RailStaff December 2015

DRAGONS OF SUGAR ISLAND The Southeast Asian expedition of summer 1974 concentrated on the vintage types surviving in Java and Sumatra. Page 34

THE POLITICS OF RAILSupporting Young Rail

Professionals (YRP) from the very top.

A VIEW FROM THE TOP Andy Milne talks to Michael Holden on the eve of his departure from Directly Operated Railways.

Page 16

Fog Clearsfor Railways

The vast majority of programmes and projects will go ahead, says Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy, who took the cover image of this month’s RailStaff from on top of the Forth Bridge. ‘No infrastructure schemes have been cancelled,’ he says, although Hendy stipulates more money will need to be found.Full report page 12.

StaffTHE MOST POPULAR PUBLICATION IN THE UK RAIL INDUSTRY

Issue 217 | December 2015 www.railstaff.uk

Page 26

December 2015 | RailStaff | 3COMMENT

The rail industry has traditionally been suspicious of change. A safety-critical industry should be, and one that has been a political punch bag for so long has to question change with forensic scrutiny. In many places change can be the unhappy pre-cursor to disaster.

Change has become debased. New initiatives pour out of quangos and committees like Christmas junk mail. Parents watch the unending wash of change in education. Every new apparatchik seems to want to make their mark instead of letting teachers inculcate the rudiments of wisdom in their charges.

Health, too, is subject to change with ill-advised initiatives that can result in death. Too often, it seems, the gentleness of healing is replaced by striking-breaking management, more concerned with spreadsheets than temperature charts. Aviation, roads, policing: we have too many examples of ill-thought through changes that cost money, lives and security.

The rail industry faces deep and challenging changes next year. Happily for railway staff, change in this industry is driven by the need to expand capacity, attract new people to railways and better accommodate the hordes of men and women, who, whatever they tell the press, pile into commuter

services morning and afternoon. The rail industry needs resolute,

stronger-focussed structures that can better answer the demands of the communities and economies we serve. Current institutions charged with running and developing railways are unequal to such a Herculean task.

Our political leaders need courage to set free the minds and imaginations of those with a charisma born of industry knowledge and sharp-end experience. Too often we have seen railway pioneering caught short by the impoverished strictures of our time. Boldness is needed.

Change is not to be feared. However, in this industry it should be informed by railway staff at all levels who know what they’re talking about. The railway has a powerful role to play in the unfolding drama of Britain’s industrial rebirth.

We should face the future with confidence and the unshakeable conviction that the best years of the railway lie before it. Within the constraints of shift working, make time with family and friends to celebrate our continued good fortune: Merry Christmas to you all.

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Training focus in March

March’s RailStaff will include a spotlight on training where we will once again highlight some of the initiatives being delivered across the industry to train and upskill the workforce. For information about how to promote your company within the focus, call 01530 816440 or e-mail: [email protected]

Haigh Rail Expands

Expanding operations by creating a welding division. A new workforce is in place, based in Doncaster. Existing Haigh Rail staff will be receiving training, boosting skill sets and service.

Most Interesting in 2015

Twelve projects which highlighted the innovation and ingenuity of the rail industry were recognised in November as Rail Media celebrated the Most Interesting things of 2015.

14 24

Change here for services to...

Staff

“We should face the future with confidence

and the unshakeable conviction that the

best years of the railway lie before it...”

CROSSRAIL UPDATE4 | RailStaff | December 2015

Network Rail is more than halfway through its Crossrail to-do list. The project’s impressive twin-bore tunnels make up less than a quarter of the route; in fact, Network Rail is laying more new track than Crossrail’s own contractors.

Crossrail’s £2.3 billion surface section has involved the construction of a new flyover in Hillingdon and a new dive under tunnel beneath the railway at Acton.

All in all, the surface works project will involve 66 kilometres of track renewals and enhancements, 146 kilometres of OLE and four significant station projects. Overhauls are being completed at Ealing Broadway, Hayes & Harlington and West Ealing. An even bigger transformation is being carried out at Abbey Wood, where the existing station is being demolished to make way for a new interchange.

Says Mark Carne, Network Rail chief executive, ‘As part of our railway upgrade plan, we are delivering this vital component of the Crossrail programme on time and on budget. There is still a huge amount of work to do but we are on schedule to provide passengers in London and the South East with better connections, quicker, easier journeys and vastly improved stations.’

Andrew Wolstenholme, Crossrail chief executive, said, ‘While much of the focus has been on the tunnels and new stations in central London, Network Rail has been working hard to make sure that the existing railway is ready for Crossrail. This crucial work on Crossrail’s surface section will deliver major benefits for passengers and help to transform many of the areas through which the route will run.’

Derby deployment for Crossrail trains Transport for London (TfL) has revealed designs for the

new-look Crossrail Aventra trains to be built in Derby.

Almost 1,000 rail staff at Litchurch Lane will be forging ahead with the new trains that will hold 1,500 passengers in nine walk-through carriages.

The 200 metre-long trains are fully air-conditioned, accessible to all and come with real-time travel information systems and 4G Wi-Fi.

Strong lightweight materials and aluminium body shell plus regenerative breaking will make the trains fast, smooth and energy efficient. When fully operational in 2019, Crossrail trains will serve Reading and Heathrow in the west through to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.

A fitting displayThe fit-out of Crossrail’s tunnels is steaming ahead

and new images have been released showing the specially built machines doing the work.

Four multi-purpose gantries have been manufactured by Metalliance in France specifically for the fit-out of Crossrail tunnels. The gantries, which are controlled by a single operator, have been

laying sections of track in position before they are fixed in place by a 465-metre concreting train.

After placing the 108-metre sections of rail into the tunnel, the gantry then travels along the section laying sleepers and positioning the irons on top.

Most of the track in the central section will be standard slab track. However, short sections of floating track slab, which rest on a bed of rubber bearings and springs, will be used to reduce vibrations on parts of the line that travel beneath concert halls, namely the Barbican in Farringdon, and recording studios.

As well as the track, the fit-out includes the tunnel ventilation, high voltage power, traction power, signalling, communications and overhead line equipment. Work is being completed by ATC - a joint venture between Alstom, Transports Sud Ouest (TSO) and Costain Limited.

Two of the gantries are operating from Plumstead, one from Westbourne Park and the final one is working on the floating slab track in Farringdon.

Scratching the surface

December 2015 | RailStaff | 5NEWS

News that HS2 will be put through to Crewe has been welcomed by the rail freight industry.

The move will free up capacity for freight and local services.

‘By moving high-speed intercity trains onto the HS2 lines up to Crewe, additional capacity will be released for other train services, including freight, on the existing West Coast Main Line, which is a key corridor for freight,’ said Freightliner chief executive officer Russell Mears, as he welcomed the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, to Freightliner’s Basford Hall depot in Crewe.

Mears and Osborne were joined by chief executive of HS2 Simon Kirby, newly appointed chair for Transport for the North John Cridland and Martin Frobisher, route managing director, Network Rail, on the morning of the

government announcements expediting the high-speed line up to Crewe by six years.

A separate hybrid bill will be prepared for what’s been called Phase 2a of the route between Birmingham and Crewe.

Phase 2a will connect with Phase 1 just north of Lichfield. From there it makes its

way towards Manchester, joining up with the West Coast Main Line 700 metres south of Crewe station. Once connected, high-speed services between Crewe and London will cut passenger journey times by 35 minutes.

Mears added, ‘There is a strong economic rationale behind reserving

the ‘released capacity’ to grow freight volumes on the West Coast Main Line.

Rail freight has grown 80 per cent since privatisation in the mid-1990s, now transporting goods worth over £30 billion a year and the number of deep-sea containers moved by rail has more than doubled.

Freight delight at HSCrewe

© FARRELLS

NEWS6 | RailStaff | December 2015

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has started test running its new Siemens Class 700 train.

The first of the new fleet made a midnight run between its depot at Three Bridges and Brighton in late November.

The 240 metre-long, 12-carriage train – half as long again as most Thameslink trains – passed initial compatibility tests and will now

undergo further night-time test runs. Says Siemens Thameslink

programme director Dave Hooper, ‘We are delighted to see the Class 700 out on test on the mainline.

‘This is a significant step in our comprehensive testing programme and is a result of a lot of hard work from the whole Thameslink team.

‘We look forward to the Class 700 going into passenger service in spring next year.’

Night Running for 700s

The Queen has officially reopened the transformed Birmingham New Street station.

Accompanied by His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh, Her Majesty unveiled a plaque marking her visit - the first to New Street in her 62-year reign - and her first visit to the city since her Diamond Jubilee tour in 2012.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were greeted by Sir Peter Hendy, chairman of Network Rail and Mark Carne, chief executive after arriving at the station on the Royal Train.

The Queen attended a short service of dedication, led by the Bishop of Birmingham, the Right Reverend David Urquhart, for the PALS War Memorial outside the new station. The PALS were volunteer soldiers from the city who were involved in World War I after signing up to the army in September 1914.

Says Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin, who was also there, ‘Birmingham New Street is a truly remarkable development that is not only providing better journeys for passengers, but also driving economic growth and regeneration across the West Midlands and beyond. This is just one example of the record investment we are making in the rail network across the UK as part of our long-term economic plan.’

New Street Debut

On a a visit to Derbyshire, HRH the Prince of Wales took time out to travel on the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway.

Met by local rail staff and school children, Prince Charles unveiled a plaque commemorating his visit and received a commemorative book describing the history of the line and its restoration.

After a brief look at the driver’s cab, the Prince, a longtime fan of railways, joined the team for a journey along the line to Duffield. The train used was a 1959-vintage Class 119 Cross-Country Railcar built in Gloucester but restored from a shell by a team of young volunteers.

The prince chatted with staff and

volunteers fuelled by an Ecclesbourne Valley Cream Tea with honey, the Prince’s favourite.Always a supporter of railways Prince Charles ponders the delights of a second career on the metals.

Prince Backs Ecclesbourne Valley

© NEIL FERGUSON-LEE

PEOPLE8 | RailStaff | December 2015

The National College for High Speed Rail has brought in John Evans as chief executive officer.

John Evans joins from FirstGroup, where he was group HR director.

A marketing and HR professional, Evans has worked for organisations across the public and private sectors including Strathclyde Police, Diageo and British Airways.

The new job will see John taking responsibility for the development of the college curriculum and college design.

The first fully incorporated college to be developed from scratch, the facility will provide Britain’s workforce with the specialist training and qualifications required to build HS2 and other infrastructure projects in the future.

Says John Evans, ‘I am delighted to be joining the college at an exciting and

pivotal point in its development. ‘The opportunity to be involved

in shaping the college is a huge professional and personal incentive for me. I am passionate about the development of young engineering and other talent, and I believe it to be critical to building the UK’s future workforce.

‘I am really looking forward to playing a key role in developing the college which will contribute hugely to the delivery of HS2.’

The college will have two campuses - in Birmingham and Doncaster - and will also put in place links with a network of training providers from across the UK.

John was educated at Cardigan Comprehensive, Birmingham City University, and Edinburgh Business School. Interests include theatre, sailing and canoeing and photography.

Back to college for John Evans

Three young people have left behind life on the dole queue after taking part in a work training programme run by youth charity The Prince’s Trust and local train company Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR).

Tom Fuller, 21, is working at Bedford, Becky Emery, 20, and Michael Suszek, 21, are working at St Albans. The trio trained with GTR under the ‘Get Into Railways’ programme and were snapped up for permanent positions

by forward-thinking staff at GTR. Says Thameslink’s passenger service

director Stuart Cheshire, ‘The moment I met them at our end-of-course celebration I said, We have to keep these people in our organisation!’

Thameslink has run programmes for three years, giving 84 people their first taste of life on the railway, 53 of them stayed on.

