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From Office of Rail and Road (https://www.orr.gov.uk/search-news/electrifying-midland-main-line)


Good news that the electrification is completed, safely, on time, and to budget.  I have to express an element of concern that the budget had to be set high, and the timescale long, in the first place in order to allow for processes which may have been longer and more complex (and thus more expensive) than might have been totally necessary.   Is that a valid concern? I really don't know ...

 

I would rather the budget was set (and accepted) at a realistic cost and timescales than 'engineered' down and everyone acting surprised when this new budget was exceeded.

I myself wonder why the DfT can say "we want Okehampton reopened in a matter of months, here's £40 million not a penny more, now get on with it" and instead of the usual "you're having a laugh, we want at least £100 million and a couple of years minimum", Network Rail do indeed get on with it, use all sorts of innovative ideas and processes to keep on time and on budget, and gain for themselves some well-deserved good PR and general image uplift - and why that cant be made the norm across the industry.

This is the much-vaunted new Acceleration Unit (aka SPEED), isn't it? https://www.gov.uk/government/news/transport-secretary-launches-new-acceleration-unit-to-speed-up-transport-infrastructure-projects-and-build-back-better-from-covid-19

An excellent leadership choice that at least makes it stand half a chance.

And a write-up of Project Speed: https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/rail-industry-challenged-to-cut-delivery-time-in-half-and-slash-costs-on-all-projects-01-03-2021/

Andrew Haines is challenging NR internally to speed up project delivery, there is some concerns over corner cutting to achieve it and not actual process improvement. 
Andrew Haines is also challenging the DfT and ORR over the bureaucracy imposed by these two and the time taken to make a decision / approve
Once GBR has control of the whole train set and gets away from the fragmented industry we currently have, hopefully, projects will be easier to deliver.

- Seems to be working for Okehampton. Can you give me a specific example on that scheme that is negative cost cutting rather than genuine process improvement?

- Whilst the DfT and ORR are most certainly not blameless on the bureaucracy front, aren't we somewhat in danger of ignoring that 95% of the blame lay with Network Rail's failed and discredited GRIP system?

- I will say it again. All that is really happening is that the Private TOC's and Network Rail are rebranding themselves and trying to distract everyone's attention from that with a historic-sounding name and an iconic double arrow logo. What's more, if on top of that new "innovative local operators" are also going to be able to run services, then how on earth is the cumulative effect of that going to be less fragmentation?

- I don't think anybody deep down truly believes that the DfT and ORR are suddenly going to leave GBR to it and not interfere once it is created. If anyone does, they obviously haven't noticed the quotes from Andrew Haines about Boris and the DfT calling him up every 5 minutes about their top priority projects, and they certainly haven't learned the lessons of history regarding the SRA's downfall.

Sorry to keep pointing this out and being the forum party pooper but...It aint gonna work so don't do it  ;D