RIA Update 107: The Year in Review

Update Winter 2018

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MPs awarded for role in rail A cross-party group of MPs were recognised for their involvement in the RIA Rail Fellowship Programme at a Parliamentary Reception on Tuesday 27 November.

L to R: Darren Caplan, RIA; Lilian Greenwood, Transport Select Committee Chair & Lead Fellow; Mary Grant, Porterbrook & Stirling Kimkeran, Balfour Beatty

running – from changing brake pads to seeing liquid steel being turned into rails.

The Reception also saw the new Rail Minister Andrew Jones MP, Industrial Strategy Minister Richard Harrington MP and Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald MP speak to more than 200 members of the industry about their priorities for rail.

RIA would like to thank our sponsors, Bombardier and Hitachi Rail Europe HS2 JV, SSE Enterprise and British Steel.

The Fellowship Programme is an initiative which showcases the UK rail industry to political decision-makers and influencers by placing them at state-of-the-art rail sites around the UK. Through the Fellowship, MPs were encouraged to learn about the innovation, skills and exports potential of the UK rail sector, and to experience a hands-on day seeing what skilled professionals in the industry do to keep the rail network

Members meet with Keith Williams RIA members had the opportunity to provide their thoughts on the Independent Rail Review when they met its Chair, Keith Williams, on 7 December.

Held in two roundtable sessions, members spoke about the need for the Review to consider the rail supply chain.

The sessions covered a number of topics, including ‘boom and bust’ rail funding, the rolling stock market and the role of SMEs in the industry.

The meetings came the day after the Review team launched a call for evidence asking for views as to how the rail industry should be structured. The consultation is open until 18 January 2019. RIA will be submitting a response on behalf of the rail supply industry.

RIA partners with Railway Children We are proud to announce Railway Children will be RIA’s chosen charity throughout 2019.

As you may know, Railway Children fight for vulnerable children who live alone and at risk in the streets. They provide protection and opportunities for children with nowhere else to go and nobody to turn to. We look forward to sharing with you different ways in with you can get involved. The first event we are supporting early 2019 is the Railway Children Sleepout. We invite RIA members to join us and get engaged!

More information visit: railwaychildren.org.uk/sleepout

Rail Review Chair Keith Williams (centre) speaks to RIA members about the review

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Rail Sector Deal launches The Government published the Rail Sector Deal on 6 December, a new agreement between industry and Government to deliver benefits to the UK through rail.

The Deal had a lot of input from RIA and its members. The Policy team were heavily involved in the ‘Sustainable Rail Industry’ pillar and the Technical team facilitated the ‘Accelerating Digital Railway’ pillar. This involved working with DfT and RIA members to demonstrate the potential cost efficiencies possible with a visible and predictable pipeline to address the current backlog of signalling renewals.

The Deal also includes measures to increase the level of rail exports, as part of RSG's goal to double rail exports by 2025. The Sector Deal can be found at www.railsupplygroup.org and a briefing has been sent to members. ria@riagb.org.uk www.riagb.org.uk

RIA Update 107: Year in Review Winter 2018

Chief Exec’s Intro: 2018, a year of development, 2019 seeking growth Dear RIA Colleague

Trade Association Forum award for ‘Conference of the Year’!

On exports, we produced a comprehensive InnoTrans Berlin programme with three UK ‘GREAT’ Pavilions, a ‘Meet the Commercial Officer’ programme, two RIA-hosted Transport Secretary tours, and an evening reception. We coordinated trade missions and exhibitions and secured MoUs with the Australasian Railway Association and MARIC (the Malaysian association),and enhanced our working with the Department for International Trade on the UK Exports Strategy.

Membership & Events saw a year of progress too: 50+ events, a new Entry Level Membership offered for members and prospects with a rail turnover of less than £1 million, and 50 new members joining RIA since last year. On Business Administration, a new website replaced the old one, our IT functions and member database were upgraded, enhancing member and RIA interactivity with the system and making it easier to use,and we modernised the RIA office and meeting rooms with professionalised facilities management, providing a new, fresh, environment for members.

As John Lennon once sang, another year over and a new one just begun (at least it probably will have by the time you read this!)... 2018 has been a fascinating year for rail and RIA, not to mention general public discourse and of course Brexit. For rail, the summer timetabling controversy and the the Government’s Rail Review launch have affected rail's reputation.

