Steer is delighted to announce the opening of a new office in Birmingham to add to its suite of UK-wide offices in London, Leeds, and Manchester. Steer now has 23 offices globally across Europe, North America, Latin America and India.
This new office forms part of Steer’s ambitious growth plans as well as extending our capability to serve clients throughout the Midlands and beyond. Steer is already actively advising clients across the region on a range of matters, including net zero carbon and sustainable transport and development solutions, the development of the regional economy and transport strategy.
Our aim is to build on this portfolio of work and continue to recruit new colleagues to join Simon Statham, who has recently joined Steer to take forward the development of our Midlands operations. Simon joins Steer from Midlands Connect (the sub-national transport body for the Midlands), where, as the Chief Technical Officer, he spent the last seven years building their now highly regarded technical function.
Steer's new office opens its new office in a beautiful Grade II listed period property on the iconic Colmore Row, just around the corner from Paradise Birmingham, one of the most exciting areas of regeneration in the city.
Hugh Jones, CEO, said:
We are hugely excited by the opportunity to deepen our relationship and commitment to the Midlands, and we look forward to welcoming new colleagues to Steer as we seek to make a greater contribution to the communities and economies of the Midlands’
A recently completed study, undertaken by Steer Davies Gleave on behalf of Birmingham City Council and Greengauge 21, shows that High Speed Rail has the potential to deliver significant benefits to the national economy, and to contribute to the regeneration of Birmingham and the West Midlands.
Following the success of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, further impetus has been given to the debate for a High Speed rail network in the United Kingdom. A High Speed corridor has been identified by Greengauge 21 between London and Birmingham/Manchester, including a spur to Heathrow.
High speed rail would represent a very significant transport investment with the potential to revolutionise travel between the West Midlands (and beyond), London and abroad. The journey time between London and Birmingham and Birmingham International could be reduced from the current 1 hour 20 minutes to around 45 minutes, with services also operating at a high frequency.
This scale of this improvement in connectivity would result in significant productivity gains to the national and regional economy, with overall GDP gains of over £5bn (2002 prices) forecast over a 60 year period, calculated in line with the Government`s `Wider Economic Benefits` (WEBs) Guidance.
A significant proportion of these benefits would accrue to Birmingham and the West Midlands, and in particular would support the expansion of the high value financial and business service sectors, with related spin off benefits to the property and retail sectors.
SDG project director Leo Eyles said: 'This study has demonstrated the potential for High Speed Rail to deliver significant economic benefits to the West Midlands and the UK as a whole, and to act as a catalyst for the regeneration of Birmingham.'
Greengauge Director Julie Mills said: 'This provides further strong evidence of the potential role high speed rail can play in supporting economic growth in the UK, and in stimulating regeneration in our major cities.'
The study findings are being reported at the Birmingham Rail Conference on Friday 13th June. A second phase of the study will focus on how High Speed Rail could integrate with, and support Birmingham`s long-term vision to deliver growth and prosperity and be a premier international business location.
We are delighted that Chris Hanley joins Steer as a Director in our London office as Joint Head of UK Planning.
Chris will work with other senior managers in the Planning business to provide leadership to the team, growing the business through delivering on strategic initiatives that strengthen our offer to clients.
Chris joins us from Wood Group UK Ltd, where he led the Places & Transport team for nearly 6 years. During this time, he helped to significantly diversify the company’s transport consultancy offer to clients.
Previously Chris has led both transport specific and multi-disciplinary projects bringing together expertise from transport, environment, masterplanning and design. Chris has over 18 years of transport and consultancy experience and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation.
On 1 July Steer Davies Gleave appointed six people from within the company to director - Jim Collins, Stephen Hewitt, Gloria Hutt, Alan Jones, Michael May and Roy McGowan.
Steer Davies Gleave CEO Stephen Crouch said: "These appointments reflect the tremendous contribution these key staff make to the company`s ongoing success".
