by rail engineers for rail engineers
MAY 2019 – ISSUE 174
White Hart Lane A new station for a new stadium
AN UNSUNG BUT UNQUALIFIED SUCCESS The ORBIS programme finished at the end of CP5 - a £335 million project that has put data at the heart of the railway. GET SET FOR RAILWORX
WHITEBALL TUNNEL
The rail industry prepares for Railworx - the new outdoor civil and systems engineering show that has plenty of space for exhibitors.
Following several phases of work, this lengthy tunnel is now fit for purpose well into the 22nd century.
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52 CONTENTS
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News
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White Hart Lane: A new station for a new stadium
16|
Whiteball tunnel: Now fit for purpose in the 22nd century
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Railworx latest, RSSB, Taunton station, Northumberland line, Digital Trends.
Bob Wright looks at the new station that will reduce bottlenecks on match days.
Collin Carr reports on the latest, and final, phase of work in this lengthy tunnel.
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of 20| Points no return Graeme Bickerdike was invited to see the latest surveying techniques used on today’s railway.
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Single line internet control
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Inspiring Innovation
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Telecoms innovations for tomorrow’s railway
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ORBIS: an unsung but unqualified success
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“Hugely Impressive!”
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Get set for Railworx
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French rail industry on show at SIFER 2019
Clive Kessell explains Park Signalling’s new iteration of the traditional token machine.
David Shirres attended the Railway Industry Association’s annual innovation conference.
Paul Darlington looks at some of the latest ideas from Network Rail Telecom.
Network Rail’s project to put data at the heart of the railway has delivered what it promised.
Francis Paonessa looks back at his career in rail and with Network Rail Infrastructure Projects.
Looking forward to rail’s new outdoor civil and systems engineering show.
As Railtex is about to open in the UK, what did France’s industry show have to offer?
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
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EDITORIAL
NOT
RAIL ENGINEER MAGAZINE
Evolution revolution Metal wheels on metal rails have, for almost 200 years, provided energy-efficient transport due to their low rolling resistance and effective load bearing. That apart, today’s railways bear little resemblance to early examples such as the Stockton and Darlington railway, opened in 1825. They have evolved by numerous incremental innovations, interspersed with occasional radical changes such as replacing steam with diesel and electric traction. One reason for this is that the railway is a system with increasingly complex interfaces. Parts of it are also at capacity. These issues increase the risk from any changes, as was sadly shown by last May’s timetable changes. However, Britain’s railways must innovate to meet the 21st-century challenges of service reliability, reducing lifecycle costs, increasing capacity and decarbonisation. Generally, this is best achieved through continuous improvement rather than by radical innovation. Yet disruptive technologies from outside the industry, such as wind power, drones, smartphones and tablets, are making a big difference. The huge expansion of wind power has reduced electric traction’s carbon footprint by a fifth over the past ten years and is predicted to give annual savings of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of carbon. Numerous instances of smartphones and tablets, with appropriate apps, are supporting maintenance staff, drivers and many others on the railway. This includes passengers, whose apps use open railway operations data. In a news feature, we report on the RSSB data sandbox competition which aims to use this data to reduce delays. In his feature on a trial of various new surveying methods, Graeme Bickerdike explains how drones are one of several innovative techniques that give high accuracy with minimal, if any, track access. The problem is, what to do with all the data they produce? One answer is the recently-completed ORBIS programme. We describe how, when it started in 2011, asset information was kept in diverse, ‘flat’ databases with limited information. Now ORBIS provides an overarching, geospatial view of the railway which has fundamentally changed the way Network Rail’s teams work. Interconnected complex data like ORBIS is a feature of the fourth industrial revolution. Our article on the Railway Industry Association (RIA)’s innovation conference shows the exponential growth of internet data, which is now 1.1 zettabytes (one with 24 zeros). As our feature describes, RIA’s event featured innovations both within and outside the rail industry, as well as the support for innovation available from UKRRIN and Network Rail’s R&D programme. Capturing and communicating the ever-increasing amounts of data on the railway will require a trackside ‘Internet of Things’, for which Network Rail Telecom is developing a strategy, as Paul Darlington describes. This will provide universal rail-corridor connectivity for an ecosystem of numerous things, including low cost, battery-powered
intelligent data sensors. One such thing is a 21st -century version of the single-line line token machine, originally devised by Edward Tyler in 1874. Clive Kessell describes how, instead of a landline to connect machines at each end of the single-line section, this uses secure IP (Internet Protocol) communication, either over the internet or a non-dedicated telecommunications link. It is a good example of Victorian engineering evolving into the 21st century. The RIA conference also highlighted the lack of productivity in the construction industry which should be set to change. One company aims to reduce its workforce time on site by 25 per cent by 2025 by using 4D planning, artificial intelligence (AI) and industrialised construction. Another example of construction innovation is the robots used to spray shotcrete, described by Colin Carr in his feature on the challenges of repairing Whiteball tunnel. In another civil engineering feature, Bob Wright describes the innovative techniques used to jack pre-cast boxes through an embankment to form new underpasses at White Hart Lane station. Dr Francis Paonessa was managing director of Network Rail’s Infrastructure Projects for five years and has now left the company as projects devolve to the new regions. In a wide-ranging interview with Nigel Wordsworth, Francis describes how many did not foresee how Network Rail’s reclassification to a government body would reduce project funding. He also explains that many projects were over-spent as they were costed in too early in the project. Yet this does not explain the threefold cost overun of the GW electrification scheme which was due to the basic design and delivery errors described in a recent RIA report. Francis considers that “there is nothing in electrification that is difficult in itself”, yet surely the lesson is that successful electrification requires skilled designers and project teams who understand its complexity. Maintenance of these skills requires a rolling electrification programme. Effective rail project delivery requires the modern, specialist plant that will be exhibited at Railworx on 11-13 June. As we describe, this includes an InnovationWorx zone to show off the latest developments. For another exhibition report, Rail Engineer went to SIFER, the French equivalent of Railtex, where various UK companies had their latest developments on show. This month’s magazine features just some of the many rail industry innovations. Whilst most of these will not be apparent to rail users, they form part of the continuous improvement needed if the railway is to meet the challenges of its third century. RAIL ENGINEER EDITOR
DAVID SHIRRES
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
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THE TEAM
NEWS
Editor David Shirres david.shirres@railengineer.co.uk
Production Editor Nigel Wordsworth nigel.wordsworth@railengineer.co.uk
Production and design Adam O’Connor adam@rail-media.com Matthew Stokes matt@rail-media.com
Engineering writers bob.wright@railengineer.co.uk clive.kessell@railengineer.co.uk collin.carr@railengineer.co.uk david.bickell@railengineer.co.uk graeme.bickerdike@railengineer.co.uk grahame.taylor@railengineer.co.uk lesley.brown@railengineer.co.uk malcolm.dobell@railengineer.co.uk mark.phillips@railengineer.co.uk paul.darlington@railengineer.co.uk
More innovation to be seen at Railworx in June
peter.stanton@railengineer.co.uk stuart.marsh@railengineer.co.uk
Advertising Asif Ahmed
asif@rail-media.com
Chris Davies
chris@rail-media.com
Craig Smith craig@rail-media.com
Railworx, the railway civil and systems engineering exhibition that is taking place at the East of England Arena, Peterborough, between 11 and 13 June, is still attracting exhibitors that wish to show off their latest innovations.
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Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
Platform Edge Protection was designed with the objective of eliminating the risk of falling from platforms and coming into contact with moving plant or trains while carrying out work on railway station platforms. A temporary fencing system designed specifically for use on platform edges, the posts, poles and kick plates are made from pultruded glass-reinforced plastic (GRP), offering a lightweight, high tensilestrength and non-conductive advantage over metallic alternatives. Earth bonding is not required, even when working adjacent to electrified railways, and the clamp system also has the benefit of not damaging railway platforms. Platform Edge Protection (PEP) has been tested to BS EN 13347 at the University of Lancaster and will be making an early public appearance at Railworx. Another exhibitor bringing new equipment to Railworx is the already announced Mixamate Concrete & Screed (Stand RE8), which, in addition to its Conqueror all-in-one concrete batch mixing and pumping truck, will be introducing its latest innovation, the
new IHS Mini Line Pump, exclusively manufactured at the firm’s new 18,000ft2 factory in Sheffield. The IHS Mini Line Pump uses 20 bar operating pressure through its 40 bar rubber hoses to deliver mixes over an 80-metre pumping distance. Other advantages are that there is no pressurised vessel and no need to grease the internal tube, saving time with every delivery. These are just two of the host of exhibitors that will be waiting to discuss their latest products and techniques with visitors to Railworx. Aimed at specifiers, project managers, engineers and professionals involved in the operation, maintenance, enhancement and construction of the railway, Railworx will give visitors the opportunity to see equipment in a working environment. Colocated with the Plantworx construction plant exhibition, that attracts exhibitors such as Caterpillar, JCB and Doosan as well as 15,000 visitors, it is a show not to be missed. Find out more at www.railworx.co.uk.
NEWS
RSSB launches competition
coming soon...
RSSB launches competition on using data to improve punctuality and reliability. At its recent ‘Enabling better network performance’ event on 4 April, RSSB launched its second data sandbox competition for academics and suppliers who are researching the novel use of data to improve service reliability and punctuality. RSSB has allocated up to £650,000 for this competition, which offers 80 per cent matched funding for feasibility studies and 60 per cent funding for demonstrator projects. The competition is seeking proposals to address operational challenges such as predicting and minimising reactionary delays, reducing dwell time variations, managing disruptions and better management of performance and delays. This competition builds on the 2017 data sandbox competition in which a large number of train-running, operational and performance data sets were made available to researchers to see what best use can be made of them. The winners of this first competition were collaborations between train operating companies and universities as shown below. South Western Railway and the University of Southampton
Predicting and mitigating small fluctuations in station dwell times
Greateranglia and University of East Anglia
A feasibility study on developing an intelligence ensemble system for predicting and preventing train delays
Great Western Railways and City, University of London
Agent based modelling and visualisation of causes and knock-on delays
Southeastern and Middlesex University London
Provide data analysis insights into real to-the-second timing patterns of passenger rail services using machine learning techniques
Merseyrail and Liverpool John Moores University
Anticipating and mitigating reactionary delays
The data sandbox competition is part of the DfT-funded PERFORM programme to predict and mitigate delays, which also includes research into better planning and resource management, abnormal working decision-making and the use of on-train datarecorders for driver performance management. There are to be two rounds of the data sandbox competitions this year, for which the closing dates are 5 July and 6 December. A full report of the ‘Enabling better performance’ event will appear in the next Rail Engineer.
JUNE 2019 TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION Trains, signalling, asset management, communications, power distribution and station control systems all have technology at their heart. Developing this presents its own challenges for manufacturers, installers, system integrators and users alike, and finding the best solution requires expertise and innovative thinking, often involving both industry and academia. Academic Research, Advanced Thinking, Compliance, Conference proceedings, Cross-sector partnerships, Design competitions, Exhibition reviews, Government initiatives, Innovation, Internet of Trains, Latest Technology, Launch events, New Working Practices, Novel Techniques, Pilot Studies, Product Approvals, Research & Development, Technical standards, Testing, Trial installations.
JULY 2019 STATIONS & RAILWORX REVIEW Rail Engineer reports on station construction and redevelopment, using technology to improve the passenger experience, and managing access and revenue. New roofs, improved public address, platform extensions, repurposing or improving facilities, better lighting and streamlined passenger flows - it’s all covered. Rail Engineer looks back at RailWorx and reviews what was on show. Accessibility, Architecture, BIM, Barriers, Buildings, CCTV, Car Parks, Catering, Cleaning, Escalators, Landlord Permissions, Lifts, Lighting, Maintenance, Passenger Information Systems, Planning Issues, Platform / Train Interface, Platform Screen Doors, Platforms, Refurbishment, Reporting / Software, Smart Ticketing.
AUG/SEPT 2019 ELECTRIFICATION & POWER As the UK rail network is one of the biggest consumers of electricity in the UK, it is always investigating ways to innovate, reduce costs, introduce new power alternatives and reduce carbon. Safety is also a major topic, as are ways to take possessions more quickly and to install new electrification more efficiently. Cabinets, Components, Connectors, Control Equipment and Systems, Cables, Distribution Networks, Earthing, Fasteners, Generators, Housings, Insulation, Lamps, Lightning Protection, Monitoring, OLE, Pantographs, Power Supplies, Security, Substations, Transformers.
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
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NEWS
Northumberland line could reopen for passengers in 2020 Northumberland County Council's plans to reopen the line from Newcastle upon Tyne to Ashington via Blyth to passenger services by 2022 have taken a step forward with the completion of the Strategic Outline Business Case for the plan. The plan to bring passenger services back to the Northumberland line will involve upgrading the existing freight line between South East Northumberland and Newcastle Central. A number of new stations will link towns to key areas of employment, training and leisure, and the plan could boost the local economy by up to £70 million. Prepared by AECOM and SLC Rail, the SOBC outlines the project’s wider economic impacts, such as housing and job opportunities, and includes a number of alternative delivery and funding model options for reinstating the line. Work will now move on to the next phase of the project, which will include a market engagement exercise intended to secure the best value capital and operating costs for the proposed line and to help attract public and private investment for the scheme. This phase will be delivered by Perfect Circle, a consortium comprising Pick Everard, Gleeds and AECOM, on behalf of Scape Group’s Built Environment Consultancy (BECS) framework. Scape is a public sector organisation
dedicated to creating ongoing efficiency and social value via the built environment. Consortium partner AECOM will continue to work with SLC Rail, providing technical consultancy, business case development, project management and modelling services for the scheme. Northumberland County Council leader Peter Jackson said: “The reintroduction of passenger services on the existing freight only line has been an aspiration of the County Council for many years and fits with key local and regional policy in terms of promoting economic growth across South East Northumberland.” AECOM’s Russell Jackson, head of rail for Europe, Middle East and Africa, added: “This scheme is not just about delivering an infrastructure project. By focusing on its broader economic benefits, and through early engagement with stakeholders to explore exciting new delivery options, we’re building a compelling case that will help push this much-needed project forward. “The private and public sector increasingly need to work
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
together to get key schemes off the ground and we hope this project will be a successful template for how to deliver future rail enhancements.” SLC managing director Ian Walters agreed: “Government
is now strongly encouraging councils to lead rail schemes themselves, with its ‘Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline’ process announced in 2018, and Network Rail’s ‘Open for Business’ initiative supporting this.”
NEWS
Digital Trends in the Rail Sector UNIFE, the Association of the European Rail Industry, has released a new vision paper on digitalisation that aims to bring the European rail supply industry's views and objectives into the centre of the digital debate. ‘Digital Trends in the Rail Sector’ was prepared by the members of UNIFE’s Digitalisation Platform. It sets out the main priorities and ambitions of the European rail supply industry in relation to the digital technologies that are shaping the future of the rail sector in Europe and worldwide. The vision outlined in the document focuses on five major areas - Big Data, Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence (AI), New Mobility Services and the Digitalisation of the Freight Logistics Chain – which UNIFE believes are making the greatest contributions to the digital transformation of the rail sector. In the paper, UNIFE states that, while the rail sector is sometimes perceived as being conservative, the truth is that rail transport has always been a frontier of technological progress, with the supply industry leading the way. With digitalisation, the pace of change in the sector has moved up a gear. Roles have been transformed and new companies, as well as business models, have emerged – such as Uber and Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS). New concepts as well as new technologies create new possibilities, shortening the timeline of innovation and shaking-up the entire transport sector. All of this has resulted in the deployment of digital and enabling technologies in rail being at an earlier stage when compared with other modes of transport. Therefore, UNIFE believes it is vital for the whole sector to maintain its commitment to making digitalisation, not merely an objective in itself, but rather a means to achieving more ambitious and overriding goals.
