RailCore: a rail contractor
run on one system.
RailCore Infrastructure Ltd is a specialist rail contractor in Knowsley, Liverpool, working on railway and infrastructure sites across the UK. The whole business runs on Unibuild: a web portal for the office and a phone app for everyone on site.
Published by Unibuild · Updated · Sources
Safety-critical work,
across the network.
RailCore Infrastructure delivers minor civils, fencing, de-vegetation, passive fire protection and graffiti removal for the rail industry and wider infrastructure. It also supplies safety-critical rail personnel, and keeps a 24-hour team for urgent defects and make-safe work.
Its clients are principal contractors, infrastructure organisations and specialist engineering firms. RailCore is part of the wider T4 Engineering Group.
That mix shapes the system. People move between clients, sites and shifts at short notice, often at night. Every move has to be checked against fatigue limits, covered by a RAMS and recorded against the right site.
The work and the records it needs
- Works
- Minor civils, fencing, de-vegetation, fire protection and cleaning
- People
- Safety-critical rail personnel and labour supply
- Response
- A 24-hour team for defects and make-safe work
- Clients
- Principal contractors and infrastructure organisations
- Site records
- Clock-ons, fatigue, RAMS, permits, diaries and reports
Four problems rail work
puts on the office.
Each one is common to rail contractors, and each one usually ends up in a spreadsheet.
The shift that started at the depot
Rail fatigue rules look at the whole working day, travel included, and at the rest before the next start. A spreadsheet filled in on Friday finds a breach after the next shift has already been worked.
One client, dozens of locations
A single client contract can cover relay rooms, signal boxes and stations along a route. Run as one job, the sites blur together. Run as a job per site, nobody can see the contract.
A RAMS for every task
Every task needs its own risk assessment and method statement before anyone goes on site. Written from a blank page, it takes an afternoon. Copied from the last job, it carries the last job’s hazards.
The management system an auditor reads
Policies, procedures and registers have to be current, reviewed on time and read by the people they apply to. On a shared drive, nobody can show who read which version.
Fatigue checked
from the clock-on.
At RailCore, fatigue is not a separate spreadsheet. It is worked out from the same clock-ons that pay people, so the two records always agree. A breach found on Friday is a report. Found before the next shift, it is a decision somebody can still make.
This is Unibuild’s Advanced Fatigue Manager. Limits follow RailCore’s own fatigue arrangements and the rail standards that apply to the work. How fatigue management works.
The day starts in the app.
The operative clocks on at the site. The time lands on the timesheet and the clock-on log, against that site and that job.
The journey counts.
Travel is added at both ends, so the fatigue record shows the whole working day rather than only the hours on site.
Every shift is checked against the policy.
Shift length, door-to-door time, rest before the next start, consecutive shifts and nights are checked against the limits set for that role or job.
A breach goes to a named person.
It becomes an exception to review before the next shift, and the decision is kept with it.
Everyone sees their own position.
Each person can open their own hours and rest in the app, so the person doing the work knows where they stand as well.
One client, one project,
every site on it.
Rail clients rarely send a contractor to one address. A single instruction can cover relay rooms, signal boxes and stations along a route.
In RailCore’s system, the client holds one project, and the project holds that client’s list of sites. Labour is planned by site on the daily labour run. Timesheets, site diaries, surveys and engineers’ reports each record the site they were made at.
The office reads the project as one contract, with one programme and one cost against budget. Anyone can still open a single signal box and see who was there, when, and what was found.
How the record is arranged
- Client
- The client, with its own list of sites
- Project
- One contract, one budget, one report
- Sites
- Relay rooms, signal boxes and stations
- Planning
- Weekly and daily labour runs by site, and a map of where everybody is
- Records
- Timesheets, diaries, surveys and reports, each against its site
Written, approved
and signed for.
Rail work runs on documents: method statements, briefings, permits and bulletins. These four do the most work at RailCore.
RAMS drafted by AI, approved by a person
The office starts from RailCore’s own template and writes a short brief for the task. The AI drafts the RAMS. A competent person reviews it, edits it and approves it before it goes into the RAMS library for briefing.
How the AI RAMS builder worksA management system with signatures
Policies, procedures, registers and forms sit in one management system, each with its review date. Staff read and sign the policies that apply to them, so the signature record is ready when an auditor asks.
How health and safety worksBulletins signed for on the phone
Rail industry and client safety bulletins go straight to the phones of the people they concern. Each person signs to say they have read it, and the office can see who has not.
How the mobile app worksCompetence in view before the roster
Cards, tickets and qualifications are held against each person with their expiry dates. The compliance dashboard shows what is overdue and what is due soon, so a lapsed card is seen in the office, not at the access point.
How the training matrix worksFrom spreadsheets
to one record.
| The usual way | At RailCore |
|---|---|
| Fatigue worked out in a spreadsheet after the week has ended. | Every clock-on is checked against the limits for that role, and a breach goes to a named reviewer. |
| Travel left off the record, so the working day looks shorter than it was. | Travel is added at both ends, so the record shows the day door to door. |
| A contract spread over many sites, costed as one lump or as unconnected jobs. | One project per client contract, with every record tied to the site it came from. |
| A RAMS copied from the last job, with the last job’s hazards in it. | A draft written for this task from RailCore’s template, approved by a named person. |
| Policies on a shared drive, with no proof of who read them. | Policies and bulletins signed for on the phone, with the record kept. |
The rest of RailCore,
on the same record.
Every module is switched on at RailCore, from the first enquiry to the CIS return. These six sit around the rail work above.
Where this came from.
These are Unibuild customers, written up by Unibuild. The public sources below cover who the businesses are; the account of the software is ours.