As 2024 draws to a close and I complete my first few weeks as CEO, I’ve been reflecting on what’s been an incredibly busy year for the industry and projects we work in and the clients and partners we support. We are proud to have played a small part in helping some fantastic teams achieve important industry milestones, including:

To ensure we continue to provide the very best support to our clients and partners we have spent time this year documenting our approach to quality and professional development, achieving ISO 9001:2015 and APM corporate accreditation. These efforts culminated in being awarded Global Small Business of the Year at Project Controls Expo in November, something we’re immensely proud of as it recognises our efforts in building a community of aspiring project professionals.

As I sign off for the year, on behalf of the D2 community, I would like to thank our clients and partners for the opportunity to support delivery of some of the most challenging projects in the UK and Canada and wish you all a happy and healthy festive break. We look forward to returning refreshed in the new year and driving progress in the infrastructure sector together in 2025.

D2 Global Ltd are pleased to announce the completion of a management buy-out and restructure of the Board of Directors.  The transition of ownership sees co-founder David Diesbergen step down as CEO.  Dave will continue to support the Business as Non-Executive Director to the D2 leadership team with Simon Blair stepping into the CEO role.

Simon Blair, the new CEO of D2 Global Ltd said: “We have been working closely with David and our leadership team over the course of this year to ensure a seamless transfer of ownership; a move which supports David in his personal goals and ensures the best possible opportunities for the D2 community and our clients.

David has been a fantastic leader since establishing the business in 2011. He’s been a catalyst for growth, whilst helping to build and sustain an inclusive culture and great working environment for our growing community of professionals.

Speaking on behalf of our leadership team, we are grateful to David and look forward to his continued advice and support as Non-Executive Director. We are excited for what the future holds and look forward to continuing to deliver the very best outcomes for our clients in the UK, Canada and beyond”.

Leadership Team

Our services

We’re ready to provide our full capability across the infrastructure sector based on our service model.  We operate across the full project lifecycle, from inception through feasibility, optioneering, design, delivery and into handover to maintenance and operations. We can provide full Programme Management solutions, or discrete services dependant on our client’s needs.

Find out more about D2

Over the past month we have had the privilege of supporting Project Controls Expo USA, at the Nationals baseball stadium, and Project Controls Expo UK at Wembley, home of England’s national football teams. These iconic locations serve as a hotbed of discussion, networking, and celebration for project professionals once a year.

Why is this award important to us?

D2 is a growing and independent SME. Formed in 2011 with 3 construction planners supporting a single rail project, we now provide the full suite of Project Controls services to several of the  largest infrastructure projects across the UK and in Canada.

This award recognises our strength and passion for Project Controls, which our Programme Performance team is responsible for. Covering Controls, Planning, Risk, Data, Cost of Carbon and Scope and Change, the D2 Programme Performance team has seen a 30% growth in the first half of 2024 alone.

The award submission enabled us to showcase not only our core Programme Performance services, but also to highlight our growing strengths and capabilities in Digital Technology, Information Management, Project Management and Utilities Management.

Furthermore, the Global Project Control Small Business of the Year award submission requirements allowed us to demonstrate how we live and breathe our core values in everything we do:

People
Our strength is our people. Our Programme Performance competency framework, which has been developed to strengthen controls aspects in our PM team APM-aligned competency framework, and bespoke Programme Performance Career Pathway Framework provides our team with the structured, yet flexible (i.e. various paths/bodies supported) development roadmap for our team to actively advance their career with full D2 mutual buy-in and support.

Integrity
Our award was endorsed by one of our key clients, and highlighted our unwavering commitment to exceeding client expectations whilst recognising some of our long-standing strategic client relationships including Network Rail and TransPennine Route Upgrade.

Innovation
As we will present at both Project Controls Expo USA and UK, the award submission highlighted our core value of innovation. We showcased how through our Digital Technology and Data Science teams we are integrating key Programme Performance and controls capabilities and solutions to tackle emerging Project Controls challenges.

Community
Finally, the award submission acknowledged our thriving Programme Performance community, which has recently developed the D2 Training Academy to continue growing controls professionals for the future, and also the Programme Performance Mentoring programme which we trialled with recent graduate cohort and have started to roll out to the wider team, pairing candidates with technical, peer and senior mentors across the business.

At D2, we believe that fair pay is fundamental to a thriving and sustainable workplace. That’s why we’re proud to be an accredited Real Living Wage employer, ensuring that every member of our team receives a wage that truly reflects the cost of living. By committing to the Real Living Wage, we are not just meeting minimum requirements—we’re making a meaningful investment in the well-being and dignity of our employees. Supporting our team with fair compensation is central to our values, fostering a positive work environment where everyone can flourish and contribute to our collective success.

Have a look at the video below where our COO Simon Blair, explains what it means to D2 Global being the 300th accredited employer.

For more information – visit livingwage.org.uk

D2’s RIA committee members

Learning from the past

Significant investments in electrification have been made over the last decade, with varied success which was a topic of discussion at a Western Gateway Rail Electrification Workshop, held in partnership with RIA W&W in May 2024.

One of the discussion panels at the Western Gateway Workshop shared key learnings from GWEP. The project was delivered under NR/L2/RSE/02009 where Network Rail appointed a Lead Design Organisation (LDO), a Systems Integrator contract for scheme development with Network Rail managing a single delivery group made up of multiple contractors. The panel reflected that more time and funding in the development phase, in surveys, construction planning, design maturity and mitigating risks would have led to a more deliverable baseline and successful outcome for the project.

The group also discussed the CVL Transformation programme which took a different delivery approach with an integrated client, design, and contractor team for development and delivery, as Transport for Wales (TfW) set up a joint Venture with Amey Infrastructure Wales (AIW). This contractual arrangement enabled pragmatic decision making to keep within the project budget, with sections of the track not electrified in cost prohibitive locations i.e. where there were challenges with clearances to bridges or lineside infrastructure that could not be moved. This promoted the design and use of bi-modal trains, designed to run on the network under electric traction wherever possible, with the use of onboard batteries for the sections that were not electrified. This created efficiencies in construction and project delivery, mitigating costly infrastructure changes.

The panel also discussed the RIA Electrification Cost Challenge report. Key recommendations from the report include establishing a 10-year rolling programme of electrification to decarbonize the rail network in addition to lowering long-term operating costs and supporting investment in people, processes, and plant.

Learning from the Global rail community

D2 are heavily involved in projects with similar objectives, the GO Expansion programme in Canada and the TransPennine Route Upgrade in the UK. On both projects we are working to optimise programme performance through development of access planning strategies that ensure maximum productivity from track access and minimize network disruption to passengers and freight. For a successful rolling programme of electrification in Wales & Western, or indeed any rail network, early identification of project staging and possession access strategy is essential. This approach underpins robust programme management, clear scope, risk, cost visibility, and enables a multidisciplinary delivery strategy.

To support a sustainable electrification programme, the selected contractual delivery model is also crucial. Discussion at the Western Gateway Rail Electrification Workshop advocated the advantages of Alliance delivery models. The Switch and Crossings (S&C) alliances in the UK have demonstrated the effectiveness of collaborative programme management, which is now globally recognised as a successful approach with collaborative contracting models being applied in the Canadian market.  The NEC’s inclusion of an Alliance form of contract with NEC4 provides a blueprint that can be applied by clients and contractors alike, supporting collaborative project delivery.

Since the Western Gateway event I have been discussing with colleagues their views as to whether the form of contract on its own will promote innovation in project delivery and secure successful outcomes. Our overwhelming view is that the opportunity for a rolling programme of electrification relies upon industry engagement and the ability of the supply chain to deliver. In a time of competing infrastructure challenges across the UK, we believe client commitment will provide confidence for the supply chain to invest in resource and innovation, and a programmised approach to delivery together with a collaborative contracting model will provide solid foundations for success.

Based on our experience of the global infrastructure market, we urge clients to embed a programmised approach to delivering outcomes, utilising collaborative contractual delivery models. Clients, consultants, and contractors must unite with an open mind, embrace new technologies and working methods, and commit to collaborative contractual relationship.

As the Chief Operating Officer, my recent trip from the UK to Toronto was a whirlwind of meetings, events, and invaluable networking opportunities. The vibrant energy of Toronto, lively sporting scene and the chance to meet both old and new acquaintances made this trip particularly memorable. Here’s a recap of the highlights from my visit.

Arrival and Initial Impressions

On approach to Toronto, I was reminded of the city’s impressive skyline, which is punctuated by the iconic CN Tower and Blue Jays arena, and this is backed up by the picturesque Lake Ontario and Toronto Islands.  On the first day, I got to sample some of Toronto’s thriving multicultural food (Poutine) whilst taking in scene some of the local sporting events on screen – NBA Finals and Stanley Cup, which had a Canada interest.

We proudly join the global community in celebrating International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) and the vital contributions women make to our industry.

INWED provides a platform to highlight the contributions of women engineers and to inspire the next generation of female talent to pursue careers in engineering. The theme for this year, “Enhanced by engineering” emphasises the crucial role that women engineers play in addressing global challenges through innovation.

Diversity is a cornerstone of innovation and creativity at D2. We believe that a diverse workforce drives better decision-making, problem-solving, and overall performance. To achieve this, we are committed to creating an environment where everyone, regardless of gender, feels valued, supported, and empowered to succeed.

We are proud of our gender neutral recruitment processes and the results of our latest ED&I survey show that more than 25% of the D2 community identify as female. D2 are committed to encouraging anyone who identifies as a woman into the engineering industry.

We recognise that a big part of promoting gender equality and inspiring the next generation of women to pursue an engineering career involves raising the visibility of women working in this field. To celebrate this year’s INWED, we asked a cross section of our team to share their experiences in the engineering sector…

We are thrilled to announce that D2 has been shortlisted for the APM Educational and Research Awards, in the category of Developmental Programme of the Year. This recognition highlights our unwavering commitment to nurturing the next generation of project management talent.

Why is this award important to us?
As a provider of Programme Management Services to the infrastructure sector, we are well placed to deliver future generations of project talent, mitigating the industry wide shortfall of critical resources. Our commitment is evidenced by our involvement with the 5% club, where more than 5% of our team are recognised as being in “learn as you earn” development schemes. The criteria for this award aligns closely with 2 of our four core company values.

Why have we been shortlisted for this award?
Our outstanding professional developmental programme, blending structured recruitment and practical training through D2’s Competency Framework, forms the backbone of our nomination for this award. Our competency framework is based on the APM Body of Knowledge, providing a structured route map for our team to actively plan their careers, known as our Career Path Framework.

Key highlights of our programme include:

Troy Lancaster
Head of Project and Programme Management

Lohith Vaddi
Project Management Assistant

Introduction

During a career spanning more than 30yrs’ within the construction, civil engineering, utilities and wider infrastructure sectors, our Utilities Manager Graeme Clarke has experienced countless occasions where abandoned and uncharted underground assets have caused delay and/ or cost overrun to projects he has been working on.

These uncharted assets are typically owned by utilities or telecoms companies, referred to as Statutory undertakers. These Statutory undertakers, along with their agencies and contractors, are given general licence to carry out installation, development and maintenance of their various networks within the highway’s environment.

8^th March 2024 marks the global celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD), a day dedicated to honouring the achievements of women, raising awareness about gender-based discrimination, and advocating for gender equality.

IWD has a rich history, dating back to the early 20th century when women began to organise and demand better working conditions, voting rights, and gender equality. Since then, the day has evolved into a global movement that unites people from all walks of life to advocate for the rights and empowerment of women.

This year’s theme, “Inspiring Inclusion,” emphasises the importance of creating a world where every individual, regardless of gender, is valued, respected, and provided with equal opportunities.

Supporting our core Values of People and Community, D2 celebrated IWD by hosting a breakfast club in each of our offices. As this year’s theme is #InspireInclusion, we asked our teams to share some of their pledges on IWD and how they plan to inspire inclusion.

IWD belongs to everyone, everywhere. Inclusion means all IWD action is valid. Let’s celebrate women’s achievements, raise awareness about discrimination, and take action to drive gender equality. Together, we can create a world where every individual is valued and empowered, regardless of gender. #InspireInclusion.

Happy International Women’s Day!

Around this time last year, I made the decision to leave the large consultancy I worked for and to join a small to medium sized enterprise (SME). The opportunity to join former colleagues and friends at D2 proved to be the draw for me and I haven’t looked back.

Following a week in our Toronto office, supporting development of our strategy for North America, the flight home seemed the perfect opportunity to reflect on my first 6 months with D2 – on the things we have achieved, the fun we have had along the way and our perspective on the industry.

What have we achieved?

• Successfully rebranded as D2 Global to enable the next decade of growth. Read more
• Redefined our service offering to better reflect the solutions we are now able to provide. See more
• Joined the Nuclear Industry Association. Read more
• Attended Project Controls Expo both in the USA and the UK.
• Selected from almost 50 applicants by department for trade and business as UK representatives for the Rail trade mission for North America.
• Made new connections with clients and tier 1 contractors across the infrastructure sector, becoming registered suppliers with many.

Fun along the way…

• Rebranding provided the opportunity to reflect on 12yrs of sustained growth from 3 planning professionals in 2011 to >100 programme management solutions professionals.
• Working with our inhouse digital design team we worked together as a team to develop an identity that matches our Mission and Values.
• Attending the nuclear newbuild working group provided an insightful tour of Sizewell B along with the opportunity to meet fellow suppliers and technology owners.
• We made new connections in USA to support our growing office in Toronto and in the UK we attended the awards ceremony together with industry colleagues to support Arpit in his nomination for project controls apprentice of the year.
• David Steele and Dan Smith represented D2 at workshops in Toronto and New York, making new industry connections, sharing lessons we have learnt over the years and learning of the challenges facing the rail industry in North America.
• Connecting with former clients and colleagues alike, with the ability to provide agile and innovative response to their challenges provides a great sense of achievement.

Perspective from an SME

Despite cancellation of HS2 Phase 2, the infrastructure investment pipeline is well stocked with £36bn being redirected to the Network North plan to transform regional transport. This, together with existing and planned investment in water, energy and defence projects provides the industry with an unprecedented workbank of critical infrastructure projects.

In order to deliver the planned workbank with any degree of success, the industry needs clear funding decisions. We have seen recent evidence of commitment to the regional rail network with an additional £3.9bn being confirmed for the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU), taking the total commitment to date for upgraded journeys between Manchester and York to £6.9bn. D2 enjoy a longstanding relationship with the TRU programme, having supported development of the project from feasibility stage, and welcome the additional funding certainty.

We have also recently seen COP28 provide commitment to tripling global nuclear energy capacity by 2050. With electricity demand expected to more than double in this timeframe, renewable forms of energy will need to be supplemented by a credible low carbon base load. A diverse energy mix de-risks UK energy security and, according to the Nuclear Skills Taskforce, hitting the target for 2050 will need a 43% increase in the UK nuclear workforce.

To back up the ceremonial commitments of COP28, clear investment commitment is needed to provide suppliers of all shapes and sizes with confidence to invest in the workforce needed to deliver the planned social and economic benefits that infrastructure projects promise to deliver. Commitment enables us to reinvest in development of our people and ultimately our services, something that has recently been recognised through achieving gold membership of The 5% club – which acknowledges our contribution to professional development of apprentices and graduates.