'New' station for Taunton Taunton station in Somerset is to be redeveloped over the next year, according to plans just released. The station, which is operated by GWR, services trains from London to Penzance and also CrossCountry trains from Cornwall running up to northern England and Scotland. GWR has now finalised contracts with construction company John Sisk & Son for the multi-million-pound regeneration scheme. To deliver the scheme, designed to help support the town’s economic development plans, the company is working with Somerset West and Taunton Council and the Heart of South West Local Enterprise Partnership, which is making a £4.6 million contribution from its Local Growth Fund. Planned improvements will include a new multi-storey car park, additional cycle spaces, a new ticket office and entrance. An enhanced bus and taxi interchange will provide easier access to the town centre and the new £105 million Firepool waterfront community being developed by St Modwen just a short distance away. Work is expected to begin this summer and be completed in spring 2020, improving the travelling experience for people visiting the town by train – a number that is expected to double over the next 10 years. Somerset West and Taunton Council chief executive James Hassett commented on the announcement: “The redevelopment of Taunton railway station aligns with our ambitions for growth, and has long been a feature of our town centre regeneration plans. It is an integral part of our intention to link the station to the town centre with upgraded and enhanced pedestrian access along the River Tone through Firepool and the Coal Orchard. “The provision of multi-storey car parking and public transport facilities is an essential part of the development in planning and investing for the future.”
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
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FEATURE
BOB WRIGHT
W
hite Hart Lane is the station for, and shares its name with, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It is used by 1.3 million customers each year, with a daily peak usage of 1,446, rising on match days to 7,455. This is expected to increase to 12,395 next season, now the new 62,000 seat stadium has fully opened.
The High Road West Masterplan
The High Road West regeneration area, with White Hart Lane station at the western end.
Abellio Greater Anglia and London Overground, which took over some of the former’s services in 2015, both serve White Hart Lane station. The existing station and tracks are located on an embankment, with the platforms carried on narrow brick-arch viaducts built into the earthworks, a form of construction common in this area.
White Hart Lane station is located on the western end of London Borough of Haringey’s ambitious ‘High Road West’ regeneration masterplan. The area between the station and Northumberland Road station to the east includes a 1950/60 development that is to be redeveloped providing 2,000 new homes, along with retail and public spaces around the rebuilt stadium. In 2014, Haringey engaged Landolt + Brown and Arup to draft the masterplan. This envisaged creating a new public space between the stadium and the station, with ‘Moselle Square’ replacing the aged flats of the Love Lane estate. A key part of this would be an enlarged, and
architecturally engaging, station at the end of this boulevard, forming a key gateway to the regenerated High Road West area. The masterplan was generally well received in public consultation and it was agreed that the station redevelopment should go ahead.
Delivering the project The project is being led by Transport for London (TfL), with regular engagement with representatives from London Borough of Haringey and the Greater London Authority (GLA). Funding is being provided by TfL’s Growth Fund and GLA Mayor’s Regeneration Fund. Taylor Woodrow was awarded the £17.8 million contract to redevelop the station, delivering improvements including a new ticket hall, station entrance and step-free access from street to platform.
White Hart Lane
A new station for a new stadium Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
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FEATURE The existing station is of a poor standard, offering very limited passenger facilities and no step-free access. There are single staircases to each platform that struggle to cope on match days, with no alternatives in case of an emergency. The surrounding area of lockup garages and land was in a poor state of repair and had been identified as a hotspot for anti-social behaviour and criminal activity. It was recognised that the redevelopment of the High Street West area, and of the White Hart Lane stadium, would place tremendous additional footfall pressure on the station. The footway beneath the underbridge was relatively narrow and discouraged pedestrian movement between the two sides of the line. The White Hart Lane station upgrade aims to rectify these shortcomings by creating a new western station entrance on
Penshurst Road and a new ticket hall south of the current station building on Love Lane. This would be at a more central location along the platforms, facing across the future Moselle Square with urban realm works to the station forecourt and surrounding area. Lifts will provide step-free access from the street to platform level and two new stair accesses from the new ticket hall will reduce bottlenecks and speed up the movement of passengers on match days. The existing stairs will be retained as emergency evacuation routes. The new station is designed to cope with and manage the heavy footfall of match days, including a control room for British Transport Police. The two sides of the station will be connected by a new underpass and a second public underpass will provide a new and better public pedestrian route from east to west. The architectural design for the station was carried out by Fereday Pollard, building on Landolt + Brown’s
concept design. The external façade of the two entrances include terracotta pot panels, reflecting the area’s history of manufacturing pots for the Lea Valley’s market gardening industry, as well as louvred glass, drawing local inspiration from its horticultural glasshouses.
Underpass construction The design and construction of the works was technically complex and was explained to Rail Engineer by Taylor Woodrow’s Paulo Lotter and Tony Gee’s Oliver Engleback. The structural engineering design by Tony Gee and Partners was complex for a small site but reflected the challenges of the original structures and earthworks. The original concept for the passenger and public access through the embankment was to have been a new bridge constructed top down, however this would have required multiple weekend
The facades of the new building will reflect the Lea Valley’s horticultural heritage, with terracotta pot and louvred glass panels.
PHOTO: LANDOLT + BROWN
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
FEATURE PHOTO: TAYLOR WOODROW
Spile tubes were driven through the embankment by a Bohrtec BM 400 auger rig, working from a temporary RMD platform on the west side.
Setting up for the box jacking. Slide rails on cast concrete beams will support the boxes during the process.
closures. Taylor Woodrow’s alternative design of twin underpasses, using 9m x 3.6m x 4.7m jacked boxes installed during a 52-hour possession, was instead selected by TfL. The precast boxes would be a tight fit into the existing structures, with their formation below that of the viaducts’ piers and with only 75mm clearance to each side. There would also be only 1000mm clearance below sleepers, which could be a very great risk to track stability, resulting in a spile canopy (an array or ‘canopy’ of self-drilling rods or ‘spiles’ driven into the roof above the subway to prevent ground movement) and friction reducing measures used in driving the boxes. The installation of the jacked boxes through two adjacent arches, and taking space for station offices, would require excavation to pier foundation level, so the six affected piers were underpinned in advance. Since the platform viaducts were built into the embankment, it was necessary to excavate the embankment toe to expose the base of the piers. To retain the stability of the embankment and the tracks above, the excavation of the toe in each arch was undertaken in three stages, top-down, using king post
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
walls and walings tied back to their counterpart on the opposite side. First, a concrete diaphragm wall was constructed beneath the arch below the platform wall above. Two steel walings were attached to the piers below springing level. Four short steel king posts were bolted to the diaphragm and the walings and timber laggings inserted between these. Horizontal tubes (spiles) were driven through the embankment and 40mm diameter Dywidag ties inserted between the temporary works on each side. As careful staged excavation took place, a second row of ties was inserted and, at the lowest level, extension king posts bolted to the upper were used to support the lowest section of excavation. To ensure stability of the viaducts, further ducted tie rods were inserted through the PHOTO: TAYLOR WOODROW
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embankment and secured to heavy steel needles inserted in sawn holes through the piers. The foundations, once they were exposed, were underpinned in a series of six bays per pier, those at the rear requiring short timber headings to complete the excavation. Using an in-concrete strength-gain sensor system from Converge, two weeks were saved on the original programme’s curing periods for each bay. Once complete, the brickwork spread footings in the arches were trimmed to provide sufficient width to install the underpass boxes and the rafts for the station offices. As a precautionary measure, an array of 15 spiles were installed above the positions of the two underpasses. These horizontal piles formed an arch above the boxes, with 600mm cover to the sleepers above, to prevent loss of ballast during the jacking operation. These 219 CHS steel tubes were installed in possession on 28/29 July 2018. The construction of the complex underpinning and jacked underpasses was contracted to Joseph Gallagher, which specialises in hand tunnelling and jacking. Four headings, each 1.6m x 1.2m, were hand excavated through the embankment by Gallagher’s miners over a two-week period. They were supported by timber framing, grouted into the embankment at the end of each shift. Within
FEATURE these, concrete beams were cast to support slide rails, which would ensure the accurate alignment of the boxes during installation and help to reduce friction. Jacking slabs for each were also constructed each side. The three precast boxes for each underpass were manufactured by ABM Precast at its Newark facility. Steel formwork was manufactured to ensure precise placement of post-tensioning ducts, tunnel shield connections and installation sliders. A trial assembly ensured the accuracy of fabrication and fit of adjacent sections. Drag reduction was minimised by grease lubrication of the slide rails via internal grease ports. The sides and roof of the box had twin layers of BASF Elastalan polymer membranes with Mudtech TK60 lubrication between them. Internal injection ports allowed additional lubrication to be injected to the lower part of the
box walls, which did not have the twin membrane system. Prior to commencement, the boxes were post tensioned together with a force of 9,720kN using Macalloy bars installed through ducts in the units. A 12-tonne raked steel shield at the front provided ground support for the excavation in advance of each jacking move as well as protection for operatives and plant. The two underpasses were installed in a single operation on 27/28 October 2018. Gallagher’s jacking equipment comprised 3,000kN front jacks pulling, plus 1,000kN rear pushjacks as an unused contingency, a total of 4,000kN jacking force per box. The maximum jacking force required to drive these through the embankment was 2,880kN. Using a sequence of dig and pull, the boxes were installed in a continuous 34hour operation. Excavation within the boxes was undertaken using
two three-tonne excavators standing on timber platforms, with each machine straddling a conveyor that removed the 135 cubic metres of spoil. A real-time distancemeasurement system, provided by Sixense, was implemented to ensure the forces applied did not cause movements and strains on the existing structures beyond allowable limits. Once the box was in position, grout was injected around the box from precast holes within the box to fill any voids that had formed during the jacking,
Setting up for the box jacking.
Creating value through innovation
White Hart Lane Station
For further information on our specialist design services, contact Tony Westlake tel: +44 1372 461600 email: rail@tonygee.com
Taylor Woodrow
www.tonygee.com Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
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FEATURE
The southern, public underpass installed and the northern passenger underpass breaking through the temporary retaining king posts and timber lagging.
however this was minimal as there was very little ground loss from above the shield and culverts. The sub-ballast was observed during this operation to ensure grout did not infiltrate the ballast and form hard spots.
Station building construction Two of the 1950s OLE (overhead electrification) gantries were within the footprint of the development, and these have been replaced by three new gantries designed by SNC Lavalin, equally spaced, to minimise effects on catenary support. One of these was founded at ground level in the sloping side of the embankment between the viaduct and the boundary. To install the piled foundations here, Taylor Woodrow would have installed temporary sheet piling and fill to create a piling
The new station steelwork rises from ground level to platform level to form a single large open space.
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
platform for a small rig. Instead, a very versatile Menzi Muck all-terrain mobile excavator was used. This was able to independently move all four wheels to allow the machine to sit level on the side of the embankment and install steel tubular piles with a vibratory piling attachment. The station superstructures were both founded on groundbearing reinforced-concrete rafts, a value engineering saving from the concept of a piled slab. The lift shafts on the west side were founded on short piles, installed by a Klemm KR708 rig, through the Enfield Silt and gravels into the London Clay. The station steelwork was installed by McNeally Brown. The building’s design called for large clear spaces without obvious bracing, so the steelwork was of portal frame design. In addition, it was architecturally important for the new to abut the old, resulting in the new steelwork and lift shaft concrete being only 75mm from the viaduct brickwork, making construction difficult. Access to the west side of the site was very restricted, with closures of Penshurst Road being required to accommodate craneage for steelwork and cladding erection.
Small station offices and service rooms were squeezed into the arches within the new building. These were constructed with wide cavities to side and rear, enabling access for future viaduct inspection and for drainage. The planning consent for the works required that runoff towards the nearby River Moselle should be constrained to 50 per cent of an equivalent greenfield site. To ensure that this was achieved, 140 cubic metres of crate attenuation tanks were constructed beneath the paving of the public realm areas. The project is due to open in late summer 2019, whilst Tottenham Hotspur played its long-awaited first competitive match in its new stadium on 3 April - a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace in front of 59,215 fans. In advance of this, the London Borough of Haringey required a couple of ‘smaller’ test events (Under-18s beat Southampton 3-1 - crowd 28,987, Spurs Legends lost 4-5 against Inter Milan Forever - 45,000), giving all agencies involved the opportunity to see the effectiveness of crowd management and traffic flows, although the crowds weren’t much smaller than for a normal match day, such was the draw of the new stadium.
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FEATURE
COLLIN CARR
Whiteball Tunnel
Now Fit for Purpose in the 22nd Century
R
ailway passengers planning journeys earlier this year to and from the south west between Monday 18 February and Friday 8 March 2019 were being urged to check before travelling, owing to essential maintenance work that took place at the 1,000-metre long Whiteball tunnel near Tiverton Parkway in Somerset. Rail Engineer readers with good memories will recall that the work in Whiteball Tunnel is linked to a project which started in 2011, when preparatory work was carried out in the tunnel. The preparatory work caused little disruption to trains but was the launch of a multistaged plan to significantly improve the state of the old brick lining throughout the tunnel. The tunnel, named after the nearby village of White Ball, was built by Brunel. The 1,000-metre-long Victorian brick-arch structure, opened in 1844, straddles the Somerset/Devon border. It provides a path for trains to travel under the white sandstone of the Blackdown Hills located between Taunton and Exeter.
Sulphurous steam trains The clay used for the millions of bricks used for the tunnel lining came from local pits. The engineering bricks produced were of a good quality but, over the years, weathering, chemical reaction from the sulphurous steam trains, voiding behind the brick lining and the degradation of the mortar joints, has meant that there has been a rolling programme of repairs to the lining throughout most of the 20th century, right up to the present day.
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
Following on from the work carried out in 2011, a similar three-week closure of this route took place in 2014. This enabled this stage of the programme of work in Whiteball Tunnel to take place. The structure gauge within Whiteball tunnel is very generous, due to Brunel’s ‘broad’ track gauge of 2,140mm. As a consequence, past generations of engineers have been able to carry out substantial repairs, turning new brick arch rings within the existing lining using shields to support the brickwork and workers during construction. These shields, usually made out of old bullhead rail, were designed to match the profile of the tunnel and they could
be clamped together to accommodate the varying lengths of the tunnel that needed repairing. The arch ring structure also included a staging platform at a level that allows trains to run underneath. Over time, these rings were left in situ, forming a permanent feature within the tunnel.
Unhealthy and hazardous working environment The shields were placed over concrete strip foundations designed to match the length of arch required to be turned. Once in place, skilled bricklaying teams constructed a two-brick arch inside the existing lining. The process was very effective, but also very time consuming and expensive. It required a highly skilled workforce, which had to endure difficult circumstances, working at height in an often very uncomfortable and unhealthy environment.
FEATURE The logistical challenge
This hostile environment, coupled with the accelerating deterioration of the tunnel lining, is the reason why Network Rail decided to change its strategy and adopt the Ram Arch System which is in use in the tunnels on London Underground.
A different approach The Ram Arch System consists of easy to handle, two-metre lengths of galvanised steel mesh. These are bolted together on site to form arch rings one metre wide that are then interlocked and supported on slotted angle brackets fixed into the brick lining about two metres from the cess level. Each ring is secured to the brick lining using two 200mm long, temporary dowels, fixed with a five-second “resin hit”. Once everything is in place and secure, a more permanent fixing is introduced. The temporary dowels are replaced with five permanent rock anchors that are fixed with a 10-second “resin hit” for each individual arch ring. Finally, spine wires are threaded along the profile of the arch to link the individual arch rings together and provide additional stiffness. These spine wires are then fixed to the now continuous arch structure using a pneumatic Hog Ring Gun. Once the rock anchors are in place and the spine wires fixed, the nuts on the rock anchors are loosened to create a 2 to 3mm gap between the new galvanised arches and the existing brick lining. This is the work Network Rail completed in 2011 and 2014, which formed Stages 1 and 2 of the project.
The original plan was to fix precast concrete slabs to the sidewalls of the tunnel to underpin the Ram Arches. However, this was considered too complex, given the irregularities within the tunnel and the length of possessions required to install the units. The dowels were fixed by a two-man team working with a trolley. It was a simple and effective approach and, most importantly, it was carried out without impacting on the train service. Having installed the dowels, the work carried out during the three-week closure was now ready to start. The principal contractor for Stage 3 was Murphy, with BEDI Consulting undertaking the design work. The work involved spraying ‘shotcrete’ concrete to the profile of the tunnel throughout the repaired areas. Scott Pillinger, Network Rail’s programme manager for this work, outlined the logistics involved in completing this task and they were challenging, to say the least.
