The Rail Engineer - Issue 93 - July 2012

July 2012

i s s u e

93 Flying High PARTNERS AND SUPPLIERS RECEIVE RECOGNITION FROM NETWORK RAIL

Wheels are turning

Upstairs Downstairs

Farringdon platform extensions

Axles, Wheelsets and Bearings - Balancing Safety, Performance and Cost.

Improvement works at Liverpool Central, Britain’s 37th busiest underground station.

Complying with Group Standards, whilst extending platforms at Farringdon.

written by rail engineers for rail engineers

available online at www.therailengineer.com

july 2012 | the rail engineer | 3

welcome Grahame Taylor’s

Operating notice Tables laid between rows of pensioned off aircraft, a BBC sports columnist and Kevin Keegan. It can only be......the Network Rail Partnership Awards. Despite this rather curious disjuncture, here was a prestigious event which gave Network Rail the opportunity to thank its partners and suppliers for all their hard work over the past year, and to recognise those projects which had gone particularly well. Our own Nigel Wordsworth was there to soak up the atmosphere and anything else on offer.

Paul Curtis has been to a couple of conferences this month. The first, to discover all about collaborative working and the machinations of BS11000, was hosted by Westermo at the National Railway Museum. The second, at London’s ExCeL overlooking Canary Wharf, covered the FOSD (Future of Sustainable Design). This year the ‘S’ had seamlessly metamorphosed from Station into Sustainable so that transport hubs and gateways could be included.

Clive Kessell has had the opportunity to interview Francis How in this the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers centenary year. In a wide ranging discussion they were able to assess just what the IRSE, having survived two world wars and a number of signalling crises along the way, has achieved for the industry and the profession.

“Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men.” So wrote Douglas Bader, or was it Oscar Wilde? No matter, substitute “standards” for “rules”, mix it up a bit and the quote can be attributed to Chris Parker, our very own standards expert, who has been looking at the way a bit of common sense can be applied to even the trickiest of locations. And Farringdon Station in the centre of London can’t be much trickier.

I travelled on the Liverpool Loop recently. Out of Editor Grahame Taylor grahame.taylor@therailengineer.com Production Editor Nigel Wordsworth nigel@rail-media.com Production and design Adam O'Connor adam@rail-media.com Engineering writers chris.parker@therailengineer.com clive.kessell@therailengineer.com collin.carr@therailengineer.com david.shirres@therailengineer.com graeme.bickerdike@therailengineer.com mungo.stacy@therailengineer.com peter.stanton@therailengineer.com steve.bissell@therailengineer.com stuart.marsh@therailengineer.com terry.whitley@therailengineer.com Advertising Asif Ahmed asif@rail-media.com Paul Curtis pc@rail-media.com Tom O’Connor tom@rail-media.com

the blue, a fellow traveller harangued me with assorted expletives and “They’ve shut it for 6 months”. After further growls it became apparent that “it” referred to Liverpool Central station. He was not suited, but he seems to have been in a minority as Graeme Bickerdike explains. Life in Liverpool has gone on despite the temporary closure of one of its main transport hubs. But I’ll watch out when it’s the turn of Lime Street and James Street.

Stuart Marsh’s fascinating piece this month gives us an insight into the design, production, inspection and maintenance of some of the most expensive consumables found on rail vehicles - the wheel set assemblies. And with over 144,000 wheelsets in use in the UK, this is a huge topic.

Fortunately, strict safety regimes result in a very low failure rate, but the consequences of getting things wrong can be disastrous. Stuart will also explain this subtlety of axle technology, “When is a hole not a hole?”

Dating back to the 1940s and 50s, the kit holding up the overhead line equipment between Liverpool Street and Chelmsford was pretty tired. It had grown like Topsy with bits added on and voltages tweaked ever upwards. If one bit was brought down there was a very good chance of everything coming with it. It was time for an upgrade - although this was much easier said than done. I’ve been speaking to Network Rail about the perils of cutting the wire.

Look out for a couple of commercial pieces that tread into an amazing futuristic world. The Mission Room is a place where you can scare the living daylights out of yourself without getting hurt and Toronto has demonstrated passenger flows for the next nine years using computer “agents” that think for themselves! the rail engineer Ashby House, Bath Street, Ashby-de-la-Zouch Leicestershire, LE65 2FH Telephone: Fax: Email: Website:

in this issue

Flying High Partners and suppliers receive recognition from Network Rail.

6

100 Not Out 13 Clive Kessell speaks with Francis How, President of the IRSE in its centenary year.

Mission Statement Balfour Beatty Rail tests the three-dimensional Mission Room Arena on a live railway project.

18

Getting a GRIP on BIM Building Information Modelling (BIM) is quickly becoming the buzz word in infrastructure.

20

Upstairs Downstairs 24 Improvement works at Liverpool Central, Britain’s 37th busiest underground station.

Farringdon Platform Extensions 30 Complying with Railway Group Standards, whilst extending platforms at Grade 2 listed Farringdon.

Delivering Collaboration 40 The National Railway Museum in York was the venue for Westermo Data Communications’ second annual conference.

01530 56 00 31 01530 41 21 66 hello@rail-media.com www.therailengineer.com

Editorial copy Email: news@rail-media.com Free controlled circulation Email: subscribe@rail-media.com The small print the rail engineer is published by RailStaff Publications Limited and printed by Pensord.

Wheels are Turning 43 Axles, Wheelsets and Bearings - Balancing Safety, Performance and Cost.

© All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without the prior written permission of the copyright owners. forthcoming

features

Sister publication of

Bridges & Tunnels; Level Crossings Signalling & Telecoms; Innotrans

August September

4 | the rail engineer | july 2012

IN BRIEF Eurotunnel ferries Cross-channel railway tunnel operator Eurotunnel now has three ferry boats!

After SeaFrance went into administration, the Paris Commercial Court accepted a €65 million offer from Groupe Eurotunnel to acquire three ships, Berlioz, Rodin and Nord-Pas-deCalais, along with their related assets.

The acquisition will be made via a group subsidiary named Eurotransmanche.

This company, independent of Eurotunnel, will be able to create 500 jobs in the Calais region and about a hundred in the UK. The ferries will need a technical overhaul before being brought into commercial service, as SeaFrance was unable to complete necessary maintenance work before being placed into administration.

news

STATIONS

Tottenham Court Road contract

Improved Abertawe Swansea is the latest station to benefit from a refurbishment. Upgraded by Arriva Trains Wales as part of the National Stations Improvement Programme, it now enjoys a larger concourse area with better and more accessible passenger facilities and a new booking office.

Crossrail has announced that its preferred bidder to construct the new western ticket hall at Tottenham Court Road is Laing O’Rourke Construction.

Tottenham Court Road Crossrail station will be directly connected to the neighbouring Tube station allowing passengers to interchange between Crossrail and London Underground services. The new street level ticket hall will be constructed at Dean Street, with the station box continuing five levels

below ground at a depth of around 25m, providing access to the new Crossrail platforms.

The station main works contract includes the major structural work and fit-out of the station’s western ticket hall and fit-out of the station tunnels and Goslett Yard box, which will link the Crossrail station to Tottenham Court Road tube station.

Under separate contracts, Balfour Beatty Morgan Vinci Joint Venture has completed the construction of

INFRASTRUCTURE

The station environment is also significantly improved with refurbished platforms and modernised fittings that blend in with existing architecture. The previously introverted station environment is reversed with the trains visible from the concourse through a glass screen, and the main entrance is opened up with a new landmark canopy identifying the station in its surroundings.

Freight is up again Justifying the money spent recently on route and gauge enhancements, rail freight traffic in the UK has recorded another strong year, according to statistics published by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR).

For the year to April 2012, the amount of rail freight moved, measured in tonne-km, was up 10% on the previous year, and freight lifted, measured in tonnes, was up by 13% over the same period.

Ask the customer Network Rail is under pressure from the ORR to improve the punctuality of long distance services. Higher usage of the WCML, ECML and other routes is exposing weaknesses in the infrastructure that need to be corrected quickly.

To assist in identifying and targeting the problem areas, who better to ask than the person who is experiencing all the problems? To that end, Network Rail has announced the secondment of Virgin’s chief operating officer, Chris Gibb, to the company.

Virgin Trains has agreed to this secondment for the remainder of this year to work with the Network Rail team on improving the performance of the infrastructure on the southern end of the WCML. David Higgins, chief executive, Network Rail, said: “We warmly welcome this collaborative approach by Virgin to work with us and the other train operators to drive up performance on this key part of our network.”

During his secondment, Chris will report to Robin Gisby, Network Rail’s managing director of network operations, and will work closely with Jo Kaye, route managing director of the London North Western Route and her team.

the foundations for the new western ticket hall while excavation is being undertaken by BAM Nuttall / Ferrovial Agroman /Kier JV. Buildings have been demolished from the area bounded by Dean Street, Diadem Court, Great Chapel Street and Oxford Street to make way for the modern looking ticket hall.

Following completion of the works, a major over-site development will be constructed above the Crossrail station.

july 2012 | the rail engineer | 5

news

ROLLING STOCK

INFRASTRUCTURE

Locomotive naming

Founded in 1912, the Institution of Locomotive Engineers merged with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1969, becoming the latter’s Railway Division. This year is therefore the centenary of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers, so members gathered at the National Railway Museum, York, during the recent Railfest to celebrate the occasion.

Hosted by Bill Reeve, current chairman of the Railway Division and proudly wearing the old chain of office of the President of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers, members of the current IMechE and

of the former ILocoE renewed old acquaintances and enjoyed the day.

The culmination of the celebrations was the naming of a GBRf class 92 locomotive “IMechE Railway Division”.

John Smith, Managing Director of GBRf, generously made the locomotive and nameplates available and he was joined at the ceremony

by Bill Reeve and Bridget Eickhoff, who takes over as chairman later in the year. There was also generous support from the museum and from Railfest’s organisers and sponsors.

Following the naming, members were invited up to see the new nameplate for themselves.

Network Rail on the move Network Rail’s new national centre in Milton Keynes is open for business as the first of 3,000 employees are relocated to Buckinghamshire.

The Quadrant:MK, as the new building is called, brings together teams from across the country under one roof, improving the way Network Rail coordinates its activities. Sitting at the centre of Network Rail’s operations, the national centre will provide support to the routes and regions based in places such as York, Glasgow, Cardiff and Birmingham.

Despite the high cost of the building and of relocating staff, in the long run moving so many people to a

single location will actually save Network Rail tens of millions of pounds a year in office rental costs.

The new building sits on the site of the former national hockey stadium, revitalising an underused corner of central Milton Keynes and providing a boost to the local economy.

Many of the 3,000 people moving to the Quadrant:MK are existing employees who are relocating to the area. In addition, Network Rail is recruiting 700 new roles at all levels and across all functions. Half of the successful candidates to date come from Milton Keynes and Northampton postcodes.

6 | the rail engineer | july 2012

feature

Flying High

(Right) Kevin Keegan and Sir David Higgins.

Innovation winner Omnicom Engineering Ltd.

Rail’s annual Partnership Awards N etwork moved out of London again this year, to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, just south of Cambridge. The evening gave Network Rail the opportunity to thank its partners and suppliers for all their hard work over the previous year, and to recognise those projects which had gone particularly well.

Guests were welcomed into an impressive display hall where they were able to have a drink while standing underneath Concorde and next to a Sunderland flying boat. The whole aircraft display was lit by multicoloured lights while a jazz band played next to a large aero engine on a floor stand.

It was all most impressive.

Dinner was served in the conservation hall.

Two large aircraft dominated the sides of the room, while the 500 guests took their seats in the space between them.

Sir David Higgins, Network Rail chief executive, welcomed the company’s guests to the fourth Partnership Awards. As he told his audience: “They offer an opportunity for Network Rail to recognise and reward our business partners and suppliers.

“This has been an exciting and challenging year for the rail industry. I’m proud of what’s been achieved, hope you are too. The future, as we start to plan for CP5, sees rail as having a central role in the nation’s infrastructure which is good news for us all. With your help and dedication we continue to improve Britain’s railway for the future.”

Dinner was then served,

before the hosts for the evening took the stage. BBC Radio 4 sports presenter Gary Richardson regaled diners with some stories from his years as a sports reporter, before he asked England football player and former manager Kevin Keegan to join him. Kevin was “interviewed” about his time in the sport, and was asked for some predictions as to England’s performance in the current European competition.

