Marsid Greenidge

This report looks excellent and timely. "Throughout this work, Arup found the most opportunity for acceleration, cost reduction and improved outcomes was identified during the first 10% of a project’s lifecycle. These early-stages offer the most opportunity to drive Greener, Faster, Cheaper delivery. Ensuring the initial stages of project planning are robust and innovative, sets the foundation for success. Defining and driving programmes based on operational outcomes, not just the asset, leads to greater buy-in and support." As Prof. Bent Flyvbjerg says the key to getting big things done is "think slow, act fast" Great work Arup and Cath Leech! #megaprojects

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As ever, measurable benefits will be the proof of this.

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Our latest safety message looks at how the way in which rail transport operators make changes and improvements can impact safety culture. It covers three topics: - Proactive approach to maintenance - Reviewing and updating your safety management system - Corrective actions and management of change. #railsafety #safetyculture

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This is obviously great news for London - but what's often overlooked about taking HS2 to Euston (including by our friends at the 'Manchester' Guardian) is how it unlocks more services for the midlands and the north. That's because the grade-separated junction on the approach allows more trains to depart the platforms per hour, meaning more seats to more destinations... and more benefits for more people means better value for money for the core line between London and the west Midlands. https://lnkd.in/ec2HfYTW

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The recent announcement by the King marks a significant shift in the management of England’s public transport system. The new Government is set to introduce legislation to bring bus and rail services more closely under public control, including the public ownership of train operators. Turning to buses, key elements of the proposed Better Buses Bill include: ➡️ Granting local leaders new powers to franchise local bus services. ➡️ Lifting restrictions on the creation of new publicly-owned bus operators. This legislation aims to safeguard local bus networks by: ➡️ Enhancing accountability over bus operators. ➡️ Ensuring higher standards across the country. ➡️ Providing local leaders with greater control and flexibility over bus funding. The implications of this could be potentially huge. Interesting times ahead!

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Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) has coordinated a groundbreaking manifesto calling for immediate and strategic action to address the persistent issue of road fatalities and serious injuries in the UK. With support from more than 30 leading organisations, it outlines 4 strategic priorities to significantly reduce fatalities and serious injuries on UK roads. 1. Developing a National Road Safety Strategy focused on prevention, protection, and post-collision response, coupled with evidence-based targets and robust safety performance indicators. 2. Establishing a Road Safety Investigation Branch modelled on existing transportation safety branches to analyse road incidents and provide actionable insights for preventing future tragedies. 3. Introducing Graduated Driver Licensing to support young drivers by limiting high-risk driving situations, a measure proven to reduce fatalities by up to 40%. 4. Adopting Advanced Vehicle Safety Regulations - Immediate implementation of the world-leading vehicle safety standards, mandating critical technologies such as Automatic Emergency Braking and Intelligent Speed Assistance. The UK has seen a stagnation in road safety improvements since 2010, from being a global leader in road safety, it is now lagging behind other nations. Every day, five people die on UK roads, with more than 30,000 individuals killed or seriously injured annually, amounting to a staggering societal and economic cost of approximately £43.5 billion each year. Jamie Hassall, Executive Director of PACTS, said: “These four simple measures will be the building blocks to enable the UK to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads. With strong leadership and a strategic approach the UK managed to half the numbers of road deaths in a decade but since 2010 the focus was lost and daily road deaths have remained at five a day. Investing in road safety is not just a moral duty but it’s good for peoples’ health and wellbeing, the environment, business, and the country.” PACTS urges the incoming government to prioritise these strategies within the first 100 days of office to ensure the UK meets international road safety targets and sets a global standard in protecting its citizens. TRL Richard Cuerden Cycling UK RAC Foundation Elizabeth Box Kumar Niketan Brake, the road safety charity Ross Moorlock Road Safety Foundation UK Dr Suzy Charman Nick Reed Towards Zero Foundation David Ward National Motorcyclists Council Road Safety GB James Gibson The Road Safety Trust Ruth Purdie OBE UKROEd Intelligent Transport Systems UK Max Sugarman Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) ADRIAN walsh RoadSafe The AA Edmund V King OBE Sustrans RoadPeace Rebecca Morris Thatcham Research MCIA UK Road Safety Analysis Ltd The Bikeability Trust Agilysis Limited Safer Essex Roads Partnership IAM RoadSmart Neil Greig Co-Pilot

