The IRO Young Professionals were delighted that Patrick Hallgate, Route Director for Network Rail's Anglia region, accepted the invitation to speak to us during March 2008.

Patrick has risen fast through the Network Rail ranks, beginning his railway career on the Railtrack graduate scheme in 1999. After several months of placements and training, his first job was as a Performance Manager on the Great Eastern route, followed shortly by promotion to Acting Route Production Manager (now known as an Area Operations Manager or AOM). By 2002 Patrick became involved in the maintenance function and project managed the “New Maintenance Programme” until summer 2003, when he was appointed General Manager – Great Eastern.

In 2006, Patrick was promoted to Route Director, initially on the Sussex route from January, and returned to his old patch – Anglia – as Route Director from December that same year.

Patrick explained his current responsibilities, which include overseeing signallers, controllers, the customer relations and account management for four operators (including c2c, NXEA, London Overground and London Underground), route enhancements, two Major Stations (Fenchurch Street and Liverpool Street) and maintenance support.

As well as its main customers, the Anglia region also provides paths for East Midlands Trains, First Capital Connect, GB Railfreight, EWS, DRS and Freightliner.

The West Anglia route has the highest forecast passenger demand growth in the country, predicted to be 37% by 2016, which presents a challenge both to capacity and performance.

His presentation included a graph showing how delays have steadily decreased over the past few years, with further improvements sought by working closely with the train operators and through developing more infrastructure enhancements.

At the time of writing (March 2008), 58 enhancement projects were authorised (worth £172m), with another 62 projects in the development process. Significant projects include the West Anglia Platform Extensions (£100m) and the Felixstowe-Ipswich capacity upgrade (£56m). Other projects that will impact on the route over the next few years include the North London Line upgrade, the 2012 Olympics, Stratford City development, BAA Stansted expansion and Crossrail.

Patrick finished by leaving some advice and thoughts for the audience to consider, suggesting that people usually only regret the opportunities that they don't take, the importance of enjoying your job and not being in any rush to move too quickly, and to be aware of the difference between ‘liking' and ‘respecting'.

We would like to thank Patrick for giving up his time to deliver a very interesting and inspiring presentation to the IRO Young Professionals.

Written by Michael Pead, IRO Council Member & Guards Manager for c2c