Getting back to Good Engineering

The East Coast Main Line is the most recent, and most obvious, example of the failure of a rail franchise.
Taken back into public ownership in November 2009, the route is now operated by Directly Operated Railways (DOR) under the “East Coast” brand.
From the outset, DOR established a clear vision for East Coast, supported by transparent objectives and performance indicators to ensure that the executive team and management understood the direction and focus for the business.
One of the objectives was to improve the Fleet Engineering function.
A decision to re-launch the business in May 2011 was co-incident with the introduction of a major new timetable for the East Coast Main Line, the biggest such change on the line for more than 20 years.
Requiring 155 trains to run each day, this new timetable needed the train fleet to be in top condition – particularly in terms of reliability.
Lagging behind
DOR’s own board reported last year that East Coast’s engineering organisation “had lagged behind other train operators in achieving their goals”.
However, this year they could report:
“As part of the East Coast turnaround, which started early in 2010, the Engineering function has been substantially re-organised during the year, and significant advances have been made.
“This has included a revitalised Engineering Management System and a review of maintenance practice.
“The lack of investment in previous years has been reversed; and as a consequence, this investment has started to translate into improved performance.
“Utilising its 500 engineers, and by adopting a systematic approach using visualisation techniques and condition monitoring methods, both of the East Coast fleets (InterCity 225 electric fleet, and the HST diesel fleets) are currently amongst the most reliable InterCity fleets in the country.”

See the full article at: http://www.rail.co/2011/11/09/getting-back-to-good-engineering/