Coronavirus: Network Rail asks former signallers to return to railways

[whole diary]

[CyclingSid]

Getting bored want to get out of the house more?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-52037523
Apologies if posted elsewhere already.

[SandTEngineer]

...and now:

Swindon Panel is back in Main Line Use!
                                                                                       
Swindon Panel Society and Didcot Railway Centre are proud to be helping Network Rail during this Coronavirus period. 

NR^» (Network Rail - home page) are making use of the preserved Swindon Panel in their preparations for train service delivery in the event of a shortage of signalling staff over the coming weeks and months.

Staff who have been in signaller roles in their past are being refreshed and assessed on their skills and competence to manage railway operating scenarios such as regulating trains, infrastructure failures, signals passed at danger, failed trains, etc.

All of these scenarios can all be created using the very high-accuracy simulator equipment fitted to Swindon Panel which makes all the controls and indications work in exactly the same way as they did when it main line operation.

(NR is also appealing for retired and even heritage railway signalmen to help.) 

It is a great testament to the restoration work done by SPS^▸ (Small Part Steel) volunteers that the panel is now being used by main line signallers again! SPS is happy to do its bit for the country and human kind to help keep vital rail traffic moving in this national emergency. Well done everyone!

[Electric train]

Part of my day job over the last 2 and a bit weeks, I along with many other colleges, have been working on the Domes Day scenarios of what to services, lines and stations to prioritise in the event of staff shortages due to Covid-19.

The plan is well developed and is in place now

[grahame]

Part of my day job over the last 2 and a bit weeks, I along with many other colleges, have been working on the Domes Day scenarios of what to services, lines and stations to prioritise in the event of staff shortages due to Covid-19.

The plan is well developed and is in place now

Thank you for that ... I have answered / commented onwards at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=23080.msg285421#msg285421 as there's been a bit of thread drift here!

[stuving]

Part of my day job over the last 2 and a bit weeks, I along with many other colleges, have been working on the Domes Day scenarios of what to services, lines and stations to prioritise in the event of staff shortages due to Covid-19.

The plan is well developed and is in place now

I don't know if it was apparent early last year, but the rail industry has a pandemic flu plan. It was last updated in October 2019, so someone at DRG Towers has a good, if short-range, crystal ball.

Mostly it's quite sensible, if necessarily vague. In this context "pandemic flu" covers a range of severity that includes that of Covid-19, and this plan is meant to be adapted for coping with other types of infectious disease.

The same is true for PHE's Pandemic Influenza Response Plan, such as it is. While you might expect that to deal with preparedness and coordination of other areas of society, it doesn't - it's mostly an internal PHE plan. And while it says PHE will be in contact with other bodies on public health issues, it doesn't deal with those outside the public health area. Certainly it doesn't mention railways.

To be fair though, there is more from .gov.uk on this sort of civil contingency planning, and pandemic lfl in particular. The section on transport says this:

Transport

Public transport operators aim to run as near to normal services for as long and as far as that is possible during a pandemic and their plans provide for emergency timetables, redeploying staff and operating revised working (shift) patterns, if required. Although the government is not planning to impose closure of transport hubs/facilities in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), all sectors may experience operational difficulties when the pandemic virus is circulating and staff absence levels are significantly higher than normal. The aviation sector may also experience difficulties if non-UK airports or airlines have operational problems or stop operating.

It then links to the DRG/NR^» (Network Rail - home page) plan already mentioned here.

I was looking for somewhere to put this, since it would have been ideal to have posted it around the start of the pandemic. This looks as good as anywhere.