The West Coast Mainline North has not seen significant modernisation since the 1970s, requiring a large-scale, multi-disciplinary asset renewal. As the assets reach their end of life, the route will need significant work, opening up a strategic opportunity to be more efficient by taking a holistic approach to the renewals programme. Following an initial fact-finding phase, it was decided a business case was required to make the case for a programme approach and set out the programme definition.