Tracks to Tomorrow: Rebuilding Rail for the 21st Century

Toufic leads the sectors strategic innovation body to create a more productive, digital railway, offering key insights for suppliers in AI, tech, and digital transformation.

Andrew Dixon, the Head of High Speed Rail – Infrastructure Delivery & Development Programme at Manchester City Council, brings a wealth of experience in railway and local government spanning over 20 years and excels in overseeing large projects.

His strengths lie in strategic planning, multi-disciplinary project oversight, stakeholder management, engineering and troubleshooting.

Chartered Accountant with 15+ years’ experience across the rail industry including ‘track and train’ and the supply chain (UK TOC, German TOC, Network Rail, Balfour Beatty).   

Gareth is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Permanent Way Institution.

Before joining Network Rail Gareth spent 14 years in the steel industry, manufacturing railway products and delivering technology and asset management projects for heavy and light rail clients. After joining Network Rail in 2009 Gareth held several roles in the central Track team, including as Head of Track between 2016 and 2022. Now Head of Rail Technology, he led the NR CP7 research, development and innovation submission and has moved on to delivering the RD&I business plan. His role involves extensive stakeholder engagement across NR and with external organisations – all with the aim of connecting colleagues who have an RD&I need with the expertise and funding to develop a solution.

Susan Millington – Head of Programme Management (Capital Delivery) Network Rail

Susan Millington is a strategic leader in infrastructure delivery, currently serving as Head of Programme Management (Capital Delivery) at Network Rail. With a railway career spanning over 3 decades, Susan has led some of the most ambitious efficiency an innovation programmes in the UK rail sector.   

At the heart of Susan’s work is a commitment to unlocking efficiencies and embedding technology into capital delivery programmes.  Her leadership of the SPEED efficiency programme, which delivered £1.6bn savings during control period 6, saw SPEED become a cornerstone of Network Rail’s approach to smarter delivery – streamlining governance, challenging standards and embedding a mindset of continuous improvement across regional portfolios.  Her work has been instrumental in shaping national reporting frameworks and strategic health checks that drive accountability and performance.

Susan is the architect behind the Innovation Acceleration Forum, a cross industry initiative that empowers suppliers, operators, engineers and programme teams to challenge traditional ways of working with a view to streamlining processes and delivery and embed lessons learnt into future investment strategies.  Her leadership has been instrumental in launching on going technologies aimed at improving site safety and operational co-ordination nationally.

She is a key contributor to a number of steering groups, including the track community of practice – where she continues to champion boots off ballast surveying – her work includes the introduction of RILA and subsequently championing the use of drones.

Susan is a vocal advocate for collaborative working, having chaired panels and working groups that bring together suppliers, delivery teams and policy leads to tackle systemic challenges. Her development of the national lessons learnt framework has helped reduce project overspend by sharing knowledge and best practice across industry capital programmes.

Known for her inclusive leadership and strategic clarity, Susan brings a system thinking approach to programme management, regularly collaborating with the Department of Transport, regional delivery teams and industry partners to align investment with outcomes and ensure that technology adoption is both effective and sustainable.

At the On Track Technology panel, Susan will share her perspective on integrating emerging technologies into legacy infrastructure, fostering cross sector collaboration, and building delivery models that are fit for the future.

Uwaye Soetan also known as Fantasia is a project leader in the UK rail industry, where she leads digital and process improvement initiatives across complex operational environments. Her work focuses on strengthening governance, improving performance insight and aligning operational delivery with strategic objectives.

She has experience delivering cross functional change projects that modernise systems and support more effective decision making. Her interest lies in how data can move from simple reporting to supporting whole system thinking in the future railway.

Julian commenced his railway career in 1986 with London Underground, joining Network Rail in 2008, and has been involved with the Jobilee Line Extension, Crossrail, Thameslink, and Great Western Route Modernisation in technical and sponsorship roles. For the past five years he has worked in railway integration, leading the development of a new output integration capability and its application to the North of England portfolio which includes Transpennine Route Upgrade, Northern Powerhouse Rail, Manchester projects, and HS2. His team is now helping integrate East West Rail into the national network.

