Culture, constructability, collaboration: The three ingredients to deliver the rail infrastructure of tomorrow 

This article is written by Alistair Geddes, Rail Sector Director, Costain, and first appeared in Rail Director magazine in February 2026. 

UK rail is evolving. Whether it’s the new branding of Great British Railways or the continued transfer of train operators into public ownership, the winds of change are blowing. 

Evolution is also taking place in rail infrastructure. There is welcome momentum surrounding major projects such as Northern Powerhouse Rail, the Transpennine Route Upgrade and the extension of the Docklands Light Railway, which has come alongside continued efforts to maintain rail networks to optimise performance. These are all critical infrastructure projects that will drive regional and national economic prosperity and improve people’s lives.  

These positive signals of investment have brought the question of delivery back onto the agenda. But it’s worth stepping back and considering the Elizabeth Line, as all of these projects should be thinking about how they can replicate its benefits. I was fortunate enough to be involved in its delivery, and it’s incredibly rewarding to see how transformative it is proving for communities in and out of London; the Office of Rail and Road’s annual list of the UK’s busiest railway stations found that six of the UK’s ten most used stations in 2025 were served by the line.  

There are, of course, competing approaches to delivering infrastructure projects large and small, but when it comes to rail there are three key factors upon which successful delivery can be underpinned. 

Effective cultural behaviour management key to excellence 

The first is culture. Culture is central to the delivery of rail infrastructure, or any complex infrastructure programme for that matter. Often such projects bring together people from different organisations, with varying perspectives and expectations around disciplines and delivery models, whether that’s in areas such safety, sustainability, accountability, respect and inclusion. Without a common sense of behavioural standards it will be impossible to deliver works effectively, and to the required level.  

For more than 20 years we’ve been developing, refining and delivering cultural and behavioural leadership training internally and to customers across the infrastructure ecosystem. We know just how important this is and we spend a lot of time to ensure we’re creating the right conditions on site. Our in-house cultural behavioural management experts may work with large groups to create inclusive, trusted environments, or with senior leaders to help actively shape behaviours from the top of the organisation down. This is extremely important and moves the customer-contractor-supply chain relationship beyond a transactional arrangement and to a delivery team that’s safer, more inclusive and collaborative. By fostering genuine partnerships with both customers and the supply chain, workers feel empowered to speak up and address issues as early as possible, and innovative ideas to improve efficiency are more likely to flourish.   

Furthermore, a constructability mindset can help accelerate decarbonisation across the rail sector. Modern methods of construction combined with new technologies and techniques -  what we call Production Thinking - can lower carbon footprint compared to using traditional methods. Furthermore, constructability helps to ensure that projects can cascade the right information to the right people at the right time, leading to decisions that reduce the impact of an infrastructure projects on the environment. Indeed, asset owners need to have confidence that delivery partners and their supply chain have robust sustainability credentials and standards in place, such as adopting globally recognised frameworks like PAS2080.  

The ongoing nationalisation of train operators and devolution in the sector is prompting a shift in focus from larger stations to more targeted regional or local investment to help improve accessibility. These stations are critical in driving regional connectivity and local prosperity but can become needlessly complex and unaffordable. A playbook for these smaller or local station builds, which offers a decision-making process for the design phase with constructability, manufacturing and supply chain principles at its core, promotes more standardised, cost-efficient solutions that avoid the need to start from first principles each time. Repeatability allows for greater off-site manufacturing, in turn minimising both risk and disruption to external operations. 

Collaboration and lessons from other sectors 

The right cultures and implementing constructability early on are important ingredients for successful project delivery. But these benefits will only be impactful if they sit upon a strong foundation of collaboration. It may sound obvious, but for any large or complex infrastructure project, enduring relationships between both asset owners and operators, contractors, suppliers and developers need to be established early. The rail sector needs to be both better at cultivating deep, long-term relationships amongst stakeholders and understanding how they’re adding value to each other. 

It’s worth taking inspiration from elsewhere in the infrastructure ecosystem, such as the water sector. The recently completed Thames Tideway Tunnel, which is already preventing tens of millions of tonnes of sewage from entering the River Thames, was successfully delivered by a combination of different Tideway teams and joint ventures collaborating and knowledge-sharing throughout the project. Similarly, the Strategic Pipeline Alliance, an innovative partnership of organisations set up to deliver hundreds of kilometres of new pipeline for Anglian Water, is a hugely complex project that is delivering critical infrastructure to boost climate resilience and water security.

These types of alliances, or integrator models, carry myriad benefits. They help create a focus on long-term outcomes around which all stakeholders are aligned, meaning that projects are sure on what and how they want to achieve, whether that be supporting the local economy, decarbonising the transport network or connecting communities.  

They also support more efficient and fair risk allocation, which avoids both duplication of risk and a higher burden being placed on suppliers further down the supply chain, as well providing better value for money. Knowledge sharing also becomes easier, as organic forums drive best in class procurement practices, assign the right people to the right job, and break down silos between contractors. 

If we return to the big picture, the outlook is positive. We have just celebrated 200 years of the modern railway and the appetite for rail expansion across the UK is clear, particularly as a means to decarbonise the UK’s transport ecosystem. It’s an exciting time to be working in rail, but the stakes are high. 

Rail infrastructure has a huge part to play in powering both the UK’s growth and broader infrastructure ecosystem. Whether it be constructing highways, small modular reactors or water pipelines, infrastructure projects from other sectors depend on a high-performing rail network to move materials, plant and people.