I’m most grateful to Chris Rowley, Network Rail’s Capacity Planning Director, for agreeing to meet me to discuss where Network Rail has got to on its drive to deliver excellence in its vital train planning activity.
Around 10 years ago, train planning was centralised in the Milton Keynes headquarters office, a change that resulted in a massive loss of expertise, as only penny numbers of staff transferred from the old ex-British Rail regional offices. Large numbers of new, inevitably inexperienced people were recruited, and some didn’t have the right skills and aptitude for the quite specialised work involved – there was a view at the top of the company that this was little more than a data input task. Reflecting this, until a couple of years ago, train planning had been seen as a low level, entry grade activity.
This has now changed, particularly since Andrew Haines’ appointment as chief executive. There is now a career structure in the train planning function, so it’s no longer the case that swathes of people move on to other, more highly paid jobs just as they are getting to grips with the complex task at hand. The recruitment process also now includes aptitude tests and clarity on what the role in…
