthcare, shopping, community and leisure facilities. Without a new rail link in place, the full potential of the development at Barking Riverside will not be achieved.

The project includes:

The North viaduct, to the left of the photo, under construction in January 2021,with gaps over the Tilbury line and Choats road. The site of Barking Riverside station is to the far right, with the Riverside development itself in the centre.

Once complete, the rail systems, and the viaduct up to the station, will be handed over to Network Rail for them to undertake the maintenance, as they do for any other asset, and there is an agreement between TfL and Network Rail to cover the asset transfer and future maintenance.

“But, in the station, apart from the rail systems element, the remaining station assets will be

maintained by London Overground in a similar way to how station assets are maintained on the East London line.”

The new viaduct leaves the Tilbury line in the remodelled Ripple Lane sidings and then curves around, crossing the main line railway, the buried HS1 tunnels and Choats Road before continuing to the site of the new Barking Riverside station, close to the north bank of the River Thames.

Building a new Barking Riverside terminus station with step-free access from street to train.

Image: TfL

When complete, the Barking Riverside extension will provide a transport link to Barking town centre, offering interchange connections with the District and Hammersmith & City Underground services and with C2C services to London Fenchurch Street and Essex. There will also be a connection at Wanstead Park with the Elizabeth line’s Forest Gate station.

Construction James Barrows, TfL’s head of programme for the Barking Riverside Extension, explained: “BRE is a project funded and managed by TfL, so it is considered a third-party project by Network Rail.

May 2021

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Barking Riverside

GALE STREET

BARKING STATION

Upney

RIPPLE ROAD

Rippleside Cemetery PASSIVE PROVISION FOR AN INTERMEDIATE STATION

AY D’S W

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A13 A

Castle Green

‘First of its kind’

AVENUE

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OA TS R

THAMES ROAD

OA D

ROAD

Shared running on Tilbury Line C2C/Overground extension Existing Overground line Proposed new track C2C on Tilbury Line District line Hammersmith & City line

BASTABLE

RIVER

Key

The joint venture has contracted Rhomberg Sersa, rail system and slab track specialist, to design and install the slab track on the South Viaduct using the Porr STA slab track system, which extends from the Tilbury line to the new Barking Riverside station.

Becontree

Barking Hospital

NEW STATION

Schematic view of the Barking Riverside extension.

While the Riverside development is planned to include 10,800 homes, the developer cannot build more than 4,000 without the railway being operational, due to the existing poor public transport connectivity to the local centres such as Barking. The journey from Barking Riverside is currently a 25-minute bus ride, which will be replaced by a seven-minute train journey.

There is also passive provision for an extra station, provisionally known as Castle Green, on Renwick Road.

All of this work has been undertaken by TfL and its contractor, a joint venture of Morgan Sindall and VolkerFitzpatrick. All trackwork outside the viaduct has been undertaken by Pod-Trak, which will also deliver the overhead electrification works.

The scissor crossing, the first of its kind in the UK to use the Porr STA system, has been designed and will be built by Rhomberg Sersa. The precast track ‘slabs’ will be fitted with Schwihag baseplates and will use Unistar HR points operating machines.

Kathryn Macoy, TfL’s senior project manager for the station and civils work, explained that most of the viaduct is of concrete construction, using beams up to 35 metres long that have been supplied by Shay Murtagh in Ireland. The two main viaduct spans are longer, around 40 metres, and they are of weathering steel and were fabricated by specialist bridge-builder Severfield.

A 16-day blockade of the Tilbury line was required in Summer 2019, while piling took place to support the North Viaduct and track remodelling was undertaken in Ripple Lane sidings.

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Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

Barking Riverside

Image: TfL

Eurostar and Southeastern high-speed maintained their services through in the HS1 tunnels underneath while the work was completed. Monitoring was installed to make sure no ground or track movements took place, and the train services continued without interruption as settlement trigger values were not exceeded.

The viaduct structure was completed at the end of April 2021, with the bridge over the Network Rail Tilbury line being lifted into place during March and the span over Choats Road installed by the largest crane in Europe a few weeks later.

Still to be completed are the electrification works, track slab laying and signal and telecoms installation and testing, both within the Network Rail corridor and upon the viaduct

October deadline Extensive piling, up to 25 metres deep, was installed to support the North Viaduct in the Ripple Lane yard as the ground, part of the River Thames floodplain, is weak and of poor quality.

Teams were stood down for around 10 weeks, and this meant that some deadlines and possessions were missed so these needed to be rescheduled.

“

It is a large balancing act, satisfying the needs of the freight and passenger community

“

“Some of the bigger impacts were felt by the freight operators, particularly container traffic

coming from London Gateway,” James Barrows explained.

“The scheme affects traffic flows of all seven major freight operators, as well as passenger operator C2C. So, it is a large balancing act, satisfying the needs of the freight and passenger community in developing the project’s possession strategy, while continuing to drive the project delivery.”

Due to the COVID-inspired delays, the project still requires the last three months of its possession planning to be approved by the wider industry. However, assuming that everything goes to plan, the opening of the Barking Riverside Extension is now on target and scheduled for Autumn of 2022, when the new residents of Barking Riverside will be able to get off their buses and onto a train.

Image: TfL

The new station is planned to be complete by October 2021, the platforms are at the elevated level with retail units underneath. Lift and stairs will give access to the platforms at the ‘buffer stop’ end, and emergency stairs are to be provided at the other end of the platform to help in the evacuation of trains and the station if needed.

The new line will be complete for trains to start testing in Summer 2022.

Stewart Gill, the senior project manager in charge of the railway systems element of the work, explained that paths for the new services would be included in the May 2022 timetable change.

However, these wouldn’t actually run officially until the line is due to enter revenue-earning service in Autumn 2022.

The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to a delay to the original December 2021 entry into service date.

May 2021

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Station Design

Railway stations reimagined Scotland’s 7N Architects has won an international competition to improve the passenger experience at Britain’s small to medium-sized stations.

ATKINS, London with PRD

Miguel Angel Rio de Janeiro

Carrasco

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Panel members thought 7N’s winning concept considers the needs of both passengers and their local communities

Arquitetura,

Pascall+Watson, London 7N Architects, Edinburgh WORKSHOP Architecture, Toronto May 2021

Anthony Dewar, head of buildings and architecture at Network Rail, commented at the time: “At the launch of the competition, we were hoping to receive some creative and forwardthinking designs, and my fellow judging panellists and I were happily inundated with submissions that met that brief.

“

W

ith the long-term aim of improving the travel experience of the millions of passengers who use Britain’s railway, Network Rail and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) launched the Re-Imagining Railway Stations design competition in July 2020.

Architects, engineers and designers from across the world were asked to reimagine the small to medium-sized stations that make up 80 per cent of all those on Britain’s railway. In response, the first phase of the competition attracted more than 200 entrants from 34 different countries.

In November 2020, the judging panel selected five entrants to go on to the next phase. Each received an honorarium of £20,000 to develop their proposals for final judging in 2021.

The five shortlisted entrants who went forward to the next stage were:

“It was a tough decision to narrow the field down to just a handful to go through to the next stage, but we were particularly impressed and intrigued by the concept proposals put forward by the selected five practices.

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“We look forward to seeing how they will develop their ideas to create design solutions which will help Network Rail to improve the experience of both the communities and passengers it serves.”

Round two In May 2021, after the second round of judging, it was announced that Edinburgh-based architectural practice, 7N Architects, had won the competition.

Panel members thought 7N’s winning concept considers the needs of both passengers and their local communities. The station frontage includes an eye-catching clock tower, which serves a strong civic purpose as a local landmark and a natural meeting place for social activities. Beyond the station entrance, sweeping platform canopies – elegant and refined in feature – provide shelter for passengers. The modular station design can be integrated into a variety of locations that complement the local landscape.

The design has been cleverly pared back to create an open and flexible system which, with minimum component parts, will transform people’s experience of the station whilst aligning

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Station Design

with Network Rail’s aspirations to be carbon neutral by 2050. It incorporates the capacity to generate renewable energy to provide most of the station’s power by using translucent photovoltaic panels which provide shelter from rain and dappled shade.

Announcing the winner, Lucy Musgrave OBE, founding director of Publica and leader of the judging panel, said: “This competition has clearly set out the importance of holistic and integral design quality when it comes to creating successful infrastructure. Network Rail’s leadership has encouraged all involved to consider how society is changing and how we can

address the climate emergency and the evolving civic role of our infrastructure.

