Maintaining the 21st Century Great Western Railway - May 12th, Swindon

[whole diary]

[stuving]

There's an evening meeting next week in Swindon, with the above title. Details are:

Speaker Andy Chappell:

Joined BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) as a student and worked across the Western Region undertaking civil engineering and track roles.  At privatisation left the Western to work on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link for a few years before returning to join Amey managing their contracts to maintain the railway in the Thames Valley and Exeter/Plymouth.  When Maintenance was brought in house I was the Infrastructure Maintenance Manager for the West Country before becoming Infrastructure Maintenance Delivery Manager for Bristol.  In 2010  took up the role of being the primary Maintenance interface with all major projects on the Western Region (Crossrail, Reading, Electrification, Resignalling etc.)

(Assuming that's up to date, you'll have to promise to be nice to him. Mind you, he may be pretty battle-hardened by now.)

Title: "Maintaining the 21st Century Great Western Railway":

By late 2019 Network Rail will have invested approaching ^8bn upgrading the Western Route and facilitating the introduction of Crossrail services to Heathrow and Reading. Resulting in increased levels of services and 40% increase in passengers numbers.

GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) Electrification, major resignalling, introduction of Crossrail services and the deployment of 4 new types of IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project. This will offer more capacity on routes, save money, give a consistent and safe service and meet customer requirements. Intended to replace HSTs.) rolling stock will revolutionise Western timetabling and train services from 2015 onwards. Current (legacy) approaches to maintenance and operations will not cope with the new demands these place on the Western route by 2019, and some significant work has been completed to assess scope and next steps.

Place: UTC Swindon
Time: 19:00-20:30, tea etc. 18:30

Organised by the IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)), jointly with the IMechE.
The general public are welcome to attend this event.
Please all register through the IET website for catering purposes.
Use this link to the page where you can register and download a poster.

I was intending to go, but now it seems I'm having three root canals done that morning ... so maybe not.

[Electric train]

See what I can juggle out of my diary

[ChrisB]

Please decode UTC

[Western Pathfinder]

University technical college  the one in Swindon is part of Oxford Brooks IIRC^▸ ('if I recall/remember/read correctly').

[bobm]

It is just west of the railway station past the subway that takes you to the STEAM museum by the refurbished water tower 

David Cameron launched his manifesto there the other week.

[tomL]

Should be interesting. 

[JayMac]

Booked myself in.

Perhaps this could be an informal forum gathering. If you're going then say so here. Perhaps a pint afterwards...

[Chris from Nailsea]

I'd love to ... but, damn - I'm working. 

[JayMac]

David Cameron launched his manifesto

And may God bless her and all who sail in her.

[ChrisB]

Shame, I can't juggle my diary to fit this in.

[4064ReadingAbbey]

I've registered, so I'll be there. Trains home are a bit thin later, so I don't yet quite know what my plans will be.