Railway Strategies Issue 117 May 2015

RAILWAY Issue 117 May

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

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w e i v e r p n o i t i b i h Ex

London Bridge station revealed Building a state-of-the-art security and station management system See page 16

s Feature

Beware zombie companies Limited Supervision mode ETCS roll-out in Switzerland Four essential steps for deploying predictive maintenance

NEWS

In spite of economic difficulties Russia leads Europe for rail investment Underground rail – the future of freight delivery?

Stockport masterplan for station development

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Please em ail: info@railw ayst to amend rategies.co.uk you request a r details or regular co py

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 Ben Clark 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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Opportunities and threats

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ailtex is now just days away. If ever there was a must-attend rail event in the UK, then I would argue that this is it. Exhibitors are drawn to Birmingham from around the world, bringing the latest technological developments, knowledge and expertise to our shores.

The likelihood is that no matter what you’re looking for, you’ll find it here. So turn to page 28 for the Railtex preview, and discover what the event could do for you.

One of the puzzling factors of the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis is the increasing number of ‘zombie’ companies that have not been closed down by the banks. If you turn to page 6, Michael Green of Weightmans LLP describes these companies as operating like the walking dead – only generating enough revenue to service their debt, and unable to invest or take the necessary steps if disaster approaches. If one of your suppliers is operating like this then catastrophic supply chain failure is a significant risk. Find out what Michael has to say about this, and his advice for spotting zombies and avoiding trouble.

Later in this issue we focus on infrastructure, looking behind the scenes at the security and management systems going into London Bridge station, and learning lessons from the Swiss migration to ETCS. It is, however, fascinating to see how engineers tackle unexpected problems. This is exactly what happened in Wolverhampton when the tram track replacement scheme unearthed unstable old mine workings.

You can read about the solution on page 18.

Railway Strategies by email Issue 117 May ISSN 1467-0395 Published by

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zzzzzzzzzzzzz Contents Features

Legal Signals – Zombie alert 6 Michael Green Comment – Great Western Signals 9 Mark Cowlard Complying with REMIT 10 Rainier Landgraf Moving to predictive maintenance 20 Bhoopathi Rapolu

16 Cover story 23

Industrial noise protection 24 3M Achieving top quality train presentation 27 James Lomas PREVIEW 28 Railway Strategies

News

Industry 4 Infrastructure 15 & 23 Stations 26 Appointments 31 Conferences & Exhibitions 63

Focus on Infrastructure ETCS migration in Switzerland 12 Karl King, Leeroy Chademunhu and Tom Endersby The secrets of London Bridge 16 NG Bailey Beware Wolverhampton’s old mine workings 18 Centro

51 54

Profiles Touax Rail 32 Stadler Rail 36 Bourne Steel 40 NedTrain 44 Nexus 47 Asset Performance JNP 51 Crossway Scaffolding Group 54 Giffen Group /SSA 58 Trackwork Moll 64 Houghton International 68 McCulloch Rail 71 AB Connectors 74

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NEWS I Industry

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Siemens prepares for arrival of Thameslink trains l The UK will soon be home to two of the most hi-tech train centres in Europe, as completion approaches for the new Three Bridges and Hornsey depots. The two Siemens depots, costing over £300 million, will house the Class 700 Desiro City trains, which will start operating on the Thameslink and Great Northern services from spring 2016.

The purpose-built Three Bridges depot in Crawley, West Sussex, will be ready to receive trains this summer for testing and training. The depot is fully signalled and incorporates key personnel safety features including a depot protection and emergency electrical isolation system. It has an automatic inspection facility which through laser measurement can accurately predict when key train components need to be maintained or replaced.

Construction of the second depot in Hornsey, north London, is also well underway, with complete handover scheduled for July 2016.

The Siemens Class 700s are currently undergoing testing to ensure they are ready for the UK rail network. From the middle of 2016, one Class 700 train will be delivered every week to the Three Bridges depot.

New high-tech system for one of Europe’s busiest networks l South West Trains is to become the first UK operator to introduce a ground breaking new technology that will help improve reliability and punctuality across the network.

The GreenSpeed Driver Advisory System collects real time data from a huge range of sources to calculate the ideal speed of the train to help ensure it arrives exactly on time. It also has the potential to reduce the impact on the environment by lowering energy consumption as well as allowing more frequent trains to be run on the network.

This multi-million pound investment is part of the ongoing work to provide extra space on the South West Trains network, particularly at peak times. The wider plan also includes longer platforms, reopening the former Waterloo International Terminal as well as major investment in new and refurbished carriages and longer trains.

The contract to introduce the technology was awarded to a consortium comprised of ESG, the rolling stock engineering consultancy and IT and engineering company Cubris. Installation starts in May and the first pilot starts on the West of England lines in the autumn. Fleet deployment will take place gradually as drivers are trained and train installations are completed. The system will be fully operational in 2016.

The system is already being used in Denmark but this is the first time it will be introduced in the UK.

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Russia leads Europe for rail investments l According to a new report from Timetric, Russia is spending more on rail projects than any of the other 15 European countries surveyed, and is planning further big capital expenditure in infrastructure.

According to Timetric, Russia is investing US$283.7 bn in its railways, including the highest value railway project in Europe – the Moscow-Yekaterinburg High-Speed Railway Line worth US$157 bn, which is due to start in 2017.

Despite ongoing domestic economic weakness and imposed international sanctions, Russia accounts for three of the top 10 road and rail projects in Europe.

Ricardo plc acquires Lloyd’s Register Rail l Lloyd’s Register Group’s Rail division (‘LR Rail’) has been acquired by global strategic, technical and environmental consultancy Ricardo plc for £42.5m.

LR Rail is an international specialist rail consultancy and independent assurance business with a network of 17 regional offices across Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and a staff of over 440 rail engineers and specialists. It provides services ranging from rolling stock design, signalling and train control, intelligent rail systems and operational efficiency improvement, to training and independent assurance services.

The business will form the core of a new international rail business which will be renamed Ricardo Rail. Current managing director, Paul Seller, will take on the same role in the rebranded business.

Dave Shemmans, CEO of Ricardo, added: “LR Rail has an impressive market reputation and a very similar culture of quality and excellence in engineering to that of Ricardo, and will be an exceptionally good fit with Ricardo in terms of culture, geography, product offering and business model.”

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NEWS I Industry

Portishead to Bristol line to reopen l Some 3.3 miles of discontinued railway line between Portishead and Bristol have been cleared

by Glendale, before preliminary work can begin on reopening the line. The scheme is part of a £60m MetroWest programme to reopen disused railways, improve The disused Portishead to transport links to Bristol and Bristol line connect an additional 30,000 people to the UK rail network.

The clearance is in preparation for a full topographical survey that will enable the next stage of engineering and design work to take place. This puts the project on track for completion in 2019.

Jon Eglin, arboriculture manager for Glendale, said: “Reopening the line will have huge benefits for the area. Portishead is a fast growing town, badly in need of a connection to the city, and improved transport links for commuters will decrease congestion on our roads.”

The Portishead to Bristol line has been closed to the public since 1964, but was used for private freight to the docks at Avonmouth until 1981.

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In FACT

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Bike & Go, the UK’s first station cycle hire programme has welcomed its 1000th subscription holder. Launched in late 2013 the scheme offers rail users the opportunity to continue their journey on from their local train station by bike. It is available at 58 stations on the Northern Rail, Abellio Greater Anglia, Merseyrail and ScotRail networks.

96% Morgan Sindall has achieved a score of 96% and four stars in Business in the Community’s annual benchmark of responsible business, the Corporate Responsibility Index, outperforming all others in the Construction and Materials sector. This year’s overall average score was 91%.

Czech Republic plans first section of high speed rail network l The Czech Republic is taking a major step into the future with plans to build a new cross-border high speed railway connecting Dresden in Germany with Ústí nad Labem and Litoměřice in the Czech Republic.

The new rail line will be a part of the Trans European Transport Network’s2 Orient/East Med core corridor and the first section of the Czech Republic’s future high speed rail network. Powered by electricity, it will pass through the Ore mountains, avoiding existing railway congestion through the Elbe valley.

Geotechnical investigations and environmental impact assessments are due to be carried out by a joint venture between Mott MacDonald and Sudop Praha A.S JV. They will also undertake preparatory technical investigations for the major bridges and long tunnels the route will require.

Tomáš Parák, Mott MacDonald’s project director, said: “As well as providing a direct link between Dresden and Prague, the new railway line is important as it will provide capacity enhancement for international traffic from the North of Europe and Baltic Sea ports to southern European countries. By developing a modern cross-border connection, it will strengthen the nation’s position in Europe.”

£3.5m Global infrastructure consultancy Opus International, has been awarded £3.5m of work in the rail sector in the last six weeks alone. This comprises bridge design commissions through the CP5 Programme and contractor led schemes such as the National Electrification Programme renewals.

96.9% c2c has retained its crown as the UK’s most punctual train operator. The latest figures from Network Rail show that 96.9% of c2c trains arrived on time for the year to 31 March 2015. This is the third successive year that c2c has finished at the top of the national PPM table.

National Training Academy for Rail signs first students l South West Trains is the first train operating company to make use of the new National Training Academy for Rail (NTAR).

Starting in September, the entire intake of engineering apprentices from South West Trains will attend the NTAR. Over a period of 36 months they will be trained in a variety of subjects including BTEC Level 3 Electrical/Electronic Engineering, NVQ Level 3 Engineering Maintenance, and HNC Level 4 Electrical/Electronic Engineering.

A joint project between the National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering (NSARE) and Siemens, the academy will be housed in a bespoke state-of-the-art facility adjacent to the Siemens train maintenance depot in Kings Heath, Northampton. Students will have access to unique practical equipment and workshop facilities in addition to classroom-based teaching.

£1.3m Alstom is investing £1.3m in its Manchester and Preston facilities to improve logistics and distribution for its rail business. Of this, £1m is to be spent on new warehousing at the Longsight Traincare Centre in Manchester, and £3k has already gone on new facilities at its Preston parts and modernisation facility.

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Legal Signals

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Zombie alert

Are companies in your supply chain operating like the walking dead?

Michael Green commercial disputes partner at Weightmans LLP warns about the phenomenon of zombie companies

Michael Green is commercial disputes partner at Weightmans LLP

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atest figures from insolvency specialist R3 show that the number of firms opting to be removed from Companies House, many of which are known as zombie companies, is increasing – rising by 28 per cent from 2010 – 2011 to 2013 – 2014.

Zombie companies are struggling businesses generating just about enough cash to service its debt, so the bank is not obliged to pull the plug on the loan.

The company can survive, but it hasn’t got enough money to invest or necessarily get out of trouble. Both regulators and many in the industry believe that banks have allowed the existence of such a large number of zombie companies to avoid making tough decisions on loans and having to write them down at a time when they are trying to show recovery from the recent recession.

Whatever the reason, the existence of such companies is masking a large underlying problem and is a real handicap to genuine recovery. For those in the railway industry, these zombie companies have the potential to

affect supply chains, and leave contracts unfulfilled – if one of the suppliers turns out to be a zombie company, they will be unable to fulfil orders.

The curious case of this recession Andrew Tate, deputy vice president of R3, said: “Ordinarily, insolvencies rise following a recession, due to problems like over-trading during recoveries or as a delayed impact of the recession itself. Since the 2008 recession, however, insolvencies have fallen.”

He added: “The phenomenon of zombie businesses – businesses that survived due to the unique circumstances of the last recession but had little chance of long-term recovery – could partly explain lower than expected insolvency numbers, but falling numbers of zombie businesses have not been matched by rising insolvencies.

It may well be that many of the UK’s zombie businesses have been just removing themselves from the Companies House register rather than opting for a

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz formal insolvency procedure.” This essentially means they are being dissolved via the back door.

Your rights Creditors do need to keep an eye out for strike-off notifications and object if necessary, as creditors interests are likely to be better served by seeing a company entered into a formal insolvency procedure instead, particularly where there may be hidden assets which could be investigated by a liquidator.

In formal insolvencies, creditors’ interests are paramount.

Insolvency practitioners will treat them on an equal basis and carry out important tasks like investigating directors’ actions. Although growing faster than the number of applications, it’s slightly surprising that objections to strike-off applications are relatively low. It may be that many creditors aren’t aware of their rights. Quite often the response to receiving such a notice would be to write off the debt and simply file the notice away.

Of course, not all zombie companies are necessarily opting for voluntary strike off. Many continue to trade on, possibly insolvent, but without the banks or larger creditors often wishing to push them over the brink, the directors choose to trade on hoping that their fortunes may recover.

Nerves of steel This has potentially far reaching consequences for the transport and logistics sector, especially the railways industry with its many suppliers. Transport and logistics differs from many other sectors because of the significant amounts of money required to keep up with demand and changes in technology, as well as the complex and often delicate web of supply chains to keep the UK’s train network running.

The £35 million quick turnaround repair of the Dawlish line just shows the pressure the country’s rail network is under – the repairs have to be completed quickly – the lack of line cost the economy £1.2 billion. In instances like these, a strong chain of suppliers is vital to call on to get a job done quickly and cost effectively. The threat of a zombie company being present in this chain adds further risk to an already intricate process.

More than many other sectors, transport and logistics businesses and their financiers have to have nerves of steel to ride out the less good times in the economic cycle to reap the long-term rewards.

As such, the large and worrying body of zombie companies is acting as a large iceberg to economic recovery. The fact that many in the transport and logistics sector may be such zombie companies and on the brink of failure adds a further element of risk to an already risky market.

The hidden dangers Equally, there are hidden dangers for the directors of such zombie companies. In the event they continue to trade, barely servicing the interest or payments due on their debts; perhaps re-scheduling the debt and entering into payment plans, they risk trading whilst insolvent. In that scenario, if placed into liquidation at some future point, the directors could face personal liability for all contracts and losses incurred from the date that their company become insolvent. Fixing that date can be difficult, but can often be far sooner than the directors realised and lead to very real problems for them personally, including disqualification from acting as a director.

There is a further hidden feature to these zombie companies. The economic downturn and tough trading conditions in recent years have brought with them a rise in civil fraud and especially those committed on companies. This fraud is not always perpetrated by outsiders. Many of the company frauds being committed in recent years are by the directors and employees of companies. The worry for many creditors ought to be that many of the zombie companies and particularly those being dissolved without any formal insolvency process could well have been the victims of such fraud and the directors are escaping any investigation or liability by running their companies into the ground and having them dissolved through the striking off process.

Be vigilant In the transport and logistics sector, the issue of the large body of zombie companies is a very real danger and one that all businesses should be aware of. Such issues can lead not only to the writing off of debts, but also major disruption to supply chains. This is something that can be guarded against by prudent companies taking preventative steps and being alive to the issues but is likely to catch out the unwary and often at great cost. zz

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Comment

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Great Western signals Last month, FirstGroup announced the extension of its deal with the government to continue running services on the Great Western rail network for a further four years.

Is this positive news, asks Mark Cowlard, Partner, EC Harris

T Mark Cowlard is a partner at EC Harris

Bhavisha Mistry

here’s no doubt that the pressure is now on FirstGroup to deliver, not only in light of its unsuccessful bids for the East Coast and ScotRail contracts, but also to play its part in a network-wide overhaul to upgrade Britain’s outdated Victorian rail infrastructure.

So as the transaction is set in motion which will see FirstGroup pay the government approximately £68 million to operate the franchise until 2019, will a further four years yield positive news for workers and customers alike? Or should the industry be anxious about the continuation of a service which has been the subject of criticism over recent years?

For most passengers – and commuters especially – the challenge to FirstGroup is clear: will this new deal provide more seats on more trains, especially at peak times? The answer, fortunately, is yes. In response to recent criticisms, FirstGroup is set to implement a series of investments in an effort to improve its reputation and offer the truly standout service that is so long overdue.

New rolling stock is a high priority, and a prudent investment given the majority of FirstGroup’s fleet is 2530 years of age, with some trains pushing 40 years old.

New Hitachi trains destined for the Great Western Main Line will dramatically improve the passenger experience.

Built and run in the UK, the rollout of 369 new carriages will provide more space on the most crowded services alongside better amenities.

Of course, more carriages on the line means more seats for passengers. We’re set to see an extra 4,000 seats on peak services into London, 9,000 more seats during the day, and a total of three million extra seats over the course of the year. It’s also encouraging to see operators such as FirstGroup noting the value of the time we spend sitting on trains. In an age where provision of high-quality flexible working policies is on the agenda of most employers, it’s only right that transport providers ensure we can stay connected wherever we are.

FirstGroup is upping its game in providing reliable and fast Wi-Fi connectivity.

Wider improvements are to be made to the network, including £3 billion to integrate new Crossrail services, electrification of the line to South Wales, a new and improved station in Reading which is nearly complete, and a raft of other infrastructure improvements. Plans

for more trains and an extended service in Devon and Cornwall are also long overdue, where poor rail connections are one of the major drawbacks for one of the UK’s most popular holiday destinations.

There’s no doubt, therefore, that huge investments are being made. But whilst this is great news for passengers, it’s likely to take up to three and a half years for the benefits to be realised. Patience will be key, but communicating the progress of the upgrade programme to passengers will be even more crucial until upgrades are fully completed.

