From Design to Decommission: A home for rail infrastructure thinking
We provide independent forums and tools that bring together academia, infrastructure owners, operators, regulators, and the supply chain to support learning, collaboration, and practical progress in rail infrastructure management.
Mission Statement
Our mission is to connect academia, infrastructure owners, operators, regulators, and the supply chain to reshape how rail infrastructure is planned, monitored, maintained and operated. We create neutral, evidence-led spaces where ideas move faster from research to practice, and where practitioners can learn, challenge, and collaborate across asset, organisational, and sector boundaries.
RIMC Events
What We Do
Not just a network.
Far more than a forum.
A community of cross-sector connection, collaboration, and co-creation.
Events and knowledge exchange
We design and deliver a programme of events that enable open, evidence-led discussion across the rail infrastructure community. This includes:
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Themed workshops focused on specific infrastructure management challenges
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Lunch-and-learn webinars showcasing emerging research
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An annual conference gathering the full ecosystem
Our events prioritise discussion, shared learning, and critical engagement, rather than sales-led presentations.
Networking and collaboration
We operate a networking platform that helps connect real infrastructure problems with potential solutions. This includes:
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Linking asset owners and operators with solution providers
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Enabling cross-asset and cross-sector connections
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Supporting early-stage collaboration and knowledge transfer
Knowledge and resources
We maintain an online repository that supports continuous learning beyond events, including:
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A searchable directory of expertise
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Curated resources such as recordings and briefing notes
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Pointers to research and standards across rail and other sectors
Who We Serve
The Rail Infrastructure Community provides neutral, evidence-led forums for collaboration across the entire ecosystem, ensuring innovation moves faster from research to industrial practice.
Infrastructure owners and operators
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Influence research priorities to solve real-world challenges
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Access pre-competitive innovation pipelines and emerging practices
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Participate in neutral forums for cross-sector learning
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Strengthen evidence-led cases for long-term investment
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Reduce duplication of effort through collaborative problem-solving
Companies (monitoring, construction, maintenance, and technology providers)
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Gain early insight into evolving network requirements
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Showcase expertise in professional evidence-led forums
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Collaborate with academia to validate new solutions
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Build trusted connections across the rail supply chain
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Shape technical roadmaps for future infrastructure
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Join innovation partnerships to accelerate market readiness
Academia and research organisations
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Direct engagement with industrial infrastructure challenges
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Forums for critical evidence-led research sharing
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Effective routes from conceptual research to practice
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Support for collaborative research impact case studies
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Access to regulatory and operational stakeholder insight
Regulators and policy bodies
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Gather independent evidence to inform future policy
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Access commercial-free foresight and impact analysis
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Engage stakeholders in a neutral, collaborative environment
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Align regulatory frameworks with emerging industrial capabilities
Consultants and professional service providers
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Access shared research and emerging best practice data
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Contribute to shaping future sectoral standards
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Direct connection to infrastructure owner priorities
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Stay informed on regulatory shifts and technical foresight
Wider rail infrastructure community
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Join an open platform for knowledge sharing
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Access evidence-led resources and technical libraries
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Participate in cross-asset and boundary-spanning discussion
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Support the collective resilience of UK rail infrastructure
Membership
Joining our network gives access to independent forums, trusted connections, and shared resources that are difficult to find elsewhere in the rail sector. Members benefit from open, evidence-led discussion, exposure to emerging practice, and opportunities to connect across organisational and sector boundaries.
Membership provides more than free access to events. Members benefit from access to member-only events and roundtables, priority access to workshops, opportunities to propose and shape discussion themes, inclusion in a member directory to support trusted connections, and access to curated resources and event summaries that capture key insights beyond individual sessions. Membership also offers early visibility of emerging research, ideas, and talent, helping organisations stay connected to where thinking in rail infrastructure management is heading.
Rail Infrastructure News
Founding Statement
“Rail infrastructure faces growing pressure from ageing assets, climate impacts, capacity demands, and increasing system complexity. Addressing these challenges requires more than individual projects or isolated innovations. It requires better connection between research, regulation, operational experience, and the supply chain, and space for informed discussion that sits outside organisational and asset silos.
I have seen, both within rail and in other infrastructure sectors, the value of neutral, evidence-led forums where people can step back from delivery pressures and engage openly with ideas, uncertainty, and emerging practice. In the water sector, groups such as SWIG have shown how this kind of community can accelerate learning, improve understanding, and help research move more effectively into practice.
Our aim is not to direct solutions or advocate for particular technologies, but to create the conditions in which better conversations can happen. By bringing together academia, infrastructure owners, operators, regulators, and the supply chain, we seek to support learning across boundaries, encourage constructive challenge, and enable insights from rail and other sectors to be explored critically and responsibly.
As an academic at the University of Sheffield, my own work sits at the interface between research and practice, and I am particularly motivated by the question of how good ideas translate into real-world impact. This organisation reflects that motivation: independent, collaborative, and grounded in evidence rather than advocacy.
I look forward to working with members and partners to build a trusted community that supports thoughtful, forward-looking approaches to rail infrastructure management.”