Then it was time for the awards, which were announced by Gary Richardson and presented by Kevin Keegan. Gary started by congratulating all who had been shortlisted, calling it a “Major achievement in itself”.

Innovation This year Innovation was the first award to be presented, and Neil Thompson, regional director, joined Kevin Keegan to make the presentation. The award was for “Working with Network Rail to create smarter and more efficient ways of working and delivering for the passenger.”

Neil announced that the winner was Omnicom Engineering Ltd with PLPR: OmniVision Plain Line Pattern Recognition Pilot Project. He commented: “Through this company’s innovation, a standardised approach to track inspection has been delivered across the network which has not only reduced costs, but more importantly has improved safety for employees working on the live network.”

The PLPR system, which is called OmniVision®, consists of an image acquisition system called OmniInspector® linked to a track geometry measurement system. The captured data is processed using machine vision technology and a supporting rules database to output assets and potential defects for validation on the inspection train.

The outputs of the system are also used to provide improved understanding of the actual condition and deterioration characteristics of the inspected assets.

The judges also chose to highly commend Futronics Rail Ltd for the Sudbury User Worked Crossing Phase 1 - Train Approach Warning System.

Community Engagement The Community Engagement award recognises companies who have made a clear impact on society and local communities through community or charitable giving programmes. Patrick Hallgate, route managing director, took the stage to announce the winner as Sole Events for the Sole Sports Community Project.

“This project has not only continued for over four years but has progressively expanded from six to over eighty sites, and delivers education programs focusing on the implications of negative and antisocial behaviour around the railway. This is an excellent example of turning negative attitudes and behaviour into positive ones.”

Skanska Civil Engineering was highly commended for its work on Borough Viaduct.

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8 | the rail engineer | july 2012

feature

Sustainable Excellence (Left) - Information Technology winner - CSC and (Right) Heritage winner - ARUP, John McAslan & Partners, and VINCI Construction.

Robin Gisby, managing director of network operations, announced the award for sustainable excellence. “We are becoming increasingly aware of the need for sustainable resources and our effect on the environment. This winner’s approach demonstrates an excellent understanding of the social, environmental and financial dimensions of sustainability and has implemented this clearly.”

The award was presented to ScotRail, which has made remarkable progress towards its green goals during the last year.

The introduction of a diverse range of new initiatives - from gardening and recycling to renewable energy and eco-driving projects has led to the most impressive set of environmental results in the company’s history.

For this category the judges highly commended Costain/Laing O’Rourke for Farringdon Station.

Information Technology

Team Contribution winner - Balfour Beatty Major Civil Engineering.

This award, recognising ways in which some of the problems Network Rail faces have been overcome by the application of Information Technology, was presented by chief information officer Susan Cooklin. She had an interesting announcement to make.

“This was an outstanding year for contributions in this category and as such, the judges have chosen to award two winners for this category.

“Our first winner delivered a large scale complex and challenging project on time and to budget. We were impressed with the approach that was used, not because it was necessarily ground breaking but because it had been well executed, showed strong partnership and also controlled the scope well. Our first winner for this category is CSC with Oracle EBS R12 Upgrade.”

The ERP system is a business critical tool for the whole of Network Rail. By working as partners, Network Rail and CSC accelerated the start of the upgrade, absorbed ongoing changes and minimised risk and cost.

“Our second winner for the Information Technology award exemplifies the need to deliver at pace, and at a low cost. The judges picked out the innovative approach taken - a solution that represents a simple but effective way of explaining the major investment projects to the general public.

Our second winner in this category is Further for Network Rail Interactive Maps.”

Network Rail needs to communicate with a

wide audience about how travel will be disrupted during planned works and also explain the long-term benefits. Further was asked to design and deliver an intuitive and highly visual online tool that highlights the ongoing scope of work. The result is a simple, yet engaging isometric map interface. Users are able to learn what is happening through various levels of interaction, as well as link to separate project pages for additional information.

Heritage The Heritage Award recognises organisations and projects that have made a concerted effort to restore the heritage of Britain’s railway. Jerry Swift, head of community rail, commented that one entry really stood out to the judges for the complexity, quality, craftsmanship and beauty in a single project. He was pleased to make the award to ARUP, John McAslan & Partners and VINCI Construction UK Limited for the King’s Cross Station Western Range Building & Western Concourse.

The Western Range consists mainly of the original 1852 railway offices designed by Lewis Cubitt, as well as some later additions.

Careful assessment, planning and execution by the project team have resulted in a thoughtful and coherent conservation of significant elements, and reinstatement of part of the building which was destroyed in 1941, giving clarity to the architecture of the Western Range building.

The judges also chose to highly commend the Costain/ Laing O’Rourke Joint Venture for Thameslink - N222 Farringdon Station Upgrade.

Investing in people The heart of any business is its people, and this award recognises an organisation that has demonstrated excellence in investing in people; for example in talent, skills, apprenticeship schemes, training, leadership and development. Robbie Burns, regional director for Western and Wales, announced that the award was going to ScotRail for their drive to boost talent, ambition and skills.

Benchmark Training Ltd was highly commended for behavioural change training for front line staff.

Team Contribution Teams are similarly important, so Nick Elliott, regional director, Southern, was next up to present an award which recognises those who have shown how teamwork has made a clear difference to the railway and brought benefits to Network Rail.

Balfour Beatty Major Civil Engineering Ltd was the winner of this prestigious award for the Blackfriars Station and Bridge Reconstruction Scheme. Nick explained that the project has demonstrated outstanding teamwork with all parties involved, delivering a challenging project that successfully resulted in no delays to the service and not a single complaint from customers and stakeholders.

The judges also wanted to highly commend ScotRail for its Inverness Team: Partnerships That Work.

Babcock is a leading player in the UK rail infrastructure market. We provide track renewals, signalling, power, telecommunications, plant, professional services, training and integrated rail system solutions for our customers. We have built a reputation for delivering quality engineering projects by championing innovation and introducing new technologies into the rail industry, underpinned by the highest standards of safety.

Babcock International Group Kintail House 3 Lister Way Hamilton International Park Blantyre G72 0FT United Kingdom Telephone +44 (0)1698 203005 Fax +44 (0)1698 203006 Email rail.enquiries@babcock.co.uk

www.babcock.co.uk/rail

10 | the rail engineer | july 2012

(Top) Best Project Medium winner Babcock and (below) Safety winner Skanska.

Safety Safety is central to the foundations of Network Rail. Nothing would be possible without sound safety practices and the support to implement these.

Gareth Llewellyn, safety and sustainable development director, Network Rail, who spoke at the RailStaff Rail Safety Summit earlier in the year, was on stage for this award.

feature “This award highlights an organisation which has demonstrated that safety should never be taken for granted, one which not only sustains safety in the workplace but which continuously tries to understand safety culture and improve it through commitment, behaviours and by successfully demonstrating the benefits. The judges were particularly impressed by the comprehensive and well thought-out approach to safety on this project.”

The winner was Skanska Civil Engineering and the Borough Viaduct, Thameslink Programme. Borough Viaduct is located in a conservation area in central London and interfaces with the Borough Market, local residents, businesses, Southwark Cathedral, the public highway, the operational railway and LUL infrastructure.

The key to the success of the project was the engagement of the site team to become part of the community with the main priority of public, site and operational railway safety. This engagement extended past the site boundary to the families of the site team to apply the same mindset used in working life for managing potentially harmful situations at home.

Omnicom Engineering Ltd, for OmniVision Plain Line Pattern Recognition Pilot Project, was highly commended in this category.

Best project - small The awards for best project are split into three. Best Project-Small is for projects valued at under £3 million that have benefited Britain’s railway.

Simon Kirby, managing director, investment projects, went up on stage to present all three project awards. The winner for the Best Small Project was May Gurney for Bishop’s Grange Underbridge Reconstruction.

Following a procurement strategy that openly encouraged innovation, the contract was awarded to May Gurney on the basis of a challenging alternative design which reduced costs and simplified future maintenance. The excellent working relationship between all parties enabled works to be completed ahead of schedule. There were no accidents or incidents during the works, and the scheme is believed to be the fastest mainline bridge reconstruction carried out in the LNE area.

Buckingham Group Contracting Ltd was highly commended for the Napier Road MDU project.

Best project - medium Simon Kirby remained on stage for the next award, which was for projects valued between £3 million and £20 million. This one went to a “Ground breaking project which delivered multiple innovative solutions from reducing cost and environmental impact to minimal disruption to passenger flow”. With record breaking output, the winner was Babcock for the Boston to Skegness Track Renewals Campaign.

Emphasising the importance of teamwork, in their entry Babcock credited the support it had received from SES, Hydrex, Balfour Beatty Rail Plant, VolkerRail, DB Schenker and other industry partners.

May Gurney were highly commended in this category for the reconstruction of Arnside Viaduct.

Proud winners of the Network Rail Safety Award for our work on Borough Viaduct, part of the Thameslink programme.

www.skanska.co.uk

WINNER

BISHOPS GRANGE Bridge Underpass ‘’Stobart Rail are extremely proud of the part we played in assisting in the delivery of this time critical scheme. The plaudits May Gurney and Network Rail are receiving for designing, planning and the implementation of this project are well deserved.” Kirk Taylor, Managing Director

Incorporated in 1993 as WA Developments by Andrew Tinkler, now Chief Executive Officer of Stobart Group, Stobart Rail represents the civil engineering and rail-based freight elements of the UK’s leading multimodal transport business.

Stobart Rail is one of the UK's leading names in rail network maintenance, repair and improvement.

The company is active throughout the earthworks, structures, permanent way, drainage and lineside infrastructure sectors of the rail industry and offers a presence throughout the UK.

Stobart Rail holds a Network Rail Principal Contractor's Licence and Rail Plant Operating Company Licence, as well as a comprehensive list of Link-up accreditations.

The Company's wide-ranging expertise, innovative approach, experienced workforce and extensive fleet of plant is also deployed undertaking development projects and delivering improvement works at a number of major Stobart Group facilities.

Stobart Rail operates an award winning training school, ensuring all operatives and staff are qualified to the very highest standards.

BEST PROJE CT

- SMALL (UND

ER £3MILLIO

NETWORK R AIL PARTNERSH IP AWARDS 2012

N)

David Richardson Plant Hire t. 01228 518 150 e. david.richardson@stobartrail.com Kirk Taylor Managing Director t. 01228 882 300 e. kirk.taylor@stobartrail.com Liam Martin Rail Freight Director t. 0151 424 6724 e. liam.martin@stobartrail.com

stobartrail.com

12 | the rail engineer | july 2012

feature represent Network Rail’s plans for improving transportation facilities in London and the UK, improving the travelling experience for millions of people every year.”

Best project - large (Above) Best Project Large winner - Costain, Laing O’Rouke and (right) Supplier of the Year winnerBabcock.

The best large project award is usually awarded to a flagship project. This year has seen several come to fruition, so Simon presented two awards in this category.

The first was for King’s Cross Station Western Range Building & Western Concourse with the award going to Arup, John McAslan + Partners and VINCI Construction UK Limited.

Farringdon Station upgrade, as part of the overall Thameslink project, won the other award for Costain/Laing O’Rourke.

As Simon said, “London’s transportation system has seen huge investment over recent years. In the last year alone we have seen a major transport hub completely modernised and one of London’s key interchange stations spectacularly transformed with improved facilities for passengers and stakeholders. Both projects

Special award There was now a bit of a surprise, as David Higgins came back on stage to present a Special Award to an organisation which the judges felt could not be overlooked.

“This group is a springboard for members to tackle industry issues in a collaborative way, delivering demonstrable results not just for Network Rail but throughout the supply chain. A key forum in leading the industry through change, their greatest achievement to date is the Fair Payment Charter. Ratified by all members, the charter will speed up payment and increase liquidity throughout the supply chain - a positive step in particularly hard economic times.

“This special award is given to all members of the Commercial Directors Forum for the outstanding contribution to driving change in the rail industry.”

Supplier of the year It was now time for the highlight of the evening, the announcement of the Supplier of the Year. As an introduction, David stated: “This company has demonstrated best practice, excellent working practice and a dedication to delivering complex projects to challenging deadlines. They have made significant improvements to track renewals as well as championing other Network Rail initiatives.”

He then announced that the company Network Rail had chosen as its supplier of the year 2012 was Babcock.

