Railways: Future Trends

Railways: Future Trends

14.1 The Engineering 'Full Circle'

Contemplation of the future always seems to be a risky affair;.. .but is it, really?

There are many lessons learnt in the hard school of experience, things which touch upon the basics of life, that do not change. Personalities come and go, fashions wax and wane, systems and methods evolve but founda-tional fundamentals remain intact.

And the same applies to the basics of railway engineering.

The great railway pioneers of the eighteenth century were men of vision, flair and courage; men like Stephenson, Brunel, Locke, Gooch and many others.

But they only achieved their dreams because they were foremost engineers with their feet on the ground. They all respected the basic principles of natural physics within which they had to contend.

All engineers of the present and future should never lose sight of these basic principles which the great engineers of the past followed so doggedly.

As I write the final pages of the second edition of this book, the twentieth century has come to its close and we are almost halfway through the first decade of the new millennium. Much has changed in the world since I wrote these pages for the first edition some eight years earlier. Clearly however, the basic fundamentals of railway engineering remain unaltered and it is even more important that these foundational considerations should be always kept in mind when designing, building, operating and maintaining any railway.

What will be the future of the railways? Do they have a future?

It is now two hundred years since Richard Trevithick's steam locomotive trundled off pulling a train of trucks riding on metal plates. What railway development will be seen in the next two hundred years? Brunel and Stephenson would be amazed if they could see the railways of today and no doubt we would be equally surprised if today we could see the developments of the future.

But I am sure the engineers of the past would recognise immediately the sound fundamentals upon which everything else is built. They would appreciate, for instance, attractive functional stations and structures, good track, safe signalling, well designed and maintained rolling stock, reliable motive power, and so on.

One has to admit, as well, that there may well be aspects that would not please them, indeed they might well be appalled about some of the changes! If there were such things, I am sure it would be where sure and tried principles have been disregarded or where the hard-learned lessons of the past have been overlooked.

In the early days of railways, it was the visionary engineers like Brunel and Stephenson who were involved at the conception of the idea, pushed the authorising Bill through Parliament and were personally committed to seeing the railway built and operating. Almost the first action that a railway committee would do after formation would be to seek out and appoint the 'Engineer to the Railway'. He would supervise the initial survey, decide the route, design the civil engineering works required and oversee design of the locomotives and rolling stock. He truly was the Engineer for the line.

Over the years, as railways have become more diverse and more technically complicated, this over-arching roll has been divided. Within most railways there have been individuals who have taken the lead in their own engineering discipline and the operation of trains has been usually supervised separately from engineering departments.

This specialisation was inevitable and did allow railways to be served by the best qualified engineers in the various disciplines. Indeed, railways have been in the forefront of development of new engineering methods and techniques in the last two hundred years and have produced many outstanding engineers in their particular specialisms.

In any organisation however, movement towards specialism faces the potential loss of the ability to keep a balanced overall view of things. In recent years there has been a growing tendency to encourage engineers not to become too specialised but to gain a general appreciation of all the engineering factors and considerations involved in operation of a railway. I feel that this tendancy is sound and should be encouraged to develop even further.

So it can be said, to some degree, that engineering in railways has come full-circle.

14.2 The Trend Towards Broader Vision

This change in attitude can bring nothing but good to the individuals concerned and the general health of the railway industry as a whole. All engineers should take every opportunity to expand their understanding of the objectives and methods of other engineering disciplines. All railway engineers also need to realise that railway operation is not a separate mystique quite remote from their own activities, but one which is intrinsically bound up with their specific interests and responsibilities.

If I might speak from personal experience for a moment, I am most thankful that my career led me from bridges and structures to track and then to overall control of civil engineering before becoming a director of all engineering operations and then Managing Director of all railway activities. That progression gave me an insight into many areas of activity and appreciation of all that is involved, which is so necessary for the 'top job'.

14.3 The Trend Towards Local Accountability

With this tendency towards a broader view there is also an encouragement towards becoming more locally accountable. Large 'umbrella' organisations can encourage individuals to be overprotective of their own particular interest and to be somewhat unyielding or even uncooperative towards other legitimate interests. A good example of this might be the vital interface between permanent way and signalling. Clearly there needs to be co-operation and 'give-and-take' when dealing with signal equipment or wire bonds fixed to and supported by track sleepers.

Many railways known to the author have divided up their large engineering departments in recent years, placing people of different disciplines into locally accountable groups. This certainly does have the advantage of encouragement of local co-operation and appreciation of other people's local problems. As with all forms of organisation, however, there are also some possible disadvantages which must be watched. The main potential problem relates to the necessity to guard against variation of standards across the board, because of local pressures or problems. If individuals in the various disciplines have reporting lines outside their discipline, then there need to be both a separate standard setter and an 'auditor' for each discipline at the centre. There also needs to be some way of passing on information on new developments and techniques so that all individuals can be kept up to date, particularly in highly technical areas.

14.4 Increasing Use of Information Technology

Throughout this book the essential importance of well monitored inspection and maintenance has been stressed repeatedly. In the past most areas of activity have relied heavily on manually kept records, experience and memory. With the great possibilities now available through computers, all such records and reminders can now be provided through Information Technology (IT). The setting up of such systems and data collection will be time consuming and expensive but must be faced by all railways in the near future.

There are now also many possibilities which have not yet been fully grasped which IT can provide for railway engineering. Annual inspection and maintenance programmes can easily be produced by computer once all the data has been fed in. Updating of these programmes as work is carried out throughout the year can now be simply produced.

