RailStaff April 2020

APRIL 2020 | ISSUE 266

THE COST OF CORONAVIRUS

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CONTENTS APRIL 2020 | ISSUE 266

KEEPING THE TRAINS RUNNING | 16

GTR COO Steve White is working from home yet the UK’s largest franchise is still running over 2,000 trains a day while keeping staff and passengers safe.

CARRYING ON AND STAYING SAFE | 24

As office workers work from home, and those out and about on the network practice social distancing, RailStaff reviews some of the additional measures being introduced.

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REVERSING BEECHING | 32

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Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has called for some ‘Beechinged’ lines to be reopened – but which ones? The process requires a lot of planning and financial justification.

PROUD TO BE A LOBBYIST | 36

RIA chief executive Darren Caplan delivered this year’s George Ramshaw Curry Memorial Lecture, asking what needs to be done to build world-class rail in the 2020s?

WANT TO BE A TRAIN DRIVER? | 42

Every child wants to be a train driver. Some still want to when they grow up. But what does it take to become one? Read how three successful applicants made the grade.

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T H G I L T O P

| 28 What AVIRUr S N packet?

O y R a p O C R F on you O g T in 5? An H v S 3 a h IR THE CeOct is Coronavirusat about tax? Andould mean to you. d? Wh hat it c What eff rloughe ert explains w fu re a u p if yo tax ex ant and consult

A LAND OF OPPORTUNITY | 44

With a series of major rail projects underway in Australia, railway operations, management and technical staff are making their way to Melbourne in search of a new challenge.

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Staff Contact us: Publisher:

Paul O’Connor

Editor:

Nigel Wordsworth

Production and design:

Adam O’Connor

Matthew Stokes

Track safety:

Colin Wheeler

Advertising:

Asif Ahmed

Craig Smith

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A strange situation

Contact email addresses News: news@rail-media.com Track safety: colin@rail-media.com Pictures: pictures@rail-media.com Adverts: adverts@rail-media.com Subscriptions: manda@rail-media.com Contact details RailStaff Publications, Rail Media House, Samson Road, Coalville, Leicestershire, LE67 3FP. Tel: 01530 816 444 Fax: 01530 810 344

RailStaff’s cover this month not only reflects one of our key stories but also the strange situation many of us are facing every day.

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Steve White sits in front of his French window, with his laptop and a mug of coffee on the table, working from home. He is selfisolating, keeping his distance from fellow workers and the general public, as part of the attempt to stem the spread of Coronavirus, otherwise known as COVID-19.

Yet, as chief operating officer of Govia Thameslink Railway, he is also running a company that still operates over 2,000 train services a day. True, most of them are almost empty - you can see in this issue how one train, Class 717 number 717016, at 1.22pm on Thursday 2 April, had only 22 passengers on board. The train seats 362 and has a total capacity of 943. That’s less than four passengers per car on this six-car unit, making social distancing a reality.

Still, the trains continue to run. Those 22 passengers could have been NHS workers going to a hospital, or returning home, or police officers preparing to start their shift, or even railway signallers and maintenance workers who will keep the next train running, and the next, and the next.

It was a hard lesson to learn for some. In the early stages of the epidemic, people were still crowding into tube trains and onto buses, hurrying to work on their building sites, in their factories, offices and shops.

That’s now mostly stopped. Huge publicity, and the British Transport Police, keep most would-be passengers at home. Key workers

can now drive to their local station along empty roads, park their cars, free of charge, in empty car parks, then walk through empty stations to their empty trains. It’s weird!

But it’s necessary. As I write this, sitting in my back bedroom with the window open and a glorious sunny day outside, it is hard to imagine that over 7,000 people have died from this plague. It’s so bad that I originally typed 5,000, checked, then replaced it with 7,000. By the time you read this, I have no idea what that number will be.

And that’s just in the UK. It’s 85,000 worldwide - even using the blatantly underreported figures from some countries.

That’s equivalent to the entire population of Redditch in Worcestershire, Gosport in Hampshire or Harlow in Essex. Again, no one knows what the final figure will be.

All we can do, all anyone can do, is do our jobs and our duty, try to keep the disease from spreading, and keep the country running. The rail industry has its part to play, behind the scenes, getting workers to work, carrying food and urgent supplies around the country, making sure that life is as normal as possible.

Of course, it is anything but normal. As well as working from home, many rail colleagues have been furloughed while others are sick, some desperately so. Our rail family won’t escape unscathed and our hearts go out to the families of those who have died and of those who may or may not make it.

To all our readers in these troubled times, may your God go with you - and Stay Safe! nigel@rail-media.com FACEBOOK.COM/RAILSTAFF | @RAIL_STAFF | RAILSTAFF.CO.UK

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RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

Sandwiches from LNER go to those fighting hunger Govia Thameslink Railway Suspends Gatwick Express Service Govia Thameslink Railway has temporarily suspended the Gatwick Express service until further notice, in response to a significant fall in passenger numbers at the airport and to help keep other trains running.

Further reductions have also been made to Southern, Thameslink, and Great Northern services, as part of the phased timetable changes agreed with the government to maintain train services for key workers.

Southern and Thameslink trains will continue to serve Gatwick, with more than adequate capacity to satisfy demand.

Govia Thameslink Railway chief operating officer Steve White said: “In this national

emergency, we and the rest of the rail industry are doing everything we can to keep essential services running for key workers on whom we all depend.

“These changes will release our staff to concentrate their efforts on keeping these essential services running. Thameslink and Southern trains will continue to serve Gatwick.

“Let me repeat the core message from our Government and Public Health England: travel only if it is absolutely essential.

“Once again, I want to thank the key workers, the doctors, nurses, police and other emergency workers, for what they are doing for us all. I also want to thank railway colleagues who are working so hard to keep trains running.”

France: TGV used to transport Coronavirus patients A double-deck TGV high-speed train has been used to transport patients sick with Coronavirus from the eastern side of the country to the quieter west.

Twenty patients left Strasbourg on Thursday 27 March to travel to Nantes where the hospitals are less crowded.

They were accommodated on stretchers that had been fastened into the train and were looked after by doctors from Paris during their journey. The train’s buffet acted as the medical centre where any patient who got into trouble could be treated by the on-board staff.

Ten patients were taken from the train in Angers, while the remaining ten continued to Nantes.

In an interview with France 2 television, Dr. Lionel Lamhaut, who is leading the operation alongside French train operator SNCF, said: “The eastern region is now at its peak - every region will experience this over the next few weeks, but at different times. The idea is to take advantage of the lag between regions and to transfer patients from the hard-hit to less-busy areas.”

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In a move to continue support for its suppliers and communities during the Coronavirus outbreak, London North Eastern Railway (LNER) is supplying fresh sandwiches, that would otherwise have been served onboard its trains, to a charity fighting food hunger.

Onboard catering has been temporarily withdrawn and the number of LNER train services reduced as part of the nationwide effort to slow the spread of Coronavirus in the UK. So LNER will provide up to 5,000 sandwiches each week, which will be made and delivered by Bradford-based supplier Tiffin, to the charity FareShare Yorkshire’s centre in Leeds.

FareShare is a national network of charitable food redistributors, which supports almost 11,000 frontline charities and community groups across the UK, including school breakfast clubs, older people’s lunch clubs, homeless shelters, and community cafes.

Claire Ansley, LNER Customer Experience Director said: “Our Catering and Community teams have formed a partnership with FareShare, which is dedicated to fighting hunger by redistributing surplus food. It’s one of many steps LNER is taking to support our suppliers and communities during these challenging times.”

Gareth Batty, FareShare Yorkshire CEO, has welcomed the support: “We’re delighted that LNER’s sandwiches will be put to good use and will be delivered to people who are vulnerable and at risk across Yorkshire.”

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Railway workers make sure vital supplies get through

While passenger services have been cut back due to the Coronavirus epidemic, rail’s freight services have been carrying on regardless.

On the Great Western main line alone, more than 370,000 tonnes of freight have been moved in just one week between west London and Cornwall and into and across Wales to support the economy, the NHS, petrol at the pumps and food in shops.

Network Rail teams have kept the railway open throughout the coronavirus outbreak and have put steps in place to ensure key workers can get to their critical jobs and to move thousands of tonnes of vital supplies by freight.

Reducing the passenger timetable, while keeping a reliable service in operation to get key workers, such as NHS staff, to work, has allowed more freight trains to run to meet demand.

The 370,000 freight tonnes that were moved included 1,200 tonnes every day of food and medicine for shops, 2,000 tonnes every day of tinplate from Llanelli to create food cans and petroleum products from South Wales to keep the railway’s vital supply chain moving. The amount of food being moved on the railway by freight across Wales and between west London and Cornwall has increased by 20 per cent.

Alongside the increases in food shipments, trains have also performed a vital service in removing household waste from major cities, including London.

Rail workers, including Network Rail’s maintenance teams, are listed as key workers by the government and they are working hard to keep other key workers moving and the freight flowing.

Mark Langman, managing director for Network Rail’s Wales and Western region, said: “I am incredibly proud of the role Network Rail teams have played in keeping our railway open for key workers and critical freight supplies.

“Without them we wouldn’t have been able to help the NHS or other emergency staff get to their places of work and we wouldn’t have been able to help keep power stations going, petrol at the pumps, medicines available and vital supplies in our shops.

“It has been a challenge particularly operating and maintaining the railway where colleagues are required in the workplace.

We have had to reduce some of our work to prioritise vital supplies and key workers. We are working closely with government and transport partners and will continue to do so.”

Hull Trains suspends all further services Hull Trains became the first train operator to be a victim of the Coronavirus epidemic as it suspended all services from the end of Sunday 29 March.

The company said that, despite running a revised timetable, the number of people travelling has dropped significantly since national guidance was issued for people to stay at home and stop all non-essential travel.

As an open access operator, ticket revenues are vital for Hull Trains and its business model means it must survive purely as a commercial operation. As one of three open access operators in the country, it has not been offered additional financial support from the government, which franchised rail operators have.

Louise Cheeseman, managing director of Hull Trains, said that suspending services was a difficult decision but it would help to safeguard the future of the business: “We have explored every avenue to try and keep trains running, but sadly it is not currently financially viable to run our services.

“We will continue to review the dynamic situation as it unfolds and we plan to return as a resilient train operator for the city of Hull and East Riding as soon as we can.”

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RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

Infrarail postponed until 2021 Infrarail, the UK’s leading showcase of railway infrastructure technology and expertise, has been postponed following the escalation of COVID-19 in Europe. The exhibition will now be co-located and take place alongside Railtex 2021, the UK’s premier exhibition of railway equipment, systems and services, taking place at the NEC in Birmingham from 11 – 13 May 2021.

The 13th Infrarail exhibition had been planned to take place at London Olympia from 12 to 14 May 2020.

Speaking about the announcement, Nicola Hamann, managing director of Mack Brooks Exhibitions, said: “The health and safety of our exhibitors, visitors and staff is our number one priority. After many weeks closely monitoring the evolving situation around COVID-19, we have decided to postpone the exhibition.

“While it is disappointing to postpone, it is imperative that we prioritise the health and safety of everyone involved. Our goal remains to provide the best customer value for everyone attending Infrarail by delivering a high-quality exhibition in 2021. We believe the decision to co-locate Infrarail with next year’s Railtex exhibition, with the help and support of our partners, will allow us to maximise the potential of both events, uniting the whole rail industry.”

New Direct Award Contract for Southeastern Southeastern has confirmed that the Department for Transport (DfT) has awarded a Direct Award Contract that will allow the franchise to continue operating until 16 October 2021, with the option to extend at the DfT’s discretion until 31 March 2022.

The contract, with Southeastern owners Govia (a subsidiary of the Go Ahead Group (65%) and Keolis (35%)), requires the operator to deliver a range of customer experience improvements during the course of the contract term, including exploring options to boost capacity in the shortterm as additional rolling stock becomes available, and continued partnership with Network Rail to develop a longer-term capacity, rolling stock and punctuality strategy for the Southeastern network beyond 2022.

The new arrangement is a management contract, reflecting the DfT’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, announced on 23 March 2020, removing exposure to changes in passenger demand and costs.

David Statham, Southeastern managing director, said: “We continue to work with our industry partners to ensure that services are available to get people working in healthcare, food and other vital public services where they need to be. When customers are able to begin travelling as normal, we look forward to reconnecting our communities and further improving capacity, performance and customer satisfaction.”

Telent to provide CCTV support for Elizabeth line Telent Technology Services, the leading technology and network services company, has been awarded a five-year contract by Transport for London (TfL) to support and maintain CCTV for London’s new Elizabeth line.

Telent has been maintaining the CCTV system since May 2017, when the eastern section of the line from Liverpool Street to Shenfield opened. The system will enable driver-only operation (DOO) by allowing the train driver to view images from platform cameras on in-cab monitors to ensure the safe departure of the train from the station.

“This contract is important to us and demonstrates our successful and longstanding commercial partnership with TfL,” said Reg Cook, director of asset management at Telent. “We look forward to continuing to play a key role in the development of TfL’s transport network and in the running of this new line.”

The contract will be delivered by Telent’s asset management team, which has over 20 years’ experience managing critical communications assets across TfL and the UK

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national rail and road networks.

News of this new agreement follows closely upon Telent’s recent announcement of a seven-year contract with TfL to manage a wide and complex range of communication assets across TfL’s underground and surface estates.

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Charlene Wallace to lead Network Rail's focus on passengers and customers Network Rail has appointed Charlene Wallace as director for national passenger and customer experience at Network Services.

She brings with her over 20 years’ experience in the public transport sector, having previously held senior board director roles in rail and aviation, including Virgin Trains, and has a strong track record of delivering and leading customer-focused transformation in transport.

Network Services was created in 2019 in response to the Putting Passengers First (PPF) programme to support the routes, regions and functions. The new function provides network operational, freight, telecoms and technical

expertise, as well as coordination of national programmes, initiatives that support Network Rail deliver for passengers and freight customers.

Charlene’s focus will be with customers and passengers. She will be leading the national passenger and customer experience team, which includes both the national stations team and the new ‘passenger information during disruption’ team.

Nick King, director Network Services, said: “Charlene is a welcome addition to our growing team and brings with her a wealth of experience in the rail industry. I believe she is the right person for the role and will help mould and shape the experience for our passengers and customers who use our network daily.”

TPE all change at the top Leo Goodwin has stepped down as managing director of TransPennine Express to pursue other opportunities.

He has held various positions in First Rail since joining in 1999, including key roles in its train operating companies, on its bid teams and in developing the group’s East Coast open access proposition.

Most recently Leo has been managing director of TransPennine Express following FirstGroup winning the franchise in 2015. He successfully launched the new franchise and brand the following year and has overseen the introduction of three new fleets of trains.

