Written evidence submitted by the Transport UK Group (STM0026)

Introduction

Transport UK Group welcomes the Committee’s inquiry into skills for transport manufacturing.

Transport UK is the only British-owned, British-managed and British-financed participant in our market. We operate, lease, and maintain over 2,340 rail vehicles across Greater Anglia, West Midlands Trains, East Midlands Railway, and Merseyrail, supported by 1,185 engineering staff and an annual engineering spend exceeding £662 million. We also maintain 956 London buses, including a growing fleet of electric vehicles.

Our submission draws on direct experience across our group of both rolling stock manufacturing and long-term maintenance, including leadership of major UK rail projects such as our £2.4bn fleet replacement programme. We believe that the inquiry provides an opportunity to address systemic challenges in developing, sustaining, and modernising the UK’s transport manufacturing and engineering skills base.

1. Skills Challenges in Transport Manufacturing and Maintenance

●       Ageing workforce and pipeline gaps: A significant proportion of the engineering and maintenance workforce is nearing retirement. Without targeted interventions, there is a risk of a knowledge cliff and insufficient inflow of skilled apprentices and graduates.

●       Narrow OEM-dominated ecosystem: Long-term maintenance contracts are currently structured to exclude independent third-party maintainers (3PMs) and SMEs. This lack of contestability restricts opportunities for skills development outside the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) environment, in contrast to other sectors such as aerospace and automotive.

●       Lagging adoption of new technologies: Despite claims of innovation, rolling stock maintenance often remains rooted in legacy practices such as manual inspections, fixed-interval regimes, and limited application of condition-based monitoring. Skills in data analytics and predictive maintenance are underdeveloped across the workforce.

●       Transparency and visibility issues: Due to the opaque nature of maintenance costs and practices, whole-life skills planning is weak. Workforce training is often tied to proprietary OEM platforms, which reduces transferability and limits cross-industry upskilling.

2. Opportunities for Skills Development

●       Whole-system integration under GBR: The creation of Great British Railways (GBR) provides a chance to align workforce planning with national rail reform objectives. Skills development must be embedded in asset management strategies, ensuring a focus on efficiency, transparency, and public value.

●       Opening the aftermarket to SMEs and 3PMs: Enabling wider participation in maintenance would stimulate demand for new skills, expand opportunities for apprenticeships, and create a more resilient skills ecosystem.

●       Leveraging digital technologies: Building capability in condition-based maintenance, remote diagnostics, and performance-led interventions will require significant investment in training, particularly in data and systems engineering.

●       Cross-sector learning: Aviation and defence sectors mandate OEMs to provide access to spares, technical data, and diagnostics, enabling independent maintenance and fostering diverse skills ecosystems. Similar requirements in rail would unlock broader participation and innovation.

3. Recommendations for Government and Industry Action

1. Create a national transport manufacturing and maintenance skills strategy aligned with GBR reform, focusing on long-term asset management and digital transformation.
2. Mandate fair access to technical data and spares under the Procurement Act 2023, allowing SMEs and 3PMs to bid for maintenance work and develop new technical competencies.
3. Establish a national benchmarking database (led by ORR) for cost, performance, and workforce practices, to guide investment in training and continuous improvement.
4. Expand apprenticeships and mid-career conversion schemes in key areas such as systems engineering, data analytics, battery technologies, and predictive maintenance.
5. Encourage cross-sector collaboration with aerospace, automotive, and defence to adapt proven skills models, particularly around regulated aftermarket ecosystems.
6. Incentivise innovation adoption by linking public funding for rolling stock and maintenance contracts to demonstrable workforce upskilling in digital tools and advanced engineering methods.

Conclusion

The UK spends £3.3 billion annually on leasing and maintaining rolling stock, yet up to 20% of vehicles are unavailable for service at any time. This inefficiency is not only a financial and operational issue but also a skills challenge: the workforce is underutilised, undertrained in modern practices, and overly dependent on OEM-controlled frameworks.

By opening the market, embedding transparency, and investing in future-facing skills, government and industry can together create a resilient, competitive, and innovative transport manufacturing workforce.

September 2025