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Landscape win for David Cation

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A stunning picture of a steam train crossing the Forth Bridge has won the Network Rail-sponsored Lines in the Landscape Award at this year’s Take a View’s Landscape Photographer of the Year competition.

David Cation, an amateur photographer from Glasgow, won the award, leading a field of 500. Says David, ‘The Forth Bridge had recently been repainted and I timed this visit to North Queensferry to coincide with the crossing of a steam train. I was drawn to the finesse of the details within the massive structure and chose the gap in the bracing to frame the locomotive.

The rail network presents the photographer with a vast array of photographic opportunities throughout the country as is demonstrated by the quality of the images entered in previous competitions. The Take a View competition is one that I have followed since its launch and has been a huge source of inspiration for my landscape work, so to win this award has given me a huge sense of achievement.’

Competition founder and renowned landscape photographer Charlie Waite selected the winning picture. ‘You can almost hear the clatter of the train as it passes through this cat’s cradle of brilliant Victorian engineering,’ says Charlie.

‘Ten other entries to the Lines in the Landscape Award have also been commended by Charlie Waite and will have their image printed in the series seven coffee table book showcasing around 150 of the best entries and all the category winners, including the overall Landscape Photographer of the Year 2013.

Safety training essential for Canal Tunnels

Martin Barlow, Carillion’s Senior Construction Manager on the Canal Tunnels project at Thameslink has praised the work of young apprentices Ashley Edwards, 18, Jason Platford, 17 and Jake Caddie, 17.

‘The most important quality I look for in trainees is good time keeping and taking a real interest in what you are doing – and these lads have consistently demonstrated those qualities in abundance,’ says Martin.

The Canal Tunnels project is due to be completed by May 2015. The twin 650 metre-long tunnels underneath Regent’s Canal connect the East Coast Mainline with the Midland Mainline at St Pancras. Specialist teams and apprentices have been hard at work fitting out the tunnels.

Carillion has made safety its first priority throughout the complex engineering project. Canal Tunnels, near St Pancras Station, forms part of Carillion’s £120 million Key Output 2 contract with Thameslink. Safety training is of paramount importance.

Says Paul Treadwell, Carillion Site Foreman, ‘The health and safety message is hugely important. Whether it’s about Slips, Trips and Falls or encouraging Don’t Walk By reporting you really need to make the guys listen to get it across.

‘People learn in different ways so for me it’s about balancing the need for good discipline with making everyone feel looked after and listened to. This is why you need to give the team brief yourself and really get to know the individuals in your team – when they are having a good day or a bad day.

‘It’s also really important to follow up the morning brief with updates after the breaks at 10:00am and 2:00pm so that we can factor any changes to the weather, for example, or new plant movements.’

Commitment to safe working

Paul is particularly proud of the progress of apprentices at Canal Tunnels and the way they have understood and accepted the commitment to safe working. Ashley Edwards, Jason Platford and Jake Caddie have been on site for the past six months and are on course to secure full time positions this November.

Constant vigilance

They all agree that while the work can be hard and challenging, the clear and organised focus on health and safety and briefings on all the site works is reassuring to them and their families.

The site is close to trains running into St Pancras, the High Speed 1 line and the East Coast Mainline to and from Kings Cross. Initiatives such as compulsory daily morning briefs for everyone on site delivered by the Senior Construction Manager, regular Point of Work Risk Assessments (POWRA), My Space Champions, Safety Action Group (SAG) and a Lifeguards campaign – developed by the workforce itself to encourage Don’t Walk By reporting – ensures constant vigilance and full participation across the workforce.

Safety Stand Downs, Tool Box Talks and Weekly Don’t Walk By conferences are held to share best practice, update risk assessments and address all concerns.

Says Mark Walker, Carillion Project Manager for Thameslink Canal Tunnels, ‘We are working in a heavily congested area of London with adjacent lines open all around us and trains passing through regularly. There are also live electric overhead lines to manage, which means safety has to be embedded at every stage of the operation and enforced rigorously.

‘Encouraging the team on site to be vigilant and to constantly report possible dangers is also vital – and if people see their ideas or concerns being acted on and deliver results they are far more likely to engage with the safety drive.’

It’s a steel

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A new deal with Network Rail will see Tata Steel’s Scunthorpe plant supply around 140,000 tons of rail per year – about 95% of the total required.

ArcelorMittal and VoestAlpine are also part of the five year deal, which will supply a variety of rail types in a bid to keep pace with Network Rail’s rolling programme of improvements. Says Henrik Adam, chief commercial officer of Tata Steel, ‘This is fantastic news. I am delighted the rail network in Britain will continue to be made and maintained with our UK rail.’

The Network Rail deal will account for around 5% of the annual steel output from Tata Steel’s Scunthorpe site and will include some of the latest, harder- wearing high performance rail. A sure-fire supply line is essential.

