Leading the way

With its recent flurry of TOC maintenance and renewal contract awards, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that telent actually started its work on the railways as an operational telecoms supplier. But that’s where it did all start and where the company has continued to focus, growing both in skill and experience. Whilst those TOC maintenance contracts have been coming in, a large team of dedicated engineers has been delivering the telecoms for some of the country’s most important resignalling projects including those at Basingstoke, Rugby, Nuneaton, Milton Keynes, Leamington and the East Midlands scheme (which included North & South Erewash and Trent & Derby concentrators).

Skills
During telent’s time on the railways, it has always fully supported the development of skills amongst its workforce. The organisation has a well-structured training programme which takes staff from the essential PTS through to IRSE licensing and beyond. With these skills telent staff are competent at designing, installing, testing and commissioning schemes from Type A to Type D and GRIP 4 to GRIP 8, including -
• Fixed Transmission Networks (FTN) synergy schemes
• other transmission networks such as Ericsson XMP
• copper and fibre networks
• telephone concentrators and voice recorders
• lineside telephones, including SPT (Signal Post Telephone), PZT (Point Zone Telephone) and PETS (Public Emergency Telephone System) of which the company has installed more than 2,800
• cable lift and shift
• radio masts
• signallers’ fixed terminal subsystems
• CCTV for level crossings.

telent is never afraid of testing its employees and venturing into new work packages. Its most recent challenge was the detailed design and implementation of the Fixed Transmission Network for the South Erewash Resignalling scheme, which was a seamless and successful delivery. telent is the first company outside Network Rail to undertake these works.

Experience
Whilst telent has been developing and honing these skills, it has racked up an impressive list of projects such as -
• the design and build of an independent SCADA Transmission Network from Wembley to Cathcart carrying modem circuits, using Alcatel FTN approved transmission equipment and recently incorporated into Network Rail’s FTN. telent now manages this network from Stoke Telecoms Engineering Centre (TEC)
• South East & Anglia and Western Telecoms Renewals Framework Contracts where Network Rail calls off renewal work packages
• Mast Audits Programme which involves telent’s in-house rigging team auditing and maintaining approximately 2,300 masts nationwide
• LNW Maintenance, where the company maintains copper, fibre, radio, transmission and telephone concentrators
• Thameslink Inner Areas Operational Communications, where telent is designing and building a new communications infrastructure including concentrator works, radio systems (Airwave, GSM-R, cab secure and construction radio), cable migration, lift & shift, new cable routes and cabling, interfacing with FTN and immunisation
• Global Crossing Cabling and Faulting Maintenance Project, providing 24/7/365 maintenance of Global Crossing’s 14,000km on-rail fibre network from Inverness to Penzance and Norwich to Swansea.

Capability
At the same time, the company has also organised a slick operation meaning it can boast a national field force of over 100 in-house installation and maintenance technicians, all of whom have access to the right equipment and materials for each job and robust best-in-class project management and working practices.

When brought together, what does all this mean to a customer? Well, it ensures that projects are run professionally and delivered on time regardless of whether they are high profile schemes or more modest work packages.

The future of the signalling and telecommunications market will be subject to change for the foreseeable future but one thing that will remain constant is telent’s approach of being a flexible partner who’s happy to step up to challenges. The company’s next challenges include the Water Orton project, the first Type A resignalling scheme to be delivered as part of the wider West Midlands resignalling.