The Rail and Road Pod Episode 21: authorisations - giving the green light

Saj Chowdhury

Hello, I'm Saj Chowdhury, and welcome to the 21st edition of the Rail and Road pod. Now, when a station opens or new rolling stock hits the tracks. It can only happen once the Office of Rail and Road gives it the green light. This is called an authorisation. So in this episode, we'll learn about the processes required in order to get to the point of applying for authorisation and the role we play at ORR to help the applicants, such as those who oversaw the Brent Cross West project, London's newest mainline station. Before that, it's time to review what's been happening at ORR. So we gave approval to Grand Central for new services at Peterborough station. Our annual rail industry financial report showed that the sector is continuing to recover from the pandemic. We launched an investigation into the performance of Network Rail's Wales and Western Region, and the Consumer team's report into rail replacement buses found that improvements are needed. And speaking of authorisations, we gave the go ahead for the upgraded Gatwick Airport railway station and the opening of East Linton station in Scotland. These come after we gave the OK for Brent Cross West to open, which our civil engineer Cherry Lam oversaw. She shares her thoughts later. Her colleague Russell Keir will discuss the authorisation of rail vehicles. But first we hear from Giles Turner, head of interoperability and rail vehicle engineering, who gives an overview of this vital work.

Saj Chowdhury

Hi, Giles. Thanks for joining the podcast. So, can you give the audience a bite-sized introduction to authorisations?

Giles Turner

We authorise stuff to allow it to be used on the railway when it's been constructed, when it's been renewed or when it's been upgraded. And when I say "stuff", I mean rail vehicles, I mean stations, civil engineering structures, signalling systems, electrical power supplies - everything you see when you're out and about on the railway. We authorise things when they've had a major change. So if it's been newly built, if it's become life expired and been replaced, or if it's been subject to a major upgrade. Authorisation is part of the Interoperability framework, which exists to reduce the cost of railway things. It does this by setting standards and by defining the way in which the person making the change demonstrates that they've met the standards. And the point of this is it means that people aren't continually reinventing the wheel and trying to design things to a level that just isn't justified.

Saj Chowdhury

So is the ORR ever under pressure to meet authorisation deadlines?

Giles Turner

Deadlines are always a challenge. We have set our own target of four weeks for dealing with an application, and if an application is complete, then that should be fine. But if there is something wrong with the application, we could simply refuse it, but that would be quite unhelpful because it would delay the use of the bit of railway. So we engage with the applicant to try and work out what's wrong with the application, how they can put it right and that's when time starts to pass very quickly and the four weeks go very fast. And of course the applicant has often planned on the basis of the ORR four weeks and at the end of that they will be able to start using their new station, start using the new trains. So if there's any delay in that, then that can have an impact on the railway - the station is closed, train is not available, lines shut. Now part of that is the applicant not thinking what if we've got it wrong, but another part of it we can address by making sure the applicant is in a good position when they come to make an application.

Giles Turner

So what we do is we engage with applicants from a very early stage. We don't tell them what to do and we don't mark their work as they go along. We have no legal power to do that. But what we do is we ask them about key points. Have they done what we would expect a successful project to do at a given point? A particular example is identifying where they're not going to comply with a standard. We can't give people permission not to comply with the standard. We can't authorise something that doesn't comply with the standards. But it is possible for the Department for Transport or for the Rail Safety and Standards Board to modify standards or to give exemptions from standards so that we are able to authorise something that doesn't meet the full extent of the standard. And that might be because part of the standard is not relevant, that the project is doing something different such that it's not appropriate for them to use a standard. It's not a case of avoiding doing things, it's a case of using the right standards for the right things. Getting this modification to the applicable standards takes time.

Giles Turner

So you don't want to do that just before you apply for authorisation and we certainly don't want that to happen after the application has come in because it takes considerably more than four weeks. So that's the sort of thing we will ask a project about early on. Do you need any exemptions? Do you need any changes to the standard? If so, you should be thinking about it now, two years before you apply for authorisation, not four weeks before you apply for authorisation. Sounds obvious, doesn't it? But you'd be surprised the number of times that we have applications where this hasn't been resolved. So that's the sort of thing that we engage with the projects early on, so that by the time they apply, they've got all the ducks in a row. And the application itself is a perfect application, our assessment of it goes without any difficulty and we're able to give the authorisation within our four-week deadline, and that allows the applicant to use the bit of railway on the date that they want to.

Saj Chowdhury

Thanks, Giles. Now, Russell Keir is a boyhood rail enthusiast who went from playing with toy trains to now leading the process to allow vehicles to run on Britain's network. He explained to me what his role involves.

Saj Chowdhury

Hi, Russell. So tell me about your work in the team.

Russell Keir

One of my main roles here is the authorisation of new rail vehicles onto the Network Rail infrastructure. So this process involves the interoperability regime, which means that the trains and the locomotives have got to be compliant with the relative standards the organisation applies to us. To get authorisation, they get an assessment body to review their work and then I check that the process has been followed and they've done it adequately. I then put it forward to the signatory within the organisation to sign it off and the project entity gets an authorisation to run on the infrastructure.

Saj Chowdhury

What prompted you to move into this role at ORR? Have you always had an interest in trains?

