Career opportunities on the railways

With Britain’s railways currently undergoing the biggest programme of investment since the Victorian age, 2014 is an exciting year to be a rail engineer. In March, Network Rail unveiled plans to invest £38bn in the UK’s tracks and stations, while Transport for London (TfL) and the Department for Transport also confirmed the extension of the Crossrail project west to Reading. Although this represents plenty to keep the industry busy for a while, a little further into the future HS2, Crossrail 2 and a HS2 extension may also be on the cards. In the meantime, in the capital, TfL is continuing to invest several billion in the Underground — and all of these projects will require new rolling stock. In summary, there’s a lot of work about.

‘The current government’s policy of infrastructure investment is crucial to the continued growth of the UK rail engineering industry,’ explained Phil Hodgson, department manager for rail and property at engineering recruitment specialist Matchtech. ‘We have already lost many candidates abroad to huge projects in the Middle East — such as the Doha Metro, Abu Dhabi Metro and Riyadh rail upgrades — so it’s vital we have similar high-profile UK projects to compete internationally. The Network Rail project could bridge the project pipeline gap between Cross Rail, Cross Rail 2 and the uncertainty that surrounds HS2 to attract and retain UK engineering talent.’