Benefits and Testimonials

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Sydney Trains and TfNSW partnered to embark on a Digital Timetable transformation program that would introduce new timetable operating model, optimised business processes and significant uplift in digital information management capabilities for more than 100 timetable planning staff in the Service Planning and Operations Excellence business functions at Sydney Trains.

The technology, business and leadership transformation challenges for Sydney Trains were complex and multi-faceted due to

- competing infrastructure and track access requests for signalling and maintenance work

- obsolete 20-year-old timetabling system with no single data source of truth

- no automation and decision support tools available day-to-day to support planners

- unsustainable workloads with 2500 network possessions and 400+M customer journeys p.a.

- 40% year-on-year growth in planner work volume across the network corridor. 

Additionally, the existing timetable planning outputs served as critical day-of-operation inputs for the crewing and fleet workforce management schedules to ensure that the correct and right number of fleet and crews were assigned and scheduled to allow the most effective and efficient day-of-operation across the constrained passenger and freight rail network.

In May 2018, SRH Consulting’s Director and Principal Stig Reenberg Hansen was selected to program manage the Digital Timetable Transformation Program comprising a new Rail Timetable Planning Solution (RTS), Digital Timetable Information Portal (DTIP) for publication and distribution of timetable information and Modelling / Simulation solutions for timetable viability and customer impact analysis.

Sydney Train’s Group PMO function placed a high emphasis on establishing sound program governance, risk and cost controls measures to manage key metrics for the project timeline, cost, resources, quality and benefits against stakeholder expectations from the Group PMO function, senior IT / business stakeholders and the Program Sponsor and Executive Director for Operations Delivery.

According to Rodrigo Gattavara, Group PMO Manager Sydney Trains, Stig Reenberg Hansen was methodical, accountable and reliable in providing timely, accurate and consistent project / program management and steering committee reporting to the Group PMO and Executive Sponsor during the 18-month engagement period.

Stig Reenberg Hansen prepared and managed the RTS Request for Information (RFI), procurement strategy and vendor demonstration / evaluation criteria covering business requirements, capabilities, solution components, target state architecture, implementation approach, timeline and cost for professional services, licensing and maintenance / support. 

Subsequently he developed a RTS strategic business case using the RFI outputs to capture and validate more than 20 quantifiable business benefits valued at more than $25M per annum across safety, cost efficiency, network reliability, revenue growth, customer experience and trains on-time. 

According to Fiona Murphy, Director Short Term Planning, Stig Reenberg Hansen's leadership was instrumental and successful in developing collaborative, trusting and productive working relationships between more than 100 timetable planners, network access and operations excellence SMEs and IT stakeholders. His unique leadership, communication and team building skills created a solid bedrock of acceptance, trust and enthusiasm amongst the IT / business project team members. His strong practical experience in vendor management and understanding of critical vendor successful factors and risks were imbedded into a comprehensive RFI documentation pack and evaluation framework, which served as the foundation for the business case baseline with quantifiable benefits and implementation costs, timeline, approach, resourcing, risks and solution component fit/gap analysis.

Stig Reenberg Hansen's program management responsibilities also included the rescue- and recovery of the DTIP project subsequent to the business team standing down and replacing the entire IT team comprising the IT Project Manager, Solutions Architect and Business Analyst in Dec 2019. 

The DTIP digital solution aimed to provide a single source of truth from more than 5 complex data sources extracted, manipulated and loaded through complex business rules into a data mart. A user friendly and fully validated front-end GUI was also developed for publication and distribution of digital information that replaced more than 8+M annual paper-based Standard Train Notice documents that had been in existence in paper form only for more than 100 years. 

Stig Reenberg Hansen program managed the DTIP project under the revised timeline and original budget across 12 Agile sprints covering kick offs, daily stand ups and monthly end user demonstration sessions. The newly created IT / business team structure and implementation approach allowed all IT and Business team members to co-locate and collaborate daily and enabled very technically complex Agile products and data integration deliveries to be validated progressively by key subject matter experts before sign off and approval by the timetable consumers from Train Service Delivery, Network Incidents and Signallers.

According to Fiona Murphy, Stig Reenberg Hansen was instrumental and successful in ensuring that both momentum and focus were maintained at the critical junction when the entire IT team was stood down in Dec 2019. He ensured that trust and confidence was quickly re-established at executive level with new clear expectations set to team governance and performance and timeline, scope, budget and risk / issue management. The DTIP phase 1 went live successfully in Jan 2020 on time and within the approved budget and was the first successful complex IT and business integration project that was delivered to high end user satisfaction within Sydney Trains.

According to Fiona Murphy, whilst the combined IT / business team was under significant pressure with high executive stakeholder expectations and aggressive delivery timelines, Stig Reenberg Hansen still managed to balance strict program management metrics, team collaboration and humour to ensure that all team members needs were honoured, respected and cared for whilst delivering successful program outcomes under the tight timelines, team pressures and resource constraints across the 12 Agile sprint sessions.

The third project stream program managed by Stig Reenberg Hansen was the Digital Modelling and Simulation solutions for timetable viability and customer impact analysis. The project delivered two digital modelling / simulation solutions using machine learning / predictive analytical algorithms to provide accurate track possession data for service planners that allowed them to assess modelling impacts of primary and secondary delays in the network. Opal data for trip origin and destination together with network data were key data inputs to machine learning algorithms that produced predictive analytical determinations for the number of customers impacted, expected delay minutes and best alternative service plan options for customers.

According to Rodrigo Gattavara, Stig Reenberg Hansen successfully program managed the two 

Digital Modelling and Simulation solutions within a prescribed 6-month fixed timeline and $1.2M fixed budget using two external professional service providers and internal service planning team. The solutions were successfully delivered within the aggressive budgetary timeline and scope management was carefully balanced with two vendor scope extensions approved and the vendor solutions still delivered on time, within the approved budget and to high user satisfaction.