INTERNATIONAL: Catalunya regional operator FGC hosted the annual meeting of the International Suburban Rail Benchmarking Group on November 9-11. The event in Barcelona brought together 15 rail operators as part of an international project which aims to identify synergies and drive continuous improvement by providing a confidential environment where experts can compare data on services, management and performance.
The participants were selected by Imperial College London, and came from Melbourne, Queensland, London, Tokyo, München, Oslo, San Francisco, Hong Kong, New York, Sydney, København and Cape Town.
More than 150 key performance indicators were analysed. Six aspects of suburban rail operation were discussed in detail, including video surveillance, driver productivity and signals passed at danger.
The event included visits to FGC’s Rubí control centre, workshops, corporate offices, driving simulators and new stations on the Terrassa extension of the Vallès network which opened last year.
