Building a Business case for Simulation in Arriva Trains Wales

1. Building a Business case for Simulation in Arriva Trains Wales

2. It seems a long time ago…… • First discussed about 8 years ago • Re-franchising hindered procurement at that stage • Winning bid did not specify simulation, therefore a business case was required

3. Building the business case • Our history shaped our needs and our approach • A cross-functional steering group was set up for the project • Desired outcomes mapped which included principles on our approach and style

4. Why did we want Simulators? • The formal enquiries from Ladbroke Grove and Southall rail disasters both recommended the use of simulation for the training and assessing of drivers • and we saw other benefits…

5. Such as.. • Developing traction knowledge / fault finding capabilities in real time • Maintaining and assessing competence in ‘out of course’ situations • Complex or higher risk situations to be experienced and practiced • Assisting drivers back to work more quickly following incidents or medical restrictions • Developing the Driver Management team in assessing and coaching skills • Business initiatives, such as eco driving, to be supported • Providing robust audit trails of performance linked to the competency process • Re-running the main themes of incidents to learn from • Enabling trainees to see and experience the theory in practice i.e coupling • Skid-pan training scenarios • Conductor, Station dispatchers and signaller familiarisation

6. What did we ask Group for? • 2 Simulator Centres – one North and one South • South centre to have a 150 and 175 full size, North Centre to have a 158 and 175 fully immersive, cab simulator to faithfully mimic the real units, in both fit and form • Staffing and housing for the simulators • The staff to operate the simulators

7. We sold the business case on • Continually improving our operational job safety performance, thereby reducing ‘waste’ time on remedial actvity • Further reducing delay minutes – bringing financial and customer satisfaction benefits • Cost benefits of reducing ‘down’ time • Providing the tools to modernise and sharpen up our trainee driver training • The savings on doing low adhesion training in the sim • The ‘soft’ benefits of employees believing they are being invested in • Fuel savings

8. Review, revise ++++ • Our business case was eventually approved. We added fuel management as a key business benefit as we were planning an eco driving project towards the end of our scoping work • The types of traction was debated at length – the 158 – still being built – will now need to have ERTMS functionality

9. Now that our first sim is here (second in UK being built) we have changed focus a little 3 STUD’s a year (from original plan of 1) with focus on: • Fault finding • Out of course scenarios • Safety critical communications • Planning ahead and reflecting on performance • The group viewing facility allows for the whole group to be involved in their development This starts next month, with a cross-functional group having taken responsibility for design and planning how it will work

10. Why that change? • This was based on an instinct that the frequency and quality of focused business and employee led training events would provide better performance by: • addressing real needs • helping to change the learning environment • optimising the value of group learning • University of Queensland emerging research supports the value of frequency to embed skills (Tichon & Wallis, 2009: Stress Training & Simulator Complexity)

11. Further uses • We are already using the first sim for new driver training with fantastic results • The 150 sim has a vestibule area where conductors can be trained in door operation procedures • Induction for all new entrants for general rail awareness

12. Internal visibility • Meetings with our Company Council • Setting up a room in our Cardiff training centre for drivers to visit and give us their feedback • Each STUD having an update on the project status • Staff magazine carrying regular updates • Once open, we ran open days including a family day – that will be mirrored in Chester

13. Driver Company Council • We developed a draft policy setting out how the simulators would be used • This was endorsed by the steering group • Our Driver Council had a day in the centre where they could see and try the full functionality of the sim and where the policy was discussed • They wanted to some assurances including that the sim would not be used as a disciplinary tool

14. Future aspirations • That drivers book themselves into the centre as part of taking responsibility for managing their own development • That groups of drivers set their own agenda for the scenarios able to be experienced in the sim • That we progress our driver training programme, incorporating the recommendations of the emerging RSSB Research • Changing our Coaching skills programme

15. Reflections • Accommodation: we were advised it was always a problem – and that’s true! • Having a project engineer has been invaluable and let us concentrate on the parts important to the business • Industry colleagues have been so helpful in sharing lessons learned • Our internal team has been further developed

16. Any questions? lynne.milligan@arrivatw.co.uk