News October 2019 Ladbroke Grove Resilience Back to basics what have we learnt and the digital railway fundamentals of train control systems back to business Saying goodbye to summer is always hard but why not get back to business and improve your existing knowledge or start afresh as a signalling engineer. Here at Signet Solutions we've got courses to suit all! Our training school is here to offer excellent value for money, training to meet each customer’s requirements, and not to mention fully qualified and competent trainers to ensure each trainee’s needs are met...what more could you want? Take a look online at our courses coming up, our friendly staff will be happy to give you all the information you’ll need when booking a course. +44 (0)1332 343 585 [email protected] www.signet-solutions.com back to business People resilience Issue 259 This month’s IRSE News features a number of articles exploring the topic of engineering resilience. Resilience on the railway can mean the ability to keep the October 2019 railway running during equipment failure, or during environmental events such as bad weather, but it can also mean the ability to cope with changes in the workforce and the skillsets expected of them. Resilience also applies to human health with In this issue evidence showing that serious harm to physical and mental well-being can be caused by stress at work. A recent newspaper article claimed that the incidence of mental issues in the Feature articles construction industry is greater than average, with suicides occurring in extreme cases. There has been a rise in the number of people suffering from stress, anxiety 20 years after Ladbroke 2 and depression. Contributing factors include homesickness, job insecurity, financial Grove - where are we pressures, isolation and bullying. In many countries industry is structured around now? A personal view tiers of subcontractors competing with tight margins. Principal contractors may commit to protect workers, but this doesn’t always ripple down the supply chain. Rod Muttram The main causes of the distress appear to be loneliness, being on site sometimes a Solving the resilience 7 significant distance away from family for weeks at time, and working long hours. A problem in the union safety advisor on a major construction project was recently quoted as saying that the number of people going absent is similar to 50 years ago, only now it is with digital railway stress and mental issues not physical injuries. Tim Whitcher & Mikela Chatzimichailidou This directly affects our industry. We have people working long hours, sometimes away from families and friends and working hard to achieve tight deadlines. What smart railways can 14 Companies have to compete for the next project, which could be at home or do for smart cities overseas. Engineers and technicians may work from home far more than in the past, and travel long distances. They may not always have the security of a depot or office Frank Heibel with people to talk to, as they did in the past. Fundamental 16 Many companies are aware of the issues and are implementing various mental health requirements for a programmes, including staff trained as mental health first aiders. Companies need to train control system address the root causes of stress, not just treat its symptoms. We can all help as well, by looking out for our fellow workers and sometimes just picking the phone up and New interlocking systems 19 talking to a lone work colleague. introduced in the UK Paul Darlington Paul Darlington managing editor, IRSE News The Network Rail 22 digital long-term deployment plan Claire Beranek Cover story News October 2019 Saying goodbye to summer is always hard but why not get back to business and Engineers of the future 26 Looking west through the throat of improve your existing knowledge or start afresh as a signalling engineer. Jennifer Gilleece Jones Zurich main station (HB) at dusk on 19 March 2018. HB’s buffer stops are Here at Signet Solutions we've got courses to suit all! Safety and 28 some 420 metres behind us. The tracks Our training school is here to offer excellent value for money, training to meet each Reliability Society ahead lead to all compass corners. IRSE Swiss Section member André Rüegg told Peter Sheppard customer’s requirements, and not to mention fully qualified and competent trainers us about HB’s interlocking. A Siemens to ensure each trainee’s needs are met...what more could you want? SpDrS-SBB equipped with a desk- mounted track diagram and pushbuttons, Take a look online at our courses coming up, our friendly staff will be happy to give News and opinion its first workday was 15 May 1966. It monitored and controlled HB’s signals, you all the information you’ll need when booking a course. Ladbroke Grove Resilience what have we learnt Back to basics and the digital railway Industry news 29 points and 106.7Hz track circuits via train control systems a network of underground chambers 37 Your letters connected by foot tunnels. With the launch of Zurich’s S-Bahn in 1990, a ZN/ ZNL90 system began setting routes using trains’ numbers in the interlockings at HB operations centre at Zurich Airport for the +44 (0)1332 343 585 From the IRSE and nearby stations remotely. Scheduled eastern third of Switzerland took control movements at HB have grown from 993 of HB’s interlocking. SBB has announced [email protected] News from the IRSE 32 daily in 1966 to 3100 today. In 2014, an no plans to replace it. Professional development 33 Photo and caption by George Raymond www.signet-solutions.com 1 20 years after Ladbroke Grove – where are we now? A personal view Rod Muttram The UK rail industry was shaken by a head-on collision that occurred on the Great Western Main Line between London’s Paddington station and the west of the country in 1999. The event led to a lot of negative publicity for the railway, challenged perceptions about the safety of the network, and led to increasing calls for the application of automatic train protection. In this article Rod Muttram looks back over the past 20 years and considers what has changed since that tragic day. The tragedy that occurred near London Paddington Station in 1999 led to a changed At approximately 0809 on a bright approach to safety in the UK rail industry. sunny morning on the 5 October 1999 a Lord Cullen’s report ran to several hundred Thames Turbo train leaving Paddington pages. 20 years on, what has changed? passed signal SN109 at danger and a short time later collided head-on with an inbound High-Speed train (HST). What has happened since? improvement has come not from one The collision speed was in excess of Thankfully at the time of writing those ‘magic bullet’ measure but from a very 130mph. 31 people, including the two fatalities were the last in an Automatic large number of improvements working drivers, died and hundreds were injured. Train Protection (ATP) preventable in combination and sustaining all of them The damage to the Thames Turbo train accident in the UK and Britain’s railways requires constant vigilance. was so severe that when the Railtrack are now amongst the safest in the world. In the aftermath of the Ladbroke (the predecessor to Network Rail) zone Indeed, the single passenger fatality in Grove collision there were three Public director arrived on site he thought it was the Grayrigg derailment (when a high Inquiries: Ladbroke Grove Part 1 into the a two-car train. In fact, it was a three-car speed passenger train was derailed due specific circumstances of the accident, unit but the damage to the front carriage to a defective set of points on the West Part 2 into the industry safety structure was catastrophic – the diesel fuel in Coast Main Line) was in February 2007, and the Joint Inquiry into Train Protection its tank had been atomised resulting which means that it is now not only 20 Systems (jointly with the inquiry into the in a huge fireball which also engulfed years since there was an ATP preventable Southall Collision on the 19th September coach H of the HST. fatality but also over 12 years since there 1997). Those inquires drove many were any passenger fatalities in the UK I had been director of safety and improvements (as did the main part of resulting from a collision or derailment. standards at Railtrack for just two years the Southall inquiry) but it is important to That is an amazing improvement over and I and my team had been working also recognise that many, including the the historic position and everyone in the hard to understand and better control key Train Protection and Warning System industry who has played their part, big these kinds of risks; it was the event we (TPWS) were already being developed or small, has a right to feel immensely always feared would occur before we got before that and were scrutinised by proud. But I would suggest that there there, the British railway system is large the inquiries. is no room for complacency. The and change takes time. 2 IRSE News | Issue 259 | October 2019 AWS (the yellow magnet middle right of the photograph) and TPWS (right foreground) still work together across the UK rail network. Photo Shutterstock/TreasureGalore. The Joint Inquiry into Train Protection Systems considered both 46 from the Clapham Inquiry had proposed it should be within TPWS and the European Train Control System (ETCS) as part of five years of system selection from the two piloted options.