The first challenge was the location of the site. The closest access to the tunnel is one mile away from the Taunton end portal and access to it was down narrow, winding country lanes. Throughout the three weeks, two twelve-hour shifts, with 50 or more operatives on each shift, would be working and lodging in the vicinity. Appropriate facilities were required both on the site and within the tunnel throughout the work period. In addition, as in any tunnel environment, everything has to work in a linear fashion so that what goes in must not hinder what is coming out, and vice versa. But that’s just the easy bit, which most good contractors will deal with almost as a matter of course. The real challenge was to shotcrete (spray concrete) the tunnel lining throughout the 355-metre length of repair which was, in fact, made up of six different locations in the tunnel. The plan was to spray the concrete in two-metre strips working from the cess to the crown and back down to the other cess. Scott explained that the first week was not as successful as they had hoped but that the second and third week were very productive. Two robots, ‘Ivy’ and ‘Holly’, carried out the spraying but, to ensure that safety was not compromised, only one could be used in the tunnel at any one time. Each robot was rail mounted with outriggers and was operated by a ‘nozzle man’ standing close by, using a remote control.
In situ or precast? The work undertaken this year, Stage 3, includes the installation of 1,500 “Butterfly” dowels, spaced 50cm apart, fixed into the side walls of the tunnel following six areas within the tunnel where the Ram Arch system has been installed.
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
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FEATURE
Monitoring the sprayed lining
Review of the ‘bounce back’
To ensure the quality of spray thickness was maintained, a surveyor was located about 10 metres away. He was in constant communication with the nozzle man and, using a point cloud laser survey, he was able to confirm the depth of the concrete being sprayed. The aim was for a constant 150mm depth throughout the tunnel profile. While this operation was underway, concrete was being continually transported to site using a rail-mounted concrete mixer to feed the robot. Because of the special design of the shotcrete, with its carefully designed fibre content, the nearest plant capable of providing the quality and quantity required was based in Derby. To keep the site productive, each shift needed up to 60 cubic metres of shotcrete concrete. Murphy had erected eight silos at the main site with a total storage capacity of only 40 cubic metres. Therefore, deliveries from Derby to site had to be reliable and very regular. A concrete mixer holds about five cubic metres, so it is not necessary to go into any more detail to emphasise how critical it was that every aspect of this project had to work effectively and efficiently. That includes allowing for the vagaries of the somewhat-unpredictable motorway system. The concrete was transferred to smaller wagons on reaching Bristol and, to ensure that there was a continuous flow, wagons were held at strategic locations en route. The narrow lanes close to the site were, according to Scott, “the cleanest in the county”, helping to minimise disruption to the local community.
All went well and the work was completed on time. However, the team identified that the ‘bounce back’ of sprayed concrete, calculated to be about 20 per cent maximum at design stage, was actually closer to 30 per cent. The track had been protected throughout using boarding and plastic sheeting, so there was no risk of the track ballast being contaminated, but this was obviously a concern and detailed analysis of the whole process is now underway to better understand the reasons why this happened.
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
Outstanding safety record The result of this work is that Whiteball tunnel is now a safer space. A significant length of spalling brickwork is now protected. The ingress of water is managed and channelled into the tunnel drainage system and the drainage system itself has subsequently been overhauled and renewed.
Scott was eager to point out that Murphy performed to a very high standard ensuring, that the nail biting ‘just in time’ logistics worked effectively. As always, a good indicator of a well-run project is its safety record. Throughout the work, over 400 ‘close call’ issues were raised, highlighting the level of care and ownership that existed on this site, and, with well over 20,000 hours worked over the 19 days of the blockade, only one incident was recorded, when someone slipped on some steps but did not incur any injury. What is most exciting is that this work is testing and pushing the boundaries of engineering maintenance in tunnels to ensure that Network Rail’s significant stock of operational tunnels in the UK will be fit for purpose well into the 22nd century.
#moretomurphy
J. MURPHY & SONS LIMITED Improving life by delivering world-class infrastructure www.murphygroup.com
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FEATURE
PHOTOGRAPHY FOUR BY THREE Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
FEATURE
Points of
T
no return GRAEME BICKERDIKE
hose of us who now need afternoon naps can find the modern world baffling, so it’s good to know that some things endure despite apparently passing their sell-by dates. And I include myself in that. Waving chequered flags to warn those in the four-foot that their lives are endangered by an approaching train spans three centuries and, even on the East Coast main line, you can still find surveying teams using lengths of string to measure curvature. Simple and effective was a global preference before ones and noughts came along.
The pace of technological change over the past 20 years has been breathless but hugely enriching. That said, change can bring consequences nobody envisioned - fires that need to be fought. So, there’s an understandable tendency to take a riskaverse approach when it comes to innovation in safety-critical environments. But, if we’re to benefit from the opportunities it presents, we have to recognise and embrace the associated challenges.
Coming together A generation of railway surveyors will never have held string, electronics mostly superseding it over the past couple of decades. As with everything, the capabilities of today’s instruments continue to improve over time. Most share common technologies - inertial measurement units, satellite positioning, laser scanning, photogrammetry - and capture essentially the same things: Easting, Northing, Elevation (x, y, z), perhaps Intensity (distinguishing between different materials) and Red, Green, Blue values. But, to maximise commercial interests, developers often employ proprietary software to process data and translate it into something useful for the engineer. The railway, of course, comprises many disciplines signalling, drainage, OLE, renewals - all seeking data for different design or construction requirements, using different methodologies at different levels of detail. So, there’s clear potential for inefficiencies and additional workforce risk through repeat visits to the same place. Those realities are amongst the drivers of a project being led by Network Rail’s Signalling Innovations Group (SIG). During CP6, it intends to grow the survey and design tools it’s helped to develop, alongside which it will undertake research into the most effective ways of integrating survey data from multiple sources, as well as the complex influencing factors. The hope is to reduce the requirement to venture on or near the line. SIG’s ambition is for a variety of surveys to be made available via a central open-source repository which everyone can tap into, although there is a recognition that it’s just not
practical to have every possible survey type for every location, all gathered under consistent conditions. At the same time, an obvious fundamental requirement is that the extremely high levels of quality and accuracy needed for future automated design cannot be compromised. Dealing with this latter issue demands a much deeper understanding about the various methods of data capture.
Stitch and blend To establish comparable data sets from a variety of techniques, SIG needed to set up a baseline survey test site away from Network Rail’s main line infrastructure. Initially, the company’s test tracks at either Melton or Tuxford seemed the ideal location, but constraints arising from their successful fulltime role for train testing meant that it was instead decided to approach one of the country’s heritage railways. An agreement was reached with the Midland Railway Centre at Butterley, Derbyshire, delivering a welcome financial boost to an attraction celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2019. At Swanwick Junction station, Bridgeway installed 15 control points through a 200-metre-long double-track section, amidst S&C, signal posts, platform furniture and the like. “The facility gives us the opportunity to carry out multiple surveys within a narrow time window,” says Natasha Purewal, Network Rail’s scheme project manager, “minimising differences in factors such as weather, lighting and the presence of transient objects.” The first event took place in mid-March, attended by four suppliers using manual trolley-based equipment, a rail vehicle-mounted system and an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle,
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
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“What’s important is to have an understanding of the accuracy of all the different coordinate systems,” asserts Korec’s Matt Lock, “because that determines whether you can use the data for an engineering application or whether it’s more of an asset registry.” otherwise known as a drone. Let’s make the point now that it is not Network Rail’s intention to identify a preference for one technique or product over another, and what follows here is not a sales pitch.
Devil in the detail SCCS and Korec both demonstrated trolley-based kit, respectively using the Amberg IMS 5000 GPS system and the Trimble GEDO CE. In their basic forms, these use an inertial measurement unit (IMU) - a device comprising gyroscopes and accelerometers - to measure cant and gauge as they are pushed along the track. But that only creates a relative model hanging in space; by recording GPS/GNSS coordinates alongside it, the IMU trace can be accurately transposed onto a real-world SnakeGrid. The addition of a 360º laser scanner enables a 3D point cloud to be mapped of the trackside environment, extending out to the boundary fence. The scanners spin up to 200 times per second, collecting around 1,000,000 points. Although control points are captured as a matter of routine, Amberg and Trimble’s trolley-based systems don’t need control points and can therefore provide a continuous measurement of track conditions, such as twist faults. Typically covering two miles in an hour, the process is quicker than conventional fixed surveying techniques and, by reducing the number of people involved, represents a means of gathering large amounts of data whilst minimising workforce exposure to on-track risks. Critically, what this approach offers is high resolution. “At walking pace, we’ll have a laser profile every 5mm,” says Dave Dampier from SCCS, “so you’ll easily find the centre of a target; and the same goes for a feature such as a catchpit or a signal post.”
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
Fast track Mounted to a specially-equipped Class 37 locomotive, provided by Colas, was a portable mobile mapping unit from Balfour Beatty Technical Services, known as OmniCapture3D. The key advantage of this kit is the ability to quickly survey an entire route - comfortably covering more than 100 miles in a day with little or no impact on traffic. There is no need for possessions and no boots on the ground, except at the depot when the equipment is being commissioned or decommissioned. On the Class 37, the system can gather data at 70mph, although speed does have the effect of reducing point density and it therefore offers less detail than a trolley-based system. To help infill gaps or ‘shadows’, two offset Z+F Profilers are used, angled towards each running rail. Again, these can capture one million points in 200 profiles every second - effectively one profile every 80mm or so - and are fully synchronised to IMU and GPS units, as well as a tachograph. There’s also an imaging device to provide additional context, delivering 4K, high definition, infrared or spherical views.
FEATURE “It’s certainly appropriate for feasibility studies and the accuracy we’re going to now gets us to a higher level of detail, so you can go on to do your design with it,” says John Garlick, Balfour Beatty’s measurement services manager.
±20mm, we fly quite slowly - perhaps three metres per second - and gather several hundred pictures. It will also depend on weather conditions - how the UAV is performing on the day.”
Horses for courses Eye in the sky In principle, the approaches described so far gather threedimensional data from a radial viewpoint above the four-foot, moving only in one dimension; as a result, nothing is seen beyond the first obstruction encountered by the laser. However, the advent of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has revealed alternative perspectives from which both plan and elevation views can be derived. Bridgeway Aerial showed off a DJI Matrice 210, one of several aircraft operated by the company for inspections, photography, 3D modelling and LIDAR applications. They are capable of acquiring geospatial data that would previously have been impossible to secure. In the case of a structure, a series of high-resolution photos and associated GPS coordinates are taken from strategically-defined positions - including upward views into ‘hidden’ elements such as arch soffits - and stitched together using photogrammetry software. An orthomosaic representation is then extracted (that’s the task of correcting geometrical errors caused by topographic relief, lens distortion and camera tilt) and, from this, a georeferenced three-dimensional point cloud is processed. It’s even possible to produce a physical model of the structure using a 3D printer. The data points have a position relative to each other derived from the UAV’s GPS system which, at any one time, achieves its accuracy by typically connecting to around 18 satellites. But, to obtain an absolute position, the cloud is tied to trackside control points by manually identifying them at pixel level on the photographs. The resolution is determined by the requirements of the brief and defines the speed at which the survey is undertaken. Paul MacMahon, senior UAV pilot, explained: “For an accuracy of
All these devices currently play unique and valuable roles in their own right, having proven themselves to fit within the parameters and constraints of rail. Whilst the technology will doubtless evolve, the consistent challenge will be to fulfil the client’s requirements and ensure data quality compliant with appropriate standards. “At the moment we have bandings that each system is signedoff against,” says Wayne Cherry, Network Rail’s senior innovations engineer. “We’re now trying to get everything to a level that provides seamless integration, to give us confidence within our own disciplines and throughout the industry - supporting the principle of ‘survey once, use many times’.” The presence of four key suppliers at the Butterley test site indicates a willingness to engage and collaborate in realising the Signalling Innovations Group’s stated ambitions. There are commercial and safety imperatives that they are clearly buying into. A workshop is being held where the companies will present the information captured on the day - initially demonstrating the capabilities of their own software - before delivering the data in an open format for manipulation by SIG into a single model. Going into CP6, there is a recognition that, at times, the railway is capturing too much duplicate data across the various disciplines and is not always being clever enough about what to do with it. This project shows an emerging commitment to adopt a much more coordinated approach.
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
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FEATURE
CLIVE KESSELL
Tyer & Co token machine showing its major features.
Single Line Internet Control
T
he safe operation and signalling of single-line railways are crucial as any head-on crash between two trains is potentially catastrophic. Incidents of this nature are thankfully very rare as the systems devised to allow only one train into a single-line section are robust and well respected.
Train drivers have to be assured, beyond any doubt, that it is safe to proceed into the section ahead. Initially this was achieved by possession of a single physical ‘staff’ for the section, later developed into tablet or token machines to give more flexibility. In more modern times, No Signalman Key Token (NSKT) operation has emerged, whereby the drivers actually operate the token machines, mainly at passing loops, instead of a signaller. Tokenless Block is another alternative, where track circuits give signallers full viewing of the single line section to clear the signals accordingly. Use of radio in the RETB (Radio Electronic Token Block) application has also been developed. Tablet or token machines require a landline connection between adjacent signal boxes, never a problem in the past but it can be a constraint nowadays, with the continuing demand to rationalise lineside infrastructure. So, can other means be used to connect the token instruments? Park Signalling, now a member of the Unipart Rail group, has developed a system whereby secure IP (Internet Protocol) communication is used for the connection, either over the internet or any other non-dedicated communications link such as 4G cellular radio or Network Rail Telecom’s FTNx network. This represents an innovative means of adapting 21st century technology to link with Victorian engineering. Rail Engineer went to the Ecclesbourne Valley railway at Duffield to view a demonstration of the system.
The Tyer token machine To understand the operation, it is necessary to know how a traditional token machine works. It has five basic components - a plunger (1) for transmitting bell signals to adjacent instruments,
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
2 3 4
1
5
a pointer (2) for indicating to the signallers the state of the token section, an indicator (3) to show the outgoing and incoming signals sent via the plunger on the machines at each end of the section, and a commutator (4) in which the tokens are inserted when taken out or put back into the magazine (5) for holding the tokens. Operation consists of the signaller at one end sending a bell code to the signaller at the far end. If the section is clear, the far end signaller keeps the plunger depressed whilst the near end signaller slides a token up from the magazine and into the commutator, turning the token anticlockwise to remove it from the machine. The commutator turn reverses the line polarity to the far end machine which electrically prevents a token being removed from that machine or from removing a further token from the originating machine. The token is put into a leather pouch and handed to the driver who checks that it is correct for the section ahead. Once the train has reached the far end, the driver hands the token to the signaller who puts it into the commutator turning it clockwise, which then allows the instruments to be back ‘in phase’ in readiness for the next token extraction. In short, only one token can be removed at any one time for the particular single line section.