However, TPE has had its problems too. The December timetable change found the

firm with insufficient staff and a maintenance backlog that caused a number of train cancellations and upset passengers. At times during the first day of operation, half of TPE’s services were either cancelled or running at least half an hour late.

So this move gives both Leo Goodwin and First Group the opportunity to make a fresh start.

Liz Collins, currently finance director at TPE, will act as the interim managing director whilst a permanent successor is sought.

Rock Rail's Australian team takes shape Investment funder Rock Rail has announced that it will spearhead its entry into the Australian market under the leadership of Jim Eldridge, who joins from the Commonwealth Bank in Australia (CBA).

During his 37-year career at CBA, Jim has been responsible for the origination and financing of multiple large infrastructure transactions, most recently attracting the long-term funding support of leading international institutional investors. His time at CBA has included several senior level secondments in both the

USA and UK and the successful structuring of major financing transactions spanning rolling stock, air and road transport, health, energy and telecommunications.

Jim will be based in Sydney and is returning to Rock Rail having worked with the business in 2016 while on secondment from CBA, when he led negotiations with leading institutional investor organisations to secure the debt funding package for Rock Rail’s successful East Anglia rolling stock deal.

Rock Rail’s entry into Australia builds off its UK experience, offering an innovative and tailored

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alternative for private sector funding of new passenger rolling stock fleets.

Natalia Slavianskaia is also joining the Rock Rail Australia business as commercial project manager. She has over 15 years of rail industry experience, most recently working for Abellio’s Greater Anglia operation where she supported the procurement of Rock Rail’s second UK fleet.

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Former MP joins CPMS board Ben Howlett has joined the board of multi-disciplinary management specialist CPMS as a non-executive director to work closely with the advisory board in a consulting capacity.

The former MP for Bath is no stranger to consultancy. Prior to taking a role in Parliament, he worked alongside the wider public sector and the NHS to provide consultancy support and assisted the Transport Policy team at the Conservative Party research department.

Ben is the managing director of both Dorson West, a publishing company, and policy institute Public Policy Projects, an organisation offering practical analysis and development in public policy reform, roles he will continue whilst being a nonexecutive director at CPMS. Of his new appointment, Ben said: “I am tremendously excited to join CPMS as a non-executive director. CPMS is a successful SME with a proven track record of delivering high quality project management solutions to the UK rail sector. It also boasts over 50 per cent women employees and no gender pay gap and therefore has an extraordinary story to tell the rest of the sector.

“As the first male MP on the UK Parliament’s Women and Equalities Select Committee, diversity is very important to me and I am very much looking forward to working with such a dynamic and exciting team for many years to come.”

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Darren James joins Keltbray as Group CEO Darren James has been appointed as group chief executive officer of Keltbray, the UK specialist engineering services company. He moves from Costain, where he has worked for 30 years, most recently as chief operating officer.

A civil engineering graduate of the University of Surrey, Darren joined Costain as an industrial placement student, progressing through the organisation to the executive board. Prior to his current role, he has held a number of senior positions with significant profit and loss responsibility, including being managing director of the £1billion turnover infrastructure division and an executive board director for 12 years. He therefore has a wealth of experience in leading high profile programmes for both public and private sector clients, often in highly regulated environments, across the UK. Brendan Kerr, Keltbray’s current CEO who is moving over to become executive chairman, said: “I am delighted with this appointment and welcome Darren to the Keltbray Group. He brings with him extensive experience across the key UK construction and infrastructure sectors where we operate.

I look forward to him leading the team, driving growth through long-term client relationships and delivering on the potential that our unique capabilities create.”

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Neil Hannah to chair NCB Network Certification Body (NCB), which provides a system-wide approach to railway assurance and certification on infrastructure, vehicle and freight projects, has announced the appointment of Neil Hannah as chairman, succeeding Tim Dugher.

Neil, a physicist by training, has been working in general management for over 30 years, latterly in the certification, test and inspection business. He is a non-executive director of the British Board of Agrément, which certifies construction products, and has held senior management positions at BSI and Applus, where he managed aspects of inspection and certification in the nuclear, aerospace and oil & gas sectors.

Looking forward to his new role, Neil said: “May I start by expressing my thanks to Tim

Dugher, who has led the board of NCB since its very early days, for the way he has helped it establish itself as a trusted partner in the rail certification sector.

“I join the board at a difficult moment, given the Covid-19 pandemic and all its implications for business and individuals. I am confident however that the NCB will continue to provide the excellent certification service that the industry needs and I look forward to working with colleagues across the whole of the rail industry as we seek to take it forward.”

Sue Kershaw to head up Scott Harrison is new COO transportation at Costain at Permaquip Costain has recruited Sue Kershaw to be the new managing director of its transportation division, where she will be responsible for the highways, rail and aviation sectors. Sue will join the group’s executive board and report to Alex Vaughan, chief executive officer.

Sue is currently president of the Association for Project Management, a member of the

Mayor of London’s Infrastructure Advisory Panel and a Royal Academy of Engineering visiting professor at the Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management, University College London.

She has a strong track record for driving complex, high profile transport and construction programmes to delivery. Before joining Costain, Sue was managing director, Infrastructure Advisory Group at KPMG. Prior to that she was UK infrastructure head of programme management for KPMG Major Projects Advisory.

Previous positions include director of rail, Europe at CH2M and deputy director of transport for the Olympic Delivery Authority. Sue is a civil engineer and started her career with Taylor Woodrow.

DON'T MISS OUT!

Scott Harrison has joined railway equipment manufacturer Permaquip as chief operating officer. He will be based in the Stanton Hill office where he will be overseeing the manufacturing facility, as well as development within the organisation and its global outlets.

Previously group development director at Aspin, Scott has extensive manufacturing experience following a three-year stint with SPX Flow, where he oversaw manufacture of rail products internationally as EMEA commercial director. Prior to this, he spent twelve years with Network Rail and six years at Torrent Trackside, which he joined from Amey Seco.

With 50 years’ experience in the design and manufacture of innovative rail products, including trolleys, stressing kits and personnel carriers, the Permaquip name is synonymous with quality and reliability across the rail industry worldwide.

“I am delighted to join a company who I have known so well, for so long. I have always had a very good relationship with Permaquip, working closely with them during my time at Network Rail especially, and am delighted to be leading this professional and expert team,” said Scott.

“We will continue to work hard to ensure that we deliver the very best equipment to our customers, and there are plenty of exciting and innovative new products on the horizon!”

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New agreement ensures continuity of GWR services until 2023 Train operator First Group has signed a new Direct Award Agreement with the Department for Transport (DfT) to continue operating Great Western Railway (GWR) services until 31 March 2023, with a possible extension of up to one further year at the DfT’s discretion.

This agreement ensures continuity of operation and will run concurrently with the DfT’s previously announced Emergency Measures Agreement (EMA) for at least the first six months. GWR will build on the improvements it has delivered to services over the past five years, with a focus on connecting people and local communities looking to restore normality when the present restrictions on travel due to the coronavirus pandemic are over.

The agreement has a strong emphasis on improving regional connectivity, helping customers return to the railway by making rail a more convenient and environmentally

friendly way to travel. As part of this, GWR will bring additional trains into service to provide thousands of extra seats on regional routes across the network.

There will also be increased funding to improve services for local communities and at

stations, and the introduction of a combination of new flexible ticket products for customers who do not commute to work every day, such as discounted part-time season tickets and the extension of paperless pay-as-you-go schemes.

Father and son work together to improve the railway in Lancashire A father and son duo have been helping Network Rail to upgrade the railway and keep critical supplies and key workers moving across Britain.

Howerd Kernahan, 50, a senior programme manager for Network Rail, and his track worker son Rafael, 18, are part of an engineering team from the Central Rail Systems Alliance (Network Rail, Balfour Beatty and Atkins) that has been improving the Wigan-Kirkby line over three weekends.

Their team laid 1km of new track through the 172-year-old Upholland tunnel, in West Lancashire, using 3,000 sleepers and 3,000 tonnes of ballast in the process, as well as improving trackside drainage. The line is used by both passengers and freight trains moving between Merseyside and Greater Manchester.

Howerd, a former British Army captain from Southport, Merseyside, said: “I strongly believe it is important I’m out there on track leading my team at this difficult time. I feel honoured that my son and I can be part of the wider railway family doing our bit to keep critical supplies and key workers moving in Britain’s hour of need.”

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He added: “Throughout this job we have all worn protective equipment, including masks, and wherever possible have kept two metres between us in line with government social-distancing guidance.”

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NEWS IN BRIEF Railway depot becomes bottling plant

Southern Railway has turned one of its depots into a hand sanitiser bottling plant to meet the needs of colleagues on the front line.

Set up in response to the Coronavirus pandemic in a matter of hours when normal suppliers started struggling to deliver, bulk deliveries of hand sanitiser have been decanted and packed into 1,000 bottles by the team at Horsham Maintenance Depot, ready to be sent on to hubs around the rail network, across Southern, Thameslink and Great Northern. Empty bottles are returned for recycling.

Once decanted the team distributes to locations from Gillingham, Ashford to Barnham, Brighton and London.

Deliveries are also made to Thameslink and Great Northern’s Letchworth distribution team for onward delivery to keep their teams stocked up.

Key workers get free parking at stations

The railway industry is helping key workers by giving them free parking at stations as the country responds to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Nationally, Network Rail has made an arrangement with its parking contractor APCOA so that key workers, from nurses and carers to transport workers and supermarket employees, can park for free at locations across the country, including at London Paddington, Birmingham New Street and York, until 30 April.

Some regions of Network Rail have acted locally as well, with charges removed for key workers at car parks including Manchester Piccadilly and Liverpool Lime Street, and train operators are also responding to the call, including Great Western Railway which has offered free parking to all health care workers using its station car parks.

Luton station staff support local hospital Thameslink railway personnel rallied round to give support following an appeal made by Luton and Dunstable Hospital for food and personal items for staff.

items to donate. Items included toothbrushes, shower gel, sanitary products, shampoo, deodorant, as well as snacks and drinks, which she delivered to the hospital on Monday 30 March along with a thank you card with the names of all those who had contributed.

Eloise, 30, who lives in Dunstable, said: “I saw a post on Facebook from my local hospital and I just wanted to help. Within an hour of speaking to staff at Luton, I had received financial donations as well as people agreeing to bring things in. The response has been overwhelming. Everyone has been amazing, and I am so proud to be part of an incredible railway family.”

The appeal was spotted on social media by Thameslink passenger host Eloise Rowan (pictured), who then spread the word amongst her colleagues and coordinated donations for the hospital. Passenger hosts, ticket gate staff, rail enforcement and revenue protection officers, all based at Luton station, were among those to help.

Within two days, Eloise had eight shopping bags containing nearly 300 food and personal

Registered charity no. 1120447

Former trainee is new director

Stuart Clarke has secured the role of Metro infrastructure director at Nexus - a role which will see him head up all the maintenance and modernisation work on the 77km Tyne & Wear Metro network.

The former trainee joined Nexus in 1997 as an apprentice electrician. Since then, he has gained a degree in engineering and a master’s degree in project management. Now 41, he has finally been able to realise a long-held ambition to take on the responsibility of a senior management job.

He said: “It’s a great moment in my career and I’m very proud to have been appointed into the role.

“This will hopefully show other apprentices at the start of their careers what it’s possible to achieve if they work hard enough.”

Rail workers uncover shrine in ancient cave

Rail workers repairing a landslip repair near Guildford have uncovered a small cave believed to be from the 14th century.

Discovered during work to stabilise and protect the railway embankment, the small sandstone cave may once have been much larger, but only this small piece survived the digging of the railway cutting through the hill in the early 1840s.

Initial findings by a specialist archaeological contractor suggest that it was a medieval shrine or hermitage associated with the early 14th century chapel of St Catherine, the ruins of which are situated on the hill nearby. It may even have earlier origins as a site of cult activity, due to its pre-14th century name of Drakehill - ‘Hill of the Dragon’.

The best is yet to come At Woking Homes, the warmth of our welcome is matched only by the highest standards of care.

When people have worked hard throughout their life and have been committed to helping others, we think they deserve extra cherishing.

We are a railway charity and the only residential facility in the country dedicated to providing residential and respite care primarily for former railway employees and their close family members.

At Woking Homes, we provide a secure, relaxed and homely environment in which the care, wellbeing and comfort of residents are of prime importance. Our philosophy emphasises the individuality of everyone within our home.

Prospective residents are encouraged to visit the home to sample the atmosphere and level of service. Sometimes a short-stay of two or three days can be arranged to “feel the way”.

Please call for a brochure or visit our website to find out more: Telephone: 01483 763558 Email: administration@woking-homes.co.uk Web: www.woking-homes.co.uk

Woking Homes, Oriental Road, Woking, Surrey, GU22 7BE

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14

NEWS

RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

The East Grinstead line reopened on Monday 30 March after it was closed following Storm Ciara on 12 February.

East Grinstead line reopened

Network Rail delivers urgent medical supplies - by road Network Rail turned to road transport to deliver vital medical face masks to the NHS frontline on behalf of the British Army.

Railway workers drove hundreds of miles through the night to deliver two lorry loads of protective medical face masks after Network Rail lent its staff and vehicles for the special delivery from Merseyside to army barracks in Hampshire on Monday night, 23 March.

The railway vehicles carried 22 pallets of face masks from a storage warehouse in St Helen’s to 101 Logistic Brigade at St Omer Barracks Aldershot, ready to be distributed to medical staff treating patients with coronavirus. The 230-mile journey was part of an army logistics operation to provide protective equipment to hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Peter Mitchell, logistics co-ordinator at Network Rail, said: “We’re doing everything we can to help during the coronavirus pandemic, and the team dropped

everything to help the Army and the NHS with this special delivery operation.”

Martin Frobisher, Network Rail’s group director of safety, technical and engineering, added: “Freight services are an integral part of our work to keep food and medicines in shops, but I am very grateful to the team going the extra mile, or 230 miles to be exact, to help the army support our frontline NHS staff in this way.”

The embankment, near Cookspond Viaduct in Surrey, started to slide after being hit by the heavy rains and winds of storm Ciara. Built in Victoria times, it simply didn’t meet modern standards and needed extensive work to make it safe.

Since then, no fewer than five further sites have suffered landslips on the route and Network Rail has been working with BAM Nuttall to repair the line.

Network Rail Southern Region’s managing director, John Halsall, said: “We are returning this railway to use at an absolutely crucial time, with key workers relying on us to get to their jobs.

“It’s been an incredible effort by everyone who has worked on the project to get so far so fast and I am so proud of their work, but we have to be realistic and admit the challenge we face.”

Steve White, Chief Operating Officer at GTR, which runs Thameslink and Southern services, said: “We would like to thank customers for their patience during this essential work. Network Rail really has pulled out all the stops to repair the landslips in this area and I applaud them for their efforts on behalf of the community and the railway.”

