Metronet

Interim management support to establish a new haulage service, involving procurement, terminal development and operational management.

Metronet was responsible for the renewal of over 20km of track each year on the London Underground network, a substantial increase on anything achieved before. They realised that they needed a considerable increase in resource to enable them to achieve this target and so let a 10 year £80m contract to GB Railfreight.

This contract represented a substantial increase in GBRf’s annual turnover and so they appointed Railfreight Consulting’s Managing Director Ralph Goldney to act as their Project Director during the 11 month mobilisation of the contract. This mobilisation required:

• The procurement and construction of new Class 66 locomotives, and the subsequent leasing back to a finance company;
• The procurement and construction of around 200 wagons, from a variety of UK and continental builders. Specialist rolling stock included a slinger train, autoballasters and sidetippers;
• The development of a new depot at Wellingborough, including land acquisition, construction of a loading slab and unique gantry loading system to manage sleepers and 216m long rails;
• The employment of drivers and shunters;
• The development of operational procedures and training plans.

Ralph was responsible for the delivery of the whole programme and personally for the delivery of the depot and the traction and rolling stock.

The programme was successfully delivered with the naming of 5 locomotives in Euston station. The contract has gone to be a great success for both London Underground and GBRf, with LU achieving increased track renewal volumes at reduced unit rates and GBRf successfully embedding a profitable major contract.