We live our values

During my first 6 months with D2, I have had the time to invest in a workstream to review and revalidate our company mission and values. Working with a cross-section of the business, the exercise provided me with confidence that we are living our working lives through our values:

People – we encourage diversity whilst investing in, and developing, the very best talent.

Innovation – we are driven to inspire others with fresh creative ideas based on continuous learning.

Integrity – our reputation, passion, and commitment inspire trust and integrity.

Community – we are a collaborative community, understanding challenges from every angle, exploring innovative solutions based on our expert knowledge.

If you’re intrigued about what life is like working with an SME, please feel free to reach out to Samantha Ballentyne or take a look at our new website www.d2-global.com. There’s never been a better time to make the move, with opportunities both in the UK and North America.

Our journey

Since formation in 2011 and under the guidance of founding Directors David Diesbergen and Simon Blair, D2 Rail & Civils has strived to add value to our clients by de-risking delivery of projects and to leave a lasting legacy in the UK rail industry. The goal has always been to provide programme management services based on sound construction know how, supplemented by unconstrained processes and technology.

The team have achieved resounding success through supporting programmes of work such as Northern Hub Alliance through to completion and Transpennine Route Upgrade through successful business case submission and into delivery.

Driven by project requirements and fuelled by our values along with the intention to leave a legacy on the industry, over the past decade we have developed a comprehensive suite of programme management capabilities, ranging from traditional project management to planning and controls, through to information management, digital technology and carbon and sustainability. These services are today captured in our Programme Management Service Model and supported by the current team of more than 100 professionals with shared values and commitment to delivery.

D2-global – Evolving the business.

Reflecting on the journey, we have taken the decision to evolve the company name and brand to reflect capability, footprint and future ambition. As of November 17^th, 2023, the company’s brand and identity will become D2-global.

www.d2-global.com/

Exciting opportunities to join the team.

We are a diverse team working across diverse geography with strong values, reflected in the way we work on a daily basis. There has never been a more exciting time to join D2. If you are considering your next career move or would simply like to learn more about the business, please feel free to contact our in-house Talent Acquisition team on Info@d2-global.com

People

We encourage diversity whilst investing in, and developing, the very best talent.

• We care, and we look out for each other.
• Our people are proactive and resourceful.
• We empower our teams to act decisively.

Innovation

We are driven to inspire others with fresh creative ideas based on continuously learning.

• We challenge norms, and ask, “why?”
• We are forward-thinking.
• We are not afraid of failure.

Integrity

Our reputation, passion, and commitment inspire trust and integrity.

• We are open and honest.
• We do what we say we will do.
• We are influencing a more sustainable tomorrow.

Community

We are a collaborative community, understanding challenges from every angle, exploring innovative solutions based on our expert knowledge.

• We respect others’ opinions.
• We ask questions and we listen.
• Our partners commitments are our commitments.

We have some very exciting news; we are now a signatory for the Business in the Community Race at Work Charter! The Race at Work Charter asks businesses to make a public commitment to improving equality of opportunity in the workplace.  In 2017 The government-sponsored Race in the workplace: The McGregor-Smith Review found that Black, Asian, Mixed Race and other ethnically diverse people staff still encounter significant disparities in employment and progression and that greater progress and positive outcomes are needed to ensure all organisations benefit from the wealth of diverse talent on offer. BITC’s Race at Work 2018: The Scorecard Report was published one year after the McGregor-Smith Review to look at how UK employers performed against the recommendations outlined in the review.

The findings led BITC to create the Race at Work Charter, with five calls to action to improve race equality, inclusion, and diversity in the workplace.  In 2021, the Charter was expanded to include allyship and inclusive supply chain commitments, meaning signatory organisations are now asked to make seven commitments.

Seven key actions with resources to amplify your commitment to improving the quality of opportunity in the workplace.

1. Appoint an Executive Sponsor for race equality
2. Capture ethnicity data and publicise progress.
3. Commit at board level to zero tolerance of harassment and bullying.
4. Make equity, diversity, and inclusion the responsibility of all leaders and managers.
5. Take action that supports Black, Asian, Mixed Race and other ethnically diverse employee career progression.
6. Support race inclusion allies in the workplace.
7. Include Black, Asian, Mixed Race and other ethnically diverse-led enterprise owners in supply chains.

If you would like to learn more about the Race at Work Charter, please click on the link below, and if you have any questions around the seven actions above please contact our Executive Sponsor Sarah.Barnes@D2-global.com .

Race at Work Charter Signatories – Business in the Community (bitc.org.uk)

Every October, there is an annual celebration of the history, achievements, and contributions of black people in the UK. To celebrate this year’s black history month, we are honouring six important black Britons, from those who broke race barriers, to figures whose feats have cemented Britain’s place on the world stage.

At D2 our people are at the core of everything we do, we pride ourselves in hiring the best talent and investing in their development and career path.

We are proud to announce that Lohith Vaddi and Jed Stoker from D2’s Project Management team recently completed their APM Project Fundamentals qualification with the Association of Project Management. As a business we understand the importance of development and provide clear guidance on career progression. In 2022 we launched our career path framework (CPF), a structured career path for all employees to build on their skillsets and advance in their journey. The CPF sets clear guidelines and expectations, which in turn motivates our teams to set and reach the goals required to move through promotions, whilst building knowledge and experience in their working life.

Well done Lohith and Jed , we look forward to watching your career journey with D2. If you would like to read more about the services that Lohith, Jed and the Project Management team can support you and your business with, please take a look at our Project Management section on the D2 website.

More exciting news from our D2 Teams! D2’s Data Analyst Arpit Raghav has been shortlisted for the “UK Project Controls Apprentice of the Year” at this year’s Project Controls Expo awards. The Expo awards are designed to honour the people and teams in the industry that go above and beyond to make the industry one of the best in the world. . Arpit is being recognised for identifying improvements and efficiencies to streamline processes, increase quality and save time for internal teams and external stakeholders.

Arpit works on the Transpennine Route Upgrade project (TRU), a large rail infrastructure project consisting of multiple construction companies and sub-contractor partners responsible for transforming the railway between Manchester and Leeds.  When Arpit joined the team, the business-as-usual reporting cycle – including internal delivery and client reporting required optimising to automate current manual processes. Arpit identified improvements and efficiencies to streamline the process, increase quality and save time for internal teams and external stakeholders.

This included working on the back-end data to ensure that it was efficient and reduce the risk of manual errors. To address late changes – which regularly demanded lengthy re-works and extracts of visuals being put in PowerPoint slides. Arpit conducted comprehensive research, multiple trials, and thorough testing prior to implementing Power BI as the Alliances single source of the truth. Consequently, he transformed the BAU project controls reporting process. The Project Controls team have experienced a significate reduction in non-value add email traffic and the project review meetings have been more effective through the medium of Power BI.

D2 are incredibly proud of Arpit’s nomination, and extremely appreciative of his contributions to the business and the rail industry. Arpit has an amazing work ethic and have proven to live by our D2 core value innovation, challenging the norm and inspiring others with fresh creative ideas, he continuously looks at ways he can add value and leads by example.

Great work Arpit!

D2 has been shortlisted for the “Best Use of Digital Technology in a Project” award at this year’s TechFest awards.

This recognizes our work leveraging games development software to create innovative and interactive site inductions in partnership with Network Rail. Over a nine-month period, we worked closely with key stakeholders to design, trial, and implement a new web-based system. The project aims to replace the existing paper-based process with a new digital solution that is currently being trialled on seven depots.

You can read more about the project itself here.

It’s an honour for D2 to be considered a contender for this award and we are thrilled by the nomination. We look forward to the awards ceremony in November!

On Saturday 15^th July 2023, our D2’s Information Management team took on the challenge of completing an 11 mile hike in the Peak District to raise money for Marie Curie . Rebecca Mercer, Sarah Lomax, and Clare Haigh accompanied by some family members Scott Lomax and Kelvin Harvey, tackled the Lathkill Loop, which dives into the steep-sided gulley of the Lathkill reserve and along the babbling River Bradford, before cutting across the rolling fields back towards Monyash!

The team came across extreme weather conditions along the hike but continued on with the trek. Although they were last team out and bad weather conditions ahead, they managed to dig deep and with an immense amount of determination, they managed to be the first team back. The team were told that on a good day, hikers would complete the hike in 5 hours, yet they managed to complete it just shy of 4hrs and 30 minutes which included a lunch stop and stops to change into waterproofs.

The Information Management team have a JustGiving page open for anyone who would like to donate. All donations are greatly appreciated and helps fund the amazing work of Marie Curie supporting terminally ill patients.

if you would like to contribute to the fund, you can do here

D2’s graduate Utilities Engineer Vaidik Jain recently took part in a TRU West volunteering day at Xaverian College in Manchester, with their year 12 BTEC students. It was a fully packed day with skills challenges, games, and interviews. The first task of the morning was a skills challenge, students were asked to imagine they were on a desert island looking at what the teams would need for survival, and how to assess the conditions around them to make smart decision. Vaidik was asked to observe the team and provide feedback and guidance around their communication and teamwork skills. The second task of the day was a murder mystery, which gave the teams seven suspects, and they have to figure out who the murderer was, this task harnessed the students planning and evaluation skills when looking at the suspects. To finish the morning students were asked to create a tower of straws that could withstand 350ml juice bottle, and in the final task they were asked to piece together a jigsaw to find a secret words. These tasks focussed on the student’s design and collaboration skills, in which they became stronger in their confidence and teamwork throughout the day.

“ It was so rewarding watching the students planning and team building skills evolve throughout the day, they were able to take the advice given and put it into practice. It was a great day, and I feel proud to give back to the next generation by helping them harness their skills and gain confidence in their abilities”. – Vaidik Jain

To close out the day Vaidik ran some one-on-one interviews with the students looking at their CV’s, skill sets and soft skills. Vaidik was very impressed with the student’s confidence and was able to provide them with some careers advise with regards to roles in the rail industry, and what skills would be required when looking at that particular career path. After the ten-minute feedback session at the end of the interviews there were a lot of happy students that are excited about what their future career paths will hold.

Great Work Vaidik, giving back to our community and inspiring young minds to enter into the rail industry is hugely important to D2. One of our core values in sustainability and investing and inspiring diverse new talent into the industry, bringing in fresh thinking and helping to create a better tomorrow.

At D2 the health, safety, and wellbeing of our teams is of the utmost importance to us. We provide a safe working environment for all and support our people through our community and employee assistance line. As part of our Health, Safety and Wellbeing strategy, our D2 Health and Safety team organised a Health, Safety and Wellbeing Day in our Manchester office. This day focussed on knowledge shares around topic areas such as CPR Awareness, Hazard Identification, Point of Work Risk Assessments and Remote Site Visits. We provided healthy snacks and discussions around blood donations and other charity events.

Our employee assistance provider AXA ran voluntary health checks for the team to make sure they are fit and well, and the wider teams also took part in the wear it green for anxiety awareness day. We had busy day learning more around safety and how to look after our bodies and minds.

Graeme Clarke our Utilities Manager and Lead of the D2 Health and Safety group said, “The willingness of our volunteers and participants shows the commitment of our individuals and the company towards safety, health and wellbeing.”

Take a look at the video of the day and the activities that took place.

As Pride month 2023 comes to a close, we want to take time to honour and commemorate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, questioning, asexual, non-binary and pansexual people. Pride began after the Stonewall riots with a series of gay liberation protests in 1969 and it’s now become a worldwide movement. Events and marches take place across the globe which celebrate the LGBTIQA+ rights movement and drive more changes.

D2 are proud to celebrate Pride month, we have decorated our head office with Pride flag bunting and donned our screens as part of the celebration. As a business and an ally for the LGBTIQA+ community, we want to support and continue to build an environment where people feel safe, secure, and celebrated for being their authentic self.

Today we would like to celebrate some of the LGBTIQA+ people that have changed the world through their courage and strength, paving the way for others to live their authentic lives and be celebrated for who they are.

Alan Turing Alan Turing was not a well-known figure during his lifetime, but today he is famous and celebrated for the crucial part he played in the victory over Nazi Germany in WW2. Alan was a mathematician who cracked something called the Enigma code, which is thought to have shortened the war by several years. Alan was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts. He was faced with an impossibly cruel choice of imprisonment, or probation on the condition he underwent chemical castration. Alan died from suicide two years later. Thanks to the efforts of activists, historians and politicians, Turing’s legacy has not been forgotten. In 2013, HM Queen Elizabeth II signed a pardon for Turing’s conviction with immediate effect. Since then, the Alan Turing Law has gone on to secure pardons for 75,000 other men and women convicted of similar crimes.

Edith Windsor
Edie – was a leading woman in the fight for LGBTQ rights in America. Her case against the American justice system was the first time same-sex marriage was recognised as legal in America. Edie married her wife Thea Syper in Canada in 2007, Thea died in 2009.

Phyll Opoku-Gyimah
Better known as Lady Phyll, is a British LGBTIQA+ rights activist and anti-racism campaigner. She is the co-founder of UK Black Pride, which began in 2005 as a day trip to Southend-on-Sea in England. It now attracts nearly 8,000 people every year.

Chris Smith
In 1984 Chris Smith became the UK’s first male openly gay MP and later, the first gay cabinet minister. After announcing that he was gay, he received a five-minute standing ovation. His actions and the positive reaction he received has undoubtedly helped pave the way for many other MPs to be open about their sexuality as well. There have since been lots of other gay cabinet members.

The last 50 years have seen such growth, acceptance, and love, all thanks to the leaders that fight for the LGBTIQA+ rights, their community and their allies that support and educate people around the world.

50 years of legislation

D2 is embracing the Office of the Future after opening an Innovative Office Space in Swindon’s former Brunel’s Railway Carriage Works at the Workshed.

D2, has opened its second UK D2 office located in Swindon’s Workshed—a unique workspace nestled within the historic Brunel’s Railway Carriage Works. This forward-thinking move by D2 demonstrates its commitment to core values of innovation, collaboration, and sustainability, aligning with the vision of the “office of the future” as highlighted in a recent McKinsey report.

Workshed, an inspiring hub designed for entrepreneurs, and creative thinkers, provides an ideal environment for D2 to collaborate with local small businesses, drive innovation with continuously learning from fresh ideas , and developing the very best talent. The heritage site’s rich history algins with D2 Rail division as they look to grow in the region.

By selecting Workshed as its new office space, D2 recognizes the significance of a work environment that inspires creativity and engagement. The company aims to cultivate a culture of innovation, providing its employees with a modern and flexible workspace that encourages interaction, idea-sharing, and experimentation.

“With our second UK office opening in the Workshed in Swindon, we are not only embracing a workspace with historical significance but also progressing our expansion of D2 in a sustainable way,” said David Diesbergen, CEO of D2.

“We believe that providing our team with a dynamic and stimulating environment will allow us to invest and develop, the very best talent in rail and infrastructure.”

The strategic choice of Workshed also reflects D2 commitment to the local community. By repurposing a historic building, the company embraces sustainable practices, minimizing its environmental impact while contributing to the preservation of Swindon’s rich heritage.

Last month, D2 worked with Network Rail to deliver a new digital sign-in and induction system. The goal was to replace the existing paper-based process with a new digital solution that is currently being trialled on seven depots.

You can read our full case study here.

D2 Rail has joined The Foundry cohort 3 which is based in the, former Brunel’s Railway Carriage Works, Workshed Swindon.