Network Rail to support suppliers by paying bills 'immediately' In these troubled times, Network Rail has announced that it is giving thousands of British firms a vital boost to their cashflow by moving to immediate payments for its suppliers. Payment could now be up to seven days quicker for SMEs and up to 28 days quicker for other suppliers.

From Monday 30 March, Network Rail has committed to pay its suppliers immediately, or as close to immediately as possible, following approval of the payment ledger, with the expectation that subsequent payments flow down the supply chain.

Network Rail believes that faster payments will support and strengthen the extensive supply chain that has a key role to play RAILSTAFF.CO.UK | @RAIL_STAFF | FACEBOOK.COM/RAILSTAFF

during this Coronavirus pandemic, ensuring that the railway can continue to get critical medical supplies to hospitals, food to supermarkets, and key workers such as doctors, nurses and police officers to their jobs.

Clive Berrington, Network Rail’s commercial and procurement director, said: “Our priority is to support the supply

chain as much as possible through these unprecedented times. We have therefore moved all our suppliers to immediate payment terms, or as close as you can get following approval of the invoice, and we expect that to flow down to the supply chain.

“Together, we can help to ensure we have a strong supply chain when we emerge from this pandemic.”

RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

NEWS

15

Designers and engineers needed to help solve Covid-19's challenges

With the NHS and other care providers across the world suffering under the pressure of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak, a new project has been launched to unite engineers and designers to help solve some of the epidemic’s challenges.

The Institution of Engineering Designers is calling for engineers and designers to help tackle some of the biggest issues affecting the NHS and care providers, which could include creating a device to enable a frail person to accept a food parcel, the mass production of ventilators or testing surgical

masks after they’ve been sterilised.

Professor Peter Ogrodnik, a biomedical engineer from Keele University’s School of Pharmacy and Bioengineering, is leading this ‘Engineers for the NHS’ project, which will enable engineers, designers and institutions to collaborate on challenges sent directly from the NHS or from other care providers across the world.

An expert in healthcare technologies, Professor Ogrodnik said: “As institutions, we have access to some of the best engineering design minds in the world, many of whom are now at home with time on their hands.

“We are suggesting that they could supply some of their spare time to help solve problems deriving from the Covid-19 outbreak. Clearly, the ventilator shortage is foremost in everyone’s minds, but there are other issues too, many of which can be solved by the collective thoughts of engineers across the world.”

The project has launched a new webpage for engineers to sign up and volunteer, while NHS and care providers can also submit their urgent issues that they need solved online.

The problems the initiative receives will then be filtered through to different groups of engineers across the UK. Libby Meyrick, chief executive officer of the Institution of Engineering Designers, said: “Unless our engineers and designers know of the issue, no solution can be forthcoming. We therefore intend to lead a project that enables all of our members to collaborate on problems sent directly from the NHS or from other care providers around the globe. We would like institutions to enable their engineers to volunteer in this international effort.”

First-class accreditation for FirstClass FirstClass Safety & Control, which specialises in protection and control systems for railway depots, has had a double accreditation success for its own internal systems. It has just been accredited to the latest ISO 45001 standard for health and safety management and ISO 9001 for quality management.

that we deal with daily. We must therefore ensure our compliance, training and knowledge are maintained to the highest standards to meet and, where possible, exceed our customers’ expectations.

“Accreditation to ISO45001 and ISO9001

was a specific objective for 2020 and I am delighted that we achieved this.

Health, Safety and Quality is of paramount importance to FirstClass Safety & Control and is firmly imbedded into our culture and integrated management system.”

Accreditation to ISO 45001 recognises the company’s commitment to workplace health and safety and its efforts to introduce and promote an active health and safety culture amongst employees and the leadership team. The additional award of ISO9001 demonstrates FirstClass’s commitment to customer service and quality in delivery.

FCSC director Mark Meyrick explained: “We work in the rail sector, installing depot protection and control systems, as well as in other critical industries where employee safety and equipment protection are vital.

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16

INTERVIEWS

RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

T

he national emergency sparked by the Coronavirus outbreak has led to extraordinary measures across the railway industry. Govia Thameslink Railway is the largest UK franchise, encompassing Southern, Gatwick Express, Thameslink and Great Northern services. RailStaff spoke to chief operating officer Steve White about its response.

“Sitting here at the beginning of April, I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like this. We are living through unprecedented times in which the rules of normal societal behaviour have shifted seismically,” he began.

“The government has vast swathes of the country’s workforce on lockdown, with only key workers and those with no other choice allowed to travel. We, as an industry, have been identified as key workers ourselves because we have a vital role to play, keeping doctors, nurses, social care, the police and other essential workers moving. It is challenging when our own 7,500-strong workforce is affected by the impact of the virus, but, alongside our industry colleagues, we have risen to the challenge.”

CARING FOR STAFF AND CUSTOMERS Speaking from his home, Steve continued: “The first thing we did at GTR was identify the priorities we have as a business. Most important is the health of our staff and customers. We are fortunate to have our own chief medical officer, who has been able to ensure that the best advice is available throughout for our staff as well as personalised support for those who may have been considered vulnerable with medical complications.

“All Covid 19 information is held in one accessible location and is regularly updated. Colleagues across the business have been brilliant, heeding the advice we’ve been sending out, practicing social distancing at work and generally looking out for one another.

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“To help protect our customers, our 400 train cleaners, at very short notice, stepped up their cleaning regimes, using new, stronger viruscides to focus on surfaces such as grab poles, tables and push buttons. These people are our unsung heroes and I think their effort is outstanding. However, the best advice, which we have pushed out through posters and announcements, is for people to wash their hands thoroughly at the beginning and end of their journeys and avoid touching their faces.

“Out at stations, everyone has been playing their part, wiping down ticket office windows, chip and pin machines – even cleaning the station sign-in pens!

Cleaning the ticket machine at Harpenden.

RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

INTERVIEWS

17

KEEPING THE TRAINS

RUNNING DESPITE REDUCING SERVICES, BRITAIN'S LARGEST TRAIN OPERATOR IS STILL RUNNING 2,160 TRAINS A DAY WHILE KEEPING STAFF AND PASSENGERS SAFE

KEEPING ESSENTIAL SERVICES RUNNING “The second priority has been to create a timetable to meet key workers’ needs, that respects social distancing and considers the effect on our own resources. In simple terms, on

Real-time passenger-loading dashboard from a single Class 717 Moorgate train showing location, temperatures, and passengers on board. At 13:22 on a Thursday in early April, there are just 22 on board.

16 March we moved to a Saturday-base timetable with approximately 800 fewer trains a day, from 3,600 down to 2,800; and then scaled this down further to a Sunday-based timetable a week later, with 2,160 services. In total, that means we’re still currently running around 60 per cent of our normal weekday service.

“The ‘Sunday-plus’ timetable, which is in place as I speak, is so named because it includes around 100 additional early and late trains, that

wouldn’t normally operate on a Sunday, to support NHS staff and other key workers. We identified what was needed by speaking to hospital trusts via the local sustainability and transformation partnerships. We also capitalised on the strong relationships we have built to consult with our rail-user groups, line-of-route MPs, local authorities and business contacts. We contacted around 700 people in all.

“Throughout this revised timetable, we have continued to retain train lengths to maintain space for social distancing.

We also asked Siemens to switch on a newly developed functionality that allows us to review loadings, in real time, on each Class 700 Thameslink and Class 717 Great Northern Moorgate train. With this, we can monitor social distancing on board and refine our service.

“Stations gateline data had already indicated that we had about five per cent of the normal passenger flows. This live data, which is fed from the trains to our Rail Operating Centre at Three Bridges, confirmed this analysis - even in the peak we have trains only loaded to around six per cent capacity!”

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18

INTERVIEWS

RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

LOOKING OUT FOR THE VULNERABLE

“We know this pandemic will affect people’s livelihoods, loved ones and mental health.

Therefore, our third priority is to care for the vulnerable, which includes those in society with suicidal thoughts. Our staff have made 107 life-saving interventions since January, compared to 69 last year. This 55 per cent increase is, in large, partly explained by the improvements we’ve made in training, welfare and reporting, but it’s also a sad reflection of the troubled times we are living through.

“We have a team of specially trained welfare officers supporting rail staff across the network who specifically look for passengers that may be showing signs of stress, and 1,000 of my GTR colleagues have now gone through the Samaritans’ training course.

“We are also supporting our own staff at home. Anyone over the age of 70 has to selfisolate for 12 weeks – even our 84-year-old stalwart station assistant, Siggy, from Elstree & Borehamwood. His colleagues are making regular calls to check on him. I understand he’s bored rigid and waiting for the cricket season to start!

GTR'S CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER Dr Illeana St Claire is a consultant occupational physician and a fellow of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine.

She joined GTR in May 2018 as chief medical officer and is responsible for a team of doctors and health advisers providing clinical work and advice to managers.

She has been keeping all 7,500 staff up to date with the latest advice from Public Health England, providing bespoke information for members of staff who are vulnerable with medical conditions making sense out of what is a complex situation.

She said: “I translate the information from Public Health England, which sometimes may be confusing, and I also coordinate the occupational team to engage in remote assessments and provide extra support – for example we have a dedicated line for employees who are concerned about their medical conditions.”

Dr St Claire is also on the Rail Delivery Group Covid-19 coordination team providing medical advice, for example on the right virus tests required to support the railway.

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Social distancing while pulling cables at Gatwick Airport station.

READY FOR THE BIG RETURN “Our fourth and final priority is to ensure we have a sustainable business, so that, when this pandemic is over, we are ready to support the returning passengers. We signed an Emergency Measures Agreement with the DfT to protect the employment of our people and then ensure our business was sustainable. We are working on activities that can be safely managed now and which will enhance our services in the future – keeping people employed and being ready to help our customers when this is over.

“We are supporting the £150million Gatwick Airport rebuild which, as I speak, continues, and, although it has not been possible to continue with physical work on our £15million Passenger Benefit Fund station improvements, we are focused on completing design work and obtaining Network Rail permission, so that this work can proceed at pace when normal working is possible. One of our first priorities is to install life-saving defibrillators which we have promised for every one of our stations.

“I really want to commend the work of Network Rail. They have kept up the pace, repairing multiple landslips in the High Weald of Kent, reopening the East Grinstead line as the Coronavirus outbreak gathered pace, to bring an end to lengthy bus journeys for the key workers on whom we all rely.

“This pandemic is unprecedented in modern times. What the country is doing is right for its people and what the railway family is doing is right for its staff and those workers in the NHS, social care and emergency services that depend on us.

“I am enormously proud of everything we are doing together and applaud the efforts my colleagues are making, here in GTR and across the industry for other operators, Network Rail and our suppliers. I salute you all.

“Stay safe.”

WORKING AS A TEAM GTR has brought in two new timetables across seven separate routes in just two weeks, maintaining a service for key workers and others who have no choice but to travel.

This has involved many long hours of work from resource and rostering managers plus people across many teams, including train planning, operations, engineering (fleet), stations and customer service, control, customer information, finance, stakeholder and media.

The Rail Operating Centre (ROC) at Three Bridges closed its doors to all visitors very early on in the crisis to minimise the exposure of critical employees to the virus. Network operations director Mike Paterson said: “As a business, we have had to help manage the new timetable introduction twice in the period of two weeks, which has been pretty epic. The size of the network we operate makes this no mean feat, especially factoring in the engineering work that is still going on.

“At the ROC, all non-essential staff, such as the social media team, have been working remotely. The only people here now are those without whom we simply could not operate, incluing colleagues in Network Rail.”

20

TRACK SAFETY

RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

REPORT BY COLIN WHEELER

TWO DIED WHEN THEIR VEHICLE VEERED INTO A PARKED LORRY Colin Wheeler.

THE OFFICE OF RAIL AND ROAD HAS SUCCESSFULLY PROSECUTED ITS FIRST CASE RELATING TO POOR MANAGEMENT OF WOR FATIGUE. HOPEFULLY, IT WILL ALSO BE THE

A

s the details surrounding the death of two railway workers in a road traffic accident were explained in Nottingham Crown Court, it became clear that the driver was both overtired and underage to be driving the vehicle. Colin Wheeler considers the case and says that the industry must learn from this tragedy.

In my experience there are improvements in working safety and practices when a group works together regularly. If work is planned sufficiently early this is more easily achieved. This was evidently not the case when two welders were driving back from a second shift on 19 June 2013. Their vehicle “veered into a layby and hit a parked lorry”.

The accident happened at Claypole near Newark and the van they were travelling in burnt quickly as it contained gas cylinders used for welding. The workers in the vehicle died in the accident.

On 20 March, in a prosecution by the Office of Rail and Road at Nottingham Crown Court, the company was found guilty of “failing to discharge its duty under sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999”.

Just four and a half hours working time!

The driver aged 20 had driven from the Doncaster Depot leaving at 4:30am the previous day arriving at Alnmouth in Northumberland three hours later at 7:30am.

The work did not take place so, at noon, some four and a half hours after arriving at Alnmouth, he drove back to the Doncaster Depot, arriving there three hours later at 3:00pm.

On arrival, he was asked by Renown to take on an additional welding team job at Stevenage. He agreed, this time taking a

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47-year-old experienced welder with him, leaving the depot again at 7:18pm. They arrived on the Stevenage site about two and a half hours later at 9:47pm. They then carried out welding work between 11:15pm and 3:40am, after which they set off again, with the 20-year-old again driving. The accident happened at 5:30am, nearly two hours later at, Claypole near Newark.

Risk assessments and driving insurance

In Nottingham Crown Court, it was stated that the company’s fatigue management procedures were not followed and they failed to comply with the working time limits for safety critical work. These require a minimum rest period of 12 hours between booking off from a turn of duty and booking on for the next. The Court was also told that the company did not conduct “a sufficient and suitable risk assessment.”

In addition, the company’s insurance policy for the driving of company vehicles stipulated a minimum age for drivers of 25 years.

Evidence heard on 20 March included staff advising that the age restriction for drivers was “routinely flouted”. A witness also told the Court that an initial decision that they had no one available for Stevenage was overruled by a more senior manager.

Four hours twenty-five minutes worked out of twenty-five hours!

It was a tragic and needless accident that should never have occurred. Further

comment may be made once the sentence has been announced, but the sequence of events reflects badly on the industry.

Between 4:30 am on the first day and the time of the road traffic accident on the second day at 5:30am (i.e. 25 hours later) the young man didn’t have 12-hour rest period. Ten hours and twenty minutes were spent driving, ten hours and sixteen minutes were spent waiting around and just four hours twenty-five minutes were spent working. It surely cannot have been planned that way?

Track safety training for train drivers

On 3 March, the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) published its first ‘Urgent Safety Advice’ of 2020. It is titled “Passing between or close to the end of stationary rail vehicles in depots, yards or sidings”.

