Media centre

Wednesday 8 Jun 2005

TRANSPORT SECRETARY OPENS INTEGRATED CONTROL CENTRE IN BIRMINGHAM

Region & Route:

Transport Secretary the Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP today (8 June) officially opened the latest railway integrated control centre in Network Rail’s route HQ in the Mailbox, Birmingham. The control brings together Network Rail operational staff and their counterparts from Central Trains and Virgin Trains, two of the largest train operators on the route. The London North Western integrated control centre is the seventh to be opened in the UK as part of a roll-out programme across the railway network. Figures from the first integrated centre opened in Waterloo in February 2004 showed that overall delays on the lines out of Waterloo were down by 30% in the first year and similar results are expected from the new centre in Birmingham. Another significant improvement was in the delay caused per incident, which showed a 35% reduction, demonstrating that integration leads to better and faster response to incidents. There was also on-going reduction in the number of ‘major delays’ above 1,500 minutes. Speaking at the opening of the centre, Alistair Darling said: “I’m extremely pleased with the positive results we are seeing from the new Centres. They have cut delays and help provide a more reliable railway for passengers.” John Armitt, Network Rail Chief Executive, said: “The figures speak for themselves. Integrated control centres have demonstrated that they bring speedier response times to individual incidents. Decision-making is done face-to-face with colleagues co-located in the same area, rather than having to make telephone calls to remote offices. The benefits that this brings can be passed on to passengers by reducing inconvenience to them when things do go wrong.” The new centre oversees the operational movement of trains throughout the major conurbation of the West Midlands, and on the west coast main line from London to Staffordshire. Later this year it will extend its main line control to the Scottish border. Prior to integration, Network Rail and Virgin Trains controllers were in offices two miles apart and talked to each other on the telephone to resolve problems. Now, both Central and Virgin trains have their own operational desks within the control centre, and work alongside Network Rail route controllers, fault controllers and those from the west coast route modernisation project. In overall charge of the Centre is the Duty Control Manager – the so-called ‘fat controller.’