Commissioning & Opening New Rail

Systems

Duncan Cross

Deputy Director: Operations, London Overground

A View Based on Personal Experience

• My experience– Freight railways in the UK

– Freight terminal development

– East London Line

– Crossrail

Overview

• Concepts

• Starting

• Who What When

• Integration

• Operators Trials

• Case Studies– East London Line

– Crossrail

Concepts• Write down in as much detail

how you expect the railway to

operate– For the East London Line there

was one 50 page document

– For Crossrail there are 15

volumes of operations concepts

• Preferably before

construction commences

• Helps in 2 areas:– Gives designers and builders

an operations specification

– Helps you plan in the early

stages of what to test and

commission

When to Start

• Plan early – Crossrail the Trail Operations planning started in 2014 and the

Commissioning planning started in 2013, before all the construction

contracts had been let, in preparation for a first phase opening in

December 2018

• Preferably as part of the construction planning process

• Should not be viewed as construction float to be given

away if the build phase doesn’t go to plan

• Its the only opportunity to test without customers and away

from the glare of publicity

Who

• Really depends on the stage of

the process– Engineering led for commissioning

stage

– Operations led for trials

• Early involvement of operators

and maintainers

• Don’t forget the paper railway –

assurance and evidence can

delay entry into service

• Think about the public message,

especially if railways are new

Systems Commissioning

• Systematic way of bringing all the railway systems together

and testing the integration

• Needs to be a logical sequence of bringing systems

together

• Required for assurance and probably contractual payment

• Don’t overlook the operators role at this stage, often need

drivers, controllers, signallers to assist with tests

• Consider the safety environment a different set of

operations rules may be required to allow tests to run,

whilst systems are being brought together

Operators Trials

• Important to include in opening

programme

• Only opportunity to test plans

before passenger operations

• Good method to hone

contingency plans and give staff

confidence in the new railway

• Final opportunity to test

everything works as it should

• Consider volume tests for reality

• Don’t forget maintenance,

important to test the hand over

and hand back between

operations & maintenance

What• Needs a detailed plan(s),

– Training on systems and handover

– Competence

– System familiarity – drivers, stations

staff, control centres

– Contingency tests

– Emergency exercises – train and

station evacuation

– Mileage accumulation and

experience especially where rail is

new

• Determine what success looks

like

• Test scripts to help focus each

trial

• How will assurance be delivered

to enter into service (collect the

evidence)

When to Open?• Public events

– Need to be programmed into

opening schedules

– More than just ribbon cutting,

opportunity to get potential

customers used to the concept

of railways

– Consider education where rail

is new

• Benefits of a ‘soft’ opening

allows passengers to get use

to the new railway in smaller

more manageable portions

• Grand Openings require

precision and absolute

certainty every thing will work

Contingency

• Plans need flexibility and a realisation sometimes the

railway isn’t as complete as you like– Ask what could go wrong and what contingency is in place,

– Workshop during the planning phase,

– Maintain flexibility

• Delays don’t mean you cant start meaningful trials

• Needs a change mechanism and a pragmatic approach,

• Keep one eye on the assurance regimes

• Plans should be seen as a prudent measure rather than an

admission of failure – railways are complex systems and

often don't commission in the neat way we planned

ELL Trial Operations

• Originally planned as 8 weeks

because of delays in

construction reduced to 4

weeks

• 30 Separate Trials and Tests

– Covering faults and failures

– Degraded operation

– Alarm tests

• Set piece train evacuation

with emergency Services

• Operator familiarisation

• All took place whilst the

railway was being finished

Section of East London Line Programme

Crossrail

• By comparison current programme

shows 3 months of Trial Operations

– Large scale emergency evacuations

– Already identified over 50 tests and

trials of the system

– Interface arrangements are included

– Driver familiarisation 300 drivers to

train

– Station staff training at 9 new stations

• Also included is a contractual period of

approvals

• Significant number of opening events

to be planned into the Trial period

Conclusions

• Start to plan early, no firm

rule but the large the project

the earlier the start

• Make the plans flexible and

able to easy change without

loosing benefits

• Involve the operators and

maintainers at an early stage

• Don’t let this important phase

become construction float,

ring fence within the overall

programme