Article written by: Matthew Stuart, Service Leader – Rail Engineering
I joined Vitruvius in 2022, bringing with me a background in rail engineering from the UK. What started as a move halfway across the world has evolved into a rewarding journey growing from delivering project engineering on small, sometimes single discipline projects, into a broader role leading and coordinating multidisciplinary rail design across the business. Today, I’m proud to be leading a fantastic rail team in Wellington, working alongside a talented team throughout the business that has allowed me to grow and deliver high quality solutions in what are often constrained and complex environments.
My journey into rail began in 2014, when I joined Network Rail in London as a graduate engineer. Like many people fresh out of university, I wasn’t entirely sure what direction I wanted to take, but the opportunity to work in London (and stay close to friends from University) made it an easy decision to give it a go. What I didn’t realise then was that it would turn into a long-term career.
Those early years were invaluable. I was out on the front line in a safety-critical environment, working across track maintenance, signalling installations, drainage assessments, and bridge inspections. That hands-on experience gave me a solid, practical understanding of how the railway works as a complete system — something that’s stuck with me ever since and shaped how I approach projects today.
Before moving fully into project delivery, I spent some time working in structural design for a small UK consultancy (still within rail). It was a great way to challenge what I’d learned at university and build a stronger technical foundation. When I returned to Network Rail, I moved into a Project Engineer role, delivering multidisciplinary projects to upgrade substations and traction power systems. That was my first real exposure to coordinating across different disciplines, and it quickly became clear the importance of brining disciplines together – breaking down silos, strengthening communication, and aligning teams to achieve better outcomes.
As my experience grew, so did the scale and complexity of the projects I was involved in. I was given opportunities to take on increasingly challenging roles, eventually leading engineering delivery on the client side on major station upgrades, including the Gatwick Station Upgrade. These projects reinforced the importance of balancing technical design with programme pressures, stakeholder expectations, and constructability, all while striving to maintain a safe working environment.
Safety is always my number one priority. Everyone home safe every day is something that I have taken with me throughout my career, reinforced by a tragic event during which I received the devastating phone call that someone had lost their life in an incident on a site during night works. An incident that with the right planning could have been avoided and will remain with me for the rest of my life.
After several years in the UK (and a brief two-year stint working outside rail in Switzerland), I decided it was time for a change. That led me to New Zealand and to Vitruvius, where I’ve now been for almost four years.
Since then, I’ve been fortunate to work on a range of interesting projects. One highlight was seeing my very first project come full circle, undertaking construction monitoring for Elles Road Level Crossing, two years after we had delivered the design.
Whilst I spent the first 2.5 years working to deliver a high volume of projects with some fantastic people doing most of the hard work in the background, a more recent highlight has been my involvement in the Lower North Island Integrated Mobility (LNIRIM) programme, working on new rail yards that support new rolling stock and future network growth throughout the Wellington region. A project where balancing operational constraints, stakeholder needs, programme constraints, and technical design, whilst managing budgets and resources becomes business as usual! I have been lucky to have an awesome team with me delivering exceptional work throughout!
I’ve spent a lot of time supporting projects like the iReX Picton staging works, the iReX wind down works, and now the Ferry Replacement Programme (FRP), all of which are of course completely different projects…Those kinds of projects really highlight what rail engineering is all about — working in constrained environments, solving challenging problems, and keeping everything aligned across multiple disciplines, whilst dealing with the political fallout that undoubtedly happens every 3 years.
One of the biggest learnings along the way is that rail projects are entirely a team sport. Good outcomes rely on multiple disciplines working together effectively — track, civil, signalling, electrical, and operations all need to align. Building strong relationships with clients and partners, and maintaining open communication, is just as important as getting the technical design right.
Working across both the UK and New Zealand rail environments has also taught me the importance of adaptability. While the fundamentals are similar, the standards, processes, and ways of working can be quite different. Having worked both client-side and now consultancy-side has given me a better understanding of the challenges faced on both sides. Many of the issues are similar — disconnected teams, changing requirements, and constrained programmes — and in my experience, strong relationships are often the key to overcoming them.
I started in rail to be close to friends, I stayed in rail because I believe it is an incredible way to connect people, communities, and provides for a more sustainable future.