Rail Director August 2022

August 2022

EXCLUSIVELY FOR RAIL INDUSTRY LEADERS August 2022

Sarah Price Spotlight back on Shildon John Keefe Awakening interest in running more rail freight Helen McAllister Shaping the future of rail freight Mike Roberts ‘All you can eat’ wellbeing

CHRISTIAN IRWIN OBE 24

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Introduction

Two years of celebrating the UK’s railway heroes W

elcome to the latest edition of Rail Director, a very special one for everyone involved with the magazine as this marks our two-year anniversary.

It has already been some journey, from those early conversations about a collective passion for creating a magazine that highlights the individuals and organisations who make the UK railways the fantastic industry it is, to having now arrived at edition 24.

But it is only when you take a moment to reflect that the magnitude of our achievement can be fully appreciated.

Rail Director has published some 300 interviews with the leaders of the rail industry and showcased the products and services of well over 1,000 organisations, giving individuals the recognition they deserve and helping organisations to win work.

It has been a team effort, from design through to sales, marketing to distribution, not forgetting the support from you, the readers. Launching a new publication during a pandemic was always going to be tricky, but your support has repaid our enthusiasm to create a magazine that is a force for good in the industry.

The success so far has thoroughly exceeded our initial expectations.

After that moment of reflection and thanks it is back to business and the latest edition of Rail Director. This month’s cover feature is Christian Irwin OBE, discussing Project SPEED and his recent recognition in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. This new way of working seems to be transforming the way projects are carried out, ensuring schemes are completed more efficiently and with the team and community on board from day one.

There are also exciting developments happening at

Locomotion, so it was great that the museum’s head, Sarah Price, made time to speak about the recent planning permission for New Hall, and her passion to ensure the spotlight is put back on Shildon.

The weather is always a popular topic of conversation, particularly in recent weeks with last month’s heatwave.

It is particularly interesting when it comes to the railways, so I’m pleased to say our managing editor Nigel Wordsworth, a mechanical engineer by trade, explains more about the impact extreme heat can have on our railways. This is just a small taster of what to expect in the pages ahead. Thanks again for all your support with Rail Director, and particularly to the individuals and organisations who have trusted us to tell their story. It is fantastic to hear about the impact that featuring in the magazine is having on so many people – long may that continue.

As always, do get in touch with the team if you have a story to share, or if you’d like to showcase your product or service to the decision makers of the rail industry. Work is already well under way on the September magazine and Rail Business Daily Community has something very special indeed to announce which will help transform and simplify the way businesses leaders navigate and engage our complex Industry. Watch this space!

The success so far has thoroughly exceeded our initial expectations

All the best.

C hri s

Chris Leech MBE Group Managing Director Rail Business Daily

When you have finished reading this issue of Rail Director, please pass it to colleagues to enjoy or put it in your reception area.

Rail Director magazine is part of the Business Daily Group of companies, which includes the hugely popular railbusinessdaily.com. We deliver more than 70 stories a week to +50,000 rail industry professionals who now subscribe to our 7am daily newsletter. Please subscribe and encourage your colleagues and team members to do the same. It’s free and it’s easy: www.railbusinessdaily.com. This is the very best way to keep abreast of what is happening on Britain’s railways. There is a digital copy of Rail Director on our website.

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Rail Director | August 2022 | 3

Contents

Delivering infrastructure quicker 5 and more cost efficiently Christian Irwin OBE talks about Project SPEED and his recent recognition in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list The largest undercover collection 10 of heritage rail vehicles in the world Sarah Price, head of Locomotion, talks about the work going on to put the spotlight back on the world’s first railway town Network Rail launches resilience 14 taskforce to tackle extreme weather Andrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail, says we’ve got to pull out all the stops to make our railway as resilient as possible Challenging the status quo 18 Hitachi Rail’s fleet director Darren Willshire talks about the importance of upskilling and attracting the right people to embrace digital Shaping the future of rail freight 20 Helen McAllister, from the Great British Railways transition team (GBRTT), discusses an important call for evidence to increase the amount of freight moved by rail Buckled rails and saggy wires: 28 High temperatures and the railways Nigel Wordsworth examines the issues heat can cause for the railways, and what experts do to combat the scorching hot weather’s effects News

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Three-year plan reflects commitment 32 to excellence in light rail safety Carl Williams, chief executive of the Light Rail Safety and Standards Board, reveals how a threeyear blueprint for the future of the organisation will drive a sector-wide commitment of excellence and continuous improvement Working together to build a more 38 diverse and inclusive workforce The Railway Industry Association and Women in Rail have launched the first annual report for their joint EDI Charter for Rail

‘All you can eat’ wellbeing 42 Railway Chaplain Mike Roberts is back with his quarterly column. He talks about it being fourth time lucky on a foreign holiday and the key role railway chaplaincy has to play in the wellbeing of staff Going above and beyond to 44 keep the railway and its people safe Freightliner’s shunt driver Bessie Matthews has written and illustrated a book educating children how to behave around the railway. She explains more about her life on the railway and her passion towards safety Awakening interest in 50 running more rail freight John Keefe, director of public affairs at Eurotunnel Le Shuttle, talks about growing services and an optimism for the future

Tel: 0800 046 7320 Sales: 020 7062 6599 Managing Editor Nigel Wordsworth nigel@rbdpublications.com Editor Danny Longhorn danny@railbusinessdaily.com Designer/Production Manager Chris Cassidy Production Editor James Jackaman

Creating the journey to freedom 54 Darren O’Brien, the man behind Rail to Refuge, on his vision to expand the initiative to other forms of transport

Director of Marketing Rachael Dean

Falling short and costing the earth 56 Mike Ward, associate technical director at Arcadis, writes about the importance of looking at the ways energy is used, retained and lost

Advertising Team Christian Wiles – chris@rbdpublications.com Freddie Neal – freddie@rbdpublications.com Amy Hudson – amy@rbdpublications.com Published by RBD Media 15 Mariner Court, Calder Park, Wakefield WF4 3FL Printed by Stephens & George

International News

58

‘Britain’s railways remain safe’ 60 Rail Safety and Standards Board annual report demonstrates positive safety record, despite challenges faced during lockdown Heritage railways launch ‘Love 62 Your Railway’ nationwide campaign More than 70 heritage railways organisations from across the UK have joined forces this summer Movers and Shakers

64

Dorothy makes history 70 HS2 is celebrating the first bore of the one-mile tunnel under Long Itchington Wood

Subscriptions Danielle Burwood

© 2022 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 RailDirector 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.

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Infrastructure

Delivering infrastructure quicker and more cost efficiently Christian Irwin OBE talks about Project SPEED and his recent recognition in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list

C

Ahead of schedule It was a particularly poignant moment for Christian, who oversaw the project which was the first of the government’s Restoring Your Railway initiative. The line was reopened in just under nine months, two years ahead of schedule and more than £10 million under budget.

“It was the most amazing moment in my career so far when the formal timetable went live and we had paying customers who turned up in their thousands,” he said. “There was a brass band playing and children and adults alike with tears in their eyes as the first train rolled into Okehampton.

“I may have shed a few tears myself knowing not just what had been achieved, but the fact the work was going to transform those people’s lives and their opportunities. It was a journey that brought various groups together as one to create something that would have a long-lasting impact.”

The reopening of the link between Okehampton and Exeter has been an instant

Image: Network Rail

hristian Irwin OBE has had some wonderful experiences in 13 years working in the rail industry, but none compare to standing on the platform at Okehampton on 20 November last year.

Network Rail’s then industry programme director for the south west, was there to see regular passenger services return to the Dartmoor line in Devon for the first time in nearly 50 years.

success with more than 4,500 passengers a week more than double the number initially anticipated.

“The revenue predictions are about four times higher than what was predicted when the business case was put together,” he said.

“This hasn’t just proved a vital link to get from Okehampton to Exeter and beyond, but conversely Okehampton and Dartmoor National Park are seeing an increase in visitors with people arriving there by sustainable means, which is phenomenal.”

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Rail Director | August 2022 | 5

Infrastructure

The Restoring Your Railway Fund was launched in January 2020 to reinstate axed local services and restore closed stations, many of which were cut following Dr Beeching’s report on ‘The Reshaping of British Railways’ in 1963.

The Dartmoor Line was a mothballed former freight railway. The line was reopened in just nine months, with 11 miles of new track laid and the installation of 24,000 concrete sleepers and 29,000 tonnes of ballast in an incredible 20-day period. The work was carried out in a prime dormouse habitat.

“It has been a hell of a journey and certainly not an easy process, but it has been a brilliant one,” Christian said. “Firstly, we had to provide confidence to the government to secure the funding during the COVID pandemic before we had even bought the railway.”

“It was a project that we all bought into, not just from the perspective of the impact it would have on Devon, but also knowing the implications would be huge for the UK. Proving this approach could be done affordably would strengthen the argument for the reopening of other lines.”

Using local expertise Christian added: “Much of the work was delivered in-house with local expertise being absolutely critical; putting the right people in the right roles was key, as was ensuring we were picking and choosing the right suppliers to support the reopening. We were also extremely open and honest throughout the entire process about the risks and challenges.

“One of the biggest learning points was going from no project to one that needed 29,000 sleepers and 24,000 tonnes of ballast within two weeks. We took our strategic stock reserve and sleepers, ballast and wagon fleet nationally.

That put pressure on lots of other projects and was a case of dropping a pebble in an already settled pond. It did have ripple effects which we’ve tried to capture when looking at the lessons learned.

From the outset, Christian was keen to ensure this wasn’t a Network Rail, Great Western Railway or Devon County Council scheme, but a community-led one to reconnect the railway with all parties coming together as a partnership under the one name the ‘Dartmoor Line’.

“The rail industry, local authorities and the community were all under one badge, speaking with one voice, with the community on the journey with us,” he said.

“Together we told the story about the importance of the improvements to the rail link and its impact on a local and regional level.

“It was about more than just the railway; it was about wider transport connectivity as alongside the reopening of the line the bus service was fully reinstated – meeting every single train of the two-hourly service – funded

by Devon County Council and launched on

Order of the British Empire Christian was recently recognised for his services to the rail industry, particularly for his role on the Dartmoor Line project. In June, he received an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, which he says recognises not just his work, but everyone who played a part in the project’s completion.

He said: “We worked together in a seamless partnership between the rail industry, local authorities and the local community as one Dartmoor Line team. This is a true testament of what can be achieved and the benefit that rail can provide when local partners work together with a common goal.

Image: Network Rail

It has been a hell of a journey and certainly not an easy process, but it has been a brilliant one

the same day we reinstated the rail services.

Okehampton Station has become a transport hub with car, pedestrian, bicycle, train and bus provision all coming together.

“We played to everyone’s strengths. For example, the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership led on all the production of the website, Great Western Railway led on all the marketing and driver training, Network Rail led on the infrastructure and Devon County Council led on all the highway preparation works to get to and from the stations (Crediton and Okehampton).

“We worked hard to ensure the project had everyone’s buy-in before we started the work.

Where projects often go wrong is that they get to a certain point in time and realise they have barriers such as political issues that they’ve got to resolve that become blockers. We got this right up front which meant we could design once and build once. That is where we made significant savings in terms of efficiency.”

6 | Rail Director | August 2022

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Infrastructure

“We had to replace bridges, lay 11 miles of new track, install a new telecoms system, restore the station, and build a new car park; this wasn’t just a bit of tinkering around the edges, this was a phenomenal amount of infrastructure in a very short space of time and in that nine months we also had to negotiate and buy the railway and train all of our operational staff and drivers.

“I am incredibly humbled to have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list, and I am determined to ensure the learning from the Dartmoor Line can be repeated time and time again.”

The scheme was completed using Project SPEED (Swift, Pragmatic and Efficient Enhancement Delivery), which was jointly developed by the Department for Transport (DfT) and Network Rail in 2020 to halve the time and significantly reduce the costs of delivering rail infrastructure projects.

The Dartmoor Line was one of six initial infrastructure projects of differing scale and stages of development (which then increased to 28 projects). All six programmes developed proposals to reduce timescales and cost, and then defended their proposals through peer reviews and challenge panels.

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“For those 28 we have committed to, over the lifespan of those projects we expect to achieve more than 633 months of time savings and more than £3 billion of cost savings,” said Christian.

We need to be making decisions that are right for that part of the railway rather than just reverting to a conventional standard approach “Those aren’t savings definitely banked at the moment, but they are forecast of what we’re not going to spend that we would have spent had it not been for Project SPEED. “If that is 28 projects just think of the scaling up we can do if we can roll this out to all of our enhancement and renewal projects; the time and cost efficiencies are going to be phenomenal if we can make this work.

“Important in achieving this is ensuring the regions and centre working as one and making

sure we have a culture in which people are willing to challenge and to make empowered risk-based decisions rather than just decisions solely based on what something in a standard tells you to do.

“We need to empower engineers to be engineers, project managers to be project managers, making balanced decisions that are right for the railway. That shall not be at the compromise of safety, but we need to be making decisions that are right for that part of the railway rather than just reverting to a conventional standard approach.”

New ideas That is what Christian is hoping to drive in his new role as Rail Investment Centre of Excellence director at Network Rail, which he started in March. The centre was announced last year to act as a hub for its devolved regional business and its wider network functions, bringing an increased focus on efficient delivery of major projects and investment.

“I’m enjoying the new role, which is a brilliant opportunity to be an industry leader and help transform how we are going to deliver rail projects differently,” he said.

Rail Director | August 2022 | 7

“I’m working with the DfT, our five NR regions, their investment and capital delivery directors and their teams to support the successful delivery of rail investment projects in the UK. With me being in the centre, my job is to share the learning across the regions, champion best practice and support the unlocking of barriers that enable efficient project delivery.

“I’m not accountable for delivery but for working in partnership with the regions in what we call a power of six model, with the centre and the five regions working as one. It is about how we transform the approach in terms of how we deliver rail and drive this cultural change.”

Several teams from Network Rail’s System Operator, Network Services and the Open for Business programme have moved over to the Rail Investment Centre of Excellence in its new format including the portfolio services team, delivering work within possession team and the value for money and contestability teams.

The mission of the Rail Investment Centre of Excellence is to: anage knowledge – to create a world-class M knowledge-sharing culture; Provide confidence – to create a collaborative industry risk and assurance capability; D evelop people – to develop industry

leadership in investment project capability for now and the future; M anage and improve current ways of

working – to provide best-in-class tools and ways of working to meet the diverse needs of the investment portfolio; Portfolio management – to maintain

oversight of a single version of the truth on funding and outcomes for enhancements as a competent partner for government.

The Rail Investment Centre of Excellence supports all aspects of management throughout the investment lifecycle and delivery of major projects, by working closely with Network Rail’s five devolved regional businesses, as well as supporting traditional operations, maintenance and renewals (OMR) activities.

“We need to make sure everyone is on board the journey to understand the reasons behind a project and its outcome, said Christian, who initially joined Network Rail as a project management graduate in 2009.

“Understanding the primary outcomes of each project, enables us to develop a minimum viable product, you can then work on the most cost-efficient way of getting to that outcome.

That is how we are going to drive efficiency and drive down those costs.

8 | Rail Director | August 2022

Image: Network Rail

Infrastructure

We’ve got to create a controlled environment where it is safe to break the mould “If we can save half a million pounds on every one of these schemes just think how much you can reinvest in the network to help get passengers back on the trains. The more we can drive this process the more we can reinvest back in the network.

“Progress is being made. Even three years ago decision making within projects was harder because the delivery of projects was separate from our routes. Our putting passengers first programme has devolved Network Rail into five regions of which project delivery is now embedded and with Great British Railways bringing track and train closer together, this will allow the right decisions for the industry and passengers to be made.”

It has already been a successful industry for Christian, with the OBE the cherry on the cake, although he is adamant this is just the start of the impact he can have on the railway. The first project he was responsible for delivering was the Salisbury to Exeter resignalling in 2012, which was completed under budget and in record timescales.

“The key to what I’ve achieved so far has been through building really strong relationships and in learning the trade and understanding that when things go wrong, you learn from them and when things go right you remember them,” he said.

“The priority for me now is Project SPEED and in changing the mindset of the industry when it comes to rail infrastructure projects.

“The only way we’re going to succeed is to enshrine that way of working in the way we do things, but also that complete cultural change in the way we address our projects.

