RailStaff August 2011

ISSU

E 1

65

Nationwide, ,

&Network Maintenance RepairImprovement Plant Hire

stobartrail.com

See Stobart

Infrastructure

& Civils stories

Pages 2 & 9

In this issue...

Gautrain extension

gears up

bombardier has been celebrat-

ing the opening of the extended

first phase of the Gautrain Rapid

Rail Link in Johannesburg.

Page 4

Britain’s got telent

Page 6

Green flag for new

Pendolino

new Pendolino 390054 entered

service on 16 July travelling from

Longsight Depot in Manchester

at 06.22.

Page 12

Page 8

www.railstaffawards.com

Simon LewisLondon Underground

Rail Manager

of the year 2010

Depot Staff of the Year

Lifetime Achievement Award

Newcomer / Graduate of the Year

Outstanding Customer Service Award

Rail Engineer of the Year

Rail Infrastructure Person of the Year

Rail Manager of the Year

Rail Person of the Year

Rail Safety Person of the Year

Rail Team of the Year

Recruiter / HR Person of the Year

Signaller of the year

Station Staff of the Year

Train Driver of the Year

Trainer of the Year

We’re looking fornominations in...

RailStaff

telent has agreed a deal to acquire

amey’s 40% share in the enhance

joint venture.

Presenting the prizes at this

year’s RailStaff awards is Colin

Flack, Chief executive of the Rail

alliance.

Colin Flack to host

RailStaff Awards

AU

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See RailwayPeople.com for even more news and jobs!

the Secretary of State for

transport, Philip hammond,

has announced a major reform

of the franchise system.

Less micro-management andlonger franchises will see aboost in railway investmentand add job security to the pas-senger rail sector.

‘Our reforms will createlonger, less prescriptive fran-chises that will give the indus-try more freedom to innovate,address passenger needs, and

(offer) more incentive to in-vest,’ says Mr Hammond.

‘The reforms will also helpachieve the radical efficiencychanges needed for a sustain-able lower cost railway for thelong term. This will include amore equitable balance of riskbetween the public and privatesectors.’

He went on to insist new fran-chisees would be expected towork much more closely withNetwork Rail to deliver a joined

up railway, allowing integrateddecision making.

The new Inter City West Coastfranchise will commence in De-cember 2012. Greater Westernand East Coast will follow theyear after. Essex Thameside,currently c2c, and Southeasternwill become 15 year franchisesstarting in May 2013 and April2014 respectively.

Thameslink’s franchise is like-ly to be shorter than 15 years be-cause of the upgrade pro-

gramme. TransPennine Expresswins a franchise extension andis expected to be re-let with theNorthern Rail franchise in duecourse. Greater Anglia also winsa franchise extension and thenew 15 year franchise will startin July 2014.

The rail industry has long ar-gued for longer franchises. MrHammond described the move as‘arguably the biggest programmeof franchising since the industrywas originally privatised.’

Hammond announceslonger franchises

© Jonathan webb

Signal boxes, so long an essential part of the

rail network, will be a thing of the past in 20

years time.

Network Rail plans to consolidate all signal op-eration in 14 Control Centres. The aim is to ap-ply universal operating procedures across thenetwork, boosting service reliability and savingmoney and manpower. Network Rail current-ly has over 800 signal boxes, down from 10,000a century ago. Many have ageing and variableequipment.

The new system will create a high perform-ance railway, reducing delays and increasing ca-pacity as the railway becomes ever busier. Ex-isting Operating Centres include Derby, Gilling-ham, Cardiff, Saltley, Edinburgh and Ashfordwith Didcot and Glasgow requiring furtherupgrade work.

New centres are proposed for Romford, ThreeBridges, York, Manchester, Rugby and Bas-ingstoke. Staff involved in this work will be slow-ly reduced from today’s complement of 5,500 toaround 1,700 over the next 15 years.

However, Network Rail believes this can beachieved without compulsory redundanciesbearing in mind the rising age profile of thoseaffected. Network Rail points out that the av-erage age of those involved is 46.

‘Over the next 15 years, 2,061 or 41% of oper-ations staff will reach retirement age (65). Thenumber over the next 30 years is 4426, 88% ofthe current signalling population. Add in a con-tinuation of our annual turnover rate of 2%, thistakes the number of staff potentially leaving thebusiness voluntarily to around 3000 over thenext 15 years.

‘Because it’s such a long term plan, we’re look-ing to avoid redundancies wherever possible, in-stead using retirements, natural turnover andvoluntary severance to manage changes in staffnumbers,’ a spokesman said.

Over time the roles of signallers and con-trollers are likely to be more closely aligned.

Chris Grayling MP, Minister for

employment, joined local MPs

James Duddridge and Mark

Francois at London Southend

airport to meet new recruits at

the airport.

Airport owners, StobartGroup, have substantially re-developed the airport andadded a brand new railway sta-

tion. The new control tower isnow operational, a new termi-nal building is under construc-tion and the new train stationis ready, with up to eight serv-ices an hour into Stratford. The2012 London Olympics venue isapproximately 40 minutesaway. Liverpool Street is 50minutes from the airport.

Says Chris Grayling MP, ‘This isa fantastic and progressive proj-ect serving the South East andGreater London with what isessentially a brand new airportthat will bring many exciting op-portunities to the region. Sig-nificant new job opportunitiesand broader potential acrossbusiness, tourism and interna-

tional prospects will result fromthis redevelopment, and it wasa pleasure to meet some of theenthusiastic first beneficiaries ofthe project today.’

The Stobart Group, whichowns the airport, aims to havetwo million passengers a yearpassing through its terminalby 2020.

2 | RailStaff | August 2011

Publisher: Paul O'Connor

Editor: Andy Milne

Senior reporter: Jonathan Webb

Pictures: Colin Garratt

Track Safety: Colin Wheeler

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Paul Curtis

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Contact RailStaff

RailStaff EditorialThe pictures of rioters setting fire to shops and houses, beating

up passers by and looting goods on an industrial scale have ter-rified the British public. However, such lawlessness comes as lit-tle surprise to people working in the railway industry. Guards, sta-tion staff and transport police have to put up with criminal be-haviour by delinquents as a matter of routine.

Train companies may boast about CCTV and enhanced safetytechniques. However, the reality is people filmed rarely make itto prison. How many are simply given an ‘asbo’, a caution or per-haps a little light community service?

Police are rendered ineffectual by the absurdities of laws whichbenefit the perpetrator rather than the victims. The perceptionamong the work shy delinquent underclass is that bad behaviouris tolerated and low level crime excused.

If the riots have any long term political message it is simply thatthe great liberal social experiment of the last century has run itscourse. State intervention and cradle to grave welfare care hasspawned an ugly something-for-nothing culture.

It might have been noble to try and rectify the causes of crime,but the truth is, it hasn’t worked. The malcontents are not mem-bers of a desperate social underclass but a self defined elite whobelieve they are owed everything and need give nothing in return.

Contrast this with the railway industry which is full of peoplewho arrived in this country with next to nothing. Yet by joiningthe railway and working hard, they bought property, raised fam-ilies and built satisfying and worthwhile careers.

Although railway companies in the main have been good em-ployers, railway people achieved this on their own. They took re-sponsibility for their own welfare and that of their children. Rail-ways are not perfect and there are rogues in mess rooms as wellas board rooms. However, many railway staff see their childrenjoining the railways - a concise endorsement of an industry thatputs a high value on camaraderie and responsibility.

At the heart of Britain’s troubles is the failure of individuals torecognise that they are responsible for their welfare, their careerand their advancement. These riots spelled out the conse-quences of the something-for-nothing benefits culture. Whatev-er you have you always want more. Being paid to stay at home anddo nothing is a recipe for riot.

By intervening at almost every conceivable stage of an indi-vidual’s life, the state has supplanted the individual as the guar-antor of income. The state needs to withdraw from social inter-ference. Grasping the principle of personal responsibility is es-sential to the health of the individual as well as the future sur-vival of the nation our political class aspires so imperfectly to lead.

It’s a principle that has been grasped by generations of railwayworkers. The railway’s inherent advantage is that it penetrates rightinto the central part of all major cities. Let us hope its examplepenetrates with equal dexterity right to the heart of fire scorchedBritish politics.

Plant & Equipment: September Issue

Contact tom on 01530 560021or email [email protected]

Minister for Employmentvisits Southend Airport

Network Rail planssignal consolidation

Network Rail plans to consolidate all signal operation in 14 Control Centres.

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RailStaff | August 2011 | 3

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Rail News in brief

> Railway Village up for sale

A model railway village in Southport, Merseyside is on the

market for £150,000.

Ray Jones hopes to sell the village and its railway to an equal-

ly passionate enthusiast. The model was opened in 1996.

> it’s a gas

Rail enthusiast and RailStaff Awards supporter, Pete Water-

man, is donating the prototype gas turbine locomotive 18000,

originally delivered to British Railways in 1949, to the Didcot

Railway Centre.

It is already in Didcot and will be officially handed over on 10

September during the centre’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

> Southend City campaign

c2c has named one of its trains, ‘Southend – City-on-Sea’ in

support of the campaign for recognition of Southend as a city.

The town, long popular with Londoners has grown incre-

mentally over the last few years and boasts one of the most

punctual and reliable rail services in Europe.

> young railways at york

This autumn half term - 22 to 30 October - the National Rail-

way Museum is hosting a free nine day celebration of toys and

model trains.

Young visitors can check out children’s pedal trains and ride

on indoor and outdoor miniature railways. The event will bring

together the biggest names in toy and model trains with hands-

on workshops and play sessions hosted by Chuggington, Mec-

cano, Big Jigs and Tomica and dynamic displays from Bach-

mann, the Gauge 1 society and event sponsor, Hornby.

a special constable with the

british transport Police - who is

also MP for Monmouth - has

slammed the politically correct

culture which has stopped ef-

fective policing in recent years

and recently saw police losing

control of the streets in major

city riots.

Says MP David Davies (not to beconfused with ex-cabinet minis-ter David Davis), ‘We are wherewe are because as a society welack the will to allow the police tomatch the levels of violence be-ing used by the mob. The burnt-out houses and shops are theprice we, as a nation, pay for plac-ing so much importance on the

human rights of violent mobs.’London Underground sus-

pended services in riot areasand Croydon Tramlink closedwhen fires in Croydon becameso intense they melted tracksand electrical equipment.

Mr Davies went on, ‘The policeare under strict instructions thatat all times they must considerthe human rights of law break-ers to be their absolute priority.This is something which is con-stantly hammered home intraining and in briefing sessions.

‘Officers are even being advisedin some areas that they shouldsimply put up with peopleswearing at them, which com-

pletely undermines the author-ity the police once had. Carryingout an arrest is a long processwhich will often remove twoofficers for much of their shiftbecause of the need to completepaperwork quickly, making iteven harder to deal with massoutbreaks of disorder.’

Mr Davies voiced fears wide-spread among police that theywill be prosecuted by riotersand human rights activists forany overt display of force. ‘Anyofficer using any level of force todefend themselves from attackknows they can expect to be in-vestigated and possibly facedisciplinary action. When in-

stead of confronting rioters thepolice moved to a policy of con-tainment, referred to in thepress as ‘kettling’, they wereagain accused by MPs of breach-ing the human rights of rioters.

‘Virtually any action the policetake is likely to be jumped on bypoliticians and human rightscampaigners….Trying to po-lice a riot therefore means athin line of police officers con-fronted by a violent mob haveto try and identify individualsbreaking specific laws, then ar-rest them without causing in-jury to the lawbreaker or any-one else supporting them. It’san impossible task.’

Rail cop slams riot failure©

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Act of Kindnessas part of the art on the Underground project tfL

is running an exhibition of stories which tell of

the innumerable acts of kindness that play out

on the London Underground.

Passengers and staff are invited to send storiesin. These will be written up and displayed on theCentral Line. Artist Michael Landy will be doing theposter art work. Stories will be put up at stationsand on the actual trains themselves.

Landy is interested in small, fleeting exchangesof kindness as much as heroic acts. ‘Sometimes wetend to assume that you have to be superhumanto be kind, rather than just an ordinary person,’says Michael.

Says Tamsin Dillon, Head of Art on the Under-ground, ‘I’m sure Michael Landy’s Acts of Kindnesswill provoke a range of very interesting respons-es and I’m looking forward to seeing new storiesof kindness appearing on the Central line.

‘This project is Michael’s response to our invita-tion to make a new artwork for the Undergroundand his intelligent approach has led to a projectwith exciting potential in this challenging context.’

The first Central line stations to receive the Actsof Kindness stories include Holland Park, Holbornand Liverpool Street.

the Severn Valley Railway has

appointed nick Paul as chair-

man of its operating com-

pany, Severn Valley Railway

(holdings) plc.

Mr Paul has previously headedthe regional developmentagency Advantage West Mid-lands. The former chairman ofMG-Rover Taskforce succeedsMick York, who has been chair-man for the past nine years.

An SVR life member since 1997

and Holdings board membersince 2003, Mr Paul was nomi-nated by his predecessor andwon the unanimous vote of fel-low directors. The SVR has a newambitious three year businessplan. ‘I’m not a railway enthusi-ast in the traditional sense. Itend to look at the railway froma business perspective, but thisis evolution, not revolution,’ saysMr Paul who started visiting therailway many years ago with

his wife and children. He has also chaired the West

Midlands Confederation ofBritish Industry and for twoyears was chairman of MidlandExpressway Ltd which paid forand runs the 27-mile M6 tollroad. Nick Paul was awardedthe CBE for services to industryin the 2009 New Year Honours.Interests include rugby and he isa director of Worcester Warriorsrugby club.

New chairman for SVR

another show-stopping train

built at Litchurch Lane, Derby,

has arrived at Chiltern Railways.

The latest train to roll off Bom-bardier’s production line in Der-by has entered passenger serviceas part of a new British-builtfleet boosting service and comforton the route. The four Class 172two-car trains have been well

received by passengers and staffalike. More 172s are scheduled toenter service later this summeron London Midland. This willenable older diesel units to be re-placed in the West Midlands.

Currently the new trains,which are the cleanest dieseltrains in the country, run threetrips a day, but this will increase

once Chiltern’s new timetablecomes into force during Sep-tember. This coincides with theopening of a new through line atPrinces Risborough, allowingfast trains to overtake stoppingservices. Introduction of theClass 172s allows Chiltern tofree up capacity and strengthenbusy core services.

Litchurch flyer for Chiltern

bombardier transportation has

been celebrating the opening of

the extended first phase of the

Gautrain Rapid Rail Link in

Johannesburg, South africa.

The Gautrain project uses Elec-trostars made in Derby. SouthAfrica’s Social Economic Devel-opment (SED) programme re-quires Bombardier to meet var-ious obligations in terms of localemployment and procurementfor the duration of the contract.Bombardier achieved all of its

obligations. The Bombardier project team

comprised of around 80% SouthAfrican employees, with the re-maining 20% of internationalexperts participating in skillstransfer and capacity-buildingprogrammes.

As an example of how this pro-gramme worked, Bombardier ‘s fa-cility in Derby designed the Elec-trostar fleet of trains, however, 81of 96 vehicles were supplied in kitform for final assembly in South

Africa, with only the first 15 vehi-cles fully assembled in Bom-bardier’s Litchurch Lane, Derbymanufacturing site.

Says Jack van der Merwe, CEOof the Gautrain ManagementAgency, ‘It was, and still is apleasure doing business withBombardier. The gift they gaveto South Africa is the best look-ing train in the world. Theyshared our vision with regardsto the rolling stock and made ithappen.

Gautrain extensiongears up

Unipart Rail has appointed George tillier as

General Manager (t&RS) in Doncaster.

He will report directly into John Clayton, Uni-part Group Director. George has been with Uni-part Rail for over ten years as Sales and CustomerService Director and has developed strong rela-tions with train operators and other rail cus-tomers.

Mr Tillier has provided strategic direction in im-proving customer service through understandingtheir businesses as well as the complexities andchallenges faced in the rail supply chain.

The top team reorganisation sees RichardJackson appointed Commercial Director. Richardwas previously Head of Commercial Services. Is-abelle Lloyd has now stepped into George’s pre-vious role as Sales and Customer Service Direc-tor. Isabelle was previously Head of Business De-velopment (UK).

The new executive team reporting to Georgealso includes, Mike Roe, Engineering Director, PhilChilton, Procurement Director and Neil Tin-worth Business Development Director, Germanspeaking region (DACH).

This new structure will enable the Unipart RailTraction and Rolling Stock business to further im-prove service levels to customers and to grow thebusiness both in the UK and internationally.

Unipart Rail Traction and Rolling Stock (T&RS)in Doncaster is an operational subsidiary of Uni-part Rail.

Top TeamSuccess forUnipart Rail

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Philippe Citroën has been ap-

pointed as the new director-gen-

eral of UniFe, the association of

the european Rail industry.

A French national, Mr Citroënhas been chief executive of railengineering and consulting firmSystra for the past nine years.Michael Clausecker, current head,is stepping down after four years.

Previously Philippe Citroën wasstrategy director at SNCF (1999-2002), manager and chief of staffat RATP in Paris (1993-1999),

special adviser to the Frenchtransport minister (1990-1993),and based in Brussels as trans-port counsel at the French Per-manent Representation to theEU (1986-1990).

Philippe Citroën graduatedfrom the French School of Pub-lic Administration (ENA) in 1982and the Paris Institute of Politi-cal Studies in 1977. He has aMasters Degree in Public Law.UNIFE stands for Union des In-dustries Ferroviaires Eu-

ropéennes and in English is ren-dered: the Association of theEuropean Rail Industry.

Louise brooker-Carey has been

recruited as head of external

affairs at Crossrail.

The one time comms supremoat Tube Lines rejoins the rail in-dustry from the Chartered Man-agement Institute where shewas Director of Policy and Re-search (Interim). Louise will leadthe public affairs and externalcommunications effort at Cross-rail. She will report to newlyappointed chief executive An-drew Wolstenholme, who takes

over the top job in August. Terry Hill CBE, former Arup

Chairman also joins the Board -on 1 September 2011. Brooker-Carey faces a challenging as-signment at Crossrail. Althougha popular project Londoners areunderstandably concerned atdisruption to roads and rail-ways caused by the tunnelling asit progresses.

