Latest meeting report

Thursday 26th March

The Art of Train Planning

Dave Hepper, Train Planning Manager, NXEA - summarised by Chris Hurricks

The meeting started with a minute's silence in memory of member John Mahoney who had sadly passed away.

Around 50 members and visitors attended this talk on a subject which is probably little known by most and doesn't really come into consideration when catching a train. After all, the train turns up and conveys you to your destination but what has been done beforehand to ensure that this happens? Dave was here to tell us. This talk was unusual in that there were no projected images but there was an 11 page handout to enable us to follow the process. Dave is responsible for all train planning work in NXEA's franchise 3 area which covers the lines from Liverpool Street to Norwich and all the branches and the line from Liverpool Street to Cambridge again with all the many branches. Also covered are NXEA's services from Cambridge to Norwich and the cross country route from Ipswich to Peterborough. To illustrate each step in the planning process and to show some of the difficulties involved a particular train had been chosen, the 0838 Liverpool Street to Ipswich on Mondays to Fridays (SX in railway parlance). First though, we looked at the national rules governing train planning which are agreed between Network rail and the Train Operating Companies. These cover every aspect of the process including the all important point to point timings for each type of train, 'recovery' allowances for any temporary speed restrictions, signaling headways and margins between trains at junctions. For a completely new timetable the timescales allow 55 weeks from start of development to introduction of the timetable. Naturally computers are used to time trains, the system being called Voyager Plan which is in effect a giant adding machine with a huge memory. This software will time trains as required by the user and will print schedules but what it will not do is identify 'clashes' with other trains. This is where the skill of the train planner comes in, a point well brought out by Dave. Next were the relevant pages of the Working Timetable showing the timings for our chosen train, the 0838 from Liverpool Street to Ipswich. Not only are the calling points shown but there are a large number of passing times too and between Liverpool Street and Shenfield the line on which the train runs is shown. Also shown are platform numbers where appropriate and any recovery time or pathing time (sometimes necessary to avoid clashes with other trains). It was noted that many trains are advertised in the public timetable to arrive at their destination 1 or 2 minutes later than the working time.

The platform graph for Liverpool Street from 0800 to 1000 was the next document, something which is quite difficult to grasp. Dave explained exactly what it showed and how the availability of platforms at Liverpool Street influenced the whole timetable. Indeed there is no spare capacity at peak times and a train failure in the station will soon cause delays. The lengths of each train are shown on the graph, a vital bit of information as not all platforms will take 12 coaches and if one train is to run 'on top' of another. The Mark 3 Norwich sets utilise platforms 9 and 10 as much as possible. The aim when doing the platforming is to have as much 'parallel' working as possible as this increases capacity and gives improved performance. During the peak periods platforms 15 to 18 are worked as a separate station (serving the all stations trains from Shenfield and Gidea Park) and the parallel principle was demonstrated here. The graph showed some examples of more than one train in a platform, also some trains splitting all fully explained.

The second half dealt with resources, both human and the trains themselves. The unit diagrams i.e. the work performed by each train set each day were taken first with the diagrams for 'our' train showing it to be formed of 3 x 4 car 321 units, making 12 coaches in all. The day's work for these 3 units was followed and they show typical peak working starting with an empty move from Ilford Depot to Chelmsford, the 0749 peak train up to Liverpool Street (which is where the 12 cars are needed) then back to Ipswich on the 0838. There is no further work then so it is back to Colchester empty before coming out again for the evening peak. Now trains don't run without people and it was time to look at the drivers' diagrams. Dave and his staff compile the drivers diagrams for 11 depots and for 5 conductors (guards) depots - surprisingly Chingford is the largest, a depot which provides a large number of the staff for West Anglia services. Our train was part of an Ilford driver's turn, who signs on at 0632 and had taken our 12 coaches down to Chelmsford empty as shown above. After running back empty from Ipswich to Colchester he then had nearly an hour's break after just under 4 hours virtually continuous driving. The second part of the diagram covered a trip to Harwich and back to Liverpool Street, thence empty back to Ilford signing off after 7 hours 39 minutes on duty. The time allowances for walking in depots and stations and for train preparation and disposal were explained, all these being laid down exactly. The novel method used by drivers to get to and from the relatively new sidings at Orient Way was mentioned. Our train requires a conductor from Colchester to Ipswich and this, perhaps surprisingly, was covered by a Clacton man. Consultation with the union representatives is held prior to the introduction of any changes to the diagrams.

This had been a mass of information for the audience to absorb but the next document was perhaps the most complex of all. This was the driver’s roster for Ilford Depot which details a driver's work for 50 weeks. Basic hours are 35 per week but to achieve this it is necessary to have variations in turn length and then allowance has to be made for rest days, annual leave and standby turns. This really was an innovative masterpiece with considerable advantages for the drivers whilst ensuring all the work was covered within national and local agreements. The final document was a schedule card for 'our' Ilford driver which gave complete details of all the trains he had to work on that turn including all stops and passing times. Dave then dealt briefly with engineering work and special traffic, the former involves changes (often major) to the booked services. It is a measure of just how much engineering work there is and the workload involved that he has 17 staff including himself of which 13 are employed on engineering and special traffic, just 4 doing the permanent timetable planning for the whole of his area. Special traffic covers any additional services, often for sporting events (e,g. football at White Hart Lane) and pop concerts, in particular the famous V festival at Chelmsford.

It is fair to say that this talk was a real eye opener to most who had no grasp of the detail and complexity of this aspect of railway operation. Dave's pleasant and easy going style enabled all this to be absorbed and some very intelligent questions proved that this was the case. His description of the whole train planning process as a giant jigsaw was most appropriate! Steve Worsley once again gave a succinct vote of thanks.