RAILTEX 2011
perbly well depending on the way it was ap- plied. There is no ‘follow this model and it works’; it is about people and competence.”
Network Rail’s project delivery success rate has increased hugely since the founding of the company, and now stands at more than 90%. Does Kirby think it will ever be pos- sible to hit 100%?
“There is a lot of opportunity there not just to produce better, lower cost solutions, but safer to build as well.
“By having the guys involved who are going to be building it in the design team they will be thinking about safety, for example, in a different way to a conventional designer.”
A to B to now
It is worth comparing that approach with previous projects. As Kirby observes, even the relatively recent Airdrie to Bathgate project would have been done differently if the planning process started today.
He stated: “To draw a comparator, Airdrie to Bathgate was a project where we worked
with a design consultant and then we con- tracted the work for detailed design and construction to different organisations.
“In a new and different world we would have design consultants, contractors and a number of partners in an alliance where there is a mutual incentive to perform for the whole project. So the designer has got some skin in the game of the final solution and the contractor partners have got skin in the game for the design. It is just more collaborative.
“We looked at a number of models,” he adds, “and the conclusion is a lot of it is around behaviours of organisations and people, not just the model itself. We have seen the same model fail and succeed su-
© Railtex
He said: “It is like anything; there is no reason why you can’t, other than they are all very complex. With the best people and best processes, things will always happen because they are not green-field projects; they are all interfacing to existing infra- structure and managing all the risks and concerns is always a challenge. It is just something you have got to aspire to and try to achieve.
“It is a bit like zero accidents; it is the right thing to go for, even though it is always going to be a challenge going for it. If you think 5% late is ‘all right’, it is just not the right mindset. You will never get there.”
Proof of the pudding
Sceptics will say Network Rail’s new ap- proaches to suppliers are an attempt to di- vert any criticism included in the McNulty review and, of course, it remains to be seen how much more smoothly projects will run when implementing those new approach- es, but it can be as easily argued that the company is evolving and innovating on the back of recent experiences.
‘Evolution’ is a word much used in man- agement-speak and is therefore an easy target of ridicule, but it’s clear from the speeches given at Railtex from people like Kirby, Haythornthwaite and others, that Network Rail sees itself as being on the cusp of an exciting new era in infrastruc- ture development.
Plans to export this expertise worldwide, showing once again that, when it comes to rail, the UK is at the vanguard of technol- ogy can only be welcomed.
Suppliers to the UK market, therefore, will be hoping that ‘heartfelt speech’ does not translate into ‘empty rhetoric’ and that they can indeed look forward to a completely new way of working with Net- work Rail.
Visit
www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/1542.aspx Simon Kirby
FOR MORE INFORMATION rail technology magazine Jun/Jul 11 | 25
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116