Yet despite all this – as I hope the pages of this Update show – RIA is doing everything it can to help grow a sustainable rail industry in uncertain times, and to be seen to be doing so too.

At RIA, in 2017, the RIA Board gave Team RIA a remit to make fundamental changes to take it through to the next stage of its development, restructuring RIA's functions, reorganising the team, and enhancing member services, whilst raising profile, to ensure RIA had more impact when lobbying. If 2017 was about restructure, and 2018 development, 2019 will be about growth and building an even better trade association for the future for all members – from SMEs to the larger players – with a strong team helping to make a bigger and better rail supply sector.

2. 2018 – MEMBERSHIP & STAKEHOLDER FEEDBACK...

As members will know, we regularly survey members, using an independent company, on how we are doing and areas to work on. Encouragingly, 2018 has since a real year of progress.

The highest category of member ‘customer satisfaction’ with RIA grew from 34% to 46%; the overall perception of RIA by external stakeholders as a ‘very effective’ trade association (the highest rating) rose from 16% to 30%; and the number of politicians in Westminster who say their visibility of RIA has risen grew by 6% in the last year. Much still to do; but a lot done too.

1. 2018 – SOME HIGHLIGHTS There has been a lot of positive feedback this year from members and external stakeholders – thank you! This doesn't mean we will rest on our laurels, do let us know any aspect of our offer we can improve. At this time of the year though, it is traditional to take stock and review a packed year of RIA activity.

In public affairs & PR, RIA increased its political and stakeholder engagement, meeting with and lobbying senior Government and Opposition politicians – including Transport Secretary Chris Grayling and Rail Ministers Andrew Jones and before him, Jo Johnson – as well as the new Network Rail Chief Executive Andrew Haines and Keith Williams of the Rail Review.

We launched a Rail Fellowship Programme to promote messages on skills, innovation and exports. And we increased the national coverage of RIA, including coverage in the Telegraph, FT, BBC (radio & online), Guardian and City AM, as well as trade media.

In policy, we launched Oxford Economics' report research showing the rail industry is significantly larger than previously thought. We secured a commitment from the Government to work with RIA on smoothing ‘boom and bust’ funding and developing ‘cost-effective electrification’, and on Brexit we offered members checklist, online community, and ‘no deal’ notices intelligence. We supported the Rail Sector Deal (approved by Government earlier this month), providing the Rail Supply Group with policy and research activity.

Our technical team secured public support from the Transport Secretary on the Transpennine Route Upgrade electrification, and grew the RIA Challenges Programme (standards, electrification costs, signalling costs, R&D gap, and support for the Decarbonisation Taskforce). We intensified support for the UK Rail & Research Innovation Network and Unlocking Innovation Scheme, and conducted a strong events programme, including RIA’s Innovation Conference, which won 22 Headfort Place, London SW1X 7RY +44 (0)20 7201 0777

3. LOOKING FORWARD TO 2019 In 2019, RIA will continue to do everything it can to be the voice of the UK rail supply community, helping to grow a sustainable, high-performing, rail supply industry, with heightened visibility and profile. Brexit will dominate and we will seek practical ways to help members navigate all the complexities. We will emphasise our focus on you, the customer, with the team promoting a ‘Members First’ experience. And we will be going for growth, with 50 new members targeted. We will seek to refine our offer, adding new services and events where appropriate and forming partnership with other rail bodies; and we will add a new 'Marketing' function to refresh our branding and comms for members, and attract new ones. And we will increase our devolved and regional presence and enhance SME participation and representation in RIA activities.

Finally, we will lobby on all the key issues relevant to members, from funding, decarbonisation and electrification, major projects, Digital Rail, investment, a diverse workforce R&D, and implementing the Rail 'Sectod Deal.

All that's left for me to say is, thank you for all your support and encouragement in 2018. And from all at RIA Towers, have a great Christmas and HNY!; and we look forward to working with you in what promises to be an equally fascinating 2019!

Best wishes, Darren

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RIA Update 107: Year in Reivew Winter 2018

Being a better client

Spending over £7bn per year with suppliers, Network Rail is a major client to a vast supply chain. Managing Director of Network Rail’s Infrastructure Projects arm (IP), Francis Paonessa, talks about the close relationship with suppliers, the improvements they’ve helped achieve in CP5 and his goal to ensure that Network Rail remains a client of choice.

