O’Neill masterminds SYSTRA’s high-speed plan for UK growth

SYSTRA Ltd has plans to massively grow its transport consultancy and rail engineering activities in the UK. Tim O’Neill, the firm’s chief executive officer, explains the strategy to Andrew Forster

23 January 2015

" We’re really resource-constrained here in the UK and I think that’s going to become an even bigger problem as we go through Network Rail’s Control Period 5, if HS2 comes on and Crossrail 2 comes on. The electrification programme is picking up speed, where are we going to get the resource from?" - Tim O’Neill, chief executive officer, SYSTRA Ltd

One of the best-known names in UK transport planning consultancy bit the dust 12 months ago when the French SYSTRA Group combined the MVA Consultancy, which it has owned since 1993, with its UK rail engineering activities to create a UK and Ireland operating subsidiary, SYSTRA Ltd. Many former staff regretted MVA’s passing but the creation of a single brand made a lot of sense for SYSTRA Group, which has identified the UK as a key target market.

Growth is the goal but...