26.06.14
DeltaRail and Network Rail – tensions remain despite high performance
DeltaRail says it has been Network Rail’s best-performing supplier for the past year – but that the owner and operator of Britain’s rail infrastructure finds DeltaRail’s performance and capabilities an “inconvenient truth”.
Derby-based DeltaRail remains angry that it was not given the chance to develop a prototype traffic management system for Network Rail, which instead chose Hitachi, Signalling Solutions and Thales. Thales recently won a contract to develop its solution at Cardiff and Romford (more in the June/July 2014 edition of RTM, including an interview with Thales's David Taylor).
DeltaRail maintains that its traffic management system can be implemented now, saving taxpayers over £1bn, but that Network Rail’s traffic management project “has been drawn out for three years and there will be at least another two years before the other suppliers’ equipment would be installed on the railway”.
That criticism – which made it into a Transport Select Committee evidence session – has been rejected by Network Rail at the highest levels, although it was deemed serious enough to be raised at the company’s main board meeting in January. The Transport Committee has published the reasons supplied by Network Rail on why DeltaRail did not get through the pre-qualification stage back in June 2011.
It also noted: “DeltaRail has gained significant ‘air time’ with many NR employees (and others) including a number of senior leaders, in relation to the current tender process and their revised offering. This is significantly more than any unsuccessful supplier in a competitive tender process would normally be given.”
But now, for the fourth quarter running, DeltaRail has topped the Network Rail PRISM Contractor Rating scheme across all disciplines and all supplier categories, it says. DeltaRail says it scored the highest possible marks across all projects and criteria, including timeliness, behaviour, design and safety.
Last year, Network Rail stopped ranking its suppliers publicly in this way based on that PRISM data, following conversations with the industry. It instead now groups them into bands, and does not normally comment on the achievements or failures of individual suppliers.
DeltaRail CEO Anna Matthews said: “We are delighted to have been Network Rail’s top-performing supplier for a whole year now. It is fantastic that our continued focus on making a difference on each of our projects has been recognised by Network Rail’s project teams.
“Our significant investment in digital-age signalling control technology has been put to use on most of these projects. Some of them have included pilots of new technology such as the Remote Interlocking Interface (RIF) for remotely controlling SSI at Cowlairs.
“It is a shame that Network Rail were ‘unable to comment’ on our achievement; perhaps Network Rail senior managers find our performance and capabilities an inconvenient truth. We, other suppliers and Network Rail‘s own project managers take PRISM seriously, using it as a measure of engagement, collaboration and project deliverables. If Network Rail seniors did the same, their comments and views would be more objective.”
A Network Rail spokesperson said: “The PRISM performance improvement tool has been instrumental in driving up engagement and collaboration throughout our supply chain. We are transparent in publishing PRISM data so the performance of suppliers can be seen and rewarded, however it would be inappropriate to comment specifically on any one supplier.”