Unions have, unsurprisingly, challenged FirstGroup’s arrangement, voicing concerns about passenger experience, the need to protect workers’ jobs, and value for money. As ever, many are calling for the government to run the whole of the UK’s rail network but, in truth, that ship has sailed.

The commercial expertise of the private sector should not be underestimated. And whilst the Department for Transport might be seen to be gaining a relatively small payment from FirstGroup (£68 million compared to the £2.3 billion it will receive from Stagecoach Virgin to run the East Coast line), the substantial investment FirstGroup is making into the route will help improve the balance sheet at the DfT. So the FirstGroup deal is ultimately positive news.

Not just because of the continuity of service and development projects on the route, and the minimal disruption it guarantees, but because it exemplifies the combination of private and public sector expertise which has the best potential to unlock real value in transport operations. The Abellio ScotRail franchise is a good example of this, not only harnessing the shared experiences of each entity, but allowing Abellio to bring additional insights to the table from adjacent transport sectors, and with the development of a regional alliance, much like the Stage Coach One on South West Trains. This award must present a similar opportunity.

As always, the challenge lies in the delivery. FirstGroup will need to demonstrate value for money most critically to passengers. Never before has there been a better time for FirstGroup to bridge the gap between the huge potential of the Great Western rail network and the services it currently provides. zz

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Procurement

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A REMIT to comply?

RAINER LANDGRAF explains how a healthy dose of automation can facilitate compliance with REMIT

I Rainer Landgraf is product manager, EMEA for Allegro Development Corporation

n November last year, we delved into the regulatory complexities that European energy companies face over the next couple of years as they struggle to fathom the energy trading requirements of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II).

Another regulatory landmark for the energy trading industry, the Regulation on Wholesale Energy Market Integrity and Transparency (REMIT) Implementing Acts, came into force on January 7th outlining the final guidelines for reporting wholesale energy product transactions in the European Union as required by the European Union. We are now going to have a look at how these rules will affect energy market participants in the rail industry.

REMIT requires ACER, the European Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, to monitor trading activity in wholesale energy products for the purpose of uncovering and preventing both market manipulation and insider trading. Energy market participants are therefore now required to provide data concerning wholesale energy market transactions (including order history for standard trades) to ACER which then makes the information available to National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) in the EU.

When regulatory regimes overlap The Implementing Acts appear to overlap with other compliance regimes and, on top of that, energy market participants have only three months to register with their national regulatory authorities. A minor panic has ensued, but are traders worrying unnecessarily?

The document defines REMIT’s reporting requirements for energy contracts and derivatives, defining market abuse and prohibitions and applying identical rules to all reporting.

To complicate things however, some contracts subject to REMIT also need to be reported under EMIR and MIFID II. ACER has therefore stipulated that information which has already been reported under MIFID II or EMIR shall be considered to meet any co-existing requirement to report under REMIT. The allowance does not work in reverse however. If information is reported under REMIT, it may still need to be reported to the appropriate authority under MIFID II and EMIR.

REMIT’s new requirements The Implementing Acts require that transactions are reported as follows: l Within nine months of it coming into force if they

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are entering into reportable wholesale energy contracts admitted to trading at Organised Market Places or l Within fifteen months of the Implementing Acts coming into force if they are only entering into other reportable wholesale energy contracts (OTC standard and nonstandard supply contracts and transportation contracts).

Other fundamental data from transmission system operators (TSOs), LNG system operators (LSOs) and storage system operators (SSOs) should also be reported.

When data is reported via a third party, market participants are not going to be regarded as responsible for failures in the completeness, accuracy and timely submission of the data – responsibility lies with the third party. This is in direct contrast with the EMIR regime where the market participant is ultimately responsible for any information reported on their behalf.

Standard contracts must be reported the working day after the conclusion of the contract or placement of the order at the latest. Non-standard contracts must be reported no later than one month after the conclusion, modification or termination of the contract.

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“ The changing regulatory

landscape continues to puzzle rule-makers and market participants alike�

Available solutions The changing regulatory landscape continues to puzzle rule-makers and market participants alike. Uncertainty in the timing and details of these cross-border regulations are causing wholesale energy traders much anxiety over their next steps toward compliance. There is no doubt that REMIT will require a lot of time and effort, at least initially, both in terms of reporting and of increased scrutiny.

There are however alternatives in terms of what companies can do to meet the new requirements and managing the process manually is not one of them. There are electronic reporting and data storage requirements involved in REMIT (and other regulatory regimes) that will quickly overwhelm any approach based on spreadsheets, both economically and technically.

Outsourcing may be an option but comes with its own risks and costs. There is the added overhead of an ongoing contract to manage and how active you are in the energy trading arena will determine your breakpoints financially.

With so much complexity and overlap to manage, automating as much of the reporting function as

possible makes business sense.

Automating regulatory processes requires a basic energy trading and risk management (ETRM) system. There are several systems out there that can offer basic ETRM functionality but there are a few factors to be considered. Do these systems integrate with your overall enterprise system?

Can they be installed quickly and easily, without disruption to your day-to-day operations? Do they incorporate the core features you need to increase revenue, reduce cost, manage risk and comply with mandates?

A good ETRM should be able not only to efficiently execute trades but also to guarantee trade compliance, enhance market intelligence and improve decision-making. This way, it can generate returns unmatched by nearly any other technology investment.

If you have to run various separate systems to achieve these combined capabilities, you are probably not looking at the right solution. The truth is, a robust ETRM capability can be achieved without massive customisation, if you have a vendor capable of offering a rich, field-tested solution out-of-the-box; one that provides a flexible, component-based architecture that allows you to scale your solution to fit your needs, now and as your situation evolves.

A shape-shifting software is also a solution for a fluid regulatory environment. There are software vendors with long tenures in the business of risk managing large energy purchases. In light of the new rules, you will want to choose a solution that allows you to upgrade and manage your regulatory compliance process quickly.

Same as with MiFID II, it is also essential to consider factors such as the ability to install software on a captive system and maintain it internally, or to buy a software-as-a-service (SaaS) contract and maintain it virtually in the cloud.

Direct connectivity to trade repositories should also be a key feature, including all necessary regulatory identifiers and formats. The system should be able to streamline your threshold monitoring and facilitate your risk mitigation obligations, including periodic portfolio reconciliations under the newly implemented rules.

Conclusion Like any other regulatory regime, REMIT poses a huge challenge for rail industry energy market participants. The best course of action would be to first and foremost study the rules and understand their implications for your company. You should also invest in an automated solution that makes you compliant without leaving you exposed to business risk. This will enable you to run an efficient reporting programme, avoid fines and, more importantly, create the conditions for integrity and transparency zz

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Infrastructure

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Swiss role model ETCS migration lessons from Switzerland, by Karl King, head of train control systems, Leeroy Chademunhu, senior train control systems engineer and Tom Endersby, train control systems engineer of Mott MacDonald

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t’s an exciting time for signalling and train control. In fact, it’s undoubtedly a fascinating era for the railway sector in general. The challenge of catering for an ever increasing passenger demand in challenging economic conditions and ecological constraints means that the industry has to develop faster and more creatively than ever before. In an age where communication technologies are advancing more rapidly than ever before, one of the most exciting and notable rail developments in the last couple of decades has been the emergence of communication based train control.

Given the rising demand, budget constraints and environment concerns, the industry is required to come up with more innovative ways of increasing capacity and performance than simply constructing new lines. The solution that is making the largest waves is Communication Based Train Control (CBTC), systems that move trains around a network without the use of conventional colour light signals mounted alongside the track. Such systems have the potential to be cheaper to implement and maintain and allow trains to run closer together, resulting in increased capacity and line speed. Metros have been using CBTC for decades, with systems that not only provide full train protection but also completely automatic running of the trains themselves. Such innovation has not always been welcomed on the mainline, however the arrival of the European Train Control System (ETCS) has made aspects of CBTC technology available for this market.

At its most basic level, ETCS is a communication based signalling system developed to facilitate the interoperability

ETCS Level 2 operational concept

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of trans-European rail traffic as part of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) initiative. Its primary aim is to provide interoperability between national rail networks and create an open market place for railways and railway related products. ETCS also offers potential benefits in safety, capacity and performance, which is why it has gained momentum both in the UK and outside of Europe, where interoperability with Europe is less of a priority.

ETCS Level 2 is the only configuration of ERTMS currently in scope for UK application. While it offers some capacity improvements, it uses the same fixed block principle that restricts capacity on conventional signalling.

However it offers significant safety improvements through continuous radio communication between the train and the wayside, providing a real-time update to the driver on their permitted movement authority. In Level 2, signalling restrictions such as speed limits and stopping locations are enforced by the vehicle on-board system – there is no point at which the driver escapes the watchful eye of the system. Additionally, the ETCS in-cab display screen provides drivers with a continuous update of their maximum permitted speed. This in turn means that trackside signals can be removed completely, reducing the cost of installation and maintenance. Furthermore, by removing these signals shorter blocks can be made available for trains to proceed into, allowing for capacity enhancement as the train is no longer limited to signal spacing.

In terms of capacity, the most significant improvements are made in ETCS Level 3, a configuration that is currently still only at conceptual stage. However, the other benefits that Level 2 offers have proven sufficient for the Department for Transport to plan to fit 72 per cent of the UK’s rail infrastructure with it. It may not be the Holy Grail of railway train control, yet nevertheless ETCS Level 2 is a substantial improvement to the current status quo. It will also allow for a simpler migration to Level 3, which enables moving block operation, when that becomes available.

Unfortunately, such opportunity does not come without challenges. The complexity of engineering and the associated costs have severely hindered ETCS’s broad acceptance and implementation. The disadvantages are not necessarily so profound where it presents a viable business case, such as cab signalling which is essential on high-speed lines that operate at speeds over 160km/h; however ETCS’s cost means that where the benefits are less critical, cost-benefit ratios are much leaner.

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Full Supervision versus Limited Supervision display screen

It’s for this reason that the Limited Supervision mode of ETCS was developed. By stripping ETCS down to its basic building blocks an economised configuration can be realised, capitalising on the safety benefits of ETCS with a substantial reduction in cost. The basic principle of Limited Supervision is to fit trains with the ETCS on-board system and utilise minimum installation of trackside equipment to provide train protection. However drivers must still rely on lineside signal indications and drive to the prevailing national signalling and operating rules, rather than the standardised ERTMS operating rules developed by Europe.

In trimming down the system, cab signalling functionality is sacrificed. However, this is a cost that is countered by the benefit that, by Limited Supervision, whole networks can now be fitted with ETCS. Swiss rail provider SBB has been one of the earliest adopters of Limited Supervision, utilising it to simulate their existing train protection system on lines that were not to be upgraded to ETCS but are linked to lines that are. This has enabled them to simplify the on-board equipment installed on their vehicles and have a common technology on their trackside to simplify operation and maintenance.

In Switzerland, the application of ETCS Level 1 Limited Supervision has been pivotal in delivering the ERTMS migration strategy. The Swiss operational concept is derived from the Zub and Signum train protection systems, meaning that there are minimal changes in the system behaviour from the driver’s perspective. Additionally, Switzerland’s strategy is interesting in that the ETCS Level 1 Limited Supervision trackside equipment is interoperable with the Zub and Signum on-board architecture, allowing non-ETCS fitted trains to share the same infrastructure.

High-speed lines and continental routes in Switzerland will gradually be upgraded to ETCS Level 2, while some regional lines will remain fitted with ETCS Level 1 Limited Supervision. This means that new trains introduced in the country will only be fitted with ETCS, while heritage trains that won’t operate on the high-speed routes or cross European borders will only be fitted with the legacy train protection systems.

Further installations of Limited Supervision are planned in other European countries, including Germany which is applying a similar strategy to the Swiss. The German ETCS Level 1 Limited Supervision concept involves interfacing with their existing PZB trackside interface and emulating the PZB functionality. ETCS Limited Supervision has the versatility to emulate existing train protection systems and use existing signalling interfaces to reduce the cost of application, while simplifying the development and migration processes.

Mott MacDonald has recently completed a study on behalf of the UK’s RSSB to determine if ETCS Limited Supervision can be utilised within the United Kingdom as part of its ERTMS implementation strategy. The findings of this study are due to be published by the end of April. zz

Limited Supervision operational concept

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NEWS I Infrastructure

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Search is on for the next London Overground services operator l Transport for London (TfL) has invited bids to operate London Overground services from November 2016. Bidders have until mid-May to register their interest.

Under the 2016 concession the new operator will be responsible for raising London Overground’s performance levels and supporting TfL’s programme of improvements.

These include introducing new trains, higher frequency services and continuing station upgrades. The contract will also include options to introduce an all-night service at weekends and to extend Gospel Oak to Barking line services to Barking Riverside in 2019.

Jonathan Fox, TfL’s director of London Rail, said: “This bidding process is vital to ensure London Overground’s performance is maintained and improved to make services even better for our customers.”

London Overground is due to take over the operation of routes running from Liverpool Street station to Enfield Town, Cheshunt (via Seven Sisters) and Chingford on 31 May, as well as services between Romford and Upminster. The routes contract will operate from 13 November 2016.

EU to assist the switch to ETCS l The EU’s TEN-T Programme is pledging over €15m to support the development and installation of the common European Train Control System (ETCS) in Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark and the UK, improving interoperability, reliability and capacity on European railways.

Seven separate projects were selected to contribute to the deployment of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) in the EU, boosting freight and passenger traffic safety and improving the timekeeping of trains. €7 million will go to the ETCS deployment in Belgium, where it will be installed on 64 M6 double deck carriages (Level 2, Baseline 2) and on one I11BDx train cab (Level2, Baseline 3).

The ETCS will further be installed on 10 Class 66 locomotives (Level 2, Baseline 2).

Luxembourg-based companies will receive over €3.5 million to equip and upgrade 85 locomotives with ETCS (Level 1 and 2, Baseline 2 and 3), enabling them to operate on ETCS-equipped railway lines in Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany.

The Danish train fleet will receive almost €4 million to support the prototyping, installation and testing of ETCS on-board equipment on 52 Danish locomotives currently in use.

A UK-based company will receive €750,000 to equip 10 TRAXX locomotives with ETCS (Level 2, Baseline 2), allowing them to operate in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy.

The projects are to be completed by December 2015.

Flexible routing of freight traffic helps improve passenger rail services

Lanes clears the way for rail upgrade l As part of a project to increase the capacity of one of the UK’s busiest main rail routes, Lanes Group engineers have carried out a detailed survey of track drainage on the Great Northern and Great Eastern (GNGE) line south east of Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

The work was part of a Network Rail strategy to increase the capacity and flexibility of the GNGE network by creating new routes for freight trains, freeing up space on main lines for passenger services.

A spokesman for Network Rail said: “Demand for rail services continues to grow and the upgrade of this line was an important project to help meet that demand. The timescales and scope of the drain cleansing and CCTV survey project were challenging.”

The rail line had been lowered either side of a road bridge to create the extra height needed to incorporate the larger envelope of forthcoming freight traffic. Trackside drain pipes then had to be cleaned and surveyed to ensure they had sufficient capacity to cope with winter rainfall. The work was carried out during periods of track possession over two 12-hour night shifts.

A total of 11 catch pits and nearly 600 metres of 225 millimetre diameter trackside drains were de-silted and CCTV camera surveyed. The reports will be used to plan further improvements to the drainage system along this stretch of line next year.

Benchmarking for high-speed rail projects l Global infrastructure and transport consultancy, LeighFisher, has launched a benchmarking tool to assess the cost effectiveness and efficiency of high-speed rail projects.

With high-speed rail projects coming under increased scrutiny and pressure to continuously optimise both cost and effectiveness, the ability to benchmark performance through an independent review of costs is vital for infrastructure managers, rail operators and government departments alike.

The benchmarking tool compares specific high-speed railways across the world by identifying the inherent, structural, systematic and realised (ISSR) cost drivers and collecting staff and cost data for all comparators. The data is normalised for the inherent cost drivers, as these cannot be influenced by infrastructure managers. Using this method, cost and staff numbers per kilometre of track can be calculated, allowing for detailed comparison of effectiveness and efficiency. As such, cost optimisations in the short and long term can be identified and inform better decisions in terms of operations, staff and maintenance.

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London Bridge platforms 12-15

The secrets of London Bridge NG Bailey takes us behind the scenes at London Bridge to see how a state-of-the-art, technologically-advanced station is being created using the latest generation of security and building management systems

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ondon Bridge is in the process of being rebuilt as part of the Government sponsored £6.5 billion Thameslink Programme, which will increase capacity and frequency on one of Europe’s busiest routes. Once the station expansion is completed in 2018 the concourse will be two thirds larger than it is currently and passengers will be able to access all 15 platforms from the same area.

The rebuilding of the station is taking place behind hoardings so although passengers will be progressively directed to alternative platforms as work is progressing, they will see little of the construction effort in action. We are going to take a look behind these hoardings to see how the latest generation of security and building management systems, designed to improve both operational efficiency and passenger safety, are being used to create a state-ofthe-art, technologically-advanced station.

