The recently completed East West Rail Phase 2 (EWR2) railway line from Bicester and Bletchley via Milton Keynes will boost connectivity as part of the overall East West Rail route, but its delivery – on time, under budget, with an industry-first biodiversity net gain of over 11% - is testament to the collaboration of the East West Rail Alliance made up of AtkinsRéalis, Laing O’Rourke, Network Rail and VolkerRail. The Alliance successfully handed over the line to Network Rail in October 2024. Test train running and driver route learning commenced immediately. Pilot operation commences imminently for full passenger service delivery later this year.
Rail Technology Magazine spoke to members of the East West Rail Alliance’s management team - Mark James, Alliance Director, Simon Croft, Head of Engineering and Tom Oliver, Head of Environment and Sustainability - to hear about the Alliance's successes.
RTM: Can you tell us about the background of the project – how did East West Rail come about and how did your organisations become involved?
MARK: East West Rail Phase 2 follows on from Phase 1 which connected Oxford to Bicester some years ago; connecting onwards from Bicester to Bletchley and Milton Keynes.
AtkinsRéalis, Laing O’Rourke, Network Rail and VolkerRail, having previously worked together on the Staffordshire Area Improvement Project (SAIP), have over 15 years of collaborative working delivery experience. We call this a preformed alliance, leveraging our well-established relationships, processes, and proven governance plan.
The East West Rail Alliance were successfully awarded the project in 2015 following extensive collaborative workshops and assessments. The four years of accumulated learning resulted in us being able to offer a further improved delivery of all aspects of the Pure Alliance Agreement (PAA).
RTM: The Alliance model is founded on a collaborative approach – can you tell us about that and why creating the right culture and shared values is so important?
MARK: To ensure the best possible outcome, all participants have an equal share in risk and opportunity, regardless of the project’s delivery phase. Our thoroughly developed and trained Alliance values and behaviours allowed us to create a single high performing team, capable of going to work with an ‘all badges off’ mentality, applying our Alliance principals ‘best for project’, value for money and win-win testing to all appointments and decision making.
AtkinsRéalis specialised in design and signalling, Laing O’Rourke led the way with innovative civil engineering techniques, and VolkerRail delivered the track methodology and construction. Having Network Rail as the client for the works and owner operator of the final infrastructure within the Alliance was an essential ingredient. This resulted in the Alliance team being able to recognise the challenges and develop the best solutions to expedite delivery.
A favourite quote from an Alliance leadership team member: “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” when people are fully working together, they can effectively approach the challenges encountered in delivery.
TOM: Also, embedding a successful culture requires strong communication. We shared regular, open, and honest content to inform and update every Alliance member and ran continual collaborative behavioural assessments across the whole team. This ensured our focus, values and behaviours were still aligned throughout the project phases.
RTM: This has been a big project over many years – how do you go about planning for something like that and making those plans become a reality?
MARK: The client approach enabled early engagement. Following the collaborative assessments and contract appointment, we established the team and developed workstreams. That meant we could get on site early, carry out all the required preparation for safe operations and establish effective logistics to complete the ecological works. Establishing sites for ecological compensation ahead of clearing the site, ensuring that the old rail corridor that had been fully adopted by nature and communities over 40 years, was made safe for Alliance activity to commence.
Once the Transport and Works Act Order (TWAO) was approved in February 2020, we were able to hit the ground running.
SIMON: The other key element was early client involvement, from the consultation stage right the way through to public inquiry. There was already a significant amount of trust in the team from Network Rail, meaning we were empowered to undertake activities traditionally managed in-house, such as our appointment as expert witnesses at the public inquiry.
Having the Alliance deeply involved with the client and stakeholders during the planning and preparation also gave us a huge opportunity to make the design and delivery elements of the project lifecycle far more efficient than traditionally possible. As we had gained significant project knowledge, once the TWAO was approved, we were able to feed into the plan as an equal partner. We knew that embedded in our culture, although there was an equal reward, there was also the equal chance of failure, and this was not an option.
RTM: This project has used some leading-edge digital engineering techniques and innovations that no doubt helped with your remarkably successful outcome. Could you tell us about those?
SIMON: In terms of digital engineering (DE), right from the start of the project, we wanted the DE strategy and delivery to be industry leading, because we knew that this was our opportunity to show the UK industry how it should be done.
Our geographical footprint, from one end to the other, was 18 miles. We had 10 project compounds at the height of construction, all located along the route, and all needed to communicate efficiently and successfully.
The development of our DE strategy included setting key objectives. Employing the latest technology and software to help deliver the design, construction and handback of the project. One of the Alliance’s fundamental objectives was to have a single source of truth for all project knowledge. This extended to parallel projects we had interfaces with, for example, HS2.