As the current control period (CP5) draws to a close, attention has turned to plans for CP6 and the changes needed to drive improvements for passengers and freight customers alike. Network Rail’s CEO, Andrew Haines, has been clear about where the organisation’s focus needs to be, and is committed to putting passengers first and taking a lead in improving train performance.

Francis agrees that the new focus is essential for everyone in the industry and is keen to acknowledge the achievements of CP5 and the role of the supply chain. He comments “Network Rail only achieves its goals because of the dedication and support of our supply chain partners and I would like to thank our suppliers for delivering demanding work banks.

“Throughout CP5, we have shared a journey of improvement across many aspects of delivery and our performance reflects the tremendous support these organisations have provided to Network Rail as key delivery partners. Infrastructure Projects' improving scorecard is the result of our collective performance and I am grateful to the teams of people that have helped us deliver – we have seen a 54% improvement in our safety record over the past three years and reduced overrunning engineering works by 51% in the same period. That’s no mean feat.”

Whilst there is an ongoing review of the business, Andrew Haines’ ‘100-day plan’, preparations for the next five-year funding period have continued, including a multi-billion-pound procurement activity to appoint suppliers. IP has been working closely with the nine devolved route businesses to ensure their plans are aligned to the needs of the passengers, while working on improving supply chain visibility and ensuring that procurement is phased to drive quality of submissions.

However, Francis acknowledges Network Rail still has a way to go on joining up commercial and procurement activities. He comments: “We are committed to deeper devolution which means bringing track and train closer together for the benefit of passengers. This includes involving our route colleagues much

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more in the way we work with our supply chain partners. In future, decisions about supply chain issues which affect routes will have more input from them. So, where in CP5 supplier performance was a two‐way conversation between IP and their supply chain, in CP6 this will be a tri‐partite conversation between route customer, IP/route services and the supply chain, with the aim of aligning performance measures and incentives that directly contribute to Route scorecard performance.”

Building on the experience of CP5, Network Rail is further incentivising supplier performance through a range of methods.

The regime in CP6 for route frameworks will utilise National Supplier Performance Metrics (NPM) to provide a common framework on a range of measures (including on time delivery and asset reliability) and align to the requirements and priorities of each route business scorecard. This in turn reflects local passenger and freight priorities. In addition, the Balanced Safety Scorecard and PRISM (supplier 360 feedback tool) will be utilised to drive delivery performance and support peer‐to‐peer supplier comparisons, with fiscal and volume incentives within frameworks to embed structured continuous improvement.

There are some new elements to the procurement process too - as part of the tendering process all suppliers are required to present their sustainability plans, including Diversity & Inclusion, local employment and environmental management plans. CP6 Contracts include the requirement for one apprentice for every £3m of spend on contract values over £10m.

On the subject of safety, supplier safety performance requirements are carefully assessed at pre‐qualification, tender and delivery. Network Rail now has a supplier safety performance forum driving specific interventions for poorly performing suppliers, including improvement plans or suspension of work for serious infringements. Equally, excellent performance is recognised formally and will contribute indirectly towards future works allocation.

Network Rail remains committed to its leadership role and deeper and more effective collaboration to support a sustainable supply chain by, for example, implementing fair payment practices that abolish retentions and mandate 28 day payment terms and actively supporting SME’s, skills and employment. So what does the future hold for Network Rail suppliers? Francis concludes: “We want to be a good client for our suppliers and are working hard to provide visibility of upcoming works, the future and shape of Network Rail and its priorities. With over 100,000 jobs supported across the industry, we take our responsibility to manage and support our supply chain very seriously and ultimately, we cannot succeed without them."

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RIA Update 107: Year in Review Winter 2018

Public Affairs & Policy A busy year in politics has seen uncertainty for rail Policy Director Peter Loosley & Senior Public Affairs & PR Manager Max Sugarman look at the political developments of 2018 There has been a range of challenges in RIA’s Public Affairs & Policy work throughout 2018, as the political landscape continues to shift. Our work has supported members to grow a sustainable rail supply sector in uncertain times, including helping members plan for and manage Brexit, whatever the outcome; the transition to Control Period 6 (CP6); and smoothing the pipeline for renewals investment.