Organisations and individuals are urged to ensure that their staff are reminded of the risks of passing between or close to vehicles and that “suitable measures are in place to control the risks (such as training and local procedures)”. The Advice adds that using the Rule Book as the only basis for track safety training for train drivers and other operational staff is inappropriate.

Sadly, it makes no reference to the need for repeated reminders at safety briefings, meetings and personal discussions to ensure that the personal awareness of regularly encountered hazards remains high.

RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

TRACK SAFETY

21

E

E RKER LAST.

EASTER

SALE NOW ON

PROUDLY SUPPORTING OUR

Nations Heroes

| NHS | POLICE | HEALTHCARE | TRANSPORT | RAIL | CONSTRUCTION | SUPPLY CHAIN | RETAIL |

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22

TRACK SAFETY

RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

Driver suffered fatal injuries The background to another ‘Urgent Safety Advice’ is the tragic accident that occurred around 8pm on 14 December last year at Tyseley Track Maintenance Depot in Birmingham. Having just alighted from the train he brought into the depot, a driver tried to pass between two stationary trains that were closely positioned on one of the sidings - RAIB’s reconstruction of the incident suggests that there was a gap of approximately 540mm between the gangway ends of the two trains.

As he was passing between the train ends, another driver in the cab of one of the trains next to the gap attempted to couple the two trains together, trapping the man walking between them. The reconstruction showed that the second driver would not have been able to see the pedestrian as he crossed the yard and entered the gap between the trains - he suffered fatal injuries.

COSS trapped at Manor Park

Network Rail’s Safety Central website is open to all and includes its “Safety Bulletins” which are, unsurprisingly, the most popular of the sections viewed. On 6 March, Network Rail issued a ‘Safety Alert’ following an incident at approximately 3:30pm on 22 February at Manor Park on the Anglia Route. Two RRVs (road-rail vehicles) were being used to work on the Overhead Line Equipment (OLE). Five hours into the shift, they were operating back-to-back with less than a metre between them.

Whilst linemen were working above them, track staff were transferring equipment between the two RRVs. One moved closer to the other “to assist in the equipment installation”. The machine operator sounded his machine horn confirming the movement to the Machine Controller. The machine movement trapped the Controller of Site Safety (COSS) between the rear bumpers of the machines.

Workers on the ground shouted, and the machine operator moved the RRV forward. The COSS walked out and went to the cess. The COSS fortunately suffered no broken bones or internal injuries but after a few hours was taken to hospital, possibly suffering from shock.

Runaway cement wagon

At 8:20am on 9 March, a loaded cement powder wagon ran away at Hanson’s Clitheroe Cement Works. It broke through the works gate and ran downhill towards Horrocksford Junction where the depot line connects into the Blackburn to Hellifield main line.

At an open level crossing it ran over a public road (two cars had to stop) and then an open crossing on a private road. Neither crossing had its manually activated warning equipment switched on before the wagon passed over. At Horrocksford Junction the wagon derailed at the end of the trap points run-out rails, so the trap points worked as intended.

RAIB’s investigation is underway and will include “the design and performance of the wagon braking system, how wagons within the works were controlled and any relevant underlying factors”.

Greenland Mill near miss

On 3 March, Network Rail issued a Safety Bulletin on its Safety Central website detailing a trackworker near miss at Greenland Mill on its Western Route. It describes a near miss that occurred on 26 February.

Members of the Westbury track team had planned to work under the protection of a shared line blockage of the Up Trowbridge line whilst they used hand tampers to lift and pack the track. However, they were involved in a near miss with a Colas light locomotive.

Network Rail’s own investigation is underway. In the Safety Bulletin discussion points readers are directed to consider how safety critical information is carried out when signing in to a line blockage with a Protection Controller and how everyone’s understanding is checked before authority is given for a line blockage to be shared.

Very high-risk safety incidents

The Bulletin also refers to Network Rail’s Handbook 8 section 4.1 where, under the heading “Protection at the Site of work”, readers are reminded that the instruction states that “you must place a red flag or red light on the approach to the worksite if the work will affect the safety of any approaching train or if a group is working”. The Safety Bulletin,

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Tyseley Track Maintenance Depot. understandably at this stage, makes no reference to the briefing given about the method of working before the team started work.

Network Rail’s Safety Bulletin NRB 20-03 describes an incident that took place at Adswood Junction. “Whilst an engineering train was being worked on, an RRV was propelled past on the adjacent track and could have injured an employee”. The Bulletin says: “There have been several very high-risk safety incidents in recent years.”

A tangled web of legally interpretable instructions and rules

The Bulletin adds that Handbook 12 - Duties of an Engineering Supervisor or Safe Work Leader - allows only an instruction from an ES (Engineering Supervisor) to be passed to the driver by a competent person, adding that this means only one holding ES competence. It adds that such instructions should be limited to identifying the train or on track equipment to which they apply, the movement location, route to be taken and maximum speed for the movement.

This interpretation/clarification (?) may support the relevant provision in the Rule Book but is it as practical, workable, simple and as safe as it should be? How will the recipients of this Bulletin issued to “line managers, safety professionals and registered contractors” understand and explain its contents?

Too many rules!

Years ago, I remember being disappointed after serving on a committee intent on simplifying and reducing the size of the Rule Book - it was a single volume but had grown too fat for the raincoat pocket. I did not have access to a safety professional or legal advice. We were all railway employees. Our objective was revising the rules and procedures to make them more easily understood and easier for the staff doing the work to understand.

Locally, we were using single sheets for each shift (printed one side only) with a diagram and explanation of what was to be done by whom along with the specified equipment, engineering trains and plant to be used. The details on those A4 sheets had been discussed with the relevant shift supervisors and agreed during a site visit in daylight. The objective was for each supervisor, technical staff member and trackman to understand and be committed to doing the work safely.

More rules result in less understanding!

We failed in our attempt to reduce and simplify the Rule Book. Sadly, the industry continued to increase the complexity and number of rules and regulations.

As our attempt at simplifying and reducing the thickness of the Rule Book got under way, it soon became clear that more rules had been added after almost every significant incident and accident. Indeed, our knowledgeable professional operator was able to give details of each accident that had added a further rule!

The result was a Rule Book that had more than doubled in size from the ones used in the 1950s. Surely, the greater the number of rules or equivalent, the lesser will be the understanding?

First fatigue management prosecution

The fatal road traffic accident that occurred back in June 2013 was tragic. Why, I wonder, has it taken so long to come to court? As the company is still working, changes must have been made to their working practices. What really went wrong?

To the best of my knowledge this was the first prosecution in England involving a failure to manage fatigue. My hope and prayers are for it being the last one too!

WE’VE GOT THE RAIL INDUSTRY COVERED

26

WAISTCOATS

LEOWORKWEAR.COM /LEO-WORKWEAR

14

POLOS/ T-SHIRTS

12

JACKETS/ SWEATS

QUALITY GARMENTS CONFORMING TO RIS-3279-TOM

6

TROUSERS

13

WOMENS GARMENTS

24

CORONAVIRUS

RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

CARRYING ON AND

STAYING SAFE H

AS OFFICE WORKERS WORK FROM HOME, AND THOSE OUT AND ABOUT ON THE NETWORK PRACTICE SOCIAL DISTANCING, HOW ARE EMPLOYERS KEEPING EVERYONE SAFE?

ealth and safety are always of the highest priority on the railway, and as an industry, we are used to ensuring that every individual who goes to work ‘gets home safely’. However, in these uncertain times, never has a keen awareness of safety practices taken on a higher importance. Polly Rivers reviews some of the additional practices being introduced in workplaces and on sites across the country in a bid to ensure, not only the safety of the teams in place, but the wider community as well.

As the twists and turns of the ongoing changes continue to shake the UK to the core, many organisations have scrambled to pull together a plan to ensure the safety of their employees, whilst continuing to operate as fully as possible.

Government guidelines provide clear details on how to manage social distancing and hand hygiene, while giving clear instructions on how to minimise the spread of Coronavirus within day-to-day life. However, when dealing with more specialist issues, such as the management of a rail maintenance site or manufacturing facility, organisations are turning to industry bodies for more sector-specific advice.

Elaine Clark from Rail Forum Midlands noted that there has been a flurry of activity from across the industry, with organisations from train operators to plant firms moving swiftly to implement new procedures designed to keep people as safe as possible.

“From what we see, most organisations have adapted very quickly and professionally to put in place appropriate systems and processes, others have taken the view that it’s safer to pause their activity and have temporarily closed.

“Companies working on Network Rail infrastructure are liaising closely with Network Rail, who themselves have been incredibly supportive of their supply chain to safeguard essential works.

“We have spent a lot of time listening to members concerns and issues and feeding these into government in a co-ordinated way to help shape the policy and support mechanisms that have been launched. Some of these are welcomed by our members, others less so. Some of the schemes, such as the job retention scheme, have specific practical implementation issues which aren’t ideal for rail.

“We have also launched a series of online support events for our members - covering specific topics such as furlough and contracting to mental health and general queries, which are key at this time.”

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WORKING FROM WHERE? We are reliant on the work that officebased teams provide to ensure that everything is in place to ensure that essential maintenance can go ahead.

But, with many offices now deserted, and teams working exclusively from home, we are more reliant than ever on the wonders of technology to keep us connected.

With entire offices logging on remotely, many businesses are having to adjust to an entirely new way of working. Encouraging regular and open communication is key, with many organisations turning to tools such as Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, Skype and Zoom to ensure that face-toface video meetings can still go ahead, albeit from employees’ homes. Instant messaging, available on platforms such as Skype and Slack, also provides the ‘in office’ chat facility, allowing colleagues to easily ping questions back and forth, without the need for inbox-clogging email trails. These forms of interaction can be a great way of help to fend off the feelings of loneliness that working from home (and enforced social isolation!) can bring and bolster a feeling of togetherness within a team.

With many employees now juggling the requirements of a busy job with homeschooling and childcare, managing a normal day-to-day workload can be a challenge.

Whilst the wheels of industry have kept on turning in our sector, it is understandable that productivity may be somewhat compromised when you have one eye on your workload and one eye on GCSE geography. Nothing about the situation we have found ourselves in is normal, but many employers have excelled themselves in their understanding, and most working-from-home teams have been pleasantly surprised at the way they have been supported through this challenging experience.

Employees used to working in an office

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environment will be familiar with the habit of turning off their computer, picking up their coat and hat and walking away from the working day. Leaving the building signals the end of work and the start of ‘home time’. Now that we all have constant communication in our pockets via our mobile phones, this line is somewhat blurred, but it is much easier to draw a line under things when you are not physically sat behind your desk. When finishing work only means shutting your laptop lid and walking from one room of your house to another, clocking off can be much harder to do. Companies have a responsibility to their staff to put a clear end to the working day, it can be all too easy for the hours to run away with you! © Network Rail

Train crew and station staff on social distancing guides at Manchester Piccadilly station.

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MAINTAINING MANUFACTURING Of course, it is impossible to keep the railway working without the appropriate equipment. Our industry’s manufacturing organisations are still having to work hard, providing supplies to meet the continuing demand.

Scott Harrison, chief operating officer at equipment manufacturer Permaquip, noted the complexities involved with managing potential contamination within a manufacturing environment: “In addition to the obvious, more stringent, personal hygiene requirements, we have had to ensure that all staff within the manufacturing environment are positioned at a safe working distance, with ‘safe zone areas’ clearly identified.

“Work zones are kept to one person and thoroughly cleaned as per the government recommendation at the start and finish of every shift. Any materials that enter the factory are held in a decontamination area before being moved onto the factory floor, and no product is sent out of the factory before being held in a separate dispatch area.

“We have one member of staff who is in a vulnerable group, so they have been moved to work-from-home on full pay - we are not prepared to take the risk.”

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Team Orange is playing a key role in ensuring that our country’s vital network is able to continue to provide key workers and freight operators with a safe infrastructure, to make sure they can rely on the rails.

At Quattro Plant, all staff were issued with clear guidance on how to approach the increasing health and safety changes on site.

Bob Browning, head of corporate strategy at Quattro Plant, said: “We understand the challenges that our teams working on site face. However, we have implemented new procedures to ensure that our teams, their loved ones and the wider communities that we all live within are as protected as they can be against the spread of COVID-19.

“As well as trying to encourage more frequent hand-washing with the provision of on-track welfare units with full facilities, we have undertaken a deep-clean of all plant and provided alcohol wipes for operators to use to sanitise on-track-plant prior to change-over shifts. All POS planning now works on minimising in-cab travelling for crane and machine controllers and, where it is not possible to avoid this (or during the operation of MEWPs where there is more than one team member in the basket), additional disposable facemasks and latex gloves must be worn.

“Many of the measures that we have introduced are reliant on the teams we work alongside working closely together. As an industry, we are so proud of how everyone has really pulled together to attack this head on.”

As well as keeping on-track-plant clean, Quattro Plant’s DECT Comm II (Digital Enhanced Cordless Technology) communication systems has undergone a full clean and sterilisation by High Motive, which is providing sterilisation services across the industry.

“Ensuring that safety critical equipment, such as air-fed masks, helmets and Setcom kits, are fully sterilised is absolutely key to

© Network Rail

BOOTS ON BALLAST

Social distancing on the Chiltern main line.

ensuring our railway family stays safe during this impossible time,” said Phil Miles, director at High Motive.

“As well as working hard, ensuring that we are able to provide a service to the rail sector, we are delighted to say that we have Sterilising breathing apparatus.

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also been able to share the technology that is helping keep the rail network on track with our wonderful NHS teams as well. We’re proud to have provided sterilisation equipment to hospitals and GP surgeries in Cardiff.”

LOOKING FORWARD During this challenging time, nothing is quite normal. The sun is shining, and the birds are singing, but there is a feeling of suspended reality about everything – it’s life, but not at all as we know it.

However, it will eventually return to normal.

We’re not sure when, but at some stage, dayto-day life will start to fall back into place. But, will everything that we have so successfully implemented return to exactly as it was preCOVID-19? The hundreds of new procedures that have hurriedly been put into place, all designed to safeguard our workplaces and keep us that little bit more secure, will they all disappear or will they become the new norm?

Only time will tell.

In the meantime, as an industry, we should be proud of what we have achieved today. With such a burden on our shoulders, mountains have been moved to ensure that we can continue going quietly about our role, safely providing a network to move the nation’s heroes.

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CORONAVIRUS

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THE COST

OF CORONAVIRUS

WHAT EFFECT IS CORONAVIRUS HAVING ON YOUR PAY PACKET? WHAT IF YOU ARE FURLOUGHED? WHAT ABOUT TAX? AND IR35?

