• • • NEWS • • •


Network Rail aims to build out from East West Rail


N


etwork Rail has released its East West Main Line (EWML)


strategic statement, setting out its aims for east west connectivity from Cardiff to Norwich. The East West Rail (EWR)


programme between Oxford and Cambridge is currently under construction by a specially created entity East West Railway Co (EWR Co), rather than Network Rail. The strategic statement does not


include any concrete plans for the future EWML, nor ask for funds, but is intended to offer “a long-term vision which should guide decision- making regarding areas of constraint and can be achieved either through bespoke, incremental interventions or as part of a larger future programme”. It sets out Network Rail’s EWML principle aims, which are:


• Passenger services covering a wider geographic area than currently remitted;


• Ensuring that EWR’s infrastructure changes do not


preclude the potential of future service to additional locations;


• An appropriate service frequency and pattern to best reduce journey times;


• Ensuring the EWR’s infrastructure changes do not preclude exploration of new national routing options for freight;


• Electrification of the route to offer better rolling stock performance, align with the Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy (TDNS) and contribute to the decarbonisation of the rail network; and


• Integration of the European Traffic Control System digital signalling to enhance future capacity.


Network Rail said it has decided


on these principles on the basis that they will more comprehensively achieve strategic outcomes for rail – drawn from government and industry long-term objectives.


SBS celebrates 50-year milestone


A


Burnley-based mechanical and electrical engineering company is celebrating 50-years in business.


Established in 1972 by long-time friends Steven Wilkinson, Barrie


Bamford, and Stephen Crane, SBS was set up to deliver electrical engineering services to domestic and commercial clients in and around East Lancashire. Fifty years on, following a successful buy-out in 2015, SBS is now


recognised as a specialist in the North-west for the provision of electrical and mechanical engineering services to clients across all sectors and industries, including for hospitals, schools, manufacturing and production facilities, and local authorities. Alistair Brown, managing director at SBS, said: “Since joining the


company back in 1990, it’s been a pleasure to watch it grow and evolve into what it is today. I came on board as an electrical engineering apprentice following a three-week work placement more than 30 years ago. “In the time I’ve been here, the company has gone from strength to


strength, and it’s exciting to see SBS celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.” Mr Brown added: “Having worked my way up within the company and


spent time working as a qualified electrician, eventually gaining experience running some fairly sizeable projects myself, I made the move into the office and became contracts manager in 2006, and the big move to managing director later came in 2016.”


SELECT reminds apprentices to keep safe S


cotland’s largest construction trade association, SELECT, is distributing posters


and handy toolbox-sized safe isolation flowcharts to remind apprentices and adult trainees of correct working practices. The organisation is currently handing out Ten


Steps to Safe Isolation posters to all 22 training centres used by the Scottish Electrical Charitable Training Trust (SECTT), to be displayed prominently as a reminder of how to work safely. Smaller durable versions, designed to fit handily


into toolboxes, are also being made available to all 2,669 electrical apprentices and adult trainees currently training in Scotland. Running under the banner ‘Work dead safely: Stay alive’, the posters and cards have been


electricalengineeringmagazine.co.uk


adapted from the range of safe isolation materials launched by SELECT in January 2021. The first resources were handed over recently to


David Henderson, SECTT assessment centre manager at Cambuslang, by Bob Cairney, SELECT’s director of technical services. Mr Henderson said: “These resources will help reinforce the importance of safe isolation for all


apprentices and adult trainees and we will be encouraging all learners to include the toolbox cards as part of their day-to-day kit.” Mr Cairney added: “It’s vital that apprentices


learn about safe isolation at the start of their career so good practice becomes second nature and helps keeps them, and others, safe. We hope these resources will be a constant reminder of the need to work dead safely and stay alive.” The remaining posters and cards will now be


distributed to the 21 approved centres around Scotland by Barrie Mckay, training and development Manager at SECTT, with the help of SECTT training officers.


ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING • APRIL 2022 7


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