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Old August 26th 20, 04:34 PM posted to uk.transport.london
Graham Harrison[_4_] Graham Harrison[_4_] is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Sep 2017
Posts: 51
Default Rail lessons from Grenfell?

On Wed, 26 Aug 2020 15:02:54 +0100, MikeS wrote:

On 26/08/2020 00:00, Graham Harrison wrote:
On Thu, 6 Aug 2020 13:07:26 +0100, Robin9
wrote:


The thread title asks if there are lessons for the rail industry.

A few years ago the answer would have been an emphatic yes
because Railtrack and Network Rail both had a firm policy of
sub-contracting out all their maintenance and renewal work.
Now headed by Andrew Haines, an ex-professional railwayman,
Network Rail at last recognises the need to bring together
"track and trains" and it's possible that this might eventually
lead to a reduction in sub-contracting.

I'm enormously encouraged by Mr. Haines arguing on several
occasions that the main requirement on the railway is for people
who who really know the job and for a culture that respects
competence and experience.


That is true but since Crossrail is a product of the subcontracting
ear (if I can call it that) you might wonder how much of the cost
overrun and delay is caused by subcontracting.

In that case you might also wonder how any of the railways of Britain
ever got built given that virtually all of them used contractors and
subcontractors.


True but there does seem to be a particular problem in this "modern"
era.