R

ailStaff sought the advice of an HR consultant and a tax expert to find out what the Coronavirus epidemic could mean to you and the money you take home. Whether you are employed, self-employed or even laid off, it’s essential reading.

© iStockphoto.com

With businesses across the nation feeling the pinch of COVID-19, Chancellor Rishi Sunak was the Man of the Moment in March, bringing in an unprecedented bundle of financial measures designed to keep the country afloat.

But what did the Chancellor’s rescue packages actually mean for the millions of people hit hard in the pocket by the pandemic? How will the billions pledged impact the millions affected?

FURLOUGH? WHAT’S A FURLOUGH? A term that many of us will never have heard before is suddenly on the tip of everyone’s tongue.

With many organisations struggling to keep the doors open, the government’s announcement of an up to 80 per cent government-funded wage payment, known as furloughing, seemed like light at the end of the tunnel for many.

However, despite the overwhelming excitement felt by millions at the announcement of the £78billion Job Retention Scheme, this complex procedure is not as cut-and-dried as it first appeared…

A company has to be facing financial hardship caused by COVID-19, such that you would otherwise lose your job to closure or be made redundant. A furloughed employee can expect to have up to 80% of their salary paid by the government for up to three months. If an employee has more than one job, they can be furloughed from each employer individually, with a separate cap applied to each contractual agreement.

The request to furlough employees has to be overseen by the organisation - whilst an employee can suggest it, it is not something that an individual employee can process.

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© Number 10

this does not provide services or generate revenue for the original organisation,” explained Jennefer.

“If workers are required to complete any training whilst they are furloughed, they must be paid at least the National Living Wage/ National Minimum Wage for the time spent training, even if this is more than the 80 per cent of their wage that will be subsidised.

“That said, it is also worth considering that the terms of the employees’ current contract of employment are still valid during this time.

If there is a clause that states that they are not able to seek additional employment whilst working for their organisation, or that certain types of employment may register a conflict of interest, this could legally be taken into account by their current employer.

“It really is worth discussing any secondary employment moves with your original employer. An open and honest chat is always the best policy!”

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SAVING THE SELF-EMPLOYED

With the UK being made up of around five million self-employed people (around 15 per cent of the working population), contributing £305billion to the economy every year, it was no surprise that there was a national outcry for support for this hefty percentage of the nation.

When the Chancellor announced his package of support back in March, many breathed a sigh of relief, but some of the promises were a little puzzling.

Understandably, given the diverse nature of self-employment across the board, building a package to service everyone was never going to be easy, but many were unsure exactly how the measures were going to work.

Similar to the package drafted for employed workers, the Chancellor has pledged to provide the self-employed access to up to 80 per cent of their average profits,

© iStockphoto.com

“One of the main sticking points so far has been that businesses have to be able to pay the 80 per cent payments themselves, whilst waiting for government grants to come through,” explained Jennefer Willmore, HR business consultant from MP HR Services.

“These aren’t likely to be ready until the end of April and, in many cases, there just isn’t the money in the pot to be able to fund this.

“Unfortunately, whilst furloughing staff seems like an amazing idea, it is not always a simple case of ticking a box and handing over 80 per cent of a salary. If the money is simply not there to pay it, many businesses are left with very little option but to let their staff go, or work with them to eke out what little is left until the end of April. This can mean having frank discussions about employees taking unpaid leave or reducing salaries, with the promise that they will be furloughed and paid when the grant comes through.

“It’s a terrible situation, but one that we are sadly seeing a lot, from businesses of all sizes.”

One of the biggest questions hanging over furloughed workers surrounds whether or not they can still get involved with helping out on volunteer schemes. Network Rail has made numerous requests on social media asking for help from the industry - looking for signallers, crossing keepers, MOMs - and many rushed to help. However, if you were a furloughed employee, is this something you can legally do (qualifications allowing, of course)?

“Legally, employees can no longer carry out any work for their current employer once they have been furloughed. However, they are able to take part in volunteer work or training whilst furloughed, as long as

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up to £2,500 a month, for three months (although this may be extended if required). This takes the form of a taxable grant, which it is understood will be taxable in the 2020/2021 tax return.

Grants are available for anyone earning up to £50,000 a year, and who earns over 50 per cent of their income from self-employment.

“Whilst the self-employment offering is a little more confusing, much of the complication is removed due to the way the grant is accessed,” said Jennefer Willmore. “Anyone eligible for the grant will be contacted directly by HMRC, with a simple digital form to complete, and, as long as this is completed honestly and fully, HMRC will manage all calculations and arrange for full payment to be made directly into the stated account, possibly by the end of June.

“Additional assistance has been put into place for anyone who cannot access the grant, in the form of a streamlining of the Universal Credit and Tax Credits systems, and we urge anyone who is not eligible for the grant to look into the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.”

This scheme, aimed at throwing a life raft to SMEs who are losing revenue due to COVID-19, provides small businesses with the opportunity to access a loan of up to £5million to help see them through the crisis. The scheme gives lenders a governmentbacked guarantee for the loan repayments and provides a repayment term of up to six years, with the government footing the bill for all interest and fees for the first twelve months.

TAX WARNING In a final boost, the Chancellor extended a tax payment break to the self-employed, allowing the upcoming July payment, the second payment on account towards tax year 2019/2020, to be deferred until January 2021 without penalty or interest.

“This is a useful break for anyone who is experiencing cash-flow issues at the moment due to COVID-19. However, it is wise to remember that the July tax payment will still have to be made, therefore potentially doubling the amount owed in January,” warned David Tunstall, client manager at accountancy firm Auker Hutton.

“With the end of the 2019/2020 tax year having just passed, many self-employed people will be readying their tax returns for the past year. Of course, 11 months of the year are likely to have seen normal profits – most of the losses or downturn in profits will fall into the following 2020/21 tax year – and so the final tax liabilities are unlikely to be very different.

“By delaying the July payment until January 2021, when the first payment on account for 2020/21 is also due, you will effectively end up owing the equivalent of a full year’s tax liability at a time when cashflow may still be tight.

Therefore, if you can make the July payment, or at least some of it in the meantime, you will be easing the burden come January.

“We’re advising our clients to get their information to us as soon as possible, so that we can calculate the tax due for 2019/20 sooner rather than later.

They’ll then have a clear picture of what’s due, giving them longer to plan how to pay. And, of course, any repayments can © iStockphoto.com

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© iStockphoto.com

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come back sooner rather than later.

“We also advise keeping your records for 2020/21 up to date as you go, rather than writing them up in one go in April after the end of the year. By January 2021, you should have a good idea of what your 2020/21 profit will look like and therefore decide whether, and by how much, you’re able to reduce your January payment on account.”

IR35 IN QUESTION The implementation of the controversial IR35 reforms, which were due to come into force on 6 April 2020, has been deferred until 6 April 2021.

The government made these changes in order to assist businesses and individuals whilst managing COVID-19, but insists that the changes are only a deferral, and everything will still go ahead as planned next year.

The changes, which will force UK businesses to assess the tax status of their contractors and freelancers, could have a hefty impact on many contractors working within the rail sector.

Under the current IR35 legislation, if a contractor is considered to be carrying out a role under terms similar to that of an employee, tax and national insurance contributions equal to those of an employee should be made.

However, for contractors working in the private sector, it is they who decide whether this applies to them and so there have been many criticisms of the scheme, stating that it is all too easy for contractors to ‘fall through the net’.

The new rules, which have been in place for contractors working in the public sector since 2017, transfer the decision-making responsibility onto the end client to assess which contractors fall under the IR35 banner.

Contractors who are subsequently judged by their end client to be inside the scope of IR35 could find themselves paying up to 25 per cent more tax than they have previously, despite not receiving benefits enjoyed by full-time employees, such as holiday or sick pay, pension, or parental leave.

As well as these IR35 changes, the self-employed could also be facing a shake-up of their tax system, following the Chancellor’s announcements back in March. Mr Sunak noted in his speech about how he planned to help the self-employed workforce that he anticipated having to ‘right the ship’ with regards to the difference between tax paid by the self-employed and employees. Although he refused to be drawn on how this looked, stating that he didn’t want to be ‘too specific right now about future tax policy’, many expect this to be relating to a potential increase in National Insurance contributions for the self-employed.

“The much-needed recovery financial package delivered by government for businesses and individuals is unprecedented,” said David Tunstall. “Along with extra funds being channelled into the NHS frontline, there’s now a large unplanned-for hole in the UK’s finances which the government will ask us to repay once all of this is over.

“Although the IR35 changes for contractors, which will result in a large proportion paying more tax, will now not be introduced in April this year, this is only a 12-month deferral. We know the government is adamant that this change will come in. For those contractors that are worried about what this could mean for them financially, they should use this extra time to review their contracts and working practices to see what changes could be made.

“We now also expect to see a big change in the self-employed space moving forwards. The Chancellor has given us a very clear hint that this will likely include National Insurance contributions increasing to sit in line with the amount paid by employees.”

As we work through the toughest economic crisis ever to hit the UK in modern history, there is some comfort that, for the short term at least, many of us will be protected by the government’s actions in the eye of the storm.

However, how this could shape the future of our working world is yet to be seen.

Keep safe - and watch this space.

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KEEPING IN TOUCH

AFTER A LIFETIME OF WORK, IT'S GOOD TO STAY IN CONTACT WITH FORMER COLLEAGUES

W

ith people living longer, they have more free time in their retirement.

But some don’t want to turn their backs on their careers completely. Clive Kessell reports on one such ‘oldtimer’ organisation.

In decades past, it was not uncommon for railwaymen and women, in whatever department, to spend their whole working lives in the industry. This may still happen, although it is much rarer these days, with a fragmented railway and many different companies participating.

Particularly strong is the bond of friendship within the erstwhile signal and telecommunications departments, especially at the ex-BR regional level, of which the London Midland may lay claim to being the strongest.

A group has existed for some time that meets monthly, usually at Crewe but with an occasional escape to Birmingham, where colleagues, right through from technicians (linemen in the distant past) to senior managers, enjoy an excellent lunch at the Waverley Hotel. Known as the Fellowship of Retired Signal and Telecommunications Engineers, the camaraderie is superb and the wealth of experience that emerges in the conversations is amazing.

There is an element of ‘do you remember

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when’ talk, but the knowledge of modern-day projects and technology would surprise many.

No problem here with ‘continuing professional development (CPD)’, many having an ongoing willingness to learn the latest engineering practices and, maybe, even adapt to the ‘control and communication’ name that is slowly usurping S&T. The age range covers people in their 90s right through to engineers who have retired in recent years. Everyone must have had part of their career on the LM, but this is interpreted fairly liberally, with considerable banter aimed at those whose working lives led them to other parts of the country.

Strong relationships vs safety cases

There is a general recognition, mixed with a certain element of despondency, as to the level of bureaucracy that has enveloped the modernday railway. Getting the job done was all important in the 1950/60s and part of this was to have a strong relationship with the contractor industries, now known as the supply chain.

Engineers from that era would nowadays be troubled by such things as safety cases, method statements, risk assessments and suchlike, which were mostly all carried out intuitively. The formality of these would be seen as blockers to productivity.

Who is right is anyone’s guess, but certainly the railway nowadays is a much safer place, even if the work rate is much slower.

A Christmas gathering normally takes place, when wives, husbands and partners join the throng, a chance for the wider community to meet up and to appreciate the support that partners gave to those who worked weekends, nights and long hours, often in difficult conditions.

As one person remarked ‘if only all this latent talent could be put to good use today’.

My guess is that a fair few would rise to the challenge. Signallers have been recalled to stand in for those off as part of the Coronavirus pandemic. Do they need signal engineers too?

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REVERSING BEECHING

TRANSPORT SECRETARY GRANT SHAPPS HAS CALLED FOR SOME 'BEECHINGED' LINES TO BE REOPENED BUT WHICH ONES?

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eopening a closed railway line is expensive and requires a lot of planning and financial justification. Local enthusiasts are often keen to see trains running again, but that enthusiasm needs to be backed up by sound logic and a convincing argument. David Shirres considers what is needed and explains how one scheme has (nearly) succeeded.

Throughout their history, railways have brought economic prosperity by connecting communities. In the past twenty years, seven re-opened lines have shown this is still true.

Hence, it is not surprising that the re-opening of these lines has spurred calls for other disused railways to be re-opened. Many, but certainly not all, of these were closed by Dr Richard Beeching.

In January, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps launched the government’s £500 million fund to reverse Beeching closures by re-opening closed lines, such as the one to Fleetwood where he made his announcement. This followed an election commitment to “restore many of the Beeching lines” and was welcomed by many rail campaigners including the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT), whose report “the case for expanding the rail network” lists over 250 possible re-openings, of which 33 are priority schemes.

BEECHING’S LEGACY Considering the current increase in passenger numbers, it might be difficult to understand why so many potentially useful railway lines were closed. Yet, in the 1960s, British Railways was haemorrhaging money, with rail traffic falling due to the growth in road haulage and increasing car ownership as the motorway network was being built. At the time, roads were seen to be the future.

When Dr Beeching was appointed as the first chairman of the British Railways Board (BRB) in 1961, he had to ensure that railways had a longterm future. His response was the notorious report “The Reshaping of British Railways”.

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This showed that one third of the route mileage (6,000 miles) carried only one per cent of the traffic and that the operating cost of these lines was four times their income.

The continued operation of these lines was not sustainable. Hence, large-scale closures were required. However, the BRB’s accounting did not provide the information required to make informed decisions about individual lines. Hence, some lines were closed that should have stayed open.

The report also noted that “railways are distinguished by their own specialised route system which gives rise to high fixed costs but also offers great benefits for high-capacity dense flows of traffic.” His report therefore proposed the introduction of container trains and development of inter-city passenger trains.

In this way, Beeching laid the foundations for the modern railway and ensured its future.

Yet, this is not how he is remembered. Instead, to quote his own words: “I suppose I’ll always be looked upon as the axe man, but it was surgery, not mad chopping.”

Borders Railway re-opened September 2015.

Beeching’s legacy as described by Dick Hardy.

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REOPENING LINES

Reopening closed railways is particularly expensive. Before construction can commence, there are legal and land acquisition costs, consents to be obtained, environmental mitigation measures to be finalised, utilities to be diverted and possible mining remediation to be undertaken.

Modern standards also add to costs by, for example, requiring more resilient earthworks as well as bridges and new roads instead of level crossings.

Before and after views of part of the Airdrie to Bathgate line re-opened in 2010.

Temporary diversion of Edinburgh City Bypass to allow construction of an overbridge for the Borders Railway.

Track-beds that have been developed since the original railway was closed, such as for new roads and buildings, may require expensive civil engineering work or a new route around the blockage. In 2009, the Association of Train Operating Companies called on the government to take a more strategic approach to safeguarding likely routes. This call does not seem to have been heeded as, for example, the line to Fleetwood, that Grant Shapps wishes to see re-opened, had its junction with the main line at Poulton-le-Flyde removed in 2017 as part of the Preston to Blackpool electrification work.