After all the applause, the guests gathered to listen to the Joe Thompson Quartet, discuss the events of the evening, and line up to ask Kevin Keegan for an autograph. He was a real trooper, and stayed on for quite some time, chatting and having his photograph taken.

So it was another successful evening. As Sir David Higgins said during the ceremony, all those companies shortlisted were winners and should be proud of what they had achieved. the rail engineer would like to congratulate all who were there, and to look forward to reporting on another year of interesting and successful engineering projects.

Collaboration Perfect partnership

May Gurney is working in collaborative partnership with Network Rail to deliver infrastructure support services across the entire UK rail network. We have an enviable safety record and take pride in our proven track record of improved access, quality of service and safety for everyone who travels by rail.

www.maygurney.co.uk May Gurney is an infrastructure services company. We are committed to helping our clients in the public and regulated sectors deliver sustainable improvements to front-line services across the UK. May Gurney The Street, Norwich, Norfolk, NR14 8SZ T: 01603 727272 F: 01603 727400

july 2012 | the rail engineer | 13

feature

100 Not Out

writer

Clive Kessell Institution of Railway Signal T heEngineers (IRSE) celebrates its centenary in 2012, a remarkable achievement. the rail engineer interviewed Francis How, recently elected as President for the Centenary year, to discuss what had been achieved over the 100 years and the outlook for both the Institution and signalling into the future. The conversation ranged far and wide across issues of concern both to S&T engineers and the wider rail community.

The Institution was formally constituted in 1912 with a Memorandum of Association stating the purpose as: • The advancement for the public benefit of the science and practice of railway signalling (which shall mean the whole of the apparatus, electrical, mechanical or otherwise, methods, regulations and principles whereby the

movement of trains or other traffic is controlled) by the promotion of research, the collection and publication of educational material and the holding of conferences, seminars and meetings.

• The maintenance of high standards of practice and professional care amongst those working within the industry and the promotion of improved safety standards for the protection of the general public.

These two objectives have stood the test of time and are as relevant today as they were then. So, having survived two world wars and a number of signalling crises along the way, just what has the IRSE achieved for the industry and profession?

Developments Not surprisingly, individual members of the IRSE have been at the forefront of many developments. However, as a corporate body, the IRSE has operated mainly in a responsive mode to technology advancement, providing wise counsel on various initiatives that have emerged down the years. There have been exceptions such as the Institution’s leading role in the development of the BR930 series relays.

When asked, the IRSE has given impartial advice on signalling, sometimes in the aftermath of an accident, where its independence and objectivity has been valued. The IRSE’s Signalling Philosophy Review in 2001 is still used as a reference work for matters relating to signalling principles and human factors in the design of signalling systems.

The professional Institution for all those engaged or interested in railway signalling and telecommunications and allied disciplines.

Institution of Railway Signal Engineers »

The principal forum for the exchange of information on all aspects of railway signalling and telecommunications

»

An international organisation with 4,400 members in over fifty countries worldwide

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A range of membership categories from Associate to Fellow allows anyone with an interest to participate

www.irse.org Meetings • Technical Visits • Seminars • Awards • Textbooks • Magazine

14 | the rail engineer | july 2012

To help members and others with their professional development, the IRSE has produced many publications over the years.

Initially, there were a series of “green booklets” on signalling principles and various types of signalling equipment. These have been followed by a number of text books ranging from the Introduction to Basic Signalling through to subjects such as ERTMS, Metro Signalling and Railway Telecommunications. These are probably the best source of information on UK S&T practice, although they also cover European and North American signalling systems.

The IRSE has an International Technical Committee, formed of leading experts in S&T technology, which meets regularly to consider signalling issues that are of concern to railways around the world. Several useful reports have been published by the ITC that can be viewed on the website. The application of ERTMS continues to be one of the main topics for discussion.

Above all else, the IRSE has enabled the meeting of minds on signalling matters across the globe, facilitating knowledge exchange and professional development through meetings, seminars and conferences as well as its publications. In earlier years it was perceived by many younger members as having an almost forbidding formality that gave an impression of the Institution being principally for the elder statesmen of the profession. Happily, over the years and in line with societal changes, this has been replaced by a much more inclusive style with the President and officials being far more approachable.

International dimension The IRSE has always endeavoured to be the “voice of railway signalling and telecommunications” on the world stage.

The present membership is nearly 5,000 almost 50% of which have a non UK address.

Separate sections exist in Australasia, South Africa, Hong Kong, North America, the

feature Netherlands and, more recently, Singapore and Switzerland. Almost every country in the world with a railway of any significance has at least one IRSE member.

Communicating with and serving this widespread community is a challenge, and the IRSE’s governing Council works hard to ensure that its discussions take into account the need and interests of members around the world. Council meetings include participation via conferencing facilities with representatives outside the UK and the monthly publication “IRSE NEWS” regularly contains features and articles on subject matters from members who reside overseas.

Despite these efforts, it is arguable that the IRSE remains too UK orientated and Francis sees a possible solution by adopting a more federated model, allowing individual country sections to have greater autonomy and freedom to operate independently. He is also clear that the IRSE must remain a single worldwide body, the benefits of which are the envy of other professional engineering bodies.

Safety and accidents Over the hundred years, signalling has rarely been an immediate and direct cause of railway accidents. Clapham was perhaps the worst of these and Francis considers that the changes made to signalling practise in the aftermath were absolutely right for the circumstances of the time. However, there has been a stagnation in the further evolution of good practice since then. The reluctance to move on and improve working processes to address matters other than just safety has been to the detriment of the UK railway.

When asked if safety can ever be overstated, the response from Francis was that signal engineers need to devote as much passion and energy to reliability as they do to safety, so to enhance the reputation of the profession as well as creating a better railway.

In a rapidly changing world, signalling control systems have a great deal to offer in areas

such as reducing traction energy consumption, reducing operating costs, increasing network capacity and reducing wear and tear on rolling stock and infrastructure. The need for signal engineers to apply effort to these challenges is paramount, but without ignoring safety.

Other than the few occasions of being a direct cause, signalling (or the lack of it) has been implicated in many other rail accidents, the principal ones being signaller error and signals passed at danger (SPAD). The accident at Quintinshill in 1915 cost 227 lives with another 245 injured and was entirely due to a signalman forgetting a train had been shunted to another line. The use of track circuits was accelerated and signaller reminder devices were introduced to prevent such lapses happening. SPADs have, however, continued to be a major cause of accidents with Harrow (1952) and Lewisham (1957) claiming 112 and 90 lives; more recently Southall (1997) and Ladbroke Grove (1999) cost 7 and 35 lives respectively.

The UK was slower than many other developed nations in introducing driver protection systems. The introduction of Automatic Warning Systems (AWS), forced in after Harrow, took many decades to complete and TPWS (Train Protection and Warning System) has been a relatively recent introduction. Whilst signal engineers were initially divided as to whether introducing TPWS (rather than full Automatic Train Protection) was the right decision, there is now widespread recognition that it has been highly effective and the problem of SPADs is much reduced as a consequence.

Many European countries adopted more sophisticated systems during the twentieth century, but these were of many different designs with resulting problems for cross border operation. The introduction of ERTMS will provide a Europe-wide ATP system but it is evident that it will take decades for its application to become widespread on existing networks.

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Level Crossings are the biggest risk to rail safety.

Level crossings now present the biggest remaining risk to rail safety in terms of fatalities (including pedestrians struck by trains), although Great Britain has the best safety record of the European member states as measured by National Reference Values. Major rail accidents at level crossings are rare, although Lockington (1986) and Ufton Nervet (2004), with multiple fatalities, stand out as particularly serious. It is the road or footpath user who is most at risk.

Most accidents occur at the lightly used minor road, pedestrian or farm crossings where controls are minimal, often a telephone at best. More could be done by using satellite positioning and navigation systems to warn crossing users that they are approaching a crossing and, possibly, whether or not a train is approaching.

Signalling principles and operating rules Differing rules for operating railways have been devised around the world over many years with correspondingly different design requirements. Signalling is therefore, in some ways, a prisoner of history. This leads to the undesirable situation whereby new “standard” systems have to be customised or compromised to fit a particular country’s rules.

ERTMS is a prominent example where the functional and system specifications have had to incorporate options to meet the requirements of individual member states.

There is a chance that achieving the seamless operational use of ERTMS across borders will not be as easy as originally intended.

Can the IRSE help to address this problem?

Francis How thinks it could, but he observes that the IRSE is not as well known in mainland Europe as in the UK, making recognition of a potential contribution to bodies such as the European Railway Agency and the ERTMS Users Group more of a challenge.

Systems issues A characteristic of modern signalling systems is that they will have as much equipment on the train as at the lineside.

How does the IRSE handle this, particularly in the UK where there is a strong separation of ownership between track and train? This can be a sensitive issue as the train owners and operators are responsible for the integrity and operation of rolling stock and everything on it. Understandably, they want

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to take a ‘black box’ approach to train borne ERTMS equipment.

However, signalling is a system and needs to be specified, designed and managed with a systems approach.

Perhaps more significantly for the professional institutions, the interdependencies between signalling systems and other parts of the railway, including rolling stock, are becoming stronger. The growing complexity of software and data dependency also presents increasing challenges. Francis believes that much greater collaboration in the UK with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Railway Division, the Institution of Railway Operators (IRO), the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and INCOSE (International Council n Systems Engineering) is needed.

One step in the right direction could be to establish regular meetings at which the presidents of all institutions which can influence railway technology come together to debate issues of common concern and to seek greater synergy between their annual programmes of papers, meetings and events. Francis detects a certain willingness to do this in some quarters. Apart from the direct value to members, it would be a strong message to the wider rail technical community. Just how this would come about will require careful thought. The Railway Engineers Forum is already established as an informal liaison group between eight main rail orientated institutions. If it were to take a more prominent co-ordinating role, it would need the active support of the present institutions for such a move.

Competence and licensing The Clapham accident (1985 - 35 dead, 500 injured) was a wakeup call to the signalling profession in the UK with much notice being taken by many other rail administrations as well. One of the outcomes was the formation of the IRSE Licensing scheme, which has become the most universally recognised competence standard for anyone working on safety critical signalling equipment. Since the scheme’s introduction in 1990, the categories of licence have been expanded to cover a broader range of both signalling and telecommunications activities, thus recognising the value in having a competence qualification for anyone working in the industry.

Whilst not appreciated by everyone, largely because of perceptions that it is overly bureaucratic and expensive, the IRSE Licensing Scheme continues to be the de-facto standard for S&T competence in the UK. Possession of a licence is valued as an independent qualification to practice in the signalling profession regardless of employer. Other engineering professions view the IRSE Scheme with a degree of envy and admiration.

Will the scheme survive in the longer term? Francis is ambivalent about that but counsels that the value of a scheme with independent UKAS accreditation of competence should not be under-estimated. The National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering (NSARE) may be the catalyst for transitioning the scheme into a wider rail competence management system under the umbrella of NSARE itself, taking the best that licensing has to offer and combining it with other methodologies that would suit all railway engineering professions.

The future for the IRSE and signalling Much of the underpinning technology for railway signalling and communications is changing more rapidly now than it has ever done before. Powerful computing capability, massive data storage and high speed communications present huge opportunities for railway control systems.

Francis foresees a revolution in these areas over the coming years providing the profession is prepared to grasp the opportunity.

With that opportunity will come challenges, including that of system security.

The dependence on systems outside the confines of the railway will continue to grow and it is now technically possible to manage a country’s railway traffic from anywhere in the world, operating over third party networks or the internet. If it were ever true that signalling systems were “closed off” from the outside world, certainly it is no longer so. The use of IP addressing is becoming the norm for many industrial applications and it is beginning to be applied to signalling. The idea of a set of points being called by IP addressing is not fanciful. Understanding and combating both malicious and unintentional disruption will be a challenge and although these could present safety risks, in practice attacks are more likely to be in the form of “denial of service”, causing widespread disruption to the operation of the railway.

In closing the discussion, Francis was asked whether the IRSE would exist in 2112. He would like to think so but says the more important thing is that the correct professional engineering institutions exist to serve the railway engineering and operations arena as a whole, thus providing a platform to support the development of the engineers and technicians that will be needed for the railway of the future. This does not necessarily mean preserving the IRSE, or any other Institution, in exactly the form they are in now.

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directly control DC point machines and NR LEDs, enhancing reliability even further.

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Answers for mobility.

