Westinghouse awarded Reading Contract

Westinghouse awarded reading contact

Westinghouse Rail Systems, part of Invensys Rail Group, has been awarded a
contract worth in excess of £20 million by Network Rail to undertake signalling
enabling works at Reading Station.

This represents the first stage of the £425m Reading Redevelopment Project. One
of the major hubs in the rail network, Reading Station is a crossroads for both
mainline passenger traffic from London to the West and Wales and for cross country
and freight services to the North and South. The current configuration means that
traffic is often delayed – a situation which can only be addressed by a re-modelling of
the tracks and station layout, with new and extended platforms and an elevated track
to untangle the lines. Once complete, the whole project will provide capacity for an
increased number of trains and faster journey times as well as providing significant
improvements to the station for passengers.

The 30 month programme of signalling enabling works starts this month. Over a
series of 12 commissionings, Westinghouse will re-lock the existing Reading Station
and Spur interlockings to three new WESTLOCK units, re-control the remaining 18
relay interlockings and move signalling and telecommunications control from Reading
Station to the new Thames Valley Signalling Centre at Didcot. The work culminates
in a final commissioning, scheduled for 5th December 2010 and paves the way for
future stages of the remodelling programme.

Critical to the selection of WESTLOCK was Network Rail’s requirement for the
enabling works to be non-disruptive and for the chosen technology to allow future
migration to ERTMS signalling solutions. WESTLOCK is a high capacity, ERTMSready
interlocking solution with proven performance both in the UK and mainland
Europe. Each unit provides three times more capacity than a Solid State
Interlocking, providing headroom for future expansion and delivering significant cost
savings compared to conventional technology.

Commenting on the award of the contract, Mark Wild, Westinghouse’s General
Manager, Core Markets, said: “Naturally we are delighted to have won this contract in
the face of stiff competition. We have already successfully delivered a number of
similar projects, including St Pancras and Edinburgh Waverley and we are in the
latter stages of the Glasgow Central project - our dedicated project team is now
looking forward to working closely with Network Rail to deliver this critical
programme”.

The contract gives Network Rail the option to increase and extend the scope of
Westinghouse’s work into the subsequent remodelling phase of the Reading
Redevelopment Programme. The whole scheme is jointly funded by Network Rail,
the Department for Transport and Reading Borough Council, with the main
programme of works scheduled to run from 2010 to 2015.