It’s proved a real gateway to success for Becky Emery, from Flitwick, ‘I left school without any qualifications and everyone asks for five GCSEs and it is

so hard to get an interview. I’d kind of lost hope... Now I’m doing something I am proud of. This is life changing,’ says Becky - now shepherding passengers through the ticket gates at St Albans.

Govia Thameslink Railway is so impressed with the scheme it is extending the programme to other parts of its network with courses starting in the New Year in Stevenage and Croydon.The three young recruits with Thameslink Passenger Service Director Stuart Cheshire at Thameslink station Kentish Town.

Thameslink Trio Win Jobs

Mott MacDonald has put Dr John Perry in charge of its burgeoning transport section.

Perry moves up from his role as business development director, which he held for five years, and is now group practice manager for transportation.

He will be responsible for coordinating transport activities across the business including projects, business development and professional excellence.

Dr Perry has been involved in major projects, including Taiwan high-speed rail, and has worked on jobs across Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

Mott MacDonald’s transport business comprises 6,400 staff including engineers, project and programme managers, economists, environmentalists and transport

planners. Transport works include an involvement with the Crossrail project, New Zealand’s Auckland City Rail Link and South Africa’s Transnet port and rail upgrades.

Perry was educated at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth and has a doctorate in engineering from Durham University.

Doctor in the House

Construction executive Roger Robinson has been selected to head the HS2 joint venture ‘Fusion’, a JV between Morgan Sindall, BAM and Ferrovial.

The Birmingham-based JV will bid for contracts on the high-speed rail scheme including enabling works, surface route, viaduct, tunnels and stations.

Of his new role, he said: “To be involved in HS2 is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – and Fusion is ready to make it a reality. The amalgamation of our portfolios and the pool of talent available in our people and supply chain is extraordinary. We are uniquely placed to support HS2 in connecting communities across the UK to new opportunities and growth, and to take the construction industry to the next level in terms of collaborative delivery of significant infrastructure.”

Fusion Job

December 2015 | RailStaff | 9PEOPLE

Dan Barrett has crossed the Thames estuary to be engineering director at c2c where he will oversee the continuing success story of the Essex-coast railway - now reputedly more reliable than Swiss railways.

Once the brains behind the Javelin fleet in Ashford, Kent, Dan will be responsible for the £12 million refurbishment programme of c2c’s current fleet of 74 trains and the procurement of 17 new trains starting in 2019.

French-speaking Dan started his railway career at Eurotunnel working on Brush 9000 locomotives and Breda rolling stock.

After five years in France, he joined Alstom at Washwood Heath, Birmingham, in 2001. A year later, he moved to Bombardier as a technical manager looking after Class 365s. This led to a job at Interfleet four years later as a senior consultant. In 2007, he joined Hitachi Rail Europe where he set

up the Hitachi service team in Ashford. Dan helped engineer the fleet of 395s operating as Javelins on High Speed One - Britain’s first high-speed railway.

Says c2c managing director Julian Drury, ‘We have already started the refurbishment of our current fleet to make our trains lighter, brighter and more comfortable for passengers, and our major upgrade for 2016 will be the introduction of free onboard Wi-Fi.

‘Dan will also be leading our work to purchase 17 new trains for c2c – an increase of over 20 per cent on the current fleet. As well as welcoming Dan, I would like to say a really huge thanks to our interim engineering director, Ian Papworth.

Javelin Dan Joins c2cEsther McVey is to serve a four-

year term as the new chair of the British Transport Police Authority.

The erstwhile Conservative MP for West Wirral was formerly Work and Pensions Minister in the last government - she lost her seat in the May general election.

Says Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin, ‘The security of the travelling public has never been more important and Esther McVey will bring considerable skills to this vital task.

‘Although Britain has one of the safest railways in Europe, we face increasing risks that mean there can be no room for complacency. The British Transport Police do a fantastic job keeping passengers safe and secure, and I am

confident that under Esther’s guidance that record can continue.’

The BTP polices the London Underground, Docklands Light Railway, Croydon Tramlink, Sunderland Metro and Glasgow Subway as well as the national network, excluding Scotland - which it lost to the new force, Police Scotland.

BTP currently has around 3,000 police officers and around 600 PCSOs and Special Constables. The BTPA was established in 2004.

McVey holds degrees in law and corporate governance. She worked for the family construction firm before becoming a TV presenter. She also founded the ‘If Chloe Can’ charity providing career support and advice for school pupils.

Police Role for McVey

Emma Watkins, an apprentice at Derby College, has joined Ford & Stanley as a candidate and contractor administrator.

Emma, who was nominated at this year’s RailStaff Awards in October, decided she wanted a change of career, having previously worked in retail.

Says Emma, ‘The prospects here are great. As an apprentice, I’m able to learn new skills and develop my

knowledge and experience within recruitment.

‘Upon attending my interview, I felt very welcomed to the business which left me with a real positive impression of Ford & Stanley and the business environment.

‘As a member of the team, I enjoy the office atmosphere and can honestly say Ford & Stanley are a great company to work for.’

Rail starter to star apprentice

Phil Brown is returning to Porthmadog and a new job on the F&WHR as locomotive manager.

Phil has been operations manager at the Severn Valley Railway since 2011 and was previously deputy operations manager at the F&WHR.

Phil returns

RAIL ALLIANCE10 | RailStaff | December 2015

log on to www.railalliance.co.ukemail [email protected]

or call 01789 720026.

Join the Rail Alliance nowRail Alliance membership startsfrom just £500 per year

Oxford Plastic Systems Ltd(Plastic and composite products for the construction and rail industry. Working on developing a composite cable carrying sleeper) www.oxfordplastics.com

Heinrich Georg (UK) Ltd(Design, manufacture, build, install and service of turnkey test rigs and special purpose machining equipment for the aerospace and rail industry) www.georguk.com

Revaluetech Ltd(Specialists in the design and develop-ment of process technology to manu-facture inert composite polymer products in place of concrete, hard and soft wood. Products rail sleepers and bearers in place of creosote treated wood.) Website under development

Fabrikat (Nottingham) Ltd(Design, manufacture and supply of street lighting columns, traffic management and telecommunication structures, pedestrian guardrail, parapet, fencing and street furniture products) www.fabrikat.co.uk

Svenska Handelsbanken(One of the world’s strongest banks providing a broad spectrum of personal and corporate banking services across the UK and globally) www.handelsbanken.co.uk/doncaster

The Imagination Factory(Design engineering services to a range of industries including rail offering a human-centred design approach to achieve a risk managed innovation process) www.imaginationfactory.co.uk

Stadium IGT(Leading provider of Human Machine Interface (HMI) control panel and keypad assemblies.) www.stadium-igt.com

Nottingham Trent University(Deliverers of quality applied management education, research and consultancy including local and regional development, innovation and technology management, business strategy, sustainable business practices, marketing and HR) www.ntu.ac.uk/nbs

iLine Technologies(Trenchless rehabilitation provider. CCTV surveys, pipe cleansing, recommendation of best rehabilitation solution, CIPP GRP UV cured liners, Design of liners, full installation responsibility of liners, patch liners, GRP structural segmental lining, Directional drilling, Guided auger boring and Timber headings) www.iline.uk.com

Responsive Engineering(Cut, profile, fabricate, weld and machine a wide range of steels, aluminium and super alloys. In addition, the 20 tonne work piece weld manipulation capability, paint-shop, large capacity vertical and horizontal CNC machining centres and 16,000m² of under-crane production space offers a complete and comprehensive inspection, assembly and test service.) www.responsive-engineering.com

Xrail Solutions Ltd(Xrail is a Railway Engineering Company which delivers a high quality service, designed to tackle the most demanding rail programmes. Our core team includes: system engineers, project managers, signalling design and assurance consultants) www.xrailsolutions.com

The Global Management Group(Extensive experience of design and production of individual electro mechanical assemblies through to complete containerised communication systems within the defence industry now looking to supply to the rail industry and other sectors) www.theglobalmanagementgroup.com

New Members

Join the Rail Alliance

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone here at the Rail Alliance!

Rail Alliance wants to thank all 352 members, our wonderful industry contacts and friends, our valuable RAIL2015 sponsors, exhibitors and visitors, and of course Rail Media for all the support they have given Rail Alliance this year. Some of our highlights include:

NEW PEOPLE Rail Alliance welcomed 111 new

members and seven new team members at Rail Alliance:Paul Alliott - Technical DirectorJohn Beale - Rail Mentor Programme DeliveryChris Denison - Director of InnovationsMartin Little - Commercial DirectorJim Panter - Rail Mentor Programme ManagerLucy Prior - Membership Development & International Trade DirectorEli Rees-King - Marketing Communications Director

STRATEGIC VISION Awarded UKTI Trade Challenge Partner

– Rail Sector specialists statusRail Mentor programme launched

as part of the Rail Supply Group vision strategy

RAIL2015 delivered by Rail Alliance and supported by Rail Media

100+ companies either independently or collaboratively using test and trial facilities here at Long Marston - a significant number of which were part of the Future Railway “Test Voucher Scheme” amounting to over 375 test days onsite.

TOP EVENTS 18 high-quality Rail Alliance-run

networking events successfully delivered, Rail Alliance representation at FIVE main industry exhibitions

– including Railtex (NEC), LUX Live (Excel London), Advanced Engineering (NEC), Lightscene (Institute of Lighting Professionals), RVE (Derby) plus attendance at many more industry events.

Working even more closely and supporting industry specialist groups and organisations including Young Rail Professionals (YRP), RSSB/Future Railway, Rail Research UK Association (RRUKA), The National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering (NSARE), National Training Academy for Rail (NTAR), Newcastle College Rail Academy (NCRA) - and we look forward to deepening these growing relationships• Regional expansion in Wales,

Scotland, North East and North West• 44 newsletters delivered to 120,000

key industry contacts• 4,000 tweets, 350,000 tweet

impressions• 50+ Linkedin posts on industry issues

and points of interest.

NEW MEDIASome of our members and contacts

in the business and rail community may have noticed an increased activity in using Twitter and LinkedIn. Lucy and Eli are the Rail Alliance’s chief “tweeters” and we have experienced first-hand just how useful and effective social media can be. Between us, not only have we been able to promote Rail Alliance members and push industry relevant news – but also significant business opportunities through raising awareness about the work that Rail Alliance undertakes and also what’s happening with members and the wider industry.

Why not give it a go if you haven’t already? Contact either Lucy or Eli who can help with any tips or guidance – just give either one of us a shout!

Please follow us @therailalliance (Eli) and @LUCYLucyprior and we will follow you back.

Christmas cheer forRail Alliance

FEATURE12 | RailStaff | December 2015

Three far-reaching reports have dominated discussions over the past few weeks, and there was a common theme: some things need to change.

Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy, HS1 chief executive Nicola Shaw and Dame Colette Bowe have written a combined 168 pages on the current performance and financial state of Network Rail. Of the three, Hendy’s was the most anticipated; it was expected to reveal which projects, if any, would be cancelled and how Network Rail was going to overcome the delivery challenges faced by its enhancement programme.

Hendy sums it up simply in his foreword: ‘No infrastructure schemes have been cancelled’.

In fact, the majority of projects committed to in CP5 will be delivered within the funding period despite shortcomings in the planning process and a much stricter budget.

There will, however, be an impact on the cost of works. An additional £2.5

billion will be required on top of the £11.8 billion already committed to the enhancements budget. The rising cost of electrification schemes is the main factor.

Network Rail intends to raise £1.8 billion by selling off non-core assets with the remaining £700 million coming from the Government.

Hendy was appointed as the new chairman of Network Rail in July. He was tasked by the Secretary of State to carry out a thorough review of the CP5 enhancements programme.

