Site assessments sit at the heart of so many signalling decisions. Teams walk the network, capture what they see and record asset condition, access constraints and local risks. Yet too often, that insight stalls on the desktop in PDFs, photos and scattered folders. By the time workbanks are pulled together, planners are still relying on approximations and last year’s assumptions.
When assessments do not flow cleanly into planning tools, it becomes harder to explain why a particular scheme is needed, what the real risk profile looks like and how different options compare. Everyone knows more than the spreadsheets show, but that knowledge is hard to turn into a shared, data driven view of the network.
In practice, fixing this is less about a big transformation programme and more about getting a simple data flow right from the start.
When rail site assessments stall on the desktop
A typical SICA visit will record a rich picture of the infrastructure. Engineers capture condition, configuration, local constraints and emerging issues that could influence future renewals or upgrades. Photos, diagrams and notes all sit alongside structured fields in the assessment.
If that information only exists as a report or a set of files in a local drive, planners have to re key key details into their tools. Small gaps appear between what the team saw on site and what makes it into the workbank. Over a whole portfolio, those gaps add up. Volumes are rounded, risks are simplified and it becomes difficult to trace back from a scenario to the evidence behind it.
The result is extra effort every time a portfolio is revisited, and less confidence that everyone is working from the same picture of the assets on the ground.
Building a central home for condition data
A more robust approach treats each SICA assessment as structured data from the moment it is completed. Instead of being trapped inside a document, the outputs are fed into a central data warehouse. That warehouse becomes the single store of condition data, organised by asset, location and scheme.
Because the data is structured, it can flow in both directions. The warehouse can feed back into SICA so future assessments start from the latest known state of the assets, not from a blank sheet. It can also provide the clean, consistent inputs that Rail BI needs as the planning layer that sits above the central store.
This combination of a central warehouse and a planning layer means new assessments do not just disappear into a busy inbox. They immediately become part of the live picture that planners and decision makers are using to shape their portfolios.
Turning assessments into live planning inputs
Once condition data from SICA is in the warehouse and linked to the right assets, Rail BI can start to use it to drive planning behaviour directly.
Quantities for renewals and upgrades can be updated automatically as new assessments are completed. Risks identified on site can be reflected in risk registers and scenario assumptions without another round of manual data entry. Access constraints and local operating realities can influence how schemes are phased and grouped, rather than being rediscovered late in the process.
Because the planning layer is working from the same structured data store that feeds SICA, any change on site can ripple through workbanks, maps and scenarios within minutes. Instead of building new spreadsheets each time funding changes or access windows move, planners can adjust the underlying assumptions and see fresh options side by side.
What changes for planners and decision makers
For planning teams, this joined up flow from assessment to scenario removes a lot of duplicated effort. They spend less time hunting for the latest report and more time exploring the implications of what was found. It becomes easier to explain why a particular scheme is prioritised and how it interacts with neighbouring work.
For decision makers, the benefit is a single, honest picture of condition and risk. They can see how scenarios differ not just in cost and access but in the underlying asset health that sits behind each option. That supports better, more grounded conversations about trade offs, because everyone is working from the same network view.
By treating SICA assessments as live data rather than static documents, we can turn the effort invested in every site visit into more confident planning decisions across the whole portfolio.
Using business intelligence tools, such as our rail planning software platform, gives you the confidence to make better, data driven decisions. This enhances the productivity and efficiency of your rail planning projects.
We can help you get the best results and the correct information every time. For more information about our product 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.