Alstom wins major signalling contract

Alstom has won a £69 million contract to deliver Phase 5 of the Victoria Area Re-signalling Programme for Network Rail.

The announcement for the delivery stages (GRIP 5-8) of Victoria Phase 5 follows the successful completion of the £37 million Phase 4, awarded in March 2021.

Phase 5 will see Alstom providing signalling upgrades in the London Victoria area over three years, with this phase going live in December 2024. The ambition is for new technology to deliver a more reliable, lower cost and easier to maintain system, bringing greater efficiencies and improvements to help keep passengers and freight services moving. The works will particularly benefit passengers and freight services travelling between Battersea, Brixton, Herne Hill and the Catford loop by improving service reliability on the network.

Network Rail’s Three Bridges Rail Operating Centre (ROC) will control 302 new signal equivalent units (SEUs), 494 new axle counters, and 82 new Train Protection Warning System (TPWS) units linked by 86,500m of signalling cable. The project forms part of the Major Signalling Framework Agreement (MSFA) for the Southern Region which Alstom won in 2020. 

Jason Baldock, Alstom’s managing director, Digital & Integrated Solutions said: “Passengers can look forward to a more reliable railway across the South London area. The improvements Alstom bring through Victoria 5, when combined with our existing Victoria 4 project, means that we can continue to realise our commitments in the Major Signalling Framework Agreement (MSFA). Our ‘one team’, collaborative and trusted relationship with Network Rail, allows us to openly share lessons learned and returns on experiences from one project to the other; enabling an efficient and cost-effective programme for Network Rail, while deploying the latest in digital technologies”

Jamie Foster, senior programme manager at Network Rail said, “The award of this GRIP 5-8 contract for Victoria Phase 5, the next major phase of the wider Victoria Area Re-signalling Programme, marks both end and beginning chapters of an enormous effort by the joint Network Rail and Alstom teams. Since the teams formed for the delivery of the GRIP 4 contract, they have been on a collective journey of discovery. This has focussed on safe-by-design, safe delivery principles whose goal has remained to delight the passenger and end user, and this has been delivered throughout within a culture established to promote a collaborative working environment. I look forward to continuing to be a part of these shared successes and to further witness the teams continual growth and development, with the ultimate goal of celebrating the benefits the passengers will see upon completion of the scheme early in 2025.”

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