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MARCH 2012 ISSUE 180 £3.95
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR RAILWAY MANAGERS
www.railpro.co.uk
Highway
to Hull
Cath Bellamy, now head
of First Hull Trains, on driving
up revenue in a recession
Review
with this issue
Weathering
the storm
How Network Rail is defending
coastal routes in Wales
Doing the
Continental
John Smith on GB Railfreight’s
new European perspective

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ISSUE 180 MARCH 2012
Putting your best foot forward
23
Ahead of the Workwear and Corporate Clothing Show,
Yvette Ashby looks at what makes a suitable safety
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Time and tide
24-25
Andrew Mourant finds out how Network Rail’s route
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coastal erosion
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On the fly
26-27
The government seems to be exploring two different
avenues with regard to airport connectivity. On one
hand, HS2 is to get a link to Heathrow Airport, on the
other, the DfT is considering a possible new airport,
which could see Heathrow close. Paul Clifton reports
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Rail Professional comment and news
4-10
Network Rail directors turn down their bonuses; Boris
makes bid to run London’s railways; SWT to form ‘deep
alliance’ with Network Rail; Campaigners press for new
stations between Glasgow and Edinburgh; DfT hands
back £500,000 to Treasury
Business news
11
Network Rail signs £1.5bn framework agreements;
More bids predicted to come from Asian-based
operators in future franchise competitions
Train of thought
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Readers’ letters: have your say about the rail industry
and Rail Professional
News analysis
14-15
Wright track
16-17
After months of consultation and controversy, the high
speed rail line between London and the West Midlands
got the go-ahead in January. Peter Plisner looks at the
detail behind the announcement
Robert Wright looks at the rationale behind the decision
to go ahead with High Speed Two and wonders
whether the government has been using the right
arguments to justify it
Rail Professional interview
18-22
26
Katie Silvester catches up with Cath Bellamy, née
Proctor, a year into her tenure as managing director of
First Hull Trains, and finds out what brought her to the
open access operator after her departure from Chiltern
Tunnel vision
28-30
John Smith, managing director of GB Railfreight,
talks to Katie Silvester about how the company has
developed since its sale to Eurotunnel
Stopping thieves in their tracks
31
James Perry looks at the proposed Metal Theft
(Prevention) Bill to see what impact it could have on the
rail industry
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Rail Professional opinion
Katie Silvester, editor
Now for the bonus
question…
So the Network Rail board has bowed to pressure to waive its bonuses
– following the outcry over bankers’ bonuses and unfavourable press
coverage about its own bonuses – and the six executives have donated
the money to a safety fund instead (see page 6). It’s not the first time
that Network Rail executives’ bonuses have received media attention.
In fact it happens most years. The previous Network Rail CEO, Iain Coucher, waived part
of his bonus to avoid criticism 12 months ago. But this year’s bonuses got even more
widespread comment than in previous years, coming so soon after Network Rail’s
admission of guilt over the Elsenham level crossing deaths, and right on top of the furore
of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s bonuses, which RBS CEO Stephen Hester also turned
down in the face of strong public pressure.
Surely it must be time for a different approach. It just makes no sense to structure
a senior executive’s remuneration package as part salary and part bonus and then, each
year, when the bonus is due, make the executives in question feel so bad about taking
what they are entitled to that they feel obliged to turn it down. This is more or less what
the Conservatives did – transport secretary Justine Greening said very publicly that she
didn’t want to see the Network Rail board take up their bonuses, and that she would use
her vote as a Network Rail member to vote against the proposed bonuses.
But David Higgins – who, as CEO of Network Rail, was due the biggest bonus
and, therefore, came under most pressure to refuse it – was appointed to his post after
the coalition government came to power. So Greening is effectively saying: ‘OK, we
structured your remuneration package to be part salary and part bonus in the first place,
but we did so with the intention of pressurising you to turn down part of it each year, no
matter how good or bad performance was.’ The Elsenham level crossing tragedy, don’t
forget, happened years before David Higgins joined Network Rail, so he was in no way
personally culpable.
So why structure Network Rail’s executives’ remuneration packages in this way in
the first place When Network Rail was first incorporated, a bonus-style remuneration
system was written into its statues, as it was thought to be consistent with the civil
service where senior staff often receive bonuses, as well as echoing salary structures
popular in private sector engineering companies. But in recent years, and particularly
when the country is in recession, the public – fuelled by the press – has come to see senior
executives as greedy if they take their bonuses, particularly if they work in an industry
that receives public money.
So let’s avoid the annual witch hunt and restructure the Network Rail executives’
remuneration packages so that they do not include a bonus, just a straight salary. Of
course, many will still baulk at their salaries – David Higgins gets a salary of £560,000
before bonuses are even taken into account. He would have been due to receive up to
60 per cent of this again, as an annual bonus. The bonus structure also gives the board
long-term incentives, which, combined with the annual bonus, would have effectively let
Higgins double his salary over five years, if he received the full whack.
If Higgins got a salary of £1m a year, plenty would still think that
too high. Maybe there is a middle ground, but that should have been
squared before he started in his role, not publicly dissected every year
when the bonuses come around.
News in brief
Signalling apprentices
sought
Sims, a signalling specialist,
is searching for two new
apprentices in its bid to attract
young people to the industry. The
scheme will combine classroom
learning with on-the-job
mentoring. The closing date for
applicants is Saturday 31 March.
Olympic negotiations
continue
The RMT has rejected a £500
bonus for Tube workers during the
Olympics. However, the union and
TfL have reached an agreement
worth £2,500 for DLR staff
working through the Olympics
and Paralympics. That deal
comprises a £900 attendance
bonus, paid at £100 per week
over nine weeks for all grades.
Golfers invited to enter
charity tournament
Amateur golfers are being
sought for the Railway Benefit
Fund’s Annual Golf Day on
Thursday 7 June. Teams of four
rail industry golfers will compete
for the Barlow Cup at Hendon
Golf Club in north London,
paying £550 to enter. Contact
David Allen at
davidallen56bc@yahoo.co.uk
Conductors sacked
over passenger fight
The RMT in Scotland is
balloting for strike action over
the dismissal of two ticket
examiners. The union claims
the pair were defending
themselves from a gang which
had subjected them to violence
and intimidation over two
years. ScotRail has stood by
its decision to dismiss them for
gross misconduct.
Green vehicles get
parking discount
Drivers of low-emission
vehicles are paying reduced
parking charges in station car
parks following the launch
of a scheme by First Capital
Connect. Drivers are given a 10
per cent discount when they
purchase a season ticket with
RingGo, FCC’s mobile payment
system.
Page 4 March 2012

SWT and Network Rail discuss ‘deep
alliance’ for joint working
by Paul Clifton
Network Rail is in talks with Stagecoach to form a
joint management team for the South West Trains
franchise and Wessex Region.
It is seen as the biggest step towards a single
organisation running track and trains since British
Rail was privatised and the two roles separated.
Network Rail calls it a ‘deep alliance’. It could
see a single team in place by the summer. Any
agreement would have to be approved by both the
Department for Transport and the rail regulator.
In theory, it could see SWT boss Tim Shoveller
having overall responsibility for maintenance
and operational work currently carried out by
Network Rail’s Wessex Region. But both Network
Rail and SWT stress that no decisions about
individual roles have yet been taken.
It would require the agreement of other train
operators that use the routes from Weymouth,
Exeter, Reading and Portsmouth to Waterloo.
These include FGW, Southern, CrossCountry,
Freightliner and DB Schenker. Each would need
to be convinced that the new management would
not show favouritism to SWT.
Network Rail and South West Trains staff
would remain with their present employers,
with the same terms and conditions. Network
Rail is currently planning to build a ‘campus’
regional headquarters near Basingstoke station,
from where 3,000 staff across Wessex would be
managed.
A South West Trains spokesman said: ‘Our
joint proposals have the potential to deliver faster
and more customer-focused decisions, give better
value for money to taxpayers and create a more
efficient railway for the long term. We are also
in contact with a range of industry stakeholders,
including other operators, about how any
potential alliance may operate.’
Network Rail plans alliances with at least five
other train operators, although these would be
less close than with SWT. Framework agreements
are being made with Abellio Greater Anglia,
C2C, First ScotRail, Northern and Southeastern.
Network Rail anticipates further alliances as part
of refranchising.
The Office of Rail Regulation has ordered
Network Rail to work with train operators to
recover long distance passenger and freight train
performance.
Northern Rail and Network Rail have already
signed a framework agreement for an alliance, but
little detail of how this will work is available yet.
Ian Bevan, MD of Northern Rail, said: ‘We operate
2,500 services every day with a network spanning
three Network Rail routes and interfacing with 11
other train operators. This presents its own unique
challenges when considering the context in which
an alliance will work.’
£500m of money
returned to
Treasury after DfT
underspend
The Department for Transport
underspent by £500m in its
2010-11 budget, a report by the
Transport Select Committee has
revealed.
The report points out that
this is more than the estimated
cost of the entire Northern Hub
project.
‘We were surprised to
learn that the DfT has ended
up in a position where it was
required to return over £500m
to the Treasury,’ says the report,
Counting the Cost: Financial
Scrutiny of the Department for
Transport 2011-12.
‘Put another way, the DfT
accepted a cut to its in-year
budget of £683m and then
underspent on its revised budget
by over £1bn.’
Louise Ellman MP, chair of
the Transport Select Committee,
added: ‘Although we welcome
the additional investment in road
and rail infrastructure projects
announced in the Autumn
Statement, there is still concern
that the regions are not as well
provided for as London and the
south east.’
Campaigners press for new stations
by Arthur Allan
Scottish rail chiefs seeking
comments on a major project in the
central belt have been taken aback
by a rash of calls for new stations.
Network Rail extended its
consultation on the £1bn Edinburgh
to Glasgow Improvement
Programme (EGIP) by two months
because of ‘huge levels of interest’.
The scheme aims to improve
journey times and increase
capacity on key routes, through
electrification and other
infrastructure improvements.
But among the 450 submissions
were calls from campaigners to open
or reopen stations in the area.
The EGIP plan foresees opening
just one new station, a rail/tram
interchange at Edinburgh Gateway
on the city’s outskirts.
‘The response was more
extensive than we expected,’ said
Network Rail spokesman Owen
Campbell. ‘In particular, we had
around 20 suggestions for new
stations. We understood there were
community aspirations for stations,
but we didn’t expect quite as many
to come through.’
He said many people were
taking the opportunity to state their
case both via EGIP and through
Transport Scotland’s concurrent Rail
2014 exercise, which is consulting on
the future of the whole network.
Proposed stations include
Robroyston and Abronhill on the
Cumbernauld line, and Winchburgh,
Bonnybridge and Westerhill
between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Another is Abbeyhill in
Edinburgh, closed in 1964, which
campaigner Lawrence Marshall said
could be reopened as ‘a very modest
add-on’ to EGIP. ‘This represents a
once-in-a-generation opportunity to
enhance rail facilities in this denselypopulated
part of Edinburgh,’ he
said.
Meanwhile, fears of suburban
station closures have caused alarm
around Glasgow. Transport Scotland
says no closures are planned,
but its consultation mentions
reconfiguration.
n arthur.allan@railpro.co.uk
Edinburgh Waverley station
Shutterstock/Brendan Howard
march 2012 Page 5

Boris in bid to run all of capital’s rail
by Peter Brown
London mayor Boris Johnson has proposed taking
full control of all suburban services in the area.
In a move backed by passenger group
London TravelWatch, Johnson has called for
the government to devolve power to him to set
standards for rail services run by the private train
operating companies.
He has submitted a report stressing that he
wants Tocs integrated into the Transport for
London network. By adopting TfL’s contracting
model, he believes millions of pounds of savings
could be made to promote more reliable and
frequent services; safer and cleaner stations; more
staff; and simpler fares.
He said: ‘The fractured organisation of
London’s suburban railways is totally inefficient
and needs a complete overhaul. My vision is for
one integrated suburban service operating to the
standards we have demonstrated can be achieved
on London Overground.
‘There are 85 million trips each year on
London’s rail network that could benefit from this
approach. Devolving the commercial franchises
would allow us to invest millions of pounds in
improving stations and to simplify the ticketing
system.’
London TravelWatch vice chair David Leibling
explained: ‘This is something we have been
advocating for several years. We hope the proposal
will lead to all London’s rail services reaching the
much-improved quality of London Overground
services since TfL took over.
‘It is excellent news that the document
has recognised so many issues that match our
passenger priorities – such as the need to provide
value for money, an effective interchange and
improvements to station security.
‘We also welcome the opportunity to improve
interchanges such as West Hampstead.’
The mayor’s Rail Vision report prioritises the
devolution of suburban services from Dartford,
Sevenoaks and Hayes; and the West Anglia inner
services from Enfield Town, Hertford East and
Chingford – locations already included in the
London railway area as defined by parliament.
n peter.brown@railpro.co.uk
Directors of
Network Rail pass
on bonuses
Network Rail’s board members
have opted to forego their
bonuses and donate the money
to rail safety, in the wake of public
and political pressure.
CEO David Higgins would
have received up to 60 per cent
of his £560,000 salary, had a
revised remuneration policy been
ratified at Network Rail’s members’
meeting on 10 February. This
would have seen bonuses reduced
from the previous level of 100 per
cent of salaries.
Directors Simon Kirby, Paul
Plummer, Peter Henderson, Robin
Gisby and Patrick Butcher have
also relinquished their bonuses.
The six men would have shared
up to £1.4m.
In view of the decision, the
February meeting was adjourned.
Transport secretary Justine
Greening had said she would
vote against the proposals at the
members’ meeting.
Higgins said he and his
fellow directors would ‘forego
any entitlement and, instead,
allocate the money to the safety
improvement fund for level
crossings’.
In January, Network Rail
pleaded guilty to health and safety
offences that led to the deaths
of two girls on a level crossing in
Elsenham, Essex. The accident,
which happened in 2005, predates
Higgins’ appointment to Network
Rail.
Derby works gets reprieve until 2014
nBombardier has decided to
keep its Derby-based train
factory open for at least another
two years, it has announced,
following a review of its viability
after it lost out on the £1.4bn
Thameslink rolling stock contract.
The Derby works is the last
factory in the UK to manufacture
trains, with factories based in
Germany and Japan awarded the
contracts for the last two major
rolling stock orders for the UK.
In the last few months,
however, Bombardier has won
smaller contracts to build trains
for Southern and to do some
modification work on Voyagers.
While most staff will now
keep their jobs, many temporary
workers have already been let
go, and the communications team
Plans have been unveiled for
n a new station to serve the
growing residential area of Energlyn,
Caerphilly. It could be open within
two years and provide direct services
to Cardiff.
Energlyn lies in an area of
congested roads where there is
increasing demand for rail travel.
The project is being developed
jointly by the Welsh government,
Network Rail, Caerphilly Borough
Council, South East Wales
Transport Alliance and Arriva.
Designs for the two-platform
station, which will have waiting
shelters, step-free access, ticket
machines and bicycle storage,
went on show in February. A grant
is being sought from the Welsh
European Funding Office.
‘Public support will be vital to
help this application,’ said Mark
Langman, route managing director
for Network Rail Wales.
Meanwhile, a collaboration
between DB Schenker and Network
Rail has seen the revival of a longdisused
freight line linking the Unity
coal mine at Cwmgwrach, Neath
Valley, with Aberthaw power station,
Vale of Glamorgan.
It re-opened three months ago
was made redundant.
A spokesman for the Derby
and Derbyshire Rail Forum, which
represents over 100 rail-related
business in the East Midlands, said:
‘Bombardier’s decision to retain
its train manufacturing facility in
Derby comes as a huge relief to the
region’s extensive supply chain, the
employees of the business and their
families.’
New station planned for Caerphilly
and 21-wagon trains, each carrying
around 1,400 tonnes, are expected to
take 50 lorries off the road. Network
Rail says there has been no cost as
the line has always been maintained.
Network Rail is to strengthen a rail bridge, dating back to 1849, across
one of the busiest approach roads to Manchester city centre. The
bridge, which carries the ‘through’ rail lines between Piccadilly and
Oxford Road stations, needs to have its 100-year-old concrete, which
encases the original iron ribs, replaced.
Page 6 March 2012