At the time, the integrated technology and software were not available, and as a result, we selected two key software packages. First was the digital twin model, also called the i-model; effectively, a digital representation of all the engineering and technical data of the project. Second was the project’s geographical information system (GIS), which managed important data such as environment and ecology, heritage, stakeholder mapping and drone footage. Everybody in the project team had access to this data, knew where it was, how to use it and knew that the data could be trusted.
In terms of innovation, we used what we call modern methods of construction or design for manufacturing assembly (DfMA). All the new bridge structures on the project, of which there were six, used these DfMA prefabricated components.
Manufactured off-site in an advanced manufacturing facility by Laing O’Rourke’s affiliate company, Explore, these components were a ‘kit of parts’ for each bridge. Shell abutments were produced, which are permanent formwork concrete, hollow shells, like LEGO bricks that you stack up to form the abutments. Components such as sill beams, capping beams, and parapets were all precast. This meant that once the substructure was in place, we could have the bridge abutments, beams, and parapets up within three weeks.
This, compared to a normal in situ traditional construction programme, created absolute predictability in build and delivered significant time saving. It also drastically reduced on-site labour plant and enabled the significant reduction of site construction safety risk. We used a similar approach when constructing the new station platforms for Bletchley and Winslow, which were all constructed using standard prefabricated units along the same principles.
Once the earthworks and associated stations were built, the track construction was completed in rapid form by extensive utilisation of the New Track Construction (NTC) train and logistics support direct to site from Network Rail Supply Chain Operations (SCO) and their Freight Operating Company (FOC) supply chain.
An extensive integrated construction programme allowed the Alliance to progress the signalling, power and communications as a rapid follow up to the moving track workfront. The EWR2 project used AtkinsRéalis’ Advanced Signalling Method (ASM) to accelerate the design, installation and pre-testing of the ElectroligiXS interlocking architecture and trackside equipment. Through ASM the Alliance also successfully integrated Alstom’s UK MCS-I control centre system in Network Rail’s Rugby Regional Operations Centre (ROC), which at the point of commissioning was the first installation on the British mainline network.
RTM: You experienced some challenges during the project – Covid 19, weather constraints, and industrial action – but you also had engineering challenges – Simon could you tell us about some of those and how you overcame them?
SIMON: One of the main engineering challenges faced was the partial dismantling and reconstruction of the Bletchley flyover. The flyover is a 37 span, 600 metres long, pre-stressed and post-tension structure built from reinforced concrete. Constructed in the early 1960s, it takes the east west rail line over the West Coast Mainline – the busiest mixed traffic railway line in Europe - and crosses over Buckingham Road, the major arterial road through Bletchley.
At the start of the project, the structure was identified as having some major challenges. Some of the hidden post-tensioning elements could not be inspected, and their overall condition was unknown. Not long after project commencement, the Morandi bridge collapsed in Genoa, Italy, it was recognised that the original strategy to repurpose and refurbish major elements of the bridge held significant levels of construction risk.
It became apparent that we couldn't demonstrate that the resulting structure was able to a) be maintained safely and efficiently in the future, but b) deliver the design life which was specified to be between 60 and 120 years, based on the components of the structure.
Working with Network Rail engineers, the Alliance used digital engineering to produce a solution that would efficiently rebuild the structure without disrupting West Coast Mainline passenger and freight services. This also ensured that the Alliance would deliver on its commitment to ‘put rail passengers first’ on its key interface with the operating railway.
With support from Network Rail, we then took a pretty radical decision to apply Network Rail’s SPEED principles to the design and delivery of the flyover within just 20 months, which was achieved on time and under budget. £70 million was saved against the original refurbishment programme forecast costs, due to the Alliance’s collaborative approach.
Another challenge was the significant interface with HS2 in the Calvert area in Buckinghamshire. HS2 runs north to south, and East West Rail runs east to west, with the HS2 line going under East West Rail. Approximately three kilometres of our route sit within the HS2 construction area.
That section of our scheme was delivered by HS2 on behalf of the Network Rail On Networks programme. As part of the TWAO being granted in 2020, the Secretary of State created an integrated framework of milestones for both programmes to ensure collaborative success. HS2, their supply chain and the Alliance had several programme give/get dates to deliver. We had to decommission the old railway, handing the area to HS2 to undertake civil works, and then have the site handed back to us so we could install the track and rail systems. Due to the successful integration of the programme phases, the Alliance were able to run engineering trains, complete construction activity and even enable driver route learning trains to operate through the middle of the live HS2 construction site.
RTM: One of the many things you must be proud of is meeting your environmental and sustainability targets. Could you tell us about those, how you achieved them and why it was so important to do so?
