Leeds-based SaaS company eviFile has been selected by Network Rail and the TRU Alliance to power its digital project management and progressive assurance approach for the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) programme – valued at £9.6 billion - after a pilot that improved project efficiency by over 20% and reduced hours spent in possessions by over 50%.
The transformative programme aims to improve connectivity on the 122km line between York and Manchester – via Leeds and Huddersfield – which served up to 29 million passengers between 2019-2020 and stops at 23 stations.
The upgrade will include full electrification between Manchester and York, upgraded signalling to increase tracks from two to four in places, as well as other upgrades which will improve line speed – resulting in shorter and more comfortable journeys for passengers.
To complete the works successfully within the scheduled time and budget, eviFile has been working in close collaboration with Network Rail and the TRU Alliance partners to align its real-time Field-to-Control Room insight solution to overhaul railway possession activities. Including how it tracks completions management, quantities and volumes as well as progress on site.
This new contract award is designed to provide a rolling programme of digitalisation, with the aim of providing the East, West and Central delivery teams a real time view on programme progress. Alongside completions management for every discipline, eviFile will be deployed to provide real time possessions and blockade reporting, daily shift reporting and time management, Close Calls data capture as well as a single solution for Quality Check Sheets and Inspection & Test Plan (ITP) management for all the contractors working across the TRU footprint.
In the first 18 months of eviFile’s deployment workforce productivity has increased by up to 20% through better data capture, reporting, quality and performance tracking. Saving an average of 2.5 hours in each 24 hours of the possession – coming from quicker and better-informed decisions, faster management of defects and real-time visibility of the impact on the programme.
eviFile has delivered over 100 possessions to date, with this number set to increase dramatically as the new contract enables over 1200 users to manage all work digitally.
“This is a huge cultural shift for the rail industry,” explained Paul Butler, Digital and Collaborative Planning Manager, at TRU West. Commenting on the move from traditional processes to a digital approach he added:
“Automating possession management streamlines the message from site, forming the single source of the truth, while providing crucial metrics that enable agile decision-making immediately”
“Utilisation of eviFile allows data to be collected and processed in a clear, concise way, which further facilitates the use of business intelligence to feed the management team the information they require without any manual intervention.”
Luke Allen, managing director of eviFile, added: “our vision of better project control to improve construction performance through increased transparency has come to fruition with the TRU programme. For the first time, clients, Alliances and primary contractors can track all works and activities in real-time, hour-by-hour, from anywhere.
“We are extremely glad to see that engagement with the solution is high, resulting in significant reductions in time, which provides a clear return on investment (ROI).
The ability to centralise a huge programme like TRU into a consolidated eviFile platform across regions, alongside other platforms and workstreams to provide real-time data into PowerBI to deliver completion, will be one of best examples of rail project digitisation we’ve engaged with to date”
Richard Palczynski, Program Controls Director for the TRU Programme stated that "awarding this contract, for me, is proof that we have learnt from the lessons of Crossrail and other major projects and have taken action now to solidify our completions strategy right from the outset. eviFile will be a game changer for how we track progress and certify delivery progressively through the life of the TRU Programme"
