Railway Strategies Issue 113 Early Edition

RAILWAY Early Issue 113

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

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz S T R A T E G I E S

Nottingham’s new trams get ready toSeeroll page 5

Interview FutureRailway’s Marcus Mayers: building a strong innovation base P6 FOCUS ON

Freight

Agenda for more rail freight P18

FOCUS ON

Instrumentation

Remote control of insulation testing P24

NEWS

Peterborough installs expanded polystyrene platform Hitachi agrees solar power deal

Northern line extension gets go ahead

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

From the Editor

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On the move

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ife is about milestones. Achievements, both large and small, flag a position at a single moment in time and those markers serve to record progress.

Over the years we have kept you informed about all the big rail

infrastructure projects, including some of the enormous feats of engineering involved in the construction of Crossrail. Interestingly, the latest Crossrail milestone has been achieved through a relatively everyday task.

Engineers have now laid the very first section of track on the project, and this marks a major turning point. Crossrail is becoming a railway. The new section of line will go into service next year carrying the London bound Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect over the Great Western Main Line via the new Stockley Flyover, solving the traffic conflicts that have been responsible for so many delays.

Regarding milestones, for this month’s interview I spoke with Marcus Mayers of FutureRail, and heard the inside story on how a radical new concept in freight bogie design is being developed and brought through the expensive demonstration phase by an unusual partnership – between the international export sales and marketing company Holdtrade, Huddersfield University and the bogie design team. What makes this case unique and something of a milestone is that Holdtrade is not a manufacturer of rail products but a trader, whose rail clients had identified a need that could not be fulfilled by any product on the market today. Creative market thinking linked with strong design innovation seems a winning team to me.

Railway Strategies by email Issue 113 ISSN 1467-0395 Published by

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zzzzzzzzzzzzz Contents Features Interview - Marcus Mayers 6 A radical new freight bogie is being funded by FutureRailways. We hear how it could form the basis of an exciting new innovation hub – Gay Sutton

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Power buying 10 EU rules for energy trading will be changing in 2017, and there is plenty the railway sector can do to prepare – James Brown Collaboration for SMEs 12 Are we pulling together effectively? Five steps SMEs can take to ease the way for collaboration on major rail projects – Achilles Tackling an invisible problem 28 How the rail industry is helping India’s railway children escape the dangers of life by the tracks Putting a value on staff 30 New research from Europe demonstrates the vital role staff can play in improving the journey experience for passengers – Rachel Risely Are you sitting comfortably? 32 The inside story: How engineers and ergonomic designers have developed the most efficient and user friendly work stations for the new ROCs

Profiles Kier Group 36 IDOM 39 Touax 42 FP McCann 46 Semmco 51

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zzzzzzzzzzzzz www.railwaystrategies.co.uk News Industry 4, 15 Rolling stock 5 Infrastructure 9 Appointments 21 Conferences & exhibitions 22

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Focus on Freight REPORT: The future of rail freight 16 In the latest research report from Accent and Railway Strategies, the industry voices its opinion on rail freight – Accent/Railway Strategies Agenda for more rail freight 18 Why putting the customer at the heart of rail freight policy is essential if we’re to encourage more freight on to rail – Chris MacRae Coming into its own 23 How multimodal logistics is evolving, and the art of assessing when rail freight could have a much larger role to play – Nick Radcliffe

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Focus on Instrumentation Remotely assessing health 24 How a new remote condition monitoring system is reducing delays on the London Underground – National Instruments case study Remote control of insulation testing 26 The latest generation of high voltage insulation test sets are unlocking the possibility of automation – Paul Swinerd

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NEWS I Industry

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Work in progress on the solar PV installation at Newton Aycliffe

In FACT 200+ new drivers During 2014 the rail freight industry trained over 200 new drivers, and a further 100 posts are planned for 2015 (RFG). The new drivers were largely recruited off the street, and received rigorous industry standard training and assessment over several months.

Rail travel h 3.67% Hitachi takes advantage of 20 year solar power deal l A 1MW solar PV system is being installed at Hitachi Rail Europe’s first train manufacturing facility in Europe, at Newton Aycliffe, County Durham. Comprising 3,800 high efficiency 265W mono-crystalline solar modules from Trina Solar, and 28 PowerOne Trio27 inverters, the system will operate under a 20 year power purchase agreement that initially offers electricity discounted to current rates and the certainty of the price being linked to RPI. This installation is the first project in a new initiative from solar PV supplier and installer Photon Energy Ltd and Macquarie Lending. Macquarie is leasing the roof space from Hitachi and financing the capital cost of the solar PV installation. In return it will receive the Feed-inTariff and sell the electricity generated to Hitachi.

At the end of the 20 year contract, however, Hitachi will take on ownership of the installation and continue to benefit from the power generated for the remainder of the working life of the solar PV modules.

The idea is that organisations with large roof areas can benefit from long term low cost ‘green’ electricity and lower carbon emissions without having to invest in the infrastructure.

In the six months to September, 3.67% more rail passenger journeys were made than in same period last year. As the economy is currently growing at 3.2% annually and employment is rising by 2%, rail growth is exceeding economic growth.

1 in 3 fails During testing conducted by Global Wireless Solutions, 1 in 3 mobile internet tasks and 1 in 7 voice calls attempted on commuter train routes failed.

Three delivered the best phone network, Vodafone was best for 3G data service, EE best 4G.

Complaints h 6.4% An industry first for First TransPennine Express l First TransPennine Express (FTPE) has been awarded the prestigious British Quality Foundation UK Excellence Award following rigorous formal assessments, and is the first rail company to achieve such recognition.

The British Quality Foundation awards are dedicated to performance improvement, and recognise exceptional achievement across an organisation’s operation. FTPE was one of only four companies to have been shortlisted for the UK Excellence Award. It also received the Excellence 600 Award, which is given to organisations that score more than six hundred points against the model in their assessment.

FTPE has worked with the EFQM Excellence Model fully embedded in its strategic thinking, planning, management systems, performance monitoring and organisational learning since the beginning of its current franchise in 2004. This has enabled the company to gain insight into its strengths whilst providing opportunities to improve.

Assessors from BQF said: “FTPE is a learning organisation with a strong focus on continuous improvement as part of delivering high quality services to customers. The company compares its performance with best in class organisations wherever possible and strives to meet or exceed these levels.”

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According to ORR , passenger complaints have risen by 6.4% in the first quarter of 2014, compared to the same quarter last year. While ticketing issues now account for 4.1% more of all complaints received, punctuality still remains the leading problem.

45 new city metros Figures from UITP show that 45 new metro systems have been built worldwide since 2000.

148 cities now have metros, carrying 150 million passengers per day on 540 lines. Tokyo metro carries the most passengers annually while Shanghai has the longest network.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz NEWS I Rolling Stock zz FutureRailway launches £4.4 million powertrain competition l FutureRailway has launched a new competition looking for novel technical solutions that can provide improved energy efficiencies for self-powered vehicles. Submissions can include whole powertrain solutions and powertrain subsystem innovations.

The Powertrains for Rail Vehicles competition will provide £4.4m funding for two feasibility and demonstration phases.

Successful applicants will be funded to carry out an initial feasibility study to investigate the technical and commercial viability of their proposed solutions. Of these, the most promising applications will receive funding to further develop and demonstrate the powertrain system.

A briefing event with networking opportunities is to be held in Milton Keynes on Wednesday 3 December, followed by a webinar on Monday 8 December.

For more details see: www.futurerailway.org

Nottingham completes its new fleet of Citadis trams l The last of a fleet of 22 new Citadis trams from Alstom has been delivered to Nottingham Express Transit (NET). Five are already on service on Line 1 from Hucknall and Phoenix Park to the city centre. The remaining 17 are being tested before going into service next year when the new Line 2 is opened. Line 2 extends south across the city to Chilwell and Clifton, integrating with Line 1 and the railway station, and increasing the network’s capacity from 10m passengers a year to an estimated 23m.

The 22 new trams were built in Alstom’s facility in Barcelona, and the company will be in charge of their maintenance, along with NET’s 15 other trams already in service on Line 1.

Terence Watson, Alstom UK President, said: “The process of testing the Citadis and getting them into service is going extremely well and we look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with the City.”

The Citadis for Nottingham is 32 metres long and can carry up to 274 people. It is expected to have a 35-year lifetime, with a forecast annual mileage of around 90,000 km. Its maximum speed is 70 km/h and it has been specially designed to fit in with the pre-existing fleet of trams already operating in Nottingham.

London Overground is to run five carriage trains by the end of 2015 l Trains on the London Overground are to be increased from four to five-carriages as part of Transport for London’s (TfL) £320m programme to boost capacity on the network. The rollout of the longer trains will start on the East London line followed by the North and West London lines and be completed by the end of 2015.

The extra carriages will improve comfort on the trains and increase capacity by 25%, which equates to an extra 170 passengers per train.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “Adding an extra carriage to the trains that criss-cross this network will allow more people to take advantage of what is now one of the most reliable and trusted rail services in the UK. As London’s population continues to rise, it is investment in our transport network like this which will help to keep London and its economy on the up.”

ishment Before refurb

Mechan secures future of historic London bogies l Sheffield-based Mechan is using advanced engineering capabilities to breathe new life into railway equipment still serving London almost a century after its introduction.

The rail depot maintenance specialist has refurbished two accommodation bogies, believed to date from the 1920s, for London Underground’s Acton Depot.

Because the accommodation bogies are so old and little is known about their manufacture, Mechan had to strip the units down and carried out reverse engineering to establish how they were constructed. Worn parts such as the axle bearings were then replaced shot blasted and repainted, before being delivered back to Acton.

Mechan is expecting more equipment from London Underground to make the journey to Sheffield for refurbishment. The companies have a history of working together, most notably on the restoration of a 50 year old turntable from Waterloo, the only subterranean depot in the capital.

hment After refurbis

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INTERVIEW I Marcus Mayers

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A radical step?

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Marcus Mayers talks to Gay Sutton about progress in developing an innovative new radial freight bogie, and the prospects for building a strong bogie innovation hub in the UK

he UK rail industry has a proud history of innovation.

Although this has been through a period of stagnation, that trend is being reversed. An essential element in this is the FutureRailway initiative, a collaboration between Network Rail and RSSB working with the rail industry and the supply chain to accelerate research and development.

While it has been many years since bogie design and development has flourished in the UK, a new knowledge-base of engineers and facilities is being drawn together to test and develop a radical new concept in bogie design – currently known as the radial freight bogie.

In the beginning....

Like so many radical new concepts, the radial bogie began life as an idea that was batted around among engineers – people whose lives revolve around problem solving. In many such situations, the enormous costs and risks of developing an untried idea means it has very little chance of progressing into a concept stage let alone through the

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Innovations are being sought to improve ticketing and gatelines

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz It was at the Leicester Space Centre that the freight bogie’s designers linked up with Huddersfield University which has expertise in vehicle dynamics and the wheel rail interface, and a forward thinking export, sales and marketing organisation, Holdtrade UK. “And this is where the radial freight bogie is distinct. Holdtrade UK had a number of customers including South Africa’s Transnet who had expressed a pain,” he continued. They were all experiencing similar capacity and track damage issues, but there were no solutions for it in the marketplace. “Holdtrade UK’s thinking was that if they could support the development of a new solution to deliver more profitable freight movement then they could sell it into the market.”

The radial freight bogie had the potential to fulfil that need, by reducing damage to the track when carrying freight, and increasing the capacity that could be carried per wagon. Not only could this work very well on the lower quality heavy haul freight track in South Africa, it could have other applications such as super heavy haul in Australia.

As a result of that event, the original design team formed a partnership with Holdtrade UK and Transnet, along with Huddersfield University and the project went on to became one of six to win funding and support from FutureRailway. By the end of 2013, following a technical review that indicated that the proposal could work, the complex contracts between the partners had been thrashed out and signed.

Building the knowledge base

Marcus Mayers, programme & portfolio manager, FutureRailway

demonstration stage to a fully fledged marketable product. And this is where FutureRailway plays a significant part in bridging this gap.

In February 2013, FutureRailway launched a new initiative called the Radical Train Competition. “The idea behind this competition,” explained Marcus Mayers, programme & portfolio manager, FutureRailway, “was to ask suppliers to bring us any ideas that could improve the quality of rolling stock or enhance the UK’s capability in rolling stock.”

The radial freight bogie, a new idea in track friendly bogies, was just one of 57 concepts to be proposed.

Moving forward To progress these ideas to the point where winners could be chosen for funding, FutureRailway organised a collaboration day, bringing together those who would like to enter the competition with a wide range of universities, entrepreneurs, SMEs and large companies who could potentially partner with them to support and part finance that aim.

The first three months of 2014 were spent recruiting a full complement of skills to build a strong design team based in Wales, a team that could form the foundation for a bogie design hub for future innovation in the UK. That time seems to have been well spent. The bogie design is currently at Huddersfield University being iteratively modelled, tested and refined.