FEATURE
DiBloC - Digital Block Controller This is the fancy name for the almost lookalike new token instrument. In designing the machine, Park Signalling took a fresh look at some of the features in the old unit to decide whether they were still required. As such, the operation is similar but not identical to what has gone before. The shape and size of the machine is the same, including the magazine for holding the tokens, but is now made in aluminium. The front panel is slightly different in both facilities and operation. The bell plunger and the pointer for indicating the token state are replaced by an illuminated push button for ‘Request Token’, a ‘Signallers Release’ button/light for when permission is given for a token to be extracted, plus two LED lights to indicate ‘Token Available’ and ‘Token Not Available’. The commutator is similar but its position is read optically to interface with the electronics that lock or unlock the insertion or removal of a token. Insertion of a token is not dependent on power being available. The token key ‘cut’ is compatible with any existing tokens and any replacement project can retain the original tokens, thus providing the traditional safeguard against trying to insert the ‘wrong’ token into the machine. Completing the front panel are a series of LEDs to indicate power failure, network fault, building intrusion and suchlike. Behind the front plate is a printed circuit board with duplicated processors and electronics that control the instrument, including the mechanical aspects and electrical shotbolts. This is linked via a multiway cable to an internet router which,
at Ecclesbourne, was located in an equipment cabinet underneath the token instrument but could be at any convenient office location. This router is not unique to the machine and may provide the internet connection to other computer equipment at the location. The IP (Internet Protocol) address is assigned a static identity and provides a single network channel. For resilience purposes, two fully independent network channels should be made available to guard against one channel failing. The power is 24V DC and can incorporate an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) back-up battery if required. The weight of the unit is around 27kg. The connection from the router to the outside world can be either by fibre, 4G cellular network, satellite or to a rail company’s own telecom network. The system is designed to allow up to six token machines in a group. This will cater for situations where, for instance, a terminus location may have a machine on two or more platform ends or where an intermediate machine may be required to lock a train into a siding or freight yard and the token given up. The IP arrangements will be similar to creating a group address list with messages being sent in a loop from machine 1 to the next machine and so on until the last one sends it back to machine 1.
Park Signalling DiBloC Digital Block Controller.
DiBloC in operation The system can work in various modes: Signalbox to signalbox, where two signallers extract and return the tokens; Signalling centre to other locations (typically passing loops) where the driver will activate the token machine; ‘No Signaller’ operation with drivers operating the machines, located normally at passing loops, akin to NSKT operation.
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
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FEATURE Commercial considerations
To extract a token, firstly the ‘Token Available’ green LED must be lit and the ‘Request Token’ button is pushed. This sends a communication to all the other machines in the group and, if no token is already out, the machine indicates that a token can be released. The token is then lifted from the magazine and rotated out of the commutator. All the machines in the group will then be informed that a token has been extracted and the red LED ‘Token not Available’ is lit. Once the driver has checked that the token is correct for the section ahead, the train can proceed. At the far end, the token is inserted into the commutator and turned, with the optical reader recognising that a token replacement is occurring, thus sending an internet message to the other machines that a normal state has resumed and the ‘Token Available’ LED is again lit. Where a form of centralised signalling control is in operation, the driver who requires a token presses the ‘Request Token’ as before, but this sends an internet message to the signal centre. If the signaller is in agreement to a token being released, they will press the ‘Signallers Release’ yellow button, which will initiate an internet message to the requesting token machine where an audible alert will sound, indicating that the request has been granted and the driver can now extract the token. Such a situation will exist where train regulation and timetable adherence is such that a train may be held at a location whilst another train is allowed into the section first. In the UK, the operating rules require that verbal permission from the signaller is obtained before any token extraction takes place so that both parties understand the requirement of that particular train movement. In other countries, where the overall route management is less formalised, it is possible that a ‘first come, first served’ token extraction will be allowed, although this can cause timetabling problems if trains are running late.
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
The concept was initiated by a Park Signalling engineer who also worked as a volunteer on a heritage railway and recognised the problems of providing traditional telecom line connections. Many heritage lines use traditional token instruments and Network Rail still has around 110 token machines in service. There are also many countries in the world that have been sold Tyer token machines down the years and where maintaining reliable lineside cabling is a challenge. The market is not huge but is considered worthwhile to make the development investment, which was supported by the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education. The first application will be on the Ecclesbourne Valley line, where the staff can test and evaluate the system and tease out any weaknesses. A second application may well be at the southern end of the Central Wales line (Shrewsbury to Llanelli) where NSKT operation is the mode of operation. Reaction to date is encouraging but with some potential users asking if the bell push plunger and the ‘train going or train coming’ indicator can be incorporated. The answer is yes, but it will have cost implications and the modification would likely be bolt-on units. Users are asked to consider whether, in these days of cellular telephony, such add-ons are really necessary. Clearly, the machines are precision made and the design has incurred development costs, so investment is required when replacing existing units. Park Signalling is mindful of this and will offer various hire purchase or rental options, as well as an installation service which can include maintenance and fault finding. An arrangement with SigNet Solutions at Derby can give training to prospective users. The system incorporates SIL 3 safety functions and is designed to EN 50126, 50128 and 50129 standards with certification expected shortly. Network Rail guidelines for cyber security are followed. Thanks to Ian Allison, Robin Lee and the engineers at Park Signalling for a most interesting day.
FEATURE
Radical Innovation in Rail Technology
Park Signalling has developed a digital replacement for the Electric Key Token Machine - DiBloC It is designed to communicate digitally through IP based systems and includes provision for TPWS. To see DiBloC in action, as well as other products, visit stand L41 at Railtex.
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INSPIRING INNOVATION Research opportunities
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or ten years, the innovation conference run by the Railway Industry Association (RIA) has gone from strength to strength and, in 2018, won the Trade Association Forum’s best conference award. This year, it attracted a record 288 delegates and took place at Telford - a particularly appropriate venue as the town is named after the innovative civil engineer Thomas Telford and incorporates the UNESCO world heritage site of Ironbridge, which is considered to be the birthplace of the industrial revolution. The conference’s mix of presentations, pitches, workshops, table sessions and an exhibition area has much to offer for anyone with an interest in how the rail industry can benefit from emerging technologies. It also provided useful guidance for companies that wish to develop their products for use in the industry. Last month, Rail Engineer reported on how the conference addressed ways in which the rail industry could the reduce its carbon footprint, both from new technologies and further electrification, which RIA’s electrification cost challenge report shows can be delivered in an affordable manner. This month we feature other aspects of the conference.
DAVID SHIRRES
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
Opportunities to develop new technologies were the subject of presentations and workshops led by the UK Rail Research and Innovation Network (UKRRIN) and Network Rail. Professor Clive Roberts of the University of Birmingham explained how UKRRIN was established in April 2018 after being awarded a £28 million Government grant with £64 million cofunding from various industry partners. Through effective collaborations between industry and academia, UKRRIN aims to provide a step-change in innovation to significantly improve UK rail performance by accelerating new technologies from research to market. UKRRIN is led by the University of Birmingham, which also provide its digital centre of excellence. Other centres of excellence are for rolling stock (Universities of Huddersfield, Newcastle and Loughborough) and infrastructure (Universities of Southampton, Sheffield, Nottingham and Loughborough, and also Herriot-Watt University in Edinburgh). Testing facilities are provided by Network Rail, Transport for London and the Quinton rail technology centre. Innovations already being developed by UKRRIN include verification of electrical clearances to reduce electrification bridge
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construction clearances (University of Southampton and Network Rail), invehicle acceleration data to detect track degradation (University of Huddersfield and Siemens) and Hydroflex, the UK’s first hydrogen train (University of Birmingham and Porterbrook). Clive encouraged industry, particularly small-to-medium size enterprises (SMEs), to engage with UKRRIN’s centres of excellence. He acknowledged concerns about intellectual property rights and advised that this is retained by the company. He also advised that Universities can apply to become a new UKRRIN centre of excellence, partner or affiliate. Network Rail’s CP6 research and development portfolio is a £357 million plan, of which £245 million is part of the CP6 settlement with the remainder to come from third-party funding. This is a 33 per cent increase on the CP5 settlement of £200 million plus £68 million third-party funding. However, the ORR requires this to be focused on Network Rail requirements rather than the more industry-wide requirements of the Rail Technical Strategy. In addition, Network Rail has €39 million research funding over a sevenyear period from Shift2Rail, Europe’s largest ever public-private research and development partnership. Despite Brexit, this funding is committed, although it is not clear whether there is be any future funding. For CP6, Network Rail has five research programmes, as shown in the table. These are supplemented by the outputs from the Shift2Rail research programmes on trains, control systems, infrastructure, IT solutions and freight. Network Rail is also a client member of i3P - a platform for cross-infrastructure industry innovation that currently has 10 client organisations and 16 tier 1 contractors.
MADE pitches As he opened the conference, RIA’s chief executive, Darren Caplan explained that its theme was “MADE in Britain” to reflect RIA’s focus on ‘Growing a sustainable rail industry in uncertain times’. MADE stands for Materials, Automation, Data and Energy, all of which are key areas requiring innovation. Later in the conference, companies
were given the chance to promote such innovations in three-minutes pitches to the audience. Examples of innovation in materials were Mott MacDonald’s use of a densified wood laminate to produce cost effective, low maintenance and visually sensitive overhead line structures; Dura Composites’ low maintenance, lightweight, modular GRP units that can be quickly laid on existing platforms to improve the platform train interface and the lightweight cable management sleeper produced by Oxford plastics which can be installed without disconnecting cables. Automation in inventory management and delivery requests was stressed in Unipart Rail’s pitch for its SmartServe service, which guarantees supply availability. The automation of surveying featured in pitches by the Severn Partnership, on the use of Fugro railmounted laser scanners, and from Plowman Craven on using drones to
Network Rail Research programmes for CP6
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FEATURE HS2's Mark Thurston.
and particulate emissions from its dualfuel technology, which also offers lower energy costs with the reduced cost of gas fuel and so can pay for itself in a few years.
Project innovation
conduct surveys, to an accuracy of 5mm, from which BIM models are produced and data handed over to asset owners. Using data to precisely determine location was the subject of a pitch from Machines with Vision. This technique uses a ground-truth map which provides a unique fingerprint of the ground surface to determine an exact position. Using apps to collect and process data featured in presentations from Opinsta of a defect app for efficient maintenance reporting and from Bombardier on its goJoe app, which creates, gathers and processes data to generate passenger information. Graffica’s pitch explained how, using its simulation platform, geographic and operation data can provide a virtual environment for capacity modelling and assessing the impact of various operational scenarios such as infrastructure and timetables changes. Fast in-train data transfer through a 10Gbit/s train ethernet backbone was described by LPA Connection Systems, which highlighted its copper ethernet switch. An energy efficient, very light railcar was the subject of WMG’s pitch, which explained the concept of an innovative, lightweight diesel-battery hybrid power train with an 18-tonne tare mass that is able to carry 100 passengers at 100km/h. G-volution’s pitch offered reduced CO2
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
HS2’s chief executive, Mark Thurston has no doubt that innovation is essential if HS2 is to provide the required service at an affordable cost. This particularly applies to project construction, when the project will be mobilising the supply chain at an unprecedented scale. Furthermore, productivity in the construction sector is poor. Figures from the office of national statistics show that construction output per worker is only 10 per cent greater than in 1997, compared with increases of 43 and 65 per cent for the production and manufacturing sectors. Like Network Rail, HS2 is also a client member of the i3p infrastructure industry innovation platform, of which Mark is a co-chair. This was established in 2016 and is based on Crossrail’s innovation programme and has four strategic themes: digital transformation; manufacturing construction; life cycle performance and non-technology elements. Mark stressed that innovation “has to be in the company’s DNA” and concerns people behaviours and collaboration. For this reason, HS2 is committed to early contractor involvement to integrate
design development and construction planning from the start of the project. HS2 also has an innovation hub to collate and progress new ideas. HS2 has also encouraged innovation through a ‘hackathon’ that produced innovations for smart infrastructure using augmented virtual reality, detecting employee fatigue and illness as well as enabling HS2 to be a good neighbour. As well as construction innovations, HS2 is seeking new ideas to improve passenger experience, as described in features on HS2 trains in the last two issues of Rail Engineer. This includes the “step free from street to seat” requirement. In a recently announced innovation, HS2 announced plans to heat 500 new homes near its Old Oak Common station to reduce their carbon footprint by more than a fifth. This is to be done by using air source heat pumps to convert warm air from the tunnel crossover box into hot water distributed to the homes through insulated pipes. Another strategic rail link under development is East West Rail (EWR), which is creating a rail link between Oxford and Cambridge. Following the opening of phase 1 between Oxford and Bicester in 2015, phase 2 is currently being developed. This is the construction of 75 route-kilometres of new railway, to link Bicester, Aylesbury, Milton Keynes and Bedford, for which target costs must be submitted in May. This is being delivered by the EWR Alliance which consists of Network Rail, Atkins, Laing O’Rourke and VolkerRail. Its director, Dominic Baldwin, explained how this is modelled on the collaborative Staffordshire alliance which constructed a new flyover at Norton Bridge. This engaged the supply chain at the early GRIP3 stage and functions as a single
The East West Railway.
Alex Heward describes EWR innovations.
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entity with risks and rewards equally shared. The aim is to create a highly motivated team focused on delivering value for money outcomes. Alex Heward of Laing O’Rouke is the EWR alliance’s innovation manager. He has a dedicated budget and is supported by five innovation champions who promote innovation in accordance with the alliance’s structured process to encourage and develop new ideas. EWR has 30 needs statements for which solutions are sought. To date, this has resulted in 225 ideas submitted by the project team. Examples of ‘innovations being progressed’ by EWR include shell abutments, which will save eight weeks in the programme and a 50 per cent reduction in site labour hours, fibrereinforced footbridge decks increase lifespan by 25 per cent at no extra capital cost, and sleeper lateral resistance plates which save £45 per sleeper.
RIA's David Clarke leading a discussion.
Alex advised that this innovative approach had saved £5 million to date and that EWR is keen to engage with the wider industry to disseminate its savings and learn of other industry initiatives. Although he stressed the importance of project innovation, it was accepted that this generally needs to be done at the early stages of the project, due to the risk from changes during project implementation.
Beyond the industry RIA’s innovation conference always features thought-provoking innovative practice from outside the rail industry. This year was no exception, with presentations from the aerospace sector on an initiative to reduce software costs and timescales as well as one on innovation in the wider construction industry. A presentation from Andrew Hawthorn from Altran and Mike Bennett from Rolls Royce described SECT-AIR (Software Engineering Costs and Timescales Aerospace Initiative for Reduction) which is a £10 million project, part-funded (50 per cent) by Innovate UK. It is a panindustry initiative which involves ten aerospace companies, of which Rolls Royce is the lead participant, together with the universities of Oxford, York and Southampton. SECT-AIR aims to significantly reduce rising software development costs and timescales that dominate the development costs of new products which, if not addressed, will result in unacceptable delays introducing new products, especially as Rolls Royce is currently developing multiple new engines. As an example of costs, the software for an engine control unit typically has 300,000 lines of code at a cost of about
£100 per line. One such engine is the Ultrafan which, unlike the Trent engine it will replace, will have a power gearbox to control fan speed, which is anticipated to have double the electronics and software. Its planned introduction from 2025 may be at risk unless software development timescales can be reduced. SECT-AIR aims to exploit world-leading research to improve the software design, production and the verification process, the later accounting for most of the time and cost. Solutions include avoiding rework through better systems specification, improved handover between stages and automated verification. No doubt this initiative will offer valuable lessons for the rail industry. Software is also an important aspect of innovation in the more traditional construction industry which, as Mark Thurston noted, doesn’t have a good productivity record. In his presentation, Peter Kirk, managing director specialist services at Balfour Beatty, explained what his company is doing to change this. Before doing so, he emphasised the importance of first getting the basics right, including effective communication and fostering a culture of trust and collaboration. In developing innovations, Balfour Beatty considers what is needed now, in the near and in the far future, to which it devotes roughly 70, 20 and 10 per cent of its efforts. The company’s aim is to introduce new technologies to reduce workforce site time by 25 per cent by 2025. This includes 4D planning, artificial intelligence (AI) and industrialised construction. The planning and constructability benefits of a 4D BIM model were evident from the model shown of the five-year London City Airport development programme, which provided detailed 3D views of the numerous construction stages throughout this programme. An example of this in the rail industry is the use of AI to train the patternrecognition software that is used to detect track defects from numerous photographs which are taken at high speed by the New Measurement Train. In recent trials, using AI in this way has significantly reduced the number of false positives. An example of the industrialisation of construction is the provision of a onegigawatt high-voltage direct-current interconnector in the Channel Tunnel, the world’s first such installation in a
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FEATURE live rail tunnel environment. The project uses numerous off-site and near-site techniques, the most impressive being a specially built 500-metre works train to enable the installation of twin 320kV cables in the five-hour working window per week where access is available. Peter is certain that such innovations must be the future of construction. However, he cautioned that the need to upskill and develop staff for such innovations should not be under estimated. He finished his presentation with a futurist video of a human free construction site in 2050, where people instead plan and support construction from safe environments. Whether this will be the future remains to be seen. Peter’s view is that, although it’s not possible to foresee the future, it is important to have a vision and work towards it.
