Alstom Transport and Balfour Beatty joint venture Signalling Solutions Ltd (SSL) has been awarded a number of contracts to renew signalling at a variety of locations in the UK for Network Rail.

The contracts are for:

• The early stages of the renewal of the signalling system controlling major areas of the Great Western Main Line for Network Rail. SSL will deliver the design, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of the renewed signalling and associated power works in preparation for electrification and the overlay of ERTMS. The main works are planned to take place between 2013 and 2015 and the contracts are worth €27m;

• The complete renewal of the signalling system controlling around 29 kilometres of railway between Arundel and Horsham for Network Rail using Alstom’s innovative Smartlock 400 interlocking system. Final commissioning is expected in October 2013 for a contract worth €15m; and

• The early design work for Network Rail for the large-scale renewal of the signalling system controlling lines in the Scunthorpe to Cleethorpes area of North Lincolnshire, in preparation for the main works which are scheduled to take place between 2014 and 2016. The contract is worth €931,000.

These projects add to the growing list of sites where the interlocking, designed and manufactured by Alstom, has been installed. The most recent of these were the four commissioned last year in the Thames Valley Signalling Centre, which, together, control the Great Western Main Line from Paddington to Heathrow. These contract awards follow the recent selection by Network Rail of SSL for the ERTMS and Signalling frame contracts as well as the Pilot contract for the new traffic Control centres.

Alstom’s Smartlock 400 system is a computer-based interlocking system designed specifically as a successor to solid state Interlocking for all signalling applications. Key advantages of the system are its increased computing power, a reduction in the physical size of the central interlocking equipment, and compatibility with current and future communications technology and panel and screen interfaces. Generic product acceptance for Smartlock 400 interlocking was received from Network Rail in April 2011.