Rail Partners’ conference

Shakil joined Eversholt Rail in 2014 and was appointed as the Head of Fleet in November 2021. He leads the Fleet Team as the primary technical interface with customers and suppliers along with the hands-on Asset Inspection team. The team provides a central point of knowledge for the fleet to input into innovation, climate solution and major asset uplift projects; all with the aim of preserving the residual value of our assets.

Shakil Ismail Head of Fleet

Shakil began his career on the railway at Bombardier Transportation in 2007 as a Graduate Trainee, developing into a Fleet Engineer with experience across various depots and operators around the UK. Shakil has an MEng in Electrical Engineering.

Elaine leads the Rail Forum team; she is responsible for the Rail Forum’s strategy and ensuring the delivery of a strong value proposition across all membership activities.

A Chartered Engineer, Elaine has 40 years business and industry experience gained in the electricity, chemicals and skills development sectors.

Elaine Clarke Chief Executive

Dan Taylor Senior Policy Advisor

Jag Maitala Deputy Director Markets Strategy and Planning

Dan is the policy lead on rolling stock design at Transport Focus and has contributed to each of its research rolling stock projects seeking to understand passenger expectations of new and refurbished trains. He led Transport Focus’s work on the new Merseyrail trains and has recently worked with Porterbrook to identify passenger needs from their Turbostar refurbishment programme. He also works on a range of policy issues including accessibility, passenger information during disruption and personal security.

Jag has worked in various parts of the rail industry for over 20 years. This has included working at Network Rail, TfL and DfT. He is currently accountable for DfT’s Rolling Stock policy and contracts, which includes the IET contract.

Previous roles have included introducing new trains into service, as well as optimising train maintenance regimes. Jag was also the Lead Specifier for Train Services and Rolling Stock for SWR franchise and Project Director for the CrossCountry contract.

Ben is the Engineering Business Development Director for First Rail, a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. He has 19 years of rolling stock experience, having started his career with Porterbrook Leasing where he was a project Engineer on Hayabusa – the world’s first high speed battery hybrid train.

Ben went on to be a Technical Support Engineer, Overhaul Project Manager and Depot Manager with East Midlands Trains before moving to Wales as Head of Engineering for Arriva Trains Wales. After a short spell as a Track RAM for NR, and a consultant for IPEX, he joined FirstGroup where he has successfully led the development of train service operations plans for South Western Railway, Trans Pennine Express and Great Western Railway, securing direct awards.

Ben is currently producing GWR’s future fleet and depots proposal which provides a pathway to meeting government’s ambition to remove diesel only trains by 2040 and achieve net zero by 2050.