Building a Business case for Simulation in Arriva Trains Wales

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

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

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…

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

Any questions?