A Christmas message from our Chief Executive

Dear rail industry friends and colleagues,

As we near the end of 2020, I wanted to say a huge thank you for supporting railbusinessdaily.com during what has been a most extraordinary and challenging year.

It has been an unprecedented 12 months, leading to challenges on both professional and personal levels that none of us could have ever imagined before. We have lived through a year of uncertainty amidst a global pandemic which has pushed businesses and projects to the limit and sadly, in too many cases, it has had an awful impact on friends and families.

With a great responsibility on the railways’ shoulders to keep people and goods moving during this time of need, workers have upped their game and gone above and beyond. Staff shortages, social distancing and last-minute changes as a result of COVID-19 haven’t stopped a vast amount of work continuing to maintain the railways and drive forward positive change.

I am proud to be a part of such a fantastic industry and to be able to tell just some of those stories, playing our role in providing a platform to promote some of the incredible businesses involved in the railways.

2020 has been a year of great change for us here at railbusinessdaily.com and based on the incredible feedback the changes have been positively received.

Our daily email now reaches more people than ever before, with 50,000 rail industry professionals waking up to the latest news every morning. The RBDOnlineDirectory has also proved a huge success, and we have seen a huge expansion of our social media followers (our engagement rates are truly phenomenal).

2020 also saw the launch of RailDirector – our new magazine covering everything from track to train. It hasn’t been easy launching a magazine during a global pandemic, but it is a decision I have no regrets about making.

During 2021 we have no plans to slow down. A new website will be coming in January and we will be launching new insight publications alongside RailDirector. I am also particularly excited about our advisory, recruitment and business services plans. As if this wasn’t enough, we will also be moving to a brand new Head Office in West Yorkshire in February.

Despite our expansion, our ethos will continue to remain the same. We want to keep on telling good news stories and helping companies to raise their profile – above all we want to encourage people working in the railways to talk with each other and work together.

Finally, I would like to take a moment to remember those we have lost in the industry. I’ll be spending time reflecting on them this Christmas, particularly train driver Brett McCullough, conductor Donal Dinnie and passenger Christopher Stuchbury, who tragically lost their lives in the Stonehaven train derailment.

It has also been a terribly sad year with the loss of Stuart Baker OBE and Jeremy Candfield. Our thoughts and prayers are very much with their families and friends.

I’d like to finish by wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Thank you for all your support over the last 12 months and for making us your rail industry media partner of choice. My team and I look forward to working with you in 2021.

Best wishes, and stay safe,

David

David McLoughlin

Chief Executive of Business Daily Group (incorporating RBDPublications and railbusinessdaily.com)

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