Railway Conversations with Doc Frank
#114 – Why a Year Late on Brownfield CBTC Is a Good Result, with Mike Palmer
A brownfield CBTC project that lands a year late is a good result. Not a consolation prize. That is what the record actually looks like once you take the press releases out of it. Mike Palmer spent 29 years at London Underground, finishing as the user acceptance manager on the Jubilee and Northern line upgrades, where every operational decision on scope and functionality went through him and nobody else. He then crossed to the supplier side, and in 2014 Andy Byford brought him to the Toronto Transit Commission as Deputy Chief Operating Officer and later COO. He now works at Parsons. This conversation was recorded in 2024, and Mike speaks throughout in a personal capacity rather than for any employer or agency. In this episode: why eight contracts across three suppliers left Toronto Line 1 with no endgame, and what consolidating them to two actually fixed. Why he does not want a fully compliant bid, and what he asks for instead. What a reference site is worth, and why he flew his team to Mexico City and Panama to touch the system before committing. Why backup signalling so often buys risk instead of resilience. Why dwell times, turnbacks and traction power queue up behind signalling and take away the capacity you just paid for. And his top three golden rules for brownfield CBTC, with the same one at number one every time. If you get something out of it, tell a colleague. That is the only ask. If this conversation has got you wanting to go deeper, visit my training platform at www.docfranktraining.com. There you find the most comprehensive suite of online courses in advanced railway signalling anywhere. CBTC, ETCS, high capacity signalling, and more. All in one place, all vendor neutral. Check out my latest course addition, ETCS for Australia.
