Public transport needs a fresh approach to resilience

Read the full and original article in International Railway Journal

The findings from PA Consulting's 'Always on Advantage' transport resilience report are covered in an article on public transport by Kevin Smith, in International Railway Journal.

The article explains that the report surveyed 360 leaders from European transport companies working in rail, road, aviation, maritime and logistics.

The report shows that "Industrial action, supply chain disruption, extreme weather, and ever-growing threats to cyber, digital, and physical security... bring the potential to unleash sudden and acute challenges."

The research also shows that resilience is defined as: "an organisation's ability to protect, detect, withstand, handle and recover from disruptive events."

Adding: "Our research reveals that many organisations risk missing the opportunity to develop the type of resilience needed in the future. They are also largely yet to recognise the degree to which disruptive trends and events will become even more intense and sustained, with a perfect storm of disruptive trends ahead." 

The report argues: "Transport organisations should act now to develop 'always-on resilience' to enable organisations to be prepared for disruption and to respond and recover effectively."

Adding: "Resilience needs to be far broader than a set of plans for business continuity in the event of major disruption. Instead, there needs to be a change in mindset that encourages business to be hyper alert to emerging risks and to adapt fast. Organisations can earn better from actual events, near-misses and emergency exercises, and should be incorporated into future strategies."

The article concludes with a key finding from the report which shows: "If resilience is embedded throughout an organisation's approach to people, process, partners, technology and data, covering all activities, it will afford organisations more flexibility to anticipate, respond, and even shape long-term survival."