Railway Strategies Issue 107 Final Edition

RAILWAY F o r S E N I OR R A I L M A N A G E M E N T

Final Edition 107

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FOCUS ON

High Speed Rail HS2 report

What the industry thinks

Interview

Alison Munro: the challenges & triumphs of HS2

Being prepared

NEWS

Transport Committee calls for evidence ÂŁ300m for Underground stations

Procurement strategy for HS2

Safety at 200mph

Are automated systems the key?

Three finalists for aesthetic overhead lines

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From the Editor

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Arriving at platform one

Chairman Andrew Schofield Managing Director Mike Tulloch Editor Gay Sutton editor@railwaystrategies.co.uk Managing Editor Libbie Hammond Editorial Designer Jon Mee Advertisement Designer Jenni Newman Profile Editor Libbie Hammond Advertisement Sales Dave King Head of Research Philip Monument Editorial Researchers Keith Hope Gavin Watson Vita Lukauskiene Tarj Kaur-D’Silva Mark Cowles Administration Tracy Chynoweth

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could not have asked for a better time to take over as editor of Railway Strategies. The rail industry is undoubtedly a fast moving and exciting place to be, and there will be a great deal to report.

An unprecedented amount of investment is going into rail, including the

electrification, upgrade and replacement of the existing infrastructure, all based on a vision for UK rail that is evolving fast.

Crossrail and Thameslink are set to liberate train movements through the bottleneck of central London and relieve congestion on the Underground, while HS2 has the potential to speed journeys and create considerable additional capacity between London and the north.

It has been interesting to speak with HS2 Ltd CEO Alison Munro about the challenges of guiding this ground breaking project through the sensitive areas of public debate and Parliamentary process (page 6), and to hear from Richard Mould head of corporate procurement about the organisation’s new procurement strategy (page 12) – both are must-reads for all prospective suppliers to the project.

Meanwhile, Network Rail and its supply chain are in the process of evolving their processes to keep pace with the speed of change and the challenge of delivery.

It will be my pleasure to keep you up to date with developments in this fast evolving environment. If you have any comments or suggestions to make, or would like to add your voice to the debate, please contact me at: editor@railwaystrategies.co.uk

Railway Strategies by email

Issue 107 ISSN 1467-0395 Published by

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zzzzzzzzzzzzz Contents Features

Interview – Alison Munro 6 Gay Sutton Keeping the Hallandsås tunnel project on track 30 Sweco Making the most of early morning hours 32 Jeremy Long

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Cover story

A double edged sword 34 Liz Wilson-Lamb Infrarail preview 36 SAFETY–on level crossings 19 Arnab Dutt Is rapid response truly on the horizon? 20 Udi Segall Harnessing aircraft technology 27 Harvey Alexander

News Industry 4 Contracts 28 Stations 29 Appointments 41 Conferences & Exhibitions 71

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Focus on High Speed Rail HS2 under the spotlight 10 Accent/Railway Strategies The art of being prepared 12 Richard Mould Staying on track at 200mph 14 Kevin Mappelbeck Gaining by experience 16 Alistair Gordon

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Property boom for Birmingham 17 Ray Withers

Profiles

Review Page 22

Konecranes UK 42 RPA Dublin – Luas tram 44 Henry Williams 47 Southeastern 50 Silicone Engineering Ltd 52 Heathrow Express 55 Southern Railway 58 InnoTrans 62 Arriva Trains Wales 64 Sitron Sensors 66 Irish Rail 68 Metroselskabet 72 Mendip Rail 75 FCC Environment 78

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NEWS I Industry

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Transport committee calls for evidence

Remains of a medieval brick floor

Thameslink unearths more rare artefacts at London Bridge station l Medieval floors, 16th century tobacco pipes and thousand-yearold timbers are just a few of the hundreds of artefacts that have been unearthed as the £6.5 billion Thameslink Programme continues with the rebuild of London Bridge station.

During excavation of the station’s original brick arches, hundreds of historic items were found, dating back to the first settlements in the area. Timber piles from trees felled between AD59 to AD83 may have been part of a substantial waterfront building on the edge of a settlement south of the first London Bridge.

Fragments of medieval floors and walls have also been unearthed.

These could be part of the large houses along Tooley Street that are known to have belonged to important medieval clerics such as the Prior of Lewes. More recent discoveries, dating from the 16th to 18th centuries, include evidence of industry in the area such as kilns for making clay tobacco pipes.

Nicky Hughes, head of communications for Network Rail, London and South East, said: “As London Bridge is one of London’s oldest stations it’s not surprising that we are unearthing such a range of interesting finds shedding light on London’s development through the ages.”

Earlier finds at the Borough provide evidence of early Roman military occupation and the Boudican revolt. A previously unknown Roman bathhouse was unearthed under Borough High Street, along with substantial evidence for the Saxon and medieval defences.

Remains of a pipe kiln

Beautifully preserved clay pipes

l The Transport Committee is launching an inquiry to scrutinise the impact and deliverability of Network Rail’s £38 billion investment programme over the next five years, and to identify investment priorities after 2019.

Louise Ellman MP, Chair of the House of Commons Transport Committee, said: “Much debate has taken place recently about HS2. We now want to focus on investment in the existing classic line, including how services can be improved and how efficiency in the railway can be increased, improving passenger satisfaction.”

The Committee is calling for evidence on the following topics: l What are the main features of the rail investment plan for CP5 and how will the railway be different in 2019 following delivery of the plan? l What is expected to happen to passenger satisfaction over this period? Is the rail industry measuring this in the right way? l Is Network Rail confident that it can deliver, and meet its targets for efficiency and punctuality? How should train operators assist in ensuring that Network Rail delivers? How will the Office for Rail Regulation ensure that planned investments represent value for money? l Has Network Rail prioritised the right schemes for the purpose of improving the railway’s resilience? l How might reclassification of Network Rail as a central government body in September 2014 affect rail investment? l Is the balance between passenger and freight investment right? What additional demand for freight movements might be released with a different balance of investment? l What will be the railway’s demand for new rolling stock over the next decade and how will this demand be met? l How will electrification affect the passenger experience of the railway, rolling stock requirements and rail freight? l What should be the priorities for investment after 2019 (CP6), particularly in relation to connecting the classic railway with HS2?

Arrow head

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Submissions by Friday 13 June, to: www.parliament. uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/ commons-select/transport-committee/inquiries/ parliament-2010/railway-investment

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NEWS I Industry

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Abellio’s short term franchise for Greater Anglia extended

Aesthetic overhead lines come a step closer l Three designs have made it through to the finals in the international competition to design aesthetically pleasing overhead lines for the UK’s rail network. Each will receive funding to undertake detailed technical development of their design and consider their route to market.

Moxon Architects with Mott MacDonald from the UK and two Danish companies, Bystrup Architecture Design and Engineering and COBE, were selected from a shortlist of 10.

Mark Howard, head of power and traction at HS2 Ltd said: “All those shortlisted have really understood the technical practicalities whilst coming up with eye-catching structures. I look forward to developing these ideas further and perhaps one day seeing them alongside the UK’s much needed high speed rail network.”

The competition was launched by FutureRailway in conjunction with HS2 Ltd and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in December 2013, to carry new technologies through the critical stage of development.

The HST design from HST design from Bystrup Architecture Design & Engineering Bystrup reduces the overhead rail line to two elements; a triangular cable network carrying the power, and an aesthetic T-shaped mast which supports twin systems serving adjacent tracks.

Tomahawk from COBE is a family of overhead line structures that minimises the visual impact of the entire line by reducing the overall height, reducing the number of structural elements and using The Tomahawk design from COBE contemporary materials and manufacturing techniques.

Finally, the Integrated OLS from Moxon is simple slender and tapering. It is designed to reduce the visual impact in the landscape by simplifying the components of the power line support equipment, replacing insulating pots with built-in insulating properties through the use of a densified laminated wood.

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Network Rail

The integrated OLS design fromMoxon Architects with Mott MacDonald

l The Greater Anglia rail franchise which includes most passenger train services in East Anglia, is to be extended by more than two years, the Government has confirmed. Abellio Greater Anglia will continue providing services between London Liverpool Street and major towns and cities across Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex for the next 27 months.

Under the agreement with Dutch-owned Abellio, there will be an increase in services on the Greater Anglia network, including twice as many weekday off peak services between Stansted airport and Cambridge, a global centre of technological expertise.

Intercity carriages on the Great Eastern Main Line route between Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester and London are to be improved with new seat covers and carpets, better lighting and at-seat power sockets.

The new agreement paves the way for the next franchise competition on the Greater Anglia network.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: “This agreement is further proof that the government’s new franchising schedule is on track, is delivering value for money for the tax payer, and is supporting the ongoing multi-billion pound investment programme in our railways.”

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INTERVIEW I Alison Munro, CEO, HS2 Ltd

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High speed approach The HS2 project has hardly been out of the news over the past few years.

The person steering this ambitious rail project through the sensitive planning stages to construction is CEO Alison Munro.

She talks to Gay Sutton about the challenges and achievements so far

Alison Munro CEO, HS2 Ltd

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o one could ever say HS2 has been a typical rail project. Its current vision, size, and scope make it more ambitious and challenging than anything that has been attempted in the UK for generations. It is certainly the largest national infrastructure programme since the construction of the M25 some 30 years ago. Its scope is continuing to evolve, and is managed by HS2 Ltd which was originally formed in 2009 to examine the case for building a new high speed rail link between London and Birmingham.

CEO Alison Munro has been with the project since the beginning, and

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admits there is considerable pressure on the organisation to deliver an efficient and cost effective solution within a rather tight time frame. To the outsider, though, the measured pace of the legislative process may not give this impression. “We simply can’t afford to lose momentum,” she explained, not only speaking on behalf of HS2 but also for the nation. “The current line to the West Midlands will reach capacity by the middle of the next decade, and this will have a significant impact on the economy of the region. When you allow for the time needed for the planning process and then construction, we have to move forward quickly now if we are to deliver the necessary capacity improvements before that date.”

There are currently two phases in hand. The initial link to Birmingham is Phase 1, and extensions to Manchester and Leeds are Phase 2.

Meanwhile, a future spur to Heathrow is a possibility while a hub at Crewe has been proposed by HS2 Ltd Chairman Sir David Higgins, and there could be a possible third phase to Scotland in the future. Each phase however is at a different stage of development. So let’s begin by reviewing progress over the last couple of years.

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zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz The environmental statement alone came to over 50,000 pages, while every single land interest along the route - thousands in total – had to be identified and examined with mitigating proposals produced through the environmental stages and a Hybrid Bill for this phase will be submitted to Parliament. Further decisions about extending the line to Scotland are very much for the future.

Getting the groundwork right Artist’s impression of a green tunnel portal

Artist’s impression of a cutting

The legislative process The route from London to Birmingham was agreed by the Secretary of State for Transport in January 2012, following a consultation that took place between February and July 2011. Once HS2 received the go ahead it embarked on an intense period of detailed environmental assessments and associated design work, and this formed the foundation of the Hybrid Bill which was submitted to Parliament in November 2013.

The crucial second reading of the Bill took place on 28 April this year.

MPs hotly debated the need for a high speed rail link but it was voted through by a significant majority. The next step in the legislative process is to set up a Select Committee to examine the Bill, consider petitions made against it and make any necessary amendments.

If passed, the Bill will effectively give the organisation planning permission and powers to acquire the land en route, build and maintain Phase 1 of the project.

Phase 2 is following the same legislative process. The consultation on the proposed routes has been completed, and Government hopes to announce a decision by the end of this year. Then it will progress

Successfully bringing the Hybrid Bill for Phase 1 to Parliament has been an administrative and technical marathon that has involved more consultation than any infrastructure project that has gone before. The environmental statement alone came to over 50,000 pages, while every single land interest along the route - thousands in total – had to be identified and examined with mitigating proposals produced.

“HS2 will clearly impact on people who live along the route, and this has been a huge challenge for us,” Alison said. “Throughout this stage we have been working to identify how the high speed line will affect the local communities and surrounding areas, and then looking at how we can best address those impacts and mitigate them as far as possible,” she continued. “There is a lot we have been able to do by designing the route so that it’s low in the landscape, and proposing noise barriers and landscaping screens.”

Significant stretches of Phase 1 will be tunnelled, including the routes in and out of London and Birmingham, and under Crewe.

Meanwhile, 11 miles of track through the Chilterns, a designated area of outstanding natural beauty, will be in tunnel, green tunnel or cutting.

Achieving the best outcomes for the communities and the environment, however, has been something of a balancing act. HS2 is going to be an expensive public investment. Phase 1 and 2 are estimated to cost £42.6 billion at 2011 prices including a contingency of around £14.4 billion while the rolling stock is likely to cost around £7.5 billion. “We have to control costs and make sure we deliver the capacity and service the country needs within a tight budget,” Alison said.

Already this has proved to be something of a double edged sword.

“In some cases that means we just haven’t been able to justify the mitigation people want,” she continued. “And looking to the future this is going to be a continuing challenge for us as we continue through the Select Committee stage and into construction.”

Public opinion and the art of communication One of the hallmarks of this project has been the sheer intensity of the public debate it has aroused. And this has ranged from claims that the money would be better spent upgrading the existing network, through the irreparable damage that would be done to local communities and countryside, to claims that other parts of the country will see no benefit and are likely to decline as a result.

Handling such sensitive issues has become increasingly pressing.

“Over the last year we have responded by devoting considerable effort to articulating the argument that this is far more than just a new railway,” Alison explained. “HS2 will be a catalyst for growth up and down the country, and there are many benefits that will flow from it.”

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INTERVIEW I Alison Munro

Artist’s impression of the new Curzon Street station in Birmingham

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Another need that must be addressed is the weakness of the engineering skills base within the UK. “Even without HS2 we have skills gaps in science, technology, engineering and maths, and we’re working with BIS to address that.” Bids are currently being sought from cities with a strong rail link to host the proposed High Speed Rail College. “We would like to see this develop in a hub and spoke arrangement,” Alison said, “with the college as the main hub and links to further education establishments and engineering academies around the country, so we can grow a diverse and effective skills base for HS2, and for rail projects in the future.”

Continuing the balancing act

A number of official reviews and reports have added to the discussion including the David Higgins review published in March this year. The Department of Transport’s Strategic Case for HS2 published in October 2013 set out detailed economic arguments and argued why the alternatives are not likely to provide the long-term solution the country needs, while the HS2 Growth Task Force led by Lord Deighton analysed the growth prospects. Others have clearly contradicted them The HS2 team has been communicating this message of growth extensively to key cities along the route. “What has been rewarding for us over the past few months is the growing realisation of the opportunities high speed rail will bring them.” Birmingham for example has developed an ambitious master plan for the redevelopment of the whole Curzon Street area, which in turn will be another catalyst for jobs. Meanwhile, eight key cities in the North - Sheffield, Leeds, York, Newcastle, Nottingham, Liverpool, Derby and Manchester – have formed a powerful coalition called Connected Cities, to promote and support HS2. “So what we have now are other voices, not just our own, making the case for HS2. And preparations are being made through the Midlands and North to capitalise on the benefits it will deliver.”

The next stage of evolution With the construction of Phase 1 due to start in 2017, Alison Munro is beginning to orchestrate the crucial transition from a planning organisation to a construction one. There is a wealth of knowledge and experience in the UK that HS2 can draw from, including HS1, Crossrail and Thameslink, and parallel projects such as the Thames Tideway Tunnel. However the supply chain will need to be strengthened if it is to have the capacity to deliver this enormous project. Last year, HS2 began addressing this through workshops and meetings with interested suppliers. The aim was to open communications, articulate and work on a procurement strategy and engage suppliers in the debate.

How the redesign of Euston station might look

What HS2 has achieved over the past two years is a solid foundation from which it can move forward into construction. “The amount of consultation on this project has been incredibly valuable for us, and although we’ve not always been able to give people what they want, it’s given us a much better understanding of public concerns. That puts us in a much better position as we continue through the Parliamentary process,” Alison concluded. “What we are clear on is that we only have this one chance to get this right. And we are going to make absolutely sure that we do and that this project will be as good as it can be.” zz

Phase 1 milestones l February 2011- July 2011: Consultation on proposed route from London to Birmingham l January 2012: Phase 1 route agreed by the secretary of State for Transport l Period 2012-2013: Detailed environmental studies with the associated design work

November 2013: Hybrid Bill submitted to Parliament. (When finalised this will provide planning permission and powers to acquire the land en route, build and maintain Phase 1 of the project.) l 28 April 2014: Second reading of the Bill voted through overwhelmingly - 452 for and 41 against l

Phase 1 next steps l Select committee to examine the bill, consider petitions against it and make any

necessary amendments l Undertake detailed engineering and design work

Phase 2 milestones l January 2013: Initial proposed routes for HS2 extensions to

Manchester and Leeds announced l July 2013 - January 2014: Consultation on proposed routes

Phase 2 next step l Government to announce results of consultation l Will follow the same process as Phase 1

HS2 facts at a glance l 143 miles of track between London and Birmingham l Birmingham to Manchester is around 95 miles l Birmingham to Leeds is around 116 miles l More than half the Phase1 will be in cuttings or tunnels l Around 56.5 miles of Phase 1 will be partially or totally hidden to reduce visual effects and noise l 10.9 miles of track in the Chilterns will be in tunnel, green tunnel or cutting. l Only 1.5 miles will be on the surface l The new network – Phases 1 and 2 and possible Heathrow spur - around 330 miles

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High Speed Focus

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HS2 under the spotlight As planning for the HS2 route from London to the north progresses, rail industry executives share their opinions and questions about this ambitious project

Accent/Railway Strategies RESEARCH REPORT

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n this, the first of a series of special reports from Accent and Railway Strategies, our exclusive panel of rail industry executives were asked to share their views on the HS2 project. The majority, 82 per cent of executives asked, were in favour of the HS2 project while only nine per cent were against the project.

speed rail and the transfer of passengers from existing lines to HS2, this will increase capacity and allow greater flexibility on classic lines. There has been a great deal of money invested in the project to date and this money should not be wasted on further deliberation, it is time to build.”

In addition Colin Flack at Rail Alliance said: “I believe that it is naive to think that the existing lines could cope with the scale of change/shift that is required. If it was that simple it would have been done or proposed. Most of the arguments supporting such a view are flawed! In real terms across the life of the project these are relatively small amounts of government funding.”

Whilst Malcolm Robertson at Mirror Technology Ltd has a conflicting view and added: “I think that upgrading and increasing capacity on existing lines would be more useful.”

Changed views With recent controversy over the cost of this project we asked our executives if their views had changed since the start of the process. The majority, 91 per cent, said that their opinions had not changed with only nine per cent saying that their thoughts had altered. Mike Grimsey at TRL said: “I believe that the need for providing additional capacity within the national transport system cannot be adequately or affordably met by any other alternative project or solution. This has been more of an emerging view based upon gaining an increased awareness of the project.”

Scotland Discussions then moved on to the possibility of extending the line to Scotland for which we asked our executives for their thoughts. 27 per cent thought it was essential and 36 per cent said it would be a good idea while only nine per cent thought it wasn’t a good idea and 27 per cent thought it was neither a good idea nor bad idea.

Benefits Executives were then asked what they believe the main benefits are. The table below highlights our respondents’ answers.

Benefits to Scotland When asked what the main benefits of extending the line would be, Mike Grimsey at TRL said: “Longer distance connectivity to Scotland will naturally suit the dynamics and provisions of high speed rail, I am just not so sure of the economics or business case. And, with the Scottish Independence Referendum approaching, that adds an interesting dimension too.”

Mark Bott at Preserved Traction Technical Services Ltd added: “Separating long distance high speed trains from

Alternatives

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With the investment for HS2 being significant, executives gave their views on the possibility of alternatively spending the money on existing rail lines rather than on HS2. Keith Pullan at Mott Macdonald Ltd said: “Existing rail lines are at or exceeding design capacity, there is a clear need for high

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I think that upgrading and increasing capacity on existing lines would be more useful

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other traffic is the only way forward. The French discovered this back in the 1970s after spending a large amount of money on the existing PLM route. Long distance freight services are essential for the economic growth of the UK.”

Supply Chain

The conversation then moved onto the issue of the supply chain for HS2 and our executives were asked if they felt the UK has enough resources available to carry out the project given other infrastructure commitments like Crossrail.

Over half, 64 per cent, said ‘Yes’ and the remaining respondents, 36 per cent, said ‘No’.

Chris Hallam at Pinsent Masons LLP believes we are going to need to import: “engineering skill, eg tunnelling expertise. The experience gained by UK members of JVs on Crossrail may help, but the UK market is not in a position to compete with the continental tunnelling contractors who have far more experience.

Whilst another executive added: “I would imagine that although it may be reported that British companies will be at the forefront of the building of the project, sub-contractors who we heavily rely on will in fact look elsewhere for cheap skilled labour.”

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The HS2 concept will solve specific problems that spending on alternate projects won’t achieve

Value of investment Finally, executives were asked if they felt that the long term benefits will outweigh the initial investment. The majority, 82 per cent, said ‘Yes’ whilst the remaining executives answered ‘Don’t know’.

We asked executives to state their reasons, Michael Whelan said: “Any information given on long term benefits are made on projected values. The government has failed repeatedly in years gone by to give accurate projected values - instead releasing information that gives a rosy outlook for whatever result they wish to obtain.” Another executive said: “Very few large scale infrastructure projects

HS2 creates a dedicated expensive service with limited passenger appeal

fail to exceed all expectations of them over time. There are vibrant regional economies like Birmingham, Manchester etc who will ensure that the most is made of this opportunity if they are given the chance.”

Conclusion In conclusion the consensus of opinion on our panel of rail executives is that HS2 is likely to boost rail capacity, job creation and economic growth. The debate over whether the money is best spent on this project or upgrading the regional networks is still not settled. And, while the majority of respondents believe extending the line to Scotland is a good idea, the upcoming Scottish referendum is casting doubts on the economic viability.

We would like to hear your opinion on HS2.

Email editor@railwaystrategies.co.uk There are many unanswered questions which could in turn lead to other interesting debates. For example, will the capacity liberated by HS2 create an environment in which the volume of freight carried on the UK rail network can be significantly increased? Indeed should we consider using extra capacity for freight, or would we just be jeopardising the hard won easing of congestion for passenger traffic?

What is the future vision for freight on the network, and how will this impact on the logistics industry and road traffic? zz If you would like to take part in this and future debates you can also email: Yasamin.mehraj@accent-mr.com

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We need to invest in our future. It is difficult to choose one project over another - they all have merit www.railwaystrategies.co.uk

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zz High Speed Focus zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz The art of being prepared Procuring for the massive HS2 project is going to be a challenge, not only for HS2 Ltd, but also for the UK supply chain. RICHARD MOULD, head of corporate procurement, HS2 Ltd, explains the organisation’s strategy and how it is working with suppliers to prepare for the opportunity

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Richard Mould is head of corporate procurement, HS2 Ltd

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S2 is big. Very big. Fifteen years of construction time, a £42.6 billion budget, nine major new railway stations and more than 350 miles of new track, bridges, viaducts and tunnels to free up much-needed space on our increasingly crowded railways, and shorten travel times between Britain’s biggest cities.

To build a programme of this size will require the mobilisation of a supply chain on an unprecedented scale.

Business opportunities will be available in a range of sectors, from civils, construction and systems to catering, cleaning and security.

