In 2024, all at the PWI have been proud to commemorate our Institution’s 140th anniversary. Since its establishment in 1884, the PWI has been highly active, promoting knowledge sharing, technical education, innovation, and professional growth in the railway engineering sector. As the railway industry itself approaches its 200th birthday, I find myself reflecting on our Institution and its place within our industry, and on the industry itself.
The PWI: A Year of Success
From our Institution’s perspective, the year has had many positive aspects: continued steady growth in both individual and corporate membership has been accompanied by more spectacular rises in the number of Members professionally registered with the Engineering Council, and in the number of delegates successfully completing our expanding range of technical education programmes. The appetite for learning and personal development within our industry is heartening and shows no sign of abating. And the range of opportunities for personal and career development offered by the Institution – including seminars, Section meetings, and Lunch & Learn events – has grown in both volume and popularity. Notably, the Institution returned forcefully to the field of light rail and trams at its November seminar – an area of growing interest and development.
2024 saw the Institution’s new customer relationship management system go live – a significant step in providing better tailored, responsive services that will improve your experience of the PWI.
In July then President Steven Bell stepped down to become Past President, Mona Sihota took over as President, and Cathal Mangan joined as Deputy President. I thank Steven for his sound advice and guidance, particularly as we embarked on the Institution’s 2024-28 strategic journey. I have no doubt that Mona’s passion for engineering and railways, and her expertise, will inspire us as we face the challenges and opportunities of the coming year. What’s more, Cathal’s presence reinforces the strong links we have built with Ireland’s resurgent railway industry.
The 140 Campaign: A Celebration of Progress
In the Institution’s 140th year, our primary goal was to help Members achieve a professional title. We set 140 as our target for new registrations but our objective extends beyond numbers to reflect a commitment to populating our industry with more and better-qualified engineers and technicians than ever before. As year-end approaches, we haven’t quite reached that target, but our record-breaking 92 registrants (with many more in the process of completing their applications) is a testament to that commitment and to those Members who contribute – whether by supporting events, sharing insights, or helping to organise and manage the Institution – and place the PWI at the centre of railway engineering.
In 2024 it’s been great to welcome so many new Members and particularly those at the start of their careers. Looking over my own railway life, through the PWI and its activities I’ve acquired a mass of technical knowledge across a broad range of engineering disciplines. I’ve been mentored and tutored by many experienced PWI Members – and inspired by them and the engineering innovations and achievements they devised and piloted into use. Many of those innovations became business as usual – at least until superseded by further generations of more effective and more economic innovation!
The Institution will continue to offer those now starting their careers opportunities to learn and develop appropriate to today’s sophisticated engineering knowledge, advanced technology, and demanding operational requirements. I look forward to seeing those new Members shape our industry and its engineering to meet the needs of the 2030s and beyond.
Our Strategic Journey: Scale and Scope
2024’s comprehensive Member and non-member surveys have reinforced our commitment to growth and improvement. I was heartened by the overwhelming support for our current range of services and inspired by respondents’ thoughtful suggestions for the future. These insights are already shaping our strategic plans, helping us refine our mission, vision, and values as we look to the future.
Changing our Institution’s name was, and remains, high on our agenda. 2024 saw much work on developing options and understanding their implications – a necessary step before the Board’s proposal is put to our Members. In 2025 our focus will broaden to encompass further strategic goals around technical education and training, operational and business processes, and our Knowledge Hub. These developments will underscore our key message – that the Institution offers welcoming, comprehensive, and relevant support to all who are engaged in delivering and managing railway engineering.
The Wider Railway Industry: No Shortage of Challenges
2024 has been something of a mixed year in our industry (to put it mildly), and whilst the challenges at year-end are perhaps somewhat different to those at the start, their scale and seriousness don’t appear to have lessened.
Positive moves – including those towards the establishment of Great British Railways (GBR); the commissioning of several electrification schemes; a renewed commitment to modernising the key TransPennine route, and the continuing post-Covid growth in passenger volumes – have been counterbalanced by more negative developments – including a sluggish start to CP7 investment projects, the cancellation of HS2 North of Birmingham (later relieved a little by a decision to complete tunnels between Old Oak Common and Euston), the impact of inflation on public sector funding, and the continuing disparity between rising rail and public transport fares and stable (or falling) motoring costs.
The late November announcement of a UK Government vision for an integrated national transport strategy is a welcome indication of the new administration’s enthusiasm for public and active transport, with rail-based networks sitting at their core. Whilst 2024 has seen some equivocation in the UK Government’s commitment to decarbonisation, the 10-year plan to “put people first” in the development of the transport system provides a platform for GBR, metro mayors, and local government more generally to help national government consider and address the many conundrums on the journey to full transport decarbonisation. Moves to clean electricity generation have already been prioritised, and our Institution is working hard to persuade central and local government policymakers to join those from many other developed (and developing) countries in acknowledging the central role that electrified rail-based transport systems must, of necessity, play in a decarbonised world.
Looking Ahead
As we prepare for 2025, I must express my heartfelt thanks to all Institution Members, individual and corporate, and particularly to those who volunteer or otherwise play an active role within the PWI. (And I must similarly thank the team here at the Institution.) Every contribution strengthens the Institution, and your support is hugely valued and appreciated. Together, we can continue to inspire real improvements in railway engineering – and to the world we live in.
Here’s to the next 140 years—and the shared journey ahead.
Warm regards,
Stephen Barber
CEO, the PWI