Understanding today's railways

Furthermore, says Williams, “In the north of England, we visit more than 500 stations across 2,500kms of track – so the value of connected cities, towns and villages is huge. And that means the economic benefits are huge too, as rail boosts productivity and economic growth.” In 2023, for example, total rail-related GVA amounted to £41.2 billion (GVA stands for Gross Value Added, a productivity metric that calculates economic output). In the same year, the UK’s rail-related tax revenue came to £14.2 billion.

The wider economic impact is also enormous, with half of rail expenditure spent through organisations in the supply chain. Network Rail, the public body that owns and manages most of the railway network infrastructure, spends around £7 billion per year on its supply chain alone.

According to the Railway Industry Association (RIA), a trade body for UK-based suppliers to railways, “For every £1 spent on the railway a further £2.50 is generated in the wider economy.”

A similar pattern is evident in employment. The railways support more than 700,000 jobs across the country, including highly skilled roles and apprenticeships. At the same time, for every 1,000 people employed in the rail network, a further 4,300 jobs are supported across the UK economy – and it’s important to highlight these opportunities, notes Williams.

“One of our biggest challenges is making sure young people understand they can have an interesting, exciting and rewarding career in rail,” she says. “We have so many different jobs here from drivers to conductors to engineers, as well as finance, strategy, marketing, HR, communications and so on. A career in rail is a well-kept secret and it’s time we shared that secret with everyone.”

The people employed in the rail industry are the cornerstone of its success, argues Professor Paul Plummer, Director of the University of Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education. “The real strength of the railways is the people and their technical expertise,” he says. “We have some very talented people. The flip side of that is that we need to give them new and more modern skills, and we need to improve the diversity of the workforce, but the strength is in the people.”

As these comments indicate, there are challenges in terms of employment too. This isn’t unique to the rail industry, with half of respondents to a recent RS and Institution of Mechanical Engineering (IMechE) report listing recruitment and retention as prominent concerns. Difficulties with recruitment and retention in rail can, however, have particularly significant ramifications: the National Infrastructure Commission, the agency responsible for providing expert advice on the UK’s infrastructure developments, regards both issues as major cost drivers in recent projects including construction of the Elizabeth line.

Recruitment and retention are not the only challenges facing the UK rail industry. The same report from the National Infrastructure Commission also demonstrates how lack of strategic certainty has detrimental effects. It compares, for instance, rail electrification in Germany, where there has been a steady rollout programme, and the UK, where investment has been volatile. As a result, the core cost is between 30 to 60 per cent higher.

Rail electrification is a significant example because the Climate Change Committee, the public body that reports to Parliament on progress towards climate change adaptation, says the rail industry needs to increase levels of electrification in order to fully realise its environmental potential. At the moment, while 71 per cent of today’s passenger trains are powered by electricity, only 39 per cent of the total route length is electrified – 61 per cent of the almost 16,000 kilometres of track remains non-electrified.

To fully realise its potential, the rail network also needs to accommodate a big increase in passenger numbers. This in turn means overcoming current capacity limitations. Research indicates that rail passenger numbers “are likely to grow by 37-97% by 2050,” states RIA. The organisation urges the government to rise to the challenge by setting ambitious goals for passenger travel, as it has with freight: “This is a huge opportunity that also requires significant forward planning, so that potential passengers are attracted to make full use of a modern, accessible and low-carbon public transport network.”

The complex and fragmented structure of the UK rail industry, involving multiple public and private stakeholders, makes increasing capacity, improving rates of rail electrification and reducing strategic uncertainty more difficult. There have been big projects – as Williams points out, “We began running services on the new Northumberland Line in December [2024] and electric trains are already running between Manchester Victoria and Stalybridge, thanks to the TransPennine Route Upgrade.

Industry professionals are, however, keen to see changes that would reduce fragmentation. “Bringing track and train together will deliver a better and more efficient railway,” says RIA. “Reform needs to happen soon,” it continues, “and in a planned way, removing ongoing uncertainty over the future of the sector. Businesses need to see a clear and realistic timetable.”

In February 2025, the Department of Transport launched a consultation to inform the forthcoming Railways Bill, which will establish Great British Railways, “a single directing mind that will run our rail infrastructure and passenger services in the public interest” – a move that perhaps indicates such reforms are coming down the line.

In the meantime, many organisations are exploring ways to use digital technology to support more efficient and effective management of the rail network. Remote monitoring systems, for example, indicate when a section of track is expanding too much during periods of high temperature, alerting Network Rail to the need for speed restrictions. Slower trains reduce the forces exerted on the track and, therefore, decrease the likelihood of rails buckling.

Many such examples involve collaboration, as when Network Rail worked with the University of Sheffield Rail Innovation and Technology Centre on research using forward-facing cameras on trains “to measure how the train moves relative to the tracks, creating a 3D map of the tracks ahead.” The goal of the project was to better understand what normal movement looks like and what movement may indicate a fault with the train or the track.

Rail companies can partner with trusted suppliers too. RS, for instance, supports a rail customer with oil condition monitoring. “They see this as an important part of their maintenance programme and an opportunity to ensure that assets remain in the best condition possible,” says Gregson. “More broadly, businesses need partners to support them with offerings that aren’t part of their core objectives but can improve the longevity of parts, reduce downtime and help them to achieve their goals.”

For more analysis of the UK railways, download our 2025 Rail Industry report.