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Transport, planning and energy reform feature in King's Speech Labour government sets out legislative programme including renationalising rail, bus franchises and empowering metro mayors https://lnkd.in/eau7SnX6 TRANSPORT New legislation will create a simplified rail system by bringing rail services into public ownership once their contracts expire or if operators fail to deliver on their commitments. Labour says this approach will avoid the burden falling on taxpayers to cough up for compensation to operators for taking services into public ownership. The government will also introduce legislation to establish a new public body, Great British Railways (GBR) which will be focused on improving services and creating better value for money for passengers. GBR will be tasked with delivering simplified fares, discounts, and ticket types. The King’s Speech also featured a Better Buses Bill that gives metro mayors powers to franchise local bus services and which lifts the restriction on new publicly owned bus operators. BUILDING Building more housing and infrastructure is central to the Government’s plans to strengthen economic growth. A planning reform bill to speed up and streamline the planning process to build more homes of all tenures and accelerate the delivery of major infrastructure projects. The government will also introduce a bill to ensure a new National Wealth Fund worth £7.3bn will make what are envisaged to be transformational investments of across the UK. LOCAL LEADERSHIP As part of the new government’s plans to empower local leaders to deliver change for their communities, the King’s Speech unveiled the English Devolution Bill. This will transfer power into local communities and recognising the role local leaders play in supporting growth by establishing local growth plans that bring economic benefit to communities and households across the country. The English Devolution Bill will be give new powers to metro mayors and combined authorities to support local growth plans that bring economic benefit to communities. ENERGY A new bill will help set up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean-power company that will help boost energy security, create jobs and build supply chains in every corner of the UK.   The government will also introduce legislation that helps unlock investment in energy infrastructure, supports sustainable aviation fuel production and strengthens the water regulator’s powers. Read more on TransportXtra from Landor LINKS Ltd #kingsspeech #rail #bus #regions #mayors

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Important Sustrans piece of work looking at how we ensure that disabled people are at the heart of transport planning, including getting to public transport.

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What do you feel are the main barriers to reducing car usage in the UK? What practical measures need to be made to convince the public to shift behaviours? What can we do to deliver reduced car reliance? Have your say on these big questions and more ahead of this year’s Transport Planning Day below - it'll take you just a few minutes #TPDay24 #TransportPlanningDay2024 #carusage #travel #TPS #burohappold

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Report launched yesterday by my Transport Action Network colleagues, arguing that the roads programme represents poor value-for-money and is not a good way to boost the economy or address Labour's other 4 missions. These would be better achieved by pausing or (preferably) scrapping £15bn (at least) worth of road schemes, and reallocating the money to sustainable transport alternatives and to repairing our existing pothole-ridden roads: https://lnkd.in/emqy4EgB

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CIHT on Budget 2024 The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon Rachel Reeves MP yesterday delivered her first UK Budget. Whilst most of the focus has been on the potential for spending cuts, CIHT has reviewed the budget to look at the wider implications for highways and transportation Sue Percy CBE, Chief Executive, CIHT said: "We congratulate Rachel Reeves on delivering the first Labour Party Budget in almost 15 years. Like many sectors, those of us engaged in highways and transportation were expecting difficult decisions to be made and the tone of the government has been that this would be delivered in an economically challenging environment." “As we had called for in our manifesto, we were pleased to see alignment on some of our key asks particularly around the importance of the local highways network and commitments to deliver on a number of integrated transport projects to improve connectivity." CIHT will be providing a more detailed analysis in the coming days but some of the highlights we welcome include: *The changes to fiscal rules and the commitment to public investment in new infrastructure should help create the environment for a more long-term approach to infrastructure investment. *Acknowledgement of the importance of local roads and the providing a nearly 50% increase in funding for local roads highway maintenance, an increase of nearly £500m in 2024-25. *Support for a number of significant local transport schemes. *An indication to improve uncertainty by funding through an interim roads settlement, and the third Road Investment Strategy will be set out in the next phase of the Spending Review *Providing £200 million for City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements and an £100 million investment in cycling and walking infrastructure in 2025-26. *Funding for 300 additional planners to improve local planning authority capacity. For more information on the Autumn Budget 2024, please contact CIHT Public Affairs Manager Liberty Hibberd MA, MCIPR #UKBudget #Budget2024 #Infrastructure #Transport

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HS2 and The Budget, in more detail from my colleague Thomas Wintle

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The King’s Speech today underlines the importance of the rail sector to our new government’s plans. No less than three seperate pieces of legislation to deliver the reform the industry so badly needs and also to address the bottleneck that exists between Crewe and Manchester on the network. As an industry and supply chain we should get behind these changes to make the railway best placed to deliver the needs of passengers and freight customers.