October this year; and are assisting DfT with their Brexit planning. This work will continue next year.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2019 The end of the year saw a new Rail Minister in November, Andrew Jones MP, who RIA met with in December and look FUNDING & OXFORD ECONOMICS forward to working with in the future. The Williams’ Rail Review The year began with RIA Chief Executive is also gearing up, and RIA members had giving evidence to to the Transport Select the opportunity to put their views directly Committee on ‘boom and bust’ rail to Keith Williams in two roundtable funding, with the Committee endorsing sessions on 7 December.

RIA’s recommendations on funding and Looking ahead to 2019, RIA will be electrification its is report published part of a roundtable, in January, on ways later in the year. What has been even to smooth the renewals pipeline, along more positive is that the Committee’s with the DfT, the ORR and Network Rail. recommendations have been accepted RIA will continue to promote its ‘baseline by the Government, a considerable win scenario’ for a steady state of work for for the industry. renewals. RIA will also ramp up its work The new Rail Minister Andrew Jones at the RIA Parliamentary In February, RIA published the report Reception around the lack of an enhancements it commissioned Oxford Economics pipeline. to develop, entitled ‘The Economic Contribution of UK rail’.

Finally, next year we will continue our series of regional This showed the rail sector is larger than previously thought, roundtables, which covered the Midlands, North and Scotland contributing £36 billion in economic growth, £11 billion in tax in 2018. On 17 January we will be heading to Cardiff, where revenue and employing some 600,000 people. The report was Wales Office Minister Nigel Adams MP and TfW Chief Executive welcomed by the Rail Minister and RIA will continue to use the James Price will join us for what looks to be a good event. Thanks headline figures when discussing and promoting our sector. to Furrer+Frey and WSP for supporting this BREXIT event.

Brexit has been a major factor throughout the year. RIA has If you would taken a more proactive role to help members manage either a like to attend ‘no deal’ Brexit or a managed withdrawal. In particular, RIA has contact Snr produced a Brexit Checklist to help members undertake a health Public Affairs & check in terms of business planning both at an operational and PR Manager Max Board level. We have also given evidence to Parliament on Sugarman at RIA’s Brexit key asks and opportunities; participated in Brexit roundtables in both the UK and EU Parliaments; have shared max.sugarman@ with members details on of all 106 ‘no deal’ Brexit Technical riagb.org.uk RIA Chief Executive Darren Caplan gives evidence in Notices published by the Government between August and Parliament 22 Headfort Place, London SW1X 7RY +44 (0)20 7201 0777

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RIA Update 107: Year in Review Winter 2018

Exports Rail grows as a vital UK export Exports Director Neil Walker sets out why 2018 has been so successful for rail in international trade It’s great that the sector is ending the year with plenty of positives, particularly in the world of exports.

More members are looking to diversify and to enhance their UK orders books The Transport Secretary speaking at RIA's InnoTrans Reception elsewhere by either exporting for the first time, looking for new export markets or improving their turnover in existing overseas markets.

Looking back over 2018, RIA has had over 120 companies join our overseas trade missions or exhibit on RIA UK Pavilions; some of these companies have reported that they hope to win business at a combined valued of over £32 million, whilst a number who said it is too early to report business wins, say they remain hopeful that contracts or local representation will follow.

Many other UK businesses have joined RIA and these companies at our networking receptions hosted in support of the visiting UK delegations or UK companies in general.

RIA arranged additional activity including the signing of a MoU between RIA & the Malaysian Rail Industry Corporation (MARIC) along with a similar separate MoU announced between RIA and the Australasian Railway Association (ARA). We also organised with DIT a number of ‘Meet the DIT Rail Trade Adviser’ sessions, with 19 DIT Commercial Officers over 3 days. In total, there were 145 meetings booked with 49 UK delegates attending.

OTHER MISSIONS & 2019 Other missions during 2018 included 20 UK companies, led by the Prime Ministers Trade Envoy to Taiwan, Lord Faulkner joining a Rail Mission to Taiwan; 19 UK delegates attending an RIA Mission to the Rail Baltica supplier’s day; 20 companies attending a mission to Thailand and Indonesia and a smaller delegation attending a November mission to Turkey. RIA also organised UK GREAT branded pavilions at Middle East Rail (with 24 companies) held in Dubai and Rail Solutions Asia (8 companies) held in Malaysia.