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Britain’s railways are
‘worst in Europe’
Shutterstock/sculpies
DB Schenker
plans own
wind turbines
to boost green
credentials
Carbon-free freight services
could soon be on the agenda
for DB Schenker if its
proposals are accepted to
use electric locomotives run
on power from its own wind
turbines.
The freight carrier is
hoping to partner with
energy developer Renewable
Energy Systems to build
three wind turbines on land
owned by DB Schenker near
Port Talbot in South Wales,
subject to approval from
Neath & Port Talbot Council.
The energy generated by
the turbines, which would
be sold to Network Rail for
use in the overhead power
cables, would be enough
to power a fleet of Class 92
electric locomotives.
Alain Thauvette, chief
executive of DB Schenker
Rail UK, said: ‘Deutsche
Bahn wishes to reduce its
carbon emissions by 20 per
cent by 2020. This proposal
is a significant step forward
in delivering this carbon
reduction target in the UK,
while enabling DB Schenker
Rail to provide its customers
with eco-solutions to reduce
their carbon emissions.’
by Paul Clifton
Britain’s railways are the worst
in Europe for fares, efficiency
and comfort, according to a study
commissioned by the union RMT.
The report by a research
company, Just Economics, said that
UK rail services were less affordable,
less comfortable, slower and more
inefficient than services in France,
Italy and Germany.
The report found that a typical
season ticket in Britain costs 14p
per km, compared to 8p per km
in Germany, the Netherlands and
France, which are the next most
expensive countries.
Day return tickets were also
found to be more expensive here,
with an average cost of 26p per km,
compared with 15p in Switzerland,
the next most expensive state.
The report also said that in the
ratio of passengers to seats, only
Spanish trains are less comfortable
than those in Britain. This was
despite the UK investing more in
railways than France, Germany or
Spain. Only Italian railways see
more investment, measured as a
proportion of GDP.
The frequency of trains
was the only area in which the
UK performed better than its
continental equivalents. The
report’s author, Eilis Lawlor, said:
‘Our research puts figures on what
anyone who has been to France
or Spain already knows: the UK’s
nThe return of passenger trains
to a freight-only branch line
in Hampshire has moved a step
closer.
A viability study for the reintroduction
of services to Hythe
has been approved by Hampshire
County Council.
Following completion of a
Grip2 study, which established
a business case for using the line
beside Southampton Water, the
council will undertake a technical
study to identify the infrastructure
that would be needed, calculate
railways are poor value for money.’
Bob Crow, leader of the RMT
Union, said: ‘Instead of addressing
the issue and looking at the cheaper
and socially beneficial alternative of
a publicly owned railway, McNulty
[the government’s report on Rail
Value for Money] proposes more
cuts and even longer gold-plated
franchises.’
A DfT spokesman responded:
‘Unions are right to highlight the
cost of railways and that also means
looking objectively at Sir Roy
McNulty’s conclusions, which set
out how this needs to be done.’
A spokesman for the Association
of Train Operating Companies
added: ‘This doesn’t come close
to giving the full story about rail
Switzerland has
spent 50 years
standardising
its equipment to
make its railways
easier to maintain
passenger demand and assess how
it could be funded. It would serve
Totton, Hounsdown, Marchwood
and Hythe.
Passenger services ended on
the line in 1966, but it remains
lightly used by freight trains to the
military port at Marchwood and
the oil refinery at Fawley.
The case for re-opening the
line is based on providing an
hourly shuttle between Hythe
and Southampton Central, with a
23-minute journey time. There is no
intention to run passenger trains
travel. Decades of decline on the
railways have been reversed since
privatisation.’
The report was released ahead
of the government’s response to the
McNulty Report.
Sir David Higgins, chief
executive of Network Rail, told
the Financial Times: ‘People go to
Switzerland and ask, why can’t we
have the same service
‘That is because for the last 50
years they have worked relentlessly
to standardise their equipment and
make sure their railways are easy
to maintain. It requires 30 years of
continuous investment to ensure
our railways get to the level of some
of the European railways that we
admire.’
Fawley branch line to reopen
to the end of the line at Fawley, as
this would extend the journey time
beyond 30 minutes and prevent an
hourly service using a single train.
Councillor Mel Kendal,
executive member for environment
and transport on Hampshire
County Council, said: ‘We are still
some years away from opening the
line to passengers. Nonetheless,
what we have established is
encouraging and I can see that
a Waterside rail line could help
enormously in reducing congestion,
which is a key priority for us.’
Shutterstock/Alexander Chaikin
Page 8 MARCH 2012

News
SWT and Network Rail tackle
performance dip with joint plan
by Paul Clifton
South West Trains and Network Rail have
announced a joint plan to recover from a sharp
dip in performance.
SWT’s annual performance is running at
92.5 per cent, but dropped to below 87 per cent
in January. The train operator says that is partly
due to a doubling of fatalities on its routes to 44
in the past year, along with a five-fold increase
in cable thefts.
‘Cable theft delays increased from 3,000
minutes to 17,000 minutes in less than a year,’
managing director Tim Shoveller told Rail
Professional. ‘Faced with that, we’re having
to run flat-out even to stand still in terms of
performance statistics. We can improve in lots
of other areas, but the performance figures
would still go backwards.’
Breaking down the statistics, around a
quarter of the delays are down to South West
Trains, with just under a third due to Network
Rail’s shortcomings. The rest are ascribed to
‘unforeseen circumstances’.
‘This morning a lady drove her car onto
the tracks at Brockenhurst level crossing. She
apparently thought it was the entrance to the car
park, and she drove 80 metres down the line,’ said
Shoveller. ‘It took two hours to remove the car.’
The action plan will include faster service
recovery from such incidents, in particular
following fatalities and cable theft. There will
‘SWT’s annual performance is
running at 92.5 per cent, but
dropped to below 87 per cent
in January’
be more preventative track and signalling
maintenance, including more remote
diagnostic equipment on the lines between
Clapham Junction and Waterloo, where a large
proportion of recent delays have occurred.
Network Rail has recently replaced 100
pieces of track at Clapham Junction. South
West Trains promises better customer
information, including alternative route plans
to help passengers work out their journeys
during disruption. Richard O’Brien, Network
Rail’s route managing director for Wessex, said:
‘In recent months, SWT passengers have not
had the high levels of service and punctuality
they have been used to, for which we apologise.
‘There is no single cause of the problems.
The new plan will make it easier for our
engineers to access the railway to try to
prevent infrastructure failures before they
cause delays.’
www.railimages.co.uk
Gatwick passes from
Network Rail to Southern
nSouthern has taken control
of Gatwick Airport station,
which was previously run by
Network Rail.
The airport interchange was
one of the smallest stations handled
by Network Rail. Redevelopment
of the station is planned, as it is
one of the biggest bottlenecks on
the line from London Victoria to
Brighton.
A small number of Network
Rail station staff have transferred
their employment to Southern.
Southern director David Scorey
said: ‘It was the obvious thing to do
and I know that airline passengers
and commuters alike will benefit
tremendously from this move.’
Network Rail’s route managing
director Mark Ruddy added: ‘We
agreed that Southern is well placed
to manage day-to-day operations.
This will give passengers the
consistency of customer service
across the whole route.’
Scottish grants ‘still fall short’
The Scottish government has announced a boost to its grant scheme for
freight projects. The Freight Facilities Grant (FFG) will be funded to the
tune of £0.75m next year, rising to £4.5m in 2014-15. But David Spaven of
the Rail Freight Group said more money was needed to meet green targets.
‘When FFG was reprieved last year there were 19 expressions of interest,’
he said. ‘Only four of those were approved because of the limited budget.’
Paid industry placements offered
Network Rail has recruited more
than 25 companies across the rail
sector to sign up to a new scheme
to help up to 100 graduates get
their careers on track by launching
a new cross-industry, paid
internship scheme.
The Track and Train scheme
will provide varied experience over
18 months, with graduates doing
three placements: one at Network
Rail and two at either a passenger
or freight operator or another
company within the rail sector.
MARCH 2012 Page 9

Abellio clamps down
on fare dodging
by Peter Brown
Passenger safety and a clampdown
on crime, including fare evasion
are the key elements of the Greater
Anglia franchise, which came into
force on 5 February under the
control of Abellio.
Abellio replaces National
Express East Anglia, which had
been running services between
London Liverpool Street and
Norwich, as well as suburban trains
serving stations in the north east
area of the capital, Hertfordshire
and Essex. Additional Making
Travel Safe Officers (MTSOs) will
nThe railway cost £11bn to run
in 2010-11, according to the
Office of Rail Regulation.
Income from fares was
£6.6bn, with £4bn coming from
government. The ORR measured
significant regional variations in
income and expenditure across the
UK. The highest subsidy was in
Scotland at 15.6p per passenger km
and the lowest in Wessex at 1.7p.
be working in conjunction with
revenue protection officers (RPOs)
and the British Transport Police,
explained Greater Anglia managing
director Ruud Haket.
He said: ‘I want customers to
have complete peace of mind and
the deployment of the MTSO and
RPO team will certainly help. I also
want to make it really clear that I
believe all customers should travel
on a valid ticket.
‘We know that over 90 per cent
of customers buy a ticket; however,
this still leaves one in 10 that
doesn’t and this minority is costing
all rail users in the end.’
The average government
funding across all rail regions was
7.5 pence per passenger km.
The Wessex region –
Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire
– largely equates with the South
West Trains franchise. It has the
highest passenger density, with an
average 143 passengers per train.
Scotland has the lowest, at 84
passengers per train.
Superintendent Gareth
Williams of BTP has welcomed the
initiatives to make the routes safer
and tackle crime.
He told Rail Professional: ‘The
MTSOs will be a valuable addition
to the existing police presence and
will provide further reassurance for
passengers across the network.
‘We already have officers who
tackle crime and passenger safety
issues on trains and at stations
across Essex and East Anglia, but
these additional teams will play a
significant role in supporting our
efforts by patrolling the lines across
the Greater Anglia route.’
ORR reveals true costs of rail
The average fare was 12.1p
per passenger km. ORR said its
objective was to shine a brighter
light on the costs and funding of
the railway.
Director Cathryn Ross said:
‘As the rail industry works hard
to improve efficiency and cut
costs, this data will improve
understanding of how the money
flows across the rail industry.’
Old fleets to
be given new
lease of life
Alstom is to convert a fleet
of 36 five-car units to enable
longer trains to run on South
West Trains routes into
Waterloo during peak hours.
Porterbrook, which owns
the trains, has asked Alstom to
lead on the work, as it originally
built the Class 458s and 460s
that will be used for the £42m
project. Some of the work will
be carried out at Wabtec’s
Doncaster-based plant, under
Alstom’s supervision.
Terence Watson, managing
director of Alstom Transport
in the UK and Ireland, said:
‘We look forward to bringing
Alstom’s local expertise to the
fore in this key project that
shows how industry partners
can work well together to
provide innovative, value for
money proposals to meet
rolling stock requirements.’
The Class 458s are
currently used by South West
Trains, while the Class 460s
were formerly used on the
Gatwick Express route. The
modifications will include
work to cabs, couplers and
gangways, as well as the
conversion of baggage areas
into passenger saloon areas.
ScotRail conductor Alan Mitchell, 63, has returned to work after time off following a train incident viewed two million times on YouTube. He
confronted an alleged fare dodger, who was then ejected from the train by a second passenger. The Crown Office has now decided no one will be
prosecuted over the fracas
Page 10 MARCH 2012

Network Rail awards £1.5bn of
signalling framework agreements
■The next framework
agreements for signalling work
have been given to Invensys Rail,
Signalling Solutions and Atkins.
The contracts with Network
Rail, worth around £1.5bn in total,
will cover the majority of signalling
renewals and enhancements in
England, Scotland and Wales. They
will start in April and last for up to
seven years.
Simon Kirby, Network Rail’s
managing director of infrastructure
projects, said: ‘Network Rail is
continuing to drive down the costs
of Britain’s railway.’
He added: ‘As the number of
passengers and companies that rely
on Britain’s railway continues to rise,
the safety-critical systems we use to
run a safe and efficient railway are
more important than ever.’
Rugby signalling centre
More Asian bidders expected
to take part in future
franchise competitions
Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTR) would
bring its own engineers over from China to ensure minimal
disruption during the rebuilding of London Bridge station in
2018, if it was successful in its bid to run Thameslink’s trains, its
managers have said.
The operator, which already has a stake in London
Overground operator Lorol, is making its first solo bid in the UK
with its pitch for Thameslink.
But more Asian companies are expected to bid for contracts
in Britain’s transport infrastructure over the next few years,
according to Nick Emmerson, partner in international law firm
Eversheds. Lack of money in the west is likely to lead to more
far eastern companies bidding for business in the UK, he
predicts. Speaking from his London office, he explained: ‘Asian
companies have identified UK transport and infrastructure assets
as investment targets, as they offer long-term stable returns in a
sector where they have recent and relevant know-how.
‘Bringing that experience and expertise, and the financial
resource to back it, can only strengthen the UK’s ability to
modernise. Asian companies have excess cash burning holes in
their pockets.’
MARCH 2012 PAGE 11

Readers air their views about the railway
industry and Rail Professional
Email your letters to: letters@railpro.co.uk Fax them to: 01223 327356
Or post them to: The Editor, Rail Professional, 275 Newmarket Road,
Cambridge CB5 8JE. Letters may be edited for length
Panorama ignored
problem of short
franchises
I am sure many Rail Professional
readers watched Panorama’s Bad
Deal on Fares, but, in general,
it revealed nothing that we did
not already know. The Atoc
boss was as bland as ever and
the lady from the ORR looked
absolutely petrified at being
asked questions.
The one point that did
agitate me was at the end of the
programme when the Network
Rail chief executive was
challenged for more information
about costs of major projects,
especially those that overrun
their timescale.
He said that these would be
made available and that people
had been hired to work on
this – yet more increased hiring
costs for information that they
already have to hand but do not
want anyone to know!
Another area which
the investigator did not,
unfortunately, venture into is
HS2 is nothing to cheer about
The real case against HS2 is that for what it
will cost, it does little to satisfy most people’s
real transport needs One wonders if those
who have put their support behind the project
understand the geography of the country.
More than 80 per cent of the population
of Great Britain live and work south of Leeds
and east of the Welsh border, in the London,
Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool
conurbations, the major cities of Leeds and
Bristol, or the many towns with populations
of between 100,000 and 250,000, spaced
approximately 20 miles apart.
The transport needs that arise from this
pattern of settlement will not be well served by
a single spine route, but by a comprehensive
network providing the maximum number
of journey opportunities. Such a network
can best be developed by a combination of
improvements to existing routes and a few
entirely new connecting links.
Henry Law
Brighton
the enormous waste of money
by the Department of Transport,
which is costing the taxpayer/
farepayer a fortune.
The recent awarding of
the Anglia franchise to a new
company for just over two years
is a perfect example. After a very
short time, the whole costly
franchise pantomime will have
to be gone through again.
Why on earth the existing
franchise couldn’t have been
extended for that period is
beyond belief, especially as
other companies have had
their franchises extended
for short periods, without
question, despite some very poor
performances.
John Cherry
(Retired Atoc member)
We’re way better than
Connex!
In your February issue you
published a letter suggesting
that levels of dissatisfaction of
Southeastern passengers are
‘now at such a high level as
previously reached in the days of
the dreaded Connex’.
While we recognise each
individual’s experience is
unique, it is not reflective of the
majority.
The latest NPS survey
showed an 83 per cent level of
satisfaction, the highest ever
achieved on this network. The
current MAA punctuality of
91.6 per cent is again the highest
this network has experienced
since PPM was introduced in
the BR days.
We are not complacent and
will continue to improve things
but know that we are heading in
the right direction.
Jon Hay-Campbell
Media relations manager
Southeastern
International bookings
are historic problem
I was interested to read the
article on European travel
Page 12 March 2012

