Scott Wilson's Track Changes
08 January 2006 10:41
Scott Wilson Railways is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. In August 1995 Scott Wilson, the parent group, acquired the Swindon and Glasgow based Civil Engineering Design Offices of the former British Railways with 180 staff. At this time Scott Wilson Railways was predominantly a civil engineering based company (with four associated disciplines) operating within the UK, on largely local markets. Now in 2006, together with the Scott Wilson Group, the company has grown to more than 20 disciplines, 430 staff and six offices, has worked in 35 countries and has a turnover in excess of £35 million.
Focus on major projects is reflected by a current workload including no fewer than eleven major projects with a capital value in excess of £350 million and a total combined capital expenditure forecast in excess of £45 billion.
On 1st May 2005, Keith Wallace succeeded Hugh Blackwood as Chief Executive who, after ten years with Railways moves up to become the Scott Wilson Group Joint Chief Executive. Keith has spent his career in the railway industry having joined British Rail as a sponsored railway civil engineering student in 1980, moved into consultancy in 1989, joined Scott Wilson in 1993 as their only railway specialist and later helped to create Scott Wilson Railways. A chartered engineer and a chartered director, Keith's responsibility now lies with directing one of the railway industry's leading consultants whom consider their key strength to be delivering a truly multidisciplinary service. "We would consider ourselves to be market leaders in three areas, the first being technical due diligence on major PFI's. We are currently acting as advisers to the banks on Europe's three largest rail PFI projects. The second being technical support on heavy rail parliamentary bills / transport and works orders. We have delivered six projects in the last three years of this nature. The final area we would consider ourselves to be market leaders in is UK track renewals design. Currently we have the largest track design team in the UK," says Keith.
In the last ten years the company has secured numerous prestigious projects both in the UK and overseas including the West Coast Main Line, Channel Tunnel Rail Link, Heathrow Express, Thameslink 2000, S&C Renewals design work in Great Western and Southern territories, HSL Zuid Line in the Netherlands, Athens Metro Lines 2 and 3 Extensions in Greece and Melbourne Metro in Australia. Current commissions include the London Victoria station upgrade, Edinburgh Airport Rail Link, Edinburgh Tram, modernisation of West Coast Main Line, and Jamaica North and South Manchester Mine Development.
"Edinburgh Airport Rail Link, the work we are undertaking on Trent Valley four tracking on the West Coast Main Line and the Victoria station upgrade are all exciting and demanding projects which all draw on our ability to manage multi-disciplinary teams drawn from our own and partners' offices." says Keith. Edinburgh Airport is a very challenging scheme, which will witness the main Edinburgh to Glasgow and Edinburgh to Fife lines being diverted under the runway. "The creation of the rail link will help transform public transport provision in Central Scotland," says Keith.
Modernisation of the 401-mile West Coast Main Line route between London and Glasgow is the largest rail project in the UK, at a cost of approximately £8 billion. This route development programme delivered by Network Rail is the largest engineering project of its type in Europe, with some 1,255km of track being renewed in addition to the upgrade. Scott Wilson Railways has been involved in this major project since July 1998, acting as the multi functional consultant, developing outline proposals for major capacity scheme enhancements at Rugby, Trent Valley and Nuneaton. Currently Scott Wilson is working on Trent Valley four tracking valued at £350 million and involving 12 miles of new railway and 55 bridges, this scheme will increase the capacity of the line between Tamworth station and Armitage junction. Scott Wilson are acting as the multi functional consultant and designers for the scheme.
Scott Wilson was awarded the RIBA stage D design contract for the London Victoria station upgrade project in June 2005. This £500 million project to increase the capacity of the station is part of Transport for London's five-year investment programme, and is being managed, distinct from the PPP contract, by the LUL Strategy and Service Development team. "This commission will involve challenging current concept designs, presenting design options and developing a final design," says Keith.
Scott Wilson Railways' first ten years have undoubtedly been a success. The five year strategic plan set in 2001 aimed to double the business in that time frame. This was achieved by organic growth in two and a half years. As the new Chief Executive, Keith faces yet another challenging future with a three-year plan soon to be launched. This plan will aim to double current turnover in three years. "Since 1995 we have forged a new culture, drawing on strengths of the group and our British Rail heritage," says Keith. "This has brought considerable praise from clients, with whom we are continually working to maintain and develop relationships. Relationships are also vital in working with our partners to enhance our total service. This is reflected in us currently having our biggest ever order book. Which in turn will allow us to further develop and grow the business, providing exciting opportunities for our staff. We are proud to be a leading provider of multi-disciplinary consultancy services in the UK and we look forward to an exciting future for our clients, staff and partners, here and internationally."
For more information on this company:
Scott Wilson - International Multi-disciplinary Railway Consultancy
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