The increasing complexity of train control and communications systems, and the growing extent to which they are integrated with other railway sub-systems, makes a structured systems-based approach to engineering essential. A basic grounding in the discipline of systems engineering is now a vital component of the education of train control and communications engineers.

In this seminar, organised with the help of of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), expert speakers will explain why systems engineering is so important, what the fundamentals of systems engineering are and how these fundamentals may be applied to train control systems projects, illustrated with case studies from ETCS in Europe, Docklands Light Railway and elsewhere. The seminar will consider the people, process and product aspects of systems engineering, and in facilitated break-out sessions we will discuss the challenges and benefits of applying systems engineering to railway projects. In addition to hearing from the experts, there will be an opportunity, in facilitated breakout sessions, for delegates to discuss the challenges and benefits of applying systems engineering to railway projects and to contribute to the debate on how best to apply SE to train control and communications projects.

The seminar is suitable for railway  train control and communications engineers and other railway professionals with an interest in train control  and communications at all stages of their careers.

Register to attend

For more information and to register please visit the IRSE website event page: http://www.irse.org/events/Lists/Calendar/DispEvent.aspx?List=dce14d1c-69ec-4c8e-b381-70b8e5cfdda6&ID=433

Programme

8:30 Arrival / Coffee
 

9.00 Welcome and Introductions – Francis How, IRSE
 

9.10 Keynote Presentation: Network Rail’s view on System’s Engineering – Jon Shaw, NR

Jon will outline the systems engineering approach now being adopted by Network Rail for its £24Bn Railway Upgrade Plan for stations and infrastructure enhancements

9.40 What is Systems Engineering? – Bruce Elliott, Altran

Bruce will briefly review the history of SE before summarising the view of SE taken by the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE). He will acknowledge the existence of superficially different views about what SE is but he show that there is very broad underlying agreement on some core ideas

10.10 Break
 

10.40 Docklands Light Railway – Geoff Mitchell, DLR and Karl King, Mott MacDonald

Geoff and Karl will explain the importance and value of systems engineering in the delivery, delivery and continual asset management of a modern CBTC system using the Docklands Light Railway as an example.

Particular emphasis will be placed on the importance of a clearly defined Concept of Operation and its central role in the system lifecycle.

11.20 Beyond Systems Engineering in European ETCS Rollout – Oskar Stalder, OS Consulting and Markus Bolli, Suprexa

Oskar and Markus will discuss the practical challenges of the V-model considering roles and rules in the EU context to make ETCS a success. They will look at the challenges of managing the complex organisation approaches and management of the multiple engineering processes as well as experiences of different networks and their specific approaches throughout Europe, including how Systems Engineering can help to overcome these challenges.

12.00 Breakout Session: What are the potential benefits of Systems Engineering for signalling projects and what are the obstacles to applying Systems Engineering to signalling projects?

Split into syndicates of more than 10 people, each with an organizer acting as a syndicate facilitator. The facilitator should guide the group towards accumulating on a flip-chart or post-its, three lists:

• potential benefits of SE for signalling projects
• obstacles to applying Systems Engineering to signalling projects
• other remarks

The facilitator consolidates the results from the syndicates onto a couple of slides

12.40 Lunch
 

13:30 Review of breakout session

We reconvene as one group. The nominated facilitator presents the consolidated output and facilitates a short general discussion to see if consensus can be reached on the principal benefits and obstacles.

14:00 Systems Thinking for Optimising Signalling Design – Clive Roberts NS Felix Schmid, University of Birmingham

The design of railway control systems involves many trade-offs and rule-based approaches tend to lead to suboptimal solutions since they do not make best use of all components of the system of systems. A number of national and international projects have developed system oriented modelling and simulation tools that allow optimisation at different levels of granularity. Clive and Felix will discuss the capability of some of the tools and will include case studies of small and large operations optimisation projects.

14.40 Good Practice in Systems Engineering – Peter Parker, Siemens Rail

Peter will present on examples of good practice of utilising systems engineering for delivering modern signalling systems from the perspective of an equipment manufacturer and supplier.

15:20 Break
 

15:50 Human Factors of Railway Systems – Elaine Thompson, Mott MacDonald

Elaine will cover the importance of integrating human factors into the design of railway sub-systems, and the risks of not considering the human element. Some case studies of previous work on both the in-cab and train control elements of the system will be presented.

16.30 Conclusions 
 

16.50 End / Networking
 

Register to attend

For more information and to register please visit the IRSE website event page: http://www.irse.org/events/Lists/Calendar/DispEvent.aspx?List=dce14d1c-69ec-4c8e-b381-70b8e5cfdda6&ID=433

Click here to register via Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/eating-the-elephant-reference-design-for-etcs-tickets-25040493791

Introducing the European Train Control System (ETCS) to the GB rail network is a challenging task with so many stakeholders to satisfy and European legislation to follow. Most people assume that since the system is defined at the European level then it should be a case of buying it, plugging it in and off you go. The reality is that it is designed to operate in many different situations and is continually being developed to meet the needs of the European industry.

The variety of solutions available and already implemented leads to misunderstanding and misconceptions of how the system will operate. The lack of clarity means that it is hard for the various users to establish what they want, what they need and what they can afford. It also leads to high expectations with politicians and government believing the “hype” and then being disappointed when it cannot be fulfilled.

Network Rail, on behalf of the industry, have been analysing how to apply ETCS to establish the requirements using a process known as the Reference Design. The process has been around dividing the problem into manageable chunks, undertaking analysis, collaborating and eating that elephant a bit at a time – bring your knife and fork!

