Resilience for the National Gauging Database

Network Rail, the principal railway infrastructure manager in the UK, selected Cordel to replace their legacy “National Gauging Database” for managing the location of structures within the railway corridor. Cordel deployed modern IT architecture to create a new, robust, user-friendly solution based on open standards. Partnering with DGauge, Cordel devised automated Quality Assurance checks to enable NR to improve data integrity across the 1.3 million entries (from tunnels and bridges to platforms and signage), publishing each edition of the National Gauging Database every four weeks.

The Challenge:

Network Rail launched a fully competitive tender invitation for a new solution to address existing pain points by:

• Delivering alignment with up-to-date standards (and flexibility to meet new ones)
• Automating processes and procedures to eliminate errors
• Validating residual on-going manual data entry (where retained)
• Providing a means for over 500 users to upload, view and download data
• Permitting specific user roles to amend data and to authorise exceptions 

Overall, Network Rail sought a new solution to deliver a more comprehensive service to internal and external customers, from track maintenance engineers to new freight and passenger train designers and operators.

Cordel Solution: 

Cordel developed a new solution to manage clearances better, enabling the integration of separate asset datastreams:

• Engaging with Upstream and Downstream users, Cordel created the new Railway Gauging Data Solution (RGDS) – a secure, searchable, stable database that loads, processes and reports on survey data 
• The RGDS efficiently pulls together disparate data sources (from corporate railway IT systems to manually populated spreadsheets) and is accessible to internal and external users

The RGDS modernises Network Rail’s end-to-end data management process, from capturing data from multiple vendors to quality assurance and processing to analysis and reporting.

Implementation:

Key deliverable outcomes were rolled out through the 18-month development implementation process:

1. Outline solution design – setting out user stories and “to-be” processes
2. Detailed solution design – including functional and technical alignment with strategic Network Rail architecture
3. Solution built and tested – successively developing modules and engaging with users in agile development, formal user testing and 3rd party penetration testing.
4. Solution deployment – devising a staged cutover plan from the legacy system to the new, training and onboarding key staff and other users without missing a beat

Implementation culminated in a seamless Go-Live as Cordel moved into the production phase. It was focused on picking up the four-weekly heartbeat of publishing the National Gauging Database without interruption.

Results and Benefits:

After the successful on-time, on-budget delivery, Network Rail has retained Cordel to service the growing user community, delivering the Railway Gauging Data Solution (RGDS) software platform that enables Network Rail to move forward on Currency, Completeness and Accuracy of networkwide clearances data.

Network Rail benefits from improvements such as:

• The Cordel automated processes enhance data integrity, directly feeding back to the submitter on import to reduce the need for subsequent correction (and the associated risk, delay and cost)
• Support from domain experts DGauge facilitated building-in quality assurance checks to minimise the risk of data errors from multiple different upstream providers
• The Cordel-built interfaces with legacy systems (such as the National Network Model) consolidate ‘one source of the truth’ closing the loop for consistent alignment today, and providing the structure for flexible adaptation in future.