tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352Sat, 21 Feb 2026 00:41:45 +0000Project managementpolicyrailways A WINDOW ON THE WORLD OF RAILWAY SYSTEMS, TECHNOLOGIES AND OPERATIONShttp://railway-technical.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)Blogger91125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-2952807735749024975Thu, 12 Jul 2018 09:01:00 +00002018-12-06T08:45:49.373+00:00 Silence is Broken Perhaps I’ve waited too long but I have watched the continued disruption to the train services operated by Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) with dismay and despair. I thought, after three weeks of operation, they would have got it sorted out, at least to a level where some sort of regular and reliable train service could be operated. But they haven’t. Here we are, in the 6th weekhttp://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2018/07/thameslink-timetables-and-traffic.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-5864873139388439990Thu, 17 May 2018 06:49:00 +00002018-05-17T07:55:13.199+01:00policyProject managementrailways p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #454545} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #454545; min-height: 14.0px} There are two schools of thought in project management about the choice of a leader for a project. One says that the person who led the bid team and secured the contract should continue with the http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2018/05/sack-project-manager-maybe-not.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-3201320532312609603Wed, 04 Apr 2018 13:10:00 +00002018-04-05T07:40:55.629+01:00 p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #454545} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #454545; min-height: 14.0px} Sometimes, it is worthwhile to re-examine your standards. Is your use of standards too rigid? Are you locking yourself into over engineering your railway? Are you sticking to the rules because they are http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2018/04/are-standards-for-railway-too-rigid.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-3167595289721595017Fri, 23 Mar 2018 13:14:00 +00002018-03-23T13:14:42.805+00:00 The Orderly Railway  Looking back at how railways developed can offer some important lessons that, even today, after almost two hundred years of railway operation, we still don't seem to have grasped. Since railway systems are expensive and have a long life, it is important that we understand how they developed and how we can make use of them in a changing world. Here I review how railway http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2018/03/lessons-for-today-from-orderly-railway.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-5254354819417813857Sat, 17 Mar 2018 10:56:00 +00002018-03-17T10:56:32.037+00:00Will We Ever Learn? Looking at the railway industry today, we see many instances of inadequate designs, long project delays, cost overruns and poor system performance. For more than 20 years, since the break up of the railway for privatisation, there have been regular instances of serious project failures. The Great Western electrification project is the most recent large scale project to show http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2018/03/learning-from-history.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-7759324268217316986Wed, 04 Oct 2017 07:55:00 +00002017-10-04T08:55:35.910+01:00There has been a lot of public and political frustration concerning the problems of Southern Railway and the Govia Thameslink Railway, so the British Government decided to commission Chris Gibb, a well-known and respected railway manager, to investigate the causes of the problems with the train service. The report was published on 22 June 2017. I have carried out an assessment of the Gibb Reporthttp://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-gibb-report-assessment.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-6236112538725868999Sun, 28 May 2017 22:40:00 +00002017-05-28T23:40:40.219+01:00It is very alarming that the British Airways computer crash on Saturday 27th May 2017 shut down its entire operation. Apparently it was due to a power failure. That there was no back up power supply or UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) as it is called, is remarkable. That a major international transport system, with a world wide network of routes, can run its operation on a single, http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2017/05/british-airways-computer-crash.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-6176206006361982218Sat, 13 May 2017 13:24:00 +00002017-05-13T14:24:23.783+01:00With all the news on cyber attacks around the world, this article from London Reconnections is worth a read: You Hacked. It looks at some attacks that have been carried out on railway systems and offers a warning.http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2017/05/cyber-attacks.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-8587963080198868066Fri, 12 May 2017 06:02:00 +00002017-05-12T07:07:58.801+01:00In railway engineering, you will sometimes hear talk of a "braking curve", often in connection with train performance, platform re-occupation times or signalling. We use a braking curve to calculate how long it will take a train to stop from a given speed. It can be used to determine both service and emergency braking distances. It can also give braking times, if needed. Here we look briefly http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2017/05/braking-curve.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-2732512025266690068Fri, 12 May 2017 06:00:00 +00002017-05-25T08:20:54.392+01:00A report on railway franchising in Britain was published in early May 2017, 'Ensuring a Sustainable Rail Industry - Options for developing franchised passenger services', published by the Campaign for Better Transport. It is an interesting read, partly because it has some useful statistics about rail travel, franchise operations and passenger attitudes and partly because it tries to generate http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2017/05/a-report-on-railway-franchising-in.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-2097439722067440489Fri, 05 May 2017 16:39:00 +00002017-05-05T17:39:20.460+01:00We are modernising the Railway Technical Website. There is a new look and new pages. Many pages are being updated. We are gradually archiving the old pages where they are likely to be useful. While we will try to get everything in place correctly as we update each page, there are bound to be some minor teething problems. Please let us know if you find any errors we have missed. Thank you forhttp://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2017/05/railway-technical-website-update.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-4025944074987002096Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:55:00 +00002015-01-24T10:36:25.969+00:00D Stock There has been much publicity recently about a company called Vivarail that has been set up to buy redundant London Underground (LU) electric rolling stock and convert it to diesel-electric operation. The idea is to use the converted stock on various routes currently suffering from rolling stock shortages or where the outmoded and much-hated, bus-style "Pacers" are still used. The LU http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2015/01/vivarail-d-train-diesels.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-2514246710959222513Tue, 17 Sep 2013 07:11:00 +00002013-09-17T08:11:25.529+01:00A recent enquiry from a railway operating manager, regarding a fault on his locomotives, reminded me of how easy it is to lose focus when looking for technical problems on trains. It is easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of the equipment without looking at the simple things first: Is it switched on (Yeah, I know, it's obvious but it can be missed)? Is there power? If not, is the fuse or http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2013/09/help-with-fault-finding.