Keynotes As well as presentations on specific issues, keynote presentations emphasised key points and made it clear what had to be achieved. Valerie Layan, Schneider Electric’s transportation segment president, reminded those present that they were now in the fourth industrial revolution, as artificial intelligence changes industrial operations. The increasing use of technologies such as robotics, autonomous vehicles and quantum computing is driven by huge amounts of interconnected complex data. As an illustration of the exponential growth of data, global internet traffic in 1997, 2007 and 2017 was respectively 60 petabytes (1015), 54 exobytes (1018) and 1.1 zetabytes (1024). Valerie advised that less than ten per cent of data is currently used. She noted that digitisation accelerates business disruption, giving examples of how Uber and Netflix provide more responsive, less expensive services than their predecessors. Rail businesses needed to be aware of both the threats and opportunities from the fourth industrial revolution. In respect of benefits, Valerie considered that rail businesses should be able to reduce energy costs by 25 per cent through smart energy management, increase operational efficiency by 20 per cent using big data, and reduce ownership cost by 15 per cent through condition-based maintenance and targeted life extension. Transport for London’s (TfL) head of transport systems engineering Claire Porter explained how TfL intended to
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
use emerging technologies to deliver innovative solutions to support the Mayor’s transport strategy. This has three aspects, which are: 1. Healthy streets and healthy people with targets of 20 minutes active travel per person by 2041, three million fewer daily car trips by 2041 and zero emissions by 2050; 2. A good public transport experience including better use of the Thames, improving bus speeds by 10-15 per cent and reducing rail and underground overcrowding by 10-20 per cent; 3. New homes and jobs with high density, mixed use places in wellconnected locations. She reflected that the first aspect was particularly important, as 2,000 people a year are killed on London’s roads and a recent report had estimated that the capital’s poor air quality results in 9,000 deaths a year. To deliver the engineering support for this strategy, TfL has recently amalgamated its 1,500 engineers into one organisation that centralises support for such things as safety, telecoms and infrastructure, with dedicated systems support for vehicles, power, track and road & rail traffic control systems. To promote innovation, TfL has its own innovation portal, open both to employees and members of the public. In partnership with the London Transport museum, its Innovate TfL programme encourages innovation by engaging with a diverse population at an early age to ask them for innovative solutions to a real TfL challenge. TfL is also following Network Rail’s practice of producing challenge statements and now has a standardschallenge process, which RIA helped to develop.
Network Rail’s new chief executive, Andrew Haines (below) is clear that the company must change. It has lost trust and is insufficiently responsive to its customers. Asset performance must improve, product approval is too slow and, although projects have delivered good infrastructure, passengers have suffered as this was not linked to train plans. He recognised that, all too often, such people find themselves frustrated by the structure and processes that stop them doing a good job. Often, collaborative working only happens because people put a lot of what the company tells them to do to one side and find a better way of doing things for themselves. For these reasons the company must change and reorganise so that it is closer to its customers. Network Rail must also innovate, so it is encouraging early contractor involvement and challenges to standards. It is also devolving its research programme, which in the past had been too-centrally led. Andrew expects technology to be introduced quickly, but considers that clarity on best practice is required. He also wanted the industry to respond with solutions to Network Rail’s challenge statements. RIA’s innovation conference certainly offered solutions, although these need to be matched to business need. As always, this was a stimulating event with a good mix of formal conference activities and informal networking that is worthy of its Conference of the Year accolade. Definitely a date for the diary next year, when the conference will move to June - keep an eye on the RIA website for more details.
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Telecoms innovations
for tomorrow’s railway
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t a recent IRSE section event in Birmingham, Tim Lane, principal strategy and innovation manager, Network Rail Telecom (NRT), gave a presentation on Network Rail’s latest innovations in telecommunications and how these may be applied to future deployment on the railway. To support tomorrow’s railway, communication networks must be able to provide a trackside internet of things (IoT), with real-time data capture to enable ‘predict and prevent’, condition-based maintenance and the ability to add points of presence as and when required. This will enable a condition-based maintenance approach to allow interventions to take place before assets fail, and, ultimately, to automate the interventions. NRT’s strategy is to be in a position to provide universal rail corridor connectivity, to enable trackside IoT wireless connectivity for an ecosystem of low cost, battery-powered intelligent data sensors and things.
Blue skies technology and red signals
PAUL DARLINGTON
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
After the serious passenger disruption affecting King’s Cross and Paddington station services in December 2014, Francis Paonessa, the then managing director of Infrastructure Projects, Network Rail, carried out a review of the incidents and concluded that “Contractors will be required to test any new equipment in an off-the-railway environment before it is used on live railway work.” This is especially important with new innovative technology. NRT has developed this requirement into three stages of landing new technologies safely and efficiently. The first stage is to carry out the technology definition, evolution and testing in a specialist laboratory environment, such as the 5GUK R&D hub facility run by a number of
FEATURE universities and known as the R&D stage. Testing then moves to the alpha testing stage with technology proving at the Rail Innovation and Development Centre (RIDC) at Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire in a representative rail environment. Finally, beta testing is carried out via controlled pilot testing and early deployment schemes. The RIDC site (formerly known as the Old Dalby Test Track) is a dedicated testing and trialling facility for use by Network Rail and the rail industry. It has a 13-mile high-speed electrified test track known as the Down Reversible Line (DRL), and a four-mile low-speed electrified test track known as the Up Reversible Line (URL), where new and modified railway infrastructure, rolling stock, plant and technology is tested prior to operational deployment. The test tracks can be configured as DRL 13-mile, 11-mile or two 5-mile sections which can operate independently. URL can be configured as 2.5 miles (with four-rail DC electric supply) or 4 miles. It is possible to change the method of operating the test track between multiple operational configurations to offer the best flexibility and accessibility for a range of innovations to benefit multiple industries as well as the rail sector. A twomile section is non-electrified and wellsuited to other testing, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (drones). The RIDC site has a strong history of helping to develop cutting-edge innovation, which commenced in the late 1960s. Historical events include: the testing of the world’s first tilting train (the APT), early tests of radiating cable propagation in railway tunnels and British Rail’s spectacular collision of a fast-moving train with a nuclear flask. More recently, the site has hosted intensive testing of the S Stock London Underground trains, Intercity Express Programme (IEP), Crossrail and London Overground rolling stock.
Approximately 20km of optical fibre and 3km of copper cable with 11 nodes, along with five trackside and one hill-top radio mast, are now available for telecoms testing. This includes trackside equipment staging and a high capacity internet feed.
Self-managing and self-healing railway To deliver revolutionary initiatives in rail requires intelligent operations with increasing use of collecting and exploiting live operational data. This will necessitate developing better ways to harvest, transport and process the data. There have already been benefits from the deployment of intelligent infrastructure, with increasing environmental and asset sensing to achieve better availability of actionable intelligence, but more is needed. The deployment of ETCS and traffic management will deliver increased capability and flexibility, with trains potentially providing service patterns dynamically linked to demand. What rail requires, and customers insist on, is also better predictability and reliability. There needs to be increased automation and autonomy, resulting in a largely self-
managing and self-healing railway. All this will require better ways of collecting and processing data, which will need new ways of communicating. The outgoing president of the IRSE Markus Montigel suggested that the term “Internet of Railway Things” (IoRT) should be used in the context of connected systems contributing to controlling the railway and consisting of networks of devices containing electronics, software, actuators, which allows them to connect, interact and exchange data. Markus said he believed that the new world of connected sensors and actuators, which interact and exchange data - the IoRT can and must control a lot more in the future than has been possible in the past. Devices must appear en masse and be low-cost in order to fulfil their role. To achieve this, a telecoms network with new ways of delivering connectivity is required. The Network Rail telecoms network consists of 18,000km of fibre optic cable, 22,000km of copper twistedpair cable and 2,500 GSM-R radio sites, with a further 3,500 data nodes. All this provides a great basis for connectivity, but innovation is required to exploit this asset even further. The good news is that much of the telecoms innovation is already taking place at the RIDC, which provides a location for NRT and partners from industry to develop and test concepts, without affecting the operational railway.
Fibre-optic sensing Fibre-optic sensing can be used to measure various external parameters along a fibre-optic cable laid alongside a rail route. Light is reflected or backscattered as it propagates through
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FEATURE Fibre-optic acoustic sensing (FOAS) is equivalent to having a microphone every 10 metres along the track.
an optical fibre in response to a change in temperature, a bending or pulling force, or mechanical waves in the fibre’s proximity, which is sensitive enough to detect noise. The backscattered light is detected at the source, and the location and cause of the backscatter event can be determined. In very simple terms, the fibre cable can be considered to be a very long microphone. Ten years ago, Network Rail deployed a system using fibre optic sensing to detect copper cable theft. Expectations were high and the sales people from the telephone company involved did a good job of selling the idea to the board. Unfortunately, the system suffered from too many false positives, with heavy freight trains triggering alarms as well as trespassers lifting troughing lids. The system was funded as a copper cable theft deterrent system and not as an innovation and development scheme. It did help to prevent one theft, but eventually it was recovered and forgotten about. Ten years later, the technology has improved, but so also have the expectations and NRT recognises that such systems need to be properly trialled and evaluated, rather than looking for quick wins. The systems now deployed in trial are effectively delivering a trackside ‘microphone’ fibre-sensing capability approximately every 10 metres, so a 50km fibre is the equivalent of 5,000 distributed sensors. Each acoustic event has its own signature and so far over 60 (and counting) potential use cases have been identified. These include wheel flat detection, earthwork failures, train integrity/derailment detection, rail integrity, trespass, and weather detection.
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
Over 1Tb of data per day per 20km is collected, so it is a bit like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Techniques are being developed to create reliable, actionable intelligence using a variety of intelligent data and event characteristic detection sources, together with machinelearning technology. The system has recently been used to track different types of trains running along the RIDC test track while, at the same time, a system provided by OptaSense detected earthquakes at Swansea (17 February 2018) at a magnitude of 4.4 at a depth of 7.4km, 240 km away, and at Grimsby (9 June 2018) at a magnitude of 3.9, depth 18km, 100km away. It was found that the earthquake signal is best detected in areas where fibrecable makes good contact (coupling) with the ground. In the immediate aftermath of the derailment of the Down Virgin Trains Pendolino at Grayrigg on 23 February 2007, the damage to the adjacent Up line ‘dropped’ a track circuit and caused a southbound Virgin Cross Country Voyager
train to stop at a protecting red signal. Had the Up line been monitored using axle counters, the southbound Voyager could have probably run into the derailed Pendolino at high speed, causing a much worse incident. Many of the worst rail accidents have involved a second train running into a derailed train. Track circuits would not always detect a derailed train and, with many routes now equipped with axle counters for train detection (which are unable to detect a derailed train). Could fibre optic sensing provide a solution? Chris Gibb, non-executive director of Network Rail, recently told Rail Engineer: “I am always amazed at what falls on the railway, almost by chance. In my time I’ve experienced a skip lorry, ready-mix concrete lorry, light aircraft, small boat, balloons, containers, some bridges, tunnel parts, fencing, telegraph poles, numerous trees and cars, freight wagons and coal.” It’s early days yet, but one day there may well be a network of fibre sensors to monitor and allow interventions to be instigated to prevent collisions and keep the railway safe.
LoRaWAN Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) is a standard for wireless communication that allows IoT devices to securely communicate over large distance with minimal battery usage. It has a similar range to a mobile phone with the flexibility of Bluetooth or Wi-Fi and a battery life measured in years. LoRaWAN is designed for small sensors/ devices/things that are battery operated and communicate limited information intermittently. It is therefore ideal for key IoRT requirements such as bi-directional communications, end-to-end security, mobility and low power. PHOTO: OPTASENSE
Grimsby earthquake of 9 June 2018 as detected by the OptaSense equipment at RIDC Melton.
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FEATURE level, vibration and movement; asset management to check the status and location of various assets, access control and level crossing gate status.
Project VECTOR
LoRaWAN on test at RIDC Melton. There are two different keys in LoRaWAN to provide security. The network session key (NwkSKey) is used to encrypt the whole frame, including headers and payload. When data is sent, this key is used to sign the message and allows the network server to verify the identity of the sender. An application session key (AppSKey) is then used to further encrypt the payload within the frame. The unlicensed industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio spectrum band is used and, with the system capable of relatively long-range coverage providing connectivity solutions in areas impacted by poor mobile network coverage, it is ideal for non-frequent low-speed railway communication applications. NRT, with the help of Comms365, has already deployed LoRaWAN at RIDC for trial applications of trackside sensing for water level and rail temperature monitoring, and has gained a good understanding of the range and quality of service delivery capabilities. Use cases could include metering - for example sending several messages a day about current usage; smart lighting; environment monitoring for sound, temperature, pollution, water level, fuel
For lineside applications that require more data bandwidth than LoRaWAN can deliver, and for better trackside coverage, Project VECTOR has been established, which stands for Value Engineered Communications Technology On Rail. This is intended to exploit the 22,000km of lineside twisted-pair copper cables, traditionally used for lineside telephony, such as the signal post telephones (SPT). In domestic locations, and for some businesses, high speed data internet access is provided via similar copper cables to those used in rail, and very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line (VDSL) technology. Traditionally, all telephones were powered from the telephone exchange via a central battery, but for high speed data a local power supply is required for the data router. This is why in the event of a power outage home fixed telephones will still work, but internet connections and cordless phones will not, unless a separate battery power supply is available. Project VECTOR will provide a power supply to a local data modem router via the same twisted pair copper cable, VDSL or symmetrical high-speed digital subscriber line (SHDSL) technology providing equal transmit and receive (i.e. symmetric) data rates. With GSM-R sites located every few kilometres trackside to provide a power supply, it may be possible to provide a high-speed data connection at most locations along the railway. Trials at RIDC involving Nokia and Kenton have suggested that a symmetrical bandwidth of 12Mbits/s with a latency less than 3 milli seconds over a 3km link may be possible. So, in the 21st Century, can the traditional signal post telephone (SPT), which is still provided as a back up to
Rail temperature monitoring.
Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
GSM-R, be replaced with a Wi-Fi point at the signal, allowing drivers to call a signaller via a Wi-Fi voice-calling app on a smart phone? The Wi-Fi point could also provide a high-speed data connection to manage and monitor other trackside equipment, which may include firmware updates to equipment. Could the SPDT (signal post data transmitter/receiver) replace “SPT” in railway terminology to become a 21st century SPT (C21SPT)? Other use cases could include a fixed telephone via a micro filter for SPTs at key locations and level crossings in addition to a Wi-Fi point, a data connection to a layer 2 data switch or fibre driver, or as a low-powered supply to another operational asset. Could a data Wi-Fi point or a layer 2 data port on a signal be used as part of the Combined Positioning Alternative Signalling System (COMPASS) as back-up degraded mode recovery to conventional signalling?
5G rail testbed To support the next generation of digital infrastructure, including 5G and full fibre broadband, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) 5G testbeds and trials programme is part of the government’s £740 million National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF) initiative. Innovator access to a mainline rail environment, with high speed trains running and infrastructure challenges (including tunnels and cuttings), is near impossible to offer on the operational infrastructure. So, as part of the programme, DCMS has funded the creation of a 5G rail testbed at the RIDC that, to be as accessible as possible, is open for both rail and non-rail 5G testing. The trackside infrastructure includes antenna support structures, optical fibre, equipment accommodation and power supplies at over thirty locations along the test track, which have been located to support the full complement of 5G spectrum bands and reflect the challenges of trackside rail deployment. The site also includes an operational train workshop, which can support test train installation with supervision, support, guidance and safety certification services. The telecoms network is at the centre of the future connected railway. While innovating in the rail environment is always a challenge, RIDC Melton is setting itself up to play a key role in safely landing new technologies, such as 5G and fibre-optic sensing.