Says Patrick Butcher, Network Rail’s group finance director, ‘We are renewing and enhancing more and more of Britain’s railway over the next five years and it’s crucial that we have a trusted and secure supply chain to help us achieve that safely and efficiently.’ Rail supplied by Network Rail’s contractors will range from the common CEN60 and CEN 56 types, to conductor rail and old-style bullhead.

Better access for Leeds

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A new £16 million scheme at Leeds station that will create a new entrance on the southern side of the station has been signed off by transport minister Baroness Kramer.

The scheme consists of an enclosed structure over the River Aire that incorporates lifts, escalators and stairs allowing passengers access from the current western footbridge within the station to ground level either side of the river. The proposals also include CCTV, lighting, help points, ticket machines, passenger information screens, ticket barriers, cycle parking and measures to improve pedestrian access in the immediate surrounding area.

The Leeds Station Southern Entrance scheme was one of the schemes given funding approval in 2011 as part of the Spending Review process. The work will be delivered by Carillion.

War Memorial Returns

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The historic war memorial at King’s Cross station has been reinstated at a special service held on Sunday 27th October ahead of Remembrance Day.

Placed in temporary storage during the £550m redevelopment of King’s Cross station, which was recently completed, the newly designed memorial by Network Rail aims to echo the eleven soldiers depicted by John Singer Sargent’s well-known 1919 painting ‘Gassed’.

Eleven marble tablets list the names of the fallen inside new individual steel frames. The memorial was first erected in 1920 by the Great Northern Railway in memory of employees who fell in World War One. It was further dedicated to employees of the London and North Eastern Railway who lost their lives in World War Two.

Dedicated service

Veteran groups and railway- employed reservists were joined by representatives from The Royal British Legion, Western Front Association, St John Ambulance and Network Rail to take part in the dedicated service at King’s Cross platform 0.

The Right Reverend Nigel McCulloch, National Chaplain of the Royal British Legion, and Jeff Potter and Humphrey Gillott, Railway Mission chaplains for King’s Cross, officiated.

Speaking at the service, Robin Gisby, Network Rail managing director of network operations, said, ‘Today’s service is dedicated to the unveiling of the re-instated

King’s Cross memorial as we look ahead to London Poppy Day, an occasion Network Rail continues to support.

‘The memorial is ingrained in the heritage of King’s Cross and now the station has a new-look following its recent redevelopment, it is only fitting that the reintroduced memorial has been brought up to date to reflect its surroundings whilst staying true to its historic roots.’

Traditionally Remembrance Day marks the time the guns fell silent on the Western Front at 11.00 on 11th November 1918. The Armistice had been signed at five that morning. The peace treaty concluding hostilities was signed at Versailles in June 1919.

Remembrance Day this year will be marked on Sunday 10 November 2013. The Royal British Legion raises funds for ex- servicemen and their families.

History Channel for High Speed Two

The debate over High Speed Two goes right to the heart of the quandary the UK finds herself in 13 years in to the new millennium.

The project is of far greater significance than stopwatch psychology or getting a seat on the 7.24 from Leighton Buzzard might imply. HS2 needs to be seen in its wider historical context for its value to be appreciated.

The main significance of the headline event in British foreign affairs this summer passed almost unnoticed by the wider public. In August parliament voted against military intervention in Syria.

Most people chuckled at David Cameron’s embarrassment. The PM may have regretted recalling his fellow parliamentarians to debate intervention but in the long run he knew he had to carry the country with him. The message from post-Olympian Brits was plain enough – keep out of foreign entanglements.

Historically the Syrian Vote will be seen as a turning point. The parliamentary defeat for Cameron marked the departure of the British from the centre stage of world affairs.

In keeping with public opinion the UK plans to draw down its role in Afghanistan. Troop numbers overall are being reduced by 20% as a result of the recession. Expensive and inconclusive foreign adventures look increasingly unlikely.

Closer to home the continuing Euro crisis makes a referendum on withdrawal from the European Union after the next election all but inevitable. A consequent vote to leave the EU will further confirm British insularity.

Isolation

Britain’s growing isolation makes it doubly imperative to increase commerce and industry. The UK cannot survive as a two tone backwater loitering up country from London’s prosperous city state.

Conversely for the midas-metropolis to survive, London needs better connections with the rest of the country. Good communications have always been key to Britain’s success.

The invading Romans built a network of High Speed military highways to Dover, York and Chester – and Exeter. Even today trains on HS1 are named for the legionnaires’ favoured weapon of despatch – the javelin.

If the idea was to speed the legions on their way the effect was to open up the ingenuity of the greatest trading nation ever known. Tongue in cheek though that might appear it is the creation of reliable communication links that sped the British on their way.

Maritime supremacy might have started as a race against Dutch hegemony – cross channel links were as controversial then as they are now – but it led to the creation of a navy capable of protecting trading ships globally.

Good communications

World trade and an expanding empire stimulated the Industrial Revolution. This really came of age with the arrival of the railway. Lines were put down almost every where.

