Railtex and Rail in the UK

The month of May was host to this year's Railtex exhibition - a 3 day event at the NEC in Birmingham, where you'll likely find anyone who is anyone in the world of rail construction.

Exhibitors from all over the world were in attendance as well as Britain's finest and most innovative suppliers to the UK rail sector.

This was my first time attending the event that has been running for 24 years and is widely regarded as the premier rail exhibition in the UK.  I and my colleague Adam Cadwaladr casually made our way round the exhibit perusing the 100's of stands on show.

It was rather fitting that the venue for the exhibition was Birmingham, which will be a major hub for the upcoming High Speed 2 (HS2) development which should begin construction within the next year. HS2 was the buzz word all day - from the seminar speakers to the suppliers touting for business. Everyone wants a piece of HS2! And who can blame them, the project is worth £55 Bn and will take over 20 years to complete Phase 1 & 2 of the project.

Maxim Recruitment have already been fortunate enough to have vacancies directly involved on the HS2 Development with major Tier 1 Consultancies in Birmingham. So far the extent to our involvement has been limited to supplying Quantity Surveyors and Estimators, however we fully expect to have a wider range of roles and in more volume once the project is fully underway.

With all the hype surrounding HS2, it's easy to forget the abundance of none HS2 related rail work in the UK though. There are significant efforts to electrify many of the UK's busiest rail lines currently underway, as well as major upgrades to stations and lines relating to the final years of Network Rail's Control Period 5 (CP5). In particular, we've seen demand for rail professionals in the Midlands, South West and London in the last 12 months.

We also await further details on plans for Crossrail 2 and  full details of CP6 which will run from 2019 to 2024.

The rail sector in the UK looks to be one of the busiest sectors in UK construction over the next decade and there's no doubt that construction professional with experience on rail projects will be in high demand.

Maxim's expertise in recruiting for major International rail projects is widely recognised, both in the UK and Overseas. We have been involved in sourcing a high number of senior staff in commercial and operational roles on some of the largest rail projects around the World over the past 15 years. These include:

• The Dubai Metro project (Dubai, UAE)
• Klang Valley MRT Project (Malaysia)
• MTR Project (Hong Kong)
• Doha Metro (Doha, Qatar)
• Crossrail (London, UK)
• Riyadh Metro (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)

We have very strong network in the rail sector and would regard it as one of, if not our strongest sector that we have recruited for over the years. We've worked with leading British and International contractors as well as some of the largest Consultancies to supply highly experienced rail professional in a variety of commercial, operational and claims related roles.

We hope to be at the forefront of the challenges that await us in securing enough talented staff to deliver HS2 over the next few years. Therefore would welcome enquiries from contractors and sub contractors that are tendering or have been awarded work on the project or candidates that have strong rail experience and want to be involved in this fantastic project.

SEARCH RAIL JOBS

Stuart Hackett
Senior Recruitment Consultant