An ambition to connect people to places and opportunities

As leaders in the field of railway planning and engineering, our connected teams bring to life the design, construction and operation of the rail network across the UK.

And it’s not only about our world-leading expertise, our commitment to sustainable solutions, and our innovative approach – It is the personal and lived experiences of our experts that motivate them to find the innovative solutions that support a move towards better services for all.

We want to design and build a railway that truly meets the changing demands of passengers and gives people greater access to opportunities, because we can see the long-term importance of a reliable, efficient and accessible transport network.

If rail is to support the future prosperity of the North of England, it needs to be fit to deliver on the ambitions of the residents and businesses based there.

Connecting people to places and opportunities 

Andrew Dugdale, SYSTRA’s Market Director for mass transit, rail and highways, believes delivering for a region is about perspective.

“Whether it’s at UK level, or regional level up North, or your town or the village, creating opportunities to improve society is really important,” he says.

“The projects I’ve delivered throughout my career have improved the local environment for people to export and highlighted the role of rail in delivering ambition for the North.

“But what we need are enablers for transport, whatever that mode of transport is, to really drive the economy, drive prosperity, improve people’s lives, access to health care, education and opportunities for employment that are all underpinned by a fantastic transport network.”

Andrew Dugdale, SYSTRA’s Market Director

Key to that improvement is providing much better connectivity and a higher frequency of service.

That then provides greater confidence in the network for users, especially those who are reliant on services to get around.

James Haigh, Discipline Lead at SYSTRA, has lived on the outskirts of Leeds his whole life. He knows the importance of delivering transformational rail projects in the North – not only on a professional level, but also personal.

“It’s really inspiring to see projects come to life, but it’s absolutely needed,” says James.

“What’s really close to my heart is trying to make the North better connected specifically for my eldest lad who’s 15. He’s got a visual impairment so he needs the railway to get around if he’s going to have the opportunities that I had going off to university, traveling around seeing different cities – he’s going to have to have a connected railway.”

Creating greener journeys

But that connectivity cannot be delivered at the expense of environmental outcomes that ensure a sustainable network moving forward. 

Working collaboratively as an industry, with stakeholders and members of the public, will achieve those greener, more efficient outcomes required to provide positive growth. 

It’s important to consider the needs of everyone, whether in large towns and cities, or those living and working in rural areas. 

“We need to be thinking about transport hubs,” says Steve Pickard, Business Director at SYSTRA. 

“Planning all different kinds of residential and economic developments, around rail hubs, around transport hubs, and how you connect it all up, I think is key to the to the growth of the area. 

“I think people want a cost- effective system, so it means they sometimes don’t want to pay for it. But I actually think they do want to see cleaner greener environmentally friendly approaches. 

“You could plant trees, woodlands, you could encourage biodiversity, you could protect our watercourses a little bit better, and you could build all that thinking into everything we deliver.” 

A commitment to delivering reliability, resilience and safety

Collaboration forms a fundamental part of ensuring infrastructure and transport change is delivered for the benefit of all, and it’s really important that schemes are designed and built with resilience in mind.

Working in partnership across industries, not only the rail sector, means a greater chance of achieving an efficient outcome where the rewards are enjoyed across communities.

Dom Baldwin, Programme Director at SYSTRA, has worked in the rail industry for almost 30 years and believes in leaving behind a legacy.

“The opportunities in the North and the outcomes that we look to achieve are very much achievable,” he says.

“And it’s really important we work as an industry so we can deliver these projects in the most efficient manner and then more importantly, in the most efficient time scales.

“I’m looking forward to seeing these rewards and sharing that with my family.”

And those links to family and home are valued by Steve Rowley, Technical Director at SYSTRA.

“It’s really important people have the opportunity to travel and go around the world and around the country,” he says.

“But having the option to stay near where their family are, where their friends are and where they’ve got roots, but still access opportunities, is really important.

“It would be really nice to get to a place where the normal expectation is that trains run on time, the infrastructure is reliable, that the trains don’t break down, the weather doesn’t affect them and people have confidence the trains are going to be arriving when they say they do.”

And he says considering how people are going to use the infrastructure ensures we apply the right standards and approaches.

“The starting point is the user – the purpose of why we’re making that enhancement is so people have got safe and reliable travel in their area,” he adds.

“I think the thing that motivates me the most is hearing the impact on people – where a project I’ve worked on actually improved someone’s life in some way – they’ve now got an improved station facility, a safer, safer railway, a safer transport system.”