York Rail Operating Centre

[2][note 1][3][4] In the project, 14 buildings would replace over 800 mechanical lever[5] and power signalling boxes with Integrated Electronic Control Centres (IECC) also being superseded in the new programme.

Preparatory work on the site in April 2012 revealed the foundations of some ex North Eastern Railway roundhouses that were thought to have been built in 1864 and abandoned in 1960.

[9][10] As York ROC will be responsible for the East Coast Main Line (ECML) from King's Cross to the Scottish Borders and the whole of the London North Eastern (LNE) region,[11] (Lincolnshire, County Durham, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Teesside and Yorkshire and the Humber), it will take some time for all signalling to be moved there.

[19] As the site is also used for training, it is known dually as Network Rail York Campus and is equipped with a Workforce Development Centre (WDC) which includes tracks both indoors and outside, with the three sidings outside running to 490 feet (150 m) in length.

[20] The building is faced externally in brick, whilst the other eleven ROCs are clad in steel and concrete; one of the conditions imposed by the planning permission given to the project was that it had to be in a style befitting to the nature of the City of York.