Good communications are an important element for any functioning, successful state. For a country determined to strengthen its economy after disappointment abroad, they are essential.

With Britain’s motorway network and radial railways so often clogged to suffocation, high speed rail will cut a welcome swathe through the under brush of congestion with all the panache of a Roman legion hacking north up Ermine Street.

The immediate economic effect of the new high speed rail network will be to free up capacity for more freight trains linking Felixstowe, London and Southampton with Birmingham, Manchester and the great industrial heartlands of the north and Scotland. HS2 will be the catalyst for new business.

If foreign affairs dictate the new imperatives of a stronger economy domestic dynamics are no less urgent.

The effect of the London commercial phenomena is to create a feverish city state overheating in its congested tarmac ringed basin. For London to grow and command the strategic heights of an emerging e-barrier- free world economy it needs to be better connected to the under- cultivated hinterlands from which it draws its strength. Best of all it will further profit by oxygenating its energies the length and breadth of the land.

Wealth creation

For the last 30 years successive governments of both complexions have tried hand wringing social engineering schemes designed to narrow the gap between the north and south.

High speed rail does not so much cry ‘mind the gap’ as close it altogether. The effect of high speed rail links in other countries is to unite provincial cities with capitals in quickening waltz of wealth creation.

The net effect of HS2 will be to make Britain a stronger, better proposition in commerce and economics. However the last point concerns a coy national psychology.

Last year Britain came third in the medal tally at the London Olympics. Perhaps an even more dramatic achievement was the success of the Paralympics Games and the effect it had on the prospects of the people it emancipated.

The UK carried this off with confidence and humour. It provided a lesson to the rest of the world that everyone is worth more than they think and that the dignity of the individual is our abiding moral value.

What other head of state could get away with apparently parachuting into the arena with James Bond? You don’t stop being cool in your 80s in Great Britain, that’s for sure.

The UK will continue to be a winner and an exemplar if we, the people, believe it can be. The Olympics were a testament of confidence. Seen in this light HS2 is not a whimsical idea of a minute saved here and there but the continuing hard concrete and steel foundation of future success.

If we shy away from high speed rail we turn our back collectively on a future that beckons brighter, peaceful and more successful than the past. The great days for the British lie not in our history books but beyond the yet unmilled ribbons of rail leading to a future of prosperity, equality and peace.

Back High Speed Two. Do something positive for your country’s future. Argue for it on social media and in the press and on radio phone-ins – fight with growing confidence on the air.

Write to your MP. Shout about it for it is in all our interests that it is built and used by future generations to whom we owe a duty of care and vision.

Track bonus for Birmingham

As railway staff set about installing new tram tracks in Birmingham city centre on Bonfire Night, linking Snow Hill and New Street, the first of a fleet of new trams was under test.

The new £40 million Urbos 3 tram fleet will run between Birmingham and Wolverhampton. The first tram arrived from CAF in Spain in October.

Says Roger Horton of Centro, the local PTE, ‘Trams are very much a transport mode of the future and this is a significant and symbolic moment for the Metro extension. In the year that sees the 60th anniversary of the last tram running in Birmingham we are seeing the first tracks go in for a new 21st century system.

‘These first tracks are another sign of the progress the scheme is making and people can see that the return of trams, with all the economic benefits they will bring, is that much closer.’ Balfour Beatty is building the extension which is scheduled to open in 2015. It will run from Snow Hill through Bull Street, Corporation Street and

Stephenson Street, terminating outside New Street station.

To keep disruption to a minimum the tracks are not being laid sequentially but at a number of different work sites across the city. Each work site is no longer than 50 metres in length.The new fleet of trams will start running next year.

Blackpool tram boost

Blackpool’s tram system looks set to be extended from the promenade to Blackpool North railway station following an announcement by Transport for Lancashire that £16.4 million has been awarded towards the total cost of £18.2 million for the scheme.

The money comes from a funding package of £90 million allocated to improving road and rail networks on the Fylde coast over the next decade. The new tram lines will run from the North Pier out along Talbot Road to the railway station. It is now up to Blackpool Council to find the remaining £1.8 million.

Says Stephen Brookes, chairman of Blackpool Transport user group, ‘The plans for the new tramway are incredibly important as they will enable Blackpool to have a joined up transport consortium. It will be absolutely brilliant for the town. We are expecting electric trains in the next 18 months and when this is completed the tram system will link in at Blackpool North station.’

The extension has been welcomed by local people and campaigners alike. Says Andrew Braddock, Chairman of the Light Rail Transit Association, ‘It is excellent news that the newly refurbished Blackpool tramway will now be able to link to the national rail system and provide better connections for local people and visitors. It is an early example that the delegation of funding powers to local transport bodies is working and one we hope to see repeated around the country.’

