September 2019 RAILEXPRESS 25
OPERATIONS
John Phillips on the FNPO desk on
July15said: “Untilrecently, pass enger
services took priority and service
recovery wasfocused on these. This
has nowchanged, and freight services
aregetting/receiving greater priority
than before, which is part of the
Andrew Haines putting passengers and
freight customers first policy.”
Steve Dexterexplainedthe
background to the FNPO team in
the NOC. “It started asafreight
perf ormance initiativeatthe start of
CP5 to makesurefreight customers'
interestswere looked after.The Freight
Delivery Metricwasintroduced at the
same time measuring performance.
The freight team is co-located with
the passenger team, but not part of it,
andthis initiativehas vastly improved
freight operators’ satisfaction and
relationships with NR.”
THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO
Rail Expressoften covers unusual
traction moves, sometimes caused
by failures. Ever wondered who orders
the rescue locomoti ve?Itisthe NOC,
which is the onlyoffice with emergency
locomotive spot hireauthority,
something that it uses around 750
timesayear.
‘Thunderbird’ locomotives are
positioned atvarious locations, such as
Doncaster on theEast CoastMain Line,
andonJune28this wassummonsed to
potentiallyrescue‘Azuma’No. 800103
operating the 1A33/13.45Leeds to
King’s Cross after coming toastand
at StokeJunction at 14.49 with a
smashed bodyside window.
The suspicionwasthat something
had failed on the newtrain. But at
17.05, LNEroute control advised that
an underbody panel fromvehicle
No. 40904 on the 1H04/13.48 King’s
Cross to Hull (a HullTrains service
formed ofaHST set) had displaced,
hit the track, and bounced up onto the
‘Azuma’ and breaking the outer skin of
the window.
The Doncaster ‘Thunderbird’ left at
15.47 andwasultimately recessed at
Newark after No. 800103wasdeclared
fit to run toPeterborough, whereitwas
takenout of service at 16.25.
The backwall of the NOCsupports
twolarge network maps offering an
overviewofthe national network. When
aline is blocked, thereason isplaced on
the affected location usingamagnetic
reminder.On15July, the line between
Aberdeen and Invernesswasshown as
blocked at Inveruri edue tothe line’s
redoublingwork.This map is also used
to track NR’s helicopter flightpath when
in use.
The NOC is an open plan office,
buthas adedicated incidentroom
attached, whichremains unused
most of the time, but not on 15 July.
On this dayitwas being used for
regular phone conferences monitoring
the ‘ExtinctionRebellion Climate
Change’ demonstrations in case of
service disruption.
The incidentroom is also used on
aplanned basis at times of significantengineeringworks–such as at bank
holidays,and the August Bank Holiday
ReadinessSummary chartswere in
evidence on 15 July. These detail
critical items, such as theWest Coast
Main Line having toremain open
because of the panned closureof
King’s Cross.
Working in the NOCrequir es awide
rangeofr ailway knowledge, the ability
to thinkfast under pressureint imes
of disruption towork out what’s best
forpassengers and the networkrather
tha naroute and to be able to issue
clea rinstructions or guidance to staff
at alllevels.BRIDGEBASHES ANDSWANS
Thereisi nsufficient space to do justice
to the fullrangeofNOC duties and the
teams’ associated skills, butwe should
not forget ongoing issues with cable
theft and bridgestrikes, of which eight
were re ported on July15across the
network, causing around 750 minutes
of delay. Andthereisnoroom either
to consider theswans that enjoyeda
track stroll at 07.00 between Barnham
andChichester,leadingtothe third-rail
bein gswitched offand causing 418
minutes of delay.E
■Rail Expresswould li ke to thank the
NOC staffforhosting the author.Amap of the entirenationalnetwork shows areas of disruption–which on
July15included the Aberdeen-Inverness line being blocked at Inverurie forplanned
engineeringworksasthe line is beingre-doubled.