DEFINING CORE COMPETENCY
Network Rail’s Thameslink Programme Director SIMON BLANCHFLOWER delivers a progress report on NR’s collaborative work with Siemens to switch from conventional to in-cab signalling on Thameslink’s central section
On May 20, the introduction of higher-frequency Thameslink services through central London commenced, to serve a wider range of destinations including Peterborough, Ashford and Cambridge.
Despite a number of well-publicised operational difficulties in implementing the timetable change, 18 trains per hour (tph) are now scheduled to travel in each direction at peak times through the Thameslink ‘core’ between St Pancras International and Blackfriars.
This figure will rise incrementally with the aim to eventually move to 24 trains per hour or a train every two to three minutes.
Underpinning this uplifted central core frequency has been the installation of ATO (Automatic Train Operation) and ETCS (European Train Control System) Level 2 digital in-cab signalling technology designed and supplied by Siemens, and the introduction of Siemens’ National Rail Awards-winning fleet of Class 700s ( RAIL 862).
ETCS Level 2 facilitates an increase in the number of available train paths compared with conventional signalling, by having much shorter track circuit block sections. This reduces headways by enabling trains to run much closer together. Alongside ETCS, existing lineside signals are being retained throughout the core for non-ETCS-fitted trains (also providing extra resilience in the unlikely event of equipment failure).
Starting next year a traffic management system will be progressively rolled out across a wider area than the core (approximately 20 minutes’ travel time in all directions), to help keep performance as close as possible to the timetabled path of each train, and to mitigate the risk of late-running services.
This complex and technically challenging project delivered a UK ‘first’ on March 17 this year, when the first main line train ever to use ETCS and ATO while in passenger traffic travelled through the core.
This historic moment was the latest step in an extensive and highly collaborative testing programme between engineers from Siemens, Govia Thameslink Railway and Network Rail that had begun five year earlier, following the opening of a purpose-built system integration laboratory at James Forbes House (near Blackfriars station), where NR’s Thameslink Programme High Capacity Infrastructure Team was then based.
The facility was visited by RAIL in February ( RAIL 848). It contains an exact replica of a Class 700 cab and at least one example of each component needed to run ETCS and ATO - including a dummy balise (ETCS transponder), GSM-R connection, plus real trackside interlockings and a radio block controller.
The lab enables the offline testing of ETCS and ATO technology using real equipment and the ‘700’ simulator. It has the capacity to simulate 60 trains, and to operate any one of them in order to replicate the connection that trains will have with other equipped trains in the core. It remains in use while software continues to be optimised, while a further use is actively being sought for it following the end of the Thameslink Programme next year.
Dynamic testing began at NR’s ETCS National Integration Facility at Hitchin in 2014, before switching to overnight testing on the core itself in April 2016, using a Class 700 train
specifically provided for this purpose by GTR.
The equipment went live on Thameslink earlier this year and is now fully functional, although almost all Thameslink services will remain conventionally signalled for the immediate future. For the present time, GTR will continue to focus on training its driver managers and competence development managers on the two Class 700s (700019/110) that have temporarily been withdrawn from service for training and testing purposes.
Siemens and NR have also taken advantage of the necessary time required to implement full driver training to use these trains to further optimise the software, and to build a track database of the many crossovers and platforms in the central section through which trains could be routed.
“The ‘700’ is clearly still a new train and mileage is progressively accruing, but in terms of technology integration all this testing has proven that everything [from concept] works in reality,” says NR’s Thameslink Programme Director Simon Blanchflower.
“Testing is still ongoing because while ATO and ETCS has been proven in the core, we now have to extend it from Blackfriars round to London Bridge and then integrate it with the rolling stock. This shows that we’re not standing still with this system, but developing it further. It is exciting times in terms of technology deployment.”
Once installation of trackside equipment is extended from just south of Blackfriars stations through to London Bridge, Siemens, GTR and Network Rail will once more collaborate for a testing phase in early 2019, before safety approval is granted by the Office for Rail and Road for it to be switched on by Easter.
Blanchflower is keen to emphasise that although there have been problems implementing the Thameslink timetable, it was (nevertheless) purely an operational issue. He points out that the ETCS and ATO technology is performing well and has had few glitches, and could in fact support up to 24tph
Thingshavegonewellon Thameslinkbecauseoftheworkwe didwithSiemensveryearlyonin researchanddevelopment. Simon Blanchflower, Thameslink Programme Director, Network Rail
by May 2019. The system is being tested to support up to 30tph, although this would be reserved for times of extreme disruption - in such an event, some services would probably be required to run non-stop, undoubtedly inconveniencing some passengers.
However, the industry has agreed it would be beneficial to passengers to introduce the timetable over a longer period, to enable experience to be embedded between stages.
Blanchflower adds: “We’ve hit almost all of our [infrastructure] targets and we’re working hard with our industry partners to build confidence around the reliability of future timetable uplifts to 24tph, and will support operators to deliver that capacity increase.
“Passengers will be well aware of the key challenge at the moment, however, which is to stabilise day-to-day performance. Only when they are confident we’ve done that and cancellations are withdrawn from the schedule, will they begin to see some of the very real benefits this technology offers.”
Looking ahead, Blanchflower is hopeful that many of the lessons learned from the Thameslink Programme are deployed to the first wave of Digital Railway projects, which are due to commence in Control Period 6 (April 2019-March 2024).
These include the installation of ETCS at Feltham and on the southern portion of the East Coast Main Line from Peterborough to King’s Cross.
He says this demonstrates the immense value of selecting a technology supplier and project partner such as Siemens at the earliest possible stage of the design process, adding: “We continue to have interest from European railways and from further afield such as Australia who want to understand what we’ve achieved, and the methodology we’ve used to get there, which we’re keen to share.
“Things have gone well on Thameslink because of the work we did with Siemens very early on in research and development, which has made the process more robust. A key learning for Digital Railway has to be to work collaboratively with an early development partner on overall system development.
“Expressions of interest have gone out on the East Coast Main Line, and I think that following the Thameslink model will reap benefits in creating strong designs at an early stage. The work we’ve done with Siemens’ trains and signalling and GTR, and getting all these partners together early on, has clearly benefited the project.”
He concludes: “I’m very keen on that and I often talk to [NR’s Digital Railway MD] David Waboso, who has also put in a lot of effort on collaboration with the supply chain. Undoubtedly the success of Thameslink will help breed confidence that DR can be delivered and give some momentum for the next three or four projects.”