Great Northern train sent to be fitted with cutting-edge in-cab signalling system

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has sent its first Great Northern train to be upgraded with cutting-edge in-cab signalling as part of the government-funded East Coast Digital Programme.

This will reduce delays and enable a more reliable service for passengers on both the East Coast Main Line from London through Potters Bar, Welwyn Garden City, Stevenage, Hitchin, St Neots and Peterborough, and the Northern City Line from Finsbury Park to London Moorgate (see Network Rail video).

The upgraded train will work with a new operating system that continuously communicates with each train and provides signalling information directly to a computer screen in the driver’s cab, meaning signals at the side of the railway track are no longer required.

As well as reducing delays and improving reliability, the digital system will also create the potential for more trains to use the route, between London King’s Cross and Peterborough, when the programme completes at the end of the decade.

GTR expects the upgraded train back in July, after which it will start upgrading the rest of the 28 trains of this type in its fleet. GTR has two other train types that operate on this route which came with the technology built-in and this is already being used to test the system on the stretch of line to London Moorgate (see editor’s notes).

GTR’s digital fleet project manager Aaron Meakin said: “This is a watershed moment for us on the digital programme team. We’ve worked long and hard to get us to a place where we’re ready for this retrofit which will make these trains some of the most advanced in the UK for this signalling system.”

Ed Akers, Principal Programme Sponsor, East Coast Digital Programme, said: “This latest retrofit is another example of the industry partnership enabling progress towards a digitally signalled railway that works better for passengers and users. Over the next two years a range of vehicles across passenger, freight, heritage and maintenance sectors will be retrofitted and tested as we prepare to deliver GB rail’s first transition of an intercity mainline to ETCS operations.”

Aaron Weeks, Project Director for Alstom, which is carrying out the work, said: “This important milestone marks a key moment for the project and is a testament to the hard work of the Alstom team and the collaboration with our partners at GTR, Porterbrook and Network Rail. At Alstom we are proud to be at the forefront of the digitisation of the UK rail network and look forward to continued support of the ECDP in the coming years through the supply of our Atlas ETCS Onboard signalling product.”

Ben Ackroyd, Chief Operating Officer at Porterbrook, which owns GTR’s Class 387 fleet said: “Porterbrook has been playing a key role in first-in-class ETCS projects to support Network Rail and the rail industry in the rollout of the Digital Railway.

“There has been excellent teamworking and collaboration across the industry to deliver this critical project, and it’s great to now see the first of our Class 387 GTR trains on its way to be upgraded with the new technology, and fully tested. This will ensure they can continue to operate on the East Coast once conventional signals are removed.”

Ends

Editor’s notes

In-cab signalling provided by ETCS Level 2 operation supplies continual speed information and movement authority to the driver via a computer screen in the driver’s cab, rather than relying on fixed lineside signals.

The Great Northern train being retrofitted with the system is a Class 387/1 that operates between King’s Cross and Peterborough, Cambridge and King’s Lynn. It has been taken to Worksop Depot where rolling stock specialists Alstom will install the Atlas 3 European Train Control System. It will then be tested statically at Litchurch Lane manufacturing site in Derby prior to dynamic testing at speeds of up to 110mph, on Network Rail’s RIDC Melton test track.

This ‘first-in-class’ unit is set to return in July 2023, after which GTR will fit the remaining 28 trains in its fleet at its in-house depot in Hornsey, north London.

In addition to the Class 387, GTR operates two further fleets of train which will eventually be run under ETCS as part of the East Coast Digital Programme:

Class 717s

• ETCS is already being dynamically tested on the Northern City Line (NCL), which runs from the East Coast Mainline at Finsbury Park to London Moorgate. Network Rail has installed the digital infrastructure.
• GTR’s 25 Great Northern Class 717 trains that operate the NCL route were built fitted with BL3 R1 (also referred to as version 3.4.0), but GTR will be upgrading the software and, this autumn, will be testing the latest version of ETCS ahead of upgrading the software on the entire fleet.
• It is expected that in 2023 driver training will begin and the first passenger services on the Northern City Line will be digitally signalled.
• All 115 of the Thameslink Class 700 trains which are already fitted with ETCS will be upgraded to the latest version of BL3 R2 (also referred to as version 3.6.0).

Class 700s