Table Of ContentGETTING MORE
FROM Y O UR
R A I L W AY
21-23 NOVEMBER 1995
TO BE HELD AT THE
WEMBLEY CONFERENCE AND
EXHIBITION CENTRE
DELEGATE INFORMATION
SEMINAR 1 - TUESDAY 21 NOVEMBER 1995
ORGANISED BY THOMAS TELFORD SERVICES LTD
ON BEHALF OF THE TRANSPORT ENGINEERING BOARD,
INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS
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CONTENTS
• PROGRAMME
• INTRODUCTORY NOTES
(Mr Nock's paper unavailable at time of going to print)
GETTING MORE FROM YOUR RAILWAY
Tuesday 21 November 1995
TRAFFIC IMPROVEMENTS - Seminar 1
PROGRAMME
Subject To Amendment
Chairman: Sir Hugh Ford, Senior Research Fellow, Mechanical Engineering,
Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine
0915 Registration and Coffee
1000 Official Opening - "Railways: a change for the better"
Sir George Young Bt MP, Secretary of State for Transport
1015 L Opportunities from innovation
Professor R A Smith
Royal Academy of Engineering/British Rail Research Professor
Presenter: A Jablonski, Director,
Advanced Railway Research Centre
1030 2. Engineering the track as a component of an infrastructure system within
London Underground Ltd
M Gellatley, Infrastructure System Engineer,
London Underground Ltd
1045 3. Developing a technology strategies for London Underground
Tony Golborn, Technology Strategy Manager,
London Underground Ltd
1100 Discussion
1120 Coffee
1140 4. The future of freight
A Nock, Infrastructure & Rail Services Business Manager,
Mainline Freight Ltd
1155 5. Implications of passenger demand forecasting
MLampkin, Principal Consultant,
Rail Operational Research (British Railways Board)
1210 6. Rail's place in a transport strategy
WR Steinmetz, Director, Railway Technology Strategy Centre,
Centre for Transport Studies, Imperial College of Science Technology
and Medicine
1225 Discussion
1245 Close of seminar
OPPORTUNITIES FROM INNOVATION
Professor R A Smith
Royal Academy of Engineering/British Rail Research Professor
Advanced Railway Research Centre
The University of Sheffield
Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
In recent years we have begun calling passengers "customers" and have
started to believe in the importance of what they require from a train service. It
is self evident, and does not require extensive opinion polling to establish, that
customers need:
• Regular, reliable departures, convenient connections and
punctual arrivals.
• Easy access to information of a journey, a less complicated fare
structure, thorough and flexible ticketing and realistic fare levels.
They need to purchase their tickets conveniently and without
delay.
• Once on-board, they require a comfortable seat, a view through
a dean window, clean toilet facilities and refreshment
opportunities appropriate to the length of their journey. They
need a temperature and air conditioned environment, which is
quiet and vibration free, and updated information on the progress
of their journey.
• Because their door-to-door journey time is important, they need
integrated transport modes at either end.
The providers of such a service need to appreciate what the customer wants,
to have resources at their disposal to deliver an appropriate service and to
make a reasonable return on their activities. It is not the purpose of this
discussion to comment on the ability or otherwise of privatised railways to
provide these services: rather the focus is on appropriate technology to satisfy
passenger needs at a reasonable cost, thus balancing the equation between
customer and provider.
A first overview suggests that the technology is already available and
examples can be found in operation in many parts of the world. But examples
where this technology is provided at the market cost to the customer are much
harder to find. Without exploring what the appropriate boundaries of economic
calculations of transport systems should be; and they range from a Government
provided free service which acknowledges the stimulating role of transport on
economic growth, to a service for which the customer pays the whole cost at
the point of delivering, it is clear that cost reductions of all elements of the
system are a benefit. However, since an empty seat on a train represents a
perishable commodity for which the providing costs have already been paid, we
need also to concentrate our thoughts on maximising ridership of existing
trains and maximising the potential of the infrastructure network: actions which
also lead to reduced system costs.
