As we seek to decarbonise the railway and make the post-pandemic offer to our customers more attractive, getting our rolling stock right and fit for the future is key. Suppliers, train operators and owners need to work together with train service specifiers and funders and customer representatives to make this happen.

Rolling Stock Networking and its associated conference will continue to play a significant role in enabling this, and I was pleased that Rail Partners was asked to deliver a conference at this year’s Rolling Stock Networking trade show in Derby on Thursday 6 July.

Rolling Stock Networking has been a major event for those with an interest in the British and international rolling stock for the last five years. In addition to offering trade show stands for suppliers to showcase their products and services, a parallel day-long conference is an established part of the visitor experience.

Due to my previous attendance at RSN and presentations at various rail supplier trade association events, I was asked to present at the conference last year.

Then, I spoke about the stand up of Rail Partners, just a few weeks before in late May 2022, as the new trade association for GB passenger and freight train operator owning groups and for private and public sector-owned passenger train operators across the UK. I also reflected on the opportunities and challenges that a post-Covid world posed to passenger and freight rail operators and funders – what this might mean for future rolling stock design, and for future rolling stock support facilities and services.

Following this I was delighted to be asked by the organisers of Rolling Stock Networking to deliver a conference event for 2023. Our conference this year has two key themes: The morning session will focus on ‘Delivering for customers – new fleets and fleet upgrades’ and the afternoon on ‘Delivering for the environment – rolling stock and depots’.

Speakers joining us are our chief executive, Andy Bagnall, Will Rogers, managing director of East Midlands Railway, Shakil Ismail of Eversholt Rail, Ben Woods of First Group Rail and Rich Fisher from the Great British Railways Transition Team. Panel members, contributing to what will be very interesting discussions, are Robert Tiller of GB Railfreight, Lorna McDonald of Hitachi, Jag Maitala of the UK Department for Transport, Elaine Clarke of Rail Forum, Paul Sutherland of Eversholt Rail and Dan Taylor of Transport Focus.

Attendees will get an insight into key rolling stock, depots, customer experience, decarbonisation and strategic discussions that are currently live in rail. This will include providing better travel experiences for our customers in a highly cost constrained world, how (and how fast) we can decarbonise rail, and what role  electrification, traction batteries, hydrogen fuel cells and alternative fuels all play in this. And we’ll explore how different parts of the industry – government, suppliers, operators, rolling stock owners and innovators – will need to collaborate to deliver change quickly and cost-effectively.

I‘m looking forward not only to hearing all of the speakers and the panel discussions, but also visiting the supplier stands at Rolling Stock Networking and meeting and networking with many long established and new industry-wide colleagues.

To register for Rolling Stock Networking and our conference please visit Rail Partners’ conference at the Rolling Stock Networking event

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