The RailStaff Awards 2024

Nominations for Rail Project Manager Award

Jonathan Bridgewood

Said the following about Richard Vernon:

“Richard Vernon has, over the last three years, worked tirelessly in order to bring Hull Trains’ £60m investment in new rolling stock to life. Hull Trains will be introducing these new trains, built by Hitachi Rail in Japan and Italy, by December 2019 – with implementation of the first train expected in November 2019.

His committed, resilient and focused attitude, while working collaboratively with Hitachi Rail’s team, has resulted in the introduction of Hull Trains’ new fleet being one of the only rolling stock projects in the UK to be delivered to schedule and on time.

Richard, or Rich as he is known to his colleagues, joined Hull Trains and, subsequently the rail industry, as a graduate on the 1st February 2016. During this time, he has quickly grown through the ranks to lead on the project delivery of the new trains from Hull Trains’ perspective.

As part of this, he has been the primary interface between Hull Trains; the owners of the fleet, Angel Trains; the manufacturer and maintainer, Hitachi Rail, Network Rail and other operators that provide services on the lines that the business operates. During this time, Rich has maintained an approachable and balanced attitude in order to facilitate and ensure the project continues to head in the right direction.

Considering Rich only joined the industry in 2016, he has completed work on this project with very limited guidance and support from the original management team and led all the design reviews for the operator’s input and agreement.

In order to achieve this, Rich made regular visits to Hitachi’s factories in Kasado, Japan, and Pistoia, Italy, working with the teams there to ensure that the trains were built to the highest quality. It is through those continual quality checks that Hull Trains has been able to sign off the trains at each stage to the schedules determined in the contract. Trips to Japan and Italy are never easy when balancing work with raising a young family, but Rich has done this with great determination to ensure this project succeeds as it should.

Design quality has been another aspect in which Rich has succeeded. He has taken the perspective of Hull Trains’ customers in order to make decisions which, ultimately, will be the best for the customer. The investment and decision to use high-quality fabrics for the seating has ensured that the seats on the new fleet of 802s will be more comfortable in both standard and first class when the trains are introduced, for example. It is decisions like this which are important for the customer, especially when they will be travelling for over two hours between Hull and London.

From the start of the project to present, Rich has even taken part in operational on-call and incident investigations during very challenging times for Hull Trains. On top of this, Rich has also led on smaller projects, including the introduction of an on-train passenger information screen to improve accessibility, installation of the Driver Advisory System (DAS), the introduction of on-train, Wi-fi and more. While this has created additional work for him during the delivery of the new trains, this has not deterred Rich from ensuring that this larger project continues to run to schedule and to the highest quality from the Operator’s perspective.

To further improve himself and progress in his career, Rich has also continued with his professional registration to becoming a Chartered Engineer.

Rich demonstrates the good of the rail industry – he embodies the dedication, resilience and committed nature of any senior project manager to ensure such a significant project, alongside smaller important projects, are completed successfully and to the highest standard.

Considering the challenges that Hull Trains has faced during these last 18 months, such as severe disruption due to issues with the current fleet, Rich’s role in this project has never been so important – and it is his attitude which has contributed towards the launch of the fleet on time.“