Temple Mills Independent Capacity Assessment – Depot Flow and Maintenance Modelling
Office of Rail and Road (ORR)
The overview
IPEX were retained as a specialist advisor to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) to execute an independent capacity assessment of Temple Mills International Depot, which is considered a vital business facility, currently the only UIC European Loading Gauge compatible depot in the UK. The independent report was commissioned by ORR following growing interest in running extra services between St Pancras and continental Europe. Access to a suitable depot close to London for maintenance and stabling has been cited by industry as a critical requirement for more operators to take on the route.
Our client's challenge
There is wide stakeholder interest in new international rail services between the UK and Europe. Temple Mills International Depot (Temple Mills) is currently the only (UK) UIC European Loading Gauge compatible depot and is considered a critical component to any potential additional rail services. Several applications for prospective channel tunnel Open Access Operators have been submitted to the rail regulator, ORR, for a depot access contract at Temple Mills under Section 17 of the Railways Act 1993. To process these applications, the ORR needs to understand the available capacity at Temple Mills. IPEX were retained by the ORR as a specialist advisor to undertake an independent capacity assessment of Temple Mills International Depot.
- Depot flow analysis
- Maintenance workload analysis
- Assessment of available capacity at the depot for stabling, servicing and maintenance
The response
IPEX assessed Temple Mills’ total 400m Set capacity as well as the capacity of each of the core depot functions for servicing, stabling, maintenance, and wheel reprofiling. IPEX also assessed the current utilisation by the incumbent operator, Eurostar, across each function to determine the remaining ‘latent’ capacity.
Analysis of depot flow capacity was performed using the IPEX depot modelling tool, which modelled train movements through the depot in 5-minute increments. The model used arrival and departure patterns from the timetable, as well as timing and sequencing of all servicing and maintenance activities performed at Temple Mills. To account for any deviations to the timetable, the model was also run with observed arrival, departure, and activity timings over a sample time period, using movement and maintenance records provided by Eurostar and collected by IPEX at Temple Mills. Movements and maintenance records were used to model the average number of operational trains on depot and the typical occupancy of the maintenance shed.
IPEX performed a detailed ‘bottom up’ analysis of the maintenance activities to determine the minimum depot facilities required to maintain the current Temple Mills workload. This analysis used the current allocation of Eurostar’s maintenance to Temple Mills, maintenance activity downtimes, task periodicities, and specific depot facility requirements to determine the theoretical minimum capacity required to perform all maintenance. The analysis accounted for preventive maintenance, heavy maintenance, cleaning and corrective maintenance. The theoretical minimum maintenance capacity requirement was then used to inform the development of a realistic maintenance capacity requirement, informing the development of an example maintenance plan. The maintenance plan accounted for depot operating restrictions such as variability in exam type, shift length restrictions and added additional provision for works such as modification programmes. The final example maintenance plan informed the realistic utilised maintenance capacity (by Eurostar) and underpinned IPEX’s assessment of the remaining shed capacity at Temple Mills.
IPEX’s analysis was performed using a set of metrics to represent the capacity for each core depot function:
- Arrival Rate;
- Depot Set Capacity;
- Maintenance Shed Capacity; and
- Wheel Lathe Capacity.
IPEX’s analysis considered that each of these key metrics can be measured individually and cannot be physically exceeded in isolation, but also that they are intrinsically linked. For example, if Arrival Rate was utilised at maximum capacity for long periods of time (without sufficient departures), then Depot Set Capacity could reach 100% utilisation and then becomes the most critical metric.
The value to the client
IPEX used its extensive experience in depot flow capacity, layout modelling and maintenance capacity analysis alongside the IPEX depot modelling tools and methodologies, to provide unequivocal determinations on the available capacity. Our assessment is underpinned by decades of experience working in and managing rail maintenance depot facilities, as well as our experience from deploying the IPEX depot model across multiple depot types.
The ORR benefited from an independent and thorough expert assessment of the available capacity at Temple Mills International Depot. The IPEX report was published in the public domain and was the subject of a formal consultation, and will continue to be used by the ORR to assess depot access applications, as required under Section 17 of the Railways Act.
The IPEX report was published on the ORR website – Rail regulator says some capacity can be made available at Eurostar depot | Office of Rail and Road
