Monday 7 Oct 2024
Transpennine Route Upgrade announces new Managing Director
- Region & Route:
- Eastern
James Richardson has today been announced as the new managing director of the Transpennine Route Upgrade, the multi-billion railway electrification scheme delivering faster, cleaner and greener journeys for millions of people across the north of England.
Highly experienced in major programmes, James is currently Managing Director of the Skanska Costain STRABAG joint venture delivering the HS2 London tunnels.
James said: “Leading this ambitious infrastructure programme of national importance is a huge source of pride for me. It will benefit millions of people by improving the connectivity between towns and cities.
“TRU is making fantastic progress and already demonstrating how complex infrastructure can be delivered safely and efficiently. I can’t wait to get started working with such talented teams and individuals in order to see that continue to develop.”
James, whose home company is Skanska, has held posts as Infrastructure MD and Rail Sector Director, and brings many years of experience working in the rail, road and energy industries on programmes including HS1, M25DBFO, Crossrail, Northern Hub, Wessex Capacity Alliance and Thameslink.
This summer TRU awarded contracts of around £3bn with the West and East alliances, and passengers are now benefiting from the first electric train service operating between Manchester Victoria and Stalybridge. The programme, which employs 5000 people is fully mobilised with 70 worksites across 70 miles, from York to Manchester, alive with activity.
Welcoming James, Rob McIntosh, Network Rail’s North West and Central Managing Director, said: “Given the scale of our works - one of the biggest programmes in Europe and carried out on a live railway - I am really happy we’ve appointed a very capable leader who can manage our unique challenges and lead TRU to continued success.”
James will take up his post on TRU in the new year.
Costing around £11bn, the Transpennine Route Upgrade combines track, train, timetable and delivery partners all working together to deliver a reliable electric railway for passengers and support economic growth. It has invested £500m with local businesses so far and is recruiting sustainably with 85% of the team living within 40 miles of the scheme.
TRU is already halfway to achieving one target of awarding 600 apprenticeships, and well on with delivering 25,000 hours of volunteering in the community. The programme is also committed to engaging with over 100,000 young people through the inclusive education scheme.
Ensuring there is step-free access at stations across the route with more services and faster, cleaner, greener trains, TRU will aim to remove up to 2000 lorries a day from our roads with increased capacity for freight.
When TRU is complete, the objective is to halve the time lost to delays on fast trans-Pennine services with up to 15% quicker journeys between York and Manchester on more reliable electric trains. That’s great news for passengers, communities, local economies and the environment.
Notes to Editors
TRU will bring passengers:
• More trains to choose from and more seats. Our improvements will enable more trains to run between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York with up to six fast services every hour between Leeds and Manchester and up to two stopping services for local connectivity.
• Faster journeys so you can travel to your favourite towns and cities more quickly. Our fastest journey times are forecast to be 63-66 minutes between Manchester and York and 41-42 minutes between Manchester and Leeds.
• More reliable journeys with trains that run on-time
• Better stations across the Transpennine route, bringing passengers a better travel experience through improved, more accessible stations
• Greener travel, reducing our carbon footprint and improving air quality. Our plans aim to save up to 87,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year – supporting the government’s Net Zero objectives. We’re also developing a proposal to move more goods by rail (up to 15 more freight trains each day.)
• Together, these freight trains are expected to remove over 1,000 lorries off the road each day.
TRU will bring local communities:• Jobs for local people. Our workforce will be local, with 80% employment from within a 40-mile radius of the route, and 60% employment from within a 25-mile radius. With a current workforce of around 2000 people, we estimate that could double over the course of the programme. We’ll employ an apprentice for every £4million spent.
• Improved natural environments near the railway through 10% biodiversity net gain across the route. This will create or enhance habitats for wildlife. The multi-billion-pound Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) will bring this line into the 21st century with 70-miles of fully electric, digital railway. Our plans include:
• Electrifying the whole route between Manchester and York via Huddersfield and Leeds
• Installing a new digital signalling system along the Transpennine route
• Doubling the number of tracks from two to four between Huddersfield and Westtown in Dewsbury.
• Station improvements along the route to enhance customer experience, comfort and accessibility
• Improving the railway on diversionary routes to allow more trains to run, to help keep passengers and freight moving while the core Transpennine route is closed to deliver essential upgrades. This will provide capacity and reliability improvements for future too.
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We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.
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