“A key lesson we’ve learned from this,” Marcus said, “is that innovation projects can take longer to set up than traditional projects, due to the risks and level of understanding.” The next step is to manufacture the bogies here in the UK and begin non-destructive testing on them. Once all parties are happy with the results, the bogies will be sent to South Africa where they’ll be fitted to wagons built specifically for the project

by Transnet, and then tested on a 1067mm narrow gauge manganese freight line, to an extent we simply could not achieve here in the UK. “South Africa has the largest narrow gauge freight railway in the world, stretching some 27,000 km,” Marcus said. “They have huge manufacturing capability, and an approvals process that is simpler than anything in Europe. The question they will be asking is: does the radial freight bogie move more freight more efficiently than current bogies and will it be financially worth buying?”

If the testing is successful, there will be a significant market for the product in South Africa with Transnet, but there have already been some tentative approaches from other African countries.

A radical idea?

So is the new freight bogie really a radical idea? For obvious reason, Marcus could not describe the bogie in any great detail. It is still going through the patent protection process. However he was able to say: “We believe it’s a really excellent idea, one that is likely make a significant difference in the world of freight. And if it’s successful in South Africa, then the second or third iteration will be for standard gauge, and could make a significant impact here in the UK. It’s a concept that could also be applied to passenger vehicles in due course, but of course that market is very different to the freight bogie market.”

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INTERVIEW I Marcus Mayers

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A Transnet freight train in South Africa

Why promoting innovation is important “This entire project will cost upwards of £1 million,” Marcus explained.

“If the original design team had had to finance this, the project would never have got off the ground. Demonstrators are expensive, and there are always significant risks involved.” However by sharing the costs and risks, and ultimately sharing the benefits and rewards, there is a much higher likelihood that innovation can be followed through to market.

In this instance, FutureRailway is contributing 45 per cent towards the total cost. Transnet will fund around 25 per cent of the cost, the majority of which will go into constructing the wagon that will be fitted with the new bogie and then testing it extensively on South Africa’s heavy railways. The remaining contributions to the project will be made by the design team and Holdtrade UK. Meanwhile, in line with EU regulations, Huddersfield University will be able to recoup some 80 per cent of their expenses from partnership and fund the remaining 20 per cent of their costs themselves.

Benefits to each partner Each of the project partners has signed up to an agreement that defines the terms and conditions, deliverables and benefits. One of the conditions is that the innovation must be delivered to the market. “So we’re tying them to the yoke of commerciality,” Marcus said. Holdtrade is currently building its business model for marketing the end product.

And as a company with no manufacturing base, it has two options for marketing the product: selling the third party manufactured bogies around the world, or selling interested companies the unique constituent components and the licence to manufacture the bogies.

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“That’s where the money will be,” Marcus said. “And then the profits will feed back into what will become a new bogie R&D business based here in the UK.” From FutureRailway’s perspective, the aim is to bring innovative products to market. “We take IP very seriously, but we don’t want to own it.” The ownership of the IP is defined in the initial contract, and FutureRailway merely asks for a percentage royalty which is then reinvested into further projects. The aim ultimately is to build a strong R&D base here in the UK which can continue to innovate, delivering new and exciting products to the rail network, and bringing financial rewards to the economy. The bogie design team is just one element of that. “We want to see innovators succeed as individuals and organisations, and go on to spread their wings and do great things.”

Revelations...the innovation DNA As an enabler to innovation, Marcus had some interesting observations to make, and a plea for everyone to start questioning. “Innovation in the rail market is only as good as the ideas people come to us with, and ideas that people are willing to buy,” he commented. “We exist by the good grace of the supply chain and the people who operate railways.

Without their engagement and involvement there is no place for a FutureRailway in the railway industry.”

Looking at this project individually, it’s all too easy to think of innovation as a one off idea. It’s not. “Innovation is about DNA. It’s about waking up in the morning and thinking about what you do, asking is this really the right way to do it, or is there a better way? Very often it’s identifying a pain people don’t realise they have. That’s where this radial freight bogie is a very good example. It’s a different type of thinking which I would encourage people in the railway industry to adopt.” zz

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NEWS I Infrastructure

New platform construction method trialled at Peterborough l Expanded Polystyrene – recently re-named ‘airpop’ across Europe – has slashed construction time from 20 weeks to just 20 days for a new, 60-metre rail platform extension at busy Peterborough station.

The project team and contractors Carillion worked with MegaTech to develop the design and deliver installation of the 30 large polystyrene blocks and matching concrete surface panels. The modular system from MegaTech Projects was delivered to site in 73 hours – and half of this time was spent removing the existing infrastructure. In addition to slashing construction time, the design eliminated the need for foundations, minimised the risk of striking buried services and meant less material from excavation. It also significantly reduced people time on site and improved safety.

Phil Verster, route managing director for Network Rail, “The innovation demonstrated here has paid real dividends for the project ... and is a good example of what can be achieved through challenging the norm.”

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In Brief

Metrolink delivers early l The Metrolink line to Manchester

Airport has opened more than 12 months ahead of schedule. Trams are now running every twelve minutes from the Airport to Cornbrook, but the service will not run further into Manchester until the second city crossing opens in 2017, unlocking extra track capacity through the city centre.

Victorian rail engineering honoured l The Lynmouth & Lynton Lift Company, the oldest water-balance system funicular railway in the UK has earned an Engineering Heritage Award from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). This pioneering railway climbs 500ft up a sheer cliff face and was the first of its kind.

Reference for rail survey professionals

Level crossing reform gets the go ahead l The majority of the reforms to level crossing law recommended by the Law Commission and Scottish Law Commission have been accepted by Government, which has also committed to reviewing the remainder and drawing up an action plan by the end of the year.

Level crossings, of which there are over 7,500 in Great Britain, are subject to many areas of law including railways, highways and roads, health and safety, property, planning and criminal law. The recommended reforms are intended to modernise and simplify those, making the law more coherent and accessible, allowing for better regulation and reducing the risks.

One of the Commission’s key recommendations is that safety at level crossings should be brought entirely within the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, making it easier to regulate level crossings. It will also clarify the law for those responsible for their safety.

Sir David Lloyd Jones, chairman of the Law Commission said: “Our reforms will achieve a better balance between the convenience of the railways, and that of non-rail users who access level crossings. In doing so, they will make it easier for safety to be improved.”

l A free guide for professionals carrying out survey work on Britain’s rail network is now available from The Survey Association (TSA). Endorsed by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, the Railway Surveys Guidance Note can be downloaded from

www.tsa-uk.org.uk.

Political uncertainty is blamed l According to the latest CBI/URS Infrastructure Survey, almost all businesses believe political intervention is holding back infrastructure improvement, rather than assisting it. Some 96% of firms said political uncertainty is discouraging investment and 93% identified political rhetoric as a problem, damaging confidence in markets.

Northern line to be extended to Battersea l In a move that will see the generation of 24,000 new jobs and over 18,000 new homes, the Secretary of State for Transport has given the go ahead for an extension of the underground’s Northern line from Kennington to Battersea via Nine Elms.

This addition to the Underground network will cut journey times to the West End and the City to just under 15 minutes.

Two new stations will be built – one at the heart of the Battersea Power Station redevelopment and another at Nine Elms to the east, serving new developments such as the US Embassy and the redevelopment of New Covent Garden Market, as well as existing communities.

The full cost of the Northern line extension is expected to reach £1bn, and will be funded entirely through contributions from the developments in the area that will benefit. Construction could start as soon as spring next year. Over three miles of new tunnels will be constructed and brand new stations opened at Nine Elms and Battersea by 2020.

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Procurement

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Power buying EU rules for energy trading will be changing in 2017, making fuel cost management a risky business. James Brown looks at the implications for the rail companies, and how they can prepare

A James Brown is senior energy consultant, EMEA for Allegro Development Corporation

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lot of ink has been expended on the topic of regulation for the rail industry. Back in 2013, the EU enacted legislation to improve accountability in wholesale energy trading markets. These rules added new layers of regulatory risk for UK and European rail operators who hedge their fuel costs by purchasing energy commodities in volume.

EU regulators created EMIR, which governs energy commodity transactions, and REMIT, which covers physical fuel trades, to address potential manipulation in derivatives and physical trading respectively. Now, an extended set of rules – MiFID II (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive) – is expanding beyond its banking

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scope to cover commodity trading too, with far reaching implications for rail companies.

MiFID II will be introduced in 2017 and will intensify the growing compliance burden created by the financial crisis for energy traders in Europe and America. It is at the moment still unclear as to how the directives may be implemented by European countries, and doubt over the future of regulatory exemptions presently relied on by companies who operate a hedging strategy against fuel costs. Consequently, the MIFID II consultation process that will take place over the next two years will prove critical; however, rail operators cannot afford to wait and see to decide

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz how best to address the likely increase in regulatory risk. Understanding the variables today – and planning accordingly – is key.

How rail operators will be affected With the introduction of EMIR and REMIT, rail businesses which use hedging techniques as participants in the energy market became ‘non-financial counterparts’ and currently benefit from a number of MiFID exemptions from rules aimed at banking, on the basis that they do not pose a comparable systemic risk. In MiFID II, however, these exemptions have been narrowed. Without being able to make use of such exemptions, energy trading rail businesses could end up being treated as de facto financial institutions which would result in a recategorisation that misrepresents the true nature of their business activities.

The major risk is that companies seen to be providing investment services, acting as a market-maker in commodity derivatives, or making use of algorithmic or high-frequency trading, might not qualify. Companies trading on own account to optimise their physical energy assets, should.

So MiFID II will, in theory, create a hedging exemption that ensures the trading arms of rail businesses and energy companies remain exempt. But size matters and the larger a group’s auxiliary trading operation overall, the harder it could be to benefit from these narrowed exemptions.

Preparing the groundwork Despite uncertainties around rollout, there are options in terms of what the industry can do to get ready for MiFID II. Managing the process by spreadsheet is not one of them. There are electronic reporting and data storage requirements involved in each set of regulations that will quickly overwhelm manual processes.

In light of the evolving standards for EMIR and REMIT into MiFID II, you will want to choose a solution that allows you to upgrade and manage the regulatory compliance process quickly.

Another qualifier to consider is the option to install software on a captive system and maintain it internally, or purchase a software-as-a-service (SaaS) contract. Core to any solution would also be direct connectivity to trade repositories, including all required regulatory identifiers and formats. The system should be able to simplify your threshold monitoring (as discussed above) and facilitate your risk mitigation obligations, including periodic portfolio reconciliations under the new rules.

MiFID II consists of a directive which must be implemented by each EU Member State (a process meant to take another two years), and a regulation which is applied across the EU. As with EMIR and REMIT, technical standards and other secondary legislation will need to be

drafted, agreed and adopted by ESMA before the new legislation is implemented. Realistically, we are advising our customers to prepare for final MiFID II readiness by 2017.

That means uncertainty for at least the next three years – and given the experience of EMIR and REMIT, potentially longer. Over the next 18 months, here are three key things to watch for: l Clarity on the exact definition of hedging, which will be extremely important for companies hoping to make use of the hedging exemption l Clarity over how a market participant’s positions will be aggregated and netted. The issue of economically equivalent contracts and how the characteristics of an individual commodity will factor into the calculation l Whether physical forwards will be treated as OTC derivatives.

Planning for change Rail companies that participate in the energy market now need to look ahead to late 2016/17 and build increased regulatory risk into their trading decisions. A good place to start may be to consider how changes in the regulatory interpretation of different transactions could affect a given portfolio, especially with regard to nonhedging activities.

Hedging and risk management strategies will clearly need to be adapted. One way may be to trade on proprietary portfolios via a fully regulated market which can provide a measure of regulatory certainty about the classification and treatment of transactions.

Also consider beefing up your roster of compliance specialists, and have traders undergo rigorous training to understand the current EMIR & REMIT regimes and the implications of MiFID II. Technology investments can also help mitigate regulatory risk by surfacing exposures and providing quick assurance that trades and related activities are compliant. This has already been shown through EMIR and REMIT, which forced many companies to invest in or revisit their Energy Trading and Risk Management (ETRM) systems. MiFID II will almost certainly necessitate another round of IT upgrades, particularly in the area of reporting to trade repositories.

Based on experience of EMIR and REMIT, the prime requirement really has to be flexibility. Given that MiFID II has so many evolving dimensions, it is essential to be ready with a solution that will allow you to upgrade and manage your regulatory compliance process quickly.

Any rail operator planning to maintain a hedging strategy to manage fuel costs will need to address this soon. An automated solution offers the best alternative to meeting the requirements, given the evolving standards and timelines that define the regulatory environment. zz

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Supply Chain

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Collaboration for SMEs

Suzanne O’Keane, community manager RISQS, Achilles

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Larger rail companies and SMEs will need to collaborate more closely if they are to reap the benefits of the huge investment currently going into rail.

Supply chain specialist Achilles reports

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record £95 billion planned spend in rail and a plethora of new regulations encouraging the use of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), means it has never been so important for the industry ‘big boys’ and the ‘little guys’ to work collaboratively.

The almost unprecedented influx of work includes projects in Network Rail’s Control Period 5 as well as HS2 and Crossrail.

Meanwhile, the EU has unveiled new regulations aimed at creating a level playing field for SMEs. These include requiring companies to explain why a contract has not been split into smaller lots, and only being able to specify suppliers who have a minimum turnover of up to two times the contract value.

But despite the impending rule changes, it can feel as though large businesses and SMEs are still pulling in opposite directions, with many smaller firms reporting continued challenges in dealing with larger buyers.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Achilles canvassed three industry experts to discuss the ongoing challenges faced by SMEs, and what can be done to resolve those issues. l Don Clarke, chair of Rail Industry Contractors Association (RICA), which represents the interests of SMEs. l Suzanne O’Keane, community manager at Achilles.

