ANDY LORD NAMED ‘CLIENT OF THE YEAR’ AT RIA AWARDS DINNER

London’s Transport Commissioner, Andy Lord, picked up the ‘Client of the Year’ award on 29 June at RIA’s Railway Industry Supplier Excellence (RISE) Awards Dinner.

The award goes to an individual whom the RIA Board consider has done the most to deliver rail in their area and build strong supplier relationships over the year.

Lord took on the role of Transport Commissioner on an interim basis last October and was confirmed as London’s permanent Commissioner by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and the Board of Transport for London on 7 June.

RIA Chief Executive, Darren Caplan, said Lord’s award was for “achieving a strong initial funding settlement for rail in the capital, ensuring friendly passenger services during events like the Queen Elizabeth II funeral and the recent Coronation, achieving the full running of Crossrail and providing new rolling stock for the DLR, and getting the Underground restored so well postCovid, with patronage returning to record post pandemic levels. Truly exceptional achievements for a first year in office!”

Declaring himself deeply honoured, Lord said “The rail supply chain plays a crucial role in keeping London moving, and we at Transport for London look forward to continuing our constructive relationship with RIA over the coming months and years”.

An independent judging panel of senior industry figures picked the winners of ten categories after a record number of 90 entries were submitted. Caplan said the awards

“truly demonstrate the value of the rail supply chain. The industry faces a bright future, with suppliers not just delivering transformational rail projects to serve a growing number of passengers and freight customers, but also creating jobs and generating economic growth in the process”.

The award winners were L.B. Foster (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion), Network Rail partnered with Rail Aid and seven other suppliers (Environmental, Social and Governance), Connected Places Catapult partnered with Network Rail (Safety), Angel Trains partnered with Transmission Dynamics (Partnership), Revolution VLR (Innovation), WSP (Application of Digital Technology), Croftstone (SME Growth in Rail), Xrail (SME Exporter in Rail), Josie Cheeseman, WSP (Rising Star) and Pradeep Vasudev, WSP (Employee of the Year).

The RISE awards judging panel consisted of Robert Ampomah (Chief Technology Officer, Network Rail), Dyan Crowther (Chief Executive Officer, HS1 Ltd), Gareth Evans (Head of Rail Technology, Network Rail), Rachel Fullard (Service Analyst at Rail Delivery Group and former EDI Charter working group chair), Shamit Gaiger (Managing Director, West Coast Partnership Development), Jo Lewington (Chief Environment and Sustainability Officer, Network Rail), Klara Ludinova (Innovation Lead –Rail, Innovate UK), Toufic Machnouk (Director, Industry Partnership for Digital Railway, Network Rail), Justin Moss (Head of Business Development, Electrification at Siemens Mobility, Rail Infrastructure and Chair RIA North), Ian Prosser CBE (HM Chief Inspector of Railways and Director of Railway Safety, Office of Rail and Road), Wendy Richards (Railways Infrastructure Lead, Department for Business and Trade) and Fi Westcough (Chair, Young Rail Professionals).

Robert Cook Policy Director &

Vaishnavi Krishna Kumar Policy Executive