NEWS
Young guns blazing a trail T
he Young Railway Professionals (YRP)
organisation has come a long way in just 14 months, with a rapidly expanding membership, companies keen to sponsor them and an ability to secure some of the industry’s top figures to speak at their events.
Rob Mullen helped found the group in October 2009, starting out by bringing together the young member chairs of each of the main railway institutions and related bodies, including those from such well-know organisations as the IRO, IME, IET, PWI and CILT, with support from the REF.
Rob, a Senior Driver Manager with c2c, said: “The real aim was to reach young people who currently have a railway career or want one and give them an ability to cross-network at each other’s events. It’s all very well going to a civil engineers’ event, but you may not get the opportunity to meet people on the operations side, and vice versa and so on and so on.
“We wanted to give young people that opportunity on top of the educational programmes available from each Institution.
“I’ve found in my own career that I was going to good IRO events and you’d meet lots of operators, discussing operational matters as you’d expect. I thought that maybe, especially in the early stages of my career I should be expanding my knowledge-base. It seemed a good idea to go and look additionally at some different events. Something I’d encourage all disciplines to do”.
Rob Mullen
The young member chairs of the organisations rapidly pulled the YRP together, and it now claims a membership of around 900, with 160 regular contributors to its forum and 10,000 hits a month on its website.
It heavily promotes institute events to members of the other institutes, but also hosts its own.
These include an upcoming black tie dinner in central London for 300 people, with a keynote speech from Terry Morgan CBE, chairman of both Crossrail and the National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering (NSARE), on February 3.
Rob said last year’s event was a huge success and was addressed by then-rail minister Chris Mole. YRP also hosts a summer barbecue and other events, and is a fixture at many trade shows including 2010’s Innotrans.
Rob said: “The other thing we’re doing is launching Young Railway Ambassadors. It’s a key area for us in generating railway personnel for the future. We have put together a team of young people who want to go into colleges, universities and schools and really promote the railway industry.
12 | rail technology magazine Dec/Jan 11
It’s really important to reach the grassroots and keep people coming into the industry and get people interested in the technology.”
Continental connections Despite the age of the
organisation – and its members! – it is already making waves across the channel, with European groups interested in making links with the YRP.
Rob, who recently returned from a trip to Lille where he met some industry big-hitters, said there are plans afoot to put on annual, Europe-wide events for young railway professionals.
He said: “The other arm we’ve got is charity work. Some of us are weighing up the Three Peaks challenge, but getting the initial funding together is difficult!
“We want to make some money to re-invest and improve YRP for our subscribers, but also have a charitable element to give something back.”
The group is ‘not for profit’ and is funded primarily through its ‘parent institutions’, but has also proved effective at generating sponsorship to cover its costs, such as for the black-tie dinner. This helps keep the costs down for all attendees.
Rob said: “£40 for a three- course, black-tie dinner in central London is relatively cheap! We want to help our members. A lot of the guys will be relying on the companies for
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more about YRP, and a chance to book tickets to upcoming events, visit:
www.youngrailwayprofessionals.org
Grizzled veterans of the industry take note – there is a fresh young crop of talent working all across the railways and making a big impact. The Young Railway Professionals are much more than a networking club. Rail Technology Magazine spoke to chairmanRob Mullen to find out more
their travel. Many of them come out of university and will have to hire a tuxedo, for example.”
There is no membership fee – an obvious boost for potential members recently out of university or those on the lower end of the pay scale. Members get a monthly newsletter and can join YRP on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Welcome to the club
Importantly, Rob says, the group has no actual age limit.
He said: “We don’t define young. We’re massively inclusive – if somebody wanted to come to an event, they can do. I guess we’re aimed at those maybe 35 and under, but as far as I’m concerned there’s a benefit to meeting all types of people in the industry.
“We don’t make a big deal about it. If you are put off by the young ‘tag’ and don’t feel comfortable, you won’t come!
“But it’s not a young managers club; we want all staff, drivers, HR managers, planning assistants, everybody’s welcome and there’s benefit to everyone.
“I fell into a job in the railways – I wanted to be a fighter pilot! But once I was in, it was strangely hard to leave. I started in timetable planning and performance and now I’m a train crew manager and can drive, that is massively unusual. It all comes from the people you meet who take a chance on you.”
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