“All change” is a phrase that every rail passenger is used to hearing. But it’s now a phrase that has special resonance throu ... ghout the UK rail industry, as the move toward the ‘Digital Railway’ of the future gathers pace – just at the time when many of the industry’s workforce are approaching retirement age. Both government and industry alike recognise that this combination of technological and demographic pressure needs a very clear strategy. Only by addressing training and recruitment needs now can we ensure that the UK can draw upon a highly-skilled talent pool in rail engineering – and create a truly world-leading 21st century rail network. With immediate needs on the timetable too, such as expansion of the workforce to maintain new fleets, the response to the challenge has been a unique and ambitious public/private partnership between government agencies and private enterprise: the National Training Academy for Rail (NTAR). NTAR, with its multi-million pound state-of-the-art facility based in Northampton, will act both as a UK flagship and an international Centre of Excellence for skills development and collaborative working in traction and rolling stock: addressing a skills gap that would otherwise become a barrier to both maintaining and growing the workforce. read more