“7N’s winning proposal showed a confident expression and understanding of the opportunity to celebrate our local identities, the specificity and integration with our urban and rural landscapes, and the strength of our national identity through our railway infrastructure.

“We wish 7N well in this next phase and look forward to seeing the work develop.”

Rail Minister, Chris Heaton-Harris, added: “7N Architects’ innovative concept puts passengers right at the heart of its design, from the sweeping canopies providing shelter from the elements

and generating power, to the station’s frontage serving as a local landmark.

“Harnessing creative and forward-thinking ideas in competitions like this will be a gamechanger when it comes to designing stations of the future that deliver a first-class experience for all passengers. I look forward to seeing this become a reality.”

7N Architects will now work closely with Network Rail project representatives to develop the design into a formal proposal that addresses a prescribed set of technical requirements, including consideration of construction methodology.

Judging Panel Lucy Musgrave OBE

Founding director, Publica

Paul Beaty-Pownall Managing director, BPR Architects

Jonathan McDowell

Director, Matter Architecture

Sahar Fikouhi

Founder, ARki

Chris Wise

Senior director, Expedition Engineering

Anthony Dewar

Professional head of buildings and architecture, Network Rail

Dinah Casson CBE

RDI Designer

Frank Anatole

Principal architect, Network Rail

Victoria Lee

Lead programme manager, Design Council

Ian Grimes

Principal engineer, Network Rail

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We s t M i d l a n d s M e t r o

Extending the West Midlands Metro

Image: MMA

The light-rail system that connects Wolverhampton and Birmingham is currently being extended in four different directions.

The West Midlands Metro will pass in front of HS2’s Birmingham Curzon Street station.

May 2021

Between 2015 and 2016, the Birmingham end of the line was extended, taking the terminus out of Snow Hill railway station and moving it to Stephenson Street, adjacent to Birmingham New Street station and the newly renamed Grand Central shopping centre.

“areApprenticeships a great way to

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T

he West Midlands Metro is the light rail system that currently connects Wolverhampton and Birmingham city centres. It opened on 30 May 1999 as Midland Metro and ran from Wolverhampton St George’s to Birmingham Snow Hill station, where it terminated in one of the platforms of the national rail station.

A fleet of 16 T-69 trams was built by AnsaldoBreda in Italy (now part of Hitachi Rail) to operate the route. They ran on a 750V DC overhead power supply and the entire line was managed from a control centre at Wednesbury, alongside the Great Western Street tram stop, where the depot to house and maintain the trams was also located.

To both prepare for future expansion and to improve the frequency and reliability of its current services, Centro (the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive) ordered 21 Urbos 3 trams from Spanish manufacturer CAF. As they are nine metres longer and 17 centimetres wider than the T-69s they replaced, the system was closed for two weeks between March and April 2013 so that tram-stop platforms could be adjusted to suit the new trams.

The existing T-69 trams had wider steps fitted so passengers could continue using them safely.

The first four new Urbos 3 trams entered service in September 2014, resplendent in a new pink livery.

secure the future talent we need

Bringing trams into the heart of the city improved ridership by around 20 per cent, from five million to six million a year.

Further extensions With the region now under the control of the West Midlands Combined Authority, Centro was replaced by Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) in 2016. This new body formed the Midland Metro Alliance (MMA), together with railway construction contractor Colas Rail and a design partnership of Pell Frischmann, Tony Gee and Partners and Egis.

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On the construction side, Colas Rail is supported by sister companies Colas UK and Bouygues UK, as well as Barhale and the Auctus Management Group, which provide specialist services.

Building on the success of the West Midlands Metro’s first extension to Stephenson Street, a number of further network extensions were planned: irmingham Westside – taking the tram from its B current terminus outside Birmingham New Street station to Centenary Square, along Broad Street and under the Fiveways underpass to Edgbaston. olverhampton – extending the line to W Wolverhampton station, which was itself to be extensively remodelled and refurbished. irmingham Eastside – connecting the Metro B to HS2’s Birmingham terminus at Curzon Street, with plans to run even further eastwards, eventually to reach Birmingham International station, the National Exhibition Centre and HS2 Interchange station in Solihull. ednesbury to Brierley Hill – leaving the current W Metro route at Wednesbury Great Western Street, close to the control centre and depot, to reach Dudley, Merry Hill and Brierley Hill in the Black Country.

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We s t M i d l a n d s M e t r o

One of the benefits of delivering through an alliance was that, once funding was in place, it became simpler to expand the network and to deliver smaller packages of work with the support of a larger team and programme.

Image: MMA

Ahead of schedule Two of these extensions are currently underway, and indeed are almost complete.

Birmingham Westside reached Centenary Square ahead of schedule in December 2019 as part of the first phase of the works, with the new terminus stop named Library, as it is outside the Library of Birmingham. This phase of the extension also connected Wolverhampton and north Birmingham with popular attractions including the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, the International Convention Centre and Symphony Hall and took ridership up to over eight million a year – before COVID of course.

However, both the open aspect of Victoria Square and the steep incline at Pinfold Street presented a challenge to the designers and operators. Overhead powerlines and their support structures would look unsightly in the former, and there was no room for them through the latter.

The solution was to convert the trams to battery power. These batteries would be charged while running under wires on the rest of the line but would allow trams to do without wires on the critical sections.

The first tram was fitted with batteries in 2017, following which the whole fleet was converted and repainted in a new blue livery. A further order for an additional 21 trams, to take the fleet up to 42, was placed in October 2019, to enter service as the new extensions are completed.

Phase 2 With the line complete and in operation to Centenary Square, construction on the second phase of the project continued along Broad Street and through the Five Ways underpass, despite the pandemic, with the last section of track being welded into place on Hagley Road in Edgbaston in April 2021.

The final works, including street scene improvements and the installation of overhead line equipment, is still ongoing, and will be followed by essential testing and commissioning, before passenger services can begin later in the year.

As the work took place largely during all three COVID-19 lockdowns, disruption to Broad Street’s busy entertainment industry has perhaps not been as bad as might have been expected. Indeed, the construction schedule for the scheme was accelerated in some areas, to ensure that much of the finishing activity would be completed whilst businesses remained closed due to the pandemic.

At the Wolverhampton end of the line, one plan that was considered was to form a loop from the St George’s tram stop that would pass the main railway station and then return to the original route back to Birmingham, creating a new runaround. However, this was altered so there will now be a spur to the station and alternate northbound trams will terminate at St George’s or the station. The loop could still be built later.

Track was laid along Pipers Row and Railway Drive in 2019, after which work was paused while the redevelopment of the station was completed.

In March 2021, work recommenced along Pipers Row, where street scene improvements, including tram stops, are due to be installed. The final sections of track approaching the newly reopened railway station are due to be begin later in the summer.

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We s t M i d l a n d s M e t r o

Once the Metro reaches High Street Deritend, further decisions will be taken regarding taking it 17km further out to Solihull, the NEC, Birmingham Airport, the National Exhibition Centre and Genting Arena.

The route is the transport element of a regeneration plan for the area, an important driver being the linking of the two HS2 termini with the Black Country by West Midlands Metro (as well as everywhere in between) and encouraging

Wolverhampton City Centre Metro Extension

Existing route Extensions under construction Extensions in development

Bilston Central

Current West Midlands Metro Line Great Bridge

Interchange location Metro stop Not all tram stops are shown. Not to scale.

Wednesbury Great Western Street

Sedgley Road HS2 Interchange station

West Bromwich Central

Dudley Town Centre

The Hawthorns Flood Street

Merry Hill

Jewellery Quarter

Wednesbury to Brierley Hill Metro Extension

St Chads

Bull Street Edgbaston Village

Brierley Hill

Birmingham Westside Metro Extension

Five Ways

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East Birmingham to Solihull Metro Extension

High Street Deritend

Birmingham Eastside Metro Extension

Grand Central

more of the general public to choose green transport options for their day-to-day travel.

There is still plenty of time for both suppliers and young people to get involved

The 11km extension, complete with 15 new Metro stops, will branch off the current West Midlands Metro line just east of the Wednesbury Great Western Street Metro stop, before heading through Tipton and Dudley on its way to Brierley Hill.

Some sections of the route will be operated using batteries rather than traditional overhead wires,

Trams in Dudley town centre.

