Metro Dynamics was commissioned via Mayor David Skaith’s Business Innovation Fund to support partners across the York and North Yorkshire rail ecosystem to define a credible, distinctive and delivery-focused rail innovation cluster.
Metro Dynamics brought their cluster-development expertise to develop our ambitions and ideas into a clear and powerful mission and approach. They helped us at York Central to convene businesses, universities, the public sector and the wider rail community. And it is this shared voice and direction that is already attracting more industry and Government focus and investment, strengthening York’s position as a leading centre for rail innovation and creating lasting economic value for York and North Yorkshire.” – Allan Cook, York Central
While the region already had deep rail heritage, major employers, research capability and strong operational rail expertise, activity was fragmented, with no shared strategic direction, agreed market position or mechanism to align activity behind common priorities.
Our work focused on aligning partners around a common proposition and turning broad ambition into action through a practical strategy for growth.
We did this through a structured cluster development process that combined evidence-led analysis, national market positioning and intensive stakeholder engagement, taking partners from an initial assessment of the cluster’s foundations through to an agreed mission, strategic priorities and mobilisation plan.
Figure 1: Cluster development process
“A real grade A example of best practice in the region of how to mobilise a cluster” – Matthew Kirk, Senior Programme Manager, Economic Development, University of York
A critical part of the work was determining where York and North Yorkshire could genuinely differentiate and add value to the national rail landscape.
By assessing the positioning of other UK rail clusters alongside the region’s own industrial, research and infrastructure strengths, and grounding this in industry-led challenge areas, we helped identify where York and North Yorkshire could play a distinctive role. This moved the partnership beyond broad ambition to a clear, focused and commercially credible proposition: to make York and North Yorkshire the place where operational rail innovation is applied, proven and made to work on railways worldwide.
Figure 2: National rail innovation cluster map
Fundamentally important has been the distillation of specific priority areas where the region holds credible comparative advantage: advanced operational energy management, advanced communications, and automation and autonomous systems.
“We’ve already got a really strong relationship with the University of York on innovation projects that sit squarely in this space, so it’s great to see the cluster taking shape around these priorities. It reinforces the kind of flagship work already happening between Siemens and the University here in York and North Yorkshire” - Danny Aisthorpe, Head of Engineering at Siemens Mobility UK Rail Electrification.
“The strategy clearly sets out York’s strengths, the drivers for innovation, and the opportunity we now have to build on that.” – David Taylor, Account Director Mainline Rail, Hitachi
It is this specificity that enables transition from a currently fragmented set of capabilities and ambitions to a practical cluster strategy and delivery framework, with clear priorities for collaboration, innovation activity, SME engagement and investment opportunities, cohering around York Central as a focal point for cluster growth and visibility.
Figure 3: From Innovation to Operation: The YNY Rail Innovation Cluster Strategy
The cluster is now moving into mobilisation, with Metro Dynamics continuing to support partners to strengthen governance, shape long-term leadership arrangements, broaden engagement across the network, and develop a pipeline of collaborative projects aligned to shared priorities and industry need.
The result is a rail innovation cluster with the confidence, collective ownership and strategic clarity needed to attract investment, build partnerships and turn York and North Yorkshire’s rail strengths into long-term economic growth.
“One of the most significant impacts of the project is the level of alignment achieved across partners. The process has moved the group from a broad set of overlapping interests to a clear set of priorities that organisations could collectively support, champion and begin delivering against together. This was exactly the purpose of Mayor David Skaith’s Business Innovation Fund.” – Andy Kerr, Director of Economy, York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority
Figure 4: May 2026 Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, David Skaith, hosted Rail Minister Lord Peter Hendy in York to showcase the emerging York and North Yorkshire Rail Innovation Cluster
Development of the Rail Innovation Cluster Strategy was funded collectively by York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, York Central, the University of York and AGH Engineering.