Take the Train

According to the International Union of Railways, in 2009 there were 2,671 billion passengers per kilometre of track – and that excludes the growing number of metros around the world. Japan topped the league table with 22 billion passenger journeys in 2010, followed by India with eight billion. Germany came in just short of two billion, while the UK notched up 1.3 billion. Other countries that exceeded 500 million passenger journeys a year include China, France, Russia, South Korea, Italy, Spain and South Africa. So there can be no disputing that the challenge of achieving rail infrastructure safety is truly international.
 

End of the Line

To protect the safety and security of passengers and staff at the new Stobart Group’s London Southend Airport, an entire portfolio of technologies from Bosch Security Systems is being installed.
The station and airport features the Bosch range of projection speakers and metal cabinet speakers to ensure effective communications with passengers, whose numbers are expected to rise to more than two million by 2020. The site is also equipped with a surveillance system that includes the first installation of its new digital hybrid recorder (DHR).

The railway station has been expanded as a direct result of plans to upgrade London Southend to handle larger aircraft, and therefore more passengers, requiring the highest specification CCTV. At the heart of the CCTV system are 20 Dinion XF colour cameras, 15 Dinion 2xday/night cameras, three video interconnect portals and three LCD TFT monitors. It is also the first site in the UK to use the new DHR technology.
In terms of delivering the messages and audio throughout the station, the decision was taken to opt for the scalable Plena Controller, which forms part of the PLENA communication family, including a remote control panel and zonal microphones. The railway station is also covered by Bosch speakers, with projection speakers located on the platforms and cabinet speakers within the waiting areas.
The Bosch 700 Series (formerly Divar XF) is a highly scalable system recorder for medium to large applications. It is a real-time 4-CIF embedded recorder, available in hybrid (analogue/IP) and IP-only versions and utilises state-of-the-art H.264 compression to deliver bit rates that are up to 30 percent lower than conventional MPEG-4 based recorders.

Crossrail Challenges

A number of new underground stations and upgrades to existing stations across London have been designed to accommodate the new Crossrail train network, due for launch in 2018.
Crossrail is promoted as the new high-frequency, convenient and accessible railway for London and southeast England. When the network opens – the first trains are due to start running in 2018 – it will increase London’s rail-based transport network capacity by ten percent. The network will run 118 kilometres from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west, through new twin-bore 21 kilometres tunnels under central London, to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. Linking Heathrow Airport, the West End, the City of London and Canary Wharf, it will bring an additional 1.5 million people within 45 minutes’ commuting distance of London’s key business districts.
It will reduce crowding on the transport network, carrying more than 1,500 passengers in each train during peak periods, as well as cutting journey times across the city. The project will also deliver substantial economic benefits and support regeneration, with the latest forecasts suggesting it will add £42bn to the UK economy.

Preliminary works began in 2009 but such is the scale of Crossrail that up to 14,000 people will be employed at the peak of construction between 2013 and 2015. A critical part of the project is the development of new and existing stations along the Crossrail route; one such station is Whitechapel Station in east London – due for completion in 2018.

Integrated Station
Exova Warringtonfire was part of the team appointed by Crossrail to carry out the redesign of Whitechapel Station. One of the major challenges was how to deal with the fact that the design turned existing surface platforms into underground platforms, which required a range of improvements to fire safety standards.
The work involved an extensive redesign of the station to integrate the new Crossrail platforms within the existing station served by both the London Underground and over-ground networks. The 200-metre long Crossrail platforms will be in deep tunnels to the north of the existing station, but there will be a shared concourse, ticket hall, gateline and station operations room – leading to a fully integrated station that provides an easy step-free interchange between Crossrail and the existing underground lines and over-ground lines.

