Making rail work better

The Central Railway Systems Alliance (CRSA) brings together the collective strength of the four parent companies – AtkinsRéalis, Balfour Beatty, Network Rail and TSO – to develop, design and deliver rail systems renewals and railway enhancement projects across the large geographic regions of the North West and Central and Eastern Regions, from London to the Scottish Border.

This alliance provides us the unique opportunity to be involved in design and delivery on some of the UK’s most exciting rail systems renewals and enhancement projects, and the variety of work provides a once in a lifetime opportunity for exciting career development. The CRSA has a fully committed workbank and is contracted until at least 2029.

Our Permanent Way engineers provide designs from concept and early feasibility, consultancy-based advice for any Rail-related project work, through to detailed designs and management of implementation for Permanent Way, providing site support where necessary.

Our capability covers all modes of railway including Transport and Works Acts / Development Consent Orders, domestic renewals, journey time improvements, enhancements, high speed, heavy, metro and light rail and features open route alignment and switch & crossings (S&C), plain line, new stations, depot design, track formation, track drainage design and various types of concrete slab track systems. Our delivery teams also have extensive experience in gauging for enhanced route clearance assessments and line speed improvement schemes. We also have significant track asset management expertise including certified staff for track inspection for both plain line and switch and crossings (S&C), track monitoring and critical rail temperature management (CRT management).

Our signalling capability creates a fantastic differentiator over our traditional competitors and allows us to develop deep and meaningful relationships with Network Rail, the biggest customer in our UK business. The vast experience across the business means AtkinsRéalis has the very best team of consultants who are able to understand the big issues facing the UK Transportation sector and turn this into solutions that are applicable to the UK's Railway Signalling and Communications needs. By investing in our delivery and technology capability we have the potential and opportunity to delight our customer today and in the future, by delivering what we promise on time and within budget.

AtkinsRéalis Signalling Business sits within the UK Transportation division of AtkinsRéalis. Whilst delivering Railway Signalling and Communications Design and Build, it also contains Highways Intelligent Transportation Systems (SMART motorway signalling design) and Heathrow Airport Communications systems maintenance and management – bringing truly cross-sector experience to the business.

The business has its own dedicated Commercial, Programme, Project and Planning management teams – able to draw on the vast wealth of experience from across the rest of AtkinsRéalis, but also equipped with the specifics required for the Signalling Design & Build market.

AtkinsRéalis was one of the pioneers in using overseas design offices, starting with Sharjah but now focusing its efforts on two Global Technology Centres (GTC) in Bangalore and Delhi – within these offices there are over 100 Signalling and Communications Designers and Engineers who are focused on supporting the UK team – from traditional signalling design, through CCTV systems, to EN50128-related activities in support of our AtkinsRéalis Signalling Method and our Future Signalling System “product” (more on this later). The GTC now offers a PMO, providing lots of back office support to the Signalling Business from planning to collation and analysis of data around trends and performance feedback, for example.

In the UK we have around 100 Signalling and Railway Comms designers; based out of five major hubs in Glasgow, York, Birmingham, Swindon and Croydon – providing UK-wide coverage. In addition to the Design team we have around 50 Engineering Managers and Project Engineers – including the Technical Investigation Centre in Crewe which has a contract until 2029 with Network Rail to undertake analysis of signalling and communications equipment involved in service-affecting failures.

Where AtkinsRéalis differs from its engineering design house peers is in our ability to manage and verify the Construction, Installation and Testing of Railway Signalling and Telecommunications. With some 50 Construction Managers and 40 Testers, we have one of the UKs top capabilities in this area; we are revolutionising our approach to the use of supply chain, complementing our own in-house skills with a “managing contractor” approach to “boots on the ground delivery”. This approach allows us the flexibility to meet with our client's peaks and troughs in workload and much more seamlessly and efficiently deal with the changing geographies offered to us by the project pipeline.

Starting in 2015, AtkinsRéalis developed its own approach to UK Railway Signalling – called Future Signalling Systems by AtkinsRéalis – using the AtkinsRéalis Signalling Method and an array of products supplied by various OEMs; the most well-known of these products being a vital controller (interlocking) provided under licence from Alstom - ElectroLogIXS. We have thrown away the traditional approach to scheme development, design and data production and gained approval – and awards – for an EN50128 compliant process – providing many benefits including safety, repeatability and reuse, efficiency and therefore cost. Unlike other innovations and attempts to penetrate the UK signalling market, this is not a “one hit wonder” – the portfolio of projects is building from Old Oak Common depot, through Shepperton Branch, NYL, Feltham Phase 1 and in the pipeline Feltham Phases 2, 3 & 4 and East West Rail.

In addition to the new technologies, in March 2021 AtkinsRéalis commissioned the resignalled (and heavily remodelled) Clacton-On-Sea station area (SSI). We have also undertaken numerous level crossing works – from full renewal (Cuxton) to light intervention around life extension (Alrewas) and many in between.

Our Design and Engineering Management team provide a wealth of support to our wider UK Rail design offering around the signalling and communications aspects of multi-disciplinary projects work for major D&B companies including Buckingham Group, Volker Fitzpatrick (and Rail), and AMEY; with the ultimate accolade being part of the CRSA track alliance with Balfour Beatty and TSO.

Our civil and structural engineering teams are at the cutting-edge of delivering complex infrastructure on a wide range of schemes, including the projects highlighted above. Each project we work on provides its own challenges for our teams to explore, whether that be designing iconic landmark structures, or ensuring that the rail infrastructure we design is able to fit into the tight working and programme restrictions presented by the scheme.

We routinely explore new ways of using automated design tools to improve the accuracy and efficiency of what we do, and work with our delivery partners to design standardised components that are pushing the boundaries of what is possible through Design for Manufacture and Automation (DfMA).

Information Management is at the heart of what we do, working in 3D BIM models as standard, and helping our projects and clients understand the changing needs of the industry. We are committed to creating a measurable impact on carbon reduction, understanding that as designers of structures requiring carbon-intensive materials we are at the front line of the climate emergency and have a duty to up our game as an industry.