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-6778085012262434144Tue, 27 Aug 2013 07:18:00 +00002013-08-27T09:38:05.215+01:00Ok folks, the holidays are nearly over. It'll soon be time to get the kids back to school and get ourselves back to work, so it's time to stop all this summer madness and end the hysteria and lies about HS2. It is time to talk seriously about HS2, the planned new high speed rail route between London, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, and to offer some facts, based on real information and real http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2013/08/summer-madness-for-hs2-time-to-see-sense.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-4527440208611321098Thu, 13 Jun 2013 10:55:00 +00002013-06-13T17:22:49.409+01:00 I took delivery of a new book yesterday, "Principles of Railway Operation" by John Glover, published by Ian Allan. It surprised me (an old cynic) in that it was really rather good, especially for those who want to expand their understanding of the industry and how it works (or not). It is written in an easily readable style, with humour and understanding, by someone who knows the industry wellhttp://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2013/06/principles-of-railway-operation.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-7016236810629945276Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:26:00 +00002013-01-10T14:26:27.000+00:00This is published today by the UK government's Department for Transport (DfT). It is worth reading. See for yourself here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-brown-review-of-the-rail-franchising-programme. It has good bits and some not so good bits and there are some areas that I don't think are clear for the reader but overall, pragmatic if unimaginative. He comes down on the side http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-brown-report-on-franchising.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-8479470596058568514Fri, 04 Jan 2013 07:35:00 +00002013-01-04T07:35:19.724+00:00 A lecture will be given by Professor Felix Schmid on Thursday 10th January 2013 at 13:00 at the University of Birmingham, Gisbert Kapp Building and will be entitled ‘Managing the Complexity of High-Speed Rail through Simplicity’ Felix will report on the lessons that he drew from his study visit to Central Japan Railway in late October-early November 2012. He will suggest that the http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2013/01/high-speed-rail-presentation.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-1124695092048618094Mon, 10 Dec 2012 14:48:00 +00002012-12-10T14:48:51.579+00:00 In what I believe was a miscarriage of British justice, a train guard with 20 years service, Christopher McGee, aged 45 years, was jailed for 5 years on 14th November 2012 for manslaughter as a result of the death of a drunken teenager under the train he was in charge of. Apparently, he signalled to the driver to start the train while the teenager, 16-year-old Georgia Varley, leant drunkenly http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2012/12/questionable-justice.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-7694700632820689380Sun, 09 Dec 2012 07:51:00 +00002012-12-09T07:51:07.180+00:00I have written a new article for "Modern Railways" on London Underground's deep tube programme, which will be published in the January 2013 issue of the magazine. It has up an to date description of future plans for those tube lines that have not been part of the existing upgrade programme. Two things I noticed in the writing - one is that the TfL (Transport for London) press office are http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2012/12/plans-for-london-tube-system.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-8197897281453318513Sun, 22 Jul 2012 10:54:00 +00002012-07-22T12:04:09.786+01:00Today, quite by accident, I came across a paper published by the Institution of Civil Engineers in 2006, "The importance of learning from past experience" by Dr. Trevor Asher Kletz. It seems to me to be so relevant to the railway industry that I offer a summary of some of his advice below. The first one I've selected is so important I think it should be written into the rule book: "Never remove http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2012/07/how-to-learn-from-past.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-1977123105914431720Wed, 02 May 2012 08:45:00 +00002012-05-02T09:45:54.982+01:00If you are thinking about refurbishing your rolling stock, here some valuable lessons, learned through bitter experience: Always have a clear and fixed remit agreed with the operators before going ahead with the design; Never assume new stuff will fit into all the old trains. Even if it is specially designed, it probably won’t; Avoid messing with wiring unless you strip it all out and replace http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2012/05/train-refurbishment.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-9096238171051912209Sat, 03 Mar 2012 12:06:00 +00002012-03-03T12:06:36.215+00:00A lady driver, aged 85, took a wrong turn at a level crossing at Basingstoke in England on January 26th  2012, when she drove onto the railway track and drove for 80 metres before she realised something wasn't quite right. She had a 20 year old male in the car with her. Apparently she was looking for the station car parking area. She's lucky she and the car didn't light up the area by http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2012/03/wrong-turn.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-8364080552067425558Thu, 01 Mar 2012 09:54:00 +00002012-03-01T09:54:51.821+00:00 The Arab News reports that Finance Minister, Ibrahim Al-Assaf, on Saturday 25th February 2012 signed three contacts worth SR2.34 billion with Saudi Arabian Railway (SAR) to implement a number of projects related to the North-South Railway. Starting from Riyadh, the 2,750-km railway reaches up to the northern border town of Hudaitha passing by Sudair, Qassim, Hail and Al-Jouf. It also links the http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2012/03/more-railway-contracts-in-saudi-arabia.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-4926403074142638933Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:07:00 +00002012-01-24T13:55:48.727+00:00In an article I'm writing for Underground News, I note some facts on train testing times. In 1938, it took six weeks from delivery of the first unit of new stock to entry into passenger service.  For the Victoria Line's 1967 Tube Stock, the same process took 5 months and, for its new 2009 Tube Stock, it has taken 20 months.  At the same rates, for the next tube stock for the Victoria http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-train-testing-time.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8062042648721651352.post-7092529328769733556Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:59:00 +00002012-01-17T10:59:58.188+00:00They have weekend Subway closures in New York City too. This from Railway Track & Structures: A continuation of upgrade and modernization work to the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Flushing Line and its stations will necessitate suspension of 7 train service between Queensboro Plaza (in Queens, N.Y.) and Times Square in Manhattan for 11 weekends beginning Jan. 21,http://railway-technical.blogspot.com/2012/01/weekend-closures-not-unique-to-uk.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Piers Connor)0