We asked our Engineering Director Michael Hickey what he dislikes about the rail industry and here’s a snippet of what he said: 😮
There are a number of things that I dislike about the rail industry which include:
The duopoly of the signalling market. We are all ultimately in the industry to provide the safest and most efficient rail system we can, but due to technology constraints put on SMEs and Micro Enterprises (for instance not owning or easily having access to interlocking technologies), it is becoming harder and harder to work on the rail network where an interlocking change is required as part of a project.
Interlocking technology owners therefore control the client to a large degree which often drives-up project costs. Also, it means that a lot of companies won’t upskill their staff with say CBI (Computer Based Interlocking) competencies as they will be unlikely to use them.
When I started my career interlocking technologies were largely RRI and CBI with wider access to the masses. The experience I gained from working on these systems I believe was invaluable to my own personal development within the industry.
So, come on, shout out 📢 – what’s your dislikes about the rail industry?
