Return to Archive -by date - by topic.
It is now obvious that there is no simple explanation for the escalation of infrastructure costs. Here's a boiling tadpole to raise your blood pressure
As Pendolino 390.014 surged northwards, its rapid progress was slowed for a 50mile/h Temporary Speed Restriction at Ledburn – scene of the amazingly expensive village with some switch and crossing (S&C) work attached.
‘Odd' I thought, ‘the new crossings have been installed, so why not blast through at line speed'? Brace yourself for an outbreak of safety fascism
As you will recall, the new signalling for the Ledburn S&C was due to be commissioned in this year's Easter blockade. Until then, the new points at Ledburn had been clamped and scotched as is normal practice. This means that the points can't move or be moved.
So why the TSR? Because Her Majesty's Railway Inspectorate thinks it dangerous to run at linespeed through clamped points in which the switch-blades and swing noses are not detected.
‘Detected' means that the points are connected to the signalling interlocking. If the points move the appropriate signals go to red until microswitches in the points have closed in the new position. This completes an electric circuit proving to the interlocking that the route is set correctly.
So to satisfy HMRI that it is safe for trains to run at line-speed, points now have to be scotched, clamped in position and detected. True strange things have happened to points and someone could maliciously or inadvertently remove the clamps and scotches allowing the blades to move. And you or I might think the answer was to weld up the clamping screws to foil any official or freelance tampering, but HMRI insisted on detection.
At Ledburn, this meant that one-off modifications had to be manufactured so that route proving circuits in the 40 year old relay interlocking, about to be replaced, could be altered to provide detection. Automatic signals also had to be converted to controlled signals. This was done over Christmas and the New Year.
Still, at least the modifications will now have a longer service life, because the new signalling is now due to be commissioned in August rather than at Easter. More froggery I'm afraid
Ledburn will be signalled with axle counters instead of unreliable track circuits. Axle counters work on the basis that they count all the wheels into a section and then count them all out. Provided both answers are the same the section is clear.
But what if the axle counter plays up and has to be re-set? It then forgets how many axles came in.
So following the 1991 accident in the Severn tunnel, where axle counters where installed in 1987, a recommendation was made that when an axle counter needed re-setting both the technician and the signalman should operate separate switches together. Euston area signalling, which uses axle counters followed this practice in 2000.
But for the North Staffs resignalling, a signalman-only re-set was adopted. As an additional precaution, the re-setting switch also turned the protecting signal to yellow to slow the first train entering the section.
Despite the dual switch system at Euston, the Watford- Bletchley alliance adopted the North Staffs system for its signalling – Ledburn being the first interlocking to be installed.
After the Ledburn installation was designed and the equipment boxes built, it was decided that the North Staffs one person reset was unsuitable. Instead of changing to the proven Euston system, a new variant of signaller-only reset was adopted. According to Informed Sources this could replace the fixed yellow used in North Staffs with a flashing red.
While all this has been going on the rest of the Watford-Bletchley resignalling appears to have been put on hold. Note, too, that Watford-Bletchley is exclusive which means the approach to the tricky station areas will have to be worked out.
Meanwhile, commissioning of Ledburn is back to August, which is probably optimistic, and man-hours are being burned developing multiple solutions to a common requirement. I know I used to criticise BR's old school engineering directors who insisted on doing it their way, but at least that avoided the current boiling frog inducing order, counter-order, disorder. What Network Rail needs is an old school Chief S&T Engineer – an Andrew MacNaughton with interlockings.
In his foreword last January to the Strategic Plan he inherited from his predecessor, SRA Chairman Richard Bowker said he wanted to see ‘fewer accountants, fewer lawyers and fewer consultants'.
A year later Don Foster of the Lib-Dems got the reply to the following written question. ‘To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the technical and financial consultants employed by the Strategic Rail Authority, the nature of the assignment for each consultant, and the value of each contract'.
And when I printed out the list of contracts over £25,000 that have been awarded by the Strategic Rail Authority since April 2002 .. it occupied three pages of A4.
In total 24 consultancies shared 116 contracts collectively worth around £18million. No point in boring you with the detail but here's a snapshot.
On the Virgin Trains rescue, Booz Allen & Hamilton got £1.1m for the franchise negotiation and £146,000 for the associated Baseline 3 analysis. KPMG got £150k for a scoping review, £367k for being the financial advisors for the negotiations and £191k for reviewing the WCML scheme.
Nicholls were paid £490,000 for providing the Mk 1 rolling stock project support team while Jacobs Gibb received between £25,000 and £50,000 for work on the Mk 1 vehicles Strategic Reserve that would have taken my chum Andred a day to develop.
What could £19million buy? Four SSI modules with kit, seven three car Desiros, take your pick.
Virgin Rail's plans to run a daily return Pendolino service between Manchester and London from 27 January have been frustrated by operational restrictions caused by safety cases issues which continue to emerge, despite the much-vaunted Vehicle & Route Acceptance Contract (VRAC) between Virgin and Railtrack.
As reported Railtrack's lack of knowledge of its infrastructure has resulted in a programme of ‘route acceptance by stealth'. This revealed interference with just four Solid State Interlocking installations, restricted to non safety-critical alarms. This has been cured by the addition of a simple line isolation transformer to the trackside modules affected.
Despite this satisfactory solution, further tests are now required with four trains operating simultaneously in the Euston area to validate the electrical safety case. In the meantime only one Pendolino is allowed to run at any one time.
This has wrecked the planned daily passenger service which was to have been accompanied by two more driver training diagrams. Since driver training is essential to the service introduction planned for March, the passenger service will run on only one day a week, with the single train path being used for driver training on other days.
Dates have yet to be agreed for the testing with four trains and it is not clear whether the Euston tests will apply to the whole route. The 17 March service date could be in doubt.
Meanwhile, the lack of infrastructure information has thrown up a new threat to the electrical safety case. Within the last six weeks Railtrack has added 12 channel Frequency Division Multiplexed (FDM) telecommunications to the list of systems against which Pendolino has to be assessed for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) .
From an initial estimate of 12 of these systems, some up to 30 years old, the number has risen to 192 at the last count. Before the significance of these systems can be determined, criteria have to be developed against which EMC can be assessed.