18 | the rail engineer | july 2012

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Mission statement The technology

For classroom training, a 270° system using three 60” screens, provides partial immersion.

Park to Alexandra Palace T he(F2A)Finsbury project, which is being delivered

by Network Rail and its principal contractor Balfour Beatty Rail, will create additional capacity for high speed train services on the East Coast Main Line by upgrading the existing route and removing the current bottleneck in this area. The upgrade involves junction remodelling, renewal of switches and crossings, track slews and all the associated OLE and signalling modifications.

It will also see station improvements at both Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace, including new platforms and modifications and extensions to existing platforms.

The issues The complexity of the area, as well as the need for construction to take place alongside operational lines, prompted Network Rail and Balfour Beatty Rail to

look for innovative solutions which would ensure that the works were delivered safely.

The team’s objective was to reduce the amount of Red Zone working and the requirement for site surveys while improving workforce engagement and providing clearer briefings. To do this, a new technology called Mission Room was selected. Developed by a spin-off from the University of Nottingham, Mission Room is an “immersive” graphic system, so named as it gives the viewer the ability to be immersed, or to stand inside, the location concerned.

In this particular application, the F2A Project installed a customised version of Mission Room to allow staff rapid and safe virtual access to key parts of the four mile length of the project. This was to ensure that everyone had the same mental picture before going out on site.

Mission Room consists of an integrated set of components which can be configured to provide immersive experiences by surrounding viewers with visual and audio, giving them a true understanding of what it is like to be actually on site.

The main elements of the technology include a set of four, custom built, high definition cameras, capable of filming 360° video at 30 frames per second, supported by a software system to create, edit and manage the projects.

For the best three-dimensional experience, the Mission Room Arena is used to play back the video. This is a three-metre cube which users stand inside while surrounded by 360° video projection and multi-channel sound.

For classroom training, a 270° system using three 60” screens provides partial immersion. Both versions of the system are controlled by a wireless handset which allows users to interact and control the immersive experience.

So, for example, once the Mission Cam video system has captured 360° video of trackside operations, this is then edited to select sections and produce key clips which can be experienced inside a Mission Room Arena delivery system. Users can choose which clips to view and can select various overlays of important information placed in its correct spatial context.

The installation As Mission Room was new to the rail sector, it was decided to produce a demonstrator application based on a small part of the project area around Finsbury Park Station. To address the differing objectives of the design team for virtual site surveys, while accommodating large team briefings, it was decided to use both a 360° arena and a 270° three-screen system. A special camera

july 2012 | the rail engineer | 19

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system was also proposed to meet the specific demands of regular on-site filming and this would interface via a special build of the editing software.

Due to space constraints, a 2.5 metre version of the arena cube was constructed, along with a 3 x 60” open system for larger group activities. Special hardware interfacing was integrated to allow the two systems to run simultaneously from the

same processor. The bespoke 360° camera system was also designed and built to interact with a specifically configured editing software.

Physical installation of the Mission Room infrastructure into the project offices took place over three days. Meanwhile, the initial capture of images of the site was undertaken using the new cameras. Project users were trained in using the special software configuration of the editing system.

Project management understood that, for the benefits to be realised, team members would need to adapt their existing methods to incorporate the new technology.

Therefore, plans were drawn up to introduce the system into regular project processes, meetings and communication sessions.

The benefits The F2A Project team has been able to use Mission Room for visual surveys of the site, reducing the need for site surveys and placing people in the proximity of open lines. It has enhanced the project’s ability to plan by aiding understanding of the site in much greater detail, including the capacity to identify potential hazards or complexities.

The immersive 360° Mission Room Arena has been used to take stakeholders, including First Capital Connect and station managers at the stations being enhanced, direct to the sites in the comfort of the project offices and at the click of a button. Details of the works can easily be explained by virtually “walking” visitors through worksites and explaining the changes that are being made. Feedback has been highly positive and has supported a greater buy-in to the works.

The Mission Room has also enhanced communications to the workforce in prepossession briefings and planning meetings.

Further value has been gained by using the immersive 360° environment to raise the awareness of site conditions and, in particular, by being able to emphasise the close proximity to open lines and live OLE (a key safety risk on the project).

The F2A project still has over a year to run.

Based on this early success, project managers are confident that use of the new Mission Room installation will not only fulfil their original objectives of reducing red zone working and site surveys, but they will also gain many other valuable benefits.

(Left and below) Mission Room Arena. The immersive graphic system is evident.

20 | the rail engineer | july 2012

surveying

Getting a GRIP on BIM writer

Mark King Severn Partnership Projects such as the development at West Sussex Hospital have based all new designs on the asbuilt BIM created from scan data.

the UK Government’s W ithannouncement in the summer of 2011, Building Information Modelling (BIM) is quickly becoming the buzz word in infrastructure for 2012.

Paul Morrell, the UK Government’s Chief Construction Officer, publicly told the construction sector to work more collaboratively and to use information technology such as BIM to support the design, construction and long-term operation and maintenance of its built assets. In the Government’s Construction Strategy, published in May 2011, it is stated that BIM is mandatory for all public sector construction projects over £5 million.

What is BIM? To define BIM is very difficult, but it can be thought of as the process of creating, managing and sharing data to support decision making on a facility throughout its lifecycle. Much of this data can be centred on an intelligent 3D CAD model, which acts as a repository or database for all this information. This allows users to easily understand and interact with an almost endless amount of information and to plan and manage construction projects with greater flexibility for scope change and predictability on cost. Most importantly, BIM acts as a focus for ongoing management or maintenance of the assets for their useful life cycle. It is moving towards maintaining and updating one master record, utilised by multidisciplinary teams.

The benefits of storing all this information in a single BIM and sharing it with all stakeholders involved are that informed decisions can be made quickly and shared amongst everyone involved in the project. An example would be that, when an architect alters

the type of window designed into a building, this amendment can be seen by the project engineer working on the same BIM in almost real-time and can be checked for any potential structural clashes. This approved alteration can then be quickly sent to the project team for final approval.

Severn Partnership has invested in the hardware and software to be fully BIM enabled. This entailed reviewing working practices, defining bespoke BIM survey specifications and testing compatibility with programs such as Autodesk Revit and ArchiCAD. With this, an upgrade in IT systems has also been achieved, improving software and hardware packages, to run large and detailed 3D point clouds and Revit files which can be a very computerintensive process.

BIM in Brighton With the cost of new construction rising, companies are turning to existing buildings for large scale refurbishment as a more cost effective alternative. As a survey company, Severn’s ability to laser scan and accurately 3D model existing facilities acts as the first stage in any retro-fit, refurbishment or renovation BIM project. Projects such as the 3T’s development at West Sussex Hospital, Brighton, have based all new designs and engineering work on the as-built BIM created from scan data due to the lack of any existing digital CAD plans.

Other industry sectors, such as sports and leisure, are making use of BIM and

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22 | the rail engineer | july 2012

surveying

Laser scanned Point Cloud data from Crewe station.

Making use of BIM are football stadiums such as Shrewsbury.

modelled more efficiently than 2D survey data. BIM software vendors such as Autodesk and Bentley are realising the growing importance of point cloud data within the process and have begun incorporating point clouds directly within their software. This saw Autodesk launch Revit 2012 with its own point cloud

understand that running costs of structures across the whole lifespan of a building such as football stadiums can be reduced and made safer for the paying public.

A key element of BIM in railway infrastructure is its continuous use in the management and operation of the rail asset, especially with defined targets related to TOC’s timetables. The data requirement for the operation and management of rail should be clearly defined in the BIM project plan so that the necessary information can be gathered during the projectin order to be ready once the construction phase has been completed.

Most BIM formats have been designed for building projects and much of the rail assets are in the form of stations, depots and storage facilities. The concept of BIM for the rail infrastructure track itself is fast developing and, although some argue there are issues that need to be overcome, the large expenditure in rail on projects such as High Speed 2 (HS2) and Crossrail are accelerating the development in BIM making it a “must” for the future.

Point clouds Laser scanner technology and associated software has developed quickly in the twenty-first century, and the rail industry in recent years has seen the benefits. Laser scanned “point cloud” data, collected and processed by surveyors, has become a recognised format for the multi disciplined teams of rail design engineers. One advantage of point cloud data is its ability to be 3D

engine and saw Bentley purchase the popular point cloud software Pointools towards the end of 2011. Using the scan cloud directly within the BIM software enables building information models to be created faster and more accurately without the need for any reference to 2D drawings.

One example is the laser scanned point cloud data from Crewe railway station, turned into a building information model that can be modelled in Autodesk Revit software and populated with all the information important for the continued facilities management of the station asset.

This is an example of a project that has been typically “Scanned to BIM” and will become more common across the rail industry with the development of specifications to suit.

Ultimately BIM will become the preferred vehicle through the various GRIP stages for survey, planning, design, construction, as-built and facilities management in rail.

24 | the rail engineer | july 2012

stations

writer

Graeme

Bickerdike

I

(Right) More light and space will improve the passenger experience on the concourse.

The station began life above ground on 2 March 1874, becoming the Cheshire Lines Committee’s (CLC) city centre terminus and headquarters. From its six platforms, travellers could journey to London, Hull, Harwich or Southport, and reach Manchester Central in 45 minutes. In January 1892, Low Level platforms were added to serve trains arriving from the Wirral via an extended Mersey Tunnel.

The 1960s brought Beeching’s “reshaping” to Liverpool, with many services refocused on Lime Street. Central High Level closed in 1972. But Merseyrail emerged, integrating a

PHOTO: FOUR BY THREE

Capital gains

Upstairs Downstairs

collection of lines into a single system via new tunnels driven under the city. One brought the former CLC route down to Central’s Low Level platforms; a second branched off the Mersey Tunnel, pushing northwards to join the approach lines into the former Liverpool Exchange, creating a through route from Hunts Cross to Southport; a third took Wirral trains in a clockwise loop, serving a single deep-level platform at Central. Although some grander plans have not yet been realised, subsequent expansion has pushed the network’s route-mile count upwards to 75, featuring 67 stations.

Liverpool Central was resurrected in its current configuration on 9 May 1977.

Passenger use climbed rapidly through the Noughties, peaking at 19.6 million in 2008/9.

A major overhaul of the Loop Line stations was pledged late in 2007 with the aim of raising passenger capacity and easing flows.

Coalition cuts put the scheme in jeopardy, but an alternative funding package of £40 million - coming from Network Rail, Merseytravel and the European Rail Development Fund - was secured last September, allowing improvement works to proceed at James Street, Lime Street and, most substantively, at Central.

PHOTO: FOUR BY THREE

It could only be London - the energy, the din, the bustling humanity. One of the city’s red double-deckers plots a course through the traffic; half-a-dozen folk wait in line for it. A thirty-something woman, tanned by Cuprinol, perches on inexplicable heels. Her partner shoulders the spoils of shopping: four assorted bags. She jabs him “Youz gorra cob on?” Others look around. He feigns a smile, clearly unnerved by an Ann Summers purchase. If only the underground was open - less conspicuous down there; anonymity in the shadows. But the station’s shut for refurbishment. They board the bus a perilous operation - and vanish. Show’s over.

It could only be London. Britain’s 37th busiest underground station. 17.9 million passengers in 2010/11 - more than Marble Arch, Warren Street, Tooting Broadway. A £20 million investment transforms another crucial gateway. The price - a four-month shutdown; August will bring the first benefits. It must be London. But the bus was a red herring, exported from the capital to keep people on the move. “Heels” spoke fluent Scouse. It could only be Liverpool Central.

july 2012 | the rail engineer | 25

stations (Right) A London bus serves some of Central’s displaced passengers.

(Inset) Piece by piece, the escalator to the Wirral line platform is taken out.

Access is everything Mustard no longer cuts it as a colour scheme; the Seventies have much to answer for. But the benefits of Central’s project well, two projects actually - will go far beyond aesthetics, bringing light and space to the concourse, more room on the Northern Line platforms and compliance with today’s fire regulations, specifically the Fire Precautions (Sub-surface Railway Stations) England Regulations 2009 which were made in exercise of the powers conferred by article 24 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. You’ll be tested later.

Upstairs, the transformation of the concourse is being delivered by Merseyrail through its contractor Strategic Team Group.

Downstairs, Morgan Sindall is forging ahead with the Network Rail-led scheme on the platforms, escalators and passageways.

