Published by Rail Engineer June 2012
In December 2007, the government announced a £5.5 billion improvement grant for the “Thameslink programme”. By any standards this was, and continues to be, a significant and very demanding programme both for the engineer and for the many paying passengers who, over the years, have braved the rush hour on this line each morning.
Many articles have been written about particular aspects of this programme. However, now is a good time to review progress across the scheme and to consider which benefits have been realised and what still needs to be delivered. To help with this task, the rail engineer spoke with Chris Binns, head of engineering for the programme for Network Rail.
By any standards, Thameslink is a very complex and challenging collection of projects. To date, all the output targets have been delivered on time and within budget.
Many of the individual projects have won industry awards. Everything is going well. From an engineer’s perspective, Chris summed it up perfectly. He commented: “Delivery teams keeping to the programme and budget helps enormously when making key technical decisions.” The sentiment behind this statement can be appreciated. What is equally important is that it also means that First Capital Connect is able to demonstrate a continually improving service to their customers. Given the progress to date, this is a situation which should continue for some time to come.
