(Article from Journal 2022/07 Vol140 Pt3)
Time flies and before you know it, mid-summer has passed. And for me, my year as your PWI President has certainly flown by and is now coming to an end.
It has been a very rewarding experience being your President this year. It is brilliant to see the PWI flourishing and growing. The Institution provides a strong sense of ‘community’ and one that transcends those at the very start of their career (apprentices and graduates), those that are in active service now and those experienced members that have (and some only recently) retired. I call it ‘Sustainable Professional Development’, with the key thread being support and sharing of railway infrastructure knowledge, professionalism and friendship.
My year as your President started (in July 2021) whilst Covid restrictions were still having a serious impact on rail industry revenue. Covid was also impacting our ability to have PWI meetings in person. But through the autumn, and except for the ‘Omnicrom’ blip in December and January, I am pleased to say that I have been able to attend many of our local PWI Section meetings in person. It is also encouraging to see that rail industry revenue has climbed from 40% of pre-pandemic levels (at July 2021) to 90% over the same period. But, the rail industry has suffered a major financial shock and the gap between revenue and industry cost must stay at the forefront of our minds in the PWI. I will be attending more Section meetings through the autumn and, again, would ask that you all act as rail ambassadors: use the network to attend PWI meetings and conferences and really pay attention to our customers’ experience (safety, punctuality, cost, service, etc).
Through the year, the PWI has embraced the new ‘hybrid’ normal. We have relaunched our website (a huge thank you to those in the PWI that delivered this) and ‘Knowledge Hub’. We continue to be very active on virtually every social media channel, and our ‘followership’ is growing significantly and sustainably. We have run a very beneficial series of online ‘Lunch & Learn’ meetings, with many relevant topics covered and great speakers (fantastic CPD opportunities, by the way).
We have delivered a number of great conferences this year: plant, decarbonisation, electrification, safety, and of course, track and have experimented with a hybrid approach (joint in person and online attendance) at both our major seminars and a number of our local Section meetings. All of this is targeted at giving as many of you as possible the ability to meet in person, attend virtually or catch up with the learning opportunities (via recordings) at a time of your choosing. CPD, you have no excuses!
Track worker and asset safety is a key focus for the PWI and it was a pleasure to attend and chair the morning session of our recent Safety Conference in Birmingham. From my substantive position in Network Rail, I still observe colleagues believing that we must put colleagues at risk on or near the line in order to undertake activities to keep our railway safe. The reality now is that technology, sophisticated monitoring, artificial intelligence, collaborative planning and high integrity protection / warning systems are available – and these provide a paradigm shift: a safer environment for track workers (no contact with moving trains), whilst monitoring our assets perpetually and keeping them even safer. Our safety conference demonstrated that a new, safer approach is available now. A key challenge for the PWI, looking forward, is to be at the forefront of driving the use of trainborne data collection to take this approach to another level: Perpetually monitored assets, utterly reliable and always safe.
Another great step forward this year is our PWI ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ strategy and the creation of our D&I Committee. The Institution has a proud heritage (and one for which we should be very proud), but it is heavily orientated towards ‘white males’ through our history since 1884. We are absolutely committed to creating opportunities for everyone and am very grateful to members and colleagues who have come forward to help fulfil this aim on our D&I Committee. When I reflect on my own personal thoughts on this, I have daughters, a sister, friends from various parts of society, I would not feel at all comfortable if for some reason, they were not given the same opportunities as me. A diverse Institution will inevitably be a safer and a more intellectually effective Institution.
Throughout my career, I have lived by a principle of ‘Earning and Learning’. In my Presidential year, I have seen this principle in action everywhere I look. One of the most fulfilling parts of leading the PWI this year has been to see the amount of people that are using the PWI professional development frameworks to develop themselves whilst working in substantive roles in the industry. It was particularly rewarding for me to present professional certification (Engineering Technician, Incorporated Engineer and Chartered Engineer) to c.30 members who were able to attend the annual Celebration Event before Christmas. In addition, it has been a pleasure to present Diplomas and other Awards throughout the year. The PWI now provides professional development pathways from Apprenticeship to Chartered Engineer to Fellow and for Track and Electrification colleagues alike. And this year, our Electrification Diploma has been launched and joins our popular Track Diploma. Another popular addition this year has been our ‘Lunch & Learn’ series and I must pass my thanks to the many presenters for the wide range of topics that have been covered so far.
I’d like to pass my thanks to a number of people in the PWI. The core team do a remarkable job. It is a small team, but every base is covered very professionally. Membership, conference organisation, training, corporate administration, stakeholder management and much more is all handled seamlessly and everyone in the PWI owes you a huge debt of gratitude. I’d like to thank the Non-Executive Directors who continue to support the PWI with their sensible challenge and sage insight. I’d like to also thank all of the Vice Presidents and the committees of all of the local Sections for everything you do bringing the PWI to life locally and regularly for our members. Finally, I’d like to thank Richard Spoors who has recently retired from representing the PWI at the Union of European Railway Engineering Associations (UIEEV) for many years. The group is a great place to share railway engineering ideas across Europe and I know that Maddie Coyle, who is our new representative will serve us all very well. Thank you Maddie and good luck!
I have two final thoughts before I check out:
Of late, the word ‘Modernisation’ is being used a lot in the industry. It is a word that is feared by many and it shouldn’t be. My father (who had no interest in railways) asked me what treat I wanted after a brief stay in hospital when I was a 4 year old in 1978. For some reason (which I do not recall) I asked to go and see a new ‘Intercity 125’ train. The photo below is the station where my father took me at that time and the train that probably saved the railway industry in this country. When I reflect on this photo, everything has changed, everything. And it is all OK – change is inevitable. We cannot afford for the railway industry to go into decline and we must all embrace modernisation to make our railway safer, more efficient and more attractive to customers. Thank you to David Hardy for this photo – it is where my railway career started!
Finally, cast your mind back to the Millennium – the year 2000. If you cast you mind forward the same amount of time, our railway must be a zero carbon network. Ask yourself, are we going fast enough to meet this challenge? It should be on everybody’s mind, and we should be pulling out every possible stop to complete this challenge. And with this in mind, it is no better time for me to hand over to your next PWI President, Peter Dearman. Peter has been championing the decarbonisation agenda and I would like you all to provide Peter (and our industry) all the support possible to decarbonise quicker.
Stay safe everyone and thanks for a great year.