Since the PWI held its first electrification seminar in 2018, the event has become increasingly popular. As reported in issue 196 (May-June 2022), last year’s Scottish seminar focused on the Scottish electrification programme and initiatives for cost reduction.
This year’s seminar ‘Electrification – into the future’ was held in Sheffield. It also considered electrification’s affordability as well as power supplies, third rail and Ireland. It was a fascinating day.
As he welcomed delegates, PWI President Peter Dearman stressed the need for affordable electrification to get schemes authorised to achieve net zero carbon emissions, especially as the Treasury’s economic evaluation does not consider electrification’s full benefits. He recommended that delegates study the ‘Rail Electrification – the facts’ leaflet that is available from the Railway Industry Association (RIA) website.
Drive down costs
In his keynote address, Rob McIntosh, managing director of Network Rail’s Eastern Region stressed that the railway faced the opposing dynamics of its 2050 net zero commitment and unprecedented pressure on the public purse for which brilliant engineering needs to drive down costs. He has a copy of the ECML electrification project’s close out report as a reminder of what can be achieved.
He also recalled the excitement in 2008 about plans to electrify the whole network and how we then lost our way and had to cut back parts of Great Western electrification. He stressed that this must never happen again. Although delivering affordable electrification is a huge challenge, he was convinced that the industry can drive down unit rates of electrification. Whilst Midland Main Line (MML) and Transpennine Route Upgrade (TPU) rates are good, these are not enough, and costs must be further reduced.
Better clienting
Lisa Webb is Network Rail’s Eastern Regions’ principal portfolio manager for Capital Delivery. She stressed that electrification delivery is only a small part of the total programme costs. She said that to reduce these huge indirect costs needs a significant change in the way we mobilise and interact with the environment around us.
She considered how Network Rail is supporting the supply chain by becoming a better client for the Midland Main Line (MML) electrification programme of which 130km of its 330 route km has already been electrified. Work to Wigston, just south of Leicester has been authorised as has a £500 million programme to upgrade the London to Bedford overhead line for 125mph running. However, uncertainty remains about the approval of electrifying the remaining 137 route km.
For Lisa, the lessons of previous schemes were painfully obvious. We make things too difficult, change our minds, don’t know enough about our existing assets, and do too much rework. Learning from this requires certainty, reducing complexity through standardisation, optimising production and deconflicting different work packages, optimising scarce resources, and a relentless focus on cost.
She advised that as the MML programme is not driven by a timetable change, there is flexibility to minimise costs by deconflicting the key elements of route clearance, immunisation, and electrification.
As a client, her job is to manage uncertainties and optimise the critical track access for maximum productivity. The procurement strategy also must ensure work is done collaboratively and efficiently.
She referred to the project SPEED initiative which has reduced bureaucracy and gives teams permission to challenge and be creative, giving everyone a role in achieving the desperately needed cost savings. As an example, reducing the option selection from one year to three months saved £250 million. There are also constructive discussions between Network Rail and the Department for Transport (DfT) to reduce the huge amount of duplicated effort.
Lisa was convinced that with the right focus and leadership we really can do things differently. She concluded by advising that we must all ask ourselves what we can do to ensure our success.
Delivering electrification
SPL Powerlines’ Regional Director for England & Wales, Steve McWhan, and Engineering Director, Simon Skinner explained their company’s approach to the electrification cost challenge.
Steve described initiatives which included a wiring unit that can install a complete wire run in a short nightshift possession, stillages to avoid wasting possession time supplying materials, pre-dressed steelwork and the use of gantries and rails instead of cranes to install sub-station building.
Simon considered the need for discipline integration which requires awareness of the needs of others. He stressed that each discipline’s signed off assurance documentation must be done in real time rather than just before authorisation. He also felt that only quality assured metrics should be counted. He advised that SPL had a metrics dashboard which indicates the health of a project.
Steve said that successful projects, such as the Bedford to Corby electrification, all had a shared team vision with everyone taking decisions that were right for the project. He was amused at the idea of using a contract to make people work together. He said he knew that didn’t work as it was people working together that formed a team. He feels that the industry contract award process is essentially about blame and liability when the requirement should be to take on board risk and reward performance.
He noted that the biggest ever programmes were delivered at an affordable price in the 1980s and early 1990s and so offered a lot of the answers. Then, experts and gangs specialised in specific aspects, had a factory production mentality, and strove for continuous improvement. This is difficult to achieve with projects continuously starting and stopping which makes training problematic.