Test role for GBRf

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Hitachi Rail Europe has signed a contract with GB Railfreight to help with the testing and commissioning of the Class 800 and Class 801 trains for the Great Western Main Line as part of the Intercity Express Programme.

GB Railfreight will provide locomotives for transit movements and train crew throughout the test programme. Says Keith Jordan, Managing Director, Hitachi Rail Europe, ‘Hitachi Rail Europe is dedicated to delivering the Class 800 series trains into service on schedule and for this, it is highly important to have the right partner to support our testing programme.

‘GB Railfreight have shown that they align well with the Intercity Express Programme requirements and locations, offering a highly proactive response to the scenarios we need to test.’

Hitachi Rail will build the first pre-series Class 800/801 trains in the company’s factory in Kasado, Japan, and they will be shipped to the UK for testing in early 2015. Subsequent trains will be manufactured in the newly constructed train factory in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham. In 2012 Agility Trains signed a contract with the Department for Transport to build, finance and maintain 596 train carriages for the Great Western Main Line and the East Coast Main Line as part of the Intercity Express Programme. Hitachi Rail Europe and John Laing are the main shareholders in Agility Trains.

This summer the Secretary of State for Transport announced an additional contract for the provision of another 270 carriages for the East Coast Main Line, bringing the total number of train carriages to 866. The trains will be provided in 5-car and 9-car formations either fully electric (Class 800) or as bi-mode trains (Class 801).

Satisfaction guaranteed?

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With around 175,000 people currently employed by rail contractors, train companies and suppliers, the rail industry is growing and is set to become one of the UK’s main employers.

Staff satisfaction throughout most of the industry is high – check out the reports on the RailStaff Awards in this issue – but it needs to be nurtured.

The rail industry is growing, a phenomena looks set to continue. Research by Greengauge 21 estimates that 89,000 design, construction and operations jobs will be created over the entire life of HS2 alone. For an industry that fully recognises a future shortfall in qualified and experienced engineers, the need to increase job satisfaction to better attract and retain skills is essential.

‘How I became…’

A new campaign launched by Randstad UK aims to achieve just that. Launching the new campaign, Mark Bull, chief executive of Randstad UK, said, ‘We are issuing a rallying call to employers to join us in action to address the state of fulfilment at work in the UK. Our campaign for employees ‘How I Became’ is designed to help and inspire everyone to be more fulfilled.’

In the wider industrial world the UK is lagging behind in delivering job satisfaction to its employees, according to new research from Ranstad. For its Fulfilment@Work report Randstad interviewed around 45,000 employees in the UK, Europe and English-speaking countries around the world.

Analysing satisfaction over a three-year period, Randstad found that employees in the UK had the lowest scores in nine out of the past 13 quarters. In the third quarter of this year, just 67 per cent of British employees said they were satisfied with their current employer.

Hiring more women

The report recommends increasing job variety for workers as well as hiring more women, younger and older people. High age profile people are statistically more fulfilled in their work life.

‘Our report is designed to provoke debate but we have identified a number of practical solutions to these issues, and give employers an outline of what needs to change going forward to increase the professional fulfilment of their workforce,’ says Mark Bull.

The report looked at the direct impact low levels of job satisfaction can have on a company’s figures. It suggests that the average cost of an absence per employee is £975 a year. Each year there are around 160 million working days lost because of absence, amounting to £14 billion.

Speaking at the launch of the Fulfilment@Work campaign, author and philosopher Alain de Botton highlighted the need for employees to rediscover pride in their place of work.

As a foreword to the study, De Botton wrote: ‘One of the great sources of satisfaction in work is the feeling that we are making a difference to people’s lives, that we have, at the end of the working day, somehow left the planet slightly healthier, tidier, saner than it was at the beginning.’

Metrolink 2.0

Manchester Metrolink 2.0 has been given the go ahead.

Taking a break from cabinet reshuffles and HS2, Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin, was delighted to approve Transport for Greater Manchester’s application for the Transport and Works Act Order necessary to progress the scheme.

Says Andrew Fender, TfGM chair, ‘This is fantastic news and means we can now press ahead with developing the detail of the delivery programme, appointing a contractor and getting work started as soon as possible.’

The new route will run through St Peter’s Square, along Princess Street, Cross Street and Corporation Street and re-join the existing Metrolink line just outside Victoria station. The decision means TfGM can now finalise arrangements for delivering the scheme.

Banking Baroness heads for DfT

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Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Kramer has been appointed transport minister.

She replaces Norman Baker who had been moved to the Home Office. Susan Kramer was born in 1950 in Holborn and educated at St Paul’s Girls School. She went on to St Hilda’s College, Oxford where she read PPE, Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

She met and married the American John Kramer in 1972. Mr Kramer was himself secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation. The couple lived in Illinois between 1973 and 1993.

Susan Kramer pursued a career in banking rising to become Vice- President at Citicorp in Chicago. After the collapse of the Iron Curtain John and Susan Kramer returned to Europe – John had studied at the Free University of Berlin.