Inward missions are just as vital as outward ones, and RIA either hosted or played an active part in helping arrange interaction between members and the visiting delegations from Poland, Slovenia, Romania, Czech Republic, Turkey, Taiwan, China and Australia.

There is much more to come in 2019, with Middle East Rail in Dubai (26-27 February), Rail Asia Expo in Bangkok (28-29 March), Rail Solutions Asia in Kuala Lumpur (10-12 April) and a rail trade mission to New Zealand and Australia (4-8 March).

INNOTRANS In September the international rail community attended the world’s biggest rail trade fair, InnoTrans, held in Berlin. Over 120 registered UK companies plus a number of UK based multinationals exhibited at the show. RIA played its part in supporting members and the wider UK in helping them promote their products or services, including arranging three UK GREAT branded RIA pavilions, which was home to 45 UK companies during the four days of the exhibition, 21 of whom received DIT SME TAP grants, administered by RIA, worth £1500 per company.

One of the highpoints was the support that Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling MP showed in promoting members and UK exporters. With rigorous pre planning between DfT, DIT and RIA, he was able to visit over 30 UK company stands aimed at helping the companies export or to discuss key issues.

Other InnoTrans highlights included the prestigious UK reception, which RIA arranged in partnership with DIT and sponsors (UKRRIN, Ramboll, SNC Lavalin/Atkins and Furrer+Frey) with over 280 delegates, from over 16 countries attending.

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20 UK companies visited Taiwan in January 2018 with Lord Faulkner

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RIA Update 107: Year in Review Winter 2018

RIA 2018: The

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Year in Numbers

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RIA Update 107: Year in Review Winter 2018

Technical & Innovation Rail innovation powers ahead Technical Director David Clarke sets out how RIA is spearheading the innovation processes across the rail industry.

2018 has seen the rail industry continue to innovate & deal with technical challenges - and RIA continues to play a central part.

As a founding member of the UK Rail Research and Innovation Network (UKRRIN) we have been working with academic and industry colleagues to launch the network and to integrate our innovation activity with the network for maximum impact.

UKRRIN is a hugely positive and exciting development and will help the UK rail supply chain continue to be leading innovation. This will be supported by the £245m that Network Rail have secured for innovation in CP6. Whilst this funding is very welcome, RIA will be seeking to make sure that there is not an unintended gap in funding for rolling stock, train operations and cross industry research and development. The absence of a significant source of ‘pump priming’ funding available for these areas is counter intuitive given the Rail Minister’s aspiration to de-carbonise the rail network by 2040.

CHALLENGE PROGRAMME One of our main activities has been leading a number of challenges which share the common characteristic that, if properly addressed, have the potential to improve the efficiency and whole life costs of delivering railway projects. For example, the Electrification Cost Challenge is demonstrating that lessons have been learnt from recent projects and electrification can be successfully and affordably delivered at international benchmark costs. A report looking at the costs of ‘continuous electrification’ will be publuished in early 2019, which will complement the work of the Decarbonisation Taskforce, established in March 2018 to respond to the Rail Minister's challenge to “remove diesel only trains by 2040”. The Electrification Cost Challenge has already recieved significant media attention as well as a public letter from Transport Secretary Chris Grayling confirming the role electrification in the Transpennine Route Upgrade.

A similar initiative - the Network Rail (NR) Standards Challenge - has also been facilitated by RIA with three workshops held to help design the NR Standards Challenge process. This is now live and has received over 30 challenges one RIA member said this work has been 'of huge help'. We are now working with TfL to host a similar workshop on 24 January.

The Unlocking Innovation Composites Event in September

SUPPORTING MEMBERS In addition to all the above activity the Technical team have continued to ensure a steady diet of member events and intelligence. We hosted some 28 Technical Interest Groups during the year, each with good quality speakers and lots of networking time and many of them at venues outside London which is an increasing priority. Our regional activity has included helping to establish the Northern Rail Industry Leaders Group (NRIL) and supporting them in organising 3 workshops to support the development of a ‘Supply Chain in the North’ white paper. Finally we were pleased to welcome our first secondee from a member company, Chris Beales - read about his experience on the page opposite.

We look forward to an equally interesting 2019 as we build on and consolidate these activities for members benefit and always with a focus on creating the conditions to help the UK railway industry grow and prosper.

