Novel Swiss-style dedicated £10m rail control centre cuts delays on ScotRail's busiest route in Glasgow
Rail staff focusing solely on poorly-performing lines in new dedicated operation
Delays on ScotRail's poorly-performing busiest route have been cut since a new dedicated £10m command and control centre modelled on Swiss railways was opened in March, Network Rail has announced.
The track and signalling body said improved performance on the North Clyde and Argyle lines, which is used by more than 15 million passengers a year and handles nearly one in five ScotRail trains, had also reduced knock-on disruption across the Scottish network.
The Scotland-first North Clyde Service Delivery Centre at Yoker in the north west of Glasgow controls the “route”, which comprises the cross-Glasgow Argyle line through Central Station and the North Clyde line through Queen Street Station.
The centre covers the Argyle line as far east as Dalmarnock, and the North Clyde line, which it meets at Partick, between Drumgelloch, near Airdrie, in the east and Milngavie, Balloch and Helensburgh in the west.
Disruption on the North Clyde line can spread across the Scottish network because some of its trains run as far as Edinburgh, partly on a line shared with many other services.
The route handles 78,500 trains a year - up to 300-400 a day - and is part of Britain’s biggest suburban rail network outside London. It accounts for 17 per cent of ScotRail annual 89 million journeys and 12 per cent of its revenue.
Network Rail said punctuality on the route was at its highest for a year, although it remained lower than for the network as a whole.
The route’s “Scotland train performance measure” moving annual average - the official yardstick - increased to nearly 86 per cent of trains arriving within five minutes of time in the year to last Saturday, and was up 0.23 points since March.
However, it remains more than three points below the Scotland-wide figure of 89.6 per cent, which is also one point below the current target of 90.7 per cent.
The Office of Rail and Road regulator wants this increased to 92.5 per cent - a long-held industry goal - within two years.
Last month, delays per incident on the route reduced by 25 per cent, cutting the average time spent dealing with hold-ups from 12 to nine minutes.
Officials have put this down to staff at the centre being able to focus solely on the route, which was previously operated from the main Glasgow control centre near Springburn.
Network Rail Scotland director Ross Moran said: “We want to be super high performing on a critical route.”
He said it had followed a Swiss example because the country had the best-performing railway in Europe and its topography, weather and rail equipment was similar to Scotland’s.
Mr Moran told a rail conference in January: “In Switzerland, they operate key routes as railways within railways, which are single and contained, with all the components that contribute towards performance reduction brought together.
“We went over there, saw all this wondrous stuff and thought, what can we do in Scotland, and that led us to this concept, which we’re really proud of.”
Mr Moran said the North Clyde route was selected for the centre for its complexity and because “it does not perform well”.
He said the new centre had “state of the art railway traffic management systems and signalling equipment to monitor train movements and respond quickly to any issues”.
These will enable incidents to be dealt with faster, which have averted train cancellations that would have affected 900 passengers a month since April.
When lines have to be closed for repairs, they can now be blocked off from trains digitally, saving the need for staff to place warning signs beside tracks and the 200-year-old practice of laying detonators to alert train drivers if they strayed into a closed section.
The centre also has direct control of extreme weather response teams and dedicated staff at Hyndland Station, a key part of the network near Gartnavel Royal Hospital, a mental health facility, to minimise trespassers.
A Network Rail spokesperson said: “The early signs from the first couple of months is that it's working - it's a dedicated focus.
“It's so critical to focus on performance here as it can have knock-on impacts for the rest of the network.
“The centre is staffed by Network Rail and ScotRail colleagues who monitor train movements, manage incidents, coordinate responses and work closely with front line teams, such as our mobile operations managers ‘first responders’ and drivers, to keep services running safely and smoothly.
“Them being in the same room and focusing solely on the North Clyde means identifying problems faster, making decisions more quickly and getting services back to normal sooner when things happen.”
Mr Moran said: “With such a huge number of services passing through this part of the railway, even small delays can quickly escalate and affect other areas.
“That’s why resolving issues here quickly is key to keeping trains moving across the wider network.
“Focusing on this section of the network is already helping us respond faster and manage disruption more effectively.
“Ultimately, this will improve reliability for passengers and help build the confidence people need to choose to travel by train.”
ScotRail service delivery director Mark Ilderton said: “Bringing ScotRail and Network Rail colleagues together in this dedicated centre strengthens the way we work together, helping us deliver a more reliable railway for our customers.”
The centre’s success comes as a £20m project is underway to renew ageing overhead power lines on the route which date back to the 1960s when it was electrified to improve reliability.
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