In fact, across the UK we believe the whole supply chain could easily create tens of thousands of individual business opportunities.

At the heart of the HS2 project is a plan for a Y-shaped rail network providing direct, large capacity high speed rail links between London and Birmingham and Manchester and Leeds. Services to cities further north would then continue on the existing rail network to Liverpool, York, Newcastle and Scotland.

As well as improving long distance travel, HS2 will also provide much needed extra capacity on our existing rail network, taking long distance trains off the West Coast Mainline and making space for much-needed local services.

Once complete, HS2 could support an estimated 400,000 jobs according to the Core Cities group’s analysis and KPMG reported last year that it could bring an economic benefit of up to £15 billion a year to the UK economy.

All of this came one step closer on 28 April when the High Speed Rail Bill (London to West Midlands) passed its second reading in the Commons. At 11pm that evening 452 MPs voted in favour of the project, establishing the principle of a high speed railway line running between London and the West Midlands. The Bill will now pass through the rest of the Parliamentary process and once

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Royal Assent has been granted we expect to have spades in the ground in early 2017.

So the formal construction phase is scheduled to begin in 2017 but there is much work to be done in the meantime. There are ground investigations to be carried out, as well as the initial planning and preparatory work, which all need to be completed alongside the on-going procurement process.

How will it all work?

Like other large infrastructure projects, we will be directly buying and managing a relatively small number of contracts with what are known as tier 1 contractors.

These contractors will in turn be buying a wide variety of goods, works and services from a large number of smaller suppliers and contractors. This forms the supply chain for delivering HS2.

For example, HS2 Ltd will procure a tunnelling contractor at tier 1 who will enter into contract with a groundwork subcontractor at tier 2. This groundworks subcontractor will hire plant from a plant hire specialist at tier 3, who subcontracts catering services to another supplier at tier 4 – and so on.

Of course, it will take some time for the major contracts to be awarded and for opportunities to flow down to the different tiers of the supply chain. However, with a target cost for Phase One alone (London to the West Midlands) of over £17 billion, this pyramid of suppliers means that the number of opportunities to work on HS2 is quite unprecedented. For example, London’s Crossrail project is estimated to have created over 75,000 separate business opportunities. HS2 is a far larger project.

So where are we now?

Preparation for procurement began last year. The phase one outline procurement strategy was developed and peer-reviewed through 2013. During the summer HS2 Ltd

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz undertook a desktop study on the supply base, mapping the likely HS2 supplier landscape and potential market constraints.

We also held a series of workshops with potential suppliers focused on how best to foster collaboration up and down the supply chain, how to incentivise companies further down the chain, looking at where risk should be owned and how to encourage innovation throughout the chain.

In November last year we held a major supply chain conference in Birmingham attended by over 600 organisations, the majority of which where SMEs and over half specialists in the construction, civil engineering or infrastructure, rail and transport sectors.

Following the Birmingham supply chain conference we launched a market engagement exercise to engage with and listen to the industry’s views. The focus is on how we plan to package and how we plan to contract for the requirements.

The engagement includes a survey of potential suppliers, as well as work with umbrella bodies and trade associations, and meetings with local enterprise partnerships across the country.

These will be followed, later this year, by specially tailored category industry days – with, for example, rolling stock suppliers or tunnelling firms – designed to engage with and inform the supply chain of upcoming procurement opportunities.

As the project develops, working with the market will remain a priority.

Getting involved On a programme such as HS2 where we are managing multiple contracts across multiple projects with multiple parties and interfaces, there is a compelling need for a suite of contracts that enable collaboration, incentivise success, allocate risk appropriately and facilitate integration throughout the supply chain.

It may seem like 2017 is a long way off, but there’s plenty to do before the serious construction gets under way and we have already started some early works procurements.

First being a £60 million framework for ground investigation services PQQ; responses have been returned and the ITT is targeted for issue in the middle of the year.

During procurement and delivery we will be testing the supply chain’s ability to deliver against a number of

HS2 London Euston station interior critical success factors. These critical success factors will underpin HS2 strategic themes and form a balanced scorecard which we will apply during procurement - to pre-qualify suppliers, evaluate tenders, and measure performance during delivery.

We will also be promoting the use of CompeteFor throughout the supply chain and mandating it for all tier 1 contracts where appropriate. CompeteFor is an online brokerage tool which allows buyers to match up with potential suppliers and find out about HS2 opportunities. The system was used by London 2012 as well as other major infrastructure projects, like Crossrail and the Thames Tideway Tunnel.

We are also working on developing a dedicated supplier section within the website, which will go live later this year. This will include information on what we are buying and how we are buying, as well as our policies and procedures. It will also include information on contracts which HS2 Ltd will be procuring directly – including details of tenderers and how to get in contact with these.

In addition, we are in the process of developing a supplier guide which will be available on our website later this year. This will be the supplier bible containing all the information you need to identify and compete for opportunities on HS2.

So as you can see there is much being done and much still to do as we look to deliver a world-class 21st century transport network that will further underline the railway’s renaissance and show Britain at its very best. zz

www.railwaystrategies.co.uk

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High Speed Focus

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Staying on track at 200mph As the HS2 project moves towards into the early design stage, KEVIN MAPPELBECK of Ansys looks at the factors that influence the effectiveness of automated safety systems, which are key to safety at such speeds

T Kevin Mappelbeck is ESU market operation manager, UK, ANSYS

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he safety of high speed train travel has been in the news recently due to the unfortunate accidents in France, Spain and Switzerland. Much has been discussed about the systems used in trains and how they work or do not work to protect passengers as they travel at high speeds from one location to another.

Within the UK, high speed rail travel is developing a high profile, with HS1 and HS2 routes under scrutiny not only for their price tags, but also to ensure that they are safe and efficient. The lessons of tragedies such as Potters Bar, Hatfield, Bexley and Southall must be applied, combined with the latest research and innovation, to ensure complete safety.

There are three basic issues that form a bedrock of safety: speed, avoiding other trains on the track and ensuring that the train behaves as intended. To address these complex mechanical factors, sophisticated software systems in the train control centre and on-board the train can control these functions.

www.railwaystrategies.co.uk

Automation comes into its own Automated safety systems have a strong track record in the aerospace industry and work very well in the rail industry if properly implemented. Train control systems with sensors on the track and on the train, for example, can govern the speed of the train and its ‘movement authority’. Just like the autopilot on a plane, overspeed protection will not allow the train operator to exceed the designated speed for that portion of the track.

Of course, systems and software can only do so much.

The terrible accident at Angrois, Santiago de Compostela in Spain occurred on a part of the track that did not have automated systems for overspeed protection in place, allowing human error to occur. The train’s data recorder showed that it was travelling at about twice the posted speed limit of 80 kilometres per hour (50mph) when it entered a bend in the line.

To ensure complete passenger safety, full automation – and therefore full compliance to safety protocols – is vital.

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In the wake of the Angrois incident, the Spanish rail authority Adif installed three balises – trackmounted programmable transponders which communicate with the on-board computers and will initiate automatic braking if speed restrictions are not obeyed.

construction. By using model based techniques to remove the ambiguity of requirements and specifications, to verify the detailed design against those requirements and ensure it is correctly implemented, safety begins to be implicit.

And finally, to remove the possibility of human error, the tools that automate the coding must be compliant with international safety specifications.

Of course there are areas for improvement. As highspeed rail starts to become a reality in the UK, there are a few things that will make riding the rails at 200 mph a bit safer. A structured, overarching safety standard is one. At present, the international rail industry does not have one global standard that must be adhered to.

Despite France and Germany leading the world in high speed rail travel, standards vary from country to country in Europe. If one standard for development of rail systems and software was available, requirements would be less complex with no variants. Perhaps rail could take a page from the aerospace industry where all commercial planes and helicopters must be certified under the same, demanding international standard. The ERTMS system is a good sign of progress here, and the ERTMS level 2 system is particularly well suited to high speed passenger rail.

However, in application as well as development, automation is key. If an entire train is automated, safety is vastly improved. By deploying the latest generation of automated train control techniques, the ride is as safe as possible. From a business perspective, this level of automation also improves efficiency and energy use.

HS1 and HS2 are set to become defining elements of the UK rail landscape. To ensure a safety record that is as impressive as the engineering that enabled these high speed links, automation and comprehensively designed safety systems that can account for, and in some cases override human error, will be vital. zz

Safety from the ground up HS2 is in a strong position to integrate this at an early stage of design, which bodes well for the safety of the project. However, designers need to look at the software that governs the safety critical systems.

The effectiveness of that software – in terms of its safety – is defined by how well it answers the specific safety concerns of a given route. Some eighty per cent of the software issues in rail safety systems are caused by a misunderstanding of requirements and specifications in a detailed fashion before the engineers start to code.

These complex systems need to be correct by

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High Speed Rail

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Gaining by experience ALISTAIR GORDON, chief executive, Keolis UK, looks at some of the lessons HS2 can learn from high speed rail projects in the continent of Europe

T Alistair Gordon is chief executive of Keolis UK

he UK may be a world leader in rail, but it is now something of a laggard when it comes to high speed services. While our model for rail privatisation has become a benchmark for other markets, we must look overseas for the nous required to deliver a successful HS2.

In the Keolis Key Connections report, published last year, I drew on examples of best practice from France to see how we could integrate high speed networks into our towns, cities and their infrastructure.

Always ready One recurring theme in France is preparation; the existing transport infrastructure and networks of our towns and cities need to be invested in today if HS2 is to deliver the significant economic benefits it is capable of.

Before the TGV arrived in major French cities such as Lyon and Bordeaux, their networks were expanded, upgraded and then fine-tuned to work in perfect synergy with the new high speed services.

Get off a TGV service in Bordeaux today, for example, and you can almost immediately step onto a light rail, metro or bus service, while outside of the station car share and cycle hire schemes provide even more connectivity options.

Monitoring the system Keolis in France constantly tracks and studies passenger behaviour, so tweaks and adjustments can be made to timetabling, to ensure local networks are operating as efficiently and effectively as possible. In Lyon, one such study led to a major re-timetabling exercise on its metro and tram systems that helped to yield a nine per cent uplift in passenger numbers.

In essence, operators need to think like a passenger.

Adopting this mind-set will be key as we introduce HS2 in the UK.

Apply this to HS1 The UK does of course have one existing high speed network. HS1 is operated by Govia – a partnership between Keolis UK and Go Ahead – and by drawing on similar lessons from France we have helped the network to realise its full potential as an enabler of growth in the south east of England.

St. Pancras, where the service connects in London, operates like any TGV hub in France. As one of London’s most integrated stations, passengers can board a bus, bike, Underground, or main-line intercity route as soon as

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they disembark from HS1.

The challenge with HS2 is that few UK cities are as well integrated as the capital. Crossrail and the on-going growth of the overground network will only further enhance London’s position as the UK’s most integrated city.

The London lesson HS2 cannot deliver the majority of its benefits through journey times alone, as early arguments for the scheme demonstrated. It cannot exist in isolation, but will require the development of networks in existing cities to ensure it can achieve its potential.

Money has been a sticking point throughout the legislative process, and it is perhaps an inconvenient truth that further investment will be needed to support and enhance existing infrastructures. That said, better frameworks to ensure greater collaboration between the operating companies of local transport franchises will be needed so that timetables can be better aligned with HS2.

Though public finances appear to be an issue on the surface, there are new powers available to local governments – such as City Deals – that can give them greater autonomy over ways in which they can fund transport infrastructure investments. Manchester has shown how closer working between neighbouring authorities and innovative funding models can help support major new projects.

Clarity Such investment can only take place with a degree of certainty that HS2 will definitely proceed. Our Key Connections report demonstrates that our local leaders, economists and politicians understand the blueprint for best practice. Once a final commitment is set in stone, they can help the UK prepare for HS2. zz

Key Connections Report Download from:

www.keolis.co.uk/news/key-connections The report includes contributions from co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on High Speed Rail, Stuart Andrew MP and leader of Birmingham City Council, Sir Albert Bore.

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High Speed Rail

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Property boom for Birmingham Having grown up in the Birmingham area, RAY WITHERS of Property Frontiers examines the potential impact of the planned HS2 rail connection on the city’s property sector and asks: can construction keep up with demand?

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Ray Withers is chief

executive of Property Frontiers

’ve taken a keen professional interest in Birmingham’s real estate market over the years and particularly since the idea of HS2 was first raised. Journey times of 48 minutes between Birmingham and London will make it a realistic possibility for professionals to work in London while living in Birmingham, with an inevitable effect on prices. We’ve already seen this happen in a range of towns and cities within London’s commuter belt. Prices in places such as Brighton, which is 53 minutes by rail from London, have been extensively inflated by proximity to the capital.

Birmingham’s development plans around HS2 are ambitious. Infrastructure improvements over the coming years include a £600 million update to Birmingham New Street station, a £128 million Midland Metro extension and linkage with the tram line at Snow Hill, plus some £181 million of capital expenditure on various major transportation schemes by the local council.

While the space-age design of the proposed new station at Curzon Street is still under discussion, a similarly dramatic redevelopment is being planned for New Street Gateway, which has recently been granted £88 million in government funding.

Of course, HS2 is permanently in the background when any such schemes are considered and what is so interesting is that it is already impacting on Birmingham’s property prices. The ambitious regeneration and rail plans are set to create tens of thousands of jobs in Birmingham, attracting a host of new workers to the city. This is reflected in the latest data from Nationwide which shows a 10 per cent year-on-year house price increase in the city.

Although price rises are consistently below the levels we are seeing in London, rental yields in Birmingham are higher than one can expect in London, creating an extremely buoyant buy-to-let investment market in Britain’s second city. What we’re seeing is a trend of savvy,

forward-looking buy-to-let investors opting out of the London market in favour of more exciting opportunities in Birmingham.

The latest nationwide data from Move with Us positioned Birmingham as the highest yielding rental area in the UK when considering rental income as a percentage of the property’s purchase price, which emphasises the impact that the plans for HS2 have already had.

Market analysis shows that by 2031 a further 150,000 people will call Birmingham home, and some 80,000 new homes will be required. Given Britain’s current difficulties with building sufficient homes to keep up with demand – on average we’re building 95,000 homes per year fewer than required – it’s fair to assume that construction work in Birmingham will fall behind the required level of demand.

With the addition of HS2 to Birmingham’s many attractions, I believe that the impact on the city’s property prices will be profound. We’re already seeing price rises and increasing demand before a single sleeper has been laid – once construction begins the property market can be expected to respond swiftly and certainly. My advice?

If you plan to invest in property in Birmingham, do so now, while it’s still affordable. zz

www.propertyfrontiers.com

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High Speed Rail

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Rallying behind HS2 l Both private and public organisations in the West Midlands have rallied behind the HS2 project, while concurrently submitting petitions to the HS2 Bill in an attempt win an even better deal for the region.

Research has established that the West Midlands could secure a £4 billion a year economic boost and more than 50,000 new jobs by making sure the region’s two high speed rail stations are well connected to existing

MPs vote overwhelmingly in favour of HS2 l The crucial second reading of the HS2 Hybrid Bill took place in the Commons at the end of April, and was passed by a majority of 452 in favour and just 41 against.

Go-HS2, a pro-high speed rail consortium from the West Midlands said that the size of the majority in favour showed how the benefits of HS2 were widely recognised and understood.

However, in view of the three line whip on the vote, the vocal anti HS2 lobby, HS2 Action Alliance, suggested that the number of absences and abstentions was proof that many MPs do not openly support HS2.

Cllr John McNicholas, chairman of transport authority Centro, said: “Last night’s vote brings HS2 a significant step closer but we now need to press on as a region and put in place the infrastructure we need locally to realise and maximise those benefits.”

Next step for Old Oak Common l Transport for London has appointed WSP to develop options and make recommendations for a London Overground station at the proposed HS2 /Crossrail interchange at Old Oak Common.

WSP will be acting as lead consultant, providing railway engineering and infrastructure services for a Grip 3 study of three options, having completed the Grip 2 study for the four shortlisted options in late 2013. Architect planners Farrells have been appointed by WSP to provide master planning and architectural support.

Project director Dave Darnell said: “This is a hugely exciting scheme that has the potential to create a major new regional transport hub, taking some of the demand off existing overloaded routes by providing links to HS2 from the west and south west without travelling into central London and offering better access into the area of Old Oak Common for existing and future residents.”

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transport links and good use is made of the additional rail capacity released by HS2.

Birmingham City Council, Birmingham Airport, the National Exhibition Centre and Centro have asked for amendments to be made to the Bill including the inclusion of a high quality interchange facilities between the region’s existing rail stations and the two proposed HS2 stations, Birmingham Curzon and the HS2 Interchange close to the airport and NEC. The city council and Centro are seeking a link between HS2 and the existing HS1 high speed line to the Channel Tunnel to be reinstated. This would enable services to operate directly between the West Midlands and Europe.

Other requests include a common concourse between the Curzon and Moor Street Stations, a tram extension to Curzon and an improved alignment of the proposed people-mover linking the HS2 Interchange with the airport, NEC and Birmingham International rail station.

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Safety

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SAFETY– on level crossings

Walter Baxter

With safety on level crossings again in the public spotlight, Arnab Dutt, managing director at Texane, explains why he believes partnership and investment are key to saving lives on our rail network

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Arnab Dutt, managing director at Texane

very day, somebody tries to commit suicide on our rail network, and tragically 200 people each year succeed in ending their lives that way. As well as the personal tragedies, these incidents result in terrible trauma for the victims’ families and huge disruption to services, which in turn presents a significant cost to the taxpayer and businesses, not to mention significant inconvenience for passengers. It’s also very traumatic for rail staff.

Network Rail, with the help of the Samaritans, is trying to do something about it. Working in partnership with the Samaritans, Network Rail aims to reduce the number of rail suicides by 20 per cent by 2015.

Four per cent of all UK suicides take place on our rail network. More than four fifths are men aged 30 to 55.

In times of economic hardship, the figures go up, as financial difficulties trigger stress or exacerbate mental health conditions.

Working with the Samaritans and the train operating companies, Network Rail has been working to raise awareness and provide training to station staff – how to identify tell-tale signs such as noticing the person waiting on the side of the platform but not boarding a train. The Samaritans teach station staff how to approach individuals and start a supportive dialogue. This allows time for professional help to be called and qualified counselling to be given.

The number of suicides on our railways dwarfs the number of accidental deaths, but here too Network Rail is taking admirable action. Mark Carne, the new CEO of Network Rail, like Sir David Higgins before him, has put safety front and centre for our railways.

The tragedy at Elsenham where two young girls Olivia Bazlinton and Charlotte Thompson, lost their lives on a level crossing, and the subsequent court judgement, created a huge amount of public exposure for the issue.

Without wanting to discount the significance of that incident, I hope that it does not create an idea in the minds of the public that our railways are unsafe. That is far from the case. In 2012, 1765 people were killed on Britain’s roads. By comparison, in 2012-13, nine people were killed on level crossings.

The response from Network Rail to the Elsenham incident has been to close 800 out of 6000 level crossings, to invest in new technology, regular maintenance and oversight, and to implement an education campaign that raises public awareness of the potential danger of level crossings. This campaign is spearheaded by a national level crossings team, which includes Tina Hughes, the mother of Olivia Bazlinton.

So how does the UK compare with its European peers on rail safety? The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACT) reported figures that show the UK has half the injuries or deaths of the EU average. In terms of total rail safety, the European Rail Agency reported that the UK rail network has the lowest fatality rate at level crossings, at a rate of 19 per billion rail kilometres. The Office of Rail Regulation has also stated that Network Rail is on target to reduce level crossing fatalities.

The UK rail network is not only one of the busiest in the world – it’s just about the safest. Even so, the industry does not believe that is good enough. It can do better, and with a complete focus on safety for all stakeholders, the UK rail industry is setting a standard of continuous improvement that other countries could do well to emulate.

This is a cultural shift started by Sir David Higgins, believed in and taken to heart by the rail industry, and now being led

by Mark Carne at Network Rail.

On a personal note, as a public member of Network Rail overseeing corporate governance on behalf of all stakeholders, it has given me great satisfaction and pride to witness the evolution of a safety culture at Network Rail and throughout the British rail industry.

I believe we are on the journey to making our railways the safest they can be for everyone, and an international exemplar.

Network Rail will spend £38 billion in CP5 with safety at the heart of the investment programme. Meanwhile, Sir David Higgins has taken this culture with him to HS2.

I doubt there are any other companies whose corporate mission statement is “Everyone home safe every day”.

Something to be proud of, I believe. zz

www.railwaystrategies.co.uk

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Safety

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Is rapid response truly on the horizon?

Accidents and incidents may seem unavoidable during the daily route of railway management but Udi Segall, director of business development at NICE Systems, believes their frequency can be reduced and the speed and efficiency of response improved considerably. Here’s how

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Udi Segall is director of business development at NICE Systems

assengers have simple expectations. They want their trains to arrive on time, to have a safe journey and arrive at their destination when expected.

However, speak to anyone involved in running railways around the world and they will explain how complicated it is to consistently deliver high-levels of reliability and availability across the network.

The biggest factors that affect whether trains run on time are the incidents that occur across the network on a daily basis. Because of the sheer scale of rail infrastructure it means that there is a huge range of things that can and do go wrong such as signal failure, bad weather causing trees to fall and block sections of track, adverse weather, suicides, mechanical failures, train collisions, derailments, signal problems and acts of terrorism.

Probability versus impact

three distinct phases – preparation, management and investigation. How successfully an incident is handled rests on the quality of the preparation that has been put in place, the speed at which the incident is detected, and the ability of those responsible to carry out their duties as quickly and effectively as possible to prevent unnecessary escalation.

Finally, you need to be able to review the incident and learn from it, in order to mitigate the risk of it repeating, and reduce its impact if it reoccurs.

The lifecycle of an incident This is of course a well-trodden path but with the aid of new technology there are a growing number of railways that have recently announced implementations of situation management platforms, all geared towards shortening and improving the quality of the entire incident handling lifecycle.

Of course, there are some incidents that are prone to happen on a relatively frequent basis and some that are rare but when they do happen have a severe impact.

So, how do you improve the operational efficiency of the railway, achieve performance targets, reduce penalties from the regulators and compensation payments to passengers as well as improve safety and security across the network? The key is to find a way to reduce the number of incidents that take place and improve the management, ie reduce the handling time of incidents that do occur.

The first step in this process is to understand that every single incident can be divided in to a lifecycle of For the vast majority of incidents that take place the management of the situation is typically overseen by an operator in the control room, with many other stakeholders needing to be co-ordinated and kept abreast of developments. At this time the speed at which the operator responds and disseminates the relaxant information to the relevant stakeholders and the decisions he makes can mean the difference between minutes or hours of delays and in some instances life and death.

Therefore, ensuring the operator has situational awareness and his actions and the actions of field personnel are guided by organisational best practices, is key. So they need situation management access to all of the information that they require to make informed decisions. However, the challenge is how to do this with so much data being funnelled through the control room.

In recent years rail networks have undergone huge investment, adding to the number of lines, opening new stations and implementing technology such as advanced

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zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Train Management Systems (TMS), GIS, operational databases that hold information with respect to the cargo on each train wagon, and technical specifications of the train. While CCTV is in many aspects regarded as a security tool in incidents such a collision on a level crossing, getting a live feed from the location can help the emergency services and the operation team to better assess the situation and respond more effectively.

