UK: Consultancy Frazer-Nash has undertaken a review of Network Rail’s depot plant asset management systems on behalf of the the Office of Rail & Road, looking at whether effective systems are in place to ensure that depot plant is maintained, renewed and upgraded.
Frazer-Nash concluded that the governance framework is reasonably robust, but found that NR appears ‘to no longer have the ability to work effectively at a strategic and tactical level across the whole depot plant estate’. NR has not independently assured compliance against the standards of the management of plant assets in the last four years, there is limited strategic investment, policies need to be updated to reflect actual asset life, and NR’s model contracts date from the Railtrack period, which ended 20 years ago.
The review recommends that NR develops an improved understanding of the condition and potential of depot plant assets beyond short-term needs, to support its decision-making regarding renewal and investment.
