Consultant appointed to coordinate six Yorkshire rail projects and develop capacity upgrades between Leeds and Sheffield under Network Rail’s design framework.
Amey has secured two contracts supporting the development of Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), with work focused on coordinating planned upgrades across Yorkshire and improving capacity on the Leeds to Sheffield corridor.
The latest award from Network Rail will see the consultant take responsibility for integrating six projects into a coordinated railway programme, assessing how individual schemes can operate together to support the wider network.
The second contract covers engineering proposals for the Leeds to Sheffield route, with the aim of accommodating more services and improving journey times while limiting disruption to passengers and freight.
Both appointments were made through Network Rail’s Development and Design Partnership Framework. Contract values have not been disclosed.
Under the system integration contract, Amey will examine projects covering Bradford to Leeds, Leeds station, Leeds to York and Leeds to Sheffield, bringing together the different proposals to assess their combined impact on the railway.
The work will involve developing and comparing options against journey times, network performance, cost, buildability and future maintenance requirements. Amey will also identify anticipated benefits and assess land requirements and consents needed to support the business case for the first phase of NPR.
On the Leeds to Sheffield corridor, the consultant will develop engineering proposals to increase capacity while managing the effects of construction on existing passenger and freight operations.
The work will also consider station stops, particularly at Sheffield, examining how the time trains spend at platforms affects performance across the wider network. This will help establish how service patterns and infrastructure changes could improve capacity and reliability.
Colin Wood, managing director at Amey, said: “At Amey, we believe major rail programmes succeed when individual projects are designed and delivered as part of a wider, integrated system.”
The latest appointments represent Amey’s third major award through Network Rail’s framework, adding to its rail consultancy workload as plans for the next phase of Northern Powerhouse Rail develop.
