David Steward

Said the following about Rebecca Cunningham:

“I believe Rebecca fully deserves to be recognised for driving with determination the above described processes, bringing increased value for money to NR and Crossrail Ltd. our customer.

Rebecca started in the Sponsor team with the challenge of defining, managing and agreeing on a change required by the Department for Transport, whilst the programme was in full delivery mode. The DfT announced the extension of Crossrail services to Reading because of Network Rail timetable modelling work. By working out a model running 2 Crossrail trains per hour all the way to Reading that avoids turning back 2 extra services at Maidenhead and another 2 at Slough in each direction, NR could save significant amounts of infrastructure and whole life cost as well.

The resulting change removed the need to build a new bay platform or 3 sets of points at both Maidenhead and Slough resulting in savings to the programme of circa £8.7m. Rebecca worked closely with engineers and estimators to make sure that this saving represented good value for money for Crossrail whilst on the other hand also protecting NR internal costs anticipated from the late scope change.

With a total of 2 platforms and 6 points not being installed, and associated recoveries and signalling work being avoided, it also meant a huge reduction in passenger disruption, Schedule 4 payments, and NR delivery risk.

Getting such a big reduction in scope agreed meant discussing the pros and cons in detail with all relevant NR teams and stakeholders. Rebecca spent time with each stakeholder individually to listen to and understand their requirements and concerns, and made sure they were informed about the implications of the change in scope for safety, the future timetable, stage works and performance.

For Slough the change was implemented in time to ensure the right layout was delivered last Easter instead of any abortive works. Rebecca dedicated 2 weeks to consulting, negotiating and persuading stakeholders, and held the industry option selection workshop 4 weeks later, achieving full consensus.

For Maidenhead, NR dealt with serious reservations from FGW about their Marlow branch services and from the Route about maintenance access. Rebecca reasoned the business case with FGW up to their Managing Director with regard to operational performance and value for money, and balanced Crossrail and Route requirements and expectations to get a positive, sustainable outcome for everyone.

Rebecca shared her learning as best practice at the Crossrail Conference organised in February 2015.“