Paul Rowlands

@downrelief It can be delivered cheaper but we’ve chosen not to. Zero incentive to deliver cheaper and a client who focus isn’t on driving value. There are many who have tried to reduces costs but this is normally at the expense of billable hours, which is all supply chain is interested in.

It's embarrassing how bad we are at electrification in England and Wales. Worth noting that good work is taking place in Scotland though.

Not another one…….

Is this the best example of a digital twin?

@blaiklockBP Midland Main Like Electrification. Designs complete, contractor delivering under budget, next phase unexpectedly cancelled. Lesson learned, don’t delivery under budget as it’s irrelevant. Instead, milk every project you have.

£14 billion has been spent on cancelled projects in just two years 2022-2024. HS2, Thames Barrier, Stonehenge, Heathrow runway, and many road schemes.

“A wake up call” the CEO of Britain’s biggest domestic energy firm told me last night about the possibility of long term impact to global gas and oil infrastructure… but he pointed to electrification as the main lesson, while domestic gas would be preferable to shipped gas:

“wake-up call that gets us to electrify more of our economy and get more of our energy from homegrown sources.”


"The irony is, right now, we're emailing millions of customers saying their energy prices are going to fall..."
"You can't protect yourself against these global markets forever."
 "Traders are really worried about how long it's going to take these facilities to get back online."
"Our electricity system's too inefficient. We need to reform that markets so that people get the benefits of our homegrown resources."
“my own view is that shipping gas around the world is more inefficient and has more leaks of methane than if you use local gas. But we shouldn't kid ourselves. North Sea gas wouldn't meaningfully bring the price down because we're paying the global price. If we got more out of the North Sea, it would simply be sold to other countries at these very high prices or here at these high prices. And we can't kid ourselves we're going to be self-sufficient in gas again. What we can do is have a much cheaper approach to electricity than we have today. Our electricity system's too inefficient. We need to reform that markets so that people get the benefits of our homegrown resources.

@robwilkins78 Thinking outside the box….or outside the tunnel profile in this case!

@RowlyPaul You are just anti-innovation! 🤣

This reminds me when we pan gauged tunnels for Auckland electrification. We knew clearances would be tight but all sections passed the analysis, so I checked. The responsible engineer scaled/shrunk the pan gauge to fit the tunnel profiles. This is why I prefer automation!

@TrisOsborneMP You need jobs for people to get paid. Payrolled employees fell by ~100k–130k over the year to late-2025 ons.gov.uk/employmentandl…

Pay is rising above inflation. This means incomes are rising faster than prices.

Maybe electrification would help?

@peterkyle What are your thoughts on consultants sending much of thier design work to overseas ‘global design centres’? This has stripped UK rail of technical positions, perfect for apprentices/school/colleague leavers.

Steel used in Britain should be made in Britain. Our new steel strategy makes more of that possible. news.sky.com/story/watershe…

@robwilkins78 @neilwirving A lack of bravery has destroyed reputations. In any real market, these companies would fail. Yet in rail, they continue to win major frameworks and alliances—delivering the same behaviours, over and over.

@RowlyPaul @neilwirving Change = unknown and most people are not brave enough to see the benefits. The risk of reputation against real change scares most people. I think that failing and learning in these processes would be a greater benefit.

Construction doesn’t resist change—its structure prevents it. Despite 10yrs of BIM, tools & exploding data, change is slow. Why? Narrow ‘freedom frame’: firms lack value chain control for autonomy. Understand this or keep hitting concrete on BIM/AI/digital twins.

@robwilkins78 My thoughts exactly, although I did get a commission to create a Pan Tool from it!

@RowlyPaul NR obviously! 27716 is written by some clever people and has some great information in it. It is NOT written, however, to be applied to the real world within the project environment!

Wonder if Network Rail’s standards will be provided in AI compatible format?

@RichParkerLab @Heidi_Labour UK rail is hollowing itself out. Strip away HS2 and TRU and you’ll find redundancies gutting engineering expertise. We’re setting ourselves up for asset failures and spiralling costs—relearning skills we’ve chosen to lose.

Opening five new stations, freezing fares, and taking rail back into public ownership. The ways we are making transport better for West Midlands communities were the focus of our discussion as @Heidi_Labour, Secretary of State for Transport, joined me on a visit to Kings Heath station.

Must be a big one.

@robwilkins78 AI or NR’s Standards? I’ve been having much fun with 27716, which is riddled with ambiguity and the true definition ‘using sledge hammer to crack walnut’ for pan modelling.

@RowlyPaul Some compatibility with Reality would be a start….

While there is so much focus on shiny new assets, are we neglecting our exiting infrastructure? My concern is we’re losing staff with all the historical knowledge of the older OLE Systems. MK1, MK3A, B & C, UK1….so very different to UKMS.

This is horrendous

@LisaSmartMP FYI, part of SK6 hasn’t had power since 17:30 yesterday.