Louise can be expected to drawupon her experience as an In-ternal Communications Man-

ager at London Underground.She has a degree in AncientHistory and Archaeology fromBirmingham University.

RailStaff | August 2011 | 5PEOPLE MOVES

Presidential addressa former London transport ap-

prentice is the new president of

the Soe.

Garry Gilby became Presidentof the Society of Operations En-gineers (SOE) during the organ-isation’s AGM in July 2011. Suc-ceeding Fleet Engineer ChrisGrime, Garry delivered an in-spiring speech describing hisaim of increasing community li-aison, professional recognitionand education, whilst improvingmember services.

During his Presidential Ad-dress, Londoner Gilby outlinedhis vision for the Society, whichrepresents some 15,000 engi-neering professionals and or-ganisations in the road trans-port, plant and engineer sur-veying industries and incorpo-

rates the Professional Sectors,IRTE, IPlantE and BES.

Says Gilby, ‘I want to ensure allour work contributes to thecommunity, and that we areable to demonstrate and pro-mote the work of members,both nationally and interna-tionally. I want everyone to knowwho the SOE are, and what wedo. Maintaining our independ-ence and the promotion of ourmembers and engineering com-petence is the key to sharedsuccess.’

Garry began his career in thetransport industry in August1979, as an apprentice with Lon-don Transport. Following twelveyears in the sector, he made amove to the Underground,where he worked for over twen-

ty years. Mr Gilby thanked ChrisGrime for his dedicated service,and said, ‘We cannot help but beextremely proud of our mem-bers. By knowing our members,by working for them and cele-brating them, SOE will build areputation that is noticed byothers, and one that others willwant to be a part of.’

New PR chief for CrossrailDavid Franks has joined keolis

as managing director for new

Franchises.

Mr Franks will be based in Ke-olis UK’s London office and willreport directly to Alistair Gordon,Keolis UK chief executive. Keo-lis UK, majority owned by SNCF,has prequalified for the InterCi-ty West Coast Franchise, forwhich bidding is set to com-mence in early 2012.

David was recently CEO of theStockholm Metro in Swedenand served as managing direc-tor of the Trains Division at Na-tional Express. He started as ajunior railman, aged 16, at Sal-isbury station and worked hisway up gaining valuable experi-ence around the London TravelCentres. Later he passed theRules and Regulations classesand was student of the year.

After a spell in line traffic man-agement and a three year stintas Area Operations Manager atGloucester he was promoted toa divisional directorship at Net-work South East. After privati-sation and a failed MBO at Lon-don Tilbury and Southend (nowc2c) he became divisional oper-ations manager for ThamesTrains. He has worked as man-aging director of First NorthWestern and then Southern.

At the National Express Grouphe was initially divisional direc-tor north looking after ScotRail,Central Trains, MML and Main-train. Then came the NEG Trains

Division managing directorship.A coarse fishing enthusiast DavidFranks is a big supporter of Rail-Sport Games and regularly at-tends the RailStaff Awards. SaysAlistair Gordon, chief executive ofKeolis UK, ‘David’s appointmentunderlines our commitment tothe future of the UK rail industry.His proven track record of successadds real weight to our industryexpertise and opens up excitingnew opportunities for us in fran-chise operations.’

As the current chair of the In-stitution of Rail Operators (IRO)and ex-chair of the industry’sNational Performance TaskForce, David brings with himextensive industry operationsand management experience.Says David, ‘Keolis has consid-erable ambition for UK rail, mak-ing this a very exciting move forme. I enjoy the challenges of rail-way operations and relish theopportunity of building excel-lence in teams. I look forward tothe new opportunities that thisrole will bring.’

David Franks joins Keolis

Peter Strachan has been ap-

pointed by the Dft to a new

role overseeing major transport

projects.

The one time head of Walesand Borders has been working inAustralia and is currently CEO ofTranslink, the transport author-ity for Brisbane and South East

Queensland. Mr Strachan takesup his new job in October.

He will have responsibility forall major road and rail projectsacross the UK, and for publictransport in London. Prior tojoining TransLink in March 2009,Strachan held senior manage-ment and leadership positions

in Network Rail, Arriva, Nation-al Express and FirstGroup. Hewas also a non-executive di-rector on the Board of TransportInitiatives Edinburgh. He hasover 23 years experience in therail industry, having started hiscareer as a graduate traineewith British Rail.

Strachan returnsfor Olympic Effort

Citroën for rail body


the tSSa and RMt unions

have started talks which could

ultimately lead to a merger of

the two unions.

Initial discussions will focus oncloser working between bothunions initially through a fed-eration structure with a view tomoving towards a merger. Bothunions also agreed that the doorwill remain open for othersmaller specialist unions intransport who may be thinkingalong similar lines to join thediscussions at a future date.

Says TSSA General SecretaryGerry Doherty, ‘Today’s decision

will hopefully be the start of aprocess designed to serve the in-terests of future generations oftransport and travel trade work-ers. We owe an obligation to ourchildren and our children’s chil-dren to leave better organisa-tions that protect workers inthe very uncertain future thatthey currently face.’

RMT, General Secretary BobCrow welcomed the move. ‘Thesetalks will bring together twounions each with over a hundredyears of specialising in the trans-port industry in the interests ofworkers,’ said Bob Crow.

Union merger

Leading communications com-

pany, telent, has agreed a deal

to acquire amey’s 40% share in

the enhance joint venture,

which delivers communica-

tions maintenance and up-

grade services to tube Lines on

the London Underground’s Ju-

bilee, northern and Piccadilly

lines.

The purchase means that telent

will become the sole serviceprovider for the remainder ofthe 13-year Whole Life Commu-

nications and SCADA Pro-gramme awarded by Tube Linesin 2005.

Says telent CEO, Mark Plato,‘Today’s announcement is inline with telent’s strategy togrow its presence in the Rail sec-tor and strengthen its position inthe metropolitan/light rail mar-ket. Acquiring the remainingshare in Enhance consolidatestelent’s position as UK marketleader for the maintenance ofrail communication systems.’

Britain’sgot telent

even the local football club has come down

on the side of railway workers at Litchurch

Lane in Derby - threatened with closure

when the thameslink train building con-

tract was batted oversees to Siemens in

Germany.

Derby County players sported ‘Save Our RailIndustry’ shirts and children of Bombardierworkers were special guests at the matchagainst Birmingham. Says Derby County bossNigel Clough, ‘We support the campaign tomake the Government think again. Thecontract won’t be signed off until the end ofthe year, so there is still time to make achange. I hope common sense prevails.’

Over 6000 people gathered in Derby tomarch in support of the threatened railwayworks - the last train builders in Britain. Man-agers, trade unionists, eurosceptics andrailway staff joined together to marchthrough the streets in a strong show of sup-port. Bombardier’s UK chairman, Colin Wal-ton, spoke at the event urging a rethink.

Local MP Margaret Beckett said, ‘Blame usfor the tender process. Then (let the gov-ernment) take the credit for changing itsmind. I don’t care. Just do the right thing.’ Al-though David Cameron and the coalitiongovernment have said they cannot changethe outcome of the tender process railwaystaff and supporters remain unconvinced.

Says RMT General Secretary Bob Crow‘The campaign to save Bombardier is gath-ering momentum by the day and if the Gov-ernment thought we would go away quiet-ly then they seriously underestimated ourdetermination to get this bad decision over-turned. We welcome the fantastic support ofNigel Clough and Derby County which givesthe campaign a massive boost. The fight tosave Bombardier and train building in the UKis well and truly on.’

Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey isalso right behind the protests. ‘The people ofDerby have good reason to be proud oftheir football club and of their city for the

huge support they have shown for theworkers at Bombardier. Their stadium de-serves its name Pride Park. This is a greatfootball club supporting a vital local em-ployer. There is an overwhelming sense ofoutrage at the government’s decision toturn its back on Britain’s last train maker.

‘David Cameron is doing a disservice to aworld class workforce, to Derby and to the fu-ture of train making in this country. It’s timethe Government stopped scoring own goalsand backed UK workers.’

In June, the government announced thatthe consortium led by Siemens had beatenBombardier Transportation’s consortium tobe the preferred bidder to build the 1,200 newcarriage contract on the Thameslink route.Bombardier remains the reserve bidder forthe contract. As a result 1,400 workers faceredundancy and the future of Bombardier,the UK’s last train maker is at risk along witha total of 3000 jobs and many more in thesupply chain.

March unites industry

Even the local football team is backing Litchurch Lane.

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Martin Staehr has been

named Laing o’Rourke’s

Graduate of the year.

Martin heads a strong field,part of the 2008 intake. ‘The winwas genuinely unexpected; Iwas up against some top classcompetition. I’ll make the mostof the opportunities that this ex-posure may bring. My focus isstill on learning. I don’t believethere are any other contractorsthat invest as much in theirpeople,’ says Martin whose fa-ther, rail legend, Per Staehr, waschief executive of BombardierTransportation and chairman ofthe Rail Media Group.

Martin, a Select Site Solutionsengineer, battled it out with 11other finalists from the 2008Graduate Development Pro-gramme (GDP), tasked with de-veloping an implementationstrategy to ‘challenge andchange’ the construction in-dustry. Contestants had to pres-ent their thoughts to a panel ofsenior business leaders.

Martin’s proposal was to cre-ate a suite of client supportmaterials for readily designedbuildings, in line with currentchanges in the education,health and data security mar-kets. Laing O’Rourke graduateswork through a flexible devel-opment programme lasting be-tween two and four years, de-pending on the speed ofprogress. This flexibility en-sures the professionals of thefuture are challenged, stretchedand supported as they becomequalified to deliver world-classprojects. Laing O’Rourke is in-volved with the railways acrossthe world with interests in Eu-rope, Australia and Hong Kong.

Martin Staehr was presentedwith his award by commercialdirector Anna Stewart (picturedright) at a ceremony celebratingall 77 of the 2008 intake. GivingMartin a close run for his mon-ey were runners-up AdamSlaughter from ConstructionNorth, and Expanded Piling’s

Annabel Windsor Medley. Says Tom O’Connor, manag-

ing director Rail Media group,‘The Staehr family has been agreat supporter of the rail in-

dustry for many years nowand we are delighted Martinhas done so well. We wish bothhim and all the class of ‘08every success in the future.’

Staehr-way to heaven


the new Pendolino 390054 entered service

on Saturday 16th July 2011 travelling from

Longsight depot in Manchester at 0622.

Its first working was 1A09, the 7:15 Man-chester-Euston service. A deal struck be-tween Virgin Trains and the DfT will see the439-seat train bolstering services on theWest Coast Main Line. 390054 means extraseats on the busy Birmingham-Scotlandand London-Glasgow routes, which haveseen growth of more than 30% in the lasttwo years.

Says Paul Robinson, Managing Director ofAlstom Transport UK, which supplies thetrain, ‘Thanks to our teams in the UK andItaly and close cooperation with our cus-tomers, we are able to deliver this train forpassenger service ahead of the originalschedule - a great achievement.’

This train is part of the Pendolino exten-sion programme to deliver four new 11-car

Pendolino trains to augment the current fleetoperating on the West Coast Main Line. It willenter service initially as a nine-carriage set.As well as supplying these new trains, Al-

stom will lengthen 31 of the 52 existing trainsoperating on the West Coast Main Linefrom nine to eleven cars by the end of 2012,providing over 7,000 extra seats in all.

Green flag for new Pendolino

Using foreign made trams

presents unique challenges to

drivers and passengers in

Manchester.

When the back door of a tramin Manchester stuck open, thedriver urged all passengers tocongregate on one side of the ve-hicle. Moving weight away fromthe doors might help them slideshut. Trams will not move whilst

the doors are open. Nothing happened and the

driver then asked passengers tojump up and down. Undauntedintrepid Mancunians rose to thechallenge with customaryaplomb. Tram chiefs praised thedriver for using his initiativeand getting the Altrincham serv-ice moving. The tram was builtin Italy 20 years ago by Ansaldo.

Jump Start

after over 37 years in the railway industry, Mike hodson, manag-

ing director of London Midland, has decided to retire at the end of

the year.

Says Mike, who joined the railway as a BR graduate trainee in 1974,‘It has been a truly interesting and challenging career, but after over37 years in the industry, I feel that now is the right time to retire.

‘The rail industry has some big challenges ahead, but I know thatthe people who keep the industry going day after day are more thanup to meeting them.’

Hodson’s Choice

Supporters of the Gloucester-

shire and warwickshire Steam

Railway, part of which was lost

in a dramatic landslip earlier

this year, have been rallying

round to help raise funds.

Train excursion company,Pathfinder Tours, based in Wood-chester Stroud, presented £2,500to GWR Winchcombe station.This sum had been raisedthrough raffles held on trainexcursions run by Pathfinder

Tours between February andJune this year.

Says Alan Bielby of GWR,‘While we have made significantprogress towards our target of£1m to repair the embankmentsat Gotherington (now complete)and more recently at ChickenCurve, we still have a long way togo and the amazing £2500 thatPathfinder’s customers have sogenerously given will take us astep closer to that goal.’

GWR supportersrally round

Rail chiefs have launched a new campaign

calling on the public to take a stand against

cable theft which causes delays to thou-

sands of rail passengers every week.

Says British Transport Police Assistant ChiefConstable Alan Pacey, ‘Metal and cable theftis one of the biggest challenges we face. In atime of falling crime figures, metal theft hasrisen by more than 70 per cent during the pastyear and, as a result, has had an enormousimpact on the rail passengers across the UK.This is not a crime which solely impacts onNetwork Rail or the operators, as the thieveswould have us believe. It represents a directattack on people and communities who relyon rail travel to go about their daily business.

‘This has to stop. BTP officers, together withcolleagues from the rail industry, have workedclosely with scrap metal dealers in a bid tostop thieves being able to sell on the stolenmetal and this work will continue as we aimto make life more and more difficult for crim-inals. But, as we jointly launch the newcampaign, we are also calling on local peopleand communities to take an active standagainst this crime and pass any informationabout related criminal behaviour to police.’

Dyan Crowther, director of operations forNetwork Rail, is right behind the campaign,‘It is vital that we work together to tackle theissue of metal theft which is blighting ourrailway and our communities. The financialcosts are substantial but wider social andeconomic disruption cannot continue.

‘In the first three months of this financialyear we have seen nearly 300 crimes whichcaused nearly 2,000 hours of delay to pas-sengers and cost £4.3m in compensationcosts alone. This campaign is just part of amuch wider programme which seeks to bet-ter protect our cables, get trains on the movemore quickly when a theft does occur and– crucially – supporting British Transport Po-lice with the detection and prosecution of thepeople who steal from our railway.’

The problem has attracted the attention ofministers. Says transport minister, NormanBaker, ‘It is essential we get to grips with thisproblem because cable thefts are becomingmore and more numerous and audacious –for example, gangs of thieves have evendressed up as official workers to get accessto sites so they can steal cable and equip-

ment. We also had a situation in June thisyear where thieves stole cabling during therush hour, knocking out power on vastswathes of the network and causing thou-sands of passengers to be stranded in theirtrains for hours on end.

‘Stealing railway cable is selfish and dan-

gerous. It disrupts passengers’ journeysand costs the rail industry millions ofpounds each year. We take metal theft veryseriously. I will be meeting Ministerial col-leagues soon to discuss the issue. I strong-ly support Network Rail and the BritishTransport Police in tackling these crimes.’

Cable appeal to Public

Rail supporters in the north of

Scotland are helping whisky

distilleries put more of the

water of life on the metals.

77 of Scotland’s 99 maltwhisky distilleries are locatedin the highlands and much ofthe traffic is moved by road.Whisky makes a major contri-

bution of £2.7 billion to Scot-land’s economy. 35,000 peoplework in the industry.

However whisky chefs areconcerned that green restric-tions on carbon use could im-pact their ability to producemore whisky jobs. Hitrans,Highland rail development of-

ficer, Frank Roach, is helpingdistilleries plan the switch torail. The Scotch Whisky Asso-ciation is supportive of themove. Says Frank, ‘Althoughit’s been spoken about in thepast, this is the first step to-wards making somethinghappen.’

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RailStaff-August-2011.indd 1 08/08/2011 16:17

Station hero honoureda station manager at Durham has been praised

for his quick thinking rescue of a woman from

the railway line.

Dennis Middleton, who works for East Coast, sawthe woman jump over glass fencing on the stationplatform. She then climbed onto the track to standin the path of an oncoming train. Acting with com-mendable speed Mr Middleton snatched thewoman out of the path of an oncoming train. Trainspass the station at up to 90 miles per hour.

Mr Middleton brought the woman back to theplatform as staff called the police. The quick-think-ing Station Manager also prevented two further at-tempts by the woman to harm herself before thepolice arrived. The woman was later sectioned un-der the Mental Health Act. Mr Middleton has re-ceived the Area Commander’s Commendationfrom the British Transport Police.

Says East Coast Head of Stations Tom Hanham,‘Dennis’s quick actions undoubtedly saved a lifeand he fully deserves this commendation. Non-stop trains pass through Durham station at highspeed and in this situation, Dennis had only a mat-ter of seconds in which to think, then act. He fol-lowed well established railway safety procedures,and his exemplary actions prevented a tragedy.’

Dennis was presented with his commendationby British Transport Police Area Commander,Chief Superintendant Terry Nicholson (picturedleft). Dennis Middelton is from Durham and hasworked at the station for the last seven years. ‘I’mvery humbled. I’m a little bit embarrassed. I was-n’t expecting it. We all pulled together as a team.It’s something you do as part of our job - try to lookafter our passengers. It happened in a split second.The woman was obviously very distressed and up-set. My team was really on the ball.’

Renewing three bridges is all

part of network Rail’s summer

time preparations for the elec-

trification of the railway be-

tween Manchester Victoria and

Liverpool Lime Street.

A £3m investment has seenthree bridges rebuilt between Ec-cles and Patricroft stations. Al-bert Street bridge has reopened

after a 20 week closure, with OldWellington Road and Chadwick’sfootbridge expected to reopensoon. This marks the completionof early work to modify keystructures along the railway inthe Salford area before over-head power cables are installednext year.

