Doc Frank chats with Stephen Lemon from Sydney, Australia who is currently the Global Lead Digital Train Control for a major consulting company. Steve was previously the Professional Head of Signalling and Train Control for Sydney Trains and the Program Director for Digital Systems, one of the most exciting deployments of the European Train Control System (ETCS) worldwide. The conversation starts with a debate on complexity versus complication in projects and then discusses ideas to address the resource shortage in the rail industry.
Show notes for better understanding:
1) Information about training courses for advanced signalling technologies that are proven to work for railway professionals regardless of their prior extent of signalling knowledge, including the CBTC Kickstarter and ETCS Kickstarter trainings, can be found on https://docfranktraining.podia.com.
2) Steve referred multiple times to the Cynefin framework that offers five domains for decision-making: clear (previously called simple), complicated, complex, chaotic and confusion. More detail on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework.
3) Frank uses a thought model that distinguishes between complex and complicated in that complexity is an inherent project or technology characteristic which cannot be eliminated without major loss of outcome but only managed, while complication is self-made and can be avoided by keeping matters as simple as possible. Complications are often disguised as complexity to defend them as “unavoidable”.
4) The discussion about a supply strategy with one, two or three suppliers is based on the need to achieve an interoperable solution between ETCS trackside and onboard subsystems from all suppliers represented on the network and train fleet.
5) For their ETCS Level 2 introduction, Sydney has chosen a very strategic approach with two trackside suppliers delivering two separate early deployment projects, with the main focus of developing an interoperable solution which is ready for use in the wider rollout.
The ETCS Level 2 introduction in Brisbane, in contrast, has been focused on two highly critical projects for the rail network in Brisbane, Inner City and Cross River Rail. Since both projects were merged for supposedly synergistic effects, contracting a single supplier, the priority shifted exclusively to Cross River Rail while Inner City will be delayed for many years despite its importance for the network performance.
Doc Frank chats with Stephen Lemon from Sydney, Australia who is currently the Global Lead Digital Train Control for a major consulting company. Steve was previously the Professional Head of Signalling and Train Control for Sydney Trains and the Program Director for Digital Systems, one of the most exciting deployments of the European Train Control System (ETCS) worldwide. The conversation starts with a debate on complexity versus complication in projects and then discusses ideas to address the resource shortage in the rail industry.
Show notes for better understanding:
1) Information about training courses for advanced signalling technologies that are proven to work for railway professionals regardless of their prior extent of signalling knowledge, including the CBTC Kickstarter and ETCS Kickstarter trainings, can be found on https://docfranktraining.podia.com.
2) Steve referred multiple times to the Cynefin framework that offers five domains for decision-making: clear (previously called simple), complicated, complex, chaotic and confusion. More detail on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework.
3) Frank uses a thought model that distinguishes between complex and complicated in that complexity is an inherent project or technology characteristic which cannot be eliminated without major loss of outcome but only managed, while complication is self-made and can be avoided by keeping matters as simple as possible. Complications are often disguised as complexity to defend them as “unavoidable”.
4) The discussion about a supply strategy with one, two or three suppliers is based on the need to achieve an interoperable solution between ETCS trackside and onboard subsystems from all suppliers represented on the network and train fleet.
5) For their ETCS Level 2 introduction, Sydney has chosen a very strategic approach with two trackside suppliers delivering two separate early deployment projects, with the main focus of developing an interoperable solution which is ready for use in the wider rollout.
The ETCS Level 2 introduction in Brisbane, in contrast, has been focused on two highly critical projects for the rail network in Brisbane, Inner City and Cross River Rail. Since both projects were merged for supposedly synergistic effects, contracting a single supplier, the priority shifted exclusively to Cross River Rail while Inner City will be delayed for many years despite its importance for the network performance.