Situational awareness Using a situation management platform enables all of these data feeds that can easily overwhelm the operator, to be collated and correlated into one holistic view. From their desk the operator (see image below) can have the confidence, awareness and capability to manage any incident from beginning to end, with the assistance of adaptive workflows that have been pre-defined in accordance with the network’s standard operating procedure.

Here is a typical example of how a situation management system works.

A freight-train collides with a lorry at a level crossing.

The crossing is manned and the person in attendance calls in the incident. The operator in the control room opens a ‘case’ and is instantly presented on-screen with the workflow relevant to such a collision. The operator follows the instructions presented to him, ensuring every piece of relevant information is captured. Based on the information being inputted (much of which is auto-populated to save the operator critical time) the system triggers a series of actions, some of which are implemented automatically, others instruct the operator regarding what information he needs to share with field personnel and when. At the three-screen desk the relevant GIS map is displayed on the screen pinpointing the location of the crossing, on another a live CCTV feed from the camera located at the crossing is being projected (providing the operator with the capability to pause and rewind the footage, whilst monitoring events in real-time).

As leakage from a carriage has been detected, the operator is presented with a cargo manifest and can see that the lorry has collided with a refrigerated container unit.

He is able to send this insight along with the other relevant tasks to the first responders from the emergency services

en route (along with still and/or video images) to ensure they are prepared with the right hazmat equipment on arrival at the scene.

The operator is able to co-ordinate and manage the diversion of trains that are destined to pass through the crossing, minimising further disruption. He is also able to send generated reports of the salient points to other departments in the organisation.

When the operator is satisfied that that incident has been handled the incident is closed. Every piece of video and radio communication between train driver and the traffic operation centre, from initial alarm to final action, is captured and stored in the system (imagine a black box for capturing the data relating to the incident). So, whether immediately after the event or days, weeks or even years later, the entire incident can be reconstructed in multimedia, synchronised and replayed in chronological order, whether for training and de-briefing, as part of a continuous cycle of improvement, or for evidence submission.

Continuous improvement Transforming the ever-expanding unstructured data into meaningful information and then to operational knowledge means it can in turn be used to know how best to respond to an unfolding event, which delivers huge value to the operational performance of the rail network. Moreover strong debriefing and analysis tools can provide a holistic perspective and insights that increase the organisation’s wisdom. This wisdom can help in shortening the handling time of elements in the incident lifecycle.

By taking this approach incidents are handled faster and investigations can be carried out more quickly and in far more detail. This can be fed back into the system immediately and then becomes the new standard, so if a similar incident occurs the operator will be hand-held through a new improved workflow. In fact, it has been proven that call intake can be reduced from 15 minutes down to four minutes, which can not only save lives but also deliver huge operational savings that can reach into hundreds of millions each year!

Reducing the probability of an incident happening and lessening the impact of those that will inevitably occur, not only creates a safer and more secure environment for all on the rail network, but also delivers huge operational gains, the positive effects of which will be felt right across the network, and these of course are then reflected in the performance rating of passengers. zz

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Railway Strategies

Railway Strategies LIVE 2014 took place at the Royal Geographical Society in London on Thursday 15 May, in glorious sunshine. And that was perhaps fitting. The venue, which has been the launch pad for some of world’s greatest journeys of exploration, played host to a conference that focused on the needs, challenges, changes and tremendous opportunities in the UK rail supply chain

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Live

2014

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s a prelude to the event, Platinum Sponsor TBM Consulting Group invited a small group of rail executives to a private dining meal at the St Jame’s Hotel and Club, Kensington to discuss current challenges facing business leaders in the Railway industry and within that intimate and relaxed environment, the discussions ranged across many of the issues that would surface during the conference the following day. One theme surfaced above all others: people management. From this perspective the industry has changed over the years beyond recognition. The real challenge for management today is how to communicate and engage with staff and colleagues to get the very best from them. But more of this later in the review.

the industry’s crucial issues. “We live in an era where foreign ownership of big business is the norm. However, although our OEMs and tier 1 suppliers may have their roots around the world, the real powerhouse of the UK economy is the SME-base. That supply chain is very much UK-based, and is in rude health,” he said. “The conundrum is how we can compete effectively and fairly for the billions of pounds of UK tax payers’ money that the railways will spend over the next ten to 20 years.”

Colin believes we need to be more competitive. The lack of a clear route to market, the propensity of buyers to fail to see the value for money in terms of whole life costs, the lack of scrutiny in the application of British Standards which are required for contracts but are too often conveniently forgotten in favour of similar continental standards are all stacked against us.

“However, our SME-base is nothing if not resilient, ingenious and simply brilliant. SMEs are networkers by nature; they collaborate and hunt in packs. What they need is an environment where they stand a chance and can work the magic of financial recovery, where it really makes a difference.”

Working as a pack Colin Flack

Introduction The conference was chaired by Colin Flack, head of the Rail Alliance, and he opened proceedings by summing up the day’s themes in what he called a Flack-centric view some of

The recently set up Rail Supply Group (RSG) is still very much in the formative stages but has the prospect of making a significant difference to the rail supply chain. Its chairman Terence Watson, who is also UK country president and managing director of Alstom Transport UK & Ireland, set out the thinking behind RSG and the progress that has been made so far.

He began with some facts and figures. More

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Terence Wat

long term public investment is being made into the UK railways now than at any point in history. That expansion is being mirrored globally, making the rail sector a huge and robust marketplace for products and services.

Yet we are exporting less than we were at privatisation. Just seven per cent of UK rail output is exported. In France the figure is 37 per cent, and in Germany it’s 47 per cent.

The SME supply base, however, is vibrant and innovative. But to capitalise on these huge opportunities, the supply chain needs a coherent strategy and a single voice to articulate its needs to industry and government.

“We can only do that together,” Terence said. “Moreover, we can’t dominate just the home market. We need to innovate with new technology and capitalise on the growing global marketplace and export our capabilities, creating a future for the railway business.”

The RSG is being developed to fill this gap.

Co-chaired by the secretaries of state for DfT and BIS and populated by representatives from the supply chain, TOCs and major projects such as HS2, its vision is to develop a coherent strategy for the industry, to stimulate growth, collaboration, innovation, inward investment, exports, skills and change. “Clearly we are just at the start, but what we hope to get out of this is a single unified strategy for the whole industry for the first time.”

The board’s council will be an excellent environment for exchanging of information and promoting collaboration. Aware of the need for continuity, fresh thinking and greater input from the SME community, the RSG will report to a new industry board of 20 representatives from the supply chain who will take part on a rotational basis. These will become the RSG council members of the future. “We need the next generation to be involved in this now,” Terence concluded.

Martyn Chymera, former chairman of the Young Rail Professionals, gave an inspirational update on the organisation’s activities, impacts, thoughts and concerns. The Young Rail Professionals have been busy during 2013 with a programme of outreach designed to help tackle the skills shortage and attract young people into the industry, and will be expanding this through 2014.

The organisation is very active on behalf of its members, organising meetings, events, networking opportunities and dinners with top industry speakers. These offer excellent opportunities for networking and skills development. Meanwhile it is increasing extending its reach overseas, and today some 30 per cent of members live outside the UK.

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with its current small debt levels, once interest rates begin to rise.

The human touch Rob Willis, chief executive of TRL (Transport Research Laboratory), the non profit making transport consultancy that provides advice to industry and Government gave a presentation on evidence based research to help drive innovation in a growing railway. To do this, he focused his attention on the human perspective.

Rob Wallis

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Martyn Chym

Lack of funds, however, has been an issue, stifling many good ideas within the organisation. To tackle this, they have launched a corporate membership scheme which enables large companies to effectively sponsor future activities.

From the young professionals viewpoint, one of the industry’s biggest issues is its poor reputation. The UK railways are now Europe’s safest, with the highest frequency of service, quality and cleanliness. “Despite these good results we still get negative headlines,” Martyn said. It is something that must be addressed.

And he pointed to the one exception that stands out as a triumph for the sector: media reporting of the industry’s response to the line washout at Dawlish.“That is something we can all be proud of. And it was great PR.” Speaking on behalf of the young members, he expressed their eagerness for innovation and for the investment in rail to be continued into the longer term. However he also articulated their concerns for the sustainability of sector,

“Studying human interactions is a scientific discipline,” he said. “We have, for example, been working with RSSB on the train despatch process, studying human behaviours at the platform and train interface, and this is being fed through to national strategy.”

Level crossings have been another major research focus. Some 90 per cent of incidents are caused by abuse of the way crossing should be used, so TRL has been examining the behaviour of different types of people as they approach rail crossing, and looking at ways of improving behaviour.

Another area of recent research has been driver performance, including the levels of information in the cab, driver stress, and the challenges presented by increasing automation.

“What is the risk of the driver ‘tuning out’?” he explained. “How can we make sure that the ‘under load’ of drivers at less critical times doesn’t create safety issues?”

He finished by summarising some elements of future thinking. Passengers are looking for more comfortable seating, more secure luggage storage, toilets that work and don’t smell, better catering options, wireless network for those working on the train, journey information updates. When innovating and introducing new products and systems to

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solve these issues, it is vital to understand the behavioural aspects and to manage expectations.

Seeing the wood for the trees Chris Rolinson, founder of ComplyServe, spoke about the value of progressive assurance for large scale infrastructure projects, and how it enables those who sponsor and manage projects to them make truly informed decisions.

Simplistically, at the conceptual stage of a new project a considerable amount of effort goes into putting the specifications together.

From this, the high level specifications are developed, then partitioned into work packages and issued to contractors. Compliance is then monitored during design and build stages. “But it’s not that straight forward,” he said. “The supply chain is an extremely complex beast.”

Chris Rolison

Progressive assurance joins the project from top to bottom, linking the high level functional requirements of the project through all the stages of design and build. So if anything changes in one part of the project, for example, the impact on the rest of the programme can be seen almost instantly rather than weeks or months later.

From a supply chain perspective, the advantages include a common repository of information that can be accessed globally at any time, and a common compliance process.

To succeed, such a system must know who you are, what your role is and where you can go in the system. It must capture the complex assurance processes on the project, and make them available to the entire community. It has to be highly intuitive and extremely easy to use, and accessible worldwide in a cloudbased format.

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All this information is aggregated into a powerful programme-level dashboard enabling management to manage by exception. “There is no doubt in my mind this will become the standard approach for all major projects in the future. It will change contractual boundaries and relationships and will give the Government and stakeholder communities the governance they demand.”

Bridging the innovation gap David Clarke, director of Future Railway began his presentation on enabling innovation with a quick description of how the Future Railway grew out of the findings of the Rail Technical Strategy.

Created at the end of 2012 to stimulate innovation in the rail sector by helping fund the costly processes of demonstrating prototyping and commercialising innovative ideas, it was initially called the Enabling Innovation Team (EIT). Launched with just £30 million Government funding, it has converted that sum into £60 million of investment through match funding from the innovators and commitments from other funding organisations. “We’re now supporting well over 150 companies, many of them SMEs, to bring their ideas closer to market.”

The strategy is to establish what problems the industry has, and then run a competition to find identify innovative ideas to solve them.

Among those that are currently being funded are concepts for an electric/electric hybrid capable of running on battery power over non electrified stretches of track and under the pantograph on electrified sections, and the Avoidance Of Bridge Reconstruction scheme which could help save 25 per cent of

cost of electrification.

Last year, EIT undertook capability mapping of the UK supply chain. “We’ve established that we have a strong capability in rolling stock, and in whole life system optimisation on infrastructure and rolling stock,” David said. “What we don’t have is much capability in integrated customer solutions, big data, transaction management and cyber security.

However, the rest of UK PLC is good at that, so if we can draw this expertise into the railway and prove it can deliver, then we will have a platform to sell internationally.”

Based on the first year’s success, the innovation funds from TSLG, Network Rail and RSSB are being brought together under EIT which is being renamed Future Railway.

This will generate a significant sum of £125 million for CP5, which the organisation hopes to double through match funding with the innovators. It is also look at further sources of funding including the Innovation Franchising Fund which could bring in another £100 million and the European Shift to Rail fund - another possible £1 billion for innovation.

Other methods by which Future Railway is enabling innovations include a suggestions box for ideas that don’t fit existing competitions, and a subsidised testing and trialling scheme to help companies test their innovations live on the railways at a reasonable cost.

Future Railway is now looking for the next set of challenges. “For example we could unlock a huge amount of capacity if we could find ways of making trains run safely closer together – possibly in a convoy. There are huge opportunities here and our competitors overseas are already looking at this,” David explained. “So we need to ask: is enough being done here to achieve that? If not, then what do we need to do to fill the gap?”

Companies looking to improve their success with innovation can go to the Future Railway website where they will find many useful tools, information, and details about the lates open competitions. www.futurerailway.org

High performance culture

Dave Clarke

Richard Holland, vice-president of TBM Consulting Group Europe completed the morning’s presentations with a talk on creating a high performance culture in the rail industry.

If companies are to take advantage of the

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Richard Holla

enormous growth opportunities over the next few years they will need the entire organisation to be invigorated, working with them and pulling together in the direction of company strategy.

“Many companies put processes in place to do this but find they don’t work,” Richard said. “And this is largely about how to engage people. We need an environment where the people in the organisation have the right mindset and a way of thinking that’s aligned with the strategy you are trying to implement.”

The method for achieving this is the same, regardless of whether it is in a 14,000 people company that is spread across the world or in a 50 person SME. And it can be broken down into the following steps.

Firstly, distil the essence of the company strategy into a short message that is exciting, very simple and can be communicated easily across the business. Secondly define the short and medium term steps by which this can be achieved. “And this is where the execution often falls down. This is about strategy and not about hitting budgets or deadlines. You have to have a separate management system for that.”

Communicate all of this effectively, and create a strong visual presentation of it which every individual can see on a daily basis.

The next step is to create KPIs for everyone in the business. These should not only be the usual measures of outcomes, but should also measure the health of the processes that deliver those outcomes. “This is very informative and effective because it will get everyone in the business engaged in performance and change culture. The outcome will then take care of itself.” Then set up a management structure to review the KPIs and performance at different levels of the business, and to cascade the information to the top.

This culture change is not likely to succeed, however, unless people are effectively coached during the review process. “Leaders often tend to tell their teams how they’re performing and then try and solve their problems,” Richard said. “What you need to do is empower the team members to analyse their performance and find their own solutions to improve it.

People need to be challenged. They will rise to the challenge. Teach them how to respond, and give them the tools to use.”

The final part of Richard’s message was that you have to change the way you talk to your people, and the way they communicate cross functionally to solve the issues in the business, a point that had been very well expressed at TBM’s Railway Executive dinner the night before.

Ushering in change at Network Rail Network Rail went live with its new supply chain configuration on 14 April. The National Supply Chain (NSC) headed up by managing director Nick Elliott replaces the previous NDS functions. Now, just one month in, head of procurement Jim Carter explained some of the changes and what suppliers can now expect.

Firstly Network Rail recognises it has not been easy to do business with. “So this has been a profound reorganisation and not just been a matter of tacking teams together,” Jim said. From now onward there will be one primary contact for suppliers and customers dealing with Network Rail, and this is achieved through six clearly defined outward facing directorates.

The Delivery directorate has four regional sections, and is responsible for infrastructure

haulage, seasonal delivery and tampers.

Mark Palmer is the primary contact for the routes in the north, Rob Davis for the south, Stephen Armstrong in the east and Emma Osborn in the west.

The National Railway Services directorate under Paul Gilbert brings together vertically aligned teams to run services such as stoneblowers, grinders, road fleet and infrastructure monitoring with full responsibility for the end to end service provision.

Mark Black heads up the Finance directorate, with a remit for financial control and performance reporting for all business activities as well as responsibility for key NSC systems.

The Technical Services directorate is responsible for all aspects of safety and sustainable development, quality and fleet technical services and business activities including key systems such as ISO9001, ISO14001 and enterprise content management. This is headed up by Brian Mayo.

Ian Sexton leads a 700-strong team at Strategic Services with responsibility for the development and delivery of category management, procurement, supplier relationship management, external business development, marketing and communications.

And finally Katrina Law is in charge of Materials and Logistics, which supplies and delivers railway materials such as rail, sleepers, ballast and components to customers. The directorate has responsibility for the end to end service provision.

From the customer service perspective there is now a strong regional presence that offers local knowledge, and clear points of contact.

According to Jim, the reorganisation creates good visibility and data analytics and should enable the organisation to make better use of its resources. The charters for each department have also been realigned to speak to the entire organisation.

View at the top

Jim Carter

Prof. Richard Parry-Jones, chairman of Network Rail then took the stage and gave an information packed speech that outlined some of the opportunities for companies to innovate, bring new technologies to the railways and improve economic growth in the UK. From Network Rail’s perspective, all infrastructure investments are designed to improve the customer experience, where the term customer encompasses not only the train and freight operating companies but extends to

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Richard Parr

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the end user – the consumer.

“Something I’ve brought from other industries is that it’s easy to underestimate how huge the effect of technology is at changing the customer experience. In many cases change is evolutionary but sometime it’s transformational,” Richard said. “The speed of adoption of technology in the rail sector is slow compared with other industries. So there are real opportunities to grasp technological change more aggressively.”

Currently, some of the biggest opportunities in innovation stem from the transition from analogue to digital railway, and how data collection across the network can be used to improve performance. But it doesn’t stop there. “We’re also moving into digital asset management and automated traffic control.

And we’re about to embark on the biggest signalling revolution since the railways began,” he said.

Another trend he perceives is the move to true collaboration. “I think we all recognise that we have achieved all the gains we can by trading with each other,” he explained. “The next step in performance improvement will come through collaboration and optimising across all systems.”

From Network Rail’s perspective innovations should apply to one of these key strategic

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areas: safety of the public and the workforce; quality, reliability and resilience; capacity; cost efficiency; and sustainability.

He then talked freely about some of the longer-term possibilities in innovation. Here are just a few examples. “Digital processing and transmission bandwidth are on a very clear trajectory to becoming infinite and free.

If that happens, how would we reconfigure our business?” he asked. “It will be no good crunching more and more numbers if we can’t extract useful insights from those numbers efficiently. So having analytic capability is going to be a huge competitive advantage and a core competence for companies in the future.”

He sees a shift towards megatronics - where digitally controlled actuation devices are used on mechanical systems the systems can be configured to behave in an extremely nonlinear way.

From the safety perspective there are many possibilities. Remote asset surveillance could, for example, take the form of acoustic sensors in the embankments listening for soil particle movements. Data from this could predict earth movements well ahead of an event, and trigger maintenance to prevent a dangerous land slip. Remote condition monitoring could also step up a notch and contribute to improved designs.

He believes the industry should be looking at exoskeletal robotics, a robotic suit that track workers could ‘wear’. It would enable them to perform skilled manual and intellectual tasks and employ the mechanical power of the suit to perform the physically challenging elements of the work. The concept is already being developed in other industries, and would significantly improve the long term health of track workers.

Transponders on trains and on the maintenance team’s personal protection equipment could give warning of an approaching train. And for the sticky issue of safety on level crossings: “Why don’t we work

with Apple or Google so when pedestrians are listening to music on their iPhones, it will use the GPS data and mute the music to warn them when they are approaching a level crossing. The technology is already there. This could be done at very little cost.”

The railways already use geotechnical developments such as micro piling and bound ballast to reduce maintenance costs. But Richard is really keen to look at coatings for the rail industry, and sees huge opportunities in the wheel track interface in for example the design of bogeys and the points systems.

On the civil construction side, the trend is to move towards off-site fabrication and systems integration, and this has already been used by Network Rail in bridge construction. Further areas of interest include advanced reliability engineering, and hybrid drives and automated driver support.

All in all, it was a quick but fascinating romp through all the technologies and developments currently on the horizon, and it certainly provided a lot of food for thought.

Conclusion The range, vision and quality of this packed speaker programme made this an essential event for all rail supply chain companies inhabiting or wanting to work in this fast moving space. It is easier, now, to see the shape of the industry to come, the opportunities that are available and steps that can be taken to establish the UK supply chain in the global marketplace.

It was not all intensive listening, though.

The speaker programme was complemented by lunch time and coffee breaks during which delegates could wander through the exhibitor areas making contact and asking questions.

Many also took the opportunity to catch up on networking opportunities either inside this beautiful historic building or outside in the sun drenched garden. It was a day packed with opportunity. zz

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Aircraft technology for clean rails As high speed trains spread across the world, they are accompanied by an increasing demand for thoroughly modern and operationally efficient passenger comforts.

Harvey Alexander, chairman of Smith Brothers & Webb, explains how these work

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he UK is not the only country debating the merits of high speed rail: Investment in infrastructure for high speed rail is increasing around the world, especially across Asia and the Arab states.

One example is the Beijing-Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong high speed rail line which is due to open in 2015 and which will be the longest of its kind in the world at 1,390 miles.

It will halve the journey time between the Chinese capital and Hong Kong, and clearly the ability to dramatically shrink journey times is the main reason why high speed rail is becoming so popular.

Passengers who enjoy such modern journey times also expect modern standards of comfort on-board and would baulk at old-fashioned toilet systems which simply deposit waste on the track.

In many countries, the UK included, concern for the cleanliness of the railway track has led to legislation requiring new rolling stock to be fitted with controlled emission toilet (CET) systems which end that practice.

However, high speed trains are expensive, and operators who have made significant investments don’t want the rolling stock to be lying idle: there has also been an increase in trains running around the clock.

This leaves less time for maintenance – giving rise to a need for fully automated CETs that can be emptied swiftly, allowing the rolling stock to return to service within minutes rather than half an hour.

Thankfully advances in the design have resulted in the latest model being able to empty three times as many tanks in the same time as a conventional system.

Automated CET systems have the capability of cleaning out tanks on a 12-carriage high speed train in just three minutes, which is a vast improvement on the half hour which the task would previously have taken with a conventional system.

This speed has been achieved by harnessing technology used in aircraft toilets – yet another example of how trains are a method of passenger transport that is truly fit for the 21st century.

The same restrictions on time apply to the cleaning of the rolling stock itself. With more high speed trains running around the clock washing has to be efficient and effective no matter the local conditions.

High speed trains provide a premium service and as such have to present a highly professional image, with a smart livery (that has often cost a small fortune to design) clearly visible to advertise the service.

As weather conditions vary enormously around the world – from the dry, hot, sandy environment in the Arab states to the heat and humidity of Thailand to the constantly changing British sunshine and showers – so too do the details of automated train washing systems.

Each automated train washing system has to be adapted to the local conditions, through the use of different materials and special design consideration. Selecting a manufacturer that can adopt a bespoke approach to each individual order is the key to success. zz

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NEWS I Contracts

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Network Rail announces track delivery partners for 2014-19

l Network Rail has announced preferred bidders for the delivery of its £800 million conventional track renewals and enhancements programme for 2014-19.

Over the funding period from April 2014 - March 2019, Network Rail will be renewing more than 7,000km of track – enough to stretch from London to Mumbai – as part of a £25 billion investment programme to improve the railway infrastructure in the UK. Following a competitive procurement process, three bidders – Babcock, Carillion and Colas – have won contracts across seven geographic lots to deliver conventional plain line track works worth around £375 million. The renewal of switches and crossings will be delivered by two alliances that combine designer, installer and Network Rail. The contracts have gone to Amey Sersa and Colas URS, each winning work on one of two larger alliance areas worth up to £400 million over the next ten years.

