The Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership (NEP) hosted a meeting regarding the growth of the UK rail industry and how it can be used to benefit local businesses.
Held on Thursday, November 26, between 8.30am and 12.30pm at the newly opened National Training Academy for Rail in Northampton, the ‘Supplying the 21st Century Railway’ event highlighted the innovation and supply chain opportunities that rail provides.
Senior industry representatives met Northamptonshire companies at the meeting to describe the opportunity this presents, and to learn about Northamptonshire’s technology, engineering capability and expertise.
UK rail is undergoing its biggest transformation programme in over a century, with more than £38bn set to be spent over the next five years to maintain and improve the network.
Organised by NEP’s High Performance Technology (HPT) Sector Strategy Board, working in partnership with the Rail Supply Group and Future Railway, speakers included rail Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) Alstom and Siemens, together with UKTram, Rail Alliance, Railway Industry Association, Manufacturing Advisory Service and local rail supplier Harting UK.
Julia Schumacher, HPT Business Relationship Manager, NEP said on their website: “The growth within the Rail industry requires new innovations and new cutting edge technologies to bring the industry in line with 21st century expectations of performance and delivery.
“Northamptonshire has well-established expertise within high performance engineering, at the moment predominantly within the motorsport and automotive sectors. NEP is keen to bring these industries together to explore the many cross sector opportunities that exist, and to help facilitate new business development for the HPT supply chain.”