Given the physical constraints here, access arrangements are critical and the teams have invested a great deal of time getting them right. All the equipment and materials have to go through the concourse where designated routes have been established to facilitate this. There’s a handover period every evening when the 24-hour Network Rail operation takes temporary ownership of the concourse until the Merseyrail site starts up again the following morning. Matters arising are sorted out at a daily interface meeting.

Around all this trains continue to run, separated from the worksite by Heras fencing which offers passengers a glimpse into the future as they trundle past. Creating a high street environment has allowed the project to benefit from non-rail techniques and specialists, working around-the-clock rather than being restricted to four hours overnight. For most activities, this cuts through the need for Sentinel competencies, lessening both the training burden and the associated costs.

Within the wider railway community, there had been some initial difficulty with the concept that this is no longer a subsurface station with all the attendant regulations. For the next few months it’s a building site. But that mindset has been reshaped through positive communication. The knowledge and experience accrued by Morgan Sindall undertaking similar works on London Underground has also proved invaluable.

No-one had ever seen a worksite being hoovered before!

Continued access to the operational railway clearly remains vital, requiring the briefing and induction of maintenance staff in fair numbers before the site was mobilised. Provision has also been made for the emergency detraining of passengers through the station, something they had chance to practice in the first week following a power failure. All went as it should.

Move along now Closing Central - which serves as the city’s main shopper and commuter gateway - is obviously a big deal, but fears expressed in the run-up have not generally come to fruition. The publicity machine was in overdrive as D-day approached.

Timings were set with landmark events in mind - avoiding the Grand National and reopening to Wirral Line trains in time for this August’s Mathew Street Music Festival.

October sees the Northern Line’s return. At a micro commercial level, Central brings footfall to the adjoining shops so events have been staged to coax people back through their doors. And beyond, the replacement bus service continues to do good business, relieving the pain by feeding travellers seamlessly to alternative services nearby.

One of the works’ key aims is to ease passenger management by creating extra space. During April’s Titanic commemorations, three giant marionettes visited Liverpool attracting crowds in excess of 250,000. This led to an hour-long queue just to get into the station. So the single ticket line is being staggered and walls are coming down to increase the concourse footprint, with staff accommodation moving to a new building on the former High Level station site.

Glazed walls, courtesy of System Glazing, and an ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) roof from Novum Structures will transform the outlook of this formerly dingy place.

Access to the lift is being brought indoors which should encourage more use of it.

There’ll be bigger and better toilet facilities.

Although all this involves everyday fabrication processes, getting cabins and components into the heart of the station was a head-scratcher that could only be overcome with cranes - and big ones at that.

Along with new wayfinder signage, the siting and number of information screens is being addressed to hopefully stifle the urge of some passengers to run for their trains.

The Northern Line platforms will be opened up by removing redundant infrastructure

and relocating equipment. This will enable two plant rooms to be demolished.

Removable seating will offer even more capacity during the city’s bigger events. By resolving the pinch points, the overall affect should be to improve passenger flows.

Ups and downs The 35-year-old escalators have a role to play in this: of the station’s ten, four are being replaced. These will come by road, brought through the concourse, except for the longest - connecting the Northern and Wirral lines - which an RRV is due to deliver.

The existing one disappeared by rail during a 29-hour possession on 17 June.

The escalator’s skeleton has to be jacked off its support plinths onto specially installed trackways and is then winched out in 4 metre sections. Posing the most substantial test is the main motor, weighing 1½ tonnes, which sits under the floor at the bottom. Its replacement is smaller and more efficient, and placed at the top. Size wise, the other new components have been designed to mimic the old, easing the installation process.

But inserted into the works is a small Eurocode spanner. Three level treads are now specified for both entry and egress rather than two previously, meaning that the base dimension of the new escalators is about a metre longer. To minimise the physical implications, existing foundations and connections are being retained at the top whilst the bottom end is to be extended further into the undercroft.

Although this will eat into the space available, with modern escalators there is no longer any need to send manpower underneath; they are maintained entirely from the surface.

stations

PHOTO: FOUR

BY THREE

BY THREE PHOTO: FOUR

26 | the rail engineer | july 2012

All fired up (Above left) Progress is made with removal of the old flooring.

(Above right) Mandolite, sprayed onto Riblath, will provide 60 minutes fire protection at 300°C. (Below) CGI image of the new concourse/ platform.

Cellactite is a ubiquitous product in subsurface stations, comprising corrugated steel sheeting coated in bitumen and reinforced with asbestos fibres. It’s used as a wallmounted barrier that enables penetrating water to be collected and managed. But Cellactite was implicated in the devastating fire that claimed 31 victims at King’s Cross Underground Station in 1987. Today, whenever such stations are refurbished, the requirement is to remove, neutralise or protect it.

Throughout Liverpool Central, all the existing fire doors and floor tiles are being stripped out; so too is the wall cladding although its sub-frame is being retained.

Specialist contractor Firesafe is then fitting Riblath, a keying and anti-cracking mesh, above the Cellactite before applying a 20mm coating of Mandolite to give 60 minutes fire resistance at 300°C. This works in conjunction with other systems (fire blankets or boarding) for cable protection.

Over that is going new powder-coated steel cladding or, alongside passenger areas, vitreous enamel. SAS International is fulfilling this element.

Maintenance possessions are exploited to access the Wirral Line tunnel, providing nightly work periods of about 3½ hours. The Riblath goes up one night; the spraying is done the next - both require scaffolding.

Time wise, considerable discipline is demanded as the Mandolite has to be sprayed and set before the morning’s first train comes through. Fortunately, the existing Northern Line fire protection is relatively new and doesn’t need substantive attention.

More of the same It’s not only Liverpool Central. When the work here is done, the Network Rail team will move on to James Street Station, finishing in April 2013, and thereafter to Lime Street. Both projects involve fire protection measures only, the latter having to close fully as it just hosts a single platform.

Making judgements about a scheme part way through it is fraught with danger. It’s best not to tempt fate. But externally, Liverpool seems not to have missed a beat

despite Central being right at the heart of its transport network.

Proactive communications keep passengers in the loop whilst well-planned bus services get them where they need to be. And internally, the close working relationship developed by the two teams ensures both can do what they need to without unduly impacting on each other, despite the physical constraints. There’s a clear commitment to make things work.

It could only be London - the capital’s Underground system is unique. But the approach adopted by contractors to deliver improvements in its sub-surface stations has wider logistical and budgetary value. In these days of heightened scrutiny, the industry is wise to learn lessons from wherever it can. They’re doing just that at Liverpool Central.

Many thanks to Lucianne Lord of Network Rail, Merseyrail’s Simon Olorenshaw and John Boothman from Morgan Sindall for their technical help with this article.

july 2012 | the rail engineer | 27

stations

Pedestrian simulation in Toronto

Station is Toronto’s busiest U nion transportation hub. Situated in the downtown district, it is the main terminus for the GO regional rail network, a connection into the city’s streetcar and subway networks, plus a gateway into the Downtown Toronto Underground Walkway.

The station currently handles over 30,000 passengers during the morning peak hour and more than 250,000 passengers over a typical business day. These numbers are expected to more than double over the next ten years, including over 70,000 passengers during the peak morning hour in 2021, as GO Transit’s expansion program is put into operation.

Assessing pedestrian demand Due to the predicted increase in passenger numbers at what is already a very busy location, the historic station building requires refurbishing. Its passenger handling capacity also needs expanding, and the surrounding streets must be improved to make them safer and better for both

pedestrians and cyclists. The City of Toronto’s master plan was adopted in 2004 and Arup was awarded the contract to assess the pedestrian flows through Union Station during refurbishment and in the predicted conditions of 2021, thus informing and supporting the planning and design of the revised station.

The first phase was to survey the peak pedestrian conditions in and around the Union Station and use these to create quantitative forecasts for passenger flows both during renovation and in 2021. This analysis focused on the peak hour and peak 15 minute pedestrian volumes during the morning and afternoon peaks, plus special events at the Air Canada and Roger’s Centres. The study revealed a number of opportunities and constraints for the refurbishment project. It also gathered data for the second phase, which was for detailed pedestrian simulation of the station to check pedestrian flows and discover the best locations of retail, commercial and transitrelated facilities.

writers

Erin Morrow & Peter Debney Senior Consultant at Arup & Senior Consultant at Oasys Software Ltd

Arup’s work was required to answer four fundamental questions: 1. How would the proposed Concept Plan support or otherwise impact pedestrian flows?

2. Was the Union Station Concept Plan appropriate from a pedestrian flow perspective?

3. What are the internal and external congestion points, and what conditions may be causing congestion?

4. Where are areas of flexibility that provide opportunities for other precinct and station revitalisation initiatives?

This planning study involved the creation of agent-based simulation models of the station and surrounding streets. To ensure that the model results were accurate, the current conditions in the station were modelled using the survey information from the first phase, including minute by minute breakdown of where the pedestrians enter the study area (origin) and to what destinations they were going to. Each agent was assigned a train platform either as an origin or destination, with distribution based on the train schedule. The resultant

(Above) Detailed rendering of MassMotion Simulation results during the evening peak period.

(Left) Main concourse of Toronto Station.

28 | the rail engineer | july 2012

pedestrian model was then calibrated against actual flows within the station and adjusted so that the analysis was consistent with observations.

This model was then modified to analyse the 2021 predicted passenger flows and to also check each stage of the refurbishment to ensure that the station would continue to function while the rebuilding work closed off parts of the concourses.

MassMotion

(Below) Overview of the simulation environment looking Northeast towards Toronto’s Central Business District.

(Below) Overview of the major components of the Union Station environment and how they fit together.

Having previously tried the existing pedestrian modelling packages on the market and found that they were insufficient for its purposes, Arup created its own program, MassMotion, to address the shortcomings of the available programs.

MassMotion is based on intelligent agents, a full 3D model of the environment, and John Fruin’s industry standard planning and design guidelines for pedestrian behaviour.

Agent navigation The principal differentiator between MassMotion and other pedestrian simulation tools is that it actually models pedestrian behaviour rather than testing a

stations user’s preconceptions about pedestrian behaviour: it is non-deterministic and emergent. This means that the individual agents in the simulation make their own choices about appropriate actions based on the dynamics of their environment and their action’s effect on other agents.

For example, if a room has doors on all four sides, other pedestrian simulation tools require the user to input what percentage of the room’s population will use each door. In a MassMotion simulation each agent decides which door to use based on what it knows about the distance to its goal and how long the queue is for each door.

There are two noteworthy advantages to such a system: 1. A MassMotion agent only needs to be assigned an origin and a destination: it then navigates its own way through the environment without requiring the user to input percentage splits at all potential

branching points and for all sub groups within a simulated environment. This means that the more complex an environment becomes, the quicker it is to set up or modify a MassMotion model in comparison to other programs.

2. Unlike other tools, MassMotion actually predicts how rational pedestrians will navigate through an environment and how they will respond dynamically to changing conditions within the simulation: for example agents will change their route if congestion becomes too great.

Model creation The 3D MassMotion environments are created using CAD tools such as AutoCAD or SketchUp and are based on architectural drawings or imported direct from BIM models. The information contained in the drawings is used to create a number of

polygons representing the walkable areas of the environment, plus solids representing obstacles within those environments. The walkable areas are further broken down into circulation spaces such as floors, pavements, and platforms, and into connection elements such as doors, stairs, escalators, etc.

The arrangement of circulation areas and connection elements forms an implicit network, defined by geometric proximity, which defines possible route permutations for the simulation agents to navigate. For the Union Station environment, the platforms and station were modelled in detail, while the network of adjacent streets and walkways were modelled within the same file in a more abstract fashion.

Results After extensive simulation of the proposed concept plan, Arup concluded that its proposed configuration would support the estimated pedestrian volumes for 2021. Also, while there will be some areas that experience high densities of commuters during the morning peak 15 minutes, the traffic should continue to flow. Likewise the external pedestrian routes were providing sufficient capacity with just a few exceptions. The model also revealed some underutilised areas within the station. By adjusting stair, retail and service locations, the team developed layout modifications to improve the balance of flows as well as the user experience.

Tim Laspa of Toronto City planning department spoke highly of the project.

“The pedestrian planning initiatives at Union Station have broken new ground for the way the city of Toronto will plan for pedestrian activities in the future. From a modelling and simulation perspective, the Phase 2 study was an exceptional test of the MassMotion toolset that Arup has developed. The very high volumes of pedestrians being simulated in combination with the complex layout of the station facility demonstrated the usefulness of an agent-based approach to pedestrian simulation and analysis.”

