A big leap forward for the Ebbw Vale Rail Upgrade

A big leap forward for the Ebbw Vale Rail Upgrade

The £70m Ebbw Vale rail upgrade funded by Blaenau Gwent Country Borough Council via a loan from the Welsh Government, the investment will allow a new hourly passenger service between Ebbw Vale Town and Newport. The existing line has to be closed periodically throughout the next year in order to make the major improvements and closure dates have been published on the Network Rail website.

Our ‘One team’ approach ensured the success of the blockade pulling together the contracting teams supported by Network Rail’s Construction Services team who removed and relayed the track. A great example of project delivery leading up to the new Control Period.

AmcoGiffen’s Operations Director for Wales and Borders, Andy Crowley said, “Our efforts at Ebbw Vale are a fantastic example of our ‘one team’ approach in action, as we work closely with our client Network Rail and Supply Chain Partners Siemens, SYSTRA and Network Rail Construction Services to deliver the multitude of works. In line with the new CP7 strategy, we’ve reviewed our working practices to be collaborative and holistic in approach. This has brought an increased level of transparency and engagement to our intelligent client offering and supplier approach, allowing all the different teams to come together in a seamless, cohesive manner. Throughout this work, the safety of our 120-strong team was paramount, and I’m happy to report that this paid off in zero reported incidents.”

Mike Muldoon joins SYSTRA Ltd as Business Development Director

Mike Muldoon joins SYSTRA Ltd as Business Development Director for UK & Ireland and as member of the Executive Board. Mike brings over 30 years of transport industry experience serving clients and customers around the world. Mike began his career in rail rolling stock before moving into project delivery. In 2010 he joined Alstom UK & Ireland as Tenders Director before becoming Head of Business Development in 2017. Latterly he has led Alstom’s UK focus on the development, promotion and application of emerging decarbonisation technologies and the resulting closer integration of the transport and energy sectors.

SYSTRA‘s CEO, Nick Salt said, “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Mike to our Executive Board for UK and Ireland, he brings a wealth of experience driving growth in new and emerging sectors. SYSTRA has developed a strong position in the UK & Ireland, growing our core consultancy and engineering capability to respond to the needs of the transportation and infrastructure markets.”

SYSTRA cements growth in the North with Manchester office move

SYSTRA’s growing Manchester team are working on projects across the business from transport planning and behavioural change to infrastructure engineering and specialist climate and environmental services. The new office space provides a fantastic working space for SYSTRA colleagues, and supports its growth ambition in the North of England.

The layout of the new 5,880 sq ft modern office space has been shaped by the requirements of staff, and is largely open plan with plenty creative space to support hybrid working and offers much needed facilities for staff cycling to work.

Rossendale Connectivity Business Case

Rawtenstall is a town in Lancashire located on the River Irwell, 20 miles north of Manchester. The Borough of Rossendale borders Greater Manchester and the boroughs of Bolton, Bury and Rochdale.

The strategic business case reviewed highway, bus and rail options. Several shortlisted rail options were developed in greater detail by our multi-disciplinary team of transport planners, economists, civil and signalling engineers and train operation experts, to develop options that allowed a regular all-day service to work alongside an existing heritage railway, as well as exploring alternative options such as enhanced bus frequencies.

For rail, one of the key requirements was the retention of the heritage railway which meant adhering to heritage railway’s stringent regulations to allow trains to operate at higher speeds. The rail option addressed the heritage objectives and went further by incorporating the town of Heywood, near Rochdale which has similar connectivity needs.

The Business Case concluded that the most appropriate option was to operate a service from Rawtenstall to Manchester via Heywood. This would use the full length of an existing heritage railway which would continue to operate.

SYSTRA appoints Jorgen Pedersen as Director of Transport Technology

Jorgen Pedersen joins SYSTRA as Director for Transport Technology and will lead and develop the business offer on new and emerging technologies which are set to disrupt the future of mobility. Jorgen brings 30-years experience of delivering transport technology projects throughout the world. Jorgen joined from New York based transport organisation MAS, where he was VP, Transit Integrations.

SYSTRA‘s MD Strategy & Consultancy, Craig Scott said, “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Jorgen, he brings a wealth of expertise in emerging technologies which will help transport organisations in the UK and globally meet and go beyond our increasingly urgent collective net zero responsibility. We are very much looking forward to working with Jorgen, his appointment demonstrates our commitment to growing a sophisticated service offer.”

SYSTRA enhances land use modelling capability with DELTA acquisition

The acquisition of the DELTA modelling tool, along with the supporting intellectual property, enables SYSTRA to offer a full range of modelling, forecasting and assessment consultancy advice on land use and transport system changes.

Land use modelling gives unique insight to the analysis and appraisal of development proposals and planning policies, enabling impacts to be understood on a geospatial basis and robustly quantified, in terms of household and employment levels or economic benefits. When coupled with transport models, the complex land use and transport interactions can be modelled to enhance understanding of a proposal’s impact and benefit, whether at a local, regional or national scale.

SYSTRA will continue to develop the DELTA software and has the technical capability to offer the consultancy services previously offered by DSC.

Using Virtual Reality to Design Level Crossings

We believe that virtual reality technology can help improve operational and site engineering works safety through 360º design features including aerial and sub terrain views.

Virtual Reality technology nicely demonstrates visually all the proposed plans or improvements as well as constraints, helping decision-makers, transport operators and local communities better understand design and investment decisions.

