05 Jun Supporting Walsall to Rugeley Electrification
Network Rail’s £100 million project to electrify the Chase Line, between Walsall and Rugeley Trent Valley, was completed in May 2019 when the first electric trains entered passenger service. The project created a new diversionary route for the West Coast Main Line, as well as allowing the introduction of quieter, longer trains providing faster and more frequent passenger services to Birmingham and London.
Ricardo Rail was retained to guide the project through the safety approvals process, in accordance with the Common Safety Method for Risk Evaluation and Assessment (CSM-RA). We supported Ricardo Rail with identifying hazards, managing the Hazard Record and producing safety documentation at key stages. A key challenge to the project was managing the inter-dependencies between the electrification scheme and parallel projects to extend the platforms and increase the line speed. As always, on electrification projects in the UK, achieving the required clearances between the Overhead Line Equipment (OLE), adjacent structures and passengers/staff on platforms was a particular challenge and required multiple design iterations across all three projects.
See Network Rail’s website for further details of the project.