Arup has continued to develop MassMotion by improving the software based on lessons learned from simulation work done for the City of Toronto at Union Station, with improved model creation tools, BIM interfaces, and additional functions such as evacuation events for fire engineering.

MassMotion is now commercially available. w www.oasys-software.com/massmotion

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30 | the rail engineer | july 2012

stations

Farringdon Platform extensions writer

Chris Parker the last few years of employment with I nNetwork Rail, I spent a large proportion of my time dealing with standards for track engineering. In addition to dealing with the company’s own track standards and working with RSSB and other stakeholders on Railway Group Standards, the work included representation of the company, and on occasion the UK, at relevant European standards meetings.

One of the regular challenges from standards users was the suggestion that standards, whether company, Railway Group or international, restricted innovation and commercial activity to an unacceptable degree. The answer to such views was the same then as it is now. Standards are not there to be an obstruction to anything. Their purpose is to offer guidance about how best to achieve the desired outcomes.

Applied properly, standards assist people to avoid past mistakes and the traps inherent in conducting complex operations.

Standards are intended to help people and organisations benefit from collective wisdom and experience.

Non-compliance To misquote the old saying, standards are there for the guidance of wise men and the mindless obedience of fools. Both Network Rail and RSSB have established ways for dealing with non-standard situations.

When it is clearly impossible or impracticable to comply with a standard, then the way to deal with a commercially driven standard is usually within the gift of the company or standard owner. The commercial risks of the possible options are assessed, and the most acceptable alternative selected. When the issue is a safety matter, the way to proceed is less obvious but must still be based upon the risks involved. RSSB will agree derogations or temporary non-compliances (TNCs) against standards where it is possible to agree an alternative approach to that specified but which still delivers a safety level equivalent to ordinary compliance.

Companies such as Network Rail will employ a similar process.

The Group Standard derogation/TNC process is administered on behalf of the industry by RSSB standards committees.

These are cross-industry bodies that reflect the broad interests of all stakeholders. Each committee specialises in a particular area, such as infrastructure or rolling stock.

Because the circumstances that lead to the need for a TNC or derogation are usually driven by unique or unusual factors, they are usually dealt with individually on a case-bycase basis. Whilst this may seem bureaucratic to some, in fact, if the procedures are managed and used correctly, it makes for a very flexible system. It will allow even the most arcane set of circumstances to be dealt with so as to deliver an economic, practical and safe outcome.

stations

july 2012 | the rail engineer | 31

32 | the rail engineer | july 2012

Of course, if it becomes clear that a particular set of circumstances is not as unusual as originally thought, resulting in a requirement for an excessive number of TNCs or derogations, that does call the standard concerned into question. In such cases the standard owner should doubtless review the document and revise it appropriately.

The essential approach to compiling standards and administering the TNC and derogation processes is a risk-based one. For Group Standards the major consideration is safety risk, of course, but even here there is a requirement to consider economic factors too. For company standards, commercial or financial risks will be considered a bigger factor, whilst safety still remains a top priority. Thus a Group Standard might lay down generic requirements for a track fastening to ensure that they are safe while the company standard might specify specific fastening types. Other types might comply with the Group Standard requirements but be rejected by the company on the basis of commercial considerations such as first cost or whole life cost.

Farringdon Station.

(Above) South end of platform 3 looking north.

(Right) Curve at south end of platform 4 looking north.

stations

Farringdon for example Perhaps that still sounds complicated, but in fact it works. RSSB has many examples of projects which have, by agreement, successfully implemented solutions that do not comply with the relevant standard. One such example is the recently completed project to extend the platforms at Farringdon Station in central London.

The object was, as regular readers of the rail engineer will know, to provide for 12 car trains on the Thameslink route as opposed to the original 8 car capability. Farringdon is an old station in a cramped location in a cutting. It is Grade 2 listed, which makes matters more interesting, and finally and completing the list of challenges nicely, it is used by both mainline trains and those of London Underground (LUL).

As Network Rail senior project engineer Paul Mitchison explained, the consequence of all these factors was that it was just not practicable to construct the new station in total compliance with either Railway Group Standards or LUL’s somewhat different standards.

A critical question affected by standards was the choice of location for the platform extensions. At the north end of the station is one of the steepest gradients on a British mainline railway, 1 in 29. To the south there is a curve with a radius down to 200 metres.

Normally the Railway Group Standard would require that a station site would be selected to avoid both these features. This was not

practicable in this case and so it was decided to assess the risks of each problem, both to aid the decision about whether to extend to the north or to the south, and to allow a derogation from the standard to be successfully applied for, for the chosen solution.

By involving the standards committees from the outset, and communicating closely with them throughout the process, the project was able to obtain the required derogation for the construction of the platform extension on the curved site at the south end of the station. It was demonstrated that the infrastructure standard requirements for platform gauge could be met even on the tightest curvature present. Unfortunately, the operational standard requirement outlining the stepping distance from train running board to platform edge could not quite be met.

However, it was successfully argued that, as the non-compliance was small, this was a much smaller risk than that of having platforms on a 1 in 29 gradient. Additionally, it was shown that the situation would be improved in future. The new Class 700 rolling stock for Thameslink was to have lower running boards than the Class 319 and 377 units to be replaced, meaning that their stepping distance was going to be much improved and possibly even compliant with the standard. The problem was thus going to reduce in severity significantly as the new units came into service.

july 2012 | the rail engineer | 33

stations Close columns Another potential non-compliance issue concerned the columns supporting the train shed roof. In certain areas of the platforms it was not feasible to maintain a 4.5 metre clearance between these and the nearest rail. This meant that the Railway Group Standard required hefty collision protection structures around the columns; impractical and excessively costly to provide in the circumstances.

Discussion with the standards committees led to derogations, on the basis that the platform structures themselves gave adequate collision protection to the columns for the prevailing situation. The fact that trains would be passing at relatively low speed made it easier to reach agreement on this.

A third question arose over the matter of minimum headroom in public areas of the station. The Railway Group Standard headroom requirement was impracticable to achieve in certain areas of platforms 3 & 4.

The Grade 2 listing was obviously one constraint, and additionally the Transport and Works Act enabling the works made no provision for the alterations needed to increase the headroom. The time and cost implications of obtaining the necessary consents and carrying out the works were prohibitive by anybody’s measure.

Again, a derogation was granted, this time on the basis of the installation of “flow-by” structures at relevant points, to direct pedestrians around the areas of low headroom. Given that modelling had shown

that the pedestrian flow capacity of the areas concerned would remain adequate with these structures in place, the derogation was granted.

Quite a number of other civil and track engineering standards issues were successfully managed in analogous ways by the project, RSSB and LUL, as were others affecting S&T and M&E engineering.

Despite the complexity of the project, the shared use of the station and the Grade 2 listing, all of the standards issues were successfully resolved, and in November 2011 the final “sign-off” was agreed by both RSSB and LUL. The extended station was opened for public use on time in December 2011.

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writer

Grahame Taylor “

and only then do we cut the T hen, wire....” Words of caution - deliberately

spoken. The wire in question is the overhead line wire, the cutting of which completely stops the running of electric trains and indeed most trains. It’s not like a piece of rail.

You can’t change your mind, bar in a closure rail and put on a couple of clamps to get the traffic moving again. No, you have to be really sure before you “cut the wire”.

This is, of course, common to any overhead line operation. It’s a decision that’s been made ever since the system was invented. But when you’re dealing with the upgrade of the overhead line system from Liverpool Street out to Chelmsford with traffic coming in (and out) from all over Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, cutting the wire can prompt just that little bit of extra nervousness.

Historical background

stations structural clearances where 6.25kv was used - and the route out to Shenfield was one of them. By the mid 1970s it was found that 25kv could be suitable even in locations with low clearances and so the whole route was converted to 25kv by 1980.

But underlying all of the present electrification setup in this densely used part of the railway network is kit that goes back 70 years.

Network Rail is now replacing everything with a modern equivalent - an auto tension system - right the way from Liverpool Street all the way through to Chelmsford in a project that originally kicked off back in 2007.

Understandably, living with a heritage system has had its issues. A lot of the components are very hard to come by. Some have to be manufactured specially and the system is complex and heavy to work with. It has many problematic and complex failure modes so that, because of the way that the wires interlink with each other, if there’s a dewirement on one road there’s a strong potential of other roads being taken down as well. The system that is being put in simplifies everything significantly.

So, why the upgrade? The suburban network out of Liverpool Street has always seen an intense service and so was an early candidate for electrification. The LNER started to electrify the Shenfield to Liverpool Street line during the 1930s but the war delayed completion until 1949. The route was extended to Chelmsford in 1956.

Originally the system used the thenstandard 1500V DC. In the mid 1950s, the British Railways Modernisation Plan pressed for 25kv AC, but there were areas with low

New wires for old

stations

july 2012 | the rail engineer | 35

Logistic problems Clive Woods, Network Rail’s project manager for the upgrade, explains: “What we’re doing at the moment is replacing about 40% of the structures to take the new equipment. It’s quite a substantially different design.

“We’re using what we can where it is suitable - where it’s not taking particularly high forces. But on the areas where forces are high we’re using the new Autotension equipment - which is fundamentally a balance weight system.”

The system is known as the “Great Eastern Furrer and Frey”, named after Electrification specialist Furrer and Frey which is predominantly the designer and also the manufacturer of most of the equipment.

There are huge logistic problems. Everything is done on a piecemeal basis. “It’s not like a green field site where you can go in, put your structures in, wire it.... it’s very much more complex.”

All the new equipment has to be installed in and around the existing which has to remain in operation until switchover.

“It’s one of the big problems we have in delivering this work because we’re here in this very busy route and we have to put the service back into operation when the first trains start running usually at 04.00 on a Monday morning.”

New foundations The new equipment is lighter - it’s physically smaller than the existing - and as a result in some areas there can be improvements where signal sighting has been an issue.

None of the old foundations are being used. There are new foundations for each new structure. Some are concrete slabs - side bearing foundations. Most supports are tubular piles which are either vibrated in or driven. It all depends on the area and on the soil conditions. The vast majority go in without any issues at all but, inevitably, in some of the areas involved - especially those in cuttings where the space is extremely limited and in areas with complex soil conditions - there are occasional problems with pile refusals.

Screw piles have been used and mostly they’ve been very successful, but occasionally they’ve led to problems because they have a higher tendency to refuse. If there are obstructions in the soil

(Above) Wiring at Ingatestone Station.

(Below) Rewiring at Bethnall Green.

36 | the rail engineer | july 2012

which maybe the ground investigation survey hasn’t picked up - even tree roots the piling operation can stall.

Being an area with a very long history of railway development it’s always wise to take out trial holes where it is anticipated that ‘someone has been there before’.

New kit

(Right) Rewiring at Bethnall Green.

(Below) Section work from Shenfield to Clelmsford.

All the contact wire will be brand new. The old wire, catenaries and structures all go off to scrap. Bases are broken out as well, down to about a metre below ground level except where a structure base is acting usefully as part of another structure!

The scheme doesn’t involve replacing any feeds from the national grid to the transformers themselves, but all the feeds are being replaced where they go from transformers to the overhead line. In addition, all switching arrangements are being upgraded.

Signalling is not affected although signal sighting is part of the interdisciplinary checks undertaken in the design process.

But how about hidden major structures?

“We’re free now, but prior to getting out to the London side of Stratford station we did have to be aware of the London Underground system beneath - especially with piling! We were communicating with them just about all the time in this area. And it was the same with the Docklands Light Railway. We were adjacent to their infrastructure for much of the way going out to Stratford.”

State of play?

By last Christmas, Marylands and Forest Gate had been completed, as had the section from Shenfield to about three miles country-side of Chelmsford. The last bit of major work prior to the Olympics was the wiring of Ingatestone station.

stations The tracks between Ingatestone through to Chelmsford and in Chelmsford itself will be done after the Olympic embargo through to the end of the calendar year.

Historically there has been one principal major contractor - Carillion. Their work has come to an end. What Network Rail has been doing is engaging with the market about different alliancing models that would be mutually acceptable. They are going back out to the market, probably at the beginning of the Olympic embargo, to start bringing on partners for future works.

