Business Profile
“A core competence of Toc managers is to grasp that effective management of their station estate is as important as running the trains themselves for business success on the modern UK railway”
most appropriate to business. Conversely, this would leave the Toc to run all the other services prescribed under the franchise as a ‘bus service on tracks’ so beloved by the wider industry. The alternative scenario is where the incumbent Toc does not take-up the option to run dedicated premium trains. This would allow a contender and possibly a direct competitor to offer a true alternative choice, albeit at a supplement to the Anytime ticket price. Under this arrangement the market would follow the best value proposition, which might well be the ‘bus service on tracks’; but at least the competing Premium trains would set the standard and provide a competitive spur to the lowest cost service provider to pursue continual improvement – namely, a better service at progressively reduced cost.
Continual improvement
Regarding the result of the DfT’s recent internal review of rail franchising processes, Coleman said: ‘Can you imagine any other industry in which a worse performer can outbid the less good to win a twelve-year monopoly for its lack of creative and imaginative interpretation of customer service?’
He continued: ‘Continual
improvement means better perceived value in terms of service delivery at lower price to the customer; even lower cost to the supplier; and an overall better value proposition delivered to all its passengers. The DfT has to earn respect for its role as the strategic policy maker for rail by grasping the underlying competitive issues at play.’
Coleman believes high level
commercial appointments imported from low-cost airlines have also contributed to the worst of both worlds for the Standard Class rail passenger. ‘Insufficient luggage space, swapping windows for bulk- heads, and back-of-seat video screens are all detrimental, with little if any value benefit in the hollow endeavour to avoid revenue abstraction from First Class,’ he said. ‘Conversely, passengers repeatedly request more tables and the cramped coach seating to be removed and the cold comforts (irrespective of the ticket price paid) to be redressed. But nobody hears them – or doesn’t want to.’ ISC-BPCL offers the innovative application of new technology to
control future projects over their entire life-cycle. Structural changes in the way railway assets are managed and maintained from procurement through to decommissioning enables the company to deliver advantages to all project participants by adapting CAD modelling techniques and benchmarking the ISC’s wider experience of fitout and completion in civilian aviation. These benefits have been realised through attention to a continual improvement of the underlying processes involved. This requires identifying critical success factors which include a clear understanding of human and technical efficiency requirements and the interfaces between them; and the integrity and structure of project information within a rigorously maintained quality assured practice. A matrix was derived from how these principles were applied to the recovery programme of the BAA Heathrow Express and subsequent construction projects.
The biggest difficulties tend to occur at the interface between disciplines and project phases. In order to define the quality assured regime required, it is necessary to understand the interfaces and the information that passes across them. It is therefore essential to have a
clear and detailed understanding of what is happening between any two parties involved in the contract. A core competence of Toc managers
is to grasp that effective management of their station estate is as important as running the trains themselves for business success on the modern UK railway. By continuously maintaining Single Stations Models (SSM’s) and making these available to the various stakeholders, ISC- BPCL has become a leading supplier of quality assured CAD information and the associated drawings derived from them, which are essential for the various railway consents including Listed Building and other heritage permissions. Over the years Coleman has encouraged all stakeholders associated with ISC’s vision for the UK rail industry to adopt a similar approach. ‘In the management of change I allow the greatest benefits for least cost to prevail by achieving a common level of understanding and competence. I then steadily raise this level as opposed to commissioning select groups of ‘experts’ who prescribe solutions that are too advanced to be applied easily or cost- effectively.’
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www.isc-bestpracticeconsultancy.co.uk June 2013 Page 105
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