In today’s rapidly evolving railway industry, infrastructure upgrades are essential for meeting the growing demands of both passenger and freight services.
Traditionally, rail upgrades—whether focused on tracks, stations, or signalling—are managed in workbanks. However, with the increasing integration of advanced telecommunications systems, it is becoming clear that combining the planning of track and telecom upgrades can yield more efficient, cost-effective results.
The key to this synergy lies in optimising workbank planning, which involves coordinating tasks, resources, and timelines to ensure that rail and telecom projects run smoothly and without delays.
What Is Workbank Planning?
Workbank planning refers to the methodical process of organising and scheduling tasks needed to complete track upgrades, maintenance, and improvements. It involves creating a detailed plan of action that includes labor resources, equipment requirements, timeframes, and financial considerations.
By leveraging a strategic approach, workbank planning ensures that resources are allocated efficiently and all tasks are completed on time. However, to truly enhance the effectiveness of workbank planning, integrating data-driven decision-making is key.
Unified Project Management, Timelines And Phasing
Historically, rail and telecom upgrades have been treated as separate projects, each with its own project manager, contractors, and timelines. This often leads to duplicated efforts, misaligned schedules, and missed opportunities for cost savings.
Track and telecom upgrades often involve extensive excavation, equipment installation, and testing—activities that can interfere with each other if not carefully coordinated. For example, if a section of track is being upgraded and telecom cables need to be installed in future, workers may need to dig up the same area twice, causing unnecessary downtime and added costs.
By optimising workbank planning, rail operators and telecom providers can align their schedules so that track and telecom upgrades can happen simultaneously or in stages that minimise disruption. Phasing the work not only reduces downtime but also helps to streamline the construction process, ensuring that each team has the resources and time they need to complete their tasks efficiently.
Shared Resource Allocation
Workbank planning involves not only coordinating tasks and timelines but also managing the resources—both human and material—that are required for the project. One of the major challenges in large infrastructure upgrades is the allocation of skilled labor, machinery, and materials. Track and telecom upgrades often require highly specialised equipment and personnel, and having two separate teams managing resources can result in inefficiencies and potential delays.
By adopting an integrated approach, resources can be shared between rail and telecom projects, ensuring that equipment such as cranes, and cable-pulling machinery is utilised efficiently. This also reduces the need to duplicate efforts, ultimately saving both time and costs. Skilled workers can be deployed across both domains, reducing the risk of labor shortages or skill mismatches and ensuring that expertise is maximised.
Digital Advancements
Advancements in digital technologies, such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), have revolutionised the way infrastructure projects are planned and managed. By integrating GIS into workbank planning, rail operators and telecom providers can better understand how their respective infrastructures will coexist, ensuring that both projects are optimised for efficiency.
Optimising workbank planning helps create a framework for collaboration, enabling better communication between rail and telecom teams. By sharing progress updates, identifying challenges early, and leveraging collective expertise, both teams can resolve issues faster and work together to find innovative solutions to problems as they arise.
Optimising workbank planning for rail and telecom upgrades is not just a strategy for improving project efficiency—it is a critical factor in ensuring that modern rail systems meet the demands of the future. By integrating track and telecom upgrades, rail operators and telecom providers can deliver more seamless, cost-effective, and future-ready infrastructure projects. Through unified management, coordinated timelines, shared resources, and early risk mitigation, the complexities of upgrading both rail and telecom systems can be overcome, ultimately leading to smoother operations and improved service delivery for passengers.
Rail BI empowers operators to optimise operations and make better data-driven decisions. For more information about our platform and to see how using business intelligence can significantly improve your planning for rail maintenance, upgrades and more, contact one of our team today for a demo of our rail planning platform