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@aspect2019 www.aspect2019.nl registration@aspect2019.nl Rail Engineer | Issue 174 | May 2019
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NIGEL WORDSWORTH
ORBIS
an unsung but unqualified success
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unday 31 March 2019 signified not only the end of Network Rail’s Control Period 5, but with it the end of the ORBIS programme. ORBIS, Offering Rail Better Information Services, was a £335 million seven-year programme that aimed to put data at the heart of the railway and create a detailed digital model of the UK’s rail network. Network Rail relies heavily on high-quality asset information to plan, design, change, manage and operate its asset base safely and efficiently. Historically, this information was held in a number of different systems, with many user interfaces, varying computer programmes and even hard-copy records, some still on parchment and dating from Victorian times. An Asset Information Strategy, published in September 2011, admitted that Network Rail had, more than once, attempted to improve the quality of its asset data. However, whilst some of these initiatives had been effective in the short-term, they lacked appropriate governance mechanisms, processes and information handling competencies to make improvements sustainable. Patrick Bossert was the first head of the ORBIS Programme: “For ten years after the formation of Network Rail, the performance indicators, in almost every regard, had improved quite dramatically. But, for the two years prior to my joining (in 2011), everything had stalled. In fact, some of the indicators were going the wrong way. “That said to the board, very clearly, that they couldn’t squeeze the business for more efficiency - something else had to be done. So, our agenda was to use information as an enabler for process change and business effectiveness.”
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Apps explained
Business change Launched in October 2011, ORBIS aimed to consolidate all of these records, some of which were scattered around the network, into simple, user-friendly digital tools and databases that would help Network Rail manage its assets more efficiently, cost-effectively and safely and was predicted to save up to £1 billion over the next decade. Predominantly a data improvement and business change programme, ORBIS was designed to bring about a significant cultural shift in attitude toward, and trust in, asset data and information through the services provided by the Asset Information team. By getting this right, ORBIS would shift Network Rail from timebased maintenance regimes to condition and risk-based regimes. Three key elements became the key focus: First, to deliver whole systems intelligence to understand the railway as a system and plan and operate more effectively as an asset owner. Second, to deliver an integrated suite of data to intelligence tools to provide insight to enable better decisions on maintenance and renewal costs. Thirdly, and most importantly, to educate, train and equip engineers to exploit and realise the benefits of new tools and new ways of working. In particular, ORBIS aimed to stop Network Rail from: »» Recording asset condition information on locally held pieces of paper; »» Unnecessarily renewing infrastructure assets sooner than required; »» Planning work on the basis of poorly controlled or outdated schematics; »» Wasting time trying to locate an incident when time was of the essence; »» Requiring many months to provide route clearance for charter services; »» Taking many weeks to produce the necessary paperwork to dig a hole; »» Building a model of the network each and every time it needed one for timetable, system reliability or investment modelling purposes; »» Re-surveying project sites that had already been recently surveyed; »» Unnecessarily printing and distributing thousands of tons of paper each year in the form of Sectional Appendices, PONs, WONs, COSS packs and rule-books.
ORBIS aimed to deliver the resources needed to meet these aspirations through the introduction of mobile apps and tools specifically designed to capture high-quality asset data and which offered new ways of viewing the railway. The programme fell into three broad areas: »» Tools to capture, access and maintain high quality data; »» The ability to join and view asset data in collaborative work environments; »» Decision support tools for managing the infrastructure assets. The first step was to give all of the frontline teams iPads and iPhones, about 13,000 in total. They were encouraged to familiarise themselves with these tools and come back in six months to explain what they would like to do with them. The teams returned with ideas that were taken on by the delivery units, resulting in the creation of apps tailored to their users.
Outcomes Using the information provided by the frontline teams, and a ‘Model Office’ approach - meaning that it was developed through direct involvement and interaction with end-users from the initial design to the finished product - ORBIS then rolled out a number of transformational projects across Network Rail’s eight routes. Those outcomes included: Linear Asset Decision Support tool (LADS): Using iDevices or desktops, engineers can visualise, manipulate and analyse information about track data from one source. This enables proactive maintenance management through a better understanding of the assets. LADS consolidated more than 32,000km of track asset data into a single format. Apps for iDevices: A raft of intelligent apps have been delivered to end-users, including the My Work, Fault Code Lookup and Close Call apps. Rail Infrastructure Network Model (RINM): Using data from a range of sources, including images from existing master assets and aerial surveys, RINM delivers a clear picture of the entire railway network and how it relates to the wider environment. National Aerial Survey: The first complete aerial survey of the entire 16,000 kilometres of the UK’s rail network was carried out in 2014, capturing images of terrain to a much greater level of detail than existed previously.
My Work was designed to digitise the Ellipse (Network Rail’s asset database) work order management process. By delivering accurate, up-to-date information to iDevices, when and where it is needed, it eliminates the need for paperwork and supports mobile working. The app allows maintenance teams to view and close work orders and raise work-arising identification forms (WAIFs) on site, improving their ability to plan and organise their work schedules. The app includes access to the work bank and allows teams to view the condition history of an asset to enable more informed decisions on maintenance work. It also enhances visibility of other work in the vicinity of a maintenance team. Engineers using the app can capture asset data and deliver completed, accurate work orders to section managers for review and approval. To date, more than 14.8 million work orders have been closed on the My Work app. Fault Code Lookup (FCL) is a mobile application used by technicians and fault teams to capture the most up-todate information on faults and failures. The information is then delivered to incident controllers and the fault management system (FMS) in real time. Fault teams can carry out fault analysis and send accurate cause and supporting information directly to incident control. FCL was first rolled out in June 2014 and is now used by approximately 5,000 users. Close Call was introduced to increase safety across Network Rail. Maintenance teams use the Close Call app to efficiently capture data about hazardous situations, so they can report information in real time and ensure repairs are immediately addressed.
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Workstreams Five of the key projects delivered by the ORBIS programme were: »» Rail Infrastructure Network Model (RINM) project - which delivered the Geo-RINM Viewer and the Integrated Network Model (INM); »» Mobile Works Management (MWM) delivering iDevices and apps; »» Exchange of Asset Information (EAI); »» Asset Data Store (ADS) »» Central data store containing three billion records; »» Decision Support Tools (DST) for track, signalling, electrical power, operational property and level crossings. The effects of the change from diverse, ‘flat’ databases containing limited information to one, overarching, geospatial view of the railway and its assets cannot be underestimated. Being able to visualise the railway from a geospatial perspective has changed how Network Rail teams work. The RINM project team delivered two key projects: The Geo-RINM Viewer and the Intigrated Network Model (INM). Using the Geo-RINM Viewer, users can view individual assets, the environment surrounding these assets and the proposed worksite, identifying any hazards before sending Network Rail staff and contractors to the site. Indeed, the adoption of this new technology, which was developed with assistance from Arup, removes the need for site visits to carry out surveys and allows teams to make accurate calculations
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of heights and areas for project material estimations from a single desktop tool, resulting in increased efficiencies and cost savings. INM replaced Network Rail’s existing 1970s mainframe system to become the new master asset register for track - integrating plain line and switches and crossing data - providing teams with a geospatial asset view of the track asset and improving how data is updated and viewed after track has been renewed and maintained. However, information has to be kept up-todate. As work on the railway takes place, records need to be updated reliably and continuously. Now consolidated into a single database, that information has to be entered in a consistent way. The Mobile Works Management team had distributed iPads and iPhones to the workforce, and then also delivered the various apps and led training in how to use them. Following on from this, the Exchange of Asset Information (EAI) project, which is due for final delivery later this year, will formalise and optimise asset information exchange between Network Rail and its supply chain, enabling a single platform for those planning and delivering work on the railway. The Asset Data Store now combines 450 data sets and 34 separate source systems to deliver insight in to asset performance that would previously have taken weeks to analyse. Holding more than three billion records it is now offering a wealth of opportunity for Network Rail to carry out bulk reporting on assets and to plan more effectively for CP6. Once again, Arup worked with Network Rail to provide business and technical architecture and design, investment case support, requirements management, process writing and formulation of the data quality. That governance approach facilitated the programme passing multiple investment stage gates, standardising data management and giving transparency and confidence that all asset information would be correct and up-to-date for any future infrastructure-change project. Disparate sources of information reduce efficiency, impacting passenger service and operations as asset managers are not able to make optimised renewals and maintenance decisions. ORBIS’ Decision Support Tools (DSTs)
FEATURE integrate data sources into a user-friendly dashboard where data can be easily searched, filtered and sorted. The tools also include linear trend analysis functionality in order to predict when certain faults may arise. For instance, the Track DST is helping teams to analyse when and where cyclic top events are likely to impact track alignment, giving engineers the evidence to carry out targeted maintenance work to avoid and resolve temporary speed restrictions (TSRs).
Viewing the railway In 2014, Network Rail carried out an aerial survey, photographing the railway in highresolution to produce a detailed map of all infrastructure assets - 220TB of railway data was captured during the survey. The resulting ‘orthophotos’ have a resolution of 4cm, showing anything larger than 4cm in clear detail. This information was then combined with the 150 layers of data from the various other databases to reveal a wealth of knowledge about the railway - data and imagery that can now be accessed through a single viewer - the Geo-RINM Viewer - via desktop computers. It reveals some interesting detail. First, there is a conventional photographic layer, showing the railway from above in full colour. Then, the twotone digital surface model images show the height and depth of landscape features above ground including trees, bridges and platforms. This model is based on images captured during the aerial survey, with light sensors taking highly accurate measurements using a light-detecting and ranging (LiDAR) technique. By manipulating the LiDAR data, surface features such as trees and vegetation can be stripped away. The resulting digital terrain model view shows the ground surface, bare of all features, and reveals the height of any slopes or the depth of any cuts in the terrain. Other views identify the location of hazards, listed buildings and buried services. The GeoRINM Viewer enhances engineers’ access to information, from access points and track geometry to geological and flood data. The Viewer can be used to measure distances and areas digitally, making pre-planning simpler as work site planning and familiarisation starts in the office, reducing time on track and so increasing employee safety.
leaves create a thin, black layer on the rail that, much like black ice on the roads, can affect train braking and acceleration as a result of reduced friction between train wheels and rail. In addition, trees and branches fall onto both railway tracks and overhead wires - around 500 times in any one year. Using data from the ORBIS aerial survey, special software identified each tree, its species and over 100 different attributes per tree, including height, thickness, health, slope angle, proximity to bridges and power lines, all of which were measured to predict the risk an individual tree represented to the railway. Vegetation control teams could then be despatched to those ‘hotspots’ where there were potential problems. However, it’s not simply a question of cutting them down. Many of the older trees existed even before the railway. Some are protected by legislation. Veteran trees are important as deadwood habitats for rare fungi, invertebrates, lichen, birds and bats - they have a structural complexity providing many habitat niches that do not exist on younger trees. Sensitive vegetation management can make them safe so they don’t affect the running of the railway, as sensitively as possible so that this doesn’t harm the tree. But that’s only one of ORBIS’ successes. There are many others. “People now recognise that data is an asset in its own right,” said Stephen Hobden, head of delivery and managing director - consulting at TUSP. “We have addressed a whole heap of issues in a seven-year programme and laid some foundations for others to build on and continue to exploit.
Tree survey One of the more unlikely successes of the ORBIS programme was the tree survey. Alongside Britain’s 20,000 miles of railway, some 10 million trees grow within 60 metres of the tracks, although not all are on Network Rail property. Just one mature tree can have between 10,000 and 50,000 leaves, so, each autumn, thousands of tonnes of leaves fall onto railway lines across the country. Compressed by passing trains, these
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FEATURE “We have a lot of visits from abroad, from Australia, from Europe as well, looking at the work that we’ve done around our decision support tools, at our Geo-RINM Viewer, how we’ve managed to create a new way of viewing multiple data layers and imagery from a single tool, and how we’ve looked at managing change as well not just the technological side. “I think sharing good practice across the world is the way to go - not every railway is different, I think they all share a lot of the same challenges, and I don’t think anyone in this industry has ever tackled something as big as we have in one go.”
Managing change
L-R: Stephen Hobden, ORBIS head of delivery, Sylvia Reeves, ORBIS director, Patrick Bossert, NR’s former director of Asset Information, Steve Dyke, former ORBIS director, Tim Coucher, former ORBIS director.
Jamie Crystal of EY explained that his company’s role was that of business change integrator. From the very beginning, it was clear that delivering a cultural change would be critical to the success of ORBIS - changing hearts and minds to create a ‘pull’ from the business had to be at the forefront of the programme. “EY was brought in to focus on those business change aspects,” he said. “To try to get away from a typical technology-led implementation and look at what it actually means for the front-end people on the track and also the people who are working in the offices - the planners and so on - at how they could become more efficient at their jobs and focus on planning and safety. “The focus in the early days for ORBIS was to get the workforce digitally enabled, so they were able to pick up work on their iPads and their iPhones, removing the paper-based work, making that whole process more effective more efficient - and also giving them the right information to make their jobs safer. Now, it’s more about using that data to drive end-to-end processes around effective predictive asset maintenance activities.
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“A big challenge is dealing with the range of working styles across a large, engineering-focused workforce, which includes the full spectrum from apprentice school leavers through to those approaching retirement. A lot of work was done face-to-face with individuals out in the routes to get them to use the technology more effectively. “Many utilities have faced the same challenges around smart-metering workforces, and how they use smart-metering technology. The big network utilities have very similar problems and challenges and are continuing with similar transformation programmes to ORBIS.”
Time’s up! After £335 million and seven years, ORBIS finally closed its doors at the end of CP5. There was a small amount of work still to be completed, and many team members will be back under the guise of ‘Intelligent Infrastructure’, the next big programme to improve the way Network Rail manages the railway. Much of the work on Intelligent Infrastructure during CP6 will be carried out by the former ORBIS team. Tim Coucher (pictured above), ORBIS programme director, explained: “One of the things that we recognise is that there is a wealth of knowledge in an area of the business that’s not well known. We’ve been through that journey (ORBIS) and, for us to continue that journey, we need to retain these people in the business. We’ve given them a line of sight through the CP6 work because we needed to retain those skills and knowledge and keep them within Network Rail.” No doubt we shall be hearing much more about Intelligent Infrastructure in the future. Meanwhile, congratulations to the ORBIS team for delivering a challenging and highly complex project, on time and on budget, that will benefit the railway of the future.
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NIGEL WORDSWORTH
“Hugely
impressive!”
Francis Paonessa reflects on his time at Network Rail
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hen Dr Francis Paonessa joined Network Rail in the summer of 2015 from Bombardier Transportation, where he had been managing director of the train manufacturing and servicing business in the UK, he did so to head up Infrastructure Projects (IP) the national organisation charged with delivering major enhancements on the railway network. Now, with new CEO Andrew Haines pushing forward with a policy of devolution and decentralisation, the work of Infrastructure Projects will be undertaken by the five regions and 13 routes that are being set up. As a result, Francis left Network Rail at Easter. Before he left, he took the time to meet with Rail Engineer at the company’s offices in Derby to look back at his five years in railway infrastructure, Infrastructure Projects’ achievements in that time, and his personal experiences.
Great expectations On the face of it, Francis’ experience at Bombardier, and before that at naval shipbuilder Vosper Thornycroft, had got him used to major manufacturing on fixed sites. The railway is not manufacturing, and it takes place on very long, thin sites, in the open, all over the country. On the face of it, a very different experience. “Actually, I was expecting a lot of similarities,” Francis demurred. “The theme that ran through ship building, at Bombardier and here is that of large-project management and of engineering-led, low-volume manufacture.
