TRACK TECHNOLOGY
Big business
The frameworks and companies involved were covered in the previous edition of RTM. The regional framework winners were:
Southern: AmeyInabensa Central (LNW, South): ABC Electrification Central (East Midlands): CarillionPowerlines Central (LNW, North): Balfour Beatty
Scotland and North East: CarillionPowerlines Western & Wales: ABC Electrification
Many other companies are involved at tier two level and on Network Rail electrification schemes outside the scope of the NEP, as well as for Crossrail, TfL and other clients. These include Keltbray, Arup, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Atkins, Systra, Amey’s GWML team, and Balfour Beatty’s Track Partnership with London Underground.
Network Rail’s Guy Wilmshurt-Smith – one of the UK Rail Industry Awards’ judges – spoke about training, and the need to ensure the industry had enough competent, trained people to deliver this major programme safely and successfully.
high-speed rail, he noted as an aside).
The DfT’s white paper said then: “…it would not be prudent to commit now to ‘all-or-nothing’ projects, such as network-wide electrification or a high-speed line, for which the longer-term benefits are currently uncertain and which could delay tackling the current strategic priorities such as capacity.”
focus, and the fact that electrification had whole system requirements, not just cables.
He said that the programme will create about 2,000 jobs, but the important thing for Network Rail was having competent, trained people delivering the programme safely.
Nick Elliott, regional director for Network Rail IP in the Southern region, also spoke at the launch, proudly holding aloft the award won by his team and RIA for the REDP (Rail Electrification Development Programme) at Rail Technology Magazine’s UK Rail Industry Awards in February. The REDP is being renamed the Rail Electrification Delivery Group, he said, in recognition of this new stage of the national programme. CP6 is looking “very exciting”, he added.
He admitted that there are “some big issues” to overcome before the industry can guarantee it has the resources and skills to deliver the programme, and listed some of the things being done to ensure this happens.
Railway Industry Association (RIA) director general Jeremy Candfield discussed the role of the supply chain in building the case for electrification and helping shift the DfT from its 2007 policy, which foresaw no major electrification projects (and no
Candfield said: “We’ve had 20 years or thereabouts of not very much – or thereabouts – so deliverability is bound to be an important issue, and it is.”
He said the ORR as regulator and DfT as funder both needed the industry to demonstrate well-founded confidence in the deliverability of the programme, and the cross-industry programmes and workshops organised by RIA had helped to do this.
Committing to major, long-term electrification programmes would help give the industry the confidence it needs to really invest in people, skills and equipment for the future, he said, reducing electrification’s unit costs in the long term.
He added: “With help from NSARE [the National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering], new blood will be brought into the industry.”
Today, about 40% of the network is electrified – which will rise to 51% by the end of CP5 in 2019. Routes being electrified include the Great Western, the North West, the Midland Main Line, the South Wales Valley Line, works on the East Coast Main Line, Transpennine routes, and smaller projects like Walsall to Rugeley and Micklefield to Selby. By the end of CP6, this could rise to 60%, Candfield suggested.
rail technology magazine Apr/May 14 | 167
He said: “Investing properly in training underpins any successful programme – particularly this one for electrification. But in the railway, in terms of vocational skills, it’s fair to say that the electrification side has been very much the Cinderella when compared to signalling & telecoms and track. There’s a fair bit of catching up to do.”
He said the OLE training strands at Carstairs, Preston, Doncaster, Romford, Peterborough and Walsall have produced about 6,000 training days of capacity, which will be enhanced by the new £14.6m super-centre at York, with its 65,000 sq ft of training space and full suite of electrical training capability.
He said: “With the nine other OLE training facilities in the supply chain, there is reasonable capacity in the Midlands and the north. But there are some significant gaps in the west. So in September we’ll be opening a dedicated electrical training facility in Swindon that’s double the size of anything we’ve delivered so far in terms of electrical training capacity.
“Within the next six months, we will have doubled our capability on our delivery of training. Furthermore, in December we’ll Continued overleaf >
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