MICHELLE IONN MARKETING MANAGER EMEIA – PROFESSIONAL BRANDS AT CRC INDUSTRIES Michelle is a Marketing Manager based in the United Kingdom. Having worked with the rail sector at CRC Industries for a number of years, she has developed a keen interest in innovations within rail, particularly green technology and sustainability.   How did you get started in the industry? I started to work for CRC Industries in 2016 as an end-user focussed Sales Manager in the North-West, working closely with several regional and national rail operators, rolling stock manufacturers, and train maintenance depot ..read more

Rail needs a credible long-term strategy to build skills and engineering expertise, erode disciplinary boundaries, and ultimately become, once again, a truly desirable place to work. Through the eyes of three of our graduates, we look to rail’s big challenges, and how we can address them.   Rail has a demographics problem. Gradually but consistently, its workforce is ageing. Just eight years ago, our industry employed twice as many under-25-year-olds as it does now – just 5% of the total. At the other end of the age spectrum, over 20% of the workforce will retire in the next six years. Th ..read more

YVAIN CORNET COO AT PULSAART BY AGC Yvain Cornet, COO of Pulsaart by AGC, oversees the rollout of the company’s connectivity solutions in Europe. With vast experience in automotive connectivity and antenna product deployment, he now also leads the implementation of Pulsaart by AGC’s rail connectivity solutions, including the innovative WAVETHRU™ Retrofit, across the continent.   How long has your company been in business? AGC, established in 1907 in Japan, has evolved to become a global leader in glass manufacturing, ranking among the top three worldwide. Beyond its core activities in raw ..read more

REDDITCH, UK (March 2024) – PULSAR®, a leading supplier of protective and technical performance apparel, is delighted to announce its commitment to the Railway Children charity with a £5,000 annual donation. Railway Children provides essential support to vulnerable children and young people who may be alone and at risk on the streets and across transport networks. The charity delivers a range of services based on individual needs, working with families, empowering communities and improving child safeguarding systems to help support and rebuild thousands of young lives. PULSAR® is an ongoing ad ..read more

In this challenging environment, cooperation between organisations can be harnessed to help the rail sector not only navigate these challenges, but to innovate and excel. Embracing innovation is essential for delivering efficiency and productivity to meet the complex demands of modern rail systems. Recent major advancements in machine learning and data analytics have resulted in digital skills and data science becoming invaluable for optimising processes and innovating. Typically, no single organisation has all the skills and connections within the rail sector to implement these novel solution ..read more

Demand for Railway Benefit Fund (RBF) services has nearly tripled in the past five years. In 2023 more than 500 applications were received in 2023 resulting in more than 1,000 railway people receiving direct financial support and many more receiving advice and signposting. Jo Kaye, Chief Executive Officer, said: “It is heart-wrenching to see that people are working so hard in the industry that I love and yet still, for reasons way beyond their control, they are struggling to make ends meet and that is what really brings home the value of what we do.” The charity, which provides support to curr ..read more

Northern’s training academies in Leeds and Manchester are key to addressing the national skills shortage facing the rail industry according to a new report by OFSTED. The regulator made the statement following an inspection of both facilities in which the quality of the education provided and the behaviour, attitudes and apprenticeship offering were found to be ‘Outstanding’. Personal development, leadership and management were, meanwhile, declared ‘Good’, which was also the grade awarded for ‘overall effectiveness’. OFSTED’s report goes on to say that apprentices at Northern benefit ..read more

The Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE) this week announced a collaboration with Urban.MASS, an exciting, rapidly-growing mobility business specialised in designing and creating innovative zero-emission mass transit solutions. The GCRE is a facility for world-class rail and sustainable mobility research, testing and innovation currently being developed in South Wales. The partnership will see Urban.MASS deploy its exciting cost-effective, sustainable, scalable, driverless, on-demand transit system on the GCRE site, providing a platform to finesse, prove, certify and demonstrate new ways of ..read more

This April, teams from across the rail industry are taking on a virtual ‘Station to Station’ Challenge, in support of the Railway Benefit Fund. From 22 April to 13 May, teams from Porterbrook, Freightliner, Avanti West Coast, RIA, Amaro, Clemtech, Furrer + Frey and VTG will work together to walk or run over 2,000 miles. As part of the Challenge, team members track their real-world activity along a virtual route in a step challenge app, which sees them move along the map of the UK, calling at key station milestones along the way. Starting at Inverness, the teams will virtually walk between 23 i ..read more

Alstom, global leader in smart and sustainable mobility, plans to operate a new passenger rail service across England and Wales. Working in partnership with consultancy SLC Rail, the open access operation will be known as Wrexham, Shropshire and Midlands Railway (WSMR). As the country’s foremost supplier of new trains and train services, and a leading signalling and infrastructure provider, Alstom will operate its own rail service in the UK for the first time. WSMR is seeking to introduce direct connectivity to and from North Wales, Shropshire, the Midlands and London that doesn’t exist today ..read more