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“Ship building was the ultimate low volume manufacturer for the complexity of the design that you did. It was a massive design effort that resulted in the construction of one, two or three ships. “Bombardier was very similar, with complex train integration and system integration, but for me it was a dream of then having maybe 100 of them to build. That was big volume and there was a lot of opportunity for continuous improvement that was much more difficult to do in ship building. “Coming to Network Rail, I was expecting a large project management system, an integration-type business, but again, ultimately, very low volume manufacture. It’s an interesting mix of big projects like Thameslink or Birmingham New Street or some of the other stations where they are true one-offs, together with a lot of repetitive work where bringing my manufacturing experience in really helped. “Track is very repetitive, and, actually, so is electrification more than anything - a logistics exercise rather than a complex design. There is nothing in electrification that is difficult in itself - it’s the amount of it that is difficult, and the integration with the railway and getting access to it, and working with the local community when you’re raising bridges, shutting bridges and demolishing bridges. There’s a lot of similarity, but also some things which are quite different. “What I did find surprising was that so much of the enhancements were still in the development phase. That was not what I was expecting. It was fine up until reclassification, when the accounting process that we had put in place to cope with the fact that so much was in development was no longer fit for purpose. It switched life from being ‘Is it value for money? Is it efficient spend?’ to ‘Is it within budget?’ which sounds similar but is a fundamentally different approach.
“The railway had to switch from a whole approach, and a whole CP5, of ‘Is it efficient spend?’ to ‘There is a finite budget and you’ve got to design within it’. We were not prepared for that significant change. In fact, when I arrived - and that was only a couple of months before we reclassified - the conversation was more about borrowing money than it was about recognising what a fundamental shift that would make to the whole approach to the business.”
Hendy Review Reclassification caught many people out. When Network Rail became an armslength central government body, it was thought that this was purely an accounting exercise and everything would stay much the same. It wasn’t, and it didn’t. Previously, Network Rail had to plan several years ahead when it applied for government funding, which was provided on a five-year cycle. Some projects, particularly those which would be carried out over a long period of time, or which would be started late in a control period, were therefore costed at very early stages of the project, often before the design was complete or work such as ground surveys had been undertaken.
This was not especially Network Rail’s fault. Money needed for a project scheduled to take place in the third year of a control period had to be applied for up to two years before the start of that period, or five years before construction would take place. So much of the cost calculation was based on a very incomplete design. As a result, the costings were often wrong, sometimes wildly so, and almost always underestimated. But that didn’t matter too much as Network Rail could borrow the shortfall by issuing its own bonds and other measures. With reclassification, that all stopped. No longer could Network Rail borrow extra capital, it was to be on a fixed budget which would come direct from government. Which left Network Rail in a pickle. While many projects were running well, and financially under control, several of the ‘early estimate’ projects were substantially underfunded, but still had to be completed. They were planned and costed under one regime, but were now to be financed under a new and different regime, and that would be impossible. Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy was asked to conduct a thorough review of the enhancement programme in England and Wales to see what could be delivered in an affordable and timely way within the funding period to 2019. Hendy’s proposal was to complete all of the work that had been agreed, but over a longer timescale. So, the money allocated for the period up to 2019 (in CP5) would then fund a reduced amount of work, with the remaining projects funded from a new budget for CP6 (2019-2024). As part of this exercise, Francis and his team were asked to reduce costs as much as possible.
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Value engineering “Firstly, we didn’t re-estimate the projects,” Francis explained. “There wasn’t the time to do that as part of the Hendy review. That’s a big misconception that people have, they think that Hendy was a whole reset of the process. It wasn’t. We used the estimates that we had at the time. What we presented to Peter, and then Peter ultimately recommended to the Department for Transport, was the prioritisation of the projects and the likelihood of them being delivered on time with the schedule that went with them. “When you added it all up, we had £193 million worth of extra stuff to deliver than we had money for. So, we had to value engineer £193 million worth out.” This figure was not about slippage, it was a genuine need to reduce the cost of current projects by £193 million. In addition, Sir Peter Hendy had assumed that about 10 weeks’ work, or £500 million, would slip into CP6 from CP5. But the £193 million is on top of that. “It was interesting,” Francis recalled. “We classed value engineering as whether we could deliver the same passenger outputs or benefits for less. That drove a whole lot of innovation. “In the end, we delivered about £240 million of value engineering, so we came out on the right side. “Because we didn’t re-estimate Hendy, we worked with the DfT and University College London who did a whole piece of work looking at estimating of early rail projects to cope for optimism bias. If you apply those optimism bias percentages, which we’ve now included in later
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estimates to the Hendy portfolio, it would have added about another £1 billion to the cost. We had this massively significant headwind buried within the budget that wasn’t re-estimated. “When we look at our value engineering, we also then delivered, on top of the £240 million, another £500 million of value engineering which was offset by headwinds.” The team also looked into Cause Association Modelling (CAM). This looks at the links between risks, and how one risk can affect another and so skew the risk profile. The calculation was that, across the portfolio of work, an extra £300 million was needed to cover those risks. “We spent the £300 million - we saved £500 million,” Francis claimed. “This offset headwinds in the portfolio and then we saved another £240 million through value engineering, which kept us within the Hendy budget. Having now just gone through the end of CP5, we’ve delivered the £15.3 billion of Hendy within a fraction of one per cent of the budget we set out over four years ago which, personally, I think is hugely impressive, given where we started.”
Back to renewals In CP3 and CP4, work was concentrated mostly on renewals. CP5 saw a large upswell in the amount of enhancements taking place. Now, for CP6, the emphasis seems to be back on renewals. “There’s still a lot of enhancement spend in CP6, let’s be clear,” Francis commented. “There’s about £10.5 billion that is inherent within the funding that we’ve got to deliver within CP6, which is still an enormous amount of money to go and spend on enhancements. “But I don’t think we’ll see another control period like CP5. £18.7 billion invested in enhancements and £14.4
billion worth of renewals within Network Rail over the last five years. I think Nichols worked out we delivered 22 per cent of all UK infrastructure. That’s a lot for one organisation to do, particularly when we have the constraints of access to the railway. “You asked at the beginning about the big difference between working in ship building and working in Bombardier, it’s ten times easier to work in a fixed site where you don’t have to break the work up into 40,000 chunks. We take about 40,000 possessions a year to deliver our work, that’s 40,000 opportunities to get it wrong and to either overrun or put the travelling public at risk. “It’s very challenging to do and it’s totally unlike any other business I’ve been in. With a brownfield site, and we’ve been fortunate to work on some of those, Stafford was a really good example where the vast majority of the work was off railway and the only railway interfaces were the turn off, then it’s a very different way of working and a very different way of thinking because you’ve got 24/7 to do it in. You haven’t got to wait for the last train to go by, take the possession, get onto the railway, transit to where you want to work and then get back off again. “I think our average possession time is 5 hours and 35 minutes, it’s not a lot of time, given the demands and the expectation of handing back on time and handing back safely, but we are now managing to fit 38 per cent more spend into each possession minute than we were at the start of the control period.”
Reliability and contingencies One of the other improvements that have come about over the last five years is in the reliability of plant, and the reduction in overruns and additional costs they can cause.
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“The track team has put an enormous amount of effort in with the equipment providers to drive down our RRV failures,” Francis commented. “If an RRV fails in the dig, you’re really stuck because it’s not an easy piece of equipment to fix. It’s sat in the way and trying to get a 30-tonne bit of kit out of a hole isn’t that easy when you’ve got engineering trains on one side and you’re trying to work. And if you’ve only allowed for four hours of contingency time, you’re hard up against it with time. “Typically, at the bank holidays, we lose about half a percent of the work because we don’t start it. It may be weather driven, usually, or there’s been some operational incident or a late running train. Whatever it might be, we’ll be saying we’ve passed the cut-off point in our contingency planning and we won’t start. “Then we lose about another half a percent of work in trying to guarantee on-time hand back. That’s been pretty consistent now for the last three years or so. The reason it’s not turning into overruns is that the teams have been far better at planning their work in a very structured way so that we can get the core bit of work done. “Welding and stressing might be a really good example for a track job. If we’re planning to hand it back at 50mph, we might not do the welding and stressing at the end. We might do it in midweek nights. “We can get the track in the ground, we can get it plated and we can get it tamped and we can usually hand back at 50mph. Typically, within a week, we will have handed that back at the line speed. It’s that structuring of the way in which we do the work that means that we can cope with these failures. Otherwise, the only real way of doing it is to put more contingency time at the end and that way you just get less work done.
“Of course, there are some jobs where you just can’t do that. Bridge renewals, we’ve got two bridge renewals coming up at Easter so we will be taking off the track, taking out the bridge, rebuilding the bridge, putting the track back in the four-day period. You can’t do half the bridge. Things like bridges are particularly challenging because once you’ve started you’ve passed the point of no return. “For those, we don’t have a bigger contingency, we just have a lot more planning. The basic problem with a bridge is we’ve got four days over a bank holiday, a weekend if they’re smaller ones. We’ve got the time we’ve got and we just have to make sure that we sequence the work in the way that allows us to get that done. “Where we might build some more time in is if, say, it’s being delivered by road crane, which can suffer from wind issues, but we’re delivering more now by self-propelled modular transporters, so we don’t often have the wind issues. We don’t have to put that contingency in, but we might still have welding and stressing at the end. We might have hand rails, guard rails and all sorts of bits that we might be able to curtail.
“Frequently, we might have a four hours float and four hours of extra contingency and that, statistically over the last four years, has given us a very secure handback profile. The problem is, there is absolutely no guarantee that the time that we’ve got will cope with everything and that’s why we still have a few small overruns during the year. “It isn’t luck we’ve ended up where we are. There has been a whole host of learning those lessons, process improvement, sharing of best practice right across the organisation that the teams have embraced and done a fantastic job in embedding and getting us to the point now where we have a far, far more dependable delivery. “Also, our visibility going forward of where issues are, is far better. We have now actually got time to fix problems before they materialise into a possession overrun. Is that perfect? No, it’s not and it’s fairly difficult delivering the 11,500 projects that we have and £5.5 billion worth of stuff that we’ve done just this year, to sit and really shout that from the roof tops because we are not a perfect organisation.”
The real heroes “Celebrating success, and particularly celebrating success with the projects that are the big flagship ones, is one of the big leadership challenges within the organisation, because it’s the teams that deliver renewals that are real heroes,” said Francis. “They are in frequently very small teams. They might be delivering multiple small projects themselves. They’re doing a great job with the supply chain in delivering those, but they’re not London Bridge. Renewals are the vast majority of the possessions that we take and the
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teams deliver them, time and time again faultlessly, and people don’t notice. We renewed 300km of track last year and no one noticed. The signalling teams renew and replace hundreds of SEUs (signalling equivalent units) and people don’t really notice. The new signalling scheme, they don’t notice it having been re-locked to a different location or we’ve closed signal boxes or we’ve modernised - all that stuff just happens. “Passengers are not interested, and rightly they shouldn’t be, but making sure the narrative within the business equally recognises that the teams that we’ve got working incredibly hard, delivering those far less exciting visual renewals as the one or two flagship projects that we might have ongoing, is an important balance. “Of course, the external narrative rightly tends to focus on the one or two projects that don’t go as well as we’d hope. Because of the negative focus we get when it goes wrong, keeping those teams motivated who are in the spotlight working, day after day, on really difficult engineering projects, is challenging. Huge credit to the teams who get up every morning and come in and put their best work in on a project that’s difficult and, because of where it is, it’s frankly, no matter what they do, never going to be seen as a success.”
Failure and success When Francis joined Network Rail in 2014, it was three months after reclassification had been announced but two months before it was implemented. Six months later, at Christmas 2014, there were the well-publicised overruns at
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King’s Cross and Paddington that so-badly damaged Network Rail’s reputation. It was a real baptism of fire. “Joining an organisation and three months in to find that you are forecasting to be several billion pounds overspent already three months into a new control period, is not good,” he remembered. “To then badly let customers down at Christmas was really not good. You suddenly find that you’ve got an organisation, in the broadest sense, of people who are trying their absolute hardest to do a good job, but aren’t delivering on that. At the same time, you’ve got a phenomenal workload to deliver. To transform an organisation whilst having a phenomenal amount to deliver is really difficult. “Probably my only regret is that we’ve now got to a point where I’m extremely proud of the organisation, the capability that sits within it, the detail of the planning which underpins CP6, and it would have been fantastic to run that machine at the plans that we’ve got for CP6 for two years and absolutely smash it out of the park. I sadly won’t have the opportunity to do that, but the new regional managing directors will with the team that we’ve built.”
Devolution The devolution of IP, being promoted by new CEO Andrew Haines, isn’t, in Francis’ opinion, going to be as much of a change as people think. “One thing to clarify, IP isn’t a centralised structure,” he explained. “Because we’re a national function, there’s quite a lingering perception that we’re a
team that sits in the middle somewhere and does stuff across the country. We’re far from that. There are seven delivery teams - four regions, northern programmes, track and signalling, supported by five functions. 96 per cent of the people in IP sit in those delivery legs. About 186 people sit in the functions. We are probably the most devolved part of Network Rail already and the teams sit geographically dispersed. “We’re sitting here today (in Derby) and part of my signalling design team are sitting downstairs and my East Midlands regional enhancements team are 800 yards down the road, which shows how widely 4,800 people in IP are geographically distributed. “When we move into a devolved structure with the routes, a large percentage of people in IP won’t be moving anywhere. They will still be sat at the same desk in the same location next to the same people doing the same job but working within a new regional structure. What we’re doing is changing the accountability, and particularly the responsibility for the delivery activity, from it being a national function to a devolved regional structure. Accountability for enhancements and renewals will ultimately rest with the new regional managing directors. Francis departed Network Rail, not before Easter, but immediately afterwards, having visited work sites and encouraged staff on his last day. He says he has no future plans at present, but no doubt he will pop up somewhere before too long. Rail Engineer wishes him well in the meantime.
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FEATURE
Get set for Railworx
The rail industry's new outdoor civil and systems show is just weeks away
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ailworx is a new-for-2019 rail industry show with a difference that takes place next month at the East of England Arena, Peterborough. The first clue is the venue, which is predominantly outdoors. Exhibitors book a six metre by 12 metre stand and then have plenty of space to show off even large equipment. There is, however, an indoor exhibition hall which will appeal to companies that prefer a more traditional exhibition environment, with shell-scheme stands and carpets. The second clue is in the byline “Your Outdoor Rail Civils and Systems Engineering Show”. Railworx is aimed squarely at those companies that undertake civil engineering - be it working with structures, earthworks, sea defences or station buildings - and railway systems such as signalling, telecoms, electrification and traffic management.
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Organised by the experienced team at Rail Media that has managed and developed other outdoor rail industry shows, Railworx goes much further as it highlights far more of the engineering that goes into the UK’s railways. It will appeal to all those involved in station refurbishment, resignalling schemes, bad-weather resilience, infrastructure
maintenance and reconstruction, highspeed communications, electrification and power, systems engineering, building information, remote monitoring and so much more. Equipment will be shown working, either on the stands or in the special demonstration area. This is sure to be a major draw and will be well organised, as Railworx is being presented alongside the well-established Plantworx show for the construction industry. Organised by the Construction Equipment Association, Plantworx attracts major exhibitors such as JCB, Caterpillar, Doosan and others, all with large stands and interesting demonstrations. A total of 15,000 people visited Plantworx in 2017. It takes place every two years, so this year the combined Plantworx/Railworx show is likely to attract over 20,000 when it takes place on 11-13 June. There will be special features as well, to give visitors even more to see. These will include: »» The Drone Zone - they are increasingly in use over the railway, but what can they do? »» Network Rail’s dedicated ‘InnovationWorx’ area showing the latest developments by the Signalling Innovation Group and in the fields of electrification and telecommunications; »» The major civil engineering
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contractors, front line suppliers to Network Rail and HS2, looking to connect with their existing and potential supply chains; »» Live demonstrations of machinery and plant used for railway civil engineering, including piling, reinforcing, drainage, access, lifting, surveying and monitoring; »» ‘Consultants Row’ where the industry’s designers and consultants show what they can do; »» A Meet the Buyer event with several of rail’s major players; »» The Get SET Zone, designed to help visitors explore employment opportunities and to give them access to services they may need. In the InnovationWorx zone, Network Rail will be showing off the latest developments from its own research and from its suppliers. Presented by the Signalling Innovation Group, but also taking in the latest developments in telecommunications, electrification and the Digital Railway, InnovationWorx will include the latest technology from 33 Network Rail suppliers, all in one area. The Railway Industry Association is assembling a group of buyers and procurement specialists from major UK railway companies and contractors for a Meet the Buyer event at Railworx. These important buyers will be holding meetings on site so that visitors and exhibitors alike can arrange discussions, present their offerings and hopefully plan to meet again to discuss cooperation in more detail.
