A Magnet for Rail and Sustainable Mobility Innovation
GCRE is a site with many different and complex parts but from the outset the team has worked hard to underpin the project with a singular vision – GCRE as a meeting point for great ideas, technology and people. We have teamed up with the Design Commission for Wales and 5th Studio architects to develop a Masterplan for the site, so every component of the project adds distinct value. The layout and design of the site encourages and stimulates the connections needed to make the project a success.
When fully developed, the 700-hectare Global Centre of Rail Excellence site will comprise the following areas: Basecamp, Sarn Helen and The Washery.
Basecamp
Basecamp will be the place the outside world encounters the GCRE site for the very first time – the store front. It’s designed to create the right atmosphere for engineers, technicians, operators and those in academia, who may be spending extended periods of time at the site. Basecamp will include high quality office, conferencing and accommodation space plus a high quality 100-bed hotel and bespoke teaching facilities.
Sarn Helen Technology Park
The Sarn Helen Technology Park will be an international standard technology park – the place where innovators, start-ups and the businesses of tomorrow can find incubator space, business and export support advice, as well as facilities to build on their great ideas. With space and opportunities for a range of firms from new local companies to suppliers from across the UK and beyond. Sarn Helen will be the centre of a new cluster of rail and sustainable mobility innovation.
The Washery
The Washery Campus will be the place for practical realisation; a place where the great ideas and creative thinking gets operationalized and tested. This area will provide the backbone of the technical facilities for the test track, including the first buildings to be used for training and R&D. Rail research universities will have teams permanently based here.
