The Best
of the Best
Network Rail’s supply chain recognised at the Rail Partnership Awards
NIGEL
WORDSWORTHT
he Rail Partnership Awards, in which Network Rail
shows appreciation and recognises its supply chain for
its achievements over the previous year, took place
in Birmingham in June. First held in 2009, when 11
awards were presented and Balfour Beatty won the coveted
Supplier of the Year trophy, the 2019 version saw a total of
fifteen categories on the list.Thirteen of these could be
entered by the suppliers. 214
nominations were received
from organisations both large
and small, all hoping to win an
award for categories as varied
as collaboration, diversity and
inclusion, safety and putting
passengers first.
The fourteenth category was
for the Standards Challenge.
To increase innovation and
creativity, and to reduce costs,Network Rail introduced a new
process at the end of March
2018 to enable suppliers and
other stakeholders to raise
a challenge to a standard
where they considered it to
be incorrect, to not enable the
application of best practice, or
to drive increased cost without
comparable benefit.
The best challenges were put
forward for this year’s special
award.Then, of course, there is the
fifteenth award - the Supplier
of the Year - which would be
chosen from the fourteen
individual winners.
This year, every category had
two judges, one from Network
Rail and one from the industry.
Between them, they would
whittle shortlists of six to eight
entries down into a winner and,
if they felt the standard was
high enough, one or two ‘highly
commended’.Hello and Welcome
Network Rail chief executive
Andrew Haines (pictured)
welcomed guests on the
evening. He spoke of the work
that the industry and supply
chain does, throughout the year.
“It’s right that we take times like
this, not to slap ourselves on the
back, but to recognise the really
fantastic work that’s done by
such a diverse group of people.
“This is a brilliant, brilliant
opportunity to recognise just
how diverse the railway family is,
a partnership that does brilliant
things, day in, day out.”
He then spoke of the money
that was being spent on the
railway over the next five years.
“£42 billion that could have
been spent on schools, hospitals,
defence, policing,” he said, “so
we have to fight to make that
case and that we’re value for
money.”28 RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS