Is there a career in communications engineering in UK rail?

[grinderx]

I'm a communications engineer outside the rail industry. Like a few of my peers, I'm considering a switch into rail. I've been to a handful of talks on rail signalling, comms, networking, etc over the past few years, and I've been able to attend a few industry events as well.

The situation I see is:

• There is quite a low level of desire in the UK for faster/risker R&D.
• Most things seem to be engineered outside of Network Rail and only integrated in house.
• Many of the companies involved are reselling non-UK tech.
• Much of the tech being deployed is based on older standards.
• New standards seem to be based on old non-rail standards.
• Innovation tends to be quite limited.
• There is no demand for new engineers.
• The UK profession is dominated by project management and sub-contracting.
• Where there is UK R&D it is concentrated in a few places that are hard to penetrate.

None of this is necessarily a criticism. Indeed more widely, these factors seem common to other sectors as well. I've been involved in projects where UK options were to poor/limited that we ended up having to buy in capability from China/India/Europe. It is proving quite difficult to encourage younger members of society to take up engineering when so much is done outside the UK.

I'm left with the feeling that I'm better off moving outside the UK if I wanted to be involved in rail, or going off and doing something else. Is this a fair assessment?

("Engineer" I see as being defined as somebody asked to take on a task like R&D to develop a new solution or a new way of doing something, rather than integration/deployment of existing qualified/documented rail systems.)

 

[twpsaesneg]

If you are defining "Engineer" as being someone that only looks at new ways of doing things, you are only going to be looking at very limited roles in the industry. A lot of the true innovation in rail is led by manufacturers now, supported by design engineers both within Network Rail and its contractors / consultants.

Most of the design for Network Rail is done by adopting "standard designs" to use in specific contexts. Indeed, even outside of rail quite a lot of the time you're using standard details in new scenarios, as innovating a new bespoke solution for every situation you come across is time consuming and heavy on checking and review resource. Added to which NR require the use of proven and product approved systems so it takes a lot longer.

That said, the Railway is short of telecoms engineers, NR appears to be tied to Telent for a lot of the stuff they do, so it might be worth looking there.

 

[Horizon22]

There's only going to be a bigger future for communications engineers in the railway sector in my opinion. With things like in-cab signalling, increased automation, extra requirements for station networks (CCTV, "smart CIS") and equipment monitoring bound to grow in the next 20 years.

It might not be directly with NR but instead a consultant (like Telent / Siemens etc.) but there's definitely going to be scope to get a role if you are interested.

 

[bangor-toad]

Hi,
I think there is a good level of innovation taking place but it's remarkably little publicity or awareness of it.

Have a look at some of the UK innovation networks to see what they're doing.
UKRRIN
Rail Industry Association Innovation
(Their innovation events are good)

If you're already developing something there are often grants available. The "First of a Kind" funding was particularly generous over the last few years but the current Government will set it's own, probably similar, options out soon.
In the meantime have a look at this:
InnovateUK link

There's almost certainly an opportunity out there. Good luck finding it!
Cheers,
Mr Toad