The RailStaff Awards 2024

Nominations for Rail Team of the Year

Chloe Doyle

Said the following about Kilsby Delivery Team:

“Simon Clare, Project Manager, and the Kilsby Delivery Team have worked together for six years. Previously and normally known as the Purple Team from the CRSA Aston depot, the team transformed and became the Kilsby Delivery Team. The project could not have been completed without the team’s dedication, passion and enthusiasm to succeed.

At the time the team were doing night shifts to allow depot numbers to be reduced due to the COVID-19 crisis. When the work was handed over, the team rescheduled all their private lives to allow their hours to change to dayshift so they could attend start up meetings. The team then put together a number of plans to try and maximise the time they had in the blockade.

After the work had started the team were working round the clock to deliver but the planning didn’t stop there. Due to the unknown element of removing the existing drain overrunning by a couple of days, the team again regrouped to re-plan the close out of the works. This re-plan happened while the works were ongoing and allowed the total planned yardage to be complete.

For years, Kilsby Tunnel in Northamptonshire has been disrupting services impacting on the country’s infrastructure on the West Coast mainline, with drainage problems necessitating a temporary speed restriction, limiting trains that were meant to be travelling at 120mph through the tunnel to just 50mph, impacting passengers and operations.

The Covid-19 crisis meant a reduced number of trains operating across the UK, so colleagues in Balfour Beatty’s Rail business, Atkins and TSO working with Network Rail as the Central Rail Systems Alliance (CRSA), saw a less busy railway as a positive instead of a negative. And, with increased access to the railway, the team could finally come up with a plan to improve and enhance this stretch of track.

Previous attempts to mend a major drain inside the 2,224 metre tunnel which, at the time of its construction, was the longest rail tunnel in the world, were thwarted. It was too difficult to get the access that was needed due to its busy schedule and undiscovered problems with its drainage.

As mentioned, the CRSA’s Aston depot led on the proposal managed by Simon and his team, planning and then implementation, again changing rosters to suit the busy schedule.

When Covid-19 meant that a full two-week blockade could be achieved, the team got straight to work and came up with a full plan and mobilisation in under two weeks. Normally this kind of planning would take a year or more but knowing how key this work is to the route’s performance, our team worked around the clock to create a plan that was both safe and deliverable. Multiple reviews and tweaks were carried out and the final review was held on the 1st of May when the depot was given the go ahead.

A task such as this would be difficult enough in ‘normal’ times but with the added constraints of special measures and social distancing needed as part of the Covid-19 restrictions, getting the green light to undertake the works was a fantastic achievement.

The team drew on resources across the entire Alliance, leadership and engineers and all supply chains. Works included difficult drain and track renewals within the tunnel. The actual track possession was about 20 miles as a diversion was in place, so the opportunity was taken to do work in the area surrounding the tunnel at the same time with major improvements, taking place between Rugby and Milton Keynes.

The weekend prior to the start, the team went into the tunnel and did a site walkover to check the specs on the ground and to get the job marked up. There were the plant companies, the labour suppliers, signalling engineers, overhead line engineers and the track maintainer, along with Manta, the tunnel ventilation fan supplier.

Trial holes along the length of the drain were dug, to see to see how the two tracks were affected. Bringing everyone together gave the team confidence that they could deliver the infrastructure improvement work. The biggest unknown was the old drainage system, because the team didn’t know how difficult it would be to remove.

Critical component requirements included all the items needed to install the drain - the pipes and catch pits for example. These were placed on order with the manufacturer, Aqua, which changed its production schedule specially to accommodate this job.

The design scheme was based on works previously carried out in the tunnel. It was known that the existing drain was of concrete construction and that it could cause difficulties during removal. The team was encouraged by making rapid progress at first, when the first 100 yards went very smoothly until hydraulic peckers had to be used and, even then, progress became frustratingly slow.

It was time to regroup. Bar charts were modified. Contingency times were absorbed. Traincrew times were changed and all the companies involved were put on notice that shift arrangements were likely to be amended. A demolition job that should have taken three days extended to six.

Then the team came back strong and managed to deliver the impressive works quickly and efficiently. The work will now improve future journeys on Europe’s busiest mixed-use passenger and freight railway line, stopping tracks in the Kilsby Tunnel flooding during bad weather and making this key section of the West Coast main line more reliable for passengers and freight.

The speed restrictions have been removed so trains will once more be able to travel safely at full speed reducing passenger delays. This is great news for our country’s infrastructure as the route links to many more routes and destinations.

The team never said the work wasn’t possible and because of their dedication to improving the railway they have had a positive impact on our lasting infrastructure.“