Letters
written by Aaron Gowell in the
February edition.
The problem of not being
able to book through-tickets
beyond the Eurostar network,
except for some very limited
destinations, is the fault of
reorganisation in the last years
of BR.
Pressure put on the industry,
by the then Conservative
regime’s pre-privatisation,
resulted in the UK railways
closing down the travel centres
that could do European rail as
an easy option, to cut costs, and
then Eurostar deciding in the
early years of operation to drop
through-ticketing.
These actions threw away
knowledge and expertise,
resulting in nobody being able
to book tickets for Europe or
anywhere else in the world.
I am a bit confused by the
article, however. It seems to me
the author should know that
nobody has built a search engine
capable of producing a one-hatfits-all
system.
The rail network is very
complicated, and to be of use
to the public it has to be able to
book a ticket from Newcastle to
Warsaw or Oslo to Istanbul, on
the correct routings, otherwise it
is a waste of resources.
However, the European rail
network is not working together
on this.
One answer to the problem
is to call my company,
Trainseurope, on 01354 660222
or call at our counter in the
East Midlands Travel office,
counter number 1, at St Pancras
where we can solve their
problems.
To be fair to the other agents
doing European Rail, the public
can look on the website of the
Association of European Rail
Agents – www.aera.co.uk where
they will find a list of dedicated
rail agents like my company who
can help.
Bob Hex
Peterborough
East-West line should
never have closed
I was interested in your piece in
the January Rail Professional on
the project to re-open the East-
West line – which, like a number
of others, should not have been
closed in the first place.
Looking back at the rail
service that ran just before
closure, one can see something
of the problem. You mention
people finding it easier/faster
to travel between the two ends
via London. Hardly surprising.
Virtually all the trains stopped at
all or most stations on the way.
Most through journeys
between the two ends of the line
involved a change at Bletchley.
There were only two trains
each way that were advertised
as through-trains and these all
involved a wait at Bletchley –
some of significant length.
These concentrations on
Bletchley were presumably to
accommodate connections with
the West Coast Main Line; but
they did at least allow passengers
to get some refreshments at the
buffet, as none of the trains had
any refreshment service. I think,
in the past, there had been faster
trains, but they had been cut.
Interestingly, there has
been recent correspondence in
the railway press about some
inter-urban rail lines in the
UK, where the service has been
skewed to serve small stations,
with low passenger flows, to
the detriment of a faster link
for longer distance passengers,
which would give a better
cost:benefit.
Hopefully, the East-West link
will concentrate on the longer
distance passengers, chiefly
Oxford, Bicester, Milton Keynes,
Bedford and Cambridge.
I see that longer distance
through-services are
contemplated, but am intrigued
by the southern route to
Stansted Airport. The Bedford
to Hitchin section needs to
be replaced, but is in open
country. However, the Stansted
link appears to be routed via
Hertford. Surely, it would be
much more economic – both
in construction and operation
costs – to serve Stansted via
Cambridge, where the route
already exists.
Eric Stuart
France
Delving into the past
I trust Mr Shoveller has now
stopped digging on the issue
of the quality of the rolling
stock on the Portsmouth Direct
expresses.
A little history, perhaps.
When the line was electrified
in the mid-1930s, the fast
trains were worked by suitably
constructed express stock with
a good range of seats, including
compartments for first and
third-class passengers.
These units were replaced
in the mid-1960s by new stock,
4-CIGs, I believe, based on the
BR Mk.1 chassis and body with
mixed compartment and saloon
seating. The 4-VEPs came later.
In the late 1980s, the SW
Division of the Southern Region
rediagrammed the Class 442
fleet, and many of the express
services on the Portsmouth
Direct were operated by Class
442 formations.
I am inclined to agree that
the Class 450 is not adequately
furnished for use on the
Portsmouth Direct expresses.
The Class 444 seems to have
been designed to have all the
disadvantages of the Class 442
with none of the advantages.
Perhaps, therefore, Mr.
Shoveller could be prevailed
upon to re-seat a proportion of
the Class 450 fleet to a standard
more in keeping with the nature
of the Portsmouth Direct route
and timetable, which would give
passengers more comfort and
shorter journey times.
David Smith
Western RAILS Consultancy
Wiltshire
Look north
Your correspondents Nigel
Tarrant and Bruce Oliver
would, I believe, benefit
from a trip north before
complaining about the use
of Class 450 units on the
Portsmouth to Waterloo
route.
Many commuters in
the cities of Liverpool,
Manchester, Leeds and
Newcastle would give their
eye teeth to travel in the
‘substandard’ stock used on
this route.
I would imagine that the
Class 450s are used in
eight-car formations during
the peaks, compared with
two-car Class 142,143, 150
and 156 formations in the
northern cities.
Even the TransPennine
Express services are mainly
formed of only three-car
Class 185 units. Stopping
services between Liverpool
and Huddersfield regularly
leave passengers on the
platforms along the route,
due to short formations of
inappropriate dirty rolling
stock.
Please, before
complaining, find out
‘how the other half live’.
The amount spent on rail
infrastructure on the old
Network South East areas is
grossly out of proportion to
the rest of the country and,
unfortunately, most of the
trade press only rub salt in
the wounds by exaggerating
the discrepancy in their
reporting.
Steve Hyde
Ashton-under-Lyne
www.railimages.co.uk
March 2012 Page 13

Next steps
for HS2
Shutterstock/ Vitek12
After months of consultation and
controversy, the high speed rail line
between London and the West Midlands
got the go-ahead in January.
Peter Plisner has been looking at the
detail behind the announcement and
some of the additional information that’s
been released
The words from the transport secretary were pretty
emphatic. ‘We are ready for a new chapter in
Britain’s transport history, one designed to boost our
economy and our country, just as the first coming
of the railways or the motorways did for previous
generations.’
Just weeks after being appointed to the top job, Justine
Greening gave the final go-ahead to HS2. But her statement to
MPs in parliament was just the tip of the iceberg for those keeping
a keen eye on high speed rail pronouncements. Along with the
statement came yet another shower of documents, including a
further command paper as thick as the one published by the Labour
government when it first announced plans for high speed rail back
in March 2009.
The latest paper covers a lot of ground and includes a detailed
summary and responses to the public consultation held last
year along the route of the controversial line. Parts of the
document concentrate on the need to provide more
capacity with phrases like: ‘Demand for rail
travel is forecast to continue growing steadily
for the next 20-30 years and many services will
be full by the mid-2020s if we do not act now.’
The document also maintains that
moving a significant proportion of the
current intercity services from the
existing railway onto new HS2 lines
would create space for additional
commuter, regional and freight
services. There are also new claims
about how the line would help
support economic growth. The
document states: ‘The monetised
benefits of the network to business
are forecast to be approximately
£34-45bn. These come both from
faster, more comfortable and convenient
journeys, and from businesses being
able to operate more efficiently,
increasing their productivity, accessing
new markets and labour pools.’
On employment there appear
to be some new figures too, with
an estimate that HS2 could support
Shutterstock/Andrew Metto
Page 14 march 2012

News analysis
around 40,000 jobs in areas it serves. The document does, however,
admit that many responses to the consultation were ‘sceptical’
about HS2’s ability to stimulate growth.
Plans for high speed rail still envisage a Y-shaped network
going to Manchester and Leeds. Unlike the line from London to
Birmingham, now due to open in 2026, the Y-network (known as
Phase 2) wouldn’t be ready until 2033. According to an updated
timetable, consultation of the Y-routes will begin in the autumn.
The costs of high speed rail also appear to have been revised slightly
– Phase 1 of the line from London to Birmingham is now expected
to cost £16.3bn at 2011 prices, while the rest of the network should
be delivered for £32.7bn.
Phase 1 costs, according to the document, have an optimism bias
allowance of 64 per cent. But, according to the secretary of state, at
present values, the whole network would generate benefits of up
to £47bn and fare revenues of up to £34bn, over a 60-year period.
The document also states that the economic analysis carried out by
HS2 Ltd indicated a cost benefit ratio for the completed network
between 1:6 and 1:9. But, in addition, HS2 Ltd forecasts that the
Y-network will generate significant additional wider economic
benefits as it will enable businesses to operate more efficiently.
However, it’s also noted that there would be additional
disadvantages, such as the impact on the natural landscape,
which have not currently been quantified and which would
need to be considered in assessing overall value for money. The
command paper also had another stab at selling high speed rail
as environmentally friendly. Labour’s original paper appeared to
overstate it’s ability to cut carbon emissions, so much so that the
previous transport secretary, Phillip Hammond, faced with evidence
from those opposing HS2, had to draw back to a position where he
was forced to admit that, at best, the line would be carbon neutral.
The latest edict from the government takes a slightly different
tack, suggesting that more than 90 per cent of domestic transport
emissions are currently generated by road transport; it then goes
on to state: ‘Inter-urban rail supports economically vital journeys
between our cities, but it is also a key component of a low-carbon
transport system.’
It further claims that conventional diesel trains provide a
lower-carbon alternative to travel by road, and that electrified rail
can deliver further benefits. Later it states: ‘Rail is a comparatively
carbon efficient mode, generally creating significantly fewer carbon
emissions per passenger mile than either car travel or aviation.
Even allowing for the fact that power usage increases with speed,
the high levels of passenger usage that high speed services tend
to attract mean that, per passenger, carbon emissions remain
comparatively low.’
On the blight issues that have made HS2 so controversial, the
government seems to be giving more information about what it
intends to do. Another document, published on the same day as
the command paper, says that for those affected by the route of
HS2, the government wants to ‘do all it can to offer assistance and
support’. It will introduce a package of compensation measures over
and above the statutory minimum, including a refreshed hardship
scheme and support for those affected by construction.
There will also be measures to simplify the compulsory
purchase process, plus a sale and rent-back scheme to give
homeowners within special safeguarded areas more flexibility.
The government is expected to draw up detailed proposals for
consultation in the spring. Along with more news on blight and
‘Hammond was forced to admit
that the line, at best, would be
carbon neutral’
compensation came a slightly clearer picture on timings for both
HS2 and the second phase of the high speed network to the north.
Also taking place in the spring will be a consultation with statutory
bodies on the ‘safeguarding zone’ for Phase 1, while HS2 Ltd is
expected to provide the government with advice on Phase 2 options.
The spring will also see an ‘engagement programme’ along
the Phase 1 route on environmental impact issues, and the latest
timetable suggests that a new blight scheme should be in place by
the autumn of this year. At the same time, what’s described as an
‘engagement programme’ on Phase Two will begin to discuss local
views and concerns. One of the biggest milestones comes later
next year, when the government will introduce the hybrid bill
into parliament. It will provide the necessary powers to construct
and operate HS2. There’s no information on how long its passage
through parliament might take, but with something as controversial
as HS2, it can’t be rushed!
■ See Wright Track, pages 16-17, for comment on HS2
PeTeR PLISNeR is The BBc’s Midlands business and transport
correspondent: peter.plisner@railpro.co.uk
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MArch 2012 Page 15

In the face of robust opposition to High
Speed Two, the government has had to
produce a wealth of statistics to justify going ahead with it.
But, so far, the statistics seem to focus on the wrong elements of
the project’s potential benefits, says Robert Wright
High speed
number crunching
www.railimages.co.uk
The main argument for high
speed rail is that the West
Coast Main Line is almost at
full capacity, with demand
expected to grow
The slow rumbling of plans for a new high speed rail
line in the last few months has often resembled
the progress of a vast dumper truck over cars at a
demolition derby. There has never been any doubt
the behemoth would eventually, slowly make it
over the obstacles. But it has been interesting to see
precisely what got crushed on the way.
Sure enough, on 10 January, Justine Greening, the transport
secretary, emerged from the dumper truck’s cab to declare a
‘historic day’ as the government overcame – to at least its own
satisfaction – the many objections to its plans for a London to
Birmingham high speed rail line. According to the government’s
version of events, there will now be smooth progress towards
construction of the line, with the first trains running into
Birmingham’s new Curzon Street station in 2026.
Yet it must, by now, be evident to all but the most wide-eyed
enthusiasts that the arguments about route, funding and traffic
projections provided a far bumpier ride for the high speed rail
plans than anyone anticipated. The once widespread support
for the principle – if not for a specific route – was one of the
most obvious items wrecked. In its place are suspicions about
the government’s motives and confusion about why so much
money is being lavished on such an apparently small stretch of the
country’s infrastructure. A significant caucus of Conservative MPs
along the route have declared more or less open opposition. The
economic case for undertaking the project has also deteriorated to
the point where, were this not a flagship project, it might well be
abandoned.
The question, consequently, is whether HS2, if it was ever
worth building, remains so. I continue to worry that such a high
proportion of the country’s future transport spending is due to
be lavished on a project that, on paper at least, looks considerably
worse value than many other road, rail and airport projects. I
would love there to be some more cost-effective way of achieving
HS2’s stated aims than the project as currently laid out. But, even
Page 16 march 2012

Comment
if this is as good as the sums are going to get, I can only conclude it
remains vital and necessary.
There are, nevertheless, very substantial problems with the
Department for Transport’s case. The government has built its
case around the cornerstone idea that high speed rail would
reduce the imbalance in the UK’s economy between north and
south by improving transport links to the north. But is it really
credible that Manchester would be transformed by having trains
to and from London taking 80 minutes, rather than two hours,
and four trains an hour rather than three Nor, as Rod Eddington
pointed out in his report on the UK’s transport networks in 2006,
is there anything to stop better transport links allowing people to
live in a provincial city but to do their business somewhere else. It
is distinctly possible that, as some suggest high speed rail in France
has done, new links would benefit professional services, retail and
other sectors in the capital, at the expense of the provinces.
HS2 is also being given perverse priority over other schemes
that would, at least according to recognised cost-benefit analysis
methods, do considerably more good. The arguments for a third
runway at Heathrow – that the existing infrastructure is so
overstretched that the only option is to build something new – are
precisely the same as those for building HS2 over tinkering with
the existing West Coast Main Line. The private sector would fund
the runway and one serious study put the benefit-cost ratio for
the project at 3.6:1 – against 1.4: 1 under the latest calculations for
HS2.
But events in the early hours of 3 February – when a
Freightliner Class 90 derailed at Bletchley, blocking all four tracks
of the West Coast Main Line – have made further nonsense of the
already fairly far-fetched claims of those that claim high speed rail
isn’t needed to solve London to Birmingham capacity problems.
The single derailment illustrated precisely how fragile the existing
line is. No-one who has ever spoken to a senior Network Rail
manager about the challenges of handling a 200kph express train
every three minutes on the fast lines, while juggling the needs
of freight and commuter services on the slow lines, would ever
seriously entertain the anti-HS2 campaigners’ claims about the
potential to enhance the line’s capacity. Moving block signalling,
longer trains and some route straightening are all desirable – but
far from sufficient to solve the looming capacity problem.
This leaves the question of whether it could be done another
way. Roger Ford, the Modern Railways columnist, has argued
for the building – at far lower cost – of a new, 200kph line to
parallel the West Coast Main Line. Instinct suggests this is an
inconvenient half-way house, offering few of the journey time
improvements of a high speed line while requiring much of the
necessary investment. There are also voices calling for the new
line’s maximum speed to be 300kph, as on High Speed One, rather
than the 400kph proposed for HS2. But it is hard to imagine that
the savings – which would mainly come from allowing tighter
curves than are possible on a 400kph line – can be seriously
justified when there are already 380kph top-speed trains on order
in China.
Yet the truth remains that the cost-benefit calculations have
been undertaken mainly for a negative reason – so that they can
be produced at the almost inevitable judicial review hearing into
the government’s decision. The serious arguments in favour of
the project have, in fact, got far more to do with the theories
championed by economists such as Oxford University’s Dieter
Helm, who analyses the nature of the networks the UK needs in
future, rather than the precise costs and benefits of individual
links.
Such arguments, not yet a recognised part of UK transport
planning, hold that cost-benefit analysis fails to capture properly
the benefits of radical changes to a country’s transport networks.
It is, of course, possible for new transport links to prove less
popular than expected and for costs to spiral out of control. The
new line’s effects on the UK’s economic geography will probably
be very different from everyone’s expectations.
But, since the last few years’ frantic debate has produced no
better solution to the looming capacity problems than HS2, now
is surely the time to stop arguing about whether to go ahead. The
task now is to make the best possible job of building it.
Robert Wright is the shipping and logistics correspondent for the
Financial Times: robert.wright@ft.com
Clarification: In Robert Wright’s February column he wrote that, on the
day of the 2012 fares announcement by the Association of Train Operating
Companies, Michael Roberts, its chief executive, stuck to arguments about
how fare rises would pay for new trains and better services. We are happy
to point out that Atoc issued a press release – and Michael Roberts made
a number of national broadcast media appearances – explaining the overall
level of fare rises is determined largely by government policy and the
industry is working together to continue cutting costs. To see what Atoc
issued that day, visit www.atoc.org/2012fares
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march 2012 Page 17

Page 18 March MARCH 2012

Interview
Rail Professional interview: Cath Bellamy
My decision had
been, right, I’m going
to leave the railway
industry. I’m going
to do something else
When cath Proctor left chiltern railways in 2007, she disappeared
from the railway world for a while. a year ago she popped up at hull
Trains with a new surname. Katie Silvester catches up with her
Seven years ago, Cath Bellamy, then
Cath Proctor, was in charge of the
Chiltern franchise – a Toc that had
a rather revolutionary agreement
with the DfT, whereby it was to fund
some infrastructure improvements,
including a new section of track, in return for a longerthan-usual
franchise agreement of 20 years.
Then – disaster. Tesco got planning permission to
build a tunnel over the Chiltern Main Line, but the
tunnel collapsed during construction, closing the line
for two months. Proctor stuck around for another
couple of years, but the aftermath took its toll and she
quit the rail industry for a spell.
‘About a year after I was appointed managing
director of Chiltern, the tunnel collapse happened
at Gerrards Cross, so I went from a strong position
taking what I thought was going to be my vision for
the business forward, to having to stop the business
from getting into some very serious trouble and
putting my fingers in lots of dykes and getting it back
on its feet. I left Chiltern on August 31, 2007 because
I decided that after spending far too many hours
working over the previous 13 or 14 years, I wanted
to have a break and try something different. I took a
year out, packed a rucksack and trekked around New
Zealand and Australia, then went back to Singapore
where I was born.’
March 2012 Page 19

