Rail Operating Centre

File:66130 at Didcot.jpg

66130 is seen passing the TSVC/ROC at Didcot with an MoD service from Bicester. The ROC is the building on the left with the black Network Rail logo

A Rail Operating Centre (ROC) is a building that will house all signallers, signalling equipment, ancillaries and operators for a specific region or route on the United Kingdom's main rail network. The ROC supplants the work of several other signal boxes which will then become redundant. Network Rail announced the creation of 14 ROCs situated throughout Great Britain that will eventually control all railway signalling over the British Railways network. This has been revised to 12 ROCs with responsibilities at two (Saltley and Ashford) being transferred to other ROCs (Rugby and Gillingham respectively).

Nationally this will mean the removal of 800 mechanical lever signal boxes and around 200 Panel and IECC boxes. Some are listed buildings and will be left in situ.

The ROCs are being built under private contracts for Network Rail and as such will only apply to the rail routes controlled by Network Rail. Railways in Northern Ireland, various heritage railways and other tramways are not subject to control by an ROC. Ashford IECC will still control the UK stretch of the Eurotunnel Rail Link (HS1/CTRL).

The ROCs will function as signalling and control centres with signalling staff, Train Operating Company (TOC) staff and Network Rail controllers all working under one roof. This will enable quick solutions to signalling problems and less delays to trains and passengers. Network Rail envisage the 12 ROCs to be controlling the entire network by 2058.

Signalling History

Main article: UK railway signalling

Originally, the early railways employed policemen to time the intervals between trains and to give a 'stop' signal if a train had passed in the previous ten minutes. Developments led to many everyday workings (such as interlocking points) and signal boxes to house the levers that allowed signallers to change the points and signals over a given stretch of railway. These signalboxes were often elevated above the railway due to the locking mechanisms of the signals and points being accommodated on the lower storey. This also allowed the signaller to keep an eye on things from a good vantage point.

At the end of the Second World War, the United Kingdom network was host to over 10,000 mechanical lever signalboxes. When British Rail was created from the Big Four private railway companies under the 1947 Transport Act, they began to install Power Signal Boxes (PSB) at strategic locations such as Euston, Crewe, Doncaster, Rugby and Carlisle. The PSBs would remove the necessity for lots of individual boxes along a particular route and would pass control to one centralized location. Carlisle's PSB took over the responsibility of 44 signal boxes alone in the north west area.

A step on from the PSBs was the IECC, Integrated Electronic Control Centre, a forerunner of the ROCs. The first IECC panel was installed at London Liverpool Street in 1989.

When the railways in Britain were privatized in 1994, staff from the then operating company, Railtrack, paid a visit to the Union Pacific Operating Centre, USA in 1999. After viewing the facilities and seeing the control they decided that a handful of major operating centres was the way forward for UK operations. Just one centre was approved and built in 2003 at Saltley, near to Birmingham, as part of the West Coast Route Modernisation. However this building was not connected for some time and whilst it was used by Network Rail Staff, no signalling equipment was installed until 2006.

European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS)

Main article: ERTMS

Main article: European Train Control System

With the advent of the 'Digital Railway', signalling methods such as ERTMS have been adopted as a way forward by Network Rail. There are two components of ERTMS; ECTS - European Train Control System and TMS - Traffic Management system. Whereas lineside signals operated by a signaller would control train movements, ETCS will signal trains via a computer without lineside apparatus. In effect, the train creates its own 'buffer zone' through a digital signal transmitted from the cab. An onboard computer on the train will inform the driver of the 'allowable speed and movement of the train.' TMS allows delays to be minimised through a computer running algorithms and deciding how best to return traffic patterns to normal.

These systems mean the removal of traditional signalling infrastructure and the signal boxes that go with them.

Antecedents

York IECC (Integrated Electronic Control Centre) is an example of an early version of a ROC. York IECC was opened in 1989 and controlled a large region in Yorkshire bounded by Gargrave, South Emsall, Selby, Northallerton, Cottingley (Leeds), Bramley and the Harrogate loop . The ROC, which opened in York on 12 September 2014, superseded the York IECC in January 2015 and will eventually control the East Coast Main Line and associated lines in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire and the Humber and the North East of England. This means a Kings Cross to Edinburgh train will be signalled from York ROC all the way from Kings Cross to the Scottish Borders.

Saltley ROC will become a remote signalling centre of Rugby. The facility at Saltley was opened as a bomb-proof signalling centre for the West Coast Route Modernisation. However, the inability to achieve a workable Traffic Management System (TMS) without lineside signalling, meant an increased budget of £1.4 billion and the building became a white elephant. The structure was slowly integrated into an ROC function with signalling upgrades transferring responsibility to Saltley starting in 2006. Because the interlocking mechanisms are in place, they will be left at Saltley and operated remotely from the Rugby ROC. What Saltley cannot do, that Rugby can, is host the human space needed for the signallers and Train Operating Company (TOC) staff to work together.

File:Network Rail Regions 18 November 2015.png

Network Rail Regions map with Rail Operating Centres (ROCs) annotated. This representational only and is not to scale.

ROC locations

No	Region	Name	Date opened	Route	Notes
1		Ashford	1993	Kent	Responsibility for control of Ashford IECC will be divided between Three Bridges and Gillingham.
2		Basingstoke	April 2016	Wessex
3		Cardiff	24 October 2010	Wales
4		Cowlairs	December 2008	Scotland (West)	Was originally opened as the West of Scotland Signalling Centre (WSSC).
5		Derby	3 April 2008	East Midlands	Was formerly known as the EMCC (East Midlands Control Centre)
6		Didcot	March 2010	Western	Also known as the Thames Valley Signalling Centre (TVSC).
7		Edinburgh	1976	Scotland (East)	Originally opened as a PSB, then transferred to IECC in 2006.
8		Gillingham	1994.	Kent	Opened in 1994 as the East Kent Signalling Centre, but not used. Became Railtrack Archive.
9		Manchester	21 July 2014	LNW	Will control all lines in the north west in addition to West Coast Main Line from Crewe to Carlisle.
10		Romford	February 2015	East Anglia
11		Rugby	13 November 2015	LNW
12		Saltley	13 March 2003	LNW	First ROC Opened in 2003. Functions will be transferred to Rugby ROC by 2019.
13		Three Bridges	7 January 2014	Sussex
14		York	12 September 2014	LNE	Projected last signal box transfer on the network will be to York in 2056 when Morpeth box closes.

Benefits of the ROCs

Whilst the drive for the ROCs has been one of signalling upgrades, there are other benefits and detractions to the scheme. Around 4000 staff will lose their jobs over the course of the implementation programme leaving 2000 signallers in the ROCs. The benefits of centralised control will be that the Train Operating Company (TOC) staff will work alongside the Network Rail staff to allow cohesive problem solving such as resolving late running and last minute platform changes. Network Rail have said that 'The ROC is a key part of our strategy to improve reliability whilst driving down the cost of running and maintaining the railway.'

Acronym confusion

ROC is mostly referred to as the Rail Operating Centre. Even in Network Rail's own documentation it is sometimes referred to as a Railway Operating Centre. Some of the railway press have referred to them as Route Operating Centre and even Regional Operating Centre.

This issue is further clouded by Network Rail having another ROC, the Railway Operational Code and the signalling industry in the United Kingdom having a Remote Override Control.