Middle East Rail 2020: How employing UK asset management transformations can improve Middle Eastern railways
Around this time of the year, the rail industry meets in Dubai for Middle East Rail, the largest transport event of its kind in the region. Now in its seventh edition, the event – which brings together a mixture of experts and professionals – has cemented itself in the calendar as a go-to event.
For the seventh year in a row, over 25-26thMarch, we exhibited the best of Network Rail’s UK operations.
With a focus this year on digital transformation – one of the most pressing issues for the industry globally – we sought to especially shine a light on Network Rail’s transformation of asset management into a centralised information hub from which data-driven performance insights can be produced.
As part of the UK Pavilion, a semi-playful term for the section of the exhibition area organised by the UK Government’s Department for International Trade and dedicated exclusively to UK service exporters, our primary presence at the event was at our NRC stand over the two days.
As the place for suppliers and clients to congregate, close deals and create business opportunities, holding the stand every year is a great opportunity to speak with operators in the region, both about our operational experience in the UK and our existing experience in the Middle East.
To support the UK service suppliers in the Pavilion was UK Rail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris MP (photographed), who visited our stand on the Wednesday.
We were also proud to have our own Global Technical Director Barny Daley take to the conference stage to deliver a thought leadership presentation on Improving the reliability of in-service infrastructureas part of the show’s focus onGoing Digital in OPEX Phase Rail. Highlighting the improvements Network Rail has made through effective asset management over the last decade – for instance reducing the number of inspection failures by two thirds – Barny’s pitch to the audience was to prioritise and utilize the data at their disposal to start driving improvements.
Following his presentation, Barny took part in a panel session focused on the same subject.
At the end of January, the Rail Forum 2020 took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Only in its second year, the event acts as a good accompaniment to Middle East Rail, where experts, decision and policy makers can discuss how better tracks lead to better economies. We were in attendance to learn how our offer can best serve the Middle East’s train operators.
-ENDS-
For further information, contact:
Jamie Gardiner • T +44 (0) 207 413 3506 • [email protected]
Notes to Editors
About Network Rail Consulting
► Network Rail Consulting Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Network Rail and was established in 2012 to benchmark Network Rail’s capabilities in the international market and enhance the capabilities of its staff through international experience which could then be deployed back into its UK operations.
► The board of directors of Network Rail Consulting comprises Susan Cooklin (non-executive chair), Nigel Ash (global managing director), Andrew Noble (finance director), Ian Dobbs (non-executive director), Nick King (non-executive director) and Jeremy Westlake (non-executive director).
► Network Rail Consulting Ltd has subsidiaries in Australia, Canada and the USA; and operates from offices in Boston, London (HQ), New York, Riyadh, Sacramento, San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto and Washington DC.
► Network Rail Consulting is selling the full range of rail expertise available within Network Rail including asset management, maintenance planning and optimisation, timetabling and simulation modelling, technical assistance and interim management; and project and programme management.
More information can be found at www.networkrailconsulting.com
About Network Rail
Network Rail owns, manages and develops Britain’s railway – the 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges and viaducts and thousands of tunnels, signals, level crossings and points. We also manage rail timetabling and 20 of the largest stations in England, Scotland and Wales. In partnership with train operators we help people take more than 1.7bn journeys by rail every year - double the number of 1996 - and move hundreds of millions of tonnes of freight, saving almost 8m lorry journeys. We’re investing £47bn in the railway by 2024 to deliver a more reliable, safer and efficient railway.