‘Throughout my career,
I’ve been dropped into
challenging situations
to work out what can be
done differently’
A British Rail graduate trainee, Bellamy had joined
the rail industry soon after graduating from Aberdeen’s
Robert Gordon Institute of Technology with a business
degree, but not before she had racked up some sales
and consultancy experience, which served as a good
grounding in customer service.
‘I worked for four or five years in bars and
nightclubs to pay my way through Robert Gordon’s
Institute; I didn’t get a grant. I had three jobs and I relied
on my tips. So I learnt what it was to really understand
what customers want and how profitable it could be if
you actually delivered.’
She even managed to blag a job training people
in customer service skills, despite only having limited
experience in the field. ‘I was only 21 and I didn’t know
anything about anything! The fact that somebody took
me on says something about my sales skills, I suppose.’
On her return from her backpacking trip, she
started her own interim management business, working
on a range of projects outside the rail industry that
needed a ‘fixer’, including working as a turnaround
director with a chain of builders merchants that was
losing money. ‘My decision had been, right, I’m going
to leave the railway industry. I’m going to do something
else. A real buzz for me has always been about building
successful businesses out of delighting customers,
seeing them come back again and putting money in
your till. Throughout my career, I’ve been dropped into
challenging situations to work out what can be done
differently, better and more efficiently, then asked to
get on and do it.’
But before long, the railways beckoned again. A
job working on a bid for the Tyne and Wear Metro led
to a spell with East Coast working on delivery of the
new timetable and then to a project with First Great
Western on the Reading blockade.
‘I got another call from FirstGroup, this time to say:
“We think there’s going to be an opportunity at Hull
Trains, how do you fancy coming back and running a
railway again” So I went full circle! But I didn’t have
to think about it very long, to be honest, because I’ve
always been driven by the firm belief that successful
companies are able to really understand what their
customers want and have the courage and the capability
of adapting to do that.
‘Open access is the ultimate opportunity for that
within the rail industry. So if I was going to come back
to any railway company after Chiltern – which was just
a fantastic company to work with and we achieved so
much – it was going to be a company like Hull Trains.
Page 20 March 2012

Interview
‘So I think I’ve got the best job in the industry,
actually!’ That was at the start of 2011. Unfortunately,
Hull Trains struggled with performance issues during
Proctor’s first year, but things are looking up again.
There were infrastructure problems on the East Coast
Main Line that led to cancellations. The company also
had problems with rolling stock. The Class 180s, also
known as Adelantes, that it inherited from First Great
Western have been plagued with problems.
‘The 180s have been exceptionally unreliable and
difficult since their inception. They have had a really
quite serious impact on Hull’s ability to deliver a
reliable service. We got hit by that back in June, July
and August when, at one point, we were cancelling up
to 30 per cent of our services due to train failures. No
railway company can stand that and an open access
company is even more at risk. So, the following two or
three months were spent making sure we were working
with our partners, Angel Trains and Network Rail,
appropriately.’ Angel has now started a multi-million
pound modification of all its Alstom-built Class 180s.
Bellamy is determined to improve Hull Trains’
performance and its profitability. The company made
a loss in 2010 – the last financial year for which its
accounts are publicly available. But it is moving back
into profit, says Bellamy. And she’s confident that
revenue will grow in the long term.
Hull Train is FirstGroup’s only open access venture
– open access operations being those that are run on
purely commercial lines and not as part of a franchise
agreement – and it’s not been an easy time for nonfranchised
passenger operators. Wrexham & Shropshire
ceased operations last year, leaving Grand Central and
Hull Trains as the only two survivors. Grand Central,
which has just been bought by Arriva, has also been
struggling. FirstGroup sold off one of its other ‘noncore’
divisions – GB Railfreight – 18 months ago, but
Bellamy says that the transport group has no plans to
dispose of Hull Trains.
‘FirstGroup have communicated to me that they
support both franchised and open access operations
and there is an argument to have both in the UK rail
network.’
Both Hull Trains and Grand Central want to
expand, but the ORR is not always keen to approve
new open access routes. Currently, Hull Trains runs
seven return services from Hull to London on weekdays
and five each way on Saturdays and Sundays. In 2009,
it applied to operate services between King’s Cross
and Harrogate via York, but this was rejected by the
ORR. The company has more plans to expand, but
Bellamy won’t divulge what they are. Its current access
agreement runs until 2016, so Hull Trains also needs to
negotiate renewal of that.
Does she think that the government is in favour of
further open access operations
‘It is unclear how the DfT feel about open access,
because they have said some things that imply they’re
positive about competition and they’ve said other
things that imply they’re not. So I think the whole
subject of consultation on rail competition is very
interesting and we look forward to seeing how that’s
concluded. Until the governance of this industry has
resolved this matter, it’s difficult for us as operators to
be able to pull together investment programmes and
plans to go forward and extend our agreements.
‘It’s absolutely not true to say that open access is
simply removing money from the taxpayer’s pocket or
that it’s easy to make money on open access, because it’s
not – there are pressures on both sides. But you might
not want open access on some of the major routes and
lose government control of that,’ she concedes.
In the meantime, her mission is to drive up
passenger numbers on the current services. Hull Trains
has borrowed an additional unit from Grand Central
to improve performance levels and has introduced
frills to improve the passenger experience, such as free
wi-fi throughout the train. ‘I think I was asked to join
because the company had started to slow down and had
started to lose a little bit of ground in terms of its magic
and sparkle. FirstGroup is all about being best in class.
The priority for the next 12 months is to make sure that
we continue to do what we need to do here to continue
to be financially viable. And in the recession, actually,
that’s quite a challenge on its own.’
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March 2012 Page 21

Interview
The Adelantes are undergoing improvements,
after a series of failures last year
Bellamy has had to relocate from Oxfordshire for
the job – she and her husband have just moved to a
village just outside Hull. But she talks about her role
with an infectious enthusiasm that sounds like it is
spreading to the rest of the Hull Trains team.
‘Looking towards next year, what I want to do is to
put a strategy in place to make the most of our frontline
staff. Customers tell me all the time how absolutely
fantastic they are, so they’re a great asset.
‘When I first came, people said to me, “Well Cath,
it’s quite a small company, isn’t it” and, actually, how
wrong they are. This job is probably one of the most
challenging railway jobs I’ve ever done. Although
we only run 14 direct services a day, we have to do
everything that a train operating company has to do,
but I’ve only got a handful of people to do it. In fact my
whole management team is 11 people and that includes
me. We do everything from setting fares to agreeing
timetables too, so there’s not a lot of places to hide!’
There is no such thing as a typical week, she says,
but on the day I interviewed her, she had already had
a shareholders’ budgetary meeting and a photocall
with a charity. Later in the day, she was due to brief
the new safety and environment officer, then to have a
meeting with the head of operations to review the day’s
performance, before ending the day with a conference
call with engineers to discuss the progress of the
modification programme for the Class 180s.
‘So there’s ops there, finance, HR, marketing and
PR,’ she laughs. ‘It’s massively hands on! And if the
trains stop running or we have any delays, I shall be in
an orange vest down on the concourse, which is how
I spent many, many days in June and July. That’s why I
feel so passionate about getting the trains fixed.’
She talks about the task ahead with obvious relish.
‘I’d like to make sure we are much better than
we are at the moment at understanding what our
customers want, and that we are adapting how we do
things to make rail travel and Hull Trains even more
competitive, much easier much more fun. I don’t want
anybody else in this region choosing any operator other
than Hull Trains for their trips to London.’
Curriculum vitae
1969 Born in Singapore
1991 BA (Hons) in business studies from Robert Gordon
Institute of Technology in Aberdeen
1991 Recruitment consultant
1992 Network Southeast management trainee for
British Rail
1999 Sales and marketing director at Chiltern Railways
2004 Managing director of Chiltern Railways
2007 Starts consultancy Interim Action, offering business
turnaround expertise
2009 Programme director of Project Eureka for East Coast
2009 Interim bid manager for Nexus Metro
2010 Independent readiness reviewer of Reading Blockade
for First Great Western
2011 Managing director of First Hull Trains
Page 22 March 2012

Comment
Putting your best
foot forward
Trackside workers can spend most of their shift on their
feet, in all weathers. Yvette Ashby, managing director
of the Workwear and Corporate Clothing Show, looks at
the footwear requirements for lineside staff
As plans progress for
Crossrail and HS2, there
will undoubtedly be a
significant increase in
demand for technical
rail workers, including
track and signalling engineers, as well as
overhead electrification specialists. And with
this expansion in the workforce, there will
be a corresponding increase in demand for
safety workwear and personal protective
equipment (PPE).
In the rail industry, the safety of rail
workers is paramount at all times and it is
vital that employers ensure staff are kitted
out in line with health and safety regulations
in mandatory, fit-for-purpose safety clothing,
PPE and safety footwear.
In terms of safety footwear, the need for
functional, robust and comfortable boots is
important. Luckily, there has never been so
much choice in the market as there is today.
While this is good news for the workforce,
it can be well nigh impossible for a health
and safety or procurement manager to know
where to start.
A comprehensive risk assessment will
dictate the specific safety requirements of
footwear by identifying the potential hazards
that the wearer needs to be protected from
in their working environment. In the rail
industry, these vary from electrical hazards
and uneven and slippery surfaces to falling
objects, including heavy machinery and the
presence of oil, chemicals and sharp objects.
It is also important to take into
consideration the fact that track-side
workers will be exposed to all the elements
and must be protected from inclement
weather. If workers’ cold feet contribute to
a reduction in core body temperature, this
can lead to them not only feeling the cold
but losing concentration and motivation.
Ultimately, their productivity falls.
Unlike clothing, which can be easily
added or removed as and when needed, safety
footwear is worn throughout a shift or an
entire day. It is therefore essential that safety
boots are breathable.
Trackside staff can cover a great deal of
ground, spending most of a shift walking
non-stop for several miles while inspecting
or repairing track, so comfort is a necessity
for long periods of use.
Above all, safety footwear for rail
professionals should be selected to fit the
specification for the environment where it
will be worn. Generally for track-side staff
and technical engineers this means safety
boots that are robust, provide good ankle
protection and support, have a hard wearing
sole, tough tread, steel toe-cap/steel mid sole,
comply with BS EN ISO20345 and provide
wearer comfort and waterproof protection.
This sounds like a tall order but help
is at hand from safety workwear and PPE
manufacturers and suppliers that have years
of experience providing rail networks with
the workwear and safety footwear they need
to keep their workforce protected.
The days of ‘one-shoe-fits-all’ are long
gone when it comes to safety footwear.
There are many more decisions to be made
when procuring footwear and it is vital to
ensure that safety boots and shoes are not
only durable, fit for purpose and conform
with EN standards, but are also comfortable
and a good fit.
n The Workwear and Corporate Clothing
Show (www.workwearshow.com) takes
place from 17-18 April at the Ricoh
Arena in Coventry. It is a major event
in the professional clothing industry’s
calendar and will showcase the best and
most innovative suppliers of workwear,
corporate clothing and personal protective
equipment in the industry
MARCH 2012 Page 23

Time and tide
Few pictures tell a story more
vividly than the wall-mounted
photo positioned behind
Mark Langman, Network
Rail’s route managing
director for Wales. With a
sweep of the arm, he points to a small train
shrouded in spray, running the gauntlet
of waves storming a sea wall at Ferryside,
Carmarthenshire. ‘Looks like an explosion,’
Langman says. It is, he adds, an image less
familiar than that of the much-pounded
line at Teignmouth, yet it’s one point among
several in Wales that could pose problems as
the UK’s weather lurches between extremes.
www.railimages.co.uk
Climate change could pose big problems for Network
Rail, as water erodes trackbeds, embankments,
bridges and tunnels. In Wales, coastal erosion is high
on the agenda of its new route managing director,
Mark Langman, as Andrew Mourant discovers
Network Rail already has John Dora
working full-time from Euston headquarters
to understand climate change and prepare
for its consequences. What challenges all
this may hold for the tracts of coastal line
in Wales is an unfolding story. But there’s
no crisis, at least not according to Langman.
And he knows the patch well – he spent five
years as general manager for Wales and the
Marches before taking over as the country’s
first route director last November.
‘I think we’re in a fairly good state at
the moment,’ he says. ‘We’ve done work at
Ferryside that’s put us in good stead, unless
something catastrophic happens – for
instance, if we get one of those one-in-100-
years storms that seem to happen every two
years.’
Yet isn’t that the nub of his problem –
extreme weather happening more often
‘Absolutely, and we’ve got to recognise that
some of the railway was built by Victorians
in different conditions to those that we have
today. We have to start thinking ahead.’
Out of its budget, Network Rail must
maintain the railway wherever it is and
whatever the circumstances. In Wales,
plenty of track lies by the sea – along the
Cambrian Coast, parts of the north Wales
coastline and sections in west Wales.
Looking after all its assets in geographically
difficult locations is an expensive
responsibility, and one that could have an
unpredictable impact on finances. Where
problems arise, Langman’s instinct, that of a
lifelong rail man, is to fix things at once and
not worry where the money’s coming from.
‘We’ll do whatever is necessary to make sure
the railway stays open if it’s our asset.’
Beyond that, says Langman, the broader
Sea wall in Barmouth
PAGE 24 MARCH 2012

Xxxxxxxxxxx
Infrastructure
europe
issue of defending the coast from sea and
erosion needs to be discussed ‘with the
relevant authority’ – the Environment
Agency or the Welsh government. ‘If
there was a wider problem – say the coast
being undermined and the cliff behind it
collapsing – I think we’d have to seek them
out, to see how we could deliver a scheme
that makes sure you keep the railway open
and benefits the community.’
The Welsh network had a taste of the
chaos brought about by that eventuality
in 2005, following a landslide along the
Cambrian Coast at Friog Rocks, caused
by the collapse of a sea-eroded cave. The
line had to close, leaving passengers to face
tortuous bus detours along a 50-mile stretch
from Machynlleth to Pwllheli. But Langman
believes things are now under control there.
‘We did some work three or four years ago
to help stabilise the cliff and stop the railway
falling into the sea. It’s really inaccessible –
we had to have abseilers and everything.’
That’s not an exercise he wants to
repeat. However some expensive coastal
defence operations carried out in Wales
have managed to attract European Regional
Development Fund money – £2.3m of the
£8m seafront repairs at Colwyn Bay – where
winter storms in 2010 caused widespread
damage – and £5.5m for the £12m project at
Borth, also ravaged by high seas.
As the railway isn’t on the front line at
either town, Network Rail didn’t have to
bear the cost. ‘At Colwyn Bay you’ve got
the promenade between the railway and
the sea, and other bits and pieces that are
local authority or government-owned,’ says
Langman. ‘We’re well back – we’ve not had
problems; and at Borth we’re quite set back
too. We’ve never had a consequential risk,
though I guess we’ll benefit ultimately,
because if things between us and the sea
were to erode, eventually it will be knocking
at our door.’
But what would Network Rail do if
some devastating storm wrecked part of
its infrastructure and triggered a huge
unforeseen bill Would some other project
have to be sacrificed, or might Network
Rail try to prise extra money from the
government ‘I suppose that depends
on how much we’re talking about,’ says
Langman. ‘There’s contingency money we
can draw on… but we might need to look
elsewhere. And, of course, we have insurance
against a catastrophe.’
The availability of European money
for projects seen as essential in Wales has
not been lost on Langman. Perhaps it’s
worth lobbying the Welsh government to
get extra finance from Brussels if that were
sorely needed ‘Finding any opportunity
to lever funds into the railway is one of my
principles,’ he says. ‘Third-party funding is,
for me, absolutely critical.’
‘You can predict that
when there’s heavy
rain, the first thing
to flood will be the
Conwy estuary’
Where Langman can foresee problems is
in the far north. ‘We struggle on the Conwy
estuary, particularly after heavy rain in
Snowdonia, which is becoming frequent,’
he says. ‘It causes wash-outs and we did a
very big job up there about two years ago on
drainage and a defence scheme to try and
lessen the impact.
‘I don’t think you can ever stop the
flooding, but you can predict that when
there’s heavy rain, the first thing to flood
will be the Conwy estuary, and you can even
predict how far will it come up the valley
and how much will it affect the railway.
‘If the trend for the rest of the UK to get
wetter continues, that’s going to become
more of a problem. We’ll need to think either
about a longer-term solution or whether
it’s right for us just to deal with it when it
happens. We might be able to work with the
Welsh government and Conwy Borough
council, and say “What’s the strategy for the
area” At the moment, I don’t know.’
MARCH 2012 PAGE 25

