Network Management Centre (WCRM)
Network Rail
Background
The modernization of the West Coast Main Line is one of the most significant engineering projects of the 21st century. The programme has delivered more train services with faster journey times. The Network Management Centre project was a major pillar in the development of railway traffic control. The project was to deliver a new command and control system to integrate signaling control, electrical control and operational management. It would provide key planning and support functions that would pro-actively route trains to improve performance. The new system would be operated from a new, state of the art control centre built in Saltley, Birmingham. From this centre the entire West Coast Main Line would be controlled. A joint project team was assembled with over 120 staff from Railtrack and the system provider, Union Switch & Signal.
Project
We provided the Human Factors Team to the NMC Joint Project Team. The project was one of the first significant implementations of Human Factors Integration in the UK railway.
Implementation
Our work covered:
Interface Development - the user interface work covered symbol development, trials to assess background colour, design & evaluation of screen navigation tools and the assessment of planning support tools such as the train graph. Much of the work was done using an NMC simulator in a CCD designed test facility.
Alarm Management - CCD implemented the West Coast Alert Strategy for the NMC project. Work included screen design, alarm prioritisation, automated presentation of information, alert text design and the design & specification of audible alerts.
Workload Assessments - CCD undertook workload assessments to predict necessary staffing levels and operator workload. The staffing levels study required CCD to develop a new methodology.
Safety Analysis - CCD provided the Human Factors expertise for the NMC HAZOP programme. CCD also undertook human error analyses looking at signaller dependency, use of large screen overview displays and a high level error screening analysis for the whole system.
Systems Engineering - CCD provided support to the NMC Systems Engineering team. This involved development of Target Audience Descriptions, task analysis to feed design documents and the HF review of system design and operational specifications. CCD also contributed to the development of the NMC Concept of Operations.
Outcomes
CCD was able to deliver a team of expert resource, embedded within a major multi-disciplinary systems engineering team. CCD's team provided a key linkage between the project operational advisors, the systems engineering function, safety engineering and the control system developers in the USA.
The NMC project set a bench mark for the use of human factors in the railway industry. It delivered key applied research on issues such as workload modelling, overview display usage and network control which have formed a basis for many future changes in the railway industry.