Meanwhile, delivery of the national high output track programme will not be outsourced during the next funding period. Instead, when the existing contract with AmeyCOLAS expires in March 2015, Network Rail will bring the existing high output team in house.

Steve Featherstone, Network Rail track programme director said: “Our full-time, professional high output track renewals workforce is fundamental to delivering a safe, reliable railway. By creating a single team within Network Rail we can make step changes in training and development in order to further improve safety and productivity within this key part of the industry.”

Masabi smartphone ticketing for New York’s trains

Alstom lands €220 million contract in Spain l An Alstom-led consortium comprising Alstom, Bombardier and Indra, has won a €410 million contract to supply its ERTMS Level 2 signalling system and maintenance for a period of 20 years for Spain’s new northwest high speed line.

The contract, from Spanish railway infrastructure management company ADIF, applies to 310 km of new high speed line from Valladolid to León and from Venta de Baños to Burgos.

Work will include project design, procurement, installation, commissioning and maintenance of the signalling, the fixed telecommunication and the Automatic Train Protection systems, the centralised traffic control, the security equipment, the mobile GSM-R communications equipment and infrastructure for trains and mobile phone operators.

New York’s Grand Central Station

l The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has awarded a contract to mobile ticketing and payments specialist Masabi, to provide mobile ticketing for both the Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road.

The technology will enable passengers to buy and use electronic tickets for both railroads using their smartphones.

The system is already used by 18 global transit agencies including: Thames Clippers, Virgin Trains, First Group, Boston’s MBTA, NICE Bus, San Diego MTS and CrossCountry Trains.

Based on Masabi’s JustRide platform, it is an end-to-end mobile ticketing and fare collection system that includes features such as ticket purchase, user display and easy validation together with sophisticated back-end infrastructure for secure payments, ticket management, customer service, reporting and real-time analytics.

“This is a step forward as we look to use the latest technologies available to make fare payment at all our agencies easier, faster, and more convenient,” said Thomas F Prendergast, chairman and CEO of the MTA.

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NEWS I Stations

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£330 million stations programme l Underground passengers across the network will see their stations modernised with upgraded flooring, walls and ceilings, CCTV systems and energy-efficient lighting in a £330 million Station Stabilisation programme over the next seven years.

London Underground (LU) has selected more than 20 contractors and three multi-discipline design firms to bring a new innovative and collaborative approach to the work, which will see 70 stations modernised and maintained to a common standard that will mean no significant further work should be needed for ten further years.

The new approach’s principle is ‘production leads, everything else enables’, a shift in focus that has been assisted with LU’s adoption of Stuttgart-based DS Consulting’s Collaborative Planning methodology, a process to provide trade supervisors with the tools to drive production at the work-face.

Food banks launched l National Express train operator c2c has launched a collection for local food banks through its stations to help support local people in need. Passengers are able to join staff by donating long-lasting food items, such as tins, rice and pasta, cereals, and tea and coffee at any c2c station. The food is then being donated to one of five local food bank collections, spread across the c2c route. c2c Group Station Manager Julie Davis, who is helping to coordinate the appeal, said: “We started this as a community appeal among our staff, but then realised our stations provide the perfect opportunity for our customers to get involved too. Local food banks play a vital role and always need more donations, so anyone who wants to donate items can just drop them off at their local station.”

Station enhancements

Sliding into place l On Easter Saturday, 19th April 2014, Freyssinet Limited successfully completed the slide of an 800 tonne subway box structure across the London to Sittingbourne Railway track, just west of the existing Rochester Station. The subway will form an integral part of the brand new station currently being built by the East Kent Resignalling Phase 2 Project (EKR2).

The slide was completed in approximately eight hours during which time the reinforced concrete structure was moved 36 metres from its as-cast position beside the rail embankment to its final position in the middle of the embankment. C Spencer Ltd, a collaborative partner for EKR2, had previously dug a channel through the embankment on Good Friday before the slide, and they completed the backfilling around the new subway on Easter Sunday, as part of the Easter blockade of the track.

Freyssinet used the Autoripage technique to move the structure. At Rochester, the system used ten jacks to lift the 800 tonne box off the ground by 100mm so it was clear of obstructions. Each jack was bolted to an Air Pad, which ran along a steel skidway. By injecting pressurised nitrogen gas into the Air Pads they acted like mini-hovercraft, riding on a cushion of nitrogen along the skidways. This meant that the friction between the Air Pad and the skidway was a very low one per cent requiring a pushing force of only eight tonnes to move the subway across the line of the railway.

l Eurostar has unveiled the first phase of a brand new ticket office in St Pancras International station, as part of an extensive programme of station improvements to enhance the passenger experience.

The stylish new ticket office has been relocated from St Pancras station’s southern entrance to Eurostar’s existing check-in area dramatically improving customer access. The new ticket office features a striking contemporary design in a bright, elegant and welcoming space with dedicated ticket desks where passengers can speak to Eurostar’s customer service staff about their bookings.

The second phase of the upgrade, a new Business Premier ticket office and an area for self-service ticket machines will open before the end of May. Once fully unveiled, the new ticket office facilities will help streamline Eurostar travellers’ journeys through the station.

Mikaël Lemarchand, Director of Stations of Eurostar commented: “Throughout our 20th year of operation we are investing in every area of our business with our stations at the forefront of this investment programme. Stations are a central element of every journey our passengers take and we are committed to making the experience as seamless as possible. The new ticket office at St Pancras station is the first stage of a series of enhancements and passengers will also see exciting changes in Paris Gare du Nord, Brussels Midi and Lille Europe over the next 12 months.”

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Infrastructure

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Keeping the Hallandsås tunnel project on track

‘Live BIM’ implementation enables the project team to meet the challenges of designing in parallel with production on Swedish rail tunnel Project Summary

Organization: Sweco Infrastructure AB Solution: Rail and Transit Location: Hallandsås, Sweden Project Objectives

l Implement a systematic

and integrated work process for BIM to keep the project on schedule, and increase the project quality throughout the entire lifecycle l Develop reusable BIM objects, methods, and techniques l Use structured model information for asset management when the tunnel is operational Products Used Bentley Navigator, Bentley Rail Track, InRoads, MicroStation, ProjectWise

Fast Facts

l Sweco developed a

standardised co-ordination process, supported by Bentley Navigator and MicroStation that allows the reduction of design faults and increases quality. l By combining ‘as-built’

tunnelling data and the latest engineering design information, the team can effectively manage the changing conditions as tunnelling progresses.

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he construction of a railway tunnel through the Hallandsås ridge in southern Sweden has a long history, but the end is in sight with the start of traffic services scheduled for late 2015.

To help meet the demanding project schedule and the challenges of performing tunnel excavation and detailed engineering design in parallel, Trafikverket, the Swedish Transport Administration, chose to advance its use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) practices with the help of Sweco Infrastructure AB. Sweco was given the responsibility for all BIM related strategy and co-ordination of the Hallandsås project including helping the project team implement effective BIM processes to optimise production, develop integrated 3D models through a collaborative design process, and use that information throughout the project lifecycle. The successful BIM implementation on this project, using Bentley® ProjectWise®, MicroStation®, InRoads®, Bentley Rail Track, and Bentley Navigator, has resulted in innovative methods, reusable resources, a reduction in costs, and productivity improvements that help keep the project on schedule.

A challenging project creates opportunities When completed, the tunnel through the Hallandsås ridge will increase the railway capacity from four to 24 trains per hour, enabling more traffic to be moved from road to rail. Building the tunnel however, has been a major challenge caused by the geological nature of the ridge, with partly cracked and disintegrated rock and large amounts of water. Construction originally began in 1992, but was discontinued five years later due to alarming impacts on the environment. The project restarted in 2003, after thorough investigations, legal trials, and political discussions. New tunnelling techniques and equipment enabled the creation of a fully lined water-tight tunnel to minimise environmental impact. While minimising the environmental impact is crucial, the project still had to be completed in time for the start of traffic services in 2015.

As the project progressed, and Trafikverket realized that planning and detailed engineering design of track and related infrastructure would need to happen in parallel

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with the tunnelling, it sought new and innovative ways of working to keep the project on schedule. “Trafikverket have been using BIM techniques and methods since 1994 for its rail projects but concluded that increasing its level of BIM adoption would help improve productivity and reduce rework on the Hallandsås project,” said Leif Malm, technology strategist for major projects at Trafikverket.

Developing effective BIM processes Working with BIM can often require a shift of focus, as processes and the organization of information are just as, if not more important than, the technology or products used. For a successful BIM project, it is vital to create distinct processes that enable all engineering disciplines to access and deliver the right information, to the right people, at the right time. Clear directives concerning classification of all constructible objects including track, catenary, substations, and buffers, were required, as well as specifications for the metadata/information each object must contain. Procedures for systematic risk management and quality assurance of the digital model must also be established. Well defined working methods, including coordination meetings and communication between the different stakeholders, provide the ability to detect, analyze, and solve problems as early as possible.

Sweco worked with Trafikverket to create an integrated 3D-object library, as well as automated scripts for when objects are inserted into the CAD models. Every object is specified with detailed information such as type, codes, part number, description, and web links. This standardised library not only ensures project quality for the Hallandsås project, but also means that every 3D object can be reused by Trafikverket on future projects. The 3D model not only allows visualization of design and function, it enables automatic generation of drawings and reports, facilitates simulation and analysis, aids in the identification and avoidance of clashes, and much more.

Reusability has been a leading star in the Hallandsås project, both in terms of functionality and methodology.

Recurring items are modeled, attached with attributes, and compiled into a 3D object library. These objects can be

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz linked to different processes, including time management, logistics, and procurement planning.

Choosing the right technical platform for Live BIM A successful BIM project needs a software platform capable of handling large amounts of data including advanced objects with integrated information, as well as managing the flow of information to multiple parties.

Bentley software has a long and proven pedigree on railway engineering projects in Sweden. With Trafikverket and Sweco both long-time users of products including MicroStation, InRoads, and Bentley Rail Track, Bentley software was the natural choice for the Hallandsås project.

Bentley Navigator is used to visualize and inspect the 3D digital model, while ProjectWise is the hub for document management and administration. “Bentley’s products can manage large amounts of data with real-world coordinates, which is of central importance in infrastructure projects,” said Daniel Ahnsjö, BIM strategist and team manager at Sweco.

As tunnelling proceeds, by continuously feeding the as-built data from the tunneling production into the 3D model, integrating it with the latest design and engineering information, the team can effectively manage the changing conditions. The shared information empowers the design engineers to analyse the effect of, and react to, changes immediately, avoiding the risk of costly surprises during the construction as a result. “We call that Live BIM – to use information from the ongoing production as basis for impact assessments and adjustment of the engineering,” explained Ahnsjö.

about building and adapting information to its purpose.

Bentley’s products provide flexible conditions for coding methodology and structure, in order to achieve more project value,” concluded Ahnsjö.

Another BIM objective has been to enable, enhance and reuse engineering design information in downstream processes. In addition to providing the construction layout and geometrical drawings, the 3D design model has been prepared to supply data for machine control and guidance, survey layout, quantities and specifications, time management, cost control, analysis, as-built models, and more. “Reinforced by the basic features of Bentley software, and especially the Clash Detection inside Bentley Navigator, we have shown a very positive effect in terms of increased quality of the construction documentation, reduced production cost for correctional and additional work, and more efficient risk management, which means we can secure the production schedule,” said Ahnsjö. Long-term, the model will eventually be used in operations and maintenance to provide up-to-date asset management data. Hallandsås is the first and most advanced of a group of official BIM pilot projects within Trafikverket. As a result of the progress made, technology used, and benefits achieved on the project, Hallandsås will set the standard for all future projects, with Trafikverket mandating the use of BIM in all investment projects by 2015. zz

Web: www.bentley.com

l Resolving non-constructible

Co-ordination ensures production efficiency “The most important contribution is our co-ordination process, which efficiently reduces design errors and increases quality. We have monthly coordination meetings with all involved engineering consultants. Before the meeting, all current design files are loaded into a digital model and pre-inspected using the Clash Detection functionality in Bentley Navigator. Thanks to the preinspection, which highlights design problems and obvious errors, affected parties can discuss and solve issues in advance. At the coordination meeting, the entire design is reviewed using dynamic views and section cuts of the digital model. The day after, results are published and made easily available as 3D PDF files,” explained Ahnsjö.

Thanks to the co-ordination process, 200 nonconstructible conflicts and 3000 unique collisions have been detected. By resolving these at the design stage, the production cost for correctional and additional work caused by design faults has been reduced by 50 per cent. For the Hallandsås project, with a contract sum of SEK 700 million for the work embraced by BIM, the cost saving is estimated to be up to SEK 50 million.

“The BIM methodology obviously constitutes a great potential for improvements in project efficiency. BIM is all

ROI

Controls and analysis with BIM

conflicts during the design stage reduced construction rework by 50 per cent, reducing costs and ensuring the project stays on schedule. l Detecting conflicts and avoiding collisions in the design has saved an estimated SEK 50 million in rework. l Trafikverket’s central database of all 3D objects, templates, and scripts used on the Hallandsås project, will save time and ensure quality for future projects.

Effective BIM process to optimize the production 3D-object library of rail

“To be successful with BIM, you need to change your mindset and way of working.

Bentley software provides great freedom for creative users to challenge the conditions of the project.”

– Daniel Ahnsjö, BIM Strategist, Sweco Infrastructure AB

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Maintenance

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Making the most of early morning hours A regime of intensive night maintenance on Hong Kong’s metro contributes considerably to its impressive record for punctuality.

Jeremy Long, CEO Europe, MTR, explains the intricacies of this regime

H Jeremy Long is CEO Europe, MTR

ong Kong’s MTR is one of the most intensively used metros in the world. Maintenance work is confined to just a few overnight hours, allowing train services to run as normal during the day and on weekends without affecting the passengers.

MTR’s night maintenance methods have recently attracted the attention of Transport for London (TfL), which has been considering a 24 hour weekend tube service.

TfL then sent some of its personnel to Hong Kong on a fact-finding mission to observe MTR’s overnight works.

What they saw reassured the visiting delegation that they could deliver the service in London from 2015 by adopting intensive night maintenance on week nights.

In Hong Kong, continuous repairs to the network reduce the chances of faults along the lines and help to avoid delays. This is one of the reasons why the MTR in Hong Kong has a punctuality rate of 99.9%. In this article, I will highlight some of the methods MTR uses during the night maintenance works for early detection and repair of any irregularities in the railway network.

Planning Hong Kong’s MTR carries 5.2 million passengers a day on its 218 km network, so the pressure on the trains and the infrastructure is immense. Planning maintenance work is therefore essential to ensuring the network is in a good condition in order to prevent delays.

Each night the maintenance team only has a small window of three to four hours in which to carry out the works. MTR has therefore developed the Engineering Work and Traffic Information Management System (ETMS), which is an intelligent workflow system that maximises the number of repair jobs done in this small space of time.

All related work must be put into the ETMS, which

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schedules the works, checks for any conflict between tasks and assigns possession protection measures according to Rail Safety Rules.

Inspection There are around 800 workers that maintain the Hong Kong MTR every night, inspecting tracks and overhead lines. The teams use a combination of sophisticated technology that can detect faults, and visual inspections.

Visual inspections by patrolmen are conducted every 72 hours. The inspection ensures the integrity of infrastructure equipment including rail, track support, cables, service pipes and tunnel lining. Faults could be identified at an early stage and remedial actions can be arranged in advance. Visual inspection is conducted on all rail lines as part of normal inspection procedures.

Track inspection & maintenance One of MTR’s most sophisticated machines is an ultrasonic testing vehicle (UTV), dubbed the ‘Rail Detective’, and MTR has recently invested in a new and improved UTV. It can be seen rolling along the tracks on the open sections of the network during the early morning hours, scanning for minute irregularities in the rails. With a maximum design speed of 35 kph it is able to check the entire Kwun Tong line in just three hours. The UTV can ‘see’ through solid steel via ultrasonic waves emitted by external wheel probes that roll along the rails. These waves are sent to computers onboard the UTV for the technician to analyse.

The improved data analysis function means that the state of individual sections of rail can be automatically compared with data collected in the previous survey in real-time. Prior to the adoption of the new vehicle,

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz technicians would have had to download this information and compare it manually, which is more time consuming and less efficient. The new UTV has therefore freed up more manpower for other inspection and maintenance works.

In addition to using the UTV, MTR employs dye and penetrant testing on its tracks. This method is one of the most common, non-destructive testing methods for detecting open surface defects. It is useful for testing rail components that cannot be tested reliably using ultrasonic methods. And this includes the half rail section of rail expansion joints, switch rails and cast austenitic manganese steel (AMS) crossings. It can also be deployed to test locations where the validity of ultrasonic testing cannot be assured such as at wheel burns.

Keeping overhead lines in check Another machine that MTR uses to assess the tracks also checks the overhead lines on a monthly basis. The track and overhead line geometry recording vehicle and track recording car (TOV) is an on-track machine that looks at the geometry of the system to check if anything is out of alignment or has excessive wear, for example. The vehicle contains several optical and electronic systems to provide the function of measurement including track super-elevation, twist, gauge, longitudinal alignment, overhead line (OHL) stagger and wear, among others things. This vehicle also measures the track’s condition under a dynamic loading similar to that which occurs when the train travels on the track.

In addition to the monthly TOV inspections, maintenance personnel conduct visual inspections of the overhead lines every two to three days. And once a year, technicians conduct further close-up inspections and routine maintenance of overhead line equipment on elevated platforms.

Training Training for frontline staff takes place when the MTR is closed in the early hours of the morning, so that normal rail operation and passengers are not affected. The training Welding rail replacement

equips staff with operations-related knowledge and strengthens their understanding of various railway facilities.

MTR also works with government departments such as the Police and Fire Services to perform major drills each year during non-service hours. The drills test readiness and emergency response capabilities for various scenarios.

The Rail Detective

Our integrated advantage In Hong Kong, MTR operates a fully integrated railway.

This means, we have a comprehensive set of skills: from planning and constructing railways to operating the service, and maintaining the infrastructure and rolling stock. And we can share those skills with others around the world, which is something we have in fact done with the London Overground and Stockholm Metro.

By understanding how all network equipment and infrastructure should function, including condition monitoring, we can help identify symptoms at early stages of deterioration, thus enabling early intervention which can save cost and improve reliability. A fault at a wheel, for example, could have a knock-on effect on the whole track and in turn affect other wheels and related equipment.

Early identification and tackling of the problem at source could avoid the repair work otherwise necessary. Through better optimisation of all assets, we also reduce long-term operating costs.

Conclusion Running a prompt and efficient metro system requires a world class maintenance regime. Detecting faults early and before they become a problem during service hours is key. MTR spends around £400 million (HK$ 5 billion) each year on maintaining Hong Kong’s metro, upgrading assets, buying new equipment and investing in new technologies.

The metro is an essential part of everyone’s daily life in densely populated cities such as Hong Kong and London.

Without a highly reliable metro such cities would simply not be able to function. And Hong Kong and London are not the only cities in the world that are facing this imperative today. zz Night rail replacement

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Procurement

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A double edged sword?

LIZ WILSON-LAMB talks us through the ‘double-edged sword’ of the new EU procurement rules

Liz Wilson-Lamb is EU services manager at Achilles, one of the world’s largest service providers of global supply chain risk management solutions.

www.achilles.com

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t’s not every day that transport professionals are warned they might soon struggle to cope because so many billions of pounds are being invested into infrastructure improvements.

But that’s exactly what happened over the last few weeks.

Network Rail announced another £38 billion is being spent over the next five years to further improve the railway and its infrastructure, after Control Period 5 was rubber stamped.

Almost simultaneously, the DfT announced that a £24 billion framework of improvements to strategic highways and local authority roads, originally in the spending review, had got the go-ahead.

But this bonanza of work also brings the potential for additional risk. As almost all of these new contracts will be awarded by public sector bodies or regulated contracting entities, and will be subject to a raft of new EU Procurement Directives – which have just been agreed after the biggest overhaul in a decade.

The changes are designed to bring more simplicity, clarity and flexibility to the rules governing above-threshold contracts, create a level playing field for SMEs and fill in gaps in legislation where historically, experts have had to find a solution using only examples of case law.

But they are also something of a double-edged sword, offering greater opportunities to main contractors and SMEs, while potentially exposing buying organisations to a far greater number of challenges. The most appropriate starting point is to gain an understanding of the main changes.

Removal of the distinction between Part A and Part B services Part A services are those opportunities clearly covered by EU legislation, which were likely to attract interest from providers beyond the awarding member state. These opportunities, if above threshold, have always had to follow the full OJEU process.

Part B services – which were historically deemed not to be of the same interest to other member states – were not subject to the same comprehensive process. Reports suggest that historically, some awarding organisations were assigning opportunities incorrectly as a Part B service to shortcut the more lengthy process – but that would now risk incurring a challenge.

In future, the full force of the regulations will apply to the majority of services, which means more opportunities must also be published in OJEU.

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zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Exemptions for sub-central bodies Non-central government bodies, such as local authorities, will now be able to use a process similar to that already used in the utilities sector, which is EU regulated.

Procurement managers will be able to use a prior information notice (PIN) as a call for competition in the restricted or competitive procedure with negotiation without the need to publish a notice in OJEU afterwards.

This enables public sector bodies to speed up the procurement process, with shorter timescales for responses.

Shortlisting of suppliers for contracts Buyers will now only be able to specify that a potential supplier’s minimum financial turnover is no more than two times greater than the value of any contract. In addition, buyers are also being encouraged to explain, in the call for competition, why they decided not to divide large contracts into lots; potentially creating a new avenue of challenge for disgruntled losers.

These changes follow a series of complaints that suppliers have been wrongly precluded from bidding for contracts, due to demands for disproportionately high turnover high figures.

There are also new rules around self-certification. In the past, SMEs tendering for above threshold contracts were required to provide evidence of compliance at the prequalification stage. Now, they will only need to do so when the contract is awarded.

requirements to be followed, in line with the Treaty principles.

There have also been amendments to the competitive dialogue, and finally, “innovation partnerships,” have been introduced. These would be used where authorities tender for goods or services which are not currently available in the market.

Speeding up the tender process Mandatory time limits for tenders to be submitted have been reduced, from 52 days to 35 in the open procedure (or 30 if the process is electronic). In the restricted process, it’s dropped from 40 to 30 (or 25 when electronic). For competitive dialogue, the minimum requirement for receipt of requests to participate is 30 days.

Management of contracts The new directives define more closely what constitutes a ‘substantial’ or ‘material’ change to a contract to protect suppliers from being un-necessarily precluded from bidding for contracts. The risk of course is that the actual contract being delivered is significantly different to the one advertised. This constitutes a new contract awarded without a call for competition and is a risk of ‘ineffectiveness,’ and can be cancelled by a court.

If an agreement changes substantially, then potentially, buyers can be challenged. To protect themselves, buyers must post a notice in the OJEU explaining proposed changes. zz

Excluding suppliers from contracts Buyers have also been given additional clarity on what are the permitted grounds for excluding bidders from a tender process.

Suppliers can be shut out of a process where they have shown “significant or persistent deficiencies in the performance of a substantive requirement under a prior public contract… which led to early termination, damages or other comparable sanctions.”

