Recommendation 17

The Department recognised two primary risks in relation to railway systems: the physical practicalities of different contractors working on the ground together; and, systems not integrating effectively.41 We asked HS2 Ltd how it planned to avoid the issues with railway systems experienced on the Crossrail programme. HS2 Ltd told us that in its capacity as system integrator, it had undertaken work to develop a reference design on which the work of all systems contracts should be based, and had been engaging with the Crossrail team.42 HS2 Ltd explained that the contracts to design and install to the railway systems will include performance requirements for the systems to ensure the systems integrate.43 HS2 Ltd explained that it will include a “last responsible moment” in the contracts to ensure there is a point where the system design can no longer change, to avoid new designs causing delays.44 HS2 Ltd told us that it expected the building work needed for integrating railways system to be ready by 2027, and for most of the systems to have been designed by then, so it would “be very much getting into systems installation from the late 2020s”.45 We asked whether it had the continuity of people needed to do this. HS2 Ltd told us that it expected some of its current railway systems team to remain in place through to the delivery stages of the programme for continuity, but also intended to transfer people with suitable skills from its civil construction teams. It explained that it had consulted with “all the big global contractors that can do this work” about this approach and their response had been positive that this was “the only way you can really do this”. The Department told us that it had examined HS2 Ltd’s approach and that it was satisfied that the approach it was adopting was the best one and a sensible model. It also told us that HS2 Ltd had set up a panel of external experts to support it on integration the railway systems.46