May 2021

West Midlands Metro expansion programme

Wolverhampton Station

Birmingham International

including in Dudley town centre. There are also plans to redesign the Metro depot in Wednesbury to accommodate the extended fleet of trams.

On the ground Preparatory work started with vegetation clearance and ecological surveys taking place from 2017. Some advance work to upgrade and divert utilities has also taken place in Dudley town centre.

A number of derelict structures have also been removed as part of a package of works which will see bridges along the route replaced with stronger decks. It has also been necessary to conduct surveys of historic mineshaft locations to determine any strengthening works required.

This work began in February 2021 and was expected to take up to four months.

Image: MMA

Further decisions

Wolverhampton St George’s

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The £227 million Birmingham Eastside Metro extension to Digbeth is planned to consist of 1.7km of twin track running from Bull Street to a new terminus at High Street Deritend. The scheme includes four additional West Midlands Metro stops serving the east of Birmingham City Centre.

More than half of the route is planned to be free of overhead wires, similar to the recently opened extension from Grand Central to Centenary Square, and construction for the project includes urban-realm upgrades for Digbeth High Street ahead of 2022’s Commonwealth Games.

When complete, the Eastside extension will serve the High Speed 2 (HS2) station at Curzon Street and the Eastside regeneration area, offering connections with New Street, Moor Street and Snow Hill railway stations.

The scheme also includes a new bus interchange, adjacent to Clayton Hotel Birmingham, to provide an efficient bus and coach interchange with HS2.

Utility works commenced towards the end of 2020, with main construction starting in Spring 2021. Lower Bull Street will be closed to traffic while the new tracks are connected into the existing lines. Work will then continue to take the line beyond High Street Deritend, including the construction of intermediate stops at Albert Street, New Canal Street and Meriden Street.

TfWM plans to open the route by 2025.

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We s t M i d l a n d s M e t r o

Image: MMA

The first few miles of the route, as far as Dudley, will use part of the old South Staffordshire Railway, which was cleared earlier in 2020, with several redundant assets being donated by TfWM to the nearby Severn Valley Railway heritage line.

Main construction is already underway in Dudley Town centre and passsenger services for this extension, the largest light rail scheme currently being developed in the UK, are expected to begin in 2023/24.

Construction proceeds along Birmingham’s Broad Street

Engaging with people MMA is keen to work with local suppliers. Its website lists 63 categories of goods and services, from access aggregates and bridgework to waterproofing systems and welding, that it is keen to source from interested suppliers.

It has also developed an employer-led apprenticeship standard for Tramway (Light Rail) Construction and Renewals.

MMA director Peter Cushing commented: “We believe that one way of maintaining a strong and sustainable workforce is to invest in it, and we have recently promoted a number of employees as well as further developing staff in their current roles.

“The tramway sector is currently undergoing

a period of expansion and apprenticeships are a great way to secure the future talent we need. We are delighted to be leading on this initiative.”

Employers working for the alliance are training their own apprentices under the scheme, with the first cohort set to complete their qualification later this summer. MMA believes that the apprenticeship programme is a valuable tool for recruiting new talent and it supports the transfer of industry knowledge from one generation to the next.

Indeed, plans are underway to recruit a new cohort of apprentices to help build the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill Metro extension.

In November 2020, the alliance won the

Institution of Civil Engineers West Midlands Education and Inspiration Award for its Trailblazer Apprenticeship in Light Rail.

This followed a similar success in the Communications Award category at the 2019 event, and a 2018 win for a programme designed to help unemployed people gain new skills and experience in the construction sector.

With the total West Midlands Metro extension programme being worth £1.35 billion and running through until at least 2026, there is still plenty of time for both suppliers and young people to get involved and benefit from bringing an extended Metro to the people of the West Midlands.

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Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

E d i n b u r g h Tr a m s

Taking the tram to Newhaven

Image: City of Edinburgh Council

After a six-year pause, the City of Edinburgh is completing the tram line it first began in 2008.

May 2021

the airport and out to the originally intended destination of Newbridge.

The contract to build the new tram network was let in 2008. Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (TIE), a company wholly owned by Edinburgh City Council that was set up in 2002 to manage the project, let two contracts. A consortium of Bilfinger Berger and Siemens (BBS) would build the infrastructure while Spanish manufacturer CAF was asked to supply a fleet 27 trams. The total cost was estimated to be in the region of £521 million and completion was expected by 2011.

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The total cost was estimated to be in the region of £521 million and completion was expected by 2011

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T

he Edinburgh Trams network is being extended from its current terminus at York Place to Newhaven and the Port of Leith.

That’s a simple statement and sounds like a good thing. However, like so much of the story of Edinburgh’s trams, it’s not quite as simple as that.

Plans for the new tram network were originally drawn up in 2001. These envisaged a three-line system. Line 1 would be a circular route around the city centre. Line 2 would be a line out westwards to the city’s airport and Newbridge. Line 3 would run southwards to Newcraighall.

However, when this proposal came before the Scottish parliament in 2006, the costs were deemed too high and only lines 1 and 2 were approved. Plans for the third line, to Newcraighall, were shelved and construction of the remaining routes was to be phased.

Phase 1a would be a line from Edinburgh Airport, through the city centre and out to Leith and Newhaven in the east. Phase 1b would effectively complete the circle route proposal, running clockwise around the city centre to Granton.

Phase 2 would connect Granton and Newhaven, finally completing the circle route.

Phase 3 would extend the western arm, past

Prior to this, utility clearance work had commenced in 2007, so that the main construction phase would have a clear site to work on.

However, it didn’t work out that way. Early in the

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construction phase, BBS discovered that much of the design work – around 40 per cent – was incomplete, that many of the third-party approvals needed had not been granted, and that the programme to clear utilities from the route hadn’t been finished.

This, of course, meant that BBS had to do far more work than it had tendered for. Costs increased as this work was pulled in and acrimony between the contractor, TIE and the council crept in.

Extended completion date The completion date was also extended as some of the utility work continued until 2012, a year after the network was to have opened. As a result, the work was curtailed. The line to Edinburgh Airport would be built, but would run only as far as the city centre to a new stop at York Place, just east of St Andrew Square. The line out to Newhaven was cut, and ‘Tram’ became a dirty word in Edinburgh.

While all this was going on, CAF duly made and delivered 27 trams. They had to go into storage as the line wasn’t ready and, in any case, fewer would now be needed to service the shortened line. An attempt was made to sell the surplus on to Croydon, which was in the market for some extra trams, but this fell through.

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E d i n b u r g h Tr a m s

Edinburgh Tram network Caroline Granton Granton Park Waterfront Square

Key

Main interchanges Airport Bus Rail Park & Ride Phase 1a Phase 1b

West Granton

Phase 2 Phase 3

Edinburgh Airport Newbridge North

Ratho Station

Newbridge South

lngliston West

Gogarburn lngliston Park & Ride

Edinburgh Park

Gyle

Meanwhile, Edinburgh’s city centre suffered from the blight of construction works, with roads closed and diverted, for two years longer than planned.

Work was finally completed by October 2013 and, after testing, Edinburgh Trams opened to passengers on 31 May 2014.

A statutory enquiry was set up, to look into the delivery of the project and seeHalf whatPage lessons could VR March21 Print v2 copy.pdf be learned.

South Gyle

Edinburgh Park Station

Balgreen

Saughton

Lower Ocean Granton Newhaven Terminal

Murrayfield

Ocean Drive

Crewe Toll

Constitution Street

Telford Road

Foot of the Walk

Craigleith

Balfour Street

Ravelston Dykes

McDonald Road

Rosebum

Picardy Place

Haymarket Shandwick Place

However, as with many large projects, once the trams actually started running, much of the dispute and upheaval of the previous six years was forgotten.

The citizens of Edinburgh made good use of the trams and, within a year, the city council was already talking about completing line 1 as originally planned, out to Newhaven.

1 26/03/2021 11:29 An extra tram stop was built – Edinburgh

Princes Street

St Andrew Square

Gateway, situated bet ween Gyle and Gogarburn – to provide an interchange with the Fife Circle and Edinburgh to Aberdeen railway lines.

The business case for taking trams to Newhaven was approved in 2017, aided by the fact that much of the utilities diversion had already been undertaken for the first contract, before the route was shortened.

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Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

E d i n b u r g h Tr a m s

The route to Newhaven will be 4.6km (2.9 miles) long and double tracked. The current terminus at York Place, which had been added when the original plan was shortened, will be replaced by Picardy Place, a short distance to the east and one of the stops on the original plan.

