Mark founded Rock Rail in 2014, having established sister company Rock Infrastructure in 2011, following a highly successful career in law at Clifford Chance (10 years) and DLA Piper (18 years).

Mark has over 35 years of experience working in the City of London, New York and Europe. For the last 28 years, he has specialised in developing innovative funding, financing and procurement strategies for major infrastructure projects, working to ensure the alignment of public and private sector interests and to deliver substantially improved public sector value for money.

Since founding Rock Rail, Mark has led the business in securing £3 billion of institutional investment into new passenger rolling stock for UK rail franchises. He is a director for the companies established to finance and lease each of Rock Rail’s fleets to the rail franchises.

Under Rock Infrastructure, Mark was Commercial Director on the landmark Mersey Gateway Bridge Project and principal advisor on the transformation of CAE’s helicopter training facility PPP.

As a lawyer, Mark created and led DLA Piper’s Commercial and Projects Group and in 2007 became Global Head of DLA’s Infrastructure and Defence Sector.

Driving Net Zero: How Rock Road  Is Funding the UK’s Bus Transition

Accelerating the shift to clean, affordable, zero-emission transport

Year

2025

Category

Rock Road

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The Challenge

The UK bus network is at the heart of everyday travel – but over 30,000 diesel buses still need replacing to achieve a fully zero-emission fleet.

While around 5,000 battery-electric buses are already on the road, the high upfront cost of electric vehicles and depot electrification continues to slow the transition. Traditional funding routes — such as government grants or short-term bank finance – have helped start the journey but cannot support decarbonisation at the scale required.

A new, sustainable funding model was needed: one that could attract long-term capital, spread costs fairly, and give operators and authorities confidence in the future.

The Solution

In 2021, Rock launched Rock Road to deliver exactly that – applying its proven infrastructure financing approach from the rail sector to the UK’s clean bus revolution.

Working with Aviva, the National Wealth Fund, and HSBC, Rock created a dedicated investment platform that channels infrastructure-style finance from pension funds and institutional investors directly into zero-emission bus projects.

This model provides:

Impact

The platform has already raised £100 million, with capacity to scale to £1 billion per year over the next decade – providing a consistent source of affordable capital for local authorities and operators.

Rock’s model ensures that the total cost of ownership (TCO) of electric buses can now be lower than diesel equivalents, thanks to both cheaper long-term finance and reduced operating costs.

In London, Rock has financed 120 zero-emission buses under 7-year leases aligned with Transport for London’s contract lengths. This structure gives operators flexibility and certainty:

The Future

Rock Road’s ambition is to support the rollout of zero-emission fleets across the UK – helping local authorities and operators meet climate goals without overextending public budgets.

By leveraging limited government funding to attract large-scale private capital – for example, £10 million of public investment unlocking over £250 million in total funding – Rock’s model accelerates decarbonisation while keeping costs low for the public sector.

Our ambition is to make electric buses the default choice - not because of subsidy, but because they are the best economic and environmental option.

Louis Swindell

Commercial Director, Rock Road