putting passengers first programme – a lofty ambition, how will it work in practice?
Almost one year on from the publication of Network Rail’s Putting Passengers First Programme and the path to an improved service has been rocky to say the least. While it is clear to see the ambition set out in the Programme for passengers and freight users, the route (no pun intended) to get there is not so straightforward.
The ORR’s determination that during CP6 Network Rail ‘owns’ its strategy, while stressing the importance of deliverable bottom-up plans and then setting a stretching but realistic efficiency challenge have laid down the gauntlet. And to be fair, Network Rail has responded with an impressive strategy, but looking a bit closer the delivery will not be so easy to achieve.
The fundamental change is the slow devolution of power to the Routes themselves, making them more responsive to local needs and cutting through red tape and bureaucracy. Sounds like a good idea, but in practice this will require a fundamental shift in mindset. No longer passive, albeit vocal clients of Network Rail, they will now be accountable for the service quality themselves, partners responsible for the delivery of all operations, maintenance and minor renewals in their respective areas. On top of this they will be managing the day-to-day delivery of train performance and relationships with their train operating companies.
This is effectively a 180-degree shift in reporting lines – the Routes are now responsible for delivering against local needs. From Network Rail’s perspective this delivers on their key objective of putting the customer front and centre, but what will it mean in practice?
Local Responsibility vs National Standards of Delivery
Putting the power, and the responsibility, into the hands of the local routes is a good idea in theory. They are closest to the challenges facing their region, from the geography to the passenger numbers and route stress points. While progress has been made in this area, each Route has been adjusting to the demands of the new CP in different ways. These differences across the network, coupled with the fact that the Department of Transport’s own structure is not cleanly aligned to the Regional and Route structure will lead to tensions in the long term due to inconsistencies in approach. It will be interesting to see how Network Rail plan to standardise the service offerings of the different Routes. Devolution may work at the local level, but for the passenger whose journey regularly crosses a number of different regions this could mean they experience vastly different levels of service in a relatively small geographic area.
People First – how will it work in practiceIt is clear that the ambition is there to put the human element front and center of the new strategy, yet progress so far has mainly been focused on processes and outputs rather than people. Network Rail state ‘working as one team with our partners and ‘embedding customer excellence’ are two of their four main aims. While easy to write down, working as one team with one vision and one set of objectives is not so easy to deliver in practice. The Routes will need to move beyond rational processes and tackle the cross-functional culture. For this they will need the right people in place to drive cooperation and to deliver an aligned and balanced set of measures cascaded from Network Rail’s strategy through to the front line customer interface. Getting this level of alignment and engagement across multiple partners, locations and workforces is hard, but not impossible.
Stating the aim is just the start. In practice it involves a vigorous process of engagement. If previously competitive teams are ever to work in harmony, there needs to be a clear plan and an understanding of the reason and aims. And everyone will need to know how their actions can positively impact progress. The balanced scorecard system described above will keep everyone honest – how does the team measure up internally, how are they faring against their competitors? The difference this time is that the teams are competing for excellence in collaboration.
This is a major cultural change and it will not happen overnight. Getting fierce rivals to collaborate will feel counter-intuitive at the start. Clear communication and time spent on driving this cultural change is essential for long term and sustainable success.
The first step in the process will be to ask these three questions:
How does everyone align to the new strategy?
How do we work from the customer’s perspective to understand what they need?
How can we change the mindset of our people, using the balanced scorecard approach to drive local ownership and action that is aligned to the overarching strategy?
Network Rail has its work cut out, and without paying serious attention to the people and cultural aspects of this new way of working, it will be even harder.
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