The Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) is a GBP multibillion railway enhancement program to double capacity, reduce carbon emissions, and cut journey times on commuter routes between Manchester, Leeds, and York. When completed, the 100-kilometer route upgrade will improve connectivity and provide economic benefits in northern England. Since the project needed to effectively bring together the large volume of data and disciplines involved, Network Rail tasked Jacobs with implementing a route-wide digital twin. To fully meet expectations, the digital twin had to support the safest and most efficient design, construction, and handover process ever completed on a UK railway upgrade and provide 6.5% cost savings on lifecycle asset management. Additionally, Jacobs wanted to reduce the impact of construction on isolated areas and lower carbon emissions.

Realizing paper-based processes and Excel spreadsheets introduced unnecessary risk and inefficiency across the team, Jacobs used the Bentley iTwin platform with ProjectWise, ContextCapture, and other integrated applications. By federating the data from over 60 separate systems into the digital twin, over 1,300 staff could track, contribute, and analyze design data and asset information in real time. They then overlaid more than 600 GIS datasets, which improved decision-making. Rapid data access, 50% faster than previous methods, saved the team 20,000 hours in the first six months, worth an estimated GBP 1 million. Careful planning will significantly reduce carbon emissions during construction. Overall, the digital twin will save approximately GBP 15 million.