Speaking with the assembled railway press, Hendy said that Network Rail had accepted the ambitious CP5 programme based on its funding model pre-reclassification. Those ‘comfortable’ days of borrowing to cover budget overruns are now long gone, said Hendy.

‘I think it’s a lesson not only for the organisation but for everybody else in the railway industry as well.’

Hendy expects only a handful of projects to creep into CP6, including the electrification of Oxenholme to

Windermere and Bolton-Wigan, and capacity schemes at London’s Victoria and Waterloo stations.

He also said that the core business plan for the operation, maintenance and renewal of the network has had to be updated. Network Rail will now be unable to achieve the level of savings it had originally assumed, which will mean postponing some renewals works.

As well as seeking to address the current issues facing Network Rail, the report identifies the reasons why the organisation is faced with them in the first place. It says there was over optimism on costs and timescales, inadequate planning and changes in the scope and delivery of projects.

The report also acknowledges that there are various factors that could yet affect Network Rail’s ability to deliver the programme: changes in the DfT’s rolling stock specification, the limited pool of skilled signalling engineers, franchises changing hands and/or delays in the approval of new products.

HEND

Y RE

PORT

Green light for projects but £2.5 billion more needed

December 2015 | RailStaff | 13FEATURE

Message from the CEOSpeaking during the Future of Rail

conference at London’s Waldorf Hilton hotel the day before Hendy published his report, chief executive Mark Carne said it was important to recognise the success Network Rail has had with projects like Birmingham New Street, Borders and the new Oxford-London Marylebone link.

‘It’s important that we all recognise the success of our industry,’ said Carne. He went on to compare Network Rail’s performance with other European nations. ‘We’re by no means a laggard in Europe in train performance as a whole.’

But he did recognise that things haven’t gone well in recent months. Network Rail has drawn criticism from various quarters over the past few weeks for its handling of the Great Western electrification project, which Carne admitted to ministers last month would be delivered later than planned and at a higher cost.

‘You will have seen the press coverage of this; it’s not gone as we had hoped it would go, of course it hasn’t,’ said Mark Carne.

‘The costs are much higher than even we thought they’d be a year ago and significantly higher than we thought they’d be when the idea was first drawn up five years ago.’

Too many projects included in the CP5 plan were at an immature level of planning, said Carne, who sought to explain some of the reasons behind the challenges on the Great Western and several other major electrification schemes. At the point Network Rail announced ambitious plans to electrify a large portion of the national network, it had no compliant design against which to carry out cost estimations.

Ultimately, he felt that Network Rail now needs to dig in.

‘We need to press on. We need to press on with devolution… We need to press on with the commercial innovation that I’ve been talking about because we’re going to need new ways of raising money to invest in the railway. We need to press on with

the Digital Railway approach as well because we have to create a lot more capacity on our railway and we know that building new railways in urban centres is just not practical.’

No place for the ORR?Bowe, like Hendy, was also critical

of Network Rail’s planning approach, but she also felt that there needed to be a close examination of the ORR’s role and responsibilities in reviewing the planning of multi-billion pound enhancements schemes.

Hendy said he thought the relationship between Network Rail and the ORR needed to be ‘reset’, referring specifically to the approach taken by London Underground.

‘I’m interested to discover the role of the railway regulator because I ran quite a big railway and I didn’t have a regulator at all,’ said Hendy.

‘We decided our view of renewals and enhancements for the Underground on a business basis. This is now a publicly-owned company, wholly owned by government, and actually government can decide itself various things about the operation of the railway without reference to a regulator. I don’t think there’s no use for regulation here - apart from everything else it’s inevitable. If you look at Shaw, it’s quite inevitable that people will want to get third party money into the railway because the whole history since the formation of British Railways is that there’s never been enough public money to invest in the railway, so you will need a regulator.’

Alluding to Hendy’s past life as a bus driver, Terence Watson, the UK president for Alstom and co-chair of the Rail Supply Group, said the report showed that the wheels haven’t come off the bus. ‘We can hear a bearing rubbing but that’s about it,’ he added, addressing the NSAR annual general meeting on 1 December.

More detail on what impact the review will have on individual projects will be published later this month.

Says Hendy, ‘The Government has demonstrated in its funding commitment that it is completely committed to modernising the nation’s railways to enable sustained economic growth, job creation and to build homes. Network Rail will do its utmost to deliver the improvements set out in this report.’

14 | RailStaff | December 2015 MOST INTERESTING AWARDS 2015

Twelve projects which highlighted the innovation and ingenuity of the rail industry were recognised in November as Rail Media celebrated the Most Interesting things of 2015.

Sponsored by Ford & Stanley, J. Murphy & Sons, Rhomberg Sersa and Taylor Construction Plant (TCP), this year’s Rail Exec Gala was held at The Roundhouse in Derby - a building steeped in railway heritage - on 19 November.

It’s an awards event with a difference. The 12 nominees were shortlisted by the editorial teams at RailStaff and Rail Engineer before being judged by a panel of industry experts.

Safety & SustainabilityInnovative cameras designed to reduce the number of

drivers jumping the red lights at level crossings won The Most Interesting Initiative in Safety & Sustainability.

Developed by Futronics, Vysionics and SEA and installed nationwide by Carillion the cameras can operate 24 hours a day, without the need for a police officer on site, and the evidence gathered can be used to prosecute drivers.

Original DesignPan-European research programme SUSTRAIL won

The Most Interesting Original Design Award.Thirty-one organisations from 12 countries

contributed to the initiative, which aimed to design the freight train of the future. The project has produced a rail freight vehicle with the potential for large cost and energy savings.

Support EquipmentA multi-million-pound project to renew radio

equipment on a mountaintop in the Scottish Highlands was recognised in The Most Interesting Development in Support Equipment category.

Delivered by Telent, the project has involved replacing ageing radio infrastructure on the Far North and West Highland Lines, including an installation at White Corries ski resort near Glencoe. Some parts of the mountain range are so remote that technicians have had to be transported to and from site by helicopter.

Training and DevelopmentThe National Training Academy in Sheffield topped

The Most Interesting Training and Development Programme of the year category.

Established by NTRS - a division of Linbrooke Services - the academy was created to help the industry keep up with a growing demand for signalling testers. The centre features a realistic platform and track environment with various styles of signalling, point operating and train detection and protection equipment.

InternationalA €1.8 billion high-speed rail bypass in France

was named as The Most Interesting International Participation by a UK company.

The Montpellier bypass, known as Contournement Nîmes-Montpellier (CNM), will be the first mixed-use TGV and freight railway in France. The project is being delivered by Colas and Colas Rail - both Bouygues Construction subsidiaries - in partnership with Alstom and Systra.

DevelopmentThe re-boring of Farnworth Tunnel was awarded The

Most Interesting Infrastructure Development accolade at the 2015 Rail Exec Gala.

The scheme has involved enlarging one of the 19th century bores to accommodate a double-track railway and overhead line equipment. This required the contractor to fill the Up tunnel with foam concrete and re-bore it. All of this was completed with services running through the adjacent Down tunnel.

‘This job is special,’ said Michael Boyle, project manager, J. Murphy & Sons. ‘We’ve had a lot of special people. I’m privileged to work with them all.’

New ProductA high-performance track innovation from Tata Steel

Rail has scooped the award for The Most Interesting New Product at the Rail Exec Gala.

Tata Steel produced HP335 - a high-performance rail steel - to combat the issue of cracking caused by rail wear, known in the industry as Rolling Contact Fatigue. The company estimates that more than 600 kilometres of the new rail has been installed around the country to date.

Major ProjectA transformational project to reinvent Birmingham

New Street station was named the Most Interesting Major Infrastructure Project of 2015.

The £750 million project, which was delivered by Network Rail, Mace, Coleman & Company and Atkins, has resulted in a much brighter, bigger and more modern station with lifts and escalators linking all platforms to concourse level for the first time, significantly improving accessibility and passenger flows.

OperationsThe Independently Powered EMU (IPEMU), a joint

project conducted by Network Rail, Future Railway, Abellio and Bombardier, won The Most Interesting Approach to Train Operations.

Engineers working on the project explored the possibility of fitting batteries to an electric train as an alternative to electrification. The IPEMU has completed a series of trials, including a successful two-month stint in passenger service.

Community EngagementTrack Partnership, a joint venture between London

Underground and Balfour Beatty, won The Most Interesting Community Engagement Activity award for having received no complaints over the course of the two Christmas closures.

Andy Titterton-Fox, project manager, Track Partnership, said, ‘It was a complete team effort. It wasn’t just a good plan, it was great delivery. Everyone from top to bottom contributed.’

InnovationA radical new railway switch design from

Loughborough University won The Most Interesting Innovation of 2015.

The project team, which received the award at the Rail Exec Gala in Derby, sought to create a switch design that requires no maintenance, experiences no failures, has no space requirement, zero energy use and no cost. The result was REPOINT.

Roger Dixon, professor of control systems at Loughborough University, said, ‘We’re really pleased with the award, and we hope it will add a bit of a trailing wind to helping us get over the next hurdle, which is to build that full scale prototype.’

InventorChris Scott, an inventor of bespoke engineering

solutions for the rail industry, has been labelled Most Interesting Thing That Occurred in 2015. Examples of Chris’ work include mobile crash decks, protective workforce shelters, a 10-tonne bogie for transporting materials and an elevated platform which was used to drill 6,200 holes into Whiteball tunnel.

Chris said he was ‘astounded’ and humbled by the award.

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners, including the winner of our photographic competition, Network Rail’s Paul Sherriff. If your project is featured in either RailStaff or Rail Engineer in the coming months, it could be your team being recognised in 2016, but we need to know about it so get in touch.

Most Interesting in 2015

INTERVIEW16 | RailStaff | December 2015

On New Year’s Eve one of the more successful operations of the new rail industry passes into history. Directly Operated Railways (DOR), created by Lord Adonis as the operator of last resort, will be reabsorbed by the DfT, leaving its offices at Chancery Lane on the site of Old Serjeants’ Inn.

The move doesn’t perturb current chief executive Michael Holden, who is stepping down - although the phrase hardly befits a man who shins up Mount Kilimanjaro, bests Everest Base Camp and regularly hikes hills.

Holden, fit and slim and 30 pounds lighter than he was 10 years ago, is looking forward to skiing in the New Year with his daughters. A reassuring figure, it is easy to imagine him calming down meetings of goggle-eyed civil servants.

DOR first came to national attention after National Express pulled the emergency cord on East Coast. The operator had put in an optimistic bid which it could not deliver during the recession. A private sector operator dodging risk when times turned tough did not play well with consumers anymore than it did with government.

Small and temporary Few among rail staff and passengers

mourned the departure of National Express Group. However, six years later staff and public both felt DOR should continue to run the intercity operation. Staff morale was high and services punctual. Why not keep the premier Anglo-Scots rail link in the public sector? The chief executive disavows the compliment.

‘DOR has worked despite being in the public sector not because of it,’ says Holden. He alludes to a good relationship with Clare Moriarty, Director General of Rail at the DfT at the time, and the inspired choice of Karen Boswell to lead DOR’s East Coast operation. However, the main reason for its success was its simplicity. The team was small, temporary and knew about franchises.

Nevertheless, the successful custodianship of the jewel of the east marks a singular achievement for Holden - who has form in this area - just as it does for Boswell and indeed train crew and depot staff from Craigentinny to Bounds Green.

Fire and rescue Back in May 2003, Holden was drafted

in by the Strategic Rail Authority to take over the failed South Eastern franchise run by Connex. As managing director,

Michael Holden appointed a senior team full of experienced rail managers and set about boosting reliability, service quality and staff morale. It was a role he performed for three years until the franchise, as it is now, passed back into the private sector, this time under the aegis of Govia.

Surely walking through the post-apocalyptic fallout of failed NEG and Connex franchises would confirm this BR careerist as a vertically integrated statist? Not so. Holden carries no torch for nationalised railways.