Says Jo Kaye, Network Rail’s

route director, ‘Electrificationpresents a huge opportunityand is vital for Britain’s long-term, low-carbon economicgrowth. The opening of AlbertStreet bridge marks the firstmajor step in a programme ofwork that will improve rail linksacross the north west, betterconnecting our towns and cities.’

Triple bridge triumph

Stobart Rail has gained valuable experience after

completing a sensitive refurbishment of Foxfield

Viaduct on the Carnforth - whitehaven line.

The railway crosses the Duddon Estuary using thefive-span viaduct. Detailed examinations found thepresent construction to be in a ‘fair condition’ over-all. However engineers decided to carry out re-furbishment works which included waterproofingthe existing deck which will increase the lifetimeof the structure by some 20 years.

The job at Foxfield included removal of track, ex-cavation of ballast and the installation of a looselaid waterproofing system over the viaduct struc-ture. New ballast was laid and compacted beforereplacing the old track with CEN56 rail and steelsleepers.

Foxfield is part of a Site of Special Scientific In-terest, the dreaded SSSI. The survey area was thor-oughly searched for evidence of badgers, watervoles, otters, great crested newts and bats. Ac-

cording to historic records the SSSI was once hometo colonies of natter jack toads, adders, lizards andslow worms. A rigorous physical survey did not findany on site.

Mitigation measures included any vegetationworks being carried out outside of bird nesting sea-son. All Stobart Rail staff were briefed on the po-tential presence of reptiles and how to identifythem and how to carefully move to a place ofrefuge outside the work area. Environmentalbriefings were conducted on site.

Stobart Rail utilised its own fleet of specialist RoadRail Plant with trailers and spoil boxes to assist inthe delivery of the works which included the Col-mar T 10000 FS and various lifting attachments. Theproject was completed on time, safely, without in-cident and achieved all desired targets. NetworkRail has also awarded Stobart Rail a further twoviaduct refurbishment schemes on bridges span-ning the M6 at Knutsford and Sandbach.

Stobart Rail refurbishesFoxfield Viaduct

© thiRtyFootSCRew

the Rail alliance is pleased to announce

that the preparations for MacroRail 2011

are well advanced with 60+ companies ex-

pressing interest in taking space at this

unique event.

Upwards of 50 of those companies have ei-ther visited the event location (Long MarstonBusiness Park near Stratford-on-Avon, War-wickshire CV37 8QR), or have e-mailed intheir requirements and space has been al-located for them and this number is in-creasing by 2 or 3 companies each day – awinning formula indeed!

So what is MacroRail? MacroRail started out as one of those ‘why

don’t we’ sort of ideas during one of the RailAlliance’s brainstorming moments. Indeed,the Rail Alliance saw it as a larger version ofthe very successful MicroRail concept which,last year in March, saw a group of 15 rail com-panies co-exhibiting on a ‘value for money’basis in Central Hall, Westminster, London.

At that time, MicroRail was put forwardas an antidote to large expensive exhibi-tions where the footfall could not be guar-anteed to be interested in what you – theexhibitor – had on display.

Whilst large exhibitions have their place inthe annual calendar of events - so too is therea need for a series of more focused eventswhere the cost is kept to a minimum. Moreimportantly, using this formula, the ex-hibitors have more control over influencingwho visits the exhibition and therefore in-creasing or optimising the value derived fromthem.

Free to members serviceFor 2011, the Rail Alliance is staging Macro-

Rail 2011 at its home HQ location in the LongMarston Business Park on 16 September. TheRail Alliance will be absorbing the cost of stag-ing the events to ensure that its members canget the best possible value from the event.

The basic offer for MacroRail 2011 is a free-to-members service and is but one of themany benefits of Rail Alliance membership.The Rail Alliance mantra of Network, Col-laborate, Innovate and Thrive is much in ev-idence with competitors happily takingspace at the same exhibition and severalmembers collaborating to show a systems-based approach to exhibiting products.

Members exhibiting include the following:component manufacturers and re-sellers:

• fabricators(including lightweight structures andaluminium extrusions)

• management consultancies • training and knowledge

management/business transformationproviders

• mechanical and systems engineers • rolling stock engineering consultancies • communications, switches and routers • anti-pollutant experts • flexible conduit manufacturers • lighting, welding and generator suppliers • non-destructive testing providers • track, switches and crossings suppliers • drainage, survey and mapping experts • suppliers of DMU spares, safety switches,

sensors and enclosures… and the list goes on!

Those wishing to visit MacroRail 2011 areasked to register their intention [email protected] or contact the Rail Al-liance Office Manager, Rhona Clarke, on01789 720 026. For more information see:www.railalliance.co.uk/macrorail2011

Companies looking to exhibit at MacroRail2011 are advised to contact Rhona Clarke (de-tails above) as soon as possible as standspace is disappearing quickly. Full or affili-ate membership of the Rail Alliance is a pre-requisite for being allocated stand space atMacroRail 2011.

However, membership applications can becompleted by e-mail or over the ’phone in amatter of minutes!).


Latest Members

Join the Rail Alliance now

Rail Alliance membership starts

from just £500 per year

log on to www.railalliance.co.uk

email [email protected]

or call 01789 720026.

EVENTSMacroRail Exhibition

16th Sept - Location... Long Marston

70th Anniversary Charity Open Weekend

17th-18th Sept - Location... Long Marston

TransRussia 2012 Focus Meeting

16th Sept - Location... Long Marston

Members’ Meeting & Networking

27th Sept - Location... York tbc

Members’ Meeting & Networking

12th Oct - Location... Severn Valley Railway

Seminar: ‘Gaining Traction in Energy Efficiency’

6th Oct - Location... IMechE, London

Members’ Meeting & Networking Event

12th Oct - Location... Severn Valley Railway, Kidderminster

Trako 2011, 9th International Trade Show

11th-14th Oct - Location... Gdansk, Poland

The Infrastructure Show 2011

17th-19th October - Location... NEC Birmingham

RailStaff Awards 2011

29th Oct - Location... ICC Birmingham

Rail Interiors Expo 2011

15th-17th November - Location... Cologne, Germany

AusRail 2011

22nd-24th November - Location... Brisbane, Australia


Nov tbc - Location... London tbc


6th Dec tbc - Location... tbc

UKTI/Rail Alliance NW Regional Rail Briefing Event

27th Jan tbc - Location... Crewe tbc


Feb tbc - Location... TRaC Global, Skelmersdale - tbc

Infrarail 2012

1st-3rd May - Location... NEC, Birmingham

InnoTrans 2012

18th-21st Sept - Location... Berlin, Germany

All ahead for MacroRailin September 2011

well the team at Motorail (Uk)

certainly think so, and looking

at the performance of their new

machine in recent trials they

may well be right.

The RRV is based on the glob-ally successful JCB Fastrac and isthe result of an innovative part-nership between JCB and UCA, aBelgian company who are Euro-pean leaders in this field. Mo-torail are the UK and Irelandagents and have been working

with both parties to developand refine the model.

Says Ruth Dunmore (CEO Mo-torail), “we are really excited bythe vehicle. It can pull with easeloads of up to 2400 tons, and itsfuel consumption is less than 8litres per hour on average.

‘It enjoys all the benefits of be-ing a JCB with 24/7 parts avail-ability and very low mainte-nance requirements. It is pricedat less than a third of the cost of

a conventional industrial loco-motive and yet out-performsthem in every dimension.

‘Quite simply it is difficult to seea down side to this machine. Ithas a fantastic pedigree throughboth JCB and UCA; it’s very safeand easy to use and its reliabili-ty and economy are outstanding.

Furthermore, it is priced verycompetitively and it gives anoperator huge logistic efficienciesthrough the ability to move it

with ease around locations. Wehave had it inspected andcleared for use by Network Raiand can unequivically confirmthat it really is the way forward”.

There was a lot of interest atRailtex earlier in the year andMotorail will be demonstratingthe machine’s capabilities atMacroRail at Long Marston on16th September.

For more details contact Ruth:[email protected]

The end of the road for theconventional industrial locomotive?

Matchtech

(Provider of Permanent and Contract RecruitmentSolutions to the Rail Industry)www.matchtech.com

Kelvatek

(Supplier of Protection Relays for Signalling Power and Fault Finding Equipment for LV Networks)www.kelvatek.com

MTM Power GmbH

(Worldwide Manufacturer of Power Conversion Products Especially Designed for Vehicle and Railway Applications – Based in Germany) www.mtm-power.com

Achilles Information LtdAdaptaflexAdvanced Composites GroupApplied InspectionArc Gen HiltaAutodrain LtdAvdel UK LtdBCRREBelvoir Engineering ServicesBernstein LtdBirley Manufacturing LtdBratts LaddersBridge Rail LtdD’Accord Management ServicesDytecnaEglin Concourse InternationalEssempyEurostar

Excalibur ScrewboltsFirst ComponentsFlexiconFoconGlobal KeyGreenmechHall RailHarmon GroupiLecsysIndependent GlassInstitute of Metal FinishingISC Best PracticeJake ServicesKaba Ltd

KMandTKorecLindhurst Engineering LtdMAN GroupMartin Axford PhotographyMAS - WMMcGeoch LED TechnologyMIRANovo GrafPathfinder Rail SecurityPestokill LtdPowerbox GroupRail Media GroupRailway Benefit Fund

Resource Engineering ProjectsRockwell AutomationRS ComponentsSapa ProfilesSavigny OddieSCG SolutionsSouthco Manufacturing LtdStewart WitteringTappex GroupTQ CatalisTrans-TronicTRB Lightweight StructuresVisul SystemsW H TildesleyWaterflowWestermo Data Communica-tions LtdWorlifts Ltd

Companies declaring an interestin exhibiting at MicroRail 2011


Cwmbran man foils suicidea machine driver in South wales has been

recommended for an award by colleagues

for his role in saving a would-be suicide.

Terry Batchelor, who works from the Quat-tro Group’s Cwmbran depot, had just com-pleted a delivery of materials to Network Railengineers on track between Barry andRhoose stations when, on his way back to theaccess point, he saw the woman sitting onthe high wall of the Porthkerry Viaduct.

Says Terry, ‘When the headlights highlight-ed someone sitting on the wall of the viaduct,I thought it was a bit strange so I stopped thevehicle and asked my machine controllerDavid Davis to get out and see if he could findout what was going on. After a few minutes Icould see that he hadn’t been able to makemuch headway, so I went over myself.’

Terry realised the woman sitting on thewall was very upset and had clearly beendrinking. After a few more minutes of tryingto talk the woman down, Mr Batchelor at lastwas able to provoke a response. ‘She told meshe really wanted a cigarette,’ he said. ‘I toldher I was happy to give her one of mine, butthat she would have to climb down from thewall as I am scared of heights and couldn’tclimb up to her.

‘It was the only thing I could think of to sayto get her down, and it worked, as shecame down from the wall and allowed us tolead her over to the trailer.’ Mr Batchelor andMr Davis were then able to settle her on theback of the trailer, at which point he at-tempted to contact the emergency servicesbut was unable to make contact due to badtelephone reception. It was then that he

made the decision to remove the womanfrom the scene and attempt to get help fur-ther down the track.

‘I know it is against safety procedures todrive with anyone on the back of the trail-er, but in the circumstances my only prior-ity was to get her to safety,’ he said. ‘I left hersitting on the back with David and very slow-ly drove to the access point where I was ableto get help.’

Local police later revealed that the womanwas in fact a registered missing person, andthat a large search and rescue team had beencombing the area looking for her. A policehelicopter had been employed to try and lo-cate her, as well as the Railway Police being

notified that there was potentially a suicidalperson on the track.

‘We had noticed the helicopter, but had pre-sumed that it was something to do with thenearby Cardiff Airport, admits Mr Batchelor.‘I’m just happy that we were able to help withthe rescue and that she was ok.’

The Quattro Group Managing DirectorJohn Murphy said, ‘We are all very proud ofthe initiative and compassion displayed insuch difficult circumstances. With this inmind, we have decided to nominate TerryBatchelor for Rail Infrastructure Person of theYear at this year’s RailStaff Awards - a wor-thy nomination for someone who trulywent above and beyond the call of duty.’

MP tacklesbad behaviourCathy Jamieson, MP for kil-

marnock and Loudoun, in

ayrshire has been out on pa-

trol with the british transport

Police.

Mrs Jamieson travelled fromKilmarnock to Glasgow Centraland returned later in the evening.She watched as rail cops helpedrailway staff get three faredodgers to pay up. Passengerscomplained of bad behaviouron the trains late at night.

Says Chief Superintendent El-lie Bird, BTP, ‘Any form of anti-social behaviour or criminalityon our trains is unacceptableand remains a priority for BTP.This initiative was an ideal op-portunity for Mrs Jamieson, asthe local Member of Parliament,to see for herself the work of our

officers and how they tackleany issues.

Mrs Jamieson said, ‘I waspleased to accompany BTP offi-cers on patrol on the train fromKilmarnock to Glasgow andback. This gave (me) an oppor-tunity to speak to passengerswho are regular travellers, andhear their experience of disorderon the trains.

‘While most passengers whotravel earlier in the evening wererelatively satisfied, it was clearthat a number had concernsabout drunkenness and disorderon the later trains. People shouldbe able to travel without fear ofintimidation or abuse from fel-low passengers, and it is reas-suring to know that BTP is tak-ing these concerns seriously.’

IRO man praisesgrandfather’s example

Vital wins Undergroundstaff supply contractVital Rail has won a major con-

tract with tfL-owned tube

Lines Limited for the provision

of labour to support track main-

tenance and upgrade works.

The contract involves the pro-vision of skilled track staff re-quired to carry out the mainte-nance and upgrade of the per-manent way track assets on theJubilee, Northern and Piccadillylines, and part of the Metropol-itan Line of the London Under-ground. The maintenance andupgrade of these assets is the re-sponsibility of Tube Lines Ltd.

The works are split into twomain streams, MaintenanceWorks and Capital ProjectWorks, including track recondi-tioning, pit block replacement,track refurbishment in tunnelsand open sections, conductorrail replacement, points andcrossings, enhanced track re-newals, life extension works,rolling vehicle access require-ments and train arrestors.

The award of this contract ex-tends the long-term successfulworking relationship betweenVital Rail and Tube Lines Ltd.

Says Paul Crompton, Vital Rail’sRegional Director (South), ‘I amdelighted with the contractaward. It continues the rela-tionship which we have built upwith Tube Lines over the pastfive or six years, and we hope tocontinue to support them inthe future.’

Vital Rail, part of the Manches-ter-based Vital Services Group, isa major support services provider,completing enhancement, re-newal and maintenance proj-ects for the Rail, Light Rail andUnderground sectors.

iRo member Jonathan wilcox, 22, is building a

career in the rail industry and it’s all down to the

inspiration of his grandfather, Don wilcox, rail

volunteer and enthusiast.

Mr Wilcox was a founder member and later com-mercial director of the Severn Valley Railway. Heencouraged Jonathan’s early passion for railways.‘Through my grandfather I’ve been surrounded byrailway people from a very young age. It’s in myblood and it was always a foregone conclusion Iwould go into this industry.’

Jonathan joined the IRO as a student memberwhile reading for a BSc in Transport Managementat Aston University in Birmingham. Now, becausehis employer London Midland is a corporate IROmember, Jonathan enjoys free affiliate IROmembership.

‘That’s certainly a major benefit but I wouldcertainly still be an IRO member even withoutthat perk,’ says Jonathan who first joined Lon-don Midland as a Safety Data Analyst in Sep-tember last year soon after graduating. Howev-er, because he had held a part-time job withinthe rail industry while still a student and ac-quired a wide knowledge and experience of rail-way operations, within three weeks he was sec-onded as an Operations Data Analyst in theSafety & Standards Department. The post hassince become permanent.

As well as gaining hands-on experience in thestudent job, with the Performance Departmentof Chiltern Railways, Jonathan discovered theIRO. ‘Most, if not all, of my colleagues were mem-

bers. They were vocal about the benefits of be-ing a member of the Institution; not just aboutthe events and Bulletin but the opportunities fornetworking as well as the advantage of beingable to put IRO member on the CV. It looks verygood.’

Jonathan also demonstrated an emerging apti-tude for railway operations. As a result he was se-lected, at the age of just 19, for the team puttingtogether DB Regio’s successful bid for Tyne andWear Metro.

While at Chiltern Jonathan also undertookwork for open access operator Wrexham andShropshire, a Chiltern subsidiary. ‘Having a joblike that while still a full-time student put me ina bizarre situation; sitting exams at the univer-sity in Birmingham during the morning and thentravelling to London for business meetings in theafternoon.’

During his final university year Jonathan sensiblyput his budding professional career aside in orderto complete his course and obtain his degree. In timeJonathan plans to take full advantage of the IRO Per-sonal Development Programme, first going for theIRO Diploma and then a second BSc, this time in Rail-way Operations Management.

© b

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12 | RailStaff | August 2011 RAILSTAFF AWARDS 2011

this year marks the fifth RailStaff

awards - the only event of its kind

which brings the whole industry to-

gether to celebrate the heroism and

professionalism of the men and

women who deliver the railway round

the clock, day and night.

This is the event for the guy checkingtickets on the Underground, the ladycleaning trains at a depot in Edin-burgh, the track worker workingthrough the night in Stockport. Almosteveryone has amazing tales to tell onthe railway. Few win the recognitionthey deserve.

Self adulationMost business awards schemes in in-

dustry quite rightly draw attention to theachievements of a company or organi-sation. Entrepreneurs, inventors andsales people are justly praised for theirefforts. Showbiz self adulation amongstthe glitterati has inspired a resolveamong commercial companies to cele-brate their own efforts.

The RailStaff Awards takes this a stepfurther. Who is more important in yourlife? A rock star or an emergencyplumber? A disc jockey or the teacherwho taught you to read and write?

Who are you more grateful for, the filmdirector you so admired last night or thefriend long ago who threw a party onenight at which you met your life partner?Isn’t there something inverted in our val-ues when we honour a movie actor,however talented, instead of the casu-alty physician who saves your life?

ordinary railway staffBusiness leaders have picked this up

and thrown extravagant events hon-ouring commercial and economic in-genuity. All power to their elbows. Nev-

er have we had greater need of the serv-ices of risk taking, inspired, entrepre-neurs. However in our industry wehave long over looked the heroism andcourage of the men and women whocrew our trains, maintain track andstructures and look after thousands ofpeople in safety every day.