Other new grounds for exclusion include involvement in child labour, human trafficking, collusion with other bidders, or attempts to influence or gain an advantage over a tender process.

Buyers must, however, ensure they have a robust case before they exclude any company which they feel may have underperformed in the past.

Greater opportunities to negotiate The new rules include three measures to improve negotiation and dialogue.

First, there is a new “competitive procedure with negotiation,” aimed at allowing more discussion with suppliers. The principle is welcome but it comes with a warning for buyers – minimum requirements and award criteria are non – negotiable, and there are stringent

Top Tips for buyers l Read up on the new rules

With a lucrative pipeline of work on the way and more opportunities for suppliers to challenge, buyers must protect themselves by knowing the new rules as soon as possible.

With the risk of heavy penalties for a breach, it is worth investing in specialist training for teams involved in procurement and contract management.

Although the directives are yet to be interpreted into UK law, it is likely that the courts may take a view that they should be moving in the direction of expected legislation. l

Go through your contracts with a fine tooth comb

Buying organisations need to be confident that their existing contracts and procedures are water tight and in line with expected legislative requirements.

Organisations need to ensure there is no ambiguity over what is required from suppliers and they will have to check that the right processes are in place to prevent contracts from changing substantially over time. That can be challenging – particularly when those responsible for setting the contract, ensuring compliance and managing arrangements on an on-going basis are from different departments. l Get ahead of the game

The UK Government has 24 months to implement the new rules into its own legislation. However, the Cabinet Office has signalled its intent to complete this sooner, with a suggested deadline of six months.

Smart buyers will update their processes now to ensure compliance by the due date. Even in the event of a challenge, it is helpful to show willing.

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Infrarail 2014

The UK’s definitive rail infrastructure event took place at Earls Court 2, London from 20th to 22nd May 2014

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ow in its tenth year, Infrarail always provides a unique opportunity for companies serving the rail infrastructure market to showcase their products and services. At a time of continued investment in the rail market, the exhibition positions itself as the place for people from throughout the industry to meet face to face, make connections and do business.

Infrarail exhibitions are held biennially and have successfully served this market for nearly 20 years. At Infrarail in 2012, over 210 exhibitors including Invensys Rail, Rittal, Unipart Rail, Vital Rail and GGR Rail maximised the business opportunities presented by over 4500 visitors. The 2014 event promised to offer another unique opportunity for the rail infrastructure market to connect against a backdrop of business generation, discussion and innovation.

To add further interest for visitors, The Civil Infrastructure and Technology Exhibition (CITE) was co-located with Infrarail 2014 - making the largest infrastructure exhibition held in the UK this year. CITE focused on infrastructure, civil engineering, energy, geotechnical, tunnelling, waste, water and utilities, while Infrarail focused on rail infrastructure.

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In addition to exhibitors’ stands, Infrarail 2014 included dedicated display areas, as well as an extensive range of supporting activities. These included programmes of free technical seminars and keynote presentations that ran throughout the show. On each day of Infrarail, a leading influential figure delivered a keynote speech, starting with an address by the Minister of State for Transport.

In addition, the rail engineer, published by Infrarail Media Partner RailMedia, hosted a programme of seminars by senior managers responsible for the implementation of current UK rail projects and by representatives of companies taking part in Infrarail highlighting developments in technology.

Cleverly divided into sections - The Platform, The Track and The Yard - Infrarail’s Hall offered a wide choice of offerings for visitors. The Platform, hosted once again

by Rail Champions and this year in partnership with Rail Technology Magazine, sought to engage, offer debate and share insights into ‘gear changing’ principles that business leaders should be adopting. It featured three new expert panels, which were held over the three days of the exhibition.

The Track displays were a key feature at Infrarail. Two

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz lengths of track were laid in the Hall where suppliers displayed their products in situ. There is no better way to experience a product than to see how it sits, works and looks on track as it would in the field. The Track included displays from Rosehill Rail, BCM and Tata Steel.

The Yard is where exhibitors had the opportunity to display large machinery in a dedicated area. The Yard at Infrarail brought the outdoors in, and gave companies the opportunity to showcase equipment to thousands of visitors.

Further additions to the Hall included the Rail Alliance Hub, which was a dedicated area where members of the Rail Alliance exhibited alongside one another and promoted their products, services and innovations.

UK Trade & Investment, working in partnership with the Railway Industry Association, also held a series of Exports events at Infrarail for UK rail sector suppliers.

These events were open to all UK-based companies and were free to attend, although prior registration was essential.

Finally, The Recruitment Wall at Infrarail, powered by RailwayPeople.com, offered visitors the opportunity to search exhibitor vacancies live and find their next career move. They were then able to visit the company’s stand and discuss the vacancy directly.

A very popular part of this year’s event was the Infrarail Awards dinner, which acknowledged exhibitors’ successes. Held on Wednesday 21 May, the Awards were designed to recognise excellence within the organisations that exhibit at Infrarail or CITE. The host for the Infrarail & CITE Awards was football legend Kevin Keegan, and demand for places was high - attendees don’t have to be shortlisted to attend.

2014’s Infrarail promised to be a fascinating event for anyone involved in the rail industry. As exhibition manager Heidi Cotsworth notes: “With so much investment in UK rail infrastructure, some of it looking well ahead, business prospects for companies supplying this market appear very promising. This tenth Infrarail provides a great opportunity for firms seeking a share of that business to present their capabilities in an environment that the whole industry knows and respects.” zz

Visit: www.infrarail.com for more details

Exhibitor focus The label guys Silver Fox, a leading UK manufacturer of labelling solutions, exhibited its solutions for the rail industry at the 10th International Railway Infrastructure Exhibition (Infrarail 2014). On its exhibition stand, Silver Fox showcased its wide range of labelling solutions but especially its Fox-Flo UV-stable, low smoke, zero halogen (LSZH) tie-on cable labels. Independently verified as meeting tough, stringent standards with regard to durability despite the most demanding of operating conditions, Fox-Flo labels printed in conjunction with along with the Silver Fox Fox-in-a-Box Cable Label System is approved for use by London Underground (LUL) – especially for labelling both low and high voltage power cables.

According to Nick Michaelson, CEO of Silver Fox, the Silver Fox Tie-On cable marking system is ideal for large cables and cable bundles - including use with nylon or stainless steel cable ties – such as are used in the rail industry. For example, they are used on LUL compliant cable labels for power, co-axial and fire alarm cables.

He added: “At a time of continued investment in rail, Infrarail 2014 provided an excellent opportunity for companies, such as Silver Fox, that serve the rail infrastructure market to showcase their products and services. We were delighted to be heading to Earl’s Court for this event.”

Visit Silver Fox on stand H66

Pillar of strength Lucy Zodion Ltd is a leader in the design and manufacture of pre-wired, customised feeder pillars and distribution panels to the UK rail industry. It additionally provides exterior lighting control solutions. With a choice of finishes and base materials, the Lucy Zodion range of pillars is able to withstand a variety of hostile climatic conditions for extended periods of time, virtually maintenance free. If a particular application requires a tailored product, the company engages its design and engineering services to create a bespoke solution. Its product range now also includes the innovative DistRX distribution panel and the Westminster retractable power pillars.

Visit Lucy Zodion on stand F51

Gain the advantage Instarmac Group is home to a portfolio of fast, contractor-friendly repair and maintenance products for the rail, road and transport sectors. Its products for the installation and maintenance of kerbs, sleepers, public facilities, platforms, paving and pedestrian areas have all been developed and manufactured in the UK with fast set times and contractor-friendly application.

At Infrarail Instarmac intended to portray how such repair materials can be used to the contractor’s advantage - minimising possession times and ensuring first time permanent repairs. Visitors could view products from this experienced British manufacturer and see how rail industry specialists can benefit from fast project turnarounds.

Visit Instarmac Group on stand B63

Tools of the trade Jafco Tools is an established manufacturer of specialist insulated & non-insulated railway track tools. Over the last 25 year it has developed a comprehensive range of track tools in partnership with London Underground and Network Rail.

The Jafco stand at Infrarail featured new and existing products to include the following: open jaw spanners, tee spanners, slewing bars, ballast & trackside tools, keying hammers, jack handles, manipulating tools, punches/sets, line scraper, point cleaner, spanapullers, hook switch poles, short circuit bar, trough lid tilter, torque wrench, long handled grafters and vegetation tools.

Visit Jafco on stand D11

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NEWS I Stations

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Raising the roof l Morgan Sindall has installed the first of 15 curved steel ribs for the ultra-modern new roof at Manchester Victoria Station.

The project is part of a £44 million investment by Network Rail to create a modern station environment while retaining the building’s Grade II listed features.

The team used a goliath sized 1200 tonne crane, of which only one of its type is available in the UK at any one time, to lift two of the 1.2 metre deep and 0.5 metre wide ribs over a city tram route and onto 18 metre high columns and four metre high buttresses.

Nick Fletcher, managing director of civil engineering at Morgan Sindall, said: “We are delighted to be working with Network Rail on this prestigious scheme to enhance the historic station structure and improve passengers’ journeys.”

The new roof structure itself has been designed to allow natural daylight to flood into the station through the use of lightweight, transparent ETFE – the material used at Piccadilly station in London, the Eden Project in Cornwall and the swimming pool built for the Beijing Olympics, known as the Water Cube.

Facilities investment l Investment in new and improved facilities at 23 different stations on the East Midlands Trains network has delivered a wide range of benefits for passengers including around 800 additional cycle spaces, better waiting facilities, new seating and refurbished toilets.

Larger scale investment has seen the complete refurbishment of ticket offices at Lincoln and Market Harborough and additional ticket machines at Nottingham and Sheffield.

Andy Moore, head of stations for East Midlands Trains, said: “As well as working on the larger station schemes, such as Nottingham, our teams have been busy working on a range of improvements to stations right across our network. We’ve invested over

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Elegant façade l London and Rotterdam based architecture firm, Maccreanor Lavington has completed a major new metro station in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Work on the new 550m² station and 1880m² platform in the neighbourhood of Bijlmermeer started in 2010, and it sits on the site of the original station, built in 1970.

The metro station features a ground level entrance with new escalators to take passengers up to the platforms, a major improvement for citizens as the old station only had stairs. The ground level entrance provides the main focal point of the station with an elegant stainless steel façade with a floral design. The laser cut design allows plenty of natural light to flow through the entrance, helping the passenger journey to seamlessly flow from the external surroundings into the station.

At night time the design allows the station to be a lantern for the local neighbourhood, creating a sense of warmth on street level and creating an instantly recognisable feature for the station. The architects’ chose stainless steel for the external façade due to its durability and low maintenance enabling the station not to need constant upkeep.

£1.5 million over the past year to deliver better station facilities with extra bike spaces, better toilets and improved waiting areas. We’ve also completed a number of accessibility improvement schemes providing accessible toilets, better station entrances and tactile maps to help visually impaired passengers find their way around our stations more easily.

“This has been a great start to the year, and we’re sure passengers will welcome this significant investment in our stations.

There’s still plenty to come for the year ahead however, with the major improvements at Nottingham, opening of three major new cycle hubs, Kettering station’s First Class Lounge and further station accessibility improvements to look forward to.”

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NEWS I Industry

Eurotunnel slashes rail freight charges l In the year that Eurotunnel celebrated the 20 anniversary of its opening, the organisation has committed to significantly reducing the charges for rail freight services through the tunnel.

The changes, which take effect from June 2014, will see tolls for the ‘off peak’ period, when most freight traffic operates, cut by 25% compared to 2013 levels. There will be no further increase until at least 2018.

Eurotunnel’s ETICA incentive scheme, launched in May last year to encourage the start up of new intermodal freight services, is also being enhanced. New freight rail services will receive an average overall discount of 35 to 40 per cent and the programme will be extended to five new categories.

Maggie Simpson, executive director of Rail Freight Group commented: “This is good news for rail freight and will help deliver a growth in services through the Channel Tunnel.

This offers significant benefits to businesses in the UK seeking efficient, affordable and environmentally sound transport links.”

Rail freight through the tunnel rose by 10 per cent in 2013, and by 13 per cent in the first quarter of 2014.

Copyright © Eurotunnel

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Rail freight delivers £1.5 billion to UK economy l British businesses are saving £1 billion a year – or £2.7 million a day – by using rail to transport goods, according to a new report published by the Rail Delivery Group.

Based on analysis carried out by accountants KPMG, the report reveals that a further £500 million a year of economic, environmental and social benefits are derived directly from decreasing the number of lorries on the roads, and over 7.6 million road journeys were saved last year alone.

Investment in freight rail since the mid 90s has, for example, resulted in more efficient, longer trains, each carrying an average of 50 per cent more cargo than 10 years ago. This has played a part in growing rail freight by 70 per cent over that period.

The sector is now recognised as vital to Britain’s economic competitiveness, transporting over £30 billion worth of goods a year from supermarket groceries and premium whiskies to over half the fuel delivered to power stations to generate electricity.

Peter Maybury, chairman of Freightliner and the RDG freight group, said: “Rail freight has been transformed over the past two decades and is set to keep growing. By continuing to drive efficiency and improve performance, operators could help more than double the size of the sector over the next three decades and increase the economic benefits of rail freight to over £4 billion a year.”

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Pamplona acquires Beacon Rail Leasing l London-based investment group Pamplona Capital Management has acquired British rolling stock leasing company Beacon Rail Leasing from BTMU Capital Corporation, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

The deal, which includes commitments to firm future orders for locomotives, is worth around $US 450 million.

Headquartered in London with additional offices in Boston and Rotterdam, Beacon’s current assets include 77 locomotives, 632 freight wagons, and 20 passenger train units on lease in the UK, France, Belgium, Norway, Sweden and Germany.

In addition, the company has ordered 15 dieselelectric and 10 dual mode locomotives from Vossloh for lease to Direct Rail Services in the UK. These locomotives will be delivered from 2014 through 2016, increasing Beacon’s locomotive portfolio to 102 units.

Beacon currently serves three of the top freight operators in the UK as well as RheinCargo from Germany, France’s Europorte and VFLI, and Norway’s CargoNet. Ted Gaffney, President of Beacon, will continue to lead the company supported by the existing management team.

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NEWS I Industry

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Industry eyes £32million savings

Professor Simon Iwnicki

l The first in a range of new resources is now available through the RSSB to help rail sector companies understand and tackle health and wellbeing issues. The human and economic costs of compromised health are well documented and recognised, and it is estimated that by working collaboratively across the industry to address health and wellbeing the sector could save £32 million a year.

This programme, managed by RSSB, is a collaborative effort on behalf of Network Rail, train and freight operators, rolling stock leasing companies, infrastructure companies and suppliers, and supported by the Office of Rail Regulation.

The first publications in the programme are available from the RSSB website, and include six booklets supporting the development of health policies, and five pieces of supporting research.

At the launch, RSSB chief executive Chris Fenton said: “The material we’re publishing today will help individual rail businesses to manage health and wellbeing issues among their staff, including having a pro-active health policy, surveillance and screening, managing mental health and stress, getting people back to productive work and employee wellness.”

A new cross-industry policy group will be set up to drive improvements forward. www.rssb.co.uk

New chair for IMechE railway division l The incoming chair of the Railway Division of IMechE, Professor Simon Iwnicki, plans to focus his attention on promoting engineering among the young during his year in office.

Due to take up the post in June, Professor Iwnicki heads the expanding Institute of Railway Research (IRR), based at the University of Huddersfield. The Institute will soon be the home for the £20 million Government funded Centre for Innovation in Rail.

“My theme for the year (as chairman) will be education of the next generation of engineers,” he said.

“This issue is becoming really important to engineering, especially railway engineering. There is a tremendous skills shortage and we at the IMechE need to try to address that.”

Gatwick Express reaches 30 l Gatwick Express, Britain’s first dedicated airport service, began carrying airport passengers on 10 May 1984, and has carried around 70 million passengers over the intervening years. That equates to around 46 million miles of journeys – or nearly 100 trips to the moon and back.

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Record order from South Africa l Intelligent drives specialist, Voith, has received an order for 4,800 Scharfenberg couplers for 600 new passenger trains in South Africa.

This is the largest single order for Scharfenberg couplers in the company’s history. The couplers will be fitted to new model series X’Trapolis Mega passenger trains from Alstom, which are being built in South Africa.

The couplers will be delivered over a period of ten years starting in autumn 2014.

PRASA, the state owned Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, intends to exchange out-of-date suburban trains in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, and will procure more than 7,000 rail vehicles over the next 20 years.

Rail journeys continue to rise l The total number of rail passenger journeys across England, Scotland and Wales increased by 3.3 per cent over the past year to 1.27 billion, according to figures from the Office for Rail Regulation (ORR), and now stand at more than double the number of journeys in 1995-1995.

Other key findings from the Regional Usage Profiles are: journeys between regions increased by 2.7 per cent, largely driven by journeys to and from London.

Journeys wholly within regions rose by 3.6 per cent, boosted by the huge 6.3 per cent increase in London, and 4.2 per cent rise in the east of England.

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NEWS I Appointments

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Network Rail Consulting appoints new director

BIM expert Paul Clark-Edwards joins Mott MacDonald

Arriva’s Steve Murphy to join MTR Corporation

l Network Rail Consulting has appointed Andy Harrison as director of signalling and control systems to lead its delivery of assignments in asset management, maintenance and renewal programmes.

A chartered engineer, Andy has spent the last thirty years working for international companies such as Invensys Rail, Ansaldo STS and Praxis Critical Systems, delivering large-scale projects. His experience includes the technical management and leadership of railway signalling and control systems through the design, development application and project delivery of novel safety critical technology.

Nigel Ash, Network Rail Consulting’s managing director, said: “Andy is passionate about railway systems and a dynamic leader.

I am delighted to have him on board and have no doubt that he will assist in adding further success to Network Rail Consulting.”

l Mott MacDonald has appointed Paul Clark-Edwards as building information modelling (BIM) practice leader for its transportation business. Paul will develop and implement the consultancy’s BIM strategy of using the technology and process as the preferred method for project delivery.

Paul has extensive experience of BIM at Parsons Brinckerhoff where he worked on Qatar Rail’s development programme and as BIM manager and co-ordinator for London Underground (LU).

Paul Norris, director of Mott MacDonald’s metros and civil business, said: “Paul has a proven track record of implementing large programmes of work in the field of BIM. His ability to balance the multiple aspects of BIM and deliver advanced project support ensures a, robust, trust based and collaborative BIM process.”

l Steve Murphy will be joining MTR Corporation as chief operating officer – European business, reporting to Jeremy Long, CEOEuropean business.

He will be coming from Arriva where he was COO UK Rail. Prior to that, he led the successful London Overground concession as managing director from start-up in 2007 to 2012. He will be taking up the post in August 2014.

Commenting on the appointment Jeremy Long said: “We are very pleased that Steve is joining us. Steve will bring considerable operational experience and knowledge to our current business in London and Stockholm, and will play a leading role in our development plans.”

David Dickson becomes route MD for Scotland

David Strahan to move to Translink

New programme director for Crossrail

l Network Rail has appointed David Dickson to the post of route managing director for Scotland.

David has worked for Network Rail for 12 years, and has previously been director for the west of Scotland.

In this new post he will be responsible for the day-to-day operation and maintenance of the railway as well as delivering ambitious plans to enhance the network.

Commenting on his appointment, David said: “I’m exceptionally proud to have the opportunity to take on the role of route managing director as we enter what will be a unique and exciting time for Scotland’s railway.”

With a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Glasgow, David spent 14 years with the Weir Group before entering the rail industry.

l The Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company has appointed David Strahan as group chief executive of Translink. Strahan is currently chief executive of Dee Valley Group plc which supplies drinking water to domestic and business customers in north east Wales and the north west of England. Prior to that, he was managing director of Phoenix Supply Ltd, the largest natural gas supplier in Northern Ireland.

Making the announcement, NITHC Chairman Mr. John Trethowan said: “We are delighted with this appointment which follows a competition that attracted significant interest and a very high calibre field. In David Strahan we are confident that we have found a skilled and experienced individual and the right person to lead Translink, one of Northern Ireland’s most high profile businesses which provides an essential service to so many.

The date at which he takes up the post is yet to be announced. In the interim, Gordon Milligan will continue to act as group chief executive.

l Crossrail has announced the appointment of Simon Wright to the post of programme director. Simon is currently project development director at Network Rail, and brings considerable experience with him. Prior to this, he was director of infrastructure and utilities with the Olympic Delivery Authority.

Andrew Wolstenholme, Crossrail chief executive said: “Simon Wright is an outstanding candidate who successfully led the delivery and commissioning of the infrastructure for the London Olympic and Paralympic Games; Crossrail will benefit enormously from his knowledge and expertise.”

He will take up his new position with Crossrail role this summer.

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KONECRANES UK

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Konecranes -liftingbusinesslikeneverbefore

As a world-leading group of lifting businesses, it comes as little surprise that Konecranes serves a diverse range of industries, including manufacturing and processing, automotive, shipyards, ports and terminals, nuclear, waste to energy and, of course, rail. And regardless of a customer’s lifting needs, Konecranes is committed to providing effective and cost-efficient equipment solutions that serve to add real value to businesses.

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ndeed for more than 80 years, Konecranes has been dedicated to improving both efficiency and performance by providing businesses with cranes, lifting products and services that they can trust. As a truly global organisation, Konecranes can provide access to a unique source of experience and knowledge which, when combined with local know-how, effectively enhances the lifting solutions on offer, whilst reducing downtime and increasing productivity in the process.

Here in the UK Konecranes provides a truly national service to the rail and intermodal sector. Alongside its UK Head Office and Parts operation based in Castle Donington, Konecranes operates a crane manufacturing plant in East Kilbride, Scotland, not to mention one of the country’s most extensive crane service networks. What’s more, such is the depth of Konecranes’ experience with the lifting and material handling field that customers can also tap into increasingly popular crane modernisation programmes, whilst also benefitting from a centralised machine tool service operation.

All in all, and as can be seen below, it is the constituent parts that serve to make the whole, and which enables Konecranes to provide comprehensive and performance

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driven solutions that can be seamlessly integrated into any type of customer process.

Intermodal It goes without saying that Konecranes recognises the strategic importance intermodal freight transport will play in the future of the global transportation industry, so much so that last year Konecranes organised its first ever UK Intermodal Seminar – ‘Tracks To Success’.

The seminar was hailed a huge success as it served to reaffirm Konecranes’ capabilities as an already established equipment and service provider across a number of global intermodal terminals. And with cranes and lifting equipment forming an integral part of all future intermodal locations, Konecranes used the platform to stress the need for endusers, project managers, designers and contractors to engage lifting equipment specialists at every stage of the design, build, commissioning and operational process.

Rail/Intermodal equipment Konecranes’ offering for the rail intermodal container handling sector includes Rail Mounted Gantry (RMG)

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz cranes, man-driven or automated for accurate, smooth and efficient container handling in intermodal locations with high throughput.

Also available are Rubber Tired Gantry (RTG) cranes with patented Active Load Control technology that eliminates container sway. Such cranes are an excellent fit for intermodal operations that are too big for reach stackers, but too small for RMGs. Konecranes also provides reach stackers and container lift trucks for both laden and unladen container handling.

Konecranes lift trucks have a wide range of appreciated standard features including an ergonomic cabin, loadsensing hydraulics and a strongbox chassis. They also include a wide range of optional features such as hybrid power and engine start/stop.

