Ian Rawlings is Head of Profession for Vehicles Engineering at Transport for London.  Ian and his team provide the engineering support to all the rail modes at TfL including London Trams, DLR and LU.  With over 20 experience in the organisation across a variety of operational and project roles Ian brings a unique perspective to the industry.  TfL currently operates a variety of service provision models which includes in and out sourcing a wide variety of activities.  As part of the Rolling Stock Guiding Mind at TfL and involved in both new rolling Stock procurement projects underway at TfL Ian is helping set the direction for the next 25 years as part of TfLs strategic asset plan.

Paul Staples has been TPE’s Fleet Director since 2012. After training as a mechanical engineer, Paul’s early career was in process plant design and project management in the car manufacturing industry. He joined the rail industry in 2001 as a safety case manager with Alstom Transport, before joining TransPennine Express as Fleet Commercial Manager in 2003, just before the initial launch of the new franchise. Paul’s experience and track record combines extensive general and railway engineering capability with great experience of the commercial relationships and approaches associated with delivery of sub-contract maintenance partnerships. He specialises in aligning those partnerships and his teams work with the operational safety, performance and quality requirements of the railway, and the business environment within which it must operate.

I have extensive experience in Operations and Maintenance management. Strong skills in personnel management and development. Team management experience from 5 person experts to 2300 person organization in various locations. Lean implementation with team including training for personnel.

For the € - business development has been part of my work nearly 20 years. Each client has different needs and those are monitored with agreed KPI's, usually with tight budget and tight deadlines. Trust need to be earned with deliverables on given time.

Vast skills managing materials and logistics for rolling stock, including warehouses and supply chain management. Making sure that we have right material on right time in right place with maximum efficiency and minimum inventory.

On train side I have long experience on commissioning & warranty, engineering, maintenance & refurbishment in multicultural environments. Technical development on various subsystems on trains with setting technical KPI's to monitor and confirm agreed performance.

Technical & Management experience
Organization development, change management, LEAN implementation on various fields, personnel management in several positions and locations, customer concerns oriented for operation KPI's as availability, service quality, life cycle cost, missing parts, inventory levels, delivery performance, logistic cost, ERP data quality, supply chain efficiency. Fleet and project management, Depot management, Material management on country level.

Nick has a long career working as an engineer of Shinkansen trains. He has been involved in developing and maintaining Shinkansen since he started his career as a Shinkansen driver in 1996. Nick also has experience working as a researcher in the UK railway industry for one year.

Sam joined Instrumentel in June 2018 from Unipart Rail having worked as the Sales and
Project Manager of the Supply Chain Solutions business. Sam has worked as a Lean
Practitioner for multiple rail organisations in different countries to optimise operations and
deliver value for customers. With an in-depth knowledge of maintenance and supply chain
operations in the rail industry, Sam is able to tailor solutions to meet the needs of customers.

In 2003, I worked at Southwest Jiaotong University, known as the "cradle of Chinese railway engineers", teaching

courses, researching non-destructive testing of key components of railway rolling stock, image inspection and

other related technologies. Meanwhile I served as an associate professor, professor and doctoral supervisor

successively.

In terms of teaching, I have taught courses for bachelor and master students, including "Introduction to Electronic

Information Science and Technology", "Optoelectronic Inspection Technology", "NDT Technology", "Infrared

Technology", "Optical Measurement and Control and Information Processing", "Extracurricular Innovation

Practice", "Project-oriented Professional Course - Optoelectronic Inspection and Nondestructive Evaluation

Direction", etc.

In terms of scientific research, I have presided over national funded projects, ministerial funded projects. I led two

national projects and three ministerial projects, as well as over 30 scientific research projects. I have participated

in compilation of 3 railway industry standards, published 3 books (co-author), won 4 ministerial science and

technology progress awards, and received more than 40 authorized invention patents. I have published more

than 30 scientific papers as the first author or corresponding author and made more than 20 oral presentations at

international academic conferences such as UIC Highspeed, IHHA, WCRR, International Wheelset Congress,

WCNDT, ECNDT and FENDT.

From 2003 to 2008, I was responsible for the development, validation, and implementation of the wheelset

dynamic inspection system, which was fully applied in the field of high speed and normal speed railways in China.

From 2008 to 2016, I was responsible for the introduction of technology and development of wheel and disk

phased array ultrasonic inspection system, introducing technology and products from Fraunhofer IZFP in

Germany, realizing application in Chinese railway.

From 2016-2022, I led the development of 360-degree vision inspection system for the whole vehicle of dynamic

trains, and image inspection of the underfloor and side of parking trains.

From 2022, I work in DTEC GmbH, Germany, and leading the company to provide state of the art inspection and

measurement solutions for railway industry.

Philippe’s job is to support, promote and develop maintenance and service offerings based on (remote) train data, especially fleet monitoring, maintenance advice and predictive maintenance. He also focuses on the new opportunities coming from machine learning, computer vision and other AI techniques.

After working in various maintenance workshops, Philippe spent 10 years at Agence d’Essai Ferroviaire (French Railways test lab for Rolling Stock). He was in charge of the support & measurement systems division and also of R&D supervision.