Ian joined the railway industry in 1994 after studying Electrical & Electronic Engineering at the University of Leeds, holding senior signalling roles (2002 - 2014) before moving into cross-functional leadership roles in 2014.

Ian relentlessly promotes digitisation techniques to optimise deciision making to improve safety and performance, his digital vision provides direction and context to the future of the rail infrastructure in the North and East Route. 

Whilst Head of Maintenance for the North and East Route in 2019- Ian championed data-led "predict and prevent" approaches - and is now Route Infrastructure Engineer for the North and East Route, accountable for engineering, asset management and continuing to drive innovation and digitisation. 

Rebecca Rathore is the Route Strategy Director for Network Rail’s North West Route, bringing over 23 years of multimodal transport experience and a strong track record of delivering excellence in challenging, fast‑moving environments. She leads long‑term route strategy, major programme sponsorship and stakeholder engagement, and is recognised for high‑performing teams, complex operational change and customer‑focused outcomes.

I am a Chartered Engineer and senior rail leader specialising in digital technologies, complex systems and major transformation programmes. With over 20 years’ experience across signalling, train control, digital railway systems and large-scale infrastructure modernisation, I have led some of the UK rail industry’s most significant digital change initiatives.

I’ve shaped national operating models, delivered pioneering ETCS and Traffic Management programmes, and developed multi-million-pound digital investment strategies to integrate technical, operational and organisational change.

My approach is grounded in whole-system thinking—bringing together technology, data, people and industry partners to improve performance, resilience and long-term value. I’ve led high-performing technical and programme teams across Digital Railway, Wales & Western, Eastern Region and now Scotland’s Railway, where I serve as Regional Director of Engineering & Asset Management. In this role, I drive digital capability, engineering governance and transformation across multiple asset disciplines, ensuring Scotland’s Railway is future-ready, data-led and technologically enabled.

Robert leads RIA’s policy function, which spans all areas of policy that RIA engages with governments and other key decision makers on, including rail infrastructure, private investment, HS2 and rail reform. 

Prior to joining RIA, Robert was at the Office of Rail and Road where he was Head of Strategic and Policy Projects. Previously, Robert led value for money studies for the National Audit Office across infrastructure, transport and finance.  He began his career in international development, and worked in the Ministry of Finance Rwanda as an Overseas Development Institute Fellow and holds degrees in economics. 

Andrew is Chief Executive at Transport East, the Sub-national Transport Body for Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Southend and Thurrock. Our vision is of a thriving economy for the East, with resilient transport networks, reducing carbon emissions and enabling social inclusion.

Transport East brings together local transport and planning authorities, business leaders, government and delivery agencies, speaking with one voice on transport and infrastructure investment.

Andrew joined Transport East in spring 2020, having previously led Transport for London’s Active Travel strategy. He leads an executive team who oversee the region’s Transport Strategy, provide advice to government, and support local authority delivery. 

Nicola Machado is the Head of Capital Investments at the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). She joined the ORR in 2017 and leads ORR’s monitoring of Network Rail’s capital delivery programmes. Nicola has extensive experience in transport regulation and policy development, with a strong background in delivering complex infrastructure projects. She has worked for Network Rail and Crossrail Ltd in both technical and operational roles. Since joining the ORR, she has led the development of the Rail Network Investment Framework which encourages investment in the rail network, supporting funders ambition to make it easier for a wide range of investors to promote and deliver projects.

Anna Hart is a Corporate Finance Senior Manager at Transport for London with 10 years of public sector experience in major transport project funding and financing. She specialises in developing, advising on and implementing innovative funding solutions. Current projects include development of funding and financing package for the DLR extension to Thamesmead.

Anna has worked on the implementation of an Enterprise Zone for the Northern Line Extension, contributed to the TfL research on Land Value Capture, which was published in 2016 and 2017 and worked on the development of the Mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy, which has to date raised over £1bn for the Crossrail project.

Anna is a qualified CIMA accountant.