East Rail Maintenance Facility
The proposed new East Rail Maintenance Facility is part of Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx’s continued commitment to improving public transit service in the greater Toronto and Hamilton area. At approximately 50,000 sqm, the East Rail Maintenance Facility will:
- accommodate light and heavy train maintenance work
- provide additional train storage to support GO Transit’s planned service expansions such as a two-way, all-day train service
- provide daily maintenance for up to 22 twelve-car passenger trains (13 at substantial completion with capacity for an additional 9 in the future).
The maintenance facility will assist in making public transit more reliable in the region and will support Metrolinx’s regional transportation plan, ‘The Big Move.’
Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx were keen to benchmark the specification of the facility against best practice, as well as obtaining the input of an operator with in-depth experience of similar facilities.
(Photos show Willowbrook Maintenance Facility as an example)
East Rail Maintenance Facility
The challenge facing Infrastructure Ontario was to ensure that the specification for the maintenance facility represented the optimal design solution whilst offering the best value. Network Rail Consulting were commissioned to conduct a peer review of the East Rail Maintenance Facilities Maintenance Output Specification (FMOS).
The purpose of the peer review was to provide expert advice to improve the quality of the FMOS and to identify areas where additional value can be found.
East Rail Maintenance Facility
Network Rail Consulting assembled a team of experts from within Network Rail who either currently manage similar facilities or have been involved in their design in recent years.
This experience proved invaluable in offering Infrastructure Ontario practical, hands-on insight into design and operational issues.
In the very short timescales for this project, we were able to identify in excess of 100 areas for improvement and/or cost savings.
These improvements focused on:
- where requirements were too prescriptive thereby, limiting innovation, or were not appropriate for a railway environment
- where responsibilities between owner and operator were inconsistent, increasing the risk of exclusions or duplication
- where it was unclear how the depot was going to be operated- We recommended a concept of operations document
- where it was unclear where operational rules applied and where responsibilities lay.
East Rail Maintenance Facility
Client: Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx
Location: Ontario, Canada
Start date: 2014 (May)
End date: 2014 (June)
Duration: 1 month
Services provided: Risk-based maintenance