He served time at Railtrack, joining in 1994, and helped set up the bewildering contractual mosaic posited by the 1993 Railways Act. As zone director of South West, he would have seen at first hand the arrival of Stagecoach and the subsequent departure of far too many drivers - often the seniors in the link - under an ill-thought-through voluntary redundancy scheme.

After the Stephen Byers (transport secretary) coup de foudre opened the sea cocks on Railtrack, Holden stayed put working as Regional Director Southern through Network Rail’s hastily induced birth. It was from a nascent Network Rail that he was seconded by Richard Bowker’s SRA, blue lights flashing, to cone off and resuscitate South Eastern.

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Andy Milne talks to Michael Holden on the eve of his departure from Directly Operated Railways.

fromViewthe top

Michael Holden in his office while working at Railtrack.

December 2015 | RailStaff | 17INTERVIEW

For Holden it was a welcome return to passenger operations - he had been operations manager for the South West Division at Network South East under BR. The advantage of running a rail operation is that, ‘You can put your arms round it,’ says Holden. ‘Get to know everyone.’

Quantum of Rugby Michael Holden joined the railway as a traffic

student aged 18 in 1974. BR ran a scheme of sponsored students. ‘What appealed to me was that you were paid throughout. Six months at university and six months practical.’

Competition for places was keen. ‘You do play rugby don’t you?’ Dick Hardy, a training and development officer on the Southern, asked him at his interview at Waterloo. ‘Yes,’ came the measured reply as Holden tamped down distressing memories of the cold and mud of rugby afternoons at the Leys School, Cambridge. ‘I had played but loathed it,’ says Michael.

However, Hardy ticked the form and the two, years later, remain friends - both are members of the Southern Railway Association. Holden read business studies at Portsmouth University half the year and spent the other half shunting in Eastleigh Yard, unloading cars on the Dover-Calais ferry and learning every aspect of railway operations.

After graduation he rose to become area manager at Colchester and later Watford. Along the way he met and married his wife, Irene. The family lives in Woking and the couple have three daughters, Steph, Tash, and Jazz. Through his family, he became involved in Pinewood Gymnastics Club, which was in the throes of a financial crisis. Faced with the club’s closure,

Holden became treasurer. ‘I stuck my head above the parapet,’ he says. Over the next four years, the club was made into a Company Limited by Guarantee and a programme put into place to stabilise its finances.

There’s an echo here of his railway career - coloured by analogies of the gymnastic contortions favoured by railway fixers.

Structural realignmentLike many BR careerists, Holden sees an industry

where its structures fail it. ‘On balance, privatisation was a good thing,’ he says. ‘But if I had that time again, I’d do it differently. BR couldn’t have gone on as it was.’ Despite its shortcomings, he believes the industry is coming to terms with itself. ‘In the last 10 years, the industry has started to mature,’ he argues

and then puts in the rider, ‘It now needs further structural realignment.’

For Holden, the continuing controversy with franchising and the emerging crisis at Network Rail should be viewed as the chance to recalibrate the industry. He terms it, ‘a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reset the British organisational model to give it a better chance to work more effectively.’

Holden has spoken publicly about this and the challenges the rail industry faces. The government is too closely involved in railway minutiae and has lost sight of the need for long-term vision and strategy.

‘I’m not really in favour of government delivering public services - it does not have a good track record.’ Unhappily the huge sums of money involved make it difficult for central government to relinquish control.

Folkestone Warren – structures inspection of the sea defences after a large rotational slip when he was Regional Director Southern for Railtrack.


Red in tooth and clawSpeaking earlier this year in the

United States he said, ’It is plain to see that competition drives improvement and innovation, so long as it isn’t stifled by the existing rules of the system it is plugged into.

Equally, free market capitalism, red in tooth and claw, does not sit so well in an industry which has significant natural monopolies, severe capacity restrictions, consumes significant public funds and requires extensive collaboration across its interfaces to make it work properly.’ A pragmatic approach that capitalises on the industry’s inherent strengths is what’s needed. The big problem is defining who does what.

‘Network Rail needs to have something done to it,’ he says. ’It’s not helping the customer.’ In fact Network Rail is too big and responsible for too much - operations, development, maintenance project management and a vast property portfolio.

Holden says network planning and access allocation should be handed to a separate government agency, into which Network Rail’s current longer-term planning activities should be transferred.

The new agency would also specify, manage and let inter-urban franchises. Access planning, timetabling and matters requiring cross-industry consistency, for example fares and ticketing systems, would also be overseen by this agency. Holden makes

it clear such an agency would need to be run by well paid, competent people with the requisite railway, commercial and planning skills.

Network Rail he sees as becoming a delivery organisation concentrating on major project execution, day-to-day renewals and maintenance, and management and operation of the network. Local arrangements would be agreed with the agency. An evolving system would supplant the risk-averse centrist track authority.

Trains and Mains Holden emphasises the success

of locally specified railways. ‘The concessioning model seems to work well when there is a local public transport authority which sees rail travel as a key driver of the economic and social fabric of its community.’

Concessions are where the local authority specifies the service required and takes the revenue risk on it. This leaves the train service operator free to concentrate solely on running the service.

‘All tram and light rail systems are operated on this kind of model, as is Merseyrail.’ The idea is gaining ground and indeed works well on London Overground, Croydon Tramlink and the Tyne and Wear Metro. The principle is to take away the decision making from a remote authority and make it local. More urban commuter franchises could be absorbed by the model, he argues.

However, long-distance services should be run as open access agreements. It is unfair to expect incumbent franchisees to bear the loss of revenue open access brings.

Better to open the whole route up to commercial competition. ‘The dog fight for paths on the East Coast Main Line has been a recurring soap opera over the last 15 years, and has consumed enormous energy,’ says Holden.

Although the original 1993 act provided for on-track competition, the huge success of railways constrains capacity needed for extra paths. An independent rail-run rail agency, a redefinition of Network Rail, greater local control and the introduction of open access, long-distance, operators in competition with each other will create a very different railway from the current model. Such change would require an awful lot of determination and leadership.

Strategic Vision ‘Our biggest problem is lack of

leadership. There’s no driving mind, no strategy, no vision,’ says Holden.

What about the RDG? ‘The RDG was an attempt to fill the void but really only for TOCs and Network Rail and was unable to occupy that position properly.’ He is equally dismissive of the ORR and DfT. Look further at railways and the disjointed nature of the thinking behind the future is even more evident.

‘Take HS2,’ he says, ‘There’s no central vision. How will it be regulated? Franchised? Fares and ticketing?’ Holden shrugs. Why does it end at Curzon Street in Birmingham

Go Mad Day - selling cakes for Railway Children on board an East Coast train.


and not the recently redeveloped New Street? Why no connection to Heathrow? Crossrail is the same - no connection to the West Coast Main Line. Where’s the joined-up thinking? Holden’s ideas have a broad currency among railway staff, fed up with the inadequate mechanisms that govern an industry keen to expand.

‘We are experiencing the problems of success, a good thing. The government has shown enormous faith in railways,’ he says. The industry is fit, full of pioneers and keen to expand. Adult-onset fitness forms a theme in Holden’s own career.

High CountryHolden’s dramatic weight loss and physical fitness

regime came about when he left South Eastern Trains 10 years ago - aged 50. He had been a supporter of the Railway Children charity from early on and is also a committee member of the Railway Ball - a separate entity to Railway Children and among its biggest fundraisers. Then 10 years ago his role changed.

‘We were looking for new challenges. The roster of annual events became stale, and we wanted something to attract leaders of industry.’ The idea of organising a Railway Children ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro came up. ‘I latched onto this and felt duty bound to go. It was the spur I needed. I had put on weight in my forties.’ In fact old photos are now misleading - be warned.

‘I turned 50, left South Eastern Trains in April 2006 and decided to take up the gym twice a week to get in trim.’ He also went swimming and took up long hikes - an essential element of preparation for life in the mountains.

After Kili he maintained the fitness level, stepping it up to mount an attempt on Everest Base Camp - as part of a Railway Children expedition - in March this year.

‘Ten months before the expedition, I made changes to what I ate, cut out cereal and sugar. I‘d eat a lot of eggs, chicken and nuts.’ Holden manages to fit in exercise around a busy routine by walking - to the railway station from his house, 1.7 miles, and from Waterloo to Chancery Lane - a 20-minute dash. All this saw him lose 14 kilos in 10 months.

Consultancy work took him to Sweden and Ireland as well as a broad sweep of infrastructure providers, train operators, railway companies and government, but he finds time to keep fit and devotes considerable time to Railway Children.

‘Charitable fundraising is quite a tough world, but we’ve been able to secure key funding increases each year through the recession and the medium of the Railway Ball attracting senior people in the rail industry.’ The railway industry has a great sense of togetherness that has worked well for Railway Children. Already Holden is training for an expedition to Mount Kenya next year.

ResolutionHolden’s ideas of a new pro-rail government

agency, a reformed Network Rail and better thought through train operations might have seemed fanciful a year ago. Now such alchemy is being openly discussed in Whitehall. Much of the current government’s hopes for future prosperity depend on the base-metal of a strong economy. Railways are seen as the catalyst, the philosopher’s stone. What’s needed are mountain people, not the myopia of the valley floor, to provide unified vision and purpose.

One benefit of a majority administration and the long and much admired tenure of Patrick McLoughlin as Secretary of State is a deepening governmental knowledge of the industry. Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the floatation of Railtrack and the launching of the first private franchises. Structural change is long overdue if only to better accommodate rail’s inherent success and capacity imperatives. Most railway people understand this. Downing Street, we know, takes a close interest in rail - witness its intervention in the un-pausing of Midland Main Line electrification - and will be considering this too.

The next step must involve serious leaders from within the industry leading it from the top. This Christmas, once the cabinet parties are over and it’s safe to put the mistletoe back up, Holden’s Theorem may well form the basis of a powerful New Year’s Resolution for railways at No. 10.

Michael (second from right) reaches Everest Base Camp in March 2015.

TRACK SAFETY22 | RailStaff | December 2015

I have always supported individualism and believed that one of the mainstays of good management is the recognition of good ideas and the encouragement of those who put them forward.

However as we approach the season of good cheer with both Christmas and New Year festivities looming many of us are looking forward to participating in something alcoholic.

Alcohol and drugsLiving where I do in the borderland

of Northumberland I am aware of four differing alcohol/drug limits for working/driving. Scotland now has a more stringent blood alcohol limit than the rest of the UK. However, Network Rail and London Underground still insist on differing drugs and alcohol testing criteria. In my ignorance I know not what testing standards are used by our metro and tram systems.

Docklands Railway of course still uses a system for safe rail working that was once used by Railtrack. I believe they are still working to the former heavy rail system using PICOW’s (Persons In Charge Of Work) whilst London Underground has its tried and tested Possession Master system. Network Rail’s Safe System of Work plans are different again.

Rule simplificationKnowing as we do that people

working on track follow their work around the UK, surely safer and more productive working would result if infrastructure owners harmonised their rules and processes? One thing is certain. Frequently changing systems

and having unnecessarily different systems for each rail infrastructure owner does not make for safer working.

I am also of the opinion that each and every rule change itself imports risk. Consequently changes should aim at simplification and only be made when the benefits will outweigh the risks resulting from the change.

BoundariesI still have a clear memory of an

electrification worker stopping me as I walked through a worksite a good many years ago. He asked me which side of the BR regional boundary we were on. He had the knowledge and skills to do his work, but on his fifth night shift that week just couldn’t quite remember where the boundary was. However, he knew that the rules for doing the work were different depending on the Region! Clearly nonsensical but are we any better today?

Channel Tunnel fire 2015The report on the Channel Tunnel fire

aboard a freight shuttle that occurred on 17th January this year has yet to be published.

