Engineering news
Network Rail Consulting, the international consultancy arm of Network Rail, is to advise American rail operator Amtrak on upgrading its busiest section of railway.
The consultancy is to join Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor (NEC) Partner Forum to advise on high speed rail development, railway operations and system integration for the purpose of improving the NEC, after winning a bidding competition.
The Northeast Corridor is considered the rail backbone of the region and runs from Boston to Washington DC via New York. More than 750,000 passengers and 2,000 commuter, intercity and freight trains run on the line every day, which was built in stages between 1830 and 1917.
Amtrak plans to upgrade the capacity of the existing railway and add new high-speed sections to bring the railway up to “world-class levels”.
The mix of services, age of infrastructure and high levels of capacity utilisation on the Northeast Corridor are similar in many ways to Britain’s busy intercity main lines. Network Rail said its experience of owning, operating, maintaining and upgrading one of the world’s most heavily-used rail networks was crucial in securing Amtrak’s invitation.
Simon Kirby, chairman of Network Rail Consulting, said: “We are eager to support Amtrak on this key initiative. We look forward to helping further develop rail in the United States, sharing the best of British engineering and ingenuity.
“The NEC Partner Forum is a good fit for our business and will allow us to share valuable experience in developing pioneering approaches in asset management and the successful delivery of large and complex capital projects. Added to that, we look after one of the most heavily used railways in the world, on largely Victorian infrastructure. Despite these challenges, our railway carries more people on more trains than ever before, with improving levels of punctuality.”
Stephen Gardner, vice president of NEC Infrastructure and Investment Development for Amtrak, said: ”I expect that they will bring valuable experience to the group and make a significant contribution as Amtrak sets out on its vision for high-speed rail.”
Network Rail Consulting was set up last year as a subsidiary to the main organisation to “market Network Rail’s vast range of expertise overseas”. The consultancy aims to work in countries such as the US and India, which similarly to the UK, have aging rail infrastructure in need of modernisation.