12.02.16
Rail leaders celebrate industry success at UKRIA
Mace and Metrolink RATP Dev have taken home two of the biggest accolades at the UK Rail Industry Awards (UKRIA), hosted by RTM.
Consultancy and construction firm Mace bagged the Outstanding Project (Large) award for its mammoth redevelopment, with Network Rail, of Birmingham New Street and Grand Central, which opened its doors last year to reveal a much bigger, brighter and fresher station and shopping hub.
Metrolink RATP Dev, which runs Manchester’s tram network on behalf of Transport for Greater Manchester, walked away with the Operator of the Year recognition for managing not only to deliver the day job to an outstanding level, but doing so while major transformations to the network were taking place.
There were a total of 27 winners from across the industry and its supply chain – from operators and large firms to SMEs and young engineers – for their excellent contributions to the sector, including some joint prizes where the judges found it just too tough to choose one outright winner.
This year’s UKRIA, a black tie event hosted at London’s Battersea Evolution, was its most successful edition yet – with the record-breaking amount of submissions received ahead of the event clearly translating into a full house bursting at the seams with rail talent.
More than 130 individual organisations accounting for more than 300 entries were bidding to scoop an award across the 23 wide-ranging categories.
The award ceremony itself was sandwiched between a keynote speech from Network Rail’s network operations boss, Phil Hufton (pictured below), and an exciting after-party where attendees networked between swigs of champagne.
As well as a special announcement from UKRIA’s headline sponsor, Arcadis, and a stand-up show from celebrated comedian Tom Wrigglesworth, the event also provided the backdrop for an exciting prize draw.
The raffle competition, boasting a two-day hotel stay in global locations as its top prize, helped raise a whopping £30,000, all of which was donated to children’s charity NSPCC.
Given this year’s tremendous success, UKRIA will be running its fourth edition in 2017.