RIA responds to Workload Trends Survey showing slump in rail work
Responding to the Civil Engineering Contractors Association’s Workload Trend Survey,
Darren Caplan, Chief Executive of the Railway Industry Association (RIA) said:
“Disappointingly, CECA’s Workload Trends Survey published today shows that work in rail is
declining further than other major infrastructure sectors.
“This is a graphic illustration of the impact the ‘boom and bust’ funding of rail investment is
having in the UK, where rail suppliers see large ramp-ups in workloads in the early part of the
five-year Control Period before steep drop-offs a year or two later. Not only does this make
renewing and enhancing the railway more expensive, but for rail suppliers it results in freezing
recruitment, making redundancies and cutting back on innovation and training.
“Given rail’s standing in today’s survey, it is clearly time for the industry – Government,
Network Rail, the Office of Rail and Road, suppliers and other key rail organisations – to come
together to work out a way to end ‘boom and bust’. As RIA suggested to the Transport Select
Committee just this week, the rail industry must have the will to look for a solution, ultimately
to the benefit of not just the rail supply sector, but also passengers, freight customers and
taxpayers.”
Notes to Editors
- The CECA Workload Trends Survey press release be found here.
- About the Railway Industry Association: The Railway Industry Association (RIA) is the
representative body for UK-based suppliers to the UK and world-wide railways. It has
some 200 companies in membership and the sector employs 240,000 people and
contributes annually £11 billion Gross Value Added (GVA). It is also a growing industry
with the number of rail journeys expected to double over the next 25 years and freight
set to grow significantly too. RIA’s membership is active across the whole of railway
supply, covering a diverse range of products and services and including both multinational
companies and SMEs (60% by number). RIA works to promote the importance
of the rail system to UK plc, to help export UK expertise around the globe and to share
best practice and innovation across the industry.