TransPennine Route Upgrade: 86% Faster Assurance Reviews with eviFile

The Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) is a major rail improvement programme across the North of England, involving extensive upgrades to railway infrastructure including Overhead Line Equipment (OLE), the electrical equipment used to power trains from above the track.

As part of the OLE assurance process, thousands of Quality Check Sheets (QCS) needed to be reviewed and approved. On the East 4 Project, eviFile developed a bespoke EOL/OLE Asset Screen report that brought key progressive assurance information into one centralised, filterable view.

Using 4,705 QCS as a worked example, the new approach reduced checking and approval time by up to 86%, from more than 63 hours to under nine.

Managing Assurance Across 4,705 Quality Check Sheets

Quality Check Sheets form part of the Overhead Line Equipment progressive assurance process, providing evidence that installation and removal activities have been completed in line with required standards.

TRU had already digitised these records within eviFile, giving teams a structured way to capture, store and access assurance information. As part of the OLE assurance process, each QCS still needed to be reviewed to confirm completion status and Engineer signatory information, while a defined sample also required a full CRE check.

With thousands of QCS to review, the opportunity was to make this assurance activity more efficient at scale.

Removing Repetitive Record-by-Record Reviews

Previously, completing the required review meant navigating into individual assets to locate the information needed for sign-off.

The reviewer needed to:

• open the relevant asset and activity;

• locate the individual form;

• navigate to the sign-off information;

• check completion and signatory details; and

• progress the record through approval.

Testing found that the status, competency and approval process took approximately 58 seconds per QCS where a full sample check was not required. Across thousands of records, those repeated steps created a significant assurance workload.

eviFile identified that the information required for these checks was already being captured within the platform. The opportunity was to bring that data together in a way that made large-scale review faster and more efficient.

Bringing Key Assurance Data Into One View

eviFile developed the bespoke EOL/OLE Asset Screen report around the project’s specific  progressive assurance process.

The report brings together:

• Activity and Construction Unit, helping reviewers quickly filter and focus on the relevant area of work.

• Form and workflow status, providing a clear view of where each QCS sits in the assurance process.

• Signatory information, making it easier to confirm who has signed off each record without opening forms individually.

• A direct link to the underlying form, allowing reviewers to investigate or update a record immediately where further action is required.

This gave reviewers a centralised view of multiple records and reduced the need to repeatedly navigate through individual assets.

Once the required checks were complete, eviFile’s existing mass-approval functionality allowed the relevant QCS to be progressed together.

Testing on a lot of 33 QCS showed that the report could be generated, filtered and reviewed, with the records subsequently bulk approved, in just 2 minutes 43 seconds.

Reducing Checking and Approval Time by Up to 86%

The East 4 Project was used as a worked example to assess the impact at scale.

Across 4,705 QCS and approximately 190 lots, the previous approach was calculated to require 63.26 hours of checking and approval activity.

Using the new reporting approach, that reduced to under 9 hours.

The result:

• 4,705 Quality Check Sheets reviewed

• 63.26 hours reduced to under 9 hours

• 54 hours and 40 minutes saved

   

• Up to 86% reduction in checking and approval time

The analysis also identified the potential for further efficiencies where multiple lots could be reviewed within the same dataset, depending on lot and sample sizes.

Building Bespoke Reporting Around Project Requirements

The EOL/OLE Asset Screen report was created specifically around TRU’s data structure and OLE progressive assurance requirements. Rather than applying a generic report to every project, eviFile can use the structured data captured within a client’s environment to create reporting around the way that organisation needs to review and manage information.

For TRU, that meant bringing the information needed for OLE progressive assurance checks into one clear, filterable view. For another contractor, consultant or asset owner, the data, workflow and assurance requirements may be different, but where the required information is being captured, eviFile can configure reporting around those needs.

This gives organisations the opportunity to go beyond digitising assurance records and make better use of the data they are already collecting, reducing repetitive admin and supporting more efficient review at scale.