“We have to get away from this approach of following every standard and process to the letter, making sure we are 100 per cent compliant at all times, otherwise we’re never going to have an affordable railway. We’ve got to create a controlled environment where it is safe to break the mould.”

Innovation and efficiency As part of the continued rollout of Project SPEED, Christian concludes the conversation with a challenge to the supply chain to let Network Rail know of any changes it can make to improve efficiency and drive innovation.

“Although Network Rail and the DfT is a significant part of the railway we’re not the only part and to ensure the success of Project SPEED we need to bring everyone on the journey with us, from train and freight operators through to suppliers and rail community partnerships,” he said.

“People need to challenge Network Rail.

Where are the supply chain seeing inefficiencies in delivering projects, what are the decisions Network Rail is making that is driving costs and time in those programmes and where are the opportunities for innovation that is going to drive these costs down?

“We need to unlock that voice, unlock that challenge to allow the supply chain to flourish and that is one of the approaches we need to take. My ask is that the rail industry listens, learns and gets on board with us, but they also join in and challenge and help promote this healthy debate about how do we get that, how do we be bold and how do we be ambitious.” railbusinessdaily.com

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Advice for Railway Companies – monthly feature by Jobson James Rail – The Rail Broker

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hen any business buys a product, there may or may not be formal terms and conditions attached to the transaction. If no formal purchase and sale terms have been agreed, then rights of the buyer to sue the supplier for defective product revert to the rights set out in common law, legislation and any product warranty provided.

If there are formal terms agreed when the purchase is made, then these are usually terms of sale from the seller/supplier. Larger buyers, however, often override these and impose their own terms of purchase for goods and services on the suppliers. There are insurance implications relating to the purchase of goods and services, and it is important that buyers are aware of these.

Richard Allen, Dip CII, NEBOSH

When purchasing any product that could cause damage or injury to a person if it is defective, then we strongly recommend that the buyer checks that that the supplier has a reasonable level of product liability insurance – typically minimum £5 million or higher, depending on the environment where the product is installed.

If the product is specifically

classified as being safety critical, then it is important to ensure that the supplier has cover, within the product liability, for the efficacy risk, which is the risk of the product failing to perform to its intended function and thus causing damage/injury.

Cheap product liability insurance often has such an efficacy exclusion, so it is important to check.

Also, the buyer’s own product liability insurance is likely to contain a ‘rights of recourse’ condition.

This allows insurers to avoid paying claims if the buyer has accepted supplier terms of sale that limit the supplier’s liability for claims arising from supply of defective products, thereby

limiting the buyer’s own insurers from recouping losses paid.

The buyer should certainly beware of language in the supplier’s terms that mentions the supplier is held harmless of any claims arising or there is a subrogation waiver in the supplier’s favour.

Product liability insurance pays for the third-party injury/damage claim but does not pay for recall or replacement of the defective product. A good insurance broker should be advising its client of these contractual dangers, so the buyer can implement the necessary contractual checks.

Richard Allen, Dip CII, NEBOSH Client Director at Jobson James Rail.

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Rail Director | August 2022 | 9

Heritage

The largest undercover collection of heritage rail vehicles in the world

Head of Locomotion, Sarah Price with record-breaking HST power car no. 43102

I

t was nearly 200 years ago that the eyes of the world were on the County Durham town of Shildon when a small steam locomotive coupled up to a train; it was the first steam-hauled passenger train on a public railway.

As the bicentenary approaches, Sarah Price is passionate to ensure the spotlight will again be on Shildon, an ambition strengthened by the news that the town’s railway museum, Locomotion, has received planning permission for a new exhibition building.

‘New Hall’, a major part of the museum’s Vision 2025 initiative, will house up to 50 additional vehicles from the national collection meaning Locomotion will be home to the largest undercover collection of heritage rail vehicles in the world.

10 | Rail Director | August 2022

We can build all our learning and our engagement programme around the work, particularly with the young people in the area “Nearly 200 years ago people looked to Shildon to find out how railways could change the world; this new building will help us to continue this tradition, telling the story of the industry past and present, rejuvenating the town,

Image: National Railway Museum

Sarah Price, head of Locomotion, talks about the work going on to put the spotlight back on the world’s first railway town

and inspiring the next generation to aspire to work in the railway industry,” said Sarah, head of Locomotion.

“The people of Shildon have always been really proud of the railway history and the story we are able to tell at Locomotion, and our Vision 2025 project ensures we can create even greater opportunities that will not just change the area, but its people’s lives for the better.

“We want to work with the people in the town to ensure Locomotion is a hub that will attract people to the area, drawn by its rich heritage when it comes to the railways.”

It certainly has a strong platform to build on. As well as the world’s first railway town, and the workplace of railway pioneer Timothy Hackworth, Locomotion itself attracts on average 200,000 visitors a year. railbusinessdaily.com

Heritage

Opportunities Sarah added: “But this project is not just about this amazing building, it is also what it allows us to do that is particularly exciting for me; an opportunity to tell the strong story of the railways in this region, going right back to 1825, but not just saying that it is all in the past. The railway is a really important industry in this region now, with Hitachi just down the line in Newton Aycliffe. Once complete, we’ll be able to tell this story and put Shildon, Durham and the North East at the centre of that story for the first time since we opened in 2004.”

Image: National Railway Museum

The museum’s team hope to increase that by 50,000 people through its improvements. At the heart of that is a new building called ‘New Hall’, situated on the former Ashfields site, which is hoped to be open in autumn 2023, in time to host part of the celebrations for the 100th birthday of the Flying Scotsman.

“This new building, which is 2,000 square metres, will accommodate about 50 more vehicles from the National Collection so in total across the two buildings and at the historic site we will have more than 100 vehicles that people will be able to see,” said Sarah, who says they aim to be breaking ground on the work at the beginning of November.

60103 arrives at Locomotion – July 9 2018

Engaging its audience in new ways is particularly important to Sarah, who hopes the museum can play a part in inspiring the next generation of engineers and scientists.

“We can build all our learning and our

engagement programme around the work, particularly with the young people in the area, highlighting that the rail industry is vibrant and exciting, and a career to be considered,” said Sarah.

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“A priority is encouraging greater partnership work in the community, trying to work more with volunteers and continue to grow our work with young people. We’ve been piloting a project and this summer young people are going to be involved in restoring the last MerryGo-Round wagon that was produced at Shildon and getting it ready to be put on display.

“That is the direction we are moving into, one about participation, partnership working, to tell these inspiring stories and to be inspirational to the next generation of railway workers.”

Alongside the new building, wider improvements and redevelopments are also being carried out, with work having already taken place on the historic railway buildings that Locomotion maintains.

World’s first iron bridge One area of particular excitement for the team and the locals will be the arrival of Gaunless Bridge, which is being moved from the National Railway Museum in York to Shildon. It was designed by George Stephenson and is believed to be the first iron railway bridge in the world.

“Shildon was the world’s largest wagon works and world’s largest siding, so to be able to use those big superlatives again in reference to the world’s largest undercover collection of heritage rail vehicles and world’s first iron railway bridge is really important,” said Sarah.

“In terms of Gaunless Bridge we are bringing it back a few miles away from where it all began.

It will be really prominently displayed, and it is going to be the bridge between the existing building and the new building.

Proposed view of Locomotion – AOC Architecture with J&L Gibbons landscape

“We’ll be able to light it up, talk about the engineering principles behind it, and explain why it is so important. We’re really looking forward to that coming back in time for the opening of New Hall and our local stakeholders were overjoyed when we made that announcement.”

For Sarah, her journey with Locomotion began in August 2018, less than a year after the museum moved into the management of the Science Museum Group (SMG). She joined from Durham University, where she was head of engagement and learning.

“Initially I was attracted by the difference that could be made,” she said. “Locomotion was at a really interesting point in its history, had just come into SMG and was going in an interesting direction.

Image: National Railway Museum

Heritage

“Since joining it has all been about being involved in the excitement of the modern rail industry as much as the history of the rail industry, inspiring futures. It is an honour and privilege to be here, particularly at this exciting moment in its history. Two hundred years ago the eyes of the world were on Shildon because the future was happening here, and I want the same to happen in 2025 and beyond, looking to Locomotion to the past, but also to the future of the rail industry.

“What the team is doing here can help with the rejuvenation of the town, restoring the pride that everyone should feel. That is a real honour and privilege to be able to play a part in that; a once-in-a-generation opportunity to be leading that vision forward and putting Shildon back on the map.”

Image: National Railway Museum

Locomotion at Shildon – inside exisiting hall

12 | Rail Director | August 2022

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Heritage

Exciting plans Councillor Elizabeth Scott, the council’s cabinet member for economy and partnerships, said: “We are delighted to see Locomotion broadening its already impressive visitor offer with the plans for New Hall.

“This expansion of the museum celebrates County Durham’s role as the cradle of the global railway industry and will result in significant economic benefits across our communities through increased tourism and visitor spending.

It will also complement the work that our successful bid for levelling up funding is helping make possible elsewhere on the site.

“We look forward to New Hall being at the heart of the exciting celebrations planned to mark 200 years of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 2025.”

A tender process is currently ongoing to appoint a construction company to build New Hall, and

Image: National Railway Museum

As well as New Hall and the restoration work, further stabilisation and repointing work is taking place on the Coal Drops with funds received from Durham County Council’s £20 million levelling up fund bid for the Bishop Auckland constituency.

Locomotion at Shildon

once appointed, they will work with building designers AOC Architecture and J+L Gibbons Landscape Architects to deliver the project.

Work on New Hall is due to start in November and is expected to take around a year to complete.

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Rail Director | August 2022 | 13

Infrastructure

Network Rail launches resilience taskforce to tackle extreme weather Andrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail, says we’ve got to pull out all the stops to make our railway as resilient as possible

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new taskforce led by independent experts has been commissioned to investigate and make recommendations on how the railway can develop its approach to resilience during hot weather, following last month’s unprecedented heatwave.

Network Rail says the review will consider four key areas – three of these will focus on gathering insights from other countries and making comparisons with international rail networks that are more used to dealing with extreme heat and fluctuations in temperature.

Andrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail, said: “The weather we experienced in July put a huge amount of pressure on our infrastructure, our staff and our passengers, and with extreme weather events becoming more frequent as our climate continues to change, 14 | Rail Director | August 2022

The weather we experienced in July put a huge amount of pressure on our infrastructure we’ve got to pull out all the stops to make our railway as resilient as possible.

“That’s why I’ve decided to commission this taskforce, spearheaded by leading global

experts, whose considerable experience in their fields both in the UK and across the world will arm us with the guidance we need to make our railway resilient in the face of climate change for generations to come.”

The experts Dame Julia Slingo FRS, former chief scientist at the Met Office and a world-renowned expert in climatology, will examine the likelihood of more frequent extreme hot weather events in the UK and how high-quality, detailed and timely weather forecasting can be maximised

by Network Rail to mitigate the impact of heat on its infrastructure. Dame Julia recently led a weather action task force focused on equipping Network Rail with a better understanding of the risk of rainfall to its infrastructure. railbusinessdaily.com

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Infrastructure

Sir Douglas Oakervee will draw on his 60 years of experience in engineering to investigate options to ensure the railway infrastructure can continue to function safely and reliably during very hot weather. This work will particularly focus on the performance of track and overhead line equipment as they are the two most common causes of delays and disruption in hot weather.

Sir Douglas has served as chair of Crossrail and HS2 and is a former president of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Extreme heat Simon Lane, former managing director and CEO of railways in Melbourne and New South Wales respectively, will explore operational standards, policies and practices that could allow services to continue to operate safely and without highly limiting speed restrictions in extreme heat. Simon, who has experience in leadership roles in the UK and Singapore, has particular knowledge from his work in Australia not only of the challenges railways face in very high temperatures but also the challenge of running railways in a climate where there is a wide variation between the highest and coldest temperatures. He previously led a review for the government of Victoria following a period of extreme weather in 2009.

Anthony Smith, chief executive of the independent transport watchdog Transport Focus, will examine how Network Rail communicates with passengers in the run-up to and during periods of extreme weather, as well as in its planning for disruptive events. Anthony has more than 20 years’ experience leading Transport Focus as

16 | Rail Director | August 2022

As our climate continues to change, we’ve got to pull out all the stops to make our railway as resilient as possible it took on representing bus and road users as well as rail passengers. He has contributed to recommendations to the rail industry and the government on how the pandemic affected rail

passengers and the Williams-Shapps rail reform white paper, among other topics.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “Since I became Transport Secretary, a key priority of mine has been ensuring our infrastructure is resilient enough to deal with extreme weather conditions and this government has invested billions of pounds to do just that.

“However, the pressure the recent heat put on our railway shows, despite this progress, there is still some way to go.

“The taskforce we have announced, made up of leading experts from around the world, will provide us with the knowledge and experience to bolster our railway and ensure it’s robust enough to last – whatever the weather.”

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Innovation

Challenging the status quo

Hitachi Rail’s fleet director Darren Willshire talks about the importance of upskilling and attracting the right people to embrace digital

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he virtual world and the physical world are now merging and the lines between them are becoming blurred because of the development of artificial intelligence, internet of things and cloud technology.

“Real time actionable information through data is providing those operational insights, increasing the flexibility and the speed of the response in making the decisions which are so fundamental to our future success,” said Hitachi Rail’s fleet director Darren Willshire.

His comments come as the Great Western Railway (GWR) and Hitachi Rail announce the installation of its cutting-edge live monitoring solution across Great Western Railway’s highspeed fleet of 93 intercity trains, described as a world-first for digital maintenance.

Increased availability This is the first time Hitachi’s ‘Perpetuum Onboard’ wireless technology has monitored the full suite of wheelset and bogie parts on highspeed passenger trains, which is expected to boost fleet availability by more than 100 days per year.

“We have seen rapid growth in the last few years from one depot, 29 trains and 150 people in the south east in Ashford to where we are today, which is 13 facilities across the whole country, 286 trains going into service every day and more than 1,400 maintenance staff,” he said.

“Despite the fantastic and historic reliable figures our trains are posting regularly, growing our maintenance operations and maintaining high levels of train availability does create challenges. However, we plan to overcome these through our digital maintenance strategy.

“We are reinvesting some of our savings into train presentation and making sure the customer experience is enhanced, which is particularly important now with the landscape changing and people using the railway in a different way. We need to adapt and to meet those needs.”

Speaking at the Rolling Stock Maintenance and Depot Optimisation Europe 2022 event, Darren highlighted some of the outdated working practices, explaining that some maintenance work is no longer conducive to maintaining modern rolling stock.

“Across the industry, we’ve got too many trains stopped on maintenance, too much of the time. That’s not value for money,” he said.

“I want technology to tell me when there is an

intervention needed for the train. We’ve got to get to a place where we’re optimising the maintenance, so current or future rolling stock levels can provide the same or more services.”

A key to Hitachi’s focus on innovation is working to develop all aspects of passenger journeys, from start to finish, through its Smart Mobility commitment. Through digital innovation, different aspects of a person’s journey – from ticketing to train control – can be connected to better manage and optimise the whole journey.

“We need digital twins, sensors and analytics that provide the data, to solve complex train performance issues. The right application of data can do this,” said Darren, who joined Hitachi Rail nearly six years ago.

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Innovation

“Real-time data enables pre-emptive maintenance. This simultaneously reduces delays and costs, integrating data into our day-to-day planning is already positively impacting our maintenance flow. Technology is undoubtedly a catalyst, but it is all about our people and making sure we digitally upskill our workforce to enable all of this going forward.”

The government estimates that the rail industry needs to recruit another 120,000 people over the next 10 years, who Darren says need to be digitally skilled and tech savvy.

“Historically, the digital career pathway has been less obvious in rail. This has probably resulted in an underinvestment in digital training and recruitment. Conversely, attracting and engaging digital talent has been difficult. Excess bureaucracy or low ambition to innovation is a barrier to recruiting digital natives. It is a challenge we need to address,” he said.

“Attracting new digital natives to the rail industry is just one element. We’ve also got to upskill the current workforce that we’ve got. One way Hitachi Rail is doing this is by pairing our digitally adept new recruits with our operational staff. We are pushing forward with a cultural change programme and getting people involved with what we are doing; we’re rewarding people who will dare to innovate and challenge the status quo. It is operations people who will solve operational problems, so together they’re working and coming up with solutions to how we do things differently in the future.”

