Say hello to the new CEO of Young Rail Professionals, as he outlines his plans for the next 12 months.
Hi, I’m Richard Harmer – the CEO of Young Rail Professionals (YRP) for 2026/27. I’ve worked in the railway since 2017 (almost nine years) after completing my electrical and electronic engineering degree at Bangor University.
I started my journey as an electrical engineering graduate at Network Rail. I progressed through the graduate scheme and stepped into roles across maintenance, asset management, innovations, and projects, which is where I found my home for most of my career. Some of my favourite achievements include introducing the Class 777 rolling stock on the Mersey Rail network between 2019 and 2024, as well as my first project, which was a platform bay enhancement project. This was close to my heart as it was my hometown station, Wigan North Western.
I also had a great opportunity to write a standard for Network Rail whilst being a Project Engineer. This was intimidating initially, but I learned a lot from the experience and built an appreciation of standards that help guide us to protect our passengers.
I progressed from graduate engineer to working as an assistant project engineer and project engineer in North West Enhancements before a year’s secondment learning about ETCS and the signalling strategy across NW&C in the Directorate for Safety & Engineering. This was just before joining the West Coast North Modernisation team as a senior project engineer specialised in signalling, which is where I do my trade now, leading as a designated project engineer working on building an ETCS Driver Training Area and hopefully a future ETCS West Coast North Mainline capable railway.
I’ve been working on projects focused on smart renewals, looking at ETCS deployment on the West Coast North Mainline. I’ve also completed a masters’ degree at University of Birmingham (Railway Systems Engineering & Integration) and I achieved chartership status through the IET in 2024. I also support as a chartership mentor for several electrical engineer graduates.
Thank you
My involvement in Young Rail Professionals stems from attending some ad hoc events in 2021, before going on the YRT (Young Rail Trips) to Italy. In 2023, I decided to step up my involvement, becoming the North West Committees vice chair. From there I moved to chair in 2024 and chief operations officer in 2025, overseeing the local committees across the UK & Ireland before starting in April 2026 as CEO.
As we start a new year, I wanted to pass on my thanks to last years’ volunteers. The efforts of everyone last year have pushed us onto greater expectations and I’m excited to share some of the plans and events YRP has to offer in 2026/27 to early career professionals.
First off, I’d like to start by saying that if you’re looking for role experience outside your comfort zone, looking to contribute back to the wider rail community, or want to make some new friends and have fun in the process, then why not come join YRP?!?
There are a variety of roles at local and national level, stemming from leading projects such as Young Rail Trips, Heritage, and Young Rail Voices (our newest project of which I’ll share some more details later) and we’re looking for professional development coordinators, corporate engagement coordinators, ED&I coordinators, and many more!
This last year we’ve tried to improve the structure and governance side of YRP, ensuring that we have clearer communication channels with our members and corporate sponsors, which will lead to more high-quality development events and an improved experience for all. Moving forward, this should lead to stronger community engagement for YRP at all levels, nationally and locally.
An area of development I’m keen to see this year is giving young / early career professionals the confidence to speak up about their ideas in the industry. Having an engineering background myself, I often felt unconfident speaking on a more senior level.
I’ve presented at IET & IMeche-style engineering events and would like to push an overall rail-focused project at YRP. That’s why this year we’re launching Young Rail Voices. This is a project we hope to run across all our local UK committees, and in Ireland, to encourage young people to speak up about great ideas, projects, and thoughts on the railway – both theoretical and practical. You’ll see more about this project through our social channels and on our brand-new website.
Those who are keen eyed will notice the website went into maintenance for a few months earlier this year. This was to allow for the development of a new site, which was launched in March. It now has a refreshing look to it, and it is now much more user-friendly. New and existing members can see what events YRP has recently put on and what’s coming up from our committees. We’re in the process of adding previous events and you can now see the incredible night we had at the Annual Dinner & Awards.
Moving forward
Finally, I’m excited to see how our volunteers grow this next year. As COO, I was close to the ground with our local committees, and it made me so thankful to be surrounded by so many passionate, driven young professionals. Time and time again, I’ve seen people develope in ways they did not expect and make great achievements. Best of all, I’ve seen them return again this year to develop and achieve more.
With so many initiatives and unique opportunities, and with so many tenacious volunteers up and down the UK and Ireland, you’re never going to be far from an interesting event or meeting some fantastic railway professionals.
If you’re interested in being a part of our journey this year, get in touch through our website: www.youngrailprofessionals.com.
If you’re interested in sponsoring YRP, contact our corporate relations team at: [email protected].