The go-live point Clive, who has a background in the Nuclear Industry where he was involved in the decommissioning of the Magnox reactors, acknowledges that this project has been a huge logistical challenge. “There is a very robust planning system that starts way, way back in the project. As the go-live point gets closer there are a series of go/no-go points so that unless we are absolutely sure we have all the resources available then, and only then, do we cut the wire.”

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38 | the rail engineer | july 2012

stations

writer

Paul Curtis

A look into the future annual FOSD conference T hehadthird a new venue for 2012, and a new title. Future of Station Design became Future of Sustainable Design, which allowed transport hubs and gateways to be included, and the event took place at London’s ExCeL on 25 May. Mike Goggin, formerly director of stations and customer service for Network Rail and now with Steer Davies Gleave, opened the day’s proceedings by commenting how recent improvements to Kings Cross, Paddington and the Gatwick Express

service welcomed visitors to Britain.

The first formal speaker was David Biggs, Network Rail’s head of property, who outlined the challenge of creating stations that invited and inspired people to use them. He remarked that many Network Rail stations are now out-performing the high street in terms of retail sales, and that property values around stations had recently jumped by up to 30% as a result.

One example that David gave was the Junction Health Centre in the former railway arches at Clapham Junction. By asking the community what they wanted, and working with the local authority, Network Rail have delivered a valuable and useful local amenity.

Hubs and orbitals Huw Thomas of Foster & Partners used the widened scope of this year’s conference to look at transport hubs and facilities in general. In a wellreceived presentation, Huw talked about how Heathrow Airport has defined Global Transport for 70 years. It is still the third busiest airport in the world, having handled 69 million passengers last year, but is currently operating at 98% of its capacity.

He also addressed the HS2 project.

HS2 is not needed, nor required, to get Birmingham businessmen to London 10 minutes quicker, but it is essential to free up vital capacity that the West Coast Main Line needs and will offer a direct link with HS1 and into Europe.

During construction, by dropping HS2 down a metre into the ground, there will be the opportunity to build new power lines, water lines and telecommunications into the embankments at the same time, building a new intelligent infrastructure network without having to dig up more roads.

Looking further forward, building a new rail orbital around London could take 4,000 lorries a day off the M25 and free up the blockages caused by everything having to go in and out of

London. The Thames Barrier will need upgrading by 2035 and the energy created naturally by the River Thames could help to power a new tunnel crossing and a third global hub airport on the Thames estuary.

The third scheduled speaker was to have been Norman Baker MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport. He wasn’t able to attend in person, but he did send a prerecorded message. In it, he commented on the £150 million that has been invested in the National Station Improvement Programme, the £370 million Access for All scheme that has seen over 1,000 stations improved, and a project close to his heart, the £15 million cycle improvement programme.

City centres After a short break, the second session of the day focussed on City Centre Hubs. Graham Tomlinson and Paul McGlone launched their Vandalism Control Organisation. This is a networking website for public sector organisations, which can use it to access information on suppliers of antivandalism products and solutions.

The design of Crossrail stations came next, with Stuart Croucher describing how they are intended to enhance the urban area within which they are located. He used the new Farringdon station as an example, describing how subtle design changes would have a large effect on the thousands of passengers who will be using the station once it has 140 trains an hour running through it.

A panel session on the topics covered so far followed, and discussions took place on the subject of controlling graffiti and vandalism, which cost the London Boroughs £950 million a year.

Delegates also considered that involving local residents in a design encourages them to take ownership of the finished project and see it as part of their community.

july 2012 | the rail engineer | 39

stations Future possibilities After lunch, Tony Lacy of ATOS looked into the future and the next level of infrastructure investment. In his current role, Tony is looking at his company’s approach to the global transportation market and how it is looking at rebalancing the transport equation by use of integrated sustainable networks.

Airports were the next topic, covered by Gatwick Airport CEO, Stewart Wingate.

Gatwick has the world’s busiest single use runway with up to 53 planes an hour and up to 900 planes in any one day. Employing some 25,000 people, it contributes £26 billion to the UK economy. Stewart talked about investments in the new North Terminal’s £80m extension and the £45m nightly resurfacing of the runway. He was naturally positive about global infrastructure investment funds wanting to invest in the UK, but said that the critical rail links from airport to city had to have express services with dedicated rolling stock.

The community The last topic to be covered at FOSD 2012 was the Community and Rural Hubs. Geoff Hobbs of Transport for London started this one off by commenting that Londoners rely on railways six times more than the rest of the UK. With responsibility for 300 overground and 250 underground stations, Geoff described how 50 stations had been upgraded as part of the Access for All programme and 50 stations had received help from the National Station Improvement

Programme. In addition, over 2,500 cycle parking spaces had been installed, 70 stations had received deep cleans, 44 upgrades had been applied to the LOROL stations and seven new stations had been created.

Finally, the conference was introduced to modular stations. Feras Alshaker of Southern and Paul Beaty-Pownall of BPR Architects continued the theme of consulting with the community and asking them what they wanted from a station. It isn’t a new concept, after all Adrian Shooter of Chiltern Railways said “Railways are a simple business, ask the customer what they want and need and give it them”.

A short panel session was followed by a summary of the day given by Mike Goggin.

Then Gavin McMurray of Merson Signs joined Jon Bentley from TV’s Gadget Show to present the FOSD Awards for Innovation in Design (Foster & Partners), Innovation in Engineering (First Capital Connect) and

Gavin McMurray of Merson Signs presenting one of the FOSD Awards to Elaine Stewart of Atos with Jon Bentley of television’s The Gadget Show.

Innovation in Hub Retail (Marks and Spencer). Finally, an award for Outstanding Achievement in Station Design and Construction was presented to Mike Goggin on behalf of Steer Davies Gleave.

Then it was time for networking on the balcony overlooking Canary Wharf, and for reflection on the presentations given during the day.

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40 | the rail engineer | july 2012

feature

Delivering collaboration writer

Paul Curtis Railway Museum in York T hewasNational the venue for the second annual railway conference organised by Westermo Data Communications. This year’s theme was very topical - “Delivering Projects Through Partnerships”.

Opening the day, Westermo’s Phil Mounter outlined how both the McNulty report on Delivering a Better Value Railway, and the creation of a British Standard strategic framework for collaborative working, enabling organisations to partner more effectively, had led Westermo to look at its own collaboration and partnerships.

However, Phil emphasised that BS11000 is not a “one size fits all” badge of accreditation and there are many things a company needs to consider beforehand. For example, who is there in the marketplace or supply chain to collaborate with? Every company needs to fully understand its own area of expertise and what it can bring to a collaboration before proceeding.

Westermo managing director Alan Bollard introduced the audience to his company, and the range of robust data communication devices that it manufactures. Founded in Sweden in 1975, in 2011 it had a worldwide turnover of €36 million and invested €5 million in research and development, an increase of 20% over three years.

Development Andy Harrison, managing director of consultants DB&CS, addressed delegates on BS11000 - An Introduction To Suppliers. He outlined the history of BS11000 and how it had initially been developed by Partnership Sourcing Ltd, a joint initiative of the department of Trade and Industry and the CBI. Now renamed the Institute for Collaborative Working, its role is to help organisations, large and small, in both the public and private sectors, to build and develop effective competitive business relationships based upon a collaborative approach.

The next speaker gave some practical examples of collaborative working in action. Richard Graham is head of strategic

development at Balfour Beatty Rail. His presentation, entitled Supplier Integration with Collaborative Frameworks, covered four subjects - a look at collaborative engagement and its importance, a review of Balfour Beatty’s progress, and his thoughts on issues that the supply chain will face.

As a case study, Richard looked at the Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace capacity improvement works being carried out for Network Rail, along with the Crossrail south east section from Plumstead to Abbey Wood.

The project includes a new Crossrail terminus station, two new platforms and a two mile stretch of track with improvements to five bridges and two new overhead electrified lines. Balfour Beatty was asked to apply a collaborative approach from the start. This resulted in developing a GRIP 4 preliminary design within 8 months, leading to a joint construction methodology and a validated fixed price contract of around £35 million.

Network Rail’s experience That work was conducted for Network Rail.

So it next fell to Neill Carruthers, head of contracting strategy for Network Rail, to explain what collaborative working means to him. His opening statement, “The whole industry’s costs are too high and the whole industry needs to change”, set the tone for his presentation.

Network Rail is working on a partnering strategy which drives down unit costs. This will be achieved by improving safe construction methods through aligning risk management and integration and by introducing innovative solutions at an earlier stage. Scope variations will be reduced by aligning the client, constructor and designer at an earlier stage and by reducing duplication in resources.

The first five projects for which Network Rail will be using BS11000 as a strategic framework have a combined value of approximately £1 billion. They are

july 2012 | the rail engineer | 41

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Co-operation or collaboration?

Westermo’s Phil Mounter returned to the podium after lunch. He compared the normal working practice of cooperating with suppliers to the new concept of collaborating with them, which requires a cultural change

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Further projects are now being identified for potential expansion into the BS11000 portfolio. These include the London Bridge area partnering programme, Crossrail/Reading project, the Stafford area improvement project and other ECML and signalling schemes which would take the total of BS11000 projects to nearer £3 billion.

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• Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace capacity project • Hitchin grade separation • Reading Station (IMP 1 & 2 Packages) • Crossrail South East section project • Edinburgh to Glasgow improvement programme.

throughout the company. As an example, he mentioned a trial project with Network Rail to replace old analogue voice recorders with digital ones. This project is at a very early stage but, by early engagement, companies are able to bring ideas to the table that previously wouldn’t have been considered.

Another example of collaborative working came from Kevin Stringer of Firstco. The longstanding project to cool London Underground’s tube network is now also being undertaken collaboratively. Three different strategies are being adopted: introducing airflow through shafts into tunnels using ventilation fans, station forced air cooling using Platform Air Handling Units (PAHUs), and small station fan cooling systems.

Mid Tunnel Ventilation Shafts (MTVs) operate by drawing air through the tunnel to maintain airflow and by pushing air into the tunnel.

Firstco is also installing PAHUs at Oxford Circus and Green Park which work off chilled water. That water is supplied to the units by a chilled water loop. Collaborative working between all concerned is achieving the desired results.

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42 | the rail engineer | july 2012

feature

Platform announcements Paul Dobbins, chief technical officer with telent, stayed on the London Underground theme. The company’s relationship with London Underground goes back to the Docklands Light Railway in 1980 and the Northern and Jubilee contract in the mid 1990s.

In 2005, telent won the Tube Lines station upgrade contact which involved 100 Jubilee, Northern & Piccadilly Line stations. The 13 year contract encouraged innovation and this continued into the most recent contract with LU to maintain communications at the remaining stations, including voice announcement systems.

All stations have a Station Management System that allows selection of pre-recorded announcements and has the ability to make live recordings from the platform. In 2010, senior client London Underground started a series of engineer for London efficiency work streams to improve station Underground operations which specifically includes giving Strategy and Service the correct information to passengers. and Chris Hooper the Working closely with London Underground, lead system engineer telent has developed a system that for telent Rail, who automatically makes service between them have announcements based on information made this entered at the National Operations Centre programme work.

(NOC).

The technical director of Westermo, Ray As part of the collaboration, London Lock, rounded off the day by looking at how Underground invited telent to participate in strategic framework partnerships work for team meetings, while LU staff have visited third and fourth tier suppliers. Westermo has telent’s creative studios. Both parties are built up both their onboard and trackside enthusiastic that this is having beneficial product portfolios by working with results. Millions of London Underground suppliers, while collaboration with commuters will soon hear co-ordinated customers such as Bombardier has resulted announcements on a daily basis and much in the Westermo IP train concept. This is a of the credit for this goes to Paul Crook, complete 04/04/2012 ethernet switch and routing Page 1 Eurotransport_halfpage-advert:Eurotransport_halfpage-advert 13:56

solution that provides a robust network infrastructure for creating intelligent trains.

Delegates found the day useful as an introduction to collaborative working. A survey after the event identified that 38% of all attendees had not heard of BS11000 beforehand, but 86% said they would be looking seriously at it following this event.

Westermo’s conference seems to have had the desired result.

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july 2012 | the rail engineer | 43

feature

Wheels are turning writer

Stuart Marsh PHOTO: SIEMENS MOBILITY

id you hear about the Christmas Eve train crash near Oxford? It occurred at Shipton-on-Cherwell to be exact. Thirty four people died and sixty nine were injured. You didn’t? Well, you do have an excuse, as it happened in 1874. It was the worst disaster to befall the Great Western Railway and the cause was a broken tyre on the leading carriage. It initiated reforms that were pivotal in the advancement of railway safety, particularly in wheelset design.