Doing more with less Hitachi Rail is already reaping the benefits from making digital a priority. Darren says that it has increased efficiency and its deployed productivity is clear in a world where we have to do more, with less.

“We can then reinvest some of the people who are doing maybe unnecessary maintenance that no longer needs to be done into other areas, such as train presentation solving customer problems or adding greater value for our customers,” he said.

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If you’ve got more trains available more of the time, it’s easier to manage existing or future rolling stock levels “If we’re doing less maintenance less often, we’ve got reduced downtime and those trains are available to service more often. If you’re reinvesting people you can clear your backlog, clear restriction and your reliability becomes better.

“If you’ve got more trains available more of the time, it’s easier to manage existing or future rolling stock levels. Doing so will save the entire industry money across maintenance and leasing.”

Hitachi Rail says there’s been a 37 per cent decrease in planned maintenance, the organisation has seen efficiencies in the depot

increase to 47 per cent (which has led to more time being spent on train presentation), and there has been a 26 per cent reduction in its backlogs.

Darren said: “People pay a lot of money for their train tickets so it is not acceptable to send trains out where the catering is not working, toilets out of use, or the generator unit is not working correctly. Our digital maintenance offer – wireless monitoring, digital twin, optimised planning – is delivering a total of 491 extra availability days for GWR. Across GWR’s intercity fleet of 93 trains, digital maintenance provides about three extra trains available for passenger service every day. These extra trains would previously not be available if we were applying traditional maintenance regimes.

“This is just the start of the journey and we will continue moving forward investing in technology and integrating it so we get that real-time data to make those timely decisions. At the same time we will work to attract that digital talent and upskill our current workforce.”

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Rail Director | August 2022 | 19

Infrastructure

Shaping the future of rail freight Helen McAllister, from the Great British Railways transition team (GBRTT), discusses an important call for evidence to increase the amount of freight moved by rail

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he new guiding mind for the railway is asking industry and other experts just how much freight they think could and should be carried by rail in the future.

The consultation from GBRTT, which runs until the end of September, is aiming to see just how much freight should be moved by rail, including transferral from the roads.

Modelling suggests that a trebling is needed to reach our net zero targets as a country by 2050. A new growth target will attract more organisations to turn to the track and to create a greener freight network as we strive towards net zero.

It is hoped the growth target will act as a catalyst for investment in the rail freight sector by setting a clear government ambition for growth, highlighting its role and giving confidence to the sector’s customers and investors.

A call for evidence To ensure the full potential is achieved and any current limitations can be overcome, the future guiding mind for Britain’s railways has launched a 12-week call for evidence, which closes on 27 September.

“This call for evidence will help us understand how much of the current and future demand for freight could be met by rail, how we can make it even more efficient and sustainable and how we can connect to new customers,” said Helen McAllister, programme director (freight reform) at GBRTT. “It would be quite easy to carry along as we are at the moment slightly more efficiently and with smoother interfaces, but that would be a real missed opportunity at a time when the government has got a real focus in growing it, and with an increasing appetite in people looking to rail freight.”

GBRTT wants views and ideas from the widest possible range of stakeholders within and beyond rail and logistics on how to expand rail freight.

It is currently estimated that rail freight accounts for just 10 per cent of surface freight but delivers social and economic benefits worth £2.5 billion to the UK each year.

In the statistics released by GBRTT, more than 60 per cent of these benefits are realised in former industrial heartlands.

20 | Rail Director | August 2022

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Infrastructure

Rail freight trains also generate about 76 per cent less carbon emissions compared to HGVs per tonne of goods transported.

“There has been a real step change in the focus on rail freight over the past few years,” said Helen. “Whether that’s been its performance through COVID in keeping goods moving, because of Brexit or the HGV driver crisis, rail has been a reliable alternative.

“People outside the traditional rail freight audience are taking notice and with the reduction in passenger trains, freight has risen to the surface and shone through. It has been noticed and has allowed us to land some of the arguments that people within the sector would say have been widely known for a long time.

It is good for the economy, good for net zero carbon ambitions, good for levelling up “It is good for the economy, good for net zero carbon ambitions, good for levelling up, it is all the stats you can roll out, but the past few years have really given it a chance to shine.”

If rail freight volumes treble by 2050, which modelling indicates could be required to meet

the net zero targets, then there would be an estimated 14 million fewer road lorry movements a year than today.

Helen said: “The call for evidence enables us to go out to the people who are familiar with rail freight to find out what we can do better and what increase in business we could expect from the changes. But we also want to hear from organisations that don’t use rail freight looking at why they don’t and what can be done to change that.

“We have traditionally been a very passengerfocused sector, which although not necessarily wrong, has meant that decisions on the use of capacity have been skewed in that direction, so one of the boundaries we can break down is by using analysis to inform decisions on the use of capacity.”

New opportunities She added: “Rail freight has also been a very incremental sector, whereas now we have the opportunity to break that down and to look at where we put rail freight and strategic rail freight interchanges, which could open up new markets, but also the opportunity of the light logistics market.

“The barriers to entry for using rail are also complicated; it is a lot simpler to shift goods on a lorry. Rail you need to involve the operators, other sectors that bring you together, and then you have to worry about whether the paths are there and engineering works, which could increase the distance.

“We are not easy and that is before we take into account the current mismatch in charges between trying to use the railway and trying to use the road.

railbusinessdaily.com

Rail Director | August 2022 | 21

Infrastructure

“The government’s Mode Shift Revenue Support is a great incentive, but we need to make sure it is more broadly understood, and we also need to look at what the barriers to entry are in making it easier for them to make a commercial decision to use rail.”

GBRTT has been set up to establish the new public rail body Great British Railways (GBR).

One of the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail core commitments is that the government will set a rail freight growth target. The call for evidence will be used to inform this, with the target complementing existing and future targets set by Scottish Ministers in Scotland and magnifying the impact of rail freight growth nationwide.

A time for freight Helen said: The Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail has highlighted that rail freight is a good thing and needs more of a focus in the new world.

The creation of GBR gives us a huge amount of opportunity to do things better for freight.

“It’s now no longer just nice words in the plan for rail, but it is a stated government objective to look at how we can grow rail freight. We can have our own views, but a market-informed view is better and it also gives us the evidence to inform a range of options that we can put before the Secretary of State depending on the level of commitment to this over the next 50 years.

“There will be infrastructure options that can help rail freight grow, but there will also be smaller scale enhancements that can be done that do not necessarily need substantial injections of cash.

“This could include additional links into different freight sites, sequential gauge clearance, using the capacity on the network, or

22 | Rail Director | August 2022

benefits from projects that are in existence at the moment like the implementation of the European Train Control System and electrification.

I would encourage as many people as possible to get involved with the call for evidence “There will be a range of options, but it is vital that the widest possible range of stakeholders feed into that through the call for evidence.”

The call for evidence will help GBRTT to understand the realistic volume of goods that can be transferred to rail; where the potential for

future rail freight traffic exists; and where new rail terminals could be needed.

It builds on the Department for Transport and Industry’s joint Future of Freight long-term plan, published in early June. The plan highlighted the role rail freight and mode shift plays in enabling an efficient, resilient, reliable, and sustainable freight and logistics sector.

An integrated plan for rail Both documents recognise and promote the need for rail to be part of an integrated, multimodal logistics system, with the call for evidence described as a pivotal next step in achieving mode shift ambitions.

“We need to look at how to make it more commercially viable to a broader range of organisations,” said Helen. “The biggest thing that rail freight can do for the decarbonisation agenda is to take freight off the roads, even if it is onto diesel trains.

railbusinessdaily.com

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Infrastructure

“That is going to be the case for several years as there isn’t a ready-made HGV decarbonised solution out there waiting to be implemented.

There is at least a decade in which rail will be out and out the best carbon value for moving freight.

“I would encourage as many people as possible to get involved with the call for evidence.

Once the evidence comes into us, we will go through it with a fine-tooth comb, using it along with long-term forecasting refresh work to inform a range of options that we put before the Secretary of State.”

For Helen, her high-profile role at GBRTT is the latest in a successful career in the railways.

She has worked for Network Rail in various strategic planning and project management roles for nearly 18 years. She joined GBRTT in February from her role as strategy and planning director at Network Rail.

24 | Rail Director | August 2022

The creation of GBR gives us a huge amount of opportunity to do things better for freight “It’s really exciting to be involved in GBRTT, particularly at this stage where all the potential is there, and it is now a case of making sure we capture it,” she said. “I joined the industry a couple of years after Network Rail had been established and for all that time people across the industry have been saying it is not quite working as well as it could.

“We’ve got an opportunity as an industry,

and collectively as an industry, to make the changes that we think need to happen. The government has gone ‘here’s the WilliamsShapps Plan for Rail, there’s primary legislation, there’s secondary legislation, there’s various commissions, you are bringing track and train together, we will do those contracts differently, what should it look like? You tell us’.

“We’re at the stage of the journey where there is so much potential to get it right and so much opportunity and that is hugely exciting, particularly when it comes to rail freight.

Freight in rail doesn’t deliver for the railway, it delivers for the country, and to make it a huge success we need as many people as possible to give their opinions.”

Visit gbrtt.co.uk/rail-freight-growthtarget/ for more details.

railbusinessdaily.com

I n d u s t r y S pFoetal ti g uh r et

Expertise in integration and turnkey solutions to process and design Nerdeep Mann, the managing director of Encompass Engineering, talks about future expansion and delivering high-quality engineering services

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ncompass Engineering Solutions Ltd is entering an exciting new chapter, one of ambition and growth, but one which will remain true to the original value of delivering quality engineering services.

The new era is being led by recently appointed managing director Nerdeep Mann, giving further strength and commitment to deliver quality rolling stock engineering, assurance services, systems integration, project management and consultancy.

“I am excited about the role of managing director, particularly looking at the opportunities still to be had in the UK, but also to further our work abroad, with aspirations to expand into North America and Canada,” said Nerdeep.

“Encompass Engineering has built a fantastic reputation providing clients with the highest levels of expertise, delivering specialist engineering services in electrical and mechanical engineering, engineering assurance and integration.

“Alstom, Greater Anglia, Stadler and South Western Railway are just a few of our high-profile clients that keep coming back to us because of the quality of the service we provide. For me, it is about keeping our current partners happy, but also expanding our work.”

A wealth of experience Nerdeep brings 16 years of experience working in the rail industry and a further 10 years in management roles within the manufacturing industry. During that time, he’s managed diverse teams of varying abilities and sizes to deliver new rolling stock projects, rolling stock refurbishment and modification projects, and is an expert in enhanced manufacturing techniques and processes.

Nerdeep leads a company that is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. Having worked on the likes of ‘S’ stock for London Underground, Wood Lane underground station new build, White City underground sidings, Class 66 DB Cargo remote condition monitoring, as well as being the lead engineering team for Rock Rail on their class 701’s Southwestern Railway fleet and more recently leading the way with rolling stock cyber projects, Encompass Engineering has confirmed its position as a specialist in its field. railbusinessdaily.com

“We are a very customer-focused company.

We are passionate about supporting our customers and going above and beyond the scope,” said Nerdeep.

“We continue to receive fantastic feedback for the work we do, which is a testament to the quality of the service we deliver and our expertise. We offer unparalleled service and knowledge that our customers value, and that is something I want to continue as managing director.”

“It is vital to gel the team together and create a business in which everyone is cared for” Employee development is important at Encompass Engineering, as well as providing a platform for those looking to work in the railway industry. Three graduates and a trainee have been employed in the last 18 months.

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Nerdeep has played a key role in supporting the future generation throughout his career, being named Young Rail Professionals Mentor of the Year in 2020, and achieving multiple awards for the apprenticeship scheme he managed while working for Alstom.

“I have a real passion for working with people and helping them to develop their careers, learning from our employees with vast experience,” he said. “It is vital to gel the team together and create a business in which everyone is cared for.

“Encompass Engineering shares those same values. In the coming months, we will be looking at outreach programmes and talking to universities about engineering, playing our part in promoting the industry to the next generation.

“Encompass Engineering consists of individuals I like to work with – total professionals, who work with integrity and consistently deliver.

This is the culture I want to continue to embed into the future of the business and, with that firm foundation in place, we will grow as a business and continue to provide quality engineering services both in the UK and beyond.”

Visit www.encompass-engineering.com for more information Rail Director | August 2022 | 25

IFnedaut us tr rey S p o t l i g h t

Why SQRs are a watershed moment for passenger operators Now that Service Quality Regimes are the reality for passenger operators, Toby Hawkins, sales director of managed service provider mpro5, considers the operational challenges presented by these new KPIs, and what can be done to further tackle them

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ail reform was imminent but uncertain a few months ago, with nobody entirely sure how it would impact our day-to-day.

Toby Hawkins, mpro5 sales director, said: “This is almost always the case with new systems – you never get a feel for how they are going to work until you’re using them on the ground.

“Every operator is now finding the wrinkles, problems and ambiguities in SQRs (Service Quality Regimes), because this is a massive change in working practices.

“Fundamentally, SQRs have helped identify issues, but closing faults out effectively and understanding their cause is still problematic.”

Luck not judgement Audits are now being carried out using a variety of approaches, and it’s a safe assumption to say that most operators understand what their initial scoring will be.

26 | Rail Director | August 2022

‘What I’ve been evangelising in all my articles in the past year is that data consolidation has to be seriously considered by all operators’ “But aggressive rectification penalties, which are effectively SLAs for closing down failures, pose a big challenge,” said Toby.

“You could have just 24 hours to clean a dirty bathroom in an unstaffed station or to replace an out-of-date poster.

“This becomes even more of a headache when you consider that the Department for Advertorial

Transport’s (DfT) mandated SLAs likely don’t line up with previously agreed contractual SLAs that passenger operators will have with third party facilities management (FM) providers.”

Toby added: “Further, in order to prove you’ve met the SQR requirement, you’ll have to get your FM provider out to the scene, resolve the action, collect the right data to prove this and prove that a reinspection was carried out.

“It seems like luck, not judgement is going to determine success in such a complicated scenario.”

Operational headaches Giving some examples of the complexities of SQRs, Toby said: “There are many weird and not-so-wonderful examples of operational headaches – if your ticket office wasn’t open in the required hours on the Wednesday you conducted your audit, how do you rectify it? railbusinessdaily.com

I n d u s t r y S pFoetal ti g uh r et

“It is open to interpretation, but to ‘fix the fault’ you can’t go back in time; is the re-inspection on any day of the week – with the ticket office being open as a ‘resolved’? Should you wait until next Wednesday to close the fault, or simply log a reason (such as staff sickness)?

“It’s tough to get to grips with and it’s fair to say that there are many gaps in the logic of SQRs as they stand, and some requirements are arguably impossible to fulfil.

“This isn’t anyone’s fault – both the DfT and the passenger operators have the best of intentions to improve the passenger experience, but the devil is always in the details, and you won’t see it until it’s live.”

He added: “Even from our own mpro5 perspective, whatever industry we are working in, the expectation of what will happen when we launch is always wide of the reality. It’s not just a rail problem.

“That’s why we put such a huge emphasis on firstly, an agile and iterative implementation process, and a service delivery method that includes the ongoing changes so that there are no nasty surprises in the budget.”

Not just a rail problem While this may sound like a situation in which passenger operators will inevitably lose out, Toby says that this can be mitigated to a large extent by more effective data management, explaining: “Availability of your data in a single location is critical to minimising the impact of harsh SLAs, while also giving you the information to improve.

“If you’re the responsible person for a station, how do you get the information you need, how do you fix issues and get the evidence back?

“How the hell do you know what’s going on?”

Data consolidation Toby said: “The awful truth for many passenger operators is that they don’t know, and processes are stitched together through WhatsApp to try to just get things done.

“SQRs have brought this problem into sharp relief, exposing just how unconnected operations really are.

“PDFs, Excel sheets, it’s all far too disparate and there are too many systems operating as silos.

“How many systems do you have? At a minimum, you could easily say it’s in the double figures, everything from engineering to ticketing, FM to train presentation. Worse still, some of the solutions the data resides in will not be under the direct control of the ToCs but third-party FM and maintenance providers. It’s not realistic to say that you could bring this all into one system. railbusinessdaily.com

‘As a service provider, we focus on making your data accessible to the right people in the right context’ “It really is a daunting, prospect – your CRM, your passenger information, station presentation, communications and social media, I could go on but it just illustrates the challenge.

“But what I’ve been evangelising in all my articles in the past year is that data consolidation has to be seriously considered by all operators.