SUPPORTING INNOVATION We have done a lot over 2019 to support and encourage innovation through our award-winning Innovation Conference, two ‘Digital Railway Delivering Differently' conferences each with around 250 delegates and the first of a series of Unlocking Innovation events on the theme of M.A.D.E in Britain where MADE stands for Materials, Automation, Digital Railway Managing Director David Waboso Data and Energy. at the Innovation Conference 22 Headfort Place, London SW1X 7RY +44 (0)20 7201 0777

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RIA Update 107: Year in Review Winter 2018

My three months at RIA

Chris Beales, from RIA member AEGIS Engineering Systems, spent a three month secondment working with the RIA Technical & Innovation team. Below, he sets out his experience.

As part of the IMechE Accredited Developing Engineer Scheme at AEGIS Engineering Systems, I have been developing my experience within the rail industry, including various external and internal work placements, like working as a fitter on depot at East Midlands Trains, a Fleet Engineer role at Cross Country Trains and even as a Dynamics Engineer at Resonate.

In my most recent stint away from the AEGIS base, I was afforded the opportunity to complete a three month secondment at RIA. AEGIS thought this would be an extremely valuable experience for me and would be beneficial for my overall industry knowledge. Following a chat with RIA’s Technical Director, David Clarke, I was invited to work at RIA’s offices four days a week from September to November 2018.

The first couple of weeks involved my participation in many high level industry meetings. These included meetings with the DfT, Digital Railway Programme Board as well as many of the standards committees. I had a front row seat at many important meetings and was involved in key discussions about the current industry and plans for the future. I could see the importance of having a supply chain representative in these situations to ensure our voice is being heard and my participation enabled me to positively contribute to several RIA TechTalk newsletters.

in the relaunch of RIA’s Standards Digest.

INNOVATION Within my short career in the rail industry, I had yet to understand how the industry works to develop innovation. During my time at RIA, I attended several events focussing on this important subject, including a deep dive session focussing on the recent successful Stephenson Challenge.

This focussed on the recent ISCF Wave 3 funding which, although was focussed mainly on automotive applications, was a cross industry bid, and so RIA were invited to represent the rail industry. It was extremely interesting to be a part of such an important activity and useful to see how innovation is perceived by different parties. I spent a lot of my time researching ways in which a potential Wave 4 bid may be able to follow in the successful footsteps of the Stephenson bid. I was able to present my findings to the RIA team who will carry this forward.

One of the most useful services that I found RIA offer are the numerous Technical Interest Groups that they regularly facilitate for members. This was a great opportunity for me to meet new people from a range of backgrounds and expertise.

IMPROVING COMMUNICATIONS One key project during my time at RIA was improving the level of information contained within the weekly TechTalk communications. One such area targeted for improvement was the publication of information regarding standards to ensure our members were well enough informed about the industry consultations to which their input would be highly valuable.

I began developing a new system to ensure that we captured this data and informed our members to ensure they could voice their comments. This was also an opportunity for members to be notified of any vacancies on any standards committees and involved me working closely with RSSB to develop a new process. I hope that this will be rolled out in the next few weeks

CONCLUSION Although my time at RIA was primarily focussed on working with the Technical team, I was also keen to understand more about how the other functions work. I spoke to other members of the RIA team, from Public Affairs & Policy, Exports, and the Events & Information teams to learn more about how they worked within RIA to deliver the best service to members. This gave me a greater appreciation of how RIA can help our business functions.

My secondment marked the completion of my first phase of the AEGIS Developing Engineer Programme. In my eyes, this was the final missing piece of my journey over the past 18 months. It enabled me to observe how all the industry bodies, committees and suppliers fit together. The rail industry can be a complex and complicated beast at times but this period has made things that little bit more understandable and has painted a clearer picture in my mind of how it all works. My ultimate goal for this placement was to fill in the gaps in my understanding of the industry and it has more than fulfilled my expectations.

