Rail Planning

Rail clients call on our planning expertise to help reduce costs and improve efficiency, while continuing to optimize performance and accommodate growing demand for both passengers and freight. Our innovative thinking and expert modelling skills ensure that we find strategies to help solve these problems.

"We are on the cusp of a revolution in transport, driven by technological change and opportunity, fuelled by socio-economic and personal needs," Giles Perkins, Technical Director in Transport Planning & Intelligent Transport at WSP.

WSP rail planners design to improve the world they travel themselves, taking into account environmental, social, political, and economic contexts. Good planning leads to effective rail transit investments that maximize customer potential while controlling costs. It can also ignite a community’s economic development.

Clients recognize us for our collaborative, comprehensive, environmentally sensitive, and cost-effective approach. Around the world, our rail engineering teams have extensive knowledge of region- and country-specific rail regulation and policies, from the US Federal Transportation Administration’s New Starts guidelines to European Union directives. We also have strong expertise in community, regional, environmental, smart growth, multimodal, and policy planning.

Thanks to WSP’s implementation plan to provide light rail transit, riders of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s (SFMTA) Central Subway will have a rapid, emission-free alternative to crowded buses and congested city streets by late 2019, reducing travel times and improving reliability in a densely populated area. In Honolulu, we supported transit authority on the financial planning and cost modelling for rail, bus and paratransit fleets.

As lead design consultant for the redevelopment of London Bridge station in the UK, our experts have been future-proofing the designs and using pedestrian-modelling analysis to accommodate demand for the next 60 years. On China’s Shenzhen Metro Line 3 extension project, we provided eco-transport and integrated regional planning for a cluster of 23 cities with 470 million urban residents, incorporating cutting-edge project management techniques, including the latest safety assurance concepts.

Our consultants offer strategic advice on rail engineering projects ranging from major investment studies to sustainable land use, from initial specification through to appraisal, evaluation and detailed design and implementation. WSP is always looking down the line for you.

Our services include:

• Environmental studies
• Major investment studies
• Sustainable land use and master plans
• Studies such as service quality, pedestrian circulation, site development assignments, major facility location and design
• Consensus-building 
• Assignments for metropolitan planning organizations
• Research and training assignments in transportation planning and programming, land use/transportation relationships, public involvement, air quality, intelligent transportation systems
• Travel Demand Forecasting
• Transit-oriented development
  
• Transport planning