Accidents aside because of lack of maintenance and incompetent managers and politicians, Spain has made great things in high-speed trains.

Let’s go back in time to the good times.

1988

The country decided to build a high-speed railway between Madrid and Sevilla… or Seville.

470 kilometres.

New infrastructure.

New technology.

A country with no previous high-speed rail experience, but willing to become a top guy.

By April 1992, passengers were travelling at 250 km/h.

About three and a half years.

Today, we would probably still be discussing the procurement strategy.

The project would have a Steering Committee.

A Technical Advisory Committee.

A Commercial Advisory Committee.

An Independent Assurance Panel.

And a Working Group to investigate why the other committees weren't working.

Naturally, everyone would be very busy producing paper, PDFs, and Power Points.

Except the excavators.

They would be waiting for approval.

The Madrid–Seville railway wasn't built by magic.

There were engineering challenges.

Political decisions.

Commercial risks.

And I'm sure a few people lost some sleep.

But somebody had a vision.

Somebody made decisions.

And, critically, somebody put people who knew how to deliver infrastructure in charge of delivering infrastructure.

Amazing.

What a revolutionary concept.

ECAA.

Experience. Competence. Authority. Accountability.

Four words that nowadays seem to require a six-month consultation process.

And here's what really bothers me.

We have better technology today.

Better engineering tools.

Better project management software.

AI.

BIM.

Digital twins.

And all those things my wife tells me every day at dinner time… she is a geek.

And I’m sure all this is able to produce dashboards capable of reporting a problem in seventeen different colours.

Yet somehow, we have become exceptionally good at explaining why things cannot be done.

We call it governance.

Sometimes it is.

Sometimes it's just fear wearing an expensive suit.

Fear of making a decision.

Fear of being blamed.

Fear of appointing someone who might actually challenge the process.

So we spread responsibility across 40 people.

Nobody makes a mistake.

Nobody makes a decision either.

And the project dies peacefully, surrounded by consultants.

The lesson from Madrid-Sevilla isn't that we should eliminate governance.

It's that governance should help competent people deliver.

Not protect incompetent people from making decisions.

Vision matters.

But vision without execution is just an expensive PowerPoint presentation.

And execution requires experienced people with real authority.

Not another committee.

Not another workshop.

Not another 180-page report explaining why the previous report needs updating.

Just the right people.

Making decisions.

Getting things built.

Spain managed it in less than four years.

In 1992.

With fax machines.

Imagine what we could do today.

If we stopped hiding behind the process.

Use this information at your own risk.

​The Room​

P.S. If this made you think of a project currently being held hostage by its own governance structure, you know what to do. Forward it to the Steering Committee. They can discuss it at their next meeting.

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