Finally, Konecranes straddle carriers can prove an excellent choice for intermodal handling thanks to their proven manoeuvrability and low power consumption.

Industrial cranes When it comes to industrial cranes, Konecranes sets the industry benchmark for safety, reliability, cost saving and productivity-enhancing innovation. Designed and manufactured at Konecranes’ UK plant in East Kilbride comes an almost infinite range of overhead cranes. Add in standard heavy-duty cranes that include electric overhead cranes up to 1,000+ tons and explosion-proof cranes and components, and a true picture capability wise begins to emerge. But that’s not all, as customers can tap into workstation lifting systems by specifying ceiling-mounted monorails and free standing cranes systems, jib cranes and manual lifting products, not to mention electric chain hoists that operate up to 7500 kg.

Crane service In addition to the supply of lifting equipment, Konecranes is revered for the magnitude of its in-the-field service operation that centres on a 250-strong team of highly experienced technicians that operate from a network of 12 crane service locations. It is through this process that customers can gain access to an extensive range of services and unique capabilities dedicated to improving safety, whilst helping decrease the cost of downtime and increase the productivity of uptime.

Most recently, Konecranes’ customers have benefited from the introduction of such innovative services as remote monitoring and reporting tools, such as TRUCONNECT®.

Also on offer is a range of safety and maintenance surveys, such RailQ Runway Surveys, Crane Geometric Survey and Wire Rope Non-Destructive Testing.

Modernisations on the increase Konecranes is also reporting a marked rise in the popularity of crane modernisation programmes, as more and more customers begin realising the benefits of tapping into a process that can prove to be an effective tool in providing the latest crane productivity, technology

and safety standard advances, but at a fraction of the cost.

Such schemes broadly fall into one of two categories: pre-engineered upgrades and engineered crane modernisations. Within the former process, Konecranes offers upgrades and smaller improvements that can be applied to equipment conveniently at a customer’s site or sites. These upgrade services improve the functionality of the cranes, therefore cutting down on the incidence of repeated failures that often result in inconvenient downtime and associated increase in cost.

Engineered modernisations are projects for overhead cranes and port cranes. Here experts in crane electrics, mechanics, and automation combine to deliver a complete and often turnkey solution.

Centralised machine tool service Serving to optimise all important customer response times, Konecranes has also recently centralised its North and South Machine Tool Service operations within its main crane-manufacturing site in East Kilbride and at its Head Office location in Castle Donington.

With a support team of over 20 skilled technicians, the division is responsible for providing a diverse range of customised maintenance and improvement solutions for customers covering all types and brands of machine tools.

Parts first Based at Konecranes’ Head Office in Castle Donington, the UK parts operation accommodates some 5,000 individual and immediately available items that translates into a parts stock inventory of more than £1million. The Konecranes UK parts operation is co-ordinated by a 23-strong team that helps support a 24-hour emergency call out service.

Investment in training Recognising the importance of training across all aspects of its business, Konecranes operates a state-of-the-art training centre located at its UK headquarters in Castle Donington. Serving to set benchmark industry standards, this latest facility is one of the most advanced across Konecranes’ 48 worldwide locations.

As Pat Campbell, Konecranes’ Director of Market Area – West Europe, states: “Across all aspects of the Konecranes’ business here in the UK and Europe, the future looks extremely healthy. The overall picture is one of continued investment in the depth of product and service provision that we are constantly and dynamically adapting to meet the ever-changing needs of customers. At the same time, we are working equally as hard in the fields of education and training and health and safety, which will contribute to ensuring Konecranes retains its competitive edge in a world of fast moving change.” zz

To find out more information on any of the products or services mentioned in this article please contact Konecranes via your preferred channel: Website: www. konecranes.co.uk Email: sales.uk@ konecranes.com Tel: 0844 324 6599 Twitter: @KonecranesUK

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RPA Dublin – Luas Tram

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Rapidaccess

Since it was opened during 2004, Dublin’s Luas tram has been a great success. Today the line’s developers, Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) Dublin is dedicated to providing the city with an extended service

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he RPA was established in Dublin on 28 December 2001 and is today responsible for the city’s light railway and metro lines. Dublin’s light railway system is known as Luas (the Gaelic for speed), which today operates two main lines with several extensions planned and underway. The roots of the project to deliver an effective light railway system to the city date back to April 1994, when the Dublin Transportation Initiative (DTI) issued a report detailing clearly defined transportation, land use and environmental objectives for the greater Dublin area. Initially,Córas Iompair Éireann ( CIÉ) the Irish transport semi-state company was commissioned to begin the preliminary development process of a light railway system before the project was handed to RPA, which subsumed the role and held its first board meeting in January 2002.

In accordance with its remit that came into effect with the passing of the Railway Infrastructure Act, 2001, RPA has worked to secure the provision of light railway and

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metro infrastructure as determined by the Minster for Transport. Following several studies including feasibility studies in operating the Dublin Metro as a Public-Private Partnership (PPP), RPA has developed several key networks throughout Dublin. “We have achieved a lot since we were first set up,” comments director of design and construction, Pat O’Donoghue. “We have delivered five lines since we were set up. We opened the Luas Green Line in June 2004 and the next line in was the Red Line, which was opened in September 2004.”

Although some concerns were raised concerning the impact of the construction of the line on local businesses, Luas has been very well received by the general public and the local business community for greatly easing access to the city. In the wake of this success RPA has since continued to develop the line with significant backing, as Pat explains: “This has been done in line with the political support that we have received in light of the early success of the project. We opened an extension to the Red Line

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RPA Dublin – Luas Tram Substati

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information systems, stops equipment such as CCTV and audio, vehicle location systems for communication between the city’s traffic lights and our trams so that our trams are given priority to ensure a reliable service. We are currently out to tender for the main infrastructure contract, which represents all of the more physical type work such as tracks, stops that the public will see on the streets. The tender is due back for that later this year.”

The Luas system has been a huge success for Dublin and is set to be even more so during the coming years.

Once the current extensions are finalised RPA will consider further developments subject to the decisions made by the Department of Transport in the future. Regardless of how the line develops, RPA is confident that Luas will continue to be a success and a source of pride for Dublin as Pat concludes: “We broke the 30 million barrier of passengers in 2013 and we had a little celebration with that and we have continued to grow. Overall the support has been very positive for the Luas system, I think that initially there was an issue with people being able to identify what the system was before it was delivered but today I think we can be very proud of the way the system has performed.” zz

www.rpa.ie in December 2009 and then we extended the Green Lne southward in October 2010. We also opened another extension on the Red Line in on July 2nd 2011. It was a great time to be involved in light rail in Dublin and all of those things progressed very well.”

The most recent development to the Luas System is the ongoing construction of a 5.6 kilometre extension to join the Green and Red Lines that will allow for a greater flexibility in journeys and even greater access to Dublin’s shopping districts and city centre. “The big advantage from the customer point of view will be the network effect,” Pat elaborates. “Once we begin to join up more of the system it will begin to create a wide range of routes for passengers to follow. This will make it much easier to make a trip from the south to the west of the city. The way the lines were originally built meant if passengers come in on the Green Line they would end up in Saint Stephen’s Green. The walk to the Red Line takes commuters to another part of the city, which can take as much as 15 minutes to walk. The other key benefit of the new connection will be to connect the north and the south side of Dublin, which is something that business interests in the area have been very keen to see.”

Work to prepare the proposed route for the new connecting lines commenced in 2013 and later during January 2014 it was announced that five companies have been shortlisted to undertake the project’s main infrastructure works. Once a final decision has been made, work is expected to go ahead during 2015 and is scheduled to be completed in 2017. Furthermore RPA has selected a contractor to provide the extension’s information systems, as Pat explains: “We have exercised an option to a company called Efacec to do all our information systems, including items such as passenger

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Henry Williams

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Controlled solutions

For over 130 years Henry Williams has operated as a leading provider of control and signalling equipment for the railway industry and beyond

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he company was founded in 1883 to meet the needs of the rapidly growing railways network.

Originally the company was established with five patents relating to the railway industry and today the firm has grown to incorporate a host of products that are applied within the railways, forgings, highways and control systems. The company is based in Darlington where it has been based since 1911, its current premises occupies almost 10,000 square metres on a site covering four hectares in total.

Although railway remains at the heart of the business, Henry Williams currently delivers solutions to a host of industries through its three main business areas that are comprised of its forging, electrical and fabrication divisions.

Commenting on the scope of the company’s forge operations sales director, Steve Cotton says: “We forge for the oil and gas industry through to railways, we produce such diverse things are door handles for submarines and piston rods for mining. Of course we continue to produce fishplates for rails and we are also forging parts for Network Rail’s new stretcher bar. The new stretcher

bar is a full assembly and is a really impressive piece of kit.

We are manufacturing the brackets for those and there will be 40,000 new stretcher bars in total with four forged components in each of them.”

Henry William’s electronics fabrication department produces a wide range of products from signalman’s desks, through to disconnection boxes and signalling Locations and Switchgear. An important aspect of the company’s fabrication process is the application of a recently developed electrically insulating coating (EIC) to overcome a range of challenges encountered during the installation, maintenance and protection of power distribution equipment.

The company’s electronics division provides products including programmable logic controller systems (PLC) for level crossings and control systems including the Henry Williams Domino system. “I think that power is really the big thing that we have moved into,” Steve says. “We are currently producing over 400 functional supply points (FSP 03) and because of the EIC we have gone into Network Rail’s ClassII signalling power distribution system in a big

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way. We have developed SafeBox as a ClassII switch box to be used on the 650V power system.�

The SafeBox is a robust metal enclosure for signalling power distribution units that combines electrical insulation and impact protection from outside threats such a vandalism and cable theft. SafeBox was developed with input from engineers, installers and maintainers and is

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Henry Williams

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SafeBox is plug and play, to be used with solid aluminium cable looks and that will plug by using flexible ‘Tails’ into the box. This will result in less time on site when installing FSP systems. We have worked closely with Network Rail to make sure that as they evolve, we have the tools that they need to achieve the required change.”

In undertaking repeat contracts for the likes of Network Rail, Henry Williams has earned a highly regarded reputation that allows long-lasting relationships with clients. Furthermore the company works with some of the UK’s principle contractors including VolkerRail and Amey. “We have a good relationship with VolkerRail and Amey, who were crucial in providing feedback that helped us to develop the company’s products,” says Steve. “For Henry Williams the approach will be to continue to evolve and improve on our power supply systems, we want to make these quicker and easier to install. In the longer term we will be looking to develop products that help to drive trains, so with in the next four to five years we will have products on board trains. That is really the next evolution,” he concludes. zz

www.hwilliams.co.uk designed to be insulated, impact proof and durable with a long-serving lifespan of 40 years. “SafeBox is sturdy enough that you could hit it with a sledgehammer and it would withstand the blow. The coating that we use on the casing is an anti-vandal coating meaning that if it is attacked with a hammer and chisel it will blunt the chisel before the box is damaged, it is a pretty robust piece of kit. Unfortunately cable theft does still occur but another advantage of SafeBox is that it allows Network Rail to move from three core to two core power distribution, which is what the move to class two is all about. So that is a reduction of a third of the cost of purchasing cable and installation to begin with.”

Today SafeBox is a Network Rail approved technology, which indicates that it meets the company’s rigorous standards in safety, suitability and compatibility with existing rail infrastructure. The system is also designed to incorporate cable segregation, which means that cable can be changed while the system is still live and the railway is running. Furthermore if there is a theft of a section of cable, the network is still able to run, meaning that that network will not grind to a halt while the problem is addressed.

Presently Henry Williams is engaged in contracts for London North West (LNW) and London North East (LNE), where it is installing FSP units for Network Rail.

Additionally during 2014 Henry Williams was awarded a large contract for the Scottish rail region to provide 650 volt power supplies, which is also on behalf of Network Rail. Commenting on Henry William’s close collaboration with Network Rail, Steve says: “The move within Network Rail is from copper to aluminium cable, which is more like a solid bar that feeds into the box. Our next generation of

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Southeastern

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Mark Johnson

Due South

As it looks to extend its franchise to 2018, Southeastern has, over the last few years, achieved the best-ever punctuality and reliability performance on the London and South East network and invested in improving stations and rolling stock

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outheastern runs train services into London from Kent and East Sussex and its network includes the high-speed Javelin service from London St Pancras to Ashford International. The company operates 2000 trains, carrying more than 570,000 passengers every day, serving 179 stations. Its joint venture owner, Govia, is the UK’s busiest rail operator, responsible for 28.7 per cent of UK passenger rail journeys. It successfully delivered transportation for millions of passengers during the London 2012 Olympic Games, as well as introducing and extending the UK’s first domestic high speed service.

In the 2014 National Rail Passenger Survey, Southeastern was awarded 84 per cent for overall satisfaction, with its high-speed service scoring 95 per cent satisfaction. However, the company has faced a series of challenges on its network over the past six months. Exceptional weather conditions presented a real issue for transport with flooding and landslips caused by the heaviest rainfall for 250 years. “Southeastern worked hard to keep passengers on the move and communicating effectively, offering record levels of compensation to customers and working with Network Rail to resolve

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infrastructure issues,” says Mark Johnson, engineering director. Despite the bad weather, performance remains strong and passenger numbers continue to grow.

“As an operator, efficiency and reduction in the overall cost of maintenance are key considerations. Overhaul programmes of major heavy components such as the bogie and drive chain systems are one of the biggest maintenance projects we undertake. In respect to maintenance extensions careful consideration needs to be taken on the effects these extensions have on the sub components of a system, for example bearing within the bogie and drive chain system. Failure of this type of component are largely not visible until the bearing has started to fail resulting in significant levels of disruption during the occurrence and the recovery back to depot,” explains Mark. Monitoring bearing degradation became a topic of study for Southeastern.

In conjunction with Bombardier, Southeastern engaged with Perpetuum, a provider of technology in the form of vibration energy harvesters (VEH) and organised a trial using the specially modified VEH on the Electrostar units. Positive trial results result led to fitment across the full fleet giving real time data on the status of every bearing on the fleet, as Mark says: “The onboard nodes are a ‘fit and forget’ wireless system, self-powered with no specific upkeep. The innovative power harvesters convert vibration energy into electrical energy to power the sensors and communications from the bogie mounted units bringing installation time down to 15 minutes per wireless sensor node.”

The vibration harvesting system, deployed to measure bearing degradation on the trains is already bringing improvements to Southeastern’s maintenance planning, reducing costs and preventing operational incidents. This technology has allowed Southeastern engineers to take a more proactive approach, predicting potential bearing issues up to three months before they occur. As a result it has changed from a periodic maintenance schedule for the fleet to condition-based maintenance, resulting in better planning and less disruption to passengers.

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Reduction in cost The system will remain an ongoing venture having identified further benefits in refining the technology. At present, train wheels are examined every 15,000 miles and all wheels are checked for faults. The system is being developed to identify faults and further wheel tread condition using the live data with a view of enacting a more effective wheel profiling regieme or according to the actual condition.

Working closely with Network Rail, Southeastern continues to meet the challenges of operating on the complex network of services, delivering a smoother service and quicker service recovery that puts passengers first. The business also has a team of well-trained personnel, attributed to its investment of more than £14 million in training and development.

“We are the only train operator to be recognised with Champion Investors in People (IiP) status, putting us among the top one per cent of companies within the UK for best practice in strategic leadership and people management,” highlights Mark.

Confronted with several challenges including increasing capacity, improving efficiency, removing cost, managing through periods of major infrastructure improvements and modernisation, the business strives to meet the demands as well as developing creative solutions from other industries. “There has been significant growth in the number of passengers travelling

by rail over the past eight years. We expect this trend to continue and we are working to ensure the demand can be met.

“The immediate focus for Southeastern over the coming months is securing the new franchise period and enhancing our customer service. Driving forward innovation and finding new ways to resolve the challenges that we face to ensure customer satisfaction remains at the centre of everything that we do,” explains Mark.

Further ahead the business recognises that one of its key challenges is the Thameslink Programme, rebuilding London Bridge station. The £6.5 billion improvements taking place at the station will cause major disruption to train services running through it and Southeastern is planning timetable changes and an extensive programme to communicate the impact to its customers as a result, as Mark forecasts: “The first changes will take effect in January 2015, when Charing Cross services will be diverted for 18 months. Further changes to Cannon Street services will then come into effect and remain in place until completion of work in early 2018.” zz

Mark Johnson

www.southeasternrailway.co.uk

Unipart Rail Unipart Rail is an important partner with Southeastern and Angel trains working together to overcome some of the issues caused by obsolescent parts and components. A working party was established in 2013 to identify obsolete products and put processes in place to minimise the risk to the operation of the fleet.

This type of collaboration is key to the Obsolescence Management service that is provided by Unipart Rail for TOCs and ROSCOs to ensure that potential problems are resolved efficiently.

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Silicone Engineering Ltd

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Flexible solutions

Drawing on over 50 years of experience in several industries, Silicone Engineering has developed a reputation as an industry leader in delivering silicone products to the mass transit and railway sectors

Sponge Extrusion

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he company was founded in 1959 as a manufacturer dedicated solely to the production of silicone rubber products and today Silicone Engineering maintains its original vision, producing silicone rubber products in sheet, extrusion and moulded form. Since it was founded the company has grown to represent a global force with a central manufacturing plant and head office based in Blackburn, UK and sales offices located in France and North America. From these locations the company serves a broad market demographic comprised of applications within the automotive, aerospace, construction, energy, food and drink, mass transit and agriculture and dairy industries.

Five decades of industry experience has allowed the

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company to develop industry leading silicone rubber products to meet the exacting standards of its clients and to satisfy the toughest specifications and standards.

One example of this includes the LCH (low combustion hazard) product range. “The range has low smoke and low toxicity properties,” explains Antony Peel, marketing director. “It was developed in 1990 in response to the King’s Cross underground disaster in 1987. Silicone Engineering has designed a range of silicone rubber products in the LCH material in collaboration with some of the biggest names in the rail rolling stock arena.”

The company is dedicated to releasing new products that meet the changing requirements of its clients. As such its LCH line of products commonly used within the rail industry includes suraSil™LCH, a solid extrusion material for use in profiles, expanSil™LCH a sponge extrusion material for sections and cords, kSil™LCH a solid silicone sheeting for gaskets and kSil™LCHx, which is a sponge silicone sheeting for gaskets. An important development in the company’s product line was the introduction of calendered sheeting in 1996 allowing for the production of smooth sheet silicone. Today Silicone Engineering employs six calendering lines, which allow it to maintain high levels of output.

“Being one of the largest consumers of HCR silicone in Europe, processing in excess of 2000 tonnes per annum, through 50 years of processing and material expertise Silicone Engineering has gained a reputation of providing cost effective and high quality solutions in silicone,” Antony says. “Having almost all ingredients in stock combined with the industry leading mixing facilities and state-of-the-art laboratory means customers benefit from high quality and fully traceable materials that can be processed and delivered within a very short lead-time.”

When it comes to ensuring that its products are at the very heart of the company’s various markets, Silicone Engineering works to guarantee that its research and development operations are focused on the specific

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requests of industry for particular solutions, as Antony explains: “We have one of the best-equipped and resourced laboratories in the industry. These facilities allow us to formulate, test and certify all material developments to the relevant international standards before going to market. We have some exciting new developments underway that will be announced shortly.”

Although the financial crisis that began in 2008 had a knock-on effect in the markets serviced by Silicone Engineering resulting in a slight dip in sales for that year, the company has still achieved growth year–on-year. “A robust business strategy and effective marketing have facilitated this growth,” Antony observes. “We have more than doubled the company’s turnover since 2008, which

perfectly demonstrates the consistent growth that the business has experienced as an effect of being innovative and market focused.”

The company’s market focus and growth strategy can be expressed in several ways. For example, to ensure that the business has a reliable and sufficient workforce for the future it has invested in its current and up-coming team as Antony elaborates: “There has been a major focus over the past few years on training and personal development. This has involved considerable investment in training programmes and we have successfully brought two employees onboard through an apprenticeship programme with a third due to start at the time of writing.”

In addition to ensuring that the company contains the

Laboratory

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Silicone Engineering Ltd

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Factory necessary skills and knowledge base to carry it forward, Silicone Engineering is keen to continue to deliver the very latest solutions in its chosen markets to enable the business to stand out as the premier provider of silicone products throughout Europe and North America, as Antony concludes: “As a solution provider in silicone technologies we are always looking for new and exciting ways to introduce new scientific advances in the polymer to provide enhanced solutions to our customers.

Laboratory Expansion is primarily focused in the company’s key international markets and to optimise business in these chosen countries to become the leading silicone provider in major markets.

“As we expand our marketing capabilities we are reaching out to a much larger audience on a global scale. By servicing these markets with strategic focus and new capital investment we expect to continue growing well into the future.” zz

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Heathrow Express

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Expressservice Since 1998 Heathrow Express has provided the fastest rail link from London to Heathrow, enabling passengers to reach their destination in as little as 15 minutes

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eathrow Express is a non-franchised, nonsubsidised privately owned company that owns all of its own trains, the stations at Heathrow as well as the entire below ground section of the line between London Paddington and the airport. The service carries an average of 16,000 passengers a day between London and Heathrow and the journey time to terminals One and Three is as little as 15 minutes and only marginally longer for Terminals Four and Five. These are not the only impressive figures that Heathrow Express is able to boast.

For example when it comes to passenger satisfaction, the numbers speak for themselves with Heathrow Express scoring an impressive 96 per cent satisfaction from passengers in the National Rail Survey. This score is the top score throughout the entire UK rail industry.

At present flights from 120 countries fly into Heathrow making the Heathrow Express a vital link in shuttling passengers from the busy airport to London and visa versa. It is a key aim for Heathrow Express to deliver passengers to their destinations safely and on time, and in comfort. To ensure that journeys are as smooth as possible for passengers the company ensures that timetable changes are published via a wide range of media including advertisements, posters, Express TV and

the Heathrow Express webpage. Furthermore the latest information regarding fares and schedules is displayed on board trains via back-seat leaflets and Express TV. One way that Heathrow Express is working to ensure that journeys are as efficient as possible for passengers is through the introduction of combined airline train ticketing.

This is an area where managing director Keith Greenfield is passionately focused on enhancing the service on offer to the company’s customers. At present Singapore Airlines and Aer Lingus already offer this facility online at the booking stage and it is intended for more carriers to follow.

Making the booking process as smooth as the journey itself has been a common goal for Heathrow Express and the application of modern communication technology has traditionally been at the very heart of this initiative.

The company was the first to launch e-ticketing enabling customers to buy tickets online and receive a barcode via either email or to a mobile phone directly, which can then be scanned on the train. Furthermore Heathrow Express was the first UK company to launch a fully functional train ticket app, allowing customers to purchase and receive tickets direct to their iPhone, Android, Blackberry or Javaenabled phones. Use of mobile app tickets grew 40 per cent in 2013 proving that customers appreciate

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these more convenient ticketing options.

During 2012 Heathrow Express undertook a £15 million investment directed at the upgrading of the company’s fleet of rolling stock. The re-launch of the Heathrow Express brand was directed by the themes of providing exemplary service along with the objective to ‘premiumise’ the brand itself. The enhancements introduced to the Heathrow Express brand and fleet were designed to mirror an airline experience, while complying with forthcoming safety standards due to come into effect during 2019.