Together they ran a number of projects including Future Water International in rural Hungary and Infrastructure Capital Partners which advised on financing infrastructure in Central and Eastern Europe. Sadly John Kramer died of melanoma in 2006.

Kramer entered parliament as MP for Richmond Park in 2005. She lost her seat to Zac Goldsmith in 2010 and subsequently was made a life peer, concentrating on finance and banking. She contested the London mayoralty.

Baroness Kramer has been a consistent supporter of Crossrail and vigorously opposes Heathrow’s third runway. She is a patron of the Suzy Lamplugh Trust.

Spanish trams arrive at Nottingham

The first of 22 new Alstom Citadis trams for Nottingham has arrived at NET’s Wilkinson Street depot.

Built in Barcelona the trams are scheduled to arrive at the rate of two a month via Southampton docks. The first five vehicles will enter service on Line 1 from next June. This is prior to Line 2, which will see Beeston, Chilwell and Clifton join the tram network, opening six months later.

Although ordered by NET as a result of the tram network expanding, the new trams will not be allocated to just Line 2 services but will see service across the network, supplementing the 15 Bombardier-built Incentro trams. In tandem with delivery of the new trams, the current fleet is being refurbished in order to provide passengers with a uniform fleet.

Although conductors are being abolished there should be no redundancies as staff are being given the opportunity to train as drivers. Passengers will be expected to purchase tickets from machines at tram stops. Revenue protection duties will be carried out by a team of roving inspectors.

The new trams will create 100 new jobs, making a total of 216 staff employed on the system. The depot at Wilkinson Street is being extended to accommodate the new rolling stock. The new trams will receive names and it looks as if they will follow the Incentro trams by being named after people associated with Nottingham.

Names currently carried include Mary Potter, founder of the Little Company of Mary Sisters in 1877 and William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army.

Railways boost job market

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The continuing growth in rail travel has resulted in the creation of 10,000 extra jobs, according to figures released by ATOC.

Train companies are now employing more than 10,000 extra staff compared to 15 years ago. In 2011-12, train operators employed 50,100 people, a 25% increase on the 39,700 staff working for them 15 years earlier. Productivity is up, too. Hard working rail staff are running 20% more services a day and carrying 73% more passengers.

Productivity measured by staff to passengers ratio has increased by 37%, while satisfaction with services has also increased. Train companies have been hiring more train crew and station attendants, as well as drivers and conductors to staff the 4,000 extra services running each day now, compared to 15 years ago.

First ScotRail boosted staff numbers from 3,461 to 4,700, an increase of more than 35% since 2004. At the same time, journeys have increased by 30%. Since 1997, Chiltern Railways has more than trebled the number of train guards it employs. It had just 18 in 1997 compared to 62 in 2013. Services it operates have increased by 59% and passenger numbers by 133%.

Trenau Arriva Cymru has increased its staff from around 1,800 in 2003 to 2,100 today, a 17% increase. Services are up by 20%. The figures provide more evidence of an industry expanding and in urgent need of more capacity, more investment and best of all more people.

Railfreight rescue for stricken fire ship

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The cargo of a fire-damaged ship has been saved by an intrepid rail freight company.

The captain of the Zim Rotterdam cargo container ship, sailing from Port Klang in Malaysia to Felixstowe, had to lay up off the coast unable to dock even though the fire had been extinguished. After several ship-to-shore discussions the Israeli freighter was found a berth at the London Gateway, Britain’s newest deep sea Port and Logistic Park, even though the port is not scheduled to open until November.

The next challenge was to organise the unloading of the ship. Getting sufficient lorries into the new docks would have taken weeks. Instead quick thinking rail freight staff at DB Schenker laid on a daily freight service to Trafford Park in Manchester.

Zim Rotterdam was the first commercial cargo ship to be unloaded at the new deep sea port ahead of the official opening next month. Rail staff from Network Rail and DB Schenker worked tirelessly around the clock with their counterparts at London Gateway.

Says Carsten Hinne of DB Schenker Rail UK, ‘This has been an incredible effort and demonstrates how the team, and indeed the industry, has come together to help support Zim and its customers.

‘I haven’t seen collective support from the industry like this in any way before and it’s amazing to think we have put a service together in just a few days – let alone from a non-operational port. We realised that a solution was needed quickly and viewed this as an opportunity to help Zim, the London Gateway team and the cargo owners in providing a service from the port.’

To celebrate the success of the relationship DB Schenker Rail later named a Class 66 loco, 66185, ‘DP World London Gateway’ as the containers sped on their way.

Shops on stations defy recession

According to the British Retail Consortium high street sales have increased by a meager 0.4% between April and June this year.

However on the railway the story is very different and sales are booming. Station retail sales have powered up by an amazing 6.4% over the same period. These figures were compiled from the results of retailers operating from over 500,000 sq ft of retail space in 520 units/shops at 16 of Britain’s biggest and busiest stations owned and operated by Network Rail.