This was how Railway Consultant Adrian Shooter commenced his keynote address at a seminar held on 30 May at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London. Entitled “Axles, Wheelsets and Bearings - Balancing Safety, Performance and Cost” the IMechE event hosted presentations from eminent engineers, consultants and industry experts.

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So are we safe?

It has been 16 years since a defective wheelset caused a major accident in the UK. At Rickerscote near Stafford on 8 March 1996 a freight train was derailed because of a broken axle on a tank wagon. A postal train

hauled by a Class 86 locomotive ran into it. A mail sorter was killed and 22 others were injured, including the driver of the locomotive, which came to rest against the end wall of a house.

Wheelsets are some of the most expensive consumables on rail vehicles. They account for a significant proportion of an operator’s maintenance budget and are critical to vehicle availability. They can also be key components in causing damage to infrastructure. The rail industry is under great pressure to reduce costs and increase its value to customers, but this must be balanced against operational performance and above all, safety.

It is estimated that there are in excess of 144,000 wheelsets in use in the UK and they must all be

maintained, inspected and tested to exacting standards. As Adrian Shooter put it, “We must be assiduous in making sure that the right standards are adhered to.

Procurement is driven by cost, but only by strict adherence to standards can it be ensured that we can all go about our business safely.”

Safety management So what is the risk to be managed? Cliff Cork, head of infrastructure and rolling stock at the RSSB, posed this question and went on to discuss the applicable Standards framework and the ways in which European legislation impacts upon it. Risk and harm are measured in terms of fatalities and weighted injuries (FWI). The short answer to the above question is that the risk attributable to rolling stock is 2.2 FWI/year (out of a total of 140.9 FWI/year). Of this, axle and bearing risk accounts for 0.64 FWI/year and wheels 0.066 FWI/year.

In other words, the risk from wheelsets can be calculated to cause 13 deaths in 100 years. This amounts to 6% of rolling stock risk.

Cliff said: “We would all agree that the low level of risk that such a high population of wheelsets impose is due to having an agreed set of rules or standards in place, which we all follow.” The risk may be small, but the consequences of getting things wrong can be disastrous.

Within the UK, wheelset and bearing design is governed by Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSIs) with supporting standards, typically EuroNorms (EN), and Railway Group Standards. The essential requirements are safety, reliability and availability, environmental protection and technical compatibility.

44 | the rail engineer | july 2012

DB Systemtechnik axle fatigue test rig in Minden, Germany.

Test rig

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Axle under test

PHOTO: DB SYSTEMTECHNIK

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Setting standards

Wheel lathe at East Midlands Trains’ Etches Park Depot.

Roger Deuce, senior project engineer, bogies at Bombardier, also began his presentation with a question: “When is a hole not a hole?” To illustrate how EN standards definitions are reached he described how an axle that has a central hole to facilitate ultrasonic testing may be defined as ‘solid’. The axle is ‘solid’ if the

journal diameter is more than three times the bore diameter and the wheel seat diameter is more than four times the bore diameter. EN wheelset standards are far reaching and include both design standards and product and process standards. They govern such things as material grades, permissible stresses, testing and batch testing, vacuum

degassing, residual stress surveys, surface finish and fatigue testing.

A typical EN process related wheelset fatigue test will involve resonance testing in a jig. The axle is mounted vertically, clamped at its lower end and fitted with a motor driven mass imbalance at the upper end.

The introduction of EN wheelset standards is seen as a significant step forward. But, as Roger Deuce pointed out, “They are not a substitute for good engineering practice and the experience of a competent ` design authority. EN standards have helped to improve standardisation across Europe, although there are still operator/network variations.”

Shared system At the sharp end of railway operation, it is incumbent upon every operator to ensure that its vehicles are maintained adequately.

The roles and responsibilities in a shared European system were outlined by Richard Lockett, head of Cross Acceptance Unit, European Railway Agency. Based in France, the ERA has responsibility for enhancing the level of interoperability of railway systems and developing a common approach to safety on the European railway system. Member states must ensure that railway safety is generally maintained and, where reasonably practicable, continuously improved.

The use of vehicles (such as wagons) and wheelsets may be shared between different operators. The safety management systems of all the users must manage this, but as Richard Lockett pointed out: “The

july 2012 | the rail engineer | 45

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HINI PHOTOS: LUCC

management tools previously employed by BR, SNCF, DB, etc to manage their own single actor systems are not fit for purpose for a shared system. Old and inappropriate roles and responsibilities remain, such as Network Rail ‘approving’ private wagons and safety authorities specifying maintenance schedules and testing procedures.”

The use of shared components requires complex contracts agreed by many parties.

Maintenance, checking and overhaul specs are also a compromise and again many parties need to agree. Across Europe, conformity with EN standards is voluntary, whereas in the UK we have Railway Group Standards. Richard Lockett asks: “How can a RGS fit in where TSI’s supported by EN’s cover the whole network?”

Perhaps lessons can be learned from the USA where there are many operators, many owners and many repairers. There are however only five designs of wagon wheelset and one safety authority. In Europe there are thousands of wheelset designs and 25 safety authorities.

Roger Lockett summed up: “Wheelsets are a technical challenge. Maybe diversity of design and incomplete implementation of the directives roles and responsibilities makes the logistics and management control an even bigger challenge!”

through closer management and support for lathe operators by analysing wheel turn records and trials of lower cut depths.

On trial Research Dr Alan Lawton is an independent engineering consultant. His research into wheel lathe best practice has revealed large differences in the average depth of cut between lathe operators. He also discovered significant variations between depots, with Slade Green making lighter cuts than other depots in the study. He explained: “Within each depot, if all operators could do what the best operator does, it would give another ‘turn’ for each wheelset, i.e. 25% longer wheel life.” Furthermore, “If each depot were able to exploit the same ‘light cut’ that works for Slade Green, there would be an extra two ‘turns’ on each wheelset!”

That would equate to 45% longer wheel life.

Alan suggested this could be achieved

Wheel tyres of ‘Superlos’ steel, manufactured by Lucchini in Italy, offer significant improvements in wheel life. A trial has been undertaken on Alstom Class 175 DMUs, which normally have their wheels turned at approximately 75,000 miles to eliminate surface cracks caused by Rolling Contact Fatigue (RCF). Alstom removes 5mm radius as standard, allowing six cuts per wheel over its lifetime, i.e. 525,000 miles in total. The Superlos wheelsets have run over 200,000 miles before visiting the wheel lathe, giving an expected total mileage of 1,000,000 miles. It is clear that Superlos is effective in inhibiting or even preventing RCF, although the mechanism behind RCF propagation and growth needs more research.

(Left) Coradia Class 175 R8T wheel after 88,000 miles showing RCF damage and (Right) Coradia Class 175 Superlos wheel after 152,000 miles.

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46 | the rail engineer | july 2012

Axle Safety

Picture inset This axle fatigue fracture in the USA was caused by rough riding due to wheel tread damage caused by RCF .

There were 37 UK in-service axle failures between 1975 and 2002. In the final ten years of this period there were only nine failures, and that trend continues. Fatigue cracks initiated by surface defects are the main cause of cracking, with corrosion being the chief culprit. Alan Lawton explained how axle design standards assume an infinite fatigue life and presume that axles retain a smooth round surface.

“They cannot deal with surface damage or variations in maintenance and inspection,” he said. “Nor can they identify appropriate processes for axle maintenance and inspection. There is no knowledge base from which to identify sound, logical maintenance and inspection processes for axles.” It is recognised that money is wasted looking after axles, although this ensures of course that we stay safe.

Alan Lawton suggests that we need to understand real axle loads, how corrosion assists fatigue cracks to initiate, how effective non-destructive testing (NDT) really is, and how axle surfaces become damaged. This would help us to identify more economic maintenance and inspection rules, without compromising safety.

To this end, the RSSB has been working with DeltaRail to understand real axle loads on Class 319 EMUs and on Mk IV coaches. At the

feature same time, innovative work from Prof.

Stefano Beretta, Politecnico di Milano, has provided new understanding of the initiation and growth of corrosion assisted fatigue cracks in axles.

The RSSB has partly funded an EU research project known as WIDEM, which aims to optimise the design and maintenance of wheelsets, reduce whole life costs, reduce un-sprung masses and extend maintenance intervals. This work could in time provide the engineering science to justify elimination of depot NDT, the elimination of axle painting and the introduction of axle skimming.

Smaller wheels, higher loads UK and UIC standards limit the ratio of wheel load to wheel diameter (Q/d) to around 0.13. Alan Lawton explained that this limit can be linked back to 19th century calculations of “Hertzian contact stress”.

RSSB Project “T889 Q/d” attempts to establish the current population of Q/d values and calculate the distribution of Hertzian contact stress on the railway. It also uses Hertzian stress based computer models of rail damage to assess the effects of increased Q/d. Questions remain however, such as the real nature of stresses in wheels and rails and how damage can accumulate.

Alan Lawson thinks we need to understand better the mechanism for the initiation and growth of damage in different wheel and rail steels, but he admits there is no real business case for the research. But does this mean it shouldn’t be done? Predictions of how wheel and rail damage might grow could bring benefits such as 30 ton axle-loads, commonplace in the USA.

Corrosion Funded by RSSB and WOLAXIM (a collaboration between EU SMEs and research organisations to develop novel NDT solutions for the assessment of railway axles), the Politecnico di Milano, under Prof.

Stefano Beretta, has attempted to produce a corrosion fatigue model for a railway axle and assess its impact on safety. Results have shown a continuous decrease of fatigue life as corrosion continues.

Testing involved dropping artificial rain (pH6) onto test axles rotating under load.

Surface cracks were observed to grow from

corrosion pits, eventually coalescing and deepening. The phenomenon is known as Hoddinott cracking, after Dudley S. Hoddinott, an HMRI Inspector who first observed the phenomenon during an investigation into a derailment at Shields Junction. It is characterised by a surface pattern of micro cracks, all lying in roughly one direction. The effect is worst in transition areas, e.g. where the axle meets the wheel seat.

The research concluded that crack growth rate under corrosion-fatigue can be described with a simple mathematical model. This enables a ‘nucleation lifetime’ to be calculated for an axle under given service conditions. An argument follows from this for not painting axles and instead applying a simple surface grinding process in axle transition areas.

Reclamation A large number of axles are scrapped every year due to corrosion. Pools of spare axles are therefore integral to the smooth running of the industry, but industry fragmentation resulted in multiple part numbers, drawings and numerous pools of axles for different fleets.

David Wilson of Porterbrook described how rationalisation has now allowed a common pool to be established. Permitted corrosion limits are strict, hence the high scrap rates, but there has been little documented guidance on wheelset reclamation. David Wilson would like to see an agreed approach in developing procedures for the removal of corrosion and light damage. Removal of material will have structural implications, but of what significance? Studies on Mk IV wheelsets have shown that reclamation is possible, but there are limitations (on axle loading) and it must be controlled.

Common ROSCO (ROlling Stock Leasing COmpany ) procedures have now been drawn up and packaged into a useable specification, giving guidance on inspections, repairs and branding of axles.

Ultimately this should bring significant cost benefits to the industry.

Out on the real railway, pragmatic problem solving is the order of the day. In the second part of this article we will see how manufacturers, maintainers and TOCs have already excelled in balancing wheelset safety, performance and cost.

july 2012 | the rail engineer | 47

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RECRUITMENT OPEN DAY Project Manager • Quantity Surveyor • Planner • Buyer Livis Limited is a civil engineering and construction specialist working predominantly in the rail sector. Growing from strength to strength we are looking to expand our team based in Dartford, Kent.

If you are interested in one of our vacancies and want to know more about us why not attend one of our recruitment open days, no need to register just turn up or call to book a time slot (Please bring your CV).

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on Tuesday 17th July 2012 The Hubworking Centre, 9-11 Grovesnor Gardens, SW1W 0BD (10:00 until 20:00) For the vacancies we have, applicants must have experience in the role they wish to apply for and have worked in the building/civils industry. Rail/London Underground experience is desirable but not essential.

The ideal candidates will be looking for a permanent opportunity to join an organisation where they can make a contribution and be part of an exciting period of growth.

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on Wednesday 18th July 2012 The Orchard Theatre, Home Gardens, Dartford, Kent, DA1 1ED (09:00 until 18:00)

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