About Us
Our Mission
Rock is an independent developer, owner and asset manager of rolling stock and zero emission buses. Established in 2014 (Rock Rail) and 2024 (Rock Road), Rock provides innovative, value enhancing funding approaches for strategically important passenger rolling stock and zero emission bus fleets.
Since 2016 it has secured over £3.3 billion of institutional investment in new, state-of-the-art rolling stock and zero emission buses, helping transform passenger journeys and delivering enhanced value for money to the public sector.
Rock takes a long-term view to developing rail and bus projects globally, creating investible opportunities for the institutional finance sector, including pension funds and insurance companies, who are looking for sound, responsible investments to meet their long-term obligations.
As well as continuing to work on core fleet rail opportunities in the UK, Rock Rail has extended its focus and is working on other rail infrastructure sectors and in new geographies including Australia, France, Germany and other mainland European markets.
Our Approach
Our Mission
The team has a wealth of rail, bus and finance industry experience and has proven its ability to win and successfully deliver complex projects. We are pragmatic, dynamic and passionate about innovation and are working on many transformative rail and zero emission bus projects worldwide.
Our independence as a developer allows us the freedom and flexibility to drive positive change in the transport industry, through delivering new rolling stock and zero emission buses to improve passenger experience, enhancing infrastructure to deliver operational benefits and promoting greener alternatives to make railways and bus fleets even more sustainable.
We take an innovative, long-term view to funding rolling stock and zero emission buses, working collaboratively to bring together the interests of the public sector, suppliers, operators, infrastructure managers and institutional investors.
Our own equity investment in the projects we develop and our provision of asset management services for these, also ensures a long-term alignment of interests with our institutional investor partners.
The Rock Way
The Rock Way captures the values that help define our behaviour both within our own team and with our external partners. These values support our vision ‘to be the most respected rail and zero emission bus investor, developer and asset manager’ and help guide decisions and behaviours that move us towards achieving it.
Ambitious
ENERGY
Utmost
INTEGRITY
Genuine
RESPECT
Total
PROFESSIONALISM
Positive
COLLABORATION
Purposeful
CREATIVITY
Ambitious ENERGY
Rock is about...
being dynamic, upbeat, enthusiastic, and a smart disruptor.
Utmost INTEGRITY
Rock is about...
doing the right thing consistently. It’s about having strong moral principles and professional standards, and being trustworthy and honest in all we do and say to ourselves, to others and to society.
Genuine RESPECT
Rock is about...
recognising and valuing all contributions and actively seeking to understand and recognise the impact of our behaviour on others.
Total PROFESSIONALISM
Rock is about...
being expert, reliable and trustworthy, and being respectful and courteous to others.
Positive COLLABORATION
Rock is about...
a team. It’s about working effectively and inclusively both internally and externally with our partners.
Purposeful CREATIVITY
Rock is about...
wonderfully disrupting the market and challenging the norm where doing so can add value.
Purposeful CREATIVITY
Rock is about...
wonderfully disrupting the market and challenging the norm where doing so can add value.
Positive COLLABORATION
Rock is about...
a team. It’s about working effectively and inclusively both internally and externally with our partners.
Total PROFESSIONALISM
Rock is about...
being expert, reliable and trustworthy, and being respectful and courteous to others.
Genuine RESPECT
Rock is about...
recognising and valuing all contributions and actively seeking to understand and recognise the impact of our behaviour on others.
Utmost INTEGRITY
Rock is about...
doing the right thing consistently. It’s about having strong moral principles and professional standards, and being trustworthy and honest in all we do and say to ourselves, to others and to society.
Ambitious ENERGY
Rock is about...
being dynamic, upbeat, enthusiastic, and a smart disruptor.
Sectors
Rock’s activities are focused on financing and owning new rolling stock and zero emission buses, as well as providing specialist rail and bus asset management services.
Responsible Investment
Our Mission
Rock is committed to delivering sound, responsible investments with a focus on sustainable benefits for the environment, local communities and wider society. Our investment decisions are underpinned by consideration of environmental, social and governance factors, strongly aligning with our institutional investors who have a core responsibility for ESG based investment.
As part of our support for greener and more sustainable rail travel, we are working in partnership with the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education at the University of Birmingham, alongside their partners at the Technical University of Dresden in Germany, to explore opportunities for greener rail solutions.
Our modern rail and bus fleets are already contributing to a more sustainable public transport. They are exclusively made up of electric and bi-mode trains and zero emission buses and are set to replace many hundreds of diesel vehicles, helping to reduce harmful CO2 emissions as well as delivering significant energy efficiencies over the many old and life-expired trains and buses they replace.
Rock works in collaboration with our rail and bus partners, particularly manufacturing companies, to ensure that ‘safety by design’ approaches are applied to the delivery of all our assets. Rock has built a portfolio of state-of-the-art rolling stock and zero emission buses that makes use of the latest advancements in digital technology and interconnectivity; therefore, we have made the assurance of digital assets one of our core specialisms.
Rock are leading the way in ‘cyber security by design’ by engaging in research and assurance activity to ensure that cyber security threats and vulnerabilities are understood and minimised through all stages of an asset’s life.
We take our role in supporting the local communities that interface with our trains very seriously and as a result, encourage the use of locally sourced supply chains throughout the manufacture process.
Please follow the below link to find out more about Rock’s mission, our GRESB recognition and our ESG objectives for 2024:
Our 135-vehicle EMU and BMU fleet will replace around 100 diesel-powered units. They are set to reduce CO2 emissions across the franchise by over 60% and provide substantial reductions in particulate matter and NOx emissions.
Exclusively made up of EMU and BMU vehicles, our fleets are able to take advantage of current network electrification and future upgrades and are set to replace over 400 highly pollutant diesel vehicles.
Our zero emission bus fleets are accelerating the UK’s transition to a zero emission bus network. By replacing incumbent diesel buses, they will significantly reduce CO2 emissions and improve the air quality in London.
Our Valued Partners
Rock Rail is a member of the Railway Industry Association