Shops on stations benefit from a combined annual footfall of over a billion passenger journeys. Trading at both King’s Cross and Waterloo benefited from major investment schemes enabling new retail facilities to offer the public a wider choice of food and beverage, clothes and products. During this period retail sales also benefited from better weather.

Says Jonathan Crick, director of retail at Network Rail, ‘While growth on the high street remains relatively flat, retail in stations continues to grow dramatically. This set of retail results shows how the change in retail strategy combined with investment in new retail space has enhanced the whole station environment, contributing to a strong retail performance even in like-for-like comparisons. Even more so for overall sales.

‘Stations offer a vibrant and healthy trading environment and we are continuing to attract new brands to enhance the breadth of retail offered to passengers.’ All profit from Network Rail’s retail activity is re-invested in the railway.

Turkish Delight

A new railway tunnel under the Bosporus connecting Asia and Europe is on track to open later this month.

The Marmaray Tunnel in Istanbul will be opened on 29th October 2013, by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister. The project includes a 13.6 kilometre tunnel and a modernised 63 kilometre local rail network plus three new underground railway stations and the modernisation of 37 further stations.

The Marmaray Tunnel is built to withstand earthquakes which measure up to 9 on the Richter scale. Leipzig company, Goldschmidt Thermit put together the track. British company Invensys Rail has been making preparations for the official opening 29th October 2013, the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Turkey.

‘The Marmaray tunnel brings Europe and Asia closer together. This improves the traffic infrastructure between two continents and also at the historical location of the Bosporus helps to build a bridge between different cultures,’ says Hans- Jürgen Mundinger, Chairman of Goldschmidt Thermit.

Fire Down Below

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A potential simulated disaster underground is essential for training fire fighters and emergency services.

For the first time in almost ten years a network of tunnels underneath Birmingham New Street station has been opened by Network Rail to allow West Midlands Fire Service to conduct just such a live training exercise.

Situated four metres beneath the station’s 12 platforms and spanning 132 metres in length, the tunnel, which closed in 2004, was previously used for Royal Mail postal trains to transport mail from the station out to regional sorting offices.

Says Crew Commander Mark Clifton of Highgate Fire Station White Watch, ‘As firefighters we train daily and we were extremely grateful to Network Rail for the chance to test ourselves and our methods in this unusual environment. The tunnels were a perfect place to test new breathing apparatus, which can be worn for virtually double the time compared to kit we usually use. Around 40 fire fighters from seven of our stations were involved in the two-hour exercise, which was based on a rescue scenario.’

When the station redevelopment is complete in 2015, railway staff will replace postal workers and fire fighters. The tunnel will be used to access staff accommodation and the CrossCountry Trains national rail catering centre.

Says Steve Lewis, Network Rail station manager, ‘The tunnel beneath New Street is part of the station’s wealth of history and I’m sure the thousands of passengers that travel above have no idea of the maze of tunnels that lie below and across the wider city. We were delighted to be able to offer our colleagues at West Midlands Fire Service the tunnel for their exercise.’

Global runner heads Crossrail IT

Andrew Turner has been appointed interim IT director for Crossrail.

Turner, who spent almost five years as CIO at insurance specialists Hiscox, takes over from Neil Farmer, who was in the role since August 2009.

He started his career at British Airways looking after transport operations at Heathrow Airport. He was head of IT services at Seeboard Plc and worked for Cable & Wireless before moving into the financial sector at Royal Sun

Alliance where he was Strategic Relationships Director.

After a spell at Aspen Re, as Group IT director, he joined Hiscox. Andrew was educated at the University of Wales where he read English Literature. He has an MBA from the University of Bath.

Andrew Turner is a serious long distance runner and has been awarded the international Marathon Majors Five Star Award for completing the top five marathon courses in the world in under three hours.

These include Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York City marathons. Taylor relaxes by playing the piano, violin and viola.

Farringdon breakthrough for Phyllis

Crossrail’s tunnel boring machine, Phyllis, has completed the construction of the first of the new train tunnels under London.

Phyllis reached Farringdon – the midway point of the project – 17 months after starting her 4.2 mile journey from Royal Oak in west London. During the coming weeks, Phyllis will be dismantled and her 130 metre long trailer system will be removed from the tunnel via the recently completed Fisher Street shaft.

Six other Crossrail tunnelling machines are hard at work deep under London burrowing along their 26 mile marathon. Says Andy Mitchell, Crossrail Programme Director, ‘Crossrail’s construction continues to move ahead at a significant pace. Crossrail has not only completed the first Crossrail tunnel under London but has reached the half-way point for our tunnelling machines with a phenomenal 13 miles of train tunnels constructed to-date.

A further six tunnelling machines are currently hard at work constructing over 100 metres of new tunnel each day with major tunnelling due to complete next year.’