Nevertheless, there was some

local action to preserve routes.

After the line between Airdrie and Bathgate closed in 1982, the local councils protected the route with a cyclepath. This decision enabled the line to be re-opened in 2010.

A QUESTION OF PRIORITY A viable reopening proposal requires capacity on the existing network to accommodate its additional services. This was not an issue in Beeching’s time, when main lines were not so busy. For example, there were 13 daytime trains a day from London to Scotland in 1970, compared with 49 in 2019. Accommodating traffic from new lines is likely

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to be a problem at city-centre stations and the lines leading to them.

Resolving such conflicts could be impossible or prohibitively expensive, especially if many closed lines were to be re-opened.

The proposal to reintroduce a passenger service on the freight only Ashington - Blythe line is an example of such a conflict. There is a strong case for this new service, which is now at the ‘Develop’ stage of the Department for Transport (DfT)’s Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline (RNEP). However, this would require trains from Ashington to run on four miles of the East Coast main line into Newcastle. This short run would thus constrain the introduction of additional, longer-distance services north of Newcastle.

This potential conflict of traffic from new and existing lines raises the issue of prioritisation of funding for new lines and the existing network. Notwithstanding the Coronavirus emergency, the rail network is carrying more passengers than it did in 1918, when the network was twice its current size. The investment priority is therefore for capacity improvements on core routes.

This point is illustrated by the proposal to re-open the eleven-mile line between Skipton and Colne to provide a through service from East Lancashire to Leeds via Skipton. Yet the parallel existing route via Halifax and Bradford already provides a service from the large East Lancashire towns of Blackburn, Accrington and Burnley to Yorkshire.

It is suggested that this new route would provide a much-improved freight link between Liverpool and Yorkshire. However, this would require hugely expensive gauge clearance and structural work to accommodate freight trains on a route over a hundred miles long.

The Skipton to Colne re-opening proposal is currently at the ‘Determine’ stage in the RNEP and so requires a business case which will no doubt consider the above issues. In 2014, this re-opening was one of 26 options that were evaluated against 20 objectives in the East Lancashire Rail Connectivity Study (available on-line). This concluded that the Skipton to Colne route offered only a few slight benefits for the region compared with the many significant benefits of electrifying and upgrading the existing route from East Lancashire to Leeds.

2000 1923-1947 The Big Four

Passengers (millions)

1750

1948-1995 Nationalisation (British Rail)

1995-date Privatisation

1500 1250 1000 750 500 250 0 1840

1860

1880

1900

1920

1940

1960

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1980

2000

2020

AFTER BORDERS, WHAT NEXT? After the re-opening of the Borders Railway in September 2015, an article in Rail Engineer reviewed 40 proposals from established rail campaigns to re-open a closed line. It also reviewed re-openings since 2000.

Most of these schemes had been the subject of an appraisal report which determined their Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR). DfT guidance states that schemes with a high BCR (over 2) are likely to be supported, some with a medium BCR (1.5 to 2) might be acceptable and few with a low BCR (1 to 1.5) would be supported. However, BCR is a crude indicator and some of these studies did not fully take account of wider economic benefits.

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GETTING A RAILWAY RE-OPENED

Furthermore, BCR does not necessarily reflect government policy, which supports the reopening of old lines if they connect communities to centres of employment and commerce or create new corridors for economic growth to rebalance the economy.

The Rail Engineer article considered that a rough indication of the viability of a reopening scheme is a diagram which represents the locations to be connected as circles, proportional to population size, linked with a line proportional to the length of line to be opened. Such diagrams show that the most viable re-openings are those that require a short line to be re-opened to bring large communities within commuting distance of a large city.

Of the 40 proposals considered by this article in 2016, two had construction authorised, five were being developed, 15 had a BCR greater than one but were not being progressed and 18 had a BCR that had not been assessed or was less than one. One of those for which construction had been authorised was the Bicester to Bletchley section of East West Rail. However, work was subsequently stopped on the other, the Croxley link, due to rising costs.

The five for which there was development work at the time were Portishead, Wisbech, Skelmersdale, Ashington & Blythe and Levenmouth.

LEVENMOUTH - A CASE STUDY

Re-opening a railway will cost tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions and so requires government funding. Therefore, the first stage is to persuade the appropriate government department that the re-opening is likely to be a viable scheme. In England and Wales this requires the Department for Transport to agree to include it in the first stage of its Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline process.

Government then has to agree the funding of consultants to produce a business case. This would have to show that the scheme was good value for money, consider any adverse impact on the existing network, confirm it met government objectives for rail re-openings and evaluate the scheme against other options, such as light rail and improved bus services. A satisfactory business case is essential if government is to spend significant sums on design and, subject to agreed construction costs.

Thus, the task for rail campaigners is to get active government support to produce the business case and develop the scheme. Of the many ways of doing this, the Levenmouth booklet was particularly successful.

It was also very cheap, as it used the expertise of both campaigners and retired railway professionals who were glad to give their time to what was seen as a worthwhile cause. The only cost was printing the booklet at £300 for 2,000 copies. It is available online - just search for ‘Levenmouth booklet’.

Another useful resource for rail campaigners is the booklet jointly published by the DfT, Railfuture and the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT): “Expanding the Railways - how to develop and deliver a proposal”, which is available on the CBT website.

If a credible document is to be produced to gain government support, it requires strong realistic arguments and an honest assessment of problems. It also needs to be accepted that the requirement is to improve local connectivity, for which a railway re-opening is just one solution.

The overall study of re-opening schemes in the 2016 Rail Engineer article suggested that, whilst there are certainly some worthwhile reopening proposals, a large-scale reversal of the Beeching closures is not a realistic proposition, especially as the current core network does not have the capacity to accept trains from many new lines.

For all these reasons, the question of ‘should a railway have been closed in the Beeching era’ is not the same as ‘should a railway be reopened today.’

Levenmouth is the largest community in Scotland without a railway and is at the end of a six-mile-long mothballed freight line. This relatively inexpensive reopening would make it possible for the community to commute to Edinburgh by public transport. An active campaign group had been promoting this re-opening.

The proposal to reopen the line was the subject of two studies, produced in 2008 and 2016, funded by Fife Council. One of these reports significantly over-estimated the re-opening cost and neither took account of the additional journeys that would be generated by a rail link.

Thus, despite strong local support, the Scottish Government had yet to be convinced. The group then had the idea of clearly presenting the case for Levenmouth in a 32-page A5 booklet. The booklet was produced with the support of retired railway engineers and operators, some of whom had worked on previous railway re-openings.

To be a credible document, it was felt that it must present a balanced view that did not over-exaggerate benefits and would highlight any significant issues, such as the difficulties of recasting the timetable for this re-opened branch line.

In a debate on the re-opening in the Scottish Parliament in September 2017, the Scottish Transport Minister noted that this booklet “is a really helpful contribution and, if members have not seen it, they should look at it. It illustrates how improved connectivity can make a real difference to the lives and opportunities of people in Levenmouth.”

The Minister then announced that Transport Scotland would manage a further study that would consider the wider socioeconomic and regeneration impacts. This study was finalised in May 2019. In August it was announced that detailed designs are to be drawn up for the Levenmouth scheme, with a view to it reopening with the next five years.

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36

FEATURE

RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

PROUD TO BE A LOBBYIST

THE SUBJECT OF THIS YEAR'S GEORGE RAMSHAW CURRY MEMORIAL LECTURE WAS 'NEW DECADE, NEW GOVERNMENT - WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO BUILD WORLD-CLASS RAIL IN THE 2020s'

D

arren Caplan, chief executive of the Railway Industry Association, was the chosen speaker and his lecture explored what – in light of the 2019 General Election and before the current Coronavirus outbreak made itself felt – both the new government and the railway industry need to do on the challenges facing UK rail. He covered ‘boom and bust’ in rail funding, the need for more robust support for major rail infrastructure projects and enhancement schemes, and the need to decarbonise and digitalise rail within a couple of decades. RailStaff’s David Shirres was in the audience.

The Locomotive Manufacturers Association was formed in 1875, when Britain produced a substantial proportion of the world’s steam locomotives. In 1957, it became the Locomotive and Allied Manufacturers’ Association. The scope of this association was further widened in 1971 when it was renamed the Railway Industry Association (RIA).

Both these transitions were overseen by George Ramshaw Curry, who led these organisations for 31 years until he retired from RIA in 1985. He was then made a Companion of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) for services to mechanical engineering. This was a rare distinction for a nonengineer.

Curry also left a bequest to fund the IMechE Railway Division’s annual prestige lecture that carries his name. Fittingly, the lecture this year was delivered by RIA’s current chief executive, Darren Caplan.

Darren joined RIA in 2017. Prior to that, he had been chief executive of the Airport Operators Association for six years. Before then, he worked as a lobbyist for various businesses. He is still proud to consider himself a lobbyist as “nothing changes if you don’t ask and campaign for it”.

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George Ramshaw Curry.

Darren Caplan.

RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

FEATURE

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RAIL’S CONTRIBUTION Darren started his lecture by stating that he considers that the current political and financial situation for rail to be broadly positive. He believes that the Government’s relationship with the industry is generally good. A study that RIA commissioned in 2018 showed that UK rail supports 600,000 jobs, produces exports valued at £800 million, generates £11 billion revenue for the Treasury and that, for every pound spent on the railways, £2.20 is generated in the wider economy.

He sees the doubling of passenger numbers and significant increase in freight traffic over the past 25 years as a massive achievement, especially as passenger satisfaction surveys show that over 80 per cent are positive about their experience, despite negative stories in the media.

Darren stated that, as it now seems likely that this government will last through the decade, this should encourage Ministers to take longer term infrastructure decisions which won’t bring benefits until the 2030

election. Such political certainty is likely to see Ministers staying longer in post, making it easier for the industry to engage with government. He noted that, over the past decade, there have been six Transport Secretaries and eleven rail Ministers.

Nevertheless, there are very real concerns within the industry. In a recent survey, more than half the businesses that responded did not expect the industry to grow and almost a third expected the industry to contract. Darren felt this may be due to the change and uncertainty from such things as the Williams Rail Review, the decision on HS2 (which was made after the lecture), Network Rail’s devolution, uncertainty

about enhancements, lack of Government commitment to the electrification needed for decarbonisation and Brexit.

The industry’s response to these concerns must be to recognise the new political stability and ensure that these challenges are seen as opportunities. Given the long life of railway infrastructure and rolling stock, policy makers need to be lobbied to take a long-term view of rail rather than thinking of the five-year electoral cycle and short-term PR wins. Just before the last election, RIA had produced its ‘RAIL 2050’ manifesto, which explained why such short-term thinking was bad for passengers and freight users.

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FEATURE

RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

FIVE SPECIFIC ISSUES

Darren had no doubt that there was an opportunity to build world-class rail in the 2020s if there were effective long-term policies on five specific issues: ‘boom and bust’ investment, enhancement projects, decarbonisation, digitisation and Brexit.

Three slides were presented as examples of boom and bust. One showed how 7,000 rail vehicles have been ordered in the five years between 2012 and 2017 while it took 21 years to order the same quantity before 2012. Another illustrated the 20-year gap that followed the East Coast Electrification, which was ended by the rapid ramp up for the CP5 electrification programme. In both cases this adversely affected the supply chain and added cost and inefficiency.

The third slide presented the variable renewals spending by year during previous five-year control periods. Darren explained the adverse impact on rail businesses from variable workloads. Although the record funding settlement of £48 billion for CP6 was to be welcomed, RIA members are concerned that renewals volumes are lower than expected at the start of this control period. RIA is discussing ways of smoothing this workload with Network Rail and other organisations.

The lack of visibility of forthcoming rail enhancements is also a significant concern to the industry, especially as renewals and enhancements require quite different skillsets.

Enhancements are now the responsibility of the DfT, which manages a new Rail Network RAILSTAFF.CO.UK | @RAIL_STAFF | FACEBOOK.COM/RAILSTAFF

Enhancement Pipeline (RNEP) process that requires a decision before each of its stages (Determine, Develop, Design, Deliver and Deploy). Only when the ‘decision to Deliver’ is signed off can construction commence.

Although the DfT published the RNEP process in March 2018, this had no information about specific schemes.

Despite the government accepting a recommendation from the Transport Select Committee that it should publish a list of enhancement schemes, it did not do so until over a year later. As part of its ‘Show Us the Rail Enhancements’ (SURE) campaign, RIA launched a clock showing the amount of time since government agreed to publish the list.

This stopped at 1 year, 26 days and 17 hours, when enhancements in the pipeline process were finally published.

The result was a list of 58 schemes, of which there is design approval for 13, with no ‘shovel ready’ schemes. There was also no information about the RNEP process timescales. This means that there will be little enhancements work up to 2024. If, and when, there is a significant increase in enhancement projects, it is likely that re-establishing an enhancements capability will be expensive.

MORE BOOM AND BUST Whilst the Government requires UK rail to be decarbonised by 2040, it has yet to be convinced that this requires a largescale electrification rolling programme. One reason for this was the high cost of the Great Western Electrification Programme (GWEP). RIA is helping the industry remake the case for electrification. In this respect, its ‘Electrification cost challenge’ report has been recognised as a worthwhile contribution, as it demonstrates that electrification can be delivered at up to half the GWEP cost.

This report also shows the need for a rolling programme, since UK electrification is another example of the high cost of boom and bust delivery.

RIA also supports the development of hydrogen and battery technology as an intermediate solution for less intensively

used lines where electrification may not be the answer. Darren considered that the deployment on these technologies gives the UK an opportunity to develop a competitive advantage.

Digitalised signalling and traffic management systems offer significant opportunities to increase capacity and improve the customer experience.

Furthermore, with 60 per cent of current signalling assets becoming life expired over the next 15 years, digital technology is the only way to deal with this backlog. Yet ‘boom and bust’ is also a feature of the long-term signalling renewals plan. For this reason, RIA is lobbying for some digital signalling projects to be brought forward from CP7 to CP6 so as to give suppliers the opportunity to ramp up their capability to deliver this large volume of work.

Now that Brexit is a done deal, there is a key opportunity in future trade deals to increase rail sector exports, which currently amount to £800 million per year. To achieve this, RIA’s export team is working closely with the Department for International Trade.

In respect of the current Brexit negotiations, RIA has three asks: smooth cross border trade; that divergence from EU standards should not make the rail industry uncompetitive, and that the industry should continue to have access to a skilled EU workforce (south of Derby, 46 per cent of the rail workforce is from the EU). However, recent pronouncements from government ministers indicate that these are big asks indeed.

