RAIL

The rail industry relies on safe and reliable design, construction, operation, maintenance, and management of railway systems and infrastructure, to transport passengers and freights to provide safe, efficient and sustainable transportation solutions. As well as this, they rely on accurate data for their operator and maintenance manuals.

Pennant has over 65 years of experience in the rail sector providing professional services in training, technical documentation and much more. Pennant has been involved in numerous rail projects, showcasing extensive experience and expertise.

 

Recognised Rail Industry Association (RIA) members, Pennant are ISO 9001 accredited and verified suppliers on the Railway Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme (RISQS).Many manufacturers still depend on outdated, manual methods for utilising and storing their data. Their current source can be multiple spreadsheets and uncontrolled Word documents. The existing tools and methods can be time-consuming, with many instances of content duplication.

Manufacturers realise the importance of intelligent, integrated content systems that can reuse and leverage data, thus saving time and money.

Investing in integrated content systems saves time and money by:

  • Quickly and easily configuring new models or variants.
  • Optimising maintenance procedures.
  • Streamlining your procedures.
  • Quickly producing user guides and other support documentation.
  • Reduces delivery time (manufacturer to customer)
  • Increases operational effectiveness and reduces downtime.
  • Increases maintainer and operator safety and skills.
  • It is cost-effective, easy to use and fast to implement.

Industry specifications such as Raildex (rail), Shipdex (ship) and S1000D (automotive) and technology supporting these specifications allow manufacturers and operators to obtain the many benefits detailed above.

Case Study #1

GTR ROUTE VIDEOS ON THE TRACK ACCESS PORTAL

Pennant – Track Access continue to work closely with Govia Thameslink Railway to capture and produce Driver Route Videos as a valuable tool to assist with learning and maintaining route knowledge.
 
Delivered via the Track Access Portal, the videos are available to all GTR staff whether in the office, at home or out and about, via any computer, tablet or mobile device with internet access. The Track Access Portal features drivers’ eye video synchronized to a scrolling driver map with clickable indexes to easily locate individual signals and stations.

Following a comprehensive update of the video footage through 2020 GTR now have over 110 hours of route video at their fingertips covering routes and depots across the Great Northern, Thameslink, Southern and Gatwick Express networks.

Case Study #2

DRIVER TRAINING FOR DURHAM COAST RESIGNALLING

Ongoing improvement works in line with Network Rail’s national operating strategy see the strategically important Durham Coast and Tees Valley Lines in the Northeast of England upgraded as part of the Durham Coast Resignalling Project. The project will see modernisation and improvements to signaling assets and control of project areas transferred to the York Rail Operating Centre (ROC) at commissioning, onto new Hartlepool and Middlesbrough workstations.

Pennant – Track Access were delighted to be chosen as suppliers of Driver Training material for the project which will be issued to all local operators for briefing of the planned upgrades to the affected drivers.

 
The Driver Training package produced included Pennant – Track Access’ industry recognised Driver Training Videos and Driver Map Books, each containing enough detailed information about the new signaling to fully equip drivers prior to the commissioning date.

Drivers eye video was collected at the start of the project and edited to remove the existing, redundant signaling, while all new signals and lineside signs were modelled and then superimposed on the video to show the intended end result of the resignalling. A 3D model of the new Horden Station, currently under construction as part of a separate project, was even included for ultimate realism.

A professional spoken commentary and on-screen information graphics were then added to provide additional information and the whole package was delivered online via the Track Access Portal (www.trackaccessportal.com) with printed map books and USB memory sticks provided for offline viewing.

Paul Spence, Senior Project Engineer (Signalling) for the Durham Coast Resignalling Project at Network Rail commented “I found the experience working with you and the Pennant – Track Access team, from arranging the video capture through to the final versions of the driver training material, extremely straight forward and efficient. Which resulted in a quality product at the end. All that despite COVID-19 causing disruption throughout most of that period!”

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT OUR WORK WITHIN THE RAIL INDUSTRY?

INDUSTRIES

Other industries

(Shipping, Nuclear, Space)