UKTram’s second Trade & Trams session took place at the end of October. The aim of these sessions is to get supply trade members to share their experience of light rail projects with operators and engineers.
Held online, the session saw four trade members – Waterman Aspen, North Star Consultancy, Railway Assurance, and Sika – present to attendees covering technical and operational topics and sharing practical applications and lessons learned from projects.
Amongst the topics covered were North Star Consultancy sharing their experience from across the world supporting projects including advising on operations and maintenance for West Yorkshire Mass Transit.
Waterman Aspen discussed the skills and expertise needed for future light rail schemes whilst Railway Assurance provided examples of their safety assurance and risk management work. Sika also presented a case study from the Sandilands tragedy saying they valued practical examples and the chance to see how different approaches are renewal efficient.
Tim Bilby, UKTram Stakeholder and Innovation Manager, said: “Our Trade Members shared real examples of how their expertise is being applied on projects, which made for a really useful and thought-provoking session. The discussion that followed showed how valuable it is to support suppliers and operators in learning from one another. It’s far too easy for out hard-working sector to get tied up in the day job and not have a chance to discover what is being done and developed out there – these sessions are proving to be an accessible way to spend a little time just doing that.”