With 36 years' experience across the industry in senior rail executive positions at British Rail, Network Rail, the SRA and MTRLaing, Jim Collins has an enviable reputation in the UK rail industry. As head of rail at Steer Davies Gleave, he regularly advises government, operators and other stakeholders on strategic rail matters.
Stephen Hewitt is head of our Projects Business Unit and is currently director of London's Cross River Tram scheme, which Steer Davies Gleave is project managing. Previously, he was Eurostar`s head of strategic planning and latterly head of London project development at RailTrack (Network Rail).
Gloria Hutt has been instrumental in growing the Latin America business from our base in Santiago. She oversees all our PPP work in the region, including the landmark Transmilenio urban transit project in Bogota.
With over 25 years' experience, Alan Jones is an expert in developing and delivering transport strategies and large urban transit projects in the UK and North America. Over the last two years Alan has led the company's expanding transportation and transit work in North America including projects in Sacramento, Portland, Vancouver and Edmonton.
Michael May has nearly 30 years' experience as civil engineer, transport strategist and project manager for major transport schemes. He led our work on the Cambridgeshire BRT scheme and East-West Rail project. In addition, he regularly advises local government across the UK on investment priorities.
Roy McGowan heads our Development Planning Business Unit. He has over 25 years' experience in transport planning. Roy developed the strategic transport plan for the London 2012 bid with TfL and continues to support the Olympic Delivery Authority. He has recently developed transport strategies for Arsenal`s Emirates Stadium, Wembley Stadium and the Victoria Transport Interchange master plan.
It is an exciting time to be involved in the US passenger rail market. With unprecedented Federal funding opportunities, and a growing acknowledgement of the benefits rail can provide, now may be a critical inflection point where world-class passenger rail becomes a reality for communities across the US.
On November 15, 2021, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) was signed. This led to the establishment of the FRA’s Corridor Identification and Development (CID) program with an aim of bringing world-class passenger rail services to regions across the US. The level of funding from this program is unprecedented, with $66bn in advanced appropriations provided for over the next four years. With the program now up and running and the first funding opportunities on the horizon, the time is now to think about how the US rail industry can make the most of this opportunity.
The CID program is being developed to provide a clear framework for the progression of proposed intercity passenger rail (IPR) services from initial conception through to implementation.
Following initial expressions of interest and the submittal of outline corridor proposals, the program sets out two key steps in the project planning phase:
Projects will be considered in the context of their ability to deliver sustainable long-term intercity passenger rail service that is safe, clean, and equitable. As such, in addition to understanding the key financial implications of any proposed service – costs, revenues, and long-term financial sustainability – the FRA also places material importance on wider strategic benefits, such as environmental impacts, wider economic benefits, and equity. The aim is not simply to progress projects that may be financially attractive but to understand the critical role that rail connectivity can play in our communities.
The FRA’s approach to the evaluation of proposed IPR services within the CID program is highly aligned with how Steer thinks about rail and wider infrastructure investments.
For any major investment where detailed scrutiny is rightly placed on the use of funds, a well-defined strategic assessment process is essential to allow for a rigorous, consistent, and transparent approach to the evaluation. At Steer, we term this Structured Decision-Making.
Structured Decision-Making is the systematic application of principles, tools, and processes to support decision-makers in navigating complex infrastructure and policy decisions. It does so by:
The FRA’s first evaluation step of scoping and project initiation is set up to ensure program participants have the appropriate foundations in place to progress the development of the project. Having a well-defined Structured Decision-Making process will not only benefit applicants by enabling critical project development decisions to be made consistently and efficiently but also demonstrate readiness to the FRA and provide confidence in the ability of the applicant to move forward in the program.
This approach can then also flow seamlessly into the FRA’s second evaluation step – the preparation of the SDP itself. Through having clearly defined goals and objectives, and a robust evaluation framework, the basis for making project development decisions becomes clearer, enabling a more efficient SDP development process. Determining critical output factors; demonstrating project value; achieving stakeholder buy-in; and agreeing on the overall project direction – all can be facilitated through this lens of Structured Decision-Making.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the responsibility delegated to the FRA as it relates to the Corridor Identification and Development Program provide the platform for material beneficial investment in the country’s transportation infrastructure.
