East West Rail is a nationally significant UK railway project which aims to deliver much-needed transport connections for communities between Oxford and Cambridge. East West Rail aims to become a net zero carbon railway by the time passenger services run all the way along the East West Rail line from Oxford to Cambridge. 

To support the significant infrastructure investment, the project required a rolling stock strategy that would align with the wider electrification strategy, and ensure that the key objectives of the project could be met in terms of journey times, frequency and capacity. 

We were engaged as the engineering partner and collaborated with the client to develop the rolling stock systems strategy for fleet procurement. ​This involved developing the interim fleet requirements and working closely with all the related design stakeholders.​ This work led to the formation of a long-term fleet strategy​. 

Our team also produced papers on fleet procurement options, train configurations, interdependency matrix of key technical decisions, operational concept decisions, carbon emission projections and other elements of the programme. Ultimately we were able to develop the initial train reference layouts and are working towards the Train Technical Specification (TTS) which will form a cornerstone of the procurement document set. 

Our support was comprehensive and aimed to prioritise getting passenger services up and running as quickly as possible. We also wanted to give the East West Railway Company valuable time to explore a wider range of green energy technologies to power their trains. This would ensure any new lines were integrated within sustainability goals on the network.

We also wanted to enable a smoother transition to electrification across the whole East West Rail line, from Oxford to Cambridge, should this be chosen as a longer-term solution.