Q: Please could you briefly explain your role, involvement, and experience with regards to the seminar topic?
Linda Wain (LW): I am the Engineering Director at LNER responsible for the delivery of safe, reliable, clean rolling stock to carry our passengers comfortably on their journeys every day. With over 30 years’ experience in the industry I have been responsible for optimisation tasks ranging from life extension of slam door stock to review of whole life costing of new trains.
Helen Cooper (HC): I am an Asset Strategy Manager (ASM) for Transport for London and for over three years I was the ASM for London Underground Passenger Rolling Stock. This role involves understanding the assets, such as their condition, health concerns, faults, level of compliance to standards, remaining life, risk profiles etc. and putting this together with the demands on the asset, to build a strategy.
Understanding the value your assets bring to your business and the desirable outcomes that you want to achieve are key to making decisions on how to mitigate risks, justify investment and choosing when to implement interventions to get the best whole life cost.
Sunday Akie (SA): In my current position as a Senior Engineer in the Network Rail Technical Authority function, I play a critical role in various aspects related to rail systems and rail vehicle maintenance.
I provide technical leadership and collaborate with stakeholders to develop and implement rail system solutions to ensure statutory compliances of depot plant assets and their safe operation. This involves technical specifications, safety certification review, and interdisciplinary meetings for railway maintenance depot projects.
I lead engineering verification and technical audits of third-party facilities contracted to Network Rail to assure quality and compliance with industry standards and safety regulations. I facilitate asset technical review panels for technical evaluations, risk assessments, and identify requirements across systems.
My work in standards development and depot plant competency-based training initiatives has a positive impact on reducing operational costs and improving the overall efficiency of rolling stock management.
My experience in the rail industry demonstrates my expertise and active involvement in areas related to rolling stock and rail system optimisation.
Q: What, in your experience, has been the biggest roadblock for utilising new technologies and innovations in your sector?
LW: Fear! Many people fear the unknown and interface of new technology with old rolling stock can pose significant difficulty and risk. Parts of the railway are still entrenched in “British Rail”, thinking the old ways are the best and change is not required or trusted.
HC: Being able to build a business case that can convince executives that the risk of investment is worth the leap of faith. Technologies that have been in use for longer periods and been proved tend to be more attractive to those authorising the spend, but these can have their own issues e.g., having been developed for a different operating environment or more likely to suffer earlier obsolescence issues.
In cash constrained times, pay-back period targets can be so short that they limit many projects that would otherwise have a great business case. This is particularly impactful in high capital outlay assets such as Rolling Stock and Depots. In addition, the fewer spend-to-save projects that are implemented, the more limited future savings and efficiency gains can be.
SA: I believe the biggest roadblock for utilising new technologies and innovations in railway depot management would be the inability to collate and transform data quickly into meaningful information in order to make insightful decisions. Ensuring data quality from different types of data sources is crucial to make it usable when information is made available to be analysed, visualised, and reported on.
Some of the specific contributions to this inability are legacy issues: With a variety of asset types and configuration from different eras and OEMs, retrofitting an asset to extract data can pose a considerable challenge.
Data management: Badly structured databases due can drive end-users away from using the tools to access information. Safety reporting is part of the safety management system. Whilst the information may exist, it can be labour intensive and inefficient to extract and manipulate.
Sharing of data: Many innovations rely on the availability of quality data, people who understand how to utilise said data, and digital technologies. As such, the standardisation of data will be vital for the advancement of new technologies in the railway industry. For instance RSSB and BSI are providing this type of ‘common’ language with their standards publications.
Q: What key topics are you excited to discuss at the Rolling Stock Whole Life Cost Optimisation seminar?
LW: I think as rolling stock engineers we need to expand our vision of whole life costing more holistically. We need to consider industry costs to drive the best value from the railway.
HC: How the power of community can help support positive decision making; exploring how other businesses have managed to align their communities to proactively alter the bigger picture.
I also love hearing about true problem solving, imaginative and bold thinking, perhaps looking at data or an issue in a different way to propose something new.
SA: This event will serve as an opportunity to discuss depot plant asset capital costs (CAPEX) and operational costs (OPEX), whilst considering wider social and environmental considerations.
Development of technical content for Network Rail plant policy and standards. i.e. technical requirements, performance requirements, test and approval requirements, and documentation requirements. I have authored and published several technical standards including the following:
NR/L2/RMVP/27035 : Depot Protection Systems (ihs.com)
NR/L2/RMVP/27176 : Controlled Emission Toilet Servicing Installation (aka NR/SP/ELP/27176) (globalspec.com)
NR/L2/RMVP/01327 : Maintenance Facilities for Rail Vehicles (aka NR/L2/RVE/01327) (ihs.com)
Governance of depot plants during its lifecycle, including review of specifications and designs, acceptance of new equipment at the introduction phase, and managing the risk through an audit programme for maintainability and safety.
