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Significant opportunities

Significant opportunities

01/05/2009 | Channel: Contracts, Station Development, New Products & Services, Business Improvement, Franchises, Skills & Training, Security, Health & Safety, Freight, Rolling Stock, Infrastructure

The Railway Strategies Live Event, in association with the
Rail Alliance, is designed to help suppliers unlock their potential


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The beginning of April heralded an announcement from Network Rail that should get all suppliers sitting up and taking notice. A £35bn programme of expenditure targeted at building a bigger and better railway has been officially launched and Iain Coucher, chief executive of Network Rail described the new expansion plans as: ‘…the biggest expansion of Britain’s railways since the age of Brunel.’

Of the £35bn investment, to be spent over the next five years, almost £12bn will be invested on projects designed to relieve overcrowding by lengthening platforms and increasing capacity and capability to enable more trains to run. £11.5bn will be invested in replacing older parts of the network (rail, signalling, bridges).

A further £9.2bn will be spent on day-to-day maintenance and the costs of operating and running the network safely over the period, with a further £2.2bn on non-controllable operating expenditure.

Services will be even more reliable, delays caused by the infrastructure will be cut by nearly 25 per cent - this investment programme is bigger and more ambitious than anything seen in generations. It highlights rail as one of the few sectors where strong business opportunities will continue to exist. But businesses
wishing to claim their share will have to demonstrate their ability as world-class performers.

For the past two years the Railway Strategies Supply Chain conference, organised in association with the Rail Alliance since 2008, has provided peer led insight to what is needed to survive and prosper in this sector. This year’s event is targeted to help suppliers understand the pivotal role that having the necessary Skills, Innovation and Technology will play in securing a long-term future in the sector.

Imagine the insight delegates can receive from attending peer led presentations from Network Rail, Chiltern, Alstom, Virgin and Bombardier, as well as what can be learned from masterclasses on joined up accreditation, lean and in addition, the lessons given in a keynote presentation on winning as a team from Sir Clive Woodward in association with O2.

Wednesday 24th June
The day, hosted by Colin Flack of the Rail Alliance, will begin with a presentation from Marc Auckland, Head of Leadership and Performance for Network Rail.

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Marc led the work resulting in Network Rail being the first of three companies to be granted the ability to deliver externally recognised training. He also led the purchase of the National Leadership Centre and secured a partnership with Warwick University to develop an accredited curriculum. He set the leadership benchmarks and ensures they are used for ‘cradle to grave’ employment. Marc’s session will give an insight into a wide range of training related topics, including:
  • The introduction of a single type of competence management across the industry
  • The issue of course material externally so that industry course titles have the same meaning
  • Demonstrating an increase in internal investment in training with a parallel increase in value for money/reduction in operating costs
  • Improvement in impact of delivery
The presentation will also include short case studies/stories to demonstrate value in leadership investment.


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Following Marc’s insights, Adrian Shooter, the Chairman of Chiltern Railways will discuss Operational Options for Increasing Capacity. He commented: “The Chiltern line has been transformed from a lightly-used commuter route into a busy intercity railway, handling over twice as many passengers as travelled at the time of privatisation. This has been achieved by a number of incremental projects, each justified in itself but also forming part of a longer-term strategy. Each project has sought to integrate a range of issues, including timetabling, performance management, rolling stock, track layouts, signalling and stations. The presentation will address the rationale for and development of these projects, and their relevance to the wider national network.”

In the course of his career, Adrian has had management responsibility for a wide range of railway activities, including operations, engineering and marketing. Throughout, he has been at the forefront of improving productivity and delivering change.

Sir Clive Woodward, in association with O2

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Before breaking for lunch, delegates get to enjoy a very exciting opportunity – the chance to listen to the legendary coach Sir Clive Woodward, in association with O2, share his views on creating a successful team.