This will help accelerate D2’s Engineering and Design’s growth in the Wales, Western and Wessex region.  The Foundry has been designed to help Swindon’s micro and small businesses by providing participating companies with free, high quality office space and structured business growth support.  This is a continuation of D2 embracing the new normal of flexible working to meet our clients needs. 

On Thursday 24th November our D2 colleagues attended the 2022 Rail Staff Awards in support of Louis Szymanski who was nominated for the Graduate or Newcomer of the Year Award, and Russell James who was nominated for Recruitment and Talent Acquisition Person or Team of the Year Award.

We are delighted to share the news that Louis Szymanski won his category and was announced as the Graduate or Newcomer of the Year for 2022. Due to the pandemic in 2021 the Rail Staff Awards had to be postponed to 2022, all nominations were collated from 2021 and 2022 nominees, which meant there was double the competition. Louis’s hard work and impeccable reputation won it for the judges. He had numerous nominations and votes all in support of the impact he has had on D2 as a business, Rail as an industry, and the great work he has been part of on the Transpennine Route Upgrade West Alliance. Louis is a shining example for newcomers to the rail industry. He looks at ways he can make it easier for others to follow in his path by providing guidance, support and helping to create a positive working environment. Well done, Louis! We are extremely proud to have you part of our D2 family.

Although Russell didn’t win his category, he made it to the finalists and showed what great work he has done in the recruitment field since starting with D2, well done Russ!

In support of the event D2 sponsored the Rail Manager of the Year Award in which our CEO David Diesbergen presented the winner. We also wanted to bring some fun to the event by sponsoring the photo booth which gave guests some great memories from the event to take home with them.

What a night and what a win for Louis! If you would like to read more about Louis and Russell’s nominations click the link https://lnkd.in/eGkuvjxe

Last week, D2 was excited to open it’s new office at 111 Piccadilly. Take a tour of the new office below, and hear from David Diesbergen, CEO.

‘We are delighted to bring everyone together into one place, and are excited about what the future holds.‘ – David Diesbergen, CEO

On Saturday the 22^nd October our D2 colleague Louis Szymanski took part in the Mustard Tree’s Tough Mudder fundraiser event in Manchester’s Heaton Park. He worked as a team with some of his colleagues from the Transpennine Route Upgrade West Alliance, taking on an obstacle course filled with climbing, running, mud and even an ice bath. Louis raised £328 in support of the charity, all money raised will be used to provide support, clothing, furniture, and food to people facing poverty in Manchester and Salford.

The Mustard Tree believe in a Greater Manchester where everyone has the opportunity to be a connected, valued and contributing member of society. They create opportunities for people to help themselves through providing practical support, friendship, connections into work, improvements to health and wellbeing plus new experiences to encourage aspiration.

To help support the Mustard Tree please click on the link Louis’ personal ‘Just Giving’ site and make a donation.

As a key Supply Chain Partner within the TRU West Alliance, D2 Rail has been proud to support the alliance team with the development and delivery of a Transport and Works Act Order (TWAO) for Transpennine Route Upgrade between Huddersfield and Westown (Dewsbury).

We were delighted with the recent announcement that the government has approved this complex TWAO, greenlighting major rail upgrades on this section of line.

Network Rail plans to double the number of tracks from two to four along most of the railway, upgrade stations at Huddersfield, Deighton, and Mirfield, and provide a new station at Ravensthorpe.

It will also separate sections of the track with a fly-over at Ravensthorpe and electrify the railway between Huddersfield to Ravensthorpe.

It hopes that these major upgrades will enable stations and trains to better serve the community, supporting economic growth in the area.

D2 assisted the TWAO submission with provision of resources in project planning, project controls, utilities management, and information management.

Senior Planner David Crowe, Utilities Manager Steve Cooper, and Document Controller Sarah Lomax were some of the D2 team members tasked with providing this support.

Due to the size and complexity of the submission, it was treated as its own project, encompassing the impact of proposed upgrades on everything from land, utilities, and listed buildings to the environment and local community.

“The sheer scale of the project presented a challenge”, explained David Crowe.

“With 57km of track, associated structures and stations, and a range of utility apparatus set to be affected by the upgrades, stakeholder management and consents were key. The large, multidisciplinary team also required a range of interfaces.”

The project’s early stages also coincided with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in unprecedented communication and systems challenges.

The ‘West 3’ project team acted quickly to ensure that it remained on track, carrying out re-planning, and consulting the community via smaller gatherings, letter drops, and webinars.

One of the key issues faced was the ability to process and distribute documentation in a timely and effective manner. Sarah and Dave  therefore had weekly meetings to review outstanding actions, and to set priority lists for the wider team.

Thanks to all the teams efforts, the TWAO was submitted to plan, keeping Network Rail’s wider project on schedule.

Jim Pearson, Principal Environment Manager at Network Rail, thanked Document Controller Sarah, commenting: “Sarah has been invaluable to this project. She has worked professionally, diligently, and with no little patience in marshalling this whole process, to get the W3 TWAO application fit for print.”

To learn more about the TRU W3 TWAO, see our case study.

In July, D2 delivered an interactive animation to Murphy Group, aimed at finding better ways to engage staff when looking through lessons learned and safety briefs.

D2 was approached by Murphy to support with several safety briefs and animations that were going to outline lessons learned and the importance of correct procedure when placing possession protection.

The requirement was for innovative safety procedures and briefings that could be used to highlight key risks and past close calls in a safe and engaging way.

The animations needed to show past real-world scenarios and outline the lessons learned. The goal of the system is to spot and highlight common safety hazards around work sites, as well as generate discussion points around each scenario.

Client feedback in this project was key. After initial story outlines and text-based steps for each animation, D2 produced a storyboard to show how the system would look, and how the interactions would flow. Next, D2 produced a rough draft of the first scenario to show the environment, models, animations, and interactivity that would be used.

This early design allowed the client to get a view of how the system would look, and to make changes or alterations before full production of the system started. Client feedback and involvement throughout the project helped ensure it achieved the client’s objectives, and that the system portrayed the intended messages.

The scenario based, web delivered solution combines 3D animation with interactive questions and information, to help engage staff and generate important discussion points around site safety.

Read the full case study now

The D2 Programme Management Team have recently celebrated having two graduations within their ranks. Tom Mansbridge and Jed Stoker have completed their qualifications and graduated from their respective Universities.

Over the past 4 years Tom has undertaken an MSc in Project Management. Balancing working for D2 as a Project Manager on TRU, homelife and studying and on 13/07/22 graduated with distinction from the University of Manchester. Tom is hoping to put in to practice his research from his MSc which he will utilise to fulfil his aspirations of becoming a Senior Project Manager within D2

Jed has recently joined D2 as Graduate Project Manager graduating on 27/07/22 from Manchester Metropolitan University having completed 3 years studying Business Management and Human Resources. Now working for D2, Jed’s is looking to develop his skills and knowledge and build on his degree with continued learning, by experiencing all areas of Project Management and to be able to take on the qualifications necessary to grow within the business and work his way up eventually to Senior Project Manager within D2.

A massive well done to both and a great example of the ever-developing skills sets of the Programme Management team within D2.

As the D2 team continues to grow, a recent social event gave new starters and staff the chance to get together and explore our home city of Manchester.

Held on July 7th, the team building session saw our staff take part in a city-wide treasure hunt.

Teams were directed to Manchester landmarks – including the Alan Turing memorial in Sackville Park – and given questions to answer.

Since lockdown rules were lifted, D2’s Social Committee has been tasked with arranging biannual social events for our growing team.

With many staff working remotely or based in clients’ offices, these events are an invaluable opportunity to build in-person relationships.

At D2, the well-being of our staff is a priority, and we recognise that strong relationships are key to good workplace mental health.

“We have almost doubled in size since COVID first hit”, explained Systems Administration Manager, Tricia Rogers, who helped to arrange the event. “We’ve had so many new starters, and it’s really important to get everyone together in person.

“Teams is great, but there’s nothing like having a drink or a chat in person. Activities like the treasure hunt are a chance for everyone to collaborate, and also help to build trust.”

Since D2’s launch in 2011, our team has grown exponentially, and is now 90-strong (including sub-contractors). Social events are open to everyone, with staff invited to submit ideas for new events and activities.

At D2 we have worked hard to build a culture of equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) to ensure all of our people feel included and are treated with the respect they deserve in the workplace.

To demonstrate our commitment to EDI, we have pledged to become a signatory for the Women in Rail (WR) and The Railway Industry Association (RIA) in their joint ‘Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Charter.’ This Charter is a commitment to work together to build a more balanced higher performing sector and has been backed by over 140 organisations.

The EDI charter has been an enormous success and continues to challenge the industry to make important changes to create an inclusive culture within organisations and collectively within the UK railway industry. Women in rail team have asked all signatories to share some of the amazing work they have been doing over the past 12 months in their own organisations to be included in the Women in Rail / Railway Industry Association EDI Charter Annual Report. To read the report please see our editorials page.

As part of our commitment to the Charter, D2 have pledged to hold ourselves accountable through a range of activities.

EDI Working Group

As part of our EDI commitment, we have launched several initiatives across the business, including establishing a diverse and committed EDI Working Group, from a cross-section of the business, ensuring maximum representation and providing a platform for all to be heard.

We have also appointed a member of the Senior Leadership team as our ‘EDI Champion’ –to lead by example and ensure that equality, diversity, and inclusion, and all the benefits it can yield, are primary considerations in our strategic business discussions.

EDI Survey

We held our first dedicated EDI company-wide survey, using the results to implement strategic change and return positive results. We have since committed to issuing bi-annual surveys, assessing, and monitoring any change from the baseline and publicly reporting our progress.

EDI Strategy Document

We have underpinned our ongoing commitment to EDI at D2 by producing an EDI strategy document that includes key measurable short- and long-term targets with a clear action plan detailing how we intend to achieve them. These targets form part of our overall business plan, which demonstrates their importance to the business as we continue to progress in embedding an inclusive culture within our organisation.

Training Opportunities

One of our key EDI targets is to provide employees with training opportunities, to tackle unconscious bias and negative behaviours within the workplace. Earlier this year we held our first dedicated EDI training session centred around identifying and tackling biases.

The session was delivered as a facilitated discussion workshop in groups of between 6-8 people. Following the discussion, the trainer delivered a targeted technical review to bring together the findings from the session and provide practical advice on how to address our biases in the future.

Our EDI champion Sarah Barnes, D2’s Collaboration Lead gives us her thoughts on what we have achieved in our EDI journey so far.

“We are on the path of our EDI journey and working hard to make our employees feel empowered to act decisively. We believe it is vitally important to create an inclusive environment for all our people to flourish and help build a better rail sector for all of us to work in.

“By signing the EDI Charter and producing a strategy document with clear outputs we are putting the topic at the forefront of our business and promoting innovation, agility, and positive change in the rail industry. It is exciting to be taking this journey to see the benefits that equality, diversity, and inclusion can yield for both D2 Rail and the wider industry.”

To read the full Women in Rail and RIA EDI Charter visit: https://womeninrail.org/edi-charter/

We are pleased to welcome James to the D2 Rail Team, in the position of Senior Planner from March 2022

James joins us from CAF where he gained 2 ½ years’ experience of planning rollingstock projects. He was involved in the successful completion of the 13 Trans Pennine nova 3 MK5A fleet and has recently been working on the 77 new 197 fleet to be provided to Transport for Wales. Before CAF he spent 17 years with Network Rail and started his career on the Railway with Jarvis Rail. He has always worked in planning and has a wide range of knowledge of planning multi-disciplinary railway projects and infrastructure maintenance.

James enjoys cooking, spending time with his kids and sports – especially football and is a Manchester United fan for his sins!

We are pleased to welcome Dan to the D2 Rail Team, in the position of Senior Project Manager from March 2022

Dan joins us from Network Rail where he gained 13 years’ experience of Project Management in the Railway. Starting on the Graduate Scheme with Network Rail in 2009 Dan has a wide range of knowledge and experience delivering multi-disciplinary railway projects having most recently been responsible for successfully delivering stages of the Northern Hub in Manchester and Trans Pennine Route Upgrade Project W1 (Manchester – Stalybridge). Dan is a Full Member (MAPM) and has recently achieved Chartership Status with APM.

Dan enjoys cooking, sports – especially rugby and football and is a Season Ticket holder at Tranmere Rovers…for his sins!

A big welcome to Dan!

D2 is excited to announce a research project that will explore bringing Digital Innovation to the Canadian rail sector. During the 3-month project, spearheaded by Innovate UK and the Department for International Trade, D2 Rail aims investigate and develop a digital planning and operations tool for use in the Canadian Rail industry. The aim is to provide a safer, more efficient way to gain visibility of works with improved access planning and analysis.

‘Real planning’ engagement is where realistic and achievable programmes are developed by individuals that can relate to both the building and sequencing of works. Real planning addresses human interfaces, risk, opportunity, and wider rail network operations.

Since our launch in 2011, D2 Rail has been dedicated in their pursuit of providing integrated real planning services, empowered by cutting edge digital capability. Our collective experiences and shared passion define who we are and what we do every day. As a strong and independent company, we thrive on maximising value for our clients and their stakeholders. From the executive team to our newest colleagues, our combined effort sustains increasingly higher levels of product and service quality.

The focus of the project will be to investigate what geographical rail data is available and how it can be used in conjunction with maintenance planning data. The solution will provide planning tools, artificial intelligence, analytics and better visibility, efficiency and safety to planners, operators, the public and all other involved parties.

By pulling in geographical route information, real time data, possession information, and building routing algorithms, a system could accurately represent planned rail works in a geographical format and in a standardised data format that could be easily understood. This opens the doors for, previously unachievable speeds of data analysis, reducing human effort, time, and the potential for error.

The ability to quickly detect clashes between projects, diversionary route analysis, train scheduling impact reporting, change tracking and more will massively enhance the industry’s ability to plan works and communicate efficiently.

Innovation through technology will enable planners to have much more control and visibility on long running projects far in advance of ‘T -52 weeks’ from the date of the works, a thing that is currently difficult to achieve.

Automated data handling and analysis reduced manual task overheads considerably, freeing staff up for other important tasks and reducing the risk of human error. Geographical representation removed any confusion that interested parties may have regarding the footprint or location of the works and supported much easier and productive stakeholder engagement.

The past 12 months have been hard on everyone and in some circumstances, due to the loss of jobs, many have plummeted into homelessness.  The Mustard Tree are a homeless charity based in Manchester that focus on tackling both the causes and consequences of poverty and homelessness.

Since 1994 they have created opportunities for people to help themselves through providing practical support, friendship, connections into work, and improvements to health and wellbeing. They also provide food through their food bank and resources to help make a home through their Community Shops, they offer creative programmes to aid recovery and encourage aspiration.

To help support the Mustard Tree during this time, our employees and senior management team have been remarkably generous with donations to the Mustard Tree’s ‘Fill a Crate for Christmas’ campaign. With more people than ever relying on the Mustard Tree’s services – for everything from the weekly shop to Christmas presents for friends and family – the Mustard Tree are calling on support from individuals, businesses, and community contacts to help address this increasing demand, by putting together collections of food, toys and other items in their ‘Fill a Crate for Christmas’ campaign.

Our Infrastructure Operations Director Simon Blair delivered multiple bags of food shopping, toys, and gift sets through the Mustard Tree Ancoats branch last week. Along with our functional teams delivering and ordering online shopping and making cash donations for the charity. The Fill a Crate for Christmas campaign aims to help provide food and support for those in need this Christmas, and we hope, add a little Christmas cheer.

We give a huge thank you to all who got involved, the donations will mean the world to those who receive them.

If you would like to donate food or money to the Mustard Tree, please click on the links to find out more.

Mustard Tree | Fill a Crate for Christmas

Mustard Tree | Donations

Network Rail’s fleet of RM900 Ballast Cleaners are helping them to increase the sustainability of the UK’s railways. This summer, D2 worked with Network Rail training experts to deliver a new system for training operators of the Ballast Cleaner using Virtual Reality.

The existing operator training regime relied on manuals, mentors, and hands-on use of the actual ballast cleaners. But the high operational demand for these large and complex items of heavy plant was severely constraining new operator training. Training opportunities, and locations were governed by plant availability, with the ever-present risk of accidental damage. This severely limited the extent to which trainees could fully familiarise themselves with the ballast cleaners.

Moving this training to a digital environment has allowed for safe, structured, training – providing familiarity with every aspect of operation and allowing time for extended practice

To learn more, read the full case study here.

At D2 Rail our employees physical and mental health is paramount. We have a Health and Safety working group that make sure we work safely, and understand how to assess situations, and challenge anything we deem to be unsafe. We also have a Mental Health and Wellbeing group that look at how we can take better care of ourselves when dealing with mental health and wellbeing. These groups issue out information bulletins and briefing for both physical and mental health and all the factors that surround these topics.

As part of our regular D2 Rail team brief we asked our teams what charities they would like to support in addition to our chosen charity the Mustard Tree, and our teams chose MIND, which is a charity that focuses on better mental health for everyone.

Mind provides advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. They campaign to improve services, raise awareness, and promote understanding about mental health. Mind have been a fantastic support to so many throughout the pandemic. COVID 19 has created a whole new level of anxiety for people, and Mind have stepped up to the challenge of supporting in any way they can.

This may be through connecting minds, bringing people together, helping organisations who want to join the fight for mental health, or by meeting the mental health crisis from the pandemic head on, by supporting people through face to face and online services. Mind fight for better services and rights for people with mental health problems, and push to improve public attitudes towards mental health.

To help support this fantastic charity our D2 Rail Team hosted a virtual Bingo and Quiz night, charging a minimum of £5.00 donation to join the evening. There was a great turn out and several large donations to support the fundraising event, so far, we have a total of £360.00 raised. If you would like to make a donation and help support this amazing charity, please click on the link and donate.

We are proud to support Mind and their efforts to make sure mental health is not hidden anymore, that mental health is now something to be honest about and not ashamed of. The Mind community have been at the heart of this transformation, and we support them in this change.

After the great success of the ‘Fill a Crate for Christmas’ campaign, the Mustard Tree decided to continue to spread some joy during the Easter season. After discovering that many families relied on the Mustard Tree community shop as a crucial destination for low-cost, affordable items over the Christmas period, the team are expecting to see the same demand on the approach to Easter. To make sure they can provide for their community shop, the Mustard Tree have launched the Easter Egg Shop ‘n’ Drop campaign.

The appeal is to help the team to fill their Community Shops with Easter Eggs throughout the month of March. The campaign is a great way to spread some joy for the Mustard Tree community, and to show our support D2 Rail have donated a variety of Easter Eggs to the cause.

In additional to the egg donations our Directors Dave and Simon have donated £500 to The Mustard Tree on behalf of D2 Rail. This is a huge help to the Mustard Tree team and can fund some of the very important areas listed below.

• £150 Keeps a van running to pick up donations and deliver furniture for one week

• £100 Allows us to equip a single persons home with furniture

• £50 Allows us to donate a fridge to someone in need

• £20 Pays for a month’s credit for somebody rough sleeping to access food and clothing

• £12 Covers the cost of the items for one of our Food Club parcels

Last year has proven to be an extremely hard on the Mustard Tree, and so any acts of kindness like these not only help the homeless community, but also the people who have worked throughout the pandemic to help tackle poverty and homelessness in Manchester.

If you would like to help support the Mustard Tree and all the great work they do throughout the homeless community please go to the Mustard Tree donation link here Mustard Tree | Donate money.

Last week, Neeraj Ajit Sukumaran form our Project Controls team attended a Teams call with Salford University to present to MSc Construction Management and Building Information Modelling  students. The presentation focused on the benefits of project management tools in construction using Power BI as a reporting tool.

The first half of the presentation gave an introduction to the basics of Power BI. Using examples from project experience, Neeraj shared a recent case study from the TRU West Alliance to show how our project controls team migrated from manual excel reports, to dynamic and automated reports in Power BI.

The Second part of the presentation formed a workshop in which Neeraj demonstrated to the students how to create a simple dashboard in Power BI  “Dashboard in a day”. Whilst also providing the students with guided learning documentation.

­We all live in a data culture where business decisions are based on facts, not opinions. We need data to help us make these decisions. Power BI is an application that lets you gather, transform, and visualize your data. Power BI desktop helps you to create your reports and dashboards while Power BI Service helps you to publish them for others to consume. The software is used widely in construction to track progress, schedules and budget. It helps companies gain better insights into their contracting, forecasting, and workforce management levels. You can access Power BI dashboards from anywhere and spot trends or anomalies and dashboards can instantly be shared in a Realtime view.

At D2 Rail innovation and collaboration are part of our Core Values and at the heart of what we do. Our Project Controls team highly recommend the use of Power BI within projects and businesses. Power BI is a great reporting and collaboration tool that can help save time and money in the industry. Users can collaborate with co-workers to create interactive reports and dashboards in workspaces. They can also compile dashboards and reports into apps and can publish them to a larger audience. Championing innovation and looking at how we can work smarter is part of our D2 Rail culture, and sharing our experience and knowledge with our local universities is an important part of what we do as a business in upskilling the industry.

‘Many thanks for a wonderful presentation and hands on demonstration, that created a great deal of interest. There were around 35 students in live session. Plus, number of our students are distance learners joining from places such as Australia and they usually listen to recordings. Thus, around 50 students benefitted from the presentation.’

Professor Zeeshan Aziz, BEng, MSc, Ph.D,

If you would like to here more about the benefits of Power BI please contact our Project Controls team on Projectcontrols@D2Rail.co.uk for further details.

As we prepare for what we believe will be the toughest winter to date for the homeless in the UK, D2 Rail are doing our bit to help raise funds for our chosen charity the Mustard Tree. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mustard Tree have kept their doors open within public health guidelines and have seen unprecedented numbers in need of their support. Primarily their focus is helping those on the streets however, since the pandemic hit, they’ve discovered a new community of people also in need of their support. This included the vulnerable and elderly in isolation, and local residents who have fallen on hard times through job losses and a sustained period of furlough and school closures.

To give you an idea of the challenges the charity has faced, the Mustard Tree supported 4,648 families during the first three months of lockdown. The people of Manchester visited the charity in their droves for additional help and 14,500 food parcels were circulated over the three-month period. In addition to food, toiletries and clothes were also provided to over 1000 people living in extreme poverty.

These key workers have been a fantastic support to so many people in their time of need, and to help them continue their great work D2 Rail decided to complete a Step Challenge Fundraiser. Throughout November and December three teams have been competing to walk, run and cycle as far as possible. Donations have been made by each participating stepper, and D2 Rail have matched this amount taking the total so far to £560. We are now at the final push, and with the challenge concluding on Sunday we are asking our dear colleagues and friends to give whatever you can to help support this amazing charity. A suggested donation of £5 would be greatly appreciated but whatever you can give, please do as every penny counts during these hard times.

If you would like to make a donation, you can do so via our JustGiving page.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/d2-step-run-cycle-race

All our thanks

The D2 Rail Team

D2 Rail is pleased to welcome Senior Planner Scott Weir. Scott is highly regarded in the railway industry for his extensive technical expertise and meticulous approach. We welcome his process driven methods in support of our projects, which underpin D2’s drive towards efficiencies through knowledge sharing and the implementation of effective controls.

Scott possesses both client side and sub-contractor experience in a multi-disciplinary environment. In the past, he has supported a number of major projects including Boston to Skegness, GNGE and HS2 and also has twelve years’ experience in Track Engineering.
Scott joins us from the London to Corby Electrification Project, which suited his problem-solving nature and the work involved in staging work to fit timeframes.

He is a consummate team player, who is competent in the use of Primavera P6, MS Project, MS Visio, MS PowerPoint, MS Excel and has previous experience with both PPS and Nrol.

Scott will be engaged on our OCR commission. OCR is a Network Rail organisation who operate out of Crewe. D2 Rail are focused on providing long-term planning support, having been engaged to understand and build the Year 3 (2021/2022) programme and book access for both Eastern and North West and Central regions.

Welcome Scott, we look forward to working with you.

D2 Rail are pleased to announce the appointment of Andy Pepworth to head up its new Capacity Planning team. D2 Rail have been recognised as a trustworthy and innovative programme management provider of Planning, Planning Controls, Information Management and Visualisations, so adding Capacity Planning to its capabilities was a natural progression.

The requirement to understand the impact an engineering planning proposal will have on the train services, is essential for the development of any rail project.  The additional of Capacity Planning to the D2 Rail umbrella, will aid the development of rail projects from inception through to delivery and implementation through not only the planning and analysis of current and future railway capacity but also the performance impact an infrastructure and timetable combination will have on train performance.

D2 Rail’s ethos is to add value in every part of business it operates in and Capacity Planning is no different, we have built a new team with a blend of experience and enthusiastic youth to answer some of the most challenging questions in the rail industry such as, how many trains can operate on the railway without impacting other services?

To find out more and get in touch with our Capacity Planning team, please email capacityplanning@d2rail.co.uk

Dave Harwood’s Project Controls team has appointed Louis Szymanski. He has joined in the position of Junior Project Controls Assistant. A Graduate of the University of Leeds, Louis comes from a Civil Engineering background with a Masters in Structural Engineering. His final year research project focused on lifecycle costing and data analysis, which will support some of D2’s Project Controls work.

Following his studies, Louis spent 3 years as an elite cyclist, racing for a team, in professional-level races throughout the UK and Europe. This chapter in his life, embedded a diligent work ethic which, will be applied to his exciting new role at D2.

Just prior to joining D2 Rail, Louis worked in the operations department for a company in the construction industry. He provided provided administrative support to ensure the smooth running of business operations.

We welcome Louis to his new team.

D2 Rail has recently recruited Graduate Kathrine Lennon. Kathrine has joined us in the position of Junior Operations Consultant, having completed a 4-year Masters’ Degree in Maths and Physics from Durham University.

As part of her degree, she completed courses in advanced mathematics and theoretical physics. Her final year project was on Geometrical Aspects of Gauge Theories, specialising in Chern-Simons and Knot Theory.

Successful Graduate recruitment is important to us. We are committed to providing an exciting and rewarding environment for our staff to fulfil their potential and also to participate in the growth and management of the company.

We welcome Kathrine to the D2 Family.

We welcome experienced Information Management professional Steff Hurst to our D2 family, joining us in the position of Document Controller. Steff was recently involved in the roll out of eB within Network Rail Eastern’s Renewals and Enhancements team, assisting projects with the submission of as-built documentation, as well as the hand back of health and safety files to the National Records Group.

Prior to that, Steff worked for TSP as a Document Controller for 2 years, working on a variety of infrastructure projects including PSU2, Gatwick Airport Station, Oxford Corridor, Plumstead, LOCROSW AFA Scheme and also a range of Energy to Waste plants.

Her first railway role was back in 2014, at Network Rail’s National Records Group, where she processed H&S Files as well as Telecoms/Civils records and Deed requests.

We wish Steff all the very best in her new role.

Arsalan Rehman has joined D2 Rail’s Planning and Scheduling team. He joins us from Parsons International.

He has considerable civil and planning experience from within the Highway and Civil/Structural sectors of the Construction Industry and during a varied engineering career, has held roles in Project Scheduling, Project Planning, Project Monitoring, Construction Management, Site Execution and Quality Control.

Arsalan is a results driven professional with a broad range of project experience. This has seen him work on worldwide programmes encompassing heavy civils, earthworks, underground utilities, roads, bridges and infrastructure works.

He also holds a MSc in Civil/Structural Engineering from Salford University.

We welcome Arsalan to the D2 family.

To learn more about D2 Rail and our Planning and Scheduling Service offering, please click this link: http://www.d2rail.co.uk/services/planning-and-scheduling/

D2 Rail are pleased to welcome Jake Brown to the D2 Rail Team. Jake joins us in the position of Junior Software Developer and will be based at our Central Manchester HQ, where he will report to our Visualisation lead, Matt Sykes.

Jake has spent the past 4-years studying Computer Games Design at The University of Huddersfield.

Throughout his time at University, he has gained experience across many areas including Environment Art, Prop Modelling, Character Art, Animation, VFX and In-Engine Level Design.

All at D2, are excited to see how Jake will apply his varying skillset to our Visualisation Team’s expanding project workload.

Welcome on board Jake, we all look forward to working with you.

At D2 Rail, we encourage the use of visualisations for our clients, by always seeking to find areas where it can be used effectively to support and enhance projects. From supporting clients during design phases, consents and tender submissions, we see the real added value of visualisations and its multiple features.

http://www.d2rail.co.uk/services/visualisations/

D2 Rail’s Planning Team are pleased to welcome Mark Beecroft-Stretton. Mark joins us in the position of Planning Manager and will report to Planning Director, Simon Blair.

He will be based from our King Street HQ but also work remotely, supporting various infrastructure projects throughout the UK.

Over the last two decades, Mark has been providing expert project planning and control services across nuclear, defence, power, smart metering and transport infrastructure sectors.

More recently he’s was working in rail, leading the planning section of Porterbrook Leasing Company Ltd, supporting the conversion of legacy British Rail rolling stock into bi-mode, tri-mode and hybrid units to replace the pacer trains.

Mark is an Incorporated Electro-Mechanical Engineer, PRINCE2 and APM practitioner.

We welcome Mark to the D2 family and wish him all the best in his new role.

www.d2rail.co.uk

D2 Rail are pleased to welcome Kate Cook to the D2 Rail team, in the position of Commercial Manager.

As a growing Programme Management Consultancy, D2 Rail are delighted that experienced commercial professional Kate, has joined our leadership team. She will be based at our King Street HQ in Manchester and provide commercial support for both the business and our clients respectively – reporting into D2’s Managing Director, David Diesbergen.

Kate has worked within the civil engineering and construction sectors, for both highways and utilities industries for a number of years, which has given her a rounded understanding of infrastructure programmes and projects. Throughout her career, she has worked closely with clients, supporting them through both pre and post construction. Kate has also supported larger organisations with tendering for framework contracts both with estimating support and writing contractual agreements.

For the last 8 years Kate has worked in London and its surrounding areas on major TfL and borough improvement schemes.

All at D2 Rail, wish Kate well in her new role.

Kate can be contacted on 07968 169796 or by email on kate.cook@d2rail.co.uk

D2 Rail’s Planning Director, Simon Blair, has been helping his local Covid-19 Mutual Aid community in Marple, which has a high population of people aged 70 and over, by providing technical support to help in the efficient management of the group.

The amazing work of the 130 local volunteers, who are providing support to individuals self-isolating, was featured in the Spring Edition of Marple Review.

This united and highly coordinated team has been making deliveries of essential items, such as food and medical supplies, with the necessary social distancing enforcements. To date, this incredible army of volunteers have made over 320 deliveries.