The investigation is a joint one between our Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) and the French Bureau d’Enquetes sur les Accidents Transport Terreste (BEA-TT) with the latter leading since the train stopped in the French sector of the Tunnel. (However the safety rules do not change as one passes through the tunnel.)

RAIB have now completed their investigation into the cause of the fire. Meanwhile BEA-TT is continuing its investigations into Eurotunnel’s response to the second power tripping of traction power and the management of the incident. When all inquiries are completed their joint report will be published in both French and English.

Two lorries consumedTwo lorries were “completely

consumed” by the fire and there was also damage to rolling stock, rail infrastructure and the lining of the tunnel. This resulted in several days of severe disruption to train services through the Tunnel.

At 12 noon on January 17th Shuttle 7340 (Folkestone to Coquelles) entered the Tunnel through the UK portal. An electric arc occurred soon afterwards between the overhead power line and an open topped carrier wagon (the 15th in a train of 32). The carrier wagons are designed to carry a single lorry or a number of smaller commercial vehicles. RAIB says that the arcing was “almost certainly” due to an over-height radio aerial attached to the rear of the lorry’s cab.

First and second power tripsThe fault operated detection device

tripped the power supply to the

RULES ARE TO BE OBEYED BY FOOLS BUT INTERPRETED BY WISE MEN

SAFETYColin [email protected]

AN OUT OF DATE MAXIM, BUT SHOULD IT BE?

December 2015 | RailStaff | 23TRACK SAFETY

overhead line and the Shuttle came to a stand. Unaware of the reason for the power trip the Control Staff restored the power and gave permission for the Shuttle driver to continue but at a reduced speed of 100 kph rather than the normal 140 kph.

Twenty three minutes later the Control Centre received a fire alarm from a detector located at 29 km from the UK Portal, or 21 km from the French one. At the same time the Shuttle’s train fire alarm system detected a fire which its driver reported to the Control Centre. Then the power supply system tripped out for a second time.

Stopped at a cross passageBy this time the Shuttle was already in

the last SAFE station area where water mist systems designed to control a fire on a stationary train are located. Each SAFE station is 870 metres long and there are two in each running tunnel. The driver had to bring his train to a halt in the tunnel. He stopped at 1226 in a position where the amenity coach, (immediately behind the locomotive) was adjacent to cross passage 4418, at 16 km from the French portal.

The cross passages link the two running tunnels via a central service tunnel and provide a safe haven in case of fire. By the time the train had come to a halt its rear had passed beyond the Safe Station by around 750 metres so its mist system was not activated.

Whip aerial heightThree staff and all 38 passengers were

evacuated into the service tunnel by 1335 when fire fighting began. By 1403 they had left the cross passage and were being taken by service vehicles to the

French terminal. Although the fire was under control

by 1640, it took a few hours more of dousing before cooling down was completed. CCTV footage/metreage of the lorry on the 15th wagon during loading shows the whip aerial standing higher than the leading edge of the trailer. RAIB established that it was close to the power line and above the 4.2 metres rail level limit.

Too fast for detectionAt the terminal over-height detection

equipment has been in use since 1994. At the UK portal the power line height is reduced. Although the equipment was designed to detect thin aerials (around one mm in diameter), the RAIB concluded that they are not sensitive enough to reliably detect thin aerials on lorries passing the system at “typical lorry speeds.

”An inexperienced loading assistant spotted the aerial standing higher than usual and asked his colleague for guidance. His colleague reminded him that the lorry had already passed the height detection equipment and advised that no further action was needed. RAIB have noted this missed opportunity to intervene.

Eurotunnel has taken actionThe carrier wagon had an open top so

there was no physical barrier between the aerial and the overhead power line. Although originally roofed, concerns over the structural integrity of them led to their removal.

The RAIB states that the roof removal safety risk assessment did not lead to a review of the aerial detection system. They comment that control measures

were “positive in protecting assets and operations” but did not address the additional risks to passengers and crew.

In Clause 15 the RAIB report that “Eurotunnel has taken actions intended to reduce the probability of a recurrence of a similar incident.” I hope the actions spoken of will be fully spelt out when the complete report is published; meanwhile the tone of this comment is less than reassuring?

Will Crossrail and HS2 do better?Of course the Channel Tunnel has its

own rules and regulations, due in part at least to the speeds at which it operates. Hopefully in future as High Speed 2 and high speed lines at last begin to be built and enter service a degree of uniformity will be introduced in rules, systems and processes.

When it begins to operate will Crossrail operate in a similar manner to London Underground or will some clever risk assessment result in yet another set of rules and regulations?

Zero in 2016As I commented last month will we

continue to make rule changes twice a year? Finally in these days of austerity surely the more rules we have the higher the cost, and I for one believe the more unsafe things will be.

I leave you to deduce my New Year resolution aspirations for our railways. At the end of the day zero accidents and incidents must be the aim and 2016 needs to be the year when improvements begin.


This winter, Haigh Rail Ltd is expanding operations by creating a welding division. A new workforce is in place, based in Doncaster. Existing Haigh Rail staff will be receiving welding training, boosting skill sets and service provision.

With a rapidly expanding client portfolio, following projects completed for Buckingham Group, National Express, Rhomberg Sersa and Midland Metro – as well as heritage work on Ribble Railway, East Lancashire Railway and North York Moors – Haigh Rail is already making a name for itself as one of the industry’s foremost providers of high-quality, safe and inspected welding services.

Chris Haigh, managing director,

started the business four years ago in 2011, undertaking track work and P-way projects. Since then Haigh Rail has grown, capitalising on a hand-picked, highly motivated workforce.

The company operates from offices in Chorley, Lancashire and Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

Safety first To create and maintain a better

railway, outstanding safety and outstanding workmanship must go hand in hand. All staff receive regular safety briefings which are led from the top down, in conjunction with the company’s health and safety representative.

Safety starts at the planning stage, where everyone who comes into contact with rail work is factored

into the process: rail passengers, the general public, colleagues and all other companies involved.

Driving force Chris Haigh started as a trainee

technical engineer with Carillion - formerly Centrac, where he studied for a BTEC in civil engineering whilst gaining valuable on-the-job training. Haigh soon won his first promotion to supervisor/site manager, delivering major S&C renewals works on the West Coast Main Line. His career continued to develop at companies including Network Rail, Babcock Rail, Amey and Colas.

Having acquired a wealth of valuable industry experience, Chris Haigh decided it was time to pursue his vision of improving on the practices

E x p a n d sHaigh Rail


and procedures of the companies he’d worked for, providing outstanding workmanship to the rail industry. In 2011, he formed Haigh Rail.

The last four years have been a story of growth and putting into place the elements of the business with which to achieve his vision. Haigh Rail is currently tendering for a number of contracts which, if successful, will move the company forward.

An important step in the company’s progression was the appointment of an industry specialist, Dan Foster, who joined the organisation as the professional head of track renewal and maintenance. Dan brings with him over 17 years of rail experience, gained at major industry names including Carillion Rail, Babcock Rail and Amey Sersa.

The best people in the industry Recruitment is key to ensuring the

company continues to expand by taking on the very best people from the industry. Chris Haigh has always taken a careful and considered approach to recruitment, choosing people based on their significant industry experience and their shared vision for building a better railway.

Professional head of welding Mick Downing was recruited to run the welding division in Doncaster. Mick is an all-round professional with 36 years’ experience amassed from major national P-way renewals, small private heritage railways and crane projects.

He has worked as welding manager or head of welding at a number of high-profile organisations, including British Rail, Trackwork Ltd, Carillion and Renown Railway Consultants Ltd.

At Haigh Rail, where Mick has worked since 2014, he is responsible for workforce development, with the aim of offering the best welding, grinding

and inspection services in the rail industry. His job is also to support client health and safety.

Dan Foster has worked on some of the rail industry’s most challenging yet successful projects in the last 10 years. Haigh Rail knew it was a real coup when he agreed to join the growing business.

Finance manager Claire Webley gained valuable industry experience at Siemens, where she worked her way up from assistant project accountant to regional finance manager, showing a talent and work ethic that made her a natural for Haigh Rail. Working

alongside Chris, Claire’s responsibilities are growing all the time as the company tenders for contracts with new high-profile clients and looks to recruit more industry talent.

Dan, Mick and Claire, along with the rest of the team, are instrumental in helping Chris Haigh to achieve his vision of building a better railway for Britain.

Haigh Rail is already making a name for itself as one of the industry’s foremost providers of high-quality, safe and inspected welding services. Next year looks set to deliver more continuous welded success for Haigh Rail.

YOUNG RAIL PROFESSIONALS26 | RailStaff | December 2015

Supporting Young Rail Professionals (YRP) from the very top, the YRP London and South East Region hosted the second annual Politics of Rail event, which saw talks from Mike Brown, Commissioner of Transport for London, and John Nelson, a senior transport advisor. Claire Perry MP, a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Transport, sent her apologies as she unfortunately needed to drop out due to ministerial commitments.

Politics and the railway are inextricably linked, with the decisions and policies of successive governments having, for better or worse, huge impacts on the industry. The Politics of Rail events, organised by YRP’s external relations manager, Paul Case, offer members the very unique opportunity to hear from and question industry leaders, politicians, and rail experts about how politics and policy affect the railway, and what challenges and opportunities the industry faces over the next five years.

Generously hosted once again at the offices of Bircham Dyson Bell, the attendance reached maximum capacity for the second year running. Mike Brown opened the evening with very kind remarks on YRP as an organisation, calling YRP a ‘stunning achievement, covering, uniquely, every job across this great industry’.

Commissioner Brown also showed his commitment to YRP, officially announcing that TfL will become a Platinum level Corporate Member of YRP, to show its support and to play an important role in encouraging young people to sustain the rail industry, and society’s transport needs, in the future.

Running both the most extensive bus network in the world - in addition to an entire transport network, which serves an additional 500,000 people a year and is always increasing in both capacity and accessibility - Brown noted that TfL ‘has a contribution to improve London’s overall health’, and stressed that future success would only be enabled by a number of specific commitments from the Government.

First amongst the commitments from Government would be a confirmation of support for the existing TfL Business Plan and the £10 billion investment programme, as TfL’s financial independence is envied worldwide and is the key facilitator of its continuous upgrades. Second would be an official indicator of support for Crossrail 2, once Lord Adonis’ report is issued in the new year.

Brown’s third discussion of commitment nodded to an impending announcement from Government, and was in fact an exclusive scoop on the night for YRP members, that London services would need a joined-up approach, including increased connection to,

and authority for, suburban services. Brown followed up to say that soon there would be an announcement from the Department for Transport that TfL would take an expanded role in managing and integrating suburban service networks as the franchises came up for renewal.

The fourth and final necessary governmental commitment Brown noted was applicable to the wider country, that London and all of the other cities in the UK would need truly devolved powers in order to deliver transport and economic benefits to their constituencies. London would be able to share its best practices with smart ticketing technology, infrastructure investment and supply chain management. TfL, as Europe’s largest user of contactless card technology, could provide invaluable knowledge into future ticketing practices for both intra- and inter-city travel in Great Britain.

John Nelson - a railway veteran with a sustained and diverse career, including as a General Manager, Eastern Region for British Rail - spoke to the historical and future links between the railways and the Government, noting that we have politicians to thank for getting rail projects like Thameslink and Crossrail off the ground, and that trade union legislation has been the key to how the rail industry can organise and manage itself.

Now, in a period of anticipation of multiple Government-commissioned

reports on the performance and structure of the rail industry, including the Shaw Report, and, at the time of the YRP event, the Bowe Review and the Hendy Review, the emphasis has been to review the use of public money in a period of record investment.

