Since 2019 VA Rail have been providing independent, expert technical advice to the Network Rail Weather Team and the Seasonal Challenge Steering Group in support of the strategic vision: ‘To Deliver a safe and seasonally agnostic railway by putting passengers and freight users first’.
VA Rail have been instrumental in:
- Identifying necessary improvements in weather-management assurance processes which have led to the proposed adoption of the industry’s RM3 model for weather-preparedness.
- Contributing to the underlying logic of the Seasonally Agnostic Railway Model allowing the developers of the model to combine their modelling capability with sound railway engineering and operating principles.
- Completing a major ‘discovery exercise’ with industry stakeholders to identify the major concerns and expectations of NR and TOC senior leaders and weather-management teams.
- Chairing a drafting group which produced the innovative ‘GB Rail Industry Approach to Railhead Adhesion Management’ and the ‘GB Rail Industry Approach to Hot Weather Management’ on behalf of the Seasonal Challenge Steering Group (SCSG).
- Launching an industry-wide innovation platform which can be used to collate and share all new and emerging technology for weather-management.
- Supporting the drafting of strategy documents and papers to SCSG and Network Performance Board setting out their key goals and deliverables in the current weather-management improvement programme.
- Creating a methodology for devising a series of TOC-specific input metrics, targets and dashboards which could allow joint NR and TOC teams to more accurately predict likely weather-management outcomes.
