Opinion
This July, one of the longest possessions of a British station will begin as a £100 million re-signalling scheme gets under way in Nottingham
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t’s one of two blockades this summer that are longer than the average Bank Holiday possession. For six weeks trains will be replaced
by buses to the west of Nottingham, as the station layout is completely rebuilt, a new platform created, new signals commissioned, and control transferred to our East Midlands Control Centre in Derby. The area to the east of Nottingham will be served by trains during much of the work, but there will be a period where even they have to stop to allow for the unravelling of 40 years of accumulated operational problems. The last time Nottingham’s station area
was redesigned, the Beatles had just split up, relay-based interlocking was the latest technology and green diesels could still be seen running about the network. Now largely a location where short- formed trains terminate, the through design of the station - with Up and Down lines to the west, a platform (6) that can only dispatch in one direction - has brought with it increasing inefficiencies. Meanwhile, the life-expired signalling equipment is showing its age and the low speeds over Mansfield Junction are also having an effect.
Train tickets discounted for bus journeys To renew the equipment, re-lay more than a mile of track, not to mention all the junctions at the station and Mansfield Junction too, the re-signalling project required more than a series of weekend blockades. Through close working with operator East Midlands Trains, and other users of Nottingham station, including Cross Country, Northern and the freight operators, a solution was found – involving one of the largest replacement bus operations ever set up. This operation will have its own controllers and timetable, bus dispatchers, and joint working with highways to make sure buses don’t get caught in jams. It will also be the first time train tickets will be discounted if you have to take a bus, something which required DfT permission to achieve. This way of working, with longer
closures preferred to weekend blockades, has its attractions for operators, and a nine- day closure of the West Coast main line north of Wigan has also been scheduled for July.
This project will see four junctions redesigned, and three miles of track replaced. It’s part of a rolling programme to
replace nine WCML junctions that currently require bank holiday closures whenever they need tamping – currently once a year.
By moving the sets of points further apart, so they don’t sit ‘toe-to-toe’, each line can be tamped in a normal overnight eight-hour possession. While there will still be the need for weekend possessions of the line in future, this will make a huge difference to the amount of disruption caused. Network Rail will also be increasing line speeds over the junctions so they more closely match, as far as possible, the speed over the diverging route.
A clearer message to customers This work could have been achieved by arranging a series of bank holiday and weekend blockades, stretching into next year. However, closing the route for multiple bank holidays would require a
different system of buses and re-routed trains for each event, plus a public communications push from the operators. With a longer, more concentrated blockade, operators can simplify their message to customers and make clear the alternative arrangements. Network Rail has also been involved in the communications push around the blockade, with roadshows and advertising campaigns to match. With the massive modernisation of
the network being undertaken in the next five years, one of the challenges we face is finding innovative ways of keeping people moving while we do it, and communicating the changes as they come.
Artist’s impressions of the proposed southern side concourse, above and below
July/August 2013 Page 21
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