Media centre

Monday 20 Jul 2009

SOUTH WALES CONTROL CENTRE MOVES TO GREENER PASTURE

Region & Route:

| Wales & Western: Wales & Borders

| Wales & Western

A new state-of-the-art integrated rail control centre is now live, bringing the new £16.5m south Wales signalling and control building a step closer to successful completion.

The move into the new eco-friendly building in Cardiff has brought Network Rail and Arriva Train Wales under one roof in a purpose-built control room.

The new centre is designed to enable operational control, fleet management and passenger information to work as one unit. These multiple functions will share real-time information from a common source and further integrate their decision-making procedures, so that the operation of the railway is more efficient.

At the heart of this move is the will to bring improved services to passengers, who will benefit significantly from more timely information and a more reliable service.

Network Rail has invested £3.8m to set up the new control room, to help manage the hundreds of rail incidents a day, also includes a major incident room for disaster recovery, to help manage the hundreds of rail incidents a day.

Mark Langman, area general manager for Network Rail in Wales, said: “Nearly 20m journeys are made in south Wales every year and this is the new ‘nerve-centre’ that will help make them possible.

The new resources we have now will help us build on the strengths of well-established processes between both companies to help us manage incidents more effectively. The improved set-up will not only give passengers more relevant information about their journeys, they will encourage cohesion among the industry to make the best possible decisions and deliver the best to passengers."

Arriva Trains Wales operations and safety director, Peter Leppard, said: “The new South Wales control centre is an excellent example of partnership working between Arriva Trains Wales and Network Rail. The purpose-built modern facility will build on the efficiencies we have achieved in service delivery over the past four years.”

The south Wales signalling and control building will be completed by early 2010, after the £150m upgrade of the signalling in Newport is completed.

The building is one of the greenest railway facilities in Wales with eco-friendly designs including:

i. Solar panels on its roof to heat water

ii. Rainwater harvesting from external drainage to provide water for flushing toilets

iii. Solar reflective glass to reduce solar heat gain and reduce the need for air-conditioning