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IRO Scottish Area sponsors Rail
100 Breakfast Club Scotland The IRO Scottish Area is proud to be a sponsor of the Rail 100 Breakfast Club Scotland. The event was a great opportunity to the see the dynamics and connectivity of the rail industry within Scotland.
IRO Annual Members’ Lunch 2013 held in Manchester.
Guest speaker, David Middleton, chief executive of Transport Scotland, gave an interesting talk on the evolution of rail investment in Scotland and how historic choices are still impacting on issues today. Politicians, academics, engineers, senior company managers and journalists all joined in to discuss the possibilities of railway development and innovation within Scotland. As well as that, Jim Douglas, Area chairman, IRO Scottish Area Council, gained a much greater understanding of the issues facing Scottish railways today. For the IRO, Jim believes its involvement is worthwhile in both increasing others' awareness and support of the organisation, and allowing the members to be involved in something their career paths or work schedules would not usually include.
Young Operators catch up at St Pancras
As part of their regular series of networking events, Young Operators met up at the Betjeman Arms pub at St Pancras Station, to meet fellow members and discuss events in the rail industry. The interdisciplinary nature of these meetings means that topics range from train planning, train crew management, station development to future major projects. They are a great place to ask those unusual questions that have been on your mind for a while or to learn a bit more about a function that you don’t know too much about.
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Railways in the North – refranchising, investment,
devolution and opportunities Stephen Clark, Rail programme director for Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) delivered an informative presentation on Rail in the North at the North West and North Wales area event
Valuable opportunities for members to learn and share knowledge
Your local IRO Area runs events all year round. There are opportunities to see how others work, broaden your experience and add to your professional development. Visit the website to find out more…
www.railwayoperators.co.uk
Rail operators are usually focused on the here and now but Stephen Clark’s presentation lifted our thinking to the strategies which ultimately deliver daily operations. Stephen covered three strategic themes: devolution to the English regions, current investment and the impact of High Speed 2. There is a rail renaissance in the North and Stephen’s talk prompted a lively discussion about the exciting opportunities in prospect. Stephen began by explaining that the coalition government is pursuing a policy of devolving responsibility for public services away from Whitehall, where this is practical. Local control of rail franchising in London, Scotland, Merseyside and Wales has been a success. For the North, northern local transport authorities could take responsibility from the DfT for the successor franchises to TransPennine Express and Northern Trains. These services cover a large geographic area governed by 33 local councils, so creating a representative organisation which could take on the role of re-letting the franchises, is a key to success. In February 2013, these authorities agreed the principles of a North of England Rail Devolution Prospectus and work continues to bring responsibility for northern train services to the North. This offers the opportunity for increasing the integration of the planning of all modes of transport to benefit both the traveller and the economy in the North.
Call: 01785 248113 Tickets – £47.00 per head
Table of 10 – £470.00 per table (Ticket prices are inclusive of VAT @ 20%)
Our Annual Lunch for Members and Guests will be held at The Mermaid, Puddle Dock, London. On Friday 19th April 2013 from midday. Our guest speaker is the Rt. Hon. Simon Burns, Minister of State for Transport.
The Manila Metro project The presentation by Jim Douglas of URS, also the IRO Scotland Area chair, explained the Manila Metro project in the Philippines and how URS is providing technical support.
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The Metro serves an area with a population of 11.6 million. The area produces 32 per cent of the country’s GDP and 50 per cent of its industrial products. It also has a strong service industry, for example in call centres, and has been relatively unaffected by recession. With a considerable American influence, road transport dominates transport arrangements.
South West Area: Modernising the Western Route – Swindon October 2012
There is a high level of infrastructure investment in the North at the moment. Stephen attributed the success in securing funds to the ability of the North to speak with one voice. Examples of current schemes include the Northern Hub, electrification from east to west across the Pennines and upgrades to many railway stations, including better integration with bus services. This new infrastructure will clearly benefit from some new rolling stock to match.
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Stephen concluded with a review of the options considered for the route and stations for HS2 to Manchester and his view of the priority of the benefits of HS2. For more information on TfGM, please go to
www.tfgm.com
South West Area: Operations Experience Day – West Somerset Railway, Minehead October 2012
There is one poorly maintained heavy rail route and three metro routes, line 1 (Yellow), line 2 (Megatren) and line 3 (MRT). The project being supported by URS is focussed on lines 1 and 2. The Line 1 project will see the route moving from public ownership to a public private partnership (PPP). The new concessionaire will probably be expected to take the fare box risk. There will be a 32-year concession and a 12 km extension (to a route of 13.9 km) and 10 additional stations (to the 20 existing) will be built. Line 1 has not been well maintained and generally draws its custom from people with low income. While there are two signalling systems, the control centre is of an IECC type. Units are 3 or 4 car with distributed power and the various types are incompatible. Up to 25 per cent of units are out of service at any one time. Part of the route is ballasted and part not and there are other infrastructure challenges. However,
daily system reliability is 98 per cent and delays are dealt with efficiently. The Line 2 project will similarly see a move to PPP. There will be a 7 km extension (to a route of 13.52 km) and three additional stations (to the existing 11). Jim gave a fascinating presentation highlighting the challenges of bringing private money and practices into two, somewhat neglected routes, but also illustrating the very positive opportunities which existed.
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