The Railway Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme (RISQS), which incorporates services provided by Achilles, brings together more than 100 rail and transport buyers and over 3,000 suppliers, 83 per cent of which are SMEs. There is a single questionnaire and an audit process, incorporating all industry standards, to ensure buyers can find companies which would meet their supply needs. l Paul Cheeseman, director of rail technology consultancy company Technical Programme Delivery.

What are the ongoing challenges?

In his role as chair of RICA, Clarke said that one of the key challenges SMEs face is being notified of opportunities very late, with little notice to respond.

“SMEs are often asked to come on-board at the last minute which makes it difficult to get the resources they need to provide outstanding service,” he said. “And that’s a shame because in my experience, SMEs are more in touch with what the customer needs and are more efficient.”

Clarke also said RICA had found that smaller companies needed support from buying organisations to overcome financial issues, with many SMEs still waiting for payment after the agreed terms.

“That is something the industry in general is working on but waiting to be paid can often make it very difficult for SMEs to operate,” he said. “Larger companies need to work in true collaboration with SMEs and this will benefit both sides.”

Paul Cheeseman is director of rail technology consultancy Technical Programme Delivery – itself an SME. He said his company was often faced with a different challenge – duplicating e-paperwork.

“Each company wants the information in their own specific way,” Cheeseman said. “If you are an SME you are dealing with multiple processes for different companies. Often, it can be a challenge knowing what each specific company wants and how they want that provided, which can be very time consuming.”

Joint responsibility While SMEs do face a number of challenges gaining attention from larger companies, it is the responsibility of both parties to make collaboration work.

Achilles community manager of RISQS Suzanne O’Keane said: “We often speak to SMEs who say they are facing challenges working with buyers, but it cuts both ways. Safety is always going to be a priority for rail companies and they, quite rightly, will not work with

any SME unless they can meet the world-class safety standards required. Yet many SMEs do not get past the first stage, refusing to fill out the required paperwork regarding safety standards and regulations.”

The solution Many SMEs share Paul Cheeseman’s frustration when buying organisations repeatedly ask them for the same information.

Suzanne O’Keane said the smartest buyers work collaboratively with other buying organisations to address this; setting the same standards for suppliers, regardless of size. “This not only cuts down on paperwork for SMEs but ensures buyers have consistent information on all suppliers,” she said, and asserted that many buyers are happy to work with SMEs, provided they met the required safety and regulatory criteria.

“We have seen a number of buyers use RISQS to search specifically for SMEs. But they can only do that with confidence because they know smaller suppliers have gone through a process to prove their worth. SMEs must demonstrate that they provide an outstanding service and meet regulatory criteria. The SMEs on RISQS have taken the time to prove their worth.”

However, Ms O’Keane said it was clear that companies, both small and large, needed to work together to overcome the challenges posed and reap the benefits. “Small and large businesses have so much to offer each other and it is only by considering the other’s perspectives can companies gain the rewards,” she said.

Suzanne said that based on her experience in RISQS, SMEs can take five steps in order to get a foot in the door with bigger companies. zz

Five key steps for SMEs l Prove financial security. Smaller enterprises need to be transparent when engaging with larger companies and prove they have the financial backing to see a project through l Show demand flexibility. Small businesses should ensure they have a plan which proves they can deliver under any circumstances to help allay the fear smaller operator’s may not be able to cope with changing demand l Demonstrate ability to comply with standards and regulations. SMEs must commit to achieving and publicising the same standards, accreditations and certification as the big players and this is most efficiently done through a community model l Promote your talent. Smaller businesses need to drop any shyness about promoting their talent, employee qualifications and successes l Plan, plan and then plan some more. Smaller enterprises need to pay close attention to their processes to ensure there are no gaps which could lead to delays.

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NEWS I Industry

Romanian intermodal activity is up 50% in 9 months l Tibbett Logistics, Romania’s largest privately owned contract logistics specialist, enjoyed a 50% increase in maritime container TEUs through the Bucharest International Rail Freight Terminal (BIRFT) during the first nine months of 2014.

The terminal, which has been operated by Tibbett Logistics since its inauguration in 2011, handles block train services between Constanta Port on the Black Sea and Bucharest for maritime containers, plus conventional railway wagon traffic from Western Europe through the company’s rail-linked warehousing, and European intermodal traffic in pallet-wide 45’ containers.

Earlier this year the terminal also started operating car-transporter wagons – carrying imported cars from Turkey.

Alongside this there has been a ten-fold increase in traffic arriving from Western Europe in conventional wagons for cross-docking through BIRFT’s rail-linked warehousing – and onward distribution primarily to the Romanian retail sector.

Intermodal logistics at BIRFT, Bucharest

Rail improvements seen to be taking effect l Although senior business leaders believe that key elements of the UK infrastructure such as energy and transport are set to worsen in the next five years, perceptions of rail appear to be bucking that trend.

According to the latest CBI/URS infrastructure survey, investments in the rail network are paying off. A balance of +46% and +19% have seen improvements to metro and intercity rail services in the last five years.

Meanwhile, there is overwhelming support for the system of franchising,and Network Rail’s plans to deliver significant investments into the future. Big projects are also registering wider backing. Some 59% support the delivery of HS2, even though 70% feel there is still a greater role for government in making the case for new investments.

Altrincham interchange set to see a ‘green’ light l The roof of the new Altrincham interchange, a development that provides a modern passenger friendly link between bus, train and tram services in the town centre, has been fitted with 53 solar panels delivering 9555 kWh of energy to power the concourse with renewable energy.

The installation is part of Transport for Greater Manchester’s campaign to reduce carbon emissions. Since 2011, TfGM has reduced carbon emissions by 19% and has become the first UK transport authority to commit to becoming zero carbon by 2033.

TfGM has already made some notable environmental achievements. For example, Greater Manchester has more green buses than anywhere in the UK outside London, while Horwich Parkway Rail Station and Rochdale interchange are powered by wind-powered and hydro-powered turbines respectively.

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Reorganisation forms new transport division at Atkins l Atkins, the international consultancy responsible for designing the twin tunnels and station architecture for Crossrail, Europe’s biggest civil engineering scheme, has announced plans to bring together the rail and highways & transportation divisions to form a 3,000-strong group of specialists whose combined skills can help solve key transport issues.

This is part of a companywide reorganisation that includes combining the defence, aerospace and communications divisions.

Atkins says that against a backdrop of increasingly complex challenges, continued pressure on budgets, industry consolidation and a growing shortage of people with the right skills, the changes will enable the company to put greater emphasis on aligning more closely with its clients’ business objectives and providing innovative approaches to their challenges by drawing on a wider pool of cross-sector and crossdiscipline experience.

Most haunted Carlisle-style l Following frequent reports of strange and unexplainable experiences that have seriously spooked staff at Carlisle station, Virgin Trains drafted in paranormal consultant Barri Ghai to investigate during Halloween. A video of Barri’s findings can be seen on http:// youtu.be/8vtWtFWUoB8.

His investigations are set to continue...

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Freight REPORT

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The future of rail freight There are growing environmental and political incentives to reduce the carbon footprint across the logistics sector. We canvass a select panel of rail industry experts to find out how the railways are shaping up to the challenge of delivering more freight by rail

Accent/Railway Strategies RESEARCH REPORT

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elcome to the second in our series of special reports produced jointly by Accent and Railway Strategies. Our first report sought industry opinion on the challenges and issues surrounding of HS2, and in this report we turn our attention to freight on the railways. Much has been written about the environmental and economic value of moving freight by rail, and this has been backed by Government reports on freight strategy. But how effective has all this been? In this report we ask our exclusive panel of rail industry experts to share their views on progress so far, and the challenges that still lie ahead.

Economic benefits 100% of our executives believe that rail freight is vital for the future economic wellbeing of the United Kingdom.

Andy Harrison at Daventry Business and Consultancy Services Limited believes that it is: “Critical to get freight to city centres as economically and in as environmentally friendly way as possible; this clearly leads to freight moving by rail. As the economy grows the use of long distance road freight becomes less viable due to congestion and pollution issues.”

Richard Carr at Mechan Ltd agrees and added: “We need to get more lorries off of UK roads and rail offers the best environmental option for this.”

Again, all executives answered ‘Yes’ when asked if more investment should be put into freight rail. When asked why, Andy Harrison at Daventry Business and Consultancy Services Limited said: “To facilitate movement of long distance freight by rail. Investment should also be considered in the distribution mechanisms from freight hubs, this is where electric vehicles should play a part.”

The scale of the challenge ahead Only 17% of executives believed the current infrastructure is sufficient for a growing demand in rail freight. The majority (83%) stated, ‘No’. When asked why? Andy Harrison said: “Not enough freight hubs to enable local distribution. We are still moving freight that has travelled by rail onwards as long distance road freight.” Richard Carr

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at Mechan Ltd believes: “Capacity is already nearing full, and routes are not optimal for efficient operation of freight trains.” Chris Hallam at Pinsent Masons LLP added: “Provided that the new passenger railways (eg HS2) are built, freight can be moved to existing passenger railways which will be freed up.”

We then asked our executives, what needs to be done now? The most frequent answer provided was to address the issue of the lack of suitable interchanges and terminals, along with direct access to the EU via the channel tunnels. Other actions to take included; looking at scheduling issues and from an environmental issue of reducing carbon.

It was then important to establish how influential the road logistics lobbies are in depressing investment in freight rail. We asked our executives to answer on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being ‘not at all influential’ and 5 ‘very influential’. 50% of executives answered with 3 – which is middle ground. 33% answered with a 4 which is influential, and 17% answered with a 5 which is very influential.

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Better road rail interchanges are needed to encourage a mode shift away from moving freight long distances by road Mark Bott at Preserved Traction Technical Services Ltd

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Government’s role in addressing the issues With this in mind, we then asked respondents whether they believed Government should be doing more to promote the benefits of rail freight. The majority (83%) of executives answered with a clear ‘yes’. And when asked what more the Government could be doing to promote the migration of freight to the railways, Mark Bott at Preserved Traction Technical Services Ltd said: “Encourage freight train operators to use electric traction. This would allow for trains to keep better schedules, and reduce carbon emissions.

It would also allow better use of past investment in the rail network.” Whilst Richard Carr at Mechan Ltd added: “Tax incentives for operators and customers to use rail instead of road.”

Finally the panel was asked for its opinion on whether enough is already being done to solve passenger / freight traffic conflicts? The majority 83% said ‘No’ whilst only the remaining 17% said ‘Yes.’ When asked to explain why, Andy Harrison at Daventry Business and Consultancy Services said: “Freight and passenger trains do not need to run at the same time. Also HS2 will free up the existing West Coast Main Line for a huge increase in freight. Clearly there is some need to reinstate some tracks and routes to match a coherent and integrated policy.”

Conclusion Speaking about the results, Rob Sheldon, managing director at Accent said: “These results are really interesting and do highlight that increased rail freight would be advantageous to the UK economy. The delegates raised some very strong points on what the Government could be doing to promote the use going forward.”

All executives agree there is undoubtedly a strong environmental and economic argument for increasing the volume of freight going by rail, but there are many issues that still need to be addressed before this can happen.

To be effective, our executives believe the railways need a strategic network of interchanges and freight hubs across the country and access to the EU via the Channel Tunnel.

Meanwhile, more needs to be done to solve passenger/ freight conflicts on the railways and increase freight

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Freight is playing 2nd fiddle to passengers as it is not as politically attractive to promote freight

capacity across the network – HS2 being cited as an example of how this could be achieved.

While there are currently unprecedented levels of investment in the railways, our respondents believe that the Government could do more to promote the migration of freight to rail through, for example, tax incentives and investment in a strategic network of freight hubs. It’s also interesting to see that they still feel the road lobby is adversely influencing investment decisions in rail freight.

Does this indicate that more should be done to lobby on behalf of the rail at Government and civil service level, or is this a matter of addressing outdated perceptions? Let us know what you think. Contact the editor, Gay Sutton: editor@railwaystrategies.co.uk.

We have some interesting and challenging topics coming up in future months. If you would like to join the exclusive Railway Strategies and Accent panel and have your say, please send an email to Yasamin.Mehraj@accent-mr.com with your contact details and we will get in touch. zz

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Freight needs a broader reach Rod Ward Able at ScrewFast Foundations Ltd www.railwaystrategies.co.uk

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Chris MacRae, manager – rail freight policy, Freight Transport Association www.fta.co.uk

Agenda for more rail freight

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CHRIS MACRAE explains why putting the customer at the heart of the rail freight policy agenda is absolutely key to achieving the growth targets expected of rail freight

TA is working with its major retailer members on exploiting their potential for making use or more use of rail freight. This has led to the publication of On Track, a report detailing the experiences that eight major high street retailers have had in using rail freight as a part of their logistics supply chains. Critically what this publication also does is outline what those same retailers believe they need from the rail freight sector to enable them to make greater use of rail.

At the same time FTA has been leading a project with retailers on sharing road based retail freight distribution origin and destination data. This has been published on an annonymised basis on the Mode Shift Centre website

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and is the first step in seeking to facilitate the matching of loads on similar journeys that could potentially be aggregated into freight train traffic.

