Airtrack no barrier to Egham's signal controllers

Suddenly the people who control the barriers became the subject of scrutiny and abuse in letters and emails sent to the Herald & News and on web forums discussing the plans.

So was this abuse fairly aimed? Are the Network Rail employees really the scourge of the Egham's drivers, or just an unlucky scapegoat caught in the fallout of the Airtrack furore?

Stepping into the control room of the Area Signalling Centre in Feltham you wouldn't think the actions of four men in such a serene place could cause such ill-will behind countless steering wheels in Runnymede.

A huge display panel - an 'NX' panel I am told, meaning 'entry and exit' - fills one side of the room. Long chains of LEDs flash, CCTV monitors flicker scenes of level crossings, and the four signal controllers working today (Monday, November 9) move from their seats to the display panel and back with a casual, confident and almost silent efficiency.

Pushing buttons, flicking switches, changing signals and lowering and raising level crossing barriers.

Trains from Wimbledon down to Bracknell are controlled here, with many minor lines inbetween.

Network Rail's route director for the Wessex line, Richard O'Brien, said the work of the controllers was a fine balance between the priority of ensuring the safety of rail passengers and the need for punctuality.

The hold up of any traffic, was an unfortunate by-product and the controller's jobs are made a constant nightmare by 'crossing abuse' - drivers, cyclists and pedestrians who try and skip across before the barriers lower.

He said: "We get an incident of crossing abuse pretty much every day. Trains will run all year with no passenger fatalities but there have been fatalities at crossings this year already. Crossings are our biggest risk."

"We are in serious discussion with Airtrack to find a resolution to the barrier downtime problem - I think bridges are the only way.

"I live in Wokingham and I drive a car and get stuck at barriers often too, so I completely empathise with Egham's drivers."

Some people had speculated that perhaps an automated system might be more efficient, but Mr O'Brien said this wasn't the best alternative.

He said: "If you put a machine in, it would have to make the same decisions our operatives are making. The machine would not work to best possible scenarios like humans could, it would work to worst possible scenarios as it would be programmed to follow safety mechanisms.

"Plus the number of variables you would have to have a machine to deal with is too large. The guys here can see things on the CCTV screens and react to them."

Mr O'Brien added that statistically, the numbers of errors by the operatives, missed signals etc was 'fantastically small', less than a computer's margin for error he claimed, and this was due to them being able to rationalise what they could see on the display better than an automated system would interpret it.

Panel Three of the NX panel houses the Egham stretch of the line and was today being operated by 'Andy', who did not want his name disclosed.

Andy, who currently works the barriers around 75 times during an eight-hour shift, said the possibility of Airtrack going ahead would have little bearing on his job, but he appreciated how it would affect others.

He said: "We make doing the job look calm. But the thing is at the moment everything is running without problem.

"Airtrack means controlling more trains and nobody wants to do more work, but it comes with the job. To be honest if everything works well I think it will be pretty much the same as it is now. When things are working well, there's no problem.

"There is nothing worse than sitting at a crossing and not knowing where the train is. But if you're not in the industry then you don't appreciate what's going on behind the scenes."

The signalling centre at Feltham was built in 1974 and since then the capacity of the lines has been pushed to the limits as demand for more rail services has increased. Mr O'Brien added that as this increased into the future, bridges or underpasses would be the only viable option.

He explained: "In this particular scenario where the signals and crossings are so close together we have exhausted all the technological solutions available to us for dealing with it.

"We're at a bit of a stalemate where we have to find something alternative to cater for increased services as you can't leave it like this."