Parsons Brinckerhoff and Network Rail partner for traffic management services

Parsons Brinckerhoff will provide a range of strategic engineering and project management services to support the delivery of the European Rail Traffic Management Systems on the UK’s railway

Parsons Brinckerhoff has been appointed by Network Rail to provide design and engineering services on the government supported Digital Railway’s Multi-Functional Design Framework (MFD).

Through the partnership, Parsons Brinckerhoff will provide a range of strategic engineering and project management services to support the delivery of the European Rail Traffic Management Systems (ERTMS) on the UK’s railways.

ERTMS is the digital equivalent of the traditional signalling system, which removes fixed-blocks and in turn the need for trains to stop and start at red lights. This improves capacity and provides greater reliability and enables other digital applications including automatic train operation, advanced passenger information, real time train planning and electronic ticketing.

The rail team has also been appointed on two further contracts within the digital railway programme: development of the safety and security case, which includes system safety management and cyber security; and provision of independent assurance services which includes expert advice, assurance and auditing.

Steve Denniss, rail technical director at WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff, said: “This series of wins in this strategically important field illustrates our commitment to the implementation of the digital railway and demonstrates our extensive capability to deliver advanced technology to the rail network. This is a testament to the quality of our engineering expertise delivered by our team on major technical programmes such as the Northern Hub.”