They have also been providing a buddying service, where individuals are paired up and provide other support, whether it be talking over the phone, dog walking (whilst complying with government guidance on controlling the spread of Covid-19) and any other general help and support.

Everybody at D2 Rail is incredibly proud of Simon. His commitment to this fantastic local project, is a great example of a community supporting each other during these challenging and stressful times.

D2 Rail is pleased to welcome Andy Pepworth to our Planning and Scheduling Team, in the position of Capacity Planning Manager. Andy’s role as Capacity Planning Manager, will focus on timetable development and performance modelling, which is a new area of expertise and complements the current core business offerings.

He will be based at our King Street office and will be working with Planning Director Simon Blair, to seamlessly integrate and deliver for our many infrastructure customers, this exciting new area of expertise.

Andy has over two decades of railway industry experience and has during this time developed a strong knowledge of capacity utilisation, timetabling, rail operations and signalling. This has been gained from both UK and international programmes, providing operational advice on large projects such as Crossrail, Thameslink, Dubai Metro and Northern Hub as well as 8 years with Network Rail.

For the past 5 years, Andy has been working predominantly in the United Arab Emirates, fulfilling a mixture of project management, rail operations and capacity planning roles, as well as responding to operational incidents.

Andy is delighted to be back in the UK with his family and looking forward to working with D2 in the ambient temperatures of central Manchester.

Welcome on board the D2 express Andy, we all look forward to working with you.

We are pleased to confirm the appointment of Matt Sykes to the D2 Rail team, in the position of Software Development Manager.

Matt will be based at our King Street, Manchester HQ, and will manage and oversee the development of our various digital and visualisation technologies.

Matt joins us from The Access Group where he split his time between system engineering, internal IT development and product development. He worked on development of software for the construction industry and has worked on an array of technologies ranging from desktop applications to cloud hosting and web apps. He also worked on several internal systems with the company to replace old systems and improve process.

Matt will be reporting into Planning Director, Simon Blair who said:

“This is an important appointment to our software development team. We are delighted to welcome Matt and his experience from the construction industry, to manage the development, maintenance and testing of all our new and existing software in support of the 3D and 4D modelling work we deliver.”

During his spare time, Matt enjoys playing the drums, retro gaming and is an AFOL (do look it up).

We wish him all the best in his role.

D2 Rail are pleased to welcome Sarah Lomax. She will be based at our King Street HQ, to provide support for our Information Management team on current and future projects, and will report into Rebecca Pratt, Information Manager.

Sarah has strong formatting skills with the ability to run in depth audit and compliance checks, using intricate formula knowledge. She has a secure proofreading ability having ran quality assurance checks and has reviewed both commercial and non-commercial documents, including marketing materials, internal documentation, and academic research pieces. With a high attention to detail, Sarah will prove invaluable with her conscious understanding of both the cause and effect of all her working material, alongside prioritising demanding deadlines.

Sarah’s work within the Information Management team currently includes reviewing and revising registers, guidance lists, and compliance checks. She has a good knowledge of systems, including ProjectWise, and can deal with large amounts of electronic data. She is a port of call for the systems administration team, pairing up and showcasing her interdependent qualities within a diverse working environment.

To learn more about D2 Rail’s Information Management capabilities – click this link: http://www.d2rail.co.uk/services/information-management/

In these uncertain times, it is important that you know D2 Rail are open for business and have put in place all appropriate measures to remain that way.

We are actively monitoring the Coronavirus (Covid-19) situation. Our top priority is to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees and fellow industry colleagues, whilst also ensuring that we will continue to maintain the highest levels of service for our customers throughout this period.

We recognise that the events are somewhat uncertain, which is why we will continue to review our arrangements and contingency plans daily, to ensure that we can react to any changing circumstances.

Thank you for your business and support.

D2 Rail are pleased to welcome Patricia Rogers to the team in the position of Systems Administration Manager. She joins us from Energy Company, British Gas and having previously worked for D2 Rail, we are very happy to have her back.

Patricia will be based at our King Street Headquarters in Manchester, and will be responsible for the office systems and procedures. She will report into Managing Director, David Diesbergen.

With a career spanning over 20 years, Patricia has amassed office management and administration experience working for both the Energy and Property Management sectors.
During her career, she has worked for a number of SME’s and has been responsible for implementing procedures and processes to support business growth, which are areas as a growing SME, that D2 Rail are looking to enhance.

In her spare time, Patricia enjoys walking her dog Chewbacca, loves to travel, and “tries” to cook.

We wish Tricia all the best in her role.

Australia is facing one of its biggest challenges in decades and for a native and one of our own – Alesha Hancock – this is particularly devasting. Being thousands of miles away and feeling helpless, whilst bushfires burn out of control, destroying entire communities, native ecosystems and millions of hectares of bushland.

Not being one to sit back, Alesha has set up her own crowdfunding page in support of the NSW Rural Fire Service. This service is predominately made up of brave volunteers that have been working selflessly and tirelessly around the clock to save as many lives, homes, businesses and as much native land as possible. The money that is raised will go towards buying resources needed to continue to fight the fires for the weeks/months ahead.

Just think, by forgoing that cup of coffee or a soft drink just once, and instead donating that £3 per cup, we all could really make such a huge difference. All at D2 Rail, are all firmly behind this campaign.

Here are a few statistics to help put this crisis into perspective:

• 23 people have been killed directly due to these fires
• More than 1,700 homes in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia have been destroyed
• 4 million hectares has been burned in all states and territories (excluding NT) since the start of the fire season – 4.9 million of this in NSW
• Almost half a billion animals have been killed with fears entire species may have been wiped out

The crowd funding* page, is linked below. So do please donate if you can. If not, then do please pray for rain. The page will be open until 31^st January 2020.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/alesha-hancock-NSWRFS?utm_term=7XGbJVNpK

Any help or support you can spare will be gratefully appreciated. If you have any questions about this campaign, please email alesha.hancock@d2rc.co.uk

Last week, our Project Controls Team attended a Business Enterprise Day at Parrs Wood High School, Manchester, on behalf of one of our current projects at the Transpire (West of Leeds).

This was arranged by the schools own “Future Choices’ department for all of its Year 11 students.

Neeraj Ajit Sukumaran was D2 Rail’s lead and he was one of the mentors supporting the students as they worked in teams to come up with business ideas, which, were then presented back to Neeraj and fellow guests from the wider business community including Aldi, AECOM and Purcell.

There was much success throughout the day and one of the student teams – Team Ignite – managed to raise ‘£321,000’ for their ‘business idea’. Here is a link to the students challenge: https://www.ourfutures.co.uk/documents/of_events/Enterprise_Challenge_Role_of_the_Volunteer.pdf

D2 Rail wholeheartedly support this type of community engagement and it forms part of the business’s wider social values:

• Respect.
• Fairness
• Honesty
• Giving Back
• Responsibility
• Family
• Community

Neeraj enjoyed the day and is now planning on becoming a STEM Ambassador, offering his time and enthusiasm to help bring STEM subjects to life and demonstrate the value of them in life and careers. STEM Ambassadors are an important and exciting free of charge resource for teachers and others engaging with young people inside and out of the classroom.

Here is a link for the day.

https://mobile.twitter.com/forourfutures?fbclid=IwAR30C98oWTZATGIvH-XJRlLi1hhZNMBIelK1x3FAaRpFPXc8XVqdlwSJEps

The D2 Rail team have been busy baking a selection of sumptuous cakes to raise money in aid of homeless charity Mustard Tree.

An amazing array of treats has been laid out for this bake sale including tray bakes, sponge cakes, cookies and even cup-cakes, that have been iced to match the D2 brand colours. The sale is happening at our TRU project office located at 111 Piccadilly, Manchester, with all proceeds going to the charity.

D2 Rail are supporting Mustard Tree this year and this is one of many events and activities that our team have completed to raise funds. The local charity has an established track record over the past 25 years, supporting people across Greater Manchester in poverty and facing homelessness. They create opportunities for people to help themselves through providing practical support, friendship, connections into work, improvements to health and wellbeing plus new experiences to encourage aspiration.

Pictured here (from left to right) are our D2 Rail Bakers; Becky Pratt, Rebecca Mercer, Rebecca Crean and Dave Harwood – great work team!

We have released our latest edition of D2 News. The last six months has seen D2 Rail winning new rail work at a rate of knots and hence a large part of that period has been filled with the recruitment of a number of planning and controls specialists.

Our existing teams have been busy too, brilliantly supporting existing bodies of work, as D2’s stock continues to rise through our innovative solutions and intelligent investment in our multi-functional Programme offering. Our aim is to help our clients to drive value for money through every aspect of their operations.

R&D continues to be at the forefront of both our BIM and Visualisations services and Managing Director David Diesbergen, continues to lead his dynamic team to excellence in all they do:

“Our mission is to provide the very highest quality offering, whether it is as a standalone service provision, or an integrated programme management solution.

“With the new recruits adding further capabilities and capacity across the breadth of the rail and wider construction programme management sector, I look forward to continued success for us all as we move through 2019. Do please click here to read our latest newsletter and learn more about the progress we have been making”

We are pleased to have completed a recent update to our website by adding a new Case Study area to our site.

Successful projects are a great way of showcasing our capabilities and we are delighted to have a wide selection of projects to demonstrate the many diverse services that we deliver.

Many of these include a customer testimonial, which provides us both with great feedback and endorsement for our work.

Please click here to check out our projects and do look out for new studies in the future.

D2 Rail are pleased to announce the appointment of two new team members to our growing rail programme management consultancy.

We are pleased to welcome Utilities Manager, Graeme Clarke and Planner, Richard Riding to the D2 Rail family.

Graeme is a knowledgeable Utilities Manager, with 29 years’ experience within the Construction, Civil Engineering and Utilities Sectors. He will be based at the TRU West of Leeds Office and will provide Utilities Consultancy support to Divisional lead, Steve Cooper. He joins us from WSP, where he held the role of Utilities Manager, working on various projects involving the design and co-ordination of multi-utility diversions and connections.

Richard joins us from Morrison Utility Services, where he had been working as a Senior Planner/Programme Manager on their water network mains replacement and rehabilitation programmes. He is a well-rounded construction industry professional, having started his industry career in 2001 as a Site Engineer/Manager on the Yorkshire Water frameworks, before moving into Planning with Costain. Richard will also be based in the TRU West of Leeds office working on a mix of route wide and specific intervention projects reporting into D2’s Planning Director, Simon Blair.

We wish both Richard and Graeme much happiness and success in their new roles.

We are pleased to welcome Lorissa Walker to the D2 Rail Team, in the position of Executive Support.

Lorissa will be based at our King Street Office and will be providing support to the managers and other colleagues in the office. Lorissa will report to Managing Director, David Diesbergen. Previously, this role was held by Rebecca Crean. Rebecca has recently moved into our Information Management team, hence, Lorissa’s appointment.

Lorissa has an infrastructure industry background, so is very much at home with our fast paced Programme Management Consultancy environment. She joins us from Pinnacle Luxury Developments, where she was a Client & Contracts Manager for 3 years. Throughout her time at Pinnacle, Lorissa worked on various different property developments ranging from £250k to £5.5m. During that time, Lorissa also gained further insight into the industry via a Site Management role, before returning back to Contract Management.

In her spare time, Lorissa enjoys long walks with her 4 dogs and also runs a small Beagle group that raise money for Beagle Welfare.

We wish Lorissa a long and happy career with D2 Rail.

D2 Rail is delighted to announce that our four brave members of staff; Chloe Brown and Rebecca Mercer from our Information Management Team, Neeraj Ajit Sukumaran from our Project Controls Team and Rick Webdale from our Visualisations Team, have successfully completed their ‘Urban Challenge’ in Ancoats, in Manchester City Centre.

The team have been raising funds for The Mustard Tree and having set an ambitious target of £400 initially, they managed to smash that further, by raising a fantastic total of £805 – 200% more than the target!

Many thanks to all those that donated and huge congratulations to our fearless team, for throwing themselves (literally!) at this event, their efforts in completing this challenge and their commitment to this worthwhile local cause.

This is all part of D2 Rail’s pledge to Homeless charity Mustard Tree, supporting them in their work, to help people across Greater Manchester in poverty and facing homelessness.

We are pleased to welcome Dave Crowe to the D2 Rail Team, who joins our business from Volker Rail.

Dave has joined us in the capacity of Planner and will be based at our King Street Head Office in Manchester. He will be working in a Project Controls and Planning capacity and will be reporting into Dave Harwood – our Project Controls Manager.

Dave joins D2 Rail at a busy time. We will be looking to utilise his Project Controls and Planning experience from a number of schemes, including NWEP Phase 3, Mersey Rail PSU and the Bromsgrove Electrification Scheme. Dave has also managed the Network Rail KPI’s during his work, which offered an insight in the end-users business, providing him the opportunity to work closely and provide support to different areas including Health and Safety, Commercial, Quality, Procurement and Sustainability.

Dave has a few hobbies and interests, including playing Rugby, walking his dog George, reading, and spending time with his fiancé Kath.

We wish Dave all the best in his new role.

D2 Rail is pleased to announce the appointment of Jill Dyson to the position of Senior Planner.

Jill will be based at 111 Piccadilly, Manchester – the offices of our Transpennine Route Upgrade West of Leeds Project – and will be initially working with the Railway Signalling team, to develop the GRIP 3 design programmes to completion.  She will then be progressing onto further project specific programme development and liaison with the Digital Rail team, in order to produce a route-wide integration schedule. Jill will report to both Jon Ainsworth, as the Alliance planning lead, and our own Planning Director, Simon Blair.

Jill joins us from Siemens, where she held the role of Senior Planner for the Weaver to Wavertree Re-Signalling Project.  Jill has 20 years’ experience in the rail industry, predominantly working on GRIP 4-8 multi-discipline projects, with a signalling bias.

In her spare time, Jill enjoys running and competing in race events, from 10ks to marathons.

We welcome Jill to our team and wish her all the best in her new role.

We are pleased to welcome Danny Boyle to the D2 Rail Team, in the position of Train Operators Interface Manager.

Danny will be based at 111 Piccadilly, Manchester, in order to interface with all Train and Freight Operating Companies who operate over the Transpennine route in respect of all signal sighting and driver training issues. He will report to Allan Parker in the Integration team for the West of Leeds.

Danny joins us from Northern Hub, where he occupied a similar role and has over 45 years’ experience in railway operations and safety.

He commenced his railway career in the train driving grades before progressing into Senior Management posts in Area and Regional Traincrew and Operations Management in Freight and Passenger Operating Companies.

Over the last 16 years Danny has worked as an Independent Operations and Safety Management Consultant working with TOCs, FOCs, Network Rail and the Rail Safety and Standards Board.

D2 Rail Continue Their Support For Mustard Tree Charity

As we mentioned at the end of 2018, D2 Rail is supporting Homeless charity Mustard Tree, to support them in their work, helping people across Greater Manchester in poverty and facing homelessness.

Four of our brave, young and enthusiastic team, are taking on the Manchester Urban Challenge on the 26th of April.  Stepping out from their comfort zones and preparing for 60 minutes of mayhem, taking on a series of challenging obstacles.

The team have set up a just giving page and would appreciate any support…https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/d2-rail

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So, it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity. And don’t forget, if you’re a UK taxpayer, to click the GiftAid box.

