CONSTRUCTION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Simon Burns at the York railway development site
Adam Hewitt reports from the building site in York that will soon host the busiest of Network Rail’s 14 planned Rail Operating Centres and its new Workforce Development Centre, and hears from railway minister Simon Burns MP and route managing director Phil Verster.
he new railway buildings for York got ministerial blessing when Simon Burns MP paid a visit. The rail minister also cut the ribbon to offi cially open the new turntable that has replaced the old engineer’s triangle, which occupied land that will now be used for the new Rail Operating Centre (ROC).
T
Burns said: “This Government is committed to modernising the railways and this regeneration scheme provides another example of us making good on our promises through our partnership with Network Rail.”
Route managing director Phil Verster told RTM that Network Rail’s plans to centralise operational control in 14 ROCs are “signifi cantly driven by taking costs out of the railway” through enhanced automation.
He said: “To give you an indication, around 178 signal boxes will be re-controlled into the ROC. Can you imagine how many human-intensive operations that is, that will now be automated through an intelligent bank of computerised control systems. It’s a signifi cant headcount reduction.”
Network Rail has stressed that the long-term nature of the plans for the LNE route means that “compulsory redundancies are not anticipated” in achieving the headcount reduction.
Asked about the pressures to take costs out of the railway, Burns told RTM: “There is a balance in the running of a railway, like many other businesses. What you have to do is make sure they are run in the most cost-effective, cost-effi cient way, taking out waste, so that
the money that you are saving can be invested in improving further the service, whether the infrastructure or service delivery, so passengers can get the benefi t.”
The ROC will employ about 477 staff with a maximum of 93 on shift at a time, while the WDC will employ 30 and train 150-200 delegates a day.
Across the country, the long-term ROC plans are expected to cut the signalling workforce by two-thirds from its 2011 size, to about 2,000, over the coming years.
Below: The new turntable in action, with West Coast Railways’ Loco No.5972 ‘Olton Hall’ (aka ‘Hogwarts Castle’)
Below: Rail minister Simon Burns and LNE route MD Phil Verster discussing the plans for the ROC on site.
Above: Foundations for the North Eastern Railway roundhouses, abandoned in the 1960s, uncovered during Network Rail’s site clearance for the new ROC and WDC.
58 | rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 13
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