For both purchasers and providers, new opportunities demand high levels of technical and commercial expertise, resourcing and specialist management skills. Progressive, successful and growing organisations use the very best individuals in the market. This is a vital ingredient and such competence is not always available in-house.

Strategic Lines provide experts, working inside the customer’s own teams, sometimes leading them, often providing ‘back room’ commercial and technical resource support.

We work in all sectors of rail transport

We work through the development timeline of projects

Political impetus and change

Public Sector
– Institutional structures
– Market & international experience/ precedents
– Enabling legislation and powers

Private Sector
– Focussed stakeholder engagement
– Driving agenda and policy
– Promoting projects

Feasibility & Development

Public Sector
– Funding and commercial models
– Technical development
– Promoter/ partners establishment
– Business cases

Private Sector
– Market entry
– Capture planning
– Market engagement
– Partnering

Procurement & Selection

Public Sector
– Market warm-up
– Contract preparation
– Specification and tender materials
– Procurement management

Private Sector
– Win strategy
– Prequalification
– Bidding
– Due diligence

Delivery

Public Sector
– Monitoring and reporting
– Contract management
– Governance and oversight
– Funding drawdown

Private Sector
– Mobilisation
– Project resourcing
– Supervision and specialist support
– Value management
– Claims management

Operations and benefits realisation

Public Sector
– Performance
– Economic value
– Measurement and surveys
– Feedback and learning

Private Sector
– Day-to-day delivery
– Change management
– Continuous improvement
– Options and future phases preparation

Planning and development skills

  • Concept design and optioneering
  • Project promotion and marketing
  • Business case, feasibility and development
  • Procurement and funding mechanisms
  • Corporate structures, risk and contracts
  • Project modelling and financing
  • Delivery strategies and political tactics
  • Design and development of contracts and specifications
  • Availability, performance and payment structures
  • Shadow bid development
  • Management and resourcing of procurement teams
  • PQ and Bid evaluation
  • Contract closure management
  • In-life contract management
  • Benefits assessment, monitoring and analysis
  • Development of next phases and contract options

Market and product positioning

  • Market studies, entry and positioning strategies
  • Acquisitions, business appraisals and plans
  • Product and service development strategies
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Competitor analysis
  • Collaborative structures, alliancing, partnering, consortia and joint ventures
  • Project ‘brand’ establishment

Procurement and contracting in liberalised markets

We have capabilities in both conventional procurement and contracting as well as franchises, concessions and public private partnerships (PPP). And as worldwide markets are increasingly liberalised, we are able to develop and recommend new public transport ownership, organisational, operating and procurement models. This includes privatisation programmes, outsourcing and supply and maintain contracts with/without investment and financing. In addition to green field projects, we have widespread experience in extensions, capacity enhancements, infrastructure renewals and rehabilitations.

Winning rail projects

  • Capture planning and prequalification
  • Client engagement
  • Establishment and management of bid teams and adviser selection
  • Win strategy workshops
  • Solution development
    • Systems architecture, planning and design
    • Engineering and integration
    • Operations and maintenance design
  • Price-to-win modelling and targets
  • Supply chain procurement
  • Proposal development training
  • Plan creation, writing, editing
  • Pink, red, gold reviews and ‘black-hat’ challenges
  • Due diligence and deal management
  • Risk appraisal and quantitative modelling
  • Contract strategy, negotiation and deal management

Strategic technical skills

Our high-level technical skills span project development, procurement, bidding and delivery

  • Civils and trackwork
  • Collaborative working and alliances
  • Communications
  • Customer experience
  • Digital railway
  • Electrification and power systems
  • Environmental, economic and social sustainability
  • Health, safety, security
  • Change management and project management
  • Maintenance and depots
  • Mobilisation and service introduction
  • Operating strategies and integration
  • Performance and control
  • Quality management
  • Rolling stock
  • Signalling and control
  • SMART ticketing and fare collection
  • Stations and FM
  • Testing and commissioning
  • Timetabling and resource planning
  • Train and access planning
  • Value management and engineering

Management and Governance

Providing director level leadership, workstream leaders, interim managers or support and coordination functions, Strategic Lines gives clients access to competent resources and proven techniques. Our project structures and processes provide strong control, project focus, and ‘one-team’ coherence and motivation.

This is particularly important for projects with diverse stakeholder groups and multi-adviser teams. Both public sector clients and private bidders in joint ventures need alignment of objectives and certainty of deliverables if their efforts and investments are to be successful.

  • Strategic and tactical leadership
  • Bid/project director/manager roles
  • Team and adviser selection, development and management
  • Team building and leadership coaching
  • Bid/Project planning, budgeting, management and coordination
  • Bid/Project commercial and financial management
  • Project Board Representation and management advice
  • Independent Board representation
  • Non-executive Director Board roles

Training and development of teams

Successful new projects and opportunities rely on the learning and development of people. Strategic Lines can equip staff and stakeholders to deliver results and provide support more powerfully. Through carefully developed promotion and training material, we provide objective and highly focussed training for markets, sectors, bids and projects.

  • Conceptual introduction, orientation and kick-off days
  • Seminars and practical ‘in-project’ workshops
  • Training days and case study development

We work closely with our clients to tailor content and methods to suit, covering for example:

  • Bid planning and processes
  • Project win strategies
  • High scoring proposals
  • Procurement and commercial structures
  • Financing techniques
  • Dealing with project risk
  • Customer experience
  • Embedding sustainability
  • Better health, safety and quality management systems