The remodelling of King’s Cross station as part of Network Rail’s East Coast upgrade has won the Major Project prize at the 2021 Railway Innovation Awards.
The awards, the longest standing scheme in the industry, are organised by the Modern Railways Fourth Friday Club in partnership with the Railway Industry Association. Prizes were awarded in eight categories at a lunchtime ceremony held at the Hilton London Canary Wharf on 15 October, with trophies for the winners and certificates for Highly Commended and Shortlisted entries.
The King’s Cross project involved the renewal of track, signalling and overhead line equipment on the approach to the station, including the replacement of the life-expired track layout with a redesigned, simpler layout as well as realignment and lengthening of the platforms. The third bore of Gasworks Tunnel was brought back into use, and a section of Camden Sewer underneath the track bed was redesigned and rebuilt.
Runner-up in the Major Project category was the redevelopment of Glasgow Queen Street station. The Network Rail project at Scotland’s third busiest station formed part of the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme, with platforms extended and a new concourse and façade built.
A full write-up of the awards will appear in the Rail Innovation supplement to the December 2021 issue of Modern Railways. The full list of winners is below.
Major Project
Winner: King’s Cross Remodelling – Network Rail
Highly Commended: Glasgow Queen Street Redevelopment – Network Rail
Cross-Industry Partnership
Winner: Transport Accessibility Solution – GoMedia
Highly Commended: Luminate Traffic Management System – Resonate; FFA-G Wagon – Freightliner
Engineering and Safety
Winner: Flow Footbridge – Network Rail/Knight Architects
Highly Commended: Winter Aerial Survey – Network Rail; DGauge Rift – DGauge
Shortlisted: Physical Prevention of Overspeeding System – DB ESG and Sella Controls
Environment and Sustainability
Winner: FLEX – Porterbrook
Highly Commended: ClearTrak – GBR-Rail; Denmark Hill station upgrade– Network Rail
Shortlisted: HVO Locomotive – DB Cargo
Operations and Performance
Winner: Operation Watershed – Govia Thameslink Railway
Highly Commended: Jumbo Trains – Freightliner; Critical Rail Monitor 3000 – Dual Inventive
Shortlisted: Rail Demand Information System – RASIC
Passenger Experience
Winner: Virtual Reality Technology – CCD Design & Ergonomics and WSP
Highly Commended: Project Horizon – LNER; Seatfinder – Southeastern
Shortlisted: Security Surveillance Analytics – Network Rail
People, Skills and Diversity
Winner: Community Initiatives – Govia Thameslink Railway
Highly Commended: Diversity & Inclusion Recruitment Strategy – Govia Thameslink Railway; People at the Heart of the Business – 3Squared
Small Scale Project
Winner: Digital Innovation and Collaboration in Engineering – Network Rail
Highly Commended: TrackWater 2.0 – Network Rail; The Rail Academy – SLC Operations
