Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) West is an alliance across a range of stakeholders, composed of BAM Nutall, Network Rail, Arup, Amey, D2Rail and Siemens, actively working towards a multi-billion-pound rail programme. As part of the alliance, the team is motivated in creating a one-team culture by democratising data and insights, and leveraging them to deliver this complex programme rail improvement programme between Manchester and Leeds on time, to rigorous quality standards and within budget.
Upgrading existing railway systems is a daunting task that involves balancing live traffic with carefully orchestrated closures to ensure minimal disruption to the daily commute of thousands of people. Railway upgrades are necessary to ensure that the increasing demand for low-carbon commutes is met.
In an industry of intense competition, delivering railway upgrades carries significant risk. Missed deadlines can trigger a range of negative effects, from lost revenue for the operators to damaged reputation for the contractor, subsequently impacting their ability to secure future work. Such delays also impact the overall carbon footprint of public commute, since rail is three times greener than other alternative means of transport. In the case of the TRU West project, a single day in delay can mean an additional 2.3 tonnes of carbon is added to the environment.

TRU West was facing a challenging task, coordinating several line closures during the upgrade of over 76 miles of track, 25 stations, and a total of almost 300 bridges, viaducts, and tunnels. The project’s span made it an even more challenging task, with work across several sites over the UK.
This resulted in a schedule composed of over 26,000 activities, broken down into 4 interconnected parts and spanning over 10 years. The complex nature of the dependencies - typical in any large engineering project - crystallised the challenges of the team early on.