Case Studies

Birmingham Airport commissioned North Star to review the mode share performance of rail services for airport access and consider whether factors such as marketing and awareness are actually more important than speed, reliability and cost.This is in light of the conclusions of North Star's annual Global Air-Rail Market Share report, which has shown that a tactical level, marketing and awareness (or lack of) can cause significant shifts in rail market share. Birmingham Airport commissioned this report as a bespoke study of rail access perfor­mance to the airport.

Read more: Rail Mode Share at Birmingham Airport: Is Awareness and Marketing of services a factor?

We were engaged by London Tramlink to provide a Tram Operations Consultant to deliver their Performance Development Plan and recommend other operational enhancements during the course of the commission.

Read more: Operations Support for London Tramlink - Case Study

North Star was commissioned to help Serco Docklands in their preparation for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Read more: DLR Olympics Delivery Case Study

Transport Scotland provided the legal framework and funding (to target price) for the reopening of a railway closed in 1968. They sought the innovative skills of consortia to provide a solution that achieved strict target costs for both construction and operation. One of the consortia, BAM, engaged Atkins (supported by North Star) to provide specialist railway design consultancy for construction and operational advice for the O&M phase of the project. This was in the form of a 30 year concession to operate and maintain a railway that linked to the national railway network whereby existing services would be guaranteed to run over the concession railway with access charges being paid to the concessionaire.

Read more: Operational Plans for the Borders Railway (Design, Build, Finance and Operate) for Atkins Rail