This week’s round-up of business news from the UK railway industry.
On February 10 the Planning Committee of the City of London passed a resolution to grant planning permission for the redevelopment of Liverpool Street station, with an office building above the concourse. Overall concourse capacity is to be increased by 76%, with lower concourse space expanded by 23%, and step-free access provided from street level to all platforms including all London Underground lines. Network Rail said the scheme had been ’carefully designed to safeguard Liverpool Street’s unique heritage’, and ’the Victorian trainshed remains completely untouched.’ Network Rail’s design and professional advisory team for the scheme includes ACME (architecture), Aecom (engineering & environment, Certo MS (project management), Newmark (planning & development), Gleeds (cost management), Donald Insall Associates (heritage & townscape), GIA (daylight & sunlight), JLL (valuation), AVR London (visualisations), SLA (landscape architecture), Shared Voice (communications & engagement), Intelligent Data Collection (pedestrian modelling), Mima Group (accessibility & inclusive design and wayfinding), Seam (lighting design), RWDI (wind engineering), The Boundary (CGI), Plowman Craven (surveys), Sweco (building control advice), Addleshaw Goddard (legal), Publica (cultural strategy).
HS2 Track Systems principal contractor Ferrovial BAM JV has appointed Ayesa Engineering and Egis to provide specialist design and engineering services to support the delivery of the Track Urban, Open Route Central and Open Route North sections of the high speed line.
Lumo has worked with Ocean 3D to enhance the virtual train tour tool on its website which is designed to provide reassurance to people who are keen to explore the train’s accessibility features ahead of travel. The latest version has more detail than before and includes the recently upgraded seating. ‘People are already familiar with this kind of 3D mapping when booking a holiday or a hotel, but it also has real value when it comes to accessibility and confidence’, said Ocean 3D director Chris Wood. ’Rail in particular, is an ideal environment for this approach.
Morden is the first station on the London Underground network to benefit from new customer toilets as part of the Mayor of London’s wider plans to invest £15m in providing facilities at selected stations across the TfL network. The mayor aims to improve overall availability so that customers are always within 20 min of a toilet without having to change trains.
The AllRail alliance of new entrants to the passenger rail market has submitted evidence to the House of Commons Public Bill Committee scrutinising the government’s Railways Bill. It said the bill as currently drafted is ‘unfairly skewed’ in favour of Great British Railways services and ‘would create the most centralised railway in Europe’. AllRail was concerned about the absence of an explicit requirement for GBR to act fairly, transparently and non-discriminatorily when taking decisions affecting other operators, including open access passenger services and freight. It called for stronger duty for GBR on the use of public funds and a stronger, clearer role for the Office of Rail & Road.
Jean-Philippe Garbit has been appointed as Managing Director of Alstom’s transport connectivity subsidiary Nomad Digital. He was previously Managing Director for Digital & Integrated Systems in the Nordics at the parent company. Outgoing Managing Director Emmanuel Henry has become Alstom’s Managing Director D&IS for UK & Ireland.
Hull-based Spencer Group has launched a dedicated website for its Spencer Rail Engineering business, which undertakes major infrastructure and depot projects, complex station works, and provided bridge and electrification services.