Rail Supply Group enters RDG partnership

The Rail Supply Group (RSG) and Rail Delivery Group (RDG) announced a new partnership on July 24, in a bid to encourage growth in the rail industry supply chain.

While the RSG will remain independent, it will become a new strategic board of the RDG and its chairman will become a full member of the RDG board. The new partnership has appointed Anna Del Vecchio as an industry secondee to ensure the supply chain’s independence is maintained.

The partnership’s objectives are to: amplify the supply chain’s influence within the RDG; closer align train operators and Network Rail with their supply chains; combine resources where appropriate; provide Government and stakeholders with a ‘one-stop shop’ for relations with the industry; and provide what it calls a “clearer focus on unique RSG activities around exports, imports and inward investment”.

“By plugging into the resources, structures and expertise of the RDG, the Rail Supply Group can do more to drive growth in the supply chain,” said RSG Chairman Gordon Wakeford.

“We now have the right structure in place to ensure we deliver on our priorities - driving growth, accelerating innovation, growing exports, and investing in our people. These are shared priorities, and I look forward to working with the RDG in continuing to deliver them.”

RDG Chief Executive Paul Plummer added: “As one team working together we can give the railway and the rail supply chain a more powerful voice. It’s vital that passenger and freight train operators, Network Rail and their supply chains work together to build a bigger, better railway for Britain while helping to grow British businesses that operate in communities across the country.”