Concept validation: Ergonomics in the design of the Crossrail Route Control Centre

Crossrail will deliver a major new suburban rail service for London and the South-East by connecting the City, Canary Wharf, the West End and Heathrow Airport to commuter areas east and west of the capital. A dedicated Route... [ view full abstract ]

Crossrail will deliver a major new suburban rail service for London and the South-East by connecting the City, Canary Wharf, the West End and Heathrow Airport to commuter areas east and west of the capital. A dedicated Route Control Centre (RCC) will be key in ensuring that optimised performance and safety requirements for this world class railway are achieved. This shall include the integration of the command and control functions of the Crossrail Infrastructure Manager (Rail for London-RfL) and the Crossrail Train Operating Company (MTR-Crossrail). Located within the Network Rail’s new Anglia Rail Operating Centre (ROC) at Romford, the RCC is a dedicated, self-contained facility performing traffic management and infrastructure control for the new, predominantly tunnelled ‘Central Operating Section’ of the Crossrail route. Additionally, the commercial Crossrail train and station operational services for the whole route are undertaken the within the RCC thereby providing a uniquely integrated facility.
The design of the RCC has followed the framework outlined in ISO 11064: Ergonomic Design of Control Centres, as well as implementation of original design requirements provided within the Crossrail developed Operations Concepts. Physically, the RCC comprises a single integrated Control Room, Training Simulator room, Incident room, Equipment Rooms and auxiliary rooms. A number of ergonomic activities have been undertaken to predominantly support the physical design of the Control Room, from conceptual through to detailed design:

- Control room layout optioneering
- Provisional workstation design
- Validation of design through full scale mock-up
- Final workstation design
- Specifications for control room workstations and large video wall displays.

Preliminary concept configurations of control room layouts such as star, theatre and modular were assessed to confirm their suitability in meeting the Crossrail operational requirements. A workshop with stakeholders from Crossrail and RfL identified that a novel ‘Integrated-Group’ design would provide the best communication links between operators with optimised sightlines to two operator specific video walls.
A provisional workstation design was then created to inform room layout purposes, with consideration given to ensuring both infrastructure operators and MTR Crossrail information service providers can liaise sufficiently without undue distractions to Traffic Manager (‘Signaller’). This enabled a conceptual room layout design to be generated using link analysis to demonstrate effective communication based on expected frequency, relative distance and the angle of turn required for face-to-face communication, as well as viewing angles to the video walls.
To validate the conceptual design of the fourteen control desks, a full scale mock-up was undertaken. User representatives enacted operational scenarios, testing communication links, assessing sightlines to the video walls and determining adequate operator-equipment reach distances on the workstations. Several iterations of the layout were required to satisfy the diverse stakeholders’ views and ensure all operator requirements had been fulfilled.
Specifications, currently being collated for the fit-out elements which include the finished workstation design, are to be used in the procurement process.
The use of ergonomics best practice throughout the project has ensured acceptance of the design from relevant stakeholders from concept to detailed design, to be taken forward to procurement.