Balfour Beatty MD sets out digital challenges
THE rail industry must attract more young people to make the most of the potential offered by the Digital Railway concept, says the managing director of Balfour Beatty Rail (BB).
Speaking exclusively to RAIL before the launch of Balfour Beatty’s new Fast Track to Digital Railway: Delivering the Vision report in October, Mark Bullock said: “There aren’t enough skills on the existing railway. I’m a real advocate that youngsters should aspire to work on the railways. The industry has been guilty over the decades of downplaying the vital importance of the railway to the country. There is competition for scarce skills across the market.”
The report highlights three areas which BB says the rail industry must address to ensure the success of the Digital Railway programme. In addition to ensuring there are sufficient skilled people, it also says that as well as being more highly skilled, workers will need to be multi-skilled, with a mixture of analytical and vocational skills.
The report points out that the rail industry is competing for skilled people with other sectors, such as the nuclear and aviation industries. As such, digital skills are expected to become more sought-after. Balfour Beatty acquired Omnicom Engineering in 2016 to bolster its capabilities in this area, in addition to committing to having 5% of its workers in apprentice or graduate roles.
Bullock described the Digital Railway as “an interesting challenge”, adding: “How do we turn it from a conversation into something that delivers benefits to passengers? We need to increase capacity and reliability for passengers. We are enthusiastic because we can see opportunities to create value for passengers and freight customers.”
Balfour Beatty believes that all elements of the railway need to be considered and integrated for Digital Railway, including rolling stock, signalling and train control, new infrastructure to remove bottlenecks, and asset maintenance. Train operations could also require a rethink, with additional staff needed and revised stations to cater for predicted growth in passenger numbers.
Engaging the industry will be vital, according to Bullock: “The starting point is a different way of working with Network Rail and across the industry. It’s something which needs to come together to resolve in a more collaborative approach. It doesn’t need a bunch of highly specified contracts - an output-based approach would be more effective. It will be a challenge given the scale and complexity of the Digital Railway.”
Early involvement of contractors - with which BB has been involved on the National Rail network and London Underground - will also be key to unlocking the benefits of the Digital Railway.
“It’s about investing time and effort upfront, which is bound to get a better result,” said Bullock.
While new technology is a
cornerstone of the Digital Railway, Bullock said a more conservative approach could pay dividends, telling RAIL: “You can use technologies which aren’t ‘bleeding edge’ which can make a huge difference. For me, I don’t think it will be a problem coming up with the technology - it’s more about getting everybody pointed in the right direction.”
One area of technology where BB has invested heavily in recent years is asset maintenance. And it says the case for renewing assets earlier and investing in systems to predict and prevent failure will become stronger as more trains run on the network.
“We’ve been with railways through thick and thin - we have a very broad spread of capability, including on-track plant and technology focused on asset management on the railway,” said Bullock. “We are as an industry moving to predictive monitoring. If we can fix things before they break it’s safer, cheaper and more reliable for passengers.”
Funding is another consideration, with Balfour Beatty advocating removal of the Digital Railway programme from the five-year Control Periods.
“The stop-start nature [of Control Periods] is a problem,” said Bullock. “We are creating assets with long lifecycles but funding them in five-year chunks - it’s counter-intuitive. I believe big longterm projects should be funded on a lifecycle basis.”
The report suggests that there is no ‘one size fits all’ model for introducing private sector funding. Possibilities include: an ‘enhancement concession’ model where a concessionaire is appointed to fund, deliver, operate and maintain digital railway assets on a given route; a full infrastructure management concession such as High Speed 1; or benefit sharing models. However, it also says that there will be some projects where the risks will be so significant that they will need to be retained by the system operator and backed by Government.
Balfour Beatty’s report concludes: “Digital Railway will be transformative, bringing the UK’s railways into the 21st century. However, making it a reality calls for a shake-up of the industry and the way it does business.”