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Today's Guardian carries an article headlined: Labour urged to scrap UK road schemes such as £9bn Lower Thames Crossing. This approach literally robs Peter to pay Paul. Although I do agree that they should let buses on #LTC. Long-term certainty is needed to drive growth and efficiency. Across utilities, highways and rail, public and regulated infrastructure owners have been able to secure continuous improvements in the efficiency of asset construction and maintenance. Multi-year funding settlements allow such organisations to plan smoother investment and unlock major supply chain efficiencies that are not available with stop-start funding. While challenging spending decisions are expected, existing and anticipated funding settlements must not be unpicked, and that strategically important transport bodies are provided with certainty about their future spending limits. This locks in the supply chain efficiency benefits that arise from certainty and establishes a reliable maintenance programme but is also crucial to attract wider private sector investment and developers, extending the reach of public investment. As an example, the #Lower #Thames #Crossing will alleviate congestion from the Kent section of the M25, making it easier for those travelling to Dover and, for local residents to travel locally and to explore opportunities further afield. This supports the development of new #homes, buildings and further growth. Civil Engineering Contractors Association (National) thinks there is a sensible discussion to be had about how to better unlock infrastructure investment where doing so makes significant housing development more viable and we would like to work with Government and others to better capture the value uplift associated, helping to deliver ambitions targets on new home construction. #LTC https://lnkd.in/eYiU7FE4

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UK's most flood affected railway stations revealed >>https://lnkd.in/ee27u7mD<< Flooding is just one part of the climate change challenge that extreme rain events create for the railway - I've explored more here>> https://lnkd.in/gqHHsUbr << including some of the ways that better realtime infrastructure information can help reduce risks and delays. #railway #infrastructure #resilience #climatechange

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Good news from the budget is Government support for East-West Rail, Oxford - Milton Keynes Central from August 2025 (we are told), which means #Bedford people will be able to get an X5 to Milton Keynes Central for a train to Oxford and connections or indeed, use the current Bedford-Bletchley shuttle rail service (sometimes bustituted) and change at #Bletchley to the new flyover station. Bedford-#Oxford 2030 ish. So given we are yet to await a route confirmation for Bedford-Tempsford area-Cambridge (which has a new #Cambridge South Station being built for Addenbrookes Hospital area) could be 2040! BRTA has always said and supported a 'route east of Bedford via St John's' and 'physical rail connectivity with the existing north-south main line (ECML) at #Tempsford, not just 2 interchange stations. We need elected leaders of Bedford Borough Mayor, Cllr. Tom Wootton, MP Bedford and Kempston Mohammad Yasin and North East Beds MP Richard Fuller, to get together, sing from the same hymn sheet and support our rail route suggestion. Not every inch of old Varsity Line, but first 4 miles east of Bedford is rebuild trackbed for rail use, Willington can be bypassed with 2 new river bridges and a slower speed, and instead of going south of Blunham go north towards A1/Tempsford on an embankment to avoid flood plains and clear the trunk road to head off to the Tempsford plains north of south of Station Road, Tempsford. Thence onwards via the route suggested by East-West Rail itself, serving the Cambourne area and Cambridge for East Anglia et al and those audiences to the Oxford and Bedford corridors and other rail connections. Our route with physical rail linkages at Tempsford, would enable north of #Stevenage, East Bedfordshire and south of #Peterborough to access rail services from where they live without having to change at Tempsford and what goes out, comes back! We have floated the idea, it is now incumbent of our elected leaders to study, work up and engineer a railway and get it underway and delivered in a 10 year timespan now, not after Oxford-Bedford trains bay at Bedford Midland Station! If they don't, they let Bedford and shire down, traffic congestion is rising, pollution is exasperating health and well being and filling NHS waiting lists as well as taking a toll on wildlife and ecological matters, bird count, butterflies and more, down! The fact is, these patterns, trends and challenges repeat nationwide. It needs local people to be organised and find the rail alternative. Dualling trunk roads or building motorways, delivers ever more urban congestion and squalor as well as land take which could otherwise be used for farming, wildlife, housing or employment for example. Work it up and out! https://lnkd.in/eNFJY-Dq #budget #rail #railways #networkrail #dft #transport #design #planning #modalshift #environment #landuse

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As a business we drive a lot of value from Nick’s apprenticeship. It’s a win for the individual, a win for the team (Nick being a great role model) and a win for the business! #skiils #apprenticeship #rolemodel

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