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ARQ – an electrifying partnership to Renew focus on UK rail decarbonisation A new collaborative partnership, comprising three leading rail companies within the Renew Holdings Group, has been launched to help accelerate the decarbonisation of the UK rail industry
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RQ, which consists of AmcoGiffen, REL (Rail Electrification Limited) and QTS, provides a truly integrated self-delivery model for the UK rail network in addressing ambitious electrification and decarbonisation targets set by government and Network Rail. With the aim of removing all dieselonly trains by 2041, and a legally binding commitment to Net Zero by 2050, decarbonisation is huge focus for the entire industry, recognising that, collectively, it must do more over the next 30 years to be part of the solution to climate change. According to Network Rail, to decarbonise the UK rail network completely, 13,000 single track kilometres (approximately 450 kilometres per year) of track will need to be electrified by 2050 to achieve Net Zero. However, it has been identified that from 2019-2020 only 251 kilometres was electrified. ARQ therefore aims to play a key role in accelerating this change, helping Network Rail in its response to the UK decarbonisation agenda within the country’s rail infrastructure. Individually, each of the businesses coming together to create ARQ have been enabling electrification programmes across the UK throughout Control Periods 5 and 6. All three companies, including REL, the latest acquisition, are subsidiaries of Renew Holdings, a unique family of businesses providing multi-disciplinary engineering services through independent brands supporting essential UK infrastructure. Andries Liebenberg, Executive Director responsible for Renew Holdings’ rail activities, says: ‘The Department for Transport (DfT), Transport Scotland (TS) and Transport for Wales (TfW), via Network Rail, have set very demanding targets for the industry via the recently launched Decarbonisation Strategy. One of the key challenges is that of affordability.
It is clear that the rate of cost increase on typical electrification projects is no longer sustainable. In addition, development life cycles are getting longer while not always delivering the desired outcomes. ‘ARQ has the ambition to be an integral part of the solution and the future of decarbonisation of the UK rail network. ‘This is a partnership that is ideally structured to meet the targets which have been set to the industry by Network Rail. ARQ’s significant differentiator is that it will work in partnership as a unified family of companies, each bringing their unique skills and self-delivering the broad scope of what makes up any rail system. ‘ARQ offers a complete delivery model with a flat structure and reporting lines, with directly employed specialist teams,
supported by our extensive plant fleet. Through this, it has the ability to reduce or remove the often-complex contracting models, which can add unnecessary layers of cost and risk to any programme. ‘ARQ is already embracing Project SPEED, applying it to schemes currently in development and delivery. This distinct, agile structure and direct delivery model has been well received, with the early signs proving to be very positive.’ The new partnership is led by Vinny O’Holloran, who joins from Costain Group where he was project director within its rail division for six years. Having worked on projects such as Queen Street Station and Stirling-Dunblane-Alloa, Vinny brings considerable experience to this newly created role as Director, responsible for
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