Pre-implementation planning – the weak link in rail projects

Increasingly, authorities put major infrastructure projects centre-stage in their plans and strategies and invest scarce resources in them; indeed, the number and scale of projects is increasing. It therefore matters that they achieve their objectives, for if they do not, what then? This paper considers the evidence for urban rail (metro) systems drawing on the author’s experience and research supplemented by published evidence. Too often, these projects fall short, particularly in delivering operational success. The weak link in project development is shown to be the pre-implementation planning phase, particularly the early days. This is when decisions have major downstream implications and unless well informed and managed result in consequential inevitable problems. This paper identifies issues with common practice and defines a practical agenda for planning improvement. Often, this requires a greater investment in planning effort and deferring commitment to a project until this decision can be made with confidence. The prescriptions recommended are shown to have much in common with insights from a report by the UK National Audit Office, subsequently addressed. Finally, this paper considers their relevance to the UK’s major infrastructure project – HS2, which is a different scale of investment – and finds that they are likely to be relevant.