Reviving rail for a sustainable Northern Powerhouse

Upgrading the UK’s Northumberland Line

In the north-east of England, we are helping Northumberland County Council plan and design a rail upgrade to turn a freight line into a sustainable passenger transport route. It will reduce road traffic, cut emissions, and improve air quality, whilst connecting communities to social and economic opportunities in one of the heartlands of the government’s Northern Powerhouse regeneration region.

We were selected by the council, through the Perfect Circle joint venture, to work with SLC Rail and a variety of stakeholders on the project, which is the largest third party-funded rail upgrade in the UK directly developed and promoted by a local authority.

Opportunities, challenges, collaboration

The project will halve the current bus journey time into the major regional city of Newcastle upon Tyne, but with six new stations, new footbridges and a new underpass, and new signal locations, over 14 miles (24 kilometers) of railway modernization and upgrade works, it is also technically complex.

The project was made possible by the reforms of the Department for Transport (DfT) Rail Network Enhancement Pipeline (RNEP), which opened rail projects up to third-party investment, making it easier for local authorities to initiate change, but increasing the number of stakeholders involved in delivering it. Collaboration was therefore crucial.

Over several years, our specialist multidisciplinary teams have worked closely with train operators, national rail provider Network Rail, and the regional transport authority, as well as the project sponsors in the council, to guide the project’s economics, finances, demand forecasting, modeling, and engineering.

We have also helped the project meet rail safety commitments, developed detailed designs, and put together a strategic business case, highlighting the vital economic stimulus the project brings to the region – estimated at up to £470 million (US$611.3 million).

Speeding up approval, keeping costs on track

RNEP rules require proposals to go through a series of “stage gates” - development, design, and delivery – to gain the approval necessary to release funding, so it was critical for us to focus on these.

Working with key stakeholders, we helped the Northumberland Line get through the approval stage gates faster, as part of which it received approval for the development stage in half the usual time for a project of this size.

At the same time, we also closely managed costs to ensure accurate separation of work funded by the upgrade project, and work on the existing freight infrastructure funded by Network Rail.

From strategy to engineering reality

Alongside the detailed work we carried out on developing and validating the project, we also provided the expertise to gear up for and deliver construction, starting in October 2020 with the major milestone of the ground investigations phase.

We are currently supporting work to replace the track, clear vegetation, and secure the ground against the effects of previous mining activity, ahead of the main construction work scheduled for summer 2022.

As of March 2022, all the new stations for the line have also been granted planning approvals, paving the way for a rail development that will not only transform the fortunes of the area, but show other local authorities the way to establishing a more sustainable future for their communities and economies.