NG Bailey’s work at London Bridge began three years ago with early contractor advice to Costain. This led

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to a contract award as sole services provider for the development of fire suppression, fire detection, telecoms and security systems, as well as full M&E services throughout the 51,000 sq ft site.

This early involvement in the project has enabled the company to influence both the emerging design and project procurement strategies, as well as supporting value engineering opportunities. The company is also providing support to the Hyder/WSP design team and will maintain all new services installed until project completion, which is scheduled for May 2018.

Offsite manufacturing One of the key aspects of the contract is the ability to produce much of the new electrical systems at an offsite manufacturing facility, delivering completed products ready to insert on site, saving around six months of man-hours.

Not only has this improved quality by assembling the sections under factory conditions but, most importantly,

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David Jones, project director at NG Bailey, explained: “Over the past two years we’ve had to overcome numerous technical challenges in running the old and new systems simultaneously, with 24/7 working in order to minimise disruption to normal station operations. It’s a massively complex project and has required detailed planning and co-ordination to keep the station fully functional as the new technology is introduced.”

The company is installing the containment and fittings for the new iconic ‘eyebrow’ canopies at the station, which will eventually cover all 15 platforms. If laid end-to-end, the cassettes – which are being prefabricated off-site – would stretch to a length of 4km. The cassette installation includes lighting, power, customer information, CCTV and PAVA systems.

“Around 80 per cent of this part of the project is taking place off-site in Bolton,” David Jones added. “As so much work is happening at London Bridge over a short period of time, it’s essential that we do as much work offsite as possible. The fact that we’ve been able to do this has helped us speed up the on-site installation and minimise disruption to passengers, staff and train operators. It has resulted in cost-savings, reduced the labour required and our time on site.”

The containment and fittings have already been installed over six platforms, and the next section of work will progress in the summer.

Safety and security NG Bailey is also doing work on the new central control room, which, when it comes into operation, will enable the station operations staff to monitor all security and building functions using the station management system.

This provides uniform control and monitoring to the many different sub-systems, essential for running a modern transport hub.

“The overall design philosophy,” Jones said, “has been based on maintaining maximum functionality at all times by distributing intelligence throughout the sub-systems and avoiding total reliance on a single central system.”

The safe movement of passengers is monitored by over 500 high-resolution cameras, giving full surveillance of the platforms and concourse areas, which can be monitored live by the control room and Network Rail staff at other points throughout the station.

Effective passenger information systems are critical to maintaining the smooth movement of passengers and improving the customer experience.

Strategically-placed Infotec customer information displays provide constantly updated train service information, together with emergency instruction when necessary. A multi-zone PAVA system automatically compensates for ambient noise levels. Detailed acoustic modelling has been used to optimise the Bosch sound projector speaker placement and give clear, intelligible speech while minimising overspill into adjoining areas.

London Bridge

Other sub-systems – such as the fire alarm and the building management systems – report alarms to the station management computer, alerting station staff to events that could directly affect operations.

The management system The station management system will give staff full control, from cameras switching to fire alarm points that have been activated, to the Building Management System (BMS) that monitors the escalators and lifts, allowing a rapid response to be initiated if required.

By integrating all of the technical systems within the station, the control room staff will have all of the necessary information and tools in front of them to handle both routine operational tasks and complex emergency situations.

“Much of our work to date has been taking place below ground and in the design and planning of the technology and digital systems, which will continue through the next stage of work,” Jones explained. “The next 15 months will see Platforms 7, 8 and 9 rebuilt and brought up to the same standards as the currently completed platforms. We will also start work on the concourse and building the new office accommodation areas for Network Rail staff and the station control room.

“One of the unique challenges to this will be the provision of plant rooms, which sit at platform level and run the majority of the station length. Due to their location, and the sheer operational disruption it would cause to work onsite, we will be utilising our offsite manufacturing capability to provide large parts of this work via offsite modules, which will be craned in over the platforms into the middle of the site,” he concluded. zz

www.ngbailey.com

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Infrastructure

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ast November, as work was under way on a £4.5 million improvement scheme to replace worn out tram tracks in Wolverhampton city centre, engineers had an unpleasant surprise. When they removed the foundations of the old crossover they discovered unstable old mine workings lying underneath. Work on the A41 Bilston Road between the junctions with Steelhouse Lane and Hospital Street, ground to a halt as intensive efforts were made to find a safe way of building over the mine.

The old mine workings were 12m (40ft) deep, 55m (180ft) long and 20m (65ft) wide, and are thought to date back to the Industrial Revolution when coal and iron ore were mined extensively across the Black Country.

The scale of the problem

Please mind the gap Engineers laying new Metro tram tracks in Wolverhampton city centre have overcome the challenge of unstable and potentially dangerous mine workings beneath their path

The mineworkings near Steelhouse Lane

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Midland Metro programme director Paul Griffiths said: “Having installed a modern new crossover south of The Royal we came to remove the foundation from the previous crossover and that’s when we found the mine workings. We had undertaken ground investigation in advance of the works including using ground penetrating radar, but this did not identify all the issues. It was only when we opened up the ground and made a full analysis that the scale of the problem became clear.”

At some point in the city’s history the workings had been filled in with old building rubble then covered over without being marked on any known map or documents.

“The problem was that rubble was not compacted down, it was thrown in loose and covered over. And over time loose rubble shifts and creates voids,” he explained.

Centro, the region’s public transport coordinator, consulted with specialist engineering consultants to assess how best to deal with the problem. The company also looked further afield and sought advice from other light rail systems in the UK and around the world, to see if they had ever dealt with a similar problem and to examine the solutions they had chosen.

Identifying the solution There were a range of options available. One was sheet-piling around the void, removing the old rubble then in-filling with more suitable material which would be properly compacted.

However this idea was ruled out as too expensive and time-consuming.

Another was to bridge over the void with a

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slab on bored piles inserted down to sounder ground.

This was ruled out for the same reasons.

Also rejected was grouting up the existing fill, and laying in ballasted track over the rubble – regular track maintenance would then be essential for many years afterwards.

The chosen solution consisted of a geo-textile membrane and geogrid to stabilise the ground, in between layers of compacted hardcore and capped with a reinforced 5m wide concrete slab running through the 55m length of the workings.

The work involved removing some of the existing fill to get the correct levels for the final slab, but the excavation was relatively shallow and presented no risk to the adjoining highway. The expected settlement of the completed track should not exceed 5mm in 20 years.

Paul Griffiths said: “We are satisfied that the line has been made safe by the most effective means in the minimum reasonable timescale and the predicted settlement figure is very creditable.”

Adding to the delays Before discovering the mineworkings which lie just past The Royal stop, the overall improvement scheme had already suffered a month’s delay when unmarked public utility pipes were unearthed. The original track slab was also found to be not as strong as designed and additional work was required to ensure it would not deteriorate in the future. As a result The Royal, the last stop on the line before the St George’s terminus half a mile away, opened in December instead of November.

“We also used the delay at The Royal to accelerate works at the St George’s terminus in Wolverhampton city centre to accommodate the new Urbos 3 trams, and to lay new track out to The Royal,” Griffiths continued.

The section was finally re-opened on Tuesday 31 March and Cllr Roger Horton, Centro lead member for rail, said: “An operational tram system has to have secure foundations, and now that this has been achieved the Midland Metro will provide Wolverhampton with a system it can be proud of for years to come.” zz

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Moving to predictive maintenance Predictive maintenance has revolutionised operational efficiency in the aerospace industry.

BHOOPATHI RAPOLU discusses the lessons that the rail industry can learn from this

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Bhoopathi Rapolu, head of analytics EMEA, Cyient

t a time when rail delays, disruptions and the rising cost of travel are rarely out of the press, pressure is understandably mounting on UK rail operators to improve the quality of service for commuters. As the recent bout of bad weather across the UK highlighted, rail travel is still frequently disrupted by signalling problems, broken-down trains and congestion.

The industry, the Government and, of course, consumers all recognise that something needs to change.

One proposition being provided by OEMs to address this challenge is predictive maintenance (PM) – a solution that identifies looming faults, forecasts the optimal time for maintenance and, ultimately, enables operators to respond before the train breaks down and service is affected. The success that this technology has already had, has led it to fast become one of the most sought after MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) strategies in the industry.

As shown below in Figure 1, PM is all about predicting the optimal timing for maintenance. Too often, the process becomes very costly, but if it is reactionary, the implications could be far worse. If looming faults are identified proactively, not reactively, then necessary maintenance work can be started just before a fault occurs, maximising the efficiency of the process.

This is the next stage in classic preventive maintenance strategies, ranging from planned to condition-based maintenance. The availability of rail systems can be increased significantly while reducing maintenance costs if this process can be run on a predicted model.

Enabling technology This has all been made possible by recent advancements

Figure 1: The optimal maintenance timing: higher availability and lower maintenance costs

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in sensors and communication technologies. They have led to continuous data collection from various systems and subsystems in trains. This enables mechanical and electrical conditions, operational efficiency and multiple other performance indicators to be monitored 24/7. This detailed overview provides much greater visibility, both on the vehicle as a whole, and at a more granular component level. It’s this insight that allows maintenance activities to be planned with the maximum interval between repairs, while minimising the number and cost of unscheduled outages created by system failures.

Normal mechanical failure modes degrade at a speed directly proportional to their severity. If the problem is detected early, major repairs can usually be prevented.

Today’s technology makes it possible to affordably collect huge amounts of data from hundreds of systems in a single train, analyse that data in real-time and detect problems before they actually happen.

The benefits of PM Key drivers of PM include availability of train service and cost efficiency. It helps to improve reliability and reduce maintenance costs. This is especially important when UK passenger fares have continuously gone up in recent years to pay for improvements made to the rail network.

PM enhances the overall effectiveness of transportation systems, ultimately leading to improved safety and higher customer satisfaction, critical therefore when there’s such a spotlight on the network operators.

Affordable solutions can generate ROI quickly while completely transforming the maintenance landscape.

Computing systems are evolving rapidly to on-board intelligent systems without taking data to any remote

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cloud. However, these technologies are new and, as such, immature within this sector. But, PM is already a mature and proven concept in other industries, such as aerospace. For instance, airlines have been using PM on aircraft engines for many years, and now, experts in this field are starting to take their skills set to the rail industry to take it through the same PM revolution that aerospace has already gone through.

What does aerospace have to teach us?

Taking learnings from aerospace therefore, train operators and OEMs should follow these four steps to deploy successful PM solutions. Each stage is crucial to successively ensuring that prediction is possible and that it can be implemented into the maintenance scenarios previously discussed: Stage 1: Choose the right system or subsystem for prediction The selection of the system or subsystem is the most critical step in building a PM solution. It is crucial to define a narrow scope and not try to predict everything. Doors would be a typical example of such systems.

Firstly, it is important to identify what is possible to predict.

You can do this by mapping the available systems into a ‘prediction possibility zone’ and a ‘prediction effectiveness zone’ (as shown in Figures 2 and 3). Inaccurate selection of a system can not only lead to a failed outcome, but it can also limit confidence in the PM solutions. The latter of these is particularly dangerous, as organisations could potentially make the mistake of dismissing a vital solution that they have a clear need for, simply because they did not appropriately select the original parameters it was required to cover.

Figure 2: Prediction possibility zone

Prediction effectiveness zone Another way to look at system selection is to find where prediction is more effective from a maintenance point of view.

The failure rate of mechanical and electrical systems typically follows a bathtub curve (as shown in Figure 3 below).

In order to realise quick ROI, either early life or end-of-life systems are more suitable for deploying PM solutions, as you will derive the greatest benefit from predicting their failure.

The prediction possibility zone The objective here is to predict the failure of the most critical systems. However, such systems run the risk of leaving very little data to build any consistent model. Conversely, there is limited value in predicting the failure of less vital systems, even if they produce a wealth of data.

It is important to select the critical events that leave enough of a digital footprint that is required to build a consistent and reliable predictive model. In essence, a system has to fail enough to reveal the pattern, but it must equally be important enough to be worth predicting in the first place. So the prediction possibility and viability zone is somewhere in between those limits of frequency of occurrence and event criticality. As shown in Figure 2 (top right), an ideal system or subsystem has to be chosen for building the PM solution based on the prediction possibility zone. This approach helps to ensure the outcomes are realistic before deploying resources to the development activity.

Figure 3: Bathtub curve: Hypothetical failure rate versus time

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Predictive maintenance: detecting the problem early enables operators to respond before the fault occurs

Stage 2: Get the necessary data It is generally assumed that the sheer volume of data generated from systems is sufficient to build PM solutions from it. However, it is important to remember the objectives behind collecting each data set. They may have been deployed by the OEM without any PM solution in mind.

As such, preparing the data required for building PM solutions is one of the key activities in the process of solution development. It is not always what operators already have, but it’s about what the solution needs. A fair understanding of the objectives is necessary to come up with the required data sets.

Taking a top-down approach often leads to a successful outcome here. This is where the business objectives are clearly defined first, before the required data sets are identified, and then the data is prepared in order to develop an algorithm.

Stage 3: Marry rail expertise with data analytics It is generally assumed that a data scientist is all that is needed to build a cutting-edge algorithm for a PM solution.

A data scientist can develop any algorithm, but it takes a lot more to deliver the right algorithm for a specific business need. Experience shows that it is the domain expert, as opposed to the data scientist, that is the real hero in achieving a successful solution, as they can guide the data scientist to build the right algorithm. Interpretation of patterns – vibration and noise for example – is a key area where the rail expert can guide the data analyst as to not over-interpret coincidence findings.

Stage 4: Identify the value-add of PM for maintenance strategies The scope of a PM solution can go beyond merely

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predicting a failure, since in most situations; prediction is not the only objective. It’s also about identifying various business scenarios and building appropriate prescriptive actions.

Therefore, an effective PM solution should also support the maintenance teams in planning the inventory for replacement of parts and suggesting which systems need an upgrade in their design due to their continued poor performance. This is possible by understanding the reasons behind various failure patterns and categorising them into various action buckets. As such, PM solutions address both short-term and long-term objectives.

Conclusion PM is a relatively new concept to the rail industry. But as it begins to establish its position, OEMs should look to successes already gained in other sectors, such as aerospace, to deploy effective solutions. It is already a mature and proven concept in this industry and there is no reason why the rail market cannot reap the same derived benefits. The success of PM lies in the selection of the right systems, creating and preparing the necessary data, and getting the right combination of rail experts and data scientists on board. Combine those and you have a winning formula.

In addition, OEMs should look to PM to deliver beyond mere prediction of failures; to identify those systems that need design upgrades, for instance. Ultimately, besides increased availability and cost efficiency, commuters will appreciate fewer delays and increased safety, resulting in higher customer satisfaction. zz

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz The Mole capsule speeding into a simulated underground tunnel

Could the future of city freight delivery be underground? l An innovative new concept, delivering freight by a network of dedicated underground pipelines, is to go through its crucial ‘proof of concept’ stage in the city of Northampton, as part of the Innovate UK SMART programme.

The freight pipeline system from Mole Solutions is an urban freight transport solution that proposes using linear induction motors to propel electrically-powered steel carts under full automatic control through dedicated tubes between various stations across the city. The pipeline network will link edge-of-town consolidation centres with strategically-placed, inner-town nodal points. Capable of running 24×7 below ground, the theory is that it will not disturb residents and will reduce congestion on the roads.

Over a nine-month period, the project will research and gather data on the range and scale of freight movements within the urban area of Northampton, to establish the current state of commercial, environmental, socio economic influences. A freight pipeline based system will then be conceived to improve the situation, and a comparison of all the relevant parameters carried out to establish the benefits and the economic viability of the proposal.

Mole Solutions is project leader and system integrator and will be assisted by specialist contractors such as DHL (3rd party logistics), Morgan Sindall (tunnelling and pipe construction), Laing O’Rourke (civil engineering), Force Engineering (capsule propulsion), WGH (capsule and track), SoSustainable (socio – environmental), and local university staff for data gathering and analysis.

The project could herald the future of freight delivery.

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Fears raised over HS2 impact on regional rail projects l Vital regional rail projects could be severely impacted as skilled rail workers are diverted onto HS2 construction, according to one of the UK’s leading suppliers of skilled labour to the rail industry.

The warning, which has been issued by Birminghambased Auctus Management Group, comes in the wake of increasing concerns in the rail industry over the lack of skilled labour which is being exacerbated by an ageing workforce.

“In Birmingham alone, an extra 8,300 new jobs will be created including nearly 1,000 construction jobs and more than 800 operational and maintenance roles as a result of HS2. At face value this is extremely positive news for the rail industry and the West Midlands economy, but does not come without problems,” says Richard Toy, chief executive of Auctus Management Group.

He continued: “Initial estimates suggest that this skilled labour requirement will drain planned regional rail projects of circa 7% of current rail force labour and 15% of skilled signalling and telephone workers. If the current shortages of skilled labour continue it is inevitable that HS2 will drain labour from existing regional rail projects.”

Phase one of HS2, between Birmingham and London is due to start construction in 2017 and is expected to average approximately 11,500 full time employees per month with a peak monthly workforce of circa 34,000 workers.

