This has helped been made possible after the complex specification for the electrification project was authorised by ORR.
Passengers aren’t the only ones who will see benefits, with freight services now able to operate longer and more frequent trains, reducing congestion and delays on the roads.
Granting authorisation
To help grant authorisation, ORR formed part of a cross-industry team alongside the train operator, Network Rail, Serco (as testing house) and Siemens (as train maintainer). This allowed us to engage at every stage of the project, provide interventions, share good practice and work together when problems arose to develop solutions.
The project’s success meant we were able to grant a ‘clean’ authorisation without conditions – in simple terms this meant all standards had been met with no outstanding issues.
Testing and bumps in the road
That’s not to say there were not bumps in the road. Not least COVID-19.
The focus always remained on doing the right thing and delivering quality outputs, but to deal with issues out of their control, good contingency and scenario planning was needed.
A good example of this was the use of folding signals that allow maintenance to be carried out at ground level, eliminating risks from working at height, and keeping the maintainer (Siemens) in a place of safety.
Another was the commissioning and testing that needed to be repeated. This was a significant challenge requiring the appropriate rolling stock, fitting test instrumentation, securing train paths and carrying out test runs.
An instrumented, 12-car Class 360 train acted as the test train which ran on 8 and 9 March and assurance reports were provided by the end of March 2021, which allowed us to agree to trains running at a max speed of 125mph.
This project is a prime example of how cross industry collaboration can deliver success on time and on budget, something we should all continue to strive for and make the norm across industry.