Chris (far left) chats to RIA members at the Annual Conference on 22 October 2018

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RIA Update 107: Year in Review Winter 2018

2019 Events

Edinburgh

2018 Events

York

Preston Knowsley

Scunthorpe Manchester

Liverpool

Doncaster Sheffield

Birkenhead

Stoke-on-Trent No�ngham Derby

Telford

Hinkley

Birmingham

Ilford

Milton Keynes Cardiff London Bristol

Ashford

Plymouth

In 2018 we hosted nearly 70 events and mee�ngs 37% were outside of London In 2019 we already have 11 events outside London with more to come If you would like to host a mee�ng or event please get in touch at members@riagb.org.uk 22 Headfort Place, London SW1X 7RY +44 (0)20 7201 0777

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RIA Update 107: Year in Review Winter 2018

Events & Information More members & events and a new-look RIA Operations Director Gaynor Pates reflects on a year of change for RIA The Operations Team began 2018 with under half of the staff capacity needed; 3 enthusiastic new joiners started in March and have made a positive impact! We are looking forward to 2019 to continue building on the hard fought successes and learningexperiences of this year.

MEMBERSHIP This year RIA threw open its doors to SMEs with a rail turnover of less than £1m, micro businesses and individuals by launching a special membership offer for smaller players in the rail supply sector. The deal, designed to make RIA more accessible, halved the current annual minimum membership fee of £1,750 to just £875. Not only does this make it easier for those with lower rail turnovers to join RIA and grow their businesses. It also helps RIA’s voice to become even more representative, as we make the case to help the rail supply sector.

We are pleased to announce that since the beginning of 2018, the RIA membership has grown from 190 to over 240 members, 60% of which are SMEs, with 20 joining at the new entry level in just the last three months. Also, the RIA membership team has raised more than £90,000 in nonsubscription revenues. This revenue will be invested in more and better RIA events and activities for next year.

NEW DIGITAL & MARKETING OFFER Behind the scenes in January we began work on our website, which is now fully integrated with our database and reporting

RIA's Innovation Conference won 'Conference of the Year' at the Trade Association Forum Awards

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platform. We were able to switch off our old website in September.

Although as always, there are more improvements in the pipeline, most of the RIA team is now using the platform on a regular basis. This is a big step forward towards enhancing our digital capabilities and providing a good quality online service for members.

Many members will also have noticed the brand refresh which has seen our logo and marketing updated. The new look builds on our well-known branding, but reflects the modern rail industry we represent.

EVENTS 2018 saw nearly 70 events organised, of which 37% were outside of London. We also held approximately 350 meetings for RIA members at our offices - that's 1,400 flasks of tea or coffee delivered through the year!

For 2019, we are planning new activities for our members to meet and learn more about the industry. Key activities include: • RIA Innovation Conference (RIC) 2019: With the “M.A.D.E.” in Britain theme (Materials, Automation, Data and Energy).

• RIA at Railtex: RIA Hub, SME lab, Knowledge hub & more • NEW - Welcome to RIA Events: More networking opportunities to meet the RIA team, new members and key stakeholders • Plus 1 Rail workshop & reception: Bringing together the current and future leaders in rail • NEW – Track and rolling stock seminars: Combined Policy and Technical full day events.

• RIA Annual Conference 2019: With a new 2-day Conference programme.

• NEW - RIA RFM Golf Day: Partnering with Rail Forum Midlands to give our members a joint networking activity.

• RIA at RIN: Working together with Jobson James to bring the Rail Infrastructure Networking events more added value.

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RIA Update 107: Year in Review Winter 2018

New Members RIA would like to welcome the following companies into membership:

Interested in Membership?

Find out about the benefits of becoming a RIA Member by contact Membership Engagement Manager Monica Barbosa on monica.barbosa@riagb.org.uk

RIA Innovation Conference 19-20 March 2019, Telford

// Number one event for innovators in the UK railway industry // 2-days Conference, 6+ interactive sessions, 8+ keynote addresses, 30+ speakers // Networking with key stakeholders in one place // TAF’S Best Conference Award 2018

www.riagb.org.uk/RIC1903 Congratulations to this quarter's GEM Award Winners There are three new winners of the Going the Extra Mile (GEM) Awards for RIA Team Members. Events Manager Katherine Anchorena & Business Administration Manager Ann-Marie Esiaka recieved a joint award in October and Operations Executive Amalia Damberger, for December (Photo L to R).

To recommend a member of the team for a GEM Award email Chief Executive Darren Caplan at darren.caplan@riagb.org.uk Š 2018 Railway Industry Association Produced by: Railway Industry Association Please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions on this Update. Please circulate to your colleagues.

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