ICRTS AGM: Manifestos!

Published in

RailPub

6 min readMar 15, 2022

This is a time for us to review the events we have had in the past year, deal with finances, and resolve any of your concerns. More importantly, it’s time for passionate transport enthusiasts like you to shine by joining us on the committee, and continue our legacy of bridging Imperial students with the nation’s ever growing transport industry and its illustrious history!

Details

14:00–15:00, Wed 16 March
At meeting room 5 in the Union Building (Beit Quadrangle)
Free pizza 🍕!

Candidates

Chair: Chun, Chi Him(Jayden); Hil, lRyan
Treasurer: Tsang, Yik Hei (Matthew)
Vice Chair: Chau, Yan To (Yanni)
All other positions: up for grabs

So without further ado, let’s see what our candidates for ICRTS 2022–2023 have to say!

Chair: Chun, Chi Him(Jayden)

Hi, I’m Jayden and I’m running to be your Rail Soc Chair next year.

I am passionate about transportation, and I love to record the movements of vehicles using my camera, e.g. special livery trains, engineering trains, airplanes worldwide. I have worked at WSP Hong Kong as a summer intern to compile reports for MTR Corporation (operator of the soon opening Elizabeth Line) on feasibility studies of fully automatic operation on the urban railway lines back in Hong Kong.

This year, I hope to promote new series of events aimed at getting more people involved in the society.

If I am elected, I would aim to:

Host trainspotting events regularly
Host plane spotting events regularly
Gather people on visits to vintage bus running days / air shows
Take a ride on some special / soon retiring trains
Take a ride on sleeper trains if people are interested!

And most importantly, continuing the traditional events of Rail Soc.

I was head of Photography Team and Vice-Chair in Mathematics Society back in secondary school, where I developed the ability to ensure a smooth run of the society.

Whether you are determined to be involved in the transport industry or just simply interested in travelling around using public transport, I want to make sure that Rail Soc is the place for Imperial students to exchange thoughts freely and socialise in their free time!

Thank you for reading my manifesto!

Chair: Hill, Ryan

Hey Rail and Transport enthusiasts! My name is Ryan, I’m currently in my third year studying Mathematics. For the past two years I have worked on the RailSoc committee, this year as Secretary. Throughout this time I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working together and collaborating to keep our society on what has been an outstanding upward trajectory in recent years. That’s why this year I’m running for Chair of RailSoc!

I feel the experience I have gained with being on the committee these past two years puts me in the best position to lead the society into continued growth in the year to come. Alongside these two years I have been a Hall Senior, through both of these positions I’ve gotten to know how the Union works, helping to deliver many successful events and activities. We’ve faced many challenges in this time with both online and in-person circumstances but this has only come to make us stronger looking ahead.

I love all things transport related, coming from my hometown of Blackpool having one of the oldest electric tramways in the world, and used to be home to one of the world’s busiest railway stations (Blackpool Central) back in the twentieth century, which became the station with the highest number of platforms to ever close (14 in total).

As Chair here are a few aims I have for our society:

Expand more in-person events to include train spotting and control room visits.
Develop more alumni/career orientated events to learn more about the transport industry.
RailSoc merchandise!
Continue our tradition of Tube Challenges.

We’ve had great outreach this year and I believe we can continue this into next year to make sure everyone who shares our interests gets to hear about RailSoc!

I would love to have your vote for Chair of RailSoc and am really excited to continue improving our society. Thanks for reading my manifesto!

Lastly enjoy some pictures of my favourite events we’ve done this year.

Ryan.

Treasurer: Tsang, Yik Hei (Matthew)

Hello Everyone! I am Matthew Tsang, a year 3 member of the society currently serving as your publicity officer. Having been in the committee in the past year, it has been a pleasure sharing the community with you all as we went back to the good old days of being out and about on the rail network! It was particularly nice to finally introduce (formally!) the tube challenge to our host of events, as you all sprang off in the competitive spirit of gaining the most points! Hoping to expand on this year’s work, I have decided to run for treasurer this year, as I hope to continue in contributing to the society. Shall I be elected, I will take up greater responsibility in terms of managing spendings and finances within the society. I look forward to working closely with our new committee and expanding our community to you all!

Vice Chair: Chau, Yan To (Yanni)

ICRTS 2021–2022 has been a complete blast — we’ve experienced a record number of members, organised a slew of activities throughout the year (many of which were brand new!), and there’s a couple more to look forward to at the end of the year — so stay tuned!

As a chair, I’ve been charged with managing the society’s external links, and I enjoy it very much, because I get to witness the inter-generational comradery that our society has managed to built over decades. This is reflected in the number of alumni we maintain active contact with, and the variety of activities that we manage to organise every year — whether it be visit to depots, career talks from Imperial alumni or heavily discounted entry to exclusive locations. And this makes ICRTS more than a niche/ enthusiast society — it’s a society that brings its members closer to the transport industry — its heritage and its many opportunities that lie ahead.

So I am stepping down from the society chair, a position of important responsibility; but as a vice chair I look forward to continuing this legacy! Besides, this places me in a more flexible position to support other aspect of the society’s internal affairs, such as publicity and event planning.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in ICRTS 2022–2023!