Rail industry

Recent restructuring, accidents, timetable changes, delays and funding issues highlight the fact that the organisation adopted when British Rail was split into more than 260 separate private companies employing 180,000 people has been as controversial as the very idea of selling this national asset.

Railtrack took over responsibility for running the existing national rail network, inheriting 5,500 signallers at more than 1,100 signal boxes across mainland UK, and the legal responsibility to operate the trains safely. It was sold with substantial property including 21,000 miles of track, 9,000 level crossings (850 of them manned), nearly 40,000 bridges and viaducts, 600 tunnels containing 250 miles of track, 2,500 stations and depots, on 57,000 hectares of land. To maintain this infrastructure, new regional maintenance companies were created. Thousands of trains were sold off to three new rolling-stock leasing companies, which maintain the fleets and invest in new builds.

Finally, 25 (now 20) passenger train operation companies (TOCs) were created along with one (now eight) rail freight operator(s) to run close to 25,000 trains every day (1,600 of them freight), carrying nearly 3 million passengers and over 400,000 tonnes of freight (79% of the UK’s coal and coal products, and 34% of our metals). More than 70% of all rail journeys start or finish in London, with 500,000 commuter journeys each week. Britons average 736 train kilometres a year with an average journey of 40 kilometres. The TOCs were sold off as franchises to companies that contracted to operate the services. Despite criticism of this structure, it remains largely unchanged, with many major companies entering the new private rail industry.

Unprecedented investment has taken place in hundreds of new trains that are now entering service (4,700 coaches costing nearly £5 billion so that the average age of the fleet has reduced since 1996 from 23 to 14 years). During the last ten years there has been a rise of 40% in the number of passenger miles travelled on the railways – a staggering 26 billion in more than 1 billion journeys on 20,000 passenger services daily. There has been an increase in freight traffic of 60% in the same time frame. Just like the roads the network has become clogged with traffic, causing delay and putting pressure on operations.

Perhaps the most crucial issue has been questions over safety. The fact remains that rail travel is safer than most other forms of movement, with road statistics making other transport horror stories appear insignificant.

Railtrack was placed in administration after government funding was withdrawn, with Network Rail –, a new not-for-dividend organisation –organisation, taking over its role in 2002. Recent plans make Network Rail the single point of accountability for rail performance, and give it the responsibility for explaining and accounting for performance to the public, while the train operators remain accountable to their passengers. It manages 17 of the largest stations, on eight principal routes, used by 800 million passengers a year, while the TOCs lease the other 2,500 stations in their operating areas. Over 50% of stations now have CCTV surveillance – with more than 500 stations having centrally monitored cameras – while 2,500 police and nearly 1,000 other staff, and a total of 200,000 cameras, provide security on the network.

It spends £14 million a day maintaining and improving rail infrastructure, including that of 26 key strategic routes. Last year it upgraded 700 miles of track, 500 miles of sleepers, 500 miles of ballast, and 600 switches and crossings. Its upgraded Train Protection and Warning System stops trains that pass a red signal while travelling up to 100mph, with the incidence of signals passed at danger (SPADs) reducing from 146 to 98 over the last three years. Over the same period, train delays have fallen by 28%, with 88% of trains running on time (the target is 90% by 2009), while it brought rail maintenance (16,000 staff, 5,000 vehicles and 600 depots) in-house.

During the recent four-day Easter break, for example, almost 20 miles of track was laid, new signalling and points installed and part of a viaduct on the Cumbria coast replaced. Over 6,000 people worked 300,000 man-hours, day and night, to improve the railway, including further investment in the £8 billion West Coast project to reduce journey times and increase the frequency of services.

Its latest strategic business plan outlines its spending proposals for 2009–2014, and details what the company believes is required to grow and expand the railway in order to respond to the increasing demand for rail travel from both passengers and freight users. This includes:

• more than doubling current spending levels on rail expansion schemes, from £4.3 billion in 2004–2009 to £9.6 billion between 2009 and 2014
• a proposal to provide over 100,000 extra seats every day in around 1,700 extra carriages
• improving train service punctuality to over 92% by 2014
• halving the costs of running the railway during the ten years to 2014
• investing £11.4 billion on renewing track, signals, structures and stations
• spending £10.4 billion on maintenance and day-to-day operating costs.

