Rethinking rail infrastructure: putting communities at the heart of Midlands Rail Hub
Event Details
With HS2 Phase 1 in full delivery mode and following the Government’s decision to cancel HS2 Phase 2, even more attention is being focussed on the Midlands Rail Hub.
It is the region’s biggest and most ambitious rail improvement scheme – a £900m – £1.5bn blueprint for faster, better and more frequent connections across the Midlands. It will add more than 14 million more seats on the rail network each year and provide faster, more frequent or new rail links for over 30 locations including Birmingham, Nuneaton, Worcester, Cardiff, Bristol, and Leicester. It will also bring 1.6 million more people to within an hour of the region’s biggest towns and cities by public transport. This event will look beyond the transport outputs, and ask how we can put communities at the heart of Midlands Rail Hub. What could the social, economic, and environmental outcomes of the project be, and how can the region maximise the resulting benefits?
This event follows Centre for the New Midlands round table with Midlands Connect on Midlands Rail Hub in October 2022, and Connections for Prosperity conference in July 2023, and will also be the launch of the Centre for New Midlands Infrastructure Leadership Board. The Board will focus on how we deliver sustainable and inclusive outcomes for the region through infrastructure. It will be considering infrastructure in its broadest sense (including transport, energy, water, build environment, and digital), and the intersections with the Centre’s other Boards (housing, digital, and skills) and the systems that make up the natural environment.
We are delighted to announce Andy Street CBE (Mayor of the West Midlands) as our keynote speaker. Following the Mayor’s speech, we will also welcome a panel to share their thoughts. Our panel will be chaired by Tim Fawcett (Chair of CNM Infrastructure Board and Birmingham Cities Lead, Mott MacDonald). Tim will be joined by Sandeep Shingadia (Director of Strategic Partnerships and Integration, Transport for West Midlands), Joanna Gilroy (Group Director of Sustainability, Balfour Beatty), Karen Heppenstall (Head of Rail, Midlands Connect) and Dr James Beard (Technical Director for Social Outcomes, Mott MacDonald).
This event has been generously sponsored by Midlands Rail Alliance, a partnership between Balfour Beatty, Skanska and Mott MacDonald.
The Midlands Rail Alliance describes itself as “leaders in the delivery of major complex railway enhancements, we are best placed to meet the needs of the people of the Midlands by delivering the Midlands Rail Hub efficiently and with minimum disruption”.