Event Details

Please join us for London & SE's section's AGM for 2022 and a technical presentation by Paul Thomas on East Coast Main Line's ETCS.

The London and South East section will hold their Annual General Meeting for 2022 which will be followed by a presentation on the East Coast Digital Program by Paul Thomas. The ECML is vital to the economic prosperity of the UK. The digital transformation of the whole of the East Coast Mainline (ECML) is a key part of a national opportunity for modernisation of the UK rail network. The East Coast Digital Programme (ECDP) at circa £1.8bn is the first programme within this ECML transformation. Transformation will be achieved through the introduction of European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) digital technologies to the Southern section of the East Coast Main Line. Seizing the opportunity presented by a significant signalling renewals work bank. This once in a generation alignment opportunity to upgrade its legacy signalling systems to unlock the opportunities presented by digital technologies to realise benefits. In its final configuration the ECML-S will operate as a Driver operated railway without lineside signals. The digital upgrade will implement the ETCS Baseline 3.6.0 applied in accordance with the UK National Digital Rail requirements in a no signals configuration. The programme is set up as an Industry Programme following a user lead approach to promote collaboration and buy-in across the industry partners. This presentation will consider some of the challenges faced by the programme and how the programme is set up to address these challenges.

Paul Thomas has over 30 years of experience in the engineering management and delivery of railway systems on rail, light mass transit, and main line railway applications in the UK and international. Successful engineering management and technical leadership of large complex infrastructure rail programmes comprising of multi discipline projects. Experienced Systems Integration practitioner over full lifecycle of rail projects. Paul has extensive experience of automation projects in both brownfield and greenfield applications. Paul worked on the Copenhagen driverless metro one of the first driverless metros in the world. Paul’s recent experience includes the Danish Signalling Programme, TfLs Sub-surface upgrade and Deep Tube programmes and phase 1 of the Copenhagen Future Rail Network project to convert the existing S-bane to driverless operation. Paul is the Technical Director for rail systems in Atkins and is currently leading the Engineering Management Office for the East Coast Digital Programme.

This will be an on-line presentation using gotoMeeting. All are welcome to join us - IRSE members and non-members.  Details will be sent before the meeting to those that register. Please register before 1700 on 19/5/22 via Eventbrite