In total, HS2 is expected to create around 24,000 construction jobs across the UK, but Toy says Network Rail already has a shortage of approximately 5,000 skilled workers across the UK to deliver its planned works. “There is already a skilled labour shortage for rail construction and maintenance, but HS2 threatens to exacerbate the problem dramatically. Figures I have seen suggest that Network Rail faces losing a further 15% of its workforce to HS2 construction.”

Toy says the roots of the rail skill shortage problem lies in an ageing workforce and a lost generation of rail workers. “The average age of signalling and telephone workers in the rail industry is now 55 and by the time HS2 is being constructed these same people will be close to retirement.

“The problem lies in the fact that working on the railways was traditionally a family affair in this country, with sons following fathers into the sector. However, in the 1980s we lost a generation and the sons of those 55 year-olds are not following their fathers onto the rails.

“The key to solving this skills crisis and delivering both HS2 and other regional rail projects lies in not only offering apprenticeships to 16-24 year-olds, but also in providing funding to train the 30-45 year-olds whose fathers worked on the railways. We need to bring back the lost generation.”

The Mole capsule .

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Health & Safety

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Hear here?

Industrial noise matters for the UK’s rail industry. 3M explains how employers can assess the risks and take steps to protect the workforce Bhavisha Mistry

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ew working in the rail industry will be surprised to learn that theirs is a noisy business. Many of the processes involved in rail, from the industrial production of components, to the maintenance and repair of track, stock and infrastructure to driving the trains themselves, can expose workers to elevated levels of industrial noise.

In the UK, excessive noise is one of the most common causes of industrial injury, and of occupational compensation claims. This is because the effects of noise, if left unchecked, can be devastating. Over time, excessive noise can leave workers with hearing loss and/ or related conditions such as tinnitus (a continual noise, such as ringing or buzzing, in the ears). Workers harmed in this way may become socially isolated, stressed and depressed. Their family and other relationships often suffer and the effects last for decades: industrially-acquired hearing damage is generally permanent.

All employers, including those in the rail sector, have legal duties of care to protect their workforce from the

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harmful effects of noise. Yet the laws and regulations surrounding these duties, as well as the nature of actions to be taken, can be daunting. To help illuminate the subject, diversified technology company 3M, partnering with the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL), has now produced a highly accessible, interactive e-learning programme that explains the importance of hearing conservation and helps employers to meet their duties effectively.

Noise and the law Legislation states that employers in the UK’s rail sector must protect their workers from the harmful effects of industrial noise. This duty arises under several laws and regulations, primarily the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 and the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Other legislation covers the noise-related duty of care owed by rail and related companies to members of the public, such as passengers and bystanders, but that is beyond the scope of this article.

Protecting workers from harmful noise benefits everybody

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz involved. It is clearly in workers’ interests to have their hearing conserved, but the advantages for employers are just as tangible. Many rail jobs are skilled, so finding and training temporary labour to cover for absent, injured colleagues can be expensive and time-consuming – if such labour can be found at all. Companies that receive compensation claims for industrial injury, including hearing loss, may also see their insurance costs increase.

Employers’ duties All employers must understand their health and safety responsibilities regarding noise exposure, and that activities within the rail industry can generate high levels of noise.

Given the diversity of employment in rail, the exact nature of noise exposure varies widely, for example poor cab design leading to drivers being exposed to noise for long periods, track workers using heavy machinery and construction processes, workshop staff using industrial maintenance machinery and processes, and bystanders (including rail staff) being exposed to both continual, and single incidents of, loud noise generated by trains and equipment.

The law requires employers to find out whether their workers are exposed above the noise exposure action or limit values, set out on the regulations, as these trigger particular employer duties. As a (very) rough guide, if workers standing two metres apart have to raise their voices to hold a conversation, the level of noise probably triggers a legal need for action.

Thus employers must assess, control and review the risks posed by noise exposure in each of the various processes their workers undertake. Both continuous and occasional noise sources should be assessed, since occasional but high intensity noises also pose a risk to hearing.

If a legal duty to act is triggered, then the employer must protect workers from the damaging effects of noise in the workplace; they must comply with the exposure limits and reduce noise to the lowest level that is ‘reasonably practicable’. Thereafter, hearing protection devices (HPDs) should be considered, as a means of mitigating the residual risk and reducing the danger even further. The use of HPDs alone, other than as a temporary measure while permanent solutions are implemented, is rarely sufficient.

Given the wide range of roles and working environments in the rail industry, the ‘reasonably practicable’ adjustments that may be made to reduce noise will vary. However, examples include: l Staff who do not need to be in, or near, a noisy area can work elsewhere l Processes, components or machines can be altered to reduce noise l Workplace layout should take noise risks into account – for example, walkways and through routes should be sited away from noisy processes l Equipment can be purchased with noise levels in mind: some items are louder than alternatives l Screens, barriers or enclosures, where appropriate made of sound-absorbing materials, may be installed

l Dampening and machine mountings may be used to reduce levels of vibration l The amount of time for which workers are exposed to noise and/or involved in noisy processes can be limited via work rotas/rosters.

When all reasonable measures to limit noise have been taken, any remaining sound must be assessed and, where appropriate, HPDs provided. Decisions around HPDs are important; a study by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) suggested that around 40 per cent of workers using HPE are inadequately protected. Furthermore, over-protection can be as dangerous as under-protection, if workers cannot hear safety warnings – in a high risk environment like rail that can be a matter of life or death. Employers may choose to validate their selected HPD, in-situ, for example by using 3M’s validation equipment.

When all appropriate measures to conserve hearing are in place, employers must monitor the situation and use health surveillance methods as appropriate.

Help at hand Managing the risks posed by noise in a sector as diverse as rail is not easy. Recognising this, 3M and HSL (an agency of the HSE) have produced an interactive e-learning package, in an immersive and readily-accessible format, that helps employers to understand, assess and meet all of their health and safety obligations. It comes in four ‘bite-sized’ sections: l Hearing hazards and risks l Monitoring exposure and risk assessment l Noise control and hearing protection l Using health surveillance to influence behaviours.

The e-learning package is presented in jargon-free, everyday language and is always readily accessible via computer. Given the prevalence of noise-related risks in the rail industry, it meets a pressing need and brings key benefits to employers and employees alike. zz To access Hearing Conservation e-learning visit

www.hsl.gov.uk/products or more information on the programme:

www.3M.co.uk/hearingconservation

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NEWS I Stations

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Greater Manchester stations to promote bicycle power

The media eye above Birmingham New Street station’s Navigation Street entrance

Birmingham New Street station to feature public eyes lThe redeveloped Birmingham New Street is to be one of the first stations in the country to feature state-of-the-art advertising screens above its main entrances.

Known as media eyes, the screens will occupy the eye-shaped spaces above the station’s three main entrances.

The content for the screens will include community information from the Birmingham area as well as commercial advertising, and can also be used to display essential station messaging in emergencies.

Signature Outdoor/Ocean Group are to provide the three media eyes, ready for the station opening in September this year. The media eyes present a unique challenge to the designer and installer due to curved spans up to 30m in length and seven metres in height that will fit within the complex geometry of the new façade.

The south and south east eyes will use the latest custom, full colour LED screen technology consisting of over 1000 modules configured in a module matrix to create the complex curve geometry. The north west corner eye at the Navigation Street entrance will use a transparent LED mesh so natural light can still enter the building.

Chris Montgomery, Birmingham New Street project director said: “The three eye-shaped screens are a unique part of the station’s redevelopment and will be an innovative and iconic part of the project. The media eyes will have full motion picture media content which will bring even more vibrancy and movement to this modern, state-of-the-art station.”

The masterplan at the heart of Stockport’s rail vision l Stockport Council has commissioned WSP to design a masterplan for Stockport station, which will be the hub connecting Stockport to HS2.

The station masterplan is a crucial part of a much wider vision by Stockport Council and Transport for Greater Manchester to create a southern orbital network for Metrolink, connecting the east of Greater Manchester to Manchester Airport via Stockport town centre. This would improve access to Stockport, provide connectivity to the fast growing Manchester Airport, and enable the town to secure the full benefits of HS2.

WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff project director Adrian Kemp commented: “More than three million passengers travel through Stockport station each year and it acts as a major commuter hub for Manchester, with capacity set to increase year-onyear. Setting out short, medium and long term goals to manage and facilitate this predicted growth will be a key outcome of the masterplan.”

The project has the full backing of Stockport Council, Virgin Trains, Transport for Greater Manchester, and Network Rail. The final masterplan report is expected to be submitted in July 2015.

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l Rail stations across Greater Manchester are set to get around 250 new bike parking places, to help residents cycle as part of a longer journey and to ease pollution and congestion on the roads.

The work is being funded by £636,000 from the Department for Transport’s £15m fund earmarked for improving cycle parking facilities at rail stations across the country.

Covered stands will be provided at the following rail stations in Greater Manchester: Gorton, Heaton Chapel, Hyde Central, Marple, Mills Hill, and Trafford Park stations while Cheadle Hulme and Deansgate will get enclosed secure cycle hubs. New covered cycle racks at the Fairfield Street entrance of Piccadilly station will provide much needed additional cycle parking with protection from the weather.

Nick Fisher, Transport for Greater Manchester’s customer operations director, said: “Better cycle parking facilities will allow more people to use bikes to get to key destinations, as well as to cycle as part of a longer journey. It also helps people to build exercise into their daily routine.”

The move should also cut pollution and ease congestion on roads.

Abellio pledges £15k more to community projects l Abellio Greater Anglia has announced an additional £15,000 of funding for its team of volunteer station adopters who help to care for railway stations across its network.

The money will help to fund new plants and flowers, tools and materials for station gardens and individual projects that will improve the station environment at locations across East Anglia.

The Adopt a Station scheme which was started in 2003 enables individuals or groups to adopt their local railway station and contribute to its presentation and welfare. There are currently just over 183 adopters at more than 90 stations across Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire.

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Rolling Stock

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A spotless record Five top tips from JAMES LOMAS, rail sales manager of Arrow Solutions, for achieving top-notch train presentation and correct cleaning procedures and make sure cleaning staff stick to them.

3) Don’t forget your winter strategy

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ystery shopping is a common practice in the rail sector. When it comes to cleanliness, standards are high. And with 1.59 billion passenger journeys made in Great Britain in 2013-2014, it’s not uncommon for train operating companies (TOCs) to get lower mystery shopper scores than expected. To help train presentation managers, James Lomas of Arrow Solutions has put together a checklist to ensure trains are spotless all year round.

1) Know your products, routes and passengers

Bhavisha Mistry

The first thing every rail presentation manager learns is that each train route and operating environment is different. For example, trains that travel through busy metropolitan areas will face different soiling than those on rural routes. Also, trains stopping at stations close to say, coal mines or quarries will probably need more attention than other routes when it comes to interior cleaning.

After finding out the specific cleaning challenges of a route, train presentation managers should investigate what cleaning products are available. Using the right product for the right job can save a great deal of time, effort and money. For example, a general cleaning solution might be suitable for daily exterior washing, but it probably won’t remove brake dust or ferrous staining from rolling stock. By liaising with suppliers, TOCs can make sure they are using the right products and following the recommended dilution rates and directions for use.

2) Stick to your cleaning schedule Two things that often get neglected are the cleaning schedule and staff training. In 45 years of supplying cleaning chemicals to the rail industry, we’ve seen many cases of companies that were doing everything right, but because of insufficient product training for the cleaning staff, the results were not always as expected.

The moral of the story is to create a cleaning schedule

The UK’s unpredictable weather system often causes problems for TOCs. The cold season in particular is a time of additional cleaning challenges. To make sure they never get caught off guard, train presentation managers need to stock up in time for winter, which usually brings with it heavier levels of soiling.

Keeping trains, platforms and tracks clear of ice is a seasonal challenge that can only be overcome by using dedicated winter products. Although not all winters are like the Big Freeze of 1963, it’s better to be safe than sorry and stock up on winter products that work down to -20 degrees Celsius.

4) Exterior cleaning is crucial The first thing any passenger comes into contact with is the train exterior. Ensuring the paintwork looks spotless and the windows are free of dirt, marks and stains creates an excellent first impression.

To protect paintwork, livery and vinyl, a neutral cleaner with controlled pH levels of between 8.0 and 10.0 depending on the dilution, should be considered. pH neutral detergents can be employed in everyday cleaning without being treated before disposal, since they aren’t hazardous to the environment.

Although pH neutral chemicals are not particularly aggressive, they can remove oil, grease, dirt and grime from rolling stock, while leaving a streak-free and gleaming finish, with a resistance to re-soling and water marks.

5) Get rid of nasty stains and odours Cleaning and sanitising effluent tanks, toilet areas and emergency spills are some of the most unpleasant tasks facing railway staff. Stocking relevant products on every train and training staff to adopt a customer-focused approach are the only ways of meeting passenger expectations while also controlling costs.

Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, once said that customers are like guests to a party the company is hosting – the firm needs to provide a pleasant, memorable experience.

Similarly, in rail, customer service and comfort are becoming more important to passengers year on year.

If in doubt, TOCs can always consult specialist cleaning manufacturers about how to keep the party under control without spoiling the mood. zz

www.arrowchem.com

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More than 430 firms to exhibit at Railtex

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ore than 430 companies from all sectors of the rail industry are finalising their plans for exhibiting at Railtex 2015, which opens its doors at the NEC in Birmingham from 12 to 14 May. This will be the twelfth in a highly successful series of events now established as a key focal point for the rail supply industry in the UK – and in terms of floor space it will be the largest for many years.

Participating companies will include many of the best known names serving the UK market, such as globally active rail systems suppliers Alstom Transport, Bombardier Transportation, Hitachi Rail Europe and Siemens. Taking part alongside them for the first time this year are rolling stock manufacturers China CNR Corp and China CSR Corp, and PESA from Poland. Also serving the rolling stock engineering sector will be firms like RVEL and the Wabtec Group.

Among exhibitors of rolling stock subsystems and components will be Knorr-Bremse Rail UK, which has doubled the size of its operations since the last Railtex with the introduction of its KnorrBremse RailServices maintenance, overhaul and modernisation business. The Lucchini Unipart Rail (LUR) joint venture recently established by Lucchini RS Group and Unipart Group will bring a new name to Railtex, profiling its ‘From Furnace to Fleet’ services for the manufacture and overhaul of wheels, axles, wheelsets and bogies.

On the ZF Services UK stand visitors will be able to learn more

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about Ecomat Rail automatic reversing transmission systems. Fitted to a South West Trains two-car Class 158 DMU, these delivered fuel savings of over 10 per cent during a trial covering more than 50,000 miles. Also featured will be ZF’s Get2 rail drive concept, claimed to be the world’s first multi-speed transmission for EMUs and promising significant reductions in energy consumption and life-cycle costs.

A new range of Li-ion traction batteries will be unveiled by Saft, while Sécheron will present an innovative modular solution for the safe integration of high-voltage components in rolling stock. And after building and supplying its parent company with vehicle interiors, electromechanical assemblies and wiring harnesses for many years, Bombardier subsidiary BTRoS – Derby will be offering its capabilities to the wider rail market.

The key field of rolling stock maintenance systems and services will be well represented. Wilcomatic Rail Division will showcase its recently launched range of depot equipment, including Vogelsang CET water replenishing facilities, plus refuelling, oils, coolants and screen wash systems, and Mechan will be exhibiting the first ever working version of its flagship lifting jack to be seen outside a depot. The full size, fully operational jack will be demonstrated complete with the firm’s Megalink controller.

Specialised access equipment for maintaining rolling stock will be featured by both ALTEC and Semmco, and Houghton International, which has recently achieved RISAS certification, will profile its traction motor and alternator repair capabilities.

And joining the list of more than 80 first time participants at Railtex

will be DB Heavy Maintenance, a subsidiary of Germany’s national railway company offering a complete range of fleet maintenance services, including periodic overhauls, accident repairs, component refurbishment and redesign of an entire fleet.

Infrastructure focus Sponsoring the On Track Display in the exhibition hall is Tata Steel.

Sections of track supplied by the company will be hosting products from BCM, Schneider Electric, Innovative Railway Safety and Rosehill Rail. Tata Steel has recently been delivering rail sections for the new Borders Railway in Scotland. Also representing the track products sector will be Schwihag, which now has a UK plant in Doncaster following its acquisition of the precision engineering and surface coating business of Ambagarth Engineering, Direct Track Solutions, Vossloh Cogifer and Vossloh Fastening Products.

Track maintenance equipment featured will include the latest generation rail milling train from Austrian manufacturer Linsinger, the SF02T-FS. The machine is characterised by a very small clearance diagram and a tight curve radius of about 50 metres. Costs have also been significantly reduced and economic efficiency increased by the longer working life of the tools and more useable cutting edges. Italian company Mermec will add a further international dimension to the show. Among products it plans to profile will be the Roger family of infrastructure measurement trains Innovative Railway Safety will present its award-winning magnetic safety barrier for track workers, the RSS Railway Safety System, plus other products using its patented magnetic technology – points run-through signage, TSR boards, a trench barrier for use with RRV diggers and a lookout protection kit.

