"How fast can we build a railway station?" - Network Rail

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From the Network Rail press office - https://www.networkrail.co.uk/how-fast-can-we-build-a-railway-station/

How fast can we build a railway station?

Network Rail is making it easier for third parties to invest in Britain's railway.

On 30 January, Harriet Hepburn, corporate finance and business development director at Network Rail, spoke to delegates including representatives from investors, the government and the broader rail sector to explain how we're improving the investment process.

More funding from third parties will enable additional improvements to the network, which will benefit passengers and the economy.

Maghull North railway station - funded by the government’s Local Growth Fund (LGF), transport executive Merseytravel and the Homes and Communities Association - is an example of the initiative. It opened in June 2018 after just nine months of construction and was the first additional station on the Merseyrail network in 20 years.

The £13m scheme, part of a broader £340m railway investment in the Liverpool City Region, forms part of the Great North Rail Project to transform travel in the region.

[johnneyw]

It would have been better news to hear that stations could be built quicker by shortening/simplifying the red tape in this glacial process rather than essentially making an appeal for others to contribute funds.  Still, if it gets some stations built earlier, it has to be welcomed.

[IndustryInsider]

Maghull North is very much an exception to the rule.  Most station reopenings have cost more and taken longer to build than originally anticipated.  Though that’s often countered by them becoming an important part of the community they serve, often easily exceeding expected usage.

[onthecushions]

" Construction of Penda's Way station began at 10 am on Saturday 3rd June and was completed by 6 pm on Sunday. The station opened to traffic on Monday 5th June 1939 and was served by 12 trains per weekday in each direction and 13 trains on Saturdays. There was no Sunday service."

http://www.barwickinelmethistoricalsociety.com/11312.html

(They used prefabrication and site preparation first, no doubt.)

As Mr Punch would say, "That's the way to do it!"

OTC

[grahame]

From (several different pages) on Wikipedia, concerning Workington North

On 19–20 November, many towns and villages in Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway were affected. A number of bridges collapsed, one of which led to the death of a police officer, who was standing on the bridge when it collapsed.

Network Rail began construction of the new station during the night of 24/25 November 2009. The station featured two platforms linked by a footbridge, a waiting room, and a gravel car park.[1] Network Rail agreed a two-year lease of land owned by Allerdale Borough Council off the A596 immediately north of St Helens Business Park, opposite the Plaza Cinema.

The structure used a scaffolding base covered by wooden planks with an anti-slip surfacing. Construction work was undertaken "round the clock" in order to get the new station opened. The southbound platform was completed on 26 November, and the northbound platform and footbridge were completed by 28 November. The station opened on 30 November 2009, construction having taken six days.

12 days from the events happening which required the station until it opened.

[Clan Line]

It would have been better news to hear that stations could be built quicker by shortening/simplifying the red tape in this glacial process ............

Have just finished reading "Eleven Minutes Late" by Matthew Engel; there is a lovely story therein about the problems of this sort in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), told by Sir Malcolm Rifkind. A British Minister was complaining to his French counterpart about the never ending delays to any engineering project in the UK. The Frenchman replied "In France, when we want to drain the swamp, we don't ask the frogs". His grasp of colloquial English may not have been perfect - but perhaps he had the right idea !

[CyclingSid]

They will have to get their skates on to complete Reading Green Park by May, which was the last date I heard.

[johnneyw]

It would have been better news to hear that stations could be built quicker by shortening/simplifying the red tape in this glacial process ............

Have just finished reading "Eleven Minutes Late" by Matthew Engel; there is a lovely story therein about the problems of this sort in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), told by Sir Malcolm Rifkind. A British Minister was complaining to his French counterpart about the never ending delays to any engineering project in the UK. The Frenchman replied "In France, when we want to drain the swamp, we don't ask the frogs". His grasp of colloquial English may not have been perfect - but perhaps he had the right idea !

I don't have too much of a problem with the ecological considerations of any modern development, far from it but the GRIP^▸ (Guide to Railway Investment Projects) process (for example) seems to stifle rail progress. You could almost be forgiven for thinking it was penned by the road transport interest lobbies!

My suggestion is that, rather than asking for funding from other sources to build more stations, why not just make the cost of opening new stations less by reviewing the merits of some of the expensive and maybe unneccessary red tape required.

After all, there is an economic, environmental and social cost of inaction when worthy rail projects are made too expensive and slow to implement for not neccessarily valid reasons.

[stuving]

I don't have too much of a problem with the ecological considerations of any modern development, far from it but the GRIP^▸ (Guide to Railway Investment Projects) process (for example) seems to stifle rail progress. You could almost be forgiven for thinking it was penned by the road transport interest lobbies!

My suggestion is that, rather than asking for funding from other sources to build more stations, why not just make the cost of opening new stations less by reviewing the merits of some of the expensive and maybe unneccessary red tape required.

I don't follow. GRIP is pretty much a standard project management process:

Governance for Railway Investment Projects (GRIP) is a management and control process developed by Network Rail for delivering projects on the operational railway. Issue 2 of the GRIP Policy Standard (NR^» (Network Rail - home page)/L1/INI/PM/GRIP/100) was published on 3 March 2012.