Q: What would you say are the technologies or applications to watch for the future?
LW: I remember working on how we could reduce intrusive maintenance on Class 455 though remote condition monitoring about 20 years ago. However, we are still not using this on our new Azuma fleet! So it’s not new but we do need to do more to fully exploit the fleet data to extract useful information in future. I also see data scientists becoming an integral part of asset management in the future. We will all need to learn of the value of data lakes and the information that can be provided.
HC: I am interested to see how far machine learning may be able to go regarding optimising workbank prioritisation and supporting or going beyond risk-based maintenance. I am curious to know if/how these techniques can work at scale across a fleet in real-time, given the huge amounts of data required to be collected and analysed.
Techniques or technologies that look at reducing use of embedded carbons and virgin materials, perhaps relating to wheels, electronics or keeping car-bodies structurally sound and fully operational as long as possible, will need to become part of the mix from both an environmental and cost-effectiveness point of view.
SA: There are several key areas to watch:
1. Advancements in robotic and autonomous technologies are presenting new opportunities to revolutionise train maintenance and rethink depot design and use. For example, Brunel University has developed a train servicing robot which removes humans from the CET installation system used for extracting waste from the train. The Cab Front Cleaning Robot is a low-cost, robust, and easy-to-use semi-autonomous robot developed by Cranfield University for cleaning the front of the cab.
2. Pre-emptive maintenance can be enabled by condition-based inspection and maintenance, supported by robotics and artificial intelligence. The Alstom Traincare Centre in Manchester has a scanner to run diagnostics on the rolling stock as it shunts through, and this could reduce costs and delays.
3. Depot personnel protection systems uses powered derailers, road-end control panels, train detection equipment, warning signals, and personal data keys to protect staff and infrastructure in busy rail depots.
Q: Which other speakers and presentations are you looking forward to hearing at the forthcoming seminar?
LW: I think it will be really interesting to hear the GBRTT perspective on whole life cost optimisation.
HC: It is always refreshing to hear from those outside my immediate day-to-day understanding, so for example I will be looking forward to hearing from Bob Tiller of GB Railfreight and speakers from outside rail.
SA: I am interested in risk assessment and evaluation from any decarbonisation project in a railway depot and am interested in a presentation on such a topic. The different organisations within the sector and countries will adopt different strategies but it will be beneficial to understand the risks with a view to incorporate mitigating requirements in our standards if similar risk exists in our own infrastructure projects. For instance, I gained some useful insights when I participated in the European Committee for Standardization to develop railway standard for Hydrogen storage and refuelling in rail maintenance depots.
Q: Why is it important for engineers and industry to come together at this event and share best practice?
LW: It’s useful for all generations of engineers to attend events of this nature to learn good practise from other operators and from each other.
HC: Clearly it is always important to keeping learning and events offer that opportunity. The next step is to really understand the differences between your own circumstances and others to determine if and how you can apply those learnings and ideas to overcome the issues you’re facing, or to identify potential improvements.
This seminar will consider whole life issues of rolling stock in its many forms, to share experiences of working in a time when there are many challenges facing the rail industry, whether climate emergency, ageing rolling stock, lack of investment, lower ridership, or high inflation.
Are there ways we can alter our approach to best protect these assets, to ensure they can still deliver a reliable service to customers, at best value?
SA: Engineers will benefit for following reasons:
1. Gain insight into whole-life cost modelling that will enhance the understanding of the different aspects of the lifecycle of depot plant assets, and financial sustainability of maintenance and procurement decisions.
2. Delegates can learn about asset condition reporting and assurance processes to enhance the reliability, efficiency, and longevity of depot plants, and minimise whole life cost.
3. Highlight the key roles engineers play to enable organisation to fulfil its obligations within the Depot Access Contract and annexes, efficient rolling stock procurement, replacement, and management.
4. An avenue to discuss different approaches to life extension including renewals and enhancements.
The Rolling Stock Whole Life Cost Optimisation seminar will be taking place on 9 November 2023 at One Birdcage Walk, London.
Join this seminar to:
- Hear from key engineers and strategic decision-makers in the industry on how to manage rolling stock lifecycle in the most cost-effective manner
- Learn best practice to minimise whole-life costs and simultaneously enhance the reliability, efficiency, and longevity of rolling stock
- Understand the key roles engineers play in efficient rolling stock procurement, replacement, and management
- Accurately assess the near and long-term financial implications of maintenance and procurement decisions
- Understand what the rest of the railway industry is thinking at this pivotal time and, learn how other industries are resolving similar challenges
To book your place, please visit the event website.