Whole System Cost Modelling - Summary of Workshop held on 13th December 2006

RRUK's Whole System Cost Modelling workshop was held on the afternoon of 13th December 2006 at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London.  It was organised by RRUK's Research Theme B, which focuses on whole system performance, and was chaired by Theme B manager Dr. Colin Goodman of the University of Birmingham.  Nearly thirty representatives from Government, the rail industry and academia attended and heard from seven speakers all of whom are either involved at the forefront of current cost modelling efforts, or are working on research in this field.

To see a copy of the invitation to the workshop, which explains the rationale behind it and sets out the agenda please click here.  To see the full list of speakers and delegates please click here .

The first speaker was Tom Worsley, head of the Department for Transport's (DfT) Rail Network and Modelling Division, who spoke about the UK's Network Modelling Framework (NMF).  The framework is being developed as a requirement of the recent Rail White Paper and is intended to support development and maintenance of High Level Output Statement (HLOS).  Tom spoke about the main tasks that have been undertaken and the innovations that have been incorporated in the Framework.  He also described its structure and explained some of the detail associated with its constituent models.  To see an edited version of the presentation please click here .

Tom was followed by Dan Boyd, Strategic Planning Manager for Network Rail, who spoke about the Infrastructure  Cost Model (ICM), which is being developed to estimate the costs of operating, maintaining and renewing the network for different levels of usage.  Dan explained what ICM does and does not do, and provided a simplified overview of its structure, together with the inputs and outputs.  He also described the cost basis on which the model will work and the modelling approaches that will be adopted for maintenance and renewal.  To see a copy of this presentation please click here .

The third speaker was Mr Jan Swier, Policy and Strategy Adviser with ProRail in Holland, who spoke about cost driver analysis in relation to the development of a business model.  Jan described work that he has carried out on the benchmarking of rail infrastructure costs and utilisation and presented his results which highlight the differences that exist in this area between the countries of the European Union, south-east Asia and the United States.  He underlined the importance of establishing the relationships between costs and their drivers and suggested a method for managing cost and performance using risk management and business modelling techniques.  To see a copy of this presentation please click here .

Jan was followed by Dick Dapré, Associate with Steer Davies Gleave, who talked about Train Operating Company (TOC) costs.  Dick explained the key components of TOC costs and the costing approach that is generally adopted.  He also described the range of costs involved and their cost drivers and illustrated his points with examples.  To see a copy of this presentation please click here .

The fifth speaker was Mark Dembosky, senior engineer with Network Rail and member of the Vehicle / Track System Interface Committee Technical Advisory Group (V/TSIC - TAG), who spoke about the Vehicle / Track Interface System Model (VTISM).  He explained the origin of the concept and the development of the model structure, together with its information sources and flows.  He also described some of the modules that comprise the model and talked about its first application.  To see a copy of this presentation please click here .

Mark was followed by Andrew Jablonski, consultant with Railway Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), who spoke about the rolling stock Whole Life Cost Model (WLCM).  He described the scope of the project, the purpose of the model and the progress that has been made to date.  He explained that Phase 1 of the project will concentrate on proof of concept through the modelling of a single train, but that once that has been done, Phase 2 will focus on the further development of the model to deal with multiple trains.  Finally, he gave an overview of the model structure and its cost components, the data used in its operation and the testing and acceptance plan.  To see a copy of this presentation please click here .

The final speaker was Dr Andrew Smith, a lecturer at the Institute of Transport Studies (ITS) at the Unievrsity of Leeds, who spoke about RRUK's Project B7, which is investigating development of a whole system cost model.  Andrew began by describing some of the research work that has already been done on TOC and permanent way cost trends, together with the development of a simple cost allocation cost model.  He went on to explain how the lessons learned from this earlier work have been carried forward into the development of Project B7, where it is planned to test the model on two areas of technological development; most probably train light-weighting and hybrid power systems for vehicles.  To see a copy of the presentation please click here .

After the speakers there followed a plenary session, giving delegates the opportunity to debate points of common interest.  To see a summary of the plenary session please click here .