INSIGHTS: Collaboration for a Better-Connected Midlands

Collaboration is keeping the wheels turning for transport in the Midlands – literally!

When I joined Midlands Connect last summer, I was new to the transport sector and didn’t appreciate the amount of collaboration between partners that takes place daily. I assumed, as many unfamiliar with the sector may, that there were more defined barriers between organisations, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that at a working level that’s not the case.

My role sits within the Rail team, which has given me the opportunity to work across several rail and multi-modal projects, including Midlands Rail Hub and our Multi-Modal Network Resilience workstream. In every project, we speak with colleagues across local authorities, government agencies, train operators, and other STBs to share ideas, best practice and approaches to similar challenges. While each local area has its own individual problems, solutions can often be found in work done in other parts of the region and nationally, and by sharing research findings and case studies, lessons can be learned and innovative ideas considered.

Our role as an STB allows us to look at the road and rail network from a high-level, strategic viewpoint, but it’s the information that local partners can provide us with that allows us to build business cases for schemes that will benefit the whole of the Midlands. Whether it’s local plans, climate data or reports from previous studies, our partners play a key role in allowing us to conduct our work to benefit the entire region. We are also able to share information that we gather during our studies with colleagues and allow them to feed insights back into their workstreams, too.

A recurring topic at the recent Highways UK conference was climate resilience and network resilience and approaches that different agencies are taking to both. Throughout the day, it was clear to me that as extreme weather begins to have more of an effect on our areas and transport systems, the importance of collaboration between multi-agencies will only increase. Sharing data, insights, and solutions will become essential to ensuring the resilience of our networks moving into the future.

Our Multi-Modal Network Resilience workstream (like all our projects) has been built on collaboration with partners, and we’ve sought to produce work that is useful to all. Our MiRROR (Midlands Rail and Road Operational Resilience) tool has been developed with partners in mind, to allow them to access the evidence base that we’ve gathered during our study and use it for their own strategic plans. Throughout this phase of work, we’ll be holding workshops with key stakeholders to allow them to engage in the study and help shape the outputs, ensuring that our work remains relevant to their goals.

Every project that we do sets out to meet our grand challenges to make the Midlands fairer, greener and stronger, but it’s the collaboration we have with our partners across the region that makes ideas a reality, secures funding, and delivers for the population. I’ve been able to be part of the initial stages for many schemes, and I look forward to continuing to collaborate with partners to strive for a better-connected, more resilient Midlands.

Leanne Wells is a Programme Support Officer at Midlands Connect.