Winners of 2005

Network Rail Employee: Ian Hassell, Environment Manager, London (winner)

For: highlighting the importance of environmental issues by building effective working relationships with head and local offices, territory and contractor teams, as well as the Office of the Rail Regulator. Ian has single-handedly trained over 2,000 project staff on environmental matters while working on the Felixstowe to Nuneaton project. Ian’s award was presented at the You Make the Difference Awards for Network Rail employees.

Network Rail Employee: Paul Ashton, territory off-track engineer, Birmingham (runner-up)

For: a five-year project which restored dry stone walls along the world-renowned Settle and Carlisle railway.

Contractor: Cleartrack Salcey Evl (winner)

For: better vegetation management and planning decisions through the creation of an environmental and cost-information database which is linked to a computer-based mapping system. They also developed policies on birds, bats & badgers which were successfully implemented on the Road Cutting SSSI vegetation management project.

Train Operating Company: First Group (winner)

For: a number of initiatives including energy conservation at depots, investment in new electric rolling stock, introducing regenerative braking and trialling low-sulphur technologies.

Train Operating Company: National Express Group (special commendation)

For: proactively managing environmental issues, particularly on the sustainability of the railway. It was the only public transport company to successfully join the Carbon Trust’s carbon management pilot programme which will quantify emissions of greenhouse gases and develop a climate change strategy.

Train Operating Company: Eurostar (most improved)

For: significant improvements in the management of waste, including introducing a solid waste recycling scheme and water recycling plant at Waterloo.

Alliance: AMEC SPIE Route 7 Alliance (winner)

For: successful management of huge quantities of waste from the upgrade of the West Coast main Line by identifying local markets for waste and establishing collection storage & handling.

Innovative Technology: Edward Nuttall (winner)

For: investigating methods of reducing noise when grit-blasting bridges. As a result, acoustic sheeting was introduced on work sites which proved a very successful way of reducing noise.

Innovative Technology: Amey Infrastructure Services (special commendation)

For: development of oil recycling plant which cleans the oil in the high-voltage circuit breakers used in the Over Head Line Electrification system (OHLE). This has reduced purchases of new oil and prevented disposal of used oil – thereby eliminating a large, costly & hazardous waste stream.

Innovative Technology: Angel Trains (special commendation)

For: development of air-cycle air conditioning system which replaced the refrigerant-based air conditioning system on passenger trains with a safer, cleaner air-based system.

Innovative Working Practice: Temple Environmental Consultants (winner – strategic)

For: their sustainability appraisal for Thameslink 2000, the first for a railway project in the UK. It was innovative because it allows projects to assess the relative importance of impacts, risks & opportunities. It also made the link between key environmental performances & benefits, looking at aspects including quality of life, use of natural resources and design elements.

Innovative Working Practice: Balfour Beatty Rail Track System (winner – tactical)

For: reducing the amount of waste going to landfill by 95% at its Sandiacre facility in Nottingham. This stopped 3,000 tonnes of waste per year going to landfill.