Delivering a Vital Railway Infrastructure

Our client was responsible for a major project in the rail infrastructure sector; tasked with navigating a multi-billion pound rail upgrade to connect key cities in Northern England. 

Numerous stakeholders were involved, including customers; local authorities; communities; designers, builders; government departments; asset owners, train operating companies, environmental impact assessors and safety inspectors. 

Working across these teams presented an exciting opportunity to set new standards in delivering rail infrastructure. Our goal was to ensure infrastructure upgrade designs were delivered on time, with maximum efficiency, in a complex environment with ambitious timescales. 

Our client’s design production was slipping behind schedule, with the potential to impact construction scheduled in access windows. Replanning would cause significant delays to the project – to prevent this, we needed to work together to meet critical timelines.

Added pressure came from the cost associated with construction times, as upgrading tracks in the UK means trains have to be stopped, and construction done in ‘track access windows’ – ranging from a few hours overnight, to weeks over quieter holiday periods. If time windows overrun, the project faces significant costs. 

With the programme’s scope and corresponding costs scaling from 2.9bn in 2018, to between £9bn and £11.5bn, the clock was ticking. We partnered with one of the project’s delivery alliances to streamline their design operations and realign trajectory. With their aim of upping output, while maintaining the same high standards of quality and safety, we set about to double production together.

Our team went deep to understand present challenges, in order to share changes needed to ensure the project’s future success. 

Chosen – in part – for our rigorous, data-driven approach and extensive knowledge of the challenges faced by the whole infrastructure sector, we were the right partner for the client’s team of experts.

Working together, we piloted several solutions, with each partner bringing a unique perspective to fully understand what was and wasn’t working. We streamlined the process for simple designs, adopted best practice at critical steps, and reduced checks when risk was low. 

We identified four priority areas: streamlining processes, creating clear roles with clear accountabilities, embedding trusted and effective governance, and ensuring adherence to process standards. This collectively leveraged the strengths of all stakeholders, to develop a sustainable solution. 

Throughout the process, we worked alongside various members of the supply-chain, emphasising the critical role of coordination and healthy communication to ensure the right work was done by the right people, within the right time frames.

With the current position of design known and solutions piloted, we needed clear governance to hold individuals across the process accountable, removing blockers before they delayed the design schedule.

A Responsibility, Accountability, Consultation, and Inform (RACI) matrix was implemented across all partners to ensure consistency. Using trusted metrics, design process fundamentals were embedded for improved efficiency, meaning everyone across the process was clear on how their role contributed to wider goals.

With a new emphasis on the right packages, leaders could focus on outcomes rather than process, enabling them to make more effective decisions. A simplified approach minimised unnecessary “gold plating”, whereas checks and sign off procedures redirected effort to complex designs, reducing completion time.

Through a strategic partnership with our client, the project was delivered on schedule: finishing on time and avoiding costly overruns. With a more streamlined design process, the programme prevented over £33 million in costs related to design going over schedule.

Through the hard work of our partners, the engineers, planners and leaders, the number of design packages produced in each period increased by over 400%. A more efficient way of working made the design process 11% faster, saving an average of 28 days per design. 

This project has set a new benchmark for rail infrastructure programmes. Working hand-in-hand with our client, we turned around the Alliances’ design performance and by doing so, helped the organisation achieve its goals of providing better connections in the North of England.