Northern Ireland Infrastructure Funding Report

When we were asked to review how railway assets were managed and funded in Northern Ireland, we made a persuasive case for how public transport operator Translink could make strategic improvements and helped it win the funding necessary to achieve this.

Opportunity

Translink is the publicly-owned body that runs all public transport in Northern Ireland, including the rail network made up of 293 miles of track spread across five main passenger routes. In 2019, Translink asked us to carry out a high-level review of its rail infrastructure and the way it was managed and funded. Currently, funding for routine maintenance is from revenue budgets whereas larger items are approved on a case-by-case basis with money made available annually from the Northern Ireland Executive through the Department for Infrastructure. Translink wanted to make the case for a longer-term approach, with greater overall investment, budgeted over a longer period, and applied systematically. We were asked to set out a clear vision for how, with the help of an amended funding model, Translink’s asset management could be transformed in a way that would make the biggest difference to performance, asset resilience and passenger safety.

Solution

We engaged with Translink through a series of visits, interviews and document reviews, and benchmarked its practices against comparable infrastructure organisations in England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland. The resulting report, ‘Funding a Sustainable Railway Infrastructure for Northern Ireland’, considered the condition, management and maintenance arrangements for track, structures, earthworks, signalling and telecoms assets; and placed this information in the context of applicable standards, regulatory requirements and public expectations. We outlined how Translink could move to a more strategic way of managing infrastructure. Recommendations included shifting to a rolling five-year planning cycle that would allow efficiencies both internally and for suppliers; and putting in place a renewal proposal process and ‘job bank’ that could be used to develop multi-year plans and budgets. We advocated the use of digital tools and data-based decision making. Overall, the report advised Translink on how they could move from a reactive ‘find and fix’ culture to a proactive ‘predict and prevent’ style of asset management, and set out the case for a higher level of reliable year-on-year funding to achieve this.

Outcome

Translink has implemented the report’s findings, putting in place modern asset management practices aligned with PAS 55000, the internationally-recognised suite of standards for asset management. It has started a multi-year programme of regular, detailed examination of all structures, sea defences and culverts, and started to implement an Enterprise Asset Management System to help it make decisions that are driven by asset performance data and consideration of whole-life costs. The Northern Ireland Executive accepted the case made for greater funding, and raised annual funding for maintenance and renewals by more than 100% in 2022-3 compared to the previous year. The changes since 2019 have been transformational. The increased funding means that the backlog of previous underinvestment is being cleared. Translink knows that it is addressing its most important asset renewal and maintenance needs and risks each year, and the supply chain can invest with confidence. Passenger safety and rail reliability will continue to be prioritised for the years to come. Translink continue to implement the recommendations from the study and recently commissioned a further review to consider the change in its position over the period and how it may need to change strategy for the next five-year period and beyond.