Professor R A Smith
AH the above is almost too obvious to need stating. For many reasons, it
hasn't happened to date, but we now stand at a turning point. We have lived,
particularly in the last fifty years, through a period when the mode share of the
train for both passenger and freight has decreased sharply in competition with
the car and the truck. But the near saturation of our roads, the stagnation of
our cities, the lack of parking spaces and concerns about atmospheric pollution
are now making us realise that the near exponential growth in car ownership
cannot continue into the foreseeable future. The advantages of
environmentally friendly, and low stress rail transport are being recognised in
many parts of the developed world, particularly in Western Europe and Japan,
when shorter distances favour rail rather that air travel as in continental
America.
Looking beyond the short term difficulties caused by the particular form of
privatisation which is being inflicted on the United Kingdom, let us speculate on
some of the technologies which will modernise our system and enable providers
to satisfy what may well be an increasing customer demand. We also note, in
passing, that whatever the outcomes of the next few decades, they would be
infinitely better if the Government of the day had long term inter-related
Transport, Energy and Environment policies, preferably driven by experienced
Ministers of more than of a few months standing.
Let us take a speculative ride on a "mechatronic" inter-city train of the future.
At the home of the "Informed Traveller", real-time information will be available
via TV screen or computer, purchase of tickets will have been made from the
armchair or desk, and heavy luggage may well have been collected hours in
advance of the customer's departure time. A seamless transfer to the station
will then be available: by car, bus, tram or bike, facilities will exist to drop the
passenger as near as possible to the departing train. The station will be a
commercial centre in its own right, with shopping and business opportunities in
the surrounding complex (Even the rural station can be developed to be "a
pearl on the necklace through the countryside"!). The internal environment of
the station will be light and clean, have replaced the fumes, oil soaked tracks
and human waste which currently delight the senses.
Departures will be regular and frequent, the train consist will be flexible,
because advances in high power/weight traction motors have allowed
distributed drive through all axles, whilst lowering the mass of transmission
required. The train set will have high availability and reliability, achieved by
reduced mechanical complexity and duplicated electronic system, of modular
design to allow for easy replacement. Maintenance of the train will be minimal;
because it will have been designed to have a near-maintenance free short life.
The short life is necessary to derive full benefit from emerging technologies: the
current 30+ year lifetime of rolling stock means that a high proportion of the
stock in use was designed 40 or more years ago! In an era of rapidly moving
technological windows, this time span is far too long. The cost savings will be
generated by life-cycle costings which allows for reduced maintenance and
first-build cost will probably only represent a minor proportion of savings.
The train will be designed to minimise its environmental impact: aerodynamics
will reduce drag and noise, the suspension will be active and intelligent, to
continuously match the train to the track, noise radiation will be reduced by
enclosing the running gear, energy consumption will be minimised. Competing
modes of transport, particularly the automobile will substantially improve their
environmental performance, but on the basis of life-cycle energy
consumed/passenger kilometre travelled, trains with high ridership ratios will
have overwhelming superiority.
Professor R A Smith
The track over which the train will travel, will also be designed to minimise
maintenance and maximum reliability. The benefits of reduced disruption to
services will be extended to Sundays; which is the busiest day on the system
for many countries other than the UK! It is unlikely that major changes of track
alignments will be possible; but the "intelligent" train will be capable of running
at up to 250 km/hour and will tilt on curves to maintain high running speeds
throughout its journey.
Line side signals will be few: the train will be guided by satellite allowing for
short headways and near fully automatic train control. Data will move from train
to control centre describing not only position and speed, but also the condition
of on-board systems, to allow rapid maintenance by switching or replacement of
redundant modules.
Meanwhile, our customer will be relaxing. The concept of "quality time" in
transit will be well established. In a quiet air-conditioned environment, the
customer will relax, enjoy radio and TV, rebroadcast in the vehicle through the
satellite link, will have opportunities to communicate outside the train (but in a
less public manner than by using the very intrusive portable 'phone of the
1990's!) and will be able to sleep in a low-vibration and jerk free seat designed
to best crashworthiness standards. The traveller will be comforted in the
knowledge that the train will arrive on time: connections or appointments will be
met. Interruptions from weather will be extremely rare: robustness and
reliability have been designed in. It is possible that different parts of the train
will carry customers of different persuasions, for example, pop-fans, sleepers,
food addicts or talkers!