Shutterstock.com/Jacqueline Abromeit
On the fly
In pressing ahead with High Speed Two’s connectivity with Heathrow Airport, is
the government’s rail team out of sync with its aviation team, which is looking at
alternatives to Heathrow Paul Clifton investigates
The idea of a new hub airport
east of London is to be given
serious thought. Whether
you choose the all-new
Boris Island concept or the
Norman Foster-led idea of
an airport on the Isle of Grain, passengers
would be connected to the capital primarily
by high speed rail.
This would be Britain’s primary airport,
capable of carrying 150 million passengers a
year, making it the world’s largest. So if this
really is an option, it is inconceivable that
this would not be a core part of our national
transport strategy. Isn’t it
In giving the green light to High
Speed Two (HS2), with an interchange for
Heathrow at Old Oak Common, there is
an assumption that Heathrow will remain
the principle UK airport for generations to
come.
Perhaps – probably, even – it will be. But
the aviation industry is united in the view
that Heathrow cannot compete with rivals
such as Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt
without expansion. David Cameron is
expected to announce a formal consultation
on a new airport to the east of London
within weeks. Boris Johnson, the mayor of
London, believes it could be built in 10 to 12
years. In other words, quicker than HS2.
‘You can’t have two hubs,’ says Colin
Matthews, chief executive of BAA,
which operates Heathrow. ‘It is either
Heathrow or it is another. It is a huge issue
economically; it is a huge issue politically.’
Page 26 MARCH 2012

Airport links
British Airways suggested at least
100,000 jobs would be at risk. ‘There would
be profound effects on jobs and business
locations in west London, the M4 corridor
and the Thames Valley,’ said a spokesman.
The region currently has all of the 10
most overcrowded rail commuter services.
More than 75,000 people work at
Heathrow. Include companies which
depend largely on the airport, such as
caterers, hotels and taxi firms, and the total
exceeds 100,000. And that does not take
account of the hundreds of large companies
that choose to be based within easy reach
of the airport.
Norman Foster puts the price of a
new Thames Hub at £50bn, built partly on
reclaimed land at the centre of a high speed
rail network, bypassing London and linking
with HS1. It would have four runways and
a new Thames barrier would provide tidal
power for the airport.
‘Can we afford not to afford it’ Foster
asks. ‘If we do not modernise our transport
infrastructure, we will slide down the
international scale.’
He says part of the cost would be
recovered by selling the land at Heathrow
for £12bn. But it would take time. ‘Even
if you take out five years for planning we
still take three times as long to complete a
major infrastructure initiative as they do
in Asia.’
He cites the rapid construction of
Chek Lap Kok airport in Hong Kong, also
designed by Foster, also on reclaimed land
and also connected by rail.
And the funding ‘This would be
incredibly attractive to pension and
sovereign wealth funds.’
Critics believe it would take 20 years
to deliver. Given that a third runway at
Heathrow has been ruled out, are there
alternatives Stansted was due a second
runway under plans drawn up by the
previous government, then rejected. The
existing rail service is inadequate for a hub
airport.
Gatwick, however, has excellent but
congested rail and road connections with
scope for improvement. And Gatwick
has room to grow, running at only three
quarters of its capacity. A second runway is
prevented before 2019 by legal agreement.
But in January, the airport’s owners started
a search for consultants to advise on future
infrastructure needs.
A consultant, or panel of consultants,
will be hired on a £2m, four-year contract
to provide ‘technical airport planning input’
to support the airport’s future growth.
And there’s Birmingham. HS2 will put
its international airport only 38 minutes
from Euston – compared with Gatwick’s
30 minutes from Victoria – and 48 minutes
from Leeds. It has permission to lengthen
its runway and could take pressure off the
south east. But distance from London and
the potential rail fare could prove barriers.
‘I completely support the government’s
commitment to re-balancing the economy
away from the south east,’ says Jim French,
the chairman and chief executive of Flybe,
which is Europe’s largest regional airline.
‘However, the alternative of building a
new national airport in another part of
the country, away from the south east, is
simply not feasible. Just look at the location
of every major hub around the word: it is
situated adjacent to the major population
centre.’
French points out that every major hub
airport in Europe, except Heathrow, has
a minimum of four runways. He says that
anything less than this would compromise
the UK’s long term potential.
The lobbying for new airport capacity
has gathered pace since the chancellor
announced last November that the
government was dropping its opposition
to it and would explore ‘all the options for
maintaining the UK’s aviation hub status,
with the exception of a third runway at
Heathrow’. This included the ‘Heathwick’
Canvey Island
River Thames
concept of linking Heathrow and Gatwick
by a 15-minute high speed rail link (Rail
Professional, December 2011.)
This U-turn undermined passenger
growth forecasts published only last
August, which assumed there would be
no additional runways in the south east.
The government’s demand forecasts for
HS2 were informed by these aviation
assumptions. Which begs the question: to
what extent is rail – and HS2 in particular
– really part of a wider coherent transport
strategy
The secretary of state for transport’s
imminent command paper may make
everything clear. Or it may not.
Perhaps it is worth remembering
that parliament has already passed an act
allowing the building of a new airport in
the Thames estuary. That was in 1973. And
it hasn’t happened yet.
PaUL CLIFTON is the transport correspondent for
BBC South: paul.clifton@railpro.co.uk
Southend-On-Sea
Proposed site
of Thames Hub
‘If we do not
modernise
our transport
infrastructure, we
will slide down the
international scale’
Sheerness
Ilse of Sheppey
Proposed site
of Boris Island
MARCH 2012 Page 27

Tunnel
vision
GB Railfreight has had a busy couple of years. Its sale
to Eurotunnel has seen it begin services to Spain for
Tesco, while its domestic services have continued to
grow, as Katie Silvester discovers
When the Channel
Tunnel opened,
its owners,
Eurotunnel,
expected it to
be popular with
rail freight operators – primarily BR at the
time – giving them the opportunity to run
trains seamlessly between the UK and the
Continent for the first time. But take-up has
been low. High access charges for using the
tunnel, coupled with the problems typically
faced accessing infrastructure in France via
the notoriously bureaucratic SNCF, have
put most freight operators off. DB Schenker,
formerly EWS, has always run some services
through the tunnel, but other UK freight
carriers have avoided it.
When Freightliner wanted to expand
internationally, it began operations in
Poland and Australia, rather than send trains
through the Channel Tunnel. GB Railfreight
was also wary of the Tunnel. MD John Smith
told Rail Professional in 2007: ‘I’d rather steer
clear of the Channel Tunnel. There’s too
much risk involved.’
Now all that is set to change. GBRf,
formerly part of FirstGroup, was sold to
Eurotunnel 18 months ago. Its new owners
bought the company expressly to improve
the tunnel’s credibility for rail freight,
FirstGroup having sold GBRf off to settle
some debts as it was a non-core business for
the passenger train and bus operator.
John Smith has remained as managing
director of GBRf, but now also has
responsibility for the management of
Europorte Channel, Eurotunnel’s freight
subsidiary.
‘Life’s changed fairly dramatically,
because we are strategically important to
Eurotunnel, which wasn’t the case at First.
We sit within the Europorte subsidiary, to
keep operations separate from infrastructure,
which is the concession of running through
the Channel Tunnel. The portfolio of
operations within Europorte includes other
terminal operations in France – Europorte
France, which is a rail freight operation, and
Europorte Channel, which is what I’m now
responsible for in addition to GB Railfreight.’
This sounds a bit complicated. In
essence, GBRf continues to operate as an
independent freight operator as it always
did, but it also offers services to other rail
operators wanting to use the tunnel.
Smith explains: ‘At a very practical level,
Europorte Channel has a licence to operate
trains in the UK, so, depending on where
the destination is, particularly for Daventry,
the Europorte Channel driver climbs on
the train and Europorte Channel charges
the customer for haulage from Coquelles to
Daventry. We don’t stop in Dollands Moor
anymore, we bypass that. With some of the
business we are developing, we’re going to
new locations.’
GBRf has begun its own services through
the tunnel. One carries refrigerated goods
for Tesco from Spain through to Barking,
on behalf of Stobart. It’s a time-sensitive
service that needs to arrive within an hour of
its booked time, but customers are prepared
to pay for this level of reliability. Another
regular run carries white goods from
Daventry to Italy.
‘There’s talk of how much the cost of
transiting the tunnel is, but all I can say is
that we’re managing to make money, satisfy
customer needs and price it at a level that
allows incremental growth,’ says Smith.
The company is looking at other
potential services from the Continent.
‘We’ve looked at France, at the consolidation
of logistics centres in France; we’ve looked
at Spain, though you’ve got a gauge change;
we’ve looked at the France, Germany, Spain,
Italy-type corridor through the tunnel.’
Like other freight operators, GBRf
has struggled in the recession, but it hasn’t
seen the losses that its larger competitors
Freightliner and DB Schenker have. Its profit
was £3m on a turnover of £57m in 2010,
the most recent year-end figures publicly
available. And the company’s performance
impressed the Rail Business Awards judges
sufficiently for GBRf to win the VTG Rail
Freight Excellence of the Year prize in the
2010 awards.
‘Since then, growth has picked up,’ Smith
says. ‘To a certain extent, that’s because
we’ve been procuring our own assets – now
we don’t have to lease anymore, we’ve been
buying Class 66s. Our growth has continued
for 2011; that will show in our turnover and
profits increasing quite dramatically.’
Smith, 50, started out as an engineer on
the railways, having begun his professional
life as a toolmaker. He joined British
Rail 35 years ago and ended up running
Page 28 march 2012

Xxxxxxxxxxx Freight
maintenance depots. At privatisation,
he worked for Anglia Railways, part of
GB Railways, where he rose to managing
director. He was then offered the chance to
head up a new freight division, GBRf, which
became part of FirstGroup 11 years ago
when First bought GB Railways.
He has always maintained that the
success of the company is down to the high
quality of its employees and he tries to meet
regularly with all his staff, most of whom
know him on a first-name basis.
Has the company culture changed since
the business changed hands
‘No. I wouldn’t let that change! I think,
like all owners, Eurotunnel are happy as
long as we stick to the business plan and the
growth continues – and they leave me alone
to set how this business should be running.’
On the domestic front, the coal market
has picked up. GBRf has a contract to carry
imported coal from the Port of Tyne to the
Yorkshire power station, Drax. In the long
term, of course, coal will be phased out as
more environmentally friendly fuels take
over. GBRf also has a toehold there, as it
transports biomass for Drax. Biomass is a
cleaner fuel source that can be made from
organic compounds, usually taking the
form of wooden pellets. It is also imported
through the Port of Tyne.
‘Drax is the biggest coal-fired power
station in Europe,’ says Smith. ‘It burns up to
nine million tonnes of coal a year, which is
a train every 45 minutes, seven days a week.
They’re keen to go to biomass – we’re moving
one million tonnes-plus a year for them now.’
A new departure for GBRf is two
contracts it has picked up to transport steel
over short distances within a plant site. Celsa
Steel, in Cardiff, produces re-usable steel
from scrap metal – GBRf has 12 of its staff
and two locomotives ferrying steel around
the site. Last autumn it won a bigger contract
to move steel around a site on Teeside, when
a steelworks that had previously closed
down was bought and re-opened by a Thai
company called SSI.
’We’ve taken 40 people on and we’ve
rented 10 locos to move molten iron from
the blast furnace to the steel works and carry
the finished product from the works to the
docks. SSI is a family run business – they’ve
got rolling steel mills in Thailand and I don’t
think they had iron ore in the old days, so
they’ve always imported finished steel. The
‘There’s talk of how
much the cost of
transiting the tunnel
is, but all I can say is
that we’re managing
to make money’
Above right: John
Smith with a Class
66 locomotive
in the old livery.
Below: A Class
66 in the new
livery at GBRf’s
Peterborough
depot
www.railimages.co.uk
march 2012 Page 29

Freight
‘One of the things
freight has always
had a problem with
is political influence;
we’ve never been
that co-ordinated
around that’
www.railimages.co.uk
company wanted to be vertically integrated,
so they’ve decided to buy a steelworks. These
days it’s quite hard to build a steelworks,
because of all the emissions regulations.
The product will initially be exported via
Teesport. It’s a very good news story for
us and for the area, to see all those jobs
generated again.’
GBRf’s other domestic market is
intermodal. It mainly operates out of
Felixstowe, a market that is slowly growing.
The port’s owner, Hutchison Ports, is
building a new rail terminal there for
30-wagon trains, due to open next year. So
Smith is hoping to be able to offer even more
services out of the port.
Like other freight operators, he would
like to see capacity improvements on the
network to allow freight to move around
more freely. And he would like to see more
inland terminals – something that the Rail
Freight Group has been pressing for.
‘A lot of inland terminals are quite
restricted; some of them are getting full.
You certainly need one in the Manchester,
Liverpool, Crewe corridor – there ought
to be money aimed towards that. You need
big inland terminals now like they’ve got in
Europe that concentrate a lot of modes of
transport in one area.’
He also makes the point that various rail
freight facilities across the country, both at
ports and at inland terminals, are owned by
a single operator. Although rival operators
can use the facilities where there are spare
slots, they are at the bottom of the pecking
order. GBRf has long wanted to operate out
of Southampton, but Freightliner owns the
main rail terminal there and it is currently at
full capacity. DB Schenker runs some services
from Southampton by loading up on the
dockside, but this slows down turnaround
time.
‘At Felixstowe, we have gone from 13
trains to 29 trains in the last seven or eight
years, with all operators operating out of
there. Southampton hasn’t grown anything
like that much. At Hams Hall all operators go
in and it’s grown hugely. Birch Coppice, with
all operators in, has also grown hugely. Other
terminals that are owned by one operator
haven’t grown in that way.’
GBRf has been talking to Network
Rail about the need for infrastructure
enhancements for its bulk markets, including
work in the north-east of England, which
would improve its ability to carry biomass
more freely. He is hoping that HS2 will
free up capacity on the West Coast Main
Line too.
The rail freight market has grown
enormously since privatisation – in many
ways freight has been the real success story
of private investment in the railways. But
growth is often held up, or prevented, by
Nimbyism, with locals not wanting freight
yards in their neighbourhood.
‘One of the things freight has always had
a problem with is political influence; we’ve
never been that co-ordinated around that.
What people need to realise is that 50 per
cent of the electricity in a Pendolino is carried
by a coal train, so without our operating these
types of services, there’s a lot of other parts of
UK plc that wouldn’t function.’
Are there other goods that we will see
being carried by rail in the next few years
‘In terms of commodities, always. We’ve
just started carrying fuel that was previously
on the road, for a company called Greenergy.
But what people don’t appreciate is that
intermodal boxes already carry so many
different things: we export components for
jet fighters to India, we import wine from
Australia.
‘As the world modernises, you’ve got to
make sure that rail’s integral to that. You have
got to get under the skin of your customers
to see what their issues are. And that’s what’s
fun about freight – it’s not about trains, it’s
about the economics of power generation;
it’s about the economics of how we all drink
a bottle of wine from Australia; it’s about the
economics of getting petrol in your car in
Aberystwyth.’
n See www.railpro.co.uk/johnsmith for a
video of John Smith expanding on some of
the points in this interview
Page 30 march 2012

