The RailStaff Awards 2024

Nominations for Rail Engineer of the Year

Tapas Haldar

Said the following about Scott McKavett:

“Scott Mckavett being a Railway Track Engineer for Network Rail has been on a mission of continuous improvement in project delivery and innovation. He has been exemplary in his behaviours. He is proactive, collaborative, efficient and flexible and goes the extra mile in response to stakeholders needs. He is focussed to not only meet, but exceed, customer’s and client’s expectation. During the last 12 months Scott has made an exceptional effort to raise standards, to do things differently, to innovate and improve in many areas, and in doing so has greatly helped the programme to successfully deliver its goals.

Scott is working as a Senior Project Engineer within Infrastructure Projects Northern Programme (IPNP). His predominant expertise is in the track discipline, however during that last 18 months he has held the Designated Project Engineering role; leading the development and delivery of Merseytravel's gauging (passenger train Interface (PTI) improvement) and train lengthening schemes to enable the introduction of a new fleet of trains. He has also support the delivery of various other multidiscipline railway projects in his Track Project Engineer capacity. Merseytravel projects have numerous stakeholders with more demands and requirements challenging the success of the project. Scott has demonstrated incredible technical leadership skills in order to develop optimal solutions satisfying the need of the client and demonstrating ‘best for the industry’ outcomes.

Scott has overseen the feasibility, option selection, design and now delivery of gauging and passenger train interface improvement works across the whole of the Merseyrail network which includes 136 platforms and numerous other structures. Scott has been wholly collaborative with all involved on the project. Scott openly invites the input from all stakeholders, many of whom have competing requirements. His chairing of option selection workshops was exceptional, ensuring that the thoughts and ideas from all involved were aired, valued and given due consideration. This ensured that the project could make prompt ‘best for industry decisions. Scott always remains professional and courteous in even the most trying of situations.

Part of the works to improve the PTI was as a direct response to a fatal accident. Scott worked with Merseytravel and suppliers AMCO and AECOM to develop a tool which allows the maximum gap between train and platform to be assessed. The tool allowed the client to demonstrate that the new train and infrastructure works had reduced the gap between train and platform as far as reasonably practicable. The tool also allows informed decisions to be made around which platforms justify intervention and can therefore deliver the biggest improvements in safety within the projects available budget.

Chris Hanson, acting as Merseytravel's infrastructure director associated with the introduction of the new trains said:

“Scott has performed excellently in his role of DPE for the Platform Train Interface works, taking ownership of the issues that arise and working diligently to deliver solutions to the benefit of the Client. His friendly, helpful and (extremely well) informed approach is a credit to himself and to Network Rail. He is regarded as a fundamental part of the wider Client’s project team and has consistently delivered to our complete satisfaction. We (the Client) have requested that Scott stay with our project through to its completion. We don’t want to lose him!”

Scott also led the innovation initiatives within IPNP and is a strong supporter of delivering best value for the tax’s payer money. Scott takes pride in sharing his knowledge and is always looking for new and better ways to do things. Recently Scott with the support from his colleague challenged the existing computer vehicle profile for the Class 153, 155 and 323 trains and provided leadership to reassess and update the vehicle profile with support from specialise supplier DGauge.

For many years it has been widely accepted within the industry that the vehicle profiles used for the Class 153 and Class 155 models were not accurately reflective of reality, particularly in the lower sector around the vehicle step. Consequently the clearances being calculated were much tighter than is the case in reality.

The discrepancy in the vehicle model caused a number of issues for many years, particularly with platforms. Positive clearances could not be achieved to platforms with a standard height and offset, therefore new or extended platforms had to be built low which left increased vertical stepping distances and reduced track lift available to the maintainer in the future. Clearances were often tight requiring much more onerous monitoring regimes, construction tolerances were very tight and often led to an increase in the scope of works being undertaken due to the requirement to achieve positive clearances.

Scott led the production of a paper which highlighted the challenges and inefficiencies created with the historic models. Scott identified a possible source of funding for the models to be updated and in conjunction with Kevin Mellor, an approach for funding was made and funds were quickly released on the ground of the strong justification provided.

The models were updated by specialist supplier DGauge and were soon reviewed and accepted for use by Network Rails Safety, Technical and Engineering directive. The differences between the original profiles against the new updated profiles are certainly significant.

The updated profiles are now being utilised across the rail industry by gauging engineers, designers and contractors. Early indicative estimate savings are in the region of £4M across Infrastructure Projects for an investment of £26,000 for the class 153/155 vehicles. The benefits and savings shall continue to be realised until the last of these vehicles are withdrawn from service which may still be some years away. Over and above the cost benefits, the updated profiles mean that platforms no longer need to be built ‘low’ which provides a clear safety benefits to the travelling public.

Scott’s willingness and collaborative approach to bringing innovation and efficiency within Rail industry are beyond any doubt. He is passionate about doing things different, willing to seek a win-win situation to the satisfaction of all relevant stakeholders and is willing to share his knowledge amongst others. He is a role model for engineers across IP Northern Programmes and beyond. He truly deserves the nomination for “Rail Engineer of the Year” award for 2018.“