Darren’s lecture was entitled “New decade, new Government - what needs to be done to build world-class rail in the 2020s?”. He had certainly answered this question by explaining how effective government policies in five areas could unlock the full potential of the railway supply chain. Of these, the common theme is the need for a steady workload to avoid costly ‘boom and bust’.

It is to be hoped that Darren is right in thinking that the current political situation will encourage government to take a long-term view to eliminate such inefficiency.

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40

YOUNG RAIL PROFESSIONALS

RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

S L A N IO S S E F O R P L YOUNGRRAILAITOUR TO JAPAN YOUNG

OF JAPAN FOR R U O T Y D U T S 0 2 0 YRP'S 2 RKING IN THE O W S L A N IO S S E F O YOUNG PR UK RAIL INDUSTRY

W

hen Young Rail Tours took a party of 21 young rail professionals on a study tour of Japan, they saw much of Japan’s railway heritage, experienced its sights, sounds and cuisine, and got back just in time before Coronavirus shut the world down.

On the morning of Friday 13 March 2020, Young Rail Tours (YRT) took a group of 21 delegates on its first intercontinental railway study tour to Japan. YRT was founded in May 2019 with a vision to create affordable, accessible and inspirational study tours for young professionals working in the UK rail industry.

The tour covered several cities across Japan, including Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Osaka. The first day allowed delegates to familiarise themselves with their new surroundings as we visited various tourist destinations in Tokyo, including the Tsujki Fish Market and Hamarikyu Gardens followed by a scenic ‘Water Bus’ Ride.

TOKYO Lead by Mr. Jinno of Otomo Travel, day two consisted of a rail-specific walking tour around Oji of the Kita ward. The tour included a ride on the shortest monorail in Japan, observing the last tram in Tokyo, and a visit to Asukayama Park, a park which hosts retired trains for the public to enjoy.

This tour provided a great chance for delegates to learn from locals themselves.

A vast range of topics was covered, from engineering methods for earthquake disaster mitigation to the economic benefit of hosting the 2020 Olympics on the local rail industry.

The group also took time to visit Takanawa Gateway station. Newly opened on 14 March,

the station has been built as part of JR East Group’s development of ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) management. Its architecture features the use of domestic wood-clad walls and huge glass windows to improve the thermal environment and reduce power consumption. It was also equipped with talking robots to provide passenger information services!

After a few days exploring Tokyo, the group then travelled on to Hiroshima. We would like to thank our travel partner, Trainline, who were kind enough to provide our sevenday Japan Rail (JR) passes. The passes allowed us full access to the JR network in Japan; all delegates agreed that they would recommend the passes to anyone looking to travel around Japan!

SIGHTS AND CUISINE Whilst in Hiroshima, delegates were able to visit the Hiroshima Peace Park, a memorial park dedicated to the legacy of Hiroshima as the first city in the world to suffer a nuclear attack. When the bomb exploded, the Atomic Bomb Dome was one of the few buildings to remain standing, and today it acts as a reminder of the cost of war and the importance of peace. Being at the site allowed the group to reflect on this hugely important historical moment and allowed us to think about the ethical responsibility that we all hold within society.

Moving onto western Kyoto, we took a delightful sightseeing train called the Sagano Romantic Train. The Sagano Scenic Railway runs old fashioned trains on a 19th century narrow-gauge railway through picturesque RAILSTAFF.CO.UK | @RAIL_STAFF | FACEBOOK.COM/RAILSTAFF

countryside. Passing through the Hozugawa river gorge, the route offers beautiful views of forests and mountains, further enhanced by the beginning of the cherry blossom season.

The delegates then had the option to stay at Kinosaki Onsen, a famous Japanese spa town. This was certainly an eye-opening experience, allowing us to dress up in traditional yukata (including wooden geta shoes!) whilst wandering around the town from one hot spring bath to another.

A key part of the experience was staying in a ryokan (traditional inn) and feasting on local specialties such as Kinosaki crab.

Japanese cuisine was another key experience of the tour. Some favourites included sushi (served on a conveyor belt!), ramen (noodles served in a broth with meat and vegetables) and teppanyaki (Japanese dish cooked on a hot steel plate in front of your very eyes!). It’s safe to say that delegates are now much more practised using chopsticks!

Travelling by rail around Japan was certainly an experience, particularly when using the world-famous Shinkansen bullet trains. The fastest Shinkansen reaches speeds of over 200mph, however, the fastest recorded on our various journeys was 180mph. Delegates were impressed by both the high standard of safety and comfort that these services provided. Clean, quiet, incredibly efficient and reliable; Japan’s Shinkansen trains certainly gave everyone inspiration and ideas to take back to their respective roles within the UK rail industry.

RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

YOUNG RAIL PROFESSIONALS

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THE FRAGILITY AND BEAUTY OF LIFE During our last few days in Japan, we were able to enjoy the start of the cherry blossom season at Ueno Park. Cherry blossom (known as sakura) is richly symbolic in Japan - it represents the fragility and beauty of life. This message was particularly prevalent during our trip, as news of the COVID-19 outbreak grew back in the UK. To ensure the safety of both the delegates and our Japanese counterparts, visits to the Shinkansen control centre and Hitachi’s Kasado manufacturing facilities were unfortunately cancelled. However, huge credit must go to the YRT organisers, who remained prepared for a number of potential scenarios and ready to respond as the landscape evolved surrounding the Coronavirus crisis. We are pleased to report that all delegates returned safely to the UK. There is no doubt that the Japan study tour was an amazing and inspirational experience for all members of the group. The tour allowed young professionals to build their experiences, develop new skills and create global networks which will, in turn, prepare them for their careers within rail. We would like to thank Eversholt Rail for sponsoring the Young Rail Tours programme and supporting this opportunity for 21 young professionals.

YRP would like to thank all YRT organisers for their outstanding effort and time volunteered to organise the tour. YRT is now beginning the process of organising its next tour; watch this space for details soon!

If you have any questions regarding YRT or its future tours, please get in touch with the YRT team on youngrailtours@gmail.com.

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42

TRAINING

RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

WANT TO BE A

TRAIN DRIVER? EVERY CHILD WANTS TO BE A TRAIN DRIVER. SOME STILL WANT TO WHEN THEY GROW UP. BUT WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME ONE?

T

rain driver is a popular job – 1,100 people apply for every single vacancy. Southern runs a busy and well-established school for trainee drivers and RailStaff has been finding out how three successful applicants made the grade.

Changing jobs can feel like a milestone decision, even when you remain in the same industry. But for some of Southern Railway’s newest train drivers, the leap from their previous roles has required a complete career overhaul and led to a dramatic lifestyle change.

And these roles are in high demand; the recruitment team at Southern receive an average of 1,100 applications for each available train driver role each time they are advertised.

A tough assessment process follows, helping to whittle down the applicants identified as having the skills required in the new trainees.

There are many safety rules and precautions involved in train driving and the ability to remain focused and calm is imperative - this role holds a lot of responsibility, so isn’t a job for everyone.

The varied skills required make the role attractive to a range of applicants, helping to diversify the culture of the driving grade. Former support paramedic Ben McKoy swapped ambulance driving for train driving, Claire Jackson started driving after cleaning trains for more than a decade, and Chris Laing switched from air travel to rail after many years as a flight attendant.

On average it takes 12-15 months of intensive training to become a fully qualified driver. The trio mentioned above have persevered through the assessment process, the challenging fourpart interviews and months of intensive training, including six months in the classroom and clocking up 225 hours live driving experience with an instructor.

Their training culminated in a four-day initial competency assessment (ICA), allowing them to take on the tracks alone.

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Ben McKoy with Southern MD Angie Doll.

BEN’S STORY

Ben McKoy, 33, worked for the NHS in an administration role and then as a support paramedic in south London for two and a half years - a highly pressurised job that was both stressful and rewarding - before he joined the driver programme.

He was inspired to become a train driver after taking part in football matches in memory of a Selhurst conductor, who had been a friend of his brother-inlaw. Ben got to know the other drivers through these annual charity football tournaments and, the more he learnt about their jobs, the more he thought it would be something that suited him.

He had been living in West Norwood and bought a house in Selhurst, just before he found out that his application for the driver programme had been successful. Ben, who now works out of the Selhurst depot as a driver for Southern, said: “The stars aligned. I got the house and then I got the job. I was over the moon. At the same time, my girlfriend also got a new job in East Croydon in healthcare, so for both of us it was all change.”

Ben started the course in May 2018, taking about a year and four months to qualify as a driver. He said: “It was really in-depth training. They made sure every aspect of training was covered in great detail. It makes the job easier because you’ve already been through everything, so you’re quite comfortable when you’re out on your own.”

Ben added: “The atmosphere in the railway is also quite different to anywhere I had worked before. I could call my trainers in the evenings, and we would exchange texts. I felt well-looked after; it was a good experience.”

So how does driving a train differ from an ambulance? “When I looked at the job description of train driving and ambulance driving, it was almost like a carbon copy. It was about transporting people safely, following procedures, putting customers first and working under pressure,” said Ben. Although he wouldn’t describe train driving as easy, he admits it’s a lot less stressful than his old job, where 12-hour shifts could become even longer depending on the situation he was called out to. Ben said: “There’s a much better work-life balance. Train driving is quite peaceful, as long as you don’t encounter any issues! You feel like you have a sense of responsibility to take care of passengers and make sure everyone is safe and you have to remain professional throughout.”

RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

TRAINING

43

Randa Majid Mohammed, JadieAnn Russell and Jennifer Kelly Southern driver trainees.

CLAIRE’S STORY

Claire Jackson is one of an increasing number of women to take up driver roles for Southern. To attract more women and young people to consider a career in rail, Southern and the wider Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) franchise embarked on the industry’s biggest rail recruitment drive. In 2018, 30 per cent of Southern’s trainee driver roles were taken up by women, with the franchise working towards the goal of 40 per cent female trainee train drivers by 2021.

Claire had cleaned trains for 12 years on permanent night shifts prior to becoming a Brighton-based driver. She had followed her dad’s footsteps into rail, cleaning Southern trains alongside him at Eastbourne, where he continues to work to this day.

Claire then became a cleaning supervisor - which included managing her dad – but, after a while, she felt it was time for a change of career. Her manager suggested she apply for the driver programme and, although Claire wasn’t confident she would land a job as a driver, she worked hard when it came to the assessments and interviews and was successful.

In fact, it was a time of change, not just in her working life, but also in her personal one. Claire said: “At the time I applied, I was just about to get married and that pushed me to go for something different for the family benefit.”

Claire applied for the driver programme in September 2016, got married in November that year, and continued cleaning until her training started in May last year. She said: “I was used to working nights, but, when I had my two weeks’ holiday, people would say I looked a bit brighter.

It’s a lot nicer working during the day and I get a lot more days off than I did with cleaning, so you get to spend more time with the family. My wife thinks it’s really good because you get a long weekend every three weeks.”

Claire, 35, of Bexhill-on-Sea, continued: “When I first started driving, it was a bit daunting, but now I feel really comfortable in the cab. I’m definitely ready to be driving on my own.”

Claire has just finished her driver instruction training and is now awaiting her four-day final assessment (although this was due to take place in May, it is currently postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic).

She said: “I think it’s a brilliant job so I would tell anyone interested in train driving to go for it. I didn’t think I would get the job, but if you think you would be good at it, you should go for it. My dad’s proud of me. He tells me every time he’s had a couple of pints!”

CHRIS’ STORY

Chris Laing, 42, switched from being a long-haul cabin crew flight attendant (right) to driving Southern trains after a 21-year career in aviation. In his previous job, he was flying all over the world, often given little notice of where he would be next. Although he enjoyed the job, the long night flights made for “an extreme version of shift work”.

Balancing family life with this routine was challenging and Chris was ready for a change, but it was by chance that he stumbled upon the idea of applying to become a train driver. The father of two said: “Funnily enough, I was giving a guy a lift home from Heathrow and he said he had applied for a train driver’s job. I thought ‘why haven’t I thought of that?’ I put my name down for email alerts for train driver jobs and then one came up and I went for it.”

Coincidently, Chris began to learn that he had a bit of family history in the railway too, finding out that his grandfather and great grandfather were both Brighton-based train drivers, which is where he now finds himself.

Chris made it through the four stages of “tough” assessments and started his training in January 2019, passing in the middle of November.

He said: “It was amazing to get on the course; I really enjoyed it. Before the course, I had very limited knowledge of railway operations and I didn’t really know what the inside of a cab looked like. It was a massive learning curve, but the training was really well paced.”

Living in Brighton also cut Chris’ commute to work to just 10 minutes, compared to the hour and a half it used to take him to get to Heathrow.

He has now been driving solo for about six months and is still thoroughly enjoying the job. He said: “I’m learning new routes and there’s a nice mixture between route learning and driving. I still feel really lucky to be driving through the Sussex countryside. It’s a massive change from flying; it gives me more time at home with the children thanks to the fixed roster – it’s having that stability that’s made a big difference to us.

“My wife still flies - she’s cabin crew - so it’s good to have one of us in the country!”

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44

CAREERS

RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

A LAND OF

OPPORTUNITY

WHY ARE RAILWAY OPERATIONS, MANAGEMENT AND TECHNICAL STAFF MAKING THEIR WAY TO MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, IN SEARCH OF A NEW CHALLENGE?

W

ith a series of major rail projects underway in Australia, there has never been a better time to make a move in search of both advancement and job satisfaction. RailStaff has been talking with Metro Trains Melbourne to find out what is so appealing about working ‘down under’.

A few months ago, Crossrail chief executive Mark Wild was addressing a conference, telling of his plans to bring the project to a conclusion and explaining why that would take at least another year.

He commented that, a year or so ago, the Crossrail offices had been full of Australians, all attracted by the work that this major project had to offer.

Now they were all gone. Not because the project was running down, but because there was so much work at home, and a shortage of people with the necessary project skills, they had moved back to work for contractors over there.

GOING HOME A look at some statistics can help in understanding why that is. 86 per cent of Australia’s population lives in cities and large towns - 40 per cent of them in Sydney and Melbourne alone. Also, around 85 per cent live within 30 miles of the coast.

So, this highly urbanised and booming population, living in a narrow band of land around the coastline, needs to get around – and the best way to do that is by train, be it a metro or a light-rail tram system.

But another interesting statistic about Australians is that there are only 25 million of them, making the talent pool fairly limited.

“The more diverse teams are in terms of age, ethnicity and gender, the more creative and productive they are likely to be” RAILSTAFF.CO.UK | @RAIL_STAFF | FACEBOOK.COM/RAILSTAFF

Which is why, with so many major construction projects taking place, there is a shortage of skilled railway managers, operators and engineers. A list of the largest transport projects taking place, together worth over A$107 billion (£52.5 billion), shows that half of them by number, 38 per cent by value, are rail projects.