John Nelson noted that, up until this recent era, the railway industry was in a state of decline, and of funding cuts, so the scale of recent investment is new and highly monitored. The Government also benefits from a solid majority and could instate radical changes to the industry, if it chose to do so.

Nelson’s biggest proposed idea of the night was to examine each section of the railway system in the UK and weigh up the benefits of privatisation, in a true sense, rather than the semi-privatised structure at the moment. He said that a climate of tightened finances could actually lead to innovation, such as a system of privatised long-distance operators competing on a long-distance route, with commercial companies funding investment in infrastructure along their own routes.

Concluding the night with a question and answer session, the audience posed a host of hot topic queries to the guest speakers, such as how a mixture of

Young Rail ProfessionalsThe Politics of Rail

December 2015 | RailStaff | 27YOUNG RAIL PROFESSIONALS

public and private railway arrangements could be compliant with EU legislation. John Nelson answered handily, noting that the railway industry would absolutely need to have a regulator, but it wouldn’t necessarily need to have a Network Rail-type entity.

When asked about the role of TfL in tackling the hottest Mayoral election topic, housing shortages in London, Brown pledged that it was a personal manifesto commitment for his new role to provide more affordable housing via the TfL property development schemes. He said he was working with the mayor on the issue, and that he had moved the property team to work directly for him within TfL.

All themes of the night spoke of the

immense and immediate potential to evolve and optimise the structure of the British railway system, as it sits in the largest period of renewal and change since the Victorian era. All of it sets the perfect climate for the future railway leaders within YRP, who bring innovation, energy and fresh thinking to the industry, and are encouraged and supported by experienced leaders.

If anyone would like to become involved in organising future YRP events, performing outreach activities to promote the railway industry as a career choice and developing opportunities for young people to be recognised and prioritised in the wider railway industry, then you are encouraged to contact: [email protected].


The latest Community Rail Partnership, the Highland Main Line CRP, was launched at Pitlochry station in November. It’s another triumph for the community rail movement and marks a further advance in Scotland.

Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, and Phil Verster, managing director of the

ScotRail Alliance, joined Sally Spaven, chair of the HML CRP at the station. The new partnership covers the line from Dunkeld and Birnam to Carrbridge, taking in Pitlochry, Blair Atholl, Dalwhinnie, Newtonmore, Kingussie, and Aviemore.

John Swinney paid tribute to all those involved and singled out ubiquitous ScotRail hero John Yellowlees for particular praise.

‘I wish to pay tribute to the work of everyone involved in preparing for this launch from within communities and partner organisations. In particular I would like to express my gratitude to John Yellowlees of ScotRail for his personal commitment to this partnership and for the substantial contribution he has made over many years to all Scottish station groups.’

As external affairs manager at ScotRail, Yellowlees has guided many station adopter groups and community rail partnerships putting at their disposal his encyclopaedic knowledge of railways and the people who run them.

Community Rail Partnerships are a rapidly growing phenomenon of the new rail industry. CRPs boost ridership, help smarten up stations and place the railway back at the centre of the communities they serve. Rail bosses say the movement is boosting business.

HighlandFling

The long-awaited Croxley Rail Link project in Watford is to be taken forward by Transport for London (TfL).

Plans are now in place to start work on re-routing the Metropolitan line to Watford Junction, after Hertfordshire County Council handed over the project to TfL.

The seemingly unstoppable advance of TfL railways will see construction completed by 2020. Two new stations will be built at Cassiobridge and Watford Vicarage Road.

The new London Underground rail link with central London will improve public transport for patients and staff at Watford General Hospital.

Croxley Rail Link will now be called the Metropolitan Line Extension.

TfL therapy provides Croxley cure

The Rail Staff Christmas Carol Service at St Mary’s Church on Eversholt Street near London Euston goes ahead at 12.30 on Thursday, 17 December.

The annual carol service is organised by the Transport Benevolent Fund CIO, known as TBF, a registered charity in England and Wales.

The London Transport Choir will be there to help staff with the higher notes and TBF will be providing refreshments afterwards.

The London Transport Choir sings at the TfL Festival of Carols at St Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square on 9 December and sang at the Maida Vale Tube station centenary in the summer, as well as serenading staff setting off on the Railway Children’s Three Peaks Challenge by Rail from Euston.

It’s been a busy year, too, for the TBF which became a Charitable Incorporated Company (CIO) in October. As far as the members are concerned, there’s no change to status, membership number, or benefits available to them. The membership fee of just £1.00 a week remains the same.

Quarterly, TBF is distributing over £500,000 in grants,

helping its beneficiaries. ‘This highlights that even in the 21st century there

is a deep need for an organisation like TBF,’ says TBF general manager, John Sheehy.

‘I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our patrons, the train operating companies and subsidiaries for their continued support. They give our charity access to members of staff and have proved able to look beyond the concerns of the day to long-term welfare of staff.’

The Carol Service has become a keenly anticipated feature of the railway calendar. ‘It’s one of those occasions that can pass almost unremarked,’ says Rail Media’s Tom O’Connor. ‘But it’s a great get together. All of us are very grateful to John and the team at TBF. This has been a difficult year for many people but events like the Rail Staff Carol Service - with a timely choral assistance - will help 2015 end on high note.’Helping the rail industry reach those elusive high notes - the London Transport Choir.

High Note for TBF


The new Rail Operating Centre (ROC) at Rugby has been officially opened.

Rugby ROC is one of 12 centres which will eventually control the entire rail network in Britain, replacing more than 800 signal boxes. The new centre continues Rugby’s role at the heart of the rail network.

Michael Stokes, leader of Rugby Borough Council, joined Network

Rail’s route managing director, Martin Frobisher.

Says Stokes, ‘I’m reminded every day of how important the railway is to our town and what strong historical links we have with the railway.

‘Rugby is the fastest-growing town in the Midlands and one of the fastest-growing towns in the UK. This facility highlights our commitment to work with businesses to ensure they receive a warm welcome to our town,

and I am pleased we will continue to be part of the future of the railway in Britain.’

The Stafford area, being upgraded as part of a £250 million project by Network Rail, was the first section of railway to be controlled from the Rugby ROC. The next section will be in the Norton Bridge area, near Stafford, from Easter 2016. When fully operational, up to 400 staff will work from the Rugby ROC.

Rugby Rock Sheffield’s first new tram-train

has braved the high seas on its way from Vossloh’s works in Valencia.

The 37-metre Citylink Class 399 tram-train vehicle can run on both urban light rail and the national rail network.

The new tram-trains will run on the Supertram system and the conventional rail network between Sheffield and Rotherham from 2017.

Says Steve Edwards of the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE), ‘Tram-train will demonstrate the potential, both locally and nationally, of this new technology... It will provide a boost to the regional economy, thanks to improved connections across the region.’

Ola Sheffield!

The tram-train vehicle is loaded for transportation to South Yorkshire at Vossloh’s depot in Valencia, Spain.

Railway Children is encouraging London Underground passengers to donate old Oyster cards.

Collection points have been established at LUL stations - at King’s Cross, Liverpool Street and Heathrow Airport.

Visitors leaving London can donate their Oyster Cards The remaining credit and the deposit goes to the Railway Children. The idea is to further boost funds for the charity’s If I Grow Up appeal.

People can also donate foreign currency through Fourex exchange kiosks at King’s Cross, Liverpool Street, Blackfriars and Westfield Stratford Shopping Centre.

Exterion Media has donated over £76,000 worth of advertising space to Railway Children.

Says Terina Keene, chief executive of Railway Children, ‘We are calling for individuals to get involved in the campaign by organising a foreign currency amnesty, either at home or in the office, at church or your child’s school. Instead of languishing forever

in the back of a drawer at home, someone’s spare holiday cash could make a huge difference to the lives of vulnerable and disadvantaged children in the UK and around the world.

‘The combined support from London Underground, Fourex and Exterion has been fantastic and it is a huge boost to have such diverse and high-profile partners backing the If I Grow Up Appeal.’

More Pearls for Railway Children

December 2015 | RailStaff | 31NEWS

More than 50 VGC Group apprentices are currently doing NVQs on the Track Partnership contract. Together with other apprentices on projects, including Crossrail, this means that the company has comfortably exceeded its ambitious 2015 target of five apprentices per 100 workers. Another group of apprentices is due to start shortly.

VGC’s apprenticeship programme starts with 13 weeks of classroom and on-track training, conducted by either Fastline in Rainham or Arc Academy in Watford. At the end of this period, VGC managers interview the apprentices, and those who show interest in a career in London Underground are invited to join the Track Partnership apprenticeship programme.

Apprentices receive the usual rates of pay for the job, as well as support for their training. They are placed in gangs with experienced foremen, who are carefully selected to support and develop them. Trainers meet apprentices once a week as they prepare for NVQ Level 2 in rail engineering underpinning knowledge, which is usually gained around nine months after starting the apprenticeship.

Long-term careersOnce apprentices have passed the

NVQ, they can then progress their long-term careers within VGC, with the possibility of becoming foremen and then supervisors. After that, the opportunities for promotion are nearly limitless. For example, Terry Dutton-Wells, who became VGC’s HSQE director in 2002, started his career as an apprentice welder. Now semi-retired, he maintains a role within VGC as a non-executive director.

‘Rail is a great career,’ he says. ‘It offers so many openings in numerous disciplines. You get the opportunity to look at where you want to be in any aspect of the broad spectrum of industry activities.’

VGC has supplied labour to Track Partnership, the alliance of Balfour

Beatty and London Underground that maintains the Tube network, for over 12 years. At any one time there will be up to 170 VGC team members working for Track Partnership right across London, generally overnight during the week, with some blockades and weekend possessions. Most shifts start at 10pm with handback the next morning in time for the commuter rush.

While the range of work is wide, most of the teams concentrate on laying new drainage pipes, building catch-pits, as well as repairing and restoring ballasted track, including replacing worn sleepers, rails, and points and crossings. They work across the network all year round: current projects range from station improvements at Ruislip in the west to track renewal at Upminster in the east.

Rudy Osborne started his apprenticeship in summer 2015. He has praise for his foremen, ‘Andy [O’Shea] and Michael [McCarney] always know what to do. If something goes wrong, they know how to fix it.’

Rudy, who describes himself as a ‘hands-on’ person, says he really enjoys getting involved in the job. ‘The teams are really good; always helping me out. They know I’m new and they’ve got a huge lot of experience – they teach me new things every shift.

‘I’ve moved around to different gangs and I’ve learned technical skills, how to use different machines and tools, and tips to make things easier. The teams make sure I learn the quick, easy, safe way to do things like keying and unkeying rail.’

Rudy views his apprenticeship as a way to get a start in the engineering industry, and he’s seen the way other

people have progressed. ‘I really enjoy looking over at something once the job has finished and thinking I was part of making that.’

Says Ciara Pryce, VGC’s group services director, ‘Apprenticeship schemes give invaluable training opportunities and career direction for new entrants into the construction industry.

‘VGC believes that as a company we have a responsibility to invest in

providing training and developmental opportunities to new entrants to the industry. As well as offering hands-on experience, guidance and life-long qualifications, we are proud that we convert apprenticeships into full-time employment for most of our trainees.’

Training the Underground engineers of the future


Pupils from Carrongrange School in Larbert used a railway carriage as a travelling classroom recently thanks to the ScotRail Alliance.

Twenty pupils and their teachers travelled from Larbert to Edinburgh Waverley.

The school has been adopted by the ScotRail Alliance via the Scottish Business in the Community scheme.

Says Derek Mackay, Minister for

Transport and Islands, ‘I welcome ScotRail’s travelling classroom programme, which offers a great opportunity for school pupils to learn more about the history of their local railways and environment.’ Abellio ScotRail piloted the scheme on Tuesday, 24 November, with pupils from Pitteuchar West Primary School in Fife, who travelled between Glenrothes and Dalmeny.

