Crossrail (BFK)

Terminal design and haulier procurement for the removal of tunnel spoil from central London.

The BamFerrovialKier Joint Venture (BFK JV) was successful in winning the contract to bore the two Crossrail running tunnels from Paddington through London’s West End to Farringdon.

This required the removal of over 1,000,000 tonnes of excavated material at a peak rate of over 40,000T per week (equivalent to 400 each-way road journeys, or five train loads a day).

Rail freight was the only way to move this amount of material without causing massive local road congestion and at an economic rate. Railfreight Consulting was employed by the JV to give support in the following areas:

• Procurement of a rail freight haulier;
• Design of the Westbourne park terminal;
• Liaison with Network Rail over train pathing, track access and connection agreements.

Our key achievements were:

• Terminal construction and haulier procurement were completed well in advance of the commencement of the tunnelling work;
• The contracted haulage price was 40% less than the JV’s tender allowance;
• The final terminal design enabled an extension in train length from 21 wagons to 28, giving a increase of 33% in daily haulage capacity;
• Establishment of a robust haulier performance regime incentivising full length trains and complete unloading of the wagons;
• Establishment and novation of track access contracts involving Network Rail, the ORR, Crossrail, BFK and the haulier.

Key to the commercial success of the procurement was our knowledge of the haulier marketplace and how to run an effective railfreight procurement process. We constructed the tender documentation to encourage competition through a simple pricing regime and to ensure that the flexibility and scalability BFK needed to meet the tunnelling programme was achieved.

We used our operational knowledge to develop a loading arrangement and shunt plan which enabled the 33% increase in train length. We then worked closely with our contacts in Network Rail to gain approval to run this very long train over routes where such a train had never run before.