The RailStaff Awards 2024

Nominations for Rail Team of the Year

Ebony Soltani-James

Said the following about LInbrooke Thameslink Delivery Team:

“Aiming to design, develop and deliver a high capacity infrastructure scope to support the introduction of new Siemens Class 700 trains, Linbrooke were selected by Network Rail to design and install 225 new CIS displays across Blackfriars, City Thameslink, Farringdon and London St Pancras stations; the objective being to provide passengers with more comprehensive information regarding their train departures than the previously existing systems. With our group redefining the word ‘team’, they worked together seamlessly to provide an innovative, full turnkey delivery from the design and installation through to the test, commission and hand-back into service.

Placing safety and collaboration at the foundation of our planning and delivery, we integrated with our clients, stakeholders and delivery partners, including Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), Network Rail, Worldline, Infotec and the London Underground, to ensure that we were all unified in the journey towards our common objectives.

Project Manager Kayley Baxter stated that “the project was a challenging, rewarding and innovative one, and our whole team conquered every issue that arose – including re-designing the Grip 4 part of the works! They were thorough, dedicated and conscientious – a perfect combination!”

As London St Pancras is one of England’s busiest stations, with 24 hours a day passenger access, it was essential for us to develop a schedule to work within several mixed access arrangements and possessions – including night shifts – both underground and over ground, to ensure minimal passenger disruption and a mitigation of health and safety risks for passengers.

Our planning of the works at Farringdon station was also particularly challenging as we were not only dealing with the added requirements of an LUL managed station, but we were also contending with a limited amount of pre-programmed possessions imposed on Linbrooke from the outset. The result being the execution of the planned works resulting in minimal traveller interruption and an alleviation of health and safety risks for both passengers and workers.

As the first implementation of these CIS screens, the project success has provided the industry with a pioneering example of how to contribute to the further modernisation of the railway and increase journey efficiency. The equipment and methodologies utilised have also further contributed to the aesthetic uniformity of stations on the Thameslink line.

With our Linbrooke team helping to effectively streamline the Network Rail and Thameslink passenger boarding service, Network Rail stated that ‘continuity and competence of the project team remaining unchanged for 18 months eased the communication and delivery of the project by Network Rail and Linbrooke, due to the project management team and site staff.’

Further benefits we provided include:

• Operational expenditure savings

• Increased throughput and capacity

• Improved staff and customer experience

• Reduction in overcrowding on the platform, within the train carriages and around the station information desks“