GCRE
First set of progress photography and video for the GCRE site in South Wales. The Global Centre of Rail Excellence will be a purpose built site for world class research, testing and certification of rolling stock, infrastructure and innovative new rail technologies that will fill a gap, not just in UK rail, but across Europe. The Global Centre of Rail Excellence will be a ‘one stop shop’ for testing new rolling stock and supporting world class research, development and certification of new rail infrastructure, technologies, processes and skills – something that currently doesn’t exist on a single site in either the UK or in Europe.
Operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the facility will include two electrified test loops, one a 6.9km high speed rolling stock track and a 4km track for heavy infrastructure testing.
Opening in 2025 it will become the UK’s first ever net zero railway, supporting the innovation needed to aid the UKs path to net zero and, crucially, helping lower the costs of major rail infrastructure projects. Located on a former open cast mine in the Dulais Valley, it will create long-term, high-quality jobs in an area of multiple deprivation and become a magnet for other, high-quality investments and R&D funding as part of an active industrial policy.