This is against the background of the UK Coalition Government’s desire under its Big Society agenda to be less directly involved in mode shift work itself but rather for industry and its representatives to lead this. For balance it must be said that the Scottish Government is taking a more hands on approach, organising seminars and workshops on mode shift, involving FTA and other freight trade associations as well as road and rail freight hauliers, logistics service providers and shippers.

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Revealing the customer’s perspective FTA’s Rail Freight Council comprises the different parties to the rail freight supply chain from shippers, to logistics service providers, rail freight operators, terminal operators and Network Rail, and is now moving to a more shipper focused agenda looking to deliver on the areas that particularly retail shippers have told us they need to see improvement in to facilitate their greater use of rail freight.

The retailers contributing to the On Track report identified a familiar but solvable list of factors that will help continue the growth in domestic intermodal freight services.

These are: l Increased service frequency to match product lead times l More flexible timetables and service versatility l The ability to expand train capacity when needed l Seven-day a week service to avoid spot road freight costs at weekends l More rail freight terminals l Temperature controlled containers, particularly for frozen food l Pooling of loads to create viable train loads l Faster processing of new train paths l Continuous improvement to reduce costs and maintain competitiveness l Improved visibility of costs to assist partnership working l Continued Government funding and grant support l Consistent measure of environmental benefits of rail Specifically the factors under these are: Costs and competitiveness m Continuous improvement to reduce costs and maintain competitiveness

m Improved visibility of costs to assist partnership working m Continued Government funding and grant support m Consistent measure of environmental benefits of rail Service availability and flexibility m Increased service frequency to match product lead times m More flexible timetables and service versatility m The ability to expand train capacity when needed m Pooling of loads to create viable train loads m Faster processing of new train paths Network Access m Seven-day a week service to avoid spot road freight costs at weekends m More rail connected freight terminals m Temperature controlled containers, particularly for frozen food International services m Reduced Channel Tunnel freight train access charges to facilitate more international rail freight to and from UK m Effective European rail freight market liberalisation to increase service quality, reliability and shipper choice FTA is working to develop the above into a list of outputs against the current rail freight policy agenda necessary for increased retailer and shipper use of rail freight. This forms the agenda for the association’s policy work on rail going forward – to start a conversation with all parties to the rail freight supply chain to manage the transition and transformation necessary to realise this potential traffic, and deliver the growth rates and cost reductions embedded in the Network Rail Long Term Planning Process: Freight Market Study.

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zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ORR. This needs to include developing clear milestones and a route map for the rail freight industry to implement measures of joint performance improvement identified by rail freight customers as necessary to grow their use of rail freight.

Bringing the customer to the fore

The Agenda for More, while initiated as a retail shipper focused initiative has been developed and taken through FTA’s British Shippers’ Council where it was signed off at the April meeting with a broader range of shippers. The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) also participated in that meeting. The Agenda for More is available online at www.fta.co.uk/policy_and_compliance/rail/rail_freight. html and represents a client side specification with listed objectives and outputs required to be met for more shipper use of rail freight.

Can we achieve growth targets?

The growth forecasts for rail freight in Network Rail’s Freight Market Study, now officially established by ORR are indeed challenging. By 2019 to deliver these targets rail freight needs to have grown by 30 per cent, which equates to 6 per cent each year of Control Period 5 2014 – 2019. That is a serious amount of growth. To be realistic that will not be achieved solely by continuing on the same track – please excuse the pun – of policies for rail freight. A more radical approach is required. This is particularly obvious when it is remembered that what the rail industry calls domestic intermodal or retailer traffic is seen as a key component in this. Yet these same retailers are calling for major changes and improvements in the delivery and performance of rail freight services in Britain. These changes revolve around the four key themes of costs and competitiveness, service availability and flexibility, network access and international services, and are articulated in the Agenda for More Freight

by Rail covered in previous columns.

What is really clear now, though, is a need for the industry in the form of operators, regulators, trade associations and governments to place the needs of rail freight customers at the centre of future rail policy so as to enable the customer demand growth that predicates the growth predictions of the Network Rail Long Term Planning Process and Freight Market Study now established by

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These challenges include a need to reduce freight track access charges so that end customer (shipper) prices for using rail freight can come down to make effective competition with road freight, and / or for other industry costs to come down so that the end price to that customer lowers to a competitive level to attract new and growth traffic. What this does not mean is, as some lobbyists would suggest under a supposedly environmental banner, simply taxing road freight more so as to make rail less uncompetitive: all that does is hurt business by putting up supply chain costs and threaten investment, jobs and growth in the UK economy: the only solution that is sustainable is for rail costs to come down in real terms. Also, for international rail traffic, the very welcome reductions of the freight train access charges for using the Channel Tunnel need to filter through to end customers in real service price reductions, and this needs to be embedded by the European Directives on infrastructure access charging being clearly applied to this specific infrastructure.

Rail network access also needs to improve. Retailers in particular, when considering the use of rail freight as part of their supply chain, will not countenance having to hold the cost of road based logistics solutions for the day(s) of the week when potential traffic cannot go by rail because the network is unavailable. Therefore, the industry needs to work on solutions to this. Likewise, rail connected freight terminal capacity needs to increase. To meet the growth figures of the Freight Market Study, this requires an additional 0.27m2 rail connected terminal capacity per year.

While this needs to be financially and physically delivered by the private sector, clearly DfT and Transport Scotland need to review current rail connected freight terminal provision and existing blockages to the development of more that may exist in the planning system.

Conclusion So the message is clear that there is a need to take a lead on supply chain supportive measures to improve the uptake of rail freight by industry. Only by placing the needs of rail freight customers at the centre of future rail freight policy will government and industry enable the customer demand growth that predicates the growth predictions of the Long Term Planning Process and Freight Market Study that ORR have now established. zz Those interested in participating in the work of FTA Rail Freight Council as a member of FTA should contact the Secretary Chris MacRae: cmacrae@fta.co.uk Information and downloads:

www.modeshiftcentre.org

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NEWS I Appointments

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New station manager for London Liverpool Street

Cummins Global Rail brings in strategy expert

Peter Strachan to transform Caledonian sleeper franchise

Abellio Greater Anglia has appointed Alan Neville station manager at London Liverpool Street, where he will be responsible for customer service provision from this key London terminus which sees a footfall of 58 million people per year.

Alan, previously customer service manager at Tottenham Hale, brings 34 years of rail industry experience to the role, including managing London Liverpool Street as its customer service manager from 2007-8 and station manager at King’s Cross before that.

His key responsibilities will include staff and station standards management, working with Network Rail which shares management of the station with Abellio Greater Anglia, and improving customer service.

l Melina Kennedy has been named general manager of Cummins’ Global Rail and Defence businesses. She will be responsible for strategy and implementation in these two key markets, reporting directly to Ed Pence, vice president and general manager – Cummins High-Horsepower Engine Business.

“Melina’s experience creating and delivering global strategies – coupled with her legal and public-service background – make her uniquely qualified to lead these dynamic growth markets,” said Pence.

Most recently, Kennedy served as director of executive communications, leading the work to help create and deliver global and strategic internal and external communications for the chief executive officer and other senior leaders at Cummins. Prior to joining Cummins, she spent over 15 years practicing law and holding key public-service roles in the state of Indiana.

l Serco has appointed Peter Strachan as managing director of the Caledonian Sleeper franchise which begins operating in April 2015. He will lead the transformation of the Sleeper service, building an outstanding hospitality service representing the best of Scotland. He will focus on all aspects of franchise including marketing, sales, hospitality service on the trains, vehicle maintenance and the provision of facilities at stations for guests.

Peter comes to Scotland from Australia where he led on and supported two key Serco rail bids in Sydney. Prior to joining Serco in 2013, Peter was director-general major projects for the Department for Transport, leading on the UK Government’s major rail and road capital projects and for transport in London, including the London 2012 Olympics and chairing the Crossrail joint sponsor board.

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Terry Williams to head up Oleo’s research l As part of a move to strengthen its inhouse engineering expertise, simulation software specialist Oleo International has appointed Terry Williams as research director. His role will be to further develop the company’s simulation offering for the rail sector across multiple platforms, and to develop applications for use in other fields.

A key aspect of this will be to continue improving the simulations and launch Oleo’s new industrial crash energy simulation technology.

Terry Williams brings 20 years experience to the role and was influential in Oleo’s initial development of 1D Rail simulation software.

His expertise encompasses the development of mathematical simulations correlated with extensive laboratory and full size train crash testing. He has also played a key role in the design and development of gas hydraulic and deformation energy absorption that are used by all the main coupler manufacturers, the results of which are accepted by train operators and car manufacturers worldwide.

Eversholt Rail appoints new chief financial officer l David Stickland has taken up the post of chief financial officer of Eversholt Rail, effective from 10 November 2014. As chief financial officer David will be responsibile for all aspects of commercial and corporate finance, tax, risk and information technology.

David joins Eversholt Rail from LeasePlan UK, a member of the LeasePlan Corporation NV Group (the largest vehicle management group in the world), where he has been chief financial officer since 2008. Prior to this he was at Serco Plc, Avis Europe Plc, IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

David is a Chartered Accountant and holds an MBA from Manchester Business School, and a BSc from Southampton University.

Mary Kenny, chief executive officer of Eversholt Rail, said: “We are pleased to have David joining us as Chief Financial Officer. He brings strong financial experience and will prove a valuable part of the executive team at Eversholt Rail.”

West Midlands appoints strategic director for transport l The West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority (ITA) has appointed Laura Shoaf as strategic director for transport.

The ITA was launched in July to ensure the West Midlands metropolitan area acts in a unified way on transport and make the strongest possible case when seeking funding for rail, tram and road schemes to grow the local economy.

Laura will work across the seven West Midlands local councils and the three Local Enterprise Partnerships for the Black Country, Greater Birmingham & Solihull and Coventry & Warwickshire to champion transport provision in the region at the highest level nationally.

Laura, currently director of transport for the Black Country, said: “The West Midlands is the UK’s largest urban area outside of London. We’re the centre of operations for HS2 and we are at the heart of the nation’s transport network. It’s vitally important that we are able to connect people and communities to areas of economic activity.” www.railwaystrategies.co.uk

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

27-29 January Transport Ticketing Global 2015 Lancaster House, London Organiser: Clarion Events Tel: 0207 384 7919 Email: hazel.miller@clarionevents.com Web: www.transport-ticketing.com 3-5 February Three Day Rail Conferences Frankfurt, Germany Organiser: Europoint Rail Technology Conferences & Exhibitions Tel: +31 (0)30 6981800 Email: iputman@europoint.eu Web: railconferences.eu/Conference/page/10585/ 9 February UK Air-Rail Update 2015 DLA Piper, London Organiser: Waterfront Conference Company Tel: 0207 067 1597 Email: conference@thewaterfront.co.uk Web: www.waterfrontconferencecompany.com 9-11 March Metrorail Europe 2015 Olympia, London Organiser: Terrapinn Tel: 0207 092 1125 Email: philip.kwok@terrapinn.com Web: www.terrapinn.com/conference/metrorail

17-18 March Middle East Rail Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre Organiser: Terrapinn Tel: +971 4440 2500 Email: enquiry.me@terrapinn.com Web: www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/ middle-east-rail 18 March The Future of Rail Signalling: Transition to ERTMS Stephenson Harwood, London Organiser: Waterfront Conference Company Tel: 0207 067 1597 Email: conference@thewaterfront.co.uk Web: www.waterfrontconferencecompany.com/ conferences/rail/events/rail-signalling-ertms 17-19 March Rail-Tech 2015 Utrecht Organiser: Europoint Conferences & Exhibitions Tel: +31 (0)30 698 1800 Email: info@rail-tech.com Web: www.rail-tech.com 24-26 March Intermodal Asia 2015 Shanghai World Expo Centre Organiser: Informa Exhibitions Tel: 02075 519 309 Web: www.intermodal-asia.com/

31 March to 1 April AsiaPacificRail 2015 Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre Organiser: Terrapinn Tel: (65) 6322 2720 Email: sophia.ku@terrapinn.com Web: www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/ asia-pacific-rail 14-16 April World Travel Catering & Onboard Services EXPO Hamburg Messe, Germany Organiser: Reed Exhibitions Tel: 0208 910 7132 Email: daniel.kazimierczak@reedexpo.co.uk Web: www.worldtravelcateringexpo.co 12-14 May Railtex 2015 NEC, Birmingham Organiser: Mack Brooks Exhibitions Tel: 01727 814 400 Email: railtex@mackbrooks.co.uk Web: www.railtex.co.uk 15-17 July RailNewcastle Conference Newcastle upon Tyne Organiser: NewRail Tel: 01912 083 976 Email: www.newrail.org/education Web: conferences.ncl.ac.uk/ railnewcastleconference

Institute of Mechanical Engineers Training Courses Technical training for the railway industry A listing of courses currently available from the IMechE (Unless stated otherwise, all courses are in London) 24 March Introduction to rolling stock Provides a basic understanding of the role of traction and rolling stock within the context of railway systems as a whole

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15 April Fleet maintenance - Advanced Understand the issues affecting rail vehicle performance and cost of maintenance

Date: 14 May Vehicle dynamics and vehicle track interaction Understand the dynamics of railway vehicles to improve safety, comfort and asset life

25 March Traction and braking Principles of traction and braking for railway engineers

16 April Train structural integrity Structural integrity, fire and crashworthiness systems found on today’s rail fleets

Date: 18-22 May Introduction to railway signalling technologies An overview of railway control systems, subsystems and technologies used on UK main line and metro railways

26 March Train communication and auxiliary systems New and existing systems in use on today’s rolling stock fleet

12 May Train control and safety systems Learn of the systems used on UK fleets that provide safety and train operational control

Downloadable brochure is available at: www.imeche.org/learning-and-development/ courses/railway

14 April Fleet maintenance - Introduction Improve your processes and fleet maintenance processes

13 May Vehicle acceptance and approvals Introduction to acceptance procedures which apply across the rail network

www.railwaystrategies.co.uk

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

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Coming into its own Rail is increasingly coming to the rescue of logistics firms handling 20ft containers, offering large savings in transport costs and hugely reducing CO2 emissions. Nick Radcliffe explains

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Nick Radcliffe is managing director of FreightArranger

he 20ft shipping container is half the length of its alternative, and is an industry favourite as it helps stay within weight limitations which come with dense products such as food and drink.

