Borderlands rolling stock optioneering

Transport for Wales were investigating opportunities to improve the service provision on the Borderlands line between Wrexham and Bidston by increasing the service frequency, reducing the journey time to 1 hour, and extending the service into Liverpool.

IPEX were engaged to provide optioneering of the possible rolling stock to assess the feasibility of the project. Rolling stock under consideration included in-service and new build, with recommendations for innovative modifications where applicable. Our consultants developed a list of mandatory and non-mandatory requriements for the rolling stock options to be assessed against. The mandatory requirements provided a pass/fail criteria, and the non-mandatory requirements were weighted to provide a quantitative score for each option.

Our bespoke evaluation tool allowed us to address specific challenges such as the need to be self-powered over the non-electrified Borderlands line whilst meeting the restrictions on diesel traction in the Mersey tunnel.

Our recommendations were taken forward for review by the Welsh Government, and the project has progressed for further investigation.