WHAT THE JUDGES SAID

“There is enthusiastic support for a desperately needed improvement in East London Line performance and its dependence on the Sydenham corridor, to deliver trains to the core ELL section on time.

“This corridor is regulated by three control offices at Three Bridges and Victoria. The project involved generating enthusiasm for change in established practice across companies, locations, and simplifying the 26-page regulation instructions into a single A4 sheet with four action points.

“The entry represents true collaboration, cutting across the commercial and contractual interests of the different parties involved.

“The energy and enthusiasm were spread by the core ‘team’ in the ARL/GTR and NR horizontally and vertically throughout their respective organisations with buy-in from Transport for London.

“They will have faced major barriers in doing this and challenging standard industry practice. Implementation risk was mitigated by a clear “abort” option based on clear performance impact criteria.

“The panel was impressed by the extent of the behavioural change, and the demonstration of results with clear benefits relating to a 5% contribution to a 9% Public Performance Measurement (PPM) improvement, all achieved with many fewer controller interventions, and a significant reduction in regulation errors as the signaller instructions are greatly simplified. Passenger impact, staff welfare and system safety are all positively affected.

“Apart from the identified, realistic and proven performance benefits, the panel were impressed by the importance of the approach to the success of the Thameslink project delivering necessary improvements vital to a 24 trains per hour service in 2018.

“Additionally, the methodology is transferable and required elsewhere to facilitate capacity improvements, not to mention major projects such as the Elizabeth Line.”