Delivering major rail programmes successfully requires far more than ambition or funding, it is the planning and setup that creates success.
From defining risk frameworks, building a skills pipeline or embedding digital tools, getting the fundamentals right determines whether a programme becomes a catalyst for growth or a case study in missed opportunity.
Gleeds has spent more than 150 years helping clients deliver complex infrastructure projects around the world. In the UK rail sector, it provides strategic advisory, cost management, project management and PMO services, accompanied with sustainability and digital tools that turn vision into value. Its teams support every stage of the journey, working across rail and light rail projects.
Building value through strong foundations
The company’s experience with transformative projects such as HS2 and Crossrail shows that success starts with robust foundations. A clear strategic setup ensures the benefits promised at the outset translate into real, measurable outcomes. For the North, this is particularly critical. A journey from Hull to Liverpool still exceeds five hours, longer than a trip from London to Paris. Projects like the Manchester to Liverpool railway can help alleviate this imbalance, fostering economic opportunity and social cohesion. The goal is not competition with London, but connection.
Creating equitable access to growth opportunities across all regions and linking the six Northern cities could boost productivity, attract private investment, all while building public confidence in the rail network. Yet this vision is only possible if the pitfalls of inconsistent planning and stop-start investments are avoided.
Fluctuations in national control period spending have created a destabilising boom-and-bust cycle across the rail supply chain. Deterring long-term innovation and skills investments, these cycles lead to redeployment, frozen graduate recruitment, and, in some cases, redundancies. Particularly when looking at SMEs providing specialist products and services. We must help clients mitigate these risks through early-stage certainty, strengthening the foundations of major rail programmes from conception through to delivery.
Decarbonisation
Rail is uniquely positioned to help the UK meet its net-zero commitments. Reopening lines, investing in light rail or shifting journeys from road and air to rail can cut emissions and drive regional regeneration. As the lowest-carbon form of mass transport, rail holds enormous potential, yet only if investment is sustained and strategic. Significant sections of the Northern network still rely on diesel traction. Electrification, hydrogen and battery innovation, and energy-efficient operations will all play a role. Success depends equally on robust programme confidence and a skilled workforce to deliver and maintain these systems. By integrating carbon performance tracking, lifecycle cost analysis and sustainability assurance from the outset, we can align infrastructure investment with environmental targets and long-term value.
Intelligent rail
The future of rail is digital. Smarter signalling, predictive maintenance and real-time data integration can dramatically improve efficiency and the passenger experience. Embedding digital systems from the start of a programme doesn’t just enhance performance, it reduces lifecycle costs. AI and data analytics are increasingly integral to this evolution, from scenario modelling and asset optimisation to risk prediction and project scheduling, AI-driven tools are enabling better, faster, evidence based decisions. Gleeds digital suite helps visualise cost and risk scenarios, track progress and optimise outcomes across the asset lifecycle.
Using real-time data to provide meaningful analysis and information bespoke to your needs and to each individual project.
The next generation
No rail system can thrive without skilled people. National Skills Academy for Rail (NSAR) and City and Guilds estimate around 50,000 engineers will retire over the next decade, not to mention, compounding shortages already caused by project delays and funding uncertainty. Sustaining growth, the sector will need between 10-12,000 new professionals each year, up to 120,000 by 2035. Key gaps already exist in planning, systems engineering, electrification, civils and operations, with thousands of vacancies remaining unfilled annually.
Light rail faces an even greater challenge, as dedicated apprenticeship standards only recently launched in 2025. Consequently, investment in graduate recruitment, apprenticeships and reskilling is essential. For SMEs, the backbone of regional delivery, upfront costs can be a barrier. We must look at options such as apprenticeship training agencies, supporting employers while creating valuable opportunities for young people to enter the industry.
Policy, however, is moving in the right direction. At the 2025 Labour Conference, the Prime Minister announced a new focus on ‘gold standard apprenticeships’ moving away from a one-size-fits-all university target for 50 per cent of young people to attend university. The ambition, two-thirds entering either higher education or highquality technical routes, signals a renewed commitment to vocational excellence and workforce development. And Gleeds is supporting this initiative, aiming to facilitate 150 new apprentices in 2026.
Leading-edge research
The North has always been the cradle of rail innovation. Today, it continues to pioneer new models of collaboration, funding and design. Local authorities are testing innovative light rail concepts and integrating digital modelling into their planning frameworks, while partnerships between industry and academia are accelerating research and skills development.
The region’s universities, Huddersfield, Sheffield and Newcastle among them, form the backbone of the £92 million UK Rail Research and Innovation Network (UKRRIN), driving postgraduate training and applied research. Meanwhile, the University of Leeds’ £10 million High Speed Rail Institute strengthens the UK’s national competitiveness, anchoring world-class capability in the North. Our close collaboration with these ecosystems integrates research with our expertise in commercial strategy, sustainability and digital innovation. The result: major programmes that are both future-ready and grounded in value methodologies.
Conclusion
So, what’s next? The North’s rail renaissance will be built on five essential pillars: value, decarbonisation, digitalisation, people and innovation. Success is not measured purely by faster journeys, but by the opportunities they unlock. Linking communities, supporting local economies and driving inclusive, low-carbon growth.
Gleeds is proud to work alongside city regions and infrastructure bodies to shape the frameworks, skills planning and digital tools that underpin successful delivery. Forming strategy with sustainability, digital integration, whilst investing in the right people, we can create a network that truly connects us. Economically, socially and sustainably. Done right, rail is far more than transport infrastructure.
Originally published in the 12th edition of Rail Professional magazine in January 2026.