No other industry has quite thesame degree of staff-to-consumer

contact. The role of railway staff is thusdoubly vital. Also overlooked are thoserailway staff who invest whole careersin the industry, some joining as ap-prentices and graduate trainees andmany more working their way upthrough the ranks.

This really is an industry where youcan go right to the top. It is also an in-dustry with a tremendous and ex-

panding future. Britain needs morerailways and more trains and thousandsof skilled professionals to build and op-erate them. It is in all our interests to ho-nour the ingenuity and selfless hardwork of the ordinary railway staff.

endorsementWe want to encourage more people

than ever to send in nominations for

friends and colleagues they think de-serve a little more recognition. Peoplewho do not normally write 1,000 wordarticles might feel they are at a dis-advantage. This is not so. The judgesare looking for genuine endorsementand quite often this shines throughmuch clearer in a simple from-the-heart letter.

Real heroesThe more information you can give us

the better. Before you write out the nom-ination start by making a list of all thethings that the person you are nomi-nating has accomplished. List the spe-cific incident or actions taken. Describethe nominee by adding in stories andanecdotes that show her character.Then list a brief biography of where hehas worked, plus details of family andfriends.

Get comments from friends and col-leagues and people from outside the in-dustry – third party endorsement worksa treat. Take as long as you need to. Donot worry about the actual business ofwriting. Modern spell checkers and thehelp of an in-house manager or secre-tary can take the sting out of writing.Just look at the clichés in this piecewhich were left in deliberately. Writingcan be as easy as falling off a log!

Whether Seal’s song, ‘Everyone saysyou’re amazing,’ refers to beating drugaddiction or as some claim is a songabout running, the message is clear. Thereal heroes in life are all around us – thegirl on the next desk to yours, the guybooking on as you leave. Send yournominations in. Make them as long anddetailed as you can. The thinking behindthe RailStaff Awards is best summed upby Seal again, ‘I want you to always feelyou’re amazing…’

Presenting the prizes at this

year’s RailStaff awards is

Colin Flack, chief executive of

the Rail alliance.

The one time army colonelnow heads one of the fastestgrowing industrial organisa-tions in Britain as well as run-ning his own modest, but suc-cessful, rolling stock storageand maintenance business atLong Marston.

The Rail Alliance specialisesin bringing together suppliersand customers wanting towork within and across therail sector.

Colin is expected to arrive atthe Awards evening ‘fresh’ fromcompleting his major fundrais-ing 1,000 mile triathlon ‘The Ul-timate 3’ for the Railway Chil-dren charity.

business generatingdynamos

Says Tom O’Connor, manag-ing director of the Rail MediaGroup, which is hosting theAwards, ‘It is great to welcomesomeone who has won over somany people and companies to

the cause of railways. ColinFlack and the Rail Alliance aredoing valuable work for theindustry, giving it a loud voiceand a longer reach.’

Business generating dynamoslike the Rail Alliance work forthe good of all. Colin remainsfirmly committed to railwaystaff and our charity of choice,The Railway Children. We wishhim well on the ‘Ultimate 3’and look forward - with sometrepidation - to his safe arrivalin Birmingham on the 29thOctober.’

avid sportsmanDrawing on his experience as

a marathon runner, Colin is cy-cling from Land’s End to JohnO’Groats, canoeing down threeof Britain’s longest lakes andclimbing three of the highestpeaks in the UK this October.

Colin joined the Army straightfrom school and rose throughthe ranks where he ended upworking in Logistics.His mili-tary career has taken him toGermany, Hong Kong, NorthernIreland, Cyprus, Kosovo, Saudi

Arabia and Iraq as well as oth-er short term deployments andexercises overseas.

Colin has always been anavid sportsman and a particu-larly keen mountaineer; addi-tionally, he has played cricketand rugby for Kent as well asrepresenting the Army in bothsports.

In 2007, as the Rail Allianceformed up, Colin saw the valueof being linked to the academ-ic world and, as a consequence,he was appointed a ResearchFellow with the University ofBirmingham and has been anactive supporter of the Birm-ingham Centre for Rail Re-search and Education eversince.

Colin has completed the Lon-don Marathon three times rais-ing money for Multiple Sclero-sis, the NSPCC and the Na-tional Blind Children’s Society.This year, Colin has embarkedon a charity tour de force insupport of the Railway Chil-dren charity. He will completea unique triathlon challengecalled ‘The Ultimate 3’ which is

being pioneered by Colin andRuth Flack and will see him cy-cle from Land’s End to JohnO’Groats stopping off to scram-ble up and down the ThreePeaks of: Snowdon, Scafell Pikeand Ben Nevis as well askayaking the length of LakeBala, Lake Windermere andLoch Ness.

It should all take three weeks.To see more about this epic 3-country, 3-mountain, 3-lakechallenge - or to sponsor Col-in’s efforts - visit www.ulti-mate3.org.uk

The Rail Alliance is the lead-ing business-to-business net-working organisation for therail industry. Working through-out the industry, with compa-nies large and small, the RailAlliance represents organisa-tions currently involved in rail-ways, those entering the mar-ket for the first time and thoseconsidering a return to thesector.

The Rail Alliance supportsand encourages all those work-ing in what is now Europe’sfastest growing rail industry.

Colin Flack to host RailStaff Awards

Every One Says You’re Amazing

East Coast - proven successeast Coast Main Line Limited

Company is a subsidiary of

Directly operated Railways

Limited, which is owned by

the Department for transport.

More widely-known as EastCoast, the company began op-erating train services on theEast Coast Main Line in No-vember 2009.

East Coast, which is head-quartered in York, employs 2,800staff in a wide range of cus-tomer service, operational, retailand support roles across theroute. The company also oper-ates three engineering and main-tenance depots at Bounds Greenin London, Craigentinny in Ed-inburgh and Clayhills in Ab-erdeen.

Its long-distance, cross-bordertrain services run along routestotalling 936 miles, linking Lon-don King’s Cross with EasternEngland, Lincolnshire, Hum-berside, Yorkshire, the NorthEast of England and Scotland,carrying over 18 million pas-sengers a year. Approximately70% of East Coast’s passengersstart or finish their journey atLondon King’s Cross station.

The East Coast train fleet con-sists of 30 electric trains and 14

diesel trains, known as HighSpeed Trains (HSTs). The HSTsoperate principally on the In-verness, Aberdeen, Hull andSkipton to/from London routes.At the beginning of 2011, EastCoast achieved the best per-formance results for both itsHST and electric train fleets, inmore than a decade.

The East Coast HSTs are themost reliable Intercity trains inthe country, in terms of miles be-fore each casualty (a delay ofmore than five minutes). In Feb-ruary 2011, the HSTs achieved anaverage of 31,000 miles per ca-sualty, the best performanceever on the route and a stagger-ing 41% improvement on theprevious average figure of 18,000miles per casualty during 2010.

In May 2011 East Coast intro-duced the biggest timetablechange on the route in 20 years.The new timetable has broughtmore than three million addi-tional seats to the busy EastCoast route, 19 new services perweekday, an improved fre-quency and pattern of services,and faster typical journeys formillions of passengers.

The new timetable also sawthe restoration of the presti-

gious Flying Scotsman serv-ice, a 4-hour early-morningflagship train between Edin-burgh, Newcastle and LondonKing’s Cross. East Coast hasalso launched the first directservice on the East Coast routebetween Lincoln and London in20 years, and a new seven dayper week return service be-tween London and Harrogate.

East Coast now runs 155 serv-ices per weekday, a 55 per centincrease on the 100 operatedwhen the route was first priva-tised in 1996. The train operatorhas also launched major im-provements to its First Classcustomer service, including anew complimentary food anddrinks service, featuring hotmeals on weekday morningand weekday and eveningtrains, and a new Quiet Coach.

The new timetable and cus-tomer service improvementsare already proving a success. InJuly 2011, First Class passengershad increased by almost a third,compared to the same monthin 2010. The rise is the biggestseen on the East Coast route inthe last five years, and one ofthe biggest since the end ofBritish Rail in 1996.

east Coast is sponsoring the

train Driver of the year at the

RailStaff awards 2011.

Train drivers are an integralpart of any train company’s dai-ly operations. With around 500tonnes of rolling stock undertheir control, they ensure a safeand reliable journey for thou-sands of rail passengers each day.

Vital transport linkSays Tom O’Connor, managing

director Rail Media Group, whichis staging the RailStaff Awards,“It is a real pleasure to welcomeEast Coast to the RailStaffawards. The East Coast MainLine is an integral route on therail network, providing a vitaltransport link for towns andcities along the UK’s east coast.

Drivers and indeed all traincrew on the East Coast operationare among the most profes-sional and customer focussed inthe business. We wish themwell as they continue to delivera busy, fast and reliable railwayoperation which connects Lon-don to Leeds, York, Newcastle,Edinburgh and beyond.”

Great responsibilityEast Coast Managing Director

Karen Boswell said: ‘We are de-lighted to sponsor the TrainDriver of the Year award whichcelebrates the important con-tribution drivers make to thesafe, reliable and comfortableoperation of train services acrossthe UK each day.

‘Driving a train is a great re-sponsibility and, in supportingthe RailStaff Awards, we can re-ward and recognise those driv-ers who have demonstrated anoutstanding commitment to

customer service and the safe-ty of rail passengers.’

East Coast is a subsidiary ofDirectly Operated RailwaysLimited, which is owned bythe Department for Transport.The company began operat-ing train services on the EastCoast Main Line in November2009.

East Coast, which is head-quartered in York, employs2,800 staff in a wide range ofcustomer service, operational,retail and support roles acrossthe route.

RailStaff | August 2011 | 13RAILSTAFF AWARDS 2011

eastcoast.co.uk

East Coast is proud to sponsor the 2011 RailStaff Awards – Train Driver of the Year

East Coast to SponsorTrain Driver of the Year

www.transportation.bombardier.com

Bombardier

is pleased to

support the

RailStaff Awards

BOMBARDIER AVENTRA: The train with proven innovation

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Head Office: Ground Floor, The Edward Hyde Building, 38 Clarendon Road, Watford, Herts WD17 1JW

Tel: 0845 543 5953www.mcginley.co.uk

PROUD SPONSORS OF RAIL MANAGER OF THE YEAR

AWARD 2011

McGinley are pleased to announce that we haverecently been awarded a national frameworkagreement with one of the UK's leading railinfrastructure companies to supply professionaland technical staff across the UK.

We are therefore keen to speak to the following:

• Construction Managers • Project Managers • Health & Safety Specialists • Quantity Surveyors• Commercial Managers • Design Engineers • Commissioning Engineers • Planning Engineers• Technical Officers

For further information please email:patrick_o'[email protected]

McGinley Support Services have been providing staff to the Rail Sectorsince 1989 and have developed a strategic approach throughdedicated teams focussed on the following areas of expertise:• Trades, Labour and Supervisory Staff • Electrification • Protection and Warning • Welding• Professional, Managerial and Technical • S&T• Health and Safety • Minor Works

We offer consistent standards across all divisions:• Staff knowledge, ability, attitude & motivation • Understanding of client's expectations • Good standard of communication • Strong Health and Safety culture • Efficient problem resolution • Consistency & simplicity of approach

(plan, deliver, report, review)

For more information please [email protected]

www.firstgroup.com

Proud sponsor of the Lifetime Achievement Award

at the RailStaff Awards

14 | RailStaff | August 2011 RAILSTAFF AWARDS 2011

Delighted to sponsor Signaller of the Year

IRO ad, RailstaffAw11.indd 1 01/06/2011 17:46

McGinley Support Services is

sponsoring the Rail Manager of

the year at this year’s RailStaff

awards.

McGinley Support Services is aLink-Up accredited supplier ofpersonnel and support servicesto the national rail and metrosectors.

Says Tom O’Connor, managingdirector of the Rail Media Group,which is staging the awards,‘We are delighted to welcomeMcGinley Support Services to theRailStaff Awards 2011. McGinleyis at the forefront of providingtop grade professionals to lead

and deliver the rail network. It ishighly appropriate that they arebacking the Rail Manager of theYear award.’

McGinley Support Servicesprides itself on being a leadinginnovator in the industry interms of service and transparentfinancial arrangements. As oneof the top specialist rail recruit-ment suppliers McGinley Sup-port Services has pioneered newinitiatives that embrace safetysystems and workforce man-agement, upholding a strongsafety and quality culture that isnecessary to support the rail

and metro industry in meetingits own objectives.

Internal processes and sys-tems ensure that, through co-or-dinated planning, a flexible, mo-tivated and compliant work-force is available to meet allneeds.

From highly skilled systemsengineers, signalling and elec-trification staff through to pro-tection/warning and track work-ers McGinley Support Servicesdelivers comprehensive recruit-ment backed up by a nationaltransport and equipment sup-port service.

Excellence in ActionMcGinley Support Services is

one of the largest specialist re-

cruitment businesses provid-

ing the infrastructure sector of

the construction industry with

permanent or temporary staff

and support services.

Recruiting for over threedecades we now help civil en-gineering companies and assetmanagers in Rail, Metro, Roadsand Airports amongst others.

Our rail division has beenparticularly successful grow-ing to become the largest sup-plier of contingent labour in theUK to Network Rail. Based onthe proactive management of acore workforce we have beenable to plan, train and respondquickly in safely deploying theteams our customers’ need tomeet their own objectives.

Our flexible teams are multiskilled and equipped with thetools and equipment they need.A nationwide transport serviceensures that the customer getsa convenient and reliable serv-ice; a key objective is to help im-prove efficiency and lower costs.

McGinley labour managerswill help with workforce plan-ning and, when on site, oursafety staff will be on hand tosupplement customers’ ownhealth and safety systems.

Eugene Meehan, ManagingDirector, says, ‘When customersengage with us they get an ex-perienced and dedicated groupof Directors, managers and staffat their disposal. Our ability tounderstand their business mod-els and help them solve theskills problems they face sets usapart from competitors and in-stils a high degree of confi-dence that our service will pro-vide added value. This is evidentin our recent tender successeson Network Rail possessionmanagement contracts.’

With locations all over thecountry we are able to servicenationwide agreements withthe same service levels as we

would regional or local projects.Integrated systems, quality as-surance and auditing pro-grammes keep us operating atoptimum levels.

Sean McGinley, Business Sup-port Director, says, ‘Underpin-ning the service is a robust or-ganisation able to take on awide range of staffing and sup-port service contracts. Workingwithin statutory or industryprotocol frameworks is part ofour daily routine and a ringfenced compliance unit con-tinuously monitors standards.

‘I believe that our strong safe-ty, compliance and quality cul-ture combined with our addedvalue services are another cleardifferentiator for us in today’scompetitive marketplace. Serv-ices have developed in recentyears and we are now able to of-fer a complete range of staffingfrom site teams to senior ex-ecutives.’

The McGinley Technical divi-sion provides customers with

staff in rail/transport, civil en-gineering and power. A 1st tiersupplier with leading UK com-panies McGinley Technical is fo-cused on finding and deployingengineering, commercial andproject management staff ei-ther permanently or on a con-tract basis.

McGinley Corporate Solutionstakes higher level recruitmentfurther and adds specialistsearch and selection for theUK and international civil en-gineering sector. An extensionof this service brings an RPOand a Bid Support capability.

Other support services haveenhanced the overall offeringincluding technical staff in elec-trification and signalling to-gether with ATWS and LOWSoperators. Taking all this intoaccount we believe that, with-in civil engineering recruit-ment, McGinley is the best op-tion to deliver a comprehensiveand value for money service tocustomers all over the UK.

McGinley Support Servicesto sponsor Rail Manager of the Year

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At TQ Catalis we realise the importance of quality training within a safety criticalenvironment, however the success of any training event is reliant on the trainer, that’swhy we are proud to sponsor the Trainer of the Year award!

We have our own great team of trainers that specialise in safety critical technicaltraining for rail engineering, operations and essential Health and Safety skills requiredfor today’s rail businesses. Many of our courses are accredited by NEBOSH, IOSH,Sentinel and City & Guilds.

Our trainers deliver solutions enabling clients to meet compulsory legislation, keepingstaff safe and the company performing to its full potential. Our drive is to provide aservice that exceeds our client’s expectations.

Delivering performance through people is not just a motto but a belief embeddedwithin our business for over 70 years.

TQ Catalis The Derby Conference Centre, London Road, Derby DE24 8UXT: 0845 880 8108 E: [email protected] www.catalis.co.uk

Proud sponsor of Trainer of the Year 2011

RailStaff | August 2011 | 15RAILSTAFF AWARDS 2011

www.amey.co.uk

Proud Sponsors of the Rail Staff Awards 2011

Sponsors of the Rail Safety Person of the Year 2011With a reputation built on safely delivering multi-faceted projects we continue to provide a service of exceptional value to all of our clients.

!"#$%&'()*+,-./0",$1-)#"2%!-%)3+!04+/"+)+4)-%!2"5%-)%,-.!%-)+.!)5/"%,0-)5+,0",.%)0+)6%,%70)4!+8)+.!)‘one stop shop’ service offering. We know that the quality of our people ensures that we provide a quality service and this is why we are pleased to sponsor the Rail Safety Person of the Year in the 2011 Railstaff Awards.

w w w . b r i d g e w a y - c o n s u l t i n g . c o . u k0115 919 1111 |[email protected]


London Underground joins

network Rail and Rail alliance

this year as associate Sponsor

of the RailStaff awards 2011.

London’s Underground is oneof the busiest urban rail net-works in the world. The Tube car-ries more than one billion pas-sengers a year, as many as theentire National Rail network.

With around three and a halfmillion journeys made each day,on 11 lines serving 270 stations,London Underground is now run-ning more services than ever be-fore on the 148-year-old network.