Russell Keir

My background is, as a boy, I had a model railway just like every other child, but my family wasn't a railway family, so I was a wee bit weird that way. And I wanted to be in the railway and I was fortunate enough to get an apprenticeship. And from the apprenticeship I worked in diesel electric locomotives at Eastfield Depot in Glasgow. I then did a bit of industrial engineering overhead line, and an opportunity came up to join Her Majesty's Railway Inspectorate - and I applied and I was successful and got into the job. Started as a field inspector. I did RAIB recommendations handling. I've done some strategy and at the moment my career is taking me into rail vehicles.

Saj Chowdhury

Do you actually go and inspect the vehicles yourself?

Russell Keir

We can do. It depends on the complexity of the vehicle itself. So, wagons. We do a lot of wagons at the moment, but wagons are fairly simplistic in their approach. And then we get up to the more complex passenger trains and if there's new and novel things going on in these trains, it's good to go and visit and get an understanding of what's going on there and get the manufacturer and the operator to explain what they need, why it's there, what it does, so that we give the authorisation to something that we understand.

Saj Chowdhury

So, Russell, what authorisations have you handled?

Russell Keir

In the past year? We've had several wagons coming through. We've had an FEA-G wagon come through, we've also had some Hopper wagons.

Saj Chowdhury

Hopper wagons? What are they?

Russell Keir

Hopper wagons is exactly what it says it is. It's a wagon on a bogey with a kind of funnel on it, and these wagons open at the bottom and all the content flows out. So if you see track maintenance getting done when they're putting new ballast down in the track, you've got the hopper that sits on the wagon bed and then it lays the ballast by opening the bottom or the side and the ballast pours out. So it's just like a funnel? Just like a hopper. That's how it works. So we've had, in Wales, we've got CAF, which is a manufacturer, they've done the Class 197 vehicles, so they are now running in Wales. So we've had a Euro Scout 7 vehicle, which is an inspection vehicle, which that itself seemed unusual because it's basically a short wagon with a lot of technical stuff on it for inspecting the track. So we authorised the wagon, but all the content in the wagon, because it's all technical, is not part of that authorisation, but we've got to make sure the wagon holds all that technical stuff and operates safely and to the standards required on the infrastructure.

Saj Chowdhury

Thank you for that insight, Russell. Now then, Cherry Lam has been involved with the authorisations process of many major infrastructure projects, with Brent Cross West one of them. So she told me about her involvement in green lighting London's newest mainline station.

Saj Chowdhury

Hi Cherry. So tell me more about your role at ORR.

Cherry Lam

I'm a chartered civil engineer in railway planning and performance team. So before joining ORR, I used to be a civil and structural engineering discipline lead and designer of railway stations in the UK, Middle and Far East, so coming from a station designer background. I'm currently the asset discipline lead in ORR to hold Network Rail to account in managing its station depots and other operational buildings under the network licence. My other role in ORR is to review interoperability authorisation application for placing railway infrastructures into service - so they could be station track, bridges or tunnels.

Saj Chowdhury

So what authorisations have you worked on during your time at ORR?

Cherry Lam

So I have been involved a number of authorisation delivered by Network Rail, local authorities and also combined authorities. So last year we authorised the new station-entrance building and footbridge at Coventry station, delivered by Coventry City Council and we also authorised the widened platform at University station in Birmingham before the Commonwealth Games last summer, which benefited the Commonwealth Games visitors and University Station with more space to circulate safely. And recently we also authorised the new Brent Cross West station delivered by Barnet Council.

Saj Chowdhury

That leads neatly into my question about Brent Cross West. When did that process of engagement start?

Cherry Lam

We start engaging with the project in early 2021 when they had a clear scope of work, what they want to deliver for the new station. So during the engagement we seek to understand what project approach to apply authorisation, for example, a single authorisation or multiple authorisation submission, what the scope of work they are delivering and what are the critical milestones of the project in the process. This allow us to manage expectation in terms of authorisation requirement, the time frame and also the level of engagement between the project and ORR over time. For example, we would like to understand whether the project have engaged with independent assessor to gain confidence over their design compliance before they move to the next stage. Also whether the project have engaged with those people or stakeholders that could be affected by the proposed station. So these engagement activities actually help us to understand whether the project is moving to the right direction for the future authorisation submission to us.

Saj Chowdhury

Cherry, there must be some pride in you when you look at the projects that you've authorised?

Cherry Lam

Sure, like what I just talked about, like last year we authorised the wider platform in University Station before the Commonwealth Games. I think that benefits quite a lot of people, particularly the visitor in the Commonwealth Games and also the people at University Station using the station. And I think station is quite important in the network because they're actually joining people from place to place. The role ORR plays under authorisation regulation is quite important because that standard actually, for example, setting out the accessibility requirement for new stations or stations with major work taking place. So achieving compliance with those standards would make this station easier for the public to use. So I'm pleased that ORR's role under the authorisation process actually allow me to be part of the journey with the industry to improve the accessibility of the railway station for the passenger.

Saj Chowdhury

Thank you Cherry, and thanks to Russell and Giles for allowing us to peek into the world of authorisations. That's all for this podcast. Remember, you can catch up with our latest authorisations and also our other work in rail and road by visiting orr.gov.uk. And of course you can follow us on our social channels including X, which is formerly Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Thank you for listening.