Most of the stops will be simple island platforms, the exceptions being at Foot of the Walk and at Newhaven itself. The track will run on, past Newhaven, into a secure storage area where two trams can be stabled overnight.

Although some of the movement of utilities was completed previously, there are still a a lot to be done, including a 500mm diameter gas main along Leith Walk.

To keep disruption to local residents and businesses to a minimum, particularly as they had been so inconvenienced in 2011 and then had no tram to show for it, a ‘one dig’ approach was adopted. Under this, the work was divided up into sections. Each will be fenced off, work undertaken, utilities moved, excavations made, foundations poured, track laid, road surface reinstated – and then the fence would be removed when everything was complete. No more stop and start work, which so annoyed locals the first time around.

Two of the last sites will be at each end of Leith Walk, where complex road junctions need to be built.

May 2021

Newhaven

Ocean Terminal Ocean Drive A 901

A902

Constitution Street A19

9

Foot of the Walk Balfour Street

EDINBURGH CITY CENTRE Picardy Place St Andrew Square West End Princes St. Princes St.

McDonald Road A1 Edinburgh Waverley

Haymarket This work is likely to commence over the winter of 2021/22. The ports area at Melrose Drive and Ocean Drive will also be amongst the last sites to be completed.

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Trams should be running to Newhaven by early in 2023

The rails themselves – all 11,000 of them – arrived in Leith in March 2020. Each 18 metres long, the contractors are using the Pandrol QTrack® system – a continuously supported and

fastened embedded ballastless track system, where the rail is completely encapsulated by elastic prefabricated resin bonded rubber profiles.

Rails that needed bending to shape for use on curves were sent to British Steel’s plant at Scunthorpe. Using the Pandrol system, single line track can be laid at a rate of 144 metres per day.

Once complete, the last job will be to remove the York Place terminus, being kept open as the temporary end of the line while works proceed.

Trams will terminate at St Andrew Square whilst York Place is closed and Picardy Place tram stop is under construction, and then the trams will be able to run all the way through to Newhaven. There will be crossovers at the new terminus and at the Ocean Terminal and Balfour Street tram stops.

Reviewing the work - left to right: Steven Jackson, director, Turner and Townsend; Alejandro Mendoza, director, SFN; Hannah Ross, senior responsible officer, City of Edinburgh Council.

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Image: City of Edinburgh Council

Updated route

Leith waterfront

“

Three alternatives had been considered – going all the way to Newhaven, or only as far as Ocean Terminal, or to the Foot of Leith Walk – but, in the end, the decision was taken to revert to the original plan and terminate at Newhaven.

Final approval to start work was granted in March 2019, and trams should be running to Newhaven by early in 2023. The extended route will use 25 of the city’s fleet of 27 trams, so improving utilisation.

Contracts were placed with a joint venture of Sacyr, Farrans and Neopul (SFN) for infrastructure and systems and with Morrison Utility Services for the swept path – to move utilities and below-ground obstructions, undertake any necessary archaeology and to clear a way for the overhead line. The overall budget of £207.3 million includes capital costs to completion, support for business initiatives, development costs to bring the final business case forward, risk and optimism bias.

Siemens Mobility, which was already working directly for the city council, became a subcontractor to SFN, to supply electrification, the SCADA system (supervisory control and data acquisition), telecoms and both tram and road traffic signalling.

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E d i n b u r g h Tr a m s

Making connections

As the project team are unable to carry out site and school visits right now, a weekly archaeology vlog (video blog) hosted by the John Lawson, the city’s archaeologist, is uploaded to the Trams to Newhaven YouTube channel.

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Specialist teams have uncovered everything from skeletons to cannonballs, including an old city wall

Most recently, Masters graduate students from the University of Dundee, working closely with Morrison Utility Services sub-contractors Guard Archaeology, have used hi-tech software to reconstruct the faces of remains uncovered during the excavation of the medieval graveyard

in Leith, dating back to between the 14th and 17th centuries.

The project has committed over £2.4 million of funding to support local business via a series of measures intended to maintain the accessibility, vibrancy and desirability of the affected streets.

Recognising that the tram works have the potential to affect ‘business as usual’ in the area, the project developed a set of measures following feedback from local traders, members of the public and interest groups. These include an ‘Open for Business’ marketing campaign, a street art mural trail along the route and a business continuity fund, allowing affected businesses access to funds that will help to alleviate any short-term pressures on business operations.

In addition, the project has teamed up with popular deal site Itison, meaning customers can purchase vouchers online to spend in local stores at a discounted rate. The discount is funded by Trams to Newhaven.

Image: City of Edinburgh Council

Other community engagements include donations to local food banks and charities at Christmas and the construction of a ramp to improve accessibility to South Leith Parish Church, an historic building which once housed Mary Queen of Scots.

Archaeology has also played an important part in the preparations for the tram project. Leith, and its port, is an historic area, and specialist teams have uncovered everything from skeletons to cannonballs, including an old city wall.

Facial reconstruction of remains found at the site

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One important aspect of the latest project, and a lesson that was learned from phase 1, is to keep the local community onside.

Disruption is inevitable, with road closures and rerouted footpaths, but good communications minimise the fallout. The ‘Trams to Newhaven’ website is full of information about these topics, so that local residents and businesses can understand the measures that are being taken.

Information boards at nine points along the route keep the community updated on upcoming works and updates.

A fortnightly newsletter reinforces the message, and events such as an Easter ‘Scavenger Hunt’ brought together children and adults in the affected areas.

Nine Easter community engagement boards were installed throughout the route of the project, and people were encouraged to visit the boards and answer the questions on them. Correct answers were entered into a prize draw for a chance to win an Easter surprise.

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Ve r y L i g h t R a i l

Solving the branch-line challenge

Image: BCIMO

A new National Innovation Centre is being built at Dudley in the West Midlands to develop the concept of Very Light Rail.

The VLR National Innovation Centre in Dudley

Energy efficient The simple answer is that Very Light Rail (VLR) can indeed be small trams, and Coventry City Council is intending to use VLR for its on-street project in exactly this application.

However, VLR vehicles are also well-suited for branch lines. where passenger demand, while still significant, is light.

They are energy efficient, often powered by alternative ‘green’ technologies, and very light, so their power-to-weight ratios are good, and they are kind to the infrastructure.

For this reason, the technology is attractive to those looking to reopen abandoned branch lines – closed in the time of Beeching.

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Their light weight means that older track alignments and bridges don’t need such expensive rebuilds, and their ‘green’ technology makes them clean and cheap to run.

An early example of a VLR unit is the Parry People Movers Class 139, two of which provide services on the UK’s shortest branch line – the Stourbridge Town branch in the West Midlands, which is just under a mile long. The pair of small railcars, which each seat 25 people and can carry a maximum of 60, are powered by flywheel energy storage.

This initiative is “about developing

a new form of low-cost rail-based transport

“

L

ight Rail is the name given to tram networks, to distinguish them from traditional or ‘heavy rail’.

Trams – light rail vehicles – spend a lot of their time running on tracks embedded in city streets, though they do also have dedicated tracks, segregated from road traffic. The vehicles are normally quite small in railway terms, consisting of anything from two to five cars, and are often segmented and articulated, having fewer axles and bogies than there are segments.

In the UK there are tram systems in Croydon, Nottingham, the West Midlands, Blackpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Edinburgh.

So, if trams are ‘Light Rail’, what is ‘Very Light Rail’? Even smaller trams?

A large, spinning flywheel drives the wheels.

It takes kinetic energy from the braking energy during deceleration, and then releases that energy to accelerate the vehicle. A small engine, powered by liquified petroleum gas (LPG), spins up the flywheel at the start of operations, tops up the energy storage to reinstate losses, and powers onboard lighting and other systems.

The Parry People Mover concept was originally tested in 2002. The two Class 139 vehicles currently in service date from 2008.

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To bring the concept up to date, a new organisation has been set up to take VLR to another level. The Black Country Innovative Manufacturing Organisation (BCIMO) is building a state-of-the-art Very Light Rail National Innovation Centre in Dudley, at a cost of around £28 million, where it will help to develop the next generation of VLR vehicles and infrastructure.

BCIMO’s formation was made possible by a collaboration between Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council and Coventry City Council, together with input from Cenex, the low emission transport consultancy.

