Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association (Arema) about the issue. Its response was to establish the Railway Engineering Education Symposium (Rees) which was first held in 2008 and again in 2010 and 2012. US engineering faculty are invited to attend the event which includes two days of classroom content and a half day site visit. The symposium provides an introduction to railway engineering concepts and details of potential course content so participants can at least teach the basics at their respective universities. Nearly 30 professors have attended each symposium, and many have added railway-specific coursework to their engineering curriculum. Several other initiatives are underway to enhance railway engineering’s presence on campus. Arema student chapters are increasingly popping up at US universities, with more than 10 now providing a direct link between students, faculty and the industry, while a programme is underway to unite universities offering railway education. NURail, a seven-university consortium led by the University of
Illinois, which was selected by the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) as one of its 10 national university transportation centres in 2011, and has received a funding boost as a result, was heavily involved in the 2012 Rees forum. It believes that by pooling resources and its collective way of thinking will be more beneficial to the industry. It is also providing a platform for collaborative research and is boosting direct links with railways all over the world.
Funding
Inevitably funding is a major issue for these schemes which are often led by volunteers. “It is done from the perspective of something that we should do for the long term,” Olofsson says. “I am doing this voluntarily because I see it as being important for the future health of the industry.”
Mr James Grundy, ambassador and
coordinator of Britain’s Young Rail Professionals Network (YRP), has also dedicated much of his spare time to
getting the group off the ground. It now boasts an online network of 1500 members and holds regular networking dinners and practical events, including an ambassador scheme, which have been heralded as a major success. Grundy told IRJ that he hopes the industry will continue to back YRP. He says it needs a full-time presence either as a charity or an affiliation, but that it is ultimately up to the industry to take greater responsibility for YRP as an important body that unites its young people and future leaders. “We see ourselves as the glue between young people and the industry and we hope to continue to bring both together,” he says.
Indeed, as the initiatives highlighted in St Pölten demonstrate there are wide- reaching efforts underway to attract and secure the next generation of railway engineers. However, they need sustained support, without it and an understanding of the importance of these initiatives, the prospect of a future skills shortage might not be overcome, which would be disastrous to the future of rail transport. IRJ
IRJ August 2013
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