Engineering consultancy Frazer-Nash has undertaken an independent operations analysis on Hitachi Rail Europe’s and John Laing’s designs for a new rail depot, as part of proposals for the Intercity Express Programme.
 
Frazer-Nash’s analysis involved using a system engineering process to develop a software model which accurately replicates potential train flow through the depot.  The company won a competitive tender process to work on the project, reporting to Hitachi Rail Europe and John Laing.  The new rail depot is expected to service a future rail fleet, replacing current facilities.

The software model developed by Frazer-Nash takes a wide range of inputs and allows the user to see the status of all trains in the depot at a glance. Inputs can include anything from depot layout details, arrival and departure times, train length and specific maintenance requirements, through to specific rules of the depot such as speed and the total transfer time.

Hitachi Rail Europe and John Laing used the model to ensure specified departure times could be achieved, taking account of all necessary movements and depot activities, and to flag any possible conflicts that may compromise the timely delivery of trains back to operators.

Chris Watters, Rail Group Manager at Frazer-Nash, commented: “Hitachi and John Laing have to be able to demonstrate that a depot could accept an operator’s trains at the end of a working day and seamlessly deliver them back on time, and with the necessary work completed. This work could be anything from refuelling and cleaning through to water replenishment and more complex maintenance tasks.

“The model we have developed allows use of a rail depot to be optimised and has all kinds of potential uses – from helping maintenance staff prioritise their work on train sets, through to assisting human resources teams more effectively plan staff shift patterns. And we see there being lots of opportunity to develop it further to take account of alterations in the rail network, such as changes in network capacity and train availability.”

An Hitachi spokesman said: “The Frazer-Nash model has enabled Hitachi to explore a wide range of options and to satisfy ourselves that the complex depot design has the flexibility to meet the foreseeable demand. All analysis is presented in a way that makes it easy to review the status of operations.”

David Everton, Project Manager at John Laing said: “The Frazer-Nash team worked proactively with us to develop a software model that was able to empirically prove depot functionality and effectiveness.  The software also allowed the proposed depot layout to be interrogated in various ways to identify potential areas of risk, opportunity and potential efficiency savings.  This has subsequently lead to further depot optimisation.”

Hitachi Rail Europe and John Laing were chosen as preferred bidder for the Intercity Express Programme in February 2009. The consortium is continuing its planning for maintenance facilities in support of the programme, which is currently under review by the Government.