The Railway Industry Association (RIA) has published a new Insights Report on how to improve support for UK SME rail exporters.
The analysis sets out a series of recommendations for accelerating exports from the UK to countries around the world taken from an earlier SME Exports Workshop 2025 in which UK companies, along with RIA’s Export and SME Leadership groups took part in an interactive whiteboard session and answered four questions related to exports, the objective being to enable the organisers to acquire a greater understanding of both potential issues and what more could be done to assist UK SME exporters.
The global rail supply market is expected to grow by 3% a year until the end of the decade. Current UK rail exports amount to over £1 billion a year and support nearly 12,500 jobs. There is significant potential to increase this.
Key findings of the report are:
- Better signposting of available exports support and related training;
- A more co-ordinated approach to sharing overseas market intelligence;
- Clearer visibility of UK Export Finance (UKEF) services for unlocking financial support and access to procurement opportunities;
- A pathway and clear trajectory should be established between Tier 1 companies and SMEs to support enhance the railway industry’s ability to boost rail export value to the UK economy
- Key stakeholders including RIA, RIA’s Rail Exports Leadership Group (RELG), DBT, UKEF, DfT and Innovate UK to form a working group to provide solutions to the report’s recommendations, where practical.
Commenting on the findings, Joy Grover, RIA’s RELG chair and associate director at PriestmanGoode, said: “This membership consultation exercise is a call to action for the Government and those in a position to influence to give more support to companies who contribute to our export economy, SMEs, Tier 1 & 2 companies and OEMs [Original Equipment Manufacturers] in the UK rail industry.
“It particularly highlights the challenges faced by smaller UK rail companies who are considering exporting or aiming to increase their export income. It is essential to preserve our supply chain in the UK, not only for economic success, but also to ensure that when infrastructure projects are released in the UK, a domestic supply chain still exists to deliver them.”
Catherine Leech, RIA SME Group chair, and Anturas Consulting MD, commented: “SMEs form a critical part of the UK economy so it is in the interest of the UK to create an environment where SMEs can thrive both at home and abroad. The Workshop has provided invaluable insights into the how SMEs view the world of exporting and more particularly the struggles with pursing opportunities.
“As RIA SME Group Chair, I can reiterate that RIA and its SME members are committed to breaking down barriers and working across the sector to facilitate a stronger exporting community.”
Neil Walker, exports director for RIA, added: “It’s clear to see there is a growing appetite and wish to export among UK SMEs, who often need more support in sourcing help, information, rail related market intelligence or exporting activity available to them. Next steps, supporting our exporters, working with officials and supported by RELG to address these concerns is clearly an outcome we would want to take forward following this report.”
The report can be found here.
Image credit: RIA