In essence virtual reality used in rail engineering can help Network Rail and importantly other transport authorities to:

• Design comprehensively through identifying potential blind spots and physical constraints
• Encourage buy-in from stakeholders and local communities during consultation
• Identify underground utility or landscape constraints and conflicts

SYSTRA’s dedicated level crossing design team based in York has a significant portfolio of comprehensive design of all types of level crossing from successful delivery of level crossing for major rail schemes across the UK and Ireland..

Specific work for Level Crossings involves Ground Plans, Draft Level Crossing Orders, Suitable and Sufficient Risk Assessments, 3D design, user census and speed surveys, our in-house specialist team has the know-how.

SYSTRA supports clients in securing over £120m for bus service improvements

The Government’s National Bus Strategy set out an ambitious vision to improve bus services in England outside London and encourage passengers back to bus, an ambition which was underpinned by £3billion of new funding. To secure funding, Local Transport Authorities and bus operators were required to submit an ambitious Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) outlining improvements that would support delivery of a fully integrated bus service with simple, multi-modal tickets, more bus priority measures, with better turn-up-and-go frequencies that keep running into the evenings and at weekends.

SYSTRA worked with several Local Transport Authorities to assist them in the production of bold and ambitious BSIPs with measures that will help to increase passenger numbers, improve bus punctuality, reliability and journey times, and increase levels of customer satisfaction.

When producing the successful BSIPs the SYSTRA consultants helped clients to analyse the current bus offer in their area, seek customer and stakeholder views, set challenging but realistic targets and propose a range of measures that will help to deliver a step change in local bus service provision.

One local authority supported by SYSTRA was Luton Borough Council. Steve Lain, Highways & Transport Product Service Manager at Luton Borough Council, said, “Luton Borough Council are pleased to confirm that working with SYSTRA we have secured £19.1m funding from the Department for Transport towards our Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP). This award is a very welcome start to the new financial year and shows how the collaborative working between our team and that of SYSTRA has secured a very significant level of funding that will give passengers in Luton a better experience when using the public transport network.”

SYSTRA are now looking forward to helping clients with delivery of the plans which have been set out – providing expert advice and assistance in delivering BSIP measures and carrying out network sustainability reviews.

SYSTRA Ltd sets out route to Net Zero by 2035

Working within Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol guidelines, SYSTRA UK & Ireland has put in place carbon measurement to calculate the business Carbon Footprint related to Scope 1 emissions (covering fuel combustion for business vehicles), Scope 2 emissions (covering purchased electricity) and key operational elements of Scope 3 emissions (covering upstream fuel and energy-related activities, business travel, employee commuting and energy use related to working from home).

Using these carbon emission calculations, SYSTRA UK & Ireland has achieved carbon neutral certification by supporting a programme to conserve rainforest in Peru. The programme will help local farmers transition to sustainable cacao production in the margins of the protected area ensuring that degraded land is restored, reducing the effects of deforestation, and providing local communities with forest-friendly and sustainable livelihoods. The programme also supports SYSTRA’s commitment to diversity, with 27% of farmers being women, and the role SYSTRA takes in promoting human rights, ensuring consideration of the social and political impact of the projects they support.

Recognising that this is just a first step, SYSTRA UK & Ireland has also committed to becoming Net Zero for its entire carbon footprint by 2035 and published its Carbon Reduction Plan, detailing past and future initiatives designed to minimise the company’s carbon footprint and contribute to achieving the global objective of restricting climate change.

SYSTRA’s Carbon Reduction Plan also has a short-term target to reduce Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 80% by 2025 and is built around 6 key areas.

• Office energy – reducing overall energy use and setting up zero carbon tariffs for all offices in UK & Ireland.
• Staff Commute and Business Travel – the introduction of initiatives to reduce travel especially using car-based modes through travel planning and other initiatives.
• IT Equipment – focusing purchase of new hardware on low energy solutions and replace current high energy items. Investigate using offsite communications and storage companies that are carbon neutral.
• Working from home – exploring initiatives to increase lower carbon energy in staff homes.
• Purchasing – introduction of climate change considerations into procurement decisions.
• Subcontractors and suppliers – encouragement of suppliers to also address the Climate Emergency

Avonmouth ERF Facility

The plant, which is currently receiving non-recyclable waste including from Somerset Waste Partnership (up to 120,000 tonnes) and the West of England Waste Partnership (120,000 tonnes), has been designed to divert 320,000 tonnes of this residual waste away from landfill. The ERF will also generate up to 307GWh of electricity annually which will power the facility itself and export enough energy to power the equivalent of 84,000 homes.

SYSTRA, have been the civils design lead on the Avonmouth ERF project for over three-years. In this time, we have delivered the detailed design for the structural, architectural, highways & drainage, environmental and the electrical & mechanical services throughout the building. Initially, these works were delivered to Clugston, and later CNIM for the delivery of the outstanding design works, and to support with any additional design works.

SYSTRA are pleased to confirm the completion of our design commission, following the completion of the construction works. SYSTRA continue to support CNIM with the remaining Post Construction BREEAM accreditation (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), which follows the completion of the main works and handover into operational use.

The construction site has remained open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, implementing the required government guidelines around social distancing for construction.

Viridor CEO Kevin Bradshaw said the company was pleased to have achieved this important milestone following other significant achievements at the site, including the first export of electricity to the grid in July.

Iain Thomas, Project Lead at SYSTRA Ltd said: “I’ve been in control of this scheme for circa 18-months, taking over from James Xieilleon. It has been a challenging yet rewarding scheme, as we have witnessed the facility emerge from the ground, developing into a prominent structure on the Avonmouth skyline. I would like to thank the team for their continued commitment to the delivery of this project through a challenging period.”