You might not tear down every silo, but going from 12 systems to just three would dramatically improve the situation.”

Standardisation Toby said: “It would be facile to say that mpro5 can fix this problem entirely, but our platform does offer data consolidation, we are flexible Advertorial

and we can build integrations and iterate as the process of implementation exposes more flaws.

“As a service provider, we focus on making your data accessible to the right people in the right contexts, in visualising this for an immediate understanding of where you are in your SQR scoring, what issues need attention and what’s being done about it.

“You can use our field application to carry out works and remedial actions, push out notifications to teams and keep everyone on the same page.

“The current situation will prove unsustainable for operators, they need to start looking at the options for data accessibility, legibility and practicality.

“SQRs will no doubt be refined, but they will probably never be perfect, and the challenges around effective SQR compliance and improving the passenger experience will remain.

“Rail reform has, structurally speaking, been about standardisation of processes across the UK, providing an elevated and consistent passenger experience. This is the watershed moment for passenger operators to do the same.”

Rail Director | August 2022 | 27

Infrastructure

Buckled rails and saggy wires: High temperatures and the railways

Rail Director’s managing editor Nigel Wordsworth examines the issues heat can cause for the railways, and what experts do to combat the scorching hot weather’s effects

O

Improved manufacturing To give a smoother ride, rails are now much longer. As manufacturing techniques have improved, they are now rolled into 108-metre lengths straight from the steel mill and welded together in a factory environment into 216-metre lengths for delivery to site. Once on the railway, they are welded into even longer lengths.

While this makes for a smoother ride, it does mean that each rail will expand a lot more in real terms. A 500-metre rail will expand by 6cm if its temperature increases by 10 degrees centigrade, a one-mile length (1,600 metres) will expand by 17cm – six inches in imperial units – and that’s a lot.

To control expansion in normal conditions, continuous welded rail (CWR) is ‘stressed’ to a predetermined level. This means it is stretched, using hydraulic rams, to the length that it would be at a temperature of 27 degrees, known as the Stress-Free Temperature (SFT). So, the rail therefore has to reach a temperature of 27 degrees before it will expand at all. Furthermore, track in good condition can reach a temperature of 32 degrees above the SFT before there is a risk of it buckling – that’s 59 degrees. Which is all well and good. However, temperatures hit 40 degrees last month, and unprotected steel rails can reach temperatures of up to 20 degrees above air temperature, which would get them to almost 60 degrees – above the safe working temperature.

28 | Rail Director | August 2022

Buckled rails, Carlisle

And that is why temporary speed limits were introduced and services cancelled.

Network Rail carries out several initiatives to prepare the tracks for the added strain of higher temperatures. There have been photographs in the popular press of track workers painting the sides of rails white.

This is actually surprisingly effective and can reduce rail temperatures by up to 10 degrees, so bringing it safely under the 59-degree threshold.

While the whole network can’t be painted, points and junctions can be treated this way, so moving parts don’t jam due to expansion, as well as known trouble spots.

Network Rail works closely with a specialist weather forecaster and local weather stations, including its own mini weather stations and

Image: Network Rail

n the hottest day of the year, and the hottest on record in some areas of the UK, train companies cancelled services and timetables were changed.

The connection between high temperatures and disrupted train services comes down to the steel rails that the trains run on. Most materials expand and contract when they are heated up or cooled down. Metals, such as the steel in the rails, do so more than most other materials – 20 degrees above the surrounding air temperature, according to Network Rail.

When rails used to be made in lengths of around 60 feet (18 metres), the joints between the comparatively short sections gave an uncomfortable ride, the ‘diddledy dee’ people often joke about. However, those joints also allowed for a degree of expansion in hot weather.

thousands of track-side probes, to monitor local conditions to make plans and take action so rails are less likely to buckle.

Slow down As was the case last month, speed restrictions were introduced during the hottest part of the day at vulnerable locations as slower trains exert lower forces on the track and reduce the likelihood of buckling.

Hot weather can cause other problems too.

Overhead electrification wires, made from copper, expand and then sag, although later systems fitted with pretensioners are less liable to this. So next time you are on a train on a hot day, enjoy your airconditioned carriage and look out of the window to see if you can spot any white rails… railbusinessdaily.com

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News

Eversholt Rail and Vivarail to develop Class 321 BEMU Eversholt Rail and Vivarail have signed an agreement aimed at developing battery power – and range extension – to the Class 321 Renatus fleet. The 30-unit fleet is a product of £65 million investment in AC traction, air conditioning and upgraded interior. Completed in 2019, it provides a high-quality passenger experience, proven reliability in intensive operations, and is widely compatible on the UK network.

This fleet is currently operating on the Greater Anglia network.

Laing O’Rourke to build HS2 Interchange Station HS2 Ltd has revealed that Laing O’Rourke Delivery Limited will construct HS2’s new Interchange Station in Solihull. The contract, worth up to £370 million, will see them work with HS2 Ltd in two stages to finalise the detailed design and then build the landmark station over the next few years.

First extension of London Overground since 2015 opens The extension of London Overground to a new station at the heart of Barking Riverside has opened. The new station at Barking Riverside is fully stepfree, bringing the total across the London Overground network to more than 60 stations, helping make London a more accessible city for everyone and supporting people’s independence when travelling in London.

Green investment plan to feed Scotland’s Railway Scotland’s Railway’s first new electrical feeder station is now in place. The first of several, it is part of a £120 million programme backed by the Scottish Government to improve the resilience and reliability of the infrastructure and to support additional electrically powered passenger and freight traffic.

30 | Rail Director | August 2022

£9 billion funding ‘guaranteeing passengers gold standard services’ T

he government says funding for the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) is to be more than trebled, with the intention of setting a foundation for Northern Powerhouse Rail.

The increase in funding, from £2.9 billion to more than £9 billion, is said to strengthen TRU and Northern Powerhouse Rail. The government says it will transform an already ambitious project to a ‘gold standard’ and deliver on its priority of levelling up the country.

The full route will be fitted with the latest technology, from complete electrification and full digital signalling, to increased capacity along the route for passenger and freight services between Huddersfield and Westtown in Dewsbury, doubling tracks from two to four.

A further £959 million of funding has been released to progress the next phase of TRU between Manchester and York. The funds will be spent on the remaining

electrification of the railway between Stalybridge and Manchester, and unlocking shorter journey times and trans-Pennine rail freight flows with electric trains between Manchester and Stalybridge expected to hit the tracks around the middle of the decade.

Funding will also facilitate Northern Powerhouse Rail potentially doubling the amount of direct construction jobs from 2,000 to up to 4,000, taking thousands of lorries off our roads and

delivering better journeys sooner for passengers across the North.

Once complete, the TRU is expected to deliver multiple benefits, delivering an extra two passenger trains every hour and additional hourly freight slots.

Upgrades are expected to service more reliable journeys and slash journey times by up to 40 per cent.

Northern Powerhouse Rail will be fully electrified, improving the local environment and air quality across the North.

A world first for Urban Very Light Rail

T

he world’s first rapid battery charger for Urban Very Light Rail (VLR) has undergone commissioning at the Very Light Rail National Innovation Centre in Dudley.

The milestone will see the prototype Coventry Very Light Rail start testing its automated, rapid charging capability. The adapted, 450kw overhead bus opportunity charger can top-up battery-powered VLR vehicles in an estimated three minutes.

It uses a pantograph that lowers from above, rather than one fitted on the roof of the tram.

The set-up is the first of its kind in a rail application and was completed by Furrer+Frey with the vehicle designers, Transport

Image: Furrer and Frey

News in brief

Design International, alongside WMG at the University of Warwick and the Black Country Innovative Manufacturing Organisation (BCIMO), who are building and will operate the Very Light Rail

National Innovation Centre.

The vision is for the chargers to be used by buses as well as VLR vehicles, with stations serving multiple bus and VLR routes as part of an electrified public transport network. railbusinessdaily.com

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Safety

Three-year plan reflects commitment to excellence in light rail safety ‘A clear vision for the future’ – Carl Williams, chief executive of the Light Rail Safety and Standards Board, reveals how a three-year blueprint for the future of the organisation will drive a sector-wide commitment of excellence and continuous improvement

‘P

revent Incidents. Reduce Harm’ – four words that encompass the core objectives of the Light Rail Safety and Standards Board (Light Rail SSB). But, more than that, they offer a firm bedrock upon which we are always trying to build.

Development and change are vital in any organisation, but especially so in one where safety is key; one overseeing an expanding sector within the constantly evolving transport industry.

Recently, the Light Rail SSB received a highly significant funding package.

Spread across three years, the £3.3 million from the Department for Transport (DfT) means we are in a position to accelerate our ambitious delivery programme across several key areas, including risk management, accident reporting, updating safety guidance, and leading on research into the new technologies.

It allows us to work alongside our stakeholders to further enhance our already considerable achievements to ensure the very highest standards across the existing light rail networks while ensuring a framework is in place for future systems to follow.

A positive forward-looking approach Right from our inception in 2019, the initiatives, products and support delivered by the Light Rail SSB have been well received by all our stakeholders. As an organisation we have always sought to keep moving. We believe in a positive, forward-looking approach, which is why objectives and targets set out in our recently published plan address both the short and long term.

That approach, combined with continued reviews of existing processes and attention to governance and oversight, has been applauded by, among others, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).

In a recent ‘health check’ of the Light Rail SSB’s progress to date, the ORR was firm not only in its assertion that the organisation is adding value to the light rail but that such a body, focused on the specific needs of that sector, is vital.

As we seek to reinforce our influence in the sector, such a statement is as pertinent as it is reassuring.

32 | Rail Director | August 2022

The improvement of safety in the sector has to be a two-way process It comes as we implement our newly developed stakeholder engagement plan, and acts as a clear demonstration to our customers of the benefits of working alongside us in the drive for continuous improvement.

Our aim is always to lead from the front – to provide the sector with exceptional leadership, support and guidance, and to be one step ahead in identifying arising risks and opportunities.

That requires engagement, be it with those in ground-breaking research and development or in the day-to-day running of networks.

Funding Such engagement needs to be based on a plan, which brings me back to the funding recently agreed by the DfT. Delivery of guidance – modern, relevant and targeted – over a period of time requires resources. Financial input allows us to operate in the long term, to build a team with the required expertise to drive sectorwide safety processes and to offer guidance and support to our members.

It’s hard to emphasise the importance of that enough. The light rail sector has, in the Light Rail SSB, a purpose-built safety and standards body which understands completely, and is absolutely immersed in, the specific needs of the sector. railbusinessdaily.com

Safety

It is also strong, knowledgeable, open and fast-acting, with a structured approach on which the sector can rely. That’s not to say we are the finished article.

We never can be. We, like everyone else in the sector, are committed to learning, whether it is to identify improvements in best practice, potential future risks and mitigations, or innovative solutions/mitigations for existing risks.

That means developing relationships and partnerships with different bodies within the light rail sector around the world. All the time we are identifying whether other industries have ideas that can be adapted and developed for the benefit of UK light rail.

Delivering and developing solutions The improvement of safety in the sector has to be a two-way process, and as such we have identified several initiatives where the support of our members and users is an integral part of developing and delivering solutions.

Led by the Light Rail SSB, a project to upgrade the Tram Accident Incident Reporting Database tool (TAIR), for example, is set to enhance the gathering of data and reporting in relation to accidents, incidents and near misses.

railbusinessdaily.com

This can be used by operators as their primary database or by way of an interface with their existing system of choice.

Not only that but the data can then be added to risk models – a huge bonus when it comes to safety implementation and decision-making.

It doesn’t stop there. In partnership with

the ORR, our organisation has also helped to introduce the Risk Management Maturity Model (RM3) to the light rail sector. When it comes to the evaluation of safety management systems, Light Rail SSB’s new RM3 audit tool also provides a standardised platform for the sector to work from.

Rail Director | August 2022 | 33

Safety

Both RM3 and TAIR form key elements of a wider risk management framework, developed by the Light Rail SSB to provide a comprehensive, sector-wide approach to the delivery of even safer networks. This has been well received across the network and already adopted, either wholly or in part, by a number of our members.

Designed to provide our customers with a fully integrated, detailed toolkit of products which support them with the identification of and mitigation of potential future risks, our stakeholder engagement plan means that we are constantly assessing how the framework can be developed, enhanced or better supported.

Looking ahead On a practical level, we are constantly developing and assessing the feasibility of potential future projects, including new technologies that will better aid tram drivers in their ability to detect obstacles in the swept path and when departing a tram stop.

We are forever keen to receive feedback and fresh ideas. As part of this process, we are working with a wide range of partners and forging new collaborations, including with universities and other organisations within the wider rail and transport industry. Their knowledge is useful to us, as is ours to them, and the Light Rail SSB is a keen proponent of taking a partnership approach that is both beneficial and cost efficient.

Another key aim of our organisation is keeping key guidance up to date and making it easy to access. To achieve this, we have created an

34 | Rail Director | August 2022

online digital ‘reference library’ where all existing light rail guidance and best-practice documents can be viewed and downloaded for free by members, stakeholders, and any organisation with a vested interest in the sector.

We are forever keen to receive feedback and fresh ideas To further secure our future, we are now looking at the development of additional revenue stream opportunities. While core products developed

and delivered by Light Rail SSB are provided without charge to members, we recognise that there may be some potential for bespoke/tailored support, which may increase revenue.

The pursuit of constant betterment has served us well since our inception in 2019. It has driven us forwards and created an environment whereby the sector as a whole increasingly works together as one, engaged deeply and committedly in providing the highest standards of light railway safety.

Our future – be it as operators, owners, unions, statutory bodies and other key relevant organisations – is inextricably linked.

Already at the forefront of knowledge and development, the Light Rail SSB will be doing all it can to ensure the sector works together to be an exemplar of public transport safety.

Long may that continue.

railbusinessdaily.com

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IFnedaut us tr rey S p o t l i g h t

Everybody needs PALS – Pod-Trak relaunches its company culture initiative Rail Director takes a look at how a growing infrastructure company, Pod-Trak, has evolved its culture to meet its growing ambitions

A

2017 article from the Harvard Business Review by Bryan Walker and Sarah A. Soule states that ‘changing company culture requires a movement, not a mandate.’ As businesses grow, develop new services and become more adaptive and innovative, evolving the culture is often a huge part of that growth and for it to be truly successful, those companies cannot dictate how its staff acts, but to actively involve them and support them as those changes take place.

For a family-owned business, like infrastructure company Pod-Trak, retaining those core elements while adapting the culture as part of its significant growth through its 15-year history, has been a major focus.

Over the last couple of months, every single member of the business has been through a workshop to lay the foundations as the business outlines how it expects its teams to conduct business, work with customers, suppliers and each other.

But to get to that point has taken a lengthy

36 | Rail Director | August 2022

process. Spearheaded by head of HSQE, David Lowes, Pod-Trak is aiming to develop the next stage of the PALS movement in conjunction with Karl Edwards of eviL Culture Ltd, an organisation

Advertorial

focused on developing business culture. PALS itself had been an initiative within Pod-Trak for a number of years to define the attitudes and safetyfocused nature of the business.

railbusinessdaily.com

I n d u s t r y S pFoetal ti g uh r et

Many business successes and the development of new divisions within the business has meant growth in turnover and number of staff for the business, and a need to re-establish PALS with this new business structure in mind was essential.

Embracing through nurturing, not through mandate It did not start with mandating how the board of directors wanted ‘things to be done around here.’

David said: “We know that for the attitudes and way of working that we would like within the business to be consistent, every colleague has to embrace what we are trying to achieve and while we can ask people to comply, if we simply mandated this culture evolution, it would not be embraced and delivered with any conviction.

“Working with eviL Culture Ltd, we’ve sought involvement from our colleagues at the right times in the process to develop a programme that allows us to convey what we are trying to achieve, the attitudes we expect of our team, while providing them with the support they need to do things the Pod-Trak way, every time.

“That is the core focus of PALS – to plan effectively; to demonstrate the right attitudes; to lead; and to share knowledge with everyone around us.

“By doing this, we are setting the foundations of how we want our colleagues to conduct their business. This means we are working consistently to provide a safe and compliant environment, while being a company that is great to do business with.

“Those values have always been there from the conception of Pod-Trak. The next stage of PALS is about retaining those values, while adapting them to a business that has many divisions to ensure continued consistency across the board.”