However, road hauliers tend to price by the journey, not the size of the shipment, and so moving these smaller containers around by HGV becomes expensive in terms of both financial outlay and CO2 emissions.

Switching to larger containers isn’t a much better option, as they often hit the maximum weight long before they’re full. (A 40ft container can only carry around two per cent more weight than a 20ft container.)

And so, logistics firms are turning to rail to transport them around the UK – picking up on the 25 to 30 per cent discounts for smaller containers and hugely reducing costs and boosting their green credentials.

Intermodal logistics firm FreightArranger is seeing a rise in demand for its services, which helps firms pair up road and rail transport to make transporting goods around the country quicker, more efficient and more cost-effective than either of those methods used alone.

Going intermodal

Bhavisha Mistry

Nick Radcliffe managing director of FreightArranger explained: “It doesn’t make any sense to pay over the odds to take smaller containers along our already congested motorway network, when rail offers a straightforward and more cost effective alternative.”

When considering rail for intermodal consignments, cost, timing, service reliability, carbon reduction and security should be taken into consideration.

Cost needs no explanation, but there is a long term planning element involved. “If you want to be able to use intermodal freight within your business, then location of your business premises becomes a critical consideration,” Nick said. “Proximity to the inland rail terminal is obviously desirable, but the direction of travel from that terminal in relation to the port of import is also an important factor. Take this simple example: if your local terminal is Manchester, then the combined cost of road and rail to deliver to Crewe and Burnley will be broadly the same; the cost by road from say, Southampton, will be over £100 more expensive for the more northerly location, Burnley.”

Intermodal trains are excellent for next day deliveries, but the most urgent freight should not be sent by rail;

same day deliveries are best sent by road due to the absence of time-consuming lifts. Reducing the handling time between modes in the intermodal journey would increase the scope for rail freight.

Whilst it’s acknowledged that intermodal rail tonne mile saves 67 per cent of the CO2 emitted by a road tonne mile, what is less well considered is the increased security obtained by rail freight: theft from freight trains is virtually nil, which compares well with the comparative vulnerability of an HGV in a lay-by for a compulsory rest period.

Making the choice The main challenge when considering rail freight versus road is that there is close competition on cost. And, paradoxically, being able to manage or at least influence the cost of the final mile delivery by road is a key element in controlling the total cost of the consignment.

Much of the conversation around using rail revolved around establishing needs.

“There are two key aspects to achieving best practice: understanding the real needs of your customer, and recognising where a rail movement is helpful and when it is not. With the customer, the critical word about needs is ‘real’. Sometimes the need will be clear – they may for example have adopted an environmental target. At other times, their need may be a perceived need, for example are all those containers required for delivery at 08:00 really needed at 08:00? Spreading the final mile work over the day reduces congestion in terminals and makes better use of HGV assets.

“The other aspect is recognising where a rail movement is helpful. There are instances where within a large freight flow, some container deliveries are too urgent to consign by rail, but it does not follow that all containers have to go by road.”

FreightArranger is positioned at the heart of the transport industry, designed to increase the use of rail by making intermodal logistics more efficient. Its design makes the most of both road and rail by organising transport via a web-based system.

“Intermodal freight takes the best of both worlds, keeping costs down and getting goods where they need to be more efficiently,” Nick added. “And now, with the drivers’ CPC coming into force, driver rates are increasing which makes rail even more attractive.” zz

www.freightarranger.co.uk www.railwaystrategies.co.uk

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Instrumentation CASE STUDY

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Overview of the remote condition monitoring system

Remotely assessing health Engineers from National Instruments have created a new remote condition monitoring system to watch for faults or signs of failure in certain critical assets, to reduce delays on the London Underground. Railway Strategies takes a look at the details Following the installation of the NI CompactRIO system, we can now simultaneously acquire the JTC monitor point samples remotely from all track circuits on the line

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remote condition monitoring system that was specially designed for the London Underground is expected to reduce lost customer hours on the Victoria Line by 39,000 per year by detecting potential track circuit failures before they occur.

The new remote condition monitoring system empowers maintainers to proactively respond to failures before they occur and provides management with a better insight into the asset lifecycle. With greater knowledge of the real world behaviour of jointless track circuits (JTCs) following the introduction of this condition monitoring system, London Underground can better understand a critical asset, learn the behaviour of a faulty track circuit, identify those that could potentially fail and alert maintenance prior to this event occurring.

Prior to the introduction of this system, it was necessary to periodically monitor the condition of every

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London Underground serves 1.7 billion passengers per year and the Victoria Line accounts for 213 million of those journeys. The line carries 89.1 million passengers per year during peak service, offering the most intensive service on the underground network.

Sam Etchell, testing and commissioning manager at London Underground Ltd, explained that over the past eight years, a £1 billion investment programme has upgraded and replaced the Victoria Line’s rolling stock and signalling and control systems to deliver a service capable of running more than 33 trains per hour.

The main cause of delays The new signalling system uses 385 JTCs to detect train position, maintain safe train separation and deliver train headways capable of meeting an extremely demanding timetable. Track circuits are the sole means of train detection and play a critical role in the safe and reliable operation of the railway. However, no provision was made for any condition monitoring during the design and installation.

Mr Etchell explained that, due to the critical nature of the asset, a failed track circuit has a major impact on the service and constitutes the biggest cause of passenger disbenefit on the Victoria Line, amounting to £1.5 million since their introduction (London Underground CuPID database for track circuit failures since 2012).

The Victoria Line condition monitoring team, made up of six professional engineers with rail, software, electrical, mechanical, network and engineering backgrounds, delivered the solution. National Instruments’ (NI) silver alliance partner, Simplicity AI, supported the project by providing additional software consulting services. Drawing from NI’s breadth of expertise, the system was introduced onto an operational railway within one year of the concept design.

Rahman Jamal, technical and marketing director for NI in Europe, said the accuracy, reliability and flexibility of NI hardware and software was a crucial factor in the development of an innovative system to reduce lost customer hours on the Victoria Line.

The scope of this project consisted of designing, integrating and installing an intelligent remote condition monitoring system that could perform real-time analysis of voltage and frequency for all 385 JTCs across a 45 km of deep tube railway to predict and prevent failures and subsequent loss of passenger service.

How the solution works “The NI hardware and software enabled data to be transported to a central condition monitoring server in real time using a lightweight transfer protocol. This was a key requirement in the design and delivery of a true remote condition monitoring system,” said Mr Jamal.

The central condition monitoring server processes a live 10 Hz data stream from every CompactRIO device,

Data from the CompactRIO devices is available anywhere on the Victoria Line through a connection to the new condition monitoring network. which totals more than 7,000 data samples per second.

The system compares each received frame of data to a defined standard frequency and voltage so the server can make an independent decision on the health of each track circuit. In addition, the server stores all of the data in a near line and far line database architecture so that longterm trends on large datasets can be analysed.

The central server can push asset condition alerts to a human machine interface (HMI). The HMI is a large touchscreen device that displays an accurate scaled replica of the Victoria Line track circuit configuration. A user can intuitively navigate the information displayed with natural touch gestures, clearly identify line-side asset condition and receive predicted equipment failure warnings.

There is a plan to deploy two HMIs for faster response times – one in the Victoria Line control centre and another in the maintenance control centre, both of which will be used by signalling maintenance staff.

Alongside the HMI, a suite of touch screen devices can display the data in the line-side equipment rooms and through a smartphone or tablet. This means the data from the CompactRIO devices is available anywhere on the Victoria Line through a connection to the new condition monitoring network.

Mr Jamal added: “Connectivity is vital as we move into the age of the internet of things. In this case, we wanted to ensure that the monitoring data would be accessible on the mobile devices that we all carry with us today.” zz

uk.ni.com www.railwaystrategies.co.uk

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Instrumentation

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Remote control of insulation testing The emergence of highvoltage insulation test sets with remote control capability is not only delivering enhanced safety and greater convenience but also unlocking the possibility of automation.

Paul Swinerd of Megger explains some of the advantages on the railways 26

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raditionally, high-voltage insulation resistance testers (IRTs) have been designed for manual operation: the user connects the instrument to the device under test (DUT) and, after setting the operating parameters, presses the test button on the instrument itself to initiate the test. For many applications, this method of working is convenient and entirely appropriate, but that’s not always the case.

Consider, for example, a traction motor manufacturer who, in order to improve productivity and reduce labour costs, wishes to automate insulation resistance testing of items like stators and rotors, or even smaller components like rotor bars, as they come off the production line. Undoubtedly a test jig will be used to provide the necessary connections to the item

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz under test, but the test itself can only be carried out automatically if an IRT with facilities for remote control and test result transfer is used.

Remote control also offers big advantages in testing transformers, circuit breakers and similar equipment routinely used in rail systems. In these applications, particularly when the testing is being performed in an electrically noisy environment, it is advantageous to keep the test connections as short as possible.

However, if testing is, for example, being carried out on top of a large transformer, keeping the connections short inevitably means that the IRT will be in a hard-toaccess location and, quite apart from the inconvenience, if the IRT has to be operated locally, there may well be safety concerns over working at height with HV equipment. Remote control provides a complete solution, as it means that even if the tester is on top of the transformer, it can be operated safely and conveniently from ground level.

Hazardous environments Working at height is far from being the only safety issue that remotely controlled insulation resistance testing can help to eliminate. Not infrequently, testing must be carried out in electrically hazardous environments, such as substations. In such cases, once the test set has been put in place and connected, the user can, with the benefit of remote control, retreat to a safe distance, and perform the testing with virtually no risk. The IRT could even be left in place and monitored remotely in instances where it is necessary to look for changes in insulation resistance over a period of time.

Another interesting example is the testing of products during development. Because there may be a significant risk of the product failing during the test, it is often desirable to carry out such tests within a test cage or other enclosure. With remote control, the insulation tester can be conveniently located within the enclosure and connected to the DUT by short leads, while the operator initiates the tests from a safe location outside the enclosure.

With such an arrangement, it is also easily possible to use a solenoid-operated lock on the enclosure door, and arrange for this to be linked with the test set’s remotecontrol system so that the test cannot be initiated until the door is proved closed and locked, and the door cannot be opened while the test is in progress.

There are many other applications where the opportunity for automation offered by remote control is a major benefit and it’s clear that remote control of HV IRTs, while a simple concept, has much to offer. Its full potential will, however, only be realised if the remote control functionality is well implemented.

A crucial requirement is impeccable isolation between the remote control interface and the measuring circuits, as this is essential for safe operation. And, particularly in production line applications, a clearly visible beacon that

provides at-a-glance confirmation that the remote control system is functioning is often a useful feature.

Until recently, finding an IRT to meet these requirements was difficult. The new Megger S1 range of HV insulation testers, however, which are available in both 5 kV and 10 kV versions, are the forerunners of a new generation of instruments that have been designed with remote control – and other features needed by demanding users, such as exceptional noise immunity – firmly in mind.

Providing remote control facilities for a high-voltage insulation test set may initially seem like a relatively small enhancement but, as we’ve seen, this provision has the potential to open up a wide range of operational opportunities, and to provide many ways of improving operator safety. If you’re about the buy a new HV IRT, therefore, it may be worth considering a product that offers well-implemented remote control. zz

www.railwaystrategies.co.uk

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Social Responsibility

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Tackling an invisible problem How the rail industry is helping India’s railway children escape the dangers of a life by the tracks

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utside Kolkata’s Sealdah railway station, in India, a thousand tarpaulin-covered homeless families scrape a living amongst streets overflowing with raw sewage and filth.

An estimated third of Kolkata’s population live in slums and a further 70,000 people are completely homeless.

Travelling around Kolkata is a real assault on the senses.

Like every other city in India, the noise of streets choked with traffic can leave your ears ringing. What sets Kolkata apart is the sheer scale of poverty, deprivation, illness and suffering.

This year, 112,000 children will arrive at railway platforms across India, fed by the world’s second largest rail network. They are running away from poverty, abuse and neglect. Most are in search of a better life. But the problems they face on the streets are often far more dangerous than those they have left behind.

For almost 20 years, Railway Children has set itself the challenge of reaching these children before an abuser can.

