Nexus – The West-Coast Mainline Railway’s new Control Centre

We worked with the Ergonomists CCD on the lighting part of the Human Factors checks and designs for this crucial part of the West-coast Mainline upgrading project. At the heart of the project is the new Nexus building which will control all the signalling on the route. Within this is a huge 22m diameter room that will eventually house the signallers and route controllers for the whole of the West-coast Mainline from London to Scotland.

We carried out design checks on the lighting of the main control room as well as all other critical areas. We suggested ways to improve the lighting of a number of areas. We have been involved in trials in a mock-up room to devise a new task lighting system for the large curved control desks. These desks contain between six and nine flat-screen monitors and the task lighting of the desks is important to the safe & efficient operation of the system.