At the heart of every successful railway is a vision for the railway and a strategy to get there. A key part of the strategy involves developing a service offering that meets the railway's customer needs, whether they are passengers or freight providers.

Systemwide can assist in developing this service offering with a rational, balanced approach to planning. We ensure the strategic viability of a service offering by understanding customer impact, network capacity, operations and cost at the outset.

Once the broad strategy is set, a range of options should be developed to achieve it. For each option the risk profile should be well matched to the potential benefit, as high-risk ventures with little gain should be avoided.

The railway operations are the interface between the project investment and the customer experience and where much of the risk lies. Through a deep understanding of this Systemwide works with clients to ensure that appropriate options are selected.

After a set of viable options is selected the next step is to undertake rigorous analysis to select a preferred option for implementation. Systemwide has been heavily involved in this evaluation process for many clients.

Systemwide is an expert at understanding and estimating the key outcomes of railway projects from a cost and benefit perspective. We have many tools and techniques that allow the infrastructure requirements, operating cost, improvement in capacity, reliability, frequency and travel time to be forecast.

Once a preferred option is selected, the railway will typically implement this as a strategic project. Different skills are often required at this stage, with a focus on driving towards objectives, detailed solution design and implementation risk.

Systemwide has worked extensively in this area to create lower risk implementation plans for clients. We ensure operational and passenger impacts are understood in advance so that mitigation measures can be put in place. We also ensure that construction plans are achievable within the constraints of an operating railway.

Once a railway is operational, it must continue to optimise its performance so that the investment is efficiently utilised and the best performance outcome is provided to the customer.

Systemwide works with clients to identify and provide realistic advice on where a railway can readily improve performance to maximise return on investment. We do this through our hands-on knowledge of railway operations, our strong focus on process improvement, and our understanding of the systems that support process optimisation.