Dr Nick Mallinson, chief executive of BCIMO, explained: “This initiative is about developing a new form of low-cost rail-based transport, which will be manufactured and installed by UK companies and, in particular, supported by manufacturing companies in Dudley and the wider Black Country.”

Funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (BCLEP), the centre will include a triple-height engineering hall, research laboratories, conference and seminar rooms and offices for 45 people.

There will also be a dedicated 2.2km test track running along part of an old disused railway line. Constructed from all new track to Network Rail 100mph standard, it includes an 845-metre refurbished tunnel, with full radio cover and lighting as well as a safe walkway, and a unique 15-metre-radius turning loop for Urban VLR vehicle cornering trials.

Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

VLR’s main benefits stem from its low capital and operating costs and shorter lead times, with fewer disruptions than conventional rail systems.

It can be especially useful on short routes, where operating traditional heavy rail or tram solutions is uneconomic.

It can also help with the government’s challenge to the transport industry to clean up its act, based on its ‘Decarbonising Transport’ document.

Although rail is already one of the most efficient ways of moving high volumes of people into and out of city centres, there are still moves to reduce emissions even further, and VLR could well be an answer in some areas.

“

The Very Light Rail Test Track and National Innovation Centre is a key project for our borough

While the response to the government’s decarbonisation challenge has focused largely on the removal of diesel-only trains from mainline routes, and the establishment of a major electrification programme, what about branch lines and other areas where electrification

Image: BCIMO

Low-cost option

Class 139 Parry People Mover on the Stourbridge Town branch

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In its mission statement, BCIMO talks about positively transforming the rail industry by providing supplementary VLR solutions and helping the Black Country to both regenerate and innovate. But Dr Mallinson maintains that it is more than that. “We plan to look at the bigger picture and how VLR systems can fit into the overall concept of hub-tohome public transport,” he added.

Around the country, the government is providing start-up funding for a number of schemes under its ‘Restoring Your Railway’ programme. Several of these proposals are to reopen former branch lines, especially where there is need for new local connections, perhaps to mainline inter-city services, and VLR could be an ideal solution for a number of them.

Richard Jones, BCIMO’s business and partnerships manager, said: “We’re not in competition with the railways. Very Light Rail both supports and sustains the current railway network, providing more railway and more connections.”

The Dudley test track includes a tunnel.

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Image: Network Rail.

Ve r y L i g h t R a i l

simply isn’t viable for such short journeys and low volumes of traffic? This is where Very Light Rail could well be able to help.

Development of ‘Revolution VLR’, a lightweight vehicle for branch-line applications, led by Warwickshire-based Transport Design International, is well advanced. Working with the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), the design team’s key aim is to facilitate low-cost connectivity of regional and rural lines. Its first prototype vehicle is nearing completion and will then start testing at Dudley.

However, revitalising old ‘Beechinged’ lines, and providing an alternative motive-power choice on shorter existing routes, is not the only application for VLR technology.

Production line There are new-build schemes in the pipeline too, and these bring us back to the concept of small, light trams.

One such application is being planned in Coventry, where the city council, together with lead partner WMG, is developing a VLR solution that will see battery-powered vehicles running on a route that will connect major employment sites with the city centre and the railway station.

These vehicles will run on innovative lightweight track, specifically designed for the Coventry system.

This has the advantage of being laid into the road surface, removing the need for deep foundations and for moving buried services – a task which adds so much to the cost of conventional tram tracks.

Cllr Jim O’Boyle, cabinet member for jobs and regeneration at Coventry City Council, commented: “We want our public transport to

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Ve r y L i g h t R a i l

be efficient, affordable and, most importantly, environmentally friendly. Coventry led the industrial revolution and now we are leading the green industrial revolution.

“I firmly believe that VLR is the future of public transport in small and medium sized towns.”

The first vehicle for this project will shortly undergo rigorous testing at the new centre in Dudley.

The work of the BCIMO is not only dedicated to pioneering the VLR concept, it is also about developing and nurturing a new supply chain in the Black Country. “We have set up an ‘Innovation Forum’ to encourage and support the local SME community,” Nick Mallinson explained. “Many companies might only be active in certain sectors and might not realise that the products they make, for instance automotive components, could be adapted for new markets, including for use in the Very Light Rail industry.”

Cllr Patrick Harley, leader of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, added: “The Very Light Rail Test Track and National Innovation Centre is a key project for our borough. It will offer an innovative and exciting opportunity to provide

Image: Revolution VLR

Developing the supply chain

Revolution VLR is a development for branch-line applications.

lower cost local rail connectivity, encouraging shift from private vehicles towards public transport.”

Very Light Rail, as a concept, has been talked about for some time, but it now seems to be coming of age and is bringing with it the promise of lower-cost, greener and better-connected public transport.

In the Black Country, it is also hoped the development of VLR will help to create new jobs and secure others, which might be under threat as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Construction of the new VLR National Innovation Centre is expected to be completed in 2022.

Working with leading UK transport companies and investors to provide low-cost light rail solutions.

• Targeting carbon zero 16 years of operations • Over experience

• Specialists in VLR and LRT establishment • Consultation, and operation services

Pre Metro Operations Ltd, Regent House, 56 Hagley Road, Stourbridge, West Midlands, DY8 1QD

Tel: 01384 441325 Email: info@premetro.org Website: www.premetro.co.uk pre-metro-operations-limited

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Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

Ve r y L i g h t R a i l

Innovative battery-charger for VLR

Image: : John Zammit/Absolute

In a world-first, Dudley’s National Innovation Centre for Very Light Rail has installed an ultra-rapid charging station.

May 2021

One solution is to deploy an alternative to electrification for urban passenger transport that brings down the upfront cost while still providing some of the benefits of a light rail system.

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We could see networks of these chargers serving electric bus fleets, the Very Light Rail network and even bin lorries!

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W

hen it comes to decarbonising transport, the big prize is modal shift.

Private cars account for 59 per cent of the UK’s climate warming emissions from surface transport. However, buses and trains still rely, to a large extent, on diesel power, and this accounts for a sizeable five per cent of surface transport emissions.

The eyes of governments around the world are on modal shift to public transport – to get commuters and travellers out of their cars and into public transport that is cleaner and greener, especially if it is electrified.

However, electrified railways are not always the cost-effective way to go, especially for rural lines.

That is why the rail industry press has, for the last few years, been filled with articles on hydrogenpowered trains, on trams that use batteries and superconductors, and even on solar power and liquified petroleum gas.

In the West Midlands, the Black Country Innovative Manufacturing Organisation (BCIMO) is building a National Innovation Centre in Dudley to develop Very Light Rail (VLR) transit systems to suit the needs and budgets of the world’s smaller towns, cities and suburbs. A big part of the equation is how to deliver the traction power.

The VLR Innovation Centre in Dudley plans to do this through Opportunity Charging, which involves the rapid, high-power charging of a vehicle’s batteries at the terminus of a very light rail route through an inverted pantograph – the arm extends down and charges the vehicle via connections on the roof.

Opportunity Charging is more established in Europe, and there is a Global OppCharge standard, with four contacts and two parallel bars, to ensure interoperability across vehicles and charging providers.

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Swiss company Furrer+Frey has developed chargers for this system that are already in use in the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Sweden, Spain and Switzerland. They also have deployed chargers in Canada. But, crucially, all of these are only charging buses.

“Supplying electricity direct from the national grid to provide traction power via overhead line electrification is the gold standard for mainline rail and metros,” explained Noel Dolphin, co-author of the Rail Industry Association’s recent ‘Why Rail Electrification’ report and head of UK projects at Furrer+Frey.

“However, there is room for innovation and battery charging for projects like VLR, with short end-to-end journeys. Ultra-rapid charging can support new modes of decarbonised transport.”

World first In April, Furrer+Frey installed its All-in-One Opbrid charging station on the test track in Dudley – the first use of this type of charger in the UK, and a first for light rail in the world.

At 450 kilowatts, the station will charge the VLR vehicle’s on-board batteries in three to five minutes.

As a result of such short periods of downtime, the VLR could offer service frequencies on par with the London Underground during the peak.

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It maximises the time the vehicles are up and running and not in the depot charging, offering a turn-up-and-go service to rival the convenience of the car.

One key benefit of the opportunity-charging system is battery size. Vehicles do not need heavy, expensive batteries, saving up-front cost and creating more room for passengers, but the batteries don’t need to be so small that charging becomes prohibitively frequent. The charger and battery configuration can be matched to the design of the service and schedule.

