ASSET MANAGEMENT
Network Rail’s asset management remains a cause for concern for the Office of Rail Regulation, which has rated it unsatisfactory or a cause for future concern across most categories.
N
etwork Rail’s civil engineering struc- tures management, station and depot conditions, maintenance unit costs, delays caused by track assets and rising delay- per-incident ratings, are all flagged as ‘yel- low’ by the ORR in its most recent ‘moni- tor’ report. The ORR considers the situa- tion in these categories “unsatisfactory” or else has “concerns about future delivery”.
Network Rail has also delivered 11% less plain line track renewal than planned, the ORR said, but it is satisfied this is improv- ing. The ORR also praises the organisa- tion’s ‘new product introduction process’, which it says is dealing with earlier con- cerns in this area.
The ‘yellow’ flagged categories in more detail:
Civil engineering structures manage- ment: The ORR had “serious concerns” about weaknesses including the absence of formal lifecycle planning, shortfalls in asset knowledge and IT functionality.
Network Rail is working with Arup on an improvement plan to address these weak- nesses.
Station and depot conditions: Audits found that only two out of five sites had sufficient data readily capable of audit and the ORR is investigating “whether this un- satisfactory position is typical”. Stations may actually be in better condition than Network Rail has been reporting, the ORR said, due to an “identified bias” that may require rebasing its commitments.
MUCs and CAFs: Despite good progress in improving the accuracy of its capital unit costs, Network Rail is still struggling with its maintenance unit costs, the ORR said. It said: “We require significant further progress in time for Network Rail to prepare its strategic business plan for Control Period 5.”
Track assets: Delays caused by track as- sets were up 3.5% on the year before, due to track faults and broken rails (up 9% - though the severe winter weather will have
contributed to this high figure).
There are fewer temporary speed restric- tions and track geometry measures are now generally improving again, alongside new management practices.
Non-track assets: The cause of the rise in the delay-per-incident measure it “not yet understood”, the ORR said. It has asked Network Rail to identify the causes and fix the problem.
Delays from signalling systems and power supplies are 14% worse, and in this case the number of incidents is itself also rising. Network Rail also needs to identify and tackle the reasons for this. The roll-out of predict-and-prevent maintenance via remote condition monitoring should improve non-track asset performance, the ORR said.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
To read the full report, visit
www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.2284
rail technology magazine Apr/May 11 | 215
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