Says Tom O’Connor, managingdirector of the Rail Media Group,which is staging the awards,‘We extend a warm welcome toLondon Underground. Staff onthe Underground, and through-out TfL, are well represented atthe RailStaff Awards. Their pro-fessionalism and courage pro-vide our newspaper, RailStaff,with a steady stream of good

news stories. The Tube has a ma-jor role to play in the 2012Olympic and Paralympic Gamesand we look forward to encour-aging and supporting all staff.’

London Underground aims tocombine a reliable train servicewith the highest standards ofcustomer care. At the same time,its ageing infrastructure is beingrenewed and replaced.

To overcome the legacy of un-der-investment, London Under-ground has embarked on a mas-sive upgrade programme whichwill deliver extra capacity andkeep pace with rising demand.The level of renewal and refur-bishment work is on a scale un-seen for more than 60 years. Railstaff on London Undergroundtherefore face a unique chal-lenge as they seek to deliver theservice safely and reliably whilstthe biggest rebuilding programmethe Underground has ever seencontinues day and night.

World’s Oldest Underground RailwayLondon Underground Limited (LUL) is a

subsidiary of transport for London (tfL),

the body responsible for delivering most

of London’s transport, in accordance

with the transport Strategy of the Mayor

of London.

London’s Underground - the Tube - is theworld’s oldest underground railway. The firstsection opened between Paddington andFarringdon in 1863.

Today, LU runs trains on eleven differentlines serving 270 stations. The network hasover 408 km of railway, reaching into 28 Lon-don Boroughs. Indeed the extremities of thenetwork reach beyond the Greater Londonboundary into Essex, Hertfordshire andBuckinghamshire. During peak hours LU op-erates more than 500 trains, while 422 es-calators and 141 lifts move passengers inand out of its stations.

Each of LU’s eleven lines has its own Gen-eral Manager and dedicated team of train,station and service control staff, respon-sible for the daily service on their respec-tive lines, backed up by the range of net-work-wide support services needed toensure the Tube runs smoothly.

Passenger numbersThe Tube is currently carrying record

numbers of passengers. In the year2010/11, LU carried more than 1.1 billionpassenger journeys, more than ever before.This included the busiest four week peri-od ever between 14 November and 11 De-cember 2010, when LU carried 90.6 millionjourneys.

This remarkable growth is being achieved

despite LU being the oldest Metro in Europeand currently undergoing an unprece-dented rebuilding and upgrade programmethat necessitates a higher level of weekendand other closures of parts of the network.

Upgrade PlanAs part of Transport for London’s Invest-

ment Programme, LU is working to addressmany years of under-investment and to en-sure London has a world class transport sys-tem, including upgrades of all lines to im-prove reliability and increase capacity bynearly 30%.

Delivery of these major upgrades, involv-ing new trains, track, signalling and controlequipment, is phased over a ten year peri-od due to the complexity of the task. This isallied to a continued focus on improved serv-ice delivery in response to customer demand.

The programme of major works to up-grade the Tube has presented challenges in

managing the impact of the works on cus-tomers, but an innovative and compre-hensive communications campaign, in-forming customers of the scale of im-provements to be delivered and encourag-ing them to “Check Before You Travel”, hashelped to minimise disruption.

Already the upgrade plan has deliveredsignificant benefits, with the recently com-pleted upgrade of the Jubilee line leadingto an increased frequency of trains; the Vic-toria line upgrade well on track for com-pletion next year, with the line now oper-ating with new trains only; and the firstever air-conditioned, walk-through trainsnow running on the Metropolitan line.

Over half of the Tube’s stations havebeen modernised and refurbished andsome have undergone more extensive up-grades, such as King’s Cross St. Pancras,now quadrupled in size following a com-plete redevelopment.

LUL backing

RAILSTAFF AWARDS 2011

Steam train at West Brompton Underground station, District Line. May 1876 © TfL.


Network Rail is proud to sponsor the RailSta4 Awards 2011It’s your hard work – the individuals and teams within our industry – that’s helping us build a better railway for Britain.

From pioneering investment and development projects, to innovations that make everyday services faster, smarter and safer, we believe in recognising the excellence that’s enabling the transformation of our network.

That’s why we’re very proud to once again sponsor this year’s RailStaA Awards.

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Helping Britain run better networkrail.co.uk

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top band Fully Funktional will be back at this year’s RailStaff awards with a unique take on popular

rock, rhythm and roll.

Numbers range from ‘Oh what a Night,’ and ‘That’s the Way I Like it,’ to a cover of the rail industryclassic by The Proclaimers - (I’m Gonna Be) 500 Miles plus many more.

The band has become a regular feature of the RailStaff Awards and are rail stars in their own right.Conga lines, body music and soul surfing gets everyone on their feet. There’s something for everyoneas welcome hosts, train planners, ticket collectors and engineers take to the floor.

Music ranges from trumpet fanfares, jazz and funk to sixties classics, doo-wop and disco.

Fifth fanfare forFully FunKtional

top psychic and mind reader, Paul Stockman,

will be headlining the RailStaff awards this

year.

A popular mind reader and corporate entertainer,Paul Stockman, has achieved international recog-nition with performances on stage and televisionaround the world, from New York to Las Vegas andfrom London to Paris.

His show at this year’s RailStaff Awards promis-es to be one of the most fascinating, fun and en-joyable nights of theatre you will experience.Many will recognise this gifted performer from histelevision appearances on the BBC, ITV, Sky Tele-vision and most recently, as the resident psycho-logical expert on Channel 4’s popular show, BigBrother.

This is guaranteed to be a unique evening of en-tertainment that mixes Psychology and Intuitionto give the illusion of real psychic abilities. Thereare no actors or stooges used in this show.

Paul does not claim to have any special powers.This makes his performance even more intrigu-ing, as he takes his audience into a world of mindblowing demonstrations that will have you con-templating how it was done for years after you havewitnessed this very special show.

Paul recently returned from performing in thecapital of entertainment, Las Vegas where heperformed alongside many of the world’s leadingentertainers in his field. Paul’s likeable persona,mixed with his friendly approach, guaranteesthat no one is ever made to feel uncomfortable orembarrassed in any way. Organisers moved to re-assure railway staff planning to attend that this

show does not include hypnosis and is suitable forall ages.

Says Paul, ‘I always have had an interest in psy-chology and applied psychology. There is no hyp-nosis. We create entertainment using psychology.’Paul used to be a professional musician. ‘I was toldto give it up before going deaf. So in the end Iswitched to psychology.’

Psychic power forRailStaff Awards

RAILSTAFF AWARDS 2011

i am indebted to those readers

who contacted me following

the publication of my July track

safety article.

Last month the number of in-cidents and their implicationsmeant that I was unable to com-ment fully. I will try to do so now.

Lord Cullen got it rightten years ago

During a recess in the Lad-broke Grove Inquiry I met twograduate engineers and washorrified to discover that theyhad left jobs with rail consultantengineers to join a London So-licitors’ and be trained aslawyers themselves. They madeit clear to me that they haddone so due to the increasedearnings potential.

They were philosophical abouttheir new employer who had tar-geted them so as to better posi-tion himself for future rail inci-dent litigation. Another facet ofthe “ambulance chasing” phi-losophy of lawyers!

The Inquiry Report Part 2 waspublished ten years ago! Re-reading the Executive Summa-ry reveals how even back then it

identified the importance ofimproving our safety cultureand commitment.

I quote from the report: “Improvement in the culture of

safety should bring a rise in morale”.

“The first priority for a successful

safety culture is leadership.”

“If communication is to be effective

in the management of safety, it has

to be a two way process involving

the workforce and giving them the

sense that they are able to make a

worthwhile contribution.”

“Much can be achieved by man-

agement undertaking regular walk-

about visits.”

the importance ofSite Visits

As I reported last month theCOSS (Controller of Site Safety)who was attempting to earth thewrong track at Westbourne Park,narrowly escaped being hit by atrain. He had not visited thesite of work before the weekend.

I have received correspon-dence from other multi-spon-sored contract COSS’s who haveexpressed fears on this. Late al-terations to planned work does-n’t help, but surely the risks aresuch that arranging and perhapsmore importantly paying theCOSS to undertake a site visit be-fore the shift should be man-dated unless the individualworked there last weekend?Surely we don’t need a new rulefor the lawyers to be paid to fightover.

Motivation, actualand perceived

Conversely the Track Manager,his assistant and others whowere working at Stoats’ NestJunction Purley (where he wasstruck by a train and seriously in-jured) were very familiar with thearea, maybe even too familiar?

The job went wrong when theselected closure rail was found tobe too short. I hope the investi-gation report doesn’t make toomuch of the risk assessments,method statements and taskbriefing sheets which some officebound safety “professional” mightthink needed to be re-writtenbefore the work was completed.

I suggest that the more likelyroot cause was the individual’sconcentration on getting thejob done and the track restoredto traffic. If leadership is thetop priority for a successful safe-ty culture, and safety comesfirst even before getting the jobdone, then such accidents andincidents should not occur.

The selection of individualsneeds to look for individualswho put their own and theirteam’s safety first even whenthings go wrong.

the need for experience,training and guidance?

The hired Rail Grinding Trainweighing some 37 tonnes whichran away last August on LondonUnderground was the subject ofthe recent Rail Accident Inves-tigation Branch’s (RAIB) Report.The machine reached 35 mphduring the 16 minute runawayand travelled around four milesgoing through six stations beforeit came to rest.

The report commends theService Manager, Control Roomstaff, and Drivers for their actionswhich prevented what couldeasily have been a catastrophiccollision. However, it also adds a

criticism by saying that no-one inthe Control Room had, “experi-ence, training or guidance” inhow to deal with such a situa-tion. A good thing too I suggest.

The actions taken under pres-sure in just those few minuteswere essentially correct, anddealt effectively with the situa-tion. I hope all the Drivers andthose who work in the ControlRoom have been fully briefed onwhat occurred.

Surely the actions taken byall those involved demonstratedthat none of them needed fur-ther training? The lack of writtenprocedures or guidance meantthat no time was lost in search-ing for archived information.

the Runaway nearinverness last July

On the subject of runaways, on11th July the RAIB published itsreport on the accident that oc-curred near Inverness on 20thJuly 2010. The machine that ranaway was a High Ride Road RailVehicle (RRV) pictured above.

The work had been arranged atshort notice. The roles of Personin Charge of Possession (PICOP),COSS, Engineering Supervisor(ES), and Machine Controller(MC) were all being fulfilled by

the one man. The Road Rail Access Point

near Drumrosach Farm wasused to get the machine ontrack. The access point was ful-ly timbered to both the six-footand the two four-foots with thecesses timbered by two side byside timber sleepers each.

Possession was taken ataround 2336 hours and the Ma-chine Operator began to on-track his machine before thereturn of the PICOP/COSS/ES/MC. The machine was ini-tially set down on the timbersrather than the rail.

The Operator then set downthe other set of rail wheels butwhen he lifted his jib the ma-chine began to run away. TheOperator soon discovered thatnone of the rail wheels could bebraked. (Their braking relies onthe squashing force betweenthese wheels and the rubbertyres of the machine.)

The machine ran down the 1in 60 gradient towards Invernessfor about 1.4 kilometres before itran into the back of a stationaryfreight train at between 50 and60 mph. The Machine Driverwas thrown from his cab ontothe rearmost freight wagon andsuffered serious injuries.

The problems in getting themachine onto the rails at the ac-cess point and the “single pointfailure of the control system” re-sulting in the wheels being ontrack with no braking were thedirect causes. The report refersto the lack of any prescribedSafety Integrity Level for theelectrical control systems. A lev-el 4 system as required for sig-nalling of trains would be ap-propriate. After all it was select-ed some years ago as the rightlevel for automatic track warn-ing systems.

July accidentsTwo recent incidents are under

investigation by RAIB. At 1755 on18th July a tamper was on theDown Northampton Line nearAlthorpe Park. Its driver saw aflapping panel on the ap-proaching container train.

He stopped his machine andducked away from the adjacentline before his side window wassmashed by one of two metalpanels measuring 2.5 metres by1 metre wide which droppedfrom the freight train as itpassed. The RAIB advice saysthat there is evidence of “looseand missing screws”.

The derailment of an emptypassenger train (right) as itpassed over Princes Street Gar-dens Junction between Hay-market and Waverley in Edin-burgh at 1751 on July 27th is alsounder investigation. The trainran on for some 90 metres beforebeing brought to a halt causingdamage to both the track andthe underside of the train.

The RAIB says that the lefthand switch rail of 167B pointsover which the wheel flangeclimbed was “heavily worn”. Iwill be surprised if inspectionand management responsibili-ties don’t feature in the final re-port!


Colin wheeler writes...

And is it also time for us to edit down thehandbooks and stop tinkering with the rules?

Do we need the Rule Book?

the necessary length ofa PiCoP’s arms!

What has all this got to do withthe Rule Book and the need forsimplifying our hand books etc.?If I start with the PICOP etc. atthe Drumrosach Track AccessPoint, he was fulfilling four dif-ferent roles according to theRule Book but they were all onthe same relatively straight for-ward job.

Apart from proving that hisarms were long enough for allthe armlets he needed to wearand needing understanding of anumber of Rule Book rules, do wereally need so many titles etc?

Are they of real use for safetyand efficient working or are theyonly useful to investigators, andheaven forbid the lawyers when

things go wrong? Turning to the incidents this

July I expect to read that therewere instructions and ruleswhich diluted or removed per-sonal responsibility and ac-countability from individualswho would normally ensurethat screws were tightened andswitch rails replaced when worn.

Doing away with theRule book

A review of the RAIB reportsshows just how many recom-mendations indicate rule or pro-cedure changes. I can just re-member the days when in-clement weather meant a disci-plined reading out loud of theRule Book in gang cabins allover the West Riding District of

British Rail. A long and arduoustask even then.

We did it using the old blackRule Book which easily fittedinto the pocket of the heavyblack macs with which we wereissued. Now we have modules,lots of them and expect thosewho work with shovels, barsand picks to know and under-stand them.

Time for realism which wouldimprove our track safety I sug-gest. We do not need a Rulechange following every accidentand incident. If we retain theRule Book for the lawyers and li-censors of safety cases etc., thenlet’s restrict its use to them andonly update it when it becomesimperative for us to do so, per-haps every three or five years.

(My apologies to the printers,nothing personal you under-stand!)

Next put together in a 10mmthick booklet as an aide mem-oire for trackmen, another forsupervisors etc. When every fiveyears these are revised, we needto take out at least as much aswe add in! It means trustingcompetent people, and abouttime too say I.

I write as the saga of News In-ternational, and the involve-ment of the police and politi-cians grinds onwards. Is therea lesson for our railways?Maybe!

If remote leaders pressurisetheir people for results withoutlistening to their concerns andlocal knowledge, wrong ac-tions can easily result. Bal-ancing strategic management

with adequate delegation totrusted frontline people is achallenge.

They need empowering to in-terpret the objectives in the bestway for themselves. Getting thebalance right is the underlyingproblem to be tackled. In my ex-perience an open, receptive andmotivating management stylefuelled by enthusiasm is thebest way for everyone.


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eurotunnel has bought the five

remaining SnCF Class 92 loco-

motives, bringing its fleet to 16.

The Class 92 is the only railfreight locomotive authorisedfor use in the Channel Tunnel.Eurotunnel now has over 280 lo-cos including shunters. TheClass 92 is British built and cer-tificated to haul freight trains onthe UK network and in theChannel Tunnel. It is a dual cur-rent locomotive, equipped formain line in Britain, FrenchOHLE, 25kV 50Hz pantographand for the 750V DC, third railnetwork in Kent.

Class 92 acquisition

warwickshire County Council

is working to secure a £4m

funding package following the

awarding of a £5m Govern-

ment grant towards the £9m

project to construct a new park

and ride station at bishopton.

This is a short distance fromthe present Stratford-upon-Avontown station. The money hasbeen made available via theGovernment’s Local Sustainable

Transport Fund. Centro, the lo-cal transport authority, hasagreed to fund extra servicesalong the line. Parking space isseverely limited at the town sta-tion and the new Stratford Park-way will have ample spaces forcommuters, which will encour-age people out of their cars andonto the trains.

In a separate developmentStratford may once again be-

come a through route, the lastthrough train having run in1976, as a campaign to breachthe missing 6 mile gap betweenStratford and Long Marstongathers pace. So far £50,000, ofthe £70,000 needed, has beenraised towards funding the studyinto making a business case forthe link, with First Great Westernmaking a significant contribu-tion towards the fund.

Warwickshire rail award

Rowe Hankins co-founderRoger Rowe diesCelebrations at top rail sup-

plier, Rowe hankins, marking

25 years in business, have

been tinged with sadness fol-

lowing the death of one of the

founding partners, Roger

Rowe (77).

Roger Rowe trained atBrighton College and saw serv-ice with the Royal Electricaland Mechanical Engineers(REME). A practical engineerwith problem solving skills hehad a passion for all aspects ofengineering product develop-ment. After a spell in the nu-clear industry, he joined theworld renowned engineers Lin-tots where he ran the appren-tice training programme.

In a career move in the early

80s Roger became a regionalsales manager for Electro-match, a small electrical com-ponents distributor which iswhere Toni Hankins and hefirst met. Roger and Toni Han-kins established Rowe HankinsComponents Limited in 1986.

Initially a supplier of high in-tegrity circuit breakers for therail industry, the company hasgrown from just three people ina small industrial unit to ateam of over 60 working on adedicated site with design anddevelopment, manufacturingand warehousing facilities.

Roger designed and devel-oped the first AC Earth LeakageUnit for the company. This con-tinues to be manufactured and

sold by the company and wasthe foundation on which man-ufacturing and re-manufactur-ing activity developed.

Says Toni Hankins, ‘Everyonewho ever met Roger had re-spect for his common sense ap-proach to every problem. Hewas a practical engineer. I great-ly appreciated his experienceand wise council at the time westarted the business.’

a new footbridge linking two

platforms at buckshaw has

been lifted into place.

The 24-metre pedestrian foot-bridge was hoisted into posi-tion by crane, marking a keymilestone in the development ofBuckshaw Parkway. The con-struction of Buckshaw Parkwayincluding a 150-metre long plat-form, 200 car parking spaceswith bus and taxi drop-off points,a fully accessible station building

and steel footbridge with liftsstarted last winter.