Indeed, apart from driving the vehicle close to the station, there is very little manual effort involved. The Furrer+Frey overhead pantograph works autonomously. “This required some novel software from our engineers to make sure the station would ‘talk’ to the light rail vehicle,” Noel Dolphin continued. “But it saves the time and effort of having someone plug-in or fill-up the vehicle, which is why this solution should be really attractive to electrify a whole city.

“With the chargers strategically located, we could see networks of these chargers serving electric bus fleets, the very light rail network and even bin lorries!” The more vehicles using each charger, the better the value-for-money.

Increased performance Digitisation is a key part of the efficiency gains provided by opportunity charging, as operators can monitor vehicle and charger performance remotely and even provide data back to the grid, ensuring a reliable electricity supply to the service.

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Image: : John Zammit/Absolute

Ve r y L i g h t R a i l

This can also support passengers by integrating into monitors at the station that also report on wait times, show news and weather information or display advertising. Likewise, the station can support lighting and cameras, becoming a more integrated part of street or station furniture.

The footprint of the charger is particularly small, at 0.72 square metres on a one square metre foundation. It is hoped that this will make it suitable for typical British and European streets, where space is at a premium. Likewise, its relatively compact nature makes it easier for transport authorities or

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operators to move, if they should need to reorganise bus routes or optimise the service.

A fear, of course, is that a system dependent on just the one charger is a vulnerable to failure.

But the system’s “plug and play” power modules have built-in redundancy, along with remote monitoring, which means operators can respond quickly to any incidents.

Made in UK So, does the technology have any potential for heavier rail? A recent white paper in the German Electric Railways publication highlighted its potential to power short branch lines, offering a clean alternative to diesel without the cost associated with OLE (overhead line equipment).

The precedent for this stretches right back to the Battery Electric Multiple Unit (BEMU) train based in Aberdeen in the 1950s – a converted Derby Lightweight EMU from the original British Rail works in the city. This is an industry the VLR project hopes to rejuvenate. The charge station is a critical part of the multi-millionpound project to prove the concept and create green manufacturing jobs to ‘level-up’ the Black Country.

Noel Dolphin is also keen to stress the charger’s ‘made in the UK’ credentials: “The software was made by our team in the UK, and we plan to manufacture future units here in Britain. Even this unit was built with steel from Newport.

“This is the culmination of around 10 year’s work for us and we are delighted to be building on our long history of rail electrification with this new All-in-One (AIO) solution for Very Light Rail.”

Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

Restoring your railway

Restoring Your Railway

Image: Andrew Sassoli-Walker

The infamous Beeching report of 1963 resulted in the closure of 5,000 miles of track and over 2,300 stations. Now, with government backing, that process is being reversed.

A trial run on the Fawley branch.

May 2021

line, were closed within a few years. As a result, many towns lost their rail service, which didn’t seem to matter at the time but is bitterly regretted now as rail is seen as the safest and greenest option for long-distance travel.

In 2013, Network Rail ran a competition for a New Stations Fund, which would provide funding for capital expenditure on brand new or reopened stations for heavy rail services in England and Wales that were promoted by third parties.

“

The car was in the ascendancy, as were buses and lorries, and the days of railways as mass transport were numbered

The competition rules excluded improvements or refurbishment at existing stations, the funding

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of new or reopened lines (even if associated with a ‘New Station’) or the relocation of existing stations.

A cross-industry awards panel met to consider all applications received by the closing date and selected five projects: Pye Corner, Wales – opened 14 December 2014

Reopening stations

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W

hen Dr Richard Beeching published his report ‘The Reshaping of British Railways’ on 27 March 1963, the car was in the ascendancy, as were buses and lorries, and the days of railways as mass transport were numbered.

Dr Beeching, chairman of the British Transport Commission from 1961 until 1963, and also chairman of its successor the British Railways Board from 1963 to 1965, was instructed by Transport Minister Ernest Sharples to prepare his report following the railways sustaining record losses in 1960 of £42 million (£817 million at 2021 value).

He proposed the closure of one-third of the country’s 7,000 railway stations and the withdrawal of passenger services from around 5,000 route miles of the network. 75,000 railway jobs would go.

A second report, issued on 15 February 1965, called for services on only 3,000 miles of the 7,500 miles of trunk railway to be selected for future investment.

Although these proposals were rejected by the then-Labour government, and Beeching left the British Railways Board to return to ICI, nevertheless a large number of stations, branch lines and even long-distance route such as the Great Central main

Newcourt, Exeter – opened 4 June 2015 Lea Bridge, London – opened 16 May 2016 Ilkeston, Derby – opened 2 April 2017 Kenilworth, Warwickshire – opened 30 April 2018.

A further competition in 2016, with the winners announced in 2017, provided funding for a further five stations, three of which have successfully been completed with a further two under construction: Warrington West station, Cheshire – opened 15 December 2019 H orden Peterlee station, County Durham – opened 29 June 2020 Bow Street station, Ceredigion, Wales – opened 14 February 2021 Reading Green Park station, Berkshire Portway Parkway, Bristol. railbusinessdaily.com

Reconnecting Communities Over the last decade, BAM Nuttall has pioneered the reopening of Britain’s lost railways.

With help from our customers and partners, BAM has led the way in reinstating rail services and stations across the country, helping to breathe new life into communities cut off from the UK rail network.

At BAM, we know that the future of Britain’s railways depends on understanding its past to build a sustainable tomorrow.

bamnuttall.co.uk

Restoring your railway

A third competition ran in 2020. On 26 November, the Department for Transport confirmed that three railway stations had been successful in their bids for funding to support their construction, to be completed by April 2024: Edginswell Common, Torquay Thanet Parkway, Kent St Clears , Wales.

Two further railway stations received further funding to develop their proposals: Haxby, York Deeside Parkway, Wales.

Call to reverse Beeching Specifically, he mentioned communities such as Washington, one of the original garden cities and which has a mothballed freight line running through it, Haverhill and Cirencester.

He called for a systematic programme of “reverse Beeching” which could, in his view, “be funded by not proceeding with some of the less justifiable parts of the road programme”.

Meir station

These ‘new’ lines could then be a focus for new housing developments – “They are very liveable places.”

DfT pledged “toThe fund 75 per cent of costs, up to £50,000, of successful proposals to help create a business case

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These New Stations Fund competitions specifically excluded proposals to reopen closed railway lines, even if that proposal should include a new station.

Then, in 2019, Lord Andrew Adonis, former Secretary of State for Transport and also former head of the Infrastructure Commission, called for railway lines that were closed or run down under Beeching to be reopened to serve local communities, and for new settlements to be constructed close to existing or mothballed railway lines.

He concluded: “It’s a new way of envisaging settlements. It’s green, it’s friendly, it doesn’t involve so much destruction. I think it’s the future.”

The government acted, and MPs and local

authorities were invited to bid for a share of a ‘Restoring your Railway’ fund, to help reconnect communities across the country, levelling up opportunities for people in isolated areas by increasing their access to jobs and training.

The total funding of £500 million was to be split into three categories: The Ideas Fund, which sought proposals for projects to restore lost rail connections to communities. This could include: Upgrading a current freight line to include passenger services and restoring stations on it – such as the line to Ebbw Vale in South Wales; Restoring track and services to an old alignment – as was being done between Bicester and Bletchley as part of East West Rail; M odifying an old route due to construction or other unavailability over the original route.

The DfT pledged to fund 75 per cent of costs, up to £50,000, of successful proposals to help fund transport and economic studies and create a business case. Future funding to develop projects would be subject to agreement of the business case.

The second category was Accelerating Existing Proposals, with funding made available to accelerate the development and delivery of schemes that already had existing business cases.

Proposals for new or restored stations, the third category, was combined with the New Station Fund 3 competition being run by Network Rail.

Winning bids Ten winners for Ideas Fund money were announced in May 2020. Interestingly, although the rules for Ideas Fund applications stated that it was for proposals to restore rail services, and not for reopening old stations, two of the ‘winning’

Ilkeston station was reopened in April 2017.

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Restoring your railway

bids for the Ideas Fund were for reopening stations and one included creating a new one!

In November 2020, 15 more schemes were awarded up to £50,000 each to progress their plans. Proposals from MPs and local authorities were considered by an expert panel, including Rail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris and Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy, after 51 bids for funding were received.

