December News Update

With many Xmas Commissioning Blockades fast approaching, we are continuing to support our customers in the lead up to the Xmas period that once again is anticipated to be a busy time for the rail industry. On the run up to Xmas 2018 we have seen a sharp increase in the demand for our signalling engineers as our customers work towards their Xmas commissioning targets. Over the Xmas period we anticipate that our staff will be working over 2,500 man hours alone.

Throughout December itself we have been busy supporting many signalling projects in the UK which will culminate in commissionings at Southall, Westbury, Redhill, Holloway, Willesden and Weaver. During these works our staff will be working on various signalling activities such as points installation, SMTH & SWTH testing, installation of various 4ft signalling equipment, location modification works and installation support for SWTH teams.

As we move into 2019 we look forward to cementing our customer relationships and to continue to provide what we believe is a first class service to the rail industry.     

RTIS complete York ROC works

In October 2018 RTIS were successfully awarded a direct contract to build 2 new bespoke location cases for the signalling ROC at York. This included all pre-testing and site installation works which formed part of the York Re-control Project. The York Recontrol project required 8 IECC workstations (including the SSM workstation) to be be relocated from the present York IECC building, into the new York ROC building. The control point for 2 MCB-CCTV level crossings, currently on the Leeds North West workstation desk, were also  re-located, with appropriate interface circuity provided to connect the control panel now to be in York ROC to the respective SSI TFMs remaining in the old York IECC building.

RTIS Activities undertaken as part of the works included:

•Management and supervision of all signalling works

•Input to overall project WPP, Task briefing and HSQE documentation

•Fabrication of 2 x new bespoke signalling location cases

•Full TC2 pre-testing of location cases

•Installation and termination of new cables in York ROC

•Termination of bespoke cables onto MODBUS terminals

•Additional works working on ROC racks and bespoke terminations   

•Installation support for test & commissioning

•Project Handback •

RTIS would like to congratulate the following members of staff who worked on a very successful project: Keith Hall, Ian Bradford, Joe Newton, Sat Bhogal, Paula Ragebe, Kriston Abbott, Sam Dunning Blake, John Marshall and Paul Hills.       

October update

Throughout October we still remain extremely busy delivering our services to both mainline and LUL infrastructures. During this period we have once again performed with a zero accident/incident rate, along with positive feedback on our S&T teams which has led to repeat and continuous works.

During October we have also been busy with our own project works at Camden, York ROC, Worcester Parkway, various Cable watching SMTH sites and RCM survey works. We remain approved to work for 34 companies in the rail sector which gives us an excellent footing for CP6 for customers or projects requiring support with maintenance, new signalling installation works, SMTH/G110, Test & Commissioning, safety critical, civils, electrical and lump sum project works.  

We continue to be pro-active in booking many of our staff on SWL1 conversion courses to enable our staff to work as stand alone teams and additionally we have continued with our  re-fresher programme of manual handling, working at heights, SPWEE and first aid training. What is pleasing is that through training and site experience we now have many assistant installers ready with enough evidence to begin processing for their IRSE installer licences, which enhances our capabilities and continues with the ethos of our business of creating signalling engineers for the future.  

RTIS confirmed as Colas Rail's No 1 performing S&T supplier

We are pleased to announce that we have been confirmed Colas Rail’s “number one” S&T supplier for all Period 5 works, whilst at the same time becoming their number one “overall” S&T supplier for 2018-2019. The recognition as number one S&T supplier covers all areas of Colas Rail’s Plain Line and S&C works that are undertaken in the Western, Kent, Wessex, Anglia and LNW routes. 

The results are extremely pleasing and are calculated on a monthly basis on a supplier’s ability to supply resources, site performance, number of site visits undertaken, conforming to Colas PPE regulations, reporting of close calls / near misses, exceedances and a supplier’s ability to be flexible with their resource pool. To date we have covered over 35,000 man hours of site works and by adopting heavily into Colas Rail’s safety values, this has been undertaken with zero major incidents or accidents.

Simon Jamieson RTIS CEO said: “The achievement of becoming Colas Rail’s number one supplier for S&T is a real feather in our cap. This is a genuine all round achievement for our business, with everyone from our Ops team to our on track IRSE signalling engineers all providing Colas a first class service. We hope to continue in the same vein for the remainder of the 2018-2019 period, and look to build on this recognition with the further opportunities that Colas Rail present to us.”

New works success for RTIS

Once again through August we have steadily continued to deliver a high volume of signalling and labour works across a number of different customers. As we come to our financial year end it is pleasing to announce that we have seen a significant increase in our annual turnover figure from 2016/17, with 5 new customers also being added to our work base.

A good start to our new financial year is a package of works that we will be conducting in the Sussex/Wessex areas. This is the survey of some 240 signalling assets to assess the capacity for installing Remote Condition Monitoring equipment. This package of works includes all management, SSOW planning, site delivery, record keeping and document control of these works.   

On the RTIS staff front we welcome back Keith Hall who joins us in a Signalling Engineering Manager role. Keith will be responsible for delivering and tendering signalling project works, as well as providing his expert knowledge to our customers as required. Keith has been in the rail industry for over 17 years and rejoins RTIS from Colas Rail where he mainly managed works on the Wessex Capacity Alliance Scheme amongst many others. Also joining us is Ian Radford, who with his experience will be taking up a SMTH team leader role with the knowledge he has in many different signalling and points systems.   

Congratulations go to Nic Munro and Phil Prior for achieving their SWL1 competency and Bradley Thompson for passing EBI 200/400 installation courses.

In addition to our current workload, we are also busy working on a number of tenders for both our civils & signalling customers, which if successful, will strengthen our order book as we move later on into 2018/19.