Says Network Rail route direc-tor Jo Kaye, ‘The installation of thebridge went to plan and we willnow be concentrating on thingssuch as platform surfacing andfitting out the station building.’

The two platform station, onthe same Manchester to Prestonline as Chorley station, is ex-pected to accommodate 450,000passengers a year and will be op-

erated by Northern Rail. Thestation is expected to open asplanned in the autumn.

The station is a joint venturebetween Chorley Council, Lan-cashire County Council, Net-work Rail and rail operatorsNorthern. It had always been animportant part of the vision forBuckshaw Village which hasbeen built on the site of the395-acre former Royal Ordnancefactory at Euxton.

Buckshaw lifted

LUAS extension launchedthe latest extension to Dublin’s light rail system,

LUaS, has opened.

The new line runs from the existing Red Line stopat Belgard to the CityWest Campus and Saggart.This is the third extension to the Irish capital’s suc-cessful LUAS system. The first, linking the city cen-tre to the Dockland development at The Point,opened in 2009 and the second, an extension onthe Green Line to Cherrywood and Bride’s Glen inthe south of Dublin, opened last year.

Light rail campaigner TramForward has wel-

comed this extension to one of the most successfulmodern tramways in Europe. Luas means speedin Gaelic. The silver Citadis trams, made in Franceby Alstom at La Rochelle, can travel at 45 mphwhen off the streets, for instance on the stretch be-tween Red Cow and Kylemore. However, linespeeds are considerably lower for safety reasonsin Dublin itself.

Third extension to Dublin’s successful

tram system, LUAS, is now open.

Staff at the head office of birmingham-based

CrossCountry trains have donated nearly £1,300

to birmingham Children’s hospital.

The donation goes towards the Hospital’s HeartAppeal and will help pay for a £2 million hybrid car-diac operating theatre. During the first six monthsof 2011, a total of exactly £1,290.37 has been raisedby CrossCountry’s staff through a regular ‘DressDown Friday’ fundraiser. Each person donates £1to wear their everyday, casual clothes. BirminghamChildren’s Hospital was selected to receive themoney after the charity won 42 per cent of thevotes in a staff poll.

Says David Watkin, CrossCountry’s CommercialDirector, ‘We have made a pledge to support arange of different charities throughout this yearand we were delighted to see that BirminghamChildren’s Hospital is close to the hearts of our staff.The team at the Hospital do an amazing job, dayin, day out and we hope that our donation will helptake the Hospital that little bit closer to the HeartAppeal’s £2 million target.

‘I was lucky enough to receive a behind-the-scenes tour of the Hospital and could see for my-self what an amazing effort goes in to helping thechildren and their families. The attention to detailthroughout the Hospital is first class.’

Birmingham Children’s Hospital has an inter-nationally renowned Cardiac Unit which seesover 10,000 children every year.

Heart felt donation

© thoMaS FitzGeRaLD

David Watkin presents cheque to Anna Winter.


national express east anglia Conductor Manager

John bellchamber has presented six new con-

ductors with certificates marking the completion

of their training at a graduation ceremony held

in norwich.

All six will be based at either Colchester, Ipswichor Norwich. Trainee conductors participate in a 16-week training programme studying all opera-tional, commercial and customer service re-quirements of the train conductor.

Says John Bellchamber, ‘I am pleased to welcomeour new graduates to the conductors team and Ishould like to wish them every success in their newpositions.’

Six new conductors start

(L-R) Jeremy Dale, Damon Stirling, Ross Caines,

Kevin Huckfield, Ian Woods and Emma Howard.

atkins, with partners, Cowi,

has been asked by Rail net

Denmark to help with detailed

design of the £160 million proj-

ect to double-track Denmark’s

northwest Railway.

The contract includes the ren-ovation of four stations. Thiswill give extra capacity as linespeeds power up from 120kph to160kph. Says Atkins market di-rector, Eva Rindom, ‘This is aproject of huge economic sig-nificance for Denmark and will

be a boost to passengers andbusinesses along the length ofthis important railway.

‘While a combined ninemonths of complete serviceshutdown over the three yearprogramme will allow us greaterfreedom to speed up the designand delivery, we will still need tofactor in a construction sched-ule that will compete withtimetable requirements mostof the time.

‘Atkins’ long history in the de-

livery of complex, multidisci-plinary rail projects in Europe,the Middle East and NorthAmerica means we are well-placed to meet this challenge.’

All stations between Roskildeand Holbæk will also have plat-forms lengthened to 250 metres,and crossings at these stationswill be replaced by subways orfootbridges as level crossingswill not be allowed on the newhigh-speed lines.

Danish Design for Atkins

Ceredigion MP Mark williams has unveiled a

commemorative plaque at borth station on the

welsh coast and congratulated local volunteers

who adopted the station five years ago.

Volunteers have cleaned up the station and plant-ed a garden and flower boxes. A £40,000 grant hasenabled local tradesmen and volunteers to replaceglass and paint the station. Derelict waiting roomswere turned over to community use.

The renovation started in January 2011. Work in-cluded fitting new doors re-wiring the station, in-stalling a fresh water supply as well as preservingmany of the original features of the old booking of-fice.

Said Mark Williams MP, ‘The much improved fa-cilities are a testament to the volunteers who haveadopted the station, and their work has really madea difference. The whole community has got in-volved, and this has been an excellent project,which has left us with a real benefit for residentsand visitors alike.’

Station adoption is becoming increasingly pop-ular throughout the network with 160 stationsadopted in Wales alone. Says Borth Station Vol-unteer George Romary, ‘When we becameadopters, the building had become derelict, tiredand prone to graffiti and minor anti social behav-iour. We had very fond memories of the station dur-ing its heyday when steam trains ran betweenAberystwyth, Shrewsbury and London.

‘Two years ago we had a dream. This is the cul-mination of a lot of hard work by many peopleand we still can’t quite believe it. The building hascome to life again. Everyone is very proud. The vil-

lage as a whole is thrilled to have this new andfascinating asset.’

Funding partners for the scheme included BorthStation Volunteers, Plwm, the Association of Com-munity Rail Partnerships, Railway Heritage Trustand Borth Community Council.

Borth stationbecomes work of art

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new Class 380 trains are now

at work in east Lothian as the

new fleet is phased in on

routes between edinburgh,

north berwick and Dunbar.

Scottish Transport MinisterKeith Brown MSP checked outthe new trains for himself ona recent visit to Edinburgh Wa-verley. Says Mr Brown, ‘This isgreat news for rail users inEast Lothian and I’m delightedthis fleet of new trains hasnow come into service on theNorth Berwick line.’

The four-carriage Class 380trains serving the NorthBerwick route are part of a£430m investment by the Scot-

tish Government. The 38-strong Class 380 fleet consistsof 16 four-carriage and 22three-carriage trains. All will be

maintained at ScotRail’s ex-panded Shields depot in Glas-gow, creating more than 130new jobs.

East Lothian answer

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New Sandwich DealSoutheastern will start running high speed serv-

ices from Deal and Sandwich - thanks to the sup-

port of kent County Council - from the 5th

September, one month earlier than planned.

There will be three services in the morning de-parting Sandwich at 05:50, 06:18 and 06:50, callingat Deal six minutes later. In the evening there willbe two services to Deal and Sandwich leaving StPancras International at 17:40 and 18:40. The newservices will operate Monday to Friday and will take

approximately 90 minutes. Existing Mainline serv-ices to Deal and Sandwich take approximately 135minutes.

Says Transport Minister Norman Baker, ‘Do-mestic high speed trains have already had a pos-itive impact by introducing passengers from Kentfast and convenient access to central London. It isgood news that Kent County Council and South-eastern have reached an agreement so that theseservices can be extended.’

© SiMon PieLow

After.

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Longest high speed line launchesthe beijing and Shanghai high

speed line, at 1318 kms the world’s

longest hSL, is open for business.

63 high speed services a day link thetwo cities in 4hours 48minutes. The rail-way took three years to construct andwas formally launched on 30th June,the 90th anniversary of the founding ofthe Chinese Communist Party.

There are 24 stations on the linewhich is expected to carry 80 millionpassengers a year. The project wascompleted a year ahead of scheduleat a cost of 220·9bn yuan - $US 34bn.Trains will run at 300 kph ratherthan 380 kph in a bid to cut costs andreduce energy consumption. The rail-way is fenced and every kilometre ispatrolled by a railwayman at alltimes.

The trains, from the China South Lo-comotive & Rolling Stock CorporationLimited, are CHR8 series and arebased on the popular Siemens Velarohigh speed train. The original threetrains were built in Germany. Howeverthe trains are now produced locally inChina.

War memorial comes homea war memorial commemo-

rating the north London rail-

waymen who fell during the

Great war 1914 – 1918 has at

last found its own final resting

place.

The monolith with 64 names onit has been installed outside thenew London Overground HoxtonStation. Ian Brown, the formerManaging Director of London

Rail at TfL and also a member ofthe Railway Heritage Committeewas instrumental in finding ahome for the memorial.

Says Ian, ‘Without doubt it isimportant that memorials suchas these which commemoratethe ultimate sacrifice of rail-waymen in the past are lookedafter and preserved for the fu-ture. It’s also important that

they are sited in places whichmake them part of the everydaylives of this generation andthose to come.’

Transport Commissioner, Pe-ter Hendy, who was also at there-dedication service, said, ‘It isfitting that TfL has found apublic site for this memorialthat is both easily accessibleand marks the working life that

these men left behind whenthey marched off to war al-most 100 years ago.’

The memorial was original-ly installed at Broad Street sta-tion on 10 February 1921.When Broad Street was de-molished, the memorial wasput in temporary storage atRichmond Station, south westLondon in 1989.

the isle of Mull railway is to

be crated up and exported to

balloch on the shores of Loch

Lomond.

It’s the ‘high road’ and ‘yonbonnie braes’ for the narrowgauge railway which ran fromthe ferry terminal at Craignureto Torosay Castle. The serviceceased a year ago when theLaird of Torosay Castle had to sellup. The new line, once laid,would connect Balloch railway

station with the steamer pierand Loch Lomond Shores, theshopping centre.

The line will follow the oldBalloch Central to Balloch Pierline that closed in 1986. SaysMull Rail director Nick Dodson,‘This is a really exciting oppor-tunity. The proposed railwayfulfils a real transport need andwould give the equipment, en-gines and rolling stock a freshlease of life.’

Second Springfor Mull Rail

John Giffen of c2c has taken

part in the London to Southend

bike ride to raise funds for the

british heart Foundation (bhF).

John, a cleaner for c2c, is a fa-miliar face at Westcliff andSouthend East stations wherehe works. As a keen cyclist2011 marks the fifth year in arow that he has taken part inthe arduous bike ride, last yearcompleting the course in underfour hours.

The charity bike ride took placein July starting at Victoria Park inEast London and follows a 52mile route through the pictur-esque villages of South Essexand finishing at Southend’s Pri-ory Park. Around 3,500 riderstook part in the event.

John is supported in hisfundraising efforts by his col-

leagues at c2c. He also collectsany loose change he comesacross while cleaning the sta-tions and donates this to theBHF once a year, along with thesponsorship money he hasraised. John takes part in theevent as a tribute to his formerwork colleague Albert Byrne.

On yer bike

Primary school children have helped create a station mural at truro

in Cornwall.

The ‘Welcome to Truro’ mural is the work of children at BosvigoPrimary School. Local artist and Truro College Student, Gemma Jorey,coordinated the project with support from Cornwall County Coun-cil and First Great Western.

Says Julian Crow, West Regional Manager for FGW, ‘We’re very grate-ful to Gemma Jorey and the staff and students of Bosvigo PrimarySchool for producing this wonderful artwork. First Great Westernprides itself on being part of the community, and it’s great to thinkthat the thousands of visitors to Truro Station will be greeted by thestudents artistic impressions of the city.’

Truro mural

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Consultation closes on HS2Consultation on the building of a high

speed railway between London and birm-

ingham, eventually going onto Manches-

ter and Leeds, has now ended.

A decision on whether to proceed is ex-pected by the end of this year. Locally af-fected people have mounted a spirited op-position. However the rail industry hasjoined business leaders and other groups na-tionally to thoroughly endorse the scheme.

In a formal response to the proposals,David Higgins, chief executive, of NetworkRail said, ‘Parts of our national rail networkare straining at the seams and in littlemore than a decade our busiest, most im-portant inter-city rail artery - the west coastmain line - will be unable to cope. We will beturning people and goods away and this willhave a serious economic impact on the UK.We cannot allow this to happen.

‘A new high speed line, capable of creatinga massive boost in capacity and relieving thewest coast main line, is essential. HS2 mustgo ahead - it is vital for the economy and forthe transport network.’ Despite tough op-position to the scheme from a powerfulhome county alliance of interests PhilipHammond and the coalition government aresticking with the scheme.

Mr Hammond thanked all participants inthe consultation for their contribution. ‘Highspeed rail has the potential to transform theeconomic map of our country, create jobs,drive regeneration and deliver the additionalrail capacity we so badly need.

‘However I also understand the concernsof those who will be directly affected by theproposals, which is why we have doneeverything possible to allow people to findout about the scheme and to have their say.I am grateful to all who have taken the timeto contribute to the consultation and their

views will form a vital part of the process aswe move towards a decision later this year.’

The next step, should the decision be tak-en to proceed, is the drafting of a hybrid Billwhich would be likely to take until autumn2013. This would not gain Royal Assent untilearly 2015. Following a period of preparation,construction would then start the followingyear and take approximately eight years, withtesting of the line beginning in 2024 and theLondon to West Midlands line opening in ear-ly 2026. A second hybrid bill will be needed totake the line further north.

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Royal advice for Bluebellbluebell Railway staff at

the ardingly South of england

Show met hRh Prince edward.

The Earl of Wessex stopped offfor a chat with the Bluebell teamin front of their First Class LoungeCar Number 3064. Sharing a jokeabout serving food to customerson board a moving train are Com-mercial Director Tim Baker, JeanSullivan, Bob McLean, LouiseDuncton, Julia Piqué, KevinLeggett, Joan and Gerry Brownand David Jones.

this year’s annual ‘Under-

ground in bloom’ competition

has seen railway staff tending

corn on the cob at northolt,

runner beans at Greenford and

strawberries at hampstead.

Staff work on the small gar-dens in their own time. Thecompetition is now being eval-uated by a panel. The awards willbe presented on 7 September atCity Hall. Judges will give extrapoints to greener gardens thatuse water wisely or recycle.

Stations and yards are bright-ening up London with a profusionof flowers, fruit and vegetables.Banks of flowers have sprungup on platforms at Croxley, near

the station exit at North Actonand in a car park at Perivale.

Entries for the fruit and veg cat-egory, which was launched lastyear as part of the Mayor’s Cap-ital Growth programme to en-courage organisations and com-munities to grow their own pro-duce, have doubled this sum-mer. Beetroot, carrots, toma-toes, broad beans, cucumbers,chillies, peanuts and mint havebeen grown at stations.

Says Boris Johnson, ‘It is fan-tastic that these talented LondonUnderground staff have createdthese horticultural delightsbursting with flowers, fruit andveg and all done by volunteering

in their spare time. I’d like to con-gratulate everybody who hasworked hard to transform thesestations, adding a splash ofcolour to the daily commute ofpassengers. They are a credit tothis city and their efforts willhelp ensure London is lookingamazing when we welcome theworld in 2012.’

Says Howard Collins, Chief Op-erating Officer for London Un-derground, ‘I’m really proud thatour staff have spent so much oftheir own time making our Tubestations brighter places for ourcustomers. The effort that hasgone into creating these beauti-ful oases proves just how muchstaff care about their customersand colleagues. I think it’s goingto be a difficult decision for thejudges to choose the winnersthis year.’

Police and railway staff on the

London Underground have

warned passengers against

walking from one carriage to

another through the internal

doors at the ends of carriages.

A man was recently decapi-tated when he fell on the tracksfrom where he was standingbetween the cars. The manwas reportedly trying to smokea cigarette. BTP has pointed out

that Railway Byelaw 10, part 3,states, ‘No person shall open atrain door, or enter or leave anytrain, while it is in motion orbetween stations.’

A Tube worker who was onthe train said, ‘A passengerwas smoking between the car-riages. He slipped and fell on tothe tracks while the train wasmoving at 50mph. He was de-capitated. This shows just how

dangerous messing around be-tween the carriages is. If thisguy had waited ten minuteshe’d still have been with usnow.’

The incident happened onthe Metropolitan Line in theearly hours of a Saturdaymorning. The man fell and be-came trapped under the trainwhich was travelling at 50 mph.His head was then severed.

Mind the doors

First transPennine express has

won a three year extension to its

franchise.

The eight year franchise which wasset to end on 31 January 2012 will nowrun for a further three years and 2months until 1 April 2015. Says VernonBarker, managing director of FirstTransPennine Express, ‘This agree-ment to extend the length of the fran-chise provides certainty for our plansto continue to improve services for ourpassengers and reassurance to our staffthat the franchise will continue in itscurrent form for an extended period.

‘We welcome this opportunity tocontinue to serve more passengers, toprovide an improving quality of serv-ice and to meet the aspirations of therail travelling public in the North.’ FirstTransPennine Express carries 24 mil-lion passengers a year, employs 1,000staff and runs over 280 train servicesa day between many of the principalcities of the North of England and toGlasgow and Edinburgh.

Triple bonus forTransPennine

Motorists take the trainthe first half of 2011 has seen

a sharp increase in passengers

on the rail network, as car driv-

ers switch to rail as a direct re-

sult of high petrol prices.

Figures show an increase of5.4%, equating to 638 millionjourneys this year compared to605 million for the same periodlast year.

A MORI poll reveals one in sixrail passengers had chosen railover their car for at least onejourney in February and March.Half of those blamed recordpetrol prices for their decision.

CrossCountry cup successthe 2011 CrossCountry Cup

was held at Goals Perry barr

Soccer Centre on Saturday

23rd July and was the fourth

annual five-a-side tournament

sponsored by CrossCountry

trains.

The Tournament was open toall Train Operating Compa-nies and Arriva Depots. Theevent kicked off at middaywith 16 teams entered, drawninto four groups of four teamswith the top two teams pro-gressing to a knockout. Allgames were two halves oftwelve minutes.