Heathrow Express currently owns 14 four-car Class 332 trains engineered and built by Siemens Transportation Systems in Germany, in partnership with CAF of Spain. The refurbishment of the fleet lasted 18 months from drawing board to delivery and involved close collaboration with teams from Siemens, Railcare and Interfleet.

The impressive overhaul encompassed a host of improvements including one plus one first-class seating

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with wide aisles that allow business travellers to keep their luggage at their side by their feet, varied express-class configuration of seating to allow for bay and airline seating layouts, LED lighting providing a brighter environment and more reliable lighting, customer information screens providing live flight and onward travel information, a passenger information system to deliver station announcements and other information, improvements throughout the vehicle to comply with TSI-PRM (Europeanwide accessibility regulations) and enhanced safety features including non-slip flooring, emergency lighting, audible warning systems and increased surround lighting.

Heathrow Express currently runs 150 services a day, carrying over 60 million passengers since it was launched in June 1998 and the demand for these services is set to increase with the opening of the new Heathrow Terminal Two in June 2014. To help ease the journey for passengers using the service, Heathrow Express is focusing on the migration of staff to front-line roles to interface directly with passengers. With the customer profile of the business made up of 69 per cent business and 31 per cent leisure travellers, it is vital for London’s economy that the service runs smoothly and it is innovations such as the brand relaunch and a strong focus on customer interface that has given Heathrow Express has reliability of 98 per cent and a 97 per cent repeat travel rating.

The company’s commitment extends beyond offering an excellent service to its passengers, Heathrow Express maintains close links to the local community including proud sponsorship of the England sevens rugby team.

Further to this the Heathrow Express webpage offers links to corporate news and travel information as well as articles

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highlighting London life including the ‘sites and sounds’ of London, food and drink, fashion and interviews with well-known personalities including Sir Richard Branson and James Caan.

With the recent completion of the Heathrow Express brand re-launch and the expected increase in passengers over the coming months, the future looks to be both busy and exciting for the company. Network Rail is planning the new Western Access line to London due for completion in 2021 and Heathrow Express has made it clear that it is ready and determined to take the role of appointed train operator, which represents a potentially very exciting next chapter in the company’s history. zz

www.heathrowexpress.com Pod-Trak Ltd Pod-Trak Ltd is a skilled, multidiscipline contractor to the rail industry, with offices in London, Manchester & Doncaster. Founded in 2007, Pod-Trak puts emphasis on the delivery of a safe, quality service. Continued success through referrals and repeat business with clients such as Heathrow Express is testament to the dedication of this youthful and innovative company, resulting in the successful completion of several projects on HEx infrastructure, ranging from drainage to signage, building long-lasting relationships in the process.

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Southern Railway

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Fleet ofstrength Southern Rail’s £19 million train refurbishment programme is designed to deliver significant improvements for passengers

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outhern Railway provides train services for commuters, airport users, and business and leisure travellers in south London, between central London and the South coast, through East and West Sussex, Surrey and parts of Kent and Hampshire.

The company operates one of the largest and most diverse fleets in the UK, with around 300 new or refurbished trains running over 2,400 services a day. Over the course of two franchises, it has made substantial improvements to its rolling stock fleet and its stations. Most recently, in collaboration with Network Rail, it has delivered six brand new station buildings, as well as having further major station improvement schemes underway, which will bring the overall investment in new stations and major improvement work to over £16.5 million.

As Gerry McFadden, Fleet Director at Southern Railway explained, a large part of Southern’s responsibility in this

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zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz current franchise has involved working with Network Rail in developing the expansion of the metro services from eight car to ten car as well as expanding the capacity of the West London lines from four cars to five and eight cars.

“From a fleet perspective there has been no let up in development. We are currently refurbishing our whole fleet of 700 Class 377 Electrostar carriages, and by Spring 2014, all carriages will be fully refurbished. We’re also overhauling our fleet of Class 455 trains – those you see on our Metro routes. Furthermore, we have recently completed the overhaul of our Class 171 Turbostar diesel fleet – engines rafts and bogies - as well as a full interior refresh – new carpets, seat covers, and grab rails.”

The Electrostar overhaul programme was an enormously challenging undertaking for Southern, and as Gerry explained, it required a radical approach: “The rolling stock of the Electrostar fleet is now over ten years old and the units were beginning to look quite tired inside, and at the same time, they were due an overhaul on the bogies, doors and couplers.

“The level of availability that could be achieved with that fleet meant there wasn’t any spare rolling stock to

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Southern Railway

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substitute for units that were taken out of service for three different examination programmes. To solve this problem, the team at the repair shop in Selhurst planned a programme of work and created a process that allowed a unit’s interior to be renewed, for its doors, bogies and coupling gears to come off and be overhauled (in three separate processes) all within a week’s downtime.

There are even videos of the process on the Southern website, http://www.southernrailway.com/film – it’s very impressive and has brought major benefits to the company.”

Alongside the rolling stock upgrade programme, Southern has also expanded the capacity of its metro services. Said Gerry: “Effectively this has covered three different programmes of work. First of all there has been

Techpol Ltd Techpol Ltd is the preferred paint supply partner for franchises throughout the UK. Techpol started working with Southern Rail back in July 2011. It has developed bespoke processes by working hand in hand with Southern and is proud to say the quality of finish achieved is excellent and the project has run to schedule throughout the duration. With over 75 years’ experience added to its ISO 9001 & ISO 14001 working ethos it has experienced great success in this sector.

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a project led by Network Rail to extend platforms from eight cars to ten cars, secondly, there has been a scheme to introduce 170 new vehicles, and finally, there has been an extension of depot facilities and introduction of new sidings.

“In order to be able to create this new ten car fleet, the amount of work required in the background has been quite phenomenal. We have put in place 108 new vehicle berths at six different locations and we have extended the Selhurst depot to ten cars long, as part of a £multi million programme of works.

“We are now getting towards the end of the new fleet introduction - we have a new 5car single voltage (DC) fleet in operation, and in addition we commissioned a new dual voltage fleet, which is due to come into operation in the early summer,” Gerry highlighted.

Bombardier won the order for this new train build and Southern set it a challenge to deliver the first train into passenger service in record time. “Bombardier and the staff at Litchurch Lane are working hard to make sure these trains are reliable,” Gerry added. “When we receive the sixth unit of our dual voltage fleet it will represent 1000 vehicles that Litchurch Lane has built for Southern,

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz which is not only a significant milestone in itself, but also coincides with 175 years of the rail industry in Derby and which is very important in its own right.”

With Southern’s current franchise running until July 2015, and various bids for the new Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (‘TSGN’) franchise already with the Department of Transport, Gerry remains positive about the future. He believes that the programme of improvements that he and his team have implemented will continue to bring benefits for the next decade. Going forward, Southern has no intention of slowing down its programme of improvements. “The next ten years are a continuation of what we have already done. It’s also not all about new trains, although we do have two new guaranteed fleets coming into service. We are also highly dedicated to technology, and our new smart card ticketing option, which represents five years of research and development for the company. It has only recently been launched, will continue to see new additions and developments,” he concluded. zz

www.southernrailway.com

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INNOTRANS

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Images from InnoTrans 2012

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Inauguration of CityCube Berlin: Klaus Wowereit, Governing Mayor of Berlin (left) and Dr. Christian Göke, CEO of Messe Berlin (right).

Lütze Transportation

Technology showcase ÖBB Technische Services

InnoTrans has become established as an international industry showplace that focuses on railway technology

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ith a large number of reference projects and over 220 transport technology firms, Berlin is the main location for Germany’s transport engineering industry and this makes it an ideal venue for InnoTrans, the International Trade Fair for Transport Technology - Innovative Components, Vehicles, Systems. Being held from 23 - 26 September 2014 (Trade Fair) and 27 - 28 September 2014 (Public Days - tracks and outdoor displays), the event will present a full range of rail vehicles as well as key areas featuring railway infrastructure, interiors (incl. travel catering and comfort services), public transport and tunnel construction.

The InnoTrans Convention taking place in conjunction with the trade show includes a special Dialog Forum organised by Deutsches Verkehrsforum (German Transport Forum), Verband Deutscher Verkehrsunternehmen (VDV, Association of German Transport Companies), the European Rail Transport Industry Association (UNIFE) and Verband der Bahnindustrie in Deutschland (VDB, German Rail Industry Association).

Initiated and organised by Deutsche Bahn AG, the Rail Leaders’ Summit (RLS) offers excellent dialogue opportunities for transport ministries and general managers of international rail transport companies.

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The Tunnel Construction segment will be accompanied by an International Tunnel Forum featuring a series of discussions with international guest speakers and supported by STUVA (Incorporated Association for Underground Transport Systems). The Public Transport Forum organised by Planungsbüro für Verkehr (PBV) and ETC Consultants focuses on current and future developments in public transport systems.

With the Public Transport & Interiors Hall Forum (PTI Hall Forum) two segments received their own programme area where the Speakers’ Corner, the International Design Forum and the DB Suppliers’ Forum takes place. At the DB Suppliers’ Forum the Deutsche Bahn goes into direct conversation with its suppliers.

The InnoTrans Majlis (‘majlis’ signifies a customary gathering in the Middle East where important topics are discussed and personal meetings taken place) offers the opportunity to exchange views for numerous senior industry executives and policy makers with high-ranking members of the rail industry and rail transport ministries of the Gulf Arab states.

Indeed at the 2014 event, participation by international exhibitors is high. For example, the US Railway Engineering-Maintenance Suppliers Association (REMSA)

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CSR Corporation is organising a combined stand for the second time and will occupy double the display space at the last event. The Japan Overseas Rolling Stock Association (JORSA) will also be represented on a combined stand. Once again, Japan will be taking up an entire hall.

Kazakhstan will be taking part in InnoTrans for the first time, where the Tengiz Trans Group will represent it. According to information supplied by the exhibitor the enterprise is Kazakhstan’s largest independent leasing company for rolling stock. DCD, a rolling stock manufacturer from South Africa, is also among the newcomers at InnoTrans 2014.

China has its own Pavilion, and there are more than 20 Chinese organisations exhibiting there. These leading manufacturers from the Chinese transport industry represent such important areas as rolling stock, signalling and control systems and vehicle interiors.

There is a major emphasis on aspects such as energy efficiency and environmental protection. The China Railway Pavilion is being organised by the China Academy of Railway Sciences (CARS).

Another exciting feature of InnoTrans 2014 is the extra space it is using in The CityCube Berlin, a new multi-purpose hall for trade fairs, conferences and events. This move by Messe Berlin comes in response to the continuing high demand by the world’s rail industry for stands at InnoTrans 2014.

There are four combined stands in the CityCube Berlin, featuring suppliers from Korea, Switzerland, Sweden and the BerlinBrandenburg region. “The entire value-added chain in the region around the German capital is represented here,“ explains Melanie Bähr, general manager of the Berlin Economic Promotion Agency.

“Some 60 companies are occupying a 1000 square metre combined stand at the CityCube in order to present their capabilities to visitors to InnoTrans.”

InnoTrans is also the place where many in the industry reveal their latest innovations. Last year the rail industry showcased a total of 104 products that made their first appearance on the world stage at the event. In 2014 BGM GmbH Badische Gleisbaumaschinen, a start-up from Germany, was the first exhibitor to announce products that will be shown at InnoTrans 2014 for the first time in the world.

“At InnoTrans in Berlin we will be exhibiting prototypes of our newly developed and patented MT 100 goods wagon to an expert audience,“ said Andreas Vonhoff, managing director of BGM GmbH. Exciting releases like this are just part of why visitors choose to visit this important event. In its tenth anniversary year, InnoTrans 2014 looks set to maintain its position as the world’s leading business meeting place for transport technology. zz More details are available online at www.innotrans.com.

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Arriva Trains Wales

First class service Arriva Trains Wales has completed major refurbishment programmes and resignalling investments to ensure continued passenger satisfaction

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esponsible for almost all passenger services in Wales, Arriva Trains Wales operates out of every railway station in the country as well as nearby areas of England, in total taking responsibility for 244 stations across a route of 1009 miles. As the operator of the Wales and Border railway franchise, the company focuses on continuous improvement in all areas of operation to ensure the high demands of its stakeholders, customers, employees, investors, suppliers and communities are met. The franchise was acquired by Arriva Group, the Deutsche Bahn owned leading major European public transport operator, in 2003 following the devolution of this responsibility to the Welsh Assembly Government. Since this transitional period, Arriva Trains Wales has continued to work closely with the government to help develop the Welsh railway network. Meanwhile, as part of the Arriva Group, Arriva Trains Wales follows the vision of its parent firm to be recognised as the leading transport services group in Europe. To achieve this goal it strives to provide customers with reliable train services, clean, attractive stations, local, effective and customer orientated management, an abundance of available information as well as helpful and approachable personnel.

To meet the challenges of running a highly successful transportation service, Arriva Trains Wales’ fleet of 125 trains cover a route of more than 1009 miles and operate 955 services per day. Supported by 2050 dedicated employees, the company’s trains travel 13.7 million miles annually and handle approximately 65,000 passenger journeys every day. Capable of carrying 12,000 customers at any one time, Arriva Trains Wales’ fleet ranges from one carriage ‘153s’, which operate its services on shorter distance routes, to high speed trains ‘175S’, which travel the longer distances on mainline routes.

Known for having one of the UK’s most presentable rail fleets in the UK, Arriva Trains Wales has recently completed a major refurbishment programme on the interior and exterior of its Class 158 and 150 fleet. Indeed, the £7.5 million upgrade on trains operating on mainline routes from Wales included new seating, luggage areas and toilets to provide ‘as new’ interiors to its out-of-date

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zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz carriages and was implemented to continue the trend of passenger number growth. The train upgrade included 24 class 158 trains on the Aberystwyth to Birmingham, Pwllheli, Holyhead and Chester; Cardiff to Cheltenham routes, 27 class 175 trains on the Cardiff to Manchester, Swansea to Carmarthen, Cardiff to Llandudno and Holyhead routes as well as eight single carriage class 153 trains travelling on the Swansea to Shrewbsury, Swanline local, Conwy Valley line and Swansea to Pembroke Dock route.

With the aim of delivering a positive improvement on quality that would benefit millions of passengers every day, the new improvements include power sockets next to some seats on longer routes, extended luggage space and improved wheelchair access on its services.

Committed to investing in developments that further cement its reputation for high quality, reliable services, Arriva Trains Wales implemented an industry first with its pilot European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) in the UK. Introduced on the Cambrian Line between Shrewsbury and Aberystwyth, moving onto Pwllheli, in 2011, the in-cab European Train Control System (ECTS) for signalling has proven highly successful over the last three years. Indeed, this major milestone opens further opportunities for Arriva Trains Wales, as it looks to expand the ERTMS onto other routes around the UK and offer its expertise to assist any upcoming projects.

Like all train operators within the UK, Arriva Trains Wales operates to the punctuality and performance standards that are put into effect by the Department for Transport (DfT).

The group’s punctuality and reliability figures are displayed at its major stations and updated every four weeks; for example Wales successfully earned 98.7 per cent punctuality statistics from 2nd to 29th March 2014. To ensure ongoing reliability in its operations, Arriva Trains Wales is involved with Passenger Focus, an organisation set up by Parliament to protect the interest of passengers. Meeting regularly with key stakeholders such as Network Rail, the Welsh Assembly Government and the British Transport Police, Passenger Focus highlights issues such as punctuality and reliability, fares and ticket types, capacity and overcrowding, safety and security.

On top of its work with Passenger Focus, Arriva Trains Wales works closely with the four regional transport consortia in Wales – SWWITCH (South West Wales Integrated Transport Consortium), TAITH (North Wales), Mid Wales Partnership (TRACC), SEWTA (South East Wales Transport Alliance) – to discuss proposals and apply local rail network improvements. In addition, the company has also developed close working relationships with a number of partner rail user groups such as Cambrian Rail User Group (CRUG) and Pembrokeshire Rail Travellers Association (PRTA).

Viewed as an attractive option for passengers travelling both in and outside of Wales, the company’s success has led to overcapacity issues that it has worked hard to minimise.

Following an investigation into its services, Arriva Trains Wales introduced a major timetable overhaul, which enabled it to provide 340,000 additional seats each year from existing

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz fleets. Furthermore, the company used yield management software to encourage growth at times when there is capacity to travel through offering discounted fares in these quieter times. Through using its own initiative Arriva Trains Wales has tackled future capacity concerns by utilising its resources efficiently and deploying stock where it is needed, Planning ahead has proven a strategically beneficial move for Arriva Trains Wales following a ÂŁ220 million rail project between Network Rail and the Welsh Government to improve reliability and capacity on the Cardiff and Valleys rail network. The project includes a new platform at Cardiff Central, a new south-side entrance at Cardiff Central, complete with lifts to the new platform; new platforms and entrance at Cardiff Queen Street station and improved infrastructure at Rhymney Valley line at Caerphilly and Tir-Phil. Jointly funded by Network Rail and the Welsh Government, the project is scheduled for completion in 2015 and will future proof the railway by boosting capacity and providing a robust and flexible infrastructure.

Despite the huge changes surrounding the network, Arriva Trains Wales hasn’t lost sight of its day-to-day service commitments and has enhanced its focus on providing passenger satisfaction through time and cost efficiency as well as safety and reliability. Recognising the role it plays in the communities it serves, Arriva Train Wales has prepared for the future while also surpassing present passenger demands. zz

www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk

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Sitron Sensor

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Safety first

When considering safety light curtains in the door area of rolling stock and buses, Sitron is at the forefront of the market

S Above: The Talent2 by BOMBARDIER. There are two installation options.

This option is a SITRANS alpha light curtain in the A-profile design. The profiles were the carriage curvature, adjusted parallel to the cover. The profiles were bent and partly provided behind the cover with a hole

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itron’s range of non-contact door control and monitoring systems includes fully automatic SITRANS alpha light curtains. These products have been installed on more than 30,000 doors of rail vehicles and buses all over the world, and thanks to their extraordinarily high quality, the curtains are the best choice for a large number of sensitive door control and monitoring applications.

Boarding and exit are particularly critical phases in passenger rail and bus transport. Here, the highest degree of reliability is crucial and any door malfunction must be precluded.

The new SITRANS alpha S1-Rail series was especially developed for rolling stock applications and certified by ‘TÜV Nord’ [Engineering Control Association (MOT) for Northern Germany]. Independent tests proved that it meets all current requirements established by the German Federal Railway Agency (EBA) for EN 50126, EN 50129 and EN 50128 standards at SIL 1 level. Therefore, the new SITRANS alpha S1-Rail light curtain series is not only a comfortable non-contact door control and monitoring device, but also an officially approved safety installation

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now. Electronic and software performance of the light curtain system were in the focus of the tests carried out by ‘TÜV-Nord’ at the SEELAB laboratories. Acting in the background, these components are a decisive asset for the reliability of the whole system.

With a combination of up to 194 parallel and crossed infrared light beams, the SITRANS alpha S1-Rail system detects even the smallest objects to avoid passenger injuries. The light curtain is available in several versions, with horizontal sensing ranges up to 2500 mm and vertical detection ranges between 690 mm and 1794 mm. In order to meet the highest safety requirements, the interruption of just a single light beam will trigger activation of the PNP output. The light curtain also meets the requirements of the EN 50155, EN 50121-3-2 and DIN 5510-2 standards. Thanks to its extraordinarily high quality, the SITRANS alpha S1-Rail system is perfectly suited for a large number of sensitive door control and monitoring applications.

Vandalism and soiling are familiar occurrences for all public transport services. The light curtain system counters such factors with its dimensionally very stable

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz BOMBARDIER-ALSTOM door with SITRANS alpha light curtain

Light curtain SITRANS alpha® S1-Rail

transmitter and receiver profiles, which are available in different cross sections. Thanks to its fully integrated, partly moulded electronic components, the light curtain will resist even the hardest shocks and vibrations.

External light irradiation is also no problem for the clocked infrared light. A factor that makes the light curtain the ideal choice for applications in areas with constantly changing light conditions.

In order to avoid misalignments and contamination, Sitron’s sensor experts integrated an AST function automatically reacting to any external influence into the S1-Rail system. No subsequent set-up or readjustment will be necessary. The light curtain will automatically adjust the signal levels of the individual light channels.

In static as well as in dynamic operation, this will ensure optimum sensor performance all across the monitored area. Standard models as well as customised models offer economic advantages in particular when it comes to retrofitting. With the complete SITRANS alpha series, Sitron is, according to its own statements, the market leader in the field of safety light curtains in the door area of rolling stock and buses. zz

S-Bahn ÜSTRA in Hanover with light curtains SITRANS alpha

For further information visit: www.sitron.de.

Light Curtain Systems, Sitron Sensor GmbH D-30916 Isernhagen +49 511-72850-0 Please contact us by email: office@sitron.de www.railwaystrategies.co.uk

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Irish Rail (Iarnród Éireann)

Take thetrain

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Irish Rail (Iarnród Éireann) is committed to encouraging the expansion of rail as a mode of transport for passengers and freight

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rish Rail (Iarnród Éireann) is the national railway system operator of Ireland. Established in 1987, it operates all internal intercity, commuter and freight railway services in the Republic of Ireland, and jointly with Northern Ireland Railways, the Enterprise service between Dublin and Belfast.

With Irish Rail continually competing with other modes of transport for customers, it is essential that the operator maintain a modern and reliable fleet. In order to continue to encourage travellers to use the rail option, Irish Rail is continually planning for the medium to long-term development of the railway, and investing in its rail network and services. Investment in recent years has delivered major benefits, including: l Renewed infrastructure, including track, signalling, and other infrastructure l New Intercity, Commuter and DART fleet l New stations, and upgraded existing stations, including improved accessibility l New rail lines, including Cork-Midleton, Ennis-Athenry, Clonsilla-M3 Parkway

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Faiveley Transport For more than 90 years, Faiveley Transport has been designing, manufacturing and marketing high-added value train borne systems.

The organisation is represented in 24 countries across the globe, with an established and strong base of operations in Europe.

In Ireland, Faiveley has an extensive installed base of systems on the Irish fleet, covering bogie brake, brake control systems, doors and HVAC. The company has with David Rees Ltd (DRL) in place a partnership that has being providing for over 20 years, a high-class level of service, to the Irish market. Together the two companies support and develop rail maintenance activities, bringing product enhancements where necessary. As the OEM, Faiveley Transport also provides technical support for the installed base to Irish Rail.

One of the most significant schemes that Irish Rail has undertaken is the City Centre Resignalling Project.

This Project is provided for under the capital investment programme for transport, funded by the National Transport Authority and will meet future demand for rail transport by increasing the capacity and frequency of trains through Dublin City Centre.

The project will provide Irish Rail with the ability to operate 20 trains in both directions through the Howth Junction to Grand Canal Dock line, which caters for Howth DARTs, Malahide DARTs, Northern Commuter trains, Belfast Enterprise services, Sligo Intercity and Maynooth commuter services, as well as other services in the Connolly to Grand Canal Dock area. Signalling on train lines regulate the safe movement of trains, and currently the system’s capacity stands at 12 trains per hour each way.

The Project has also taken in to consideration the need to modernise signalling equipment. Computer based interlocking will be used to replace the existing Relay based signalling systems in Howth/Howth Junction/

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Irish Rail (Iarnród Éireann)

Killester /Connolly and Pearse.

