• silicon.com
• Management
• CIO Insights

By Andy McCue, 18 November 2008 08:00

INTERVIEW

Network Rail's CIO Catherine Doran isn't one to play the role of the victim. "It doesn't suit me," she jokes.

Anyone who has met the feisty Irishwoman can testify to that. She's a bundle of energy and funny - and you can sense the no-nonsense side to her few would be advised to cross.

It's just as well she doesn't adopt the role of victim, given some of the high-profile problems Network Rail has had in recent months and years, most notably the over-running engineering works at Rugby over the Christmas and New Year period last year, which caused chaos and delays for passengers.

"Those problems are not, in any way, taken lightly," she acknowledges.

But she counters by pointing out the improvements from the old British Rail and then Railtrack eras, with Network Rail now running more trains than have ever been run - 24,000 per day - and with punctuality higher than it's ever been at 90.6 per cent.

CIO50 2008: Women at the top

♦  Ailsa Beaton
♦  Catherine Doran
♦  Yvonne Gallagher
♦  Claire Hamon
♦  Tania Howarth
♦  Lesley Hume
♦  Heather Jackson
♦  Yasmin Jetha
♦  Jane Scott

"When you think what [Network Rail] found when they came in which, as we all know, was an industry that had been underinvested for a long time and confidence [was] really at quite a low ebb - nationally right across the country there was no confidence in the railway - and you see where we are [now], then, by any yardstick, a lot has been achieved in the intervening period."

There is still much to be done, though - and on a tight budget. The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) is handing Network Rail £2.4bn less cash than Network Rail requested over the next five years. At the same time the ORR is demanding 21 per cent efficiency savings by 2014, a third reduction in the number of trains cancelled or delayed due to engineering works and better punctuality (92.6 per cent).

"It's a challenge because we're doing more with less," admits Doran.

British Rail's "bunch of spaghetti"
One legacy of the British Rail era is a complex and monolithic 1960s IT infrastructure.

Doran says: "What we have now is really a very complicated technology infrastructure, which sits at the heart of the railway industry. It's entirely reliable, highly performing but you'd expect it to be [newer] - it's nearly 50 years old."

Network Rail has commissioned a feasibility report to look at this "bunch of spaghetti" and how to start unpacking it but it's a huge project that won't happen overnight.

"The first steps are understanding today and what might be the approaches to unbundling. When I've seen stuff like this you can start seeing results in three years. You're not going to address the issue in less than seven or eight really. If it takes 40 years to build, imagining you can unpack it in 40 months is ridiculous," says Doran.

Building a brain
In tandem with Network Rail's tough targets for operating cost cuts is a programme for huge capital investment, including the rail infrastructure for the London 2012 Olympic Games and Crossrail (a scheme to build new railway lines serving London and the South East.)

One of the key investment areas for IT is what Network Rail calls "intelligent infrastructure" - or building a brain.

Doran says: "There are gazillions of different assets out there - points, signals, stations, track, bridges, sidings, etc. One of the things we have to do is manage those assets and maintain them and renew or replace them at appropriate times.

"Now if you think of the age of the industry, the assets that have been installed are dumb assets. A railway sleeper is a lump of wood, historically. They don't think."

Read the rest of the interview on page 2...