Application of the analytic hierarchy process to identify the most suitable manufacturer of rail vehicles for High Speed 2

•The use of an appropriate strategic decision-making method to identify the most suitable manufacturer of rail vehicles for the UK infrastructure project High Speed 2.•The strategy to identify the potential alternatives, considering the use of methodologies such as cost-benefit analysis and multi-criteria analysis, and apply a particular form of multi-criteria analysis, namely the Analytic Hierarchy Process.•The effective comparison of the four primary rolling stock manufacturers: Bombardier, Siemens, Hitachi and Alstom.•The pairwise comparisons with respect to designated criteria employed.

The objective of this paper is to use an appropriate strategic decision-making method to identify the most suitable manufacturer of rail vehicles for the UK infrastructure project High Speed 2. This comprises identifying the potential alternatives, considering the use of methodologies such as cost-benefit analysis and multi-criteria analysis, and applying a particular form of multi-criteria analysis, namely the Analytic Hierarchy Process. This allows for effective comparison of the four primary rolling stock manufacturers: Bombardier, Siemens, Hitachi and Alstom. The process involves conducting pairwise comparisons with respect to designated criteria. Eigenvectors are calculated in order to normalise the results of the pairwise comparisons, and matrix algebra is used to combine the Eigenvectors for individual criteria in to an overall result, thereby indicating a recommended manufacturer.