Independent Review of Timetable Construction and Operational Readiness
Client: Transport for New South Wales, Sydney, Jan - Apr 2017
The More Trains, More Services Program has been announced by the NSW Government. It aims to boost capacity through hundreds of extra services, better infrastructure and new trains for Sydney.
Transport for NSW commissioned an independent review to facilitate the successful delivery of a first stage timetable change in 2017.
After competitive tender, the Railway Consultancy was requested to provide an expert review, both of the proposed timetable and the operational preparedness of train operators to implement it.
Dr Nigel G Harris and Jerry Gold reviewed a wide range of documents setting out the timetable development process which had been followed, but the main focus of activity was an intense 10-day trip to Sydney, interviewing over 30 managers involved in the process.
In order to ensure the holistic treatment of the program, we included those responsible not only for timetabling, but also train operations, engineering maintenance, train crew planning, communications and project management. We also undertook a number of site visits to critical locations, including Town Hall station, the control centre, and Clyde signal box, in order to understand fully the capabilities, as well as the constraints and challenges of existing equipment and facilities.
Over the following weeks, we put together a report highlighting a wide range of risks for timetable implementation, many relating to the number of other changes (e.g. new trains, track works, asset management systems) occurring simultaneously, and the likelihood of these having either direct (e.g. disruption) or indirect (e.g. competing use of resource) impacts on the timetable.
We made a series of recommendations for specific actions to mitigate those risks, and comments on best practices which might help future timetable implementation processes. Whilst recognising that future timetables were to deliver further improvements, which limited the potential for a major postponement to plans, we nevertheless recommended a short delay to the introduction of this timetable, and a delay of several months was accepted. Although the timetable worked well during its initial weeks, the traincrew issue which we had noted developed into more of a problem during early 2018.
Last updated: Sunday, 18th December 2016
https://www.railwayconsultancy.com/projects/timetablechange.php
© 1996-2024 The Railway Consultancy Ltd