AUSTRALIA'S LARGEST PROJECTS • WestConnex (NSW), $16 Billion • North East Link, $15 Billion • Level Crossing Removal Program, $12 Billion* • Sydney Metro (NSW), $12 Billion* • Melbourne Metro Tunnel (VIC), $11 Billion* • Melbourne Airport Rail Link (VIC), $10 Billion* • Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail (National), $9.3 Billion* • Bruce Highway Upgrade Program (QLD), $8.5 Billion • West Gate Tunnel (VIC), $6.8 Billion • Cross River Rail (QLD), $5.4 Billion* • Western Sydney Airport (NSW), $5.3 Billion • Western Sydney Infrastructure Plan (NSW), $2.9 Billion • M80 Ring Road Upgrade (VIC), $2.25 Billion • METRONET (WA), $1.84 Billion* (* - Rail projects)

Stevyn Walder.

That is why so many of Crossrail’s Australian engineers, planners and operators have gone home. But even they don’t satisfy the demand, so the projects are recruiting heavily to bring qualified foreigners to Australia.

BRITISH IMPORTS Some are high-profile. Mark Wild himself spent three years there as chief executive officer of Public Transport Victoria. Nick King, Network Rail’s new managing director of Network Operations, was with Metro Trains Melbourne for four years as general manager of network operations there.

Howard Collins left his post as chief operating officer for London Underground in 2013 and is now chief operations officer of Transport for New South Wales, while Andrew Lezala, former services president at Bombardier Derby, went out to Melbourne in 2008, became CEO, and is now in charge of Metro Trains Australia.

RAILSTAFF APRIL 2020

His successor as CEO of Metro Trains Melbourne, former Network Rail programme director Mike Houghton, is now back in the UK as chief operating officer of South Western Railway.

But Brits have been going over to the Australian projects at all levels, not just as main board directors. A good example is Stevyn Walder, who moved from Transport for London to Metro Trains Melbourne.

Stevyn graduated with a bachelor’s degree in city and regional planning from the University of Cardiff and then got his master’s in passenger transport at the University of Westminster. He joined London Underground as a graduate trainee in 1997, moved on station operations roles, including spending time as duty station manager at Oxford Circus in 2000, then transferred into train operations on the Piccadilly line in 2006.

A promotion made him trains performance manger on the Northern line, where he helped deliver the signalling upgrade, He moved over to MTR Elizabeth Line, the train operator of the new line, as head of stage 3 delivery, then he packed his bags and took on the role of general manager for operations and maintenance on the Metro Tunnel Project for Metro Trains Melbourne, a little apprehensive as to what might lie in store.

“Once I had accepted my new position with MTM, the hard work started in preparing

CAREERS

45

to move my family and belongings over from the UK as well as finding a new area to settle,” he told RailStaff. “Thankfully, MTM has helped many others before me. It’s a well-oiled machine. I got a lot of support to pack up all our things and ship them across, sort out the visas, and find temporary accommodation. It’s also a tough time mentally to leave family and friends behind, but social media really helps us all stay in touch.

“My new colleagues have been very welcoming and given me tips about almost everything: where to eat, the best coffee (Melbournians take their coffee very seriously), where to go on holiday and, most importantly, nice areas to live in.

“We live near the beach and, during the summer, occasionally ended my busy day at work with a quick dip in the bay with my family. When we stroll along the beach at the weekend, we have to remind ourselves that this is our life now and we’re not on holiday. That pretty much reflects the outdoor lifestyle many Australians cherish.

“Melbourne is a great place to live for sports fans. So far, we’ve seen the Australian Open and the Women’s Cricket World Cup and the Australian Grand Prix. My three children are nicely settled into the local soccer club, having had a good season with the local cricket club. They have made lots of friends already.

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CAREERS

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“We are excited about our future in Australia. In the rail industry there’s so much investment in public transport so I’m very confident there will always be further career opportunities.

It’s a great country with lots to explore, which we look forward to doing over the coming years.”

Mike Moyes, Metro Trains Melbourne project director for the Metro Tunnel Project (another import - from Hull), highlighted Stevyn’s invaluable experience in bringing the project to life.

“As the rail operator, Metro Trains Melbourne has an important role in these mega projects. We provide technical, service and operational advice so that when the project is finished, we can safely and efficiently run passenger services.

“We are in the thick of it with the client, working side-byside, trekking through the mud, partnering to troubleshoot and develop innovative solutions to highly complex problems.

That’s why we need the best of the best from around the world, like Stevyn, who brings first-hand experience in resolving problems that we have never faced before in our own backyard. Combined with the intimate local knowledge that our business has, as a team, we are ready to deliver these essential public transport projects for all Melbournians.”

On 20 February, the Metro Tunnel Project team celebrated five years on the project. With a scheduled completion date of 2025, there is plenty of time to join this high-performing team.

Melbourne’s level crossing removal programme is Australia’s third-largest transport infrastructure project.

DIVERSE WORKFORCE Stevyn has settled in well, but, in his way, is a fairly typical, white male railway manager. But that’s not to say there isn’t a lot of diversity in the Metro Trains Melbourne workforce – there is. A look around the staff canteen show that, with male and female staff of various ethnic and religious backgrounds all working towards one goal – safely and efficiently running passenger trains through the Metro Tunnel in 2025.

“The research is clear – the more diverse teams are in terms of age, ethnicity and gender, the more creative and productive they are likely to be,” said Mike Moyes.

“This is true in the academic studies, and in my own personal experience. The Metro Tunnel Project is the most complex project I’ve worked on in my career. We need the best thinkers, best researchers, best learners and best doers to get the job done; that’s why I value diversity of thought.”.

Track and civil design engineer Ghazaleh Tabarsi comes from Iran and worked there until 2016. “At Metro, I work for an industry leader that can take my career to the next level,” she said. “Metro allows me the flexibility to be a working mother without limiting my opportunity to contribute, career path or professional development.”

Nadine De Lile, risk assurance manager on the Metro Tunnels Project is a (relatively) local. She graduated from Griffith University in Queensland and spent six years with Queensland Rail in Brisbane before moving to Melbourne. She now feels she is contributing to the future: “I am part of building a legacy in Melbourne by managing infrastructure projects that will support the growth of our city. Metro offers me the flexibility to develop as a leader in my field and shares my commitment balancing work and family.”

Anjali Bhat was a software engineer for Nokia and Hewlett Packard in Bangalore, India, before joining the Metro Tunnel project, where she is developing the Smart Metro software suite, which is leading Metro’s digital transformation. “As a software engineer, I am building apps that enable our workforce to deliver services to 450,000 passengers a day.

Metro provides a collaborative, vibrant working environment where all of us are encouraged to bring our best every day.”

Despite their varied backgrounds, Stevyn, Ghazaleh, Nadine and Anjali are all working together to develop Metro’s network for the future.

To ask about joining them, visit www.MTM-Careers.com and see the advertisement on page 48.

RAILSTAFF.CO.UK | @RAIL_STAFF | FACEBOOK.COM/RAILSTAFF

Ghazaleh Tabarsi.

Nadine De Lile.

Anjali Bhat.

‘Support on Life’s Journey’ Railway Mission - Supporting Railway People Since 1881 www.railwaymission.org

Duri the COVID-19 epidemic Railway Mission During is still here supporting the Railway Family. At this time of isolation we not be able to offer face-to-face support, because we do not wish to be responsible for the spread of the vicious disease and we too are staying home to save lives. But we still have a core team here to support you and together we will defeat this su virus.

If you need support you can e-mail: COVID19@railwaymission.org phone/ Text/ WhatsApp: 07793 246528

Railway Mission chaplaincy service Business as usual, in unusual times

Please support your chaplaincy service.

To make a donation, text 'RAIL 5' to 70085 to donate £5.

This costs £5 plus a standard rate message.

Alternatively, you can opt to give any whole amount up to £20.

Charity number in England and Wales: 1128024 Scotland SC045897

Shaping Melbourne Australia Are you interested in joining the project team at Metro Trains Melbourne (MTM) that is involved in multibillion dollar city-shaping infrastructure projects?

Did you know? Metro Trains Melbourne is part of the MTR family, with global reach across Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East.

Can you bring your wealth of experience to help us support the delivery of Melbourne’s two largest rail infrastructure projects?

THE METRO TUNNEL PROJECT The A$11 billion Metro Tunnel will untangle the city loop so more trains can run more effectively across Melbourne. The Metro Tunnel scope includes twin nine-kilometre rail tunnels, five new underground stations as well as new high capacity signalling. The Metro Tunnel Project is being delivered in three work packages, with a programme-level team assisting each package. The three work packages are: Rail Systems Alliance, Rail Infrastructure Alliance and the Tunnels and Stations Public Private Partnership.

> KEY METRO TUNNEL PROJECT ROLES: Delivery Manager – Systems

Operations & Maintenance Readiness Manager

Lead the business change required to support Victoria’s ‘Big Build’ Infrastructure Program, specifically relating to the Metro Tunnel Project (MTP). You will ensure the safe delivery of the MTP Systems, a team of over 100 people and a turnover of over A$50m, acting as the alternative Alliance Leadership Team (ALT) for MTM, supporting the Project Director.

Provide a line-based focus to the various O&M team members across the MTP packages and High Capacity Metro Trains. The line-based focus will comprise full line trials prior to revenue service and managing the change impact of the MTP across the line and the wider business.

Enabling Services Manager

Senior Engineer – Train Control & ATS

Responsible for the efficient and effective support to the Rail Projects Victoria Programme (RPVP). This roles provides key leadership across a range of programme-level disciplines which include: financial governance, legal, commercial and financial risk management, programme planning, control systems, stakeholder and communications and people management.

As a Subject matter expert in Train Control systems, including Automatic Train Supervision (ATS), and their interface to signalling/ CBTC and other network control systems, the role is responsible to review designs relating to the proposed systems and changes to existing systems.

THE LEVEL CROSSING REMOVAL PROJECT The Level Crossing Removal Project (LXRP) was established by the Victorian Government to oversee one of the largest rail infrastructure projects in the state’s history. LXRP is part of the Major Transport Infrastructure Authority and our projects fall under Victoria’s Big Build.

Central to the project is the elimination of 75 level crossings across metropolitan Melbourne by 2025, in addition to other rail network upgrades such as new train stations, track duplication and train stabling yards.

> KEY LXRP PROJECT ROLES: Programme Delivery Manager – LXRP

Project Manager – Signalling

Responsible and accountable for the delivery of Projects within the Level Crossings Removal Portfolio (LXRP). They shall ensure that the Program Managers, Project Managers, Engineers and the other team members involved in the LXRP Projects achieve the goals within the safety, time, cost and quality parameters determined for the Projects.

To provide effective project management of LXRP signalling requirements, drawing together MTM’s needs as a client and assisting the Department of Transport ensuring OH&S, quality, cost, time and scope parameters of the projects are adequately set out and achieved.

www.metrotrains.com.au

Melbourne: Australia’s sporting and culture capital.

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Deliver a great passenger experience

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Connecting people and places for a growing Melbourne

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OUR VISION

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R A TE GIC F OC U S R ST

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We work smarter every day to be Australia’s most respected city railway

Support rail transformation

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OUR MISSION

Empower and engage our people

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One Team

OUR VALUES

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De pe nd ab le

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Be a sustainable business long term

rm OUR FOUNDATION Safety – Our goal is Zero Harm, because every injury is preventable

> FURTHER CAREER OPPORTUNITIES ACROSS BOTH MTP AND LXRP: » » » » » » » » »

Project Engineer – Overhead Line Project Engineer – TCMS Project Engineer – Signalling Supervisor – Signalling Technical Lead – Commissioning and Completions Senior Project Engineer - Structures Track & Civil Design Review Engineer Signalling & Overheads Design Review Engineers Maintenance Planning Specialist

» » » » » » » » »

Senior Systems Assurance Engineer Human Factors Advisor Senior Systems Engineer / FRACAS Engineer Project Engineer – OCS / ICT Design Review Engineer - Traction Power Occupation / Possession Planners & Managers Rail Safety Coordinator / Advisor & Rail Safety Managers CBTC / PSD Experts Delivery Manager – Disruptions

INTERESTED? If what you’ve read resonates with your values, experience and career aspirations then we want to hear from you.

Successful candidates and their families will be offered sponsorship and be provided with relocation assistance as part of the MTM’s Global Mobility Framework.

To register your interest, contact Kyle MacLean (Talent Partner) on kyle.maclean@metrotrains.com.au with your CV and contact details, or for more information, see:

mtm-careers.com

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DELIVERING QUALITY RECRUITMENT SOLUTIONS FOR THE RAIL INDUSTRY We’re still recruiting for the rail sector, supporting Network Rail with their COVID-19 strategy.

VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO VIEW FULL JOB DESCRIPTIONS AND SIMILAR ROLES +44 (0)1483 361061

info@advance-trs.com

Supporting the rail industry With the difficult days ahead, we will continue to deliver our expertise to ensure that the men and woman of the rail industry are supported during these unprecedented and uncertain times.

Even now, there are still job opportunities to be had and futures to be planned.

Visit RailwayPeople.com or call to find out more.

Tel: +44 (0)1530 816 450

RAILSTAFF.CO.UK | @RAIL_STAFF | FACEBOOK.COM/RAILSTAFF

@railwaypeople

www.advance-trs.com

Trains Today Very Light Rail Tomorrow FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT

www.vlrcareers.co.uk

Agency submissions will not be accepted.

Launch team

Dudley

Our client is looking for high-calibre individuals – with a rail-sector background – to help launch a new National Innovation Centre for very light rail and last-mile mobility solutions for passenger transport.

Located in the West Midlands, the Innovation Centre will help accelerate the development and introduction of low-cost solutions for next-generation rail and supporting infrastructure.

It will provide access to leading technical and research expertise via academic partners and industrial collaborators.

The launch-team roles open for applicants include: u CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER – to lead the team during the critical launch phase of the Innovation Centre and be a champion for innovation in low-cost rail solutions, helping position the Innovation Centre on a national and international stage. u BUSINESS AND PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER – to help attract industry to work with the centre and to successfully develop a pipeline of rail innovation projects involving the Innovation Centre and its university partners. u SME PROJECT MANAGER – to help SMEs to realise the supply chain opportunities offered by innovations in next generation, low-cost rail and last mile mobility. u OPERATIONS AND MARKETING MANAGER – to help raise the profile of the Innovation Centre through marketing, events and public relations. u FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION EXECUTIVE – to create robust financial and administrative systems to manage UK and European funding.

These posts are part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund 2014-2020.

Serious planning TRS offers a complete project management service that takes you all the way from plan to plant.

Grounded in our unrivalled industry knowledge and expertise, we can save time, protect budget and improve quality on your next project – helping you get the job done safer and better than ever before.

Call 01962 711642 for more or go online. totalrailsolutions.co.uk