TOM: From an environmental perspective, I think it is fair to say that quite often, environmental targets can be seen as a blocker to progress and construction on site.
However, for the East West Rail Alliance, from day one, our environmental impact was integral to everything that we did, and we held workshops to understand how we could limit our de-vegetation activities to minimise impact.
When we started, Natural England raised significant objections to the scheme at the public inquiry. As a key stakeholder, we needed to work with Natural England to understand their reluctance to support the delivery of the project and find solutions which would change their perception. The Alliance established a really positive relationship with Natural England, with them developing our mitigation plans and strategies with us. Licensing responsibilities were successfully handled by the Alliance funding of embedded Natural England officers within the Alliance team. Natural England staff members have repeatedly visited our Ecological Compensation Sites as learning opportunities, as we are regarded as an exemplary infrastructure project that positively minimised its impact on the environment.
We were the first major infrastructure project to have committed to achieving 10% Biodiversity Net Gain. This was before the Environment Act 2021 and the statutory obligation to new developments; in fact Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects are still excluded from that metric as it is, so we really are leading the way, from that perspective.
Outside of biodiversity net gain, as a project, we were accredited with the ISO 14001 certification from an environmental perspective. Although the participant organisations have that accreditation in place, we wanted to achieve this separately for the project and the Alliance. We held that accreditation for three years to prove our commitment to achieving our environmental objectives. Every design and build activity we planned and then executed harnessed the experienced input of ecological and sustainability expertise deployed directly into the design and delivery teams by the participant organisations. These embedded environment and sustainability leads were able to control the risks from design solutions and site delivery by direct daily control over the activities, and the whole project team remained informed via an Environmental Risk Management tool based upon the GIS platform.
The environmental risk management process, which of course, lots of major projects have, was distinguished in this application by its linking of the necessary processes directly to our GIS system. This meant that designers, project managers and project engineers could quickly establish the environmental risks that were associated with the planned designs and activities, regardless of the work, whether it be creating a full new bridge structure or the installation of a culvert head wall.
The information automatically generated the environmental permit to proceed, and without it, work was not approved to go ahead. This resulted in a very small number of environmental incidents across the whole geographical length and duration of the project compared to the scale of activity, which is something we are very proud of and have been applauded for. This played a big part for instance, in the Alliance gaining our protected species licences.
Additionally, Natural England was also given access to the GIS to review and analyse information, particularly around bats. They found that the data corroborated the Alliance’s proposed mitigation measures, easing the concerns regarding the level of project impact.
MARK: It was fundamental that we had the plan right at the start so that that constraints and our mitigations were known, understood and visible to all involved in the delivery.
TOM: Across the project, we were able to create 20 ecological compensation sites housing protected species, these total over 200 hectares. That land is now protected for 30 years and is maturing well, attracting protected and notable species of flora and fauna and will hopefully become a haven for nature. As an example, the project greatly increased the number of ponds in the landscape adjacent to the scheme, creating over 50 new ponds, the vast majority of which now have formed new habitats for great crested newts, alongside other amphibians.
RTM: Looking at the project as a whole, what are the outcomes you are each most proud of?
SIMON: I have been in the industry for over 30 years, 10 of which have been with the East West Rail Alliance – that is a third of my career – and this has certainly been the most enjoyable project I have worked on. In terms of the way we approached the project, the whole collaboration piece, it is a breath of fresh air. In terms of an outcome, what we have delivered was on time and under budget, and when we say we have handed back, we have really handed back, all of it, with the associated records, documentation and Alliance support. The whole of the infrastructure has gone directly into ownership and maintenance progressively over the duration of the programme, rather than having to wait till at or even after completion. To do that on a major UK infrastructure project is a massive achievement for the Alliance and everybody that has been involved.
TOM: I echo Simon's thoughts, particularly about it being a great place to work. It is perhaps a cliché, as an environmental person, but I am hopeful that in 30 years' time, I can say that the sites created have matured and created a landscape where ecology and biodiversity is thriving. It is important to me that these sites are safeguarded for the next 30 years to allow the sites to develop properly and, in time, flourish.
MARK: At the peak of construction, we had close to 1,500 people on the project, including the supply chain, and I think a good third of those at any one time had limited experience on projects of this scale – this includes the 80 plus apprentices who worked on the project and the 36 newly established by the Alliance.
I am extremely proud of the legacy element of all the learning opportunities we have enabled and how these have helped everyone want to grow and test themselves. Real tangible outcomes were delivered by all individuals, and everyone, including those early in their career, has taken huge pride in the results. All have now moved on to other infrastructure projects, taking their increased knowledge and competence with them. This Alliance has helped the railway further future-proof itself in a skills context and enable the development of another generation of railway project expertise.
Image credits: East West Rail
