British Rail Telecommunications

In May 1837, William Fothergill Cooke (1806–1879) and Professor Charles Wheatstone (1802–1875) entered into a partnership, and on 10 June patented a five-needle telegraph for which five wires were necessary. The telegraph worked by deflecting any two of the needles at the same time to point to any one of 20 letters on the grid behind the needle. Sending and receiving messages was a slow process, as each word had to be spelt out. With only 20 letters on the grid, the spelling sometimes contained inaccuracies. On 4 July 1837, Wheatstone's and Cooke's telegraph was demonstrated to the directors of the London and Birmingham Railway between Euston and Camden Town, a distance of just under a mile; the company's engineer, Robert Stephenson, promptly approved of the provision of a permanent circuit at the railway’s expense - this was the first commercial electric telegraph line in the world. Shortly thereafter, Stephenson introduced Cooke to Isambard Brunel, the chief engineer of the Great Western Railway. This led to the company adopting its first electric telegraph system, which ran between Paddington and West Drayton, a distance of 13 miles. These telecommunication advances were essential to the effective deployment of TOPS, the computer system used by BR for managing railway locomotives and rolling stock across its network; the introduction of TOPS was a major component of BR's increasing use of real-time centralised control and information systems. ==Asset types==

The fixed bearer network forms the core of railway communications and thus is vital to the operation of the railway. It provides essential circuits for signalling and electrification control systems, train radio systems, lineside communications, level crossing CCTV, and customer information systems as well as more general IT and business telephony needs. The fixed bearer network infrastructure comprises transmission systems and telephone exchanges, linked by a fibre optic and copper cable network that is located mainly within trackside troughing routes. British Rail had several analogue radio networks that supported mobile communication applications for drivers and lineside workers. These radio networks consist of base stations, antenna systems and control equipment. The National Radio Network (NRN) was developed specifically for the operational railway; it provides radio coverage for 98% of the rail network through 500 base stations and 21 radio exchanges. The NRN offers full access to the BRT telephone network; public service telephone network (PSTN) dialling, including international, is also available. It can provide dedicated open channels on talk-through mode for incident management and an override priority facility to ensure that emergency calls are immediately connected to the railway's Train Control Offices (TCO) and Electrical Control Rooms (ECR). The NRN and ORN are based on analogue radio technology and provide a high level of coverage throughout the railway network for mobile communication at the trackside. The ORN offers facilities for driver emergency communication with the local train control office. The Radio Electronic Token Block (RETB) system is based on similar technology as the NRN and ORN but provides data communication for signalling token block exchange as well as voice communication. Secure communication between drivers and signallers is provided by the Cab Secure Radio (CSR) systems located in various parts of the country. This application of analogue radio technology is designed to offer complete radio coverage at the trackside within the limits of its deployment. Fixed communication at the trackside is provided by lineside communication systems. These systems are primarily provided for signallers' communication with drivers and the public, through telephones located on signal posts and at level crossings. Signal Post Telephones (SPTs) and other lineside phones are linked to telephone concentrators at the signal box. Special self-monitoring systems (PETS) are also provided for high-risk level crossings. CCTV systems are provided on platforms where driver-only operation train services call and at some stations with sub-surface platforms. These self-contained systems comprise cameras, monitors, cabling and control equipment. Voice recorders are also classed as telecoms assets. ==Privatisation and reorganisation ==

The fixed network as we know it today was installed piecemeal as part of BR's electrification and signalling projects between 1972 and 1993. Fault reporting is localised and system failure is generally only uncovered as a consequence of customer complaint. The fixed telecommunications network consists of a wide variety of mostly old technologies, some of which are obsolete. The network provided two service areas to BR, operational (which was of particular importance in communications for railway signalling, amongst other internal activities) and business services. == After British Rail ==

In 1994, it was announced that BRT would be acquired by Racal Electronics, thereafter becoming Racal-BRT. This sale comprised primarily the voice, transmission and data networks formerly owned by BR, however, it did not include the operational telecoms systems that were associated with the direct operation of trains (e.g. those used for signal box communications) as these remained with Railtrack instead. The sale has been critiqued as Racal allegedly did not properly understand the responsibilities that it took on through this acquisition. In 1997, Racal-BRT merged with Racal Network Services (RNS) to become Racal Telecom. Three years later, the business was split up and sold again; the trunk cable, transmission and voice networks were acquired by the American telecoms company Global Crossing while the remainder, which included most of the ex-BRT staff, was transferred to the French conglomerate Thomson CSF. The latter was reorganised into two separate companies, Thales Translink and Thales Fieldforce, which were subsequently merged into Thales Telecommunications Services (TTS) in April 2002. In the 2000s, Network Rail (the publicly-owned replacement for Railtrack) decided to replace the sold-off transmission systems with a new nationwide fibre network, known as the Fixed Telecommunications Network (FTN) at an initial cost of £1.5 billion. ==GSM-R==

GSM-R radio systems are being introduced across Europe under EU legislation for interoperability. In the UK, Network Rail has established a stakeholder's board with cross industry representation to drive the UK implementation of GSM-R to replace the National Radio Network (NRN) and Cab Secure Radio (CSR) systems currently in use. The Rail Safety and Standards Board are revising the current train-to-shore radio standard GO/RT3410, renumbering it as GE/RT8080, and developing a new standard GE/RT8081 that contains requirements that are specific to GSM-R. The Railway Group Standards are being developed to support the European Functional Requirements Specification and should be read in conjunction with this document. The Network Rail National Project for the introduction of GSM-R plans for the radio service to be live nationwide by 2007, with the current radio systems switched off at the end of 2009. Britain's GSM-R network should be fully operational by 2013 at a cost of £1.2 billion. This cost though does not include the West Coast Main Line, where transmission equipment supplied by Marconi is maintained by Telent. GSM-R addresses the relevant recommendations from several accident inquiries: • Clapham (1988) • Abbeyhill (1994) • Cowden (1994) • Ais Gill (1995) • Doncaster (1995) • Winsford (1999) • Ladbroke Grove (1999) • Llanbrynmair (2000) • Tregoss Moor (2000) • Hatfield (2001) GSM-R is the bearer for the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) signalling being introduced from 2010. ==Locomotives==

At the time of its privatisation, British Rail Telecommunications operated four British Rail Class 20 locomotives: 20075, 20128, 20131 and 20187. ==References==