There were teams from CrossCountry Trains, Virgin Trains,Network Rail, London Midlandand two teams from Arriva BusDepots taking part. The groupstage finished around 2.40pmwith the Knockout Games com-mencing at 3pm.

From Group A, London Mid-land On Board (Birming-ham) and Arriva Liverpool pro-gressed. Group B victors wereVirgin Destroyers (from VirginTrains Customer Relations

team) and XC Leicester, GroupC victors were Plymouth andArriva Bootle and in Group DLokomotiv Bob (XC Birming-ham On Board) A and LMXC (Ateam made up of London Mid-land and XC Staff) made itthrough.

The Quarter Finals were tighthowever all games were decid-ed over 24 minutes with Loko-motiv Bob A, Arriva Bootle, Lon-don Midland and Virgin De-stroyers making it to the SemiFinals. All four teams were get-ting tired in what was two verygood and exciting Semis. Lon-don Midland On Board beatLokomotiv Bob A narrowly 6 - 5in the one Semi Final with Ar-riva Bootle beating Virgin De-stroyers in the other.

The Final was keenly contest-ed with London Midland OnBoard Team becoming victoroiusbeating Arriva Bootle 6-2. Theprizes were presented by PeteDonnelly (XC Train Manager)and organiser of the XC Cup.There were two individual play-ers prizes with Wayne Rollason

who was selected Goalkeeper ofthe Tournament and Greg Bald-win who won Player of the Tour-nament (both are London Mid-land Senior Conductors).

The XC Cup was presented tothe London Midland captainBilly Steadman (another Lon-don Midland Senior Conductor).So this year was London Mid-land On Boards year with aclean sweep of all the prizes.London Midland On Board wereRunners Up in 2008.

‘It was a glorious day with fan-tastic weather,’ says Pete Don-nelly, Tournament Organiser, ‘Iwould like to thank all theteams for a very friendly andcompetitive spirit in all thegames. Special mention to XCLeicester who got to the Quar-ter Finals with the minimum of5 players. I would like to thankMatthew Wilson (XC SeniorConductor) for taking all thephotos on the day.

Last but not least, a big thankyou to our four referees who ref-ereed the matches for a solidfour hours non stop.

Green line for LUL

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the team that organised train

For Life is back in business and

organising a celebratory re-run

of the british Military train,

‘the berliner,’ between berlin

and braunschweig.

Throughout the Cold War,1945-1990, the British MilitaryTrain travelled between WestBerlin and West Germany car-rying military personnel acrossthe Soviet-occupied DDR, theGerman Democratic Republic.The train operated in a uniquepartnership between BritishArmy railway operators and thetwo state railways of the divid-ed Germany.

Although supposedly nonstopthe Berlin bound train stoppedin Helmstedt to change enginesbetween the West and East Ger-man Railway systems. Lengthysecurity checks at Marienborn,

the first station in East Ger-many, added to the journey asRussian troops processed docu-mentation and examined thetrain.

Passengers on board enjoyedtop class dining facilities andcould sit out delays at Magde-burg where the former doubletrack onwards to Berlin hadbeen singled at the time of theBerlin Blockade. On 12 May 2012Train For Life will celebrate thecalm professionalism of railwaypeople, civilian and military,British and German, who did thejob, day in day out, without trig-gering a Third World War.

Steam loco 03 1010 will head atrain of 1960s carriages, includ-ing a dining car, from Berlin toHannover and back. Proceedsfrom the train will go to the Roy-al British Legion in Berlin. The

military guest of honour will beMajor General David BurdenCBE, retired Colonel Comman-dant of the RLC and a former OCTrain of ‘the Berliner.’ The diningcar will serve a typical RoyalCorps of Transport menu andwine list.

During the Cold War, thanks tostringent border formalities, thetrain used to take 4 hrs 40 min-utes to cover 145 miles. Thetrain was formed of an army-owned dining car and staffcoach, and three passengercoaches - one First Class and twoSecond - from the West GermanRailway, Deutsche Bundesbahn.

During the transit of East Ger-man territory the train doorswere locked and chained to pre-vent East German citizens fromusing it to escape to the west.The dining car was staffed by

Compagnie International desWagons-Lits (CIWL) chef andstewards and served a veryBritish menu, a full Englishbreakfast on the outward jour-ney and a roast dinner on theevening return leg. It also con-veyed an armed guard.

Deutsche Reichsbahn Class 03Pacifics were regular performersusually based at Halle Shed. Loco03 1010 is preserved as part of theofficial DB National Collection.The 03 was a lightweight deriv-ative of the more famous 01 se-ries of Pacifics, and 298 werebuilt, of which 10 survive. Withthe fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989the Berliner was no longer re-quired and it ceased operationsin 1990. The 2012 Berliner prom-ises a less alarming ride. Forreservations and more info email:[email protected]

The British Military Train waits at Berlin

Charlottenburg for its time honoured 08.40

departure to Braunschweig in the 1960s.

The Berliner rides again

the hugely popular trans Pen-

nine trail, which runs from the

north Sea coast to Southport

on the irish Sea, passing

through Manchester, will not

now be squeezed out of its old

track bed route by the new

Metrolink extension.

Transport for Greater Man-chester has decided to demolishan existing bridge at SandhurstRoad and replace it with a new,longer, footbridge. Demolishingthe bridge will allow thetrackbed to be widened, whichwill provide enough space to al-low the trail to run safely along-side the Metrolink tracks.

The trackbed beneath the ex-isting bridge is only wide enoughto safely accommodate the tramlines. The new work will ensurethat users of the trail, including

wheelchair users and peoplewith pushchairs, can continuetheir journey within the existingcorridor. The costs involved areestimated to be approximately£450,000 and the work is not ex-pected to result in any delay tothe delivery of the newMetrolink line to East Didsbury.

Says Andrew Fender, Chair ofthe Transport for Greater Man-chester Committee, ‘Our pre-ferred option offers a solution thatmeets the needs of residents,users of the Trans Pennine Trailand our construction programmefor the new tram line. Safe, off-road routes make walking and cy-cling more appealing to peopleand that is why we are commit-ted to finding a solution thatmaintains a route within the cor-ridor of the Trans Pennine Trail.’

Walk on by…

a four foot long black snake was spotted at Gravelly hill station in

the west Midlands recently.

Intrepid staff cordoned off the area around the snake and keptwatch. The snake had taken up residence on a ramp next to the Birm-ingham bound platform at the station.

Says Nicola Moss of London Midland, ‘We have a wealth ofwildlife around our stations, but we don’t want to see any snakeson a train. We believe it was on its way to Adderley Park, but this snakewasn’t charming passengers.’ When caught the snake was found tobe a grass snake and was taken away to be re-homed.

Snakein the grass

one of the last wartime freight steam locomotives to be built in britain

has been hauling passenger services on the Swanage Railway.

The ex-London Midland and Scottish Railway Stanier 8F class No.48151 Gauge O’Guild visited the Isle of Purbeck recently and hauleda passenger train between Swanage, Corfe Castle, and Wareham.

Says Martin Payne of Swanage Railway, ‘This is a real thrill for every-one on the Swanage Railway because it is so historic and a real first.’No. 48151 was built at Crewe during 1942. The loco is privately ownedand part of the pool looked after by West Coast Railways.

Gauge O’Guild

Settled future.

the 14th July may mark the anniversary of

the French Revolution, however further

north it marks the less traumatic revolu-

tion on the Settle and Carlisle railway.

14th July 2011 was the 25th anniversary ofthe reopening of eight stations on the fa-mous Settle & Carlisle line. The stations onthe line were decorated with bunting as sup-porters turned out to celebrate.

A quarter of a century ago the rail routeover the roof of England from Settle in York-shire to Carlisle in Cumbria was underthreat of closure. For a number of years therehad been little investment in the line. By1970 the stations - all but Settle and Apple-by - had been closed. By 1986 many of thestation buildings had been sold to privateconcerns.

Then a partnership of local authorities andcampaigning groups striving to save the lineintroduced the ‘Dalesrail’ summer-weekendservice aimed at giving walkers access to theYorkshire Dales National park and beautifulEden Valley. As a result eight stations werereopened, albeit without anything much interms of station facilities. The eight includ-ed Armathwaite, Lazonby & Kirkoswald,Langwathby, Kirkby Stephen, Garsdale, Dent,Ribblehead and Horton-in-Ribblesdale:names familiar to generations of train crewsand rail enthusiasts.

Since that fateful day on 14th July 1986 thetrain service has improved out of all recog-nition. As well as the two Summer-Sunday‘Dalesrail’ services from Lancashire there isnow a year round weekday timetable of

seven services each way between Leeds andCarlisle, and a further three on Sundays. Theline is now an officially designated Conser-vation Area, and all of the stations have beenlovingly restored. In 2009/10 a total of 133,000journeys were made to or from the 8 stations,the number rising steadily year on year.

The Friends of the Settle Carlisle line isamong the biggest rail support groups inBritain, with 3,500 members. Says RichardMorris, Chairman of FoSCL, ‘25 years ago,when the fate of the line was in the balance,none of us would have dared hope that sucha complete transformation could take place.These eight reopened stations are now a de-light to visit and a pleasure to travel to orfrom. If only all rail stations were as goodas this!’

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ScotRail debutfor Nepal passengerseight people from nepal have

been on a train for the very first

time whilst visiting Scotland.

Their visit was organised by Fu-ture Balance, a charity whichprovides expert advice on sus-tainability to businesses andpublic authorities. When staff atScotRail heard that the eightNepalese had never been on atrain before complimentary tick-ets were provided for a returntrip from Stirling to Glasgow.

This included sightseeing at thenew Riverside Museum.

Says John Yellowlees, ScotRail’sexternal relations manager, ‘Weare delighted to have helpedmake the visit to Scotland evenmore special with a debut jour-ney on a train.’ Frazer Scott,chief executive of Future Bal-ance, said the Nepalese visitfollowed a team visit to Nepal tosupport community groups withbusiness planning.

Says Frazer, ‘The group was ona reciprocal visit, which includ-ed a first-ever train journey.’ Bi-jay Poudel of the Active Citizensgroup from Nepal said the groupwas impressed by the experi-ence. ‘We have travelled halfway across the world to have ourfirst train journey. We are veryimpressed by all that we haveseen and we are very grateful tohave had this incredible oppor-tunity,’ said Mr Poudel.

aspiring young footballers from Swansea have

been emulating their promotion-winning heroes,

Swansea City.

Pentrehafod School was crowned No Messin’

Railway Safety Cup 2011 champions after a five-a-side tournament, organised by British TransportPolice (BTP), Network Rail and Arriva Trains Wales,saw teams from comprehensive schools acrossSouth Wales battle it out on the pitch.

Although Pentrehafod lifted the trophy forWales’s Premier League city, all 12 teams wereawarded 50 tickets for a Wales international,courtesy of the Football Association of Wales. Pen-trehafod, whose school is just a free-kick away fromthe Liberty Stadium, emerged victorious beatingCaerleon 2-0 in the final and winning the RailwaySafety Cup.

They were presented with a shirt signed by theWales football squad for display in their school.Player of the Tournament was Pentrehafod’sLewis Thomas, who spearheaded his side’smarch to glory at Swansea’s PlayFootball facili-ty, while Pontarddulais and Llanrumney made up

the quartet of semi-finalists. The aim of the event is to promote alternative ac-

tivities for youngsters to discourage them from tres-passing on the railway. During the regional roundsof the tournament, which is supported by the FAWand Brecon Carreg, each team received a hard-hit-ting safety presentation from PCSOs (Police Com-munity Support Officers) featuring young peopleand families who have been affected by trespass onthe railway. Around 200 children have been involvedin the tournament, spread over three regionalrounds - Swansea, Neath, Port Talbot and Cardiff -with the four semi-finalists from each heat pro-gressing to the grand final.

Inspector Gary Ash, who is in charge of BTP’sWelsh Neighbourhood Policing Teams, said, ‘Thefinal was a high quality affair, befitting of the stan-dards set throughout the tournament, and it wasa pleasure to see so many talented young playersbeing given the platform to display their abilities.

‘Last year’s inaugural event was a huge success,and I’m delighted to see that this year’s en-hanced tournament has been so popular withschools right across South Wales. Their participa-tion reflects the positive engagement our Neigh-bourhood Policing Teams have in their respectivecommunities. We are already looking forward tobuilding on that success for the 2012 event, whichpromises to be even more special.

‘With the summer holidays fast approaching, thishas been a fantastic opportunity to engage withyoung people and demonstrate to them thatthere are plenty of positive activities they can takepart in without having to endanger their lives bytrespassing on or near the railway. While clearlyenjoying the opportunity to express themselves onthe pitch, it has been extremely encouraging to seethe youngsters’ attitude off the pitch, where theyhave taken on board the inherent dangers of rail-way trespass and the consequences this could haveon themselves and their families.’

Swansea City will be sweeping all before them inthe Premier League next season - becoming thefirst Welsh team to play in the division since its for-mation in 1992.

High fives

Best in the westLocal business leaders in the

west country have welcomed

plans to expand and electrify

the Great western Main Line.

Says David Rosser, director,CBI South West, ‘A modern andefficient railway is a criticalpart of the infrastructure need-ed to support business in the21st century. For Wales and theSouth West, linkages to Londonand the international trans-port networks will be a funda-mental component of regionalcompetitiveness, so this pro-gramme of investment is verygood news.’

The ten year £5bn invest-ment programme in the GreatWestern Main Line, will seeelectrification, resignalling andnew trains improving journeytimes and providing extra ca-pacity. Passenger volume is ex-pected to rise by 51% on theroute over the next 30 years.

Raising his arm towards thefourth span at Paddington sta-tion, which had been covered inscaffolding and a protectivedeck since 1996, Transport Min-ister, Philip Hammond said,‘It’s great to see this gem of astation revealed.’

Speaking at the launch eventat London Paddington station,Sir David Higgins said the in-vestment would turn the GreatWestern into, ‘The most ad-vanced intercity railway inBritain.’ He went on, ‘Todaysees the start of an unprece-dented period of investment inthe Great Western.

‘The planned improvementswill provide a bigger and bet-ter railway for passengers,help support and drive eco-nomic growth and allow ourregions to thrive. By the end ofthe decade, the Great Westernmain line will be the most

advanced intercity railway inBritain, setting the standardfor twenty-first century railand providing the capacity weneed to cater for the continuedincrease in the popularity ofrail travel.’

A recent survey of more than800 passengers and businessesfound that having more seatson trains was by far the mostdesired improvement, followedby improved punctuality andshorter journey times. The pro-gramme will begin with theupgrade of the signalling sys-tem between Paddington andBristol by end of 2011, so thatthe infrastructure is compatiblewith electrification technologyand ready for the EuropeanRail Traffic Management Sys-tem (ERTMS). Electrification ofthe lines from Paddington toOxford, Newbury and Bristolwill follow.

Following high ratings in net-

work Rail tables, London over-

ground has received a huge

vote of confidence from pas-

sengers.

Over the last year there hasbeen a 17 per cent increase,from 72 to 89 per cent, in thosesatisfied, according to the latestPassenger Focus survey con-ducted in spring 2011. The aver-age for London and the SouthEast was 83 per cent while na-tionally it was 84 per cent.

Top performing staff and Class378 Capitalstars, made in Britainby Bombardier at Litchurch Lane,Derby, are understood to be be-hind the surge in the popularityof the Overground with Lon-doners. TfL is using smart Tur-bostar Class 172s on the non-electrified Gospel Oak - Barking

line, also made at Litchurch Lanein Derby. The initial order for thenew fleet of 378s worked so wellTfL ordered a further 36 cars.

Happily Bombardier Trans-portation was able to turn themout in double quick time at Der-by. The Mayor of London, BorisJohnson, is delighted with the re-sults. ‘These hugely impressiveresults are the ones that reallymatter because they are thevoice of the passengers who arenow benefiting from vastly im-proved services. We will not stoptrying to improve on what we dobut reaching these levels of pas-senger satisfaction is what allthe hard work and investmentduring the last three years hasbeen about.

‘This is a railway upgraded, re-furbished and ready to serve

Olympic visitors as well as leav-ing Londoners with an earlylegacy of punctual, reliable andsafe journeys. The transforma-tion of this once-neglected serv-ice is something all Londonerscan be proud of, and it demon-strates exactly why I believe myoffice and TfL should be given agreater say in franchising of theprivate train companies whorun services in the Capital.’

TfL took over the managementof the London Overground fromSilverlink in November 2007.Since then approximately £2bnhas been invested in building theeast London route extension tothe network, buying the newair-conditioned train fleet de-signed for London conditions,upgrading the track, signallingand stations.

London Overjoy

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a new painting, evenings hill, created by

artist Clare woods, is on display at hamp-

stead heath station.

Known for her dramatic, large-scale paint-ings of landscapes, Woods has developed apermanent artwork in porcelain tiles, ex-tending the entire length of the stationplatform, visible to visitors to the station andpassengers alike. London Overground has re-cently been improving the station.

Says Julie Dixon, Head of Marketing and

Communications at TfL London Rail, ‘We arevery excited to have completed the secondnew art installation for our network at thesame time as delivering a much improvedstation for the passengers of HampsteadHeath.

‘We were able to capitalise on the oppor-tunity to incorporate this impressive artworkonto the platform wall during the largescale refurbishment of the station, which ispart of a network wide programme of station

improvements. Clare’s painting, coupledwith the recent introduction of more fre-quent services and the significant im-provements to lighting, passenger infor-mation and waiting areas within the station,should positively improve passenger jour-neys to and from Hampstead Heath for yearsto come.’

Clare’s work is inspired by the nearby leg-endary Hampstead ponds. Clare is not alonein depicting the pools - they have been thesubject matter for many artists, most fa-mously in landscapes by the English Ro-mantic painter John Constable.

Today, the Heath and its pools are still asmuch a refuge from the city as they werewhen Constable painted them in the 1820s.The depiction of water and reflection is cen-tral to the composition. It features a land-scape without horizon, in which the pools be-come voids or portals to another place. ‘Iwanted to get a feel of the Heath in my work- this open space in the heart of a city,’ saysClare Woods.

