Soon after 11am on Thursday 12th January a group of eleven AEC members and associates gathered near the entrance to platform 4 on Waterloo Station concourse. Once John Woods was satisfied that everyone he expected had arrived, he telephoned our host for the visit, Richard Davies, Company Operations Manager for South West Trains, to inform him that we were all present and looking forward to the tour of their Train Control Centre that he had offered us.
After John had introduced our group, Richard Davies introduced himself to us mentioning that, earlier in his career with BR, he had spent some time as Station Manager at Woking. As he led us to the Control Centre he asked me if we had met before. It turned out that his period at Woking was at the same time in the 1980s when the powerful slipstream accompanying trains carrying Ford Transit vans was causing severe disturbance to passengers, their luggage, push chairs and other equipment on the platforms. As a member of the Aerodynamics Section of the BR Research Department, I had been sent to lead an investigation into the comparative wind forces generated by various freight and passenger trains at Woking and at selected stations down the line to Eastleigh where the Ford trains loaded. In his position as Station Manager, Richard Davies had facilitated our use of anemometers and other measuring equipment on the platforms. It was good to meet him again after so many years and so much change in the railway organisation.
Our route from Waterloo concourse to the Control Centre took us via several short flights of stairs zig-zagging up to The Raft above the buffer stops and behind the advertising hoardings that now replace the old, chattering, falling domino effect train destination boards. We found the Centre to be an open plan office containing a surprisingly large complement of personnel. The reason for the number of people required became evident to us as the tour progressed. Richard Davies explained that the £2.5 million Waterloo Control Centre is the first of a new design of integrated control office in which the operating functions of the several companies involved in running today’s railway are brought together in one place. The aim is to assist communication and cooperation between staff and so improve coordination of their related activities. To enable this work the office is an Aladdin’s cave of computer screens, train arrival and departure screens, CCTV screens, telephones and other communications equipment.
Train operators for South West Trains have responsibility for overseeing the running of over seventeen hundred trains each day. Under its franchise agreement SWT is subject to penalties for failing to run trains on time as well as for train cancellations. The train operators’ function is to manage the trains and train crews available to them so as to provide a service as close to timetable as possible, thus minimising penalties. When trains are running out of course, some might need to be terminated short of their original destination or even run express, missing some of their normal stops, in order to regain the day’s timetable. Of course, great thought is given to planning such changes and causing the least inconvenience possible to passengers, sorry, customers, on the disrupted trains but the overall convenience of everyone travelling that day, not to mention any penalty consideration, is paramount. As well as communicating with station staff, the Centre can contact each of the train drivers and conductors on their mobile phone.
With responsibility for providing the track and signalling, Network Rail is closely involved with the train movements and so has its own representation in the Centre. It also is liable for penalties should it be responsible for train delays, such as signalling a slow train in front of an express. SWT staff in the office monitor all delays to determine the reasons for them with an eye on their company’s financial interests.
SWT engineers monitor the maintenance and other technical aspects of the trains in association with a representative from Siemens who have supplied the new Desiro trains and run the Northam Traincare Centre at Southampton. A passenger information team control the train departure screens and station announcements which are mostly pre-recorded but can go live when changes to service are made.
To one side of the corridor through the Centre is a part of the security team covering the SWT area but we were asked to walk past without pausing so as not block the passage way, details of this activity thus remain secure.
Employing about one hundred people, the Waterloo Control Centre operates round-the-clock with some thirty staff on duty. This proved to be a most interesting visit and our thanks are due to Richard Davies for arranging it and for his enlightening commentary during our tour. Thanks also to John Woods for making the contact.
Following the visit, nine of us walked over to The Royal Oak in Tabard Street, south of London Bridge Station, to enjoy their excellent lunch menu and Harvey’s of Sussex ale. The stalwarts then moved on to The Clarence, in Whitehall, for our AEC British Section monthly reunion.