Railway Children is an international children’s charity that

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funds, trains and works with grassroots organisations in the most deprived communities in India, East Africa and the UK. Thanks to Railway Children’s support in the UK, particularly from individuals and companies within the rail industry, the charity has been able to reach and rescue 8,762 children at risk on the streets in 2014. Of those children rescued, Railway Children successfully returned 2,502 to their families and nearly 1,000 have settled back into school. And in the last three years, a total of 27,000 children at risk in India have been rescued and protected by the charity.

Railway Children’s strategy is to make railway stations in India safer for these children. By working closely with railway police officers, government police and local shopkeepers, Railway Children ensures its own rescue workers are not alone in looking out for and protecting children at risk.

Gaining the confidence of a frightened and traumatised child, who is likely to have developed an in-built distrust

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz of adults, is one of many challenges Railway Children’s street workers face every day. The solution has been to train former street children to become peer workers, as well as existing street children to be basic first aiders.

Their first-hand experience and unique understanding makes them easier to approach than any adult.

Whenever they find new children, they bring them to the charity’s child protection booths within the station.

At these booths, Railway Children staff take personal details of every child they come into contact with and work out the best way to help each child. This might mean a short stay care home, where education, food, clothing and medical care can be provided, whilst we try and reunite them with their family. If this is not possible, a long-stay care home or a government home might the best option, where they’ll receive ongoing care, support and education.

Railway Children has so far established five childfriendly stations across three states in India. Sealdah Station, where two million people arrive every day, is one of these stations and where Samir was found.

Samir was just nine years old when he ran away from home. His father was an alcoholic and used to beat him and his mother frequently. He was spending more and more time on the streets and started attending the Railway Children-funded Drop in Centre project at Kolkata’s Sealdah station, often also staying in the night shelter.

Two years later, while attending the centre, Samir showed an interest in becoming a Child Health Volunteer.

He received first aid and hygiene training. Samir would go out onto the platforms at Sealdah station looking for new children arriving who may be in need of medical attention. Dressed in a white coat with a red cross on the back, Samir was an important link for children arriving alone and too frightened to turn to an adult for help.

He explains to them the dangers of being alone on the platform and streets, and offers to show them a place of safety. Samir now works at the centre and has trained to become a rescue worker.

Over 12 million children live on the streets in India.

Such huge numbers mean people have simply stopped seeing them. Children like Samir can quickly fade into the background and become invisible. But by bringing the right people together at street, community, and government levels, change is happening and these children and their needs are becoming more visible.

Railway Children’s child-friendly station model has already shown how small changes can make a huge difference in helping these children, not only in the short term but also in giving them opportunities that turn their lives around for good. The charity’s long-term goal is to replicate the model and make every station in India child friendly.

www.railwaychildren.org.uk.

Buy a child a happy future this Christmas

There are more than 11 million children living on the streets in India, with 112,000 children arriving alone at 35 of India’s largest railway stations every year.

When a child runs to the streets they face all manner of dangers.

That’s why it’s so important Railway Children reaches them first.

Sometimes it can be days or weeks before the charity finds them.

They’ll be hungry, tired, traumatised and often in need of medical care.

Every Railway Children Christmas gift that is bought has the potential to transform the life of a child like Samir and give them a chance of a happy future.

Nourishment and Nurture

Children survive alone on railway platforms, living in poverty and squalor, facing the risk of abuse and exploitation every day. Lack of access to food and drink can lead to illness, disease and malnutrition.

When we find them, our first priority is to meet their basic and immediate needs. Providing hot, nutritious food is the first crucial step to helping a child in desperate need. From Railway Children’s new range of Happy Future gifts, Nourishment and Nurture will provide a child like Samir with food for a whole month.

Band-aids and Bandages

Children suffer horrific injuries, jumping trains and taking huge risks.

Lack of hygiene and access to food and drink can lead to illness and disease. Our Band-aids and Bandages gift will help us to patch up a child’s bumps and bruises and provide them with medicine, playing a vital part in gaining their trust and ensuring their safety.

Exclusive range of Christmas Cards 2014

The cost of one pack of cards is £4.25 and will feed a child in India for a week. Help Railway Children fight for children living on the streets by choosing from its new and exclusive rail-themed Christmas cards, based on a selection of classic paintings from the magnificent Fighting Duchess to the historic steam train The Bristolian.

The charity’s full gift range can be found at :

www.railwaychildren.org.uk/shop

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Customer Service

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Putting a value on staff Station staff have a vital role to play in passenger security and improving the journey experience. Rachel Risely reports on the issues from The Association of European Transport’s annual European Transport Conference in Frankfurt, Germany

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et’s start by looking at how great an impact staff have on the customer experience across the entire train journey. Recent stories in the media have portrayed a number of rail staff in a bad light. In one recent example, a passenger reported that railway staff had made him feel like a ‘second-class citizen,’ simply because he was using a wheelchair. In another example, a group of passengers were hit with a large fine for boarding the wrong train, one passenger commented that: “The inspector was very matter of fact about it all and I understand he was doing his job – but it was an honest mistake.” The group’s £1,000 fine was felt to be harsh.

How on-board staff can affect the overall customer experience is currently being explored by train operators across Europe. In a paper presented at the European Transport Conference, Mark Van Hagen and Jessica

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Sauren from Netherlands Railways discussed their work exploring the impact of staff manner and interaction on the overall on-board customer experience.

What makes a good on-board experience Netherlands Railways had previously developed a tool to measure both tangible and less tangible quality aspects of the rail journey, known as the Train Experience Monitor (TEM). The TEM is based on scientific evidence, and questions passengers on all aspects of their journey.

These include functionality: cleanliness and security for example, or more emotional issues such as atmosphere and comfort.

It has been shown that the train journey experience can be influenced in three ways, which in turn influence each other. These are as follows: 1. Process – this is the basic level of service that a passenger would expect, and includes train punctuality and safety of service. Obviously the better the service the more satisfied the passenger will be.

2. People - this relates to both staff and other passengers. It is clear the presence of sufficient and competent staff positively affects the overall satisfaction of the customer.

3. Place – because quality of service is not actually tangible, passengers will unconsciously look for clues in the environment and make assumptions based on that. As this article is looking at the issue from a staff perspective, the environment would relate to tannoy announcements, ticket control or service provisions.

Using the TEM model Netherlands Railways wished to assess the impact of improving the quality of on-board interaction and messaging between staff and customers.

The methodology* for the study was based on 16 volunteer on-board staff. The volunteers were provided with two days of training in customer friendly approaches – via the tannoy, non-verbally, and during ticket control and service rounds. A number of scripts were developed – some used a straight forward business like tone while others adopted a more informal friendly tone. The scripts were trialled by on-board staff who delivered their message in a variety of ways, ranging from tannoy announcement alone, through to a full train walk through with ticket checks. The effect of the customer experience was then measured by Netherlands Railway Train Experience Monitor. In all, 5,026 passengers took part and completed the questionnaire.

The findings revealed the script which used a warm and non-business tone combined with a walk through and ticket check, generated the highest assessment of the on board staff. However, the results also highlighted that the overall impact of the on-board experience on customer satisfaction also increased, as did the levels of

satisfaction with this element of the customer journey.

Station staff Complementary to this was a paper presented by members of the Association of Train Operating Companies and Systra which looked at research on passenger valuation of station staff in small to medium stations and their influence on passenger demand and passenger security.

Again passenger safety is making headlines, with one station reporting 40 attacks on both passengers and staff. Figures quoted in the article also revealed: “There were 108 incidents at Wallgate and 268 at North Western in 2013/14, which was a slight fall from the previous 12 month period, of 104 and 278 respectively.”

Fitsum Teklu, Chris Pownall and Tony Magee delivered results from research co-funded by the Passenger Demand Forecasting Council and the Rail Safety and Strategy Board. The research was undertaken to determine the impact of station staff on rail demand.

It also looked to establish passengers’ perceptions of personal security, and whether this contributed to changes in demand.

There have been very few studies evaluating station staff and related facilities. This research involved a twolevel stated preference study. In the lower level, station and platform-related qualitative attributes were traded off against each other. At the higher level, packages of station and platform improvements were traded off against time and fare. The aim was to cap the valuation of qualitative improvements, and obtain realistic valuations for specific improvements.

Outcomes The research revealed some really interesting results.

Firstly, passengers using small to medium sized stations do value station staff. The main reasons they gave were: for the information they provided, and the help they gave when purchasing a ticket. Meanwhile, improvements in passenger personal security was seen as a secondary benefit. One very interesting insight to come from this work is that passengers value staff over the automated alternatives, such as CCTV or ticket vending machines. zz For information about the research email: rachel.risley@accent-mr.com.

The Association of European Transport: aetransport.org

Rachel Risely is board member of the Association of European Transport and director at Accent, market research consultants

*The study was executed on inter cities and various lines throughout the NL, on both weekdays and at the weekend, during peak and off peak hours.

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Ergonomics

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Are you sitting comfortably?

Working quietly behind the scenes, an expert team of engineers and ergonomic designers has been developing new, state-of-theart workstation technology for Network Rail’s new ROCs. Railway Strategies finds out how they have achieved the most efficient and user friendly option for controlling the network’s signalling 32

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re you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.” Those words will resonate with a generation familiar with Radio 4’s Listen With Mother programme, but it’s a serious question when applied to the new generation control rooms taking shape in Network Rail’s Rail Operating Centres (ROCs). The introduction of VDU-based control systems in place of electro-mechanical signalling control systems goes hand in hand with the introduction of new and updated work stations.

Shaped by users The task of creating a single, flexible workstation template to accommodate all requirements of the system and the operator is just one among a long list of challenges that

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have been present to suppliers. To address these issues, Network Rail set about introducing a user group for its ROC development. This comprised of Network Rail’s sponsor team, Network Rail’s ergonomics team (NRET), signalling systems provider Siemens Rail Automation, workstation specialist The TEW Group, ergonomic consultants CCD and end-users, including signallers and local operations managers.

The user group gathered the operational requirements for ROC workstations, establishing how they would be used and the equipment available to operators. The group then mapped equipment and tasks, defining specific user actions and operations. This informed equipment layouts and positioning of the workstations, focusing on the ease

with which operators could access the primary signalling control equipment, including five VDUs, a tracker ball and keyboard.

The next stage of the process required a detailed review of the physical layout of the ROC control room. The number of operators located in the same space as well as how operators interacted with each other during signalling operations, were important factors in the development process. In parallel with this, ergonomic consultants undertook a work load study, whilst signalling systems providers implemented a high level design review to ensure the control area could be accommodated into a single workstation.

Finally, the shape of the workstation was explored in

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conjunction with its requirement to accommodate specific equipment, including: l Primary: signalling l Secondary: telephone concentrator and GSMR l Peripheral: TRUST training report database and NRIM.

The development process Now the developers of the workstation were ready to start the initial modelling process. Taking the report generated from the findings of the user group, the TEW Group’s technical team of designers and mechanical engineers built a 1:1 mock up of the workstation in laminated cardboard, using CAD CAM technology. The model was then presented at a user group workshop, at which the signalling operators were able to assess its fitness for purpose by running specific operational scenarios. The model was configured to reproduce the exact operational layout that would be used in ROCs. Tim Hadfield is a TEW Group director with special responsibility for the rail signalling sector: “The intelligence and experience gathered from the user group was instrumental in the design, layout and configuration of the ROC workstation prototype that we built. It’s only by setting up the workstation and putting it into a mock working environment that you are able to identify the subtleties and nuances of the working environment. The trial had the workstation running as if in real time. That was an invaluable exercise and provided the blueprint for the final

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design. We collated comments and feedback, including colour scheme, accessibility, usability and mechanics, all of which were interpreted into the prototype.”

“Once we’d undertaken this live modelling exercise with the user group it was a relatively straightforward process to move the prototype into production, which was signed-off by the user group with only very minor changes. But the biggest challenge for us was to future proof the design, taking into consideration the pending implementation of TMS across the rail network. Our solution was based on the premise that we needed to deliver a universal solution for all signalling systems and we delivered on this using our engineering expertise.”

Putting this knowledge into practice – the future for this technology The TEW Group’s current ROC projects include Manchester, York, Three Bridges, East Midlands and Rugby, all of which are planning to adopt Network Rail’s latest Traffic Management Technology systems. ROCs supersede the UK rail network’s last generation of control centres including West Midlands, Basingstoke and Wembley.

A number of new ROCs are currently being built and six are now operational. Network Rail’s vision is to have the entire UK railway network controlled by these centres by 2058. The eventual number required is still not finally decided but the six in operation are at Didcot (Thames

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Valley), Cowlairs (West of Scotland), Gillingham (East Kent), Derby (East Midlands), Edinburgh (East of Scotland) and Cardiff (South Wales). Others are planned for Rugby (West Coast Main Line), York (East Coast Main Line), Romford (Anglia), Manchester (North West), Basingstoke (South West) and Three Bridges (South of England) and these are currently being built.

The development and implementation of traffic management technology adds the systems to complement the physical construction and investment taking place at these locations. The first of two contracts for the deployment of the national Traffic Management System has been awarded to Thales UK. This is designed to produce a single source of data for train timetabling, rolling stock allocation and train crew deployment, and to use this data for operations planning and comparison to real time operational events, thus automating the signalling of trains in the optimum way.

display works across all regions of the UK rail network.

