Keeping the future of rail on track

In the latest edition of Marketing Derby’s Innovate magazine, we meet Elaine Clark, chief executive of the Rail Forum, which this year celebrates its 30th anniversary.

Originally established as the Derby and Derbyshire Rail Forum in 1993, today the Rail Forum is a respected national industry body, with 360 members, from several major global players to numerous SMEs.

It was created following privatisation of British Rail Engineering and as the remainder of the industry prepared for privatisation.

It was established by a range of businesses housed in the Rail Technical Centre, BREL’s successor.

With support from local government, it quickly widened to incorporate rolling stock owners and companies outside of the local area.

Today, the Rail Forum is more important than ever – giving its members a voice and working hard to raise the profile of the industry, something which Elaine feels is an ongoing mission.

She told Innovate: “I think the rail industry is more important to the local economy than many people realise.

“Sometimes it gets taken a bit for granted but the sector has also been its own worst enemy and has been too insular.

“We have a really important task as an industry to get the message across about the opportunities which exist within rail.”

The operations of the Rail Forum are headquartered in Derby – a city which has been a key centre for rail for nearly 200 years and which is home to one of the largest and most diverse clusters of rail businesses in the world.

Elaine said: “The rail industry does a hell of a lot, but we don’t shout about it enough.

“I think, sometimes, people don’t see all that goes into rail and don’t realise just how strong the sector is locally.

“If you just took a two-mile radius around the railway station and looked at the number of companies working within rail that sit within that, I think people would be quite surprised.”

A challenge for Elaine and her colleagues is winning the hearts and minds of young people – and convincing them of the merits of a career in manufacturing, particularly in rail.

The Rail Forum is at the forefront of efforts to improve understanding and runs an outreach programme involving school and college students.

Elaine says awareness is increasing – and it’s important for the future of the industry that momentum is maintained.

She told Innovate: “It is changing but it’s been a slow process.”

To read the full feature in Innovate visit here.