About FCP

First Class Partnerships Ltd (FCP) is a UK-based management consultancy specialising in the management and operation of railways, rail industry strategy and policy, engineering, finance and economics. The company only employs proven rail management professionals. Though UK based we have worked for a wide range of regional, national and international governmental and non governmental railway bodies such as the UK’s Department for Transport, the U.S Congress, the Governments of Saudi Arabia, Ireland and Argentina and the broadest cross section of public and private sector railway operators from Transnet in South Africa, to SNCF, Deutsche Bahn, Georgia State Railway, the Hong Kong MTRC, the Danish State Railway and NedRail and every UK based passenger and freight railway owner-operator. We were, from 1999 to 2011, the Operator of Last Resort for the Department for Transport and Transport Scotland.

FCP is also a leading provider of specialist due diligence across all aspects of railway operation, management, engineering and commercial economics. We have advised major international Banks such as Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Lloyds TSB, as well as primary investors such as Babcocks, 3i, NLPI and many private equity groups.

To provide a focus on key business areas, FCP maintains specialist practices in:

Railway Operations - This is core FCP expertise and includes all aspects of the management and operation of railways from executive leadership and governance to front line operation and service delivery, including railway safety and environmental management. FCP has extensive capability in the modelling, planning and analysis of railway operations including train service planning, train crew and unit diagramming, timetable planning and operations costing. A key capability is the analysis of system capability and capacity, supported by our expertise in the specification, procurement, management and interpretation of operational simulation studies.
Railway Commercial and Strategic Analysis – This area of FCP expertise centres on the detailed understanding of the drivers and metrics of supply and demand economics in the rail sector. Our commercial team has amassed a considerable track record in both the process of letting railway concessions and franchises as well as having won for its clients an enviable array of franchises and concessions both in the UK and internationally in countries as far afield as Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Georgia, Estonia, and Nigeria. FCP provides its clients with detailed analyses of the components of their revenue and the socio economic drivers of demand and growth both from a macro and micro perspective. FCP also provides financial modelling and mergers and acquisitions advice to its clients, many of whom are primary investors in the world wide rail industry.
Railway Technical and Engineering – FCP’s engineering and technical expertise spans all of the professional disciplines from civils and structures, track, signalling and telecommunications, mechanical, electrical, traction and overhead line engineering, through to rail business management IT systems and interfaces. We have available expertise in systems integration, train and infrastructure management and maintenance. FCP has often been engaged by Governmental departments to assess the cost/benefits associated with railway investment schemes and the efficiency of technical proposals being made by railway operators, engineers or infrastructure maintainers.

It is a pre-qualification of our company's directors, senior staff and associates that they must have operated at Board level in their chosen sector. It is a pre-requisite that they must have held leading roles in the rail industry in the recent past. It is important not just that our consultants have strong functional expertise but also that the context in which it is applied must be relevant and up-to-date.

Our individual and collective experience spans the public and private sectors and since 1999 we have been providing advice on strategy at a personal level to CEOs and MDs of companies and public authorities alike, as well as to their Boards and senior management. Our outstanding strength is that FCP’s considerable team combines a contemporary track record of innovation in various fields with extensive personal experience of both the management and transition of railways in both the public and private sectors.

First Class Partnerships provides strategic, commercial, operations, engineering and infrastructure rail consultancy and advice to leading rail companies, investors in rail, governments and regulators around the globe.