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Modern Railways/Railway Forum Fourth Friday Club

Where the railway industry meets.

         

Sign up for our e-Notice

To keep up-to-date with Fourth Friday Club events, the Secretary recommends that you sign up for the e-Notice service. Details of the next meeting, plus changes or additions to the programme, are contained in a personal e-mail sent out a month in advance to e-Notice subscribers.

If you are already a club member could we ask you to subscribe to e-Notice to ensure that the Secretary can keep you informed. Potential members and anyone who is interested in receiving details of future meetings of the Fourth Friday Club are are also warmly invited to sign-up.

To subscribe to e-Notice click here.

 

Introducing the Fourth Friday Club

The Modern Railways Fourth Friday Club provides a unique networking forum for executives from all sectors in the railway industry. There are club meetings on five Fridays in each year, the season running from September to June.

Co-sponsors of the Fourth Friday Club are the monthly trade & technical magazine Modern Railways, which has been the voice of Britain 's railway industry since 1962, and The Railway Forum, the industry representative body. The club was the brain child of Modern Railways Editor James Abbott who, is also Club Secretary. It was inspired by an industry luncheon club he attended while working in North America .

Since the first meeting in 2003, the growing reputation of the Club for attracting senior policy makers and top railway managers as guest speakers has seen membership expand rapidly. Typical attendance is now around 120, although the November meeting, which has an engineering theme and includes the Golden Spanners awards for traction and rolling stock fleet reliability, takes the venue to its maximum capacity of 250.

 

The next meeting will be held on Fri 25 June 2010

Speaker: Anna Walker

Location: Grand Connaught Rooms, 61 Gt Queen St, London WC2

Speaker: Anna Walker, Chair of the Office of Rail Regulation.

Meeting also features the Railway Industry Innovation Awards.

Date: Fri 25 June 2010

 

The Railway Industry Innovation Awards 2010

Sponsored by Modern Railways

Welcome to the Railway Industry Innovation Awards 2009, organised by Modern Railways. The Railway Industry Innovation Awards are the longest-established railway awards and keenly sought after by all sectors of the industry.

Key dates
Last date for receipt of entries: noon, Wednesday 21 April 2010
Awards luncheon: Friday 25 June 2010

Membership

Membership is open to all in the UK railway industry.  The membership fee for the 2009-10 session is £350 + VAT per person (adjusted pro-rata for applicants joining in the middle of the session).

Membership can be held by firms with a principal point of contact: in the event that the principal is unable to attend a meeting, he or she can designate a colleague to attend instead.

Details of forthcoming meetings are contained in an e-mail sent out a month in advance to club members and interested parties.

A response to the e-mail from Members is appreciated, for catering and badge-making purposes.

 

 

How to join

For an invitation to the free trial meeting contact the Club Secretary James Abbott

e-mail: modern.railways@googlemail.com

Phone: 01892 525339

Fax: 01892526256

 

A simple format

Aimed at maximising the time of busy executives, Fourth Friday Club meetings are based on a simple formula which has proved to be highly successful.

Members meet at 12.15 for 12.45 at a hotel in central London . Following an opportunity for networking over pre-lunch cocktails, a three course lunch is served. Open seating at lunch maximises the opportunity for meeting new people.

Modern Railways Industry & Technology Editor Roger Ford gives a short talk on a topical industry subject. Roger is known for his provocative style and his introduction at the start of the first course is intended as a conversation-starter, over the hors d'oeuvre.

It is a Club rule is that meetings always close promptly at 14.30, although the hotel bar is available for further networking or informal meetings.

 

Why join?

In today's fast-moving, fragmented railway industry networking is the key to business success- you need to keep your ear to the ground to discover what your customers and competitors are up to. The Fourth Friday Club provides the ideal opportunity for busy executives in the UK rail industry to learn about the latest developments from our top-level speakers while keeping up to date with the topics of the day by networking with colleagues from other firms from every sector of the industry. Meetings take place in convivial surroundings at a hotel in central London .

The club provides the opportunity for high level networking within a strictly controlled tike frame - a valuable attribute when executive diaries are increasingly pressed. Unlike conferences, which are expensive and usually require one or more days to be given up, the Fourth Friday Club takes a defined two-hour lunch-time slot at the end of the week when schedules are often less busy.

To see the list of attendees at a recent meeting click here

Class 357 takes prix d’honneur


The winners in the annual Modern Railways Golden Spanners awards were announced at the Fourth Friday Club meeting on Friday 27 November. The awards, based on statistical data in the National Fleet Reliability Improvement Programme, reward excellence in rolling stock maintenance. The Gold award goes to the best in category, silver to most improved. c2c’s Class 357 was shown to be the most reliable train in the country. The results for 2009 were as follows:  
         
   Category Award Class MPC* Operator Depot Maker Owner
   Ex BR EMU Gold 321 36,033 First Capital Connect, Hornsey, Bombardier (BREL), HSBC Rail
     Silver 322 41.75 First ScotRail, Shields Road, Bombardier (BREL), HSBC Rail
                  
   Ex BR DMU Gold 159/0 31,422 SWT, Salisbury, BREL   (Bombardier), Porterbrook
    Silver 158/0 67.93 SWT, Salisbury, BREL (Bombardier), Porterbrook
                  
 Intercity Gold IC225 23,890 NatEx East Coast ,Bounds Green, Alstom (GEC/Met Cam), HSBC Rail
Silver loco hauled  35.5 NXEA Crown Point, BREL / Alstom, Porterbrook
                  
   New generation DMU Gold 221 25,982 Cross Country, Central Rivers, Bombardier (Alstom/Cummins), Halifax
   Silver 221 117.9 Cross Country,  Central River,  Bombardier (Alstom/Cummins), Halifax
                  
   New generation EMU Gold 357 69,521 c2c, West Ham, Bombardier, Porterbrook
    Silver 458 32.16 SWT, Wimbledon, Alstom, Porterbrook
                   
 Most improved Pacer Silver 143 65 FGW, Cardiff Canton, Defunct, Porterbrook
                   
Champagne  Challenge IC125 13,337 NatEx East Coast, Bounds Green, BREL/Brush/MTU, Porterbrook
                   
 
* Miles per casualty for Golden Spanner, percentage improvement for Silver Spanner.

 

Your Fourth Friday hosts:

James Abbott

Ken Cordner

Roger Ford

Tony Miles

Paul Edwards

Paul Martin

EditorModern Railways
News Editor Modern Railways
Industry & Technology Editor Modern Railways

alycidon.com

Columnist Modern Railways
Advertising Sales Manager Modern Railways
Director General Railway Forum

 

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