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Project simulation helps Jubilee line reach seventh Heaven |
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Training and development specialists Blakeston & Barnes (BBL) have played a pivotal role in helping London Underground boost passenger capacity on its Jubilee line by more than 17%.
The East Sussex-based company conceived and implemented a simulation strategy and programme for the £140m `7th-Car Project' to add another carriage to each of the Jubilee line's existing six-car rolling stock, enabling London Underground to run a 24 trains/hr service in the peaks and deliver an extra 20,000 customer journeys a day.
BBL were called in by London Underground's Programmes Director Mark Syrett to study the logistics of the complex undertaking and to plan how to optimally involve all personnel working within it.
“The 7th-car project had a major impact on services delivered by London Underground,” Mr Syrett said, “and was a high profile activity for the public and for stakeholders such as local authorities, representative MPs, business interest groups and transport forums.
“We ran an extensive communications, marketing and media campaign, beginning 12 months beforehand and ramping it up two or three months before the line closure.”
Mark Syrett had broached the idea of a simulation project at a monthly performance meeting of London Underground and Tube Lines. “I had worked with BBL on previous projects and thought that a simulation would work well in this case. The company had been involved on a major track programme for the Jubilee line and had in-depth knowledge of the operational side. They understand the dynamic of London Underground, which is very complex.”
The meeting voted to conduct a pilot, to be run in July 2005 and assessed by the London Underground and Tube Lines core project team. A successful outcome meant implementation of the simulation programme last autumn.
“The programme proved to be a great success,” Mr Syrett says. “I always place great stock in such events to bring people together and put them into the context of the project. When you talk about projects, it comes down to people and them understanding their role and that of others.”
The simulation project involved managers and operational staff from across the LU network and partner companies and contractors to ensure that the addition of the seventh car ran smoothly and that the process was completed over the crucial five-day closure window running to New Year's eve 2005, when the Underground network was planned to run all night to accommodate those travelling to and from the capital for the celebrations.
BBL devised a familiarisation programme for managers and operational staff, with some 150 attending over the course of the four, two-day events held in October and November last year.
Jubilee line staff were joined by those from the project team, Tube Lines and other contractors such as Westinghouse Rail Signals Ltd at each event, which saw the line recreated around a lake on the Knepp Castle estate, near Horsham, West Sussex, complete with Stratford Market depot, Neasden Service Control Centre and various stations.
After attending team briefings with London Underground, BBL decided to recreate the entire line, running a two-hour exercise lasting from the first planned closure on Christmas Eve to the last on New Year's day.
“Each attendee was assigned a different role,” recalls director Rachel Barnes, “ including staffing stations, operating a replacement bus service by moving buckets along pulley ropes, working as contractors and even adding an extra car to the trains by screwing an extra plank of wood on the boats that represented trains.”
Every aspect of the closure was covered, Miss Barnes adds. “People even had to do the same paperwork and book on with Track Access Control.”
The objectives for the programme included:
- Communicating the project plan;
- Creating one project team;
- Familiarising delegates with project documentation;
- Clarifying ownership of the railway;
- Gaining `buy-in';
- Experiencing London Underground operations;
- Disseminating the Communication strategy;
- Confirming procedure and process;
- Engaging and motivating the team
- Testing contingencies.
A briefing on each programme provided a good overview of the 7th-car project, which served to offer some of those attending a useful reminder as well as the required level of detail.
“The simulation provided the ideal platform on which to rehearse the project,” says Rachel Barnes. “It offered delegates the chance to familiarise the project processes that affect them, to identify gaps in their understanding, expose area where individuals could delay the project and create empathy for other areas.”
The programme delivery style presented delegates with “the ideal format to meet, feel comfortable with and work together with others they may work with again or encounter on the project”, she goes on.
“Several delegates commented on the benefits - not only to the 7th-car project - of doing this,” she confirms.
Penny Hazell, for example, the new Jubilee line General Manager, said after her attendance: “It's been invaluable and has given me a much greater understanding of the intricacies of the project. I've leant a lot about the roles different people have to play and I've realised the challenges other companies like Tube Lines face when dealing with London Underground.”
Greg Grant, Neasden Station Supervisor, said: “Stations floating around the lake with tents for the various buildings sounds like a strange concept but the exercise was extremely realistic. I'm going to share what I've learned with other frontline staff on the Jubilee line and I feel much more confident about dealing with the closures now.”
But not everyone was convinced of the programme's benefits, as Mark Syrett remembers. “A senior member of the core management team had twice come up with an excuse for not attending the simulation days. We literally had to drag him down to the Knepp Castle site but after the second day there he was amazed how accurately the simulation reflected the operational reality of London Underground. A non-believer became a convert.”
Question and answer sessions allowed individuals to have an input into their own learning, fellow director Annabel Blakeston adds. “Facilitators took small groups through the entire project, exploring the specific elements. Aspects that anyone had misunderstood or had not appreciated quickly became clear and were transferred into questions.”
The programmes were successful in delivering the project plan, motivating and engaging individuals, familiarising delegates with the project specifics and gaining `buy-in' for the project and enhancing individuals' desire to succeed.”
The programme also delivered added value, as Mark Syrett says. “The location they used was very good I thought, a nice, relaxing environment for the programme. Everyone enjoyed themselves, despite the bad weather, and some non-believers in the idea of simulation changed their views about it.”
In the months running up to the Christmas closure period, London Underground also rolled out a customer information programme, designed to inform Jubilee line travellers about the 7th-car project.
During the communications campaign, the team held Meet the Manager events at 11 stations on the Jubilee line, with operational staff, representatives of Tube Lines (the company responsible for the Underground's infrastructure, such as tracks and signalling) and members of the project team, distributing more than 100,000 brochures, as well as 10,000 mince pies at Canary Wharf station at a December event.
The Jubilee line will play a pivotal role during the 2012 London Olympics.
Penny Hazell says: `The Jubilee line will be in the thick of the action. It sounds a long time away but it'll be here before we know it.
“If we are prepared, we can prove on the international stage that we really do have a world class tube for a world class city.” |
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