It aims to carry out a further two events by the end of the year.

Carriage classroom

A good safety record is attractive to graduates, that’s the message from Heidi Thomas. She is one of the new graduates working at London Bridge station redevelopment over this winter.

Heidi graduated from Reading University with a BSc in quantity surveying and passed out as top of her class. She’s no stranger to London Bridge as she was sponsored through her four-year degree by Costain and spent her industrial placement year at the cross-river station site.

‘I was doing my A-levels and went to a Reading University open day, where they gave me a list of companies that had sponsored people in the past,’ says Heidi. ‘I only applied to Costain because it had won awards for its health and safety and I thought this would be a good company to work for because it obviously cared for its employees.

‘My mother loved the health and safety angle; she said Costain’s values were obviously good.’

Heidi Thomas is one of the latest examples of the drive to bring on the next generation of engineers.

Good health

Cornwall is re-starting the export of live lobsters by rail.

Local fisherman are teaming up with InterCity RailFreight Ltd, WEGO Carbon Neutral Couriers and Great Western Railway (GWR) to move the sought after seafood.

The four-strong partnership will see lobsters travelling up to London in half the time it takes by road. Utilising space in the guard’s van, live shellfish will be packed in special cold crates and

shipped on the daily 1739 service from Penzance, arriving London Paddington just around midnight.

From there it will be collected by WEGO Carbon Neutral Couriers in electric vans and rickshaws and delivered by night to top restaurants in London.

As well as fresh shellfish, GWR says the train will also be able to carry fresh flowers and other goods from Cornish suppliers to the London market if the service proves successful.

Lobster quadrilleForever Amber

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) has acquired training company Amber Train in a dynamic bid to tackle the engineering skills shortage and get more youngsters into railways. Once Amber Train trainees have completed an initial training programme, they are placed with an employer and supported until completion of an NVQ Level 2 apprenticeship.Amber Train’s headquarters are in Retford, Nottinghamshire. However, the company has activities around England at a combination of training centres on heritage railway sites, which provide the practical training environment, and prison education units, which include training centres and railway structures.

Air drama for FTPE man

Stephen Lee, head of customer service at First TransPennine Express (FTPE), has received a bravery award after tackling a violent passenger on an aeroplane. On a flight to Faro, Portugal, the man had attacked his partner but could not be restrained by cabin crew. As the mile-high drama spiralled out of control, Lee and another man, Alex Rodda, came to the rescue. According to Manchester police, ‘Stephen and Alex rushed to help the cabin crew restrain the man, eventually sitting either side of the offender while he was strapped down for the remainder of the flight.’

News in brief


Colin Garratt director of Milepost 92 ½ - picture library and photographers to the railway industry - begins a series of features derived from 40 years of expeditions to document the last steam locomotives of the world.

The Southeast Asian expedition of summer 1974 was amazing by any standards; it concentrated on the vintage types surviving in Java and Sumatra along with an array of American engines on Negros Island in the Philippines.

After a night in Bacolod, I journeyed a few miles along the coast to the great sugar plantation of the Hawaiian Philippine Co. – one of the island’s larger sugar concerns, well known for having some splendid green Baldwins with huge cabbage stack chimneys.

The factory, set deep in the plantation, was surrounded by a community known as the company compound; here, houses, shops, a bank, a hospital and other amenities provided self-contained living for employees. I was made to feel welcome within minutes of my arrival at the main gates and was taken to see

the company administrator Mrs L. Arceo Samaniego – a personage well-endowed with traditional Filipino charm. She told me, ‘we in the Philippines are the most hospitable people in the world.’ This remark was well borne out over the ensuing weeks.

Painted redAnxious to see the engines, I was soon

being escorted through the compound to the depot. I had been under the impression that there were no red engines on Negros. I had often thought this a little strange, especially as the plantations are predominantly green and, if only for safety reasons, red engines would have stood out in better relief.

Imagine my amazement when upon reaching the yard, an immaculate Baldwin 0-6-0 was seen done out in red with yellow lining; in the background stood another engine in comparable condition. The entire roster had been painted in red just two months previously and, as the season was just beginning, the engines were spotless – having lain dormant under repair since April.

Previously, all Hawaiian Philippine engines had been green, but on account of their being difficult to see out in the cane fields, the manager had given instruction for them to be painted red – an action which greatly assisted the photographer, too!

The locomotives looked like a collection put together as a tourist attraction; like big painted toys with more than a hint of fairground engines about them. It was hard to believe that they were part of a large company operating stringent production and economic control.

Referred to as ‘Dragons’, all engines were in radio contact with the control office, so enabling their movements throughout the plantation to be properly co-ordinated. Although milling had just begun, the Dragons were hard at work with three shifts daily; out at 8am returning 1pm, leaving again at 3pm until 7pm, departing again at 9pm and coming back around 3am the following morning: seven different lines being worked, each with a different name. No cane was loaded on Sundays – a day put aside for servicing and cleaning.

With all the flamboyance of fairground engines two Dragons go about their chores.

Dragonsof Sugar Island


Hiding the Dragons The company began in 1920. In the

previous year, two 10 inch Baldwin 0-6-0s were delivered numbered 1 and 2. Once work was under way, Baldwin supplied some straightforward enlargements with 12 inch cylinders – No.s 3-6.

In 1923, an engine was built by Henschel – presumably as a result of their far eastern sales campaign. Ostensibly, she was identical with the Baldwins but had 13 inch cylinders enclosed in rectangular casings in contrast with the characteristically rounded American versions; other minor differences divulge this engine’s origin and make her something of a pretender.

The German engine is a 20-tonner, as against respective 10 and 18 tonne Baldwins. A further engine numbered 7 and identical with No.s 3-6 came from Baldwin in 1928 and the total complement was made up 20 years later when two 15-tonne 0-6-2Ts were transferred from Hawaii.

The original Baldwin 10 inch 0-6-0 had since disappeared and her number is carried by the Henschel. All except No. 2 have a driving wheel diameter of 2ft 10 ¾ in. Dragon 6’s roller-bearing tender gives an infinitely superior ride when compared with the brass-bearing tenders of other engines, especially over rough track.

When the Japanese occupied the island during the Second World War, Dragons 1-7 were hidden to prevent them being destroyed or taken away.

When the invasion was imminent, the engines were steamed up and run to the end of a mountain line; a special extension track was then laid to lead the engines into deep undergrowth; this effectively hid them from sight by land or air. After they had literally been steamed into the scrub, the extension track was lifted and all signs covered up. Here the Dragons remained safely for three years – no Japanese patrol ever locating them.

Crimson flames It was enthralling to be out with these

engines as they tripped around the plantation; the entire system seemed like an enormous adventure railway being run solely for pleasure.

On a morning of diffused sunlight, two labourers circled an area of

plantation from which cane had been cut a few days previously; all that remained were the dry brown leaves lying several inches thick on the ground. The men dropped lit torches into the field; the leaves instantaneously ignited – an absence of rain having rendered them as dry as tinder.

Crimson sheets of flame shot upwards in minor explosions. Crackling like distant machine gun bursts, the fiery tornado swept across the plantation within seconds, producing a

liquid heat haze. Small mammals and the occasional bird darted in advance of the encroaching flames.

Those unable to escape became part of the blackened and charred expanse which, like the depredations of a victorious advancing army, lay behind the front-line. With the blaze at its height, a locomotive whistle rang out and, looking through the flames to the field’s edge, I witnessed Dragon 6 rolling by with a trainload of empty wagons. A less careful observer might have assumed that an errant spark

Manually loading sugar cane onto the wagons.

The beginnings of a typhoon are discernible.


from the engine had caused the fire, for despite the Dragon’s elaborate spark-arresting chimney such happenings are not infrequent during dry periods.

The morning had dawned clear after a night of rain and although a cumulus cloud was beginning to form, the sun was shining brilliantly as we left the yard on Dragon 6 with empties for the Magasa line.

Our engine, freshly overhauled, made good progress and soon we were out in the wilds surrounded by acres of cane either side. After about eight miles, a radio message ordered us to sidetrack – a factory-bound train needed to pass.

Steaming into a passing loop we reset the points, put a green flag by the trackside and left the main line clear. The crew took the opportunity to have lunch and, sitting alongside our quietly simmering engine, a marvellous meal of fresh shrimps and rice was spread out on the grass; a repast completed with soft fruits and locally grown coffee.

Copper bellA throaty exhaust, delivered crisp and

clear from perfectly set valves, heralded the mainliner’s approach. The engine’s copper bell clanged with a lovely musical resonance followed by a gloriously undulating wail of chime whistling – a shimmering sound reminiscent of Casey

Jones’s famous ‘Whippoorwill Whistle’. The engine was working hard, yet a gentle sigh of steam could be heard issuing from her safety valves.

The rapturous sounds drew closer until Dragon 4 loomed into view; the sounds, combined with the engine’s appearance, produced a feeling of ethereality. She swept past oscillating violently over the rough track and, for several minutes afterwards, her bell and chime whistle

remained audible, animating the silent plantation with golden tones.

We reset the points and continued the journey. The muddy and swollen rivers bore testimony to the previous night’s rain. Later that day, we scuttled homewards with a loaded train against an ominously dusky sky – the tail of a typhoon which was later to cause considerable damage on nearby Luzon Island.

Shimmering in the heat of blazing cane leaves.

Dragon No. 8 0-6-2 saddle tank of 1924.


Fairground Attraction The fairground atmosphere was

really brought out by a pair of engines at the factory interchange; the 0-6-0 having just arrived with a train as the Hawaiian 0-6-2T prepares to assemble it. All the company’s engines burn bagasse, but at the beginning of the campaign there is not always sufficient to go round thus certain engines temporally consume oil: the necessary tanks being sunk into their tenders; stovepipe chimneys are also applied.

It is difficult to believe that Dragon 7 is identical with her cabbage-stacked sisters, so different does she appear on account of her stovepipe chimney.

9pm on weekday evenings finds all the engines within the factory confines. The shed is a hive of activity; watering, oiling up, minor repairs, bagassing and other sundry duties needing to be completed before the fleet can leave for the plantation.

In the transport manager’s office, a trip/collection schedule is being finalised after a detailed collation of information from all parts of the system upon the whereabouts of wagons, both loaded and empty. Friendly exchanges between crews, the odd driver or brakeman on the carpet over

a derailment, frenzied phone calls from planters demanding urgent delivery of empties and countless other routine incidents, all culminating into an exciting flux characteristic of the five-month campaign.

By 10pm all is quiet and the Dragons assemble at the head of their trains; one by one they disappear into the far corners of the 100-mile railroad network; another night-shift is underway.

An oil-burning Baldwin 0-6-0 with rusty stovepipe chimney

No. 6 an 0-6-0 built by Baldwin’s in 1928.

No. 6 an 0-6-0 built by Baldwin’s in 1928.


Samaritans supporters have raised over £10,000 for the charity on a 247 mile-equivalent cycle ride staged at Charing Cross station in London.

One-hundred-and-fifty volunteers rode in 30-minute stints from 7am to 7pm on one of seven bikes on the station concourse, cheered on by their team mates and fuelled by drinks and snacks from BLK Beverages and the alarmingly named Nudie Snacks - additive free coconuts.

The bike-hike was backed by teams from Network Rail, Pizza Pilgrims, TORI Global, Repucom, Land Sheriffs, Bank of England and the Central London branch of Samaritans. The team from Repucom, an entertainment agency, broke

the 247-mile barrier first in just under 10 hours. The 247 figure emphasises Samaritans’ round-the-clock service available to all every day of the year. Pictured is Marcela Kopytko from Repucom, a keen cyclist and graduate of Wroclaw University and King’s College London.