Creating the movement Pod-Trak has always been a business that does things properly and thoroughly. Rather than re-launching PALS with a series of workshops, the groundwork has been through observation and feedback.

Over the last few months, members of the team have worked within other divisions to their own to understand the nuances and differences within each division, what is working well and where there are opportunities – both on the frontline and in the office.

A survey to determine understanding of PALS at that time, along with how colleagues see the business gave the PALS team the data railbusinessdaily.com

to understand where the challenges were and allowed them to develop a programme that would win the collective hearts and minds of those working under the Pod-Trak banner. That extended to its supply chain too.

David said: “Considering the nature of the industries we work in, our culture is essential in creating a safety-conscious environment. No one goes to work with the intention of being unsafe.

However, we need to nurture the right thoughtprocesses and ways of working to ensure that we create safe and compliant working environments.

“That extends to our supply chain partners.

We expect those we work with to represent PodTrak with the same purpose and attitudes that we do. Throughout this process, we’ve involved our supply chain teams too so that we can set the foundations for success across the entire business.”

“We are working consistently to provide a safe and compliant environment, while being a company that is great to do business with” The workshops held over the last few months have outlined those foundations. A mix of frontline colleagues, office-based staff, and all directors, have ensured that anecdotes and application of PALS can be seen from all points of view, while allowing for each individual to understand challenges in other parts of the business.

However, the workshops are not the end of the culture change process.

David said: “The workshops are just another stage of our PALS journey. They have set the foundations of our way of thinking and demonstrated the support that we can provide so our teams are embracing any changes and working positively.

“Naturally, there will be those who understand it and embrace it sooner than others. The key for the success of this relaunch is working with those leaders within the business to collectively work towards embracing the PALS way of working.

“Through leading by example and supporting everyone, we are creating a fantastic environment for everyone that supports us as the business continues to grow.”

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Rail Director | August 2022 | 37

EDI charter

Working together to build a more diverse and inclusive workforce The Railway Industry Association and Women in Rail have launched the first annual report for their joint EDI Charter for Rail

T

here is a real passion for change around equality, diversity and inclusion. That is the message from Rachel Fullard, the chair of the EDI Charter working group, as the organisation releases its first annual report.

Launched in November 2020 by the Railway Industry Association (RIA) and Women in Rail (WR), the EDI Charter for Rail now boasts almost 200 signatories across the UK rail industry, including railbusinessdaily.com.

“It has been extremely gratifying to see how many companies have signed up to the EDI Charter so far,” said Rachel, who works full-time as a service analyst for the Rail Delivery Group.

“The annual report is a chance for us to demonstrate the actions we have all taken to make the rail industry a more representative and welcoming place, not only for our employees, but customers and passengers too.”

Good practice The report sets out examples of good practice and celebrates the very best work carried out by Charter signatories over the past year, featuring submissions from the Department for Transport, Network Rail, Siemens Mobility and Atkins.

“We believe the rail industry has a duty to reflect the communities it serves, in terms of diversity and representation of marginalised groups,” added Rachel. “Our role as working group is to assist charter signatories on this journey, and to champion the importance of fostering an inclusive environment for all.”

Several workshops have been held so far on accessibility, inclusion in leadership, and social mobility; as well as the hugely successful informal Coffee Roulette, which involved workers from signatory companies pairing up to discuss equality, diversity and inclusion and to share best practice.

“Being a part of the group, and now as its chair, is a great honour and something I am immensely proud of,” Rachel said. “Having achieved what we have in such a short time only bodes well for the future, and I hope that the work we are doing is creating a positive and lasting change.

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EDI charter

“The 2022-23 working group cohort is now in place, and planning is already well under way. I can’t wait to announce our plans for the second half of 2022 and continue to deliver this positive work for our signatories.

“As rail moves towards a time of more and more change, it’s ever more important that we come together to learn and share our expertise to help create a bigger and better industry.”

Every Charter signatory commits to inclusive practices, such as: ppointing a member of the senior A leadership team as an ‘EDI Champion’; Agreeing an action plan, monitoring and reporting on progress made; Providing opportunities for training and education for employees, supporting the progression of diverse individuals into senior roles to improve diverse representation at senior and executive level; Creating a culture which fosters inclusion and providing space for all employees to talk openly, including at industry events and in meetings; and M aking recruitment and progression

processes accessible to all, to attract, retain and develop people of all backgrounds, ages, genders and identities.

Rachel said: “I have been a member of the group since its foundation and my participation has been encouraged and supported by my employer RDG. “I joined the group because I am passionate about making the industry more inclusive, but from a personal perspective I wanted to ensure the voices of LGBTQ+ people were heard.

As someone who is nonbinary, I know that it can be hard to feel like you ‘fit in’ to large institutions and industries – my aim, as part of the group, is to make sure the railway becomes, and continues to be, a place where people

railbusinessdaily.com

The EDI Charter team has held several events. Pictured here is Railway Industry Association’s Kate Jennings and Darren Caplan, with Network Rail’s Rajinder Pryor MBE in the centre

I joined the group because I am passionate about making the industry more inclusive feel free and able to be themselves, and to see themselves represented in positions of power and leadership.”

Christine Fernandes, Women in Rail chair, said: “I’m delighted we have produced our first WR/RIA EDI Charter annual report that highlights the fantastic work some of our signatory companies are doing to help build a more diverse and inclusive rail sector. Thank you to everyone who has contributed.

“All of our work at Women in Rail is about raising awareness of the need for greater EDI and gender balance across the sector and a more diverse and inclusive workforce; a workforce that reflect the communities we work in.

“With partner, RIA, the EDI Charter is one of our key pieces of work, championing equality, diversity

and inclusion in the rail industry and working together to build a more diverse and inclusive workforce to create a railway fit for the future.”

Darren Caplan, RIA chief executive, said: “The RIA and WR launched the joint EDI Charter for rail as a positive campaign to increase equality, diversity and inclusion in the railway industry.

“With almost 200 rail organisations and businesses now signed up to the Charter, this inaugural annual report highlights the very best work carried out by railway related organisations over the last year.

“It showcases the fantastic efforts of suppliers, rail clients and the DfT to attract people to the industry, to develop and retain the widest possible pipeline of talent and skills, and to promote an inclusive culture within railway organisations.

“We now look forward to seeing more organisations signing up to the Charter in the next year and even more progress being made by the time of the 2023 annual report.”

IA and WR continue to welcome R new signatories to the charter – if your organisation would in interested in signing up, please contact info@edicharter.co.uk

Rail Director | August 2022 | 39

IFnedaut us tr rey S p o t l i g h t

Helping to transform the performance of businesses

Andy Slater, managing director of TXM Consult, on the responsive and agile offering that is providing the solutions to the trickiest of problems

“W

e want to be synonymous with one of the industry’s leading problem solvers.” That’s the aspiration of Andy Slater, managing director of TXM Consult.

It is something that is already being achieved by the organisation that prides itself on partnering with clients to create transformative business growth in the transit and energy sectors.

Despite having only been created in 2020, TXM Consult consists of a team of more than 130 specialists, who have already worked with the likes of Transport for Wales (TfW), Keolis, Siemens, Hitachi and CAF, on some of the biggest rail projects in the world.

“The reason for setting up the business was to help clients transform their businesses and create future resilience as part of their capabilities and performance,” said Andy. “It’s been a real pleasure being involved with big transformational programmes such as the East Coast Digital programme, rolling stock and depot work for TfW, systems integration on Crossrail and assisting Hitachi with their SCC (Stress Corrosion Cracking) issue, providing a service recovery response and subsequent fleet repair programme.

“It’s proving that we have the capability to help resolve issues facing the railways, not just identifying what is wrong, but how to put the problems right for our clients.”

This month the business announced that TXM Projects will now merge with TXM Consult, becoming one of its five core service offerings under the label of Turnkey Solutions.

Rail services Turnkey Solutions offers a range of onsite installation and rail vehicle care services to the rail industry, from systems installation, heavy maintenance, refurbishment, and structure to end-to-end rolling stock project solutions.

“We’re taking the established and experienced turnkey offer, augmenting it with our expertise in project, engineering, and data management to create a truly powerful offer. This provides clients with a simple, 360-degree, end-to-end solution in a straight forward package,” said Andy, who has spent the past 25 years working in rail, across operators, manufacturers, supply chain, infrastructure and consulting.

40 | Rail Director | August 2022

“It further adds to our broad capabilities and to the experience of the team, with many of us having sat in executive positions in organisations whether they are operators, manufacturers or consultancies.

“We are experienced industry people and we’ve got the scars, so we don’t mind getting our hands dirty and taking on the challenge of bringing the resources together to do the physical activities rather than just advising.”

TXM Consult has created five service offers: 1. Strategic advisory services High-level support for everything from a financing house, operator, manufacturer, or someone looking to do a market entry strategy.

Andy said: “We can provide commercial procurement, organisational change, management support, bid support; we can provide that across infrastructure and rolling stock as well from an overall operational management perspective.”

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2. Engineering asset management and maintenance services (EAMMS) Asset optimisation, performance optimisation, asset management, engineering in terms of engineering change, developing solutions, and design work.

“I call this the engine room,” said Andy.

“Aspects of the work we’ve been involved in includes support to Hitachi and their recent service recovery issue with some of their UK fleets. We quickly assembled various teams across the depots to undertake the physical checks as well as developing the data analysis behind all the data collection activities.

“You wouldn’t normally go to a consultancy for that, but we can bring that through our resourcing business. We have access to practical resources. We can then offer further added value by overlaying all the management information, engineering, data analysis, and dashboarding, providing immediate data access on a digital platform. railbusinessdaily.com

I n d u s t r y S pFoetal ti g uh r et

That’s the type of thing we can bring to fruition in rapid time.”

3. P3M (portfolio, programme and project management) Described by Andy as exactly what it says it is, with the added advantage of it all being digitalised and globally accessible.

Whether that be project management office capabilities, risk management, planning, QSRA (power of quantitative risk analysis) or project controls, the capability resides in this part of the business.

“That and EAMMS is a lot of where our foundational building blocks have come from, with the addition of myself undertaking the advisory piece,” he said. “As we’ve grown, we’ve brought more capability on the advisory side as well, but the heartbeat was programme project delivery and the asset management and maintenance support.”

4. Digital infrastructure and systems This draws on the systems integration experts, whether it is ETCS (European Train Control System) or CBTC (Communications-Based Train Control) type technologies.

TXM Consult has been involved in Crossrail; East Coast Digital programme (leading a lot of the programme’s sub programmes within that bigger portfolio); systems integrator for TfW on the Cambrian line for the new CAF fleet being deployed on there; and the upgrade of the Cambrian line.

Andy said: “We’re very much in that space of systems integration and the technologies whether it be main line signalling technologies such as ETCS or more metro and light rail CBTC-type systems. We can cover the whole range from programme management, technical engineering, integration engineering, systems engineering; that is what we like to think is our sweet spot.”

5. Turnkey solutions Created to allow the merger of TXM Projects into TXM Consult, this includes the refurbishment, refresh of rolling stock, corrosion works, and physical modifications to trains, but it is turnkey.

Andy said: “We will do the procurement side of things, the design, manage the supply chain and pull the production teams together. We’ll also create the facility to do it in so it is just the case of handing the keys back over at the end of it and the client can just drive away.”

Part of a wider group TXM Consult is part of TXM Group, a global organisation providing consultancy and resourcing solutions worldwide, specialising in the railbusinessdaily.com

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ns

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TXM LOCATIONS EMEA Australasia North America TXM SECTORS Engineering Healthcare Technology TXM SERVICES Consultancy Resourcing GOING THE XTRA MILE Our people, ethos, values, community

engineering, healthcare, and technology sectors.

It was founded in 2005 originally as an engineering recruitment firm and headquartered in the UK. Since then, it has exponentially expanded and is now a £220-million-turnover business with a global workforce of more than 300 employees across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Australasia and North America.

In April, the 17 businesses loosely configured under some common shareholders were brought together as TXM Group to align all the businesses to operate collaboratively in business together as a leader in consultancy and resourcing solutions.

The overall ambition now is to double the size of the business by 2026.

“The group is classified in three sectors – engineering, technology and healthcare – so as a group we can expand into those sectors very quickly” Andy said: “We’ve simplified our business model to two things – resourcing and consulting – which enhances our approach to clients and also makes it easier for them to engage and access all of the capabilities within the group.

“Being part of the TXM Group has been a huge benefit for TXM Consult. We wouldn’t have been able to move so quickly and have the connectivity that we do globally without the pre-existing infrastructure that the group has brought us.”

There are no signs of the TXM Consult growth slowing down. A business has been set up in Australia, there are workers in America, a business has been registered in Canada, and the group structure has got a presence in Dubai.

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“We are only two-and-a-half years old as TXM Consult, but we have big ambitions for the future with some exciting plans in the coming months,” said Andy.

“We’ve already developed some key partnerships, so we’re not afraid to collaborate.

That is in a regional perspective so we’re collaborating with a company in Sweden enabling us to support the Scandinavian market, but we are also working with the likes of Unipart, partnered with a company called CRMI to get exposure to automotive, and we’ve also partnered with a company called CCR3 that does a lot of datadriven work around behaviours.”

Expansion into other areas TXM Consult is currently around 85 per cent rail, five per cent energy, five per cent automotive and five per cent defence.

“We’re working with Lloyds Register in the energy sector and working with partners that support BAE systems in the defence sector,” said Andy. “We are starting to branch out from what is our heart, which has always been rail. The vast majority of us are railway people, we’ve been in the industry and I’d like to think there’s not many people we don’t know between us.

“The group is classified in three sectors – engineering, technology and healthcare – so as a group we can expand into those sectors very quickly given the range of capabilities we’ve got in our resourcing businesses, and that helps us in the consulting side to be very agile and responsive to needs.

“If we get an ad hoc enquiry it is not something we’re afraid to go for because we’ve got that capacity and capability behind us to do it, so I am very optimistic about what we can provide not just for the rail sector, but also other industries.”

Visit www.txmconsult.com or www.txmgroup.com for more details Rail Director | August 2022 | 41

Mike Roberts

‘All you can eat’ wellbeing Railway Chaplain Mike Roberts is back with his quarterly column. He talks about it being fourth time lucky on a foreign holiday and the key role railway chaplaincy has to play in the wellbeing of staff

A

fter three attempts at a foreign holiday during the pandemic and ending up with cancelled travel plans, we finally made it abroad this summer. Lancashire is lovely, but it can be left wanting sometimes when you’re looking to relax in the sun.

So, at last, we were heading off to Malta.

Various people find different things appealing about holidays. For some it’s being away from emails and phone calls, for others it might be gorgeous scenery, beaches and sea, and for others it’s a chance to relax.

For me, I wake up in the morning, glance out of the hotel window and five words just pass before my eyes: ‘All you can eat buffet.’ Every morning in the hotel, from 8.30am, for two hours there was a glorious spread of constantly replenished breakfast goodies.

The breads and pastries, the pancakes, the fruit, the cooked hotplate, cereals, fresh coffee, all with no judgment about how often you went back. There was even a salad bar at breakfast time, although I think it was mainly just for display because all week, I never heard anyone say, “Oh, I’m just desperate for a 9am salad...”

What makes that breakfast time so special is that for the seven mornings in the hotel, every morning was different. No two days did I go down the same pattern or combination of what I ate.

What I chose depended on my mood and what took my fancy that morning. Some days I was won over by the smell of bacon, and other days the enticing scent of fresh bread had me filling my plate with croissants, pastries and other goodies. I went and found what I wanted, and Rebecca chose what she wanted.

A variety of options It gives a chance to try things that we might not usually choose and a chance to really indulge in those things that we know are good for us. I can be a bit of a picky eater, so having a huge selection to choose from, rather than a formal or restrictive table d’hôte menu with just a few options, means I often enjoy the meal more.

As part of working as a Railway Chaplain, I engage with a lot of wellbeing events and health and wellbeing policies, roadshows, drop-ins, hubs and other things that promote a company’s wellbeing agenda.

42 | Rail Director | August 2022

Wellbeing doesn’t always provide answers, but it provides the ability for people to be able to discover the answers However, in a lot of them, they offer that restrictive menu rather than the wider selection. In some cases, the company might even have all the ingredients for the full and complete ‘all you can eat’ and yet still the people who access the wellbeing services only know about the limited offerings.