Following his own successful international rugby career, Clive focused more upon the business world, working in Australia and establishing his own successful company. He also began an extraordinary coaching career at the Henley Rugby Club, and followed this at London Irish, Bath and the England U21 side for three seasons. As a result of his success in coaching he was offered the opportunity to become the first fulltime Head Coach to the England side in 1997.

He set about creating transformation both on and off the pitch, introducing business principles, juggling the short term with long term goals, paying attention to detail and planning the personal development of each individual to realise their full potential. It all added up to England becoming the world’s number one side, and winning the greatest prize of all, the Rugby World Cup, in November 2003.

Since then Clive has held key positions in other sports and is now working along side all key stakeholders of Olympic sport to maximise the success of Team GB.

Masterclasses
After a lunch break and time to view the adjoining exhibition, delegates can enjoy two masterclasses. Hosted by Achilles, and TBM, these are designed to share insider experience on successful projects and partnerships.

Achilles Director, Rail & Transport, Andy Harrison provided the following insight into his session: “The management of supply chain is a critical risk for all businesses. In an industry as diverse as UK rail this is particularly true. Achilles, as a global supplier of Supplier Management Systems, is well placed to support organisations in this area. The Link-up scheme is well known and is used across all sectors of the rail industry.

“However, it is also important to make supply chain management an effective and efficient process. Achilles has been working with other industry organisations on how this process can be better able to meet the needs of industry stakeholders. Achilles, together with colleagues from Network Rail, RSSB and RISAS will be providing an update on current thinking and the actions and progress towards achieving this goal. This workshop session will include a presentation and the opportunity to question those who are addressing this issue on behalf of the industry.”


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In the second masterclass, consulting company TBM will bring its extensive rail experience to show how significant and sustainable improvements have been made to many areas including train reliability, availability and even on train revenue collection. Through a concerted effort some UK rail businesses are now engaging in real long-term cultural change that opens the door to dramatic improvements using lean. Attendees will hear of improvements in station turnaround and cleaning of trains, resource management of train personnel, overnight maintenance, heavy overhaul, and even cases in the repair and overhaul of parts and the manufacture of replacement parts.

Finally, following another break for coffee and networking, visitors to the Railway Strategies Live event in association with the Rail Alliance will be able to benefit from two further presentations – one from Virgin/Alstom, and the final session with Colin S Walton, MD of Bombardier.

Virgin and Alstom will be discussing the business motivators and demonstrate the award winning technology used behind the scenes to deliver the critically acclaimed Virgin West Coast service. Gary Hambling, Head of Engineering for Virgin Trains (west coast main line) and Kevin Prendergast is a Principal Engineer in Alstom’s Transport Division will be presenting the session.

Gary’s current position within Virgin Trains focuses on delivery of the Pendolino and voyager fleets into passenger service, all aspects of safety, reliability and engineering changes to support the train operator safety case.

Kevin has 17 years experience in rail vehicle design, commissioning and maintenance, and his current position, within the West Coast Main Line project, focuses on providing the service-orientated business with vehicle monitoring information to optimise the daily fleet performance.

They will be performing a live demonstration of Alstom’s TRAINTRACER service that converts raw data from the trains in service into business information that is used to drive the 390 maintenance operations.

The final presentation of the day is being given by Colin S Walton, Chairman & Chief Country Representative, UK & Ireland, Bombardier.

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Colin S Walton is the senior executive in the UK. In this role he undertakes all contact with both local and national government. He also represents Bombardier at the Railway Industry Association, the Rail Forum, Derby Rail Forum and other associations, including Chairman of LRTF (Light Rail Transit Forum.) Colin will be discussing the UK rail supply chain and the issues that Bombardier is facing at this present time.

Everyone involved with the Railway Strategies Live Event in association with the Rail Alliance is passionate about sharing and promoting best practice to ensure that the rail sector supply chain can achieve and maintain world-class status. Why not join them and over 250 industry colleagues for what promises to be a key educational and networking opportunity for the sector?

To find out more about Railway Strategies 2009 event in association with the Rail Alliance, please visit:
www.railwaystrategies.co.uk