Philippe graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and ENSTA (ParisTech).

He joined Eurostar’s International Rolling stock department in 1997 as an Engineering Management Trainee whilst based at North Pole Depot. During his 25 years within the rail industry he has held many front line delivery roles including Engineering Team Leader, Shift Leader, Service Delivery Manager, Shift Production Manager, Production Performance Manager, Production Manager, and since 2018 has been Head of Production at the Eurostar Engineering Centre Temple Mills depot in Leyton, responsible for around 300 staff and their output. Notable milestones include overnight re-location of the London depot in 2007, mid-life refurbishment of the 373 TMST fleet, introduction of the Siemens 374 Velaro including depot modifications, embedding a new TSSSA contract into depot BAU, shop floor recruitment supporting the development of staff and building high performing teams, successful set up and introduction of heavy overhaul at Temple Mills, and maintaining Trade Union stakeholder engagement through collective consultation and bargaining.

Dr. Deepak Tripathi has three decades of experience in Railway Operations & Maintenance; Rolling Stocks Manufacturing, Product & Vendor Development, and Supply Chain Management; Infrastructure & Technology Projects Management;
Business Development and International Business.

Made special contributions towards induction of Rolling Stock Technologies; Design, Construction and Management of Rolling Stock Workshops and Depots; Steering Technology Projects including Industry 4.0 and Digital Technologies and O&M Technology Transfer. He has led international business in rolling stock and railway operations & maintenance in Asia and Africa.

Dr. Tripathi has doctoral and postgraduate qualifications specializing in Operations and Lean Management. He has authored Books, Research Papers in International Journals & Conferences, conducted Workshops & Seminars and Field Projects. Recipient of awards both at National and International levels, such as ‘Minster of Railways Award for Outstanding Services,’ ‘Best Innovative Idea of the Year Award’ by Minister of Railways for a patented ‘Way Side Rolling Stock Condition Monitoring System;’ nomination for ‘Eminent Engineer Award’ by Engineering Council of India; ‘Outstanding Author Award’ by Emerald Publications, U.K, Lal Bahadur Shastri Award for the book “Smart Lean Management’.

I started work on the railways as a mechanical apprentice at the Craigentinny Maintenance Depot in Edinburgh in 1978, now in my 45 th year.

I have worked on all aspects of Rolling Stock maintenance from basic servicing to design, operations and standards, through this I have a sound knowledge of all vehicle systems, their interaction and specialist knowledge of wheels and axle bearings.
I have extensive experience of the environment that Rolling Stock has to operate and how it performs in reality in all weathers at speeds up to 125 mph. This includes understanding what makes them reliable and what can be done to still operate when parts of systems are defective or have been badly damaged or isolated.

I am currently responsible for Assurance, Engineering Standards and the production and control of Maintenance, Quality and Policy documentation. I am an IRCA registered Lead auditor for both ISO9001 and ISO14001. I am a member of the IMechE, IET and Rail Industry Fire Association supporting Rolling Stock activities. I see Rolling Stock maintenance not only as a fundamental requirement but integral to the whole life success of the asset. I represent the UK train operating community on various Rail Industry forums through the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), Rail Delivery Group (RDG) and BSI. These include;
 vehicle maintenance
 pantographs and energy
 wheelsets and standards
 axle bearings.

I am chair of the BSI committee for Roller Bearings and Lubricants (UK bearing Group).
I am chair of the RSSB Wheelset Management Group.
I am passionate about assurance, safe design and operation of trains, cost effective
maintenance, vehicle configuration, management of Engineering Change and reliability.

Since joining the rail industry as an engineering apprentice in 2005, Sam has held various roles and currently holds the position of Innovation Manager at Lucchini Unipart Rail (LUR), where day-to-day focus is on helping LUR’s client base achieve reduced bogie system life cycle costs.

Sam is a member of the IET and an active member of Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) Wheelset Management Group and Rail Wagon Association.

Johannes Emmelheinz has been CEO of Siemens Mobility Customer Services since 2012. Johannes has studied Biomedical Engineering at Giessen University and Business Administration at IWW Hagen Distance Learning University. Prior to 2008, he was the Head of Services Business for various sectors and Regions worldwide within Siemens AG. From 2008 to 2012 he was CEO of Siemens Rail Services and has then taken over the responsibility as Siemens Mobility Customer Services CEO.

Paolo Masini was born june 1963, 17th. He graduated in Electronic engineer in 1990 in Florence University. From 1993, work in Ferrovie dello Stato S.p.A., as rolling stock test engineer responsible for performance and traction test. From 2002  was chief of electrical test department and from 2006 chief of the whole Trenitalia’s test laboratory. In this period he responsible for authorization tests for many of the new Trenitalia fleets (ETR500, ETR600, Minuetto, E464, Vivalto etc). He partecipate in the activation of italian HS project and ERTMS as responsible of test activities. From 2009 he is director of engineering branch of rolling stock and maintenance of Trenitalia. He was CER speaker on Cross Acceptance and member of the Task Force for Interoperability of European Union. He is also responsable for Predictive Maintenance Project aiming to introduce Condition Based Maintenance based on Big Data system and Internet of Things.