Comment
Stopping thieves
in their tracks
Each year, thefts of copper cabling cost the rail industry more than 16,000 hours in
delays. James Perry explains how the Metal Theft (Prevention) Bill could help
Trecycling of scrap metal
generates £5bn a year in the
UK, and yet it is largely run
on a cash-in-hand basis with
little in the way of checks and
balances. As a result, it is an
industry that has become a breeding ground
for illegal activity, with unscrupulous dealers
buying and trading in stolen metal.
Unscrupulous thieves have resorted to
stealing everything from memorial plaques
to padlocks on power substations. But no
industry has been a more attractive target
than the rail network, a fact that is seriously
harming the rail industry, which suffers 2,700
thefts every year.
A 70 per cent increase in overhead power
cables thefts, reported by British Transport
Police, is beginning to cause serious issues to
passenger safety.
When one train got stranded last year,
passengers who were fed up with waiting
exited from the carriages onto the tracks,
crossing live rails before reaching the
embankment.
The Metal Theft (Prevention) Bill
was proposed in the House of Commons
on 15 November 2011 by Graham Jones
MP. The bill aims to steer the scrap metal
industry towards regulation – reducing
metal thefts in the process – by imposing a
comprehensive system of regulation, which
will require dealers to purchase a licence and
take steps to ensure they are not accepting
stolen materials. Sellers of scrap will need to
provide valid photo ID and proof of address,
the details of which will be entered into a
searchable national database.
The bill also directly addresses the
serious issue of the cash-in-hand culture,
which makes up 20 per cent of the industry’s
value, and lays out plans to restrict all deals
to cashless payments, while also preventing
dealers from processing the metal before
the payment has cleared. Finally, the bill
looks to extend the remit of the police and
A trackside patrol keeps
an eye on a copper theft
hotspot
magistrates courts, giving the police powers
to search dealerships and close those found
to be harbouring stolen materials. The courts
will be allowed to add restrictions to dealers’
licences and prevent yards that have been
closed for illegal dealings from re-opening.
It has also been suggested that a clearer
policy should be used to ensure scrap metal
thefts are a focus of the Serious Organised
Crime Association which recovers assets
through its powers under the Proceeds of
Crime Act 2002.
Authorities in some bodies have already
taken matters into their own hands to
combat metal thefts. In the north east of
England, for example, a trial has been put in
place requiring those selling scrap metal to
participating dealers to provide proof of their
identity, as per the guidelines in the bill.
This initiative, dubbed Operation
Tornado, is being spearheaded by the
British Metals Recycling Association,
British Transport Police, Association of
Chief Police Officers and the police forces
in Northumbria, Durham and Cleveland.
It is expected to remain in place for six
months with the option to extend it further,
and is likely to be used as a benchmark for
implementation if the bill is passed.
Although the bill was scheduled for its
second reading in January, this has now been
postponed until March to give parliament
more time to consider it. If the voice of
key industry leaders is taken into account
by parliament during the debates on this
bill, then hopefully the rail industry will be
able to ensure that any new legislation goes
far enough to protect them – and all other
industries – from the thefts that are turning
the scrap metal sector into a black market.
James Perry is the senior solicitor in
the banking and finance recoveries team at
business solicitors DWF
march 2012 Page 31

Become
Become a member…
member…
www.railwayoperators.org
New for 2012
between Network Rail and operators
The
The Institution
Institution of
of Railway
Railway Operators
Operators will
will be
be announcing
announcing some
some new
new products
products and
and services
services during
during 2012.
2012.
When track meets train: the interface
■
All geared Collectively towards the Continuing
train operating
All geared companies, towards freight Continuing
operating
Professional Development
companies Professional and Development
Network Rail
opportunities they include new
control opportunities all the critical they include activities new
short courses, texts and a structure
necessary short courses, to operate texts and maintain structure
a
for recording your learning
railway. for recording As the your split between learning
the two
intentions and their achievement.
was intentions determined and their at privatisation achievement.
and
The Operators Handbook is one
driven The Operators by contractual Handbook political is one
such product that will launch
considerations, such product that it is will not necessarily launch
later in the year. What follows is a
logical later in in the operating year. What terms. follows is preview extract. Watch this space
preview The Railways extract. Act Watch 2005 this clarified space
for more news of our products
certain for more responsibilities news of our between products
and services
Tocs and services
and Network Rail, but this
has Safe not Performance
changed the business
Safe Performance
imperative A punctual to railway integrate is always effectively, safer
punctual railway is always safer
and than work an un-punctual together collaboratively railway.
than an un-punctual railway.
and There co-operatively. is a view that These in certain issues
There is view that in certain
have circumstances been further passenger examined or by freight the
circumstances passenger or freight
2011 performance McNulty and Review safety into objectives railway
performance and safety objectives
structure and costs.
Tocs, freight and Network for overall delivery. The role of PTEs
can conflict – experience suggests challenges. Remember that
managed in order to provide
can Rail conflict operations experience managers at suggests
all challenges. varies, and ranges Remember from a that
concession managed in order to provide
this is rarely true.
running the railway is what the best solution for the largest
this levels is should rarely have true.
a good working running authority, the such railway as Merseytravel/ is what
the best solution for the largest
operators are here for. It has to be number of passengers. Similarly,
knowledge The operator’s of all objective relevant activities is
operators Merseyrail, are to a here service for. specifier It has to for be
number of passengers. Similarly,
The operator’s objective is
done safely, but safety is a means it is obvious that some passengers
and to deliver practices a punctual of the organisations railway done a Toc/ safely, DfT franchise, but safety such is as means
Centro it is obvious that some passengers
to deliver punctual railway
to an end and is not the end itself. will be seriously affected during
they and achieving interface with. that safely is an to West an Midlands end is for not London the end Midland. itself.
will be seriously affected during
and achieving that safely is an
contingency operation/Service
underpinning Network Rail requirement. is currently Ask When for mounting an explanation a challenge of the local contingency operation/Service
underpinning requirement.
When mounting challenge
Recovery. That is why all TOCs
responsible for reporting
position prepare your if case operate well in and a PTE test area. the Recovery. That is why all TOCs
There are no circumstances in prepare your case well and test the
must have robust well thought
There performance are no results circumstances to the secretary in
proposal The relationship a colleague between – this Tocs will must have robust well thought
which safety requirements should proposal on colleague this will
through customer service
which of state safety at the requxirements DfT. Conformance should
and avoid Transport dropping for a London clanger. (TfL) through customer service
be shortcut – for whatever reason. avoid dropping clanger.
arrangements incorporated in
be with shortcut their licence for whatever conditions reason.
is is still evolving, but a concession arrangements incorporated in
Overall customer requirements their Service Recovery plans.
policed There is by however the Office every for Rail reason Overall Toc, London customer Overground requirements
Rail their Service Recovery plans.
There is however every reason
must always be served by established
Regulation to challenge (ORR). potentially
must Operations always Limited be served (Lorol), by established
operates Generally if objectives conflict
to challenge potentially
operations rules and procedures – Generally if objectives conflict
inappropriate Tocs are also or responsible overbearing to the operations on a different rules contractual and procedures basis to a some of them will be found to be
inappropriate or overbearing
that is why we run a railway.
some of them will be found to be
secretary safety requirements of state through that the are DfT that franchise why agreement. we run railway.
inappropriate and should be revised.
safety requirements that are
inappropriate and should be revised.
for not their felt to aspects be fit of for performance, purpose. Individual passenger needs may At the heart of an operator’s skill
not felt to be fit for purpose.
Individual passenger needs may
At the heart of an operator’s skill
largely Any manager through can the do requirements this, and of ■ not Over always the next be met few - usually issues, we during will should be his/her ability to make
Any manager can do this, and
not always be met usually during
should be his/her ability to make
the all companies franchise agreement. have processes/ Tocs are be disruption exploring - but the unfortunately
interface between such judgements and take the
all companies have processes/
disruption but unfortunately
such judgements and take the
also mechanisms responsible to to handle passengers such – and passenger sub-optimal and situations freight operators must be necessary corrective action.
mechanisms to handle such
sub-optimal situations must be
necessary corrective action.
passenger representative groups – and Network Rail
Valuable opportunities for members
to learn and share knowledge
Your
Your local
local IRO
IRO Area
Area runs
runs events
events all
all year
year round.
round. There Opportunities
are opportunities to see how
to others
see how work,
others
work,
broaden broaden your experience
your experience and add
and to
add your
to professional
your professional development.
development.
Visit
Visit the
the website
website to
to find
find out
out more…
more… www.railwayoperators.org
www.railwayoperators.org
1
Midlands Area: Members learn about fuelling arrangements
Midlands Area: IRO Midlands talk on the subject of the
at Derby Etches Park Depot. October 2011.
Pendolino lengthening project. January 2012.
2
North West & North Wales Area: Members visit a Scottish signalling
Young Railway Professionals: Staff from c2c enjoying an evening
centre as part of a four-site, weekend visit. October 2011.
together at the YRP 2012 Black Tie Dinner & Dance. February 2012.
PAGE 32 MARCH 2012

IRO
Diary of events
Irish Area
For information on Irish Area events contact
Hilton Parr at hilton.parr@railwayoperators.org
Scottish Area
25 April: Siberian Railways Past and Present.
Time: 17:15 for 17:30. Location: Buchanan House,
Glasgow.
For information on the IRO Scottish Area,
please contact Jim Douglas on 0141 354 5684
or jim.douglas@URS.com or email Jim Gillies
at scottish@railwayoperators.org
North East Area
13 March: Security Issues for Network Rail. Time:
17:30. Location: East Coast Academy, York.
22 April: Visit to engineering possession. Contact:
Jason Wade at: northeast@railwayoperators.org
For information on North East Area events,
contact David Monk-Steel at
northeast@railwayoperators.org or on
01751 473799 during office hours. North East
Area meetings normally take place at 17:30 for
18:00, in York.
North West Area
8 March: Master Class – The Debate: Traincrew
Route Knowledge. Time: 18:00. Location: TfGM
Conference Room, Manchester City Centre.
Contact: Roy Chapman:
ironw.booking@railwayoperators.org
17 April: AGM and talk on Chester station. Time:
18:00. Location: Chester. Contact: Roy Chapman
at: ironw.booking@railwayoperators.org
All events and enquiries via Roy Chapman at
ironw.booking@railwayoperators.org. General
membership enquires to Carl Phillips at
northwest@railwayoperators.org
Midlands Area
5 March: Visit to Daventry International Rail Freight
Terminal. Time: 17:30. Location: Milton Keynes.
Contact: mike.christelow@networkrail.co.uk
2 April: Birmingham Gateway Project and
regeneration of New Street. Time: 17:30. Location:
The Mailbox, Birmingham. Contact:
mike.christelow@networkrail.co.uk
30 April: Devolution and the impact on cross-route
train operations. Time: 17:30. Location: Derby
EMCC. Contact:
mike.christelow@networkrail.co.uk
For information on Midlands Area events,
contact Julia Stanyard on: 0121 345 3833 or
email: midlands@railwayoperators.org.
South West Area
10 March: Operations Experience Day. Time:
09:30-17:00. Location: Avon Valley Railway – £45
per person. Numbers are limited. Contact:
chris.prior@firstgroup.com
For information on South West Area events
contact Chris Prior at
chris.prior@firstgroup.com
South East Area
10 March: Professional Operating Skills Day. Time:
09:30. Location: London St Pancras. Contact:
Gary Mewis se.visits@railwayoperators.org
19 March: Network Rail devolution: Time: 17:30
for 18:00. Location: LUL HQ, 55 Broadway.
Contact: Glen Merryman:
se.events@railwayoperators.org
South East events take place at London
Underground’s HQ, 55 Broadway, St James
Park, SW1. For further information on the IRO
South dates East to Area, follow contact Jonathan Leithead by
email at se.comms@railwayoperators.org
Young Operators
8 May: Young Operators Seminar. Refreshments
from 17:30. Drinks reception 19:00-20:00.
Location: Lansdowne Club, 9 Fitzmaurice
Place, Mayfair, London W1J 5JD. Contact:
youngoperators@railwayoperators.org
To register your interest in IRO Young
Operators events, contact:
youngoperators@railwayoperators.org
More details of area events are listed on the
website at
www.railwayoperators.org/Events.aspx
“The benefit is not only getting to
see something that is relevant to the
railway industry, but just as much about
who you find yourself on visits with.
I’d recommend anyone to just try an
IRO event, you can benefit and enjoy
yourself at the same time.”
Kylee Brown
Area Delivery Assistant
N.R. Scotland
3
South East Area:
The Golden
Whistle Awards.
A joint event
between the
IRO and Modern
Railways
magazine’s Fourth
Friday Club.
January 2012.
4
4
1
North West &
North Wales Area:
Keynote Address.
Electrification of
the North West.
February
2012.
5
5
2
3
Awards: Jacques Goodall,
IRO Tutor, receives RailStaff’s
Lifetime Achievement Award.
MARCH 2012 PAGE 33

Abellio names Greater
Anglia managers
nThe new Greater Anglia
management team has been
announced by Abellio. The team is:
n Ruud Haket – managing
director;
n Andrew Goodrum – customer
services director;
n Adam Golton – finance
director;
n Thijs Jan Noomen – projects
director;
n John Ratcliffe – engineering
director;
n Nanouke van ’t Riet –
operations director;
n Andrew Camp – commercial
director;
n Simone Bailey – asset
management director; and
n Dave Welham, interim HR
director.
Haket, 47, said: ‘We are all
committed to delivering the
proposals made within the bid and
listening to the requirements of
our customers, stakeholders and
employees, many of whom I have
met during recent roadshows across
the region.’
Left to right: Matthew Jones, Paul
Woolley and Edward Robinson
Ruud Haket
Stagecoach names new
management teams
Senior management teams at
transport group Stagecoach
have been confirmed, following
new South West Trains’ (SWT)
managing director Tim Shoveller
taking up his post, and David
Horne taking over as managing
director of East Midlands Trains
(EMT).
SWT’s new operations director
will be Mark Steward, 49, formerly
safety and operations director
for EMT. With 28 years’ railway
experience he replaces Ian
Johnston, while Kelly Barlow,
34, moves from the Stagecoach
business development team to
become SWT HR director, replacing
Andrew Welsby, who is leaving the
rail industry.
Steward and Barlow join
SWT directors Christian Roth
(engineering), Andy West (finance),
Jake Kelly (customer services)
and Brian Cook (safety and
environment).
Haket became bid director at
Abellio in 2009 following his tenure
as engineering director from the
start of the Northern Rail franchise
in 2004.
His rail career started within
NedTrain, the maintenance arm of
Netherlands Railways (NS), in 1996.
Andrew Chivers, managing
director of the former National
Express East Anglia franchise, has
remained with National Express.
At EMT, Ian Smith, 43, is
the newly appointed safety and
operations director. He previously
held senior roles within Wessex
Trains, South West Trains, First
Great Western and Atoc, most
recently on rolling out the new
GSMR system at Atoc, and giving
short-term cover as EMT customer
service director.
Meanwhile. Tim Gledhill, 45,
has been promoted from financial
controller to finance director at
EMT, replacing Richard Bodicoat,
now part of the Stagecoach
business development team.
Clare McCartney, 31, has been
promoted to HR director, replacing
Margaret Kay who takes over as
MD at Stagecoach Supertram. Tim
Sayer continues as engineering
director, and a customer service
director is yet to be appointed
David Horne said that he
looked forward to a year of ‘great
challenges and opportunities’.
Keith Greenfield joins
Heathrow Express
Heathrow Express has appointed
Keith Greenfield as its new
managing director. He was
previously airline business
development director for BAA,
Heathrow Express’s owner, following
a nine-year stint as head of Orange
UK’s Wholesale Business division.
He says: ‘I have always admired
the attention to detail, customer
care, service and reliability that I have
experienced at Heathrow Express
as a customer.’
Outgoing MD Richard Robinson
has joined the consultancy Aecom
as managing director of its
transportation business in Europe.
PB appoints Bridges to
head up signalling
nEngineering consultancy
Parsons Brinckerhoff has
appointed Ian Bridges as its new
head of signalling in the UK.
A chartered engineer, with a
nScottish-based contact centre
operator, Journeycall, has
appointed Angela Birchall as
support services manager, based at
its Laurencekirk headquarters.
Trisha Pirie, Journeycall
masters in rail systems engineering,
Bridges was previously engineering
director for Signalling Solutions, a
joint venture between Alstom and
Balfour Beatty.
Birchall joins management
Peter Garnett receives
a cake from C2C MD
Julian Drury
managing director, said: ‘I’m
particularly pleased to promote
Angela to this key role, as she
has risen quickly through the
Journeycall company ranks since
joining us in 2009.’
Peter Garnett, a member of staff for C2C at Benfleet station, is retiring after
50 years of working in the rail industry. He joined the railway at the beginning
of February 1962 as a junior porter or ‘box boy’ at Southend Central station.
He progressed to working as a ticket collector and train guard, before moving
to a customer services role at Benfleet station.
Page 34 MARCH 2012

