Birmingham City Council has embarked on an ambitious journey to be the greenest city in the UK, with a target to reduce 60 percent of its carbon emissions by 2027 and improve public health. Upgrading and improving the city transport network will play a key role in this mission, which is why the council produced a new transportation plan.

The challenge came in finding out how they could reduce transportation impact on the environment, while creating an accessible, efficient, and inclusive city for residents, workers, and visitors.

Arcadis’ innovative  Transport Strategy Optimizer (TSO) tool helped Birmingham transport planners decide which projects to progress based on outcomes across multiple goals, including net zero, health, leveling up, and economic growth, as well as constraints such as cost, resources, and customer impacts.

The AI-optimized decisions recommended the best investment plan and program using rapid scenario testing. This was done collaboratively with stakeholders in live workshops to ensure full buy-in and alignment between parties. From a long list of 515 schemes, TSO created a preferred, programmed package of 335 interventions.

From there, the team created and delivered a suite of integrated tools, including TSO, to develop Birmingham’s transportation plan. This ensures TSO can continuously support the council as city transport network scenarios, packages, and anticipated outcomes are updated in real time based on the latest data, scheme benefits, and constraints.

The tool also reflects new funding opportunities and evolving objectives. Different delivery priorities, aligned to identified needs or secured funding allocations, can be reflected to update the phasing and programming of the Capital Programme. In addition, it supports monitoring and evaluation activities, highlighting delivery gaps across different geographies or metrics, with TSO helping to identify focus areas to meet KPIs.