The author contends that the technology required to deliver the above vision
is, broadly speaking, available now. Some development work is needed on the
systems and interactions which will enable our lightweight high-tech
"mechatronic" train to travel on low maintenance track. The biggest
engineering challenges are to cut costs and to achieve high reliability. The key
requirements will be effective, simple engineering, modular construction with
high inter-changeability between types and reduction of maintenance.
Quantitative targets should be set by comparing our current performance levels
with the world's best and agreeing on what improvements could be made to
current best practice over the next ten to fifteen years. It is unlikely that this
period will see the short term financial returns which are deemed necessary in
the UK because of the relatively high investment levels needed to transform our
"historic" railway; however, if adequate funding can be found, our railways will
be well positioned to serve the country in the early years of the next century,
and the future could indeed be very bright.
ENGINEERING THE TRACK AS A
COMPONENT OF AN
INFRASTRUCTURE SYSTEM
WITHIN
LONDON UNDERGROUND LIMITED
M J Gellatley
London Underground Limited
Tel: 0171 308 2552
ENGINEERING THE TRACK AS A COMPONENT OF AN
INFRASTRUCTURE SYSTEM
WITHIN
LONDON UNDERGROUND LIMITED
INTRODUCTION
London Underground is a wholly owned subsidiary of London Regional Transport
the Statutory body responsible to the Government for the provision of public
transport services by Bus and Underground railway opened in 1863 and the worlds
first deep level electric railway opened in 1890. The network serves 273 Stations
and comprises nine lines The District, Circle, Metropolitan and East London are sub
surface railways, the Bakerloo, Central, Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria, Jubilee and
Waterloo and City (transferred from British Rail ownership in 1994) are deep level
tube railways although all lines except the Victoria have surface sections outside
Central London.
Current assets relating to Civil, Track and Power which together formulate the
Infrastructure System are as follows:
Civils Assets
Structures: Underbridges 318Nr
Overbridges 267 Nr
Cable Pipe Bridges 189Nr
Footbridges/ Subways 406 Nr
Culverts 81 Nr
Viaducts 9 Km
Pipe Crossings 391 Nr
Tunnels Cast Iron 206 Km
Concrete 33 Km
Brick 25 Km
Covered Way 103 Km
Earth Embankments 96 Km
Structures Cuttings 104 Km
Retaining Walls 854 Nr
Drainage Track Drains 220 Km
Catch Pits 7350 Nr
Pumps 700 Nr
Core Capital Investment
A significant volume of this spend relates to Civil, Track and Power as being
essential support to the emerging Systems of Trains and Stations. These together
with Infrastructure Systems are the three key areas under which the Business is now
being managed within the Engineering Directorate for providing greater Customer
Focus and improved Customer Services.
BACKGROUND
LUL had operated as a traditional railway with a number of Engineering disciplines
each grouped around the individual recognised assets of Civil, Track, Power, Rolling
Stock etc As a result the Chief Civil Engineer was responsible for all aspects of the
asset from inception to decommissioning. In 1986 the first step was taken towards
producing a more commercial approach by splitting out, maintenance and
installation activities, from the specification design and procurement functions.
This process established internal clients for the work and set the delivery functions
up as a separate unit. This enabled the internal work force to be subjected to
outside competition.
In February 1989 following the appointment of a new Engineering Director
reorganisation was carried out into separate line businesses, each with its own
General Manager being accountable for the delivery of the train service, and for the
bottom line accountability of operating the individual lines under a corporate
umbrella. The prime purpose of this change being to signal greater customer focus.
As part of this process the maintenance staff were transferred to the line from the
separate engineering contractor business, the lines taking over the complete budget
responsibility for the maintenance of the assets with the Engineering Standards laid
