A Journey of Discovery

Our mission was very different to that in 2016, taking a step back from the day-to-day and focusing on market intelligence gathering. The fair takes place every two years covering Railway Technology, Railway Infrastructure, Public Transport, Interiors and Tunnel Construction. It’s absolutely vast, occupying all 41 halls at Messe Berlin; that’s over 180,000m2 of exhibition space.

One of the truly unique features of InnoTrans is the extraordinary outdoor and track display area, where everything from tank wagons to high-speed trains are displayed on 3,500 metres of track. Our Rail Technologies team spent time investigating onboard friction management solutions, as well as familiarising ourselves with new rolling stock designs.

It’s incredible to think that we are two years on from InnTrans 2016, where we launched our new brand expression ‘keeping our world moving’ to much applause. Our world-class engineering solutions have positioned us favourably on the global rail supply chain. We have achieved this by listening to, and understanding, the requirements of today’s modern railways. Our presence at InnoTrans 2018 was all about understanding how to align what we do with the future requirements of the global transit markets. So instead of showing our products, we attended with a brief to ‘discover’.

We aligned ourselves with the Railway Industry Association (RIA), which represents the British railway supply industry, taking space in the RIA’s area in CityCube A. This acted as a base from which to explore the fair, as well as to meet past, present and future customers, representatives of the Department for Trade & Industry and a senior UK government minister. It was also a great opportunity to meet people from the UK and European rail press as all titles were represented at the show.

Our world-class engineering solutions have positioned us favourably on the global rail supply chain. We have achieved this by listening to and understanding the requirements of today’s modern railways.

InnoTrans is one of those events that brings together everyone from across the global rail industries. What was clearly evident this year was the rise and rise of China and its influence on global markets. There are some huge infrastructure projects, such as HS2, that present our business with fantastic opportunities for growth. The groundwork we are doing now will deliver future success as these projects come online. InnoTrans is a great place to meet and share our expertise, experience and innovation.