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Opinion
This July, one of the longest possessions of a British station will begin as a £100 million
re-signalling scheme gets under way in Nottingham
It’s one of two blockades this summer
that are longer than the average Bank
Holiday possession.
For six weeks trains will be replaced
by buses to the west of Nottingham, as
the station layout is completely rebuilt,
a new platform created, new signals
commissioned, and control transferred to
our East Midlands Control Centre in Derby.
The area to the east of Nottingham
will be served by trains during much of
the work, but there will be a period where
even they have to stop to allow for the
unravelling of 40 years of accumulated
operational problems.
The last time Nottingham’s station area
was redesigned, the Beatles had just split
up, relay-based interlocking was the latest
technology and green diesels could still be
seen running about the network.
Now largely a location where shortformed
trains terminate, the through design
of the station - with Up and Down lines
to the west, a platform (6) that can only
dispatch in one direction - has brought with
it increasing inefficiencies. Meanwhile,
the life-expired signalling equipment is
showing its age and the low speeds over
Mansfield Junction are also having an
effect.
Train tickets discounted for bus journeys
To renew the equipment, re-lay more
than a mile of track, not to mention all
the junctions at the station and Mansfield
Junction too, the re-signalling project
required more than a series of weekend
blockades.
Through close working with operator
East Midlands Trains, and other users
of Nottingham station, including Cross
Country, Northern and the freight
operators, a solution was found – involving
one of the largest replacement bus
operations ever set up. This operation will
have its own controllers and timetable,
bus dispatchers, and joint working with
highways to make sure buses don’t get
caught in jams. It will also be the first time
train tickets will be discounted if you have
to take a bus, something which required
DfT permission to achieve.
This way of working, with longer
closures preferred to weekend blockades,
has its attractions for operators, and a nineday
closure of the West Coast main line
north of Wigan has also been scheduled for
July.
This project will see four junctions
redesigned, and three miles of track
replaced.
It’s part of a rolling programme to
replace nine WCML junctions that
currently require bank holiday closures
whenever they need tamping – currently
once a year.
By moving the sets of points further
apart, so they don’t sit ‘toe-to-toe’, each
line can be tamped in a normal overnight
eight-hour possession. While there will
still be the need for weekend possessions
of the line in future, this will make a huge
difference to the amount of disruption
caused.
Network Rail will also be increasing
line speeds over the junctions so they more
closely match, as far as possible, the speed
over the diverging route.
A clearer message to customers
This work could have been achieved by
arranging a series of bank holiday and
weekend blockades, stretching into next
year. However, closing the route for
multiple bank holidays would require a
different system of buses and re-routed
trains for each event, plus a public
communications push from the operators.
With a longer, more concentrated blockade,
operators can simplify their message to
customers and make clear the alternative
arrangements. Network Rail has also been
involved in the communications push
around the blockade, with roadshows and
advertising campaigns to match.
With the massive modernisation of
the network being undertaken in the next
five years, one of the challenges we face is
finding innovative ways of keeping people
moving while we do it, and communicating
the changes as they come.
Artist’s impressions of the proposed southern
side concourse, above and below
July/August 2013 Page 21