What we've done < Network Rail Operations extranet
Providing the infrastructure that enables some 25,000 train journeys each weekday is a complicated business; made even moreso by the number of train companies who all want access so they can run their services, by the 'two-up two-down" local and high speed service lines and by the numerous interchanges and connecting lines.

Now take a disruption, something that blocks the line either totally or partially. An unplanned event like a bridge strike scattering debris on the line to planned maintenance and engineering works.

The regional operations teams have produced their own contingency plans guide which details alternative arrangements for blockage eventualities. The problem, however, is that these guides run to hundreds of pages, are not very user-friendly and are difficult to update or progress between versions.

Game 6 Director Michael Shuster was approached to provide a web-based solution that would make it much quicker and easier to access contingency plan information; to disseminate the information for all who required it; and to allow changes whenever required.

Game 6 provided project scoping, definition, management and support and asked Aqueduct Design to undertake site development. Sitecore was selected for the content management system largely due to its flexibility and its scalability. The Contingency Plan extranet site is being piloted in the London North West territory with a view to roll out nationwide - so that all route territories can benefit.

"This is one of the key contributions that we made that will make a real difference to how the Contingency Plans site becomes integral to operational planning", explains Michael Shuster. "It would not be unknown for the site traditionally to have been constructed just for the one territory, and then the other territories would have to look after their own needs. The Game 6 delivery plan set up the initial site so that, in the future, it will accommodate the national network".