A donation would mean so much to so many people. Providing funds to the Mustard Tree provides people in Manchester with the chance to escape homelessness and poverty – for good.  Donations and the money raised could go towards such things as:

£10 – Pays for a food parcel to feed a hungry person for five days

£20 – Pays for a food parcel to feed a family for five days

£50 – Allows Mustard Tree to donate a fridge to someone in need

£100 – Allows Mustard Tree equip a single persons home with furniture

£150 – Keeps a van running to pick up donations and deliver furniture for one week

Good luck to our brilliant team of Neeraj Ajit Sukumaran, Chloe Brown, Rebecca Mercer and Rick Webdale – who are hoping to raise at least £400 for this fantastic cause.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/d2-rail

D2’s BIM Manager Ashley Williams, was invited by Salford University to present to students reading their MSc in Construction Management on the implementation of 4D in BIM.

4D is the concept of taking a 3D model and assigning tasks to elements within the model, to generate a programme. From this, the 4D Planning model can then be utilised from construction sequence checks, to integrate methodology, helping to ensure safe working.

Some of the key benefits we have found in our work in this area and by adopting BIM and utilising innovative solutions are:

• Improved quality
• Reduction in delivery time
• Reduction to overall cost
• Up-skilled staff
• Sustainable product
• Increased safety

Ashley’s presentation also looked at innovation and how we can ensure that BIM is being used as a foundation behind new technology. Recapping on BIM and the Maturity Wedge, Ashley discussed the importance of working within a BIM Environment and provided an insight into the next dimensions of design the industry should be focusing on, from 4D to 6D.

Expanding further on 4D, Ashley provided examples of previous projects in which 4D had been utilised. Building upon this, Ashley raised the importance of not only taking advantage of new technology to support the implementation of 4D, but to also ensure that the construction industry is utilising this technology with BIM at its core, providing further examples on how we can improve the way we approach 4D.

Many thanks to Dr Zeeshan Aziz for allowing us the opportunity to engage. We look forward to further opportunities to share our experiences and talk about the innovation we are bringing as part of our wider programme management consultancy offering.

D2 Rail is pleased to announce that we have successfully passed our Railway Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme (RISQS) audit, achieving the maximum 5 stars for another year.

Administered by Achilles on behalf of Network Rail, our management systems are audited specifically for the rail services that we deliver.

The audit this year was split into a number of areas:

• Industry Minimum Requirements (IMR) – to examine a variety of aspects including matters such as working hours;
• The Sentinel Scheme – how we manage our rail personnel and their competencies;
• Railway Interface Planning (RIPS) – regarding our Safe System of Work processes;

Our team was led by Managing Director, David Diesbergen and took place over 1 day.  Our team demonstrated, through detailed evidence, how we deliver our programme management services, through policy, procedure and process – particularly with reference to their implementation on railway schemes, which include; project planning, audits and inspections, D&A screening, sponsorship and fatigue management.

A delighted David added:

“This is a fantastic achievement. The audits are a large undertaking and to retain our 5 star rating for another year is a testament to the whole D2 Rail team. Without this qualification, we wouldn’t be able to operate. Well done team!”

The last six months has seen D2 Rail adding to its capabilities with its new Utilities arm delivering successfully under the guidance of Steve Cooper and also the recruitment of some further industry specialists as our project workload has increased – all of which has been captured in this third edition of our newsletter.

The team have otherwise been working hard delivering the companies multi-functional Programme Management offering on a number of important projects including Simon Blair and his Planning, Project Controls and Constructability teams at the Transpennine West of Leeds Scheme and Sarah Barnes and her IM team successfully closing out the award winning Ordsall Chord Project, alongside substantial R&D in both our BIM and Visualisations service areas.

Managing Director David Diesbergen, has been delighted with the progress made:

D2 Rail’s mission is to provide integrated programme management solutions and we are delighted that our utility service offering has bedded in nicely and is already helping to boost project efficiency and reduce costs in what can be a particularly demanding environment.

“With the new recruits, our experience across the breadth of the rail and wider construction programme management sector, will help us and our clients to have a deeper understanding of the challenges involved.  Our aim is to be of help our clients at both a strategic and tactical level, by delivering both discrete projects and wider programme management solutions. We hope that by working with an intelligent and innovative partner such as D2 Rail, we can help our clients to drive value for money through every aspect of their operations.

“As we look back, we are proud of our successes in 2018, and look forward to working with you all throughout 2019. Please click this link to read more.“

It’s been a great start to the year for the D2 Rail team, our Planning lead Alesha Hancock has been awarded with employee of the period on the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) West of Leeds Alliance project.  Alesha has been praised for her continued support of the Ground Investigation and Site Investigation teams.  She consistently goes above and beyond her planning role to manage and coordinate surveys and reports.  She instils Alliance values and behaviours within her role, having the courage to challenge ways of working and looking for the most efficient ways to manage the surveys and reports.

Alesha previously played a crucial part in ensuring the overall success of the Ordsall Chord project, leading on possession and work activity planning – introducing a number of improvements to processes – whilst also adding her backing as a supporter of Women in Rail.

Well done Alesha! Keep up the good work.

Along with Alesha’s win we have had five D2 Rail employees recognised by their peers on the TRU West of Leeds Alliance project for their hard work and dedication in their day-to-day roles on the project.  Well done to Chloe Brown, Glen Staunton, Rebecca Mercer, Sarah Barnes and Simon Blair.  It’s fantastic to see the D2 Rail team making such an impact on such a large programme of works.

Great work team!

It has been a busy start to the year for D2 Rail, with many business updates and news stories.

Our Consents Management offering has been added to our BIM, Information Management and Visualisations areas of the website, allowing us to further clarify and amplify this important service that we provide.

There have also been a number of new recruits over the past twelve months as our workload and stock have both risen and we have reflected this with our updated ‘meet the team’ photo.

Utilities Manager Steve Cooper, who joined the business last year, also now features on our leadership page.

Our Contact Us page has also been updated following a recent photoshoot at our business home in the heart of Greater Manchester.

As a forward thinking company that always looks at how we can improve our way of working and maintain a happy and healthy team, the D2 Rail leadership team decided to take their teams away from their busy project work to attend our very first D2 Rail Day. Having had a period of recruitment, business growth and project successes, we felt it was vital for the whole team to not only learn more about each other, but also our heritage, our mission, our vision and what our aspirations will be in the future, along with our key targets during the next 12 months.

We need to make sure that everyone within the D2 Rail team understands how important their roles are, and in order for the business to grow, we want them to be fully engaged with us on our journey. We also took the opportunity to ask the team what is important to them as an employee? At D2 Rail, we want to understand if our employees needs are being met and build on what we have already implemented within the business. The most important part of the D2 Rail Day was for the team to get together for some networking and to have some fun.

After some extremely competitive and funny games throughout the day, one game stood out – “The Jigsaw Puzzle Game.”  This game started with three identical jigsaws being provided to each team.  The teams then had 20 minutes to piece their jigsaw puzzles together.  However, it soon became apparent, that some of the jigsaw puzzle pieces had been deliberately mixed up with some of the other teams pieces.  Next came the interesting part…each team had to negotiate with the other teams regarding their missing pieces.  In the true spirit of collaboration, the teams decided to support one of the groups, giving them the missing pieces, so that they were able to win the game.

The D2 Rail Day proved to be a great success.

One of the most important aspects of our business is our employees and we want to make sure that we provide them with a platform, like the D2 Rail Day, to voice any concerns or share ideas they may have to the wider business.  Our teams are built up of extremely talented people who can make a difference not only in our company but in the wider industry as a whole. At D2 Rail, we support innovation and want to inspire our people to embrace change and look to create smarter ways of working. Taking days out like the D2 Rail Day allows us to reinvigorate our key message to the team, a message that truly underpins our core values:

“We build our business on trust, which allows our innovative people to flourish in a collaborative and sustainable environment.”

D2 Rail’s BIM Manager Ashley Williams, recently presented at Network Rail’s P3M away day in Leeds, joining discussions on the ongoing IPNP P3M Improvement Programme. Ashley’s presentation looked at innovation within the rail industry and how we can ensure that BIM is being used as a foundation behind new technology. Recapping on BIM and the Maturity Wedge, Ashley discussed the importance of working within a BIM Environment and provided an insight into the next dimensions of design the industry should be focusing on, from 4D to 6D. Expanding further on 4D, Ashley provided examples of previous projects in which 4D had been utilised. Building upon this, Ashley raised the importance of not only taking advantage of new technology to support the implementation of 4D, but to also ensure that the rail industry is utilising this technology with BIM at its core, providing further examples on how we can improve the way we approach 4D.

To provide an insight into what innovative technology is available and being used within the industry, Ashley demonstrated two key development projects which D2 Rail has been working on over the last 12 months. With the help of Richard Hunter – D2 Rail’s Lead in Software Development – and some audience participation, D2 Rail’s ‘Interactive Media Suite’ was put on display, showcasing the uses of the suite for Site Inductions. Further to this, the new Hybrid Reality Concept was also showcased for the first time, highlighting the advantages of combining Virtual Realty with Green Screen technology, removing the barriers of Virtual Reality being seen as a single user interface technology and moving it into a multi user engaging product.

After an exciting day in Leeds we received some fantastic feedback from the Network Rail team and other rail industry leads regarding the presentation, our future development and innovation projects. We look forward to sharing and implementing our innovations within the industry on rail projects across the UK.

D2 Rail is partnering with Homeless charity Mustard Tree, to support the amazing ways in which they help people across Greater Manchester in poverty and facing homelessness.

As a member of the corporate business community in Manchester, we are delighted to help them in their efforts to create opportunities for people to help themselves. Through providing practical support, friendship, connections into work and improvements to health and wellbeing, the D2 Rail team hope to make a positive change across Greater Manchester.

D2’s Programme Information Manager, Sarah Barnes, had a walk around the centre to really get a feel for what the Mustard Tree team are doing to help the community. Following this inspiring visit, the D2 team has formed a committee to organise fundraising events for 2019 so watch this space!

As a company supporting a charity, it is very important to us that we understand the impact we are having and for our staff to feel really engaged with the cause.  To this end, D2 Rail are arranging for Sophie Appleton, Corporate Partnership Manager from the Mustard Tree team to join them on their ‘D2 Rail Day’ on the 17th January, giving everyone the opportunity to ask questions and get a better understanding of how they can help.

Mustard Tree offers a variety of opportunities for companies and their employees to get involved. From sharing skills by volunteering, offering work experience opportunities, to fun fundraising challenges.
Sarah also added:

“It’s such an amazing and inspiring feeling to know that we have the potential to make a real difference to these lives. We look forward to supporting the challenges faced in our community and to raise funds for Mustard Tree now and in the future.”

Last but not least, D2 Rail placed a donation box in their last team brief of the year, promising to drop off all donations to the Mustard Tree before Christmas.

http://www.mustardtree.org.uk/

D2 Rail is delighted to welcome a new Project Controls Assistant to the team. Neeraj Sukumaran is a versatile and results driven professional, with over 5 years of experience in planning, managing and delivering projects on time and to budget.

With a background in Civil Engineering, having graduated in 2012, Neeraj spent 3 years with Jacobs Engineering until 2015, working on a number of residential and government projects in India. He then worked for ETE Saudi Arabia as a Planning Engineer until 2017, developing his project controls and planning skills using Primavera P6 software to support the bid team throughout the pre-contracts phase of a number of EPC schemes, right the way through into controlling and monitoring the projects on site for the post contract team.

In 2017, Neeraj added to his education, by undertaking a MSc in Construction Management at the University of Salford and it is this association that led to his recruitment with D2 Rail.

Neeraj will be based at 4PP and assisting with the implementation of the Earned Value Management system at the Transpennine Route Upgrade project (TRU). He will report to Project Controls lead, Dave Harwood.

In his spare time, Neeraj enjoys fishing, watching football and riding motorcycles and is planning to purchase a new ‘Iron Head’ Harley next year.

Dave Harwood, Project Controls Lead, commented further on this appointment by saying:

“We are delighted to welcome Neeraj to the D2 family. The project controls team is growing day-by-day and we very pleased to have recruited such a talented individual.

“All at D2 Rail wish Neeraj every success in his new role.”

D2 Rail is proud to have been involved in the successful opening of Liverpool Lime Street Station.

Our resource has been sought to provide Information Management support to this logistically complicated project.  We joined the DPE (Designated Project Engineer) team for Network Rail to ensure that clarity, compliance and close-out of information was achieved across the project

During the life of the project, D2 Rail provided clear and concise reporting, tracking and management of actions and requirements of the project in support of the core project team to effectively co-ordinate the suppliers and deliver the works.

This included scope to innovate processes and streamline information where necessary, to improve the communication and management of information across the project and produce more effective close-outs of actions.

With the contribution of multiple suppliers and engineering disciplines feeding into the project we sought to bring standardisation and process control with regards to the flow of information.  By outlining a clear and simple strategy to achieve uniformity across the project, we were able to create and maintain a framework to manage the overview of these requirements providing a concise understanding of the progress of the project enabling quick an effective reporting on outstanding issues and works.

It is our belief that simplifying and streamlining, declutters the information and allows us to get to the heart of any issue and resolve it more effectively.  By imposing a clear framework of uniformity and compliance across a project a more clear and concise presentation of information can be achieved.

Sarah Barnes, Programme Information Manager for D2 Rail, had this to say:

“Special thanks go to Rebecca Mercer who acted as the Document Controller/Technical Clerk for this rail rejuvenation project and is currently supporting the closing out of the Health and Safety files for the project.

“We look forward to utilising Rebecca’s talents within our Information Management division, which provides tailored and impartial advice on Information Management and Document Control. She is part of a team of dedicated individuals, who have a wealth of experience in various systems and keep abreast of best practice procedures and industry standards. The team can advise on the setup and maintenance of your chosen system as well as provide training and ongoing support.”

http://www.d2rail.co.uk/services/information-management/

The first half of 2018, has seen D2 Rail building on its previous successes and these have been captured in this exciting second edition of our newsletter.

The senior team have been working hard to develop their teams and have added new talent to the company’s multi-functional Programme Management offering, which now covers Planning, Project Controls, Information Management , BIM, Constructability and Visualisations offerings.

Managing Director David Diesbergen and his senior team, were delighted to announce a number of new recruits and also several internal promotions, as the team prepare for a busy time ahead.

“With new opportunities comes responsibility for everyone at D2 Rail and we are delighted to have recruited high quality talent, and also recognised individuals within our existing teams for their outstanding contributions to our success. We couldn’t do it without them.

“We are committed to being a world class service provider and believe by understanding, and embracing clients’ business problems, missions, project objectives and goals, we will be continue to build stronger and lasting relationships that will be mutually beneficial.

“We are proud of our continued success in 2018, and would like to share this with you. So please click this link to read more.“

D2 Rail is very pleased to announce the appointment of accomplished Utilities professional Steve Cooper, who joins our leadership team.

Steve will be heading a new Utilities Division that will be focusing upon the management and co-ordination of utility diversions for major projects for both public and private sector clients.

Bringing a wealth of technical, programme and commercial know-how, Steve will be utilising his 25 years of proven project success for the likes of Laing O’Rourke – where he has consistently achieved targets through the strategic project and programme management of major infrastructure projects – to provide professional utilities services to both the rail sector and the wider construction industry.

