Richard Griffiths

Said the following about Claudia Philps:

“On 3 April 2023, Nuneham Viaduct, near Culham in Oxfordshire was closed for safety reasons. Overnight, rail services connecting communities in Oxfordshire to the Midlands and the Cotswolds, were cancelled, and more than 40 daily freight services had to be re-routed, via London.

The project team faced the huge challenge of safely reopening the railway as quickly as possible.

Claudia Philps, programme manager, lead the repair of the viaduct and reinstatement of the railway. This was extremely high profile with the media and stakeholders. As the project lead, Claudia was also the face of the recovery operation working hand in glove with Network Rail’s supply chain and our stakeholders keeping everyone informed and delivering on her promises day in day out for 10 weeks. She coordinated all the complex interfaces ensuring that Network Rail reopened the railway earlier than promised and putting our neighbours, passengers and freight holders at the forefront of her thinking throughout.

The closure of this key rail corridor for nearly 10 weeks was one of the most impactful infrastructure failures experienced in Network Rail’s Wales and Western region. Claudia’s clear communication internally, externally and to our executive team throughout the recovery operation was exemplary and resulted in a positive stakeholder and customer response. By explaining the complexity of the works live through short video updates, the complexity of the work was visible and understood by all as well as the incredible progress made each day. This along with planning and delivering a hugely complex piece of civil engineering in line with the programme built huge confidence in Claudia and the team.

Despite huge pressure on site Claudia and the team never compromised on safety, holding regular stand downs ensuring all works were planned and executed in the safest possible manner.“