Among many recent innovations in civils products on display will be a fibreglass platform walkway system from Dura Composites, plastic piling by Liniar and GRP modular platforms from Kwik-Step to provide safe trackside refuges.

Network Rail current signalling upgrade strategy is providing great opportunities for suppliers. Signalling technology will be featured by Bombardier, Hitachi and Siemens, while Alstom will participate via its joint venture with Balfour Beatty Rail, Signalling Solutions Ltd. Also representing this sector will be LED specialist Unipart Dorman, TEW Group, now part of Pittsburg-based LB Foster Company, and at a more localised level, Zonegreen, with its Points Converter for enhancing staff safety in yards and depots by mechanising manual point levers. In addition, PILZ Automation Technology will outline its work developing programmable logic controller technology for signalling applications, including level crossing control.

Standby power for signalling systems will be shown by Bender

Venue

Halls 3 and 3a, National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham

Opening times

Tuesday 12 May: 10.00 – 17.00 Wednesday 13 May: 10.00 – 17.00 Thursday 14 May: 10.00 – 16.00

Entry

Free to pre-registered visitors; £20 for non-registered

Show website

www.railtex.co.uk

More information info@railtex.co.uk

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This is just a foretaste of a busy event that brings together suppliers of products covering the entire rail market, from cable systems, electrical supplies and electronics components to station equipment and railway civil engineering products, as well as providers of specialised services that range from vehicle acceptance to recruitment and training. For the latest list of exhibitors, go to: www.railtex.co.uk/exhibitor-list/.

Busy supporting programme

UK and DMS technologies and life extension services for older equipment will be featured by Park Signalling.

Innovations in communications technology on display will include an on-board passenger information system from KeTech Systems claimed to be the first to utilise an approved ATOC ‘Darwin’ real time data feed. The SR1202 Interactive Information Point will be exhibited by Commend UK, which has recently contributed to the Reading station regeneration project, and a number of firms will be showcasing telephone system developments, including DAC with its Network Rail-approved trackside GSM/GSM-R phone and GAI-Tronics, currently trialling Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based Signal Post Telephones under the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme.

Electrification is also currently high on Network Rail’s agenda.

Among firms offering products for this market will be g2 Energy, with its gPod containerised substations designed to customer requirements and assembled in its warehouse. The substation arrives on site with pre-installed and fully tested switchgear ready for immediate connection.

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As well as showcasing the latest products and services from the supply industry, Railtex 2015 will feature an extensive programme of seminars, project briefings and discussion forums. Two areas in the exhibition hall will form venues for these, which are open to all, free of charge. The Knowledge Hub will be the setting for keynote speeches, project updates, industry briefings and The Platform, a series of open forum discussions on topical business themes. It will also host exports-focused presentations coordinated by the Railway Industry Association and UKTI. The Seminar Theatre will be the venue for a series of industry seminars highlighting developments in rail technology, mostly by companies taking part in the show. Representatives of Bombardier, Hitachi, Siemens Rail Automation, telent Technology Services and Voith Turbo will be among those speaking.

Network Rail chairman Richard Parry-Jones is to formally open the exhibition on 12 May, delivering a keynote address the same day. The keynote speaker on the following day will be Terence Watson, UK president of Alstom and co-chairman of the Rail Supply Group. And Tim Shoveller, managing director of the South West Trains/Network Rail Alliance is giving a keynote speech on the final day of the event.

Among other leading speakers making headline presentations will be Anna Walker, chair at the Office of Rail Regulation, and Jeremy Long, European CEO of MTR Corporation, operator of the concession contract to run London’s Crossrail services. In addition, three sessions organised by UK Trade & Investment on the opening day of Railtex will explore export opportunities for UK-based suppliers.

The show website www.railtex.co.uk provides the latest programme details, plus information on other activities during the show, including the opening day’s Network Reception and the 2nd Railtex Awards dinner.

Note that to visit Railtex 2015 free of charge it is necessary to preregister via a direct link on www.railtex.co.uk. Registering ahead of the show avoids payment of a £20 entry fee on the door and speeds up access to the exhibition. zz

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz New chairman at Achilles l Don Robert has been appointed chairman of Achilles, the company that provides pre-qualification and accreditation services for the Railway Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme (RISQS).

Don is former CEO of Experian, a global provider of information services employing 17,000 people across 44 countries with a turnover of $4.8 billion. He is currently nonexecutive chairman of Experian, and a nonexecutive director of Compass Group PLC Adrian Chamberlain, chief executive of Achilles said: “Don brings unparalleled experience in developing and growing complex, international information service businesses which will further support Achilles at a time of significant global development.”

Don was appointed CEO of Experian in February 2005. After leading the flotation of Experian from GUS plc in 2006, he guided the business until July 2014, when he stepped down as chief executive and was appointed chairman.

Don replaces Mark Redwood, who stood down after 2.5 years as chairman of Achilles.

Len Porter takes non-exec job at Angel Trains l Angel Trains Group Limited has appointed Len Porter as a nonexecutive director.

Len joined the board on 31st March, bringing a wealth of experience in the rail sector. He was chief executive of the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) from April 2003 until his retirement in 2014.

Previously he was director for Global Transportation Business at Lloyd’s Register – a role in which he was responsible for developing services in the rail sector.

On his appointment to the Angel Trains board, Len said: “Angel Trains plays a hugely important role in delivering rolling stock solutions to meet passengers’ needs. My years of work in the rail industry – and particularly at RSSB – will, I hope, bring a valuable perspective to the board.”

Currently, Len also serves as the nonexecutive chairman of eAsset Management, non-executive director of LPA Group plc, and an independent director of the Sri Lankan company Jetwing Symphony Ltd.

NEWS I Appointments

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RBF interim CEO appointed permanently

ORR strengthens board with new appointment

l Abi Smith, who has been acting chief executive officer for the railway charity RBF on an interim basis since December 2014, has been appointed to the role permanently.

Tim Shovellor, RBF chairman commented: “Abi has helped bring a breath of fresh air to RBF. Her enthusiasm and drive, coupled with her years of experience in the charitable sector make her an obvious choice for the role. I look forward to working with her to complete our work to modernise the RBF.” Abi joined RBF in February 2014 from the Children’s Hospice charity, where she had worked in a variety of roles including area fundraising manager.

She will oversee the introduction of new advisory services this year, helping people deal with the cause of their problems not just the effects. RBF will continue to provide financial support to current and retired railway workers in financial hardship.

l Stephen Glaister has been appointed non-executive director to the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2020.

Stephen is currently emeritus professor of transport and infrastructure at the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, where he has also been director of the Railway and Transport Strategy Centre which facilitates international public transport benchmarking.

Having been educated as an economist, he is a fellow of the Institute of Civil Engineers. He has been a Transport for London board member and has advised Government and the Transport Select Committee. Stephen has also written on a wide range of transport subjects including, railways and the London Underground.

Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin said: “The ORR has a crucial role to play as the Government delivers the most ambitious road and rail investment plan for generations. That is why I am pleased to announce the appointment of Stephen Glaister, one of the most experienced and respected executives in the transport industry.”

Steve Creighton’s new role at Siemens Rail Automation

Capita appoints Drew Ritchie head of infrastructure

l Siemens Rail Automation has appointed Steve Creighton to the position of delivery director, central east.

Based in York, Steve will assume overall responsibility for the company’s portfolio of projects delivered from the central east region, ensuring they are delivered on time, safely and efficiently. These include Sheffield Re-control, Great Northern Great Eastern (GNGE), North Lincolnshire Resignalling and Brigg Resignalling.

Steve joined Siemens in March 2014 as programme director for the region, leading the company’s project management and planning community.

Commenting on the appointment, Siemens Director Delivery, Rob Morris said: “I am delighted to welcome Steve to this new role. He brings a wealth of project portfolio management expertise, together with general management experience gained from organisations such as Thales.”

l Drew Ritchie has been appointed head of infrastructure for Capita’s property and infrastructure business.

With over 20 years of experience across the rail, construction, highways, airports, industrials and energy sectors, he joins Capita from running his own consultancy business.

Drew has held positions for some of the UK’s most prominent engineering and infrastructure companies, including chief operating officer for Currie & Brown, major projects and programmes director (EuMENA) at Balfour Beatty, and head of rail for Amey. He has been responsible for many infrastructure and construction projects, including the redevelopment of King’s Cross Station for London Underground Limited.

Drew said: “Capita’s infrastructure offering is expanding fast. The senior management team and I will be looking to build on the successes of the past couple of years, driving organic growth and delivering world-leading infrastructure for our customers.”

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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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Touax Rail LTD

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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).

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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Stadler Rail

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Freedom of movement Stadler Rail Group is a system supplier of customer-specific solutions for rail vehicle construction

High speed train for Swiss Federal Railway SBB

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he company has locations in Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Italy, Austria, Belarus, Algeria, the Netherlands and in the US, and across these sites it employs around 6000 people, of which 3000 are based in Switzerland.

Since being established by Ernst Stadler in 1942, Stadler Rail has created an enviable reputation in the rail sector. In order to maintain its leading position, the Group has formulated a strategy that focuses on the regional, suburban and intercity service market segments, the light

Tram in Geneva

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regional express railway service, and streetcars, and it intends to remain the global number one in the rack railway vehicle market. In order to further cement a solid foundation Stadler Rail has positioned itself as a supplier that complements global rail vehicle builders such as Alstom, Bombardier, and Siemens, and its status as an independent company is an important basic strategic value that clients appreciate.

This business approach will also assist Stadler to operate in a railway vehicle industry that is in a dynamic, highly complex restructuring phase. Companies active in this industry are being acquired, merged or strategically repositioned, or even disappearing from the marketplace.

In such an economic environment, it is crucial for a medium-sized group of companies to ensure that its strategy matches its human and financial resources.

Over the past few years, Stadler has met this goal, even achieving exceptional development despite the negative trend prevailing in the industry.

By focusing on market needs, Stadler was able to foresee what investments in facilities would enable it to offer an expanded range of services. Over the past few years, the company has closed the last existing production gaps by selectively expanding into the areas of electrical engineering and bogie (truck) construction.

This means the business is now able to offer complete vehicle concepts, and it can offer customised solutions to railway companies on the basis of modular concepts, which are tailored to their specific needs.

The best-known vehicle series from Stadler Rail Group

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz are the articulated multiple-unit train GTW, the RegioShuttle RS1, the FLIRT and the double-decker multipleunit train KISS in the railway segment, and the Variobahn and the Tango in the tram segment. The Metro is another addition for the commuter rail market. Furthermore, Stadler Rail manufactures metre-gauge trains, passenger carriages and locomotives and is the world’s leading manufacturer of rack-and-pinion rail vehicles.

One of the company’s most recent contracts was for the KISS train variant – in November 2014, it successfully shipped to Moscow the first unit of the 25 doubledecker KISS trains ordered by Russian railway operator Aeroexpress. The contract includes the supply of 25 double-decker KISS trains consisting of 118 coaches, out of which 16 units will be four-car and nine will be six-car vehicles. The Stadler factory in Altenrhein, Switzerland, is producing the first four units, while the remaining 21 are being manufactured in a new Stadler factory, which has been recently constructed on the outskirts of Minsk in Belarus.

The trains are designed to cope with the specific Russian climate, which can range from -50 degrees Celsius to +40 degrees Celsius. The trains have a speed of 160 km/h and have comfortable, bright interiors in two

One of the FLIRT trains in Helsinki classes (business and economy). The carriages are made from lightweight aluminium, which makes the vehicles much lighter than the traditional steel carriages. The reduced weight means that the train operator can make significant energy savings on everyday services.

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zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Just a month before the KISS train was delivered to Moscow, Stadler had handed over another first – this time the first unit of a FLIRT intercity train, for Hong-Kong based private operator MTR Express for operation in Sweden. This contract was a particular highlight for the business as it managed to produce the train in record time, within only one year, which is exceptionally fast in the railway industry. The first FLIRT of the five-carriage fleet is expected to start commercial operation in March 2015 on the Gothenburg-Stockholm route. The top speed of these trains is 200 km/h, and they have been specifically designed to fulfil the strict requirements of extreme climatic conditions.

In fact, one particular FLIRT model does offer a range of benefits to operators that provide services in severe winter conditions. The pedigree of these trains can be traced back to a contract in 2006, with Finnish company Junakalusto Oy, when the model was developed to fulfil the requirements of severe winters. These were also the first broad-gauge vehicles manufactured by Stadler. All Stadler trains now intended for Moscow and Norway are essentially based on the innovations that were included on that first Helsinki FLIRT train.

Such was the success of the 2006 contract with Junakalusto Oy – the first 32 trains have been operating successfully for many years now – that in October 2014 the company ordered another 34 FLIRT trains in a contract worth EUR 200 million, exercising the second option of the contract. Delivery of the first option of nine further FLIRT trains was achieved in November 2014.

The new trains will include insulation that is increased by 50 per cent and windows that are triple-glazed. A

Knorr Bremse The long-standing close partnership between Stadler Rail and Knorr-Bremse is the result of the two companies’ similar backgrounds: Both are ownermanaged and have a corporate policy of long-term, steady development rather than rapid success and short term profit. It is from this shared approach, as well as many successful joint projects such as the FLIRT and KISS platforms, that the trusting business relationship between Stadler Rail and Knorr-Bremse has grown.

Their similar operational background also feeds and strengthens the partnership: Stadler Rail owes its growth not least to its strong customer orientation and its flexibility, as well as the outstanding quality of its products – and these also feature prominently in KnorrBremse’s corporate culture. This explains why in the Swiss company’s development from specialist niche provider to systems supplier, Knorr-Bremse has always been a reliable and supportive partner – and will remain so in future, from specialist applications to the highspeed segment.

Stadler Rail

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The first KISS for Aeroexpress

Intercity train for Austrian Westbahn Vienna- Salzburg

heat recovery system has been added to the tried and tested air-conditioning system used in many FLIRTs. The warm air extracted from the passenger compartment is used to preheat the cold, fresh air that is sucked in.

This results in a substantial energy saving. At the same time, heaters have been fitted in the door areas in order to keep the temperature inside as constant as possible when passengers embark and disembark. The train can achieve speeds of 160 kilometres per hour and will initially be operated using the Finnish EBICAB train control system, although an upgrade to the European Train Control System (ETCS) at a later date is possible.

Peter Spuhler, CEO and owner of Stadler Rail Group, was very proud of this specific vehicle order: “It gives me immense pleasure that the 1000th FLIRT train will travel in Helsinki, because from now on this customer will be operating 75 Stadler trains. The fact that this option has been exercised is evidence that the customer is very happy with the trains that have been in everyday use for five years now. We are proud of our broad-gauge FLIRT with its excellent resistance to severe winters.

This vehicle is a perfect example of how innovative Stadler can be.” zz

www.stadlerrail.com

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Bourne Steel

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Comprehensive capability

Formed in 1946, Bourne Steel sits amongst the top five fabrication companies in the UK

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mploying over 250 people, its engineering excellence drives forward the business, supported by both an exceptional management skill and an extremely accomplished, comprehensive workshop. The business holds a firm belief in the correlation between the quality of the relationship between its own project team, customers, and suppliers, and the quality of the service and products that it is able to deliver.

Highlighting its commitment to developing strong relationships, the business recently completed the renovation of Reading Station, on which it worked closely with a variety of partners. As part of the project, the work consisted of off-site production at the company’s

yard, promoting many benefits, as Nick Hatton, managing director explains: “Bourne took on the total design responsibility for the modular canopy solution, thus reducing design co-ordination risk to our client.”

The development of a fully integrated design saw collaborative working between Bourne Off-Site Solutions and Lakesmere, with integration of M&E containment, dramatically reducing the requirement of site input from its client. “By working together collaboratively we successfully carried out the off-site manufacture, and installation of some of the largest roof modules in the UK at the Farringdon Station Thameslink development, which was also instrumental in us winning the 2012, Construction News Specialist Award for steel.

“Through a combination of investment and detailed attention to design for manufacture, we established a production line process, which gives us certainty of output, and engineering excellence and quality,” says Nick Hatton. Having developed an off-site production line it was able to carry out the manufacturing of canopy cassettes at its assembly facility in Poole. The production line was designed to accommodate the various size modules, which ranged from 5m to 17m wide. Once the cladding was fitted to the units all joints between the modules were checked to ensure a right first time installation on site, before knitting together the ‘zip up’ components to reduce the installation time on site. Furthermore, this process provided opportunity to integrate M&E containment and possible plug and play electrical installation within the modules.

“Ultimately this minimised the degree of on-site coordination to be delivered by Costain/Hochtief between steel and cladding contractors,” says Nick, adding: “More importantly, it removed the dependence upon the civils activities, requiring only the column foundations to be installed to allow installation of the canopy support columns and subsequent canopy installation.” A substantial overall saving in the project programme and

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greater certainty of on-time project delivery, together with a snag free high quality product was achieved using this method. Constructing off-site also opens opportunity to provide a prototype unit for inspection and development by all parties. Brian Fisher, project director for the Reading area station redevelopment provides a valuable client perspective on the project: “When Bourne and Lakesmere came to us with a collaborative and innovative approach, we absolutely knew that this was the right thing for this project. There is no doubt that

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the pre-fabrication and the offsite manufacture of the roof modules at Bourne’s yard in Poole, improved the quality of the product and absolutely improved the installation.”

