A VERY COMPATIBLE UPGRADE
On May 22, London Underground introduced its highest ever frequency timetable, with 36 trains per hour (tph) timetabled on the Victoria Line during peak hours. This equates to one train calling at each station every 100 seconds, enabling 3,000 more passengers to travel each hour at peak times.
The introduction of this new timetable crowned the end of an ambitious £10 billion upgrade programme, work on which began in 2003 to deliver extra capacity and efficiency to the then 35-year-old line.
As part of the upgrade programme, the Victoria Line’s entire signalling system was replaced and a new fleet of trains introduced for the benefit of the 200 million passengers who currently use it each year.
Siemens was appointed to re-signal and re-control the 13-mile line, and to carry out a carefully planned and phased migration from the old Automatic Train Operation (ATO) system installed in the 1960s.
This added to the complexity of the programme, with the new system having to be installed with the old one still in situ in order to facilitate the gradual replacement of the rolling stock fleet without causing any disruption to normal running.
Says Stubbs: “Bringing the line up to the excellent standard it is now, with 36tph operation, certainly wasn’t easy. But the programme demonstrated the vast experience that we have as a business - not only of signalling new greenfield lines such as on the Crossrail project, but also resignalling pre-existing and challenging brownfield sites such as this.”
While maintaining performance
throughout, Siemens was involved in every element of resignalling the railway, providing its ATO and Automatic Train Protection (ATP) technology, in conjunction with radio-based signalling, in what is believed to be the world’s first ATO-onATO upgrade.
These new systems were overlaid onto the existing signalling, largely during nighttime possessions, every one of which was successfully completed on time.
As a result, the first new train entered operational service in July 2009, three years ahead of the final project completion.
As the new trains progressively came into service, the existing and new systems operated together until the last of the 1967Stock trains made its final journey on June 30 2011. During the mixed-fleet phase, the new signalling control centre at Osborne House in London was also opened and entered operation, taking control of the legacy interlockings.
The next stage of the programme featured the complete phasing out of the old system. This involved stripping out the entire legacy system’s infrastructure and installing new signals, track circuits and platform equipment. Through a series of key commissionings, the new system was fully introduced - increasing the service from 28tph to 33tph.
A key milestone for the programme was the London Olympic Games in July 2012, with the programme planned to ensure an optimum and reliable service was provided to support the Games.
London Underground then initiated the Victoria Line Upgrade 2 ( VLU2) project as part of its further capacity improvement programme, with the five-year programme involving extensive signalling, rolling stock, power, cooling and infrastructure upgrades. During the final stage, Siemens upgraded signalling and rolling stock systems to reflect the extensive VLU2 infrastructure changes, with comprehensive installation, testing, principles testing and test-train running successfully completed.
Says Stubbs: “We had 23 short commissionings as part of VLU2 in a 12-month period, culminating in a closure at Easter 2017 to update the train fleet. It was an intense programme of work, but these are the sort of challenges we enjoy and rise to. It’s not in the nature of our business to shy away from these more difficult projects.”
Stubbs also applauds the collaborative approach that Transport for London (TfL) and London Underground took with Siemens throughout both upgrade programmes, which he says heavily contributed to the seamless introduction of the new control systems.
“Our two organisation’s delivery teams collaborated extremely closely throughout the project, effectively working as a single team to deliver the upgrade programmes. Without that level of collaboration, we simply wouldn’t have achieved such a successful outcome.
“We’ve done our utmost to test to extremes the new technology we were installing and to stress-test the software. Of course, we were able to do some of that on a test rig, but there are still limitations with that approach compared with testing on a live railway.
“London Underground recognised this and provided night-time train testing. Obviously, during all this, Night Tube for London also started running at weekends, which meant less time for testing because time for regular maintenance now also has to be found during week nights.”
With the new system comfortably exceeding expectations, Stubbs says that the next area for Siemens to explore in partnership with TfL is in making optimum use of the data diagnostics generated by the new technology to the benefit of every aspect of London Underground’s operations.
He adds: “London Underground already embraces the Digital Railway concept, and the challenge now is how to share information from different systems and different parts of the organisation to maximise the operation and reliability of the railway.
“Recognising the power of joining data to create valuable information, Siemens has developed a powerful solution - Siemens Railigent - which does just that.
“Along with much of the industry supply chain, we are also working very closely with Network Rail on its Digital Railway strategy, with our Digital Railway Operations Director Mark Ferrer engaging with David Waboso [Network Rail’s Digital Railway managing director] and his team to share expertise and ideas to support the overall future strategy.
“We’re learning a lot from our digital signalling work on the Thameslink programme, which will again be a technological first for the industry, with the project demonstrating not only how we can add value in congested areas of the network, but also how the cost-to benefit ratios might work on the wider network.”
Stubbs concludes: “This is an exciting time for the industry in general and for Siemens in particular, as we work collaboratively with operators to address the ever-increasing demands on our railways and to look at holistic solutions that use technology to maximum advantage.”
It’s not in the nature of our business to shy away from these more difficult projects. Adrian Stubbs, Delivery Director for Mass Transit and International, Siemens Rail Automation