RailCorp (Sydney Trains)

Reform Program Change Management

The RailCorp Reform Program ran for 24 months and has seen some fundamental shifts in the organisational structure and operating model, with associated improvements in financial sustainability.  A sample of the initiatives included in the Reform Program:

  • Major organisational restructure and downsizing of middle management level
  • Structural separation of urban and regional Railways and migration of staff into the new operator entities (Sydney Trains / NSW TrainLink)
  • Consolidation of 127 Network Maintenance Depots down to 8 major depots and 4 satellite depots
  • Introduction of new ‘Incident Response’ model for Operations
  • Flattening of staffing structure on Stations
  • Implementation of Process Improvements for Stations and deployment of new on-line rostering system
  • Deployment of new accountability and performance framework for Senior Managers
  • Consolidation of various Maintenance Operations Control Centres (Network, Electrical, Signals) into an integrated world class Ops Centre – the ICON
  • Restructuring of train crew Division with the creation of shift manager roles to allow greater capacity for staff engagement, positive performance management and supervision

The TCS Managing Director was engaged as the Change Management Lead for the Reform Program. As the Change Management Lead Adam was responsible for working with the business to scope and size each initiative and then sourcing and mentoring the necessary change resource. He also developed a bespoke Change Management Planning Approach to support the Reform Program. At the peak of the Reform effort Adam had 25 Change Managers reporting to him, both from TCS and from other Agencies. Adam reported directly to the Executive and was embedded as a Subject Matter Expert in the Reform PMO.

As the focus on Reform decreased and the organisation shifted into optimisation mode, Adam shifted his focus to a number of initiatives designed at improving the level of change management capability and maturity in the business. These initiatives included:

  • Fully Integrating the Change Management approach with the Project Management Methodology
  • Designing an early stage Change Impact Assessment tool for Project Managers and Line Managers to more effectively predict change complexity and risk
  • Mapping the capability requirements of various roles in effectively delivering Program level change management
  • Constructing an organisational wide ‘Change Community of Practice’