The principles Steer champions of Structured Decision-Making align perfectly with this program, and we are excited to help potential program participants to realize their ambitions for their communities.
Please get in touch if you would like to talk about the FRA program and how Steer can help.
Steer, a global independent consultancy, is announcing the expansion of its United States offices with two new locations in Oakland and Sacramento, California. The new locations add to the presence in the United States with local offices in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Pittsburgh, and Washington. Steer now has 26 offices globally across Europe, North America, Latin America and India.
The new offices in Northern California are part of an ongoing commitment to clients and the communities served by Steer in the mega-region. Through investing in spaces that enable creativity and ingenuity, Steer seeks to attract more people to its growing team. Being close to clients and adding more local insight is a primary aim for the consultancy.
Importantly, Steer remains committed to bringing the best to clients anywhere in the world. The new locations will help channel expertise locally and continue to solve complex problems for clientele in the mega-region such as California High Speed Rail Bay, Caltrans, Sacramento Area Council of Governments and California Air Resources Board, Caltrain, Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Bay Area Rapid Transit.
“This is a natural step for a growing business to take,” said Alasdair Dawson, Regional Director for Steer in North America. “We are fortunate to be involved in some of the Bay Area’s most intractable problems and our teams enjoy those unique challenges. We also recognize that professionals here have experience and expertise that applies to our other clients nationally and internationally. We see our additional locations as conduits to bring more of Steer to our clients in interesting and creative ways.”
Focused on sustainability and operating as a Net Zero Carbon company by 2025, Steer’s new offices provide:
For a listing of current openings in our new offices please visit the Careers section of our website: https://apply.workable.com/steer-group/#jobs
For interviews or more information, please do get in touch:
Alasdair Dawson, Regional Director for North America, Steer
t +1 604 393 8023
e [email protected]
Elisa Tejedor, Director, Steer
t +1 213 259 6200
e [email protected]
To address the challenges highlighted by COP27, Steer invited global industry leaders to share actionable steps and insights that governments, organisations and individuals can implement to achieve the Net Zero goals set out by the UN in a series of online webinars.
Event summaries and on-demand videos for each session are now available. Topics covered:
We commenced the week by asking the fundamental question of whether pragmatic compromises are key to delivering Net Zero and whether we should be pushing ourselves to think outside the box. Our speakers Gloria Hutt and Jane Stevensen were joined by over 150 people to discuss whether Net Zero can be achieved without a radical overhaul of global behaviours.
Steer Davies Gleave has been commissioned by AVEP to undertake an 8-month study to investigate the most appropriate business model to deliver a new international rail station on the Madrid-Lisbon high speed line.
The new station, located on the border, will be managed jointly between the two countries and will serve Badajoz in Spain and Elvas in Portugal, which are less than 10km apart.
Appropriate business models, contracting and finance will be investigated to ensure that the appropriate laws and regulations of both countries are met. The study will benchmark models used in similar international developments and use this information to identify and define the most appropriate business models which could be applied.
Are our Net Zero ambitions getting in the way of investments?
Our second session in this Movement Matters Net Zero series focused on the question of whether our Net Zero ambitions are getting in the way of investments. Lauren Pamma of the Green Finance Institute examined how private finance can contribute to public policy goals, the emerging global experience of bringing ZEVs and infrastructure into service, and what it means for future success. Lauren was joined by Christian Velasco of AMP Capital, Luis Andres Alandia of Proparco and Daniel Pulido of the International Finance Corporation.
Yes, you are in the right place. After 40 years, we have changed our name from Steer Davies Gleave to mark our growing international footprint and our expanding portfolio into sectors beyond transport.
Explore our new website to learn more about Steer: who we are, how we work and what our future holds.