Careers

Christopher Booth

I first became interested in joining Babcock Rail over the course of a couple of summer placements while I was a student. I was out on site constantly, working with the civil engineers in the Track Renewals Division, and I loved every minute of it.

My first placement on the graduate scheme was a fantastic experience – helping to deliver the plain line track renewal project on the Settle to Carlisle railway. After that, my responsibilities increased quickly. Probably the most involved project I’ve worked on would be taking responsibility for all the programming and planning, procurement, construction and change control elements of trackwork delivery for the Dartford Crossing section of the £140 million Channel Tunnel Rail Link contract. Most recently, I’ve been working closely with Network Rail as part of an integrated management team, delivering a quarter of the National Plain Line Track Renewals contract in Scotland. I’m now seen as probably the most senior technical project engineer in the division. People come to me with all sorts of problems and questions!

For me, the most satisfying element of working in Track Renewals is the variety that comes from actually being involved from the planning and design right through to getting on-site and delivering the project yourself. Unfortunately, that also means a lot of evenings and weekend working in all weathers. But then again, I wouldn’t want to be sitting in an office all the time.

In my time here, I’ve been privileged to work on some of the biggest rail projects throughout the UK. The division has an excellent and well-rounded training and development programme which has helped me progress towards gaining chartered status, which I hope to do next year. Graduates are now strongly encouraged to think up new efficiencies and explore different ways of working, outside of the established model. In just six years, I’ve seen a very big transformation in the way we do things. The rail industry is reshaping for the future and with the amount of forthcoming national renewal work going to contract, I think that we’re going to be very busy indeed.

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