Hitachi Rail Europe signs membership agreement with International Centre for Complex Project Management

LONDON, October 17, 2013 – Hitachi Rail Europe Ltd. announced that it has joined the International Centre for Complex Project Management (ICCPM), an international not-for-profit organisation aimed at improving the international community’s ability to successfully deliver very complex projects and manage complexity across all industry and government sectors.

Hitachi Rail Europe is well-placed to contribute to the research into and sharing of experience in managing highly complex projects. The on-time and on-budget delivery of the fleet of 29 Class 395 Javelin™ trains for the High Speed 1 (HS1) line is a particularly relevant project in this context.

Following the contract win in 2005, Hitachi Rail Europe faced a highly complex project, involving the most complex train in the UK as a result of the dual voltage system and multiple signaling systems. In addition, the project involved interaction with a large number of stakeholders, working during a transition phase for railway standards and the regulatory bodies, facing a lack of owner and consultancy experience of High Speed rail in the UK and the challenge of bringing the best of both Japanese and British railway industry experience to the project while delivering on time, to budget and to highly demanding reliability requirements. At the same time as the technically challenging trains were manufactured and tested, Hitachi Rail Europe designed and oversaw the build of a railway depot in Ashford, Kent.

Keith Jordan, Managing Director of Hitachi Rail Europe project managed the successful delivery of the fleet of trains. Speaking at a seminar entitled “Preparing for the Unexpected: Flexibility and Resilience in Project Design and Delivery” organized by the ICCPM in London, Keith Jordan commented: “Delivering the Class 395 Javelin trains for the UK’s first high speed line was a great milestone in not only Hitachi’s history, but also in my career. Through close co-operation with all stakeholders, clear channels of communication with a ‘no-surprises’ culture and transparency in all areas, we managed to deliver the trains into service six months early, enabling the operator to run a preview service which gave the operator valuable experience and the passengers the opportunity to ride on the trains before the full passenger service came into operation.

“We are delighted to join the ICCPM as a Partner and will be sharing our experience of delivering this highly complex project on time and to budget. With our next project, the design, build and delivery into daily service of 122 Class 800 series trains, we aim for the same high quality, early delivery and train reliability from the start. Being part of the ICCPM, where we can exchange best practice with companies from a wide range of engineering sectors as well as academic institutions will be highly beneficial for this, and other complex future rail and infrastructure projects we hope to play a role in in the UK.”
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