It’s easy to promote our employee assistance programmes and certain hotlines, but when we only offer a few options it’s like when I go searching in the toolbox in the garage, and whatever the problem is or whatever the task that needs doing is, it will be sorted with either a hammer or a screwdriver.

Having the right toolset My dad had a wall in the garage when I was growing up, absolutely full of every tool imaginable. Growing up I often wondered why anyone needed that many screwdrivers, and when I moved house last year, for the first time, I realised that it’s so much easier with the right tool as opposed to whatever tool is close at hand.

In four years in my role, I have never dealt with two people facing exactly the same situation. railbusinessdaily.com

Mike Roberts

Every single person’s stressors and anxieties are different, and therefore need a bespoke and flexible attitude.

I recently went to a wellbeing session run

by Merseyrail, for its staff teams. As I walked around it was more than tables with leaflets and banners with phone numbers, or instructions to refer via an app. There were actual pieces of fruit on the table, and conversations about making smoothies; there was a physiotherapist who works with the company talking to booking office staff or drivers who spend whole shifts in certain positions about how to improve their posture.

The problem for many employers within the industry is that wellbeing isn’t an easy thing to do well. Don’t get me wrong, it’s ridiculously easy to do badly – all you need to do is add a tab on the intranet, put out a wellbeing email a couple of times a year, and hold awareness events for international week of whatever is in fashion.

But the truth is that to do wellbeing well, you have to invest in the whole person, and you have to invest heavily. If you have a depot with 60 members of staff, there’s no way of getting around the fact that you need 60 different wellbeing arrangements.

I’m not saying every single person needs a whole programme but, like every guest at the breakfast buffet where the hotel offers them the choice of what to select, we can offer a selection recognising what will work for some and not labelling it a failure because it doesn’t work for everyone.

Sharing experiences By the last day of holiday, people are turning to each other at the buffet suggesting things like, “have you tried the melon? it’s gorgeously ripe...” or “try the bacon and the maple syrup on your pancakes...” Sharing experience, successes and failures means that when we offer a range of services it allows peer-led wellbeing to thrive.

I genuinely believe that railway chaplaincy has a key part to play in the wellbeing of railway staff, but I also know that it doesn’t work for everyone. I know that the counselling services work for some and not for others, and union support helps some but leaves others without the support they need.

When staff experience trauma, bereavement or any form of stress, how they react (and how they need support) is dependent on a huge range of factors from their state of wellbeing before the trauma to whether they are an introvert or extrovert (as opposed to whether you think they are an introvert or extrovert), how any stressors have affected mental and physical health, other existing conditions and so much more. railbusinessdaily.com

I know train crew who have been involved in fatalities on the railway desperate to keep working, relying on a sense of normality to keep going, while others need to step away from the railway environment. Some want to talk about it, others can’t face talking or can’t construct the conversation to talk about it.

There is no pattern to follow or expect. It’s not down to gender, age or whether they seem to be a ‘strong person’ or not. The reason that a diverse wellbeing toolkit is essential is that even the best trained wellbeing team can’t make the same key fit a huge variety of locks.

To do wellbeing well, you have to invest in the whole person, and you have to invest heavily During the pandemic, for obvious reasons, many of the counselling services that we used across our industry went online. This was great for some, who found being able to engage from home worked really well and allowed them to participate in a safe environment for them.

However, for others the idea of having an open and vulnerable conversation over the screen of an iPad or laptop was terrifying.

Emerging out of the pandemic now, just because virtual sessions worked for some people we talk to, we mustn’t think it’s ok to completely go that way – there’s a place for both in the toolkit.

I’ve known instances where certain helplines are only available from 8am to 6pm, which

might be fine if you’re in an office, but could cause problems for staff working nights much of the time. How do you make wellbeing as accessible to all as possible?

Certain services might be raved about by staff onboard trains, but not be working for staff on stations, and it can be a challenge to find ways to discover what is and isn’t working or what can be refined to make it even better.

Seeking the answers Wellbeing doesn’t always provide answers, but it provides the ability for people to be able to discover the answers. It challenges the areas of our lives where we struggle, whether that’s our diet, our exercise regime, work-life balance, relationships or anything else.

One of the privileges of being a chaplain is that we get to see (and share) great practice across companies and wherever you are you may want to chat to your local chaplain to see what examples they have seen. Check who your chaplain is at www.railwaymission.org Just down the road from my house is a really old-fashioned hardware store (think about the shop in the Four Candles sketch by The Two Ronnies). I love going in there and I always come out with something for the toolbox. It’s not always something I need there and then, but it is something that I think ‘could be useful’.

We all (as individuals at any level who manage and support others and as whole companies) need to be constantly keeping our toolbox ready so that it’s prepared to support others because the better equipped we are, the better standard we can do a job to.

Be equipped. Be ready. Be willing. Be flexible.

Be personalised. Be sensitive. Be the best you can be. Wellbeing isn’t one size fits all, but there definitely is something for everyone. www.railwaymission.org mike.roberts@railwaymission.org www.twitter.com/birdsnestsblog

Rail Director | August 2022 | 43

Safety

Going above and beyond to keep the railway and its people safe Freightliner’s shunt driver Bessie Matthews has written and illustrated a book educating children how to behave around the railway. She explains more about her life on the railway and her passion towards safety

I

t could quite easily have been a different story for Bessie Matthews. Despite her passion to join the rail industry – following in her father’s footsteps who is a guard and conductor in Ipswich – after five years having been unsuccessful at the interview stage, she was ready to call time on her childhood dream.

“Every year, twice a year, for five years, I always got through to the interview, but never beyond, which was a bit soul destroying, but fine as I would try again in six months,” she said, taking on work in cinemas and restaurants in between applications.

“The last time I went into Ipswich to have the interview I wasn’t going to go in. I was training to be a teacher and really enjoying it. “ I was standing in the foyer and had given up 44 | Rail Director | August 2022

I loved being a guard. It was everything I ever dreamed it would be on the idea completely and it was only when a lady came over saying I looked a bit lost, asking what I was there for, that encouraged me to sign in and do the interview.

“Again, I didn’t get it and I was devastated,

but a week later I got a phone call asking if I could go to a medical on the Monday because they had an opening for me. That was it, I was a guard and it was amazing.”

The railway family Growing up, Bessie was already a part of the railway family through her father, who started in the industry more than 20 years ago initially working in the buffet carriage in the Class 170 out of Ipswich, joining from a role at a cinema.

“I’d see my dad on weekends and holidays and because of shift work he’d be at work and I’d get to see him either at the train station or go for a ride on the train,” she said.

“When dad became a guard I couldn’t ride on his train, so I’d ride on other trains and wait for him to finish work. railbusinessdaily.com

Safety

“Growing up and being around the railway and seeing how happy it made my dad and seeing how happy it made his colleagues and meeting all these different people – who I eventually worked with 15 years later – it was almost a home away from home.

“The feeling I got from seeing my dad is the feeling I get from being around the railway so from a young age I wanted to be a train guard as I thought it was the most amazing job in the world.”

Talent pool The dream came true in February 2018, when Bessie joined Greater Anglia as a guard.

“I loved being a guard,” she said. “It was everything I ever dreamed it would be and I was so chuffed when I finally got it.”

When Greater Anglia’s new fleet came in, Bessie took it as an opportunity to look for a new role in the railway. She got through the driver psychometrics and was put in a talent pool for several train and freight operators.

“I got a call from Freightliner saying I had a start date in August if I wanted it, and I wanted it so bad as freight was the next thing for me,” said Bessie, who’s now a shunt driver at Freightliner.

“I love this job just as much as my guard’s role, if not more.”

Discover more here:

railbusinessdaily.com

Rail Director | August 2022 | 45

Safety

Bessie passed her shunt driver exam in April this year.

“I love my job and another thing that is really important to me is the safety element and that includes helping and looking out for people who might appear vulnerable.”

Fundraising efforts In the past few years she has raised thousands of pounds for Samaritans and Railway Children, from her art on ballast to taking on walking challenges; in one case walking with the names of every sponsor written on individual pieces of ballast in her bag – more than 100 pieces weighing over 7lbs.

“I’ve always been interested in drawing and painting, so the painting on ballast was a great opportunity to give something back, doing something I really like,” she said.

“So many people, inside and outside the rail industry, have got behind me with the previous challenges and I can’t thank them enough for their generosity.”

In Bessie’s most recent challenge she has become a published author, combining her love of illustration with her passion for safety around the railway. Last month, 20,000 free copies of her new children’s book on how to behave around the railway were handed out at stations in the UK. “It’s such an odd feeling to see such a little idea which has all of a sudden become a reality,” said Bessie, the author and illustrator of Arlo’s Adventures There and Back.

The book follows Arlo the badger as he makes his first ever solo trip on the train to see his friends Duskie and Moss, who live a couple of stops away.

The reader helps the trio stay safe by turning to the page they think is the best choice featuring real-world scenarios such as level crossings and station platforms, as well a child-friendly glossary of railway terms.

46 | Rail Director | August 2022

So many people, inside and outside the rail industry, have got behind me with the previous challenges and I can’t thank them enough for their generosity She said: “It’s been great fun and it is all worth it if it can keep people safe around the railways.

“The idea came about during driver training in August last year. It was a small class of four and all our learning styles were completely different but, we all learnt really well from scenario-based questions.

“I thought if this kind of technique helps adults learning about the railway, then is it something that could help keep children safe around the railway and not just tell them what not to do, but also to explain why they shouldn’t.”

This led to the idea of adventure books, which Bessie said she used to love as a child.

“It kind of appeared in my mind overnight that this is what I’m going to do, although initially I thought about writing comic strips before settling on a book,” she said.

“I’d never written and published a book before so I needed some help. I contacted Karen Bennett who published 100 Women, 100 Journeys. She was an absolute godsend because I couldn’t have done half of what she had done to help this book come along.”

Donation request As well as the important safety messages from the book, Bessie is asking people who have a copy or read it online to make a donation to the Railway Children.

“This book is aimed at kids who are lucky enough to have a book that they can sit and read, while many of the children Railway Children helps have nothing, so I’m keen to raise some money for all their efforts,” she said.

“Some of the children use the railway to find solace or a place to get away so I really hope to raise some much-needed money as a thank you for all the incredible work the Railway Children charity does for vulnerable young people around the UK, India and East Africa.”

Arlo’s Adventures has been created thanks to support from Freightliner, Community Rail Network and ScotRail. railbusinessdaily.com

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Freight

Awakening interest in running more rail freight

John Keefe, director of public affairs at Eurotunnel Le Shuttle, talks about growing services and an optimism for the future

“P

erhaps next year will be normal.”

That’s a recurring comment from John Keefe, director of public affairs at Getlink’s Eurotunnel Le Shuttle.

He’s been involved in the railway tunnel that connects Folkestone (England) with Coquelles (France) beneath the English Channel since before it opened in 1994.

“It has been a non-stop series of new and different challenges every year, from start-up, to crisis management, to recovery, to financial restructuring to operational restructuring to financial crisis, migrant crisis, Brexit and COVID,” he said.

“I’ve seen the business grow from zero at start-up to a billion-pound business with a market valuation of more than £10 billion, so that has been really satisfying and just fascinating all the way through.”

Steady increase John spoke with Rail Director as newly released figures have shown Eurotunnel Le Shuttle Freight transported 125,672 trucks across the Channel during June 2022 – a nine per cent increase compared to June 2021.

What’s more, between January and June of this year, almost 767,000 trucks have crossed the Channel aboard the shuttles.

“We’re seeing traffic growing nicely and things have moved on a lot since the Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement, COVID impacting journey times, driver shortages and going back to 2020 when the French shut the border and we had trucks held up in Kent,” said John.

“The increase in trucks is really positive for us and part of that is down to what has been going on at P&O, but it shows that when traffic needed to cross it shifted straight to the shuttle.”

A lot of work has gone on at Eurotunnel, particularly since the UK left the EU, including the automation of customs declarations, which allows traders and transporters to upload their pre-declaration of goods via the Eurotunnel Border Pass, without a sheaf of papers. Traditional customs control and inspection has also been separated to keep the traffic flowing.

50 | Rail Director | August 2022

There is a lot of interest in growing rail freight through the Channel Tunnel John said: “When the truck arrives at the terminal, we just read the number plate, and from the number plate we get the predeclaration information, which is then sent automatically to HMRC for outbound export control and to the French customs authorities (Douanes) for import controls into France.

“As the truck travels across on the 35-minute

journey from Folkestone to Coquelles the Douanes risk assess the declaration and decide whether they want to inspect that truck or allow it to go on to the destination.”

New facility John added: “We have also built an inland border facility in France, just on the edge of our terminal, so if the Douanes decide they want to inspect a truck it doesn’t get held up on the terminal, it goes to an offsite inland border facility and it is inspected there.

“That works in both directions with a similar process in the UK with the information uploaded to HMRC. “We negotiated with the government to build an in-land border facility at Sevington, near Ashford in Kent, where trucks go for inspection in the UK.” railbusinessdaily.com

Freight

This is just the start, with John full of optimism for the future of freight coming through the Channel Tunnel. An area of particular excitement and enormous potential is the rail freight business. Currently capacity through the Tunnel is divided into four quarters; two of them are for Le Shuttle and two for railway operators.

“There is a lot of interest in growing rail freight through the Channel Tunnel, particularly when you look at the decarbonisation of transport, driver shortages and the cost of fuel,” said John.

“This includes from manufacturing, high-value engineering, food and distribution industries that are looking to improve their carbon footprints and reduce their costs.”

Expanding operation John added: “There is also interest from transport operators, notably the long-distance freight transporters that are running on the European rail freight corridors from the south of Spain, southern France, southern Italy, the Alps, to the North Sea/Channel coast.

“The latter are bringing either multi-modal or piggy-back trailers and transferring them either by ship from the Dutch or Belgian ports or doing a short-haul road freight through the short straight.”

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Eurotunnel Le Shuttle freight is getting involved in that with the Getlink Unaccompanied freight service, which enables transport customers to send unaccompanied trailers through the Tunnel. As of March 2022, more than 1,000 trailers have been carried.

“We’re picking up trucks from depots in Calais, putting a tractor unit on the front of those trailers and taking them across to Ashford and dropping off and then local UK drivers are picking them up and taking them to their final destination,” said John, who says it is working in both directions.

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Rail Director | August 2022 | 51

Freight

“This can cut several thousand kilometres off road journeys and putting the trailers on the train leads to a massive reduction in carbon emissions. It is proving highly sought after and we’re getting lots more enquiries about it.

“We’re working with the government, Network Rail and Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT) to look at how we can provide additional capacity on the UK network to accommodate more freight trains.”

Transformation of rail John hopes the fallout of COVID, which has changed working and commuting patterns, will open up opportunities for rail freight.

“There is an awakening interest in running more rail freight, so we’re trying to tap into that and encouraging industry to move in that direction,” he said. “It ticks so many boxes, the only thing really holding it back is the lack of government investment to upgrade the lines.

“It is becoming easier to justify the overall business case because of the benefits. There are lines that you can use with specific wagon types on if you’ve got really low loading wagons when you can put bigger loads on them and still get under most of the bridges and through the tunnels, but there aren’t very many of these specific types of wagons that would be able to carry heavy, large loads.

“To keep growing things we need to enhance the infrastructure, making it easier to run all the wagon types, and the dream goal would be to run continental scale trains through the UK network, allowing bigger trains to run to our manufacturing and distribution centres in the midlands and the North.

“At the moment we are in a happy coincidence

52 | Rail Director | August 2022

where all the factors are pointing in the direction of the move to rail – it is more economical, more environmentally friendly, works out better on driver utilisation, it removes congestion from the roads and it gives better guaranteed end-to-end times for long distance.

There is an awakening interest in running more rail freight, so we’re trying to tap into that “It’s a good moment to be pushing for this and there are a lot of people across the different parts of the industry both the shippers and

hauliers and the factories, the supermarkets, the express parcel operators, all looking in the same direction now.”

John says the conditions are aligned, but the key to fulfilling that potential is planning now for the delivery for something that will be there when the economy is back in full swing.

“The transition to GBR at this moment in time is a brilliant opportunity to take account of this new set of parameters, this new model that we are working in where the environment is so important, decarbonisation is so important in transport and all of the government policies point to decarbonisation, build back greener, levelling up, reducing congestion,” he said.

