Delay for EGIP
Seven-month delay to Edinburgh-Glasgow project means electric trains will not be running until July 2017.
SCOTTISH Government has reacted angrily to seven-month delays to the Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP), which means electric trains will be running in July 2017 rather than December 2016.
The delay, revealed in the Office of Rail and Road’s’ Network Rail Monitor covering October 18 2015 to March 31 2016, has been caused by “extra compliance requirements, complicated interfaces with other projects, and other unforeseen factors such as severe weather impacts”, said Phil Verster, Managing Director of Network Rail Scotland and the ScotRail Alliance.
Scottish Transport Minister Humza Yousaf said he was “very concerned and disappointed” about NR’s latest programme assessment for Scotland.
“Network Rail has informed Transport Scotland that the Edinburgh-Glasgow line will not be running electric services until July 2017. This is seven months later than scheduled and seven months later than they advised ministers two months ago,” he said.
“This will also increase the cost of the project beyond the previous £742 million estimate. Network Rail’s cost estimates for a number of other major projects that are at earlier stages of delivery have also increased. Moreover, progress on other projects has also been slower than expected.
“I am not prepared to simply accept the long-term cost implications, nor the revised programmes that Network Rail has set out. I will also be doing everything possible to ensure that Network Rail delivers the full programme in Scotland by March 2019 and without any extra funding from the Scottish Government.”
Yousaf said that while there is always risk with delivery of major construction projects, he said NR had fallen short of previous standards. He highlighted the Borders Railway as a project it got right, and said EGIP was an example of poor management of contractors.
“Across the programme there are systemic issues including poor planning and cost estimation and a failure to properly incorporate well established regulations into their project plans,” he said.
He confirmed, however, that the introduction of the Class 385s on EGIP was still planned for September 2017.
Yousaf recognised that ORR had identified weaknesses in NR’s’ project delivery, and also that NR was taking steps to remedy these. But he said he intended to go deeper into the problems and seek assurances regarding delivery.
Transport Scotland officials have been tasked with undertaking a review of the NR programme, and the Scottish Futures Trust will provide additional assurance. The governance structures for the delivery of major rail projects will also be reviewed. He said this will be completed by September, at which point Yousaf plans to take senior NR officials before the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee to set out how they intend to deliver promised improvements, the costs and what is being done to address concerns raised by Scottish Government and ORR.
Verster said: “Very importantly, our teams have learned valuable
lessons from the circumstances, decisions and programme impacts over the last months.”
He said EGIP “is still progressing well”, and that NR was still committed to delivering the overall railway enhancement in Scotland by March 2019 within the agreed funding limits.
Karl Budge, director for Network Rail Investment Projects in Scotland, said: “We are delivering a hugely exciting and hugely ambitious enhancement programme in Scotland. We have strengthened our delivery structure, creating a new management team and changing how we manage the programme, supply chain and contractors. This new structure will improve our decision-making processes.
“We are working with Transport Scotland to deliver our enhancement programme as quickly and cost-effectively as possible for both the taxpayer and passenger.”
In the Monitor, the ORR writes: “Some aspects of EGIP are progressing to plan, including the new station at Edinburgh Gateway.” It highlights the “significant challenges” to the delivery of Key Output 1 obligation for EGIP, which is the introduction of electric services in December 2016 ahead of the overall KO1 milestone of March 2017, as “the need for Network Rail to demonstrate infrastructure compliance with relevant international engineering specifications and its obligations under the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989”.
It further states: “In the CP5 [Control Period 5, 2014-19] Final Determination we established an assumed efficient price for EGIP of £490m. Estimated costs have since risen, in large part due to the additional compliance scope requirements, the complicated interface with Buchanan Galleries project, and additional line speed works to achieve journey time improvements.”