1. Introduction
This assignment is based on a single scenario—a project to build a rapid alternative rail transportation system to serve the growing infrastructural needs of the City of Cardiff and its outlying areas. This provides a rich setting for the assignment since the city is experiencing rapid population and economic growth.
The assignment will also allow you to develop systems thinking and project management skills and apply them to a novel area of alternative transportation systems. You are expected to apply the project management tools developed within the course to help construct your assignment and you will be required at the end to simulate a system design scenario in order to test the proposed systems capability.
1.1 Background
Cardiff is undergoing rapid growth and is quickly becoming a serious consideration for many companies wishing to relocate their operations. This is primarily due to the relatively low costs of living linked to this area. Cardiff is also benefiting from significant infrastructural investment. However, this development has created significant problems. One of these is the increasing traffic congestion that is experienced at certain times of the day.
The City can be considered as a victim of its own success as a regional centre for work, shopping and entertainment. Figure 1 shows the City of Cardiff and estimated travel to work times for commuters. These may apply at 02.00 hrs on Sunday mornings but are wildly optimistic for any other time. Nor do they reflect accurately the time taken to drive into Cardiff at 07.00-09.00 on a working morning from anywhere on the M4 whether East or West bound.
Journey times of over 1 Hour and 10mins from Swansea (just 40 Miles to the West of Cardiff) and 30-45mins from Newport (just 15 Miles to the East) are not uncommon at busy times. This is because the M4 acts like a river with limited crossing points, and in this sense Cardiff faces the same traffic problems to those experienced by other Cities in the UK.
Figure 1: Suggested travel to work times
The Cardiff retail centre and entertainment centre is growing rapidly and now attracts shoppers, from a wide area. The result has been pressure on parking spaces which were once considered to represent a more than adequate provision. Further to this, success of its local football team and the attraction of the Millennium stadium for major sports tournaments is creating significant and possibly damaging effects on the City of Cardiff.
The reasons why the city of Cardiff needs a rapid rail transport system may be summarised as to:
Reduce traffic growth and increasing congestion
Support the image of Cardiff as a modern, technologically up-to-date area of rapid economic development
Establish the City of Cardiff as a regional centre
Meet government targets for reductions in the use of private cars and the associated increase in public transport
Emulate the success of other projects such as the Docklands Light Railway and the Manchester Metro that have demonstrated the impetus that can be given to regeneration and development
2.0 Assignment
In terms of the task, it is intended to be of the character of a report that might be prepared at the beginning of a systems concept study.
Your Tasks
You are to write a report of no more than 4,500 words that will design and subsequently validate a proposed rail network system for the City of Cardiff. You are to develop a conceptual plan the system that will entice commuters from their vehicles and use the transportation system to its fullest extent.
You are asked to include the following in your report:
Define the purpose and objectives for the transportation system [10]
Identify the stakeholders in the system and their interest in the proposed system. Remember to think laterally about who will be involved, who will object, who will be for it and why, what will be the potential conflicts that may exist between them etc. [10]
Draw a preliminary list of requirements for the system. Describe any tools or techniques used to elicit these requirements [10]
Appendix A shows a developed work breakdown structure for part of the rail network system. Using the data provided, produce the following:
Gantt Chart of Activities identifying the total project time [10]
Network diagram that shows total project time & EST, LFT, LST, EFT [10]
Cost and Resource envelopes [10]
Crash the project to show the minimum project time capable [10]
Validate the systems performance by conducting a simulation of the flow of the rail system from the data in Appendix B.
