As a business owned, led and governed by our industry members, the Rail Forum Midlands works to represent the views and values of the membership community; from the large and multinational organisations such as Alstom, Bombardier, CH2M and SNC Lavalin, to the SME civils and rail engineering contractors, passenger information, technology and systems companies and rolling stock parts manufacturing, maintenance and refurbishment. Therefore, when the government’s published the Green Paper ‘Building our Industrial Strategy’ earlier this year and sought views on the approach and ideas set out, the Rail Forum recognised the need for our member’s responses to be represented as part of the broad discussion. To gather this information first-hand, the Rail Forum team hosted a consultation event at our offices in Derby, alongside our friends at the Railway Industry Association. The session aimed to capture both the sector’s needs and the potential economic benefits throughout the UK and was a hands-on, informal discussion attended by twenty delegates keen to have their voices heard. Armed with this insight, the Rail Forum compiled a formal response to the paper and submitted this to government last month. The full document can be found here.
