OCCs are central to metro operations, through monitoring the entire system and hosting critical decisions during service interruptions. Several metros report plans to upgrade, expand or integrate aspects of their OCC management to improve the level of service they can deliver. The study detailed the role of OCCs focusing on changes in that role brought about by technological advances.
There is a clear trend towards the centralisation of OCC organisational structures with the belief that a unified OCC will improve the efficiency of coordination and cooperation. One critical function of OCCs is serving as a data management centre. Therefore how often information is updated is key to collecting real-time data for OCC management and communications.
Real-time data management and station remote control technologies are emerging trends and identified areas of improvement. These are often linked with the introduction of greater automation. Increased levels of automation and remote control tend to reduce the routine workload on UTO lines. This means that UTO lines typically require fewer staff in daily operation but more experienced staff to handle incidents.
The study defined in broad terms what cybersecurity means to CoMET and Nova metros from an industry perspective. Operational Technology (OT) was prioritised above Information Technology (IT) since the latter is not metro-specific and is more advanced, whereas metro OT systems’ rapid evolution has not been matched by suppliers or regulators.
A metro’s Cybersecurity Risk Profile combines three categories: background threats, connectivity and automation. The study found that high background threats are associated with the most active mitigation measures against cyberattacks, but metros with a high level of connectivity will feature a large risk profile even in a benign political environment. Automation increases the potential impact of cyber-attacks as both physical and non-physical actions may be carried out by a successful hacker.
Ultimately, the study findings concluded that metros, as a key public-facing industry, need to prioritise a cultural shift that places cybersecurity at the forefront of their concerns, similarly to how safety cultures have become established over time.
Richard Anderson, Professor Dan Graham, Dr. Roger Allport and Priya Wells attended the 2017 OECD International Transport Forum to bring the ongoing “Operator’s Story” research project to industry experts and policymakers from around the world. The RTSC team were joined by Dominic Patella, Senior Transportation Specialist at the World Bank, and an expert panel made up of Dr Jacob Kam of Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway, Ismael Uruen Pueyo of Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona and Professor Tony Ridley of Imperial College London.
“The Operator’s Story” is an applied research project aiming to capture and document what makes metros successful from the Operator’s point of view, a perspective that has been little explored. 10 members of the Community of Metros participated in in-depth case studies for the research, providing insight into their governance structures, operational opportunities and constraints, and relationships with stakeholders. These findings have been combined with long-term metro benchmarking to present a set of initiatives that actively improve metro success, for application to existing and new metro systems alike.
Examples of external factors affecting metro operators
Richard Anderson, Roger Allport and Dominic Patella presented the emerging findings of the research, focusing on the increasing trend towards urbanisation and the use of metro rail as a solution to promote sustainable growth. Roger Allport presented key insights from the in-depth case studies, focusing on strategic and governance practices. Using best practice insight from the Community of Metros, Richard Anderson presented some of the key operational principles of metro development.
Ismael Uruen Pueyo (Director of Economic and Finance, Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona) during the panel discussion
Following the presentation, questions were fielded from the audience to the presenters and expert panel. The questions were diverse, covering the setup of metros to successfully transition between engineering, operations and management, managing service levels during constrained funding periods and recruiting expertise for metros.
“The Operator’s Story” team in Leipzig from the World Bank, RTSC at Imperial College London and Community of Metros
“The Operator’s Story” team would like to thank the OECD International Transport Forum for hosting this first session into the research findings, as well as the members of the expert panel who provided valuable insight into how the research findings apply in real-world situations.
A report presenting “The Operator’s Story” Emerging Findings can be found here.
Training drivers and maintaining their skills and knowledge are significant efforts for almost all metros. Metros need to implement adequate selective recruitment processes to find suitable candidates to become drivers.
The core of initial driver training programmes amongst metros is largely similar, averaging at 100 working days. Programme length depends on a number of factors, including external vs internal recruitment, training facilities, and metros’ expectation towards the role of drivers. The content of training courses used by metros was explored by the study as well.
Duration of Initial Driver Training by Teaching Structure
Apart from the driver initial training, the study also reviewed the frequency of the recurring driver training. By comparing the duration of the driver training to the reliability performance, a correlation was identified between longer training and fewer staff-related incidents causing delays.
Training methods are evolving, as technological advances allow for a greater reliance on simulators to enable drivers to gain experience and confidence in a controlled environment. The developing dependence on mobile devices was identified as an opportunity to integrate more mobile technology into recruitment and training.
Providing accessibility is key to enabling users to travel independently, safely and comfortably within metro systems. This case study identified and evaluated metros’ accessibility training, focusing on developing a culture of assistance, training for non-frontline staff, ‘hidden’ (non-physical) disabilities and unstaffed stations.
The accessibility training has evolved over time from ‘creating awareness’ to ‘achieving equality of service’ because of changes in legislation and regulation, public and customer comments, societal awareness, and developments in technological infrastructure, etc.
The study reviewed the accessibility training modules and content. The training courses are predominantly conducted by metros, with some contributions from third parties such as advocacy groups or charities.
