Liverpool to Manchester rail plan isn’t just about building a railway, says Colette Carroll

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Campbell Gibson

Senior Advisor, External Relations, London contact form+44 7825 074315

Colette Carroll OBE AtkinsRéalis' managing director for Transportation, is a partner member of the Liverpool-Manchester Railway Board and recently spoke to the New Civil Engineer about how the plans to connect the two north west cities are not just about building a railway.

Greater Manchester and Liverpool mayors Andy Burnham and Steve Rotherham established the board last May to develop proposals for a new high-speed railway to link Liverpool and Manchester as part of Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR).

The partnership board is made up of 19 stakeholder members to assist the core board of Burnham and Rotherham’s regional council members and rail minister Lord Hendy.

Speaking to NCE, AtkinsRéalis transportation managing director Colette Carroll explained how the range of stakeholders in the partnership board meetings has made them realise the scale of what they are doing.

“If you look at who they’ve got around the table to discuss how we do this is, we’re not talking about a railway,” she explained.

“We’re talking about how do you optimise the economic future of the north west?

“What are the component parts to that? Whether that’s around economic development, economic growth – regional growth doesn’t come about by having an isolated railway over there […] It’s not just, ‘here’s a bit of track and OLE [overhead line equipment] design’.”

As it’s still the early stages in the project, the development is taking more of a holistic approach to thinking about what it wants to achieve and deliver.

“This kind of problem articulation isn’t just about a railway,” Carroll said. “It’s about a set of outcomes that are about the prosperity of the north west.

“[It’s about the] lives that we want people to have and live in those communities in the next 30 to 40 years.”

This board has not only senior members from civil engineering firms but also from a wide variety of organisations that will be involved with efforts to connect the two key north west cities.

“It’s utterly fascinating who they brought together,” Carroll admitted. “You’ve got people like us, Mott MacDonald and Arup, but you’ve also got energy companies in there, you’ve got construction, you’ve got developers, you’ve got academia, you’ve got the charity sector. You’ve got this really interesting group which is a microcosm of the purpose of a railway.”

The original Liverpool to Manchester Railway was the first inter-city railway in the world, opening on the 15 September 1830. It was also the first railway to rely exclusively on steam locomotives, designed by “the father of railways”, George Stephenson. Built as a faster method to transport raw materials and finished goods from the Port of Liverpool, passengers used the service too.

While the board is maybe not aiming for the innovation the original line achieved, it wants it to achieve a similar amount of opportunity for the region with the new Manchester to Liverpool railway.

“[We’re thinking about], ‘actually, what do you need to connect?’ and, really importantly, ‘why do you need to connect?’,” Carroll said. “You’re connecting people with place, you’re connecting people with opportunity, whether that’s opportunities for jobs, for leisure, for family, for education and for skills development.”