Richard Horobin
Principal Consultant
I am a senior railway professional with 37 year’s rail industry experience, 27 of which have been working in leadership roles within operations and major projects. I have extremely high personal integrity; I am passionate about developing and delivering solutions that improve railway operations.
I am an emotionally intelligent people person who enjoys building relationships. I am experienced in leading large teams to work collaboratively with stakeholders and industry partners to achieve positive outcomes.
I am a logical thinker, remaining calm and assured even when under pressure in order to maintain the appropriate focus during decision making and when resolving complex operational problems.
Experience:
Rail Operations
Depot Operations | Network Operations | Train Operations
I have spent the majority of my career in operations starting as a signaller and progressing through to a number of senior leadership roles including Operations Strategy and Train Service Delivery Director for North, West and Central (NW&C) Region, Operations Director for North West (NW) Route and the nominated Professional Head of Operations for NW&C Region. I have extensive knowledge and experience of railway operations including safety risk management, train performance management, signalling systems, Route Control, Electrical Control, contingency planning, emergency planning, incident management, delivery of major re-signalling projects and leading large and diverse teams.
I have been the NW&C accountable lead for Operating Strategy, Train performance strategy and the relationship with the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), Operations Assurance, Crime and Security strategy and delivery, Holistic Access and Logistical Operations (HALO) Long term disruptive access planning, signaller competence compliance and business continuity.
I am experienced in Command and Control with extensive experience in both remote and on site incident management as a Rail Incident Officer (RIO) and Rail Incident Commander (RIC) and have undertaken the role of RIC, most notably during the Watford passenger train derailment and collision on September 16th 2016 to safely and effectively manage the immediate aftermath of the accident.
Business Change & Projects
Bid Management | Change Management | Programme Management
I spent over 3 years working on the West Coast Route Modernisation programme during which time I authored both the ‘Network Management Centre Integrated System Operational Specification’ and the ‘Requirements for the Production of the Operational Readiness Report and Certification’ procedure.
I am experienced at implementing major organisational change having successfully led trade union consultation for a number of re-organisations.
Safety & Assurance
Assurance | Risk Management | Safety Management
In many of the leadership roles that I have undertaken I have held accountabilities for all elements of safety compliance and Operational risk. As Operations Strategy and Train Service Delivery Director, I provided independent Operations Assurance for the three routes on NW&C discharged by my team of assurance and audit professionals.
In my earlier career, whilst working on West Coast Route Modernisation my accountabilities included ensuring that development of new and novel systems were operationally viable to interface with legacy systems which included working with stakeholders to obtain safety case approval for the introduction of new axle counter technology working to Engineering Safety Management (Yellow Book) principles.