Please click here to register via Eventbrite:
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Please click here to register via Eventbrite: 
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/delivering-the-rts-applying-systems-thinking-for-technology-development-tickets-25040638223

In 2012 the Rail Technical Strategy (RTS) for the UK rail industry was published.  This landmark document set out a 30 year vision for the railway that is radically different to today.  What has been happening in the intervening years and how can the RTS vision of a high capacity, low cost, sustainable railway become a reality? 

RSSB and Network Rail are working together on behalf of the railway industry to apply whole systems thinking to the delivery of the RTS - by combining R&D and technology demonstration programmes together, from a variety of domains, to develop new capabilities for the railway.  

Many challenges lie ahead including: aligning the industry in the development of system-wide capabilities; engaging the supply chain in developing the required technologies; and identifying opportunities to deploy new technology into the railway.

Trevor Bradbury is the Rail Technical Strategy Delivery Manager for RSSB.  Trevor’s role is to work with the industry to translate the Rail Technical Strategy into deliverable programmes. Trevor will look back on existing accomplishments, set out the latest thinking and the prospects for the RTS going forward.

Please click here to register via Eventbrite: 
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/delivering-the-rts-applying-systems-thinking-for-technology-development-tickets-25040638223

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Network Rail (NR) Infrastructure Projects Engineering function (IP‐ENG) was established in January 2016 to improve and provide consistency in engineering leadership and assurance, responding to the lack of a whole systems approach to engineering across NR IP.

Kevin Gedge, Systems Engineering Discipline Manager, will introduce the development of the IP-ENG function of 1,500 engineers, embedding Systems Thinking and Engineering practice through policy, standards, and SE competencies.

Kevin will also introduce Network Rail’s integrated engineering lifecycle (iELC) with its approach to engineering assurance to address key project delivery risks including:

• Inadequate requirements management and governance
• Lack of scalable end to end engineering processes
• Lack of integrated engineering approach and SE interfacing with the supply chain

iELC introduces a configurable phased lifecycle approach, which aligns with the policy for management of Network Rail projects (GRIP), ISO/IEC15288:2015 as well as improving integration between engineering and non-engineering activities and alignment with the collaborative working approach introduced within Building Information Management (BIM).

Arrive from 17:00 for a 17:30 start.

Click here to register on Eventbrite

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The railway system is continually developing and changing. In long-established infrastructure systems, like the railway system of Great Britain, development is often complex. Innovation in these systems is both important and difficult to understand; it comes in many forms and through many different routes. This presentation is on research into how mature infrastructure systems develop and change; using social science theories on socio-technical systems the case of Great Britain’s railway system is examined. Privatisation of this system, initiated outside the railway system, has led to a series of different organisational arrangements directing system operation and development over a relatively short period. Examining these developments using socio-technical systems theories highlights ways in which innovation can be, deliberately and unintentionally, shaped and it shows connections between the social and the technical forces in play. Reflecting on privatisation and its aftermath can provide lessons for directing future development in the railway system. Improved understanding of processes around system development can be valuable to both practitioners and policymakers concerned with generating, or responding to, innovation.

Dr Kat Lovell is a Research Fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex. Having trained in Engineering, Kat began her work on railways as part of a project on railway systems within the Rail Research UK consortium. This work inspired her PhD in Innovation Studies at Imperial College Business School researching the case of privatisation of Great Britain’s railway network. Kat’s research at SPRU is part of two interdisciplinary and interuniversity projects on UK infrastructure: International Centre for Infrastructure Futures (ICIF) where Kat’s work looks at business models for infrastructure development and ITRC-MISTRAL (Multi-scale Infrastructure Systems Analytics) researching infrastructure governance and development at different scales. Kat’s research focuses on infrastructure systems and how they change and for the future she is working with SPRU colleagues to develop ideas around inclusive infrastructure.

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Here is something new: a site visit, in this case the systems integration laboratory where the Thameslink project is integrating and testing new ETCS and ATO technology in a simulated rail environment in Southwark. There will also be an opportunity to learn about the other phases of testing in the Hertford Loop and in the Thameslink core. We are grateful to Network Rail for the opportunity to explore the right hand side of the 'V' lifecycle and to demonstrate that it is possible to get one's hands dirty with more than whiteboard marker ink while doing systems engineering.

Please note the slightly non-standard start time.

Oliver Bratton is Operations Director, European Business, for MTR Corporation Ltd and will provide his personal point of view about how systems thinking may be used to leverage rail technology to get the best outcome for passengers.

If you are thinking of coming along, do try and get there at 1730H for for AGM. Our AGMs are quick and low-peril - no-one gets dragooned onto the committee - but they are your opportunity to hold us to account. If you might want to join the committee, however, we should be pleased to hear from you in advance - give me a call.

It is a particular pleasure to welcome Nigel back. We have had a few presentations on the modelling work going on at Network Rail and each presentation adds real progress and new ideas to the one before. Not only has each been fascinating in its own right, the progression has made me feel more optimistic about the world. I commend Nigel's presentation to you. If you want to attend, there is no charge but please book your place by emailing me at at bruce.elliott@arbutus-tc.co.uk.

The RIG always likes to hear back from projects that we have heard from before and find out how the story continued. This will be a fascinating opportunity to get an update on a project that we already heard about. Further details are provided in the flyer attached.

Bookings are now open. To book, obtain directions or for any other questions, please contact me at bruce.elliott@arbutus-tc.co.uk or on +44 (0)7970 694043.

Eddie will describe how a systems architecture is being constructed and used on the HS2 project to identify all high level interfaces and to align activities concerned with RAM, safety, requirements, commissioning and overall systems demonstration and assurance. For more details see the flyer attached.