Rail operating centre

[4] In November 2016, Network Rail announced that the ROC at Edinburgh would not go into operation with all its functions and responsibilities being transferred to Cowlairs in Glasgow.

[14] At the end of the Second World War, the United Kingdom network was host to over ten thousand mechanical-lever signalboxes.

[15] When British Rail was created from the Big Four private railway companies[16][17] under the Transport Act 1947,[18] they began to install power signal boxes (PSB) at strategic locations such as Euston, Crewe, Doncaster, Rugby and Carlisle.

'[28] TMS allows delays to be minimised through a computer running algorithms and deciding how best to return traffic patterns to normal.

York IECC was opened in 1989[29] and controlled a large region in Yorkshire bounded by Gargrave, South Emsall, Selby, Northallerton, Cottingley (Leeds), Bramley and the Harrogate loop.

[37] However, the inability to achieve a workable Traffic Management System (TMS)[38] without lineside signalling, meant an increased budget of £1.4 billion[39] and the building became a white elephant.

[40] The structure was slowly integrated into a ROC function with signalling upgrades transferring responsibility to Saltley starting in 2006.

What Saltley cannot do, that Rugby can, is host the human space needed for the signallers and train operating company (TOC) staff to work together.

Network Rail have said that "The ROC is a key part of our strategy to improve reliability whilst driving down the cost of running and maintaining the railway.

"[69]In 2017, Ian Prosser, the chief inspector of railways informed the Transport Select Committee that not enough had been done to alleviate the possibility of the ROCs becoming a single point of failure.

Prosser highlighted higher workload on signallers and the contingencies needed in the event of a natural disaster disabling one of the ROCs.

[74][75] This issue is further clouded by Network Rail having another ROC, the Railway Operational Code[76] and the signalling industry in the United Kingdom having a Remote Override Control.