Welcome to the IET Railway Technical Network!
We’re excited to bring together railway professionals, innovators, and enthusiasts from across the globe in a community dedicated to shaping the future of rail.
Our mission is simple—but powerful:
Inspire the next generation of railway engineers and thinkers
Share knowledge, experience, and cutting‑edge insights
Champion a truly global and representative voice for the railway sector
Whether you’re deeply involved in rail technology or just starting your journey this network is your space to connect, collaborate, and contribute. Here, every perspective matters—and every voice helps drive the sector forward.
Join us as we explore emerging technologies, celebrate best practice, discuss challenges and opportunities, and build a community that reflects the diversity and innovation of the railway world.
Let’s keep the future of rail on the right track—together. 
#IETRailway #EngineeringCommunity #FutureOfRail
Meet our Chair:
Name: John Paul Lawrence BEng (Hons) CEng, FIET
Current Role & Company: Director, JPL Diversified Ltd
Summary Statement: John is a multi-award-winning leader, development and business change expert who specialises in driving industry change, with a number of industry firsts to his name. Possessing a very strong desire to create improvement across the whole lifecycle, John utilises a combination of a strategic mindset; broad engineering and technological experience; systems thinking and deep market knowledge to link together the whole business, project and product lifecycle, thus enabling us to bridge the innovation gap to solve industry’s most difficult problems.
Key Areas of Industry Expertise: Technology-focused Innovation and demonstrable business change across all disciplines and departments; Research and Development; new product and system development; novel safety case and assurance delivery; maintenance and asset management; commercial and business management; Control, Command and Signalling system development; Electrical Engineering; process control; automation; Remote Condition Monitoring system development; systems engineering; safety engineering; Six Sigma and Lean.
Committee Contribution & Vision: John aims to build the Railway Technical Committee into an internationally recognised and highly valued home for those working in the industry; a respected centre of excellence for those wanting support and a repository of deep and trusted knowledge, open to anyone who needs it.
Joint working
The Railway TN are part of the Railway Engineers Forum (REF) who is a multi-disciplinary body drawn from those Professional Institutions with strong railway interests.
About REF
The aim of the Railway Engineers Forum (REF) is to harmonise the various strengths of the constituent Institutions in devising and implementing their programmes of activities in support of the railway community. This will encompass conferences, seminars, lectures, training, information services, publications and statements of policy to Government and other Regulatory Bodies.
Constituent Partners
The constituent partners of the Railway Engineers Forum are:
- The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)
- The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)
- The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) – Railway Division
- The Chartered Institution of Railway Operators (CIRO)
- The Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE)
- The Permanent Way Institution (PWI)
- The Railway Civil Engineers Association (RCEA)
- The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT)