Rail Industry Consultants

A rail consultant will lend their cross-industry experience and expertise to assist clients with specific challenges or projects. The work they support will vary from client to client based on their needs, but the skills they bring are often very specific and can therefore be of critical value to rail organisations that don’t possess those skills internally.

When delivering any kind of change, organisations need to put their people at the heart of it, as it is people who ultimately need to adopt and live the change. This is as true in the rail industry as it is in any other, because the rail workforce is extremely diverse, ranging from trackside frontline staff to senior executives based in head office. Therefore, organisations looking to deliver change in rail should consider whether they have the ability to engage these unique stakeholder groups with the change.

For any change being delivered in the rail industry, the safety of staff and passengers must be at the forefront of the project. Safety is critical across all aspects of the rail industry, and it can not be overlooked, neglected or compromised in the delivery of a new initiative. This is why working with a change consultant experienced in the rail industry is valuable, because they should live and breathe this safety culture and factor safety into all elements of the change.

The rail industry is made up of many diverse user groups, from trackside frontline workers to senior executives based in head office. These different stakeholder groups will have different learning, communication and change needs. The benefits of change will therefore need to be articulated in a way that is bespoke for each group, answering the key question of ‘what’s in it for me’ in a way that engages them based on their specific needs.

The rail industry is undergoing a constant degree of change, and the pace of this change has accelerated in recent years through the influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic, new technologies, legislative and governmental changes and evolving customer demands. These are all key issues that the industry is responding to, and it therefore finds itself having to constantly transform to maintain efficient operations and good service to passengers.

Critical success factors will differ from organisation to organisation, based on their role in the rail industry. Identifying the specific success factors for your project at its outset is key to ensuring your change will address these. Broadly, these may be in line with the critical success factors outlined in Network Rails’ National Efficiency Plans, which include a joint property strategy, RD&I, infrastructure monitoring, digital factory and capital delivery transformation.

As in any industry, technological change can carry significant risk in rail, particularly in regard to safety and service. Beyond those critical risks, any failed technology change, no matter how large or small, can cost organisations time, money and market share, which is also a major risk in the fast-paced rail industry. Often, organisations fail to engage their people with technology change, focusing instead of systems, processes and data. This can be a contributing factor to technology change risk.

Government policy will have a major impact on the rail sector in the years to come. A need to deliver greater efficiency, value, service and innovation is driving significant government intervention in the operation of the railways, for example by bringing TOCs into public ownership. As a result, any organisation operating in the rail industry must be confident in their ability to rapidly respond to change in order to remain competitive and futureproof.

Managers and leaders play a key role in encouraging rail industry change. The diverse makeup of the rail industry workforce, and the corresponding needs and preferences of these differing stakeholder groups, mean that engaging at a more local level is crucial when communicating and embedding change. Managers and leaders are therefore extremely important in ensuring they not only understand and support any change, but that their teams do as well. A good change consultant will help empower managers and leaders to cascade change.