To come up with the final list of 15, entries were judged on their ability to deliver real economic benefits and support left-behind communities, with investment targeted at regenerating local economies by: Supporting new house developments; Opening up access to jobs and education; Boosting tourism.

Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps commented: “For towns and villages left isolated and forgotten by Beeching cuts, restoring a rail line or a station has the potential to revitalise a community.

“It breathes new life into our high streets, drives

Mark Hopwood, Sir Peter Hendy and Chris Heaton-Harris about to board a trial run to Fawley investment in businesses and housing, and opens new opportunities for work and education.

“By building back with a real focus on better connections and supporting left-behind communities, we’re delivering our promise to level up this country.”

The third round of the Ideas Fund closed to new bids on 5 March 2021. The winners have not been announced.

The proposals to receive up to £50,000 funding to assist in the development of their proposals are:

Scheme Name

Scheme Region

Ideas Fund Round

To reinstate the passing loop between St Albans Abbey and Watford Junction (Abbey Line)

East

1

To reopen Meir station between Stoke-On-Trent and North Staffordshire

East Midlands

1

To reintroduce passenger services on the Leicester to Burton (Ivanhoe) line

East Midlands

1

Reopened lines and new passenger services, Melton Mowbray - Nottingham

East Midlands

2

Reopened lines and new passenger services, Alfreton - Ashfield (Maid Marian Line)

East Midlands

2

Reopened lines and new passenger services, Stratford Upon Avon - Honeybourne - Worcester/Oxford

West Midlands

2

Reopened lines and new passenger services, Consett-Newcastle

The North East

2

New Station at Ferryhill, Ferryhill - Stockton-on-Tees

The North East

2

To reinstate the Bury-Heywood-Rochdale lines

The North West

1

To reintroduce passenger services between Clitheroe and Hellifield and explore freight options

The North West

1

Enhanced existing passenger services, Preston - Blackpool South

The North West

2

Reopened lines and new passenger services, Bolton-Radcliffe / Bolton-Bury

The North West

2

New station at Beeston Castle and Tarporley, Crewe - Chester

The North West

2

To reinstate branch lines on the Isle of Wight

The South East

1

To introduce passenger services on the Totton-Fawley (Waterside) line

The South East

1

To reopen Wellington and Cullompton stations

The South West

1

To reinstate rail access to Devizes via a new station at Lydeway

The South West

1

New Station at St Anne’s Park, Bristol Temple Meads - Bath Spa

The South West

2

Enhanced existing passenger services, Truro - Falmouth

The South West

2

New Station at Langport and Somerton, Castle Cary - Taunton

The South West

2

Reopened lines and new passenger services, Kemble - Cirencester

The South West

2

Reopened lines and new passenger services, Wareham - Swanage

The South West

2

To reintroduce passenger services on the Barrow Hill line between Sheffield and Chesterfield

Yorkshire and Humberside

1

Reopened lines and new passenger services, Gainsborough - Barton

Yorkshire and Humberside

2

New Station at Waverley, Sheffield - Chesterfield

Yorkshire and Humberside

2

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Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

Innovation

The Railway of the Future RIA’s annual Innovation Conference covered a multitude of topics, from working with academia to alternative fuels and decarbonisation.

isibility of the government’s plans for UK V rail, with the Williams Review, Integrated Rail Plan, the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, and the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline, all needing to be published soon to give rail suppliers the chance to plan for the future; F or the government to commit to RIA’s Rail Decarbonisation 21 ‘asks’ ahead of COP26 in November 2021 – to initiate a rolling programme of electrification and support hydrogen and battery powered trains – enabling the DfT to demonstrate a global leadership role this year.

May 2021

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We must use our technical know-how to develop solutions that are passenger-focused

“

E

very year, the Railway Industry Association holds its Innovation Conference and Exhibition. Forced online this year, RIA still managed to put together a full programme of talks and discussions, as well as inviting sponsors and supporters to present their latest wares in a digital showcase.

Opening the conference, RIA chief executive Darren Caplan said that everyone should be positive about the prospects for rail in the future, as passenger numbers bounce back post coronavirus. He also gently lobbied the Rail Minister – due to speak after him – on two issues:

Rail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris set out some of the upcoming developments that the rail industry could expect to see over the coming months.

Commenting on the Williams Rail Review, he said that it had understandably been delayed by the General Election, Brexit, a pandemic and now local elections.

He said, however that it would be out, along with a number of other key government reports, in “the next few weeks”.

On decarbonisation, the Minister said that the government had big plans for rail and that upcoming policy decisions would make those at the conference “very happy”.

He said he was particularly excited about projects such as the development of hydrogen trains, and that electrification had a significant role to play.

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He also spoke about the role of Rail Project SPEED in reducing costs, the benefits set out in the Rail Technical Strategy and the role of digital signalling projects.

Rail Technical Strategy The first panel discussion focused on the new Rail Technical Strategy (RTS), the joint industry plan to meet the challenges the railway will face over the coming years.

The panel discussed three of the key priorities of the RTS, the first of which was Easy to Use for All. Sharon Odetunde of RSSB highlighted how the industry is working to remove exclusionary barriers for passengers, making rail attractive and services more personalised. Charlene Wallace of Network Rail added that this was a key part of the vision to put passengers first.

Clive Roberts of BCRRE spoke next about the Optimised Train Operations RTS priority, setting out the benefits of more flexible and reliable train timetables. He was joined by Mark FieldingSmith of Atkins, who said that the East Coast Digitalisation Programme was ‘game-changing’, delivering a step change in how the industry collaborates.

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Innovation

The last priority to be explored was Reliable and Easy to Maintain. David Rowe of Network Rail highlighted that the reliability of assets underpins the passenger and freight experience and is crucial for safety on the railways, while David White of HS2 explained how the project was using data more effectively to manage its assets and take a whole systems approach.

Turning data into information

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New rolling stock offers huge opportunities to transform the passenger experience, she said, commenting that the railway needs a ‘continuous improvement’ mindset.

Safe, Simple, and Sustainable Chief technology officer Robert Ampomah was the first of two speakers from Network Rail. He was clear that the rail industry is still doing some archaic things, such as manual train coupling, manual inspections and maintenance. There is a real need to shift to automatic train coupling and “get ourselves out of the dark ages through mechanisation,” he claimed.

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We want to attract all the technology in rail that’s going on to one location

“

Data-driven growth, one of the other key priorities of the RTS, was the topic chosen by Ian Mclaren of GTR, who gave an overview of the DataHub project. “Data needs to be seen as a raw material” he said, explaining how GTR is making its data and apps freely available through the data marketplace.

James Bain of Worldline added that the rail industry needed to focus more on the consumer.

He spoke about the Rail Data Marketplace, on which the industry is working with government, a project aimed at supporting the sharing of data.

The newly appointed President of the Institution of Railway Signalling Engineers, Balfour Beatty’s Ian Bridges, spoke about RCM Squared – using data to deliver predictive maintenance, thereby helping to reduce costs and carbon by requiring less work.

“By collecting more data, such as temperature on site or whether it’s a windy day, we can find out why and when assets need maintenance,” he added. He also highlighted the use of digital twins, particularly as a way of understanding assets better.

Irina Parsina of Microsoft Teams Engineering said that “the industry has been a bit slow” to fully embrace data, digital twins or predictive maintenance, before highlighting the big opportunity these can bring to the sector.

William Wilson of Siemens concluded that having real-time data was increasingly essential, particularly given COVID and the need to reassure passengers, for example by monitoring train load patterns.

Speaking about Eurostar trains, Will said that “the data we extract on a real time basis is more than we can ever process”, so it needs to be provided clearly and accessibly.

“It can reduce the cost of operations,” he added, raising this benefit as one of the most exciting aspects of new and emerging data sources.

Speaking of trains, West Coast Partnership Development’s Caroline Donaldson was very clear about the opportunities to put passenger experience truly at the heart of what the industry does, focusing on comfort, hygiene and ‘at seat’ services.

Robert was followed by his boss, Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines, who gave a very open and honest live interview with RIA technical director David Clarke.

Andrew‘s vision of the railway of the future is the three ‘S’s – Safe, Simple, and Sustainable.

He said that passengers often take safety for granted, which is good, but the industry has to remain vigilant – the tragic single-passenger casualty at Carmont could have been more if not for COVID.

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On the need for simplicity, he observed that the lack of R&D funding and over-fragmentation of the industry have acted as barriers to innovation.

