Crossrail – Access Management
OnTrac worked in partnership with Crossrail in delivering an end-to-end electronic solution allowing users to create Safe Work Packs with digital sign-off.
Problem
OnTrac empowered Crossrail to deliver world-class planning, safety, and overall operational performance through its award-winning technology.
Crossrail is the biggest railway infrastructure project in Europe and is one of the largest single investments undertaken in the UK. Since the construction of the new railway began in 2009, over 15,000 men and women have worked on the project and over 120 million working hours have been completed.
At a cost of £15.4bn, Crossrail saw the introduction of 42km of new tunnelling underneath London, served by 24 trains per hour in each direction. The project is now in the complex final stages of its delivery. Once completed, annual passenger numbers are forecast to top 200 million per annum.
To maintain such extensive and critical national infrastructure, Crossrail needed to have efficient and accurate processes to ensure quality was maintained while getting the job done quickly. This simply couldn’t be achieved using their existing manual and paper-and-pen formats.
The main blocker Crossrail experienced when considering going digital was their work environment. Working underground in low-signal conditions meant communication flow could be easily compromised. But the sheer scale of site and disparate nature of workers meant realtime communication was impossible any other way.
In an ideal world, everyone working on the project would be connected, wherever and whenever they needed. Safe Works Packs could be created quickly from a standardised template, approved and signed off instantly by the person in charge.
Solution
Enter OnTrac; the number 1 rail technology provider in the UK.
OnTrac developed a fit-for-purpose, industry-leading secure system to create standardised Safe Work Packs with digital sign-off. The Access Management platform took OnTrac’s existing SWP platform and tailored it for Crossrail’s working standards.
Most importantly to Crossrail, this platform has offline working capability to ensure no work or communication is lost, which is ideal for working in low-signal conditions.
As the project is so expansive, data visualisation makes planning work simpler and quicker than ever before. OnTrac created the Access Management platform with this in mind, ensuring this technology integrated seamlessly with eTrac, our asset visualisation tool.
Crossrail were also concerned about integration with their existing processes, as they didn’t have the time or resources to migrate vast amounts of data to a new platform. This wasn’t an issue, as the platform has full compatibility with Crossrail’s own Possession Planning System (also delivered by OnTrac).
As the Crossrail workforce operates in diverse environments around the clock, OnTrac ensured the Safe Work Packs could be created across desktop, tablet, and mobile applications. This made for a truly end-toend electronic process, allowing pack approval and briefing on site.
Result
The implementation of OnTrac’s Access Management platform has resulted in cost-effective, tangible improvements for Crossrail in terms of productivity, capability and — most importantly — safety.
From beginning to end, the platform was built with users in mind. They can make use of an intuitive workflow to create detailed, high-quality packs quicker and easier than ever before.
The communication flow between workers has been vastly improved even in this at times isolated working environment. Workers feel they are always up-to-date with the project progression.
The OnTrac Access Management platform has enabled Crossrail to meet delivery deadlines due to this new efficient way of working, and has been intrinsic to the project’s planning and delivery success.
