Chiltern Railways – Railway Depot Sites

Chiltern Railways, an Arriva company, conducted a competitive tender process, inviting four companies to submit a proposal to upgrade a range of internal and external luminaires across two sites – Wembley and, Aylesbury. A third location, Stourbridge was included at a later stage. The key driver behind the decision to replace the existing technology was to enable Chiltern Railways to reduce energy consumption and lower its energy bills.

The brief was comprehensive and included replacing the legacy energy-intensive highbays fitted in maintenance depots, the costly-to-run fluorescent lights in office buildings, a number of streetlights and floodlights that illuminated access routes to and pathways alongside the railway tracks, as well as some of the emergency lighting that wasn’t as effective as it should be.

Zeta was awarded the contract for the supply of all LED lighting solutions and worked alongside Ormiston Electrical Services to professionally manage the installation in each location.

Energy-intensive 400W highbays sited in the Wembley and Aylesbury maintenance depots were replaced with Zeta Hooked LED Highbays in a range of wattages, and Zeta’s Halo LED Bulkheads, a sustainable, higher efficiency, longer lamp life replacement for traditional 2D Bulk Heads, were installed in the shower and toilet facilities at Wembley.

The offices on both sites were kitted out with Zeta PRO Ultra Slim Ceiling panels which deliver high performance, attractive LED lighting. Zeta also replaced a number of 5ft fluorescent tubes installing its highly efficient, LED Non-Corrosive LED fittings as a lower energy consumption alternative.

Zeta also recommended a mix of its LED amenity, street and area lighting products to deliver optimum illumination in a number of outside areas, including pathways around and access roads to, the railway tracks.

External lighting solutions included the installation of twenty seven 40W SmartScape Nano street lights in the Aylesbury depot. This maintenance-free, energy-efficient LED alternative to high pressure sodium (SON), low pressure sodium (SOX) and CFL public area luminaires, replaced the same number of 150W streetlights sited on access roads to and near the railway tracks.

The SmartScape Nano provides superior illumination and improved colour rendering than traditional street lighting technologies and Zeta’s solution utilises UV-resistant, robust, silicon lens technology which ensures excellent transparency and high optical efficiency. In addition it consumes up to 70 per cent less power than conventional technologies and also reduces carbon emissions at the same level.

Aylesbury also benefited from the installation of more than thirty Zeta LED Flood Lights in various wattages. A further thirty flood lights were installed to illuminate the tracks at the Stourbridge site and another 285 replaced the legacy 40W twin CFL lights along the pathway running adjacent to the railway track at Wembley. In all three locations, this provided Chiltern Railways with a low power, high quality LED replacement for the incumbent energy-intensive
flood lighting.

Emergency lighting at Wembley which had proved to be problematic, was also upgraded, Zeta’s Industrial LED Wall Packs were fitted providing high level illumination.

The business case to replace the legacy energy-intensive external lighting across all three sites with LED solutions was a compelling one. Chiltern Railways is set to achieve a strong and rapid return on investment, as the savings across energy consumption, environmental impact and maintenance costs kick in from day one.

For Chiltern Railways, reducing energy consumption was the number one objective. The Zeta Hooked LED Highbays installed at the Wembley and Aylesbury maintenance depots delivered a 67 per cent and 48 per cent saving in energy consumption respectively. Both sites also realised a further 64 per cent reduction in energy usage thanks to the new Zeta PRO Ultra Slim Ceiling panels fitted in the offices.

Zeta’s energy-efficient external lighting solutions installed at Aylesbury, delivered significant savings. Zeta’s SmartScape Nano street lights consume 77 per cent less power than the incumbent solution and the Zeta LED Flood Lights achieved an average reduction in energy consumption of 65 per cent. Other savings include the LED Wall Packs (46 per cent) and LED Non-Corrosive LED fittings (63 per cent).

At Stourbridge, replacing the energy-intensive legacy lighting alongside the tracks with Zeta’s flood lights resulted in a 62 per cent reduction in energy consumption. Furthermore Chiltern Railways will achieve an average 61 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions.

In addition, Chiltern Railways no longer has to factor in time or budget for maintenance. LEDs have a long life and are therefore virtually maintenance-free, Chiltern Railways estimate they will benefit from a further reduction in spend of around £10,000 per annum, the amount it previously cost to maintain the lighting infrastructure.

Another benefit has been a dramatic improvement in the quality of light. The external areas are now brighter, more secure and ultimately safer working environments, and the superior uniformity of light and improved illumination within the offices, has also been well received by staff.