Looking ahead John added: “All of those things play into a properly developed rail freight network and greater use of rail alongside roads, so to be putting GBR together at the moment allows the organisation to develop in a fit for purpose, fit for the future kind of structure and the conversations we’ve had with them have been very positive. Rail freight is definitely part of the picture.

“A decade down the line, in terms of rail freight I’d like to see three or four times as much rail freight traffic going through the tunnel, to have built capacity and to have the connections upgraded to the rest of the network north of London. It would be great to have a sustainable, efficient rail freight business spreading out from the Channel Tunnel to all destinations in the UK and Europe.

“Long-distance rail freight has got to be one of the most environmentally friendly combined with fast ways of moving goods. There are some real opportunities there and we need to work now to ensure we capitalise.” railbusinessdaily.com

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Rail to Refuge

Creating the journey to freedom Darren O’Brien, the man behind Rail to Refuge, on his vision to expand the initiative to other forms of transport

I

t was Darren O’Brien who said “if you stand up for what you believe in then amazing things are going to happen”. Southeastern’s retail systems and contracts manager has certainly achieved that with the Rail to Refuge scheme, but now he wants it to expand.

The initiative, first introduced by the train operating company in 2019 and then adopted by all train companies in April 2020, has offered those fleeing domestic abuse, who have been offered a place in refuge anywhere in Britain, the chance to apply for free train travel to escape there, through a partnership with Women’s Aid and the Rail Delivery Group (RDG).

Help where it is needed In its first two years it has provided a critical lifeline to 3,118 domestic abuse survivors – including 874 children – with 64 per cent of those who have used the scheme saying they wouldn’t have been able to travel if the journey had not been paid for.

However, despite the success, Darren is now looking to extend Rail to Refuge across other modes of public transport, to ensure there are no hurdles for those looking to escape a life of domestic abuse. It follows similar calls in the Women’s Aid impact briefing which recommends other modes of transport are also available to survivors at no cost. Visit https://www.womensaid.org.uk/wp-content/ uploads/2021/12/Rail-To-Refuge-ImpactBriefing-Dec-2021.pdf to read the report.

“The needs for survivors fleeing domestic abuse on free transport has not been met as survivors often need to travel by ferry, bus, tram or taxi to get to a train station to then get to the place of refuge,” Darren said. “This is especially true for survivors who are supported by services who are part of Welsh Women’s Aid and Scottish Women’s Aid, as not every refuge is reachable by rail.

“This is something that we need to address because the reality of people in abusive relationships is that they don’t have access to cash, which is a huge barrier to them escaping.”

Rail to Refuge came about after Darren watched a Dispatches documentary called ‘Safe at Last’ about Reigate and Banstead Women’s Aid. Moved by what he saw and the fact the financial burden of the cost of tickets to travel to a safe refuge was a hurdle many victims struggled to overcome, he decided to do something about it.

54 | Rail Director | August 2022

Darren said: “Once a domestic abuse survivor has a confirmed space at a refuge, the refuge books a ticket on their behalf through dedicated persons at National Rail Enquires.

We can help bring an end to domestic abuse and enable survivors to take the path to the freedom that they so desperately crave “This can be an e-ticket on the person’s phone or a paper ticket that can be picked up from the station. Collection is done discreetly allowing survivors to board a train without having to explain their situation to others. The subject of domestic abuse is still associated with taboo and shame, so this helps to further support victims without stigmatising them.”

The initiative was initially piloted by Southeastern, the train company he worked for, and with the support of Women’s Aid and RDG it was rolled out across Britain.

“Rail to Refuge is a truly life-saving scheme and hearing from one survivor how this initiative helped them escape a life of abuse and rebuild their life was truly inspiring and highlighted to me how the right help and support brings hope, the hope of a new beginning without the fear of abuse,” said Darren.

Path to freedom Darren added: “By working together, we can help bring an end to domestic abuse and enable domestic abuse survivors to take the path to the freedom that they so desperately crave.

“By taking a stand together we will be united in our efforts to help to ease the pain, suffering and economic barriers of many domestic abuse survivors as well as help to save the lives of many.

“Do not make the path to freedom out of reach to those who want to escape a life of domestic abuse. Instead, make the right decision and join forces with Women’s Aid to build longlasting partnerships so that the barriers for buying a ticket of paying for travel are removed completely. It is not every day you get the chance to save a life.” railbusinessdaily.com

Rail to Refuge

In March last year Darren was one of several involved in the initiative, alongside Charlotte Kneer, chief executive officer of Reigate and Banstead Women’s Aid; Farah Nazeer, chief executive of Women’s Aid; and Seb Gordon, director of external communications RDG; to meet with Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall to discuss Rail to Refuge.

He said: “Everyone can play a role in ending domestic violence and the next step is to replicate this scheme across wider forms of public transport – buses, trams, taxis, ferries.

“Reaching out to Women’s Aid and forming long-lasting partnerships with them shows your support for those suffering at the hands of domestic abuse.

“By choosing freedom you are removing barriers and helping to bring an end to domestic violence. You can stand proud knowing the route to freedom is one that you facilitated so that countless lives can be saved and will enable women, children and men to start new, safe lives away from abuse.”

Women’s Aid recently launched the ‘Come Together to End Domestic Abuse’ campaign, which aims to show the difference that can be made when different parts of society step up together and do what they can to end abuse.

Visit womensaid.org.uk/come-together-to-enddomestic-abuse/ for more details.

If you are worried that your partner, or that of a friend or family member is controlling and abusive, go to womensaid.org.uk for support and information, including Live Chat, the Survivors’ Forum, The Survivor’s Handbook and the Domestic Abuse Directory. Live Chat is open from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 6pm on weekends for confidential expert support from specialised support workers.

ickets can be booked by member services T of Women’s Aid Federation of England (WAFE) (including the Men’s Advice Line, run by Respect), Welsh Women’s Aid (WWA), Scottish Women’s Aid (SWA) and Imkaan (the UK’s umbrella organisation dedicated to addressing violence against black and minoritised women and girls).

E mail railtorefuge@womensaid.org.uk to get involved with the Rail to Refuge initiative

KEEPING YOUR TRAINS ON TRACK

railbusinessdaily.com

Rail Director | August 2022 | 55

Innovation

Falling short and costing the earth

Mike Ward, associate technical director at Arcadis, writes about the importance of looking at the ways energy is used, retained and lost

W

hen it comes to environmental goal setting, Britain’s railways are ahead of the global game.

Network Rail’s ambitions for its infrastructure look beyond embodied carbon to whole-life carbon assessments by 2027. It wants to be the first railway organisation in the world to limit emissions from all its operations to a 1.5°C warming scenario, aiming to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2045 in Scotland and 2050 in England and Wales.

Any property-owning organisation, like Network Rail, that is serious about carbon reduction needs to aim beyond the mechanistic improvement in EPC rating and look at the way energy is used, retained, and lost. This takes an organisation to go beyond mere buildings and their forms to look at the requirements of staff and customers in the context of behaviours, pedestrian flows, choices, and tolerance. The impact of any building on its environment cannot arguably be measured without it. As real impact comes under greater and greater scrutiny, so the drive to get this right intensifies, and this is acute for infrastructure buildings with relatively lengthy design lives.

Raising standards There are of course established performance standards for buildings, with ratings against BREEAM and international standards like LEED. However, the traditional process has been to design a building using these historically informed standards and targets, simulating the performance of the developed building design, then trying to address the excessive demands with expensive and resource-intensive ‘bolt-on’ renewable energy technologies.

This process leads to a belief among clients that energy efficient buildings are more expensive to construct than conventional ones, which in turn leads to cost pressures or design compromises. The National Audit recently reported that 80 per cent of public buildings are failing to meet decarbonisation targets.

However, the building physics discipline offers a design service beyond the industry standard outcomes, which have become reliant on routine bolt-on systems, low or zero carbon (LZC) equipment, and resource-intense renewable technologies to meet historic or future based targets.

56 | Rail Director | August 2022

It is a rarely acknowledged truth that a station is always going to have more influence on its catchment than a town hall A multi-disciplinary group working towards common goals results in buildings that are capable of meeting targets from the outset, and therefore do not require excessive investment to become net zero through expensive alterations and bolt-on energy and resource-dependent solutions – which themselves are maintenanceintensive mechanisms often requiring disruptive interventions.

Although buildings with long-established uses – like stations – may have lagged when it comes to new approaches to carbon reduction, many examples of getting this right exist when designing buildings for new functions.

Datacentres, galleries, and other such purposespecific facilities have very specific energy demands driven by the need to maintain target air temperatures and moisture levels.

Building optimisation As long ago as 2012, Citibank opened a 27,000 square metre home for its servers in Frankfurt. Here, building physicists made detailed operational models of the building and associated systems to expedite the design process, inform building orientation and spatial configuration, and optimise the integration of system and building features such as external envelope, fenestration shading, and free cooling strategies. railbusinessdaily.com

Innovation

This timely intervention and improved design participation reduced the building’s energy requirement by 30 per cent – all calculated as part of the design. This has become an exemplary flagship example for the industry and pioneering, including elements of the transport sector – for example Arcadis’ design for the replacement Leicester St Margaret’s bus station.

Digital twin As well as inputting in an appropriate way and at the appropriate time into new designs for new or existing buildings, building physicists acting as a trusted advisor to building designers, architects and rail industries bring a holistic view to rail, especially when they can draw on wider discipline expertise. Organisations with wide portfolios, such as Arcadis, can apply building physics to build digital twin models from actual power and energy data – or little or no data.

Owners can then confidently predict the impacts quantitatively against cost, to find the needed ‘wins’, defining and justifying decision makers’ budgets.

It is a rarely acknowledged truth that a station is always going to have more influence on its catchment than a town hall. Entering or leaving a place via a building that is clearly in tune with

its environment, knowing that despite servicing heavy-duty transportation it is a net carbon reducer, can only inspire efforts to keep up and contribute. It is time for rail stations to not just

catch up, but to set the agenda. With the right expertise and a carefully applied science, it is possible today to create the most impactful and dramatic showcases for the future.

Can analysis help solve questions in rail?

By Trevor Cave, C Eng

M

athematical tools such as operations research, simulation and modelling are well known amongst practitioners in rail analytical studies. But are industry executives and managers aware of their capabilities?

Modelling and studies can fit usefully between the cheap, 99

informed hunch and more costly, full-scale trials. Analytical approaches are well established and are now essential in sectors such as defence, aerospace, utilities and even hi-tech sport.

One example in the rail sector could be a model of the trade-off between the use of ticket barriers and on-train inspection for revenue

Percentage found of invalid tickets Percentage of invalid tickets detected

98 97 96 95 94 93 92 91

50% Insp.

Barriers at 80%

55% Insp.

85%

60% Insp.

90%

65% Insp.

95% of stations

protection. Naturally, the effects will vary from line to line, and between rural stations and urban termini.

Probability analysis can establish the relative importance of accurate ticket inspection at all stages of a journey. In this hypothetical example, using reasonable input assumptions, increasing the number of barriers by 15 per cent or more results in the detection of 3.8 per cent additional defaulters, while 15 per cent more inspectors yield only a two per cent increase in detection.

Adding or enhancing the barriers, therefore, seems to have a more powerful effect.

Incorporating the cost of the additional barriers or inspectors can generate an overall Measure of Effectiveness (MoE) of the ‘value of lost revenue recovered per unit cost of enhanced measures’. The MoE would be different for each

individual measure and could identify key priorities.

This illustration demonstrates the potential for analytical support, especially regarding new concepts, where knowledge is not yet established and might be expensive to discover.

Analysis and modelling could also cover new approaches for railcrack detection, station security or new system inspection regimes.

Analytical studies can also be useful to rail suppliers, contractors or manufacturers, estimating the value and feasibility of new systems or modes of operation.

Trevor Cave began analytical studies and mathematical modelling in industry in 1978. Cave and Associates was first accredited as a consultant to government in 1989. (cave.assoc@ntlworld.com; Tel: 01223 514848)

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Rail Director | August 2022 | 57

International News

Latin America’s first fully automated metro line ViaQuatro has successfully begun full operation of São Paulo’s entire Metro Line 4 with Siemens Mobility’s Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) signalling.

Since its first stretch opened in 2010, it has been the first fully automated metro line in South America that can operate with GoA 4, the highest grade of automation that allows trains to be automatically operated.

Alstom training partnership with Azerbaijan University Alstom has launched its training centre in partnership with Azerbaijan Technical University, one of the main educational institutes for training specialists in the railway industry. This programme is the first of its kind in the country and will kick off with a group of 20 students in October.

Hitachi digitally connects Genoa’s entire transport network H itachi Rail has digitally connected public and private hire transport across an entire city.

The milestone has been achieved using technology from Hitachi’s new smart mobility suite, Lumada Intelligent Mobility Management.

In the launch programme – in Genoa, Italy – Hitachi has connected 663 buses, 2,500 bus stops, the metro line used by 15 million people a year, two funiculars, one historic hillside railway, 10 public lifts and two suburban bus routes that span 50km. Users also have the power – via the touch of a button on their mobile phones – to hire an electric car, pay for parking or find an e-moped.

As part of the world-first trial,

Image: Hitachi

News in Brief

Hitachi’s 360Pass smart ticketing app has eradicated the need to purchase a traditional paper ticket ever again; or to ‘touch-in’ or download multiple apps for different transport services.

The 360Pass connects Bluetooth sensors that know when a passenger with the mobile app has boarded, how far they

have travelled and when they disembarked. Users can take multi-modal journeys, but the 360Pass system will ensure they only pay the best possible fare at the end of each day.

The 360Pass app offers more personalised information about public transport journeys, including the fastest and most convenient multi-modal route options and realtime journey updates.

It also allows passengers to check how busy bus services are through the app, enabling them to choose less crowded services.

This feature can help allay the increased anxiety about crowding post-pandemic, which a recent independent study found to be the second biggest determinant of passenger satisfaction.

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International News

orking with operator Havelländische Eisenbahn (HVLE), Knorr-Bremse is equipping a freight train with an automation system that will support automated brake testing.

At the same time, KnorrBremse is producing the first prototypes of its own Digital Automatic Coupler.

Both innovations are being systematically prepared for market launch as part of a package of rail freight solutions.

Dr Nicolas Lange, chairman of the management board of KnorrBremse Rail Vehicle Systems and responsible for the development activities, said: “The key to shifting freight to rail is to digitalise and automate the rail freight sector in Europe, which still largely depends – for the time being, at least – on manual operations.

“With our current initiatives for developing new automation functions, as well as our DAC prototypes, we’re showing that we lead the field when it comes to producing the key innovations that will make rail freight substantially better, more efficient and more competitive over the next few years.”

Knorr-Bremse’s Freight Control automation system comprises a new kind of electronics that combines centralised railcar intelligence with innovative sensor

Image: Knorr-Bremse

Knorr-Bremse tests new function and News in Brief builds DAC prototypes for Europe W

technology for the braking system.

Because the train is not yet fitted with DACs, so does not have a train-wide data bus, the data signal for the brake testing system is transmitted wirelessly. The train will be retrofitted starting in 2023 and is due to go into service in 2024.

The trial aims to deliver valuable insights into the potential benefits of automated brake testing for rail freight in general.

Today, the brakes on the 500,000 or so freight cars in the EU are still manually tested by rail yard personnel, so brake testing is an exceptionally time-consuming step in the set-up process. Once testing can be carried out from the driver’s cab using, for example, a handheld tablet, it will help ensure that freight trains are ready for departure significantly faster.

Knorr-Bremse will take advantage of this trial to further accelerate the development of its train automation system. As well as automated brake testing, this will include other functions such as train composition recognition, train integrity monitoring and an electropneumatic brake control system.

Together with the DAC, this will result in a package of tightly interconnected solutions for digital freight trains. And thanks to Knorr-Bremse’s active involvement in the Europe’s Joint Rail Undertaking (ERJU), the package will be interoperable, meaning fully compatible with all operators’ systems and fleets. Consequently, it will help dramatically improve the process efficiency and competitiveness of the rail industry as a whole.

CAF Signalling commissions new remote control system at the Bilbao CTC CAF Signalling, a technological subsidiary of the CAF Group specialising in Railway Signalling Systems, has commissioned a new ADIF Remote Controller for Circulation, the Bilbao CTC of the Metric Width Network.

First European trial for multi-award-winning AIVR technology Intelligent video specialist One Big Circle has successfully conducted European trials in Lithuania, working with LTG Link, part of Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (LTG) group, to deliver a proof-of-concept project. The objective was to capture and assess video data from LTG’s in-service fleet using One Big Circle’s multi-award winning AIVR (Automated Intelligent Video Review) technology.