Railways in the Services

A regular Royal Logistic Corps Railway Squadron is based at Bicester, with soldiers training on 43 miles of track and placements with companies like Virgin Trains and Network Rail.

Many military movements use rail transport, large supply depots will often include loading and unloading facilities, and the use of troop and medical evacuation trains are quite normal. Indeed, establishing a railhead, as well as a port and airhead, is an early priority in any expeditionary operation to enable bulk shipment of manpower and material.

Employment in railways

Fortunately, behind the headlines, the future for railways remains remarkably strong. Passenger demand remains high and is predicted to continue to grow, as road gridlock becomes even more common. New and improved railway lines are planned for the near future and rail travel is definitely here to stay. Careers are generally split into four employment areas:

1. technical and engineering
2. operations
3. customer facing
4. management.

This all adds up to a growing demand for new staff on the railways, although the industry already has serious recruitment problems at all levels and particularly in specialist engineering positions. One significant development has been the requirement placed on Network Rail’s contractors to employ more staff directly and rely less on agencies in an attempt to improve standards in the quality of new build, with the in-house management of maintenance also calling for new staff.

There has been a long-standing shortage of train drivers with many of the companies actively seeking to recruit them. The job has come a long way from the schoolboy dream with today’s driver having a critical safety role and undergoing a rigorous aptitude test and training programme. Qualifications are less important than the ability to think clearly and concentrate, and rewards reflect the importance of the person in the cab who can attract a salary of over £30,000.

TOCs are also finding it difficult to recruit customer service staff to work at stations and on trains. These positions need few formal qualifications, but they do require an ability to deal with the travelling public. Network Rail has a significant shortage of signallers and is always seeking new recruits. Like a driver, the job of regulating train movements demands attention to detail rather than a long list of qualifications.

Infrastructure maintenance organisations employ a small core staff and there are vacancies for workers to maintain the track and signalling structures. Skill levels vary from technical staff with engineering experience and qualification to gangs of track maintainers who need physical strength and can work in all weathers. Many specialist agencies work under contract to supply such people. This can provide flexible working, good pay rates and entry into the industry.

There are also management and engineering opportunities. Railways are very much a people business, with many staff and even more passengers, and there is significant demand for experienced customer service managers. It is also a business that relies on getting the most out of limited physical resources so people with a logistics background are in demand. Academic qualifications and practical experience help to secure the better paid management positions. But the most serious skill shortage remains in the engineering functions and this is likely to be the case for many years to come.

A good way to get more information about vacancies is through the Internet. All the train operators are linked through one central National Railways site operated by the Association of Train Operating Companies and virtually all the companies’ home pages include a job opportunities list. Network Rail has its own site with job opportunities pages.

It is less simple to check on the vacancies in sub-contractors because these companies rely heavily on agency staff. There are many agencies, and several have websites offering work in maintenance as well as other short-term contract work at stations and on trains.

GoSkills, the Sector Skills Council for Passenger Transport, has recently taken over responsibility for the railways and is developing vocational qualifications for the industry. Its website includes a database that links jobs within the rail industry and describes career routes. National Occupational Standards, apprenticeships and NVQs at Levels 1, 2 and 3 have been developed for people working in:

·rail engineering

– signal engineering

– maintenance, installation and renewal of electrification and plant assets

– telecoms engineering

– maintenance and repair of traction and rolling stock

– maintenance and renewal of the perfect way

– rail engineering

·rail transport operations.

Contact details

GoSkills, Concorde House, TrinityPark, Solihull, West Midlands B37 7UQ Tel: 0121 635 5520 Website: www.goskills.org

Association of Train Operating Companies, 3rd Floor, 40 Bernard Street, LondonWC1N 1BY Tel: 020 7841 8000 Website: www.atoc.org

Network Rail, 40 Melton Street, LondonNW1 2EE Tel: 020 7557 8000 Website: www.networkrail.co.uk