Tim Hadfield continues: “The way that signallers’ workstations have evolved, specifically reducing in size and assuming a standardised and more ergonomic design, mirrors the broader changes to the network. Operators in the original VDU-based Signalling Control Centres sit at enormous curved workstations involving multiple systems, with separate VDUs, keyboards and mice to control them.

“The TMS compliant workstations for the new generation ROCs on which we are working are considerably more compact and rectangular in shape, with the operator interface streamlined for maximum efficiency.

We’ve already completed installations at West of Scotland, East Midlands, South Wales, Manchester, Three Bridges and York.” zz

www.tewgroup.co.uk and www.tew.co.uk

Track Record The TEW Group has been involved in the design and installation of bespoke operator signalling workstations since the early days of British Rail’s Network Management Centre proposal and subsequent Signalling Control Centres, working alongside major contractors including Siemens, Atkins, Signalling Solutions, GE and working directly for Network Rail. Previous commissions include signalling control panels, work stations and overview

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Kier Group

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Selby Swing Bridge

A successful connection With roots reaching back as far as 1928, Kier Group has established a reputation as a leading property, residential, construction, and services group

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oday Kier is a multi-billion pound business that continues its track record of delivering prestigious projects for high-profile clients across a spectrum of industries and markets. The company was last featured in Railway Strategies magazine during March 2014 when business development director, Richard Turner discussed Kier’s takeover of May Gurney, which was completed during July 2013 as well as several other aspects of the business. Within the past 12 months May Gurney has been fully integrated into the Kier Group and the addition of May Gurney has grown the Kier Group turnover to around £3 billion, which is a comparable size to Balfour Beatty in the UK. Richard comments: “From a market perspective, where previously May Gurney would bid on jobs valued between £5 million to £10 million, Kier now look at jobs from £5 million to £500 million. Furthermore, with the advent of HS2 we will see packages valued a £1 billion and that is the kind of opportunity we are now targeting as a business.”

Kier is already preparing itself for these significant projects and taking steps to be ready to adhere to the requirements

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anticipated in the future. For example, working on HS2 will require Level 2 Building Information Modelling (BIM) and this will be a Government requirement by 2016. BIM is a tool for generating and managing both visual and physical building data, and Kier is already further advanced than the requirements, standing at BIM Level 3: “This will deliver Mark Carne, the CEO of Network Rail’s vision of a ‘digital railway,” said Richard. “BIM allows for modular off-site construction, reduced delivery time, right first time, as possibly most important, increased safety.”

Indeed, health and safety is a core concern for Kier and the business constantly works to improve workplaces for employees, clients, partners and the public. Part of this is its Safety, Innovation and ‘National Level Crossings Risk Reduction Framework’. “This is now fully on stream, reducing risk every week on our railways, and delivering innovative delivery methods to further reduce cost, and delivery,” highlighted Richard.

Presently Kier is busying itself laying a strong foundation for Network Rail’s Control Period Five (CP5).

The company has won several tenders for high profile and challenging projects that underline Kier’s reputation as a highly trusted construction and services supplier. These include the £8.5 million station improvement scheme at Port Talbot, Wales. Kier was able to win the contract in the face of stiff competition and although its bid was

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not the lowest cost submission, it was considered to be the best technical and most innovative solution by a significant margin. In the wake of this success Kier has gone on to win several other contracts for CP5 that embody the company’s ability to tackle even the most technically challenging projects. “We will be delivering a number of jobs in the West of Wales within the Great Western Route Modernisation Programme,” Richard explains. “There are a lot of structures in this area requiring gauge adjustment, some of which will need to be demolished or heightened, and in most cases have parapets added to allow for electrification and Splott Road Bridge in Cardiff will be one of them. Potentially it will be a challenging project – Network Rail has described it as one of the more difficult, but we are ready for it.”

One of Kier’s strengths in this area is its ability to utilise its previous experience on difficult projects – for example, it recently completed the £13m Selby Swing Bridge Strengthening, Painting and Track Replacement development for Network Rail.

The bridge itself is 130 years old and comprises five spans, one of which spans the River Ouse in Selby, North Yorkshire. The project included the reconstruction of three of the spans, steelwork repairs to the other two spans, replacement of the hydraulic system which drives the swing span, replacement of the permanent

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Kier Group

Chesterfield Canal bridge being lifted into position - Part of the GNGE bridges contract

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at the industry over the coming years. Although the way running across the bridge and complete painting of industry’s leading contractors are used to dealing with the bridge using an innovative protective coating called technically demanding projects, the sheer scale of termarust. There were many challenges throughout projects like HS2 and CP5 will place greater demand the entirety of the project most notably, working over on resources and likely drive a spirit of co-operation water, boat movements, timescale, age of the structure, within the rail industry, as Richard elaborates: “This is management of numerous trades and close proximately something that we are increasingly beginning to see to residents. around the country. There is beginning to be more This last point included managing noise, which was demand than supply of certain scarce resources and particularly challenging. Kier mitigated this as much as this requires contractors to work in collaboration. We are possible by using acoustic barriers all around the site. already starting to see this in Wales where framework In the end the refurbishment has meant a reduction in holders are already collaborating to indentify resources noise every time a train passes over the bridge. The new in design and making sure that we don’t overcook some track has created a smoother ride for the trains meaning of the design houses as well as sharing knowledge on a quieter time for not only residents, but passengers on best practice.” board. It has also provided a more reliable service on Part of the Kier strategy is to work in partnership the route. with leading specialist companies like Keltbray. Both Furthermore as part of its aim to get involved with businesses are now in a strong position to play a vital the community, Kier also worked closely with a local role in the UK’s rail network for years to come. zz Primary school. Along with Network Rail it ran a poster design competition and asked the pupils to find the most creative way of getting site safety messages across to residents and visitors in Selby. The lucky pupil at a Barlby Bridge Community Primary School had their artwork publicly displayed on the hoardings around the site. It also held environmental days with pupils and built a new outdoor learning area. This was a complex project, but thanks to Kier’s innovative approach, the bridge was successfully handed back on time after a tight six-week blockade, and within budget.

With the likes of HS2, Crossrail and CP5 on the agenda, the rail industry could be described s e Jane Burges as in a major period of transition, with massive Kier Apprentic ke of York on day Du meeting the investment and technical innovation targeted llege 2014 release at co

www.kier.co.uk

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IDOM

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discipline With offices all over the globe, IDOM represents a significant multidisciplinary provider of engineering, architecture and consulting services

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ounded in 1957, IDOM operates as a leading multidisciplinary group that provides engineering, architecture and consulting services. Today the company boasts more than 2500 professionals at work across 34 offices spread over 16 countries across five continents. Furthermore the business is employee owned and as such values and strongly encourages the personal development of its employees. Indeed IDOM nurtures strong relationships with its team, which it considers to be its principle asset in the service of its clients. It is the philosophy of IDOM that its customers are its absolute priority and “raison d’être” and it is for

this reason the continued technological development, introduction of new quality systems and diversification of activities are the tools that the company relies on to deliver the best solution to it clients’ needs.

In over 50 years of operation, IDOM has grown to serve a broad base of clients and industries. Its infrastructure division has developed a particular focus on urban transportation systems and is today present in over 120 countries. Within the UK, IDOM currently manages six offices that provide a local base of operations and intermediary between national and international projects, Javier Quintana as Director of IDOM’s Architectural

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Division in the UK: “IDOM first opened an office in the UK in 2001, with the primary focus on expanding our Architectural Division. Having established ourselves in the UK, we were focused on providing a link to our network of Spanish clients who were expanding themselves also into the UK market. These included clients such as the Embassy of Spain, Spanish Tourist Board, Celsa and Silken Hotels. We also worked in collaborations with some of the prominent UK architects who were developing projects in Spain. Years later IDOM had the chance to build lager and more complex projects such as the T2A and T3IB in Heathrow Airport and other British clients. From the UK IDOM is also operating with Anglo-Saxon markets.

“IDOM has been involved in the railway sector since the 90’s and the railway division in the UK works with a UKbased team scattered throughout the different offices in the country, with professionals with specific expertise and knowledge of the UK rail industry and with the continued support of railway staff from the different offices that IDOM has worldwide.”

IDOM has a wide expertise in the Railway Sector worldwide, delivering multi-disciplinary projects covering the whole lifecycle of them, from feasibility and detailed

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design until test and commissioning. At this point IDOM is involved in the design and construction of railway lines in Chile, Mexico, Spain, Colombia, among others. During 2013 the company also began work on a new metro network for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in collaboration with its client the ArRiyadh Development Authority (ADA). The metro system will comprise six lines covering 180 km with 75 stations and is projected to take five years to complete.

IDOM is in the consortium led by Salini-Impregilo as designers, which were awarded with the Line 3.

“We cover all the different disciplines such as civil works, track and railway systems and architecture. Our figures are over 1000 km of high speed lines designed, 37 km of high speed tunnels, 25 km of high speed viaducts, seven high speed intermodal stations and on site supervision contracts of over 300 km,” says electrical engineer IDOM railway and electrification systems, Carlos Azuaga. “In regards to electrification systems our expertise extends from DC systems for metro, tramways and conventional rail to AC systems in 25kV AC with or without ATF for high speed railway lines.”

Within the UK, IDOM is also part of a £3 million partnership funded by the government to research a more effective design and application of overhead power lines. “This is a competition that is being funded as part of a Future Railway competition managed by RSSB, and in partnership with Network Rail and the Department for Transport,” Carlos explains. “The scope of it is to develop innovative solutions regarding the OLE or Civils to accommodate the new OLE equipment necessary for the National Electrification Programme and avoid the bridge reconstruction on dozens of them. The current issue facing the network is that the British railway lines were the first ones in the world to be built, and due to this the majority of the structures and bridges on the line are historical and listed bridges that were not conceived

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SUGREMIN

to accommodate the new electrical equipment. This is even more the case with the 25kV AC electrification system, which requires big electrical clearances. IDOM is one of the nine companies awarded in this competition, and we are designing and developing an OLE innovative solution which will gain clearance avoiding the bridge reconstruction and keeping intact the historical and listed bridges along the British railway line.”

Furthermore IDOM was a finalist and highly commended in the RIBA international design ideas competition for Aesthetic Overhead Line Structures related to HS2. “IDOM led a consortium with British heritage consultant Alan Baxter Associates and Spanish

manufacturer SEMI,” Carlos reveals. “IDOM’s proposal called the ‘Needle System’ is designed to minimise visual intrusion in environmentally sensitive areas and to complement contemporary cutting-edge design of new HS2 stations. Needle System combines an elegant, slender asymmetric profile with practical, economical and robust detailing. Conceived as a ‘kit of parts’ it uses a generic mast design in 20mm & 30mm steel gauge variants that can be configured respectively for twintrack configurations as a simple cantilever but also for use with multi-track gantry configurations.” zz

www.idom.com

SUGREMIN is a state-ofthe-art railway catenary structures manufacturer.

SUGREMIN has supplied its products to development projects across the globe.

SUGREMIN goes beyond high quality and competitive pricing; SUGREMIN has a special focus on research and design enhancement to maximise client satisfaction and ensure projects are delivered on time and on quality. Over the years, IDOM and SUGREMIN have partnered to provide the best and most competitive designs.

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Touax Rail LTD

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A logistics showcase As one of Europe’s largest lessors of intermodal railcars, Touax Rail’s growing reputation is second to none

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Louis Pastré business development and marketing director, Touax Rail

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ounded in 1855, Touax has a rich history that can be traced back to when the company began life as Compagnie de Touage de la Basse Seine et de l’Oise, operating as a river transport service on the Seine and Oise rivers. Today the company has grown into a truly global enterprise with a diversified portfolio trading in four areas comprised of shipping containers (600,000 TEUs), modular buildings (three assembly plants), river barges and rail cars. The business ordered its first hopper cars in France during 1954 and over the years Touax Rail has grown its fleet to over 9000 owned and managed rail freight vehicles, serving 70 main clients across five continents. Within Europe Touax Rail works in co-operation with workshops and mobile teams and represents clients in the US through its partnership with Chicago Freight Car Leasing. Furthermore the company is keen to expand its fleet to as many as 10,000 rail cars and to maintain its momentum through a programme of continued diversification of its wagon types.

The company manages its wagons under Vereinigung der Privatgüterwagen-Interessenten (VPI), the German association of parties interested in private freight wagons, which allows it to deliver maintenance such as reprofiling

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and revisions closer to its clients’ operational areas. This greatly reduces transportation costs and downtime.

Furthermore Touax Rail gained ISO 9001 accreditation in 2010 and became one of the first companies to achieve Entity in Charge of Maintenance (ECM) certification during December 2011. As such the company’s technical know-how in the field of technical management and maintenance of railcars has seen it contracted to manage the ECM services of a large intermodal fleet of over 1100 wagons over the course of three years. Additionally it has undertaken further projects to supply a large number of coal wagons for traffic between the Benelux and Germany, and gained new clients in existing and new countries, including Poland and Turkey. It has also recently opened a central warehouse to deliver the main spare parts to its clients, in addition to secondary stocks spread over Europe, based on main clients’ routes.

Since it was last featured in Railway Strategies during July 2013, Touax Rail has continued to grow its fleet and won contracts that have enabled it to pursue its ambition of an expanded service portfolio. In October 2013 the company announced that it had won a prestigious contract from Volkswagen Logistics to deliver a fleet

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ELH As a very experienced manufacturer, ELH has the capabilities and technology needed for the development and production of special and track friendly bogies for freight and passenger wagons.