High-speed chair for Higgins

Sir David Higgins has moved quickly to diffuse political tension surrounding high Speed 2 just days after his appointment as chairman of hS2 Ltd was announced.

Higgins steps down as Network Rail’s Chief Executive next April but will join HS2 Ltd on 1st January 2014, going full time from April. Mark Carne, former executive vice president of Royal Dutch Shell, takes over as CEO of Network Rail in April.

Sir David has been a long term supporter of high speed railways and spelled out in confident terms the importance of HS2. ‘People forget, I started (on the Olympics) in late 2005. In 2006, there was not a single positive bit of media coverage. It was all about this will never be done, the budget is ridiculous, it can’t be done, we’ll be embarrassed about what’s going to happen about it… It took about two years for the first green shoots to emerge.’

Higgins met Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, requesting he be allowed to brief Labour Party leaders and avoid HS2 becoming a political football. Higgins wants to get all sides to back the scheme. ‘As I did in the Olympics, I (now) have the right to brief opposition and government both at a local and national level.’

HS2 will serve as an economic dynamo for the economy and represents the next installment in Britain’s revitalised and fast growing rail industry. ‘While we do have the safest railway in Europe, we also have the oldest railway in Europe, and the growth rates here far outstrip any other utility in the UK and any other railway in Europe. So, it’s essential for economic growth in this country to have a proper modern railway,’ Higgins added.

The move to HS2 Ltd caps a successful career for Sir David Higgins, the Australian farmer’s son from Brisbane in north Queensland who, as a child, watched steam engines thundering through farmland near where he lived.

He read civil engineering at university in Sydney and later worked in Africa on mining projects and airports. After a spell gem prospecting in Kenya he ran the Sydney Olympics, a role he reprised at the Olympic Delivery Authority in London.

Higgins has been a keen and long term supporter of high speed railways. Speaking in RailStaff two years ago he said, ‘90% of all long term journeys in France are by high speed rail. France already has 2,000 kilometres of high speed railways. And before we open High Speed Two they’ll have built another 1,000 kilometres of high speed rail.’

With remarkable prescience he also said, ‘Unless everyone’s vigilant it won’t go ahead so we have to be avid supporters of it.’ Current HS2 chairman, Doug Oakervee, will remain in post to oversee the introduction of the Government’s Hybrid Bill before the end of this year. The Bill will secure Parliamentary approval for Phase 1 of the route between London and Birmingham, allowing work to start in 2017.

Sir David also moved to calm fears of spiraling costs. ‘My first priority will be to rigorously scrutinise costs to ensure they remain under control,’ he said. ‘HS2 presents a strategic opportunity for this country and I am determined to make sure we take it by delivering a railway that will allow business and communities to prosper in the long term.’

Learning curve for A-Star pupils

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‘Education never stops and it’s time we put rail on the national curriculum,’ said Patricia Holgate of London Underground speaking at the start of the RailStaff Awards 2013.

The party this year revolved around a Back to School theme with raucous partygoers interrupting speeches with raspberry-blowing balloons and party poppers. ‘I must say these events were very different under British Rail,’ said one startled rail chief.

Colin Flack, genial head of the Rail Alliance, hosted the evening calling on every ounce of his experience as an army officer to control proceedings. Martin Frobisher of Network Rail managed to state in two sentences what the RailStaff Awards is about. ‘Today is a big day in the railway calendar,’ Martin said. ‘It’s the day that we recognise all the efforts of the real people who do the work operating, maintaining and building the railway.’

Trumpet Blowing

The RailStaff Awards was set up to celebrate the hard work and courage of the ordinary men and women who make up the industry. ‘We don’t do enough to recognise good practice and it’s great to get a chance to do it,’ says Paul Moogan of Morson International.

Network Rail’s, Jo Kaye, representing the Institution of Railway Operators agrees. ‘People are naturally reluctant to blow their own trumpet so we should provide an opportunity to do it for them.’

Read through the nominations and talk to the winners and most railway staff will say, ‘I was just doing my job,’ or ‘It’s the people I work with, this is their award really.’ Railway people are self deprecating and modest but recognition is important.

Says Chris Godbold from the Transport Benevolent Fund, ‘We feel it’s important to recognise those staff who have not only fulfilled expectations but go that little bit further and provide exceptional service.’

Outstanding achievements of individual staff and their teams testify to an exceptional and confident industry. For instance Toni Goulden of Navartis, acknowledged the role of 100s of project managers,

‘We deal with project managers all the time but there are always some who stand out more.’

It is this need for recognition that makes the RailStaff Awards popular with the 35,000 people who nominated colleagues.

Joined up thinking

The RailStaff Awards sees people from all across the industry coming together from driver to track worker and cleaner to chief executive. Unity, joined up thinking, call it what you will. One cheerful engineer called it Personal Integration. It is a picture of the railway as it should be.