Please let me introduce myself, my name is Menno de Glopper from Amsterdam the Netherlands. I’m working at GVB for over twelve years now in various positions within infra and rollingstock maintenance. Currently I’m the Head of Operations and responsible for three workshops for rollingstock maintenance, supply chain and a project department. The focus of my work is performance enhancement for rolling stock in operation. In the metro network GVB has started the operations of a new line L52 after many years of construction. In this project I was responsible for the delivery of the metro vehicles to this new line. Due to intensive testing and root cause analysis the performance became very trustworthy, with limited down time for our customers / travelers. After the successful start of L52 the focus was on the rest of the metro network churching for performance enhancement by fifty percent. The rest of the network uses a variety of metro vehicles, which differ in age and technology. The latest metro is of Alstom on the platform Metropolis and has good access to operating data. I was responsible for the program to enhance the performance of the metro fleet by 50%. By using various of inputs, mostly operating data, we have been able to boost the performance and more than reached our goals. The use of the operating data has given use a much more detailed information to perform a good root cause analysis. The digitalization of the vehicles starts a new era for rolling stock maintenance and brings many possibilities for employees and exploitation.

“From my first job at 17, I learned the value of standardisation and process management. I was a “lube tech” at a fast oil change facility where the customer had their oil changed, air filter checked, windows washed, car vacuumed, and on their way in as little as 10 minutes. To achieve this, (and they did it well), they had a set standard that was followed, which ensured quality and safety. It was simply the way they did business.

I’ve been in transport all my life, and nearly 30 years later, I still remember that lesson, and that experience affected my work ethic ever since. As I went to tech school, working on heavy trucks, I worked hard to integrate that standardisation into everything I did, performing repairs methodically, creating personal checks and balances to ensure that nothing was missed, and my personal goal of having the highest quality repair became a way of life, adding in honesty, integrity, and transparency to all that I did.

My career has progressed far beyond my wildest dreams, taking the values of integrity, transparency, quality, I was able to progress rapidly into shop leadership, demonstrating the skills that won business, satisfied customers, and supported technicians on the tools, helping them to effect high quality repairs in the work they did, within resource limits, and creating a culture of safety and easy to do business with.

Working for Cummins opened up a new world for me. They have values that closely aligned with mine, and knew the value of process and standardisation. Combine that with 6 Sigma tools being used to streamline processes and improve efficiency and I was hooked. These skills, values, and tools allowed me to take my time at Cummins managing a small branch to great success, turning a branch that had lost money for many years to having a profit for the full 5 years I was there, at the same time investing in safety reduced lost time incidents dramatically.

Moving to Aberdeen I started in the bus world as an engineering manager, and I now manage a railway Depot in Aberdeen, working for a company with the same values I have, with aligned goals to produce effective and high quality work, so that our passengers can travel knowing that the train they are riding is serviced to the highest standard. I love being a part of something that fosters growth and self-improvement, being a moving part in an organisation and industry that moves millions of people around the country.”

After joining Eurostar fresh out of school as an Engineering Apprentice and becoming a Engineering Team Technician, I jumped into the world of training during the introduction of our new e320 fleet of trains. Since heading up the training department I have been responsible for completely overhauling the training and assessment strategy to account for dual fleet operation, whilst reducing the competencies by 50% and increasing/maintaining our productive headcount by 120 individuals. I have introduced complete paper free training and assessments processes and systems and currently working through the introduction of digital learning for maintainer engineers to support their learning journey. Key challenges have been dealing with historic high turnover within the training function, gaining stability and responding effectively to major disruption (Covid-19) to ensure skill fade and compliance is maintained with reduced rostering. maintenance regimes and cold storage of train sets.

In Lucchini RS Steven manages the company innovation process and coordinates the wheelset Design and R&D teams. He has participated as inventor in 8 patents and developed technical competences in various fields related to railway wheelsets:
 Structural fatigue testing
 Rolling contact fatigue
 Crack propagation models
 Optimization of maintenance plans
 NDT techniques
 Monitoring of wheelset in service loads and vibration
 Solutions to reduce the noise emission from wheels
 He is an active member of international working groups like CEN-WG11 and UNIFE-ERWA.
He has participated and managed various European R&D projects collaborating with many railway companies, research centers and Universities.

Gareth Tucker is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers with 19 years experience in the Rail Industry.  Gareth is a Professor of Railway Systems Engineering at the Institute (IRR) of Railway Research in the University of Huddersfield where he carries out research and consultancy work in the fields of vehicle-track interaction, systems engineering and rolling stock maintenance.  In his carrier so far Gareth has a broad experience of the rail industry having previously worked at RSSB, Network Rail, Interfleet Technology and London Underground.  Gareth us currently leading the development of the Smart Rolling Stock Maintenance Research facility at the IRR, which is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF); the facility focuses on research into: use of robotics for train maintenance, servicing and overhaul; RCM and prognostics for improved maintenance efficiency; depot operations optimisation through improved work flow planning.