UK Tram’s Light Rail Engineering Group recently met in Birmingham for their first meeting of 2025 alongside a best practice day where they discussed the challenge posed by “grey assets”. These are assets may not be subject to clear ownership which present difficulties for tramway operators and their engineers when it comes to funding and scheduling essential maintenance.
UKTram’s Lead Engineer, Phillip Terry, explained: “One example highlighted was a traction substation, where the electrical apparatus was managed and maintained by the system operator’s engineer, but responsibility for the fabric of the building was unclear.
“Unless these areas of responsibility between the power engineer and infrastructure manager can be clearly defined, it risks becoming a grey area of responsibility when attention is required, without any budget or plan in place to address the issue.
“Another typical issue for the sector is where trams share the highway with other road users. In these cases, areas of responsibility are usually defined using a Highways Interface Document between the owner/operator and local highways authority.
“However, if this is not implemented properly, responsibility for repairs to the road surface between and outside of the rails could become ‘grey’, leading to poorly maintained and potentially unsafe highway.
“In both the construction and operation of tramways and similar transit system, there are many different interfaces, and assets may not have been identified, or have an unknown owner due to undocumented change until it requires attention. This can result in unexpected delays, rework and costs in later years.
“The meeting was useful in that it indicated that identification, documentation and continuous update of asset ownership and condition is essential during all parts of a project and once operational a system is operational.”
The day in Birmingham also had presentations from SBS Transit (Singapore) and Midland Metro Alliance, and there was also a tour of the Birmingham Eastside works. 34 engineers and a couple of apprentices attending the session both in person and online.