People
Richard Parry to work with
First’s rail bid team
■FirstGroup has appointed
Richard Parry to its rail bid
team. He joins the transport group
from Transport for London, where
he worked for 19 years in a variety
of roles, most recently deputy
managing director of TfL’s London
Underground and Rail divisions.
Vernon Barker, FirstGroup’s
managing director of UK Rail, said:
‘I am delighted to have attracted
someone of Richard’s talent and
calibre to the group. The wealth of
experience that he brings will be
invaluable as we seek to build on
our market leadership position in
rail and progress the opportunities
created by the DfT.’
Interfleet expands infrastructure unit
■Interfleet Technology’s
Infrastructure Services division
has appointed Phil Edwards as a
principal consultant and Iain Court
as head of business development for
infrastructure.
Edwards joins the consultancy
from Halcrow where he was head of
track systems, working on projects
such as the Channel Tunnel Rail
Link. Court was previously director
of heavy rail at the consultancy
Aecom.
Phil Edwards
Iain Court
People round-up
Lee takes seven-year
Pitt stop
Sales engineer Lee Pitts has
rejoined Sheffield-based handling
equipment specialist Mechan
after a seven-year break. He had
been working as technical sales
manager at DMR Seals.
Alpha Trains gets new
development director
Jörg Wiedenlübbert has
joined Alpha Trains Group as
development director. Alpha
CEO Shaun Mills described
Wiedenlübbert as ‘one of the
most experienced managers in
the rolling stock management and
leasing sector.’
iNet expands team
The Transport innovation network
(iNet) has named three new
team members. Kate Clement
joins the organisation as a
research analyst, Jane Pearce is
innovation support administrator
and Catherine Allford is an
innovation advisor.
Remember
the RBF
C2C’s Trevor Capps retires after 48 years in the rail industry. Having joined
the railway in 1963 to work at Southend East station he ended his career
working at Fenchurch Street station, after a variety of roles on station
platforms and in ticket offices, as well as a stint as a shunter.
Shooter joins Wabtec
■Former Chiltern chairman
Adrian Shooter, 63, has been
appointed non-executive director
of rolling stock refurbishment
specialists Wabtec Rail Group,
where he will advise on future
growth strategy and new product
development.
Shooter is a Fellow of the
Royal Academy of Engineering,
the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers and of the Chartered
Institute of Transport. He has just
retired as chairman of DB Regio
UK and Chiltern Railways, having
started out as a BR engineering
trainee.
Phil does because they
helped pay his debts while
on long term sick leave
”
Join, donate or buy rail tickets at
www.railwaybenefitfund.org.uk - Tel. 01270 251316
MARCH 2012 PAGE 35

Recruitment
Recruitment online
Visit www.railpro.co.uk/recruitment for all our latest job vacancies
Don’t miss out! The rail industry’s top jobs will continue to appear in Rail Professional magazine,
but please keep an eye out for regular job updates on the website throughout the month
Company: Bombardier Transportation Position: Plant/Operations Manager
Location: Ilford Seven Kings Depot Salary: £competitive
You will be responsible for a Technical Service Agreement for a fleet of 30 Class 379 Stansted Express Electrostar trains.
Responsibilities include: Leading/directing the site team(s); Ensuring the right people are on the right job at the right time; succession planning/people
development; skills and capability gap analysis/action planning; compliance with statutory and corporate requirements for QHSE; action planning
based on defined KPIs/performance measures; application of lean principles in process Improvements.
Visit www.railpro.co.uk/recruitment for further details. Closing date for applications: n/a
Company: Colas Rail Position: Customer Services Project Manager
Location: Wimbledon Salary: £Excellent package
This is an opportunity to manage clients, drive contracts and build relationships. Committed to continuous improvement, you will implement robust
cost controls, develop sound risk management processes and embed a clear commercial focus across the whole project team.
You must have a recognised quantity surveying qualification, or relevant experience; knowledge of contract procedures and administration; strong
negotiation and influencing skills; a proven track record in leadership and commercial project management; an understanding of all rail disciplines
and interface management
Visit www.railpro.co.uk/recruitment for further details. Closing date for applications: n/a
Company: LOROL Position: Station Delivery Manager
Location: London Salary: c£35,000
The Station Delivery Manager will provide motivation and guidance to employees and reinforce high standards with regard to performance,
customer service and safety. We are, therefore, looking for applicants with proven skills in leading, managing, motivating and developing
employees both on an individual basis and within a team. Applicants will need to demonstrate proven experience of working to performance
targets, managing contractors and achieving set objectives within set timescales.
Visit www.railpro.co.uk/recruitment for further details. Closing date for applications: n/a
Company: East Coast Position: Area Retail Managers
Location: London King’s Cross and Edinburgh Waverley Salary: c£35,000
Our Area Retail Managers will lead and develop the travel centre teams, embedding a sales and service culture through personal commitment, drive
and delivery of targets. Ideal candidates, preferably with a travel centre background, will need to demonstrate a high standard of education, strong
communications skills, experience in a retail/customer service environment, knowledge of sales channels and the ability to develop relationships with
internal and external customers.
Visit www.railpro.co.uk/recruitment for further details. Closing date for applications: 29 February 2012
Company: Office of Rail Regulation Position: Head of Regulatory Economics
Location: London (Holborn) or Glasgow Salary: Up to £76,407
As part of the Economics & Finance Team within the Railway Markets & Economics Directorate, you will develop and deliver a regulatory framework
to respond to new and future changes in the rail industry. Working with a range of regulators and EU bodies, as well as experts in the fields of
competition, regulation and transport economics, you will shape policy and provide economic advice in areas that could range from costs and charges
to competition, incentives and benchmarking.
Visit www.railpro.co.uk/recruitment for further details. Closing date for applications: 2 March 2012
The essential website for railway managers: www.railpro.co.uk/recruitment

First Capital Connect this one.indd 1 23/2/12 13:33:14
Recruitment
Rail Professional’s
website is updated daily
Visit www.railpro.co.uk for
n Archived back issues
n News updates throughout the month n Jobs
Join the Passenger Operator of the Year * as
Driver Depot Manager
to lead and motivate our driver managers
£54,600 + benefits Based London area
With your rail operations experience, including a thorough understanding
of rules, standards and instructions; your people management skills; and
your expertise in the smooth implementation of change, you will relish
making a tangible difference to our highly successful services.
Dedicated to instigating improvements and a visionary leader, you will
have extensive experience of taking your team with you through change.
This key role starts with implementing safety and performance standards.
You will also be responsible for practical assessments and will have
control over safety of the line incidents. The local expert on drivers’
standards and performance, you will deliver the resource plan and
long-term strategy for your Depot.
You will benefit from both on-the-job and other training, keeping you
up-to-speed and giving you opportunities to develop your career. Other
benefits include free travel, of course, and a final-salary pension.
For a confidential discussion, please call Christian Neill, Head of Drivers,
on 07764 976082.
Please apply online and tell us why you feel you are right
for this job. Go to the ‘About us’ section at
www.southwesttrains.co.uk
Alternatively, email your CV and covering
letter telling us why you feel you are suitable
to recruitment@swtrains.co.uk
Closing date is
Wednesday 14th March 2012
*National Rail Awards 2011
Committed to valuing diversity.
Head of Drivers
Salary - £ Competitive
Location - Hertford House (London)
First Capital Connect carries over 150,000 people into and across the capital each day and employ over 2100 staff across over 100
locations. We are part of FirstGroup Plc, which is the UK’s largest transport organisation.
Are you a hard working, motivated, experienced operator looking for a challenging but hugely rewarding career change
If so, as Head of Drivers, we offer the right candidate the opportunity to lead and support our team of 650 drivers and driver
management teams on the Great Northern and Thameslink routes.
The role encompasses ensuring sufficiently trained and motivated drivers are provided to safely operate our network on a daily basis.
As the successful candidate you will have good interpersonal skills and the ability to develop and maintain working relationships
with external and internal bodies. You will be dealing with industrial relations at all levels and be accountable for delivery of all driver
related KPI’s. You will work closely with the Driver Manager team to ensure the safety critical competencies and safety briefings
of Drivers and trainees are managed in the most cost effective and timely way. You will be responsible for implementing plans to
ensure that strategy is delivered, including budgets and manpower planning.
If you are interested in this exciting opportunity and feel you possess the skills and knowledge required for this position, please follow
the links to apply online.
The successful candidate will enjoy a competitive salary and comprehensive ongoing training; your benefits will include subsidise
travel on our network and on other TOCs (train operating companies, privilege rate Oyster card, final salary pension and much more.
To apply for this role please visit our corporate website www.firstgroupcareers.com

Recruitment
Can I deliver tomorrow’s
rail network today
Dare to ask: Apply now.
Siemens Rail Systems is a world-renowned producer of rail technology. In June
2011, Siemens was appointed as preferred bidder for the Thameslink Rolling Stock
Project (TRSP), a key element in the £6 billion government funded upgrade to
the Thameslink passenger rail network. The TRSP covers the delivery, long term
maintenance and financing of 1,140 second generation Desiro City rail vehicles,
and the construction and financing of two multi-million pound maintenance depots,
one in North London, the other in West Sussex.
Senior Project Managers – Thameslink Rolling Stock Project
Hornsey, North London (Job no: 99749) and Three Bridges, West Sussex (Job no: 99748) | Competitive salary and benefits + bonus
What are my responsibilities
In these two high profile roles you will manage the design and build of one of the new maintenance depots (either Hornsey or Three Bridges)
which are critical to the Thameslink Programme. Expertly managing the main construction contractor, several specialist equipment
suppliers as well as key stakeholders, you will focus on the on-time, on-budget delivery of the design and build programme. In particular
you will ensure that the depots that are constructed will fully support the long term maintenance regime for the new trains.
What do I need to qualify for this job
It‘s important that you have a degree in engineering or a construction-related subject, plus considerable practical project management
experience. Ideally you have spent time delivering rail interfaces on construction projects but more important is your proven experience of
multi-disciplinary construction project management. Credible and influential, with first-class negotiation skills, you can call on exceptional
stakeholder management skills.
How do I apply
To apply, visit www.siemens.co.uk/careers click ‘search‘ on the drop down menu box and then enter the relevant job number into the
requisition field. Please note: Siemens is currently preferred bidder for the Thameslink Rolling Stock Project and is in contract negotiations
with the Department for Transport. This role is subject to full contract award which is anticipated in Spring 2012.
Find out how you can make a career at Siemens. Dare to ask.
siemens.co.uk/careers

ARE YOU ON TRACK
FOR A SUCCESSFUL
CAREER
Join 18,000 other like-minded professionals and become a member of The Chartered Institute of Logistics
and Transport (CILT)
CILT is the pre-eminent independent professional body for transport and logistics professionals. Members
benefit from an extensive range of benefits and unbeatable services designed to support them, personally
and professionally, throughout their careers.
CILT has growing networks of rail industry members. They are drawn from Network Rail, regulatory bodies,
train operating companies, ‘infracos’ and railway supply companies and, together make up the Institute’s
Strategic Rail Forum.
The benefits of Institute membership are Career and Professional Development, training and qualifications,
career mentoring, participation in events, networking opportunities and Awards, dinners and lectures and
seminars on a wide range of rail topics.
CILT also hosts the Annual Rail Lecture in memory of the late Sir Robert Reid. Previous speakers have
included Professor Andrew McNaughton and Richard Brown and this year’s speaker will be Louise Ellman,
Chair of the Transport Select Committee. 2012 CILT (UK) Annual Rail Lecture will take place on Wednesday
28th March at Hallam Conference Centre, London starting at 18:00 – 18:30hrs
Membership also provides free access to Europe’s largest transport library and members receive the Institute’s
high-quality monthly ‘Focus’ magazine and a weekly “Current Awareness Bulletin” full of latest transport
sector news, Institute events and a Jobs board.
The CILT has a range of membership levels and railway professionals can join the Institute irrespective of
their role or rank in the industry.
For further information, please contact CILT Membership Services:
Tel: 01536 740104
Email: membership@ciltuk.org.uk
Or visit: http://www.ciltuk.org.uk/pages/rail

Experience Hitachi Rail
working for you
The AT100 is the latest evolution of the class-leading
Global A-Train family.
Designed to minimise whole life costs, the AT100
design builds on the success and elegant simplicity of
the highly-reliable Class 395, and is proven in some of
the most demanding commuter markets of the world.
An extensive range of interior design options are
available to match your operational requirements,
backed by a world class supplier base.
AT100 will be built to the highest quality levels at
Hitachi’s planned manufacturing centre in County
Durham, delivering exceptional performance from the
first day, and everyday.
Find out more about Hitachi Rail’s new AT100 commuter train at:
www.hitachirail-eu.com

Rail Business
Awards Review
Celebrating business excellence
throughout the rail industry
London Hilton
Park Lane, London – 16 February 2012

Introduction
Judges
Steve Agg – chairman of the judges
Chief Executive, CILT UK
Rachel Bennett
HR consultant, Keolis
Ed Robinson
Sales manager, Electro Motive Diesel
Sarah de Brion
Train4change
Ed Wells
Head of assurance, Tube Lines
Anthony Smith
Chief executive, Passenger Focus
Roy Campbell
Marketing segment manager, IBM
Paul Brasington
Freelance writer
Alan Marshalll
Editorial director, Railnews
Chris Wilson
Rail freight policy advisor,
Department of Transport
Mark Hughes
Regional manager, Interfleet Technology
Tony King
Director, Jacobs
Edward Funnell
Communications consultant
Sanjay Mistry
PR consultant, PR Ltd
Alan Whitehouse
Transport correspondent, BBC
David Hatcher
Managing director, Promise Development
Peter Plisner
BBC transport correspondent and
Rail Professional contributor
Paul Clifton
BBC transport correspondent and
Rail Professional contributor
Dinner raises £7,000
for charity
Dominic Booth
Dominic Booth gave a speech on the
RBA’s chosen charity, the Railway Benefit
Fund, before playing a short film that
showcased the charity’s good work with
two of the rail industry employees it has
helped in recent years. Booth, managing
director of Abellio UK, is chairman of
the charity.
The Railway Benefit Fund is the
railway’s own charity – it is an independent
organisation set up in 1858 to look after
those working, and those who have
worked, in the rail industry, along with
their dependents. The RBF provides wideranging
financial assistance, practical help
and advice to thousands of people to enable
them to cope with problems of all kinds.
Assistance includes helping disabled
people with the cost of powered vehicles
and providing them with mobility aids;
helping with the cost of a convalescent
or respite break following an operation
or period of illness; child care grants to
help with the cost of higher education,
equipment, school clothing and the like;
and covering shortfalls in funeral expenses.
Every year, the RBF gives around
£500,000 in assistance. But it is a charity
where even small amounts of money can
make an enormous difference to the lives
of people for whom events have taken a
difficult turn.
Envelopes were collected from the
tables at the Rail Business Awards dinner,
raising £6,937.28 for the charity, which will
increase further with the addition of
Gift Aid.
Train operator, station and business manager
awards go to TransPennine Express
First TransPennine Express (FTPE) was
named the Train Operator of the Year
at the Rail Business Awards, in the face
of stiff competition, with what judges
described as an ‘impressive’ entry.
The Toc, which began its franchise term
in 2004, has improved punctuality and
reliability, with more than 93 per cent of
services running on time over the last year. It
has been given a franchise extension to 2015.
Managing director Nick Donovan said:
‘We are all really delighted to be named the
best train operator in the country.’
He continued: ‘I want to thank our 1,000-
strong team for their continued dedication
to delivering great service every day. We
are continuing to work to respond to
increasing customer expectations, especially
in planning for additional capacity that we
hope to deliver across our network as part of
the wider industry strategy in the north.’
FTPE also collected two other awards,
with Warrington Central being named
Station of the Year and head of on-board
services Steve Lee being awarded Rail
Business Manager of the Year.
Lee, 36, has led his 300-strong team of
conductors to improved performance and
levels of satisfaction.
He said: ‘I am absolutely thrilled to have
been chosen as the Rail Business Manager of
the Year. It is a great honour.
‘I try to focus on two things – my staff
and the impact they are having on FTPE’s
customers.’
Page two

