A Value Framework for Railways

Railway infrastructure managers (IMs) carry out various different actions and initiatives to maximise value created by their organisations. The benefit derived from each of these measures can be assessed in different ways, yet, to enable effective decision-making it should and must be possible to compare their impact on multiple outputs.

Traditionally, siloed decision-making and insufficient detail to quantify the impact on outputs has been a common occurrence. However, due to the complex nature of planning within the railways, if a common value framework is adopted, it can support consistent and transparent decision-making aligned with stakeholder (SH) requirements and organisational objectives.

There are many advantages to adopting a value framework, including:

• Transparency and consistency in the decision-making process
• Assurance for top management that investments, operational priorities and projects are correctly defined
• The ability to collect and measure the needs of the organisation’s stakeholders
• The ability to determine the impact of failures or constraints

The value framework is a key component for the decision-making process of the entire system, including, but not limited to, asset management decisions. A collaborative approach to developing a value framework including different departments and internal subject-matter experts within an organisation can be an effective approach to successfully embed a value framework into the decision-making process.

This guide describes the structure and explains the meaning of a value framework, together with a series of instructions on how to build and use one. The content has been developed by the UIC AM-DIP group, based on the consensus of the represented railway infrastructure managers to create a common value framework for UIC-wide use. Value drivers and metrics often vary across organisations; however, there are also many similarities across the various organisations. This guide is intended to be used as a reference from which any railway organisation can draw inspiration to develop their own value framework, and is to be used in conjunction with the UIC SAMP Application Guide produced by the UIC AMWG.