High Speed Transport
Globally Unique Expertise at300 km/h, 500 km/h & 1,000 km/h
The major projects detailed below are key building blocks of the globally unique Expert Alliance track record in all three modes of high speed, very high speed and ultra high speed ground transport. These projects laid the robust foundation of insight, experience, and authority upon which all our current advisory work is built.
In short: infrastructure can be hard. We know. That's why we're always working to make it 'faster, better, cheaper, greener'.
High Speed Rail
Project HS2: The Stoke Route. Dr Alan James served as Project Director and Lead Adviser to a project driven by the City of Stoke-on-Trent, designed to enable the UK's High Speed 2 railway to serve more cities, save significant capital cost, and allow services to start years earlier than planned. Expert Alliance devised the strategic plan and directed the specialist engineering, economic, and policy teams. Through relentless lobbying of Central Government, in which Alan himself played a leading role, and the overwhelming strength of the Expert Alliance case, the City of Stoke-on-Trent successfully secured direct high speed rail services, where it would have been bypassed under the original HS2 scheme.
"The decisions I am taking today [...] allow the introduction of an additional HS2 service to Stoke-on-Trent."
Department for Transport: HS2 Consultation. Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Transport, March 2018 (CM9574, p5).
The direct Stoke-on-Trent HS2 service to which the Secretary of State committed in 2018 has survived the subsequent truncation of the HS2 line, because it is routed via Handsacre Junction which remains part of the cut-back railway from Wormwood Scrubs (Old Oak Common) which is now in construction.
The comprehensive strategic and economic framework authored by Expert Alliance can be downloaded from the Stoke-on-Trent City Council website.
Stoke Route Full Business Case (PDF)
Forthcoming White Paper: Expert Alliance will be publishing a comprehensive White Paper in the coming months. This will set out an actionable plan for the UK to recover from the disastrous delays, overspends, and truncations of HS2. We will outline how connectivity to and between the great cities of the North can be delivered. Crucially, the guiding principles of our plans are that benefits can, and must, be delivered "faster, better, cheaper, greener" than the failed HS2 framework allowed.
The Macro-Economic Perspective
Infrastructure is never simply about tracks and trains; it is a catalyst for national regeneration. Watch our original Stoke Route proposition below to see how Expert Alliance approaches strategic transport initiatives "in the round." It's about engineering holistic, transformational economic opportunities rather than just pouring concrete.
Maglev
Project UK Ultraspeed. In 2003, Expert Alliance formed and led the UK Ultraspeed project, bringing together what was then the world's most advanced transport technology (the Transrapid maglev system) with a visionary route network. Crucially, the 500 km/h operating speed had the potential to completely redraw the economic geography of Britain.
The 2006 UK Ultraspeed Factbook
Our definitive technical and economic case demonstrated that a single 500 km/h spine could unite the nation. It showed how a London-to-Manchester journey drops to 50 minutes, whilst simultaneously transforming regional mobility, such as linking Glasgow and Edinburgh, or Teesside and Tyneside, in just 15 minutes.
Download Full Factbook (PDF)
Scale and Synergy. The UK Ultraspeed model was designed to solve inter-city travel on a national scale and simultaneously to create super-regions by slashing journey times between major metropolitan areas. Operating at speeds up to 500 km/h (311 mph), the system's smooth and powerful acceleration means that even relatively short trips between cities take fractions of the time of conventional rail journeys.
This dynamic creates two distinct, yet mutually reinforcing, macro-economic transformations:
- National Cohesion: The North-South divide is erased. A business in Newcastle is functionally as close to London as one in Milton Keynes, spreading investment and halting the brain drain to the capital.
- Regional Super-Cities: Short-hop journeys are obliterated. Distinct city-pairs (such as Liverpool-Manchester, or Glasgow-Edinburgh) effectively merge into unified labour markets and single economic entities capable of competing globally.
The National Scale
An introduction to the national trunk route, demonstrating the sheer economic power of linking the major English conurbations in a single 500 km/h spine.
The Regional Scale
Focusing on Scotland, showing how a 15-minute journey between Glasgow and Edinburgh merges the Central Belt into a unified global powerhouse.
Ultra High Speed Ground Transport (UGT)
Virgin Hyperloop One. Alan's deep experience as Vice President for Worldwide Business Development at Virgin Hyperloop One involved establishing project activity spanning the globe. This role drew on the deep technical and commercial knowledge he previously gained as CEO of the UK Ultraspeed maglev project.
Together, these projects built the deep experience which uniquely qualifies Alan, supported by the focussed teams of senior experts with whom he collaborates in this field, to advise, guide and shape Government programmes, as they define multi-decade investments to build paradigm-shifting infrastructure. Alan has remained at the absolute forefront of work in this field and is now widely acknowledged as the world's pre-eminent expert in Ultra High Speed Ground Transport (UGT).
Current & Recent Engagements
- 2026 - ongoingLead Advisor to the German Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation (SPRIND) on the development of a "Referenzstrecke" UGT Test & Dev facility, and structural preparation of organisational and financial structures to ultimately enable commercial deployment.
- 2023 - 2026Independent Expert Adviser to EU Hyperloop Development Programme, authoring the foundational documents for Europe's "4Ds" Programme (Develop, Demonstrate, Derisk, Deploy) to progress UGT through Test & Development, Proof in service-like conditions, Certification, and into Commercial passenger service.
- 2020 - 2022Hyperloop Subject Matter Expert for a major consulting assignment led by Roland Berger, advising the Royal Court of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the strategic development of UGT, and on establishing a long term programme to drive investment, innovation and industrialisation in this field.
- 2019 - 2022Hyperloop Advisory Consultancy to various EU bodies, specifically including the European Hyperloop Alliance and EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology).
Conventional Rail
Although our major focus tends to be on high speed transport, Expert Alliance does provide strategic advice on conventional rail projects where a significant degree of innovation is involved. We originated and developed the proposition that East West Rail, the Government-owned company reopening the long-closed railway between Oxford and Cambridge, should use battery-powered trains and discontinuous electrification. This became Government policy in 2025.