Rail Business Awards 2011 Review
Grainge Photography
Chris Burchell
Burchell ‘thrilled for staff’
at three award wins
Southern wins three awards, including the overall
Rail Business of the Year prize, and two Highly
Commended certificates
Southern came out on top at the 2011
Rail Business Awards, taking home three
awards – Environmental Innovation;
Safety and Security Excellence; and the
winner of winner’s prize of Rail Business
of the Year.
The judges were impressed by ‘several
standout candidates’ in the race to be
named Interfleet Rail Business of 2011.
Southern, though, was commended
for being a winner, finalist or highly
commended in five categories, and was
duly awarded Rail Business of the Year
2011.
Collecting the award on stage, Chris
Burchell was ribbed by BBC presenter and
Rail Professional columnist Paul Clifton for
the fact that the award-winning franchise
is going to be swallowed up by a new
Thameslink franchise when the current
franchise agreement ends in 2015.
‘We’re not disappearing for a little
while yet,’ retorted Burchell. ‘We’ve got a
franchise contract that runs until 2015, so
we’ve got a lot to do – a big agenda. We’ll
focus on that.’
He also confirmed, unsurprisingly, that
Govia will be interested in bidding for the
Thamelink franchise, which will consist
of the current First Capital Connect
franchise, coupled with Southern and parts
of Southeastern.
But he couldn’t hide his delight at
winning the evening’s top award.
‘I’m genuinely thrilled. Actually there
are thousands of fantastic people in the
railway industry – but for our 4,000 for
Southern and Gatwick Express, to get some
recognition for all the great work they do
day in, day out. I’m just thrilled for them.’
After the ceremony, he added: ‘We’ve come
so close so many times to winning the
overall title and now that we’ve won, we
won’t be complacent.’
Southern’s best ever reduction in waste
and emissions was achieved in 2010-11 and
earned it the Environmental Innovation
award. These results were achieved thanks
to a series of innovative projects, including
the use of solar panels, smart metering,
intelligent lighting at stations, rainwater
harvesting, increased recycling and
regenerative braking.
The outcome was a reduction in gas
consumption of more than a third, and a
reduction in electricity consumption of 12
per cent. Southern’s team of environmental
champions was recognised for its work in
helping to achieve these results.
Judge David Hatcher says: ‘From its
Frontline Champions to the UK’s first
carbon neutral station, Southern has
a well-managed and visible strategy
achieving measurable results including
regenerative braking. It demonstrates
a very well articulated strategy, strong
on evidence with actual results, not just
trials.’
It was the work of Southern’s Safer
Travel Team that caught the judges’ eye in
the Safety and Security category. The team,
comprising rail neighbourhood officers
and British Transport Police officers, was
cited for its work in reducing crime and
improving safety on the Southern network.
The stand-out feature in this entry
was the use of Southern’s low-level
crime fighting tool, Eyewitness. This is
an industry-first scheme where staff and
passengers using a smartphone can report
incidences of low-level crimes, as they
happen, to the Safer Travel Team, enabling
it to respond quickly and effectively.
The results speak for themselves, with
detection of antisocial behaviour raised
37 per cent and detection of staff assaults
increasing more than 17 per cent.
Southern was also highly commended
for its Making Every Journey Better staff
engagement campaign in the Internal
Communications category, and in the
Rolling Stock entries for the refresh of its
Class 313 trains.
‘the stand-out feature
in this entry was the
use of southern’s lowlevel
crime fighting
tool, eyewitness’
Page three

Finalists and winners
Roll call 2011’s
finalists and winners
IRO Young
Professional
Finalists:
Peter Kalton, Lorol, for his dedication and
professionalism, which has made a huge
contribution to Lorol’s transformation into the
railway it is today
Matthew Lee, First Great Western, for
introducing a raft of inspiring improvements for
both colleagues and customers in his role of
station manager of Oxford
Gavin Tidey, Osborn, for his detailed technical
knowledge, demonstrating engineering
awareness beyond his years
Neil Drury, First Great Western, for his selfreliance,
competence and people skills, which
he uses to encourage others to consider
engineering as a career
Iain Ferguson, ORR, for delivering a stepchange
in the way in which Britain’s railways
are regulated
Chris Barrow, Victa Railfreight, for playing a
key role in spearheading the drive to improve
customer service
Winner:
Matthew Lee
Highly commended:
Peter Kalton, Gavin Tidey
Young Professional:
Matthew Lee,
left, with awards
compère
Jon Bentley
Electro Motive Rail
freight Engineer of the
Future
Finalists:
Gareth Houghton, Colas Rail, for his
exceptionally high performance levels that
have made an invaluable contribution to the
effectiveness of the business
Derek Clarke, DB Schenker, for his
methodical approach, practical design skills
and innovative ideas
Winner:
Derek Clarke
Supplier Excellence
Finalists:
Siemens for winning several high-profile
rolling stock contracts during the year,
including orders for the Desiro City for
Thameslink and the Valaro for Eurostar
Rail Gourmet for its project management
of the improvements to the East Coast
menu
RS Clare for its range of technologically
advanced biodegradable lubricants
Winner:
Siemens
Railfreight Engineer of the Future
Supplier Excellence
Highly commended:
Rail Gourmet
Railnews Internal
Communications
Excellence
Finalists:
Translink Northern Ireland Railways for its
campaign to encourage employees to become
more energy efficient
Southern Railway for a company-wide
strategy to improve employee engagement
DB Schenker for a campaign to improve
safety performance, promoting the idea of
being ‘switched on’ when performing safetycritical
tasks
CrossCountry for improving communication
with employees, following a consultation
with its staff
Winner:
Translink Northern Ireland Railways
Highly commended:
Southern Railway, DB Schenker
PR Campaign of the Year
Finalists:
Translink Northern Ireland Railways for
the publicity surrounding the introduction of
its new Class 4000 trains, which engaged
directly with key stakeholders, highlighting the
trains’ contribution to the social, economic and
sustainable development of Northern Ireland
Page four

Rail Business Awards 2011 Review
East Coast for its campaign to generate
excitement at the launch of the new timetable
Northern Rail for a creative campaign to
promote the Northern Scholar’s Season
Ticket for students
PR Campaign of the Year
Winner:
Translink Northern Ireland Railways
Highly commended:
East Coast
Rail Professional
Marketing Campaign of
the Year
Finalists:
London Midland for achieving a return on
investment of 14:1 with the promotion of
its Birmingham to London service, utilising
everything from station posters to social media
ScotRail for its campaign A Better Way to
Go, which gave it a consistent advertising
presence throughout the year
First Capital Connect for its Brighton
Mainline campaign to increase sales of
dedicated services from Brighton to London
First Capital Connect for its More Seats
for You initiative, which 99 per cent of its
commuters were aware of
London Underground for its Transforming
the Tube campaign to mitigate customer
dissatisfaction during engineering work
Southern Railway for its Southern
Adventure campaign, promoting leisure
travel over the summer
Joint winners:
London Midland and ScotRail
Highly commended:
First Capital Connect (for both its entries)
Internal Communications Excellence
North Star Customer
Information and Service
Excellence
Finalists:
First Great Western for its communication
campaign to raise awareness of the ongoing
work around Reading
Lorol for the technology and staff it devotes to
disseminating information to customers
London Midland for transforming its image,
following an all-time low in passenger
satisfaction scores
Chiltern Railways for using Twitter to invite
customers to talk directly to managers
Chiltern Railways for its communications with
passengers about the engineering work to
increase line speed
First Capital Connect for transforming
its customer information provision in a
programme that included giving BlackBerrys to
250 frontline staff
Winner:
First Great Western
Highly commended:
Lorol, London Midland
Information Technology Excellence
Marketing Campaign of the Year
Customer Information and Service Excellence
Information Technology
Excellence
Finalists:
Chiltern Railways for its mTicketing solution
– an app enabling commuters to check
timetables and live train information and even
buy information from their phones
CrossCountry for its mobile phone app, Train
Tickets, which sells tickets and gives real-time
travel updates
ABP for its website to promote Hams Hall rail
freight terminal, which promotes transparency
with customers by providing KPI scores in real
time
Winner:
Chiltern Railways
Highly commended:
CrossCountry
Station Excellence
Finalists:
First TransPennine Express for Warrington
Central station
TfL and London Underground for four new
stations on the East London Line
Northern Rail & Lancashire County Council
for Accrington, the UK’s first sustainable
station
Page five

Finalists and winners
Osborne for Clapham Junction station
National Express East Anglia for Harlow
Town station
Winner:
First TransPennine Express
Highly commended:
Northern Rail & Lancashire County Council
TfL London Underground
Osborne
Integrated Transport
Excellence
Finalists:
East Coast for its work with local authorities,
travel partners, customers and cycle groups
to consider how access to stations can be
improved
First Capital Connect for its replacement
of the Elstree and Borehamwood forecourt,
which was redesigned as a new gateway to
the station
C2C for its travel plans and cycle facilities
National Rail Enquiries and Fabrik Design
& Communications for their onward travel
posters at stations
National Express East Anglia for its station
travel plans at Colchester and North Walsham
Winner:
East Coast
Station Excellence
Highly commended:
First Capital Connect
C2C
Rolling Stock
Excellence
Finalists:
National Express East Anglia for the
introduction of 30 new Class 379 Electrostars
on the Stansted Express and West Anglia
routes
Siemens and London Midland for
improvements to the Class 350 Desiros
Tube Lines for the high reliability of the
Piccadilly Line fleet
Southern Railway for the successful
introduction of 33-year-old Class 313s onto
its network
Winner:
National Express East Anglia
Highly commended:
Tube Lines
Southern Railway
VTG Rail Freight
Excellence
Finalists:
DB Schenker for its use of HS1 for carrying
freight by rail directly through the Channel
Tunnel and on to London
Rolling Stock Excellence
GB Railfreight for business growth in
challenging times
Colas for creating a new market by hauling
timber from Carlisle to Chirk in North Wales
Winner:
DB Schenker
Highly commended:
GB Railfreight
Safety and Security
Excellence
Finalists:
Southern Railway for its Safer Travel Team
of rail neighbourhood officers and British
Transport Police officers
The Rail Safety and Standards Board for
its guidance to improve the way companies
collect and respond to safety intelligence
Vital Rail Security for reducing lineside theft,
using a combination of measures including
patrols
Vital Technology for its sophisticated systems
to deter cable theft
Gael and Southeastern for their Key Safety
Manager project, which clarifies safety roles
Nexus and Tyne and Wear Metro for its
interactive teaching pack produced for local
schools
ORR and Network Rail for RM3, the railway
management maturity model
Winner:
Southern Railway
Highly commended:
RSSB
Vital Rail Security
Vital Technology
Environmental
Innovation of the Year
Finalists:
Southern for its reduction of waste and
emissions, including the use of solar panels to
generate its own electricity
Integrated Transport Excellence
Rail Freight Excellence
Page six

Rail Business Awards 2011 Review
Safety and Security Excellence
Environmental Innovation
Rail Engineering Business Excellence
Alstom and Haz Environmental for driving
down the amount of waste at the Midlands
Traincare Centre that ends up in landfill
sites
First Great Western and First Hull Trains for
a driver advisory system that advises HST
drivers about optimum driving speeds to
improve fuel usage
Arriva Trains Wales for its rainwater
harvesting system
Merseyrail for a new energy-efficient lighting
system
Winner:
Southern Railway
Highly commended:
Alstom & Haz Environmental
First Great Western & First Hull Trains
Lloyd’s Register Rail
Engineering Business
Excellence
Finalists:
Tata Steel for the King’s Cross
Redevelopment Programme, which involves
remodelling the whole station
Tube Lines for its drain remediation, which
has saved £500,000 in a year
Atkins, Carillion, TfL and Network Rail for
the North London Railway Infrastructure
Project
Rail Business
of the Year
ATA Rail Business Manager
Siemens, South West Trains and Network
Rail for new wheel technology to reduce
track damage
Universal Heat Transfer for a radiator
cooling system that is no longer vulnerable to
blockage by leaves and pollen
Winner:
Atkins, Carillion, TfL & Network Rail
Highly commended:
TATA Steel
Tube Lines
ATA Rail Business
Manager
Finalists:
Steve Lee, First TransPennine Express, for
revolutionising the day-to-day operations
of 300 colleagues to see train service
performance improve
Julie Garn, GB Railfrieght, for providing
clear leadership to oversee the continued
expansion of GBRf’s intermodal operations
Simon Ashworth, Northern Rail, for reducing
fare evasion
Neil Thompson, DB Schenker, for bringing
in a new contract by offering Tata Steel the
chance to move its scrap metal by rail
Winner:
Steve Lee
Train Operator of the Year
Highly commended:
Julie Garn
Simon Ashworth
SSP Train Operator of
the Year
Finalists:
First TransPennine Express for maintaining
momentum towards the end of its franchise
C2C for its high standards of service and
punctuality
Merseyrail for reaching the top of the table
for both punctuality and customer satisfaction
Lorol for its transformation into a world-class
railway
ScotRail for its high performance in the
National Passenger Survey in spring 2011
Winner:
First TransPennine Express
Highly commended:
C2C
Merseyrail
Interfleet Technology
Rail Business of the Year
Chosen from the winners of all the
other categories
Winner:
Southern Railway
Page seven

Winner spotlight
Rail Business Awards 2011 Preview
Two freight awards go to DB Schenker
DB Schenker Rail UK came out top in the
freight stakes at the 2011 Rail Business
Awards.
The company won the Rail Freight
Excellence Award, while one of its engineers,
Derek Clark, was named Rail Freight
Engineer of the Future.
DB Schenker’s efforts to utilise High
Speed One, the UK’s only rail route built
to accommodate European-sized wagons,
helped the company to win the Rail Freight
For the first time two companies won the
Marketing Campaign of the Year prize
– London Midland and ScotRail. And for
London Midland, it was the third year in a row
that the operator had won the award.
London Midland was recognised for its
high-impact launch campaign when off-peak
services between Birmingham to London
services trebled.
Judge Roy Campbell, marketing
programme manager of IBM, says: ‘London
Midland fulfilled all the criteria, including
demonstrating some capacity for self-review,
to put together a very strong entry.’
Head of marketing David Whitley reveals
that London Midland has stumbled on a
winning formula. ‘Our recipe for success
is really simple – making sure you have a
product worth shouting about, then shouting
about it all in the right places with messages
that customers can relate to. We’ve learnt
that you really have to think like a passenger
to get it right, so we’ve done a lot of listening
to customers, through traditional research
and things like Twitter.
‘We make sure we don’t have a very low
fare that nobody can get. So our campaign
Excellence award. The judges commented:
‘In introducing European-sized rail freight
services to the UK, DB Schenker has had
to overcome significant technical and
operational barriers. Their success in doing
so represents a landmark for UK rail freight
and a great opportunity.’
In order to get approval to use the line,
the company had to modify five of its
Class 92 locomotives, mainly to install incab
signalling capabilities. This cost DB
Schenker several million pounds.
Alain Thauvette, chief executive of DB
Schenker Rail UK, said: ‘Opening High
Speed One to rail freight and introducing
the first service on that corridor from
mainland Europe was a significant prize in
itself. Winning the Railfreight Excellence
award confirms that the approach we took
was the right one for our customers and the
rail freight industry.’
Derek Clark was recognised for his
delivery of pioneering locomotive fuel
this time around was Every 20 Minutes for
Less Than £20. Those £20 tickets were
available for at least 50 per cent of our trains
during the week and all weekend.’
Whitley praised his colleagues for their
hard work, too. ‘I’ve got a great team around
me, there’s no getting away from that. You
can’t win three times just by luck.’
ScotRail’s win was for its A Better Way
To Go campaign, which has helped achieve
record passenger numbers since its launch
in June 2011. Judges were impressed by
ScotRail’s use of radio, television, press and
online media to engage with people on the
benefits of rail travel.
Marketing manager Graeme Macfarlan
says: ‘It became clear that the train was the
way to travel in 2011. More of us are thinking
more about petrol costs and household
budgets are pretty tight.
‘We saw that as an opportunity to
showcase rail, but not in a traditional way by
taking the fares-based route – that’s a bit
old hat. We created a campaign that was
aligned to the various customer segments
and tried to show them real value, but in a
non-financial sense. So the Kids Go Free
saving initiatives. The judges liked his
professionalism towards researching
engineering practices outside the rail
industry to improve the fuel utilisation of
locomotives, helping to reduce costs and
protect the environment.
As part of his prize, Clark will also receive
a detailed training programme from award
sponsor Electro Motive, designed to develop
his career. This includes two weeks’ training
at its facility in La Grange, Chicago.
Thauvette continued: ‘I am delighted that
Derek Clark has been recognised for his
outstanding commitment to engineering
development and finding new solutions. For
his service to customers alone, he deserves
his title of Rail Freight Engineer of the
Future.’
DB Schenker was also Highly
Commended in the Internal
Communications Excellence category for its
employee safety improvement programme,
Switch on to Safety.
Judges pick two marketing winners
Kids Go Free
campaign poster
execution, which was a family-oriented piece,
was about being able to reward your kids and
treat them, so that’s an emotional value, not a
financial value. Another example would be for
a young woman who’s travelling – she’s got
the ability to sit and relax and to text before
she meets her friends.
‘Leisure, for us, is a massive market.’
Page eight