Dunbar New Down Platform

As well as the new platform and footbridge, the project also renewed the overhead power line equipment, installed new information screens and new waiting shelters. Previously, all north and southbound services used the existing single platform meaning all north bound services needed to cross the UP Main both on arrival and departure from the station.  The new platform removes this need and therefore provides capacity for additional stops at Dunbar in the future whilst supporting better overall timetabling on this busy section of the East Coast Main Line.

The project was classified as a Category 3 project by Network Rail Assurance Panel (NRAP) and “not-significant” under the Common Safety Method (CSM-RA),however the client requested Assessment Body (AsBo) services, in addition to Notified Body (NoBo) and Designated Body (DeBo), to support the production of a Safety Assessment Report (SAR) as part of the Technical File.

By engaging NCB at GRIP stage 3, it was possible to highlight any compliance issues early. NCB’s assessment team worked collaboratively with the project throughout, liaising with all parties of the project and holding regular meetings to discuss project progress.

We were able to apply our progressive assurance approach on the compliance to the PRM and Infrastructure TSIs by using a technical query tracker. We issued this to the project which allowed them to progressively provide evidence against the TSIs.

There were conditions on the NoBo/DeBo certificate which resulted in the project having to provide additional evidence. We assigned extra resource to issue an addendum conformity assessment report in order for the project to close out the conditions and keep on track to meet the commissioning date.

Our assessment team attended a review meeting with the project and ORR representation to review the evidence and documentation presented by the client. The project demonstrated that the various non-compliances and recommendations outlined in the conditionally supported SAR had been addressed and we were able to submit a formal response to the ORR for review.

NCB supported the project to successfully receive authorisation and the new second platform and fully accessible footbridge were officially opened for passengers on Tuesday 17th December 2020 as planned.