“Another benefit that comes from manufacturing the majority of the construction in-house is that it opens up an opportunity for the client to visit and inspect the canopy modules throughout the assembly process, heavily reducing programme risk with opportunity for advanced sign off,” highlights Nick. Evidence has proved that a reduced number of site operatives and installation man-hours leads to a reduced health and safety risk. “We are certified to BS 18001 for our Health and Safety Management Systems as well as holding green credentials in high regard, and as such we hold BS14001 certification for our environmental management,” he adds. As a result of this method of production and installation, the business successfully converted several hundred thousand possession hours into day time factory hours, providing higher rates of output, a better quality of work and a happier workforce. “Most importantly, this method reduces the risk to the travelling public,” adds Brian.

In February 2015 the business won the ‘Outstanding Project Award’ for medium sized projects between £3m and £20m for its work on the Reading Station canopies project. Recognition of the company’s innovative approach for its work on Farringdon Station also saw it shortlisted for the award in 2014 in the UK Rail Industry Awards. The scope of the improvement project saw the business install a train shed roof, comprising of fully clad modules 28m x 4m x 4m high, and an integrated ticket hall for the Thameslink Programme. The structural steel frame with elements encased in concrete off-site, and nine fully fitted out roof lights, assembled at its yard, were delivered and installed over three nights. A second feat of engineering on the project was seen with a 34m long fully fitted out over track crossing that was

delivered during a single-track possession.

Commenting on significant projects for the future, Nick recalls how the previous projects, such as its works at London Bridge Station have been responsible for its future path: “Temporary canopies were installed to existing above-ground platforms. The success of the work we undertook on the site has followed on to us securing a contract for the new staff accommodation block, some of which are in the London Bridge Arches, and east and west retail units located in the main concourse. We have also been awarded a contract with BFK (Bam Ferrovial Keir JV), for the next phase at Farringdon Station for Crossrail, developing the new east and west ticket halls.”

Having gained its principle contractor licence with Network Rail, Bourne is now able to tender directly with Network Rail on projects, further lining itself for a fast moving future. As rail integrates itself fully into the ‘digital’ age, Bourne Steel has been embracing the drive for fully integrated BIM models across all its projects. “This has seen us receive the 2009 Telka BIM Awards for Strata Tower, and later the 2013 Tekla BIM Award for Reading Station, by public vote,” says Nick. Utilising its broad and far-reaching expertise, the company looks ahead with ambition to meet the challenges of any project. zz

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A spirit of renewal With a history dating back over 175 years, NedTrain is a specialist in the maintenance of railcars as part of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) group.

NedTrain works 24 hours, seven days a week to commute passengers safely, comfortably and on time to their destination

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lthough the company operates as the locomotive and rolling stock maintenance, repair and upgrade arm of the Dutch Railways company Nederlandse Spoorwegen, NedTrain represents a unique entity within the rail industry in that remains an independent commercial venture in its own right instead of existing as a necessary non-profit part of the NS group. As such it is able to guarantee that the NS group’s 1.2 million daily passengers can rely on a modern fleet of clean and comfortable locomotives as well as providing the same service to clients throughout Europe.

Its unique position as NS group’s commercial maintenance arm allows NedTrain to respond rapidly in response to urgent situations and act with the sole interest of passengers in mind. The result is a very smooth and fluid response approach to the needs of the rail industry, where important work is undertaken as soon as it is

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needed and the financial and legal details are managed later on. Over the winter months for example, NedTrain is able to service trains for extreme weather conditions at short notice without the need to first settle contractual details. The synergy between NedTrain and NS is further emphasised by the fact that its CEO, Michiel van Roozendaal is part of the executive committee that is responsible for the running of the NS group. This coupled with 30 strategic locations across the Dutch railway network is the basis for the unique service offering that NedTrain is able to provide. The company’s flexibility and expertise has enabled NedTrain to develop a trusted and highly respected reputation that has seen it work with train operators throughout the Netherlands and beyond including Arriva, Syntus, Veolia and the Norwegian state rail company - Norges Statsbaner AS. In recent months NedTrain has been increasing its

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz capability through construction of four new technical centres, the first of which was opened during September 2014. The centre is located close to Utrecht Centraal station, where it is designed to undertake rolling stock repairs including pantograph, couplers and window replacement. The main building was designed and constructed by BAM Utiliteitsbouw and incorporates several water, energy and waste saving measures including roof-mounted solar panels and LED lighting.

The construction of the second centre, located in The Hague is underway and on schedule with the pouring of its concrete floor to be followed by anchor drilling, positioning of steel columns, the assembly of the steel structure and construction of the rails. BAM Utiliteitsbouw has again been commissioned for the construction of The Hague technical centre and NedTrain is currently consulting various agencies regarding the construction of the final two technical centres in Zwolle and Nijmegen.

NedTrain plans tailor-made maintenance packages for each individual train and employs dedicated fleet teams that work with a specified series of train and is managed by a rolling stock type manager. The team managers control and monitor assets, costs and the overall quality of the work and each team also includes personnel from

Ultimate Europe Transportation Equipment GmbH Ultimate Europe Transportation Equipment GmbH, located in Amstetten (Austria) develops solutions and products for the international rail and bus sector.

It has specific expertise in system solutions, such as complete interior solutions, gangways, articulations and door systems for coaches, starting with design and development through to complete delivery of the components including logistics services, assembly and operation. Efficient new total product solutions, optimised in terms of cost, weight and material, meet customers’ expectations from innovative suppliers.

This was achieved, for instance, on the DD-AR 240 carriage project with Nedtrain for total interiors. The high point is undoubtedly in the design of componentoptimised LED lights used throughout the train. Seven different types of light are used, with a total of around 375,000 LEDs being installed. LEDs have a very long service life and thus reduce operating and maintenance costs.

The successful working relationship will also continue on the new VIRMm1 order for 416 coaches.

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the engineering and production side of the business.

In all there are around ten teams covering specific train types as well crews covering specialist trains such as the Dutch Royal Train, Thalys and ICE trains which run in a joint pool with French SNCF and Belgian NMBS respectively as well as Deutsche Bahn from Germany.

Modernisation is an increasingly important market as enhanced train life is being encouraged and advocated throughout the European rail network. Presently NedTrain is undertaking a number of major fleet modernisation programmes for clients including Arriva, Veolia, Stadler and Syntus. Renovation is naturally cheaper than replacement of rolling stock and allows previously outdated trains to continue in operation for several years.

NedTrain offers clients full modernisation services from small adjustments to full overhauls covering electrical, mechanical, hydraulic engineering and airframe work.

Trains can also be upgraded to include further monitoring and communication systems, such as onboard internet that allow both safer trains through system monitoring and an enhanced service for passengers by providing real-time travel information.

NedTrain currently operates a dedicated modernisation

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facility in Haarlem where it again manages dedicated teams per project. However unlike other areas of the business where teams are organised into teams dedicated to certain train types, the teams in operation in Haarlem include engineering and production staff that contribute to multiple projects, allowing the facility to undertake several modernisation programmes at once.

During February 2015 NedTrain announced an initiative aimed at increasing the focus on environmentally friendly travel within the railway network. On February 23 2015 NedTrain Director Michiel van Roozendaal, Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment Wilma Mansfield and ProRail CEO Patrick Buck signed the Green Deal waste reduction and recycling at railway stations and on trains agreement. The aim of this is to reduce the amount of waste in stations and on trains and encourage waste separation and recycling. This will present an opportunity for the company to add to its modernisation activities by providing waste sorting solutions for trains and to help improve the market for operators and passengers alike. zz

www.nedtrain.nl

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Nexus’ £389 million regeneration programme is designed to radically improve public transportation in the North East

Tobyn Hughes

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Cinderella story

exus is the trading name of the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive (PTE), a public body that plans and provides local public transport in and around the cities of Newcastle and Sunderland, along with the districts of Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside. Unusually among the six PTEs in England, Nexus directly owns and manages the local light rail network, the Tyne and Wear Metro. Opened in stages from 1980, Metro is the busiest light rail system in the UK outside London, with 38 million passenger journeys a year. The network of 78km has 60 stations and is served by more than 450 train services a day.

Metro passengers make up just under a quarter of all public transport journeys in Tyne and Wear. Nexus sets the service specification and fares on behalf of the seven local councils which make up the new North East Combined Authority (formed in 2014). Trains services and station management is provided on behalf of Nexus by operating concessionaire DB Regio Tyne and Wear Ltd, who secured a seven to nine year contract to operate Metro in April 2010.

The last Director General (DG) of Nexus, Bernard Garner, retired in December 2014 and Tobyn Hughes took the position of Managing Director Transport Operations for the North East Combined Authority, which also incorporates the role of DG. He explained that as well as leading Nexus, the MD has a wider remit to forge greater integration in the delivery of transport services across the Combined Authority area. “This is an exciting time to take on such a role because, away from Metro, we are embarked on the creation of a Quality Contracts Scheme to transform the way bus services are provided,” he noted.

“The North East would be the first area to do this, bringing the benefits of integrated transport similar to that seen in London and many cities in other countries. We are also delivering the North East Smart Ticketing Initiative to rollout smart travel across a huge geographic area.”

The Smart Ticketing Initiative Tobyn referred to is part of phase one of the £389m ‘Metro: all change’ modernisation programme. Phase two, which complements and overlaps with phase one, is now underway and as Tobyn explained, the majority of the

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investment in this phase is in infrastructure including track and track beds, overhead line, structures, cabling, communications and train management systems.

“While Metro itself opened only 35 years ago, it uses infrastructure dating back to the birth of the railways – in fact our oldest alignment was surveyed by Robert Stephenson himself!” he highlighted. “Much of the track we are replacing is around 50 years old and the beds and drainage beneath it up to three times that age. The investment we’re making now will serve North East England for many decades to come.

“We have delivered 25km of new track and trackbeds and the same distance of renewed cable and ducting routes, and overhauled and strengthened more than 20 bridges and tunnels and several thousand metres of embankment. There is also scope to bring older stations up to modern standards of accessibility, including the installation of tactile surfaces, double-height handrails, bench seating and improved wayfinding and passenger information. In addition we will by Spring have replaced 19 escalators most of which were life-expired and almost impossible to source parts for, and six passenger lifts.”

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This programme also includes a refurbishment of the train fleet, delivered on behalf of Nexus by DB Regio Tyne and Wear Ltd through Wabtec in Doncaster, which will be complete in the summer of 2015. The £30m refurbishment brings the fleet up to modern RVAR standards – in fact the early Metrocars were the first rail vehicles in the country to attain this – and deals with serious corrosion. It extends the life of the original fleet into the 2020s, by which time they will be more than 40 years old, while Nexus plans for the procurement of a new fleet.

“Our big priority for the next few years is creating a business case for the new train fleet,” Tobyn added. “It’s clear from the work we’ve done that the heritage and future of Metro is as a sub-regional light rail system, most closely related to the continental ‘S-Bahn’ model, rather than as a tramway as seen in other British cities. This has important implications as we model the size and capacity of a future fleet but also its power source – could we, for example, introduce a fleet at the present 1,500v DC voltage but with the potential to run on 25,000v AC and so extend into new parts of the region’s Network Rail infrastructure? On a network as busy as Metro which is already offering a very high frequency we need to be very confident about the dimensions of the fleet we set out to procure for the four decades ahead, and there is detailed analysis and modelling going into that work now.”

All of these improvements are designed to not only create a better service for passengers but also have a wider effect on the community, as Tobyn highlighted: “Metro is fundamental to the local economy and social life of the region,” he said. “Metro keeps about 15 million car journeys a year off the region’s roads and contributes some 10,000 daily visits to Newcastle city centre which would otherwise not happen, whether that be for work, education or leisure. Our modernisation programme is

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worth £2.5bn to the region’s economy compared to the consequences of letting Metro decline and fail, when calculated as a benefit-cost ratio. This is fundamental to our business case for on-going investment in the network.

“We can quantify the benefits of modernisation in more direct ways, as the many projects that make up the whole programme have secured and created hundreds of jobs in rail engineering and construction. These are jobs with contractors and extend right through the supply chain but also within Nexus itself. We have set up an internal ‘capital delivery’ team of 60 staff which competes to deliver projects within the programme, and we have had the confidence to take on 30 apprentices over three years knowing they have good prospects of a career with us.

“It’s also important to demonstrate the benefits in terms of reliability – the last five years have seen us replace 25km of track and vastly increase the proportion of the network where rails are fully stressed and laid on modern concrete sleepers and good ballast; we have seen payback through a decrease in rail misalignments and cracks as a result.

“The ticketing and gating programme, substantially completed in 2013, has led to a decline in fraud and consequent increase in revenue, alongside overall passenger growth of around seven per cent in the last year. Metro has always been something of a Cinderella network surviving on a very low cost base among UK railways, but it is now in a healthy position to look to the future.”

The entire Metro: all change programme has of course featured innovation and new technology, not all of which will be obvious to passengers but will be quietly working behind the scenes to improve information flow and recovery from disruptions. For example, Kapsch is delivering a new digital radio communication system, which is moving to delivery through 2015. “This is a really important project for which Kapsch was chosen

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following an international procurement process,” noted Tobyn. “Because Metro is such a busy system we need the highest quality communications between trains and the Metro Control Centre or the IECC York centre, which covers movements on Network Rail infrastructure through Sunderland.”

Nexus has a local transport remit stretching much wider than rail, but with the Metro, Tobyn highlighted the key priorities for the coming year as the continued successful and efficient delivery of modernisation projects, and the development of a business case for the essential new Metro fleet. Nexus will also be leading on national rail issues for the new North East Combined Authority, which is among the partners in Rail North exploring the potential for devolution of the Northern Rail franchise with the Department for Transport. “We see significant benefits from devolution, an idea which has inspired and brought together local authorities from Northumberland through Tyne and Wear and the Tees Valley to North Yorkshire in forming a single rail strategy for this huge region,” said Tobyn. “The current structure of local passenger services invites the concept of a North East Business Unit at arms’ length from the wider franchise, which better serves the unique needs of this region, where people are making often much longer journeys by local trains on older and sometimes substandard trains, when compared to conurbations along the M62 corridor.”

He concluded: “The programmes Nexus is now embarked upon will shape local transport in North East England for many years to come – securing and improving bus routes by making better use of the profits they make to provide a genuine public service, completing the introduction of smart ticketing and moving forward into contactless payments, and modernising Metro. But of course Metro works best at the heart of an integrated transport environment and what we are seeking to do is integrate the way people buy travel as well as the modes they use.” zz

www.nexus.org.uk

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Asset Performance JNP

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Andy Derbyshire, head of operations

Digitising the network is key to asset management company Asset Performance JNP, in staying committed to delivering an efficient tube network for London

ecoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London in 2010 and working in close partnership with London Underground, Asset Performance JNP (APJNP), formerly known as Tube Lines, is responsible for maintaining and operating the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines. With over 200 miles of track, 255 trains and 100 stations within its network, the company is responsible for 41 per cent of the entire underground network. The extensive operations cover everything from routine maintenance, emergency repairs of tracks to complete line, station, lift and escalator refurbishment. With over 500 million passenger journeys passing through its network each year, safety, reliability and high performance sit at the heart of Tube Line’s focus, as does its commitment to its own people. Working as part of the London Underground family Asset Performance JNP looks to achieve its vision of working together to deliver an outstanding tube for London.

The company was established in 2003 under a PublicPrivate Partnership (PPP) scheme by a consortium of Amey Plc, Bechtel and Jarvis Plc to provide maintenance services to the London Underground, before being bought

by Transport for London in 2010. As part of the London Underground Chief Operations Directorate, APJNP works collectively across the network providing seamless

operations with BCV (Bakerloo Victoria and Central) and SSL (Sub Service).

Managing assets across such an extensive network provides a major challenge for APJNP. With a commitment to innovation and driving the industry forward, the company has been working hard to integrate data analytics and information to manage its assets more effectively. Head of operations, Andy Derbyshire, explains: “Within Asset Performance JNP we are advanced in the use of asset information and analytics. We are just completing an upgrade of our asset management system Maximo, which will add functionality and improve our management system with improvements such as GIS (geographic information system) functionality and handheld technology.”

The topic of the digital railway is something that is very much at the top of the agenda of the rail industry at the moment, and APJNP is playing a significant role in the development of this. “Where Network Rail has a vision of digital railways, we believe we are already in the next phase: the analytical railway,” adds Andy. Collecting and analysing the data is a team of specialist analysts, statisticians and mathematicians set up in partnership with Amey Plc. “Data is good, but information is better,” highlights Andy. “How we manage the data to give

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good information to make informed decisions is key. By combining the analysed information with engineering asset knowledge we are in the process of developing asset state models to better predict when there is a need to intervene, as well as understand our assets at a system level in much more detail. This allows us to work and improve our maintenance and reliability regimes.” Ultimately, not only does it make asset management an easier and more efficient process for APJNP, but the system can also have positive implications on underground users. It can be used to manage potential problems before they cause major issues and delays to the line.