And on sustainability, he stressed that climate change is today’s problem, not something happening tomorrow. As Carmont showed: “We have water management systems that are not ready for the level of rainfall today.”

Procurement and diversity Procurement challenges and workforce diversity were among a broad range of topics addressed during the ‘Innovation for Economic Growth’ session. A six-strong panel tackled the opportunities and obstacles for innovation in the sector as it looks to help the country to ‘build back better’.

Elspeth Finch, chief executive and founder of IAND, cited numerous ways that the UK Government is seeking to encourage innovation, but commented that government procurement remains complex, and innovation is not easy.

Thales’ Rhianne Evans summarised recommendations made in a Northern Rail Industry Leaders (NRIL) publication, ‘Transforming Rail in the North through Innovation’, including embedding procurement and contracting approaches that support and drive innovation.

Lucy Prior, deputy chairman of RIA’s SME group, raised the point that SMEs are very diverse in respect of the activity they undertake, but face numerous challenges, including ensuring “trickle down” of the Rail Technical Strategy.

Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

Innovation

Innovation and research The UK Rail Research and Innovation Network (UKRRIN) was launched three years ago to drive academia-industry collaboration and accelerate new technologies from research into market applications globally.

Professor Simon Iwnicki, director of the Institute of Railway Research at the University of Huddersfield, described the universities involved

May 2021

in UKRRIN as now working significantly more closely with industry. In doing so, research is more “tailored and focused”, he said.

William Powrie, professor of Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Southampton, described how his team has been involved with real-world projects such as learning the lessons of the Great Western electrification, with theoretical analysis and field-tests having led to new Network

“

We need a rolling programme of electrification to avoid another cycle of boom and bust

“

Martin Ertl, vice-president innovation and portfolio management at Knorr-Bremse, tackled the challenge of getting passengers back onto trains – and how to make rail the preferred mode of transport after the pandemic.

“Going forward in rail we must use our technical know-how to develop solutions that are passenger-focused and which drive recovery and growth,” he told the audience.

Describing ‘digital’ as a buzzword, he said that ‘smart’ products and services, for example with ticketing, offered great opportunities for innovators, but passenger benefits need to be clearly and reliably delivered.

In an out-of-this-world conclusion to the second day of the conference, a NASA astronaut was interviewed from his native USA about his remarkable life and what the rail industry could learn from space missions.

Charlie Duke discussed some of the most iconic moments in history during an exclusive chat with compère LJ Rich, conducted in partnership with Harmonic. Duke, now in his 80s, became the tenth person to walk on the moon during the Apollo 16 mission – “the ultimate in remote working”, as Rich put it.

Asked what the rail sector could learn from the Apollo programme, he said that “there’s so much technology out there that you can implement to make it safer”, describing how technology moves forward “leaps and bounds every three or four years”.

Rail codes and standards for pile foundations for electrification.

Clive Roberts, professor of Railway Systems and Director of Railway Research at the University of Birmingham, said his team was developing a “virtual version” of HS2 so that everything could be tested in laboratory settings.

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He also highlighted work with Porterbrook on hydrogen-powered trains that, he said, had influenced policy.

Unipart’s Doncaster Innovation Hub is “already taking calls” from organisations keen to get involved, said Professor Steve Ingleton, engineering director of Unipart Rail. “It’s about bringing industry towards academia and academia towards industry,” he explained. “We want to attract all the technology in rail that’s going on to one location – reflecting its name as a hub.”

Arthur Emyr, the Welsh Government’s major project lead for economy and infrastructure, described how a new Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE) company is being established and by mid-June should have a “fully consented” site, with major earthworks due to get underway in the summer. Emyr reported strong interest in the project, “UK-wide, Europe-wide and globally”.

Richard Jones, business and partnerships manager at the Black Country Innovative Manufacturing Organisation (BCIMO), discussed the development of the Very Light Rail (VLR) national innovation centre in Dudley, where the test track will be available very soon.

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Innovation

The broader project, initially focused on delivering a light-rail system in Coventry, aims to support the manufacture and uptake of lower-cost VLR solutions across the UK. “We are working on building the market and the supply chain,” he said.

Rail decarbonisation According to panellists during the ‘Decarbonising for Green Recovery’ debate, the rail industry needs step up the pace in implementing changes and making investments that can reduce its carbon footprint.

Jaqueline Starr, CEO of the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), said rail was “uniquely positioned” to help the country build back better and greener postCOVID but warned that competitor transport modes were “not standing still”, citing growing investment in electric cars.

Malcom Brown, CEO of Angel Trains and chairman of the Rail Industry Decarbonisation Taskforce, urged the sector to snap out of a cycle of focusing on long-term research and instead adopt a ‘fail fast’ approach to green investments, and said now was the time to move to implementation. There are, he said “real opportunities for UK to become a global leader” in decarbonisation.

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Porterbrook chief executive Mary Grant described her company’s work with ‘hybridisation’ to reduce the emissions of existing trains and its partnership with the University of Birmingham on hydrogen-powered trains, saying the company hoped to “bring a [hydrogen] passenger service onto the main line” by the end of this year.

Garry Keenor, group engineer at Atkins, said that batteries and hydrogen “clearly have a role”

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to play in rail’s decarbonisation but that “for most of the network, electrification is the only option”.

“We need a rolling programme of electrification to avoid another cycle of boom and bust,” Keenor said. “Ultimately we will not decarbonise, and our railways will be more expensive to run, if we do not electrify.”

Which is something that RIA has been saying all along…

Building Britain’s Railways - Major May projects 2021

And Finally

Records broken while rebuilding the Dartmoor line

Image: Network Rail

The first project to gain approval from the ‘Restoring your Railway’ programme is racing to completion in Devon.

The NTM can lay new track at a rate of 400 metres an hour.

Driving investment Economically, the reopening of the railway is expected to attract inward investment to Okehampton and the surrounding areas. It will help boost tourism to the area by providing greater access to the town and nearby attractions including Dartmoor National Park – which is

May 2021

celebrating its 70th anniversary – and the Granite Way cycle route, itself a former railway line.

Working in partnership with Great Western Railway (GWR), Network Rail has been carrying out detailed investigations since the beginning of 2020 to understand what infrastructure and railway control system improvements are needed to bring the line up to the required standards to enable GWR to operate trains safely.

“

We are committed to reopening this important railway line as quickly and safely as possible

“

T

he team rebuilding the Dartmoor line in Devon has set a record, certainly for the Wales and Western route and possibly for the whole of Network Rail, by laying 11 miles of plain track in just four weeks.

The Dartmoor line stretches for 14 miles from Okehampton to Coleford junction, where it joins the existing Tarka line (North Devon line) between Exeter and Barnstaple.

In March, as part of its ‘Restoring your Railway’ initiative, the government confirmed funding worth more than £40 million to restore and reopen the 14-mile long railway which hasn’t carried a regular, daily passenger service for almost 50 years.

The move will greatly improve connectivity for people living between Okehampton and Exeter and the surrounding areas, with journey times on the train estimated to be around 30 per cent quicker than by car or bus.

Of the 14 miles of track, three were found to be in satisfactory condition – the other 11 miles would need to be replaced. So, the team took up the old track and brought in supplies – 24,000 concrete sleepers, which were stockpiled close to Okehampton station, and 29,000 tonnes of ballast.

Next to arrive was Balfour Beatty’s NTC (new track construction) machine. This lays sleepers on prepared bottom ballast, thimbles into place the two continuous welded rails that have already

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been placed along the trackbed, and finally fastens the clips that will hold them into position.

It’s a quick machine, capable of laying 400 metres of finished track every hour. With the railway closed, it could just continue along the line of route, laying track as it went, to achieve the record-breaking total of 11 miles in four weeks.

More to do There is still a lot to do, including upgrading several level crossings, installing new GSM-R masts (the railway’s mobile communications system), undertaking bridge repairs as well as running engineering test trains to check the quality of the newly laid track. However, trains should be running before the end of the year with a two trains per hour service due to commence early in 2022.

Becky Tipper, Network Rail’s scheme project manager, said: “We are delighted with the progress the team has made and this is credit to the hard work and dedication of our engineers involved in this project.

“It has also been really comforting to see such interest and support from the local community.

“We are committed to reopening this important railway line as quickly and safely as possible and look forward to the resumption of regular passenger services in the not-too-distant future.”

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