Earlier this year Darren Reed was appointed WSP’s executive managing director for its Transport and Infrastructure business in the UK and Ireland. Today he talks to Infrastructure Intelligence about the sector’s future – and its challenges.

It is clear the government has made transport a key priority.

Earlier this year it gave the green-light to more than 50 road and rail schemes including the long awaited A66 Northern Trans-Pennine route and the Portishead to Bristol city centre rail line. It has announced £15.6bn of funding for local transport projects in England’s city regions and committed to the Transpennine Route Upgrade and East West Rail.

But while it is a sector hoping to move at pace, it’s also one continuing to face challenges, says Darren Reed, WSP’s executive managing director for its Transport and Infrastructure business in the UK and Ireland.

“While we continue to see modest growth in transport, there’s still a degree of uncertainty in the market,” he said.

“We're not seeing the bold investment programmes that we've seen over the last 10 to 20 years, so it's very clear that there are fiscal constraints for the government plus the pandemic has impacted the way people travel and changed the priorities of the government’s investment programmes.”

The importance of the sector to WSP

WSP’s Transport and Infrastructure business employs 3,350 staff in the UK and Ireland working across road, rail, intelligent infrastructure (such as new technology and electric or automated vehicles), civil work and project management.

Already running WSP’s Project Management and Commercial Management (PMCM) and Rail businesses, Reed stepped into his expanded role in May – the next step in his 25-year career with the company.

WSP is currently working a host of significant transport projects including the Scheme Delivery Framework (SDF) with National Highways, a six-year framework where WSP is covering highway renewal projects in the South-east, South-west, Eastern and North-west regions.

It is working with Transport Scotland on the strategically important A83  trunk road upgrade, which includes work at the Rest and Be Thankful pass, which is prone to landslides.

In the rail sector it is heavily involved as technical partner for East West Rail and delivering phase two from Bedford to Cambridge along with HS2 where it is involved with work on rail systems and Old Oak Common and Curzon Street station. WSP is also working on the tender design for a brand new metro system in Dublin.

Policy changes powering infrastructure development

Reed says the creation of the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) along with publication of the Infrastructure Pipeline are also wins for the sector.

“The creation of NISTA and its vision for a unified infrastructure strategy is something we really support and are eager to collaborate with. To be able to articulate a £725bn predictable pipeline is terrific and it’s clear there will be significant investment in energy and water alongside of transport.

“It’s important to bring private finance into these project as that’s the only way to enable a lot of these programmes happen. A pipeline gives industry confidence,  a plan and a willingness to invest in supporting the development of that plan.”

Challenges that still remain

But Reed says there are still challenges when it comes to the delivery of large, expensive infrastructure projects.

“It is clear that when it comes to the industry's ability to deliver big infrastructure programmes on cost and time, there is a confidence challenge with government in a lot of ways. As an industry we need to meet that challenge.

“As we go through the business case cycle of developing big infrastructure programmes, we need to be better at managing uncertainty and being very clear with everyone about what those uncertainties are so that we can manage and mitigate them.

“I think as an industry we're not as focused on that as we are on the deterministic estimated outcomes. I think we could be a lot smarter in the way we manage that and communicate with all stakeholders to get better outcomes.

“It’s also important to have good, timely decision making because time is money and often, we just need to get back to the real basics of what we're trying to achieve.

“In 10 years’ time, the cost of a project will be different because of inflation, the price of steel might be significantly more, energy costs might have changed - all of those things have a massive impact on infrastructure programmes and we just don't do a very good job in articulating that sometimes.”

Speeding up the planning process

The government is also making moves to speed up the delivery of new infrastructure with the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which is currently making its way through parliament.

“It’s going to be a really crucial step,” said Reed, “and will enable us to accelerate critical infrastructure projects and streamline the planning process which has been an encumbrance to major programmes. But we must still make sure environmental safeguards are in place .

“If we can accelerate delivery then it will actually make our infrastructure programmes cheaper to deliver.”

Taking the long-term view

HS2 remains one of the country’s most significant infrastructure projects. While it has come in for much criticism for its rising costs and timescale delays with chief executive Mark Wild currently in the midst of a major reset of the project, Reed says it is important to take a long-term view on large-scale developments.

“It is positive the government has committed to HS2 phase one, which is a massive financial investment. I think it’s going to be transformational project and one that’s going to be great for the country.

“The amount of work that’s going on day-to-day is actually mind blowing in terms of the size of the project.”

He said as seen with the development of London’s Elizabeth line, which faced significant criticism during its construction phase for major delays and budget overruns but has since become a success story surpassing passenger projections, the real story of HS2 will take time to be told.

“We don’t talk enough about the benefits of our infrastructure projects. Often, they open, and everyone moves on. But who would have thought that the Elizabeth line would now account for one in six of all UK rail journeys or would help create 55,000 new homes and a huge employment boost.

“We don’t talk enough about the return for the investment. Yes, the Elizabeth line took longer than planned and was challenging, as many infrastructure projects are.

“But the social, economic and environmental benefits we are seeing now are incredible and it has been transformational for London and the wider Greater London area.

“I’ve every confidence the programme is going in the right direction, and the ultimate outcome will be a positive one.”

Taking the train

While both new policies and new projects will change the way we travel in the future, for Reed the train remains at the top of his list.

“I always travel by train when I can,” he said. “I’ve spent so much of my career in transport – highways, aviation and rail.

“Despite all the challenges, rail has remained as relevant today as it was when it started 200 years ago, transforming our country and our economy. The Victorians’ development of the railways created connectivity that was unheard of.

“When I travel or go to a new city, I’ll always try to jump on the train or metro to see how they’re doing somewhere else. The future for rail is exciting.”