Says Samaritans’ fundraising manager, Beth Simons, ‘This has been a team effort in every

sense of the word. ‘We have been bowled over

by the generosity of those who have ridden, sponsored and donated so that Central London Samaritans can be there for anyone living, working or travelling in the capital.’

Samaritans is available round the clock on 116 123 - this number is FREE to call and will not appear on your phone bill.

Marcela Harnesses Pedal Power

Virgin trains on the east and west coast have ditched their trademark red livery this Christmas for something a little more festive.

The Penguilino and Claus 91 are the result of a competition run by Virgin, in partnership with the Book Trust, to give primary school children the chance to transform two of the operator’s trains for Christmas.

Joint winners Amber Maxfield, 9, and Madeleine Deakin, 11, were at King’s Cross station to see their designs unveiled.

Madeleine, from Copdock in Suffolk, said, ‘I’m so happy to have won and it was incredible to

see my drawing on the train – it’s made me even more excited about Christmas.’

Amber from Carlisle added, ‘When I found out I’d won I just couldn’t believe it. Seeing my drawing on a train and coming to London is a dream come true.’

Patrick McCall, chairman of Virgin Trains, said, ‘‘We loved the concepts that these two young designers came up with and are proud to have their ideas transform two trains.

‘It’s fantastic that both the East Coast and West Coast services have come together to make our customers’ journeys throughout December extra special - especially on their way home for Christmas.’

Festive fleet for Virgin

Bull’s Eye for Christmas Tram

Never mind the sleigh, Santa Claus will be able to take the tram this Christmas as street cars return to central Birmingham for the first time in more than 60 years. Midland Metro services start running into the city centre on 6 December - St Nicholas Day. Passengers will be taken directly to a new stop in Bull Street as the first step in the opening of the £128 million city centre tram extension. Traders gearing up for the busy festive shopping period also issued a resounding ‘Open for Business’ message today after Centro announced a scaling back of tram works in the run up to Christmas.

Norwegian Win for Atkins

Atkins has won a framework agreement to provide technical expertise for Norway’s new rail signalling system. The Norwegian National Rail Administration, Jernbaneverket, plans to implement ERTMS by 2030. Says Olav Aarrestad, director, transportation, Atkins Norway, ‘The project will carry out a complete renewal of the railway signalling system in Norway – on more than 4000km of tracks.’ The move marks a complete renewal of the existing signalling systems.

New Year’s Resolution for East Coast Fleet

Top-performing staff at Bound’s Green depot in London and Craigentinny depot in Edinburgh are poised to refurbish the East Coast train fleet after Virgin Trains announced a £21 million programme. A total of 401 carriages will be overhauled. Thirty-five new engines will be fitted to the diesel HSTs as part of a £16 million contract with engine manufacturer MTU. Further work to the exterior of the fleet takes the total investment to more than £40 million.

Sweet Child O’Mine

Staff at ESG Rail and Railway Approvals in Derby raised money for Children in Need by turning up for work in fancy dress. Employees were encouraged to come to work in costume and to also try their skills at baking by entering a cake in a ‘Great British Bake Off’ inspired competition. Staff coming to work dressed as everything from a chimney sweep to Superman. The winner, voted by staff, was deemed to be Louise Maw, assistant project manager for Railway Approvals, who pitched up dressed as Axle Rose from Guns N’ Roses.

News in brief


Chief executive of Keolis, and chairman of the Rail Delivery Group’s technology and operations working group, Alistair Gordon said the business case exists to accelerate the rollout of digital signalling in the UK.

Speaking during the Future of Rail conference, Alistair Gordon said the railway’s recent growth will be for nothing if the industry doesn’t modernise through the introduction of

technology like ERTMS and traffic management.

The working group is looking at the implementation of ERTMS on nine routes: Midland Main Line, South West Main Line, Brighton Main Line, Essex Thameside, Grantham - Skegness, Peterborough - Ely, Northern Powerhouse area, Glasgow - Aberdeen and the Cardiff Valley lines. In June 2016, it will submit a final outline business case to inform the industry technical plan.

One route being studied is the South West Main Line, which is currently restricted to running 24 trains an hour.

The arrival of digital signalling on this route would create 10 additional train paths and would remove the need for a fifth track to be built between London Waterloo and Surbiton.

During his talk, ‘Why we need a Digital Railway’, Alistair said, ‘We’re talking about the future of the railway… We’re not talking about massive changes, we’re actually talking about making the network work today using technology today.’

Speaking later in the day, Patrick Bossert, digital transformation director at Network Rail, said there were

similarities between the railway’s implementation of ERTMS and the introduction of air traffic control and autopilot systems in the aviation industry in the 1980s.

Individual projects are already being piloted around the country: traffic management has been implemented at new operating centres in Romford, Three Bridges and Cardiff.

The industry working group intends to submit a final business case in September 2017 to kick start a 25-year plan to realise the Digital Railway vision.

‘It’s not if we’re going to have a Digital Railway, it’s when we’re going to have a Digital Railway,’ said Alistair.

UK needs to accelerate Digital Railway ambition

ERTMS would remove the need for a fifth track to be built between

London Waterloo and Surbiton© HUGH LLEWELYN


The National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering (NSARE) is planning to drop the E in its name - a reflection, it says, of the organisation’s widening role as the industry’s skills ambassador.

NSAR will be gradually phased in over the next 12 months as the body looks to quietly rebrand itself as the industry authority on training quality and standards, encompassing areas of operations like driver training and service delivery which had been on the fringes.

‘This place says more about our ambition, about how we think about the rail industry…’ said NSAR chairman Chris Fenton, addressing members during the organisation’s annual general meeting (AGM) this month at the recently opened National Training Academy for Rail (NTAR) centre in Northampton.

Jointly funded by NSAR and Siemens, the facility, which currently specialises in traction and rolling stock engineering courses, is at the same time trying to position itself as a complete training centre for the industry.

Says Chris Fenton, who succeeded Terry Morgan as chairman in December last year, ’We really are equipping the next generation of talent and leaders and skilled professionals in the industry.’

NSARE was established in November 2010 to address the precarious issue of skills in the rail industry. One of the organisation’s central functions is its accreditation framework, which it delivers through an inspection process, similar to that used by Ofsted. Like Ofsted, NSAR recognises the Good and Outstanding providers; it also highlights those that are underperforming by its set standards.

NSAR is owned by its members, of which there are now more than 360. The AGM provided NSAR with the opportunity to recognise some of those which had achieved Outstanding ratings in 2015. But

Robertson warned that changes in the inspection process in 2016 will make the standard harder to achieve in the future.

NSARE, as it was in 2010, was established thanks largely to funding from government. It had hoped to be financially self-sustainable by its third year. Chief executive Neil Robertson said that although the organisation had faced a funding gap at the start of the year, it was now ’in a much, much better position’. This brighter outlook will in part be achieved by revamping the membership process, NSAR has said

The event was also used to present a new piece of research, commissioned by NSAR and carried out by Atkins, that suggests that the skills gap could cost the industry £316 million a year and government £381 million if it’s not addressed.

Robertson told members to practice talking about apprentices. From 2017, businesses with a payroll of more than £3 million will have to pay a levy. The government has said that companies who commit to developing their apprenticeship programme will be able to get more out of the levy than what they pay in. The levy will coincide with the creation of the Institute for Apprentices, an independent body which will regulate the quality of apprenticeship schemes.

It isn’t all about apprentices, however. The industry faces a challenge to up-skill its workforce in order to keep pace with the development of new technology.

Around 55,000 people alone will need some degree of retraining as part of the Digital Railway programme - a fact highlighted by Network Rail’s head of professional development and training, Guy Wilmshurst-Smith. But even finding people to deliver this retraining is a challenge. Guy said that Network Rail, like the industry as a whole, is having difficulty recruiting skilled trainers.

The need for a defined skills strategy hasn’t escaped the attention of Sir Peter Hendy or Dame Colette Bowe. Their reports both raise concerns about how the industry is going to assemble the workforce needed to meet the current aspirations for rail. NSAR believes that developing and delivering this strategy will be its biggest challenge in 2016.

NSARElosing its E

An advance team of 53 young apprentices from 10 companies recently attended a study week at the National Training Academy for Rail (NTAR) in Northampton.

Part of the Trailblazer Apprenticeship scheme, the study week saw the apprentices checking out how a rail network fits together and undertaking a practical challenge.

Recently qualified engineers mentored the group, which designed and built a model bridge and programmed a robot to drive over it. The week was rounded off with a rousing speech by Kate Hall, director of

the built environment at HS2. Says Simon Rennie, general

manager at NTAR, ‘We at NTAR were delighted to welcome the Railway Engineering Design Technician Apprentices on their study week.

‘This was the first major event hosted by NTAR since we formally opened on 20 October and it is for groups like this - young people starting out in their careers - that NTAR was built to serve.

‘It was hugely rewarding to see the facilities being properly used to showcase a broad range of current and future rail technologies to young learners working for such a broad range of companies.’

NTAR hosts Trailblazers


The Tyne and Wear Metro saw a quarter of a million more journeys over the 10 days that Newcastle hosted the Rugby World Cup.

Figures released by the PTE, Nexus, show that during the three Rugby World Cup games at St James’ Park,

the metro hosted an additional 250,000 trips on the system.

The extra customers were a mix of local residents and international visitors.

Says Nexus finance director John Fenwick, ‘The tournament has showcased the region all over the world, and we’re delighted that Metro

has played such an important role.’ John added, ‘This extra ticket

revenue... will be reinvested into the system.’

Figures released by the Department for Transport (DfT) in June showed that Metro has the fastest-growing passenger numbers in the country outside of London.

Extra Tyne

Liverpool singer-songwriter Katy Alex has won this year’s Merseyrail Sound Station Festival. She beat 100 other local musicians to scoop top prize after an electrifying performance at Moorfields station.

The event shortlisted 10 of Merseyside’s top emerging new artists and featured live performances on Merseyrail trains. The prize includes professional management, production and free travel on Merseyrail.

Her song ‘Light’ swung it for Katy. ‘I had a friend who was really

struggling with depression,’ Ms Alex told reporters. ‘I felt his sadness and it spurred me on to write this song, saying basically: stop doubting yourself, believe in yourself.’

Bright Light for Katy Alex

A special train run ahead of Remembrance Sunday by Southeastern staff has so far raised £17,600 for the Royal British Legion.

The commemorative train took 250 paying passengers on a round trip from London, through Kent and on to Eastbourne, in East Sussex.

It is the second year running a Southeastern high-speed poppy train has been used to raise money for the legion in this way.

The fundraising day was organised by Kent Evenden, driver manager at High Speed Services, and Andy Harding, 395 fleet engineering manager.

Poppy train in fundraising sensation

ATOC hosted the 2015 REGS Induction on the 29 and 30 of October.

Graduates from FirstGroup, Chiltern, c2c, ATW, Merseyrail, London Midland and Freightliner took part in the two-day event.

Attendees learnt about the industry structure, features of the scheme and basic railway engineering. The new entrants met other graduates on the scheme during a boat trip to Greenwich.

The senior graduates were at ATOC attending a series of presentations from Siemens, Hitachi and Crossrail on new rolling stock and were happy to share their knowledge with the newcomers. It’s not just graduates getting the special treatment.

For a number of years, ATOC has been providing sponsorship via the Arkwright Scholarship Trust to high-calibre year 11 students - S4 in Scotland - to inspire and encourage them to study engineering or technical design degrees at university.

Recently at the Mermaid Theatre, London, scholarship certificates were presented to Jason Wells from Colyton Grammar School in Axminster and to Gareth Littlewood from Rydens Enterprise School in Farnham as part of the Arkwright Scholarship Awards.

ATOC helps graduates

December 2015 | RailStaff | 45CAREERS

CAREERS46 | RailStaff | December 2015

December 2015 | RailStaff | 47CAREERS

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RailStaff December 2015