New ways of financing new urban rail

Cities are looking beyond traditional debt-financing to bring forward major new rail schemes. New models of public sector delivery bodies are being empowered to capture development gains and land value rises that new railways bring

The station box at Woolwich has been funded and built by developer Berkeley Homes.

The station box at Woolwich has been funded and built by developer Berkeley Homes.

Delivering major city rail schemes is so expensive, complicated and integral to city economies that it is hard to believe that a purely private sector approach to finance could ever deliver them, even in an era of shrinking public sector activity. But it will be a new generation of public sector development bodies, with new powers and financial models that will generally drive them forward. Some examples of the new approaches are beginning to emerge.

The massive Grand Paris Express...