Integration of records can also been achieved as never before using IT, thus allowing better planning of works, scarce resources and railway possessions.

The systems should also be able to give early warning of work peaks that are likely ahead. This could be particularly useful where certain components which have a long life-span will all come up for replacement at the same time, having all been installed when a particular line or extension was built or equipped.

14.5 Improved Interchange Between Transport Modes

Worldwide there is increased concern that the motor vehicle is choking the life of cities and large towns both by fume emission and by ever increasing demand for road space. Some form of public transport must be the ultimate answer, probably rail-borne.

The upturn in the use of light rail in many cities around the world during the past two decades has begged the question — 'Was the demise of the tram so inevitable, after all?' This trend towards rapid transport systems, and in particular light rail, should now continue with increasing pace, always provided that financial backing is forthcoming.

Perhaps the area where there has been the least progress in recent years is improvement in inter-modal transfer. There are many cities, both in the UK and abroad, where transfer from one form of transport to another is difficult, slow and non 'user-friendly'. This applies equally to transfer from private to public and between different forms of public transport.

Transfer to public and private transport at airports for instance is notoriously bad and must cause much 'hassle' as well as loosing countless millions of work hours each year.

From a passenger's point of view, the mode of transport used for any particular journey will be influenced by many considerations, not the least of which is convenience coupled with reliability. The popularity of driving 'door-to-door' in a private car is obvious and will win over most alternatives because there are no changes of mode required, no lugging of cases and no draughty waits. The only way that public transport can score on longer journeys, is by providing better comfort, a more relaxing journey and, perhaps, the opportunity to work 'on the move'. A journey of any length or complexity is likely to involve more than one mode of transport and it is at the points of transfer that most delays and frustration occur.

In my opinion, this whole subject of interchange must be aggressively addressed in the next few years if rail transport is again to demonstrate itself as one of the best forms of transport, particularly in medium distance journeys of say up to three hundred miles. This will involve planners and engineers in looking at journey patterns between cities and within them for the next century.

14.6 A Move Towards Designing for Maintenance

Certainly in recent years more thought has been given to maintaining both the railway infrastructure and the rolling stock. There has been an increase in the use of components which can be replaced after an estimated life-span rather than seeking to mend or refurbish such components. This trend should now work its way through to all areas including track.

14.7 Trends in Comfort Standards

Since the Second World War people have become accustomed to much higher standards of comfort both in their homes and in their offices. This includes higher controlled temperatures in the winter and often some form of air conditioning or cooling in summer as well as other protection from the elements in circulating areas. Shopping malls and other 'umbrella' developments and modern international airports are good illustrations of this. Railways in the future must improve standards both in station buildings, interchange areas and on trains, in this respect.

Railway engineers must be in the forefront of all these changes and need to update their ideas in their own areas.

Chapter 15 Conclusion

15.1 Retrospect

As I sit in my study at home in the Cotswolds, I look back to the time when the idea of this book first began to take root. That probably was almost three years before the time of writing this last chapter of the first edition in 1996. Eight years later I have the benefit of hindsight!

I must say that I have been delighted how well, by and large, the first edition has been received, both by my former railway colleagues and by those new to the field of railways. I trust that the changes and updating incorporated in the second edition will improve the usefulness of this small volume.

One of my other interests that occupies all too little of my time in partial retirement, is watercolour painting. I find that one of the frustrations of this hobby is looking at the finished work and reflecting in your mind the comment that most of us remember from school report days . . .

'Could do better!'

Even after the modifications incorporated in this second edition, I can still see gaps and improvements that could be made but deadlines have to be met and I trust that this new edition will prove as popular as the original.

On further reflection however, I realise that this is how all engineers have felt about their work down the years. Indeed it was because of this feeling of 'I could do better' that railway engineers have seen such progress in the past two centuries.

Inadequate as it is therefore, I leave this second edition as it is, trusting that it will at least be a stepping stone for the reader towards better things.

The task of writing this book, and its later revision, has not been easy and I record here again those who have helped in so many ways and who are mentioned in the Acknowledgements at the front of this book.

In particular, I mention Professor Tony Ridley who encouraged me to write this book in the first place and under whose direction I lectured at Imperial College. It was he who appointed me as Director of Civil Engineering at London Transport in 1980 and asked me to take on Docklands Light Railway as the first MD in 1986. These two appointments gave me a great opportunity to widen my scope and I am most grateful for the trust placed in me at that time. As I look back, I also realise that it was Tony Ridley who encouraged me to take a broader view of things and I want to pass this on to those who follow.

As well, I would like to acknowledge again the ready help and encouragement given by my friend and local colleague Paul Walker, who lives in the same Cotswold village as my wife and I, and with whom I share a common interest in railways. Many of the new excellent colour photographs in this second edition were provided by Paul and I am greatly indebted to him for them.

15.2 Postscript

If students and young engineers who pick up this book are encouraged to take a wider view, my efforts will have been worthwhile.

Robert Louis Stevenson was a great novelist known and read around the world. He was brought up in a family of engineers, where the great discoveries and engineering achievements of the eighteenth century were well understood and appreciated.

R. L. Stevenson wrote . . .

'The duty of an engineer is twofold — to design the work and to see that the work is done.'

Well over a hundred years later these words still apply. Railway engineers occupied in all areas of engineering activity and in management must look to their design to see that it is 'fit for purpose'.

Perhaps even more important, they need to ensure that their designs are translated into reality and that others following will be able to maintain what they have built to keep trains running and passengers safe and satisfied.