Rail Project Lead

Rail Project Lead - £650-700 p/d Ltd - 6 months - London - Rail

Background: On 26th March 2013 the Secretary of State published the long-term Franchising Programme, incorporating a detailed timetable for all rail franchise competitions over the next eight years. Delivering on Brown Review recommendations.

The new programme will provide long-term certainty to the market and will provide a more sustainable schedule for rail franchising by delivering no more than three or four competitions per year.

Assignment: The Department for Transport is responsible for the design and procurement of new and replacement rail franchise services on the national rail network for which it is the franchising authority. Our vision is to provide world class train services that drive economic growth and exceed passenger expectations.

The post holder will lead the specification of the operational requirements within the franchise project team. These include the Train Service Requirements, Capacity, Crowding and Demand requirements, performance and rolling stock requirements. These need to be developed with an understanding of the current and future network capability and other constraints). As such the post holder will be the project's lead for liaison and management of Network Rail's part in the project. The post holder will clearly identify what the government wishes to buy on an operational level which is affordable, within government policy, takes account of stakeholder aspirations and is possible to take to market. He/she will ensure that these requirements are clearly stated, and fully incorporated into the ultimate contract.
The Specification Lead reports to the Project Director.

The Specification Lead will be supported by the Department's Technical Advisor.

Key tasks:
* Understanding the franchise including;
o The main elements of the current operational service
o The interaction between the above mentioned operational aspects of a rail passenger business and affordability.
o Drivers of demand or growth
o The links between specification and subsidy/premium
o Relevant stakeholder requirements for the franchise;
* Developing and maintaining the business case for the franchise;
* Deriving the overall operational delivery proposition for the franchise, based on evidence and within existing government policy;
* Clearly articulating, internally and externally, what it is that government wants the franchise to deliver on an operational level;
* Producing the operational specification sections of the ITT, including any relevant priced options if any;
* Producing drafting instructions for the operational aspects of the Franchise Agreement
* Actively working together in this domain with external technical advisers who are engaged to provide operational, commercial and economic advice
* Undertaking evaluation work of relevant aspects of the bid submissions (and possibly the pre-qualification submissions); and
* Working with the franchising team to maintain relationships with bidders to ensure that all bids received have the best chance to meet the defined requirements including delivering excellent value for money.

Experience/skills/knowledge (essential/desirable Dependent on combination of skills and experience):
* Knowledge of the operational characteristics of a rail passenger business and its interaction with affordability;
* Experience in identifying the right operational requirements to achieve an affordable outcome for a rail passenger franchise and securing the obtained affordable outcome through contractual relationships;
* Knowledge of economic and financial appraisal;
* Experience of procurement processes and evaluation work desirable
* Critical thinking and problem solving skills;
* Planning and organizing;
* Communication skills;
* Influencing and leading;
* Team work;
* Decision-making;
* Conflict management; and
* Knowledge of UK franchised rail industry beneficial.

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