The study looked at the analysis, tools and models that CoMET and Nova metros use in support of planning for the life cycle of infrastructure assets of track, civil infrastructure and power assets. The impact of funding on the ability of metros to plan for the whole life of the infrastructure assets was explored together with the maturity of metros’ strategies and plans for these assets.
Maturity in strategies for infrastructure asset management is categorised as patch and mend strategies, state of good repair strategies, strategies based on reliability, cost and risk, and optimisation strategies. On the basis of all the elements (i.e. funding predictability, strategies and plans developed and implemented, analysis undertaken for maintenance and investment and sophistication of tools or models in support of decisions), the study developed a maturity map for CoMET and Nova metros.
Most mature metros in planning for the life cycle of infrastructure assets show a holistic strategy, integrating maintenance and investment and using optimisation techniques. This strategy is generally established for the long term with shorter term plans developed at a level below the asset class.
Safety still remains a challenge despite sizeable investments in making the equipment and hardware safer for metros. The most significant barrier to enabling a continuous improvement in safety is to understand and alter the safety culture of the organisation. A model for the improvement of an organisation’s safety culture was developed through the study.
A reasonable level of safety may be achieved through adherence to external regulations, robust processes, good training schemes and an organisational structure which devotes senior management attention safety, defining an organisation ‘practicing safety’. However, a culture which constantly prioritises safety and is aware of the implications of every action it takes is hard to build and maintain.
To fully become an organisation that is always ‘thinking safety’, three key linked behaviours are required, including (1) excellent measuring and monitoring of safety performance, which, in turn, enables (2) the transparent enforcement of standards in a fashion which balances safety and individual accountability, feeding into (3) a robust procedure to investigate and learn from errors.
Continual effort is required to improve in all areas of the safety culture model. The creation of trust is key to enabling a good safety culture, alongside a balance between enforcement of standards and practices and accountability of actions.
Increasing service frequency is identified as the primary shorter-term strategy to increase capacity. Maximising frequency on existing lines makes the best use of the expensive metro infrastructure. This study identified best practices in operating very high frequency metro services exploring the means and methods used to achieve high frequency service.
Several CoMET and Nova metros operate one or more very high frequency line (30 trains per hour or more) and many have plans to increase service frequencies. Although almost all metros reported a desire to operate higher frequencies, a wide range of constraints impedes them. Constraints were grouped into five categories with corresponding best practice shown below:
Examples of how metros have dealt with these constraints include:
Signalling and Train Control: adopting moving block signalling and Automatic Train Operation.
Station and Train Crowding: preventing door re-opening and restrict overcrowding (for example by holding passengers in interchange corridors) to optimise throughput.
Terminal Turnaround: enabling multiple trains to turn around simultaneously and clear trains of passengers faster.
Service Complexity: introducing separate tracks at intermediate terminals so that terminating trains do not block the following through trains.
Fleet: improving availability, compensating through different service patterns.
Maintaining the electronics that support rolling stock fleets entails both repairing technology and managing obsolescence issues. Metros’ strategy choices for electronics maintenance and repair include using in-house resources, outsourced, or a mix of both approaches. The study provided an overview of the key drivers and emerging issues related to electronics maintenance strategy. A balanced analysis considering costs of establishing and maintaining in-house staff and facilities, as well as the danger of over-reliance on outsourcing and losing the ability to remain an ‘Intelligent Customer’ should be taken into account.
A key role played by in-house teams is in the acquisition of spare parts, as obsolescence or supplier choices and finances lead to shrinking stock. Several approaches were discovered, from contractual agreements to a continuity of supply of spares, the use of alternative components and reverse engineering of parts.
As the lifecycles of electronics components are generally considerably shorter than the expected life of a train and its key subsystems, spares and supply management are essential to support the continued availability of electronics components. Regardless of the approach taken to ensuring sufficient supply of spares, developing strong relationships with key suppliers as well as leverage to maintain a strategic position appear to be a major success factor in managing electronics maintenance.
Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Imperial College London on the 21st October. As a result of a collaboration between the RTSC, Shanghai Metro, and the Data Science Institute (DSI) of Imperial, the Presidential visit included a presentation on the analysis of smartcard data for the Shanghai Metro network.
Our main research objective was to improve our understanding of demand patterns captured in smartcard data. We visualised passenger flows entering and exiting Shanghai metro stations using the extraordinary visualisation capabilities of the KPMG Data Observatory of DSI. The Data Observatory is the largest of its kind in Europe, featuring an enveloping circular wall of 64 monitors powered by 32 computers facilitating 313 degrees of surround vision.
In the second part of the presentation we visualised a simulation scenario for a hypothetical train service disruption. This allowed us to predict how temporary demand shocks would spread through other parts of the network. Studying disruption scenarios enables operators to prepare for unexpected events and improve the resilience of urban rail networks.
The Presidential visit proved to be an excellent opportunity to showcase the RTSC’s recently developed competences in big data analysis, and the potential of smart card data in cutting edge public transport research.
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