East West Rail: progress now and looking ahead

Jez Baldock

Jez is the engineering director for the rail and transit business at AtkinsRéalis in the UK, where he has been for 28 years. He is a Chartered Civil Engineer and SCE who has worked predominantly on rail projects with spells seconded to Railtrack, Carillion and projects in Poland. He completed, and then lectured on the UCL Masters in Integrated Railway Design Management in 2015, which is also when he commenced his 9 year stint on the management of the East West phase 2 project through to commissioning in 2024.

Julien Green

Julien is a technical director for engineering management within transportation at AtkinsRéalis in the UK, where he has spent 22 years spanned over a 31 year career. He is a chartered civil engineer and has worked predominantly in the rail industry in the UK, as well as 6 years in Australia working in the heavy haul rail industry. Julien was the contractor’s engineering manager for design during the outline design and detailed design on East West Rail phase 2. He has a passion for mentoring engineers and as an active participant in the Women in Rail mentoring programme.

Stuart Edwards

Stuart has over twenty years’ experience working across multiple UK transport modes in both public and private sectors including commercial aviation, strategic highways, and rail.

Stuart is an accomplished external relations leader with extensive experience in strategic communications and relationship management. He’s also represented the interests of transport users nationally at Transport Focus – the independent watchdog for transport users – to influence decisions with transport operators, owners, and government to secure improvements.

He currently manages East West Railway Company’s engagement and stakeholder portfolio across business, industry, and academia. A PROSCI change management practitioner, Stuart is passionate about people, the outdoors, transport, infrastructure and especially where all these areas meet.

Stewart Piercy

With over 20-years’ experience in construction, design and development, Stewart has worked across a broad range of different rail schemes in the UK including for Network Rail (at major stations such as Gatwick Airport), London Underground, Crossrail, High Speed 2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail.

Having led the company’s delivery quicker and cheaper initiatives, he is currently working as integration director at East West Rail, and has been responsible for ensuring the different functions within the business are collaborating and maximising the outcomes from the infrastructure that East West Rail will provide.

Adrian Richardson

Adrian is a project manager for the major projects division of VolkerRail Ltd, where he has been for the last 12 years. Having studied railway engineering at Sheffeld Hallam university, graduating with a BEng in 2011, he has worked across a range of projects such as DLR 6 (Canning Town to Stratford International), Crossrail ONW (Acton Town dive under), as well as the IEP depot upgrade projects, and a range of projects on the CP6 panel framework before joining the EWR Alliance.

Lucy Ellis

Lucy Ellis is a senior engineer at Laing O’Rourke with 9 years’ experience within the construction sector. She has delivered a range of national infrastructure projects spanning highways, rail and nuclear with a focus on the development and deployment of precast concrete solutions.

Lucy began her career as a civil engineering degree-apprentice for LOR working in the engineering integration team on East West Rail alongside the design team, before transitioning to a site-based role where she spent 7 years within the on-site delivery team, before moving to support the Rolls Royce design team in the development of small nuclear reactors in recent years.

She is a keen advocate for STEM and helping the next generation of construction professionals whilst maintaining a clear focus on her own development within the ICE.

Tom Bates

Tom is a Chartered Civil Engineer within AtkinsRéalis’ transportation business, with 5 years’ experience, predominantly in the rail sector. His experience includes masonry bridges, lineside civils and project management. Tom undertook diverse roles on East West Rail, starting as a designer before transitioning to the site support design team and finally secondment to the delivery team as a site engineer. This allowed him to gain a broad range of experience from design right through to assurance. Tom is currently undertaking an engineering management role, facilitating multidiscipline integration in new station projects.