Continuing our series taking you behind the scenes with the team at setec consulting engineers, we introduce Eric Ganesh, Chief Engineer – Systems and Integration Lead, working on the HS2 programme, one of the most complex and closely scrutinised railway projects in the UK.
In Eric’s own words
A typical day for me centres on making sure my systems and integration disciplines, requirements, interfaces, system safety, Performance/Reliability/Availability/Maintainability (PRAM) and Interoperability activities, converge into a single railway system that can actually be accepted and delivered. I lead and coach a team of eight permanent staff, as well as acting as a lead across multiple disciplines and technical design teams more broadly. What might surprise people is how often I find myself solving organisational and governance problems that are disguised as engineering problems, aligning organisations, resolving ownership questions, managing interfaces, and negotiating positions with HS2.
The most important decisions I make are the ones that determine how the project will be integrated, assured and defended, and they have a disproportionate impact on programme, cost, acceptance and ultimately whether HS2 can be successfully delivered. That includes determining ownership of interface issues and interface governance arrangements, deciding when escalation is necessary, setting assurance and compliance strategy for PRAM and Interoperability, establishing technical requirements governance, and deciding how change impacts are managed.
What it means to work on HS2
HS2 is one of the most complex multi-stakeholder environments I have worked on, where success depends as much on integration, interfaces and assurance as on the engineering itself. The scale is exceptional, and working on the programme has shown me that delivering a major railway is fundamentally an integration challenge. The engineering matters, but success depends on managing interfaces, establishing clear governance, maintaining control of requirements and assurance, and aligning multiple organisations behind a common technical position. What makes HS2 unique is the scale of that integration effort and the level of scrutiny applied to every significant decision.
Systems integration on a governance-intensive programme
My expertise plays its biggest role at the point where engineering, assurance and project governance intersect. In practice, that means I help ensure the railway can actually be integrated, justified, accepted and delivered. My key areas are systems integration for Overhead Catenary Systems (OCS), requirements, PRAM, system safety, interfaces, NTSN compliance, and integration with other rail systems contracts and civils and stations contracts. Day to day, this means making sure individually successful packages become a successful railway system, preventing problems from falling into the gaps between organisations, protecting the integrity of the technical baseline while managing change, and making sure technical decisions are made through robust and auditable processes.
Looking more broadly at the industry, I think the single biggest challenge and opportunity that rail is still underestimating is the configuration and integration of complex systems. On complex programmes, many of the major delays, disputes and cost increases do not come from the technology itself, but from losing control of requirements, interfaces, baselines, ownership, change management or assurance evidence. This is exactly the space where my work sits.
The most rewarding part of my work is when a complex problem suddenly becomes solvable because I have connected the right people, requirements, interfaces and evidence together.
Outside of work
My life is split between the UK and Switzerland, where my family lives, and outside of work I enjoy spending time with them and planning for future projects, whether that’s a family move, personal goals or long-term career development. I’ve always been interested in understanding how complex systems work, so I often find myself thinking about engineering, railways and large infrastructure projects even away from my desk. I also enjoy helping colleagues develop and sharing lessons learned from the projects I’ve been involved in. Otherwise, hiking gives me the chance to disconnect, recharge and explore new places, and I enjoy watching football, particularly the French national team and Paris Saint-Germain, as well as rugby, tennis and basketball from time to time.
One thing that might surprise people is quite how much of an outdoor person I am. My role involves a lot of meetings, technical reviews and stakeholder management, so in my free time I make the most of being in nature. Switzerland is a fantastic place for that, and between the mountains, lakes and hiking trails there are endless opportunities to explore and recharge.
If I had to sum up what I do in one sentence, it would be that my job is making sure that hundreds of moving parts, people and decisions come together across multiple disciplines to deliver a safe and operational railway.
