Author: Emma Gascoigne

E-Rail has been crowned ‘Transport Funding Company of the Year’ after being recognised by Corporate LiveWire’s 2020/2021 Scottish Prestige Awards.

The awards recognise small and medium-sized businesses that have proven to be the best in their market over the past 12 months.

The judging criteria covered areas such as service excellence, quality of the product/ service provided, innovative practices, value, ethical and sustainable methods of working, as well as consistency in performance.

Dr George Hazel, Director of E-Rail said: “We work hard to improve people’s lives by improving connectivity.

“We’re proud to receive this award, which recognises over a decade’s hard work in this pioneering area, that involves using land value capture to fund infrastructure projects.”

E-Rail – working with Northumberland County Council – has recently secured the first true land value capture in the UK, generating up to 30% of the cost of reopening the Northumberland Line

E-Rail has been commissioned by Transport North East to bring its ground-breaking Land Value Capture (LVC) methodology to transport schemes in the region.

This comes after E-Rail successfully worked with Northumberland County Council to secure the first true LVC in the UK, generating up to 30% of the cost of reopening the Northumberland Line.

George Hazel, Director of E-Rail said: “Transport North East shares our aspirations to improve the lives of people by improving connectivity through investment in enhancing the UK rail network.

“We’re extremely excited to be working more widely in the North East, following the success in Northumberland. It is becoming clear that LVC is increasingly being taken seriously as one of the key strategic funding components for new fixed transport infrastructure projects.”

E-Rail Director, Dr George Hazel, has been appointed as a board member of Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT).

SPT is the largest of Scotland’s seven regional transport partnerships. SPT run the Glasgow Subway, a host of specialist bus services and are responsible for delivering better public transport for all.

Dr Hazel is committed to supporting organisations in improving transport and is also a non-executive director for the Board of Transport for Edinburgh and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Scotland.

George Hazel said: “I’m delighted to be appointed to this position on the SPT.  These positions enable me to support the excellent work going on across Scotland and the UK, especially in relation to Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and in Land Value Capture.”

SPT chair Councillor Dr Martin Bartos said:

“I’d like to welcome George Hazel to the SPT Partnership. This is a challenging time for SPT and for transport generally, so the work of the partnership is more important than ever.  I’m confident that the expertise we are gaining with the appointment of, not only George, but all our new members will be an invaluable addition to the partnership and of great benefit to the organisation.”