Presenter Michael Portillo saw inside the Rail Operating Centre near Romford station as part of the latest episode of BBC Two’s Great British Railway Journeys.
In an unassuming but high-security grey building, the operating centre is “mission control” for the entire East Anglian rail network, as well parts of south-west London and the Elizabeth line.
Portillo spoke to some of the team responsible for monitoring 4,000 trains a day, calling at more than 200 stations.
READ MORE: Great British Railway Journeys on BBC Two to feature Romford
Tobi Shear-Smith, senior network delivery manager for Network Rail, explained how the first floor of the building was both an incident response room and a place where the railway was run day-to-day.
At the time of the visit, the team were trying to fix a broken rail between Richmond and Gunnersbury, and had also dealt with minor incidents such as someone dropping their AirPods on the track earlier that morning.
The episode also showed viewers the “state-of-the-art” control room for the Elizabeth line, situated on the second floor of the operating centre.
A huge screen at the front of the room displays CCTV and a diagram of the entire 73-mile long line.
As Britain’s newest railway – opened in May 2022 – the Elizabeth line benefits from new monitoring technology, some of which is explained in the episode.
Later on, Portillo visits Chafford Gorges Nature Park, just below Upminster, as well as the Ross Revenge ship.
Episode 16 of Great British Railway Journeys, Romford to the Blackwater Estuary, is now available to watch back on BBC iPlayer.
