Looking to establish a Control Operations Leadership Academy, Network Rail turned to rail consultancy AARC Professional Services for support across the year-long assignment. Taking the lead for AARCPS was Associate and Operations Specialist Laurie Ball, who takes us through the project…
Running from April 2024 to May 2025, the assignment involved the provision of support to Network Rail Western Route’s project team to define and agree the competency and training objectives needed in the setting up of a Control Operations Leadership Academy (COLA). This included control room operations, operational training design and delivery, quality assurance, communications/stakeholder engagement and change management and overall project coordination. Everything relating to the project also had to be agreed by the Central Training Team (Network Rail System Operator), with a view to national rollout.
With most of my 40-year railway career spent in Operations Control and Current Operations Manager roles, I was only too happy to step up to the plate when approached by AARCPS MD Steve Derrick to lead on the project for AARCPS.
Essential to the delivery of a high performing network
Central to the project was the role of Senior Network Delivery Manager (SNDM) – essential to the delivery of a high performing network and requiring exceptional leadership skills, extensive understanding of the industry as a whole and the ability to make industry decisions from a credible and trusted position. Initially introduced as an Incident Officer in 2017, the role developed over time into the current SNDM position.
The objective of the COLA project was to establish an academy of SNDMs, with those successfully completing the course appointed to full-time roles. There were to be three cohorts, each comprising six delegates, with each cohort delivered by the Western Route’s Training and Development Manager, supported by internal/external stakeholders and consultants in delivering certain aspects of the programme. For my part, I was involved in the following four areas:
- Assisting development of the course content to be covered by each of the cohorts
- Producing scenarios that would form part of the assessment undertaken by each delegate
- Liaising with relevant internal stakeholders to ensure content was relevant to the academy objectives
- Delivering parts of the programme
Course content itself was developed via a risk-based methodology, utilising training needs analysis to identify all those areas an SNDM would need knowledge of.
‘Drawing heavily on my years of experience in Control and Current Operations roles…’
My main role was to verify that each of the topics was relevant, with the scenarios I developed drawing heavily on my years of experience in Control and Current Operations roles. This helped to ensure that as well as covering the important technical aspects, each scenario incIuded key areas SNDMs must consider when managing a range of issues. Drawing on my own personal experience, scenarios included: a dewirement leading to multiple stranded trains; a level crossing collision; dangerous goods incidents; extreme weather events – all incidents that I have encountered during my career, with that knowledge/experience being put to good use to support the next generation.
The final week of training saw each cohort undertake a range of challenging tabletop exercises, based on scenarios I had developed, with myself and other team members participating in a number of role-play exercises to help bring extra realism to the training. For me, this was one of the most rewarding parts of the programme.
‘A privilege to have been able to play a part in the delivery of such an important project…..helping to shape the next generation’
With the delivery of the final cohort successfully completed in May of this year, Network Rail is now looking to build on the success of Western Route’s COLA initiative with a national roll-out. From a personal perspective, it was a privilege to have been able to play a part in the delivery of such an important project, whilst helping ensure the knowledge and experience I have gained over five decades in the industry helps to shape the next generation.