He recently led the utilities programme for Network Rail on the Northern Hub Project including the Ordsall Chord, Manchester Piccadilly, Oxford Road Railway Station, and the Manchester Airport Railway Station improvements. Other key projects Steve has been involved with include Growth Deal Programme for Transport for Greater Manchester, Ring 3 Light Rail project in Denmark and HS2 Phase 1 Enabling Works Contract North.

Steve holds a BSc Hons in Construction Management, is a Member of the APM and has first tier leadership skills as part of a wider part of his continuous professional development.

Managing Director David Diesbergen, had this to say on Steve’s appointment:

‘D2 Rail’s mission is to provide integrated programme management solutions. Having worked with Steve on the Northern Hub, we believe that our new utility service offering can help boost project efficiency and reduce costs in what can be a particularly demanding environment.

‘His experience across the breadth of the utilities sector will help us and our clients to have a deeper understanding of the challenges involved. Our aim will be to help our clients at both a strategic and tactical level, by delivering both discrete projects and wider programme management solutions. We hope that by working with an intelligent partner such as D2 Rail, we can help our clients to drive value for money through every aspect of their utility operations.

‘Welcome on board Steve!’

At D2 Rail, we have all been thinking about Mental Health this week and in particular the effects of stress.

Our senior team have of course been heavily involved and to round off a thought provoking week, here’s our Managing Director David Diesbergen, sharing his thoughts…

“For mental health week it is extremely important that everyone takes the opportunity to promote the fact that no one should feel that they can’t talk about how they really feel.

Throughout my career, I have witnessed first-hand the ‘stigma’ that has been associated with showing signs of mental health issues. In recent years, we have made huge steps to break down the barriers associated with mental health, however, we can all play a significant part to making even further steps forward.

Everyone’s mental health is affected by numerous day to day factors both inside and outside the working environment, but one thing is clear, whatever the issue might be, it does affect us on a daily basis.

On a personal note, I have regularly faced situations where I have felt overwhelmed by the amount of challenges I have had to deal with, which in turn increases stress levels to an unacceptable level. Ultimately if this is not managed carefully, then stress levels can cause people to feel dejected and in some cases depressed. I know from experience that there is nothing worse than feeling that you could have helped someone but didn’t know they needed help. Whilst you can try and read the signs of stress; they can be well hidden by anyone suffering and not at all obvious. Asking for support is not a weakness – we all need help from time to time – it’s about being there when someone needs to talk, listening and offering advice on how to deal with a situation they may find themselves in.

Talking about this topic and taking away the stigma of mental health issues and stress can help a lot of people out of a very dark place in their lives. We all can play such an important part in our friends, families and colleagues lives by just being there for support. Without people having the courage to speak out, we might find ourselves in situations where we feel we could have done more to help. If only we had seen the signs that they needed support or better still that they felt they could ask for it.

I urge anyone who feels they need help to have the confidence to ask for it and for everyone who finds themselves in a situation where they are being asked for support to make the time to listen to those that have had the confidence to ask. Please remember this can come in a number of different forms and can be a chat over a cup of tea (or in my case for those that know me that would have to be coffee), which can make a world of difference to someone who is feeling isolated and stuck in a rut.”

#letstalk

D2 Rail’s Senior Team continue to share their own personal experiences for Mental Health Week, which this year is focusing upon stress. Here’s Planning Director, Simon Blair’s…

“Like Sarah, mental health has affected my close family and friends; it is a subject that can be hard to discuss and confront but I’ve found that talking is the best form of defence.

I never saw myself as having ‘depression’; I certainly know what the severe side of this illness looks like, having seen it affect close family members. However, I never appreciated that in its mildest form, depression can still have a significant impact on your life.

There have been times when I have felt stressed, overwhelmed, and unable to cope with conflicting demands. In all cases, the close support from family (in particular, my wife Claire), friends and work colleagues have helped me to overcome the feelings of hopelessness and helped me to change my mood in a positive way. The best things that friends and family can do is simply listen. They often don’t need to say anything, just being willing to listen to your problems makes a massive difference.

A devastating diagnosis of a close friend and their positive response to difficult news has been awe inspiring to me. Since this moment, I have committed to stay positive, no matter what the outlook.

Did you know that there is good evidence to show that going through difficult experiences in your childhood can make you vulnerable to experiencing depression later in life? This is something I never appreciated but I can relate to.

My best advice to maintain good mental health is to keep talking and ask for help.” #letstalk

This year for Mental Health Awareness week the Mental Health Foundation are focussing on stress. Research has shown that 16 million people experience a mental health problem each year, and stress is a key factor in this. By tackling stress, we can go a long way to tackle mental health problems such as anxiety and depression, and, in some instances, self-harm and suicide. To bring more awareness to these issues we have asked some of our leadership team to talk about how they feel about mental health and how they handle stress in their day to day lives.

Sarah Barnes – Programme Information Manager:

“The subject of mental health is one very close to my heart as I have friends and family that have struggled with mental health issues. Throughout my career and everyday day life I too have had situations where I have felt overwhelmed, stressed and depressed, with a feeling of no way out of my situation. This experience felt extremely lonely and isolating, as I did not want to voice my issues and seem weak or vulnerable in any way. It turns out when you are going through a stressful situation, these feelings are extremely normal. The most important thing you can do is talk to someone about it and ask for help. In my work situation, I learned that I am just as important if not more than a project or a piece of work, and my bosses and teams agreed with that statement. I think we all aim to be the perfect manager, the perfect employee and the perfect partner, but nobody is expecting this of you except yourself. Burning myself out does not make me a productive person and not getting enough sleep does not give me the energy or drive to do my job well. Most importantly taking work stresses home with me with no respite whatsoever, does not help me solve the problems. I am lucky to be part of a company that recognises when people are overwhelmed or stressed and takes action to support their employees. My best advice to maintain good mental health is to keep talking and ask for help.” #letstalk

We are pleased to welcome Joe McClements to the D2 Rail Team, in the position of Construction Planner. Joe will be based at the Water Street office and will be assisting with the day-to-day planning on the North West Electrification Programme – reporting to our Planning Manager John Taylor.

Joe joins us from Carillion where he started his career as a Graduate Engineer and then had 2 years’ experience working within the OLE discipline on NWEP Phase 4. As part of his role he worked within the design management team to begin with, then relocating within the project to join the site team assisting with the planning of the OLE works.

He also has a first class bachelors degree with honours in Engineering.

In his spare time, Joe enjoys travelling and playing a number of sports.

In welcoming Joe to his team, Planning Director Simon Blair said:

“D2 Rail continues to grow its numbers and Joe is another quality addition to our team and definitely one to watch for the future. With an engineering background and recent design management experience on NWEP, Joe is a natural fit in the construction planning team under John Taylor. His previous experience will help him greatly when effectively managing various contracting parties to meet project deadlines in order to satisfy the needs of our client.”

D2 Rail is pleased to announce the appointment of Richard Hunter to its Visualisations Team as a 3D Specialist. Reporting to BIM Manager Ashley Williams, Richard enhances our capabilities further in this field and will be supporting a number of exciting projects by working on the production of 3D visualisations and VR (Virtual Reality)/AR (Augmented Reality).

Richard will be based at our central Manchester HQ and joins us after working as a freelance programmer, where he wrote games and apps for phones and PCs, with particular focus on Virtual Reality and animation – areas at the very core of our Visualisations offering.

Richard will also further strengthen our CAD team with his experience in a multitude of CAD packages, inclusive of MicroStation and AutoCAD, producing 2D & 3D models.

Richard has a few hobbies and interests, which you would expect would include video games, however, he does also enjoy board games and reading too.

BIM Manager, Ashley Williams added:

“Richard is a fantastic addition to the Visualisations Team, we look forward to working with him and developing new ways of accomplishing tasks to increase efficiency, improve performance and enhance our clients work.”

Welcome Richard!

We are pleased to welcome John Flight to the D2 Rail team.  He has joined us in the position of Civils Planning Manager.

John will work out of the Water Street Office in Manchester as required and will supporting be our John Taylor and the Alliance construction team in respect of the Civils planning on the Transpennine West of Leeds Project. John will report to Project Controls Director, Simon Blair.

John joins us from Skanska where he worked for 33 years on Major Civil Engineering Schemes throughout the UK and also in Portugal.

Latterly John worked as Planning Manager for the Civils team on the Ordsall Chord as part of the Northern Hub Project.

John has a few hobbies and interests including, Photography, Painting, Rugby, Formula 1 and of course spending time with family and friends.

John can be contacted on 07976 518942 or by email john.flight@d2rail.co.uk

We welcome John to the D2 Rail family.

D2 Rail is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a 5-Star RISQS accreditation – the highest possible rating, following its recent audit.

RISQS requires rail suppliers to undergo a rigorous assessment process to verify that they have the management processes, skills and capability to meet customer requirements.

The RISQS audit is designed to ensure that companies comply fully with the rail industry’s Health and Safety, Quality and Environmental practices.

Managing Director, David Diesbergen was delighted with this award and said:

“In achieving the maximum score available from RISQS, our rail customers can be assured that the services we provide are of the very highest standard.

“I would like to extend my thanks to everyone who has contributed to the audit but in particular to Rebecca Crean and Kate Blackburn, who have worked diligently to ensure the best possible outcome for the audit. Your drive and enthusiasm to always raise the bar in everything we do has created a very strong platform for us within the industry.

“Each and every one of the D2 Rail team provides such a diverse and innovative skillset to the business – I really look forward to seeing what 2018 brings for us all!”

Following a successful 2017, D2 Rail has launched its first newsletter for January 2018.

The senior team have been working hard to develop their Programme Management consultancy offering and have added Information Management and BIM divisions to compliment their existing Planning, Project Controls and Constructability divisions and have also been busy amplifying further their Visualisations offering.

Managing Director David Diesbergen added:

“It has been a year of growth and new opportunities for everyone at D2 Rail and we appreciate our customers continued commitment to our company and its growth.

“D2 Rail is committed to being a world class service provider and we believe by understanding, and embracing clients’ business problems, mission, project objectives and goals, we will be able to build stronger and lasting relationships that will be mutually beneficial.

“We are proud of our success in 2017, and would like to share this with you. So please click this link to read more.“

In recognition of her work with the team working on the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) Becky Pratt recently received an ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Team’ award, after receiving nominations from her project colleagues.

They spoke of Becky’s ‘Best For Programme’ mentality, her willingness to support team members and her dedication to improving processes. But what voters talked of most was the immense effort Becky put in to coordinating the DfT submission.

Becky is part of D2 Rail’s team working with the TRU Alliance between Network Rail, Amey, BAM Nuttall and Arup, who have been considering the infrastructure options for the Transpenine route, to the West of Leeds.

The awards are there to celebrate the huge efforts being made by the whole of the TRU team, who successfully submitted potential infrastructure options to the Department for Transport (DfT) at the end of 2017.

Programme Information Manager Sarah Barnes, who manages the Information Management team was delighted to hear of this award, and added:

“Becky Pratt fully deserves her award for her outstanding contribution to the TRU Project to date. She is a highly dedicated and innovative Information Manager and continues to excel in all that she does”

(Image TRU West of Leeds Programme Director Tim Ketteringham with Becky Pratt receiving her award)

D2 Rail is delighted to announce its early involvement with the TRU West of Leeds Alliance, helping create the programme and support constructability through the design phase of the infrastructure option selection process for this route.

The project, which covers upgrades to civils, track, railway systems and electrification aims to deliver faster, longer, more frequent and more reliable services across the north of England, from Manchester and Liverpool via Leeds.

The Alliance, which is between Network Rail, Amey, BAM Nuttall and Arup, is working collaboratively from the earliest stages on the development of potential infrastructure options for the Transpennine Route Upgrade.  D2 Rail’s Information Management team have also supported and co-ordinated the submission of the final options through to the Department for Transport (DfT) for consideration in December of this year.

The works are part of the Great North Rail Project, and Britain’s Railway Upgrade Plan.

Tim Ketteringham, Alliance Manager, West of Leeds, said: “The Transpennine Route Upgrade is a major programme of rail improvement that will have a real and lasting impact on people and communities in the North of England for generations to come:  connecting towns and cities, improving journey times and supporting economic growth.  I am thrilled to be part of the Alliance of companies that is working together as one team to deliver this step change in rail travel.”

D2 Rail’s Project Controls Director Simon Blair, who is working with the Alliance, also added: “Our involvement in this Alliance is testament to the collaborative nature of our people and the expertise provided on previous projects.  Our multi disciplinary programme management offering includes Planning and Scheduling, Project Controls, Constructability Advice, Information Management and Visualisations.

D2 Rail’s vital role in a major project has been praised in a feature to be published in Rail Engineer Magazine’s upcoming edition.

The firm’s Planning, Building Information Modelling (BIM) and 4D Visualisations work on the Ordsall Chord project in Manchester has been included in the publication’s December issue.

The article says the Ordsall Chord is “arguably the most important rail project in the north for decades”, calling it “a triumph of different disciplines working together as one collaborative unit”.

It praises D2 Rail’s involvement in the “meticulous planning” of the project.

The detailed feature goes on to say: “When they first got involved in the project, Simon Blair and his team from D2 Rail started on a construction planning and assessment report. Integral to this work was the production of a robust possession strategy, fully bought into by the train and freight operating companies.

“Quite simply, the project wouldn’t have been able to get off the drawing board without this.”

The Ordsall Chord links Manchester’s Victoria, Oxford Road and Piccadilly stations. It is part of the wider Great North Rail Project.

As highlighted in the Rail Engineer piece, the use of visualisation played a key role in the delivery of the Ordsall Chord Project.

“As the project moved on to the planning and delivery stages, the use of 4D came to the forefront,” the article says.

“D2 Rail took the lead by dynamically linking the programme to the GRIP 5 designs, providing a 4D construction sequence for key stages of the project. Using a dynamic link, any update would also be applied to the 4D animation, removing time/cost factors to replicate new sequencing.

“When more detailed sequencing was required, D2 Rail’s visualisation team played a key role in, for example, showing plant movements on site.”

Keep an eye out on Rail Engineer’s website www.railengineer.uk to read the full article (Pages 38-41).

To read the full PDF version click here.

Did you know that while the UK rail industry and its supply chain employs over 200,000 people nationwide, currently only around 16% of employees are female?*

Alesha Hancock is testament to the wealth of global opportunities available in the rail industry. Originally from Newcastle, an industrial coastal town in New South Wales, Australia, in 2015 she took a plunge into the unknown, packing her bags and relocating to the United Kingdom to work on the Great North Rail Project as part of the billion pound investment to develop northern transport links.

Alesha is the Integrated Construction Planner for D2 Rail on the Northern Hub Alliance’s Ordsall Chord project. With roots in such a small coastal town, Alesha says she never dreamed of working on a project of such historical significance: “As we dig beneath the surface, seeing first-hand the heritage of the city of Manchester unfolding is extraordinary. Uncovering Stephenson’s bridge, a piece of history, while making history at the same time is an incredible experience to be part of.”

Alesha moved to Manchester and joined D2 Rail in September 2015. She had limited experience of working on site and seeing first-hand how vital it is for each discipline at the construction phase to work together to deliver the job safely, on time and on budget. She explains: “D2 Rail gave me a great opportunity.  Working for them on the Northern Hub project has exposed me to the challenges and complexities that come with a heritage inner-city project, something I would never have had the opportunity to be a part of in Australia.”

