Huw Edwards

Said the following about Neil Workman:

“Neil Workman is an outstanding Rail Programme Manager and is highly deserving of this award.

Neil has worked in the railway his entire professional career having started as a British Rail graduate trainee in 1993 with the former Network South East division based out of Croydon. He moved to Cardiff in 1995 and after a short spell in technical support in Newport he transferred under privatisation to Amey in Bristol where he flourished as an estimator, Project Engineer, Senior Project Engineer and Project Manager.

Neil joined Network Rail in 2013 as a Senior Signalling project Engineer, where at the time he successful led the engineering team to the delivery of one of the biggest and most complex signalling projects in Network Rail’s history, Cardiff Area Signalling Renewal (CASR). Following this success he made the switch into Project/Programme Management and has adapted fantastically, where is he is now managing a high-performing team of over 50 staff, delivering a portfolio of ~£300m. He is an inspiration to others starting out in their railway careers and is a credit to the industry.

In his role as a Programme Manager in Network Rail’s Infrastructure Projects Signalling Southern division, Neil demonstrates how these central roles provide invaluable support to the team in the routes. Neil is currently managing a large volume of projects for the Wales route and works tirelessly in a collaborative fashion to ensure exceptional project delivery.

As a manager Neil is hands-on and not afraid to step in and do the work himself when required. He regularly contributes alongside his team to ensure a project’s success. He ‘walks the walk’ not only ‘talks the talk’. He leads by example and sets a very high standard for his team and the wider business.

Neil has the drive, ambition and determination to overcome the challenges and obstacles that are often involved in large scale project delivery. Neil is confident managing projects despite regular changes to the scope and the timeframes. Neil approaches this in a calm and professional manner which ensures a positive result and ongoing productive relationships.

In the past 12 months Neil has successfully steered his team to the commissioning of Port Talbot West (Phase 1) resignalling providing renewed infrastructure and resilient bi-directional capability between Port Talbot and Swansea. He has also led his South Wales Immunisation Mainline (SWIM) team to the successful conclusion of 2 years of immunisation works along the South Wales mainline corridor including over 30 gantries being raised / replaced and commissioning over 100 replacement signals; this in readiness to provide an immunised signalling system for an imminent electrified railway to Cardiff. On a number of projects within his portfolio Network Rail also act as Principal Designer and Principal Contractor which is somewhat unusual for Network Rail. Neil leads the PD/PC team having performed the role of principal Designers Representative and ensures compliance to the required standards and legislation including CDM 2015.

In addition to leading delivery projects, Neil is also providing leadership to project teams busy developing the Wales CP6 workbank of resignalling and signalling life extension projects, the largest of which being the £120m Port Talbot West (Phase 2) Resignalling project which is renewing and rationalising the signalling system beyond Swansea into West Wales and centralising control back to the Wales ROC.

Neil is resilient and manages to remain calm in stressful situations and project challenges including scope changes.

Neil has demonstrated excellent stakeholder engagement skills. As an experienced railway professional, Neil has played a key role in supporting the routes with third party funders in the railway. He understands the value of this third-party support and is practically helping execute this step-change for the industry.

Neil naturally builds positive relationships with stakeholders both internally and externally which gives confidence to his team, the wales Route and suppliers. He demonstrates this collaborative approach in the day to day execution of his job which is an inspiration to those around him. He has built a strong relationship with the Route sponsorship and Asset Management teams, in particular the Senior Sponsor for signalling renewals, which is based on trust and positive engagement. This relationship has allowed the Neil and the project teams to work closely with the sponsor in producing remits and route requirements to ensure that projects are both affordable and achievable.

His personal qualities and attributes are a credit to him and have seen him go from strength to strength. Neil is confident to challenge the status quo and ask questions of senior management and the systems that have long been accepted as standard. He believes that there is often more than one way to achieve success and is willing to take risks and forge a new path. Often this approach has led to creative and innovative solutions that have made a tangible difference for the projects he is delivering.

Project Director Christian Irwin has the following to say about Neil. ‘When I appointed Neil as Programme Manager, I knew I was taking a chance given a largely engineering based background, but blimey I have been rewarded! In little over two years, Neil has transformed himself from a Novice within Network Rail Programme Management to one of the highest performing and competent Programme Managers within the Company; highly respected and highly trusted internally and externally. He leads his team in excellent fashion, will always tackle a challenge head on and provides an excellent framework where people can be their best. His calmness and approach to difficult situations is fantastic and has been the key driver to a successful and efficient delivery in CP5 with a very positive start to CP6”

Neil has recently been awarded ‘Registered Project Professional (RPP)’ Status by the Association of Project Managers (the equivalent to Chartership) as well as maintaining his Chartered Engineer (CEng) Status. He has also recently completed the Network Rail ‘Rail Industry Leaders Programme’ further developing his leadership capabilities to the benefit of both himself and his project delivery teams.“