Changing Track: Mace's response to the McNulty Report 2011
The future of rail?
The recent recommendations of Sir Roy McNulty’s much-anticipated “Rail Value for Money Study” (2011) look at ways to achieve efficiencies across the UK rail sector. For too long improvements to the railway system have come too slow and at too greater cost. McNulty tries to identify where innovation and improvement can come from, whilst learning the lessons of organisational shortcomings in the current system.
The proposed improvements all require that the construction industry and the related transport stakeholders work together more effectively in order to re-establish the UK as one of Europe’s most efficient rail infrastructure networks.
Mace’s rail infrastructure team are experts in offering a full range of services from programme management to construction delivery. Coupled with a strong belief in transparency, we integrate fully to design and deliver programmes on time and within budget. In this article, we share some discussion points on Sir McNulty’s vision for the rail industry.
So how could the reforms be implemented?
- 1. A new vision
Sir Roy McNulty’s report identifies the need for changes in the way both train operators and infrastructure companies' objectives are incentivised, so that ultimately a cheaper and more efficient system is achieved.
The report’s other main proposals include:
- 30% decrease in the cost of travel by 2018/19
- Greater collaboration on key decisions between Network Rail and train operating companies
- Simpler, more understandable fare structures with better management of peak usage.
- Transfer of franchise-appointment decisions out
of Whitehall and into the rail regulator.
- 2. Partners, not opponents
Partnership means effective collaboration, but for too long the structure of the rail industry has been too combative and financially short-termist, encouraging siloed thinking and a culture where stakeholders' individual agendas work against the common interest of passengers. Mace has a long history of seeking to overcome such relationship and communication issues by designing programmes of work that harmonise all stakeholders' long-term interests. This approach was at the heart of our successful delivery of such complex transport projects as Heathrow's Terminal 5, or our work as delivery partner on the Birmingham New Street re-development. As McNulty's report makes clear, the time for such thinking on the railways is long overdue. - 3. Learning from others
In essence, rail infrastructure delivery isn't radically different from other forms of transport construction. But from an organisational perspective it could learn some valuable lessons from other sectors. At Mace transferring ideas from complementary but different industries has always been a cornerstone of our approach. We've worked for Railtrack, Tubelines, Metronet, GMPTE but perhaps more importantly we've delivered many complex and innovative projects in aviation, energy, urban regeneration, and many other sectors where managing transport interfaces required genuinely new thinking.- 4. The future...
Beyond the more long-term and high-level goals of a more collaboratively run rail network, one thing is clear. For too long programme and project management, supply chain and asset management on the UK's railways have been too inefficient and ultimately too costly to the travelling public. Mace believes that with improved and innovative approaches in these areas many of McNulty's envisaged improvements can and will be achieved.
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