This ability to build models and predict potential issues is central to the company’s move towards digitisation of the rail network, and is based on proven success. “The financial sector has been doing this for years within the stock market, monitoring trends and using analytics to support their next investment, similarly in elite sports,” explains Andy. “It’s the same for us.” With the use of handheld

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technology the data is readily available, more accessible and means that the assets are constantly transmitting their states. “This means we can change the way we maintain assets and respond to potential problems,” he expresses.

However, with the technology shift it is important that strategy is managed effectively to provide a successful balance: “We need to make sure we don’t go over the top trying to monitor too much,” Andy adds.

The need to provide an outstanding tube service in London is one that is constantly advancing as passenger numbers increase. This poses the constant demand for updates and improvements across the whole network, and Asset Performance JNP and its partners are at the heart of delivering a consistently reliable service.

“With demand increasing all the time, the need for more availability and reliability is always a constant challenge,” says Andy. “However, the results show that the Underground has delivered a fantastic improvement in reliability whilst modernising at the same time.” With this in mind, the need for a more focused and effective asset management system is clear, and APJNP is at the forefront of meeting it.

The digitisation of the railway improves the company’s asset management, and supports the future development and improvement of the infrastructure. Andy concludes with a note on APJNPs future: “As we are well known, we will continue to drive performance and maximise on improvements. London Underground has more capacity improvement plans as well as the New Tube for London project on the horizon.” As a key partner within the London Underground network, this dedication and commitment to improvement looks set to provide the business and London Underground with a successful future, and by extension an outstanding public transport system. zz

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telent – maintaining telecoms assets for Asset

Performance Jubilee Northern & Piccadilly (APJNP) London Underground for the past 15 years

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aintenance is changing and telent is at the forefront: With the focus for maintenance now fixed firmly on reliability centred maintenance (RCM), efforts are moving increasingly towards proactive, preventative work to maintain uninterrupted service. Detecting the early signs of failure enables proactive action to be taken and failure prevented.

For over 15 years, telent have maintained communications assets for APJNP, providing the innovation and technology underpinning a number of RCM successes, resulting in reduced costs and increased asset reliability. telent are currently responsible for maintaining all station communications, including PA systems, CCTV cameras, help points, station management systems, control systems, SCADA, customer information displays, DVRs, clocks and track to train systems.

Provision of telent’s Remote Services Desk has helped communications maintenance to move a long way in recent years and this new approach to maintenance is delivering tangible results: with a growing number of interventions carried out remotely, fix times

have been significantly reduced, total site visits and reported faults have reduced, while first visit fixes have increased.

In addition to station communications, telent also support APJNP with RCM in a number of other areas: Asset Condition Monitoring systems developed by APJNP and telent support lift and escalator maintenance, by monitoring performance via sensors in order to predict and prevent failure, significantly increasing reliability and asset availability.

Through remote monitoring of equipment temperature, telent have significantly reduced failures of electronic equipment. telent have developed an Alarm Gateway to filter and present important and critical alarms from a range of SCADA and monitoring systems to the Fault Reporting centre.

Bespoke software has been developed for the monitoring of dirt build-up in detector heads of Fire Panels. When combined with the provision of remote isolation facilities, this will increase the available working windows for hot working, further reducing disruption by preventing false alarms.

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Safety first Understanding the safety implications of working within the rail industry is key to Crossway Scaffolding’s success

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tarting off as a small scaffolding company based in West Yorkshire around 20 years ago, Crossway Scaffolding has earned a strong reputation to work for some of the biggest contractors in the UK. Having built its scaffolding experience in the construction industry, the company decided to make the move into the rail industry, achieving National Rail link-up status six years ago. Today, 60 per cent of the firm’s revenues come from rail. Working within an industry with higher risks than traditional scaffolding, the company’s total commitment to health and safety sets it apart from its competitors, and has earned it a growing reputation.

Discussing its initial experience in the rail industry, operations director, John Gallagher tells Railway Strategies that: “We decided that the market for decent scaffolding companies that were looking after clients in that sector was lacking, so we developed our systems and our values to focus on and achieve what the client requires in a much harsher and more risk-orientated environment.” From this realisation, Crossway Scaffolding has taken a number of steps to ensure it is one of the most competent company’s

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Generation Generations is a leading supplier of non-mechanical access systems and building equipment and have worked closely with Crossway Scaffolding Group for over 14 years.

Generation recently supplied aluminium beams to form a working deck on the Victoria Station refurbishment project in Manchester.

The conventional method of using 750mm deep beams would have been too expensive in man hours, weight of materials and capital investment to achieve both the span and load requirements.

Generation supplied the new Asterix HD 1.33mm Deep beam, coupled with Futuro System Scaffolding, and Uni Roof, constructed a decking structure that had 2.57m beam centers, not using any scaffold fittings in the assembly.

Savings on just the scaffold fittings alone was estimated to be in excess of 10,000 fittings, giving large labour savings, reduced erection times, and fewer line closures, thus saving money.

The Beams are now in use on other line crossing structures saving time, labour and reducing the potential of accidents and ensuring projects come in on schedule.

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Crossway Scaffolding

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Early on, the business made the decision to employ the Dutch Van Thiel scaffolding system, which allows for quicker, easier and service-free erection, therefore leading to a much safer and less disruptive construction period within busy, public spaces. This system is highly suited to the rail industry, particularly in stations where minimum disruption to ongoing services is key to becoming a respected constructor, and Crossway Scaffolding is one of the heaviest users in the UK. Aside from the systems it uses is its approach to its staff and workforce, which is where another of the company’s main strengths lay. “All of our operatives are directly employed,” says John. “They all have to serve a minimum of 12 months before they can be put thought a PTS (Personal Track Safety) accreditation, to become trained to work on the rail. It is also about finding out if they are the right calibre of person, and that they have the right attributes, work ethic and are safety critical. At the end of the day they are undertaking one of the most high risk operations of any on a construction site.” This commitment means that the workforce deployed into rail environments by Crossway Scaffolding are experienced

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zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and can be trusted to carry out their work in the best way possible.

“All of our staff and operatives have the capabilities to be decision makers on site, without them we would not be where we are today. When we start a job either a contracts manager, or director will be in attendance to make sure everyone knows what they’re doing, and this will continue on regular occasions throughout the project. We have experienced supervisors who take ownership and run the projects on a daily level.

We know what we are doing and how to do it, and this attitude filters down through the whole team,” continues John. In finer detail, all rail workers within the company are directly employed 100 per cent CSCS qualified and PTS certified, all managers and directors have safety management accreditation and external auditors carry out regular health and safety inspections on all sites to ensure extensive procedures are being implemented and adhered to. Ultimately, Crossway Scaffolding can supply its rail clients with a service that knows the industry and fully understands the safety parameters within the sites. “One of our biggest concerns is our competitors undertaking major high risk schemes with large numbers of subcontract labour with unknown skill sets and no ownership of the project. In a high risk industry with potential to disrupt the rail infrastructure this seems very dangerous.”

Testament to Crossway Scaffolding’s reputation is the ongoing project at Manchester Victoria Station, where the company has erected a 10,000 square metre protection crash deck. With thousands of rail users, and MEN arena goers passing through the station everyday safety and minimal disruption is paramount to the project. “We have been there two years, and there has not been a single disruption to the rail infrastructure or to the public due to our operations.” Proof of success lays in the fact that the company currently has a number of other high profile projects of a similar nature, where safety and no public hindrance are key, in the pipeline.

Despite complete commitment to health and safety within the industry, John is keen to point out that the company’s success is not wholly attributable to this.

“Our success is also down to the partners that we choose to work with, who are of really high standard.

RDG Engineering (temporary works partners), Generation Hire and Sales and Lifters Powered Access have been paramount to our success because we have such strong relationships with them. We don’t continuously change supplier because one may be cheaper than the other, we know that if we have a problem these partners will be there to help wherever, whenever. By working together with these teams, we have all been able to secure strong reputations within our industries.”

Crossway Scaffolding has grown at an average of ten per cent a year, even through the recession,

and maintaining this level of growth is central to the company’s future vision. “We are looking to increase our work load with Network Rail, increase our profile with other contractors, and we are trying to do that in the best way possible. By making people realise that although we are of similar cost, they get what they pay for in terms of how our people approach safety and undertake the project,” concludes John.

The company is passionate about offering experience and safety awareness as its standout feature, and in a high-risk industry where these are critical, such as rail, it looks set to enjoy continued success by remaining committed to these values. zz

www.crosswayscaffolding.co.uk

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Giffen Group

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Reading the signals Giffen Group Ltd is a railway electrical and signalling specialist and part of the SSA joint venture working with Network Rail

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lready a principal contractor for Network Rail and Transport for London, the company is also aligned to provide expert project management and delivery structure for the newly formed joint venture, Switchgear and Substation Alliance (SSA), designed to supply High Voltage Traction Power SubStations for Network Rails CP5 spending period. With the venture recognised for providing local employment and bringing in UK local expertise into a very important and large framework, there was ultimately a lot of political excitement generated at SSA’s launch, which saw the attendance of key political faces.

Seen as a very safe and reliable pair of hands, Giffen delivers challenging projects for clients across the breadth of the country in challenging circumstances, and often with tough time scales. Being able to regularly meet those programmes in both time and budget, it has been able to take hold of exciting opportunities as they appear. “We see that there is a shortage of SME’s able to offer experienced, and knowledgeable power and signalling expertise. For us, the situation is quite different, with a number of timeserved operatives, starting out life in British Rail, ultimately

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working as signalling engineers within Network Rail looking after infrastructure. It is that level of expertise that is an attractive part of our offer within CP5 and CP6 frameworks,” says Chairman John March.

At the turn of 2014 the long associated family interests in the business were replaced by private equity, providing a platform to take advantage of the potential growth in the rail sector. The investment coincided with the appointment of John, as he highlights: “It has been a year of change that has seen an influx of fresh ideas and additional investment into the business.” Working above and below the ground, the company has for many years, been a touchstone for quality, reliability and delivery.

“Having weathered the storms of the mid 2000’s that challenged the rail sector, we are now perfectly positioned to take advantage and work actively in the new round of investment into infrastructure,” he adds.

As a result of the Network Rail CP5 electrification programme there have been contracts awarded up and down the country. The framework focuses on providing high voltage traction power substations, delivering power and controls systems to the overhead line system. “It is

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz an absolutely integral piece of equipment for that whole piece of infrastructure to work,” says John. Despite stiff competition from industry giants such as Siemens, Giffen decided to form the joint venture SSA, between itself and two other partners, Electren UK, and EPS UK Ltd, each one providing something different in terms of expertise.

“We are essentially SME’s breaking into a really big market. We were fortunate enough to win LOT2 of the National 25KV Substation supply contract, under the CP5 framework by Network Rail, covering all areas that were within the scope, except the Midland Mainline project, and Great Western,” says John. With an anticipated total of 50 units, and a combined framework figure of circa £50 million, the next five years is a very exciting time for the team.

“Giffen bring a skill to the industry, which is desperately short at this point in time, when numbers of railway experienced electrical and signalling technicians and engineers are at an all time low in the UK rail market,” points out John. Specialising in low-voltage electrical power and signalling, the business directly employs over 140 engineers that have amassed an average years service well over 30 years with the company, a statistic that reflects their experience and service

Morgan MP ort and Nicky of the SSA sp an Tr r fo e etary of Stat at the launch ghlin MP Secr for Education Patrick McLou gh and Secretary of State ou for Loughbor

background. “Electren UK, belonging to the world’s largest construction company Groupo ACS, are a fiercely independent, specialist high voltage electrification company, which has worked on just about every highspeed line in Europe. They bring to the venture 25 years of high-class experience and capability behind them, carrying hundreds of very experienced electrification

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zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz engineers and technicians.

“With expertise in protection and controls (P&C) systems, they are providing a lot of the technology and the detail within the P&C system, as well as its manufacture and installation. Our other partner, EPS, is a market leader in switchgear innovation and it manufactures and designs specialist circuit breakers, producing niche technology in the containerised airinsulated switchgear (CIAS) that we are offering to Network Rail,” he adds. The technology offered by the group was not on offer from the other companies, even large European giants, and it is a positive success story to have UK manufacturing and engineering expertise at the forefront of this project. “I think that was a key decision in Network Rail’s selection process.

“The three companies really complement one another and we have got very clear areas of interest an expertise and we all respect each others expertise, which are key ingredients to successful joint ventures. Whereas a single organisation may be able to take on all aspects, they may have weaknesses in one or two areas, but we have strength in all three. We genuinely see this a very exciting and a reputation-enhancing project. The next ten years for the railway in the UK is going to be a tremendous

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zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz place to be, with lots of infrastructure growth,” John continues.

Within Giffen, the transfer of knowledge is a key strategy as the business moves ahead, with an ongoing apprenticeship programme that today consists of over a dozen operatives. “Much of our workforce joined as apprentices, stayed with the company and subsequently became engineers, project managers and eventually contract managers. Organic growth, expertise and specialism in the business is high, and in high demand, resulting in work with Network Rail right across the country as well as working as a ‘STAKE framework’ contractor with London Underground,” adds John.

Deemed to be one of TfL’s primary electrical installation contractors Giffen has undertaken significant landmark projects, including recently working at Paddington, and Embankment stations. “In fact, there probably isn’t a piece of infrastructure that we haven’t worked on in the underground in the last 40 years,” jokes John. The STAKE contract will witness significant spend over the next five years and it is widely predicted that it will be extended beyond that period.

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Eland Cables Eland Cables is an active supply partner of the Giffen Group, and a leading Achilles/RISQSapproved supplier of cables, overhead line, and conductors for electrification, signalling, control and communications on surface, underground and metro networks. Through their Unipart Rail joint venture, they are a leading supplier to Network Rail with their cables alongside every metre of track on key routes. They stock a comprehensive range of London Underground-approved cables including Fire Resistant Power and Alarm and Emergency Lighting.

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The importance of a strong supply chain in the market is well known, and has been the fuel to Giffen strengthening its commercial and procurement function, and consolidating relationships with suppliers and partners. “The trick to success is making sure that you have capable people in the organisation, which can meet clients’ requirements. People are excited about joining an SME in a time like this because they can see that there are tremendous opportunities for growth and an opportunity to expand their career experience.

“You can’t have too many quality, experienced individuals, particularly when the market is like this. The way to retain them and to inspire them is to make them part of the future, not only showing them the way, but allowing them to lead the way as well. We want to grow, in a controlled way, not a rash way, and if our clients and our trusted partners in the industry ask us to respond to their challenges, then we have to step up and be able to deliver that,” concludes John. zz

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

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 3 June 23rd Annual Rail Freight Group Conference Stephenson Harwood, London Organiser: Waterfront Conference Company Tel: 0207 067 1597 Email: conference@thewaterfront.co.uk Web: www.waterfrontconferencecompany.com 8-10 June UITP World Congress & Exhibition: The transformational changes facing public transport Milan Organiser: UITP Web: www.uitpmilan2015.org 30 June Public Consultation and Stakeholder Engagement for Major Infrastructure Projects Master Class 2015 Burges Salmon, London Organiser: Waterfront Conference Company Tel: 0207 067 1597 Email: conference@thewaterfront.co.uk Web: www.waterfrontconferencecompany.com/ conference-calendar

30 June - 1 July Railway Engineering 2015, International Conference & Exhibition Radisson Blu Hotel, Edinburgh Organiser: Railway Engineering Tel: 01314 470 447 Email: exhibition@railwayengineering.com Web: www.railwayengineering.com 30 June - 1 July AfricaRail 2015 Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg Organiser: Terrapinn Tel: Brian Shabangu +27 11 516 4015 Email: brian.shabangu@terrapinn.com Web: www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/africa-rail 8 July UK Rail Station Regeneration and Development Dentons, London Organiser: Waterfront Conference Company Tel: 0207 067 1597 Email: conference@thewaterfront.co.uk Web: www.waterfrontconferencecompany.com/ conference-calendar 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

28-30 September European Transport Conference 2015 Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany Organiser: Association for European Transport Email: sally.scarlett@aetransport.org Web: etcproceedings.org 12-13 November Rail Review, Rail Ticketing, Rail Customer and Rail IT Sheraton Brussels Airport Hotel - Brussels Organiser: Terrapinn Tel: 0207 092 1210 Email: tayyab.abbasi@terrapinn.com Web: www.terrapinn.com 22-23 March 2016 Asia Pacific Rail Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong Organiser: Terrapinn Tel: +65 6322 2702 Email: kym.chua@terrapinn.com Web: www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/asiapacific-rail 19-20 April 2016 MetroRail Business Design Centre, London Organiser: Terrapinn Tel: 0207 092 1257 Email: issa.mauthoor@terrapinn.com Web: www.terrapinn.com/conference/metrorail

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) 12 May Train control and safety systems Learn of the systems used on UK fleets that provide safety and train operational control 13 May Vehicle acceptance and approvals Introduction to acceptance procedures which apply across the rail network 14 May Vehicle dynamics and vehicle track interaction Understand the dynamics of railway vehicles to improve safety, comfort and asset life 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

6 October 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

14 October Fleet maintenance - Advanced Understand the issues affecting rail vehicle performance and cost of maintenance

7 October Traction and braking Principles of traction and braking for railway engineers

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

8 October Train communication and auxiliary systems New and existing systems in use on today’s rolling stock flee

Brochure is available at: www.imeche.org/docs/ default-source/learning-and-professional-development-documents/l-d-railway-training-brochure2015_web

13 October Fleet Maintenance - Introduction Improve your processes and fleet maintenance processes

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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Trackwork Moll

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Lining the way forward A lot of hard work and investment has been the driving force behind Trackwork Moll’s establishment, now at 100 per cent capacity the company is positive about the future

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oncrete sleeper manufacturer Trackwork Moll was last featured in Railway Strategies in May 2014 when the company was in its early stages.