In order to give Alesha the experience that she wanted, D2 Rail supported her in becoming the Alliance’s Integrated Construction Planner. The role required her to work tirelessly in improving her rail construction knowledge to a high level of understanding in a short period of time.

“Working with the best individuals in the field has broadened my knowledge and skill set.” She adds: “The project has given me a greater understanding of how, unlike a lot of single-discipline projects, rail projects have multiple disciplines feeding into the pipeline.”

As a project planner, Alesha is responsible for developing detailed railway construction programmes, including an integrated lookahead for all rail possession works (working with the access planning team) and producing weekly detailed possession programmes (including more than 50 disruptive possessions) and accompanying staging plans that identify the onsite work activity logistics.

Alesha is a keen supporter of Women in Rail, a membership group created to improve diversity in the UK rail industry. Hosting regular empowerment and self-confidence workshops nationwide, the group is dedicated to attracting more women to careers in the industry.

She says: “Forums, social events and organisations such as Women in Rail are connecting and empowering more women to strive forward in the rail industry. I think this support is crucial to encourage women to both join and progress in the industry if they wish to do so.”

D2 Rail has endeavoured to promote diversity and inclusion within its working practices, viewing it as critical for business performance and the quality of integrated project planning and controls services we provide to our clients.

Managing Director, David Diesbergen, said: “At D2 Rail our people are our most important asset, and we take pride in investing in our teams to improve our performance, while also championing diversity within the workplace.”

“This has been evident in our recent recruitment record, where four women have joined the business in the last year. We are always keen to develop fresh talent in the industry, regardless of gender, and will continue to adopt this approach going forward.”

*From 2015 Women in Rail: Industry survey

D2 Rail’s Sarah Barnes has been featured in an article in the November edition of RailStaff Magazine. Sarah was appointed earlier this year as D2 Rail’s programme information manager, and has been responsible for developing our Building Information Modelling (BIM), visualisations and information management services.

Sarah has brought to the business a strong background in document control, project controls and information systems management. During her career so far, she has worked in pivotal roles on high-profile projects such as HS2, East West Rail, Ordsall Chord, North West Electrification, and Manchester Metrolink.

We’ve been delighted to welcome Sarah to the business, and you can read more details of her appointment in the RailStaff article by clicking here: https://issuu.com/railmedia/docs/railstaff-november-17/10

Our BIM Manager Ashley Williams recently attended Digital Construction Week 2017 at the ExCel Centre in London. The exhibition featured an array of presentations, showcasing industry leading technology and its implementation on projects. The key features from the exhibition for D2 Rail, were presentations at the BIM and Visualisation seminar stages and the discussions being held at the BIM Clinic.

During the 2 day event there were many talks which were heavily focused on Level 2 Compliance, Common Data Environments (CDE) and their management, and single source of truth.  This allowed Ashley to concentrate upon the engineering industry’s common views on BIM strategies and also explore the BIM level currently being achieved by different companies.

Part of the crucial development of D2 Rail’s BIM team, is the knowledge that the guidance we are providing is in line with the rest of industry.  On returning to HQ in Manchester, Ashley sat down with D2 Rail’s Programme Information Manager Sarah Barnes, to discuss his findings. The BIM team are delighted to report that its operation and the delivery of its BIM services match or exceed those of whom we spoke with at the event, and that the BIM team will continue to deliver its services under the same precedence.  D2 Rail’s Information Management team recognises the value in maintaining a well-structured CDE, as it acts as the foundation of all the good work the team does to ensure that all client engagements are managed effectively.

Alongside the presentation and clinics being held on BIM, Ashley also had the opportunity to attend talks on the latest visualisation tools being utilised today, and interact with Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) devices. The use of VR headsets was largely apparent at the event, with many of the stands demonstrating its application. With VR now being utilised within the rail industry, it was interesting to understand the different approaches companies throughout the engineering sector were utilising VR for. Many of these can translate between allied sectors and have sparked some great ideas that D2 Rail’s Visualisation team look forward to implementing on future projects.

With VR becoming more common, it was fascinating to see the introduction of Augmented Reality. Ashley was able to gain some first hand experience with the new Microsoft HoloLens, which is now coming to the latter stages of its development. The use of AR is something the visualisation industry within engineering has been discussing over the recent years and the introduction of the HoloLens is an exciting prospect.  D2 Rail’s Visualisation team will be keeping a close eye on the development and release of AR kits such as the HoloLens and hope to add these to the evergrowing list of visualisation services and techniques that they can provide.

On returning from the event, D2 Rails BIM Manager Ashley Williams had to say:

“It has been a successful 2 days spent at Digital Construction Week 2017 and incredibly useful to learn that our BIM and Information Management teams are working in tangent with other industries in their approach to BIM, as well as discovering new techniques for Virtual Reality and new Augmented Reality hardware.

We look forward to what next year’s conference brings.”

We are pleased to welcome Chloe Brown to the D2 Rail team in the position of Document Controller from September 2017.

Chloe will be based at D2 Rail’s HQ at King Street, Manchester, and will be making regular visits to support existing clients with their document control requirements.  Chloe will also support the Information Management team around its research and development and will report to Becky Pratt.

Chloe joins us from AMCO Rail, where she spent the last 18 months as a KPI Administrator/Analyst providing periodic data reports for the North West region for the client in collaboration with Turner and Townsend after completing her University degree. Working with over 70 key performance indicators, Chloe provided high-quality data services which included innovative analysis and recommendations for business insight.

It was Chloe’s attention to detail and forward thinking that Programme Information Manager Sarah Barnes wanted for her team. Sarah said: “Chloe has already shown superb attention to detail and first-class endeavour, which are qualities that help support our business vision.”

Chloe has a few hobbies and interests, including travelling around the world watching her brother represent Lancashire County Cricket Club, a passion for Italian food and dancing with friends.

D2 Rail were delighted to be invited along to the RailStaff Awards 2017, not only was it a superb evening celebrating the best in the industry, but we were also there to cheer on and support our colleagues Simon Blair and Alesha Hancock for the award of “Rail Person of the Year” – we are so honoured to be working alongside them both.  Congratulations to them on their nominations and to all the other award winners and nominations on the night too.

The event at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, took us all on a journey back to the 1980’s, the time of Rubik cubes, Ghetto Blasters and big shoulder pads. It was a definitely a party to remember and even included a photobooth sponsored by D2 Rail where people could don neon sweatbands and electric guitars to truly get in the 80s spirit!

On arrival, we were invited into a drinks reception, where we had the chance to catch up with friends and colleagues, before moving to our table later in the evening, which allowed us to enjoy a delicious 4-course meal.

Thank you to RailStaff for throwing a fantastic party, helping us all to celebrate a brilliant year for D2 Rail with wonderful food, drinks, music, dancing, floorshows, and a theme that we all embraced…to the max!

David Diesbergen, Managing Director of D2 Rail added: “We are incredibly proud of Alesha and Simon for doing so well in this year’s awards. The team works hard to make sure every project we’re involved in is a success, and it has been great to see our people recognised for their contributions.”

The RailStaff Awards is a ceremony to show appreciation for the people who deliver the railway – from drivers to programme managers and engineers to station staff. Often these are stories of lives saved, careers turned around and adversity conquered.

Visualisation services are a widely-used tool in the delivery of engineering design. From the use of visual imagery and photomontages in public consultations, to the insight 4D construction sequencing provides at the planning stage, visualisations have a strong impact and a recognised value.

With the established reputation visualisation now holds comes the inevitable questions: What’s next? What can we do better? What can we do to be competitive? At D2 Rail, we have a forward-thinking team identifying gaps in the market, looking at what technology is making an impact on our industry and how it can be utilised to create value for our clients. To do so, we must ensure that not only are we making use of modern technology, but that we are also choosing the correct technology for our client’s needs.

A prime example of this can be seen in the introduction of virtual reality (VR). This technology holds an array of benefits for users, such as the ability to immerse themselves in a virtual environment and interact with it, creating new and refreshing ways to interact with information.

VR headsets like the HTC Vive have helped to further advance visualisations, allowing us to add interactive elements to our immersive environments, giving clients the ability to be truly hands on with their projects in a virtual world. This technology has also become an invaluable asset in public consultations and in on-site training material.

At D2 Rail, we are always looking to the future, seeking the innovative technology to keep us at the forefront of engineering design. As our journey continues, we aim to foster innovative and creative ways to continue to impact the industry, with VR and visualisations as a starting point.

Two members of D2 Rail’s programme management team have been made finalists in this year’s RailStaff Awards.

Simon Blair and Alesha Hancock are both finalists in the Rail Person of the Year category, having been nominated for the key roles they have played in the rail industry and in particular their involvement in the landmark Ordsall Chord project. The Ordsall Chord is one of the most important rail infrastructure projects completed in recent years, linking Manchester’s train stations to reduce journey times and increase capacity in the region.

Simon took up the role of Planning and Project Controls lead, and was the key individual that helped develop the commissioning and works access strategy, which defined the major stages of works required to deliver the project.

As the work’s Project Planner, Alesha has played a crucial part in ensuring the overall success of the project, leading on possession and work activity planning, and introducing a number of improvements to processes.  She has also been a supporter of Women in Rail.

The RailStaff Awards is celebrating its 10^th anniversary this year and is an industry event that acknowledges individual contributions in rail. This year’s ceremony will be held on 7^th October at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

You can read Alesha’s full nomination here, and Simon’s here.

Launched in 2011, D2 Rail is a programme management consultancy dedicated to the pursuit of providing integrated ‘real planning’ services.

Two of D2 Rail’s key employees, Simon Blair and Alesha Hancock, have been nominated in the Rail Person of the Year category in this year’s RailStaff Awards.

The RailStaff Awards are designed to honour the people and teams in the industry that go above and beyond to make the UK’s rail industry one of the best in the world.

Both Alesha and Simon have played vital roles in D2’s work on the Northern Hub Alliance’s Ordsall Chord project, enabling some of the most important rail work to be undertaken in the UK in recent years. The project will see 300 metres of new track installed, creating a link between Manchester city centre’s main train stations for the first time.

As the project’s Planning and Project Controls lead, Simon has led and integrated multi-disciplinary project controls; providing management information to support decision making at the right time. In addition, he was at the heart of developing, designing and delivering a number of ‘best in class’ approaches to ensure collaboration up and down the supply chain on this project.

Alesha took up the role of the Alliance’s Integrated Construction Planner for the Ordsall Chord. Since beginning her role, she has played a crucial part in identifying and implementing improved planning processes across the project.

Simon and Alesha are both highly valued members of the D2 Rail team, and we’re incredibly proud of their contributions to the railway industry. To vote for Alesha, click here, and to vote for Simon, click here.

Dave Harwood has recently joined the D2 Rail team as a Project Controller and will work closely with our Planning Director, Simon Blair. He joins us from Mott MacDonald where he has spent seven years working in the rail and transportation sector.

Dave specialises in providing robust project controls to support successful project delivery. His key strengths lie in earned value management and dashboard reporting, facilitating decision-making and management action through performance measurement and trend analysis. Some of his most successful work includes the successful implementation of project controls for three capital investment programmes at Heathrow Airport.

This wealth of project controls knowledge and experience brought Dave to the Northern Hub Rail Project, where he set about implementing a robust controls solution that included earned value reporting; the Northern Hub is one of the first projects where earned value has been successfully implemented.

Prior to this, Dave has worked on a number of prestigious projects, including Crossrail, where he helped to develop a robust document control regime for the Tunnel Systems Design Package, including implementing effective change management processes.

As well as being a highly experienced project controller, Dave is also an expert in developing excel solutions using visual basics and has already produced a number of highly commended executive dashboards on the TRU programme including the Tube Map style milestone report.

D2 Rail’s Managing Director David Diesbergen commented on Dave’s appointment and said:

“Dave is a highly capable and versatile professional with a proven track record of providing effective project controls in support of project delivery. We look forward to working with him and engaging his key strengths of data integration and dashboard reporting to help facilitate positive decision making throughout the lifecycle of our clients projects.”

In his spare time, Dave enjoys hiking and walking and also relishes the time he spends in his kitchen at home – cooking up a storm – and is a keen player and exponent of retro video games.

D2 Rail has recently been involved in aiding the understanding of a major track installation as part of the Ordsall Chord project. With the new Ordsall Chord structure in Manchester now nearing completion, the final Switches & Crossings (S&C) units were installed in weeks 15 & 16 to enable the connection of Manchester Piccadilly and Victoria Stations for the first time. The installation would require a total of eight track panels to be installed on week 15 and four track panels on week 16. The logistics of how these would be installed required precise planning, due to the tight working constraints on the elevated viaduct railway and the volume of plant that was being used to complete the works.

Our visualisations team worked alongside Amey to produce two animations that would showcase and visualise how this work was to be undertaken. These animations were utilised in briefing meetings and were shown to all staff and project stakeholders that would be indirectly or directly involved with the installations. Along with showcasing the methodology of the construction, the animation played a key role in understanding the working constraints of the plant.

The ability to provide clash detection on proposed designs is now a common practice within the Engineering industry, yet these forms of detection only highlight objects in situ. By advancing the way 4D sequencing is shown with the inclusion of plant operation, D2 Rail are able to highlight potential clashes with existing structures, pinch points and narrow working areas, and raise the awareness for on-site operatives to ensure a safer working environment.

We are pleased to say that the installation was completed on time and as planned.

Links to the animations on the YouTube channel are located below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr-K1jE9RK4Ul0yc3P-WJYQ

D2 Rail has an in-house team of 3D and 4D modellers that encourage the use of visualisations techniques on projects and always seek to find the areas where it can be used effectively to support and enhance the design and build process.

At D2 Rail we see the real added value of visualisations and its multiple features. Our specialists can deliver visualisation imagery for design, animation for construction sequencing and virtual reality techniques for safety talks.

A team of adventurous walkers from D2 Rail has taken on the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge in support of two rescue charities.

Led by Rebecca Mercer, the team took on the gruelling 24-mile route with a 5,200ft ascent. The challenge takes on the peaks of Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough, which form part of the Pennine range and encircle the head of the valley of the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Rebecca chose to pledge support to Mountain Rescue England and Wales and North West Air Ambulance, due to the work the two organisations carry out, rescuing climbers, walkers and other vulnerable people, from mountains and other inaccessible places. The organisations are particularly close to Rebecca’s heart, and with the help of her friends at D2 Rail, she has managed to raise almost £500 for them so far.

On completing the challenge, Rebecca said: “We had some fantastic views and some misty ones, trick knees, bandy hips and horrendous leg cramps, but the whole team made it round and we couldn’t be more proud.”

Congratulations to Rebecca and the team!

To make a donation you can visit Rebecca’s JustGiving pages here and here.

D2 Rail is delighted to have been part of Railtex – a UK Rail Industry Exhibition – giving us the opportunity to showcase our fresh new brand and service offerings for the rail industry.

As a Programme Controls company specialising in Planning, Information Management, BIM and Visualisations, D2 Rail’s premium stand, provided opportunities to engage with key members of staff such as Managing Director – David Diesbergen, Planning Director – Simon Blair, Programme Information Manager – Sarah Barnes and BIM Manager – Ashley Williams.

We also gave prospective customers the opportunity to get involved with our touch screen interactive capabilities – highlighting the very latest in project planning techniques including 4D animation.

It was a fantastic few days and the chance to catch up with some of our existing clients as well as some engaging new prospects.

It is an exciting time at D2 Rail, as we focus on planning your vision and delivering your promise.