Alstom JV wins Hong Kong people mover contract C R RC P uzh e n A l s to m Transportation System Co. Limited, Alstom’s Chinese joint venture, has signed a contract with Airport Authority Hong Kong. They will provide operation and maintenance services for an integrated Automated People Mover system on the T2 Line linking Hong Kong International Airport’s Terminal 2 Concourse and Terminal 2.

Mike SURVEY CONSULTANCY LTD Chartered Land and Engineering Surveyors

railbusinessdaily.com

Rail Director | August 2022 | 59

Safety

‘Britain’s railways remain safe’ Rail Safety and Standards Board annual report demonstrates positive safety record, despite challenges faced during lockdown

B

ritain’s independent rail safety body has said that the increased passenger and freight levels mean there is an even greater motivation to maintain rail’s safe and green credentials.

RSSB made the statement as it published its latest annual health and safety report for Britain’s railways, covering the last financial year 2021-22.

While the COVID pandemic meant the year started quietly, by March 2022 passenger traffic increased 160 per cent on the previous year.

Britain’s railways continue to demonstrate high levels of safety, performance and success, and have shown an ability to adapt quickly to changing circumstances, said RSSB, delivered thanks to high levels of professionalism and capability from boardroom to the frontline.

However, emerging risks mean that industry needs to stay fully united and focused on safety, to ensure Britain’s railways remain among the safest in the world. This is made even more important as more people rediscover train travel for commuting, business and leisure travel, the latter emerging as a distinct growth opportunity.

A new mindset The pandemic saw changes in public attitudes to risk, particularly at level crossings and the platform-train interface, according to RSSB. Greater numbers of people owning dogs, discovering country walks, combined with an interruption in regular public transport use, has seen more people taking chances at crossings and on stations.

60 | Rail Director | August 2022

The rail industry now has a golden opportunity to modernise, adapt and improve its service for passenger and freight customers Among a range of incident learning and data trends, experts at RSSB have also pointed to

asset integrity, workforce trackside safety and signals passed at danger (SPADs) as key areas in this year’s report.

Positive results are being achieved through industry’s collaborative efforts. The ‘Leading Health and Safety on Britain’s Railway’ is industry’s shared strategy that focuses on the key risks and challenges.

Safety first In the past year, new insights and resources on trackworker safety, freight train derailment prevention, and health and wellbeing have become available, and can now be applied by teams and operators across the network.

RSSB’s director of system safety and health Ali Chegini said: “Our annual health and safety report 2021-22 shows Britain’s railways remain safe, despite the challenges the rail industry faced during lockdown and recovery.

“The rail industry now has a golden opportunity to modernise, adapt and improve its service for passenger and freight customers, while retaining focus on the safety and health of everyone involved.

“For our part at RSSB, we will continue to help the rail industry become healthier, more efficient and safer together. Our members and funders can always count on us for support in helping bring that to life, with innovative new tools, shared expertise, standards and data analysis.” railbusinessdaily.com

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Heritage

Heritage railways launch ‘Love Your Railway’ nationwide campaign

More than 70 heritage railways organisations from across the UK have joined forces this summer

62 | Rail Director | August 2022

“We’re really proud to back this campaign and look forward to seeing many more rail organisations get involved.”

The six themed weeks are: history, conservation, partnerships, family, volunteers and education. Throughout the campaign heritage railways are encouraging visitors and supporters to get involved and share photos and memories of their visits on social media using #LoveYourRailway

Image: Charlotte Graham

22,000 volunteers and more than 4,000 paid employees keep the UK’s heritage railways on track, highlighting the significant role railways played through the industrial revolution.

Stephen Oates, chief executive at The Heritage Railway Association, said: “In 2021 Love Your Railway secured collaborations from as far afield as Cornwall, Suffolk, North Wales, North East Scotland and Northern Ireland, with more than 50 heritage railway organisations taking part.

Image: Charlotte Graham

istory, conservation, partnership, family, volunteers and education are the themes to be highlighted by heritage railways across the UK in a summer campaign.

More than 70 organisations have joined forces to raise awareness of the importance of heritage railways as a tourism destination, educating and telling the story of Britain’s railways, while also providing local jobs and volunteer community engagement.

It is being spearheaded by the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR). Chris Price, general manager, said: “Last year we were completely blown away by the response to Love Your Railway – to have more than 50 heritage railways taking part in the campaign’s first year (in 2021) shows the incredible support and solidarity running through the sector.

“The aim is simple – there are more than 150 operational heritage railways, which protect, conserve and bring to life part of the nation’s rich cultural heritage, giving enjoyment and learning to thousands of people every year, and we want to do all we can to raise awareness of every heritage railway across the country.”

Love Your Railway is a six-week campaign that started last month and runs until 4 September, with weekly themes covering conservation, education and research. NYMR and its fellow heritage railways from across the UK carry more than 13 million passengers each year over 560 miles of railway line, and contribute £400 million in economic impact.

Image: Charlotte Graham

H

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Rail Director | August 2022 | 63

Movers and Shakers

K

eltb r a y Rail ha s appointed Dave Speakman as engineering director with managing director responsibilities for the Wentworth House Rail Systems Limited (WHRSL) overhead line electrification (OLE) design office based in Preston Brook.

WHRSL was established in 2012 to provide consultancy, design and development for OLE in rail infrastructure.

Since then, WHRSL has developed exceptional OLE design experience, having worked on major projects both within the UK and Australia such as Crossrail, West Coast Mainline Power Upgrade, GWRM, Great Eastern, Norwich Victoria Sidings, TRU and MTMS2 (Australia).

Dave is a civil engineer by profession with design/ construction and engineering m a n a g e m e nt e x p e r i e n ce spanning a 33-year career within the rail electrification industry.

LNER appoints first female engineering director D

r Linda Wain has been appointed London North Eastern Railway’s (LNER) engineering director.

Dr Wain, who has been head of engineering and assurance at LNER for five years, will oversee all aspects of LNER’s fleet, future procurement and major engineering projects such as the adoption of digital signalling to ensure customers receive the world-class, punctual service that customers expect from LNER. She said: “I’m delighted to be taking up the role of engineering director at LNER, and in doing so following in the footsteps of many great people who have worked in the business in the past. Ensuring that our fleet is well maintained and is constantly improved to take advantage of new technology is incredibly important as we look to deliver an exceptional experience to our customers.

“I’m also pleased to be the first female engineering director at LNER, and I hope to use my position to challenge perceptions

Image: LNER

Keltbray appoint new engineering director

and encourage more young women to consider engineering as a worthwhile and rewarding career.”

Dr Wain brings with her 30 years of experience in various roles in rail, in engineering, reliability improvement, fleet and depot management. She has previously worked at the Royal Air Force and Ford Motor Company.

David Horne, managing director

at LNER, said: “Linda is already an incredibly inspiring leader within our business and I’m confident that she will use her considerable expertise to successfully drive forward our exciting portfolio of engineering projects.

“She brings a huge amount of passion and energy to her role and I am delighted she will be leading our engineering team.”

ail depot safety specialist, FirstClass Safety & Control, has added two new members to its team as project orders continue to come in thick and fast.

Tony Blacker and Kirsty Light have joined FirstClass as new project orders are coming in from both the UK and overseas, including New Zealand and the Middle East.

Control systems design engineer, Tony Blacker, will oversee the design of FirstClass’s flagship Rail Depot Protection and Control Systems.

64 | Rail Director | August 2022

Kirsty Light

Image: FirstClass Safety & Control

R

Finance and administration executive, Kirsty Light, will oversee the day-to-day finance and admin with a focus on

overall cost efficiency together with the provision of quality management information – such as spearheading the paper-free initiative.

Mark Meyrick, director of FirstClass Safety & Control said: “Tony & Kirsty have joined us at a pivotal time in the growth of FirstClass as we continue to win project orders from both home and overseas markets.

“They both stood out as excellent candidates and I am really looking forward to working with them as part of “Team FirstClass”. The only issue we

Tony Blacker

Image: FirstClass Safety & Control

The FirstClass recruits helping with business growth

have now is one of space, a nice problem to have and one that will be resolved over the next month or so, watch this space.” railbusinessdaily.com

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Movers and Shakers

James Bain the new Rail Supply Group chair ames B ain has been appointed the new chair of the Rail Supply Group (RSG) following Philip Hoare’s decision to step down after four years in the role.

James, the CEO of Worldline UK and Europe, has worked in the rail industry for more than 23 years both industry-side with Virgin Trains and Arriva Cross Country and supply-side with Worldline.

Through this time James has worked closely with Rail Delivery Group, Rail Safety and Standards Board, Network Rail, multiple TOCs, Department for Transport and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

James has also been a member of the RSG Council since 2018

Image: Rail Supply Group

J

and previously led its work in the area of data and mobility.

He said: “I am delighted and humbled to be asked to take on the role of chair for the Rail Supply Group. It has been a privilege to work with Phillip over the past four years through the delivery of commitments made in

the Rail Sector Deal and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his stellar commitment to our industry.

“I look forward to building on Philip’s work in ensuring the Rail Supply Group plays a central part in the future of the railway through the creation and implementation of Great British Railways.

“The bi-centennial anniversary of the historic Locomotion service from Stockton to Darlington is almost upon us; private sector innovation partnered with public sector delivery will ensure the railway will be fit for the next 200 years.”

Anna Ince, the current vicechair, will be continuing in her role and said: “It has been a

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pleasure and a privilege to work with Philip and I am very much looking forward to working with James as the Rail Supply Group moves forward to address the rail industry’s challenges.”

James will be taking forward the RSG’s programme of work, which is focusing on the following five priorities: elivering the Williams-Shapps D Plan for Rail; Increasing customer revenues; ddressing unit costs and A inflation; I ncreasing strategic supply chain resilience; S u s t a i n a b i l i t y decarbonisation.

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Movers and Shakers

Arriva picks new mainland Europe MD ian Leydon has been appointed by Arriva to be its managing director for Mainland Europe.

Sian has been on Arriva’s management board since March 2021. At that time, she had joined the business as chief transformation officer, responsible for evolving the strategic vision of the Arriva Group, including across Europe.

As managing director for Mainland Europe, Sian will oversee the leadership of Arriva’s presence in 10 European countries: Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Slovakia and

Image: Arriva

S

Slovenia.

She will undertake responsibility for leading and supporting the teams to innovate and deliver modern and safe passenger transport services. She will also

facilitate collaborative working with clients and commissioning bodies, governments and Arriva’s supply chain to assist the transition towards low-emission mobility to help address environmental challenges.

Sian said: “Our vision at Arriva is to help shape a future where passenger transport is the best choice, so that we can play our part in creating a more sustainable future for generations to come.

“Working in partnership with our client authorities to deliver increasingly more sustainable transport solutions is fundamental to achieving that vision, but from

a social perspective delivering af fordable, reliable, and accessible transport services are also key.

“I am excited to work with our teams across Europe to drive that agenda forward.”

Prior to joining Arriva, Sian held executive leadership positions at Sydney Water Australia for more than four years, including leading customer, strategy and regulation where she led the long-term strategy and transformation of the business.

She also led frontline operations and customer service during a time of unprecedented operational challenges.

T

he Hub has welcomed Kelly Barlow to its senior leadership team as director in its transport advisory business.

Across the past two years Kelly was an associate of The Hub, leading advisory engagements with the Department for Transport, including on Operator of Last Resort and within the co-ordination and planning (CAP) Team.

She also worked with the

Great British Railways Transition Team advising on a range of rail reform-related projects.

A statement from the organisation said: “As a previous HR director and bid director for Stagecoach Rail, Kelly joins The Hub at an exciting time and period of growth.

“She brings a wealth of rail commercial expertise and coupled with her extensive (22-

Image: The Hub

Kelly Barlow joins The Hub’s senior leadership team as director

plus years) experience in railway operations and her outstanding

reputation for quality delivery and leadership, we look forward to bringing her expertise to new and existing clients.

“In joining, Kelly will provide leadership and business support to The Hub while also leading delivery on client engagements.

Outside of her activities with The Hub, Kelly will continue to develop her successful coaching business.”

Several leadership appointments for RIA T

he Railway Industry Association (RIA) North, which represents more than 150 rail businesses based across the North of England, has announced David Maddison as its new vicechair and several appointments to its leadership group.

David, who undertakes the role of regional director (North) within Alstom’s Digital, Infrastructure and Systems (D&IS) business unit, will work with RIA North chair Justin Moss to set the strategic direction of the group.

68 | Rail Director | August 2022

David is a Chartered Project Professional and a Fellow of the Association of Project Management, with more than 20 years’ experience of delivering complex multi-disciplinary projects within the rail environment.

RIA North’s leadership group also welcomed several new faces, including: J ason Marbeck, commercial

director at AmcoGiffen; E mma Pattison, portfolio lead major projects (rail) at Jacobs;

avid Westcough, senior D consultant at Atkins; Richard Sykes, CEO at Rowe Hankins; D an Lee-Bursnall, CEO at

Incremental Solutions; Stirling Kimkeran, director at Classone Systems.

They will join the current group, consisting of: innovation lead David Taylor; decarbonisation lead Julie Carrier; and value for money lead Ken Kyle.

David said: “It is a pleasure to

join the RIA North leadership group and I am proud to be appointed vice chair. It is an exciting time for rail in the North, with significant investment through the Integrated Rail Plan and plans for intracity transport across the various combined authorities.

“However, there are also some real challenges for the rail industry, whether that is uncertainty of promised investment, delivering the full benefits of HS2 or continued efforts to decarbonise and drive innovation on the railways.” railbusinessdaily.com

Decarbonisation and Digitalisation has the potential to bring significant benefits to the rail and broader logistics community and are the driving forces for Transformation.

If you would like to discuss how we can support your transformational change journey, please contact us www.konceptrail.com

+44 (0) 7494 098566

enquiries@konceptrail.com

A n d f i n a l l y. . .

Dorothy makes history HS2 is celebrating the first bore of the one-mile tunnel under Long Itchington Wood

A

2,000-tonne tunnel boring machine (TBM) has become the first tunnelling breakthrough on Europe’s largest infrastructure project HS2; completing its one-mile dig under Long Itchington Wood in Warwickshire.

Named Dorothy, after Dorothy Hodgkin, who in 1964 became the first British woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the TBM started its journey at the tunnel’s north portal in December 2021, breaking through the wall of the reception box at the south portal site late last month.

HS2 Ltd’s chief executive officer Mark Thurston said: “This is a historic moment for the HS2 project, and I’d like to congratulate everyone involved in delivering it. The 400strong team, including tunnelling engineers, TBM operators and the construction workers at both portal sites, have pulled out all the stops to achieve this fantastic milestone.

“This milestone demonstrates the significant momentum behind Britain’s new zero carbon railway, creating thousands of jobs and apprenticeships, along with hundreds of opportunities for businesses right across the country, helping fuel our economic recovery.”

70 | Rail Director | August 2022

The expert tunnelling team working for HS2’s main works civils contractor Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV JV) worked around the clock in shifts for seven months to operate the TBM, which has put 790 concrete rings in place, with each ring made from eight two-metre-long segments.

Creating both bores of the tunnel, the machine is removing around 250,000 cubic metres of mudstone and soil, which is being transported to the on-site slurry treatment plant where the material is separated out before being reused on embankments and landscaping along the route.

Dorothy has made history, becoming the first TBM to safely and successfully breakthrough along the route

Reducing impact A 254-metre-long conveyor at the north portal site, which takes the excavated material over the Grand Union Canal, removes the equivalent of around 30,000 HGVs from local roads, reducing impacts on the local community and cutting carbon.

Balfour Beatty VINCI’s managing director Michael Dyke said: “This is a momentous moment, not only for Balfour Beatty VINCI, but for everyone involved in delivering HS2. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our team, Dorothy has made history, becoming the first TBM to safely and successfully breakthrough along the route.

“With Dorothy’s journey now concluded, I am looking forward to celebrating even more milestones throughout the rest of the year and beyond, as we continue to help build Europe’s largest infrastructure project.”

Over the next four months, the cutterhead and front section of the TBM will be dismantled and transferred back to the north portal, while the bulk of the machine will be brought back through the tunnel. It will be reassembled, ready to launch for the second bore of the tunnel.

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