Company: Network Rail
Role: Regional Freight Manager
Simon is the Regional Freight Manager for Network Rail’s Southern Freight Team, one of the five teams that cover freight operations across the national network. Working alongside operators and customers, his focus is on safety, operations, performance and business development.
For Simon, every day in his role is different: “I could be invited to the Houses of Parliament one day, dressed in full PPE at a freight terminal in the driving rain the next, and then visiting a signalling centre the following day.”
He found the role through searching Network Rail’s jobs portal in 2020, when the freight industry was rebounding from the first COVID-19 lockdown. At a time of such uncertainty, working in a growth area of the rail industry was appealing, and something he felt excited about.
“I’m also passionate about tackling climate change and rail’s role in doing that, so this job, working on encouraging a shift to rail as a more sustainable form of freight transport, looked absolutely ideal.”
Having worked in rail operations, infrastructure planning and the tourism industry before, Simon has found that his experience has given him a huge breadth of knowledge and skills, many of which help him every day to understand and draw together multiple stakeholders to work towards their shared common goals.
And recently, Simon got to complete his career highlight to date, in helping a customer to open a new freight terminal on a long dormant section of rail infrastructure that was last used before he was born!