The railway business is estimated to be worth €100bn a year globally and is forecast to grow considerably over the next decade. Its efficiency, safety record and relatively low carbon emissions mean that its future looks good.
Arup’s contribution to major rail projects is unrivalled. Whether travelling between London and Paris at 300kph, along the airport railway in Hong Kong, through the Second Avenue Subway in New York, pulling into Florence high speed rail station or watching long-haul freight trains traverse Australia, Arup’s work can be seen by all.
Arup’s portfolio includes all modes of rail, ranging from high speed through to metros and urban transport systems. Services provided to the rail sector incorporate everything to ensure the successful planning, design and completion of economic, state of the art, sustainable rail systems.
High Speed Rail
Over 20 years, more than 1,600 Arup people contributed a collective 1,300 man years in designing and project managing all aspects of Europe’s High Speed 1 – the international rail link between London and mainland Europe.
The sheer scale of this project has allowed Arup to develop uniquely sophisticated strategic planning and project management capability and an astonishing diversity of specialisms, such as signalling, communications, acoustics, station design and tunnelling. This allows Arup to provide an integrated service to its clients through a multidisciplinary approach to all aspects of rail.
Sustainable mass transit
In Hong Kong, an inherently sustainable approach to mass transit station design can work for its users and for the environment. Arup’s award-winning design for Sunny Bay Station on the Mass Transit Disneyland Resort Line harnesses natural ventilation and daylight. The energy-efficient bioclimatic tent reduces energy consumption by 70%, compared with a traditional cooling system, and provides a fine water mist system for Hong Kong’s hottest days.
Transporting heavy haul
When a client in Australia needed advice on transporting iron ore and other heavy haul to processing plants, Arup’s logistics specialists helped it to minimise empty running and to ensure that rail cars operated at near-maximum capacity in both directions. The result was greatly improved efficiency of rail transport between the mines and processing plants, so extracting more value from existing assets.
Railway stations as destinations
The station is a gateway to places, other communities and nations. Good public transportation is a key facility for labour mobility and accessibility. The presence of a station can transform a neighbourhood and its prospects.
Stations can also be destinations in their own right. When Victorian-built St Pancras was modernised, the pulling power of Europe’s longest champagne bar marked the return of the glory days of rail travel – in the UK, at least.
An integrated approach to master and strategic planning and total rail infrastructure improvement programmes is the hallmark of Arup’s rail work.