Strategic Planner

Strategic Planner

**Location**:
Swindon, GB

**Department Name**:
Wales & Western Region

**About Network Rail**:
At Network Rail, we’re part of a large family serving millions of passengers and freight users throughout the UK every day. Our service impacts millions of people and we strive to become more efficient as we enhance, maintain and operate our network.

Our passengers and freight users are at the heart of everything we do. We help connect people to their friends and families and get goods to their destination safely and efficiently. We’re an organisation where people matter.** **When you're part of our team, you matter to us and you matter to millions. **Watch our video to find out more**

The Wales & Western region includes more than 2,700 miles of railway and we serve communities and businesses of Wales, the Thames Valley, West of England and the Southwest Peninsula.
Our ambition to be responsive to passengers and freight users drives us every day and we're empowered to do the right thing for those who use the rail network. We actively challenge unsafe practices and take responsibility for addressing risks, resolving issues and protecting safety and wellbeing.

We encourage our colleagues to work flexibly, as we know traditional working patterns don’t always fit. If you want to consider working flexibly, just let us know and we’ll do our best to help and invest in your career with us, whilst you have a healthy work life balance.

In Wales and Western region, you will have the opportunity to join PROUD, our reward and recognition scheme where you can say thanks and recognise colleagues across the region who have demonstrated outstanding values and behaviours.

**Brief Description**:
This role is at the heart of working with customers and stakeholders to plan for the future of our railway in the west, so that it continues to deliver what our passengers, freight users, and communities need.

As Strategic Planner for your dedicated section of the route you will have the opportunity to work with a diverse and motivated group of internal and external stakeholders to identify and develop improvement strategies.

You will have the opportunity to get intimately involved in new stations aspirations and potential service improvements, helping to advise on which and how to progress. You will also get to grapple with the big challenges including decarbonisation and levelling up - helping to set out how our railway can support the society we want to live in the short, middle, and long term.

You will come to develop an excellent understanding of the areas we serve through your ability to build productive relationships across the board. You will be a key contact for influential external stakeholders including Subnational Transport Bodies and other strategic transport planning partners, helping them achieve their goals.

You will be supported by a welcoming and inclusive strategic planning team, and become part of the wider Wales & Western Investment team, where you will work closely with sponsors to make sure that the strategic benefits you identify are translated into deliverable outcomes.

You will find opportunities to grow both within the strategic planning team and in the wider investment team, and you will find that the breadth the role brings stands you in good stead for your next move.

This is a fascinating and critical time for strategic rail planning, and you will have a real opportunity to shape the system for decades to come.

**There are 2 job opportunities available**

**About the role (External)**:
**Key Accountabilities**

1. Facilitation of cross-functional input to the development of route plans.

2. Develop route plans for specified simple routes and contribute to development route plans for more complex routes, both from internal perspective (i.e. Operating Route / Area) and external perspective (i.e. by strategic route), based on needs and priorities of stakeholders to make sure that they are being met (e.g. regulatory outputs and customer commitments).

3. Undertake analysis work for capacity studies, and develop train service specifications for assessment by the Strategic Access Planning Unit (SAP).

4. Work with the Senior Route Planner to undertake business appraisal of complex projects and route strategies. Identify industry benefits of rail capacity changes, journey time improvements etc. Specify and obtain demand forecasts.

5. Work with sponsors of major asset renewal and enhancement schemes to develop in alignment with Route Strategies and the Capacity Utilisation study and develop, where appropriate, combined renewals and enhancement strategies.

6. Prepare reports on route plans, customer reasonable requirements (CRR) and Business plans.

7. Assist with the Route’s input to the Business Plan, in particular the presentation of Route Plan material.

8. Assist in identifying the needs and priorities of stakeholders and monitor to ensure that they are being met. Partici