The project is to be executed in three phases. The first phase of the project covers the section between Malahide/Howth and Killester, the second phase of the project covers the busy Connolly station area, and the third phase will cover the section between Connolly and Sandymount.

The new signalling system will bring major benefits to Irish Rail’s customers. These include an increased number of trains during peak hours, improved performance of level crossings giving longer road opening times, improved punctuality due to the modernisation of signalling and uninterruptible power supplies to ensure higher reliability. The new signalling system will also facilitate the track layout modifications for the DART, as well as the Underground and Maynooth and Northern Line electrification projects. The resignalling project will run between Malahide/Howth station and Sandymount, at a length of 21.6 Kms. The project will cost in the region of 120 million euros.

Alongside infrastructure investments such as this, Irish Rail has also spent considerable sums on its InterCity Railcar Fleet. Since entering service in December 2007, its 400 million euro 183-carriage InterCity Railcar fleet has transformed quality, comfort and frequency levels right

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across the national rail network. The fleet was ordered from Mitsui of Japan, in partnership with Rotem of the Republic of Korea and Tokyo Car Corporation of Japan.

In March 2009, Irish Rail placed an order for an additional 51 InterCity Railcars, which brought the fleet up to a total of 234. This fleet expansion, worth 140 million euros benefitted Intercity and longer-distance commuter services.

In May 2011, Irish Rail took delivery of the first 12 new InterCity carriages at Dublin Port of this order, and the new carriages entered service from late 2011 into the first half of 2012. The replacement of the outdated fleet across the network brought a host of benefits to passengers including improved frequency and capacity on all InterCity routes, modern on-board comfort standards and improved accessibility for mobilityimpaired customers.

For Irish Rail, the benefits of the investment included the fact that this is now the greenest diesel train fleet in Europe, meeting Stage 3B EU emission limits for nitrous oxides (2.0g/kWh) and Stage 3A limit for soot particles (0.2g/kWh). In fact, protection of the environment is a topic that Irish Rail keeps at the top of the agenda.

The organisation is committed to operating in an environmentally sound manner, and to encouraging the expansion of rail as a mode of transport for passengers and freight in order to reduce the greenhouse effect and other forms of pollution. It believes that rail transport offers great potential for solving the ‘mobility or environment’ dilemma in view of its recognised environmental advantages over other modes of transport.

While investment increased significantly in the first decade of this century, the economic crisis in Ireland has seen a dramatic reduction in capital funding, and Public Service Obligation payments reduce by 38 per cent.

Costs have been reduced by €73 million since 2008, and staff numbers by 25 per cent, while services have largely been maintained. Further cost reductions are targeted, and passenger numbers resumed growth in the second half of 2013 following decline since 2007.

While some major projects have been deferred, Irish Rail remains ambitious for the future of the network. The DART Expansion Programme, which includes a new 7.6km DART underground tunnel through the heart of the city centre is key to maximising the potential of the rail network in the Greater Dublin area. It includes a rail link to Dublin Airport, currently one of the only capital cities in the EU without a rail connection.

The company is also seeking investment to improve speeds on the Intercity network, with journey times of two hours or less targeted to Cork and all other major cities. This will meet customer demand, and generate economic and environmental benefits for the community as a whole. zz

www.irishrail.ie

zzzzzzzzzzz NEWS I Conferences & Exhibitions zz Forthcoming Conferences and Exhibitions This listing represents a selection of the events about which we have been notified. It is strongly recommended that direct contact should be made with the individual organiser responsible for each event before booking places or making travel and accommodation reservations. Cancellations and other last-minute alterations are liable to occur. The editor and publishers of RAILWAY STRATEGIES are not responsible for any loss or inconvenience suffered by readers in connection with this guide to events.

11-12 June – Train Communications Systems London Organisers: BWCS Tel: 01531 634 326 Email: ross.parsons@bwcs.com Web: www.traincomms2014.com/

1-2 July – Africa Rail Johannesburg Organisers: Terrapinn Tel: +27 (0) 11 516 4015 Email: enquiry.za@terrapinn.com Web: www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/africarail/

23-26 September – InnoTrans 2014 Berlin Organisers: Messe Berlin GmbH Tel: +49 (0)30 30 38 - 2376 Email: innotrans@messe-berlin.de Web: www.innotrans.com

12-13 June – Planning for a Liveable City – Sustainable Urban Mobility Sopot, Poland Organisers: Eltis Web: eltis.org Registration: http://www.polisnetwork.eu/1steuropean-conference-on-sustainable-urbanmobility-plans Language: English

10-11 September Low Carbon Vehicle Event LCV2014 Millbrook Proving Ground, Bedford Organiser: Cenex Tel: 01509 635 750 Web: www.cenex-lcv.co.uk

29 September – 1 October – European Transport Conference Frankfurt Organisers: Association for European Transport Email: http://aetransport.org/contact Web: http://etcproceedings.org/

12-13 June – Next Generation Rail – From seed to success MOSI, Manchester Rail Research UK Association Web: rruka.org.uk Email: rruka@rssb.co.uk Registration: rruka.org.uk/next-generation-rail2014-registration 23-26 June 4th UIC Global Rail Freight Conference Hilton Vienna, Austria Organiser: International Union of Railways Email: grfc@uic.org Web: grfc2014.com Registration: www.grfc2014.org/Registration/ page/10116

11 September The British Rail Conference Dentons, London Organiser: Waterfront Conference Company Tel: 0207 067 1597 Web: www.waterfrontconferencecompany.com/ conferences/rail/events/british-rail 21-25 September – 10th International Conference on Geosynthetics Berlin Organisers: International Geosynthetics Society Web: www.10icg-berlin.com

9 October Interoperability in Practice A workshop for the European railway industry Brussels Organiser: Hit Rail Email: info@hitrail.com Web: www.hitrail.com 17-19 March 2015 – Rail-Tech 2015 Utrecht Organisers: Europoint Conferences & Exhibitions Tel: +31 (0)30 698 1800 Email: info@rail-tech.com Web: www.rail-tech.com

Institute of Mechanical Engineers Training Courses Technical training for the railway industry A listing of courses currently available from the IMechE (Unless stated otherwise, all courses are in London) 21st October Introduction to rolling stock Key design principles affecting the performance of railway systems

29th October Train control and safety systems Learn of the systems used on UK fleets that provide safety and train operational control

6th November Vehicle acceptance and approvals Introduction to acceptance procedures which apply across the rail network

22nd October Traction and braking Principles of traction and braking for railway engineers

30th October Vehicle dynamics and vehicle track interaction Understand the dynamics of railway vehicles to improve safety, comfort and asset life

www.imeche.org/docs/default-source/learningand-professional-development-documents/l_ d_railway_training_web.pdf?sfvrsn=2

23rd October Optimising fleet maintenance efficiency Understand the issues affecting rail vehicle performance and cost of maintenance 28th October Train communication and auxiliary systems New and existing systems in use on today’s rolling stock fleet

4th November Train structural integrity Structural integrity, fire and crashworthiness systems found on today’s rail fleets 5th November Fleet maintenance Improve your processes and fleet maintenance processes

A downloadable brochure is available at:

For more information, please contact Lucy O’Sullivan, learning and development co-ordinator: Tel: +44 (0)20 7304 6907 Email: training@imeche.org Web: www.imeche.org/learning/courses/railway

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Metroselskabet

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The Metro in Copenhagen started operating in 2002 and is one of the youngest Metro systems in Europe.

Today the City has 22 Metro stations but there is huge building activity and in 2020 Copenhagen will have 39 Metro stations and a 27 kilometre long new light rail system just outside the city

When the new City Circle Line in Copenhagen opens up the gates 85 per cent of the city’s residents will have less than 600 metres to a Metro or S-train station

Coping withtherush In collaboration with the municipal authorities of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg, the Danish government has recently concluded a contract to expand the existing Metro with a new city circle line, the Cityringen

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Many of the new underground stations are built in the heart of the old historic Copenhagen like here at Kongens Nytorv

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he Copenhagen Metro operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week with two current lines that run from Copenhagen Airport and Vestamager to the centre of the City and continue to suburban Vanløse. The first Metro in Copenhagen opened the gates in 2002. Since then several extensions to the system have been built and the Metro has experienced an increasing number of passengers every year. Cityringen is a completely new Metro line constructed on the same principles as the existing Copenhagen Metro net. The Cityringen circle line will be a 15 kilometre underground railway under downtown Copenhagen, the ‘bridge quarters’ and Frederiksberg with 17 underground stations.

In an interview with Railway Strategies, Rebekka Nymark, customer and business director provides an

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update on the business and the construction of the new line: “Besides running the existing Metro system in the City, Metroselskabet is currently in the early stages of the construction of the new city circle line, with several underground stations in the heart of Copenhagen, plus a branch with two new metro stations in a new fast developing area near the north harbour, Nordhavn,” she says.

The business is also developing a light rail system just outside Copenhagen, which will be 27 kilometres long and include 27 new light rail platforms. Today Copenhagen has just two metro lines with 22 stations. In contrast, by 2020 the city will have four metro lines with 39 stations and a new light rail system. The Metro system in Copenhagen is still relatively young with perhaps the most significant milestone being the opening of the Metro itself in 2002. The

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extension to the Metro system in 2007 with a connection to the airport signified the next step to its expansion. In 2008, in co-operation with the operator, Metroselskabet successfully began operating the 24/7 service, which has benefitted many passengers over the years.

In 1904 the Danish parliament, Folketinget, discussed plans of an underground system, inspired by the London Underground, but decided to drop the idea. It was not until a century later when the first Metro in Denmark opened and popularity and interest in the system quickly grew. The success of the first Metro led to the public and political call for more Metro lines, which has resulted in the development of the Cityringen and other projects. In 2011, the contract to design and build the new Cityringen line was signed with a project value of approximately £2.5 billion. The contract negotiation for the underground works for the Nordhavn branch, which includes two stations and two tunnels, is currently ongoing.

The new system will be a fully automatic, driverless system, providing a massive lift to the infrastructure and mobility in Copenhagen. Eighty-five per cent of the city’s residents live within 600 metres of a train or metro station, and the new line is expected to open in December 2018.

Addressing the challenges felt by the business, Rebekka says: “Building the new stations and 16 kilometres of twin bored tunnels under an old city with many old buildings and landmarks is a huge challenge. Approximately 30,000 people live within a radius of 100 metres from one of our 21 worksites in the city. The construction phase has primarily been challenged by the constrained worksites, which have a limited area. To meet our goals we have therefore asked to be allowed to extend the working hours on the worksites so we have the possibility of working evenings and nights when necessary.”

As construction works are undertaken in close proximately to private and commercial dwellings, Metroselskabet contacts all neighbours surrounding a future building site well in advance to inform them about what they can expect. Everyone in the neighbourhood around the building site is invited to meetings, at which the construction plans and their consequences are explained. This gives local residents an opportunity to get answers to their questions about the project. In line with community involvement, for the past two years

Metroselskabet has been running Cool Construction, an initiative which turns construction site hoardings into temporary urban labs for the benefit of neighbours and passers-by. The project was launched with the aims to make construction site perimeters a positive feature in urban life through temporary projects designed for the local environment.

“On the existing Metro in Copenhagen we are currently building platform gates on all above ground stations. Once the gate installation has been completed we will be able to increase the capacity of trains and the passengers will benefit from this as we can provide a better service with a higher frequency of trains, running every 100 seconds.”

The existing network operates with short trains that

COWI ARUP SYTRA JV COWI ARUP SYTRA JV have been the Metroselskabet Civil Work Consultants on Cityringen and have fast tracked, with close interactive dialog with Metroselskabet, the tender design. It is a multi-disciplinary design with optimal and sustainable solutions for the cities of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg. COWI ARUP SYSTRA JV has contributed from within their key disciplines at a top international level. The design is supplemented with a detailed interior design to best, international visual and comfort standards.

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Comply Serve Provides Compliance for Copenhagen Cityringen Delivering a project wide hazard record system for the Cityringen project, Comply Serve is proud to be partner with the Copenhagen Metro Team. ComplyPro® is a single progressive assurance and compliance solution that manages all the elements of risk in one place. The project delivery team, as well as the end client and stakeholders, all have the same version of the truth throughout the programme, delivering an accelerated decision-making process and progressive assurance through all project stages

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Four Tunnel Boring Machines will create 31 kilometre new Metro Tunnel under Copenhagen. Here the head to the first Tunnel Boring Machine is arriving to the shaft in Nørrebroparken carry approximately 300 passengers. The trains on the Cityringen line will be very similar to the ones on the existing Metro, but will include minor updates on the design.

Copenhagen is growing by approximately 10,000 inhabitants every year, which equates to around two per cent. As urbanisation is expected to continue over the next 15 to 20 years it raises numerous and major

challenges for the city. Rebekka explains: “The Metro is a key solution when it comes to mobility, and we are in constant dialogue with our customers to ensure that we meet their demands. In our latest customer satisfaction survey 95 per cent of the passengers declared that they were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with our product. We are basically working on making life easier for people, both those who live in Copenhagen and the city’s guests.

In that respect we are proud to be offering our customers a 24/7service, which is quite unique in the world.

Furthermore, 98.5 per cent of all arrivals and departures are on time.”

Looking further ahead, Rebekka summarises the forecast for the business: “The next five years for Metroselskabet are really busy. We have the responsibility for building the new Cityringen, the Nordhavn branch to connect a development in the north harbour area to the city and a new light rail system just outside Copenhagen with 27 new stations. At the same time it is our aim to continue increasing the number of passengers in the existing metro system and make sure our customers are satisfied with our service. So we expect a very busy and exciting five years to come.” zz

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MENDIP RAIL

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Photos by Adam Snow, a work experience student at Mendip Rai in 2012

Village of Mells on the 1330 Whatley-Dagenham Docks on Friday 13th July 2012 at Westbury

On track Celebrating its 20th anniversary in October 2013, independent freight operator Mendip Rail’s versatility in a changing market has ensured it continues to deliver a flexible and efficient rail freight solution

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ormed as a joint venture between Foster Yeoman (now Aggregate Industries) and ARC (now Hanson Aggregates), the two firms pooled their resources into Mendip Rail in 1993 to deliver aggregates via rail from their neighbouring production facilities in Somerset. Today operating as a recognised leader in the rail freight market, Mendip Rail runs trains from Hanson’s Whatley quarry and Aggregate Industries’ Torr Works in the Mendip Hills to a series of depots in the south and southeast of England. “We move approximately five and a half million tonnes of limestone annually,” begins Dean Pitman, General Manager of Mendip Rail. “We have 23 employees, the majority of whom are engineers who maintain and manage our fleet of eight mainline locos on a 24 hours a day, seven day a week basis. The majority of our business comes from Hanson and Aggregate Industries; we don’t enter the market place to tender for additional work.”

In addition to the fleet of eight Class 59 locomotives, the company also has more than 400 wagons under lease from VTG and NACCO. During the last quarter of 2012 VTG signed a long-term contract with Mendip Rail to take

over its 263 strong fleet of aggregate wagons, a contract that brought the number of wagons supplied by VTG to the freight operator to almost 320. The innovative and mutually beneficial agreement provides Mendip Rail with the rail capacity it needs and thus ensures it delivers the optimum level of reliability through fleet availability; VTG and Nacco, meanwhile, will work with sub-contractor Axiom Rail to fulfil its duties as entity in charge of maintenance (ECM).

As the regular supplier of large, time-sensitive tonnage, Mendip Rail is proud of the vast capacity it has to offer through the utilisation of its own wagon and locomotive resources. Indeed, this strength enables the firm to adapt to demand, as does its strong working relationship with Network Rail and DBS. Being able to plan and switch operations in an efficient and flexible manner through these positive relationships offers clear benefits to Hanson and Aggregate Industries and their downstream supply chain.

Mendip Rail’s core market is the Mendip Hills but it also transports limestone from quarries in South Wales, and Leicestershire. “As one of the only privately owned firms

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Kenneth J. Painter on the 0945 Theale-Merehead Monday 9th July 2012 at Merehead

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MENDIP RAIL

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means everyone operating in the market needs to up their game to ensure freight can be maintained on the new infrastructure. With ERTMS coming up over the next ten years we need to adapt to this new system; this will be a major challenge for the whole sector, but we are preparing now because many locomotives need to be converted by 2018.

“We also see growth within our two parent companies so we will be bringing in some fresh blood to sustain this development through apprenticeships; these apprentices will spend the next three to five years being trained to the level that both Mendip Rail and Network Rail requires,” he concludes. zz

Ford Fuel Oils Ford Fuel Oils is a family run fuel and lubricant distributor based in the southwest.

Its fleet of 43 fuel tankers and 12 lubricant delivery vehicles offer a next day delivery service to a wide range of loyal customers in the transport, automotive, agricultural and domestic market sectors.

Ford Fuel Oils look forward to continuing and developing our working partnership with Mendip Rail Limited and wishes them good fortune in their future growth and development.

to own and operate our locos, we run our traffic under a major long-term contract with DB Schenker. All of our drivers are with DB Schenker, our haulage contract is with DB Schenker, so they provide the drivers and the access to their network while we provide the wagons and the locos,” explains Dean. “This contract has been long-standing since our inception; back then we used Mainline Freight, which was then acquired by EWS, which was later brought out

by DB Schenker. We have in effect had the same haulage partner more or less for 20 years.”

With long-term expertise in the rail freight market, the company further expanded its capabilities during the economic crisis by becoming the first employer organisation to be awarded the status of ‘Accredited Training Provider’ by the National Skills Academy for Material, Production and Supply in October 2010. Able to deliver the Rail Safety Awareness (RSA) training course for personnel within the company, its parent companies and their customers that operate in the rail freight network, Mendip Rail’s was developed by Dean and Colin Ellis, rail manager for the Midland Rail sector of Aggregate Industries. “As a training provider we carry out safety awareness training to the people that discharge and load the aggregate we deliver. This helps ensure high safety standards,” says Dean.

Following a challenging number of years, Mendip Rail is preparing itself for further changes in an evolving market as the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) initiative comes into effect over the next decade and growth within the construction industry requires new staff to join the company, as Dean highlights: “The railway industry is moving towards a more improved facility, which

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FCC Environment

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Clearingup FCC Environment is one of the UK’s leading waste and resource management companies, helping thousands of businesses and communities waste less and recycle more

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s part of the FCC group, one of the world’s largest environmental services companies, the business holds an enviable position in all the markets that it operates. The business views every waste collection an opportunity to reclaim valuable resources and improve the environment. In its operations, the latest recycling and green energy technology is used to ensure that as much resource as possible is recovered, minimising the use of landfill.

The profile of the UK’s waste management industry has never been higher, the pressures on local authorities and the economy to reduce waste and maximise re-use and recovery have never been greater. Through innovation, service and expertise, the cornerstones of the group’s approach, it is committed to working with local authority

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partners and industry customers to respond to often complex and far-reaching waste management strategies, to react to increased regulation from the UK and Europe, and to meet demanding waste management targets.

Driven to be the UK’s leading waste management and energy recovery group, the business works in partnership to deliver best value and sustainable waste solutions to meet the country’s needs. Each year the business collects, recycles and disposes of millions of tonnes of household, commercial and industrial waste. It also generates energy from waste, thereby contributing significantly to the Government’s efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

One area the company specialises in and is developing further is removal of construction materials by rail.

Currently the company receives material from three

Rail Freight Services is the premier company for the loading and unloading of railway wagons and waterbourne vessels, being able to service a huge variety of contracts operating within time constraints, rail and tide timetables

All of our equipment is custom-built and uniquely designed to give maximum benefit to the customer in efficiency whilst ensuring the highest levels of safety in operation for all project needs, enabling them to cater for all bulk handling requirements regardless of budgets, time constraints or location.

Rail Wagon Unloading RFS are able to discharge all types of bulk commodities from various types of rail wagon used on the network today, typically aggregates, coal, waste, scrap and finished products e.g. blocks and bricks within the required timetable.

Train & Lorry Loading In addition to the grab equipment which is suitable for train and lorry loading, RFS also run a fleet of front-end loading shovels fitted with weigh-loaders and ticket printers guaranteed to +- 2%.

Intermodal Bulk Handling Some products need to be isolated for various reasons, and are maybe best suited to travel in a container. RFS own and operate equipment suitable for loading 20T, 30T and 40T containers to and from lorries and trains.

Ship Loading & Unloading RFS operate long-reach equipment with power-turn clamshell grabs and high rise cabs, ideal for loading or unloading bulk commodity products from ships or barges of up to 4,000 tonnes capacity from a quayside. In addition RFS own and operate 5 grain elevators which have a combined loading rate of 1,500 tph.

Ancillary Services RFS own and operate a range of forklifts, lorries, screening equipment and mobile weighbridges which are available as part of your logistics solution if required.

Rail Freight Services are pleased to work closely with FCC undertaking bulk materials handling for many of their UK Operations

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FCC Environment

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locations in the London area. The well-known soil receiving sites of Calvert, Stewartby, Sutton Courtenay and Didcot are strategically located to significantly reduce cost and enhance the environment. The company has received materials from Crossrail, LUL and many well known prestigious contracts working with principal freight operators such as DBS, Freightliner, GBRF and Devon and Cornwall.

One of the main benefits from operating trains in the process of waste removal is that it significantly reduces the amount of vehicles on the road, saving unnecessary expenditure for its clients as well as environmental savings. Capable of transporting a large quantity of material in one go, it would take five road vehicles to remove the load that one rail vehicle is able to transport and 75 road vehicles for one train. The business currently processes 15 trains each week that collectively transport 17,500 tonnes of soil and waste. In 2012 the amount of waste moved by rail was minimal, and it was the innovative thinking from the business that has really

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helped drive this market forward.

With a number of large-scale construction and development projects planned and coming to fruition in and around the boroughs of London and the South East, there is a growing demand for the removal of construction waste, particularly massive amounts of soil that will be excavated during the development process.

With the right fleet of vehicles under contract the forward thinking business is well prepared for the activity that this future workload will bring. As such it has made plans to increase the frequency of the trains to more than 30 each week, thereby doubling the load to its various sites, with three new rail linked transfer stations planned.

Its values and behaviours are a fundamental part of the culture of the group, providing clear guidance on priorities and working practices. At FCC Environment the vision is to be the environmental company of choice, delivering change for a sustainable future, achieved through commitment to the environment and remaining socially responsible in the services it provides. With a strong focus on its people, the company demonstrates the value it attributes to its workforce by ensuring rewards and praise for a job well done, motivating others to achieve the same. Essentially this contributes towards building a secure future by being customer focused and delivering quality services.

Despite working hard to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill, there will always be a small amount that cannot be recycled. For this purpose the company operates a number of landfill sites throughout the UK, and where possible, materials are sent to one of its energy for waste plants. FCC landfill sites are much more than finish and forget sites. In order to reduce the environmental impact, its team ensure that gas is safely removed and recycled into energy as well as monitoring local water quality 24 hours a day.

Throughout the industry, and particularly recognised by the communities in which it operates, FCC holds a favourable position, seen as an economical and environmentally responsible alternative. Through modern and innovative ways, the business is using landfills to reduce the amount of waste it receives and increase recycling efficiency. Material recycling facilities are being built on some landfills along with wind turbines, composting facilities and refuse derived fuel plants. All these new facilities are working together to ensure less and less waste is added to landfill. zz

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