NETWORK RAIL

REPORT TO SHREWSBURY ABERYSTWYTH RAILWAY LIAISON COMMITTEE

Lee Green, Network Rail Manager, Wales Region.

October 2011

The story over recent months is clearly dominated by the commissioning of the ERTMS signalling system and the subsequent reliability issues. This is very much a mixed bag of positive and negative deliverables. It has to be acknowledged that the passengers on the Route have not received the levels of service reliability that they should be getting.

The details of this variability is as follows:

The system reliability has been extremely mixed. From an "on- train" fitment perspective the system has shown some really good and consistent levels of reliability. In many cases, this has surpassed our estimated failure rates.

The bulk of the system integrity, system interface issue have also been very robust.

The main element of performance and reliability failures are based on FTN reliability and software operation issues.

The FTN system is utilised to support the indication circuits for a total of 96 axle counters. These have proven to be highly reliable both for the 12 months before the commissioning, when they were in a ghost mode and. Following commissioning. This is with one major exception. A set of 5 axle counters at Welshpool which have suffered a series of repeat failures.

This failure first occurred on commissioning but then self cleared and remained static for 9 weeks before a series of catastrophic failures.

Although we had always picked up error codes on these particular assets, these did not materialise into a failure.

When the axle counter data deteriorated into a real problem the monitoring equipment at both Machynlleth and Stoke Tech were unable to identify the core reason for the failure.

The action followed was then to bring in support teams from the Telecomms department, Alcatel and Thalis. Even with this support it took a further 3 weeks of intensive destructive testing to find the fault.

The eventual problem was not fully isolated to a single problem and was a series of small but contributory faults on the FTN/data interface infrastructure.

Many lessons have been taken from this failure and National initiatives put in place.

For the last 4 weeks the system integrity and performance has been very good, with the consequence that performance for the route has risen significantly

The other key failures have been associated with Operational issues. In simple terms the system does not allow various activities, route settings, splitting of units etc. The current system data software controls are too restrictive causing the system to "lock out" based on an incorrect sequence.

The fix has been a series of conceptual software designs that control any risks with he movement authority but without the over controlled restrictions.

These changes take several months to develop and implement due to the nature of change and the detailed system testing that has to be done.

All upgrades will be completed before January 2012.

Other issues and planned works on the Cambrian include the following:.

Week 30 sees a significant blockade between Tywyn and Harlec.

The works taking place are:

Concrete sleeper relay at Sandilands.

Repairs to Barmouth Bridge.

Large scale re-railing and re-sleepering at Harlec cliff. This includes over 1000 sleepers and 296x60ft rails.

We are also carrying out a significant de-veg programme on days within the blockade and at night in additional possessions north of Harlec.

Two other bridge renewals due to be delivered at Dovey Junction and the Bog have been put back awaiting clearance reference to Environmental issues with the rivers.

From Week 42 onwards sees the most significant works on the Cambrian track asset.

10KM of steel sleeper relays are being delivered over a 10 week programme between Sutton Bridge and Welshpool.

This is a significant investment in the route and will provide an excellent and sustainable asset along this section. Where possible any speed increases are being designed into the track geometry.