Keep the faith, but remember that 2015 infrastructure investment relies on delivery

Support for multibillion investment programme means getting delivery right every time, says Antony Oliver.

Antony Oliver
05 January 2015

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Rail

Transport

The Christmas Kings Cross and Paddington rail chaos headlines should underline to the whole profession just how fragile the political and public support for major investment in infrastructure remains.

And while 2014 was characterised by a galvanising of this support leading to multibillion pound public investment commitments in rail, roads, water, energy and communications, 2015 will be judged on delivery. 

"Alongside  celebration, the industry must increasingly appreciate that, particularly with a General Election looming, the current political support for massive and transformational infrastructure investment relies on maintaining the confidence that the industry knows what it is doing"

The full details about why engineering work at these two critical London terminals was delayed have still to be properly explained and analysed. But there will, no doubt, be very good, extraordinary reasons behind the failure to reopen on time.

After all, as Network Rail has already pointed out, the complexity and scale of the work being undertaken, with apparently over 300 projects at 2000 worksites taking advantage of the rare opportunity to access this track closure, was immense.

As is usually the case during such holiday network shutdowns. 

We will hear more about this challenge, no doubt, when Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne reports to the Transport Select Committee on 14th January and it is already clear that, regardless of the coherence of his explanation, he will be expecting a pretty rough ride from MPs.

It is a year tomorrow since Carne joined Network Rail and Committee chair Louise Ellman has made clear that she will be looking for a detailed explanation as to why the public was so let down and what lessons would be learnt for the future.

Looking back to when Carne took over we offered our “top ten tips”. The first five – if not all - would appear as relevant today as then:

1. Understand that when you are an arms-length Government company managing crises are more important than managing the business. 

2. A resilient and reliable railway is as important as increasing capacity. 

3. Don’t come in as an oil baron. The culture of rail is about public service.

4. Put in place an investigation as to why some Network Rail projects are extremely efficient and others are absolutely awful. 

5. Get out on as many night shifts and engineering hours operations as possible as just keep asking everyone “why do we do it that way?” and “how could you do it better?” 

It is, of course, very easy to look back and sit in judgement. The reality is that delivering infrastructure projects on this scale and complexity is hugely challenging. And on the whole is usually carried out to plan and so not heard about. 

This fact should be made and should be celebrated.

But alongside this celebration, the industry must increasingly appreciate that, particularly with a General Election looming, the current political support for massive and transformational infrastructure investment relies on maintaining the confidence that the industry knows what it is doing.

And whether actual or apparent, events on the rail network over Christmas give the impression otherwise. 

Across the sectors infrastructure has benefitted from honest, open and effective engagement between infrastructure professionals and politicians and reaped real reward in terms of commitments in the National Infrastructure Plan and Treasury spending commitments.

It is vital to the national economy and the industry that this commitment continues. Dropping the ball at this stage – even seemingly superficially - is not an option for 2015.