The Get SET Zone is designed to help visitors explore employment opportunities and to give them access to services they may need to get a new job, get back into work, or get their first job. Recruitment job board RailwayPeople.com will be hosting a Recruitment Wall, on which exhibitors can post their vacancies and visitors can see what jobs are available, while a number of recruitment company directors will attend each day to speak about the industry. Julie Wilkinson CVs will be providing a CV writing service and MIND will be offering free advice to visitors about mental health support for the workplace. Many well-known names will be amongst the exhibitors. There is only space here to detail a few of them, but all can be found on the Railworx.com website.
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FEATURE Peli Products (AD23)
Dual Inventive (RH1)
Mixamate (RE8)
Dual Inventive specialises in products that seek to improve network capacity, railway efficiency and track worker safety through the use of new technologies and innovation. Its core areas of expertise lie in wireless technology, cloud platforms and track worker safety. At Railworx 2019, Dual Inventive will be showcasing its latest products for those taking on the challenges of running a railway in the modern world, where availability is key. Recently, the company won the Silver award for innovation for its next evolution of open railway interlocking systems. This system has been designed to manage the safe movement of trains whilst also affording the same levels of protection to the track workers. As the interlocking is directly controlled by the protection staff in the field, they no longer need enter the track to set up their protection, as will be demonstrated on stand RH1.
Mixamate is the UK’s leading provider of mix-on-site concrete and screed. Unique all-in-one concrete pumping trucks provide the delivery, mixing, and pumping of concrete from a single vehicle. This greatly reduces the hassle traditionally associated with mix on site works, while the on-board hose allows for the pumping of concrete from up to 100 metres away. This service has proved particularly popular within the rail sector, where pours are often required outside of normal working hours or at short notice. Mixamate works regularly with rail industry specialists such as Hochtief, BPH Rail, Sonic Rail Services, and others. This service is also available for screed, and both liquid and dry mixes can be provided. The pumping trucks carry onboard computer systems that electronically weighs every single ingredient that goes into the mix, resulting in batching plant quality concrete that is vastly superior to standard volumetric mixers. Visitors can find Mixamate on Stand RE8 at this year’s Railworx show.
Duvine / DMS Technologies (RF1) Duvine and DMS Technology have over 30 years’ experience working within the rail industry and have multiple products with PADS approval. At Railworx, they will be showcasing a range of power supplies, chargers and battery back-up solutions for point switching, axle counters, signalling, level crossings, cathodic protection and portable Wi-Fi. Experts will be on hand to discuss the existing product ranges, as well as any future requirements/project that visitors may be planning, as Duvine and DMS Technology specialise in the design, manufacture and testing of complete power and back-up solutions.
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Peli Products UK will display its trackside-area lighting range on stand AD23 at Railworx 2019. The innovative Peli™ 9600 LED lighting system is a series of linkable lights that offers a powerful output over a length of track, eliminating the problems of dark sections associated with other similar products. The Peli 9600 has been developed in cooperation with rail industry professionals and is a rugged, versatile system, ideal for the tough conditions experienced in trackside maintenance. The full range of Peli portable trackside lights will also be on display, many of which now feature an ‘intelligent control’ panel. This adjusts the light output according to the length of light duration required, providing a real-time display. The control panel can be set to the number of hours and minutes of light required and the unit will calculate and adjust the output.
Premier Rail Services (RA1) Premier Rail Services is an approved installer of all Rosehill, Strail and Polysafe level crossing systems. Living up to its slogan of “Dedicated to meet our customer’s needs”, it is also the largest stockist in the UK of all types of RRAPs, with Strail, Rosehill, timber, foam, metal and UTAS (Universal Track Access Systems) available for hire, along with other specialist equipment. As well as highly skilled staff trained and experienced in fencing, vegetation clearing (around level crossings), groundworks, hard landscaping and plant operations, Premier Rail Services has a dedicated management team that is passionate about the projects undertaken for clients and is experienced on working in partnership with many others.
Experience what innovation feels like ALL WITH THE SAME MECALAC DNA Contact your nearest dealer for more information Visit: www.mecalac.com/en/the-mecalac-distribution.html
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RSS Infrastructure /Infra Skills (RE7) RSS Infrastructure is an award-winning organisation that is committed to increasing productivity and improving safety. To that end, at this year’s Railworx, the company will be showcasing its track warning systems as well as its overhead line electrification, vegetation management, road rail access points and level crossings, civils/ construction solutions, resource and recruitment, magnetic safety barrier fencing, magnetic points boards and signalling services divisions. Infra Skills has attained industry-wide recognition for creating a training package that exceeds the professional standards required to work in infrastructure. The company has won a number of awards for its training courses and assessments, which allow professionals to become more productive, safer at work and ready to deliver.
Taylor Construction Plant (RJ1) TCP (Taylor Construction Plant) hydrogen fuel-cell/battery hybrid products include lighting towers and power generators which produce zero carbon emissions (at point of delivery), are virtually silent in operation, and eliminate risk of fuel spills. Highlights on the TCP stand at Railworx will include the EcoliteTH200 hydrogen fuel-cell lighting tower, developed in partnership with BOC, a member of the Linde Group, and the Ecolite CCTV hydrogen fuel-cell tower, which provides cost-effective temporary site security with remote monitoring and on-site recording.
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On stand RJ1, TCP will also be demonstrating a welfare cabin unit powered by solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and the ECO GH2 hydrogen DC power generator, developed in partnership with Intelligent Energy, working alongside the LGP 2500 Power Pack. This is a unique opportunity to discover how TCP is using clean-air technology to enable tools, lighting, CCTV and welfare units to be powered off-grid without harmful emissions.
Many more to see The list of exhibitors is, of course, far larger than this brief preview. Supporting organisations, that will be found in the Partners’ Pavillion adjacent to the visitor
entrance, include Network Rail, Digital Railway, the Railway Industry Association, RailwayPeople and the Signalling Innovation Group, along with overall event sponsors Kubota and Mecalac. In the exhibitor area, companies as varied as Bollé Safety, Echo Barrier, Geismar, Hilti, Ilecsys Rail and Van Elle will be showing their latest products and services. The National College for High Speed Rail will be there, as will Hitachi Information Control Systems Europe and Rowe Hankins. It all adds up to a fascinating few days, so be sure to go along to the East of England Arena, from Tuesday 11 June to Thursday 13 June, and see Railworx for yourself.
FEATURE
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French rail industry NIGEL WORDSWORTH
on show at SIFER 2019
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lmost unnoticed by most of the UK railway supply chain, the 11th SIFER exhibition took place in Lille on 26-28 March 2019. The French sister show of the UK’s Railtex, SIFER has been organised by Mack Brooks Exhibitions for the last 20 years. The leading French event for rail industry professionals to meet, discover innovations and develop business opportunities, SIFER 2019 attracted 443 exhibitors, of which some 26 per cent were international, as well as 5,400 visitors. It’s a shame that more UK companies didn’t make the trip. Lille is easy to reach by Eurostar from St Pancras and then a short walk from Lille Europe station to the Lille Grand Palais Exhibition Centre, SIFER’s regular venue.
UK exhibitors That’s not to say there wasn’t a UK presence. Arriving at 11:27 on the 08:55 Eurostar from St Pancras, left just five hours to walk past all 443 exhibitors - and even stop to talk with a few! One of the most hospitable was Rosehill Rail, which had a large stand at the front of the show. Group managing director Andrew Celik and marketing manager Daniel Fletcher had time for a coffee and a chat about anti-trespass panels and security barriers, as well as level crossing installations. The stand at SIFER, and the one at InnoTrans in Berlin last September, show how important the export market is to this very British firm from Sowerby Bridge (that’s near Halifax). Together with French partner CH2M Rail, Rosehill was showcasing its unique Baseplated System and its latest product, the Link Crossing System. Both systems are specifically designed to be
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quick and simple to install in order to minimise disruption and reduce costs. AEI Cables also had a large stand. The company serves key markets in the UK and worldwide including construction, industrial, fire protection, defence, mining and rail. Sections of cable were on display, and AEI’s experts stressed that its products meet the highest industry standards including ISO 9001 and are approved by the leading approvals organisations nationally and internationally including BASEC, LPCB and Lloyds. Camlin Rail’s Pantobot 3D three-dimensional automatic pantograph monitoring system is a fully automated three-dimensional pantograph inspection system that allows
the network operator to make real-time decisions based on true pantograph condition. This is crucial as a damaged pantograph, suffering from such anomalies as excess chipping, increased carbon wear and damaged horns, has the potential to tear down the overhead line, resulting in long delays and widespread service disruption. Cubis Systems, from Armagh in Northern Ireland, is engaged within a variety of major projects across the UK, France, Scandinavia, North America and Australia. These range from light rail upgrades to major rail infrastructure projects such as Manchester tram, the SNCF network and HS2. All of these unique projects involve integrated network access and cable protection systems for telecoms, drainage, signalling and power applications. Cubis’ integrated product approach, developed through innovative partnering and with long-standing approvals from Network Rail and SNCF, incorporates intelligent technical design features for modular, scalable
FEATURE
and lightweight composite access chambers, access covers and cable protection products that can be built on-site, simply, safely and with speed of installation. Excalibur Screwbolts, last seen at the Signalling Innovations Group’s conference in York last November, was displaying its range of threaded anchors for all substrates. These have many uses in both civil engineering and rail applications and can be used to fix various items directly into all major building materials including concrete, brick and timber without the use of plugs or resin. General benefits of Excalibur Screwbolts include using one anchor for all applications that is quick and easy to install and doesn’t stress/damage the substrate so is good for close to edge fixing. They are easily removable if required, so can be used in both permanent or temporary works, and have found use on both Network Rail and London Underground infrastructure for fixing various items including insulator pots, signalling systems and rail baseplates. Forbo Flooring Systems, based in Ripley in Derbyshire, was showing its comprehensive and compliant flooring product portfolio for the rail sector. This includes entrance systems, vinyl floors, linoleum floors, textile carpets, flocked flooring as well as adhesives, accessories and installation tools. Forbo floor
coverings are fully certified to suit many types of trains and are certified according to EN 45545-2 with a minimum rating of HL2. Hanover Displays is a family-owned company from Lewes, Sussex, which has been designing and manufacturing passenger information systems for the public transport industry since 1985. With subsidiary offices in France, Spain, Germany and Australia, together with a second production facility in the US and representatives all over the world, Hanover has satisfied customers in over 75 countries worldwide. The security afforded by 30 years’ experience, financial independence and a continuous product development program is further assurance of the company’s dependability, as
representatives from the office in Villeneuve-Loubet, on the French Mediterranean coast between Nice and Cannes, were on hand to explain. HVR International, from Jarrow in Tyne and Wear, pioneered the development of carbon ceramic resistances that are now used worldwide in high-voltage, high-energy, power electronics and traction applications. Today, the company’s products are used worldwide by the likes of Alstom, ABB and Siemens. Specific products on display included SR-series compact power resistors, including the world’s first 10kJ resistance for PCB mounting, ‘Cool Power’ modular water-cooled resistances and ‘Multi-Brake’ braking resistors made by HVR Pentagon in Tyseley, Birmingham.
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Familiar names Many other exhibitors would be familiar to UK engineers. Alstom has approximately 8,650 employees in France. Its Petite-Forêt site, in the Hautsde-France region, is its centre of excellence for the design, development, manufacturing, testing and validation of railway equipment such as metros, tram-trains and double-deck trains for suburban and regional use. At SIFER, Alstom promoted StationOne, its autonomous online marketplace, dedicated to the railway sector, that connects professionals and is designed as an efficient way to both promote and access the broadest possible range of parts, commodities and services for all areas of the rail sector, including trains, infrastructure, depots and stations. Amberg Technologies was in Lille, promoting its comprehensive solutions and services for tunnel and rail surveying, geotechnics and geophysics. Focused exclusively on the remanufacture, service and repair of AC and DC traction motors for trains, trams and metro systems, Associated Rewinds has been in operation in Dublin since 1986. Now a leader in rail traction technology, it partners owners, operators and manufacturers of rail vehicles worldwide.
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Cembre, the leading manufacturer in Italy and one of the largest European manufacturers of crimp connectors and cable tooling, offers certified solutions for electrical connections inside convoys and railway locomotives, putting its electrotechnical experience at the service of railway companies by developing solutions for electrical connections and the maintenance of railways. Finland’s EKE-Electronics, which featured in Rail Engineer’s recent article on speed control for trams (issue 173, April 2019), was in a prominent position close to the main entrance. The company provides technology for system integration, train automation, train communications and improved safety. The range includes train control and
management systems (TCMS), train communication networks (TCN), vehicle control units (VCU), gateways (MVB, WTB, CAN, serial links, Ethernet), Ethernet train backbones (ETB), Ethernet switches, remote input/output modules (RIOM) and train event recorders. Frauscher Sensor Technology showed how its wheel detection systems, axle counters and tracking solutions allow system integrators and railway operators to obtain the information they need to run, monitor and protect their operational network. GAI-Tronics uses state-ofthe-art technology to meet the demanding communications needs of the rail industry. It works closely with French partner AE&T for all communication projects, the two companies combining their respective product expertise, technical knowledge and business experiences. Geismar designs and produces solutions for the laying, maintenance and monitoring of railway tracks and overhead lines. For almost a century, teams from Geismar have been developing rail transport wherever there are rail networks, conventional, urban or high-speed. The HIMA Group is a leading independent provider of smart safety solutions for industrial applications, with more than 35,000 TÜV-certified safety systems installed worldwide.
FEATURE
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In the global rail industry, HIMA’s CENELEC-certified SIL4 COTS safety controllers are leading the way to increased safety, security and profitability. Moxa delivers flexible IP network infrastructures that are able to expand to deal with the rising number of passengers, ensuring that operational efficiency is maintained. Focussing on securing rail networks through robust network communications with enhanced security functions and easy-to-use network management software, Moxa has deployed over 500 networks worldwide for CCTV, CBTC, TCMS, passenger WiFi, and condition monitoring systems. Nord-Lock was showing its self-locking fastener systems for use in both rolling-stock and track applications, while Pandrol, which actually belongs
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to the French Delachaux Group, also had an impressive stand which emphasised the fact that all of the product is now branded Pandrol. Schwihag, manufacturer of components for switches and turnouts, was showing how use of its products can reduce maintenance costs and help protect the environment. Sekisui had examples of its FFU (fibre-reinforced foamed urethane) sleepers, which have now been fitted to more than 1,500 km of track worldwide. The German office of American positioning systems manufacture Trimble was at SIFER, demonstrating its solutions for efficient alignment planning and accurate mapping of fixed assets as well as precise track measurement and construction. Westermo, the Swedish supplier of data communications equipment and a company well known to Rail Engineer readers, displayed a range of equipment that is used in the demanding field of rail telecommunications and offered visitors advice on the best solutions for their applications. And finally, Zöllner had a stand on which it was exhibiting its range of track warning systems that keep rail workers safe in live railway environments.
Conferences, round-tables and networking The exhibition stands weren’t the only attraction at SIFER. Two seminar theatres hosted a range of presentations, seminars and round-table discussions on subjects as varied as Big Data (Capgemini), logistics for railway worksites (SNCF), innovative connectivity solutions (Harting) and COTS for the railway (HIMA). The Networking evening after the show closed on the middle day proved popular, with exhibitors and visitors alike taking the chance to mingle and talk over the events of the day and the latest news from the industry. As always in France, the catering was of a high standard. SIFER’s restaurant puts the arrangement at British shows to shame - not a criticism of UK organisers but a reflection on France’s views on food. So, well fed, well informed and well impressed, it was time to head off to Lille Europe station again and, thanks to Eurostar efficiency and the time difference, to arrive back in St Pancras just half an hour later! Hopefully, more Brits will cross the channel in March 2021, when SIFER will once again open in Lille and show what the French rail industry has to offer.
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