GRIP was developed to minimise and mitigate the risks associated with projects to enhance or renew the operational railway and projects in a high street environment. It is based on best practice within industries that undertake major infrastructure projects and practice recommended by the bodies including the Association of Project Management (APM) and the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB).

GRIP is product rather than process driven and divides projects into eight distinct stages:

    Output definition.
    Feasibility.
    Option selection.
    Single option development.
    Detailed design.
    Construction test and commission.
    Scheme hand back.
    Project close out.

Formal reviews examine the project at critical stages in its lifecycle to provide assurance that it can successfully progress to the next stage.

You might complain that the work undertaken in some of the steps is excessive, but that's just saying construction projects cost too much. I would ask why the attempt to "minimise and mitigate the risks" is so often a failure.

But if the complaint is that funding is withheld, does that really have anything to do with the internal project management methodology?

[Bmblbzzz]

It would have been better news to hear that stations could be built quicker by shortening/simplifying the red tape in this glacial process ............

Have just finished reading "Eleven Minutes Late" by Matthew Engel; there is a lovely story therein about the problems of this sort in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), told by Sir Malcolm Rifkind. A British Minister was complaining to his French counterpart about the never ending delays to any engineering project in the UK. The Frenchman replied "In France, when we want to drain the swamp, we don't ask the frogs". His grasp of colloquial English may not have been perfect - but perhaps he had the right idea !

I don't have too much of a problem with the ecological considerations of any modern development, far from it but the GRIP^▸ (Guide to Railway Investment Projects) process (for example) seems to stifle rail progress. You could almost be forgiven for thinking it was penned by the road transport interest lobbies!

My suggestion is that, rather than asking for funding from other sources to build more stations, why not just make the cost of opening new stations less by reviewing the merits of some of the expensive and maybe unneccessary red tape required.

After all, there is an economic, environmental and social cost of inaction when worthy rail projects are made too expensive and slow to implement for not neccessarily valid reasons.

Would you interpret the swamp and frogs as referring to ecological considerations? To me it implies that if the project is justified, you take the decision yourself rather than asking those affected to object.

[stuving]

It would have been better news to hear that stations could be built quicker by shortening/simplifying the red tape in this glacial process ............

Have just finished reading "Eleven Minutes Late" by Matthew Engel; there is a lovely story therein about the problems of this sort in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), told by Sir Malcolm Rifkind. A British Minister was complaining to his French counterpart about the never ending delays to any engineering project in the UK. The Frenchman replied "In France, when we want to drain the swamp, we don't ask the frogs". His grasp of colloquial English may not have been perfect - but perhaps he had the right idea !

These ides we have about countries - call them stereotypes if you like - often relate to genuine cultural differences, but not always the ones we think. Hence processes and procedures do evolve, and I can't see a lot of difference between the current methodology for approving rail projects in France and the DCO^▸ (Driver Controlled Operation) process here. Well, on paper at least, as there are still different traditions that affect how these things happen in reality.

Coincidentally, a month-long public enquiry has just closed into a proposal to "rehumidify" a bit of land underneath a viaduct as compensation for habitat loss (sound familiar?). This is part of the Rhone-Rhine LGV^▸ (Large Goods Vehicle) project, planned to be an interregional link for France and also (if less so) for Germany and Switzerland. Only its central bit has been built, which just happens to be useful for TGVs^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) from Paris to get to Mulhouse, Zurich, etc., by turning left at Dijon. The rest is held up awaiting money.

It's not for frogs, as far as I can see without wading through a swamp of enquiry documents (Enquête publique ... restauration de zones humides ... "Corne Jaquin"). The main proposal is to cut down the trees so as to allow bats to hunt. Now, could you have made that up?

[Adelante_CCT]

They will have to get their skates on to complete Reading Green Park by May, which was the last date I heard.

At the Railfuture Conference last year Tony Page said it would definitely be ready by the end of this year........ won't be holding my breath though

[Bmblbzzz]

This seems like as good a thread as any to mention the Kron Prinz, which ran aground in the Avon sometime in the late 19th century. The shipwreck became a celebrity and the salvage operation was such a popular tourist attraction that a temporary station was built, somewhere between Sea Mills and the tunnel under the Downs, to act as a viewing platform (and sell more tickets!). The salvage operation took about six months so clearly the station was built in a couple of months at most.

Still not as impressive as the 2009 Workington North case though – especially considering that was possible less than ten years ago.

[eightonedee]

At the other end of the spectrum - does anyone know why it is taking so long to complete the extension of the platforms between Tilehurst and Cholsey to accommodate 8 coach trains? Nothing seems to have happened for ages, but most seem nearly finished.

Perhaps no-one has worked out how to switch off the announcements on Electrostars that only doors in coaches 1-7 will open at these stations?                                                         

[Bmblbzzz]

Cholsey

Just wondering, because I'm never sure, how do you say this?