As part of the joint £150 million UK Government & Network Rail NSIP Scheme, we provided professional procurement support and assistance to a UK Train Operating Company (TOC), via a number of schemes that delivered refurbishments and improvements to stations across its network.
These projects, with a combined overall value of £7m were undertaken in a number of stages over a period of 3 years.
We provided a consultant as Procurement Manager to be involved in the Project Team to plan and manage the enhancements of existing facilities and station improvements for the NSIP scheme. This enabled the TOC to achieve improved passenger scores which are ultimately used to monitor the service levels and overall passenger satisfaction and by which they are ranked in the industry.
Some specific examples of works undertaken during the 3 year period included the following projects:-
The initial station projects were managed by the TOC’s in-house Facilities Team supported by an external Project Manager. Working with these individuals and as a key member of the Project Team, we set about sourcing via a number of tendering exercises for the Professional Services and Designers / Engineers required to support the Project Team. The arrangements with these were structured in a way to enable them to ultimately be managed by the successful supplier(s) in the delivery and completion of the projects. The subsequent selection of contractors for the delivery of the works were undertaken via a comprehensive OJEU process.
Subsequent additional phases of the works used a Design and Build contract in order to transfer responsibility onto the supplier to ensure that the delivered scheme fully met the required specification. The adoption of this approach enabled the team to make both efficiency improvements and to deliver a more robust and complete package of works.
All works were undertaken using the NEC3 Terms and Conditions of contract.
The works undertaken at all of the stations ultimately met the Project objectives of delivering an enhanced passenger experience through the introduction of improvements in both appearance and enhanced facilities.
Works included the refurbishing of the existing infrastructure and the creation of new waiting areas and cycle storage facilities together with the added benefit of improving the passenger flows at stations.
Each of the individual schemes presented their own challenges for the sourcing and supply of materials and works to site with the need to maintain the operational railway for passengers at all times. Therefore effective management and co-ordination of the supply chain was of paramount importance. As a result some works needed to be completed at night and outside peak hours thereby presenting their own challenges.
As a result of the diverse nature of the works involved it was also necessary for the Project Team to have close liaison with and obtain relevant input from not only Network Rail but from a number of other key stakeholders within the respective passenger authorities and local councils.
The resulting enhancements of existing facilities through the delivery of station improvements, in line with NSIP objectives, enabled the TOC to achieve improved passenger scores. These are used to monitor the service levels and overall passenger satisfaction, benefitting both the TOCs and their passengers’ experience.
Some of the pdfs produced by Network Rail detailing the scores at various stations can be found here: www.newtorkrail.co.uk/nsip
“The initial station projects were managed by the TOC’s in-house Facilities Team supported by an external Project Manager. Working with these individuals and as a key member of the Project Team, FPA Consulting helped is source via a number of tendering exercises the Professional Services and Designers / Engineers required to support the Project Team.”
TOC Procurement ManagerFPA Consulting was appointed to provide an interim procurement management position for the University of Derby. During this period, several design and build construction projects, ranging in value from £250k to £3m were awarded. The University’s devolved procurement structure was also managed to ensure that best value was secured.