Founded in 2011 as a joint venture between Trackwork of Doncaster and Leonhard Moll Betonwerke of Munich, in partnership with Network Rail, the company has put in a lot of hard work and investment to establish the business. A year on from the last feature, Trackwork Moll has a new general manager, Dr. Christof Karlstetter, and has recently reached its goal of full capacity.

Having been set up in response to quality and cost needs demanded by Network Rail, Trackwork Moll is in a unique position where it only has one main customer. With a ten-year supply contract between the two parties for 400,000 sleepers a year, demand from

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Network Rail is high enough to warrant this. Talking about this situation, Christof explains what it meant for the company throughout the start up period. “We went through some difficult stages setting up, but they always believed in our success, and were a very good partner throughout this time. Because we had established this good relationship with one customer it was quite easy to go through difficult times, as opposed to having a number of superficial customer relationships that can get difficult if you are behind schedule. Whilst we are their supplier, we also have a very good and supportive relationship with a number of individuals within Network Rail.”

In order to be able to meet the high demands set by Network Rail, Trackwork Moll has spent a lot of time and

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money in getting its production facilities up to full capacity.

“A lot of investment has paid off over the last few months as we are now where we want to be in terms of production. We are now able to make a very cost effective sleeper at almost 100 per cent capacity because of our production methods,” explains Christof. The production method involves the combination of two systems, a long line for casting and a carousel system. “The combination of these two systems gives us the ability to produce very quickly and for a good market price,” he adds. “Although we underestimated how long it would take to get it to where we are now, we are now able to deliver on the quality, price and speed that we promised at the start.”

Strength also lays in how modern the facility is. As a purpose built, brand new factory, much of the technology used within production is the latest. “A lot of processes are automated, so we don’t need a great amount of labour, which eliminates a degree of human error so high quality is maintained,” expresses Christof.

Having recently reached its original aim to hit 100 per cent production, morale in the company is high. “Now that we have reached full production, we are very happy, and so are our customers and shareholders,” highlights Christof. “What we have discovered as we got closer to reaching full production, however, is that this 100 per cent production that we were always looking for, and always working hard for, is suddenly not the limit. We are a lot more flexible in terms of production capacity than we first thought. This puts us in a good position to respond to any future increases in demand.”

Looking at the current market, and future opportunities

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within the industry Trackwork Moll, with its production flexibility, looks to be in a very strong position. Christof is keenly aware of the UK’s continuing commitment to its rail industry. “There are a lot of clear signs that a number of parties are making efforts to increase the railway mileage in the country. Projects such as HS2 are clear indicators that the government is keen to invest in developing the railway infrastructure,” he discusses.

“Also in Doncaster, we have the National High Speed Rail College soon opening, which will educate engineers for the railway industry. So it’s not only the aim to extend the network physically, but also the will to invest in other aspects such as education and training. The whole picture suggests that the rail industry is moving forward in the UK.” The condition of the market very much defines the way Trackwork Moll views the future. In the short term it looks to stabilise itself at full production with a focus on continual development to increase efficiencies in quality and safety. In the long term Christof concludes: “There are a lot of things going on in the market. We want to show that we are capable of meeting any future additional demands, and whilst there are no clear figures on the table at the moment, we are busy preparing ourselves to be able to respond to these.” Ultimately, Trackwork Moll has had a hard year as it strived to reach full production capacity, but is now in a position to enjoy its position and its success. With morale high and the future looking positive, Christof notes that: “We are very happy with where we are now.” zz

www.trackworkmoll.co.uk

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Houghton International

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Motor Alternator repair

Driving success Pioneering specialist in electro mechanical innovation, Houghton International is leading the way in traction motor repair, maintenance and life extension

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(L-R) – Michael Mitten, CEO, Chris Robson, Rail Technical Account Manager and Jason McKeon, Quality, Safety and Environmental Manager from Houghton International celebrating achieving RISAS certification

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ver the last 30 years, Houghton International has grown to be one of the UK’s leading suppliers of traction motor service and repairs, having done so to over 5000 individual motors. Whilst leading this sector in the UK, the company has also established itself as a world-leading pioneer within the industry, taking it upon itself to approach problems and use its wealth of engineering expertise and experience to solve them in the best way. Innovation and investment in facilities and people is at the heart of Houghton’s operations.

A focused attention on these aspects combined with excellent customer service are all part of Houghton working towards its vision to be widely considered the best in the world at what it does. With a dedicated division serving its largest market in the rail industry, the company also serves oil and gas, offshore, subsea, industrial and energy sectors.

Houghton International prides itself on being a problem solver of issues facing the industries in which it works. As CEO, Michael Mitten explains: “The way that we always approach business is by solving problems – taking a problem that exists, engineering a solution and delivering it consistently. We work across multiple sectors and are therefore exposed to a range of challenges, because of this we can cross-pollinate from one industry sector to another. By understanding the differing challenges

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CEO Michael Mitten and HR Manager Jacqueline Mason with company apprentices in each we can take an existing solution in one, to be an innovation in the other.” Two examples of this are in the company’s innovative HiTrax insulation system, which provides life extension for traction motors, and the patented HiTrans testing solution for motor alternators.

HiTrans is a pioneering system that involves testing repaired and serviced machinery under full service load before it leaves the shop. “The problem was that these things were failing all the time in service and were massively affecting the passenger experience and costing our customers a lot of money,” Michael adds. “The system is pioneering, innovative and solves a massive problem in terms of reliability. It’s about providing real value all the way back to the passenger.”

Continuous innovation is key to Houghton’s growth strategy and a glimpse into the company’s near future serves to illustrate this. Over the next year the company is due to launch a range of innovative products, including one that will be patented, which, as Michael highlights: “Will be solving a problem that has never been solved before and causes a massive reliability problem on a whole range of vehicles.” Elsewhere, the company is proving that it has the capabilities to become a leader in the industry. In a recent job for the First Great Western HST fleet, Houghton was asked to repair an alternator that previously only one company in the UK has been able to do. “We have now successfully proven that there are two,” emphasises Michael. “That’s an important step forward for us but also the market, it brings greater capacity, flexibility and competition to the market and this will drive improvement too.”

Another dimension for Houghton’s continued success

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HiTrans patented transient dynamic MA set load testing process

is its focus on people. Michael is a strong HiTrax traction believer that if motor life the company extension insulating puts its time into system its employees, they, in turn, will put their time into customers.

“It’s because we have a commitment to living by a very strong set of values and that governs what we do. We have a really powerful and unique culture that we invest in,” explains Michael. Innovation is a factor in this as well, as the company employs an elite sports coach to encourage and improve this culture. As a result the attitude of Houghton is positive and the staff embody this. “That sets us apart from our competitors because it translates into better customer service, better solutions and better innovation.”

Apprenticeship schemes, and training and development are incredibly important to Houghton’s growth strategy. Currently around 20 per cent of the workforce is made up of apprentices, and a number of senior managers in the business, including Michael,

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started in the company this way. “It gives us a really deep technical core right the way through the organisation,” he adds. Part of improving relationships with customers and ingraining the company deep within the industry is the exchange programmes it operates with its customers. The programme involves hosting each other’s trainees for a period of time to share best practice and understand each other’s products. “This is something that is incredibly well received in across the industry,” expresses Michael. “It drives a huge amount of product improvement and trust between both parties.

The more we understand, the better level of service we can give.”

Houghton International has experienced a significant amount of growth over the past few years. An important milestone was reached last December when it received RISAS accreditation after only starting the process in August of the same year. “We were really delighted to get that significant tick in the box,” says Michael.

Crucially it proves that Houghton is on its way to become the best at what it does. Turning over £5 million last year, the company set out its five year ‘2020’ plan, which aims to hit £20 million by the year 2020. By investing heavily in new facilities, equipment, training and development, the company is going in the right direction. Yet, continuing its commitment to innovation whilst keeping people at the heart of what it does are held in equal regard. zz

www.houghton-international.com

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McCulloch Rail

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Improving the line McCulloch Rail sees continuous improvement as the key to success and looks set to capitalise on opportunities through a strategy of controlled growth

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ounded in 1992 by brothers, William and Danny McCulloch, McCulloch Rail has established itself as a leading player in the rail industry developing and operating rail and component handling equipment.

Railway Strategies last featured the company in January 2014 when it had released two new rail specific machines, the fine lining and sleeper spacing (FLASS) machine and the panel lifter. Over the last 14 months McCulloch Rail has been able to integrate these machines successfully into its portfolio to now offer a full service of new and scrap rail movement, distribution and recovery as well as sleeper and panel installation and total single line renewals. With all of

its machines developed in-house specifically for rail, the logistical advantage of being transported by road, and full accreditation to work under live wire, McCulloch Rail offers a full service that can more often than not prove more financially viable than conventional methods.

Talking about progress since the last feature, business director, Colin Neil says: “We have had an increasing workload because of the snowball effect, the more we do in areas, the more work we’re being offered because clients begin to understand the advantages and plan work around the methodology that we try and work to.” This methodology includes the ability to offer an integrated service with its range of specialist equipment, but is bolstered by the efficiency and work ethic that the work force operate within, resulting in a strong and recognisable reputation.

Also contributing towards McCulloch Rail’s growing success is its approach to innovation. “Innovation is an ongoing feature of our business,” explains Colin. “Even for the bread and butter machines like the TRT (Trac Rail Transposer), we have developed a cassette head to allow a quick slot-in, slot-out feature to handle various types of rail. Continuous improvement is a big thing for us. We’re

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McCulloch Rail

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz always looking at what we have and how we can make it better. I think that’s the key to success, we can’t just rest on our laurels; we are always looking to improve. This not only benefits ourselves, but also our potential clients and the industry in general.”

Testament to this innovation is the ongoing development of the multipurpose utility vehicle, which was first announced in the last feature. Over the last 12 months the machine has gone through the design process and a first prototype is due to begin testing within the next month. Details about the product are yet to be revealed but as Colin assures: “It will be selfloading, self-mounting and self-propelling, and is likely to have a huge impact on the industry in general. I think it will generate a lot of interest, which should help us, and the industry, move forward.” The machine represents a major investment for a relatively small company that is experiencing significant growth. As a result the business panel lifter project has been put on the back burner. “As soon as we have the new machine up and running, we will revert back to the bigger panel lifter which should be able to handle the significant amount of switching and crossing (S and C) work that’s going on throughout the UK,” emphasises Colin. “Clients are asking us if we can move S and C units, and whilst we can do a

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zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz limited amount, a bigger machine will give us more scope. There certainly seems to be a lot of opportunities for it within the industry, which encourages it to move forward.”

Further developments, which could be central to McCulloch Rail’s future expansion is its work in the London Underground. “It can be quite a long process to get people approved to work on the underground, and whilst we managed to get some people approved, we couldn’t get enough trained to cope with the amount of business we were getting from them, so both parties were getting quite frustrated. Between us, we decided to set up a leasing agreement where we trained their operatives on our machines, so that they can operate them without our men,” explains Colin. “It can be managed because the track partnership is working within a ring-fenced area so it doesn’t compete with our own day-to-day business. Whilst we are very firm in maintaining our own business, and our own employees as an owner-operator business within the UK, we would consider a similar arrangement in other areas that can be ring-fenced, for instance other metro schemes.”

This kind of arrangement could pave the way for the company’s future strategy to expand internationally.

Regarding this strategy, Colin explains: “We have very

strong contacts who are expressing a great interest, and we would like to take advantage of this within the next five years.”

To accommodate the company’s expansion, it has recently opened a main depot in Toddington, Bedfordshire. The site will be a fully functional yard with machine storage, staff, labour and workshops and will reduce logistical problems it has moving machines around the country, it will also help accommodate the growing fleet of machines, which is ever increasing.

There are plans to open a similar sized site in Doncaster, which along with the existing site in Ayrshire will give McCulloch Rail an improved logistical spread across most of the UK. It is clear that as its reputation increases, the future for McCulloch Rail is looking positive. With innovation at the heart of the business it is in a position to open the doors to international possibilities. “These are exciting times and the opportunities are there, we are very positive and enthusiastic in the industry going forward,” concludes Colin. zz McCulloch Rail’s Toddington site is now operational and can be contacted via 01525 873622.

www.mccullochrail.com

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AB CONNECTORS

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Connecting industry

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AB Connectors, based in Abercynon,Wales UK is the connectors division of TT electronics plc

irst established in London in 1935 the company moved to South Wales just after the Second World War. Belonging to part of a global electronics company, which has been supplying innovative, highly reliable components and assemblies to the world’s OEMs for more than 30 years, AB Connectors Ltd incorporates a knowledgeable and dedicated team of industry experts.

Its experience and agile approach to business has placed the company in a pre-eminent position in the supply of connectors and other components for rail network infrastructures and rolling stock. “We specialise in the design and manufacture of circular connectors and interconnect solutions for the rail, defence and industrial market sectors,” says Bruce Valentine, sales and marketing director. With the vision of providing interconnect products for every train in the next decade, the business remains focused on offering the highest quality in design and manufacturing from its own facilities.

“We focus mainly on rail rolling stock and signalling, all of which are showing significant opportunities for growth and innovation. The areas of interest for AB include the introduction of PRM regulations in rail and our ability to offer a cost effective upgrade path for existing rail platforms, together with the need for rail franchises to cost effectively extend their asset lifetimes,” points out Bruce. Today, AB Connectors continues to operate from its manufacturing facility in the UK and is recognised as one of the market

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leaders in design, test and manufacture of harsh environment interconnection systems, bespoke harness assemblies and connectors.

Through a commitment to a structured new product introduction process, AB Connectors is continuing to invest in research and development (R&D) of new materials and processes, surface treatments and the very latest manufacturing technology and techniques to ensure the products meet the most exacting standards encountered in the transportation industry. As a highly vertically integrated business, it is able to offer its customers a tailored, yet dependable service based around a sound pedigree of rail expertise. The majority of UK rolling stock in service today uses AB interconnect products in one form or another, and through this position it is able to provide a value-driven, robust and proven service to OEMs, TOCs and ROSCOs. “We consider evolution rather than revolution to be the key to success in the rail market. Our R&D effort looks to the past but values the future in terms of product delivery. We invest respectable levels of our turnover into development of next generation product platforms,” explains Bruce. AB Connectors was the first circular connector company to achieve the international IRIS accreditation in the UK. The AB product portfolio includes products approved by all the prime countries, transit operators and OEM’s around the world.

Reference to the company’s work with the military

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reflects the reliability of both its service and technology.

The recent design and development of a new product range of lightweight military connector systems, highlights its capacity to continually offer innovative solutions to its market place. Commenting, Bruce point out: “Our newest product range offers OEMs a market leading performance in terms or weight, user ergonomics, contact density, sealing performance and unit cost versus incumbent connector suppliers.”

The company is also currently in the developmental phase of a new cost effective, high-performance ethernet insert, having already delivered solutions for high speed data across many of its connector platforms. “This has already been used in our AB05 (MIL 26482), MIL-C5015 and rail inter-car jumper solutions. We have also successfully packaged industry standard interfaces and bespoke high performance quadrax inserts into proven circular connector platforms, blending quick connectdisconnect with highly durable, sealed connector solutions for several years.”

From plant layout to production line set-up and quick changeover processes, AB Connectors offer the ideal service, with a flexible manufacturing environment and accredited facilities. Manufacturing from its IRIS registered, ISO9001 and 14001 certified facility in South Wales the company has adopted the well-known SC21 principles into its operational business, from machining to plating and manual assembly. “Our on-time delivery performance is in excess of 98 per cent and our quality performance allows us to punch well above our weight within the connector business.

“Our suppliers are key to our success and our purchasing team always looks to develop key suppliers into true partners, utilising their technical abilities and transparency in operation to provide a unique platform from which we can innovate together,” explains Bruce.

Exhibiting at Railtex 2015, the business looks to continue to actively promote itself as it moves into the future. “Our

goals are to consolidate our sales growth over the next 12 months and to further grow our design positions across the rail and defence market places for existing and new products. Our business is world class and over the next five years I see us challenging our competition across Europe,” concludes Bruce. zz

www.ttabconnectors.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

www.railwaystrategies.co.uk Schofield Publishing 10 Cringleford Business Centre Intwood Road Cringleford Norwich NR4 6AU

T: +44 (0) 1603 274130 F: +44 (0) 1603 274131