Says Patricia Holgate, from London Underground, ‘We got involved with the awards because we wanted to celebrate the contribution of teams and the value of working together across the industry.’

It’s a theme reflected by Phil Mounter of Westermo. ‘I think it’s important to celebrate individual initiative…(but) the reason we wanted to support the awards was that we wanted to support the rail industry. We wanted to put something back into the industry.’

Interestingly several companies involved in backing the RailStaff Awards have an industry-wide reach. Says Kamal Basra of Bodyguard Workwear, ‘The rail industry is a very challenging place and there are so many people who work very, very hard behind the scenes and are quite often unaccounted for.

‘As a service provider, we also understand how difficult it can be managing people’s expectations. By sponsoring this award we are able to recognise the achievements of special people in this industry.’

Phil Whittingham of Virgin Trains, summed up the underlying logic behind the RailStaff Awards. ‘Team work in the industry is massively important,’ he said.

Chiltern collaboration

Network Rail and Chiltern Railways have announced they will be working closer together to progress the upgrading of the railway between Oxford and Bicester.

This includes the connection of the railway at Bicester to the Chiltern Main Line and will involve building one kilometre of new track.

Express services between Oxford and London Marylebone via Bicester are expected to start in two years time.

The upgrade of the Oxford to Bicester line not only facilitates the new Chiltern Railways service between Oxford and London, but also forms the first phase of works on the western section of the East West Rail scheme.

The long awaited return of the Oxford-Buckinghamshire link will reconnect Oxford to Milton Keynes and Bedford. Says Karl Budge, route delivery director from Network Rail, ‘The investment being made between Oxford, Bicester and Bedford will make a huge difference to local people and the local economy.

‘It makes sense to deliver what were originally separate schemes in a collaborative way. This collaboration will allow fast train services to operate between Oxford and London Marylebone and will move Network Rail closer to reinstating the railway line through to Bedford and Milton Keynes via Bletchley.’

Oxford to London Marylebone services operated by Chiltern Railways start two years from now from a new parkway station north of Oxford. Trains will also run down the new route from Oxford city centre in spring 2016 once upgrades in and around Oxford station have been completed. Journey times from the parkway station to London will be under an hour.

The Western Section of the East West Rail scheme will see the railway line reinstated between Bedford and Oxford, with spurs to Milton Keynes and Aylesbury. New train services are due to begin operations from the end of 2017.

Reshuffle at Virgin Trains

Virgin Rail Group was keen to stress continuity at the top as Phil Whittingham, Director Finance, stepped up to become the Lead executive and Phil Bearpark, Production Director took over as Director operations and Customer Service.

The moves follow Chief Executive Tony Collins’ decision to quit and Chris Gibb’s move to Network Rail as a non-executive director. Collins will stay on as an advisor at Virgin.

The new management team will be overseen by Virgin’s Patrick McCall and Stagecoach’s Martin Griffiths, both executive chairmen. Virgin Trains’ top performing staff were singled out for praise by Sir Brian Souter, Stagecoach Group Chairman.

‘Virgin Trains is a fantastic partnership between two innovative transport groups. Tony, the wider management team and the thousands of people at the sharp end of delivering the train service for customers have done a superb job of making our joint vision of transforming rail travel a reality. There is more growth to come and the team we have in place will ensure we have continuity and experience to build on these achievements,’ Sir Brian said.

Chris Gibb [online]
Chris Gibb
Tony Collins has been with Virgin Trains nearly 14 years with nine years as Chief Executive Officer. Tony started his career in 1979 as a Commercial Apprentice with Wolverhampton-based Rockwell Thompson Limited, before taking on the role of Financial Analyst. He joined Virgin from Alstom Passenger Group in Birmingham.

Chris Gibb, 50, joined Virgin in May 2003, previously he was managing director of Wales and Borders trains. A career railwayman Chris joined British Rail as a clerical officer from school in 1981. He spent 20 years working his way up in a variety of operational roles throughout Britain.

Patrick McGrath remains as Director Human Resources, Graham Leech, Executive Director Commercial, and Andy Cross, Director Business Support. All three have more than a decade of experience at Virgin Trains.

Phil Whittingham became Director, Finance on 1 January 2008. A Chartered Accountant Phil joined the company from KPMG’s Birmingham office in August 1999, where he worked closely with Virgin Trains.

Phil Bearpark has been with Virgin Trains since the franchise started in 1997. He originally trained as an engineer and is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and a Member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. In his spare time he enjoys restoring old motorcycles.

Chris Gibb also paid tribute to the staff at Virgin. ‘Delivering great customer service truly is a team effort, requiring not only great staff, which we have in spades at Virgin Trains, but also co-operation between the different stakeholders across the industry.

‘I am especially proud of the part I have played in bringing these important individual parties together to deliver improved performance. That’s the foundation which great service is built on.’

Chris was seconded to Network Rail for six months last year and led a taskforce focused on improving performance and reliability on the West Coast main line.