Following the award of the Chiltern Railways Franchise, one of the early deliverables was Evergreen Phase 1. John Laing provided Chiltern Railways with the Senior Project Manager, Commercial Manager and technical support as required. The scope of Evergreen 1 consisted of 10 miles of track doubling between Bicester and Banbury and was specified by John Laing/Chiltern Railways and developed accordingly by Network Rail, supported by the implementation contractors.

Following the successful completion of Evergreen Phase 1 in readiness for the West Coast Main Line closures in August 2002, work commenced on the development of the next phase, Evergreen 2. This scheme was different in many ways to Phase 1 as it provided a line of route enhancement extending the capability provided in Phase 1 from Bicester to Marylebone. In addition, two new platforms were provided at London Marylebone and the signalling centre was upgraded to allow the area to be controlled by two signallers instead of one. The project was the first UK rail project carried out as a Design, Build, Finance and Transfer project promoted by John Laing on behalf of Chiltern Railways. The project completed on programme and nearly 10% below budget.