Network Rail is on the right track

Catherine Doran is leading the transformation scheme, which will take five years to complete

Network Rail has started a £1bn IT overhaul to support the “biggest expansion of Britain’s railways since the age of Brunel”.

A five-year plan for the organisation, dubbed CP4 (Control Period 4) is backed by £35bn of funding granted by the Office of Rail Regulation in March, and sets out the actions needed to improve punctuality and safety, add capacity and relieve congestion.

The future delivery plans will present of one the biggest career challenges for Catherine Doran, Network Rail’s director of corporate development, a position she has held since October and which expanded the role she has fulfilled since joining the company in 2006 as director of information management. She now has responsibility for both technology and the group-wide transformation agenda.

Changing the company’s IT setup is a crucial part of the process, said Doran. “Now that we have the settlement, we need to change the way we do things to deliver CP4 –­ it is a stretching development and driving efficiencies within technology is essential to the success of the overall strategy,” she said.

“And we have to comply with the requirements while improving the way things are done internally, so it costs less to run the company.”

To meet the new demands, Network Rail introduced a transformation programme composed of 10 workstreams, some looking at how the organisation does business, and others analysing what the firm does, with the overall aim of becoming more responsive, flexible, innovative and cost-effective. Two of the initiatives support the wider programme to ensure consistency.

Core workstreams include asset information, to improve the quality of data on assets such as tracks, signals and switches for better decision making; and network operations, which aims to consolidate existing information and signalling control systems into one integrated traffic management platform.

Network Rail is currently in the mobilisation phase of the transformation, which is forecast to be completed in May and aims to calculate the capital expenditure of individual projects.

“We are going through a governance programme and assessing how much each project is likely to cost, the benefits to the business and confirming that it will help us deliver the settlement requirements,” said Doran.

As part of the initial stage of the change plan, ongoing IT work and jobs in the pipeline are being assessed and the department is working with other divisions to decide if changes are needed to accommodate the new requirements or if projects need to be stopped. This is part of a plan to simplify the IT setup and cut costs.

“The systems rationalisation we have put in place could mean we might close things down ­ – we will look at closing the gap where systems overlap, so we have one platform instead of two,” said Doran.

Demands on Network Rail’s IT staff over the next five years will be “massive”, said Doran, but the 650-strong in-house team is not expected to grow. However, a slight rise in the number of short-term contractors at a later stage of the transformation scheme is expected, as is more involvement of third-party suppliers in project delivery.

“Essentially, we will need to fundamentally alter what we do and my personal challenge is to be very clear on the case for changing things,” said Doran.

“But change is painful, so there must be a prize that makes it worthwhile. We also have to constantly remind ourselves of the significance of what we are doing,” she said.

“We have lots to do –­ including Birmingham New Street station, Thameslink, Crossrail and the Olympics – ­ but when we deliver it all, the legacy for the country will be phenomenal and it will be a great thing to include on our CVs.”

Network Rail’s key IT projects

Spending for the IT component of Network Rail’s transformation plan is likely to reach £1bn, which is equal to about three per cent of the overall five-year funding. It covers improvements to train and traffic management, asset information, upgrades to corporate information systems as well as infrastructure, hardware and software refreshes. Key projects include:

• Transformation of the accuracy and quality of journey information and the way in which it is provided and distributed to passengers;

• Large-scale renewal of obsolete CCTV technology on commuter routes into London;
  

• Technology to reduce carbon emissions such as movement-sensor lighting;
  

• Replacement of the fixed telecoms network by a digital system to improve communication between train drivers and signallers;
  
• Upgrade of datacentre equipment and the overhaul of Oracle systems used
  for human resources and finance.