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[29 October 2007] The Railway Engineers Forum (REF) is a multi-disciplinary body drawn from the professional Institutions with strong railway interests. The members are the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), the Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET), the Institution of Railway Operators, (IRO) the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE), the Permanent Way Institution (PWI) and the Railway Civil Engineers Association (RCEA). The REF provides informed professional comment on railway issues both in response to government and transport industry proposals and to matters of more general concern.

It is currently chaired by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

The REF agreed a joint response to the Technical Strategy, which was issued in parallel with a response to the White Paper. All of the member Institutions therefore agreed with the main points made in the submission, and publishing the precise submission is not allowed under Select Committee rules. However, as members you should know what is being said on your behalf, so we digest the main points below.

Summary

The stance we have taken is essentially that taken by the Railway Engineers Forum. The forward commitment and the schemes supported (with the recent addition of Crossrail) will make a huge positive difference for a growing railway. However, the country needs more than a Sustainable Railway if it is to meet its Carbon reduction targets. It needs what Europe defines in its plans as Sustainable Mobility. How can we (the professional Institutions) help the industry deliver what is now planned, and more, at less cost?

1 GENERAL COMMENT

1.1 The Railway Engineers’ Forum supports the Railway Forum comments on the main document: 

• It welcomes the recognition of both current and future railway expansion. 
• It welcomes the extent of forward planning and funding certainty that the HLOS and the SOFA represent for the industry. 
• It welcomes the government commitment to growing railway capacity at its current rate and the £15bn of support over the next control period. 
• It welcomes the removal of specific bottlenecks at Reading and Birmingham New Street stations and the provision of an additional 1300 passenger vehicles over the next 5-7 years. 
• It particularly welcomes the commitment to Thameslink and the now similar energy behind the Crossrail project. 
• It also welcomes the concept of the Strategic Freight Network as a good opportunity to raise capacity by traffic segregation, and expand rail freight. 
• It welcomes the commitment to continue funding for research aimed at improving the safety and cost-effectiveness of the railway.

1.2 The Forum also accepts the government’s long term plan, described as, “increasing capacity, improving customer experience and fulfilling the railways environmental potential, tackled alongside the permanent priorities of safety, reliability and cost” (p 137).

1.3 However, the Forum is concerned that there is still no precise connection between the Government targets on Carbon Dioxide reduction (a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030 and 50% by 2050) and the White Paper. What the country needs is described in European documents as “Sustainable Mobility”. This is a wider need than “A Sustainable Railway”, bearing in mind that rail currently only contributes a tiny fraction of the UK transport carbon emissions. To reduce these emissions the country needs joined-up policies on land use, planning law and energy generation, as well as rail friendly inter-modal transport policies.

2 THE PLACE OF RAIL

2.1 Rail is not good for all traffics, but cannot be matched as the sustainable transport mode for high density high volume flows between nodes, be they freight or passenger. For rail to “fulfil its environmental potential” we need policies that promote modal transfer to rail and provide the capacity needed to meet it. There is no real sign of provision on this scale in the White Paper, or any policy to create suitable flows and modal shift in the governments approach.

2,2 The Railway Engineers Forum therefore judges the White Paper, the HLOS and the SOFA on the basis of what it sees as the needs for sustainable mobility, not what is good for rail in isolation.

2.3 The main measures that the Railway Engineers Forum see as necessary are as follows. Examination of the White Paper suggests that the items in bold italics are at present missing from declared government plans:

1. A framework of incentives to encourage rail use in high capacity corridors.
2. Significant capacity provision to manage modal shift from road/air to rail.
3. A rail based strategy for internal UK journeys that reduces short haul flights over land and transfers airport capacity to long-haul operations.
4. Measures to inform users of the full cost of their modal choices related to each journey.
5. Full external costs and benefits included in transport project evaluation.
6. Planning framework protecting rail from additional environmental project costs, to encourage traffic transfer from more damaging modes.
7. Further development of attractive and competitive rail services dealing with all journey aspects of stations, interchanges, information systems and vehicles.
8. Local land use policies to integrate transport services.
9. Development of the key modal interface, that between the car and the train.

10. Measures to optimise capacity using the existing railway infrastructure.

1. Longer trains 
2. 7 day railway operation 
3. Maximum segregation of rail traffic types  
4. Improved signalling systems incorporating junction optimisation differential speed control, and traffic management 
5. Station layout improvements 
6. Action to reduce “pinch points” and speed restrictions 
7. Reduce the incidence of flat junctions through grade separation 
8. Timetable and service simplification

11 Continuous improvement in the environmental performance of trains.

12 A continuous programme of further electrification aimed at: 

1. Delivering electrification cheaply 
2. Reduced fossil fuel dependency 
3. Transport gain from reduced emissions in electricity generation 
4. The reliability, reduced operating cost and cleanliness of electric trains

13 Research into the application of hybrid and fuel cell technologies to rail.


14 Use of appropriate modes for relevant traffics 

1. Light rail/metro systems for high density flows in cities 
2. Utilisation of bus/road for low density, distributive flows