Station enhancement programme for a South East commuter railway

The Client

The client was awarded the franchise to manage a large franchise area which included over 150 stations. A number of station enhancements were required during the early part of the franchise, including a major listed station.

The Challenge

The bid for this franchise was front-end loaded with commitments to improving a number of stations in the network area. The budget for these enhancements was in excess of £35m, and the programme needed to be managed over two years.

Why CAS Max?

Our previous experience of project-managing large-scale rail station enhancements put us in an excellent position to lead this programme.

What did we do?

Initially, we developed business cases for each station for Board approval. Once approval was given, we produced the plans, risk assessments and assumptions with each station’s respective project manager. Then we developed detailed specifications in conjunction with other relevant parts of the business.

We needed to move quickly in order to keep control of the budget and meet the timescales set out in the Franchise Agreement. This meant resourcing the teams quickly and having a clear and detailed project plan for each station involved.

The Outcome

We managed to negotiate with other industry partners for additional funding of over £7m towards the redevelopment of a number of stations.

All projects within the programme were delivered to time, within budget and to specification.