Design and Layout
The design adopted was based on providing a new ticket hall and concourse directly over the existing over-ground platforms, bringing an improved passenger experience, as well as significant cost savings. They will replace the existing single-storey concourse and passenger bridge with a much larger and more open space above the London Underground lines, and provide room for a longer ticket gateline and a second wide-aisle gate. The existing stairs down to the London Underground platforms will be replaced with escalators and there will be lifts between each change in level, making the station much more accessible for all.
Passenger Safety
Experts worked with the design team to provide ventilation routes around the perimeter of the concourse, which provided smoke ventilation to the platforms below. In particular, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of smoke flow was carried out for the new design, which considered several fire scenarios varying in size and location. The analysis demonstrated that the new design achieved a high standard of smoke ventilation, enabling work to proceed.
Another essential aspect of the design was the provision of escape routes from the new Crossrail platforms and the existing underground and over-ground platforms. With six platforms and passenger flow data for morning and evening, as well as several fire scenarios within different parts of the station to consider, a total of 16 evacuation scenarios were analysed.

The analysis was reviewed in collaboration with transport consultants to ensure there is sufficient evacuation capacity, while also minimising congestion in the expanded station. This led to a clearer, more logical layout favouring the use of familiar access routes for escape, rather than dedicated escape stairs. This improved safety, since research shows that people are more likely to use routes with which they are familiar, as well as reducing costs for the project by minimising the use of separate evacuation staircases.

Construction Strategy
Whitechapel Station needs to be kept open throughout the entire construction, which meant that a separate construction fire strategy had to be developed that reviewed all aspects of fire safety for each and every stage of the construction process. This included evacuation analyses and reviews of the smoke ventilation at each construction stage.
One issue that had to be dealt with early in the design related to enabling works. A working platform consisting of a concrete deck needed to be built over the over-ground tracks and platforms to provide vehicle access to the site compound. As these platforms and tracks are currently open to fresh air, a CFD smoke flow analysis was carried out to review the impact of the deck and to gain the approval of stakeholders.

Tunnel Safety
The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is one of Britain’s great transport success stories. Built in 1987, it now carries over 60 million passengers a year and consistently achieves record levels of reliability and passenger satisfaction. It was one of Britain’s first light rail systems and has one of the world’s most advanced automatic train control systems.
Among the latest developments to the network is the £180 million, 2.5km extension of the line from King George V station on the north side of the River Thames to the new Woolwich Arsenal station on the south – an interchange with the main line railways. The tunnel under the River Thames runs as deep as 35 metres.
Ensuring the integrity of the emergency lighting in the tunnel was a major safety consideration for Docklands Light Railway, which is part of Transport for London. To achieve this, it selected Draka’s Firetuf FT Connecta modular cabling system. Designed specifically for tunnel lighting and power applications, it provided the desired fire-condition performance, plus the additional benefits of speed and ease of installation and cost effectiveness. The contract called for 8,940 metres of its third-party-approved, Halogen-free 0HLS FTP fire performance power cable that is designed for installations where vital fire safety circuits are required to continue operating in the event of a fire. This was supplied in precise predetermined lengths and incorporated 711 factory-fitted moulded Connecta socket outlets.

During installation in the tunnel, secondary outlets to individual luminaires were taken from the primary FTP cables via moulded Connecta plugs. This ensured the fastest possible cable installation and minimised the site labour requirement. Connecta installations require minimal maintenance, so selecting this solution made a significant contribution towards reducing Docklands Light Railway’s future maintenance and servicing costs.
The five-core FTP cable is manufactured to BS 7846:2000 (Electric cables. 600/1000 V armoured fire-resistant cables having thermosetting insulation and low emission of smoke and corrosive gases when affected by fire), and is tested and approved by LPCB (Loss Prevention Certification Board) and BASEC (British Approvals Service for Cables). It complies with BS 6387:1994 (Specification for performance requirements for cables required to maintain circuit integrity under fire conditions) and is accredited to maintain circuit integrity under category C, W and Z fire conditions.

Being Halogen-free, it is a natural choice for railway tunnels because it burns without producing large amounts of dense smoke and does not emit halogen gases. This compares with standard PVC cables, which are used widely in the construction industry, that under fire conditions emit hydrogen chloride gas. This has a suffocating odour that is detectable in even very low concentrations. Burning PVC cables also generate hazardous volumes of debilitating or disorientating smoke that can easily increase the likelihood of panic and make safe evacuation much more difficult to achieve.

By Graham Collins