The company creates a wide range of products in a variety of options, such as the RC25NT family, which includes the RC25NT-D (with brake discs), the RC25NT-C (with compact brake) and the RC25NT-K (composite brake blocks).

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of 300 high-capacity sliding-wall wagons. The twin-axle wagons were required to have minimum internal height of 3000 mm to enable the transport of mesh box pallets (CKD) and were constructed by Greenbrier Europe at its Świdnica plant in Poland. The manufacturer was able to prove its experience in sliding wall wagons and ensured a close and successful co-operation thanks to a strong commitment

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from the top management, sales and R&D departments.

The first prototype was received in March 2014 with a second following shortly thereafter. During InnoTrans 2014 Greenbrier symbolically presented a prototype Wagon to Touax Rail, where the company triumphantly showcased the prototypes.

Following successful trials of the prototypes, EBA certification and others, Touax has begun the process of delivering the new fleet to Volkswagen, with the first new cars set to arrive in November 2014. “The partnership with Volkswagen coincides with our marketing strategy to lease more wagons to industrial clients, who are interested in profitable and long term agreements,” said Louis Pastré, business development & marketing director.

“Touax is proud to be a partner for inbound logistics, as for many years we have been actively involved in the outbound logistics, transporting new cars on laaers wagons.” Touax Rail was already renting four axle Ha wagons on the market, but was looking for additional optimised sliding wall wagons. The company plans to continue to invest in his segment, offering new wagons for light or heavy cargo.

During July 2013 Louis commented that rail would continue to grow as a vital link in Europe’s supply chain: “Rail market share versus road will increase regularly in Europe. In addition, the European fleet is getting older and needs a strong replacement programme over the coming years. Whilst the market needs 10,000 to 20,000 new wagons per year, the last five has seen only 5000 to 7000 produced. Compared to a European fleet that numbers around 700,000 wagons this represents around only one per cent. This is a structural under-investment trend that should end soon. So far the market remains under full production capacity but is improving, helped by regular replacement of tank wagons as well.”

Indeed the continued success of the company in winning tenders for such significant contracts such as its recent success with Volkswagen would seem to suggest that the future could present a significant opportunity for Touax Rail. Certainly the conditions are right for freight lessors to supply significant added value to clients,

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as Louis elaborates: “These combined parameters will position leasing companies as key partners to accompany this development. Leasing ensures flexibility and low capital expenditure for our clients who need to optimise their organisation, traffic management, and costs. This enables them to focus on their core business of customer service and transportation. In addition, industrial companies are also leasing wagons in order to stay independent from the RUs (railway undertaking) – in the case of lower quality service they keep control of the wagons and simply have to find another solution for the traction.”

Presently Touax Rail is enjoying regular growth throughout Europe despite a challenging market, the US, and is starting in India. “We believe in a continuous recovery of rail business,” said Louis. The group’s wagons are leased on long-term contracts to railways, logistics and industrial clients in intermodal transport and the transport of palletised general cargo. Additionally Touax is the owner of a fleet of wagons transporting mining coal, steel coils and finished vehicles.

Over the next 12 months, Touax intends to offer pocket wagons for the transport of mega trailers and other additional open or covered wagons. Louis added: “Touax Rail offers other solutions like sale & leaseback where clients can prioritise cash allocation while they continue to use the wagons, protecting their market shares/positions.”

Looking further ahead, Louis concluded with Touax’s longer term strategic vision: “Touax Rail expects to

increase its development further in Europe and develop on other continents with internal or external growth, and continue to improve its service level. As such it maintains a wide service base that will support the company for many years to come.” zz

www.touax.com www.touaxrail.com

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FP McCann

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Concrete evidence

FP McCann precast concrete shafts

The combined commitment of developing through acquisitions and organic growth has firmly positioned FP McCann as a key solutions provider, capable of serving the rail industry at home and abroad

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P McCann has a long history of meeting its clients’ needs, having secured and completed a portfolio of award winning projects in the UK and Ireland.

Unlike a standard manufacturer, the business manages projects from conception to completion and handover by providing facilities and general management throughout the build programme. Recognised as the UK’s market leader in the manufacture, supply and delivery of precast concrete solutions its range is the largest available to the rail sector.

The quality and reliability of FP McCann products and services are the foundation of its success, and by constantly developing and improving its solutions it continuously builds on that position. “Over the last 12 months we have made a number of strategic

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FP McCann precast concrete solutions railway oversail block

intelligent approach of the business and its products. “We maintain a continuous dialogue with the market and this keeps us tuned in to the industry’s needs. From this we are able to develop products that really make a difference, such as the dual platform coper,” points out Stuart. The one piece unit, which consists of a standard coper unit combined with contrasting colour tactile section, saves installation time and avoids the problems associated with joining coping and tactile units; such as trip hazards and freeze/thaw exposure, and ultimately reduced life costs.

“Our range extends far beyond the mainstream too, developing products such as the ‘lid lock’, enhancing the cable protection range to eliminate cable theft,” adds Andy Cooper, general manager.

Whilst the majority of FP McCann’s work is within the envelope of the UK, its ambition to provide the finest products to the market has been recognised further afield, securing contracts to supply platform components and copings in a prestigious supply deal to the Middle East on a light railway system in Qatar. The business is supplying Network Rail approved platform copers to two sub-contract construction companies working on different sections of the rail system.

acquisitions that have enabled us to increase our market share substantially, as well as growing our manufacturing capacity,” begins Stuart Carson, national sales manager for tunnelling, rail and power. In a series of four acquisitions ranging from manufacturing plants of modular platforms to leaders of pre-cast concrete products, the business has successfully increased sales and stock profile, as well as bringing new products to the market. “These developments have led to us receiving some of our biggest orders to date, such as the refurbishment of London Bridge Station with Costain,” he highlights.

Through a geographical presence that incorporates nine manufacturing sites across the UK, the entire rail industry is able to benefit from the innovative and

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FP McCann precast concrete rail troughs platform coping - London Bridge

The London Bridge refurbishment project was another landmark scheme to be involved with, and delivering this on time and to programme whilst coordinating the design team, contractors and engineers is a huge feat. Taking the leading role through using new technology, the weight of such a demanding project has been significantly lifted. Through the use of building information modelling (BIM), in-situ concrete foundations and platform finishes can be designed on a series of standard unit types, which can be adapted across the entire station, minimising the number of different moulds required. “This is the first time we have been involved in BIM in terms of the design,” says Andy.

Incorporating the latest technology is an evergrowing aspect of the business and has helped in eliminating the complications once seen in projects where a spectrum of services seek to use similar passages. Shedding some light on the finer aspects Andy says: “BIM has helped no end in detecting clashes within other services that are tying in with the pre-cast, and the model will very much be something that we will move forward with. This gives the client the potential to incorporate all elements of the project into one model highlighting any issues that could arise, and also ensures we can pinpoint exactly where to manufacture holes and service ducts. We are embracing new technology, and the shift towards this improved method of working as a solutions provider.”

The business has adopted a system that is so well engineered at the early stages, that on site installation has been simplified. Not only does this save time and

Dual Platform coping

Platform coping

cost on installation, but more importantly, facilitates the opportunity for clients and contractors to see the product in ‘working’ condition at an early stage, as Andy discusses: “The client can actually come and look at the product even before it leaves the factory, which is a huge advantage, particularly in prestigious works such as London Bridge. From the contractors point of view it promotes a quick and safe

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installation, checking that it fits together even before it arrives on site.”

A surge in project demand has inevitably led to the development, not just in technology, but of its workforce too, as Stuarts highlights: “We regularly take on apprentices and provide training for new employees. We see the importance in developing and supporting the local community and talk with the colleges and universities, offering internships in some regions, and this is something we are looking to draught out nationwide.” Functioning as a self-contained business, the design, manufacture and final product are all key aspects of its overall vision, but so too is supply. Taking note from the joint venture agreements in place between clients and contractors alike, FP McCann has explored the potential of its own joint venture agreement with a distributor, which will promote the capabilities of both companies coming together to serve the rail industry. “We expect to make a formal announcement before the end of 2014,” indicates Andy.

Through a combination of contractual arrangements and the organic development of its interests, the expectations of a 25 per cent expansion rate appear well calculated. “We are only just scratching the surface in terms promoting the method of working as a solutions provider. We have achieved record sales this year, and predict the same as more contractors switch over to this process, driven by health and safety, speed of installation and quality of product. Pre-cast concrete interests make up the majority of the turnover and though acquisition, organic growth and investment we will continue to cement our position in the rail sector,” concludes Andy. zz

www.fpmccann.co.uk

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semmco

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Side access platform

The train at platform one…

Semmco is the UK manufacturer of access platforms, building innovative concepts that tackle head on the challenges of reaching new heights in the construction and maintenance of a modern sector

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he company began operations in 1993, based in Woking, itself a hub attracting engineering expertise. Employing a workforce of 25, across sales, design and production, the business specialises in the manufacture of access and ground support equipment for the railway and aviation sectors.

Semmco’s position in the access market, utilising a lightweight aluminium construction, was affirmed with the introduction of working at height regulations, which opened up numerous opportunities within the railway sector. “Most of our products have and continue to be evolved through

customer requirements. Although we produce a standard range of equipment, each bespoke solution complements the differing profiles of trains, and also the restrictions within a depot,” says Stuart McOnie, managing director.

The rail sector continues to promote an exciting environment for business, with investment from all channels. Through hard work, Semmco has grown its position, educating its audience to the benefits of its offering, as Stuart points out: “It has taken a long time for people to accept our product, which as a customised option comes at a premium, but the quality, reliability and

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Above: Portable roof access platform Above left: Side access/ Driver access platform Left: Fixed steel gantry Below: Front access Platform Facing page: Pit Board

safe access it provides for working on and around trains is becoming more recognised. Across the sector in the last 18 months we have experienced growth of nearly 40 per cent.” This is a statistic reiterated by business development manager Andrew Walling: “Our offering and the benefits compared to competitors products are well understood, and we have brought in new customers as well as grown with our existing customer base.”

From operators such as First Group, East Midlands Trains, C2C and Hitachi, through to depot construction

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companies and large businesses such as Bombardier and Arriva Trains, the range of its clients reflects the bespoke nature of its service capabilities. “R&D is a big driver within our company and we spend well into a six figure sum each year on developing that aspect. We are well respected within the industry for delivering innovative and smart solutions, driven to design products with consideration to multi-function and manoeuvrability, whilst remaining safe, strong, reliable and importantly aesthetically smart,” says Stuart.

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Product choice ranges from standard side access platforms, through to bespoke nose docking replacement duct, front access platforms and bespoke roof access platforms. The aluminium profile of each design, unique to Semmco, is a bolted and plated slotted system that allows for high strength mechanical joints without the requirement of welding. “This eliminates the problems that customers have been experiencing with weld fractures and high maintenance required on competitors equipment. “Our R&D capability allows us to stress and load test throughout the design stage. Each of our platforms has its own CE certificate, and the completely aluminium product boasts long life qualities. Whilst our platforms may have side access capability, they may also be used for front access on a vehicle,” highlights Andrew as the business introduces more solutions to the market such as variable height platforms, which reduce the number of platforms required by the customer. “Although the initial outlay for the client may be greater, the long term advantages are clear,” he adds.

Not only has Semmco brought to the market the variable height, front access platform, which allows for doing all the front end access work on the vehicle, but has also introduced the portable roof access model, providing increased safety for the operator. A third product, offered in the UK is the Peco, a manual access platform, which is both height adjustable and manoeuvrable. The one-man operation, removes the requirement for special training as a result of it not being a powered unit. First ScotRail Ltd, a long-standing customer has benefitted from simple access platforms to large boxing ring roof access platforms. “We have also been working on construction projects with VolkerFitzpatrick, where we have been highlighted as one of the potential suppliers of access platforms for the new Hitachi depots. We are winning quite a bit of work with our portable access platforms, roof access and bespoke design capabilities,” says Andrew. As new rolling stock is brought in over the coming years in line with new franchise

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agreements, it opens up opportunities for Semmco to supply new equipment to existing and potentially new customers.

To keep up with the growing demand, the workforce also must inevitably grow and the company is actively addressing this in manufacturing and design, as well as expansion of aftersales, service and total care packages, as Stuart expands: “Internal training ingrains the basic principles of engineering, assembly and welding, opening a deeper understanding of the theoretical knowledge as well as developing the practical experience.” Looking forward, Stuart provides an insight into the strategy that has proved its success and will continue to do so: “We run a one, three and a five-year plan, and we have achieved most of the objectives that we set ourselves for this year. We are now in the process of reviewing our objectives for next year, targeting close working relationships with the operators and depot designers.

Through offering an expertise in access solutions in and around the depot we have the capabilities to save everybody money, designing and delivering solutions that are right first time.” zz

www.semmco.com

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RAILWAY FOR SENIOR RAIL MANAGEMENT

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz S T R A T E G I E S Editor Gay Sutton

editor@railwaystrategies.co.uk Sales Manager Joe Woolsgrove

jwoolsgrove@schofieldpublishing.co.uk

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Schofield Publishing 10 Cringleford Business Centre Intwood Road Cringleford Norwich NR4 6AU

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