RPA makes a bit of cash overseas

dowlingm

Good to see RPA putting surplus personnel to use rather than firing them and paying severance, no?

RPA provides international consultancy services

25 February 2013


IRELAND: The state's Railway Procurement Agency earned €0·9m by providing light rail consultancy services to overseas customers during 2012. This was the first full year of operations for RPA's consultancy unit, which has the equivalent of five full-time staff.

The article goes on to say the projects assisted were in

• Bergen, Norway
• Utrecht, the Netherlands
• Birmingham, UK

Alun

dowlingm wrote: »

• Utrecht, Belgium

Did somebody move the Dutch-Belgian border a bit to the north?

L1011

Utrecht with its single forked line... Are the rpa advising them to build another that doesn't link?

dowlingm

Alun wrote: »

Did somebody move the Dutch-Belgian border a bit to the north?

Arrgh. Will fix.

monument

MYOB wrote: »

Utrecht with its single forked line... Are the rpa advising them to build another that doesn't link?

In fairness to the RPA the Luas lines not linking was not their doing -- it was purely political.

Cookie_Monster

It's all well and good stating the revenue earned but leaving out the costs incurred is pointless. Those staff could be on 100k each, plus travel accom, additional cost of keeping employees etc and suddenly it's only a marginal gain of $300k say.

If they can do that every year and make money then fine, but if it's just a once off and they keep the staff regardless it remains pretty pointless especially since the RPA is likely to remain under worked in Ireland for the foreseeable future

foggy_lad

Is this consultancy services venture a serious attempt to make some money for the company or just Junkets for the boys?

Richard Logue

Irish semi states have been offering consultancy services abroad for many years. I've worked with ESB International people in my time at London Underground on power supply projects and in the Telecom Eireann days they worked with colleagues in BT.

Nothing new.

Victor

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

If they can do that every year and make money then fine, but if it's just a once off and they keep the staff regardless it remains pretty pointless especially since the RPA is likely to remain under worked in Ireland for the foreseeable future

I think one of the things is that they have an existing team with experience and they would like to keep that team together, certainly until BXD is in full swing. After BXD is happily running, they can look at things then.

Richard Logue

foggy_lad wrote: »

Is this consultancy services venture a serious attempt to make some money for the company or just Junkets for the boys?

These are serious schemes aimed at making money for the RPA, keeping personnel in work and keeping project knowledge live and up to date. I'd hardly call them junkets.

monkeypants

Are we seriously advising the Dutch on how to run trams?

Also, Bergen? They have a railway, a bus system and a funicular. All cheap and all running on time. Last time I was there, I was able to get a train out of Bergen, transferring to a bus that transferred to a ferry. No delays, just properly timetabled. Snow and ice everywhere too.

etchyed

monkeypants wrote: »

Are we seriously advising the Dutch on how to run trams?

Also, Bergen? They have a railway, a bus system and a funicular. All cheap and all running on time. Last time I was there, I was able to get a train out of Bergen, transferring to a bus that transferred to a ferry. No delays, just properly timetabled. Snow and ice everywhere too.

Sorry, but what on earth does this have to do with anything? The RPA has expertise in the design and procurement of light rail systems. Most of their experience is presumably focused on new-build systems, as this is what they've spent the last ten years doing. It may well be that the cities mentioned do not have such experience/expertise. It could be to do with engineering, economic appraisal, project management, contract negotiation and management or a multitude of other things. I don't know, and you certainly don't either.

Such consultancy work will have been tendered for an an EU-wide basis. Evidently the RPA has won some contracts to provide this work. So it's not quite as simple as "advising the Dutch on how to run trams".

foggy_lad wrote: »

Is this consultancy services venture a serious attempt to make some money for the company or just Junkets for the boys?

Jesus foggy, really?

Cookie_Monster

etchyed wrote: »

Sorry, but what on earth does this have to do with anything?

have you ever been to Holland?
One of the best rail systems around, has been for decades. There really is no viable reason for them asking the RPA for advice, an organisation around barely a decade, when they have a national transport body thats been on the go for 50 years and certainly has the experience both in light and heavy rail. Look at Amsterdam's tram system if you want to know how city trams like the Luas should work, as for new build they're expanding the metro currently, and have a long list of constant rebuild and upgrades to pull experience from.
It certainly boggles my mind why they would need to consult the Irish on it.

Cookie_Monster

Victor wrote: »

I think one of the things is that they have an existing team with experience and they would like to keep that team together, certainly until BXD is in full swing. After BXD is happily running, they can look at things then.

They are just yet another quango doing work abdicated by the DoT though, should never have existed in the first place and should be re-absorbed now.

etchyed

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

have you ever been to Holland?

Yes. And none of what you've said makes the RPA any less qualified to provide consultancy services in the areas I mentioned. Please read and engage with my post before you go off on a generic "the transport in *insert European country here* runs like a dream" lecture

Cookie_Monster

etchyed wrote: »

Yes. And none of what you've said makes the RPA any less qualified to provide consultancy services in the areas I mentioned.

Where have the RPA ever had experience dealing with large integrated multi line tram or rail systems like those in Europe? Certainly not within Ireland.
They've planned a couple of single lines with little or no integration along mostly ex track bed routings.
Maybe they stole all the Dutch engineers in the first place

Please read and engage with my post before you go off on a generic "the transport in *insert European country here* runs like a dream" lecture

no I picked the busiest rail network in the EU, not some random EU country.
http://www.cbs.nl/en-GB/menu/themas/verkeer-vervoer/publicaties/artikelen/archief/2009/2009-2702-wm.htm

monument

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Where have the RPA ever had experience dealing with large integrated multi line tram or rail systems like those in Europe? Certainly not within Ireland.
]

What have large tram systems got to do with Utrecht? All that city needs is a small amount of lines.

Tabnabs

monkeypants wrote: »

Also, Bergen? They have a railway, a bus system and a funicular. All cheap and all running on time. Last time I was there, I was able to get a train out of Bergen, transferring to a bus that transferred to a ferry. No delays, just properly timetabled. Snow and ice everywhere too.

You must be thinking about another Bergen. It's my second home so I know it extremely well. A bus route I would regularly take from the suburbs to the CC costs €5.21 each way! (fares start at €3.88 for the minimum single journey). The price of single tickets has increased by 26 percent over the past four years

The bus company Tide is criticised by commuters and the media every bit as much as DB is.

There have been significant delays due to ice and snow this winter, as there are every winter.



The Bybanen is a very welcome and successful light rail development and similar in many was to Dublin's Luas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergen_Light_Rail

Victor

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

One of the best rail systems around, has been for decades. There really is no viable reason for them asking the RPA for advice, an organisation around barely a decade, when they have a national transport body thats been on the go for 50 years and certainly has the experience both in light and heavy rail. Look at Amsterdam's tram system if you want to know how city trams like the Luas should work, as for new build they're expanding the metro currently, and have a long list of constant rebuild and upgrades to pull experience from.

With all these projects, do they have the capacity to deal with them?

dowlingm

monkeypants wrote: »

Are we seriously advising the Dutch on how to run trams?

Might be a question more profitably directed to the Dutch. In any case, EU tendering rules give RPA the same right to bid on these contracts as local concerns.

Ottawa, Canada just signed up for a Citadis based PPP, maybe the RPA could put out feelers to the team there about some subcontract work. Could have a bit of boxty at Patty Boland's in the Market after a hard day's advising