Evenings Hill at Hampstead Heath

Proposed Javelin services on high Speed

one for the olympics will see eight trains an

hour operating between London St Pancras

international and Stratford international.

Two trains an hour will connect St Pancraswith Ashford International, Stratford andEbbsfleet. One train an hour will run to Faver-sham from St Pancras. Trains will runthroughout the night and there will be ex-tra late night services to accommodate overrunning fixtures.

The timetable has to be signed off but is ex-pected to provide increased service levelsand longer trains as rail takes centre stageat the London Olympics.

Olympic warm up for Javelin

new trains on the Victoria Line, one of the

busiest sections of the London Under-

ground, mean extra capacity and two more

services, on average, per hour.

The new fleet of high-capacity trains, builtat Litchurch Lane in Derby, has now replacedold 1960s stock. When signalling work iscomplete next year the Victoria Line will beable to carry 10,000 more people an hour -an increase of 21 per cent. Journey times willbe shorter and trains will run almost everytwo minutes.

Says David Waboso, London Underground’sCapital Programmes Director, ‘In twomonths we will be running an additionaltwo trains per hour for a large part of theweek, with further increases to come start-ing next spring when we’ll be running 30trains every hour ahead of the Olympics.When the upgrade is complete we willhave provided capacity for an additional10,000 passengers each hour - meaning bet-ter, less crowded, journeys.’

Work has also begun on doubling the ca-pacity of fans in the main ventilation shafts

serving the line and is due to be completedlater this year. Eleven fans have already beenupgraded and work on the final two is un-der way. The roll-out of the new fleet comes40 years after the line was extended from Vic-toria to Brixton in July 1971.

It was the first automated train line in theworld and, with its ticket barriers and new

ticket machines, was ahead of its time. Thefirst section opened in September 1968,from Walthamstow Central to Highburyand Islington. The second, which includedKing’s Cross St. Pancras, Euston and WarrenStreet, opened in December 1968. It was of-ficially opened by Her Majesty, Queen Eliz-abeth II, in March 1969.

Complete fleet on Victoria Line

Stagecoach has sold the ten

year operating contract for

Manchester Metrolink to Paris

Metro company, RatP Dev Uk.

Greater Manchester’s Metrolinkwill continue to be owned byTransport for Greater Manches-ter. Says Andrew Fender, chair ofTransport for Greater Manches-ter, ‘RATP Group has a span of ex-pertise covering 12 countriesand the experience of carrying 12million passengers a day.

‘They will help us to continueto improve services, providing uswith access to experts who areoperating tram services andlight rail systems in major citiesacross the world, from Paris andFlorence to Seoul, Hong Kongand Mumbai. We welcome RATPto Greater Manchester and are

looking forward to working withthem.’

Stagecoach Metrolink staff willremain employees of the samelegal entity except its namechanges to Metrolink RATP DevLimited. RATP was formed in1948 and is now one of theworld’s biggest transport com-panies spanning 12 countries.Last year it took over some ofLondon United’s red bus routes.Londoners were distressed tosee RATP’s River Seine logo grac-ing the sides of the buses. Thelogo looks like a face but actuallydepicts the Seine meanderingthrough Paris. RATP stands forRégie Autonome des TransportsParisiens, or as they say in Man-chester, Autonomous Operatorof Parisian Transport.

French take overfor Metrolink

Gardeners battling weeds have

had a tough time of it this year

with a damp summer and hot

sunshine.

Spare a thought for the rail staftaking on weeds and bushesgrowing up walled embank-ments. Plants like buddleia cantake root and flourish in the limemortar used years ago and in theend cause a safety hazard if notremoved. It’s a particular prob-lem faced by Network Rail onStockport’s railway viaduct. The27-arch viaduct also straddles ariver, a motorway and severalsmaller roads.

The way to do it, according toBirse Rail, which has got thecontract to do the work, is acombination of very big cherry-pickers working at ground leveland abseilers dangling from thetop. Says Network Rail route di-rector, Jo Kaye, ‘The last time theviaduct was spruced up was in1989. Since then buddleia hastaken hold, and while it may bevery good for butterflies, it can

cause us real problems. Itsprominent position in the towncentre and under the flight pathto Manchester Airport means itis seen by millions of people, sowe want to clean it up and givea good impression of both therailway and Stockport as awhole.’

During the project, vegetationwill be removed and treated toprevent its re-growth, and thebrick and stone work repaired.Work on the £1m project startsin August and is expected to take14 weeks. As much of the workas possible will be done duringdaylight hours but there willalso some 24 hr working, whichwill include weekends.

Construction started in March1839 and was completed in De-cember 1840. Officially opened in1841, services between Man-chester and Birmingham viaStockport did not start until Au-gust 1842 because of a disputebetween two separate railwaycompanies.

Abseil heroesbattle buddleia

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the first of 22 ScotRail trains to

be refurbished has entered

service in Strathclyde.

The Class 320 trains havebeen spruced up and recondi-tioned by hard working staff atWabtec Rail in Doncaster. Theextensive project, managed byEversholt Rail Group, will becarried out as part of the rou-tine maintenance cycle overthis year and next. All thetrains will be rebranded in thenew ‘ScotRail, Scotland’s Rail-way’ livery.

Says Steve Montgomery, ScotRail’s managing director, ‘Thisinvestment not only meansimprovements to reliabilitybut greater comfort for cus-

tomers.’ Earlier this year, ScotRail announced an £800,000package of improvements toits 16-strong Class 314 fleet

on its Glasgow Central/Cath-cart Circle and Neilston, New-ton and Gourock/Wemyss Bayservices.


iraq is pushing ahead with a

high speed rail scheme.

Alstom in France has con-cluded a memorandum of un-derstanding to progress plansfor the line which will connectBasra and Baghdad. After feasi-

bility studies and cost analysisthe new high speed line couldbe under construction in twoyears time.

Basra is approximately 280miles south-east of Baghdad.The high speed line would run

trains at 155 mph. French trans-port minister, Thierry Mariani, isto visit Iraq this autumn to backthe deal. France plans to doubleits already extensive domestichigh speed rail network overthe next ten years.

Basra Grand Vitesse

Lord Marsh RIPthe son of a foundryman and

a keen greyhound racer who

rose to become chairman of

british Rail has died.

Lord Marsh was always abit of a maverick and whilstserving as a Labour MP fa-mously fell out with HaroldWilson. He is remembered byrailway staff for saving largeparts of the network fromclosure.

Faced by the early 1970s eco-nomic crisis the Heath gov-ernment had lined up severespending cuts for the railways.Marsh tackled the then trans-port minister, John Peyton, care-fully sketching out all the rail-way lines that would have toclose, many of which, happily,ran through Tory marginals.Although many of the lineswere saved Ted Heath scup-pered early attempts to devel-op the Channel Tunnel.

Richard William Marsh wasborn in London on 14th March1928 and never quite lost hiscockney accent. Marsh studiedengineering at Woolwich Tech-nical College. After nationalservice he went on to readEconomics at Ruskin College,Oxford.

He worked in the National

Union of Public Employees andentered parliament in 1959,representing Greenwich. AsMinister of Power in the Wilsonadministration he helped de-velop North Sea energy andnationalise the steel industry.The transport brief was less tohis liking although he was ableto pioneer new motorways,M23 and M25, through Surrey.In 1969 he helped the Queenmake her first journey on theLondon Underground since thewar when he joined HerMajesty to assist at the royalopening of the Victoria line.

When Harold Wilson lost theelection in 1970 a disenchant-ed Marsh decided to leave pol-itics. He was appointed chair-man of BR in 1971. Going nativehe elected to run BR as a busi-ness and resist government in-terference. However he clashedwith Ted Heath over wages pol-icy, fare rises and investment.He managed to pioneer thedevelopment of the HST – HighSpeed Train, one of BR’s mostsuccessful projects.

Runaway inflation, renewedinterference from the newLabour administration, stop-go investment and industrialunrest severely weakened the

railways. BR strived to cut costs.Marsh decided he’d hadenough. The last straw, so Eu-ston House legend has it, was aterse missive from John Gilbert,the transport minister, com-plaining that BR was to stop car-rying racing pigeons on itstrains. Marsh was succeeded byPeter Parker.

In the private sector RichardMarsh joined the print industrysucceeding Lord Goodman atthe Newspaper Publisher’s As-sociation. This was at aboutthe time Rupert Murdoch andEddie Shah determined to takeon the print unions. Ennobledin 1981 Lord Marsh switched hissupport to the Conservatives.He was a director of TV-AM andchaired several companies. Hewas instrumental in attract-ing Nissan to Sunderland.

Marsh was married threetimes. First in 1953 to EvelynAndrews, divorcing 20 yearslater. He married Caroline Dut-ton in 1973. She died in a carcrash in Spain two years latertogether with the wife of broad-caster David Jacobs. Subse-quently he married Felicity Mc-Fadzean in 1979 who surviveshim. He has two sons by hisfirst marriage.

a dining car once used for

hostage training by special

forces soldiers has taken up a

new role as a marriage venue.

The refurbished carriage, calledMartha, with bullet holespatched over and new glass inthe windows, formed the back-drop for the first wedding to behosted by Avon Valley Railwayafter it obtained a licence forweddings. Trevor Cockram andLaurie Canvin were married in

the carriage. Mr Cockram, 57, isa volunteer on the railway.

Says David Cole, operationsmanager on the AVR, ‘It wasthrough Trevor asking if hecould have his wedding herethat we applied for the licence,which was granted in February.We already have two morebooked in for next year, includ-ing one with a 1940s themethat will be part of a widercommunity event in Bitton. We

have four different locationscovered by our licence – the sta-tion building and three railwaycarriages.

‘Martha was in quite a poorstate when we bought her, withall the windows smashed, bul-let holes in the roof and the toi-let blown apart. It’s lovely thatwe can now offer weddings onboard.’ Guests enjoyed a tripon the train and a sumptuouswedding breakfast.

Special wedding service

newcastle Central doubled as an audition venue

recently as a model agency from London scoured

passers by for fashion’s next face.

Premier Model Management is searching for menand women to act in ad campaigns. Paul Ember-ley, communications director at East Coast, said,‘With so much talent waiting to be discovered, weare pleased to be partnering with Premier toidentify individuals who have a genuine chance ofmaking the grade. By using our trains and runningscouting events at stations along our route, we’reconfident there will be many opportunities to finda great selection of potential stars up and down theUK – many of whom could become householdnames in the future.’

Laura Taylor, 17, from Bedlington, Northumber-land, was among those snapped. Says Laura, ‘I amsigned with a modelling agency but I haven’t hadmuch work yet. I’ve done charity events but I reallyenjoyed it. I’m starting my A-levels. I’m going to doEnglish because I would like to get into publishing.I think to be a good model it is your personality thatshines through and you have got to be comfortablewith yourself because there is nothing worse thanbeing awkward.’

The agency is conducting the search in collabo-ration with train operator East Coast. Talent scoutswill also be visiting other stations including Ed-inburgh Waverley, York and Leeds.

Model Rail Sensation

Railsport Gb finished a very

creditable second to Germany

once again in the euroGroup

ten Pin bowling tournament

held in Ravensburg, Germany.

Conditions were very warm

with all players suffering under

the extreme heat.

The bowling alley itself suf-fered several breakdowns, re-

sulting in changes to the origi-nal programme to reduce theamount of games to be played.GB made a steady start andtook the lead after the openinground of games.

Then as the day progressedthe German bowlers not onlycaught the British bowlers, butforged ahead and won the tour-

nament with Railsport GB sec-ond. The Czech Republic camethird, Poland fourth and Bel-gium fifth. The event was or-ganised by the German Rail-ways. Unfortunately the testingwarm conditions took its tollwith lower than normal aver-ages from the players of all fivecountries.

Team GB Ten Pin triumph

Fleet boost for ScotRail


big hearted train crew and station staff at Pol-

mont station have helped reunite a runaway dog

with its owner.

Staff found the dog, Kobi, injured by a railway em-bankment. The four year old whippet/terrier crosslost a leg after an accident on the line between Lin-lithgow and Falkirk. Driver Davie Lewis saw the dogon a Friday afternoon in July and together with con-ductor, Carol Ann Livingston, rescued Kobi.

Colin Bicknell from the station took over looking af-ter Kobi helped by Lyn Oliver, ScotRail operationscommunications manager, who was also on the train.Railway staff called up local vets, Robert Wallace andEmily Chappell, at Ashbank Veterinary Practice inLaurieston. The pair conducted an emergency op-eration on Kobi whose condition improved. He is nowin good spirits.

Owner Anne Kidd of Grangemouth had beenlooking for her pet for nearly two weeks. Says Anne‘I got him from the Edinburgh Cat and Dog Homeand had him for four weeks before he ran off. Hesaw the rabbit and was gone.’ Although Annechased him Kobi did not return. Anne Kidd thenmounted a search operation with friends and

posters. Eventually thanks to ScotRail staff the ter-rier and his owner were reunited (above).

Anne thanked staff saying, ‘This has certainly re-newed my faith in human nature. We think he waswalking along the railway tracks trying to find hisway home, but then got hit by a train. I cannot be-lieve how lucky I am. I feel blessed to have him backand just can’t stop grinning.’ Says Lyn Oliver, ‘Iwrapped Kobi in my coat and he looked warm andcontent then. It was a real team effort and we’reall glad Kobi is all right.’

Staff praised forterrier rescue drama

Farewell James Kingone of Scotland’s most committed rail support-

ers has died the day after the trains he cam-

paigned for took to the metals.

James King FCILT had a lifelong passion for rail-ways. From his North Berwick home he helpedset up the Rail Action Group East of Scotland.RAGES successfully campaigned for improved lo-cal train services in East Lothian and Berwick-shire. His death after a long illness came less thanthree weeks after his 60th birthday and just theday following the debut of new Class 380 trainson the North Berwick route.

Mr King worked for Scottish Enterprise and theFalkland Islands Government. He was chair-man of the Scottish Government’s advisorycommittee, Passenger View Scotland, and servedas a member of the British Transport Police Au-thority. With a knowledgeable grip on strategic

transport issues he became a Scottish BoardMember of Passenger Focus.

Happy Days for NIRFonz look-alike brian blair and

his friend Vicky Lowey helped

launch a summer rail cam-

paign of special offers on

northern ireland Railways.

‘Whether people want to fol-low in the footsteps of Finn Mc-Cool at the Giant’s Causeway,step back in time at the UlsterFolk and Transport Museum orsimply ramble around the beau-tiful countryside our ‘HappyDays’ promotions give cus-tomers a hassle-free means ofgetting you there,’ says CiaranRogan, Translink Marketing Ex-ecutive. Offers include 1/3 offsome Northern Ireland Railwaytickets.

Vicky Lowey and Brian Blair get in the mood at a 1950s themed launch

of the ‘Happy Days’ campaign in Northern Ireland.

the Government and the health and Safety

executive want to hear what you think about

red tape.

The open consultation continues until 21st July.The Red Tape Challenge is seeking views about reg-ulations from the public, business and other in-dustry bodies and volunteers. Contributions to theRed Tape Challenge should draw on the experienceand ideas of railway staff who deal with regulationevery day.

Health and Safety regulation is one of six cross-cutting themes on the Red Tape Challenge websiteand the public will be able to give comments onhealth and safety throughout the whole of the RedTape Challenge campaign.

From 30 June 2011 there will be a special three-week focus on health and safety regulation to en-courage people to get involved and have their say.Comments received will provide the Govern-ment with a clear picture of how regulations areperceived and will help them decide which reg-ulations should stay, which change, and which goentirely.

Says Geoffrey Podger, HSE’s Chief Executive,‘The Red Tape Challenge is an ideal opportuni-ty for people to give their views on health andsafety regulation and we hope people get in-volved in the debate. The Health and Safety Ex-ecutive is committed to protecting people fromgenuine risk and ensuring businesses don’t

face unnecessary bureaucracy. ‘This is a genuine consultation which will cap-

ture the views of people who are affected by healthand safety regulations. We want to hear from allthose with an interest with the aim of simplifyinghealth and safety and making it more effective andproportionate for the benefit of business and theworkforce of Britain.’

www.redtapechallenge.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/home/index

Have your say on red tape

Boating song for SloughSlough station is set to be

transformed into a bright, spa-

cious and accessible rail centre

in time for the 2012 olympic

Games.

The station will be used by ath-letes and spectators travelling torowing and canoe competitionsat Eton Dorney. There is no carparking near by. Dorney Lake isa world-class venue that sportsa 2,200m, eight-lane rowingcourse with a separate returnlane constructed to interna-tional standards. It is set in a 400-acre park with a nature conser-vation area.

The venue’s existing facili-ties have been enhanced forathlete warm-up and CanoeSprint events during the Games.Slough’s Grade II listed stationwill see a revamped station fore-court, delivered by Slough Bor-ough Council, as part of the£450m ‘Heart of Slough’ regen-

eration project. Network Railwill install a new footbridge andlifts which will provide step-free access to all platforms. Thestation building and waiting ar-eas will be upgraded by FirstGreat Western. Work to upgradethe station forecourt will be car-ried out in five phases starting inearly August and ending in Jan-uary 2012.

As part of the Department forTransport’s Access for All pro-gramme, Network Rail is in-stalling three new lifts and a newfootbridge, providing step-freeaccess between the station en-trances and all six platformsfor the first time. The £2.5mproject is scheduled to begin atthe end of August and be com-plete in late May 2012.

First Great Western will be do-ing up the station with a newticket office, new toilets, newcustomer information point,

and there will be better accom-modation for hard working staffas well. Preparation works havealready begun and the work istimed to run alongside the coun-cil’s forecourt work improve-ments.

Says Mark Langman, NetworkRail route director, ‘Thousands ofpeople living and working inSlough rely on the railway everyday. The improvements we’remaking to the station will makelife easier for everyone to use thetrain, especially those with re-duced mobility or with smallchildren, and is part of a widereffort to stimulate the localeconomy through better trans-port links. With Olympic andParalympic athletes and spec-tators travelling to Eton Dorneyin huge numbers next summer,it’s right that we make sureSlough station has the facilitiesit deserves.’

Artist’s impression of the new Slough Station.


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Documents

RailStaff August 2011