10 June 2020 | Ebeni
Following a tender competition earlier this year, the Ebeni Rail team are delighted to announce that Network Rail has selected Ebeni to undertake the role of Independent Safety Assessor (ISA) on the Degraded Mode Working System (DMWS) project.
DMWS is part of Network Rail’s Research & Development Portfolio – its £245M investment programme over CP6 to drive improvements to the safety, performance and efficiency of Britain’s railway infrastructure.
The Degraded Mode Working System (DMWS) is an independent system to provide movement authority to the train driver if the primary signalling system fails.
DMWS will employ a range of technologies to provide Degraded Mode Working, automating the current largely manual processes used to operate trains under failure conditions: this increases capacity, by streamlining the process, and safety, by reducing the need for staff trackside.
The ISA role will require Ebeni to make an independent professional recommendation on safety of the planned application. This will be a risk based judgement guided by our in depth knowledge of the relevant CENELEC standards (EN 50126, EN 50128 and EN 50129) and will include assessment of the software developed to SIL2.
Ebeni is looking forward to engaging with multiple project stakeholders and suppliers throughout the development, applying a proactive, collaborative approach to identify potential issues early and support their resolution. Their ISA approach is highly regarded and sees them welcomed and appreciated by delivery teams because they know that Ebeni are supporting them, rather than finding holes and problems.
Matthew Pearson, Ebeni’s Rail Business Manager said “We are delighted to be awarded this role, the opportunity to work on such an interesting, novel project is something we are really looking forward to. The benefits of the system are clear, and we are pleased to be a part of the journey to acceptance and roll out”
Stephen Bull, Ebeni’s Lead ISA for the project said “I look forward to applying my past experience with railway signalling systems to support the successful delivery of this high profile project, to improve the operation of the railway under failure conditions.”