R A I LT R AC K - The Railways Archive

sustaining
The new generation
contracts will focus
more on efforts to
improve the train
performance delivery
of the network
36
4.3
4.3 Maintenance policy
Our infrastructure maintenance contracts ensure that all
operational assets are maintained to provide consistent and
reliable train paths to our customers.
The scope of the contracts covers all inspection and
maintenance of:
• permanent way
• signalling
• electrification assets
• operational telecoms
• lineside assets.
In addition,the maintenance contractors provide a
comprehensive faulting and rapid-response service.
There are curr e n t ly 35 contracts with six infra s t ru c t u r e
maintenance companies (IMCs).The contracts started in
1994 and were let for fi ve, six or seven ye a rs .The new
i n f ra s t ructure maintenance contracts (IMC2) are being
c o m p e t i t i ve ly tendered to start during 1999, 2000 or 2001.
The awards for the fi rst four IMC2s have recently been made.
As part of the competitive tendering exercise, we are
rationalising the number of contract areas.We expect that,
ultimately, the number of contracts will be reduced to
about 15.
The maintenance contracts will remain geographically based,
with contractors taking the overall responsibility for keeping
the railway operational and maintaining assets in accordance
with the relevant Standards.
The new generation contracts will focus more on
efforts to improve the train performance delivery of the
network.There will be further emphasis on the co-ordination
of our and the IMCs’efforts to deliver a more reliable
network,in particular in identifying optimal frequencies for
the inspection and maintenance of assets,and in identifying
the optimal timing of renewals.
The new contracts contain more precise mechanisms
for monitoring the performance of contractors.They build
on recent work to identify and communicate variations in
the quality of delivery against agreed performance indicators.
This will assist the spread of best practice between
contractors.The scope of the contract has been revised to
improve the way in which IMCs interface with renewal
works,and to provide incentives for better train
performance, to enhance contract standards for track quality,
and to develop better asset-condition monitoring systems.
In addition, they will be ‘open-book’so that we can
develop a better understanding of the relationship between
inputs and outputs,through a more collaborative partnering
approach.