Network Rail’s Southern Region is taking a new approach to renewals. Southern Integrated Delivery Programme Director Liz Baldwin explains the process to Richard Wilcock.
In this article:
- One region tries out an innovative way of working on upkeep and renewals for CP7
- Brings together engineering partners into one delivery team with closer collaboration
- Delivering cost efficiencies, value for money and productivity
- How the new approach can also favour biodiversity
Rail renewals remain one of the most difficult challenges on the rail network. Often, they are the product of necessity, requiring organisations, companies and contractors to work together in highly demanding circumstances.
They require a logistical approach, carried out in short timeframes against a backdrop of cost considerations and isolated working.
As Network Rail’s Control Period 7 (CP7, April 2024-29) kicks into action, with spending across the regions on upkeep and renewals laid out for the next five years, one region has studied the way it operates and decided on a different way of working, previously untested within rail.
Called the Southern Renewals Enterprise (SRE), it will help deliver NR’s Southern Region renewals programme across a possible ten-year period, ensuring that the plan of action signed off by Network Rail will be delivered.
The SRE programme fundamentally changes the way that NR and its partners approach renewal projects. One key element is the Southern Integrated Delivery (SID) programme, which is tasked with delivering the region’s renewals portfolio over CP7 and beyond.
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