The Rail Alliance
In 2007, soon after Quinton Rail Technology Centre opened, Rail Alliance was launched.
A small organisation at the time, it was set up to support the rail industry chain with a motto that still rings true today:
Ubi Concordia ibi Victoria (where there is unity there is victory - or more simply expressed, we Network, Collaborate, Innovate and Thrive).
We are very proud of the fact that the Rail Alliance was born in the same region that brought the world the Industrial Revolution, and from that the railway. We are at heart an organisation that is very conscious of the fact that we came into existence through the drive and energy of the small and mediumsized business base, the backbone of the UK economy.
We remain focused on the need to support companies large and small from every sector, in their endeavours to trade in and enrich
the rail sector. Uniquely, our membership spans all aspects of the rail supply chain, and we have no barriers to entry. Over the past ten years we have grown from an off-shoot of the Manufacturing Advisory Service within the West Midlands to become a major B2B networking organisation in the rail sector, with members drawn from all corners of the country (and indeed the globe).
Our instinct is to collaborate, not compete, and thus we have strategic relationships with the like of the Engineering Employers Federation, the British Chambers of Commerce, Rail Research UK and the European Rail Clusters Initiative, as well as more recently with Lloyds Banking Group.
Our network now reaches out to over 50,000 companies in the UK alone. We are founder members of the Rail Supply Group, the rail sector council, and are partnering with the RSG to provide the very first sector-wide mentoring scheme helping the rail supply chain develop its effectiveness (www. railmentor.com).
With the Rail Alliance regarded as an authority in matters relating to challenges faced by the UK rail supply chain, and the challenges faced by SMEs supplying into the rail sector, the business is going from strength-to-strength with more and more companies using Rail Alliance as a strategic tool to improve business effectiveness and competitive advantage.