Four decades of policy shaping projects

As we near Steer Davies Gleave’s 40th anniversary we look back and reflect on some of the company’s most significant projects. Projects that have helped shape transport policies globally.

Four decades of successfully delivering policy-shaping projects make for a lot of projects! Too many to be able to cover them all here. So instead, this article focuses on a few key projects Steer Davies Gleave has been involved in over the years, and analyses their strategic importance.

Illustrative key projects

Advisors to London’s major new developments, since 1985 to date.

We continue our 30-year relationship with the Canary Wharf Group, supporting the evolution of the existing Canary Wharf estate and its expansion onto new sites. Over the years we have advised on the estate’s strategic transport links including the role and value of Crossrail and now we look to the future to keep growing the number of people working on the estate from the existing 110,000. We continue to support the implementation of the outline consent at Wood Wharf and the construction of the Shell Centre on the South Bank next to the London Eye on the River Thames.

We have maintained our 20-year relationship with the redevelopment of the Battersea Power Station site earmarked by Margaret Thatcher for development in the 1980s. We have worked on each proposal and supported the successful development, now finally under construction, which will see over 3,500 new homes and a new commercial and leisure destination for London.

We led the developments and arguments for the extension of the Northern Line, securing private sector, London and national government support. We have also helped Transport for London understand the development potential of future extensions of the Elizabeth Line and the Bakerloo Line.

European Union Transport Services Policy, since 1990 to date

We have been providing support to the European Commission on rail freight and passenger matters, aviation and coach for over a decade.

Our work on rail policy is a good example of our ability to assimilate a range of perspectives, international experiences and distil key policy choices. We have researched the deregulation of the European rail services market for the Commission on four occasions, providing our assessment of progress, barriers and opportunities. Our work has considered passenger rights, the role of the European Rail Agency, Network Management Statements and the organisation of railway entities in Member States to support the ambition of open access rail services.

New high speed rail company in Italy, 2009 to 2015

We have provided technical support to a new privately owned high speed rail company operating in Italy since April 2012 under open access licensing arrangements. Our work involved the verification of the company’s business plan, assistance in the choice of the type of rolling stock, and monitoring its procurement.

Development of the USA’s North East Corridor, 2011 to date

We were appointed by Amtrak as part of team to support its development of proposals for the future of the USA’s most congested rail corridor serving freight, intercity and commuter railroads in five states and linking the key cities of Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.

We developed ridership and capacity forecasts and capacity scenarios for different infrastructure capabilities and alignments, advised on rolling stock solutions and contributed to the financing and economic analysis of the scenarios.

A new model for Brazil’s railways, 2014/15 

We worked with two Federal agencies on the detailed development of the government’s policy for increasing competition in the vertical concession structure of Brazil’s railroads. Offering insights from other railway structures, we provided advice and support on practical issues of inter-operability, access agreements, capacity allocation, freight tariff s and access charging.

As government policy changed from an open access model to a hybrid, we were on hand to offer practical support for development and implementation of the political aspiration.

Colombia’s new intermodal transport masterplan, 2015

We have provided technical advisory services for the development of a demand transport model of the country. Its aim is to evaluate scenarios that incorporate infrastructure projects, in order to build Colombia’s Intermodal Transport Master Plan (Plan Maestro de Transporte Intermodal). A government initiative, this is based on a methodology for prioritising infrastructure projects with a strategic goal of supporting national socioeconomic development. The aim is that the network efficiently connects cities and areas of production and consumption, maximising the benefit on the national economy.

UK National Infrastructure Commission and London’s Infrastructure Need Assessment, 2015

Working for the newly formed UK National Infrastructure Commission, we reviewed the case for large scale transport infrastructure investment in London, including a review of the case for the investment in Crossrail 2. Our recommendations on the priorities for development of London’s infrastructure, the strategic and economic case for Crossrail 2, and the delivery mechanisms needed to secure large-scale housing delivery were adopted by the Commission.

Development and management of transport infrastructure in Mexico, 2015/16

Appointed by the Federal Government’s Treasury Ministry we are working with partners on a broad and detailed review of how Mexico’s road, railroad, ports and mass transit infrastructure investments are identified, prioritised, developed, procured, constructed and then operated and maintained.

Engaging with public and private sector investors, contractors, concessions, development banks and other government departments, we have developed with our partners a comprehensive understanding of the issues and compared these with an extensive international best practice review of infrastructure development.

We are now moving forward on developing new methodologies and process re-design to give greater assurance on project delivery (cost, time and quality) and assurance of investment outcomes after completion.

UK’s new Transport for the North organisation, 2015/16

The North of England has been lagging behind the rest of the United Kingdom and it is the government’s goal to turn this around through creating a Northern Powerhouse, which builds on the North’s latent strengths to accelerate its growth. Improved transport connectivity has been identified as one of the key building blocks to realising this goal.

We have been working with a new body – Transport for the North – since its inception to help shape the transport strategy and programme that will underpin the North’s future economic growth.

Review of the future for UK’s Network Rail, 2016

The UK Government appointed Nicola Shaw to make recommendations on the future financing and funding of Network Rail, Great Britain’s national rail infrastructure owner/manager.

As Nicola’s technical advisors we provided expert advice on railway management including safety management, capacity allocation and change management.

We developed an implementation change programme assessment for various scenarios and provided expert ‘test and challenge’ to the Report team’s emerging recommendations.

What are the underlying similarities?

As you can see there has been an array of exciting projects over the last few years, which continue to demonstrate our ability to work on complex and oft en politically sensitive policy choices for the development of transport services and city infrastructure.

I spoke with colleagues to ask them for their reflections on the success factors for these challenging assignment and the lessons we have learned for us and our clients in doing them.

Marco Concari, leader of our Italian business summarised it as: “Across the projects I work on, I see growing recognition of the importance of planning infrastructure and services better. Politi cal pressure to ‘cut ribbons at opening ceremonies’ will remain but there is growing evidence that the officials and the electorate want good value, sustainable and deliverable transport solutions.”

What are the factors for SDG’s success in delivering for our clients?

In Mexico our country leader, Liliana Pereira identified SDG’s ability to integrate our insights and skills from across the company – “Unlike some larger international companies we don’t have the institutional barriers to resourcing projects and bringing expertise to bear. Employee ownership means we very much see it as ‘we are all in this together’ and that is demonstrated by sustainable commitment to projects over many months and years.”

And the forty-year perspective? Jim Steer, our founder, puts it down to maintaining absolute clarity on the policy objectives and on real world risks and uncertainty. “Economic outcomes are always central in transport decisions, but so too are understanding customers and markets and operational realities” he says. Jim attributes this focus to our independence from downstream construction interests and the passion that can only come from a dedicated set of professionals committed to the very best in transport-related decisions. These are key company att ributes.

Here’s to the next generation of challenging projects and policy choices. This consultant for one is looking forward to the challenge.